CURTAIN CALL

[guardianofsplendor]

[Once all is said and done, the Leading Player turns her attention back to everyone else. She claps her hands once and the lights turn off and on in quick succession in an attempt to gain back everyone’s attention.]

Ladies! Gentlemen! Cast, crew, and audience alike! Under the usual genre conventions this would be where I would demand you vote to choose your fate, to stay with my troupe or have one of you sacrifice yourselves to the flames and bring this game to an end. However, you’ve all already made your votes clear and due to executive demand we’re obligated to present you with the ending you’ve earned by stealing my crew and forming a united front. You’re all real cute, with your private Plurks. [Wow, bitter much, LP?]

So enjoy your happy, sappy ending. I’m sure Denny’s will love having you. [She snaps her fingers and the fires in the pit finally extinguish.] Show’s over. Fastrada, get the others. Lewis, take the curtains, get the ghost lights, clean up the house. Berthe, take down the page since someone would rather go be a hermit handing out seeds to children than help me with CSS. And turn off the email notifications, I don’t even want to look at this!

[The remaining stagehands, those who didn’t respond to the cast’s attempts at friendship, look at each other and split off, posture a little downtrodden as they slink into the wings or the house. One of them starts to gather up the ghostlights from the side of the stage; another begins stripping the curtains.

The Player herself hops down from her platform, landing easily. For a moment, she stands looking down into the pit, posture tense. One hand rests on her hip; the other hangs at her side, still holding Hans’s winter coat.]

Charlemagne, get the throne.

[Still up there, the Balladeer sidesteps the stagehand as he comes to take the chair, and cautiously begins to make his way down the stairs. The Player pays him no mind; she takes a breath, straightens, and steps around the pit towards the apron.]

And as for all of you - [It’s not clear who she’s addressing now but it’s not the characters.] - we hope you’ve enjoyed your time with us, as participants or even simply as spectators. Hopefully you’ll join us the next time around. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be. [She snaps her fingers and seemingly out of nowhere a hat and cane appear. The coat doesn’t fit the aesthetic, but she slings it over her shoulder nonetheless. The stagehands moving the platform away and taking down the lighting rigs part before her as she turns and strides upstage.]

I’m erasing myself from the narrative
Let future murdergame casts wonder
Where the Player went to
When she left the stage

Go turn your new page,
And I’ll watch this burn...

[She pauses before the last curtain, letting the orchestra continue the song without her for a few phrases.]

I forfeit my rights to all this. Whatever you took from my office, just give it to him. [She jerks her head towards the Balladeer.]

Let him have the memory
Of when this was ours…

...the world seemed to burn...

[Without looking back, she parts the curtain, steps through, and is gone. The remaining stagehands filter out a few moments later, leaving a bare stage and a quiet theatre behind them.

But, of course, there's still a little more magic to do, isn't there?]

Comments

[tellthestory]

[He's literally not part of this resurrection train at all, but the Balladeer has very recently returned from the dead. He's also lost his memories, regained his memories, inexplicably discovered the existence of romance, sung at his former friend and collegeaue until she got tired of it and left, and gained control of the mod accounts all within a very short span of time.

This is all to say that once the dead are all safely back on this side of the curtain, he snaps his fingers, summons a couch from the lobby, and lays the fuck down. Just to watch everything for a while.]

[bestof]

[Don't think you're getting off that easy, Balladeer. Everyone (except Hook) is getting a hug and that includes you even if Eliza has to get down on her knees and wrap her arms around you at your level.]

Thank you.

[tellthestory]

[Hey at least he bothered to not lie directly on the floor]

You're welcome? [He'll hug her back, of course!]

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[............................so this is
awkward

uh

hey.......]


B- ah... Balladeer-san, um...

[tellthestory]

Yeah?

[totally not even getting up lol he's bushed]

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[no dude you sit down it's aight]

...I'm sorry. For... Well, for starting this.

[pennyless]

[Billy hesitates, before approaching B. He doesn't... he doesn't have much to say to the newly-revived dead, the people he got really close to were the ones who stood beside him in body on the stage. He's caught flat-footed. He didn't think it would be this literal, when he said "all 22" of them would get out of here. There's no science for this. He doesn't know what this is, but it's not science. He's still not sure what he saw when Hans and B kissed right in front of him. A miracle, maybe.

...Magic, also maybe. Maybe there are bigger, more unpredictable things in the universe than he can understand.

But...seeing is believing, right? And over there, when he's done with the whole...bringing people back from the dead thing, over there Billy clearly sees their friend. Whole and healthy and on the same stage where-

Billy goes over to him and just. Lets himself sit heavily on the floor, leaning back against the couch.]

Come back, rebound, simpler said than found.
Night by night and tear by tear.
Somehow, someway, we all get to someday,
Mile by mile and fear by fear...

[tellthestory]

Disaster has a way of remaking our hearts,
Long after all the thunder and scars.
Days pass and bit by bit we began to restart
Our disaster hearts...

[Oh, Billy. Things were weird between you and him the last time you talked. They were weird as hell today, but that's par for the course for today.

Getting up feels like effort, and would probably end with him kicking Billy in the head in their current positions, so he just reaches out to lay a hand on Billy's shoulder.]

...sorry I called you Doctor.

[pennyless]

[...so whatever it was, this was- this was really B.

Billy turns at the hand on his shoulder. They'll hug it out eventually, probably, but right now the hand is nice. He shifts so that B doesn't have to reach as far, and after a moment of deliberation he pats B's hand with his own.]

I think I can give you a pass.

...Sorry about- I'm sorry about everything in, uh. In...Natalie's trial. I didn't have a way to warn you or try to tell you what I was trying to do, but you tried to go along with it anyway. I wasn't trying to- you know.

[Get you killed.]

It's great to have you back.

[aflatouttahell]

[Jez will approach after the man has a little while to rest, smiling.]

Hey, Mister Balladeer.

[tellthestory]

Heeey, Jezebel! [He'll move his legs so she's got a spot to sit, if she wants. He doesn't neeeeeed the whole couch.] Thanks for...talking to her too, back there.

[aflatouttahell]

[She will sit! She likes this better than upsetting him with assassin talks.]

No problem. I did get tutored by Shakespeare, I know a thing or two about plays. I'm just glad she was able to take a little criticism.

[trettende]

[ Hans got kicked in the nads he deserves to have a sit down too. That said, he's taking this "back from the dead" thing really well-- after the shock of seeing the Balladeer up on that stage again wore off, and he started seeing proof that the real Bal was hiding under there, somewhere, Hans has decided he's 100% down with whatever stage magic was used to bring them back. He still has questions, he'll likely have them for a while, but more important than anything is the fact that they made it. Somehow.

Well, because of True Love, apparently. How embarrassing. Bal might be the real deal Showrunner now, but when Hans steps over to join him on the couch, he's smiling at him same as earlier. Nothing's changed except everything. Maybe it's not so embarrassing to admit you're in love as long as you know it's all worth it.

And this? This is worth it. But just in case, before he tries leaning in and throwing his arm over the Balladeer's shoulder, he prefaces the next bit with this. ]

Stop me if this is embarrassing.

[ Okay, get ready. ]

Tale as old as time,
True as it can be...
Started off as friends,
Then somebody bends
Unexpectedly.

[tellthestory]

[He totally saw you get kicked in the nads and, while he didn't laugh, you kinda deserved it.

The Balladeer laughs a little.]

I'm surprised you don't think it's embarrassing, Hans.

Not such a little change,
A bit, to say the least

[trettende]

Both pretty damn scared
Neither one prepared...

[ Actually this going to end with Hans being the Beast, so maybe he'll cut himself off, clearing his throat. ]

I'm kind of past shame at this point, it's been a very long day.

[ For both of them, obviously. Hans leans a bit against the Balladeer's side. ]

But I don't actually know where to go from here, with this... [ He waves a hand between them. Relationship? True love? ] The last thing I was expecting was for my life to turn into a love story. Singing is easier than having feelings.

[dechagny]

[Oh wow you know the Raoul Hug Train just keeps comin'? And he just realized in all this time he hasn't given the good B a hug? So he's just going to. Come over, clear his throat and straighten his jacket like he doesn't wanna give you a fucking hug.]

Monsieur Balladeer...since this is a rather...celebratory time...far be it from me to disturb you during your much-needed rest, but, would you be so kind as to...indulge a man for a well-meaning hug?

[tellthestory]

Oh...oh, yeah, sure!

[He's pretty quick to get up, at least. HUG TIME]

[dechagny]

[HUG TIME HUGS FOR THE BALLADEER but just enough hug time for friends and nothing more, we're not being weird over here, just really happy to be alive.]

Do forgive me for my rudeness in the meeting when we started, I...well, we were all in shock!

[dontfeedplants]

[Seymour walks over to Balladeer and gives him a quick but meaningful hug.]

Thank you, for everything. And, um, congrats on you and Hans.

[He feels kind of awkward saying this. Pardon him, Balladeer, even with his crush on Winslow he's pretty unused to all this... lack of heterosexuality.]

[tellthestory]

Thanks! It's weird, right?

[He doesn't mean the lack of heterosexuality, he just means...him. Hans. Weird?]

That's such a normal person thing to do, I never thought...well, congratulations on Winslow!

[dontfeedplants]

You should have a lot more opportunities to be a normal person now. You really deserve it.

[His face flushes a little at the mention of Winslow.]

Th-thanks! It's all still strange to me, and I still feel like I'm cheating on Audrey, but we're going to try our best to make this work.

[And there's a much higher chance that this relationship won't end with the both of them dead, so worst case scenario, it can't be that bad.]

[solomonjihad]

Balladeer...!

[She comes forward, then hesitates. Namely because, um. She's still covered in mud and hugging him seems a bad idea?]

[tellthestory]

[He starts to rise from the couch, smiling, and then realizes the reason for her hesitation.]

Oh...

[rockthistown]

Um... [Hime shuffles her feet and stands a bit back.] Balladeer-san, I... Please help D-ne! ...Um. I mean, I know you were mad at her, and you said you couldn't send people both ways, but I'm sure I could help with that -- does someone have my phone? Is there reception? I need to call God -- um, anyway, she was scared you wouldn't help her and her friends if it was just her asking, but I didn't talk to you a lot either because I was scared of you, and, um, I'm really, really sorry for thinking you kidnapped my fairy.

[what is he going to do with this]

[tellthestory]

......is that what that was about. Fairies? You have a fairy?

[he's going to take the last question he heard apparently, because there were like twenty in there and he's not equipped to deal with all of them in one go.]