and I know things now, many valuable things

[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 you're still trapped here.

When you open your eyes it might take you a minute to recognize your surroundings. It's your dressing room, that much is certain, but nothing is where you remember it. It's like everything has been picked up and moved to the other side of the room. The entire room has been perfectly mirrored from what it used to be and, upon leaving, it seems the rest of the opera house is just the same. If you remember one room being in the east wing, it's now in the west. If it was in the west, it's now in the east.

Welcome back to the Opera House, friends, you're not out of the woods yet.]





[ooc: Welcome to deadland, darlings! It's a perfectly mirrored version of the Opera House and each week, as new people die after new floors have been revealed, the stairwell doors will unlock and allow you to reach them. For example, week 3 victims will unlock floor 2 and so on and so forth. Also, all dead characters will wake up at their actual canon point.

Have fun because we have some fun things planned for you.]

Comments

week 5

[stagemanagers]

[welcome, Natalie]

[robitussin]

[She wakes up gasping for air, tears still forming in her eyes, pressing her hands desperately to her chest to stop the—

There's no bleeding. The shortness of breath is gone, but not the pain. It still aches where the bullet ripped through. She runs her hands over her face, then holds her face in her hands for a few minutes, just - processing. Thinking about what happened, and remembering...

You did everything just right.

As she remembers, it's the things from home that come first. Henry. Her mother. Her... It was her birthday. She turned seventeen. Then the gunshot, the blood, and the darkness overtaking everything... Her hands shift to her mouth as the swell of sorrow and fear and anger all catch up to her at once. First she lets out a noise that's half crying, half screaming, near hysterical, heartbroken and raw. She doesn't know what she was expecting after that. Nothingness? Paradise? She just knows that as she takes in her surroundings, she wasn't expecting to be here, and she doesn't know what to make of it. What just happened was overwhelming in every sense, and this isn't any different, and for a few minutes she just starts to sob, feeling bile rise in her throat, hot and sour. She has to fight not to vomit.

Once she approaches some modicum of calm, she rises and walks out of the room, eyes red. It's still the theater... She wonders if she's trapped here, if she's being punished for something. She wanders aimlessly through the floors, not really engaging with anything, but she will at least stop if she sees anyone. She almost expected to be stuck here alone, somehow.]

Oh - you're here.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[Judas said so, five weeks. Five cases, five trials. D-ne got the feeling last week was different, she expected them to be joined by someone.

Still. It doesn't prepare her for this.

She can't hide the utter shock as she finds this week's new addition on the third floor.]

...Natalie. [...] -san.

[robitussin]

[The 'you're here' was reflexive upon seeing someone new; once she registers who it is, she freezes, her expression growing from somber to downright cold. She stares at D-ne for a few moments, trying to decide on what to say. She's angry, and hurt, and bitter—]

Well, I didn't think this was hell, but maybe I was wrong.

[Instead of particularly biting or hateful, it just comes out... tired.]

[rockthistown]

[Hime is in the kitchen, carefully making pancakes one at a time in the frying pan and stacking them onto a plate. She even got a chef's costume from the costume shop, what a dork. She flips another pancake and turns when she hears Natalie's voice.

Give her a moment, you broke her and she froze.]

[robitussin]

[She freezes when she sees Hime, too, breath catching in her throat as she searches for the words she wants to say.]

You're... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.

[What is she even apologizing for? She's not certain, but the urge is there all the same. After all, her brother...]

I...

[heavenontheirminds]

Sure am.

[Does he know you, or...? Wait, she's totally new, he should try to be nice.]

Sorry about the whole death thing.

[robitussin]

[She pauses, looking him over with a frown.]

...You don't need to apologize unless you're the person who shot me.

[breakingbread]

...Mademoiselle Goodman.

[It'd be nice if it were a surprise to find someone new today but it is really not.]

I'm very sorry to find you here.

[robitussin]

Yeah, well.

[She runs a hand through her hair, looking at the ground. No more crying, don't you dare.]

Shockingly, I'm not so thrilled to be here myself.

[bestof]

[There are a lot of ways Eliza could react to seeing Natalie in the hallway. Tears, demanding to know what happened and who'd done this to her, a whole host of things.

But instead she breaks into a run and all but slams into the younger girl, wrapping her in the tightest, warmest hug she can muster.]

[robitussin]

[As she left the room, she had thought she was done crying. What was the point in it? What's done is done.

That's all forgotten when she sees Eliza and feels her arms around her. Her eyes immediately fill with tears again, and after a moment she wraps her arms around the older woman, tucking her face into her shoulder. There's no point in resisting it anymore.

Sorry for your sleeve getting wet, Eliza.]

I-I'm sorry - I didn't, I shouldn't...

[That's as close to coherent as she can come right now.]

[solomonjihad]

Natalie--

[No. No no no no no-]

It can't be...!

[robitussin]

[Deep breath, in, out. She looks towards the floor.]

...I'm sorry.

[rockthistown]

[After the success of the mural, Hime can be found in the art studio again. She's making more abstract paintings, apparently.]

Look at this one! It's supposed to symbolize all of us! Even if the living don't see this, I'm still going to put it on the wall.

[Good luck with that.

Later, she'll be in the chapel, sitting not in the pews but on the steps near the altar. She looks up at the ceiling and sighs.]

I feel light, even in my darkest hour,
That's probably why they act as
If I'm not grounded by a heavy heart
And by the deeds we have done.

Maybe I really am too young.
Will darkness complete me?
But I still don't think that's the case
As I feel the rain of silent pain
That burns endlessly.

Opera House, prison of all who live here,
The stage of this show we have departed,
As long as we're kept from our eternal sleep,
I'll smile and spread hope inside.

So let the light show me the way,
The darkness already here,
Though they think that it's gone away
As I gift my friends who've met their ends
Hope for everything

I feel light, even in my darkest hour
I feel light...

art studio

[robitussin]

[Squints at the painting.]

...That's supposed to be us?

[rockthistown]

It's abstract art. It's symbolic.

art studio

[solomonjihad]

...

Is that me?

[Who is she pointing to? Who knows?]

[rockthistown]

It's more like an abstract thing. That one with the sad face means we're sad because we're dead! The happy face one means we're together! The little one in the corner... I think that one just says "Hook-san is still old and weird, help."

chapel

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[It feels like she's intruding on this place. D-ne's never entered the chapel, not once, because it is not hers. She is not a being who is allowed there. But...

Still, Hime's voice gives her pause at the door. She listens until the end, and then claps softly. It echoes.]

[rockthistown]

Gyah!

[Hime jolts up and flails. She notices D-ne and deflates.]

Sorry... Do you want to come in?

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[If what Judas said was true, soon will be their "finale." Whatever happens, it will soon be over.

Despite what she's told Natalie, or Hime, D-ne doesn't hold any foolishly preconceived notion that even a "victory" involving achieving story-melding powers will lead anywhere good for her. Maybe the others, yes. The ones with lives to go back to that are less...narrative than her own. Ah, a narrator... How she wishes she could have with this knowledge talked to the Balladeer. She wonders if he's keeping a semblance of order, at least.

If this is to be her last few days of this larger limbo (would even death free her, would it be freeing if she could be without--?) then she will make the most of it. She will play the piano in the music room, usually looping back around to her ever-familiar melody.

She tries her hand at some creativity in the art studio! ...Yeah that won't last long honestly, she is a horrible artist, if that little gift they left for the living isn't enough of an indicator. Anything she draws or paints (more cats?) is quickly going to be crumpled up. ...Or thrown in the kiln, she'll see if it can burn.

And...she'll be seated in the costume shop, going through...a box of ribbons. Like weeks ago. Before her...all colors of the rainbow, arranged methodically, are the ribbons from the box. Obviously, she's not looking for anything. No, she just sits there. The red ribbon is now out of her hair, and she holds it lovingly.

A little song makes its way past her lips.]

Easily playing, never bat an eye.
Smiling and posing, another "perfect" alibi.
Every day lonely, I’d rather play a game,
Like a slow running stream of honey I crave.

Looking at you now, yes, and even you
Was I unneeded? Was I just in the way, too?
Call me a phantom, never meant to be.
Wouldn’t it be more fun to party and scream?

Now
My, oh my, oh make your way to me.
Clap your hands and walk, oh ra-tta-tta.
Why, oh why, oh hurry up and leave,
And again I come to see, I’ve been a very bad girl.

music room

[robitussin]

You know, I bet you could even learn to play something different if you tried.

[at least say hello before being this way natalie]

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[naw this is how d-ne knows how to interact with people- she falters in her melody, because another conversation WOW limbo's being kind to her!!!]

Ah... Yes, I actually have been able to, in the last few weeks this one is just...familiar! [same melody for her breakdown at the trial and everything, just slow...]

costume room

[rockthistown]

[Hime wanders in and notices D-ne. She hesitates again, but walks closer and gives a sad smile at the ribbon box.]

Dreaming in colour, burned it in my mind
But then we wake up in this mirror, not alive
If we were chosen to burn inside
Couldn’t be more fun to whistle and sing

Now
Crawling, crawling out tonight and see
Everyone up scrambling to the beat
Easy, easy, smiles are all you need
Dancing on without a clue, we're just unfortunate girls