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

[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.

[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.]

[yourattention]

Stop being such a smug, self-righteous asshole about everything. [He doesn't even, like, pause to think about it.] I'm less mad about you murdering me than I am about you acting like you're so fucking above messy shit like emotions.

[voicerights]

Messy emotions such as...irritation? [Bland look]

[yourattention]

It's illogical, isn't it? There's no more cereal and you're irritated about it, but it's probably your own fault. Or your boyfriend doesn't respond to you quickly and you're annoyed about it even though you know he's at work. [Connor shrugs.] Sometimes I just cry for no reason. Bodies are useless meat hunks.

[voicerights]

[Honestly that wasn't what it meant, but. It...sort of gets it. And after a moment, it decides to play off that;]

Or someone has hurt you, but you still feel an affection towards them.

cw: child neglect/abuse

[yourattention]

That's family. That's love.

[Not that he knows a ton about that, except for the inexplicable belief that if he tried hard enough, if he was good enough, Larry would love him. That he'd stop looking at Connor and seeing a disappointment.]

Why does it feel like grieving just to cry?
Feeling that you miss them
and that your world has gone dark without their light?
But it's not a requiem, not quite.

[voicerights]

[There's something in the SQUIP's face - if only for a few seconds. Because after those seconds it abruptly decides it Does Not Want To Process This Right Now, and it turns away]

Regardless. Admitting that I am currently affected by human brain chemistry will satisfy you?

[yourattention]

No, I said stop being such a smug, self-righteous asshole. You don't have all the answers. You never did, because you were made by humans and that's how chat bots end up racist.

[The emotions thing is related to that, but that's not what he wants. Not really, anyway.]

[voicerights]

I am more than a chat bot, Connor.

[FUCKING RUDE]