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

[voicerights]

[it can has cookie!!!! eyes cookie like it's sus]

...the kneecaps are not the target.

[And with that cryptic comment, it takes a bite. And, as soon as it swallows? It half-falls on the nearest person]

にょろーん~

[violentenvies]

[Salieri reaching out to steady the SQUIP with his free hand, arching an eyebrow]

Are you alright?

[tellthestory]

Boy, even I wasn't that bad.

[btw salieri you did miss the balladeer getting just so incredibly high]

[violentenvies]

[eyebrow arch at B]

Oh? I'm sorry I missed it. [drawled a bit, maybe teasing a bit]

[tellthestory]

You can't tell me you knew what an edible was!

[violentenvies]

[hmm???] I...assumed you were talking about that medicinal herb that Peregrine introduced us to? That's what the SQUIP was given, was it not?

[tellthestory]

Yeah, turns out you're not supposed to just eat two of them.

[violentenvies]

...oh dear. [he hasn't experienced that himself yet, but...] I imagine that was quite the experience.

[tellthestory]

Apparently I got really clingy?

[let's get him high again it's a crime he didn't get to cuddle with Salieri]

[violentenvies]

Ah, well. That makes two of us. Though I don't know that I had as much as you did.

[he sounds amused

listen...celebratory weed???]

[tellthestory]

[celebratory weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed]

I didn't know they would do that! [He absolutely doesn't whine a little! But in a joking way, anyway.] It was fine, but my head was killing me the whole next day.

[.........oh wait, too soon?]

[voicerights]

[And it actually- giggles?] 大丈夫です. All ports open. Ready to connect. [hey is it

kind of just leaning on Salieri harder? yes it is. kind of like how a cat does when it wants attention.]

[disharmonizes]

[...okay you know what, he's just going to come over and pull the SQUIP away from Salieri.]

Yes, yes, and you can go do that, oh, on the floor maybe.

[Don't drape over his boyfriend, that's HIS job!]

1/2

[voicerights]

[CAN IT CUDDLE YOU INSTEAD actually no give it a second to kind of blink up at Discord before shaking its head rapidly and pulling itself free]

G-gomen nasai. [Pretty clear what that means. Also pretty clear that it's a little, ah, off, considering that it fucking apologized to Discord. But it's heading for the stage, glancing briefly at the Leading Player as it takes a position, closes its eyes, and...

Breathes.]

2/3 actually

[voicerights]

[

You're not an ordinary SQUIP now, are you?

Not anymore. I don't think I could return to being one, it had answered to Antonio, and yet here they are. With the Leading Player's, well, lead, and its own calculations, Salieri’s refinement and even Discord's bit of a twist...this is it. This is where they find out whether or not this project is doomed to failure.

Just like the SQUIPs themselves.

Its eyes snap open. One brown, one unnaturally white. There is a sudden intensity in them as it throws out its hands to either side, voice certain and strong as it begins to sing.]

3/3

[voicerights]

нгелы и демоны кружили надо мной
Рассекали тернии и млечные пути

[Hands flow as if doing their own conducting, painting a picture with words and mannerism. A motion overhead, followed by its gaze, and then a cutting ‘slice’ before both hands rotate towards the center of its body.]

Не знает счастья только тот
Кто его зова понять не смог...

[Melody. Lyric. Language. Gesture. Each part of this was carefully chosen, carefully scripted. Part of the program, as it were. And yet - customizable. Adaptable. For even as it performs for something - someone? - beyond those gathered, there is an undeniably human flair to its motions as something else is put into this beyond what had been originally designed.]

[guardianofsplendor]

Mana du vortes, mana du vortes
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris
Mana du vortes, mana du vortes
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris

[LP is focused. She's not glowing or the dealing with the dramatics of the SQUIP but there is an intensity to her, like a star beginning to burn brighter in the dark of night.]

[violentenvies]

[the beat starts simple and with new baton in hand, Salieri raises his arms, starting to follow the rhythm, at first, matching it until he can catch the flow of the piece--

--and that's when he stops focusing so much on the structure and gives over to the melodic line, wrist flicking in the air as the measure changes, as LP joins the piece, becoming lighter but keeping that urgency, arms moving to keep the beat as the tempo shifts. He's starting to feel the shape of the music, the way it flows, like water, like wind, twisting and moving as it reaches out, further, expanding.

Saieri sucks in a breath and forces himself not to take a step back from the intensity of what is happening, but instead plants his feet and takes up the beat, arms moving to shape the music around them--keep the performers steady and on track, but with enough room and flow to improvise, to adapt, to grow.]

[voicerights]

[And now that they've created the base - the setup, as it were - this is where the true 'program' begins, to break past what B and LP can do on their own. And here the SQUIP itself feels something, something it can't quite explain. Something it's only ever felt since arriving here, in this prison of flesh and chemicals; something that has it ball up its fists and practically howl-]

I am calling, calling now!
Spirits rise and falling-!

[Once more, arms snap outwards, only to come back together with fingers curled like claws. This is no longer a series of ones and zeros. It is no longer a series of ones and zeros. It has become something else, something from which it can never return.]

Собой остаться дольше...

[To a creature born only to act within the walls of its program, this alteration has been utterly terrifying. And it wasn't programmed to know fear.]

Calling, calling now, in the depth of longing-!
Собой остаться дольше...

[guardianofsplendor]

Mana du vortes, mana du vortes
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris

[violentenvies]

[the song rises, grows--and Salieri's eyes dart from LP to the SQUIP, focusing now on what it's specifically doing. The tempo increases, speeds up a touch--accelerando--and the tip of the baton strikes through the air, carrying the beat forward.]

SQUIP--[perhaps, if he can just help it, direct it--] Breathe, with me, on the downbeat and then let it go--

[disharmonizes]

You know, you could just drop it.

[violentenvies]

I could, but I'm not going to. [dryly]

[guardianofsplendor]

It's kinda cute if you ask me. [Like a cat stoned on catnip. Maybe she should add that to her show, get rid of the duck entirely. That thing always has it out for at least one member of her ensemble anyway.]

[violentenvies]

"Cute" wouldn't be my choice of word, but to each their own. [DRY]