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

WEEK 1

[stagemanagers]

[Welcome, Jonny and Sigyn.]

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Sigyn wakes with a shuddering gasp, shooting straight up in bed. Her hand goes to her chest, the ghost sting of the giant needle still echoing in her chest.

Eventually she gets her breathing under control and gets out of bed. She almost bangs into the dresser because of course everything is in the wrong space. Part of her believes that if she just opens the door, Valhalla will be on the other side, or Hel, or whatever-

But of course not.

She didn't know where she would wake up after she died, but the last place she thought would be the Opera House. Angry tears prick the corners of her eyes. This place has even robbed her of rest, her eternity with those loved ones who have gone before.

A loud, gutteral, furious scream rips through her, echoing down the empty hallway.]

[redjoker]

[If Jonny was a smart man he'd stay right in this cramped, slightly smelly supply closet he'd woken up in. He'd stay there and be quiet and wait for Sigyn's rage to quell then come out and speak to her like the adults they both are.

Unfortunately, as usual, Jonny is not a smart man and he comes stumbling out of room 20 cursing up a storm.]

Fucking hell-!

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[The memories of the execution the trial, the murder-

Even earlier than that. The train, her wife, the alter, what came after.

It's almost too much for her. How could she forget? She promised she wouldn't leave. Is Loki still there, in that hellish engine room? Alone?

Her thoughts consume her, paralyze her, another scream rips through her. It's likely she would have sat in that very spot all week until the next victim fell through.

That is until Jonny falls through the door. Seeing his face causes a storm of emotions, different this time. Surprise, confusion, guilt-

Rage.]

You

[redjoker]

[The disorientation of death fades quickly, between Sigyn's screaming and the phantom pain in his chest the full realization of, well, everything hits him like a ton of bricks.

He's dead. Not just because Sigyn stabbed him and it possibly stuck but really dead. Ironically, by the stabbing hand of a total stranger on some backwater planet he doesn't even remember the same of. All those years, all that mayhem, travel, time with his crew...his story's done.

Jonny does the only thing he can do: he looks at Sigyn and lets out a barking laugh.]

Me. What, knifing me once wasn't enough?

[reassuranceandrevolution]

A stab for a stab, I think we're even on that front.

[Her voice is a deep growl]

So what? You fake your death, kill me in revenge, then we end up in some kind of limbo?

[redjoker]

[That's enough to knock the bitter grin off his face for a moment.]

Fake my-? What are you even talking about? Last thing I remember is you shoving a knife in me and bleeding out surrounded by ballgowns.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Of all the emotions she's feeling, confusion now comes to the forefront]

Wait, what? You were the one who executed me. I [She shudders, pressing a hand to her chest as the memory of the pain echos again] I saw you, right in front of me with that needle in your hand. You drove it into my chest.

[The pain was more intense than she'd anticipated, as Jonny forced the giant hollow needle straight through bone into her heart. She watched in mute horror as the blood filled the tube with the remaining few beats of her heart.]

[redjoker]

[He opens his arms wide and shrugs.] I don't know what to tell you. I've been awake for half a minute and all I've seen so far is that everything is fucking backwards, I'm doubly dead and you're yelling at me.

[He pauses, tilting his head curiously.]

Hold on- you were executed? [He snorts.] Knew there was some kind of catch.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

Yes, and if I hadn't been everyone else would have been killed in my place.

[She frowns]

Hold on, you said you bled out next to the ballgowns. They found you in the supply closet.

[redjoker]

Figures. Fucker just keeps finding ways to take all the fun out of murder. [He pats his pockets, briefly forgetting with the flood of new memories that no, he doesn't have any cigarettes on him anymore.]

Unless my corpse got up, walked all the way from the costume shop to the supply closet, locked itself in and waited for someone to open the door. [...] Actually, hearing it out loud that sounds hilarious and absolutely like something I'd do.

But I didn't.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

Someone moved your body...

[This revelation is much more important than that little comment about murder being fun]

It seems a bit too hands on for the Phantom.

A call out to the Phantom - Dropbox letter

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[She has no idea if this will work. She'd never actually written to the Phantom, in her experience tyrants hardly provided useful information. Still, it is only herself and Jonny here, so it's not like she has anything else to do.]

Phantom,

I do not know if this will reach you. I assume as we are trapped in this Opera House, even in death, there is a chance. I must ask: Why are we still here in this place? Why were we denied rest?

[stagemanagers]

[Sigyn does, surprisingly, get a response. A few hours after she puts it in the slot a new letter appears, sitting propped up on top of the drop box the next time she passes by. It's sealed with a gold wax instead of the Phantom's usual red.]

There's a lot more happening here than you have any idea about. But it's early yet, baby. You've got a long way to go before you can really rest.

But for now keep an eye out. Kick up your feet. Have some juice. You've got friends on the other side.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[She squints at the letter. The language does not sound the same as those she read in Stephen's room. She had not seen anyone else here beyond Jonny and herself. She drafts a simple reply.]

Who are you?

-Sigyn

[redjoker]

Yeah, no. He's a flash bastard but I can't see him getting his hands dirty like that. [He shrugs his shoulders.] Not that it really matters now, both of us still stuck here for...whatever reason.

Speaking of, dying didn't completely rot my brain, right? I'm not hallucinating that everything is in the wrong place?

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Sigyn's frown deepens as she looks around]

I had noticed that as well, like everything's flipped.

[She rubs her hip where she banged into the dresser earlier]

I wonder if there's a way to contact the people still in the opera house.

[stagemanagers]

Think of me as a late patron with a whole host of concerns for the direction this production is headed.

[redjoker]

Certainly worth a try. [He looks up the the ceiling and shouts,]

HEY! Any of you fucks hear us?! [No answer.] Think anything'd happen if I start tearing out light fixtures?

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Normally Sigyn would try to curtail Jonny's more destructive tendencies.

But she finds that all of her fucks died with her]

Only one way to find out.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

As in helping my friends get home, or keeping them imprisoned?

[stagemanagers]

[Early in the evening on Tuesday, there's a figure sneaking their way out of Sigyn's room. No one is near this hallway at the moment, and they haven't been for several hours - this whole thing was obviously really well-planned!

Sure would suck if someone happened by right about now!]

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Sigyn was coming back from her daily rounds, pacing the mirror Opera House, trying to find something new. Honestly her heart hasn't been in it, but it's something to do.

The figure, though, that's new. She quietly follows, trying to get close enough to see who it is without alerting them to her presence]

[stagemanagers]

[This would appear to be a teenage boy. He has short, dark hair and is of pretty average height.

He looks nervous, hurrying quickly towards the other exit, but he's failed to notice that he's being followed. He's clutching a pair of canvas bags; they're identical and both appear to have things in them. Though he came out of your room, you do not recognize the bags.]

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Sigyn gets closer, quietly, until she is close enough to grab him if he tries to bolt.]

Evening.