HEARTGAME DRESS REHEARSAL

[finalbows]

thank u rah u hero

tracking sheet
 

[ ..somewhere in the pasture, Angel Devil falls down.
His clothes have twisted away into bone-white rags, leaving a body covered over with only thick swathes of red fur, and downy feathers. His long tail is curled into a tense arc, banded fur standing on end.

The air wavers like he’s a heat mirage, not a man. He’s boiling away with absolutely stupid amounts of arcane power… and, most frighteningly, he does not seem in control of the fact that it is there and being brought to bear. It’s impossible to get any closer to him.


When he speaks, it’s quite timid. ]

Ah,
I thought… I had a little more time.

[ (and in a blinding flash of light, there is the sound of something breaking.) ]

~KRRSHHK~

[any observers will see, strangely see-through and superimposed on the scene, some kind of vast tree, illusionary roots twisting over and around to frame a door.  the door itself is wrought of opaque stained glass in blacks and whites and greys; a stylized rendition of Angie in that strangely ragged, feathered form, curled in on himself, eyes closed.  Angie himself is nowhere to be seen. ]

instead, a shadow . . . steps into view from behind the door.  for a moment it looks like nothing so much as a second genome – then it turns, gaining features and definition with the movement.  The monkey tail separates into three plumes; a ponytail unfurls into wings that lift up from the sides of the head.  

Teleute(?) is here, dressed in her customary black, but there is colour in her skin, and her hair and eyes are blue.  she’s frowning.]

. . . well.  This is the least I can do before I go, in exchange for the safe harbor.

[she lifts her head, nodding to any observers, and gestures at the door.]

You’ll want to head in there now if you don’t wish to lose your flockmate, I think.  Even the false-death of this place won’t be much help to him, if his soul is left to finish pulling itself apart.

My sisters and I can maintain the way into and out of it for you, but we were not made to knit such wounds by ourselves.  Have a care.

Comments

[wants_the_phd]

[Her work here is done. Bye Muffincube.]

[She is going back to the theater now.]

[finalbows]

[ the exterior of the theatre wasn't much notice to her before because there was cooler shit to go do. now i get to describe it.

a view right up on the eternal midnight of the Treno waterfront... dark, dirty city waters, threateningly close to spilling out over intricate bricks. A beautiful facade, with intricate, twining details, and a Rose vine-lock that has replaced the immovable stone thorns of Iifa that had repelled her before.

Flower beds.

Those are new.
There weren't any of these sparse twin pairs of flowers, before.]

[wants_the_phd]

[Did you know the scientific name of twinflower is Linnaea borealis?]

[She pauses to smile at them for a moment.]

[The rose-vine lock is a good reminder to put something on her face before proceeding. So she once again dons the Mask of the Rose and wills the vines to part for her.]

im really enjoying getting to bring back some songs from earlier on The Return

[finalbows]

[ :3 ]

[ the theatre opens up before her.
the interior, too, has changed a bit.

the curtains are open. the show has came and went. on the back wall, there's a mural: Cosmos and Chaos, two sides standing in conflict. blood runs from Cosmos' eyes like tears. blood runs from Chaos' hands like an offering.

the nautilus-casket audience has all been cracked open, each and every crushed of any future, like so many of the Nova Dragon's eggs. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[She has FINISHED!!! the TUTORIAL LEVELS!!! and is now back in the theater at last.]

Oho! So you really did it!

Your days of performing roles that have been written for you are behind you, aren't they. Now's your turn to be the playwright. Good for you!

[She's retracing her steps back to the weird throne room, unless there's something different along the way that she should inspect.]

[finalbows]

[ her path is unimpeded.


...on the way, she will find that only the Genome stagehands still live. the clumsy dolls have all fallen down, lifeless, after too-short a time.

many broken things in this playhouse have found a mending. but there are some sins too late to be fixed.

...she's made it to the gate outside the throne room. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[She looks in through the gate. What's the situation in there?]

[finalbows]

[ angie's body language is like he wants so so so so bad to kill something and can't. he is a colorful duct tape mummy. he has an entire scarf's worth of rainbow gradient yarn haphazardly hanging off of him. there are paper party streamers. ]


[ the clown is humming happily about doom doom doom DOOM destruction~~~ as he adds more streamers. ]

[wants_the_phd]

[okay but... this angie is awake?]

[finalbows]

[ YUP, STILL CONSCIOUS, and still wearing the mask of Radical Acceptance


he does not currently look like he's Accepting his circumstances very well but he's new to this ]

[wants_the_phd]

[Note to self: talk to Angie later about when is and is not an appropriate time for radical acceptance. This would be an example of an Inappropriate Time.]

[Well. She's as ready for this as she's going to be. Can she open the gate?]

[If not, is there space to go over it?

[finalbows]

[ she can wrench the gate apart like it's made of tin foil with her ROSE VINES BASS-BOOSTED


or feel around the weird murmuring biomachines until one of them feels suitably lever-like ]

[wants_the_phd]

[Tempting though that may be, she is not the type to fling herself, guns blazing, into an unknown situation against a person who almost certainly can crush her. Sucks, but there it is.]

[She just opens the gate like a normal person and steps inside, calling out to make her presence known. We do not show our fear to strangers in this house.]

Greetings!

I hear you're one of Révérence's former comrades-in-arms.

[finalbows]

"Yeah? And what are you? Clean up crew?" Well,


"GOOD JOB!"


"This monkey's almost back to ship-shape! At this rate, I could have him out there and ripping out throats by tomorrow morning! End~less~ de~spair and~ car~nage~"

[wants_the_phd]

You'd think! But his soul's in terrible shape. I don't know that he'd be much good now, even if you cursed him again.

Are you truly this desperate for people to play with?

[finalbows]

"Yes! Obviously! Because he took my best toy first!
And then, the gall!
He gets pushed around a little-widdle bit after I save HIS bacon from the REAL big boy consequences for betraying us, and that's it! He's caput! Not only does he let some rosey broad stab him to death, it's small potatoes for me to lay that curse on him right after! Sure, he was out to lunch on the verge of oblivion, but he didn't even fight it. You know what Iiiiii think!


I think! He wanted to not have to know he was SoooOOooOOO sad anymore. After all,

Why do you think I'm even still here?

[wants_the_phd]

After what I've seen, I can believe he'd let himself be cursed if it meant leaving those old pains behind. Unfortunately, however, they're still here, festering away, rotting him from the inside.

That's what I mean when I say he's useless to you now. I don't think he can be goaded to fight for Chaos any more, no matter what you do.

[finalbows]

"You know what happens if the Big Guy finds out about that? Bye-bye, dead guy. Hey, hand me another roll of that tape. He's looking crumbly over here."

[wants_the_phd]

Yes, well, I think the Big Guy could do better than this, too. If he's specifically looking for the worst people he can find, he's not very good at it if he only has like. Five dudes, fighting on his behalf. Embarrassing, frankly.

And hell no, I'm not handing you anything. I want you to leave some part of him left for me to take apart. I've worked much too hard to let you have all the fun.

[finalbows]

"..."
"So, Does.
That mean the JANITOR.... is gonna try and fight me for a broken puppet?"



[ wiggles his fingers in an Awful way. cockroach-esque ]
"Now look who's desperate."

[wants_the_phd]

It's true. I've been trapped in a cage away from home and he's the only one who's any fun to stab in this place. And he puts out! And he's even started teaching me magic. So you can see why I'm invested in keeping him around...!

[finalbows]

"Guess that means we're going to have RIP EACH OTHER TO PIECES about it."

[ the piano is so excited about this fact! ]

[wants_the_phd]

I'm really bad at fighting though. I work a desk job.

Is that really gonna be fun for you?

[finalbows]

"Huuuu-uh? What's that?
Wah-wah-wahhh, I don't wanna get DESTROYED, Mr. Kefka, I'm just too pathetic? Don't poison the CIVILIANS, Mr. Kefka, they're not involved!"

[ an ugly, roiling green spell appears over his hand. ]

"Oo, there's an idea. Poison! Eat some Bio, desk jockey!

[ THROWS IT AT HER ]

[wants_the_phd]

[oh hey that looks like the thing angie jabbed into her stab wound that one time.]

[but anyway YIKES she's lunging to the side, if she can]

Hey...!

Damn, bro, I'm just the janitor!