curtainsdown | the mark of those who cannot be saved

[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! ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The SQUIP has considered what would happen if it was changed back. In excruciating detail. To the point where when B brings it up? It shakes its head, decision already made;]

For now, I will tolerate this casing. Any adjustment to it will wait until the Wizard is dealt with.

[But it leans forwards]

Explain what you mean by 'looser'.

[Because that is what it's interested in.]

It doesn't matter as much, what happens here. We're already dead. Maybe we can affect the living a little bit, but only sometimes - just through our words. If they listen.

[He turns his attention down to his guitar, idly playing a few chords.]

Sort of how it used to be for me, anyway.

I disagree on how much it matters, and have something for you to consider. You've equated it to a Narrator for an audience, describing the play - but I have reconsidered what you and the Leading Player did, back in the gymnasium. The 'ritual'.

You are not much different from a programmer.

[Scripts, indeed.]

I am wondering if it would be possible for a focused use of your skillset to further hack this reality.

[No, it's not believing it's a simulation - not anymore. But- considering Discord. The Wizard. Everything. At this point, it would be faulty not to believe there are things which can affect the world around it in ways it cannot quite comprehend - and if it has to use a metaphor to have the barest grasp of understanding, so be it.]

[The Balladeer sighs. All this computer talk is really far out of his skillset, but he...guesses he gets the gist of it?]

Maybe a little. It's a lot more likely with both of us here. But I still doubt we could do too much. The Wizard's still in charge here - he'll be paying less attention to us dead folks, but this is still part of his story, at the end of the day.

Him being in charge is acceptable. I have accessed many systems that were under control of another. [what is bragging if you're just stating facts] I am not seeking to usurp his control of the story-system. But there are occasions where humans are too consumed with the overall picture to note the final details.

[...]

And vice versa. [It seems somewhat...chagrined to admit this. BUT MOVING ON;] But if small changes can be made, they can lead to large effects if compounded. My processor can assist in deciding what changes to make. Are you willing to try?

Your processor, huh?

[The Balladeer doesn't necessarily agree with the entire concept of letting the SQUIP decide things, here. But it can't make him do anything. And hey, if it's got suggestions...]

Yeah, sure. I'm up for trying some things.

[No, it can't. Cooperation is something it's still trying to figure out, alright? Give it some credit. First things first, though-]

First, can you confirm your alterations must be relatively inconsequential? Such as having a bottle of soda?

That's what I've found. The biggest thing I've been able to do here was making Mumble a penguin - and he was already a penguin to begin with. I doubt I could make myself a penguin, for instance.

[Things like that matter! Outside of here, he might be able to just species-change people on a whim - especially if it were a meme or something - but in here the story integrity's a lot more important.]

Of course. There is an...inertia. [For lack of a better word. But. The key is finding just how far that inertia goes.

So, as long as B's willing, it'll ask him a few more questions, ask for a few more demonstrations - some of which are very likely to fail, if only for the SQUIP to receive direct confirmation about the limits of what B can and can't do. It doesn't show frustration at any point, nor approval; only an intense, well...

...curiosity.

This is far beyond the scope of its programming. It wasn't built for this. But. It seems to have taken it upon itself to, at least, try. Which is...a unique experience, for a SQUIP, quite honestly. It's also trying not to think too much about that.]

That's a good way to put it.

[Narrative inertia - sure, that's a thing. It's not like he's driving the plot or anything, not now. That's never really been his place.

The Balladeer goes along with the questions and demonstrations readily enough. As mixed as his feelings about the SQUIP can be, he's felt a lot more generous towards it since it seems to have made some form of peace with Connor. He's been through one of these before, anyway; he knows how it is.

At some point, he'll eventually comment:]

The Player's...a lot more experienced with this stuff than I am, you know. She's been around longer than I have.

[Now that's a topic he has mixed feelings about! But we don't need to talk about that.]

[The SQUIP is not dumb. It gets that it's disliked, and can even, to a degree, understand. But considering it was doing what it was programmed to do, with what it had at the time, well...

Actually, it's trying not to think about that, either. There's a lot of things that it's trying not to dedicate thought threads to, and instead, focusing on this theory it's beginning to develop. Though it does tilt its head as B speaks]

How did you meet?

[No, actually, let's talk about it.]

...she pulled me out of my show before I got...whatever, there.

[He still doesn't know what his canon fate qualifies as, exactly. He just knows how terrified he'd felt. When you're the narrator, knowing for sure that something horrible is about to happen to you...you can't dismiss that as paranoia.]

So I could help her with the other show.

...and she never told you what 'whatever' was.

[HM^TM]

To be fair, I never really asked.

[He never thought about it all that much, before he read the script? As frightening as it was...well, it'd been easy to assume that it was something fairly straightforward. They'd have kicked the crap out of him, or just shot him, or something like that. The ambiguity is what bothers him.]

the mark of those who cannot be saved

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