It's Curtains Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stagemanagers) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
curtainsdown2020-07-11 07:39 pm
stagemanagers) wrote in curtainsdown2020-07-11 07:39 pm
Entry tags:
now let's skip the tears and start on the whole-
[You remember dying. Maybe the memory is clear and bright and your body still aches from the cause. Maybe it was fast enough that you didn't feel it and don't remember what you went through. But no matter how you went out you're still trapped here.
When you open your eyes it might take you a minute to recognize your surroundings. For the executed, it's your dressing room. For the victims, you startle awake in the place your body was discovered. But no matter where you are nothing is where you remember it. It's like everything has been picked up and moved to the other side of the room. The entire room has been perfectly mirrored from what it used to be and, upon leaving, it seems the rest of the opera house is just the same. If you remember one room being in the east wing, it's now in the west. If it was in the west, it's now in the east.
Welcome back to the Opera House, friends. Even in death you're still in the woods.]
WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 3 | WEEK 4 | WEEK 5
[ooc: Welcome to deadland, darlings! It's a perfectly mirrored version of the Opera House and each week, as new people die after new floors have been revealed, the stairwell doors will unlock and allow you to reach them. For example, week 3 victims will unlock floor 2 and so on and so forth. Also, all dead characters will wake up at their actual canon point.
Have fun because we have some fun things planned for you.]
When you open your eyes it might take you a minute to recognize your surroundings. For the executed, it's your dressing room. For the victims, you startle awake in the place your body was discovered. But no matter where you are nothing is where you remember it. It's like everything has been picked up and moved to the other side of the room. The entire room has been perfectly mirrored from what it used to be and, upon leaving, it seems the rest of the opera house is just the same. If you remember one room being in the east wing, it's now in the west. If it was in the west, it's now in the east.
Welcome back to the Opera House, friends. Even in death you're still in the woods.]
[ooc: Welcome to deadland, darlings! It's a perfectly mirrored version of the Opera House and each week, as new people die after new floors have been revealed, the stairwell doors will unlock and allow you to reach them. For example, week 3 victims will unlock floor 2 and so on and so forth. Also, all dead characters will wake up at their actual canon point.
Have fun because we have some fun things planned for you.]
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Riley doesn't like to think about it. The whispers urging her to kill. The empty feeling in her mind, like fog or static, when she took a knife and-
It suffocates her.
One of her hands curls at Stephen's shirt. The other tries to push him away. She swallows a sob. ]
Oh no, let go of my hand.
Oh no, not now, I will descend.
It came to me and grew.
Or...was it me who came to you...?
Shadowman.
[ Riley wanted it, an out. A way to fix everything. And, both times, she'd chosen to throw herself and everyone else into the fire to do so. There's something inside her... Something that thought it was a great idea to kill people she knew, and cared about. ]
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Any time tomorrow we will give another cry;
How much more life must be torn?
Any time tomorrow
We'll get sick of asking why
Sick of all the darkness we have worn
[He was sick before he started. Now he's just sick in another sense; he's tired of this. There's so little left of him, he's almost relieved he doesn't have to fight anymore.
Almost.]
Any time tomorrow
We will try to do what's right
Making sense of all we can...
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We'll pretend that we can fight.
We just might.
Shadowman.
[ Riley's shoulders slump and, half in his arms, she leans against the crypt again. Everything is weighing on her. And- and she doesn't have it in her, to try anymore. To try to appear okay. ]
Oh, where's the sun again?
Wouldn't it be healing to recline?
Get blinded and to go into the light again?
[ ...She wants to go back. To be happy again, or- or at least the facade of happy she once could be. But, it'd mean giving everything else up. And that's why she's glad Stephen failed, in the end. ]
Doesn't it make you sad,
To feel so much love denied?
Feel nothing but a shadowman inside.
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She knows. She knows what it's like to have this...thing...inside of you. And to know it, in turn.]
Oh no, don't let go my hand
Oh no, not here in this bleak end
When pain has been renewed
And there's no more we can do
Shadowman
[He looks back at the Opera House, then closes his eyes, looking away]
Oh, if it's possible to rescue me
Now would be perfect
[Maybe he can't change anything. Not any more. But shadows are cast by light, and maybe that's the reason he hears a tiny voice inside not only mourning what he's lost, but desperate to try one more time.]
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Now would be perfect.
[ She doesn’t deserve it. She doesn’t deserve anything more—and she’s terrified, at the prospect of facing everything without...anyone. Because what’s the point in getting “better” when there’s no one at your side?
But- but, regardless— ]
Oh, if it’s possible to rescue me,
Now would be perfect.
[ The anger subsided into sorrow, Riley finds the teddy bear, sitting in the dirt, and pulls it back to her. She lets her weight sink against Stephen’s side as she strokes the top of the stuffed animal’s head. ]
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Now would be perfect.
[His voice mingles with hers, harmonizing once again. And it's not just rescuing him from here, but from the prospect of death, outside of it; the stab in his chest is vivid as ever, Dana's betrayal mixing with Gregor's mixing with his own.
Betrayal lies on you.]
Oh, if it’s possible to rescue me,
Now would be perfect.
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Now would be perfect.
[ For a moment, Riley isn't here. She's there. Sitting in the back of a police car, cold handcuffs on her wrists. Mind a haze, only one thought: Where's Cairo? Where did she go? Desperate to get one last look at the only person who gave a damn about her.
She'd say something else now. I'm sorry. I love you. ]
Oh, if it's possible to rescue me,
Now would be...perfect...
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[To save any of them. From their accidents, from their memories, from their mistakes, from themselves- his voice goes raw, as if he's trying to bridge the connection between death and life, to be heard]
Now'd be perfect!
[He holds the note for as long as he can, then...sags. Sits on the ground and rubs his face, feeling...tired, again.]
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For a few long moments, she's silent. ]
...I didn't...think anyone could understand it. There's- Jeremy, sort of, but he's not...on purpose. And, there's Angus, but he's not... [ The word doesn't really come to her. ] So. I felt- ...alone.
cw; suicidal ideation - ish
I had...multiple chances to stop what I was doing. One way or another. I just...told myself that I couldn't let it all be for nothing. That I had to at least go back once, to fix it, but then...I worried that it wasn't enough. So I did it again.
[The point is- he chose to do something. Like...Riley chose.
Nothing but a shadowman inside, indeed. He closes his eyes.]
...you've still got your whole life ahead of you, when this is over. You're going to jail, and it's going to stay with you, but...you can still change. Me...I figured since I was dead anyway, I wouldn't have to- live with what I'd done.
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What?
[ She's more than a little shocked. ]
You were- what?
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Then he raises a hand to touch his chest, drawing a small line with two fingers.]
I'd...saved someone from someone else. I thought I had, anyway. I left to get her some water, and when I came back, she...there was a knife sticking out of me. The last thing I remember is her leaving, and the world going black.
[Nobody knew he was there.
Nobody would come for him.]
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Someone you trusted? [ Faint. Like something's pressing down on her. ] And you- how- you couldn't have. You were alive, before...right? You- you must've just been...really hurt.
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[Maybe that's why, in part, he tried doing it alone. Why he didn't trust any of them. Why he didn't talk to any of them. It came up with Santana, but- admitting he died...
Stephen sighs, and, almost whimsically;]
She took a picture of me after she'd done it. When I was on the ground, bleeding.
cw: choking, death mention
Chess looks up at her already choking up blood. She looks down, concerned only with the fact that she might've gotten blood on her shirt. She didn't. Content, she turns, the sound of the other girl's gurgling in her ears.
Quite suddenly, the bear's squished between them, as Riley launches herself at Stephen, arms awkwardly wrapped around him from the side in a terrified hug. ]
I'm sorry. I-I'm so sorry.
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...
He's okay with it. Stephen didn't realize how close he was to breaking down until her arms are about him, and- maybe he doesn't fully break, but his shoulders tremble as he wraps his arms back around her. After days- over a week of convincing himself that it was Okay, he can at least, admit to himself, admit to Riley?
It's not.
He doesn't say it out loud, though. He just rubs small circles on her back, breath hitching just a bit. If he focuses on her, he can manage himself. He can...lie and say he's fine.
Shadowmen, apparently, have many different utilities.]
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She repeats what she did to Jeremy, when it had come out that Stephen was the last one to kill. ]
Got you. I g-got you.
[ Honestly, she doesn't know what else she can say. It sticks her still, but she doesn't want to let go. ]
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I know where I'm going.
He squeezes her tight, not wanting to let go.]
Don't give up on yourself. For me? No matter how hard it gets. And- find Christine and Jeremy, too. I don't really understand, but- the Wizard said your worlds are the same, and they weren't before. So you all can look out for one another. Or at least write. [Given...everything.]
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[ She chokes lightly. What is she to respond to first? Her fingers dig into his sleeve. ]
Don't talk like that. Y- you were alive there. It doesn't- why would you have to go back to being dead? If we're all- brought back? You can't- you can't tell me those things if you're just- just going to-
cw; continued 'fuck living', just assume it happens more-or-less the rest of the thread
[...does he want to? Who knows.]
I could've done that as a mistake to fix, go back to before I lost my memory, but- I realized that you all are so much more important to me. And I don't think the Wizard's going to suddenly decide that I get a second shot, anyway.
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[ Please don't let go. Please. ]
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He can't break down again. It's already unfair, how much he's put on her shoulders. He's treating her like an adult, but she's just a kid.]
If there's a way. [He swallows around the lump in his throat] If there's a way that doesn't involve hurting anyone, I'll- I'll take it. I just...I don't know if there is one, Riley. Even if we were still in that damn place.
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[ Her chin digs into his shoulder. Refusing to let go, refusing to even loosen her grip, lest... ]
I- Y-you could...go home...with Jeremy and Christine or- or someone. You could- be safe.
[ Not like she can offer anything. Not like she has the place to. ]
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Only then does he realize his eyes are wet.]
...we'll see. [It's soft, but it's all he can manage right now]
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You have to visit me. They're n- not going to. [ They. Her parents. Her- ] Please. I can't- can't do this on my own.
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