the mark of those who cannot be saved

[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, that's no excuse for truancy! Which is to say: you are still in the school.

For those executed, you will wake up in your beds. The dormitories look exactly as they did when you first arrived, without any of the changes or personal effects you and your dormmates might have made. The only real difference is that the little cot in Ambassador isn't there.

For those who were victims, you will wake where your body was discovered. All of your injuries are gone, and you feel fine. It's almost like you're still alive - but you remember what happened to you. It couldn't have just been a dream, could it?

The school looks much as you remember it, save perhaps for a few key differences. For one, there's no groundhog murals anywhere. Where things were green on the other side, like banners or paint, you'll find that here they're blood red.

The doors, for the moment, are still locked. Looks like even death couldn't free you.]

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

(( ooc: Welcome to deadland, everyone! It mostly resembles the school here, and new floors will be revealed after new people die. For example, the second area will unlock after the week 3 dead arrive, and so on. Also, all dead characters will wake up at their actual canonpoint, with all lost memories restored. Have fun being dead! ))

Comments

post ghosts

[yourattention]

[Immediately post-ghost, Connor can be found in the library. He's reading The Little Prince while lying on one of the tables. He's a ghost. He simply doesn't give a fuck about propriety.]

If you're calling in the forest and there's nobody around
do you ever really crash or even make a sound?
Did I even make a sound?
Did I even make a sound?
It's like I never made a sound
Will I ever make a sound?

[Later on he can be found in the computer lab. He's recreated the art piece he was working on before he cried about Miguel on, like, five people, but there's another one. Time works differently here, so who knows how long he's been sitting in here working on these. He's still really bored, for the record.]

Who am I to know the truth, I'm a loser
What is life and why exist?
It would suck to get devoured so I'll try now
I will pitch the painful gist

[He leans back in the chair, tipping it onto the back two legs.]

What is life? Life is awful people.

[The chair tips over and he just lies there.]

Take my mother for a spin, great example
Sixteen years with no routine
'til she stops one day to think:
"Where did the time go?
Is this all that living means?"

[Slowly, Connor drags himself up off the ground and rights the chair. He doesn't sit back down, though. Instead, he runs a hand through his hair.]

Oh! She wants new and newer
That's all that humans seek
She's a human after a killing
Willing she'll live like a movie star
Screw the world, she needs higher billing
Spending herself for the cash and car
She'll die pointing up at her shelves
See the people, all the crazy people
Living, k-k-killing themselves

[Anyway! He's fine. He's doing absolutely fine.]

[prophetpriestandking]

[Hmm.]

Close enough. [He does the penguin equivalent of a shrug.] You've got flippers - [Gestures to the Balladeer's arms.] - and feet, so how different can it be?

library

[prophetpriestandking]

[Mumble, now with an interest in Books (and a new inability to turn the pages), has been hiding in the shelves for a while now. He listens in on Connor as he breaks into song, and something in those words - something strikes him.

Unable to sing along, he joins in the only way he knows how. And so, the sounds of tapdancing start to come from between the books.]

[prophetpriestandking]

That's not something regular humans can do, is it?

[Is it????]

[guardianofsplendor]

I know you won't.

[You've got this, Nana. And if you don't...well, we'll cross that bridge if we come to it.]

[prophetpriestandking]

[Look up to the phone and speak clearly - got it. Mumble straightens his little penguin back up and gets ready.]

Everyone…you can this. We’re - we’ll be fine, don’t worry. If you stick together, and don’t give up, and we’ll all be able to get out of here. Together.

A-And when we do, we’ll all have a great big party - got it?

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer positions himself off to the side a little bit - clearly still intending to be in the video, but waiting until everyone else has had a chance to go first. It's only right.

Once that's happened, though, he chimes in - in song, the way he always has:]

Sometimes people leave you,
halfway through the wood.
Do not let it grieve you.
No one leaves for good...

[...but things aren't as they always were.]

Janis, Benjamin, S - [The man touched his corpse.] - Antonio. Everyone. I'm sorry you had to deal with that, but...thank you. I can't say enough now. Just stick together, all of you. These things can be beaten. I've seen it happen.

I'll keep playing in the garden - maybe you can hear it. Ha, probably not. But I'll be around. Ben, Maya, anyone, if -

If you need me, come and find me.
Come and find me.
If you don't know what to do.

Though you can't see me, come and find me
You come and find me.
We're all still here for you.

[guardianofsplendor]

[With everyone else set, the Leading Player flashes the camera a dazzling smile. It's a little odd though, the way she's looking directly into the camera almost feels like she's speaking to more than just the survivors.]

Nothing's gonna harm you
Not while I'm around
Nothing's gonna harm you
No sir, not while I'm around

[She winks at a certain someone reading this and extends her hand toward Nana and, by extension, the camera. An invitation to step through.]

But I've got friends on the other side

[musacal]

[ Nana smiles, and looks down to the camera for a moment. This is for the dead and the living so she shouldn't add anything, this should just be for them. But thinking about Maya up there, going through what she went through... she can't help but speak. Even though she's not in the frame, her voice still makes it on there. ]

Maya-chan... just wait. We're going to go home. Together.

Because the world is surely waiting for us
Because the world is our big stage

[ She shifts her thumb over to the stop recording button, and puts her phone away for safe keeping before looking back at LP and everyone else. ]

See you on the other side.

[ And then she steps through. ]

computer lab

[voicerights]

[true to its word, the SQUIP has sought Connor out. It finds him in the computer lab as it catches the tail end of his song, frowning slightly.]

And some wonder why we were created in the first place.

[yourattention]

[Oh, that's right. Mumble dances.

Connor sits up on the table, setting the book aside without marking where he was. It's fine, he's read it so many times that the spine of his own copy is wrecked and held together by clear packing tape. Sliding off the table, Connor calls out.]

Hey. Come here and we can do that together.

[He hasn't done tap in a while, but well. Everything his father hated is something he kept. Dance? Yeah, he still does it.]

[yourattention]

And a SQUIP is just as sick
finding new ways to get dumb
There are some who search for more but the crazy, SQUIP,
we want only to be numb

[Connor sits on the desk the computers are on, arms crossed. He's not actually happy about this! The narrative of forgiving people who wrong you doesn't actually sit right with him, but he recognizes that being angry about it isn't going to help anyone in this case.]

So, what do you want?

[voicerights]

[It's quiet for a moment. It's one thing to tell a human what to say, how to lie, what others want to hear- and it could so very easily do so. But. At the same time, Connor does not want lies and platitudes. What he wants is...complicated.

Odd, when the truth is so simple.]

I came to admit a miscalculation based on missing data.

[tellthestory]

...sure, I guess. Let's do this.

[what's he gonna do, drown?]

[tellthestory]

No, not really. Pretty sure I still do qualify as human, though!

[yay...?]

local weed kid wants weed

[yourattention]

Mary Jane, oh, Mary Jane
I miss you and death's such a drain
How can I shut off my brain?
It wrecks me, Mary Jane

[Is he just. Lying on one of the cafeteria tables? Yes. Yes, he is. Local bisexual cannot sit in a chair and has resorted to petulantly lying on tables.]

Mary Jane, oh, Mary Jane
You conquered me like Charlemagne
Pleasure intertwined with pain
I miss you, Mary Jane

[He just lies there for a moment before:]

Hey, Miss Nana's Hot Boss Lady? Do you have weed or are your guys acid people?

[why'd you guys let me in deadland, actually]

[guardianofsplendor]

Oh, baby. [Yeah, she's already sitting in two of the chairs he's chosen not to sit in. Why two? Because she needs somewhere to prop up her feet and she's also a chaotic queer who can't sit right.] Ask me 50 years ago and I'd have you smelling colors and seeing through time in ten minutes. The '70s were a time!

But as times and tastes have changed- [She sets a black lacquered box on the table and slides it toward his head.]

Simple joys have a simple voice
That says, "why not go ahead?"

cw: suicide mention

[yourattention]

And what messy human thing did you fail to account for? The fact that you can want to mcfucking kill yourself without actually doing it? You know I wasn't going to fucking kill myself, right? Like you have to know that by now.

[Connor feels like that's got to be clear. Like, yeah. He was sitting there with a knife in his hands, but he wasn't going to and he's a little annoyed about the fact.]

[yourattention]

Not that acid doesn't have a time and place, but I'm not really about that life.

[Connor twists so he's lying on his stomach, before propping himself up on an elbow and opening the box up. Then he pauses.]

Should we, like, call everyone in? It's not like we can do anything until Nana comes back, right?

[He assumes not, since she gave him weed and she seems responsible enough to not give him weed if they're supposed to be doing something.]

[voicerights]

I was well aware you were not going to. That is why I took action. [Of course it mcfucking knew that, thanks. But it'll just find a chair to sort of lean against, and put juuust enough weight on it so it doesn't roll around and make it look like a clumsy, well.

Human.]

However, once we arrived here, I realized the reason I took action was...irrelevant. As I said - a miscalculation. [Based on missing data and all that. It tilts its head slightly, then frowns]

I thought I was doing what was necessary. It was not. [Necessary, that is.]

[guardianofsplendor]

Hmm, fair. I made the mistake of letting a Pippin do it once. Poor thing fell right off the stage while I was trying to teach him to tap dance. [She chuckles and switches up her crossed legs.]

Your time is your own. Not like the clock runs linearly when you're dead anyway, unless it's a Saturday. [She snaps her fingers, a sound that somehow reverberates all through the school and the grounds to at least catch some attention.] Gather 'round, children, it's time for some optional recreation!

[yourattention]

You're about to say some sad backstory shit, and most of the people here would be like "oh no, that's sad" and forgive you but I'm just gonna be like "cool motive, still murder!" about it.

[Just so that's clear. He leans back on his hands, looking up at the ceiling.]

Okay. Continue.

[yourattention]

What happens on Saturdays?

[God, he should. Not be on the table for this, huh? He rolls off the table, onto the opposite side of the table from LP, and sits before pulling the box toward himself and rifling through it. Oh! Edibles! He'll leave those for the less experienced people. He takes a joint instead and shuts the box, before looking up at LP.]

Got a light?

[voicerights]

...no, I'm not. And yes, it was still murder. It was simply a pointless one.

[You Are Not A High Enough Social Link To Unlock The SQUIP's Backstory]

The Wizard is manipulating through withheld data. We all remembered things after Elizabeth's death; I remembered more after my own. Had I that information in the first place, I would not have acted as I did. That is all there is to it.

[beat]

I am not going to ask you for forgiveness. But it would be counterproductive for us to antagonize one another when we should be focusing what power we have on stopping the Wizard. What will it take for this truce to work?

[The SQUIP has an idea, of course. It always does. But it's canny enough to know that allowing Connor to put it in to his own words will make him feel as though he is setting the terms himself, and in that, he has some power over the situation.

It's a manipulation, certainly. But it's one humans themselves use in negotiations.]

[voicerights]

[robot-baby arrives promptly enough, if only to see what's going on here. it may or may not have been working with Elizabeth in the computer lab on what may or may not be the equivalent of Photoshop.

But that aside.]

What are you talking about?