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

[stagemanagers]

[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.]

Comments

recording studio

[isawallflower]

[ This is...probably the place Riley visits most often, now. Because she wants to get some kind of message across, even if it's impossible. She doesn't expect to find Steven there, though...she probably should have. She stands and...listens, before slipping in.

And still listening. Not joining in. She doesn't...really know what Steven feels about her. After...that chaotic trial, and now the circumstances in which he arrived here. And, she doesn't know if she wants him to hate her or not, what would be worse.

So, she listens. Which, honestly, is maybe what she should've been doing all along. ]

[holyspit]

If there was some amazing force outside of time
To make things how they used to be
Before we broke, before the fall
Would we still be we or would we lose it all, all, all

Singing, will happen, happening, happened
It happened, happening, happens
And, here we are again and again
And will you always be my friends?
And were you ever really my friend?

[He lets the song fade for a second, sitting quietly.]

...Hey, Riley.

[isawallflower]

[ Her mouth feels dry. But- ]

Hi, Steven. [ ... ] I don't- I can...come back later, if you...want to be alone.

[holyspit]

...No, it's. You can stay if you want.

[Curse these complicated emotions.]

[He plucks a single sad, note on the guitar.]

[isawallflower]

I was just...gonna try talking to them again. Really, if- [ How to...put this- ] I know I'm... ...You've been through enough, Steven.

[holyspit]

You're not the first friend who's tried to kill me or someone I care about.

[He sounds so tired. This is probably fine.]

[isawallflower]

[ She winces. ]

...You don't...have to call me that either, you know? I- ...I know I burned that bridge.

[holyspit]

Yeah, well I'm gonna. What you did stinks and hurt a lot of people including me, but I still believe you're a good person and I'm still gonna be your friend whether you like it or not.

[isawallflower]

But you don't- how can you still think I'm—

[ She tries to bite back something frustrated and angry and it just- ]

You can still want to- but I'm not a good person, why don't...any of you hate me?!

[holyspit]

Because this place has already taken a lot from me and I'm not letting it take my friendships too! I couldn't save anyone else but maybe I can save those, okay?

[isawallflower]

You don't- you deserve a better friend!

[holyspit]

I know what I deserve.

[someone please get both of these children roughly all the therapy, thank you]

And you deserve better too!

[isawallflower]

No, I don't! [ Alright, we're yelling now. ] I'm so...sick, of people telling me I'm a- a good person, that I deserve better, but I don't! I deserve...to burn, to d-die again, to rot in jail, everyone else back home gave up on me, why won't you?!

[ ...Yeah. We're yelling now. ]

[holyspit]

Fine! You're a bad person! You're a bad person who's still my friend! We can be bad, dead people who don't deserver anything together!

[isawallflower]

Wha- ? Steven, you- you’re not a bad person. What are you...?

[holyspit]

Yeah I am. If I wasn't I would have told Spinel right from the start that her best friend wasn't coming back for her, but I didn't, because I was scared of what she might do.

[He sits down and gives another, angry strum on the guitar.]

[isawallflower]

[ Fragments of conversations with Spinel click together. Fragments, and...

Here in the garden,
Let's play a game.
I'll show you how it's done.

Stunned, Riley stays standing but just kind of. Leans against the wall. ]

You...mean Pink. She... But, I thought...you and Spinel didn't know each other.

[holyspit]

So did I. But- I still knew Pink Diamond had been gone for a long, long time.

[He grips at the shirt around his stomach for just a second.]

I knew how badly she'd been hurt and didn't say anything until it was too late to protect her. So- yeah, we've both made our mistakes here.

[Plus he hasn't been able to do, like, a single thing about all the murdering, but whenever he says that people get really mad like he's being unreasonable or something?]

[isawallflower]

[ ... ]

...One mistake doesn't...mean you've screwed up so much that...you can't come back from it. Or that you... [ She's not focused on anything. Just kind of staring at a spot on the floor. ]

Steven, I've killed people. Before- all this. People who I...who were supposed to be my friends. Who I was responsible for. [ ... ] Lying, withholding, it's- ...it's not good. But... I did something they lock people up for. For good reason. And... I'm sorry. But, I don't know if I wouldn't do it again.

[ Take everything out on the people around her. Leave herself standing in the wreck and ruins, to clean up a mess she could never hope to fix. ]

That's...why I'm saying you deserve better. That...all of you do.

[holyspit]

I know! I know. But if you get to decide that what I did isn't that bad, I can decide I care more about you than your mistakes!

[Fuckin' deal with it.]

[isawallflower]

[ And- and she doesn't mean to say this, truly. She doesn't. But- ]

What's left of me, besides my mistakes? You- you're...caring. And sweet. And you have so many people, who... [ A blink. ] ...Why would you want to be friends with...with someone who's dangerous?

[holyspit]

Most of my friends back home are pretty dangerous. Have I told you about Connie? One time she tried attacking someone the size of a building with a sword.

[It didn't do anything at the time, but it was pretty awesome.]

...and you still care about people too. Unless all that stuff in the garden when we found Spinel was just an act.

[There's. Some anger there again, honestly, but mostly he's just tired.]

[isawallflower]

[ ... ]

It wasn't. It was like I didn't realize... [ She's looking at her hands, distantly. ] But I still...could be dangerous to you.

[holyspit]

One of my best friends stole the entire planet's ocean and then tried drowning me and all my other friends when we went to stop her.

[SHSL Bob, Lapis Lazuli everyone.]

Whatever you can throw at me, I can handle. If you'll let me.

[isawallflower]

[ Just, kinda aghast- ]

Why do you give so many chances to people who hurt you?