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

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

That would be the assumption, but why, then, do our rooms not match this hypothesis?

[rockthistown]

Everything being backwards and none of our stuff being here? I don't know about the first one, but maybe the second would make sure things didn't get duplicated in case someone took their dead friend's things after they died.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

That would make a certain amount of sense, but why wouldn't the world just reflect these changes? It already shows it can modify itself.

[rockthistown]

This is hard. [sigh] Maybe... it's premade? Supposed to reflect what the "default" of the Opera House is?

...Wait. "Reflect." Everything's backwards. D-ne! Do you think it's a mirror? Maybe we're in the Mirror Kingdom!

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[D-ne stares...

...and then just starts laughing.

Give her a second, Hime.]

[rockthistown]

What? Don't tell me you don't believe in that either!

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Hahaha- oh no- haha...! No, no, nothing like- ahahaha- I believe, just- to be here- me, someone like- in a place called- in the Mirror Kingdom...!

[It's clear she finds this funny, in some way.]

[rockthistown]

Come on! It's real! [She pouts.] ...Wait, because of your song, right? What about Hans? Wasn't his role "Mirror?" Maybe if we say his name into the washroom mirror, he'll appear, like with all those ghost stories.

...On second thought, I don't really want to do any of those things ever again.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[She wipes her eyes; she's laughing so much there are tears in them. ...Or maybe it's not that.]

No, no... Ah... I h-have my, haha... My own theories of Hans-san's strange title, Hime-san, ha... [...] Yes, you could say it's because of the, ah, song.

[She wonders how much Hime remembers of that.] You're speaking of Bloody Mary? Ah, that legend is an amusing one.

[rockthistown]

[Hime sighs.] I wish people would just tell me things. It's the same with God! If he'd actually told us anything, it would've been a lot easier during that thing with the Phantom Empire! ...Though I guess I didn't tell people what I did until it came out anyway, either. Maybe everyone just does that.

Amusing? How come? It's more scary, isn't it?

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[She smiles, curling one a strand of hair.] Patience, Hime-san. The things you say, they make the people you talk to curious as well.

But, ah, first- yes, it's a scary story, that's true? But the amusement comes from the nature of the spirit. In all the stories you've heard of her, she's a malicious being, I would guess?

[rockthistown]

Right. She comes out and attacks people, right? But in that case, I don't actually know why people would want to summon her.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Well, to summon something dangerous is to feel an adrenaline rush, for starters. For another! Bloody Mary is much like Hanako-san in Japan. The girl can be malicious, but she may also be simply a mischievous ghost or even benign. You see, depending on the storyteller, her nature is variable. She can be a victim, or a culprit.

[rockthistown]

So it's interesting because the story goes different ways and you never know what's real?

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Exactly. The "truth" can be anything the narrator desires, or that the audience believes. The girl herself...all that's left of her is the ever-malleable story.

[...]

She is, the more I think of it, a relatable figure.

[rockthistown]

...You said you died a bunch of times, then waited around. So that means you lived a bunch of times. You lived endless variations, right? On the same kind of idea!

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

I wouldn't say "lived" exactly. That would...imply a full life, wouldn't it? The story has repeated over and over, Hime-san. And in that time...

[She tilts her head and runs a finger over one of the DVD's spines.]

...what do you think of my name?

[rockthistown]

D-ne, my name is weird. I just thought that was what people call their kids where you're from.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[She laughs lightly.] No, no. Presumably, I had a normal name once. I don't remember it. No... Maybe I should say... It might have never been mine to begin with?

I'm from a story, Hime-san.

[rockthistown]

Huh?

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[She laughs, and it's kind.]

You're confused? I am too, honestly. I'll probably never understand it, because a key piece of the mystery is still hidden. But I'll explain as best I can.

I, and my friends, are from songs, and books. The place I exist, after I die, it can be called limbo, but it is more accurate to call it backstage. When we're on the stage, we have one purpose, and that is to try and solve the mystery of the Bookmark of Demise. We have no awareness of the fact that we've done this before, or that we exist in this alternating way. Oftentimes, I'm a culprit, but sometimes it's written so I can be a victim as well. That's how it is with all of us, you see. I am Girl D of the mystery, a minor who's committed a crime, whose name is protected from the public.

Maybe, we were once normal kids. But now we are slaves to the story's whims.

[rockthistown]

[Hime gasps. Her hands fidget with the fabric of her skirt, and she shakes her head.]

Living in a story, out of the real world just to stay in an endless dream... though it goes bad every time. Why do people do this to you? And-- and to all of us, with these roles and the stage and the Opera House? It's not fair!

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[She smiles wide.]

It's not! I don't know who's done it. There were others before us, and solving their mystery is the key to our own...but it's impossible. Compared to that... This mystery, with the Balladeer, with the leads we can follow here- this story's infinitely more solvable.

Isn't that reassuring, Hime-san? [Wider.] It could be much worse! For your sakes...I hope solving the mystery can save you. In these times of stories, it usually does.

[rockthistown]

What about you, D-ne? You're one of us, too. You're part of the Cast, like us, so you're under the same circumstances.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Hm?

Ah... Well, I'd just return to my other mystery, wouldn't I?