week 5

[stagemanagers]

[That was...an absolute shitshow. More beloved friends are dead in a mess of a trial that's left Angus half the man he was, Riley in a free fall and the Phantom...somehow still standing despite taking two stabs to the torso.

When you wake on Sunday, you'll find that you've recovered another one of those memories - or had another dream, if you still wanna be in denial about it. The door blocking the stairwell on the second floor has been unsealed. You can now venture up to the third floor! You have so much space now, it's just a shame it's all come at the cost of eight lives.

But despite the tragedy you have made progress! The trip into the Phantom's lair yielded some hints to the past of the Opera House, your house manager's apparently grim hobby and the possibility of an ally outside the Opera House. Who knows what this week will bring?]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday


(( Welcome to Week 5! Please remember to submit your AC and your memory regains, as well as your coins! You can also still contact the Phantom. ))

Comments

[heathencall]

[Mephisto can only stare... slackjawed as Anne worms her way in. He considers commenting on her appearance, but she looks just startled enough for him to consider taking her serious. Instead, he leans out of the door, looks around for whatever has startled her, before following her instructions and sealing the door behind him.]

What's gotten into you, Anna?

[likemypicture]

[She's already trying to find a place to hide, opening the armoire and trying to assess if she can fit in there or not. No, it'll be obvious she's in there the second they open it. She closes it again quickly, trying not to tremble.]

He's looking for me. I have to--- [She freezes, trying to figure out if she hears footsteps or not.]

[heathencall]

The bed.

[There's enough blankets, jackets and assorted clothing thrown on it to easily cover up someone as small as Anne. Anything that stuck out, Mephisto could cover up. He has questions, sure, but he'll work on getting Anne safe first and foremost.]

[likemypicture]

[She looks like she's about to object, because she's pretty sure there are like multiple different religious laws she's making just by getting near a demon's bed like that--- but it only lasts a few seconds, before she's pushed Tad Cooper at him, jammed the basket she was carrying into the back of the armoire, and scrambled onto his bed, not even pausing to criticize the mess as she tries to bury herself.]

[heathencall]

[It's not a mess, so much as a desperate man's attempt at getting warm with whatever blanket-like material he can find. As it is, it's a very lumpy pile on its own. It's almost easy to pretend that she isn't there.

He follows after once she's settled and sits on the edge of his bed.]

Will you tell me what's happening now?

[likemypicture]

[A mess. It is a nice hiding spot, though, and Anne almost feels safe. Almost.

She's already cried today, multiple times, and crying in front of Mephisto feels particularly offensive. So she takes a sharp inhale before she speaks, her voice quieter and less musical than usual-- for the first time in a very long time, Anna von Kleve does not want to draw attention to herself.]

I've outlived my usefulness. Quite literally, I'm afraid, since I completed my life, and then-- well, you know, herstory remix. It was not very smart. If I could live again, be Queen again, of course he could. [She draws another breath, this one quicker, as her voice gets smaller, and the fear in her starts to grow.]

What use is a bargaining chip, if there is no kingdom to be bargained with anymore? There's no longer a--- a point, to allowing me to exist. [Her voice cracks. She stops speaking.]

[heathencall]

[He leans back, hoping to obscure her from view just a little further. Even if not for the layers of fabric separating them, he's still several inches away from actually touching her. He's still not certain if or when she'll burst into flames for simply making contact with him.]

You're going to need to be clearer than that, Anna. I don't understand your history. [And then, maybe a touch softer, or maybe it's the fabric muffling his voice.] Besides, whoever it is would have to go through me.

[likemypicture]

Isn’t it the same everywhere? What Queens— princesses, sisters, daughters are for? Henry gave me a fortune and castles because if he killed me, my brother would start a war. I was Queen for six months but— a pawn the entire time. And a thorn in Henry’s side. [She tries to be reassured by his presence, by him stating they’ll have to go through him first. But even the mightiest of Queens have their limits, and she has passed it.]

There is no Holy Roman Empire anymore. There is no looming war to prevent my execution. And I’ve said such awful things—- it’s understandable he wants my head.

No ones been able to stop Henry, when he wants something. Not the pope— not his advisors, his people, his wives—- not even God. [She can’t help it at that point. The helplessness— the intense fear of impending death—- it’s broken a woman so pious she spent her entire life chaste, and her early years swallowed away by veils. Fear has made her feel doubt. Perhaps if she burrows her face in her hands, he will not hear her weep.]

[heathencall]

[If Mephisto heard her weep, he might have snuck a hand under the covers and sought out her hand. That's what a good man might do, at least. As he is a thoughtless demon, he certainly doesn't hear her cry, and so he only rests his hand atop the blanket mound that might be Anne.]

The Plague, perhaps? This awful sickness spread onto us? I can cough on him. [He lets himself laugh, hardly loud enough to be heard.] And if not that, how about the devil himself?

[He's not the devil, not even close. But he can pretend.]

[likemypicture]

[She tries to hold still as she weeps, to not tremble while she cries, when he has probably accidentally put his hand over the pile that is Anne.]

He may as well be the damned Devil. [She says it as she sniffles and tries to regain her composure.]

Nothing and no one. When they find me, he’ll—- I’m not ready to die! [Okay. now she’s definitely sobbing.]

[heathencall]

Anne. [That hand presses in, just a little firmer. He doesn't squeeze, he doesn't want to hurt her, but it's certainly a less accidental touch than he had previously implied.]

You won't die. I am not letting anyone else die while I am here.

[likemypicture]

People die when their heads are cut off! [DOES HE NOT KNOW????]

[heathencall]

[His sigh doesn't sound... as put out as usual?]

Which is exactly why they won't cut your head off.

[likemypicture]

[The lump that is Anne is still for a while, so at least she’s stopped weeping for now, though she does let out a few gnarly sounding coughs. Then she speaks again, wriggling her face out from the layers— it’s hard to breathe under there when she’s coughing like that, and the doors locked anyway.

I want that to be true. I’m not ready to die. Not again. Not yet. Two lives—- I deserve to be loved at least once, before I die again, don’t I?

[heathencall]

You do.

[After glancing toward the door one last time, listening hard to make sure there are no steps approaching, Mephisto turns to look at Anne. He glances around for a moment and... finally comes up with an Eminem shirt to offer her for her tears.]

It seems unfair that a godless creature such as myself could find happiness -- [Maybe not love, he's still on the outs with Stephen, after all.] -- Before a pious woman such as yourself.

[likemypicture]

Yeah. It is really unfair, huh?

[She hesitates only for a moment, then takes the Eminem shirt, and dabs at her face with it, trying to stay concealed for the most part. But at least she’s got somewhat of a quirk of a smile there, having made one last decent joke before her inevitable doom.]

I mean, I spent weeks traveling to get there—- and some creepy old guy dressed as Robin Hood, comes in, and just starts kissing me! And I’m like, w t f bro? I’m supposed to marry the King, you can’t do that. Except I didn’t speak English so well, so instead of saying anything I just kept watching the bull fighting I was watching before, and being like .... why are none of the guards doing anything. Then Robin Hood comes back in with a costume change and a crown, and he’s all “I don’t like her much” and “She was fairer in the picture”. And I’m the problem?

[heathencall]

[Even Mephisto has to crack a smile at that.]

A pig, then.

[He's seen a lot of awful men in his time. He'd even played the role of one for two weeks.]

Take comfort in the fact that he went hurtling into hell, I'm sure. From what you've said of him, he deserved all that and more.

[likemypicture]

He isn’t in hell. He’s here— I can hear his laugh, and his men keep following me—- and—- [She feels herself spiraling into a frenzy again, and her face vanishes once more.]

...You offered to get rid of him for me, once.

[heathencall]

[He wants to object, that he cannot fight what he cannot see, but he can at least bite back that urge. He may want to compulsively tell the truth, but he can at least be selective about those truths.

Usually.]

That I did. I am afraid I'm without most of my power at the moment, though.

[likemypicture]

Wasted opportunity. [Does she mean that? Well. She can't exactly tell lies right now. The Anne-pile lets out a dreary sigh, but at least she's not crying. Instead, she tries to talk herself up.]

I can't die. I have a new kingdom waiting on me, now. Richard gave his kingdom to me, and if I lose my head-- I don't just lose my story. I lose everyone else's too.

[heathencall]

Well. The door is sealed shut. They'll have to go through myself, this cat, and Tad Cooper to get to you. And also a handful of trombones, I'm sure.

[Never mind the fact that he doesn't hear anything.

Actually -- ]

Can you hear them still?

[likemypicture]

[Anne is quiet, listening intently-- and then when she speaks again, it's in a quiet and hissed voice]

Ja, like they're --- [She frantically starts to try and bury herself further. Maybe if she tries hard enough she can go inside the mattress itself and vanish completely]

[heathencall]

[Mephisto tries his best to hear whatever it is that Anne is so afraid of. All he can make out is the frantic shuffling on her part, though, the rustling of blankets and not-blankets, and a few articles falling to the floor.

Once she's settled, he stands up again. He creeps toward the door and presses his ear to it.]

Anna. Do you trust me.

[likemypicture]

[The question catches her off guard, and it at least makes her pause, to think. Does she trust him? She is a woman who has only really trusted herself, and God. She knows what he is. Just last night, he had confessed such awful things. Can she trust him? Does she dare?]

Ja.

[heathencall]

Awful decision, really. But --

[He presses his ear to the door once more. His eyes close, straining to hear anything that might somehow validate what Anne was so afraid of. When he comes up empty, he looks back over at her.]

There is no one out there.