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

[tellthestory]

I don't know her well enough to say. I might've seen her at the Denny's that one time, but the first time we ever really spoke was here.

[violentenvies]

Could that be something to ask the Leading Player, then? It might make things easier if you had some answers to all of these questions.

[tellthestory]

Mmmm... [He winces a little.] I guess I could...we don't really, ah. Talk.

[Not outside of group settings, at least, and they've sorta ended up fighting at most of those.]

[violentenvies]

That's...understandable.

[...]

Would it be easier if you had someone there to mediate if necessary? I don't know how much I could do, but...it sounds like several things would be easier for you to understand if she could give you some answers.

[tellthestory]

...maybe. I don't know. She has a way of just...rolling right over people sometimes.

[Or maybe that's just him? He's learned to stand up to her, for the most part, but having an honest conversation seems a lot more difficult. One about feelings, even.]

[violentenvies]

...if it helps, I do have experience with people like that. It's mostly a matter of turning their own wordplay back on them, or refusing them their diversions entirely.

[tellthestory]

It was easier with the assassins...

[It's not like he's from a world where he had only comfortable, friendly conversations, either. But it was an entirely different tone. None of those people had any real power or presence - that was, in a way, the whole problem.]

We weren't friendly, but I always knew where we all stood.

[violentenvies]

And now things are more off-script than they ever have been.

[tellthestory]

...yeah, I guess so.

[He snorts after a moment.]

She always wanted me to stay on-book. More or less, you know, obviously it wasn't literally scripted. Not like my first show.

[violentenvies]

[Salieri's expression softens slightly]

And when you broke away from the book...I assume that's when things got difficult?

[tellthestory]

Yeah, pretty much. I mean - makes sense, right? I'd snuck around some before - brining people stuff, things like that. But that was the first time I openly defied her.

[violentenvies]

I'm sure she wasn't expecting it. For you to be able to break away from that book, even if it wasn't exactly scripted.

[there...is definitely a note of admiration in his voice]

...I hope you don't take this the wrong way, however...I'm proud of you, for that.

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer smiles. He can see how one could take that the wrong way, sure, but he tends to try and take things on the good side.]

Thanks. That's nice. [...] Ohhhh, you should've seen it. I sang a whole song - it was really dramatic, before the gun part.

[you should not have seen the gun part, nobody liked that]

[violentenvies]

[mmmMMM BOY THAT BEFORE THE GUN PART nope gonna focus on the drama]

Of course. I should think it would be suitably dramatic. What's the point otherwise?

[tellthestory]

Of course. Listen to these strings.

[Look I would link you the original version but this one was honestly the inspiration anyway, and this is the background music he is queueing.]