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

[tellthestory]

Who knows. It's creepy, but it doesn't seem like he was trying to scare people with them necessarily. We could've just as easily not gone in the woods.

[If Peregrine weren't here, he can imagine that expedition would've just gone along the road - like this one right now.]

[voicerights]

Do all shows have as much effort put in to trivial matters? [Just. Skirting the meta. Dipping its bits in to it. Not ready for a full byte.]

[tellthestory]

No. The Player's set didn't include anything outside the opera house, and she's...well, she tends towards the elaborate.

[He's never really skirted the fact that he was involved in that show, too, but in this at least, it was definitely all her. The Balladeer had no hand in creating that opera house, for all that he took it over later.]

[voicerights]

Then there could be a reason.

[A few steps of silence, and then;]

There are different kinds of showmanship. Different methods and motives. [It seems more like it's thinking out loud than lecturing B - but who knows for sure, with this thing?] She wanted to entertain. The Wizard wants...something else.



I could never parse Hester. [Subject change?] Even the Player, I can read, but Hester- it is as though there was a firewall.

[tellthestory]

He wants to protect her. That's why...when...I died, I was trying to get Janis into her bubble. I knew it'd be safe.

[The Balladeer doesn't seem to love that topic. But he'll discuss it. It happened.]

Maybe that's why, he kept her shielded.

[voicerights]

[It glances at him, briefly, then back forwards]

Either that, or she is not human in the first place.

[tellthestory]

Can you read people like Mumble? When he still had the human face, I mean.

[voicerights]

[Point. It tilts its head in acknowledgement of that]

Enough to know he wasn't. Discord was difficult as well, but that may have been his base nature. [Law vs Chaos, anyone?] The Wizard never showed enough anything to read, short of when he admitted he knew a parallel version of me.

[tellthestory]

Oh, yeah. From the last show he did.

[voicerights]

[UNSURE IF WANT ASK...




it's gonna ask]

What do you know about it?

[tellthestory]

Not...much. I didn't even find out it existed until after it was all over. I just ran into some of the survivors by chance. They told me about the Wizard - it sounded like he took over our old set, the Opera House that the Player set up. She left, and so did we, so I guess it must have just been empty all that time...

[He sticks his hands in his pockets, turning his head to peer into the corn as they walk.]

The Player knew, though. She was the one who got them out of there. She's the one to ask.

[voicerights]

[The SQUIP would never admit that it isn't looking forwards to that question session. Such would imply that it would find that sort of thing unpleasant, that there's something about her as such. Why would it ever think that? Never. Shut up.

But the SQUIP makes a noncommittal sound as they walk, acknowledging the suggestion. Though...]

If the Wizard is so powerful, I am surprised you were his target, and not her.

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer shrugs. He can't really argue that one.]

Well, he tossed her in here. Maybe he figured I'd be the easier one to handle, alive.

[Which is undoubtedly true.]

I did come here trying to stop him. But the way he acted always felt so personal - I've never even met the man.

[voicerights]

Then something you did had an effect on him. What did you do before running these shows?

[tellthestory]

Nothing, really. I was just in my show.