thebackstage | a little kink [the It's Curtains kink meme]

GUIDELINES/RULES:

All requests- smut, fluff, gen, or otherwise (alternate murders, anyone?)- are welcome so long as it's about It's Curtains. Fic and art fills are all good.

This is for all rounds of It's Curtains. Intermingled cast requests ("what if so-so and so-so from this and that round met?") are acceptable.

Stay anon because it's funner that way.

Use proper trigger/content warnings for sensitive and/or offensive subjects, just like you would in a game proper. If you don't, it will be deleted.

This is a judge free zone; however, be mindful of character ages, esp. in regards to the younger characters.

If you do not want your character to be involved with the smut or things that make you uncomfortable please contact me. A list is being prepared to remind everyone.
Respect player wishes if they ask to not have their character be in smut, or anything out of their comfort zone. Again, comments in violation will be deleted.

Have fun, darlings! If any rules are violated please don't hesitate to to PM this account or alert one of the mods.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

exactly what it says on the tin - how do the cases get thwarted?

The first week, things aren't much different. It's just that people seem to draw a little closer. For whatever reason, Christine has the idea to throw a teen slumber party pretty quickly - "to get to know each other!" she says. So early in the game, with no one dead yet, it doesn't even sound all that naive.

Left to their own devices, Stephen throws the adult slumber party earlier than he ordinarily would have, as well. Not everyone attends; Jonny, for one, is a little too prickly and a little too disliked by everyone else. But Stephen and Ariel end up drunkenly spooning, Sigyn, Anne, and Richard quickly become bosom companions and do each others' hair, and they are all far too hung over to leave the room until late on Friday morning.

Jonny and Sigyn live. Jonny does end up getting punched later, but nothing worse comes of it.

---

The second week, King Richard is wandering the halls alone at night when he trips over something and falls flat on his face.

"Who - ?" Red pops her head out of the nearby music room, eyes wide with fear, but relaxes when she sees who it is. "Oh, Your Majesty! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" Richard declares, accepting her hand up and glowering down at his attacker for a moment. "But who left one of these dumb trombones in the middle of the hallway? That's dangerous!"

Red folds her arms. No one has died yet, but it's still frightening, being trapped in a place like this. "Isn't everything a little dangerous, here?"

Richard, standing at his full height, takes in her frown and the circles beneath her eyes, and puts a hand on her shoulder. "Come on. Why don’t you stay in my room tonight? I've got snacks, and we can feed Tad Cooper lettuce - ooh, it'll be like a slumber party!"

Richard lives. Red officially becomes his ward.

---

No Mountain Dew Red emerges from the vending machine.

But that's probably for the best. After all, the Phantom has decreed that killing the SQUIP would be - in all circumstances - viewed as a murder.

---

The next week, Spinel goes outside to play on Friday evening, and meets Riley.

But by the time Angus, fallen to the evil coursing through his bloodstream, makes his own way to the garden, he finds it empty.

Meanwhile, Riley goes searching for another victim. Instead, she runs into Mephisto and Stephen in the hallways. Even in her frantic state, she hesitates, but the knife in her hand makes her intentions clear, regardless. Luckily, Mephisto is quickly able to disarm her, and places an arm around her shoulders when she begins to sob apologies.

That's roughly when Angus shows up there instead, having made his way inside in search of a victim. The resulting fight leaves everyone involved bruised and bloodied, but no one is dead, and Angus is tied up in his room, to be brought food when necessary by at least two other cast members.

(Being evil, he calls for the Phantom to bargain when he's first left alone. But there's no response.)

---

Spinel turns up the next day, in a new outfit.

"Pssssh, I'm fine!", she says, brushing off everyone's concern. "I must've accidentally got poofed out in the garden, but the Phantom found me! We hung out on the roof and chatted for ages, and then I came back down here! Woaaaah, what happened to you?"

Riley winces at the volume. "I was...in a fight. Angus turned evil, or something."

"He did?" Spinel frowns. "Gosh, that's no good! Can we turn him un-evil?"

"We're...we're working on it," answers Stephen, who frankly has no idea how to turn Angus un-evil. "Wait, you've been with the Phantom? What did you talk to him about?"

"It's - a - SECRET!" Spinel bounds over to boop him on the nose. "He asked me not to tell! And we're officially friends, so I can't! Sorry!" She does not sound sorry.

Christine starts to grumble about how he's still not willing to be friends with her, for some reason. Stephen frowns to himself, but stays quiet. Maybe he'll write a letter about it, later...

---

In the fourth week, everyone still gets sick. Shilo doesn't, technically, run into Jeremy.

"Oh, it's you.."

"It is." The SQUIP inclines its head. They reached an agreement, after all, that it would be allowed to use Jeremy's body at night. A lot of people still don't really care for that - but there's no way to kill it without hurting Jeremy, and they'd be executed even if they did, so. Some things you just get used to after a while. With no deaths for a month now, at least, it doesn't seem as if the supercomputer is particularly inclined to do any harm, and it seems less anxious about Jeremy's safety.

It's even, in some instances, had reasonably friendly conversations with a few folks. It's not the only one out late at night. "Did you want something?" it asks, canting Jeremy's head in its odd manner.

"I was just..." Shilo winces, a hand going to her head. She still feels all sick. "I thought I'd go see the horse."

Jeremy would have taken her, just to make her happy. The SQUIP is more logical. "You will feel better if you consume some liquids and return to bed. I will assist you if you like." Jeremy was, after all, fond of her.

Shilo and Jeremy (and the SQUIP) survive. The Horf remains untraumatized.

---

That Sunday night, the Phantom appears in Stephen's room.

As per usual, he gets directly to the point. "Do you intend to kill Steven again this week?"

"...so you do remember." Stephen scrubs a hand over his face. When he began this, he hadn't really intended for it to end up this way. The point was to gather information, after all; sooner or later, he would have to kill again. The only reason he went back this far at all was because of the notes to Nana, the little clues about the Wizard that he must have been missing for weeks. That's all it was supposed to be.

He'd just thought, when he saw her again, that maybe he could save Sigyn. It was just an accident. And then it was so easy to stop Richard from startling Red. And then...he'd tried to leave it alone, he had, but to spend the night with Mephisto and know what Riley must be going through...

"I do. I saved Spinel, after all, did I not?" The Phantom tilts his head, behind the ever-present impassive mask. "I noticed that you weren't intending to."

"It's not that. I just...I didn't know how I could stop Angus, okay?" Angus only went down because all three of them were there. With that giant hammer of his, he might have been able to take out even Mephisto, if the fallen angel were alone.

"Of course," the Phantom responds smoothly. "And would you have let them deactivate the SQUIP again?

"It didn't matter," replies Stephen, who probably would have if not for the rule change. "No one got any Mountain Dew Red. Were you behind that, too?"

"It ended for the best. You know that Jeremy would have handled the situation with Shilo much more poorly."

"Don't tell me you care about Shilo, now. And don't tell me that you care about Jeremy. I remember how you stabbed him, the last time. You didn't do that for any of the other executions."

"I'm merely stating a fact."

"Of course you are." There's something there, Stephen thinks. There's something in the Phantom's concern for the SQUIP and Spinel specifically, as if those are the only two people he could possibly have any feeling for. He's made it clear that he doesn't trust any of them, even Christine's innocent overtures, and maybe that could account for the SQUIP. That thing couldn't make nice if its life depended on it. But Spinel? She's nice and sweet, yes, but so are a lot of the kids here. Why is she so different?

"You haven't answered my question, Dr. Browning."

Stephen sighs. Later, maybe. He did this to uncover information, and it's more important to look into the Wizard. It's always been easy enough to access the Phantom. "Why? Did he send you to ask?"

"No. But I am authorized to say that if you do not, he will end this venture next week."

"Wait - he is?" Stephen's wash of relief is mingled with something strangely like outrage. All that death, all that mystery, just to abruptly end for no reason? What was the point of any of it, if he would just give up after a month? "After all of that, he's just going to...he's just going to let us go?"

The Phantom shrugs. "It does seem arbitrary. He claims it is necessary because of something called a 'kinkmeme fill'. He will finish his work in the spring, instead."

"A - " No. No, Stephen doesn't even want to know. "And you? Are you going to let us go?"

"You know full well that your deaths are secondary to my purposes. I will make you my original offer. Most of you still require some...repair, after all. Just look at Angus." The Phantom's voice is casual. It's like he can't tell that Stephen's bristling at all. "Once we are done with that, you can go where you please."

Could he really help Angus? It seems possible. But why would he do that for no reason? And what could the man want with the rest of them? "So...you want to make us a sales pitch? Do you really think that's going to go well for you?"

"Of course. Who wouldn't want to be better?" The Phantom straightens, and with a swirl of his cape, starts to retreat back into the darkness behind the mirror. "I'll see you in a week, Dr. Browning. Perhaps then, you will begin to understand."

a little kink [the It's Curtains kink meme]

R2 - Everybody Lives AU

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