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

[violentenvies]

Partially, yes. [Salieri will come closer, then] May I sit?

[tellthestory]

Of course. Could take a bench, if you don't wanna sit on the ground.

[He likes it down there, though. Also sitting on the memorial benches has always struck him as sort of odd?]

[violentenvies]

I don't mind the ground. [he'll move to sit next to him, then, resting that violin case on the ground next to him]

[tellthestory]

Alright.

[The Balladeer sighs and leans back, until his head rests against the trunk of the tree.]

I don't really think anyone can hear us. I hope they're there, though.

[violentenvies]

It's...nice to think that they do. That if anything could connect us, it's music.

[tellthestory]

Yeah.

[A smile flickers across his face for a moment. But it quickly dies, and he's quite for a moment.]

...at the end of the last game, I gave everyone there whatever they wanted. Got them to each other's worlds, kept those lines open. Made one girl human. I...felt like I had to make it up to them. I didn't know it would affect anything else. [He chuckles hollowly.] The Player's archetype is hundreds of years old, I'm probably literally thirty. Still pretty new to all this, really...

[violentenvies]

[Salieri reaches out to set a hand on his arm, then, gently]

You were just trying to do what was right.

[tellthestory]

What if this really is my fault? What if I - I don't know, did something, and that's what set all this off? You saw how he was, he -

[He stops speaking abruptly, and goes on in a softer voice after a moment.]

He hated me.

[violentenvies]

He...did, yes. But whether that ire is a direct result of your actions or of others, we don't know.

[tellthestory]

I know. I know, we don't know anything. But...just thinking about it. The Player's been running around this whole time, fixing things I helped break, and I never even knew. Imagine if she hadn't!

She never cared about things like that before...

[violentenvies]

People can...change in strange ways. Even very old ones. [he says, definitely not even thinking of anyone in particular.]

Admittedly, I have no idea what sort of history the two of you have, but I gathered it was a bit...tempestuous?

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer grimaces a little. That one is...complicated, yeah. He's kept it largely to himself since coming here, for the sake of group cohesion; even if they're all already dead, the last thing they need is infighting, especially when she seems so willing to help this time. But he also simply hasn't been asked by anyone, and it's not...really a secret, either.]

We - I thought we were friends, back when we first met. I was so dazzled by her. She was the first person I'd ever met who was nice to me, the first one who was like me, but so much stronger and wiser than I was. Maybe that's the real reason she picked me. Whatever she asked of me back then, I would've helped her.

[He strums a few moody, disconnected chords.]

You already know what we did. It took me a lot longer then, to see how terrible it was. I just thought of it as...another show. And then when I did, I thought I could stop it by just talking to her - it ended up being more of a fight, and then she killed me. [Oh - wait, Salieri actually knows a little bit of this already.] That's what my picture was, that first week, the one with my body. Got me with a sniper rifle at pretty close range.

[He makes a "splat" motion next to his head, imitating what Farrah did when he told her about the photo. It seems like a lifetime ago now.]

She brought me back after the rest of the cast left. We argued a little more, and then she wiped my memory so I'd go back to helping her. I got it back later, obviously, and I took over the show from her then. But that was the last time I'd really seen her before I ended up here.

[violentenvies]

[That is...one hell of a story. Salieri frowns]

Perhaps tempestuous was an understatement.

[...and yet--]

And yet, she's here now. One has to wonder how she got from the last time you saw her to here. And what she has been doing, other than perhaps trying to repair certain areas of the universe, perhaps.

[tellthestory]

Ha.

[It's not really anything like a genuine laugh, but it's there nonetheless.]

Yeah. I knew...the last group told me she gave them a ride out of the Opera House, once they got the Wizard out of there. I guess she helped them a little.

[violentenvies]

[small victories, he'll take it.

Salieri tilts his head slightly at that, curious]

Once they got the Wizard out of there? [he arches an eyebrow] And...how did they manage that?

[tellthestory]

I don't...know, exactly, but it sounded like he just cut his losses and left once the SQUIP decided to chill out? I saw it at Denny's - the one who had been running the game. It seemed...fine.

[Not invested in murdering anyone, at least?]

[violentenvies]

That's...something I suppose.

[he blows out a breath]

...I suppose the question is, can the situation even begin to be repaired, no matter what the cause beforehand? And fixed in a way that won't injure any of the others?

[tellthestory]

...I don't know. It sounds like the Player's been putting some things right...her and Nana. But that's still only two people.

[.....]

I should've been helping.

[violentenvies]

[at that, Salieri leans over a bit, pressing his shoulder up against the Balladeer's, just...trying to be comforting that way, a solid presence]

You didn't know it was happening. You can hardly help out with something you were unaware of.

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer leans back gratefully.]

I feel like I should have known. I'm supposed to...know these things.

[violentenvies]

[well if he's going to lean in, Salieri will shift so he can put an arm around the Balladeer's shoulders]

Clearly there's been more than one way to keep things from you, besides just wiping your memory.

[tellthestory]

[He turns his head to look at Salieri at that, at least as well as he can without disturbing the arm around his shoulders. Despite what they're talking about - despite what he's beginning to fear he might have done - that comfort is too reassuring to deny.]

You think someone might've been doing it on purpose? I don't - I never went looking.

[violentenvies]

Of course you didn't. Why would you? Even if it had been happening, you certainly weren't alerted to it. It might've been hidden from you for a reason. After all, you were trying to do the right thing.

[tellthestory]

[He sighs, leaning his head against Salieri's arm a bit.]

Maybe. I don't know. I don't think I could've done it differently - I wanted to help them out. But I would have gone out to help, if I'd known something was wrong. I wish...I didn't really want to see the Player, but I still wish she would have told me.

[violentenvies]

[Salieri shifts, curling a bit closer to the Balladeer, trying to be comforting in that way]

I...can't say for certain why she didn't tell you. That would certainly be a question to ask her, if you could even trust her to give you a straight [ha] answer. Perhaps there was something to keeping it contained to only a few working on it, but...

...I don't think the sentiment is wasted, that you would've done what you could if you had known.