curtainsdown | ready as we'll ever be

[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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

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.]

[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?

[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.]

I'd disagree.

[But there's no point in arguing about it here. He understands how these stories work; they are not the deciders, and him in particular - he's an NPC just as much as Hester.]

I understand. However, this is not about...what you think it is.

[Gently. Salieri's starting to see the shape of what the problem actually is, and it his nothing to do with the Wizard or Will or whomever he is. It's about Discord himself.

And somehow, meeting the Balladeer's gaze, he's trying to communicate that. If nothing else, an I've got this, let me handle it.]

[...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]

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

...Ah.

...Too much.

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

Sorry.

[Oh. Something clenches in Salieri's stomach at that expression, and his hand moves from Discord's wrist downward to gently lace their fingers together]

...come here?

[and he'll just gently draw him away from everyone else because there is definitely something far deeper happening here and there's no way Discord would want to discuss that with the others listening]

[He'll... let himself be pulled away, then, for now. Get some, uh, space. So he doesn't spiral like that again.]

[Once they're a good ways away, he'll just gently take both of Discord's hands in his, looking up at him]

...tell me what's wrong?

[Salieri taking his hands prevents him from crossing his arms again, which he's a little put out by, but... it's probably better. Open. Communicating.]

...I know I'm not like him. [Now. Ever, he hopes. This sort of absolute fuckery is more Cosmos's area.] Not... like all this. But--

[Not like this. But not nothing like him. And that's uncomfortable.]

I was given a chance that I probably shouldn't have been. And now I want nothing more than to make sure this man doesn't get that.

I... might be a little too close to it all to tell if that's bad or not.

[Salieri considers that--and would for longer, but there's something he needs to make clear first]

You're right. You're not like him.

[and furthermore--]

I would also argue that you deserved that chance, but I also acknowledge that I am biased. Though, admittedly, I would also point out that, just because I'm biased, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

But that's neither here nor there.

[his tone gentles again] Do you...have an idea as to why you don't want him to have the same chance?

Oh, I very much did not deserve it. There was absolutely no reason for Celestia to believe freeing me was the right call, other than having faith in Fluttershy.

[Which, fair, Fluttershy is pretty great. And they had a Plan B, but. Well. It was a gamble.]

...I could say something about feeling like he'll just hurt others again in the future, but I don't really care about that.

I just despise the man. That's why.

[It's... that simple, really.]

[...yeah, no that's not it.]

I can certainly agree that that is a factor, however...[he brushes his thumbs gently over Discord's knuckles as he keeps holding his hands]

...that's not it, is it. Not at the heart of it. ["Discord's going to try, try, try again--" He frowns, slightly, but it's more out of concern than anything]

...you are not the same. The two of you. But there's that one particular thing--what you said to the SQUIP, it was something about wanting to take someone so awful, so vile, and just hope that they can be used for good... [he trails off, lips pressing together slightly, and he's quiet for a moment]

...I don't think your desire for him to get what you consider his just desserts is wrong. This man has done so much harm. However...

I worry that somehow, some of how you feel about yourself and your own actions and abilities is getting mixed up in that.

What's there to worry about there? I'm great, he's not.

[Just trying to hide behind that ego of his for a minute. As if it hasn't been dealt a lot of blows during all this.]

It's just... There are certain... similarities. I can't entirely ignore those.

So...in that case, is your only concern that you're not far enough removed to determine whether your own feelings on how he should be punished are good or bad?

ready as we'll ever be

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