The Leading Player (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
guardianofsplendor) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
itscurtains2016-11-28 02:42 pm
guardianofsplendor) wrote in itscurtains2016-11-28 02:42 pm
CURTAIN CALL
[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?]
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?]
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...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...
no subject
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.
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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.
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I only got so into it because it felt like the right vote, to me. I spent that whole night trying to figure out a way that didn't end in mass execution, and I thought I finally saw one. You were right, though. It would've been a misvote. I was just...thinking about how I felt. [He squeezes Billy's shoulder.] Might've just gotten you killed too.
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I don't think we were supposed to win that one from the start. We did the best we could, probably.
[That's all they could do this whole time, right? The squeeze makes him smile, though it's a little bit shy. He's not slouching or trying to get away from the casual affection.
He's come a long way. They all have.]
I would have done it, if it had come to that. I was the one who started the lie, I wouldn't have blown your cover to save my own skin. Still, it's...definitely a good thing it didn't - I think Anna would have brought me back herself just so she could kill me for that.
[It's a feeble joke.]
...I was kinda scared for Hans, honestly. I...saw a lot of myself, in the way he reacted.
I'm gonna hazard a guess that that... [He waves his hand to indicate "magic" without having to say it.] is just for the people in this "show," right?
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I... [The Balladeer winces.] I wasn't thinking about Hans. I didn't really know he was in love with me then, but we were good friends. I just thought, if you were in my place long-term, it could've helped everyone.
[But, well, that didn't happen. At this point, he thinks he was lying to himself about how well it would have worked anyway; all the Player would have had to do was ask a single question to discover the truth.]
Sorry. Yeah. Other stories aren't mine.
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Come to think of it, he warned him about pretty much this exact thing what, five, six weeks ago?]
I don't think he knew he was in love with you then either, if it's any consolation.
And- heh, I would have blown my own cover pretty much instantly anyway. I don't play any instruments. It's- it's probably better I leave the storytelling to the expert.
[He tilts his head back and closes his eyes at the affirmative with a small sigh.]
I thought so. It- it never hurts to ask, though, I guess.
no subject
[That was probably just part of his list of sins.]
Sorry there's no actual technology. I really was being literal when I said it was all stage magic.
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Since magic is real, I just have to try that much harder to get science caught up.
[...Especially since you're setting yourself back about 170 years tech-wise, buddy. He lifts his head to smile at B.]
'Til then you'll have to keep an eye on us so you can bring us together again for important events. Anna'll want everyone at the real wedding, for sure.
[A beat passes as it hits him how nonchalantly he said that, and then he buries his face in his hands.]
Oh my god I'm married.
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...I still can't really believe it. I can't believe a lot of things that've happened today, actually.
no subject
...kind of a lot has happened in a few hours? For me? [like hey billy at least your memories were consistently present the entire time]
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[Shit, it was hard enough seeing you alive.]
I mean, at least you have that...narrative stuff, that's at least maybe a little helpful. You know, in dealing with everything.
You deserve a nap more than any of us right now.
[And Billy has barely slept since, uh. Mmmmonday before the last motive? It's starting to show. He doesn't quite look like he got suckerpunched in both eyes, yet, but boy are those purple shadows sure bringing out the blue in his eyes.]
no subject
I can see how everything slots together a little better now. We're at the end of all this.
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[He sounds pensive.]
That would be nice, wouldn't it. To be at the end.
[But he's smiling, and his eyes are across the stage now at where Anna is tearfully reuniting with her best friend.]
But you know, I don't think this feels like an end at all. We're at the beginning of something new.
[He looks back at B, and there's almost a fever-bright joy in his eyes.]
There's a brand new day out there, B. It's just waiting for us all to seize it.
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We'll be all on our own. No audiences. I've hardly ever not had one - just the couple weeks before this show started.
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[God this is cheesy]
We're all different people than we were when we got here. I'm excited to see what we're all going to do when we're not confined to "roles."
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