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

[violentenvies]

[oh--Maya hobbles towards him and throws her arms around him and Salieri is immediately wrapping her up in a very tight hug, holding her close, one hand cradling the back of her head gently as something clenches, hard, in his chest]

I'm so glad you're alright. [his throat is tight, and it comes out more hoarse than he means it to] When you didn't show up, I--we didn't know what had happened to you, and I had hoped-- [he has to clear his throat, swallowing hard, sucking in a watery breath]

[mayavericks]

Everyone keeps saying that -- That they hoped that I had made it free. [She leans her head against his shoulder, sniffing wetly as she does. It's warm here, and she finally feels safe.]

I should have been there. I deserved to be there.

[violentenvies]

[oh boy kiddo does he understand that guilt. He's quiet for a moment, just holding her, rubbing a hand in soothing circles on her upper back, then asks:] What happened?

[mayavericks]

I was sick, Salieri. I heard voices, and they told me I could finish all of this if I just... acted. I pushed Elle from the roof, I slit Orpheus's throat and then I woke up. They were dead, and I... just wanted to honor them properly, before it was too late. I was going to turn myself over once I was done, but -- Eurydice saw me and tried to attack me. I tried to tell her to stand down, so that no one else would die but me. I didn't want her to suffer what the Wizard had planned, so I killed her too.

[The words start coming out faster, even as they make her ache with their weight.]

And at that point I was so angry that I knew it had to stop. I was going to attack the head, do whatever I could to bring the game to an end -- I just had to convince him that I wasn't trying to get on the stage for that purpose. And if I managed to convince the others that it wasn't me, maybe I could make things right and ask the Wizard to send me back to the Revues! I could take us back to your stage, and simply... prevent the murders before they happened. We would still know each other, and we would have been so much stronger.

So I... attacked myself. Left myself for dead like the others, so that they would not suspect me.

[violentenvies]

[Salieri is quiet as he listens, just holding her, safe and secure. She was tricked into the first two by the Wizard's motive. Eurydice is...it may not have been a good decision, but he can certainly more than understand the emotion that motivated it. He's quiet for a moment.]

You were trying to find a way to save everyone. [gently]