curtainsdown | 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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Richard joins Stephen in the graveyard, but other than a polite wave he doesn't go out of his way to strike up conversation. He goes to his own grave, instead, and spends time there in quiet reflection.

There is a point where he smiles, humming along with Anna's song, and if Stephen comes close enough to see what Richard's looking at, he'll see Anna singing and dancing for Richard. Richard claps for her, even though she can't hear him.

After she leaves, however, Richard picks up the letter that she left him and reads it.

And whether Stephen came closer or not, Richard is going to walk over to him.]

I have a present for you from my cousin.

[Is all the warning Stephen gets before Richard hauls off and punches him hard in the arm.]

[He doesn't. It seems- invasive, somehow. As if these moments that are given to them, by their own graves, by the living- are for them and them alone, unless one invites another to watch. And so, Stephen's only just starting to leave when Richard approaches, and-]

From A-ow!

[beat]

What, not the face?

[Richard considers for a moment, and then shrugs.]

Well, she didn't say where, so I just went with the part she would be able to reach.

[Rubbing his arm]

Yeah, well, she can give me another one if we get out of here.

[Richard quirks half a smile.]

I'm sure she will. I'll even lift her up myself so she can reach your face.

[It's important to point out that his tone is not making fun of her height, just being matter of fact about how smol she is]

Look- she drew a little Tad Cooper!

[He folds the letter so that Stephen can't see what she wrote him, covering the rest with his hand so he can point out the little doodle of Tad Cooper in the corner.]

[...have a bit of a smile at that, in return. He gets it. And he's now looking over to see, and-chuckling]

He was doing alright, last time I saw him.

I heard. I left food out for him, once, to remind her that he's a growing boy and still needs to eat his veggies.

...I miss the little guy. And- everyone else left, obviously, but... Tad Cooper's different. He's my little buddy. Like, from home.

[Stephen's quiet for a moment, then;]

Tell me about him?

[Richard comes out of his moment of melancholy at the question, brightening considerably.]

Of course! Well, I'm sure you want to know how we met.

[And off he goes. He starts at the beginning - well, not the beginning beginning, but he starts with a brief setup about joining Galavant on his quest to rescue his girl, and about the priceless Jewel of Valencia ("It's not important how I smuggled it out when I was exiled"), before explaining the disappointing attempts at trying to recruit an army, and how his BFF Galavant generally thought he was an idiot and a burden. Which is all important setup to:]

Really, I got him for a steal, if you think about it. I mean, one little rock for a real live dragon? Who needs an army? Sure, he was little, but I knew from the moment the merchant opened up that little cloth sack and I saw his cute little scaly nose that he had a real fire in him.

Galavant didn't think so at first. Quite rude about it, actually - but I was the one who smuggled the Jewel out in my...

...pack. In the first place. So really, it was mine to trade at that point, I think.

[It's not that this is a distraction. It is, but- it's also some more insight into Richard. He didn't have the chance to get to know him very well, before, but when he understood exactly the lengths Richard had tried to go through to save Red, he wished he had. This is as good a time as any to learn, even if...a lot of it is a bit.

Odd.

Stephen chalks that up to differences in parallel universes or whatever this is, though.

Nonetheless...]

...and how long do dragons take to grow up, where you come from?

[LIKE, EVEN ACCEPTING IT'S. A DRAGON. that's. uh. Stephen has Concerns over the decision that was made.]

...Well, I'm not sure. I've never actually seen one before Tad Cooper.

[Yeah you're right to doubt on that one, Stephen.]

A real one, I mean. There's stories and plays about them. And the royal heraldry of my house is a crowned dragon.

But the man assured me he'd start growing bigger in no time, as long as I kept him fed and gave him lots of attention.

now let's skip the tears and start on the whole-

graveyard!

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