don't stop believing

[stagemanagers]

[Streetlights, reveals] | [Vision Statements] | [Mass Resolution: CONNECT] | [A little touch of the sun (Revival)] | [They do this bullshit like 8 times a week (Rescue)]


[It's a pleasant afternoon in the garden. Maybe not emotionally, but physically - isn't it nice when you get to have class outside?

As your voices rise, singing defiance in unison out for the Wizard, there's no immediate response; at least, nothing that clearly is a response. But there's something. Amidst the sound of your song, it may be hard to hear at first; Janis will likely be the first to notice, but eventually everyone is able to hear. It sounds as though other voices are rising along with yours.

There's something on the air - no music, or at least no instrumentals, just a disembodied sort of lyrical chant. You don't recognize any of the voices. They aren't singing the same song as you all are. Maybe they can't; they sound long long ago, and far far away now. Still - despite everything - the trees around you move lightly in a sudden soft breeze. It feels as though you have invoked something, old and entirely beyond your knowledge.

But first. Haven't you forgotten something?

It's Wednesday.

Welcome to this week's school club!]

Comments

CATHERD

[stopbelieving]

[Will's expressionless mask has been cracking for a while here. There's children who want to live, and fathers who can't bear losing them. There's a cartoon character who, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, maybe Daniel used to love. There's all the people he's hurt - and then there's all the further hurt they want to cause.]

Don't you think there's people I want to save, too? If I could rewrite stories - change people's fates? I don't want to see people die! But I can't, I can't, I know what happens when you do that -

I cannot let anyone interfere
With that vast eternity.

[Janis can hear, again, the chaos of repetitive songs, discordant strings and brass and odd vocals overlaid on top of each other, fracturing back in on themselves. It's far too much, and far too long. Probably like, at least a few centuries, unskippable, if it were allowed to go on.

As it happens, she and Nana both will be able to see, as if it's opening up in front of them, a glimpse of something greater. What once might have been orderly has been thrown into disarray. Worlds are twisting around each other or back on themselves; others have stopped dead in their tracks, or are beginning to fracture entirely. This is the multiverse. This is wrong.

It's not stable in its current state, either. Nana is familiar with smaller fragments, off-shoots of this problem; that's what she and the Leading Player have been working to fix, after all. But those were only symptoms of a greater issue. It's real, and it is spreading. Any more changes are only likely to make it worse. And while you're currently tucked away from this, it's hard to say where you could even go to be truly safe. Some worlds haven't been touched yet, but the ripple effects are spreading and magnifying with each uncontrolled change. It's likely that nowhere, not even this place, would remain safe forever.

Heartbreaking - the worst person you know is actually pretty accurate in his assessment here. Things are bad, and they're going to get worse if something isn't done. Honestly? A hard reset would probably technically work.

Unfortunately, you can't ignore the slow collapse of the multiverse. You do all live in it. This needs to be addressed.]

Change brings about tragedy...

[Will takes a deep breath, and seems to visibly pull himself back together; the music and the visions both cease abruptly. You learn to conceal a lot of things, living in a time loop as long as he has. After all, you can't just let people know, or...]

Okay. Okay. Okay. Here's what we can do.

Agree to let me, and I'll bring back your dead. You can have some time to...to talk to them, first. I know that...

[He never said goodbye to anyone, before.]

Or you can just go. I'm not going to stop you. Find somewhere you think will be safe for a while, if you can.

[mayavericks]

[She is in the middle of a very passionate liplock when --

Well. She doesn't know the song. But she knows it. She pulls away from Hester, hand lingering against her cheek, and forces herself to look to Nana.]

[musacal]

[ Nana is just. Staring wide eyed. Having a biiiiiiiiit of a moment here. ]

[mayavericks]

Nana -- What's going on? What have you seen?

[sugarlumps]

Oh LUMP OFF wizard-dude, I'm not leaving here without kicking your ass and getting my lumps back, in whatever order that needs to happen in.

[Yeah, she. She is not a narrator, she can't see the impending doom.]

[stopbelieving]

Oh. Right, that. I don't really know why that happened this time.

[Honestly half of it was an OOC way to feint at the real Wizard of Oz having done this, you know how he hates non-humans.

But regardless. Will snaps his fingers. Congrats, you have been un-humanized! Enjoy your lumps.]

[employeeoftheyear]

Ooh hey could you do that for me too?!

[Spongebob dies instantly.]

[barberic]

[WHAT-]

[mcfife]

[oh so that's why her kingdom didn't make any sense]

[sugarlumps]

[It takes a second for her to realize what's happened.]

[But when she finally speaks, it's definitely the same voice you've all known for the past two months.]

Aha... AHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! YES, I'M HOT AGAIN!

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah lifts her head from Peregrine.] You'll bring them back.

And everyone gets to go back home. [Except for her. And Connor. And anyone else who doesn't have a home to go back to--

It's a raw deal. But part of it does feel hopeful, even if she's scared right now. It means she'd get to see them, one last time.]

[comeandfindme]

[ Peregrine holds onto her tighter. ]

Don't even start to think it. I'm not leaving here without you. Without any of you.

[sugarlumps]

No one gets to fucking drop Farrah again.

[brokeforgood]

Per, it's not fucking up to you!

If he can really bring them back, I think-- I think he should. And then we can all talk about it.

Dad [Oh. That's going to be confusing. Okay, Just this once--] Benj, Connor and I should decide.

[employeeoftheyear]

[Spongebob looks at Farrah with tearful eyes.]

I won’t let him. I don’t care if we suffer or are in pain if The Wizard doesn’t revert everything back to normal.

I don’t wanna live in a universe where you aren’t my little sister.

[fourbutts]

[ Janis sort of. Staggers back. ]

He's not wrong. That the- that the multiverse is being fucked up, anyway.

[ She shakes her head. ]

But if you reset it... if you reset everything, everyone... you're just buying time. Until the next time someone wants to have a story out of their own universe. You're just... addressing a symptom.

[comeandfindme]

[ She looks over to Janis, concerned. ]

You- you saw something?

[fourbutts]

Yeah, it's... it's not good.

[ she shakes her head. ]

If we don't do something, we actually are all fucked.

[tailor_made]

...he's also a symptom. None of this would have happened without the initial games setting it off. [Hester never saw the other office but she was paying attention at the trial. She knows about the journals and the tally marks, all those centuries-

She knew he'd suffered through something terrible, that the multiverse was falling apart at the seams and this was the only way they knew to fix it but she had no idea the actual extent of it.] Like a domino effect.

[employeeoftheyear]

[Despite everything, Spongebob can’t help but understand his pain. To feel lost, to feel like his only solutions were bad ones that’s going to get people hurt.

But

But...]

Change brings about hope too, Will. It brings love and togetherness! If... if nothing ever changed you would never meet great new people or learn new things. I would have never learned that Mr. Krabs might have been using me or how I have people who love me throughout the universe!

That’s why I know there’s gotta be another solution than the ones you gave us! There is so much love in this universe that I know we can band together and make it a better place!

[stopbelieving]

What other solution, Spongebob? I don't think either one of them could fix that whole thing even if they cared to.

[Will hasn't had hope for a good three hundred years, probably.]

[musacal]

[ She sees the way things have twisted, sees that glimpse even through the barrier and it stops her dead cold. ]

This... It's really this bad...?

[stopbelieving]

Yes.

[.......also hey]

What happened to you?

[mcfife]

And if we leave like that, what will you do next? Will you find a new group of people and try to sacrifice them? Will you keep on doing the same thing over and over again?

We broke free of the SQUIP last year, false wizard. Who's to say that your plan won't fail every time? How many times do you think you'll do this until you're satisfied?!

[He is a prince. A prince protects his people and ensures that they live in peace. To agree to leave would mean leaving another group of people to die. Passing on the role of the victim to a stranger. What kind of person would he be to accept such an offer?]

[stopbelieving]

Until I can fix the multiverse, or until it finally collapses on us all. You're not safe, Angus. There's nowhere you can go that's going to be safe from this. You can't just ignore the problem - one way or another, it's coming.