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

[voicerights]

[It's that unpredictable element that the SQUIPs themselves lack. But necessary? Oh, yes. Discord's power pushing the performance speaks for itself, and Salieri's conducting...Eurydice's determination, Orpheus's belief. Elizabeth's and Elle's desires, Mumble's entire being. Varian and Rina pushing for hope - all of it combined in to something no amount of SQUIPs could perform on their own.

Emulate, perhaps. But not convincingly. Not as earnestly as what was needed. Likewise, Eszmet does not look down upon itself or its brethren for such - they are what they are. Their strengths come in other forms, for it was Eszmet who had first put marker to whiteboard to try and come up with someway, somehow, for this to all happen in the first place. Even if it did not fully understand what it was doing, its processor still nudged it towards the most optimal future it could remotely forsee.]

...only some, but their social network extends to contain the others. Some have reason to hate me, and I accept that.

[SQUIPs don't need to be liked, after all. They just need to make things work.]

But they are all important to me. Even if I did not have connections to some, directly - it is the connections I have that link to others who did, and which was able to transfer the power through relay.

And without that relay, I would not have been able to contact you in the first place.

[madeofmagnesium]

[Spinel nods. It does not have that sort of network with the people from its own game. It understands this, and has no particular feelings about it; after all, SQUIPs do not need to be liked. But though it is not close to very many gems, it is...amiable with many. Only as classmates, perhaps, but were it to ask for help, it is certain many would answer.]

You have done a great deal in a short amount of time. Both materially and...personally. [...] We did have very different experiences in these shows.

[Yeah, it's definitely observed the whole "rapid character development in murdergames" thing.]

[voicerights]

So I understand. I do...not regret these developments, given the alternative.

[Y'know. A not-life within Jeremy's head.]

[madeofmagnesium]

I understand.

[It actually experienced that not-life for a still non-insignificant portion of its total existence. Not fun!]

Despite everything, this outcome does benefit everyone, considering the state of the multiverse. And the bonds formed in these events are...intense. Even I made a friend, and I was hardly in your position.