stagemanagers: (Default)
It's Curtains Mods ([personal profile] stagemanagers) wrote in [community profile] itscurtains2021-07-17 06:57 pm
Entry tags:

don't stop believing

[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!]
pennyless: (no one condemning you lined up)

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-19 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[B's hand passes through, with a vague feeling of static electricity, and Billy's image flickers as it's interrupted.

Billy brightens.]


B! Oh my god I saw the video- who were all those other...

Are you in the woods?
tellthestory: (♪ lilt ♫)

[personal profile] tellthestory 2021-07-19 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh - [The Balladeer looks around.] - well, I'm in the garden. But the woods sorta ate it a few hours ago. Other than that, though, the place is holding up really well, we've definitely got time to leave!

[For the record, the Balladeer definitely a) still has blood smeared on his cheek, b) looks like he has been crying very recently, and c) is probably still wet. Doin' good though!]
pennyless: (you're beginning to fear me)

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-20 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
Oh-

[The hologram's quality is not exactly 4k graphics, so he doesn't notice b or c.]

Are you still with those others? One of them kind of looked like Keanu Reeves-
tellthestory: (♪ treble ♫)

[personal profile] tellthestory 2021-07-20 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that's the SQUIP. There's like three of them now.

[Why are there so many SQUIPs???]

Wait, how do you know about the others?
pennyless: (no one condemning you lined up)

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-20 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
Oh right, those guys!

I saw the video. Did you not... send that out? Like, to everyone? Me and Anna both saw it, like right in front of us.
tellthestory: (♪ eco ♫)

[personal profile] tellthestory 2021-07-20 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
[.......]

How did we not all turbo-die?
voicerights: (do you feel the commotion?)

[personal profile] voicerights 2021-07-20 03:17 am (UTC)(link)
Exponential energy output and balanced load sharing...

[THOUGHTFUL]
pennyless: (Amazing how sheep'll)

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-20 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
Um. Well, I'm not- I'm not sure, but I'm really glad you didn't.

I've been trying to get hold of you for weeks, B! Where have you been?

Anna's still super mad you missed Ely's birthday.
tellthestory: (♪ treble ♫)

[personal profile] tellthestory 2021-07-20 04:47 am (UTC)(link)
...oh, well...

[ohhhhh shit! he done fucked up!]

The good news is, I wasn't...turbo-dead? [yeah he couldn't think of any good news sorry]
pennyless: (your savior is still as the grave)

when you use that icon i do a double-take

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-20 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
[When B says 'turbo-dead' Billy squints suspiciously, tilting his head.]

B, the way you say that makes it sound like-

[His eyes go wide. He is, after all, a smart cookie.]

No. That's why the doors stopped working? That's why I couldn't find you? Because you died?

Then-- Then the video was...

[He trails off, quiet and horrified.]

There was another one?
tellthestory: (♪ flebile ♫)

god, right?

[personal profile] tellthestory 2021-07-20 05:13 am (UTC)(link)
[The Balladeer's attempt at cheer drains away. He doesn't want to upset his friends, but that's...inevitable.]

Oh, the doors. I didn't think about those.

[It had been a little low on his priority list, given everything, but in retrospect it makes sense that his creations would stop functioning with him gone. Hopefully that wasn't too big an issue for anyone.

The Balladeer sighs and glances past Billy towards the rest of the group. He's not sure how he feels about the possibility of them overhearing; they don't all know exactly how he ended up here. That he'd come on his own terms, and failed them before he ever even met them. But...well, Billy deserves the story.]


I could tell it was about to happen. Not the whole time, I didn't have much warning. It was just...a sudden feeling I got, like a new one was just about to start. I don't know why that happened this time, and not the last...

[He doesn't need to tell Billy that he feels bad for not having known about the second game at all until after it had already happened. Billy knows.]

I went to try and stop it, and I...didn't. I'm sorry I didn't tell anyone before I left. It just...happened fast.
pennyless: (Why can't they see what I see)

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-20 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[Billy runs his hands through his hair in disbelief, the hologram stepping back and pacing in an anxious circle at this news. When he turns away, he doesn't seem to be able to see anyone else there.

When he faces B again, he sighs.]


I guess- I guess you have to go where the story needs you, huh.

[His cast has been living their happy endings for five years, now. A narrator can't stay fixed to the same story forever, after it's over.

He didn't think it'd hurt so much, the thought that B's moved on.]


So you're- But it's over now, right? You're okay? And- and everyone else made it out, too?
Edited 2021-07-20 14:16 (UTC)
tellthestory: (♪ giusto ♫)

[personal profile] tellthestory 2021-07-20 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Mmm, I guess...

[That really is the reason, he supposes. He just wasn't meant to be involved in the last one. But this story's about to be over, too; a story ending has never really meant that he just leaves it.

Which might be what he'd say if he knew what Billy was thinking. But even if he could at such a distance, he's always considered it a matter of courtesy not to read his cast's bracket text.]


Yeah! Yeah, everyone's fine now. It's...fine. [he's not fine] Can you not... [oh no he can't see them] Alright, so, fair warning. The Player's here, she's probably coming to Denny's in a minute, and so is...a Elsa? Are you guys missing your Elsa? I don't think she's regained any memories of all of us, but it's been a little chaotic here.

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voicerights: (all I would need is certainty.)

[personal profile] voicerights 2021-07-20 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
I assume you mean me.

[hi there, it'll just approach properly now and tuck its hands behind its back]

I am Eszmet, a SQUIP-human hybrid.

[We don't have nearly enough photoshopped icons in this account yet, but yes, it still has the white dusting on its hair and the makeup and everything else]
pennyless: (I still have to wonder)

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-20 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
Oh! Yeah, you.

I'm, uh- I'm Billy. You're not the one I met before, though, right? That one wasn't part-human, he was part, um. Rock? Not like, the Rock, he still looked like Keanu Reeves-

Anyway, uh. Nice to... Nice to meet you?
voicerights: (it starts with almost nothing)

[personal profile] voicerights 2021-07-20 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
Spinel. It has downloaded itself in to a Gem, where my own form has merged with a human's. Though I am still uncertain as to how the integration has taken place.

[read; is it still a pill in a brain??? is it actually a brain??? WHO KNOWS]

You saw us perform? That was unexpected.
pennyless: (you're beginning to fear me)

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-20 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I did. All of us did, I think.

What was that? It was- I'd never seen anything like it before, and I invented this!
voicerights: (all I would need is certainty.)

[personal profile] voicerights 2021-07-20 02:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[It studies Billy a moment - at least, what it can see of Billy - as it considers, then-]

It combines the Observer Effect with Narrator abilities, in addition to harnessing an ordered structure with the chaotic adaptability of-

[-yeah, it's going in to technobabble. TL;DR - they convinced reality to sit down, shut up, and listen.]
disharmonizes: (077)

[personal profile] disharmonizes 2021-07-20 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[From a distance:] STOP MAKING ALTERING REALITY SOUND BORING!
voicerights: (∞ the future is blocked)

[personal profile] voicerights 2021-07-20 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[At Billy] One moment.

[Towards Discord;] I AM NOT TELLING HIM WE SIMPLY 'DID IT'!
disharmonizes: (113)

[personal profile] disharmonizes 2021-07-20 02:23 pm (UTC)(link)
THAT'S LITERALLY WHAT WE DID!

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brokeforgood: (farrah13)

[personal profile] brokeforgood 2021-07-20 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[shoosh pap pap, it’s okay dad. Farrah plops Soup the rabbit into his arms.]

It’s okay, don’t listen to those nerds, just pet Soup.
pennyless: (Maybe the fee's to pricey for them)

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-20 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[For what it's worth, Billy is able to keep up effortlessly - and in fact, seems to spark to life, and loses some of the nervous twitch he'd had when he'd first spotted a stranger.]

You know, I'd started making a hypothesis about whether or not a narrator's presence was an indicator of some kind of macro-level reverse Zeno effect - You know, like - well, normal people might call it like an 'omen,' I guess, where you know when a narrator shows up that something's about to really get shaken up.

But using them to control the Observer Effect? That- yeah that could cause a measurable shift in the fabric of reality. Is that how- you know, how you guys were able to all come back?
voicerights: (but then your need turns dire)

[personal profile] voicerights 2021-07-20 02:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[FINALLY, SOMEONE WHO RESPECTS ITS WORK. Between yelling at Discord, Eszmet seems positively delighted - in its own, muted way - that it has someone who understands]

Apply the concept of their 'Audience' to the 'Observer', give them a reason to believe in the 'story' presented to them as opposed to the one currently being shown, and the rest is simple. [Relatively.] The performance you observed was partly designed as a means of redirecting power, but the extent of the end results were undefined; we had no idea it would broadcast further than this dimension. I would be extremely interested in learning more about your experience.
pennyless: (Why can't they hear the lies)

[personal profile] pennyless 2021-07-20 03:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[Aside from a few references to a thing called 'Plurk,' B doesn't dwell much on the "Audience" - but LP sure had, in that final trial. For her, it was all about putting on a show - binding them to their roles and giving them a grand finale.

It had seemed like an act of defiance, at the time, to refuse to submit to her demands, to stand up and take back their story, their friends, and their lives. But would it have worked - would she really have walked away, if the "Audience" wasn't satisfied with the show they got?]


Interesting... Changing the flow of the 'story' in your favor by redirecting the attention of the 'Audience.'

[But- right. He was asked a question.]

It- it was interesting. We were like - well, Anna just brought me a sandwich, because I've been trying to get this thing to find B for you know, uh, six weeks or so now, and then it just started uh, sparking and overloading, and where it normally shows me the, uh, the person I'm talking to, it started playing the video.

But Eliza says she saw it appear in the drawings in the book she was reading to the girls, and I think I heard someone say they saw it in the fountain in town square or something? It was like-

You know the internet. Like when someone's got their MySpace profile set to autoplay their favorite music video. I didn't know what the hell was going on until I saw B.

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