the theatre

[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?

Oh, and one more thing. At midnight following each execution, once all those who've died that week have woken up, a video will begin to play on screen.

Comments

[notyetlost]

[Poland arches an eyebrow.]

And when exactly did their identity become obvious?

[speakveryclearly]

Well, it started when Ms. Aozaki was executed early - in a flagrant departure from exit interview protocol - for merely suggesting that person had never been a suspect.

[notyetlost]

... [You know what Kanaya.

There's a barely full bucket of popcorn getting launched at your head.]

[speakveryclearly]

[She flinches, full-bodied, just once after he does that. Then she stands there stock still for several seconds. Eventually the bucket won't stay still on her head thanks to her horns, and slides off one, falling to the floor.]

I am not picking that up again.

[notyetlost]

Do you seriously think I wouldn't have noticed if Liet was the Mastermind with how much time I spent with him?

Seriously.

You guys have no idea what the hell you're talking about.

[speakveryclearly]

Do you think Sonia wouldn't have noticed Gundam were so nefarious, or May for Susan? After this much time, the producer can't be anything other than playing all of us for fools. You should hate the mastermind more than all the rest of us combined. That person...

Tell me who else it is, at least. Who else it could possibly be at this point.

[notyetlost]

Lithuania's simply convenient. What Mastermind in their right mind would make themselves look so totally obvious by leaving themselves out of the suspect pool for eight weeks?

He's being used as a decoy and you all fell for it.

I'd thought Sonia could have possibly been the mastermind before I'd died, but I wasn't positive so I didn't act on it. Obviously that was a mistake.

[speakveryclearly]

Did you ever even open the notebook containing every single contestant's personal information? Every single one of these mysteries is solvable. They have clues. The greatest mystery of this game won't be something ridiculous like May being an evil empress all along. There will be foreshadowing. It will all make sense looking back. This is a show, not a slaughterhouse.

If you can pick up a narrative thread with someone else holding the opposite end, do it.

[notyetlost]

They wouldn't make the "greatest mystery" so easy! You're clinging to one thing and running with it, there's more to it than that!

You didn't see the things I saw from him and you don't know him like I know him! He's not capable of this!

[speakveryclearly]

[Suddenly point-blank:]

Is he capable of winning a trivia contest?

[notyetlost]

He sucks at math.

He could have memorized the information on those cards flawlessly and he still wouldn't have been able to do the conversions for that last question. Especially not under that kind of stress.

[speakveryclearly]

[She stares at him for a moment. It is completely obvious she had not actually expected there would be a reasonable explanation for this event and is rethinking her entire worldview.]

Okay, now we're talking remotely rationally.

[notyetlost]

I was always talking rationally.

Besides that he was tearing himself apart in his room for failing. Why do you think I was sucking up so hard to Doris? It wasn't for the clue, it was so Lithuania could have some semblance of hope that his mistake could be rectified so he didn't feel the urge to jump off the freaking roof.

That could have been explained if someone had actually spoken to me before they decided to off me with a curtain!

[souredsweet]

[because he's been listening in on this entire exchange with a passive sort of curiosity:]

What would your pick be between Lithuania, Rapture and Stiles, then?

[notyetlost]

None of them. Least of all Lithuania.

If it wasn't Sonia, I was leaning towards Alice or Marlow. [Emphasis on the latter.]

[souredsweet]

That does not answer the question! Our aim was to make the producer suffer; Sonia chose you as her target after working very hard to allow us the choice of someone not on the lower two lists to point everyone in the right direction. It can only be a person with whom you shared a bond. So if you do not think it Lithuania, is it Stiles or is it Rapture?

—Or, better yet, whose hanging between those two would you mind the least? Surely the person you name is a person we can eliminate from our pondering, as well.

[he seems more amused than anything, though. he doesn't really care who the mastermind is as long as they catch that person and preferably give everyone else a chance to stab them... a little.....]

[notyetlost]

I'm like totally flattered you recognize I was the most important person in the house, but get real. Liking me is not a litmus test for being the mastermind.

Wouldn't it make more sense that the Mastermind would shy away from bonding deeply with anyone in the house, so as to not have anything that might compromise their plan?

[speakveryclearly]

I am so incredibly unsurprised by that answer.

[souredsweet]

[snickering because he is so nice]

I would not mind if it was Felicia. What a grating person...

[speakveryclearly]

Neither would I. She's just so... infuriating in her simplicity. It would be different if she were capable of feigning a single shred of sympathy for the executed.

Her outward appearance, of course, COULD BE A FACADE AS THE MASTERMIND'S ACTIONS WOULD HAVE TO BE BY DEFINITION.

[NOT LOUD ENOUGH THAT POLAND CAN HEAR OR ANYTHING]

[speakveryclearly]

You don't think there was an explicit rule against the designated killers shouting the mastermind's name from the rooftops, or else Touko would have been executed on time?

[She turns away, not turns her back just like ninety degrees but still.] You should be prepared. One of those ten people is the mastermind. And if it's not Lithuania - an option to which I am more than open - but pray tell, who is it? Your citizen? Your Romani bard?

The boy who tried to shoot the Hostess and is now quite possibly dying in the smoking room? The woman with a built-in killswitch who's ranked low consistently? The granddaughter of Death who already acts in a large role as a makeshift leader?

Maybe the girls who did what they had to do and have lived on the outskirts of the game? The detective whose hostage was executed? Or the other nation who wasn't allowed to retire and tied up every day?

[notyetlost]

I don't see why I have to justify anything, you're the one throwing out baseless accusations with flimsy evidence at best.

[speakveryclearly]

If it's not someone who isn't Lithuania, then it's someone who is Lithuania. That's how it works.

1/2

[notyetlost]

Let me put it a different way for you.

2/2

[notyetlost]

I think I would know if I was screwing the Mastermind.