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]

[What...? Why? Hime's too good, too sweet, too...

Her hands tremble and she blinks to hold back tears. Secrets? The incentives... She's unsure, in the kind of story she's in...]

I've charred my heart into ash.
I'm not so numb to the pain.
Long ago I had to crash,
And become such a "villain."

I've never had any luck,
So isn't this what I deserve?
Should I hold out for karma?
Should I hold out until I burn?

[rockthistown]

Your heart is still more than ash
You've reached and been kind again
Even if our lives have crashed
In this nightmarish opera

I've used up all of my luck
My wish at home is out of reach
But still I have to tell you
That this is worse than you deserve
I don't think this is karma
I don't think you should have to burn

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

...

[Just like that.]

You were one of the ones I really didn't want to die, Hime-san.

[She pulls her close again, for both their comfort.]

[rockthistown]

[hugs!!!!!!!!]

Everyone in the Phantom Empire was only hurting people because they had their hearts broken. I can't hate you, D-ne. You're my friend. I missed you.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

You'd known me for just a week and a half. How can you think something like that?

[rockthistown]

People intimidate me, but with some help, I made a lot of friends. I did it because I heard having friends would be fun and convenient, but it really helped all of us. Why wouldn't I have thought you were my friend?

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Because I acted first and would've knowingly killed every single one of you.

[rockthistown]

Maybe I'm still upset about that, but I don't hate you. People hated me once for things I didn't mean to do, and I have friends who tried to kill me already.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[What the heck.]

Upset but...? Your kindness is going to get you- ...ah... Well... I guess it may have already gotten you into trouble...hasn't it?

[rockthistown]

How did I even die? I remember he said there was trouble upstairs, and I ran up and I think I stumbled on something, there was a rope like to trip over and I reached out for Heather but it was just a dummy and... then I woke up and my head hurt.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[She thinks, with these little bits of information. She studies Hime.]

It appears to me... You were tricked, Hime-san. I think... You said there was another incentive, hm? A... Secrets? Something someone would kill to keep quiet?

[rockthistown]

[nods] Natalie made most of us tell ours to her or to the group, so we wouldn't be pushed to kill over it. It looked like it was going to go well, even if I was really scared of what people would think when the deadline came, so I spent Thursday morning baking a big cake for no one dying.

Hey! I bet it's not even here, like my chicken! Who doesn't get to eat their own cake? Unfair!

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

You made a cake...? [Hime's such a pure girl it almost makes her dizzy.] You are, without a doubt, much too good for any of this.

[She pulls back and then takes her hand, pulling her along, down the hallway to the lobby.]

It sounds like...she made an amazing effort, didn't she? Natalie did. But... It sounds like that boy set a trap and you got caught in it.

[rockthistown]

[Hime lets herself be tugged along in a daze.]

So everyone's going to have another trial?

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[Really, D-ne just wants to get them moving.Come on, Hime-san, into the lobby.]

That's what I would assume... But, if it's how I... They should be able to figure it out, I would think. If someone's familiar with the...culprit, as I suspect.

[rockthistown]

[walk walk walk]

I hope so. I don't want anyone to die, but... Um, where are we going?

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Simply somewhere else, though... What you said gave me pause, ah-

[And there's the stairs, unlocked.]

...Mm. It looks like this is a reflection in more ways than one. Hime-san, let's see the upper floor. There should be somewhere relaxing there to sit, should there not?

[rockthistown]

[nod] There's the library, the chapel, the tea room... If you want to see those, we can look at them. What do you like?

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

A chapel... [She smiles, tight.] Valjean-san will like that, then. I think it's not for me, however. Let's get some tea. That should be relaxing. It would be nice to relax after...such an ordeal.

[dying sucks she got you]

[rockthistown]

Okay. [la la up the stairs we go] Everything up here is backwards, too? I'm going to get so lost!

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[Hopefully going up the stairs isn't weird for Hime considering uh] I've, ah, gotten used to it. It's strange but...nothing very much has happened here. There's time to adjust.

[rockthistown]

Still, it's totally unfair! They shouldn't do that in the first place, everyone's just going to run into walls.

[She stares at the second floor lobby for a moment before pointing towards the tea room.]

It should be over there!

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

I would argue it's the least of what's unfair.

[Down the hall... It feels weird to be leading.]

...How... This past week, ah, how was... What was it like, for the bunch of you?

[rockthistown]

The Balladeer told us Halloween was coming, and everything was decorated with little fake spiders and cobwebs. Astarte really liked them. There was a plastic skeleton. Hans was going to throw a party, and I think he and Anna are fighting?

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Mm.

[She considers this. Halloween and decorations, how nice. That's a bigger thing in the West, but as a member of an occult club, D-ne knew at least about many legends from all over the world and their practices. Then...]

I'll get to Hans-san and Anna-san in a moment, but... Astarte-san, she was herself? Her dear Impostor left once more?