It's Curtains Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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curtainsdown2021-06-12 11:09 pm
stagemanagers) wrote in curtainsdown2021-06-12 11:09 pm
Entry tags:
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! ))
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.]
(( 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! ))
4/4
This was your idea. You explain.
no subject
But at that, he'll push off where he was leaning] I did, in fact.
[To Discord as Salieri moves over to him, taking the cup out of his hands so he can take a sip]
And you even brought me a drink. How thoughtful. [neutrally pleasant but...there maybe is a slight hint of amusement--before he turns back towards the board and starts moving towards it, drink in hand]
Now, shall we?
no subject
Discord smiles a little, shrugging. Maybe pointedly looking at the SQUIP a moment, before just making his way towards the board.]
Yes, yes, very well, let's get going. [And he'll gesture vaguely at the board.] Now what is all this about?
[What sort of Twilight Sparkle science bullshit--]
no subject
But anyway, Salieri's just going to take another sip of that red-colored beverage, before leaning back against the table to explain]
As you know, the SQUIP has been attempting to create something that will have an affect on this so-called script. However, considering that music has been so intrinsically tied in with out experience here, I thought it would be good to consider that as well. Both the libretto--that is, the script--and the music have structure, but if they followed that, then it would be nothing but formulaic and predictable. Granted, audiences like a certain amount of predictability, hence the reason that having the structure works...but they also like being surprised. They like new, and different, and innovative, whether that's evoked via that music or the libretto or both.
So, with that in mind, whatever the SQUIP creates to give the Balladeer and Madame Leading Player their options, which they can take or discard, should have not only the structure and predictability, but it should also have an element of randomness--of chaos, if you will. To give them the opportunity for an unexpected twist. I know a bit about that, but I'm not as intimately familiar with it as you. [Salieri tilts his head back, downing the rest of what's in that glass before setting it aside, away from the SQUIP] Hence the need for your expertise.
no subject
[Still with its back to the both of them as it makes a few notes on the whiteboard. Its voice is quiet, but steady, at least, in this.]
We are creating a performance for reality itself. In that performance, we are persuading it that what we are 'saying' is real. Something it has no choice but to accept and accommodate, in its entirety.
[A couple lines off to the side, some rudimentary stick figures...]
The Wizard will remain in full control; I cannot alter that unless he willingly surrenders it. But he, too, is subject to structure. He is not, as one would say, a 'god'; he is merely an administrator, and so long as the impact does not affect his story, I do not see how our work would be noticed, much less halted.
[If it's noticed that Salieri has done it the favor of removing the red - whether or not it's a certain type of Red - from its presence, it doesn't show any sign. A few more lines, though...]
Testing involves my synchronization with my other selves. It will not only prove that the framework is solid, but also minimize any catastrophic errors as well as significantly boosting the speed of the process. The performance can then be adjusted, rebuilt, and other aspects - such as the full extent of your power, Discord - can be restored with further progress.
no subject
[And oh, doesn't he just sound so pleased about that? All of this is a little technical for his liking, a little too orderly. Well, a lot orderly. He'd love nothing more than to turn it all upside down.
Though he is showing at least a little restraint at the moment. For Salieri's sake.]
You really were just trying to boil it all down to ones and zeroes, hm? Oh, of course, that's why Antonio is here, to make sure it's more than just that. Put some life into it, right? Well, so to speak right now, anyway.
But affecting reality... Really, your first problem is that you're trying.
no subject
no subject
Do you want me to draw a diagram for making the universe bow to your every whim? Because it's really very simple.
[He walks up to the board, and simply just draws
:)
a little smiley face.]
You just do it.
no subject
: )
It then draws an underline under each piece.]
You can 'just do it'. But I will point out that it is not enough to have freed you, or anyone else from this place. [It makes a starburst pattern of lines from each symbol] Your chaos is spread out, and if it can be focused, however slightly- [It then brings all the lines in to a single direction, not unlike light to a magnifying glass] -than it would be far more efficient. Especially if we can exploit a crack instead of wasting power against a fortified pillar.
[It starts going in to a little bit more detail - and by that we mean, technobabble, though it is clearly attempting to explain it as simply as possible.]
no subject
[Discord just, interrupting the little technobabble spiel because he has approximately no time for it I'm so sorry--]
In fact, I am the only one who can just do it. I don't mean that to brag or even to state the obvious; even if you suddenly had all my powers, you couldn't change reality like I can. But it would be hilarious. Mostly for me.
[He's going to wipe away the pattern on the board right now, and instead make... a different one.
Just, right there, nice and big.]
Chaos isn't focused. If it was, it would be order instead. But the handy part is that reality isn't very focused, either. You can try fitting it into boxes, of course, but you'd fail. Well, you know that, you have failed trying to do exactly that already.
You really have a problem with trying too hard.
no subject
If we get a random result out of this, there is no way to guarantee it will help or hinder us. Send a brute force attack against the structure and you may, eventually, get through- after some thousand years. We have weeks, at most.
[But. It's a learning computer; with every piece of data, it evolves. It glares at the symbol as though it's personally affronted, then...frowns, as if something's suddenly occurred to it.]
...this is backwards. This is being created backwards.
no subject
But then Discord draws that symbol on the board ("Chaos isn't focused,") and the SQUIP mentions something familiar ("-a brute force attack-") and somehow, he can see the pieces of the puzzle coming together, directed--]
We don't need to brute force anything. In fact, doing so would be completely detrimental and useless.
What we need to be able to do is convince reality that it wants to go where we want it to go. [he's got one arm still folded, while the other has unthinkingly raised his hand a bit above that folded arm, and that hand is now conducting a very small 4/4 measure in the air a bit above his elbow, over and over again]
For example, if reality is in 4/4--[and his motion with the hand become a little more obvious] --then perhaps we can coax it into an 8/8 meter, because they're similar, just doubled--[and the movements of his hand become more elaborate--8 beats instead of 4]--then that could easily lead into an off-beat 5/8--[the beats change once again--more sharp, off balanced]--to a 6/8--[the beats smooth, though the handmotion becomes more flowing, with a slight twist in there, a curling of his hand and a flick of his wrist]--to even a waltz in 3/4. [and now just one sweeping motion of his hand, up-down, up-down, all three beats contained in that one movement--
And then he looks up, back at the board, as if snapping out of a reverie]
That's how we guide it. That's how we guide the music and the story. By being able to change it to something different on a dime--coax it, direct it, but not force it.
1/3
[And then, well, Salieri's explanation... It's really something to listen to. Music theory isn't entirely Discord's thing, even if he has started to learn more about it. He's listening, maybe a little enthralled by the explanation...
before he just grins.]
Conducting reality. Now this I just have to see.
[He does sound genuinely excited about it. This... This could work. It's only a vague something right now, but really, isn't that where he tends to excel?]
Up and down on this merry-go-round
Worlds on an empty page we will write
Now we find it's the end of the line
Tuck this game in and kiss it good night
We perform, we rewrite the norm
And sing a song of--
2/3
Someone's going to think they're clever and game the system--
...But then, that's just it, isn't it. Not someone. Multiple someones. Together.
Oh.
Oh.]
...No, no, we need more than that. More than all of this.
We need magic.
3/3
[Somewhere, Twilight Sparkle is going to feel so smug.]
no subject
[It's looking towards Salieri as he 'conducts' - and then towards Discord. And then, it grabs the eraser, removes the dry-erase magnets from the board, and then begins to scribble a few more notations on them - though, after a moment, it offers a couple to Discord]
An initial foundation, upon which chaos is released. Observe the flow- such as it is- and react from there. Choice, too, has as much logic as randomness built in to it. [It starts placing its magnets on the board] That ability to improvise on the fly should bridge connection between the two, and to maintain the inertia.
In other words...[It it grabs the top of the whiteboard, and abruptly pulls down, hard, letting it spin wildly. Then, it looks towards Discord.] ...toss them. [a beat, and then-] Or don't. Whatever feels natural.
no subject
A symphony of story and song composed by many, at once, changing and shifting with reality--[there's a beat to his hand again, conducting with the spinning of the board]--but working together to do so. [he sounds neigh excited about this]
We'll need everyone but-- [he sucks in a breath, something in his chest expanding, blooming--something like hope] With all of us, together--we can do this.
no subject
[He smirks, snapping his fingers, letting those magnets disappear and reappear onto the board, which will abruptly halt.]
As much as I hate to admit it, being a spirit of chaos and disharmony... There are few things in the universe stronger than harmony. You can take away magic. Friendship, though... Oh, that's much harder to stamp out.
And believe me, I've tried.
[He moves over to Salieri, casually putting his arm on his shoulder and just, leaning.]
Putting it all together in music, a part of us all... forcing it to be part of the show, making it real... I can't think of anything more powerful.
Certainly more powerful than any Wizard.
no subject
Let it all fall apart
Rhythm dictated by heart
Sound crossing space and time-
We are now synchronized
We are aligned!
Oh, if only it knew then what it knows now.]
no subject
We're aligned. [it's an agreement] We should get Madame Leading Player, and the Balladeer, and the others. The sooner we get this plan in motion and try it out, the better.
no subject
Oh, yes, speaking of which...
[And with a flash of light, a spray bottle appears in his hand and he
...sprays water at the SQUIP.]
There! I've been wanting to do that this whole time.
no subject
that was water, not soda. It takes a deep breath, and-]
I'm going to finish the basis for cross-dimensional contact with this new data. Why don't you two start your rhythms.
[or at least find somewhere else to thubthump]
no subject
...
It's a little funny.
He'll manage to tone it down to a smirk though as he reaches out to snatch that spray bottle from Discord]
Come along then, troublemaker. [and he is just going to spray Discord in the face, once, looking smug as anything as he slips out from under Discord's elbow, making for the door] Time to work on our rhythms!