ready as we'll ever be

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer is true to his word. So, before the dead's scheduled performance, still dressed in the outfit Salieri forced him to helped him choose, he takes his guitar and sneaks out to the garden one last time. He hasn't visited it yet today, and he always feels guilty when he doesn't manage. He told everyone he'd be here. Even if neither of them can hear each other, he intends to keep his promise.

So he's there to notice when the trees begin closing in. The Balladeer shoots to his feet. Oh, no. He knows this feeling.]

Everyone! Come out to the garden! Bring your stuff!

[He calls out aloud, but he can use that projection trick just as well as the Player - his voice is audible anywhere in the school.

When people arrive to join him, there will still be a path through the woods to lead them to the garden. He doesn't want to strain himself before the performance, but something as small as that shouldn't cause problems later. It's too important that everyone get out here - because when people arrive, they'll find that all of the living are visible. The Balladeer is watching them, but making no attempt to interact; he already knows how this is going to go. It isn't time for that yet. Still...]

It's the end.

[Have fun spectating the trial!]

Comments

3/3

[disharmonizes]

[He huffs, arms crossed, looking off into the distance for a bit.]

...At least petrify him for a little while, I'm just saying.

[voicerights]

Sleeping is proven to provide a beneficial effect upon the human psyche, much as a reboot can refresh the clogged cache of a computer system.

If they do not choose to kill him, then petrify him. But allow him to sleep, until the time comes where he may be of use.

[disharmonizes]

And why should he have that? This isn't a vacation.

[Why should he get to rest during this.]

[voicerights]

[Is just going to give Discord a bland look because Think About It, Really

What drove him mad in the first place?]

[disharmonizes]

For the record, I really don't care about fixing him or making things easier for him in any way whatsoever.

[He sees what you're putting down. He just doesn't care.]

[voicerights]

And if he comes out of the stone worse than before?

[disharmonizes]

Then back in he goes.

[...it's... mean spirited, even for Discord, honestly. Especially right now, after everything.]

[violentenvies]

[...there it is. What he knows of Discord--what he's told him of what happened, between the petrifications, his friendship with Fluttershy, Tirek--]

...maybe he just needs one friend? [gently, quietly]

[disharmonizes]

Don't.

[It comes out harsh, quick, and he kind of hates himself for it immediately.]

It's... different.

[Is it?]

1/?

[violentenvies]

[Salieri, for his part, doesn't flinch away at all, or even seem to take any kind of offense at that.

Instead he's...quiet. For a moment.]

...it is different, yes. Murder isn't really your style, nor is encouraging people to kill each other in a terrible, cruel game, so...yes. You're not him, and he is not you. Maybe this man's crimes--what he's done to us, to the people we love--are so severe that redemption is an impossibility.

[violentenvies]

[he hesitates for a moment, then--] But I...wasn't just speaking about you. I've...killed someone. Perhaps not directly--I didn't poison him, or make him sick, but I did orchestrate his downfall, his destruction, leaving his wife without any kind of support. In some ways, one could draw a similar line to this man's own manipulation. Not to mention, I've manipulated someone I love into a terrible situation and forced him to do something he would never do in any other circumstance, something that he'll have to carry with him always. I've put everyone I claimed to love in danger, needlessly.

[violentenvies]

[he takes a small breath, lets it out]

But even then...even after everything I've done, you...["How can I be better for this person that loves me? This person that has seen the worst of me, has seen me at my lowest, at my most destructive, and I have hurt them dearly and yet still they stand beside me."] ...before here, I didn't have friends. [Salieri folds his arms, but it's a slightly more protective movement than normal] Not really. Not...like here. I...I'd never loved anyone for a very long time, either. Not like I love them, and not like I love you.

And I thought, after I'd done that terrible thing to them, to you...I thought I had lost all of it, lost everyone for my own foolish actions. But...

[violentenvies]

Varian was still there, and Mumble, and the Balladeer and Madame Elisabeth. Even Orpheus and Eurydice, when they arrived...[he swallows, throat going tight] And...you, too. I can't say that I will ever understand why, but--

[he shakes his head sharply--the why is not important.] ...I was angry with him, with the Wizard. Have been angry with him. I still am. And yet...I can almost see why the Balladeer feels compelled to feel a kinship with him, though I would protest it. Someone who has made a dire, terrible mistake out of desperation and has hurt so many people for it.

But...unlike me, he has no friends, no one to speak for him here, except Hester. Whether that's deserved or not, I cannot say. [The why doesn't matter, doesn't matter--]

I...I only had the thought, then, wondering...[he trails off a bit] What if he had more people to speak for him...if he had the chance to meet people who would.

5/5

[violentenvies]

....anyway, apologies. I didn't mean to make you think I was comparing the two of you.

[disharmonizes]

But that's just it, doesn't it? He does have Hester. He had someone important, someone who mattered, and just look how that worked out for her!

Not so great, hm?

[However she may feel about him, the effects are pretty hard to deny. How much has she gone through--]

So! What are we thinking? If not petrification, the moon is an option. Maybe the sun, instead? Or we could always put him in Tartarus. Mine, not Orpheus's, they're a little different.

Put in his place
There are so many options
Casting my spell
That he will then suffer--

[is he okay? all signs point to no.]

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer has been silent throughout all of this. He's watching the survivors, mostly. But at this, he speaks up without looking away:]

He's the one who put us all in this situation. What do you want to do to the person who put him in his?

[violentenvies]

[Salieri's attention cuts to the Balladeer at that, shoulders stiffening a bit--before his focus darts back to Discord.]

I don't think that has any bearing on this, quite frankly. [he does affect a calm though, keeping his voice gentle, and neutral.]

[violentenvies]

[...oh. Wrong tact to take, again--really, he has to get better at this.

Salieri sucks in a breath, finally reaching out to just...close his fingers around Discord's wrist. Not hard, no, and easy enough to avoid as well but...he's just trying to get his attention]

...Discord.

[gently, again, to get his attention. Break whatever cycle of thoughts he's stuck in]

1/2

[disharmonizes]

[He pauses, then, the touch almost feeling like a tug right now, pulling him from that song.]

...Ah.

2/2

[disharmonizes]

...Too much.

[The situation or Discord himself? The answer is yes.]

Sorry.

[wanderlusttitania]

...I...

[She's been silent for some time, though now, she speaks, even as she hesitates.]

If they spare him...I may have an idea.

[disharmonizes]

...Do you.

[wanderlusttitania]

I do.

Death might be able to find a use for him.

[voicerights]

...elaborate.

[wanderlusttitania]

...I guess I never talked much about my second husband here, have I.

[At this, she looks sheepish.]

But...where I am from...even though I'm just a human soul, I'm queen of the underworld. Somehow, Death itself...fell in love with me when I was alive.

That's why, in the beginning...when I woke up here, I had accepted my death.