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

[stopbelieving]

[There's a lot of arguments here, and a lot of valid points, but at the end of the day, there's only one thing that matters. That's been clear from the start, from the first moment Will saw the way the world really was.

The world as it should be won't save anyone. There's only the world as it is.]

You know, I was young once too.
Sang a song of hope like you.
Then it all got left behind,
turned back one too many times...

Show me this other way, if it really exists.

Sing a song for me.
Make it whole, make it right.
Make it so we don't need to fight.
Sing for an old man.

[The truth is, no one can solve this alone. Perhaps it's time to call for help.]

[comeandfindme]

[ Another way? Another way...?

She has no reason to believe what she saw that night was anything more than a hallucination. It doesn't logically make sense. But she feels it. She's not alone, and that doesn't mean just here. There are people out there looking for them. There are people missing them that love them.


You don't have to do this alone. You don't. You sometimes just—

You need someone to come and find you.

Peregrine wordlessly raises the flare gun in the air.

And she fires it. ]

[stagemanagers]

[There is no immediate response.

But as the flare arcs over the treeline, burning bright even in the midday sun, something appears in the air in front of Peregrine, translucent and hovering. It looks like...a play button?

Press it?]

[comeandfindme]

[ That's...not what she expected?

But you know what?

Sure. She presses it. ]

MASS RESOLUTION: CONNECT

[stagemanagers]

[There are people out there who love you.

Some of them are looking for you, even after over a month of absence. Others are with you right now.

They've been busy.

On the leaves of the great tree overlooking the garden - the memorial tree - images appear. It's the dead, those who have left you, those whose graves you dug here in this very garden. Their voices are not restricted to the branches of one tree, however, not even close. The multiverse, too, has branches. Though not all worlds are connected, your bonds are beyond space and time. Those between you here; those between you and the dead; those reaching elsewhere.

Everyone - from the first murdergame, from the second, and even those few scattered survivors of the Player's original game so long ago - will hear this.

There is power and purpose and direction in this song. It's for you, yes, but it's bigger than that. A wave of concentrated power, felt not only by Janis and Nana but by everyone, sweeps over the garden. The only way to begin to heal the damage caused is to work together. The only way to knit back what has been broken is with connection. It may not be quick and easy, but it's possible.]

[mcfife]

[Faces that Angus has lived with, faces he has not seen in weeks. Voices he thought he would never hear again. The music that tells him that he'll never be alone.

He'd only seen glimpses of their faces at the seance. Hints, a snippet here and there. Now, they are as visible as when they were alive. Mumble is there, dancing away with Sissi. Connor sings with renewed vigor. The SQUIP - that confusing SQUIP - has faith at last. Varian and Rina are happy together. Discord and Salieri support them, their children, everyone in their own ways, through music, through their attitude. Orpheus leads a chant of resistance, carry on, we are the narrators of our own story. Eurydice is here, she's always been with them. She's coming. And beautiful, sweet, brilliant Elle - keep it positive - her face brings back memories of their time together. The good memories that they made together in this hopeless place.

The Balladeer and the Leading Player are here too. They're here to help, to undo what they have started. They are not alone. They have never been alone.

Angus stands up and calls for Bruiser, though he does seem distracted at seeing his mom again.]

I see you. [All of them, together again.] I see you! We won't give up!

[employeeoftheyear]

[As Spongebob watches, he feels tears fall down his face.

His friends... his family...

His family is still here. Even though they’re dead and gone they’re here. He’s loved and they have his back through all his pain and trauma.

He is not alone.

Spongebob turns to face everyone, smiling a gentle and adoring smile.]

How wonderful life is
Now that you’re in my world

[fourbutts]

[ Holy shit. Janis stares up and just sort of. Beams. ]

Now that's a big group number!

I'd rather be me
I'd rather be me
I'd rather be me with all of you!

[comeandfindme]

[ There's noise. There's images. There's—

Peregrine is overwhelmed, to say the least. She reaches out when she sees, hears the first familiar melody, because it's one she's been repeating over and over again, as a comfort to herself. She reaches out to touch the one singing it, when the song changes, and everyone— everyone—

She breathes out sharply as the tears fall. ] You- you found us.

[ She turns around and around to catch all of them, in awe. Her cloak spins around her. And she gestures, to Will, to the Wizard— ]

You couldn't do that? Well guess what? We can. Together! All of us!

[employeeoftheyear]

[Spongebob reaches to grab her hand.]

Not can, will. Love is more powerful than fear, Wizard! I know you’re scared, and I’m scared too! But when you love those close to you, everything will turn out okay in the end.

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah's just gonna. Give Peregrine a cheeky little hip check.]

I knew I wanted to see that thing go off.

[sugarlumps]

[Just. Gross sobbing, as all this goes down.]

I LUMPING SEE YOU GUYS, WE'LL FIX THIS!

[And kick the wizard's ass, she's still gonna do that. But it seems like less of a priority now.]

We'll be an mazing force outside of time
not let him take us back to where we were
And hang us up like pictures on the wall
Inside a billion shattered frames
We can fix it all, all, all!

[mcfife]

We will! Justice and hope always triumphs in the end, Princess!

[He reaches out for his friend's hand, the other heroic royal in his dorm. And for the first time in days, Angus is smiling as he sings.]

Come on, grab my hand.
We'll heed this call from distant lands
With our hearts as one
And fighting together

This song will never end
We're fixing time!

[mayavericks]

[Maya stares. She stares at the faces she knows and those she doesn't She stares at those she's loved and those she's harmed. They are all together. Will might have described it as being all knotted together, but Maya knows it's different, now. It's not a knot, it's connected. And while there are injuries here and there, they can be fixed.

They can fix this. Together. Just like before.]

We are fam'ly
Born to be fam'ly
Gather your courage,
Stretch out your fingers, and smile gently

We are fam'ly
By always putting love first and foremost,
We steadily follow our hopes
Without wavering
Because our worlds are one big stage

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah drops her drink. Forget about it. Who needs the damn thing, when the voices of her family surround her? She spins, much like Peregrine, taking it all in--]

They gave us just the song
We needed
When we thought our time was up

[musacal]

[ Nana has a hand over her mouth, her eyes welling up with tears as she sees this.

There's a lot of emotions going through her right now, but there's only one thing she can say as she lowers her hand: ]

It's... dazzling...

[mayavericks]

It's ours, Nana. Our Eternal Stage.

It needs our brilliance to fix it.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa's sung to the memories of the dead before. Not here, but in Arendelle; she'd often called out to the memories of her parents in times of strife, begging them to give her any kind of advice. Calling out to them to help her feel something or to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This... this is different. She's not yelling a heart full of pain into the void. This time, she can feel their voices surrounding her, encouraging her. She can see all their faces - Eurydice, Varian, Orpheus - her heart swelling as they all call out their encouragement. Elsa smiles through her tears, raising a hand to her dear friends as the blue glow of her magic swirls around her.]

And here surrounded by our family at last,
We're never going back, the past is in the past...!

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[It's there. They are. All of them, together, their friends and family. It's all-]

We're all together, even now.

[She murmurs, watching the treetops dance, swaying under the power of one voice - of their voice. All together they could make things right couldn't they? It's never too late.

There's a giddiness in Cassandra's chest while she fights back tears.]

...I wanna go higher, higher, higher, higher.
Nobody can pull us down.
I wanna go higher, higher, higher, higher.
Nobody can pull us down.
And gravity can't hold us down any longer!

[barberic]

[Benjamin has been full of righteous fury since the Wizard made his appearance. The kind of fury that comes from deep inside you, that comes from love, from grief with nowhere else to go.

All he has is here. The idea of that being taken from him, going back to the end of his story or- the emptiness of death- that's made him just as furious as anything else the fucker has said, let alone the helplessness of being this angry and having nothing to do with it. It's why he's still standing near the girls, but not holding any of them.

But Peregrine fires her signal into the air, and as he watches it burn and fade into smoke, suddenly he hears-

and he sees-

God, it's incredible.

The first sob comes out of him as a laugh, despite how he covers his mouth to hold it in. It's them- more resplendent than he's ever seen them, like angels, every one.

And it's not that he hadn't wanted to believe, that they were there with them. That there was a chance they could be saved. But even Nana hadn't been convinced it would be possible for their dead, and there's only so much he can hope, only so far he can climb out of the dark corners of his own soul, that he never fully bought into it. He'd handled so many of their bodies, in one way or another, cold and stiff and empty, that he couldn't imagine them full of life again.]

Oh my God...

[His voice is barely a whisper, the grin on his face unrestrained.]

I see you. I see you.

[A bud of hope unfurls in his chest, almost painful with how it bursts through the withered cracks and takes root.]

YES!! [He laughs.] YES!!!

[brokeforgood]

Holy shit, I didn't know he could still look that happy--

[tailor_made]

[All Hester can do is stare in shock and awe at the video. It's them.

It's really really them!]

We, We'll do it all
We, We'll do it all
We'll own every second that this world can give
See so many places, the things that we did
With every broken bone, I'll swear we lived!

cw: suicidal ideation

[stopbelieving]

[Will follows the arc of the flare just like everyone else. But of course he doesn't expect it to work. He made this world - it's practically a part of him, a part he never could escape. Nana may have snuck in, but there's certainly no calvary waiting in the woods. Then he sees a flicker in the leaves, and turns.

There's a magic to music, to friends performing together. It's a magic he knew once, a long time ago. But it died a long time ago too; there's only so many times you can watch the same songs before they become nothing more than routine. But this here, this new burst of connection -

You've provided a new direction.

One thing we all know about Will Schuester: the man cries during every Glee performance. He's crying now, even before the shockwave of power sends him crashing to his knees in the clear water of the pond. Power like that...that's what he fought against, and what he hoped to achieve. It's what's needed to save the world, if not -

(and I won't let you choke
on the noose around your neck)

If not...

Well, there's only one thing that's really important.

As the last notes fade out, he's whispering to himself again.]

Okay. Okay.

[He smiles, truer this time. Tears still streaming down his face, he undoes his tie and the first few buttons of his shirt.]

If you tried it once,
you can try again.

[He laughs wetly and looks up at Benji.]

Let's end this.

[Isn't that what everyone wanted all along?

You can approach now.]

1/2

[sugarlumps]

[Is this a trick]

[she tentatively waves a hand through the air where the barrier was]

[...]

[brokeforgood]

Dad. Wait a second.

[Farrah stares at him with the most intense look. Seriously, Dad.


Then. She gets that sprite bottle full of slushie. And. Takes the cap off.

And yeets it at Will]