the theater - part ii

[productions]

the theatre



You awaken in a darkened theatre.

In front of you is an enormous cinema screen. On it plays everything that's currently happening in the mansion, accompanied by appropriate sound effects and background instrumentals when fitting. The seat you're sitting on is large and plush, and while there's many of them, there's enough room in the theatre for you to fully recline the seat into a comfortable bed if you wish. Under each seat is a sleeping mask and noise-cancelling headphones, in case you'd like to take a break from watching the show.

Follow the stairs up and you'll reach what should be the projection room. There are no projectors in here, however; it is simply a large and well-lit room above the main seating area, and a good place to hang out with your fellow eliminated contestants if shouting at each other across the aisles proves too much to handle.

If you leave the theatre through the door in the back, you'll find yourself in a hall. On one end is a concession stand. It's stocked with standard movie snacks - popcorn, candy and the like - but if you're feeling the urge for something else, you'll be able to find it stocked somewhere in the back. On the other end is a table with thirty wrapped bags and a placard reading 'A star for our stars! Please accept these lovely giftbags as a token of appreciation for your hard work, sponsored by [illegible smudge]'. Each bag has a tag bearing the name of someone in the mansion; you will only be able to open the bag with your name on it. As soon as you open it, any memories that have been taken from you, including those of the other people in the mansion that you may have forgotten, will be returned in their entirety. Within the bag are also objects from your home that you may want for your stay here, though you will find no weapons.

There are no other doors in the hall save for the one leading back into the theatre room. There are also no windows; it is impossible to tell where you are and what is going on in the outside world. Any attempts to break out will fail. So in the meantime, why not sit back and enjoy the show?

Comments

[notyetlost]

Trying to make your face do something else, because I don't like it right now.

[Obviously something is wrong, especially after experiencing something like that.]

[vytis]

What's wrong with the way it is now?

[notyetlost]

It's not doing anything.

It's not smiling, it's not crying, it's not frowning, or pissed.

That's not-- I just don't like it!

[vytis]

[Lithuania considers.]

I think they'd want tears, more than anything.

[He won't give them that, though. He won't give them anything.]

[notyetlost]

Lietuva. [Poland tries to intertwine his fingers with Lithuania's.]

It's okay to cry, if you feel like crying.

[vytis]

[Lithuania lets him, squeezing it as if Poland were the one who needed reassurance, and answers in Lithuanian.]

I don't feel like crying. They'd enjoy a reaction, anyway.

[notyetlost]

Have you given up?

[vytis]

[Lithuania's words are carefully selected.]

My people are safe.

[notyetlost]

[Too carefully selected. Poland tightens his grip on Lithuania's hands.]

I told you not to despair. Not to give up.

That's what they want.

[vytis]

[Lithuania switches back to a language everyone can understand.]

This game wasn't normal. After you died, Miss Doris spoke to me. She said this game wasn't normal--she said I wasn't ever meant to survive. Someone is meant to benefit from this instance of the show.

She said she would save my people--she promised you she would help me, remember? She would wear something to let me know they were safe. In exchange, I would tell everyone about the situation.

"It might cost you your life, but that's a life they're bent on taking regardless."

[He hadn't known it would kill her, too.

He smiles, pointlessly. The congenial mastermind, as always.]

I was dead the moment I was chosen as the game's mastermind.

[notyetlost]

[Poland hates that face and regards the smile bitterly.]

You were dealt a crap hand. The crappiest, even.

What else is new?

Does it look like anything about this game went according to their plan at this point? If you were supposed to die and that was supposed to end everything, then why are nine people still playing?

Your people are safe. What about what other people here lost? You don't think Sonia would like that same assurance? Or Kaoru or Kanaya or Touko?

What about if Spain still fails?

It's not about just you!

[vytis]

I wasn't trying to get everyone killed. [Lithuania seems to retreat further back into his shell.] I think in the end I might have. I was trying to get them to stop entirely, but they're still going. I didn't know about this place at all, and now there's doubt about who the Mastermind was.

I don't--really know what I've been doing this whole time, to tell you the truth.

[notyetlost]

I know that. We all know that. That's totally not the point. You were used, just as much as they were. It wasn't your fault.

But it's not over yet. You can remember your people now, don't you want to see them again?

Are you seriously okay with thinking this is the end of everything?

[Because Poland's not. Even if Ukraine and Lithuania seem to have resigned themselves to this, he won't accept it. Not yet.]

[vytis]

If the ones left die, that is my fault. It's not that I'm okay with it.

[It just seems like it is the end.]

[notyetlost]

Doris never said that their safety was contingent on you dying. Or staying dead.

It's not the end for us.

[vytis]

But if they don't find out who killed me--then it's it for them, right?

[notyetlost]

Probably. But that hasn't happened. [Poland doesn't seem phased.]

So if you can't believe in them after everything that's happened, it's okay.

But I will. Like I believed in you.

1/2

[vytis]

[vytis]

Laima is an ironic name for any daughter I might theoretically have.

[Because it means luck and fate.]

[notyetlost]

[Poland can appreciate an ironic name choice.]

Even Baltic luck has to turn in your favor eventually.

[vytis]

I'd always thought it might be--nice, to have a family like humans do.

[It feels like it was all a vivid dream, now.]

What can we do from here?

1/2

[notyetlost]

[Poland can't say he's never thought the same.]

It's hard to say... given how we are.

[It seems unfairly cruel that Lithuania's only experience with it, had been used as a punishment.]

2/2

[notyetlost]

We use to give out sponsorships, to try to help the remaining players keep things interesting. I'm really not sure what our role is at this point.

Maybe there's nothing left for us to do but wait. And hope.

[vytis]

...The people who are left are good people, I think. [Even if one of them is working with the Producers in some capacity.] Even Miss Rapture isn't as bad as she seems.

...It's odd that we're not dead yet.

[notyetlost]

I like to think if there is seriously nothing left for us, we'd really be dead by now.

[It's not a guarantee. Poland never knows if anything will work out in the end. Still, even if the optimism is entirely misplaced he'd rather not spend his final days catatonic, depressed and utterly desolate. They aren't nice feelings. He doesn't want that for anyone.

So maybe--even if he thought by dying he'd failed and if Lithuania thought there was never a way for him to succeed--in some capacity, he can still save Lithuania.]

Please don't give up.