WEEK 7

[stagemanagers]

WEEK 7

[Seven weeks later. Half of your number remains.

Nothing in the opera house seems all that different. The Box Office door has been locked after the death of its occupant, and there's a new copy of the house rules nailed to the front, with the last one circled heavily in black ink. The point has been made; the rest of you had better play your parts.

The crew members still aren't visibly walking the halls, but every so often there's movement in your peripheral vision, or vague half-heard whispers from the shadows. Every so often there's a thud or a snicker from inside the Merchandise Booth, though the stagehand inside will continue handing out prizes to those who earn them.

This may be your last week here. Make the most of it.]

[ Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday ]

[ooc: don't forget to submit your memories and check into the roll call!]

Comments

[inforapenny]

[Billy gives Hans as wide a berth as he can when his destination is roughly the same space that Hans is occupying.

At the question, he holds out the small handful of silver coins that he brought with them and rattles them slightly.]

Just came to check and see if maybe any of my- my equipment was still in here.

...I think I kinda, uh. Get how you're feeling right now, though.

[trettende]

Is that so?

[ He doesn't sound nearly interested, but he's kind of trying to get rid of him too. But oh right, Hans is... kind of in the way. He steps away from the booth and uses that chance to wipe his face a bit and regain his composure. ]

Go ahead, I won't stop you.

[ Cough, yeah, totally. He's just gonna. Leave his winter coat here and put on the Balladeer's coat while Billy does... whatever. ]

[pennyless]

[Billy steps up and puts his coins into the slot. He gets a useless weird lion head...thing, which he sets off to the side.

And then the shadowy black arms pass through a folded pile of red fabric, with a pair of large black rubber boots, black safety gloves, and a pair of welding goggles.]

Oh, you have got to be kidding me.

[trettende]

[ I mean, that looks useful. And paying attention to Billy's things is way more productive than dwelling on his own shit. ]

What is that? A costume from home?

[ Hans steps up and around. It's kind of cool, huh? ]

[pennyless]

[Billy hesitates, then sets the boots on the ground and the gloves and goggles on the counter, shaking out the coat.]

It's my- my supervillain costume.

[Since he's already admitted what he used to be.]

This- this was the one that I dyed red, after... after I was accepted into the Evil League of Evil.

[trettende]

[ Hans chuckles. I'm sorry, Billy, he's still an awful person. ]

The "Evil League of Evil"?

[ Look, he believes you, that's just a dumb name. But he sobers up at the implication. He gets it. ]

So this was... after the accident, huh?

[ He won't make fun of that, he's not. 100% evil (anymore.) ]

[pennyless]

[Billy smooths his hand over the fabric, fingers playing over the still-white stitches and white buttons on the collar.]

...Yeah, it was- yeah.

[He folds it up over his arm.]

Hey, there was... there was nothing you could've done.

[With a segue like that, it sure doesn't sound like just lip service sympathy.]

[trettende]

[ Damn, he feels kind of bad for trying to make a joke now. What the hell is this? Guilt? What the hell does he have to feel guilty about--- oh, right. Feelings. People they love dying. With nothing they could have done to stop them.

The Management wanted to kill the Balladeer since he started going "outside his role," Hans knows that. He can blame himself all he wants, but ultimately... it was on them. Same could be said for Billy. Maybe. Probably not, but even Hans likes fake sympathy now that he's feeling awful enough to need it. ]

I could say the same to you. [ Hans pulls the jacket righter around himself, subconsciously. ] The Management pulled the strings. It was... it was their fault.

[pennyless]

Yeah, I know.

[He knows there's approximately 50 other things he could have done to save Penny - chief among them being "anything but what he ended up doing" - but B is a different story.]

...He was ready to take the fall - as me - so that I- I could take over as the Showrunner. I just...wish I could have found a way to tell him that that wasn't what I was trying to do, at all.

If I hadn't done anything, we would've- we would've all turned on Seymour, probably. They'd have made us vote and it would have been wrong, and he... probably would have done the same thing.

[His fingers clench in the red fabric.]

We found out the truth. It made us mad, and it kept us from turning on each other. This is what he wanted from the start - just all of us working together.

[I wish he was here to see it.]

[trettende]

No, I don't think so.

[ There's a lot Hans wouldn't have done before that he would do now, but this was surprisingly one of them. ]

I knew Seymour was innocent. He... he confessed to me that he had killed someone at home, before he told anyone else. I think if he'd killed Natalie he would have confessed. [ Not that what-ifs are helpful right now, but. ] Of course, with the evidence piled up against him... you're right, we would have all turned on each other, one way or another.

[ The Balladeer always wanted them to work together. To avoid murdering one another and just... survive. They could still put on a good show without betraying one another, couldn't they? ]

It was a last-ditch plan. [ Bal, you idiot. Hans shakes his head, closing his eyes. ] He succeeded in the end, even if... even if it cost him his life, he got us all working together.

[ Needless to say, Hans would have rather done anything else, but those are the facts. And stating the facts is easier than talking about feelings. ]

What was it you were trying to do?

[pennyless]

I don't... I don't know. But from the minute that everyone came up clean, I thought- no, I knew. That... That B was the witness. That he tried to save her.

I didn't...think it was a stagehand who killed her. I thought... I don't know. If I pretended like he was one of us, if I did it convincingly enough, maybe they'd...bring him out from backstage, and we could protect him.

[Remember how he stood at the edge of the stage pleading for B to come join them?]

[trettende]

He would've been breaking the rules.

[ The Balladeer may not have divulged what would happen if he kept breaking them, but he was obviously on thinner and thinner ice as time went by... ]

The price for breaking the rules as a member of the crew, for stepping outside his role... we saw it that day. It wouldn't have... it wouldn't have helped.

[ Hans hates to be a downer, but he didn't tell the Management about their first switcheroo for a reason. That shit had to be against the rules. ]

[pennyless]

[Billy says nothing for a long moment, gathering his coat back into a neat bundle and reaching to take the next item from the merch booth (it's a scarf, hooray, that goes on the clothes pile in a disorderly heap).]

...It's hard to accept that there's nothing we could have done. I keep thinking about if I'd done this, instead of that, if I hadn't done X or if I'd done Y instead.

But all we can do is avenge him. And- and work together. Like he wanted us to.

[trettende]

We'll have to figure something out.

[ Hans nods. If the two of them can work together, then surely everyone else can...? ]

We'll get it right this time.