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

[themuseabandonsyou]

Sorry, [ Orpheus mumbles, and starts to bend to pick the stand back up when Antonio puts an arm around his shoulder. He looks up, just enough to peer over his fingers, still covering his face, eyes wet, and he listens.

He wants to argue. Wants to deny it all, wants to lash out and insist on being miserable and broken and unfixable, but he can't. Not just because it would be unfair to his friend, but also he just... can't find fault with that. Eurydice still loves him, for reasons he's still having trouble understanding, but it's true, and the only things he can do about it are try to push her away or try to stop letting her down at every opportunity. By now he's proved he's not strong enough to even try the first, so he takes a deep breath and says, ]

Okay. [ And it's quiet and hoarse and he still sounds miserable, but he leans against Antonio slightly and lowers his hands from his face to stare at them for a moment instead before continuing. ] Thank you. I just... I hate seeing her here. I hate knowing that it means she decided to follow me instead of living for herself, and I. I think I might hate Maya now, too. She didn't have to send any of us here, Elle was already dying and -

[ He cuts himself off, shaking his head. He's angry, at himself, at Maya, at the Wizard, at Eurydice too, just a bit, and it's unfamiliar to him and he doesn't like it. ]

I know we were all sick and I know it's the Wizard's fault, but if she'd done anything differently we wouldn't all be here! She could've gotten Elle help, she could've let me go, she could've spared Eurydice! And after all of that, she's the one who lives? I don't - I didn't want her to die, but.

[ It's not fair. It's not. ]

[violentenvies]

[Salieri listens, quietly, as Orpheus speaks, tightening his hold around his friend, to steady him. Then Orpheus starts going into Maya, and something in Salieri's stomach lurches, pained. Because somewhere inside him, he can't help but be glad Maya's not here. He is glad that she lived. But he's also deeply upset and devastated that Orpheus and Eurydice and Elle are dead.

He's learning very quickly that both of those deeply conflicting emotions can live inside him at once, and do.]

...but it doesn't feel fair to you. To any of you. [quietly]

[themuseabandonsyou]

It doesn't. It isn't. None of this has ever been fair, here or back home, and I know I should stop expecting things to be, but -

[ That's now he is. Naive. Touched. Falling for the same old lies, over and over and over again and being surprised every single time. He sags, the frantic energy going out of him. ]

I'm so tired, Antonio.