It's a sad song - It's a sad tale

[musacal]

[ WELL THAT... HAPPENED, HUH. YO WHAT THE FUCK DISCORD THAT'S BALLER.

Good thing the Wizard's probably going to be occupied with THAT for a while longer because it looks like this long ass, nogood day isn't quite over yet as there's still one more incoming curve ball. In contrast to the smell of smoke from the auditorium there seems to be a... sweet, banana-y baked good smell coming from the cafeteria? But who could have been baking while you were all at the trial--

If you go in there or even just pass by at all, you'll find on one of the tables there's a plate with several warm and fresh banana muffins. Underneath the plate, just sticking out enough so that you can see a corner peeking out, is a folded up note:


You are not alone. I'm here to help.
I'll be waiting for everyone in the
girl's washroom on the first floor.

Come and find me.
-a friend

At the bottom of the note is a small, hand drawn banana. The handwriting and muffins might look familiar to two of you.

...soooooooo you up for a meeting after all that shit? ]

Comments

[musacal]

Riley-chan um... Riley-chan fell for a "revive the dead" motive during our game and killed someone to bring back the people she'd... [ ughhhh she hates talking about this but welp ] killed back home. But it didn't work.

When everything was over though... she made a deal with Boss instead to do that and that did work. But now she owes her a favor and I um... I know I just said I trusted her, but I wouldn't recommend doing that. Boss's deals always feel kinda ominous.

[mcfife]

She fell for a motive?!

[How many people died last time?!]

But she's still alive!

[musacal]

[ ..................... ]

...You also died that week, Angus-san.

[mcfife]

[mayavericks]

[Maya lays a hand on his shoulder.]

To a... Pink creature, right? Wearing Claudine's clothes?

[She feels her pulse start to pick up. Did that mean.]

What about -- Did she --

[musacal]

That um... that was how... that was how our... executions went.

[ She closes her eyes. Haha thanks, she hates recounting this. ]

The victims... would come out on the stage... and help kill their own murderers.

One of the victims that week was a "gem" being named Spinel and all gems have the power to fuse with partners and... um...

[mayavericks]

[Haha, sorry Ango, but someone is now digging her nails into his arm. She will have words, if her worst fears are true.]

What happened to Claudine, Nana?

[musacal]

[ She looks directly at Maya now, her face hardened. ]

Clau-chan was the other victim. She was practicing late at night and Riley-chan stabbed her to try and undo what she did back home.

[ A pause. ]

...I failed to protect her. I failed to protect all of them.

[brokeforgood]

Of fucking course she killed someone else! She's a fucking monster!

[mayavericks]

[Maya swallows. She at least has the decency to let go of Angus -- he's not her target, after all. Instead, her hand falls to her blade, clutching it tight. She probably sounds a little bit like Nana had, rattling her blade away.]

Farrah was right then. [Her voice is dangerously low.] A completely psychopathic walking college admissions essay of a bitch, indeed.

[She clears her throat.]

What happened was not your fault, Nana. You cannot be held liable for it. Only the true culprit should be. [Though... she pauses there.] Hester told me that Claudine made it out and went home. Was that a lie, then?

[musacal]

[ .............

She whispers, under her breath, but Maya can probably hear it: ]

...Would you have said that about me once, I wonder?

[ There's a look in her eyes. Something serious and cold. She would... very much appreciate no more talk about Riley. ]

...That was not a lie.

All of our dead came back to life when our time there concluded.

[ Another pause and then, ]

I should stress to you though that the conditions that made that possible were... special.

[mayavericks]

[Maya grits her teeth, just a little. That isn't true, she could never say that about Nana.

... She probably would never say that about Nana. But after having her crown stolen, after being forced to relive the same moment of loss again and again... If she had actually been able to recall it, instead of a passing memory, perhaps she would have.

Her hands clench into tighter fists, knuckles white against skin, before she finally breathes out. Regardless of any of this, there are more important things to focus on. The dead can come back.]

It does not matter how special the conditions were. We will make it possible here. Just tell us how.

[musacal]

...I don't think it is possible at all anymore with those conditions, is the thing.

The Phantom... it was actually the SQUIP all along. A different version of the same SQUIP that was here with you guys before. And the reason the victims were able to participate in the executions is because it was repairing their bodies with nanites. It was reviving them on its own, trying to make them better but they... at first they came back wrong.

It was fixed in the end and their souls returned to their bodies but... while that SQUIP still exists as a gem like Spinel-san now, it's lost access to nanites. If the dead are to be brought back again, it can't be through those means, and I don't think my Boss could do it for this big a group even if you did make deals with her - especially since she's stuck over there with them.

[mayavericks]

The Wizard has to have the ability. Farrah would not be here if not for that. We simply have to figure out how he has managed that.

[That's all she'll say about that, though.]

[musacal]

[ Did. Did you hear what she said about Farrah-- you know what she's not bringing it back up.

She finally smiles again. ]

And even if we can't... I'll just keep travelling the multiverse some more until I find one.

Even if it takes years or costs me my own life... they deserve to be back with their family - with all of you.

The love that they have for you all... it's truly dazzling.

[mcfife]

Then why did they kill me? Riley was the culprit -

[Oh no.]

Unless we voted incorrectly.

[musacal]

We did not.

Riley-chan tried to kill Spinel-san as well, but was unaware that she could continue to regenerate unless her gem was shattered.

You came along and smashed Spinel-san's gem.

[mcfife]

Why?!

[The motive - bring one person back from the dead. But he was taken right after entering the portal, could he even have considered killing anyone to bring back the residents of Earth?]

Did I want The Hootsman back that badly...?

[musacal]

[ She shakes her head. ]

I... don't think it had anything to do with the motive.

[ Her memory of this is... not the greatest because honestly she kinda blacked out a little but-- ]

I think you just did it because you could? Or... to be accurate...

Whatever that evil knife did to you was what did it.

[mcfife]

[evil knife, she must mean-]

The Knife of Evil? [Some here might recognize that name.] Hester said that it's magic was removed...no, that was after Zargothrax died.

[The photo from this week. Then did it really happen?]

But how? Did they use the knife on me on the opera house?

[If he's still alive...what about its curse?]

[brokeforgood]

That fucking bitch!

[barberic]

[At the mention of making deals to bring back the dead, Farrah will feel Benjamin go very still and very stiff, at her side.]

[brokeforgood]

[She's gonna just pretend it's for her benefit that he's stiffening.

Actually, it's Farrah, she probably believes it. She pats his arm twice.]

Seriously. Fucking bitch.

[barberic]

[Her hand patting his arm startles him into looking down at her, but at her words he has nothing to say. Her affection is for a different man. A man who thought he was good. A man who died in Australia, who died again when his enemy swore to remove his daughter from his reach forever.

If she knew the monster he was, he knew, she would tar him with the same brush as this 'Riley,' without hesitation.

But, God help her, she needs someone. He can't leave her alone, not after she's lost everyone else she was closest to, over the last two weeks.

Damn you, Antonio.]

[brokeforgood]

[Her mouth twists slightly with dissatisfaction at his silence. She's tired of everyone who seems to dismiss her anger, who won't join her in her rage against Riley-- especially the way Nana talks-- like it's not bad enough that she has to be the girl that fell, but she also has to be the girl that Riley killed.

After all of it-- even after she's been brought back-- by Riley's hand, or by the Leading Player's, or the Wizard's.

She's still that hopeless loser girl who no one understands.

But even with her rage left in solitude, she needs something to hold onto. So she leans against him, closes her eyes, and tries to think of a life without cheerleading.]