[Meeting/Catch-All] And it comes to an end, even winter... life fall

[heathencall]

[Final week, time for some drama.

Mephisto calls a meeting on Sunday in a rush. He'll keep calling meetings every night he needs to. Better make sure the women's room is nice and comfy.]

Comments

Sunday

[heathencall]

[There's a sense of foreboding as Mephisto reads the last letter from the Phantom. He gathers every letter that's ever been sent between them, stacks of paper and secrets. He's out of the door in seconds, racing down the halls and pounding on doors. It doesn't matter how late it is, everyone is getting dragged into the women's room.

Some letters are thrown out for everyone to see. Most notably, the more recent one.]

The Wizard has chosen to end this venture this week. I will see to reviving the dead when it is completed.

I thought you were angry at him?

[Mephisto gives everyone just enough time to read the letter before speaking.]

The Phantom says he can bring our friends back. That this was always the plan. What do we make of that?

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine has been reading things far about her grade for hours now. When she sees letters, she almost wants to close her eyes... but she decides against it, studying each paper with increasing concern.]

He's ending this? I thought he needed us all to die for... power, or whatever it is he's trying to accomplish.

[She sighs softly and tosses the letter back down.]

I checked the crypts not too long ago. All of them are empty. The Phantom told me he was 'keeping them safe,' so I assumed it was for reviving them. I was... worried he had already been doing that, that he was bringing their bodies back for those... sick executions.

[likemypicture]

Why not both, at this point?

[heathencall]

It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. Temporary resurrections to serve their end.

... It makes me worry for whatever he has planned. How can we guarantee they'll be of our own minds if he does bring them back?

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Dad, do you have to point that out? This was exactly what Christine was so afraid of.]

I'm asking him to bring one of the bodies up from where he's keeping them. If I can see if they have damage or if they've been healed, that might explain whether or not it was really them on the stage.

[likemypicture]

[Okay, some of us were trying to get our beauty sleep, Mephisto.

Anne sits on the floor of the women's bathroom in her nightgown, blanket tossed around her shoulders, green sunglasses on like they might somehow prevent everyone else from seeing how tired she is, Richard's crown perched on her head. It's a real look. She scowls at the letter, then passes it on.]

What was the point, if that was always the plan?

[heathencall]

We're all supposed to be performers, right? Perhaps this is his role? And once the curtain falls... an encore?

[You know things about encores right, Anne?]

[garbageface]

If we’re all performers, then who are we performing for? The Wizard, or some other sick audience?

[heathencall]

I wish I could say. But it may be worth asking the Phantom directly. If nothing else, he's been more... forthcoming than usual.

He told me last week about his plans for revival. At the time I didn't believe him. But with how wrong things went at the last trial... I feel we should believe that the Wizard seeks to end this.

[Speaking of the previous week's letters!]

He did say that our Wizard may have something more in common with our Beetled friend. Specifically. [He points the the letter and reads it aloud.]

If anyone in this place understands him, it may well be the other demon.

He went on to say that attempting to summon him would be a death sentence, so let's not. Try that again.

[likemypicture]

This is life, not a pop concert! [ the..... irony.....]

An encore, with all the performers. Does he intend to have us all perform again? Repeat it all?

Monday

[heathencall]

[It's not a meeting, per se, though Mephisto isn't opposed to joining in one. Rather, he enters the women's room after knocking as loud as he can and announcing himself. He tapes up a few of his letters with the Phantom, important text underlined.

Interestingly, most of these pieces seem to be cut or torn from whole letters.]

I would ask that you try not to provoke him further. The murder has been his goal; the resurrection has been mine alone. We have not been in conflict over it thus far, and we are not now, but his mental state is unstable and I do not wish to test it. further.

-

Verbal assaults, yes. I find him highly emotional at the best of times, and these past weeks have been tense. I am aware that you have no reason to care for his feelings; this advice remains geared towards your own safety. Were he to decide you should all die and stay dead, I do not have the power to contest him.

-

Also, I do not literally have multiple trapdoors installed in my home.

[garbageface]

[ Santana will slip the following note to Mephisto the next time she sees him. It’s written on toilet paper. Classy. ]

Literally why can none of our captors put on their big boy pants and get over themselves I’ll say what I want when I want

[heathencall]

[Santana...

Mephisto will at least have the decency to write his reply on actual stationary and shove it at her the next time they pass.]

Please control your tongue until we are out of here. I want to take no risks unless they are absolutely necessary.

Once our friends are alive, though, I fully expect to hear every snide comment you've held back.

[garbageface]

[ on the inside cover of a library book shoved under Mephisto’s dressing room door: ]

Fine but if the Wizard and the Phantom kick it before I’ve said my piece then I’m gonna say it to you and you’re just gonna have to deal with it and listen! So is the Phantom on our side or what

[heathencall]

[Great, book vandalism. This is fine.

He tucks another piece of paper into the pages, like he's bookmarking his favorite section, and slides it back under her door.]

I accept that.

From what I can tell, yes. Roles within roles. He claims he can help us if we bite our tongues.

Do you believe it?

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine leaves her own addition on one of her last few pages of unicorn stationary, and the orange glitter gel pen seems to be thin in a few places. Probably a good thing this is all supposed to be over soon.]

The Phantom let me see Claudine's body. It looks like the wound has somehow healed over a bit. And it's not like it was stitched closed. It's like it just naturally scarred over.

The Phantom refused to let me know if the bodies of the victims were revived for the executions, and if they're going to be revived with their souls intact at the end of this. He said he was already "overstepping" by showing me, presumably behind the Wizard's back.

I think we might have to keep pressing the Phantom on this. If you get any information from him, please tell me.

-Christine ღ

Tuesday

[heathencall]

[This time, it isn't notes, but Mephisto banging on doors. Again. He certainly looks unnerved, but he doesn't answer any questions about it until they're behind closed doors.

He is, of course, still wearing his new glasses.]

I saw something. Someone. With these. [He points to his glasses.] He was in the box office.

He wasn't the only thing I saw. There were rooms that did not match up with ours. A garden where the movie room should have been. People living in the rooms that were otherwise empty. And... nothing outside. Just... abyss.

[madgiganticfeelings]

Wait, in the box office? Do you think we should try to pick the lock?

[She's not sure what to make of magically changing rooms and the void, but she does know that she has a ton of bobby pins, and if there's a person, they should probably go investigate!]

[heathencall]

I don't... Think he was here.

[He loves that initiative though, Christine.]

He was in the same "place" as the other rooms. The only difference is that he saw me.

[garbageface]

What was he like? Do you think it was the Wizard?

[heathencall]

He didn't seem like a wizard. He seemed very... plain.

[madgiganticfeelings]

Even if he wasn't really there, there's something to be said about the fact that you communicated with him, for a second... If we track him down, maybe there's a clue there.

...What did he look like? Taller or shorter than you? Was he white?

[likemypicture]

Do you think it was-- the guy, that the others mentioned? He had some boring, forgettable name....

[heathencall]

Aaron? Eric? Something of that ilk.

[likemypicture]

Eric! Ja! Do you think it was Eric?