curtainsdown | the mark of those who cannot be saved

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act 3

the mark of those who cannot be saved

[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, that's no excuse for truancy! Which is to say: you are still in the school.

For those executed, you will wake up in your beds. The dormitories look exactly as they did when you first arrived, without any of the changes or personal effects you and your dormmates might have made. The only real difference is that the little cot in Ambassador isn't there.

For those who were victims, you will wake where your body was discovered. All of your injuries are gone, and you feel fine. It's almost like you're still alive - but you remember what happened to you. It couldn't have just been a dream, could it?

The school looks much as you remember it, save perhaps for a few key differences. For one, there's no groundhog murals anywhere. Where things were green on the other side, like banners or paint, you'll find that here they're blood red.

The doors, for the moment, are still locked. Looks like even death couldn't free you.]

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

(( ooc: Welcome to deadland, everyone! It mostly resembles the school here, and new floors will be revealed after new people die. For example, the second area will unlock after the week 3 dead arrive, and so on. Also, all dead characters will wake up at their actual canonpoint, with all lost memories restored. Have fun being dead! ))

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[Welcome, Connor and the SQUIP. Connor will have the two coins left for him by Orpheus on his person. The SQUIP gets nothing because rip]

Edited 2021-06-19 21:15 (UTC)

[Connor doesn't quite remember what happened, actually.

He remembers taking the melatonin because he'd been having trouble sleeping after the memory. He remembers picking up the clothes, the knife clattering out of the pocket of his jacket. He remembers... sitting there, looking at it. Simultaneously being in the boy's locker room and in the bathroom at home, the two blurring together. Someone... came to find him? He talked with someone.

Sitting up, the coins clatter to the floor and Connor stares at them. Two coins... like for... oh. Oh, death is so much weirder the second time around. Second time? No, yeah. The second time. He already died once, didn't he? But... he wasn't going to again. He thought he wasn't going to, anyway. He told Peregrine he'd try. He told Angus he'd fight. He told—well, no. He didn't actually tell the Balladeer that he intended to write a new ending. He just thought that one.

Better take the toll, though. If Orpheus gave it to him, he must need it. Slipping the coins into his pocket, he calls out:]

Hello? Mumble? Elisabeth? [A beat, then quietly:] Per?

[She'll come to get me
She'll come to—]

[Elisabeth is walking (because really, what else is there to do but walk at that moment, just as she did in life, forever and ever and-) and is back in the gym, climbing the stands, when she hears her name.

She stops, eyes widening. That doesn't sound like Mumble.

Which means...oh no.

No, it cannot be-]

Hello!

[She picks her skirts up and starts down the stairs.]

Who's there? Where are you?!

[Connor's come out into the hall by the time Elisabeth comes out. He looks slightly relieved that he's not alone, at least, but also... this sure is a situation. He doesn't really know what to think about this.]

Um, it's just me. I woke up in the, uh. The locker room. [He frowns.] It's... I don't remember what happened.

[Protip: don't take, like, a bunch of melatonin trying to get to sleep.]

Connor?

[Oh no. He begins to hurry down the hallway, heart racing.]

Connor? What - [He notices the room. So this is a thing, is it?] what are you doing here?

I.... don't know. I was taking a shower? And I noticed I dropped the knife, but I don't remember... anything after that.

[Sometimes you're disassociating and sleepy and there's just a lot going on? There's a lot going on so you, uh. Don't remember much of anything. Relatable, right?]

I just woke up here, so uh. I must be dead, right?

Y-yeah.

[He breathes deep. It's one thing to happen to yourself, but to see someone else meet the same fate?]

...I'm sorry. I don't..remember much either. Just being locked in there, a-and cold, and calling out, and nobody hearing me. I thought no one was listening. Or they were, but didn't care.

[He shakes his head at the memory.]

Turns out it was different, and I was wrong. [Pause.] Do you think someone-?

Edited 2021-06-22 10:00 (UTC)

... Maybe? I vaguely remember talking to someone, but the motive this week was just that someplace would be destroyed if we didn't. I don't think anyone was that upset about it except. [He freezes.] No. Eurydice wouldn't. She wouldn't.

[It's a little bit like he's trying to convince himself.]

[Mumble stays quiet, not passing judgement. After all, if Emperor-land was threatened like that, could he really say he wouldn't want to save them?

...No. He couldn't go there. He's sure of it. There'd be another way.]

It can't be Eurydice. [He says it with a firm conviction, despite hardly knowing her.] Orpheus - Orpheus loves her. I trust him...she wouldn't do something like that.

Besides, I haven't seen her anywhere yet.

Yeah. Yeah. Orpheus would have talked her out of it.

[Notably, he didn't even consider Peregrine even though she was basically exactly as upset as Eurydice. It's fine. He's fine.]

... I remember talking to someone, though. I just really remember who.

I suppose we'll find them here soon enough.

[It feels like such a futile thing to say, but - suddenly, something comes to him.]

Oh! I-is there anything you do remember? Like, suddenly? W-when I woke up here, I felt like I just remembered the rest of my life. I don't know if I forgot or if I just...lost it, I guess.

Edited (i can spell.. i can type. swear down) 2021-06-23 05:27 (UTC)

Week 2

cw: suicide mention

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