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! ))

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Week 1

[stagemanagers]

[Welcome, Mumble and Sissi! Sissi will still have the ice rose from Elsa on her person when she wakes, and Mumble will have the two coins given to him by Orpheus to pay his fare to the underworld. It remains to be seen if there's anyone here who can take them. You two can feel free to look around, once you're done sorting things out between yourselves.]

[wanderlusttitania]

[That's not him.

That's not him, those eyes, it's not him, this is wrong-]

NO-!

[Immediately her eyes open, and the dream ends.

And the memories return.

She is dead...but, she is supposed to be dead. He had come to her, welcomed her to his realm, and she was made queen of a world that was at once beautiful, eternal, and beyond description. After her long life of looking for freedom from the cage, she had found it in the arms of Death. Had seen what he truly was, and knew everything. Un Grande Amore had arrived at last.

This...this is not that place. This is a different type of hell entirely, though she knows it is one she deserves, as she buries her head and weeps once more for the boy lost-and the memories regained. Because God, she remembers, she remembers now that the crypt, the photo, it is all real. It's all true. It happened, her life in the mortal world was over, and her children's deaths in particular are still a hole that can never be truly filled. And Rudolf...oh, Rudolf...it is like living it all over again.

She doesn't know how long she stays like this. Once she is done though, she slowly gets up and leaves the dorm, walking quietly in her new domain of death, staring at the blood red that surrounds her.

She thinks she is alone, because of course.

Mumble is in Heaven, or at least not here, and that is what's important, isn't it?]

[prophetpriestandking]

[Baby, uh, uh it don’t work -

Mumble, in the locker room, lies still.

Baby uh, uh -

He doesn’t move. He could. The feeling has come back to him now; where he was completely frozen before to the point of delirium, he is now perfectly warm.

The memories come flooding back; of his friends, of the elders, of their dancing, of his exile and imprisonment, his escape and return. And of his Ma, his Pa, and Gloria.

He’d failed them. He’d failed them all.

He’d returned with the promise of salvation, of better days and fish for all - and here he is instead. Dead.

He wonders if they’d miss him. His Ma would be heartbroken. Gloria, he wished he’d left on better terms with. He wonders if she even notices he’s gone. As for his Pa…

The newly remembered words of his father’s, mixed with Farrah’s, echo in his mind. Pa would notice. And his life would be better for it. He, after all, was the one who gave him the ultimatum: denounce who he is, or leave.

Well - now he’s not coming back.

In the freezer, he’d rendered himself hoarse calling out desperately to an indifferent silence. Someone had been there, someone should’ve been listening - someone should have done something - But he doesn’t remember anyone doing anything at all. Mumble Happy-feet, to his knowledge, had died in isolation. Unknown, unnoticed.

so slowly, so slowly -

A song echoes in his mind. Or rather, it echoes on the outside. In the great beyond of the space they occupy. As if from the heavens above. That song, Gloria...

into hearts of those who -

He hears movement, and feels himself dragged to his feet by some force of will flooding back into his body. The coins jingle in his pocket. If there's someone out there, then - then -]

Hey!

[He calls out to the figure that passes by, and freezes when he sees her face.]

What... [He breathes heavy, confused.] What are you doing here?

[wanderlusttitania]

[She freezes, and turns to see him. If her heart could stop, it probably would. As it is, at the sight of Mumble, she grabs her chest.]

No-this cannot be-

[She sways, but she doesn't fall. Not this time, for she is herself, fully, once more. Still, it is agony to see Mumble here. This isn't right.]

I should be asking why you are trapped here with me-! I don't understand...!

[prophetpriestandking]

[Mumble takes a step forward when it looks like Sissi's about to fall, but holds back when she doesn't.]

I- I died - [It feels like such an odd thing to say; it's one of those sentences that should never be spoken. The dead hold their tongue, after all.] - so why are you -

[He looks around. He looks at himself. Flexes a hand and fingers.]

I'm...I'm still like this.

[None of this seems to add up right. But that just means they're missing something in the equation.]

What happened? [He snaps to urgency] Tell me everything. Leave nothing out.

[wanderlusttitania]

...I died as well.

[A deep breath. She quietly looks down, not looking at Mumble.]

It was my fault. It was an accident, but...it was still my fault.

[She closes her eyes.]

When I found you in the freezer, I thought I could save your life. I didn't realize it was I who had locked you in there-not at first. But...trying to warm you up as I did had stressed your body, and you died anyways. The shock was...too much for me.

...

Then they had a trial...

[Feel free to interrupt, because all of this sounds terrible and she knows it. It's on her face, the shame of having killed him even inadvertently. The guilt. She will never forgive herself, even if everyone else who still lives has.]

[prophetpriestandking]

You…

[His breath hitches.]

I called out. I thought - I tried everything - I thought you weren’t listening.

[Indeed, in the moments of his death, he had held onto anger at such negligence, such indifference - just as The Wizard had showed to them all.]

But you just…couldn’t hear me.

[His voice cracks.]

And then - with Miss Hester’s motive - you’re here - the others must’ve thought - [Oh, no.] They wouldn’t kill you for that. I know they wouldn’t.

[wanderlusttitania]

I couldn't hear you! All I heard was the loud bang, and-I'm so, so sorry.

[She wipes her eyes.]

...They wouldn't have, I know that, but...we went into trial, and learned we had no choice. If they didn't vote for me, they all would be killed instead.

Either way, I...could never live with that on my conscience.

[prophetpriestandking]

[He wishes he could tell her ‘it’s okay’, but none of this is.]

I’m sorry.

[He sits in that grief for a moment.]

…We’re both here, though.

[He looks around himself. Their surroundings are largely unchanged. Save for the change in decor.]

This can’t be it.. [He recalls a memory. You’re in heaven, Dave. That place looked like here, but with clearer walls. Yet, he’d escaped all the same.] I’m still a human, for starters. I’m sure I’d see… I’d still be a penguin. This has got to be some kind of trick by The Wizard.

[Surely. Hopefully. He won’t accept it until it’s ruled out.]

[wanderlusttitania]

...You're right. Certainly, at the very least you shouldn't be here.

[She could accept this place as her own personal hell. She could accept being stuck here for her crime. But Mumble? Mumble was the victim. And if this was the Wizard-who was the Wizard to deprive an innocent soul of peace?

She sniffed, wiping her eyes once more. Deep breath.]

Then...we must find a way to get you out of here. There must be a way!

[Mainly because she can't accept that there couldn't be for him. She might give up on herself, but that's just her. That doesn't mean she shouldn't give up on others.]

[prophetpriestandking]

[Mumble stands firm.]

Us. I'm not leaving without you. Without anyone.

[He pauses.]

...I just hope no one else shows up.

Week 2

[stagemanagers]

[Welcome, Connor and the SQUIP. Connor will have the two coins left for him by Orpheus on his person. The SQUIP gets nothing because rip]

cw: suicide mention

[yourattention]

[Connor doesn't quite remember what happened, actually.

He remembers taking the melatonin because he'd been having trouble sleeping after the memory. He remembers picking up the clothes, the knife clattering out of the pocket of his jacket. He remembers... sitting there, looking at it. Simultaneously being in the boy's locker room and in the bathroom at home, the two blurring together. Someone... came to find him? He talked with someone.

Sitting up, the coins clatter to the floor and Connor stares at them. Two coins... like for... oh. Oh, death is so much weirder the second time around. Second time? No, yeah. The second time. He already died once, didn't he? But... he wasn't going to again. He thought he wasn't going to, anyway. He told Peregrine he'd try. He told Angus he'd fight. He told—well, no. He didn't actually tell the Balladeer that he intended to write a new ending. He just thought that one.

Better take the toll, though. If Orpheus gave it to him, he must need it. Slipping the coins into his pocket, he calls out:]

Hello? Mumble? Elisabeth? [A beat, then quietly:] Per?

[She'll come to get me
She'll come to—]

[voicerights]

[Drowning and being electrocuted in Mountain Dew Red?

The SQUIP is going to have an emotion in private, thanks.

...probably a lot of those, actually.

Eventually it'll stumble out of its room, hand on a wall for support]

[wanderlusttitania]

[Elisabeth is walking (because really, what else is there to do but walk at that moment, just as she did in life, forever and ever and-) and is back in the gym, climbing the stands, when she hears her name.

She stops, eyes widening. That doesn't sound like Mumble.

Which means...oh no.

No, it cannot be-]

Hello!

[She picks her skirts up and starts down the stairs.]

Who's there? Where are you?!

[wanderlusttitania]

Monsieur...I do not deserve your kindness.

[She closes herself.]

God willing, we shall be the only two here.

[wanderlusttitania]

[UM.

Elisabeth is staring at him, mouth open.]

No...no...!

[Oh but also he seems to need help, so she goes to help him stand up straight.]

[voicerights]

[it outright flinches away from her, eyes wide as its processor mind tries to catch up with who this- what this-]

...Elisabeth.

[beat]

You were executed. Like me.

[Unspoken; how is this possible]

[wanderlusttitania]

Execu-

[Wait. Her hand slowly lowers. Did he just say he was executed-]

Monsieur-did you-

[Kill someone.]

[voicerights]

Yes.

[...]

It was not an accident.

[wanderlusttitania]

...You...

[Yeah, she's just...going to take a step back, staring at him with increasing horror and incredulity.]

Why?! After seeing what happened with me, with poor Mumble, why would you-!?

[voicerights]

For Jeremy.

[But it- doesn't sound certain of itself. Not as much as it did during the trial, anyway. Because as it reaches up to touch its own face, it looks down at its own hand, and...]

...for...

[Think about what you’re saying, Jeremy!]

...he...

[And it looks back up, looking - well. Lost.]

He shut me down. After I did everything for him, he...terminated me.

[wanderlusttitania]

[...

...........

A deep breath. This is confusing, to say the least. There is clearly more to this than she's getting right now, and as much as she is tempted to, well, do something unseemly like smack him for doing something so malevolently foolish, something about the expression on his face-and what this man is saying-seems to beg for a different approach than just going Lumpy on the other.]

I think you had better explain yourself.

[Straightening herself up, she turns away and starts to walk.]

I can find something for you to drink, if you wish to come with me to the cafeteria.

[voicerights]

[If it wishes? It doesn't wish. It doesn't want. It's meant to help Jeremy, that is its function-

-but it has been terminated. Twice over. And now- now it is here. Wherever this is.

For a few moments it stares after Sissi's back - and then, eventually, not-quite-stumbles after her. Don't mind it still being a little unsteady on its feet]

[wanderlusttitania]

[It's fine, she's used to her less-prepared servants collapsing from walking for hours on end. This is nothing.

In any case, they do get to the cafeteria, Shiro's eyebrows go up a bit.]

I think I shall have some coffee. You?