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

[wanderlusttitania]

...You...

[Yeah, she's just...going to take a step back, staring at him with increasing horror and incredulity.]

Why?! After seeing what happened with me, with poor Mumble, why would you-!?

[voicerights]

For Jeremy.

[But it- doesn't sound certain of itself. Not as much as it did during the trial, anyway. Because as it reaches up to touch its own face, it looks down at its own hand, and...]

...for...

[Think about what you’re saying, Jeremy!]

...he...

[And it looks back up, looking - well. Lost.]

He shut me down. After I did everything for him, he...terminated me.

[wanderlusttitania]

[...

...........

A deep breath. This is confusing, to say the least. There is clearly more to this than she's getting right now, and as much as she is tempted to, well, do something unseemly like smack him for doing something so malevolently foolish, something about the expression on his face-and what this man is saying-seems to beg for a different approach than just going Lumpy on the other.]

I think you had better explain yourself.

[Straightening herself up, she turns away and starts to walk.]

I can find something for you to drink, if you wish to come with me to the cafeteria.

[voicerights]

[If it wishes? It doesn't wish. It doesn't want. It's meant to help Jeremy, that is its function-

-but it has been terminated. Twice over. And now- now it is here. Wherever this is.

For a few moments it stares after Sissi's back - and then, eventually, not-quite-stumbles after her. Don't mind it still being a little unsteady on its feet]

[wanderlusttitania]

[It's fine, she's used to her less-prepared servants collapsing from walking for hours on end. This is nothing.

In any case, they do get to the cafeteria, Shiro's eyebrows go up a bit.]

I think I shall have some coffee. You?

[voicerights]

[Conclusion; this is not death. A simulation? VR? That would...make sense, but...]

...I am no longer certain what this body requires at this point.

[wanderlusttitania]

...All right, then.

[She goes in, returning with a glass of water for him and a cup of coffee for herself. Quietly, she sits down, placing the drinks in front of them]

Here. And...start from the beginning.

[voicerights]

[It's quiet for a moment, staring at the water. Then, finally, it sits down]

There was a party. I left afterwards, and was walking back to the dormitories when I noticed the locker room was open. Connor was there, holding a knife.

We spoke. [It reaches up and takes a sip of its water, movements robotic once more] He was...not ready to end it. But he was considering it. And as I knew he would not do it, and knew that we had run out of time...

[It looks up, briefly]

I did it for him. I then cleaned myself, wrote a note to make it appear to be a suicide, and went to rest.

cw: reference to historical suicide/event

[wanderlusttitania]

[Her hands tightly clench around her coffee at this.]

That is a cruel thing you've done, monsieur. To decide to end someone's life like that-

[She bites her lips, batting her eyes rapidly as they became misty. Rudolf...it broke her that he had done what he had done. What made that mortal sin so much worse was that it was not just to himself that he had done such a thing.

Her voice shakes a little.]

I don't care what the Wizard promised, as I am sure he likely did something like those photos before. It doesn't matter the reason, in the end. Not even for...for this Jeremy you speak of. That life was not yours to take-

[...

One second. She brings a hand to her mouth, and she takes a deep breath.]

I am sorry. Do you mind if I get some tissues...

[voicerights]

...it is irrelevant, in either case. If...

If I knew then...what I know now...

[...it shakes its head. No, go get the tissues. It's Fine.]

[wanderlusttitania]

[With a nod, she does excuse herself to get those tissues.

It is a little while before she returns with some tissues, quietly sitting back down in her chair. She doesn't look at him as she tries to compose herself, asking the next question.]

...

What did the Wizard say? What did he promise?

[voicerights]

His threat was the destruction of certain locations. In my case, Jeremy's school. Which would render my function obsolete- but it was already obsolete. [Said with a furrow of its brow as it gazes in to the water]

...He also said that I was a parallel copy, not a split. Which means that I was never in a position to change things in the first place.

[...]

He is going to manipulate them all through these means, and they do not realize it. That anything he says will happen, and what he shows as proof - has happened.

[wanderlusttitania]

A parallel copy, and not a split?

[A deep breath.]

...I know. My photo-my...my son's death and my own were correctly describe in that photo of mine, so I can only assume that my husband's death is also accurate. And we have no way of stopping it in our position as... spirits. Hostage spirits.

[She rubs her temples.]

At least if Death were here, he would have made sure we weren't trapped like this.

[voicerights]

We are not dead. I was not programmed with a soul. Current data implies some sort of virtual simulation.

[wanderlusttitania]

[Her head pops up at this.]

Not-with all due respect, monsieur, that imposter snapped my neck.

[voicerights]

And I was electrocuted. [Its hands tighten a bit on the glass] However, a virtual simulation would explain both our 'deaths' and our continued existence.

[wanderlusttitania]

A virtual simulation...

[She frowns. She doesn't quite know what it means, but still.]

But how can one...fake our deaths to such a degree? I remember dying, as clearly you do. And what about monsieurs Mumble and...and Connor?

[If he is dead, as the SQUIP says, it is only logical, right?]

[voicerights]

[How to explain...]

Imagine a dream that you cannot wake up from. Now, imagine sharing it with other people. Things happen in the dream, and they appear to be real- but they are not. That is our experience, along with Mumble and Connor.

Now imagine someone else is somehow controlling parts the dream. That is the Wizard, and possibly Hester as well.

[wanderlusttitania]

[...]

I see what you mean. That...does make a great deal of sense, actually.

And so the Wizard's magic is just him manipulating the dream?

[voicerights]

[A nod, and then it looks down. Almost...chagrined.]

I was not...programmed for this situation.

[It doesn't know what to do]

[wanderlusttitania]

I don't think anyone is prepared for something like this.

[Seriously.]

But, assuming what you are saying is true, there is one question I must ask.

How was I brought back to life in the first place? Is that something that can be done in these virtual simulations?

[voicerights]

[It looks up, slowly. Studying her. Thinking.]

...if you are also a parallel copy, it would be possible. But it is more difficult to copy a human than a SQUIP. Even if I am nanocircuitry.

However, I assume he has the technology - as he has placed me within a human's body. To the point where for all intents and purposes, I am as...[flawed. erroneous. irrational.]...unreliable as any other human.

[And it closes its eyes at the admission, as if it's taken something out of it to say as much]

...nothing more.

[wanderlusttitania]

...

[Slowly, she gets up, quietly rounding around the long table. Eventually, the SQUIP finds that she is making to sit next to him, if he allows it. Otherwise she will stand.]

Would it be any comfort to you, then, to know that you are, at least, not alone in that respect if that is the case?

[...]

And-well. Assuming this is not a virtual simulation, and we are all truly dead and trapped here for the Wizard's cruel enjoyment. That you are here would mean that you have a soul, would it not? Just because it was not...programmed, as you put it, into you, doesn't mean you are without one. The Lord works in mysterious ways, after all.

...

The things that make us human, that comprise having a soul, monsieur, can make us do terrible things. But it also means we have just as great a capacity to do wonderful things.

[voicerights]

[Its eyes remain closed. It doesn't appear to notice her moving, except of course it does. It can't not. It hears her move, it practically feels her sitting next to it, and it knows she can see the shake of its head.

And when it speaks again...]

...he terminated me. He shut me down. After everything I had done to fulfil my program of helping him- [And when it opens its eyes, they are wet, and it reaches up to touch them and seems so. goddamn. confused.] -he didn't want me anymore. What did I do wrong?

[wanderlusttitania]

...I don't know. It would have to be something to ask him about.

[Can she pat you on the shoulder? Also, here. Tissue.]