MASTERMIND MEME

[employeeoftheyear]

Well now that everything is settled, why not be a little evil? In this AU, your character is the one behind all of this! Feel free to stretch things however you like to make it reasonable for your character to have done this! The world is your evil oyster.

And obviously this doesn't have to line up with game canon; if your character would have been dead in the canon, they can be survivors in this AU! Or you can pretend your character died to hide the fact that they're the mastermind if they lived!

Just go wild! There's no such thing as too much gloating and villain songs!

Comments

[fourbutts]

[ It's a long road to the end. Janis makes her exit somewhere in the middle, done in not before establishing a fucking polycule but perhaps too soon to become quite as close as she did. But she did die. That's clear.

Which is why it's weird, probably, when the facts get put together: there is no Wizard. There was, but. He died? He's been dead for a long time now? But things just... kept going. Over and over again.

Maybe that's why Janis looks so tired when she steps out from behind the tree. ]

It's a cautionary tale
Of fear and lust and pride
Based on actual events
Where people died

How far would you go
To save the multiverse?
Would you resist temptation?
No you would not.

Just admit it, sometimes doomed is what you are
Doomed is easier than nice
And though hope can get you far
Maybe this will make you think twice:

[ She snaps her fingers and, just like that, the screens that displayed the forest change. Video clip after video clip - your memories, but not quite how you remember them. ]

This is our cautionary tale
About corruption and betrayal
And doing it over again
You can't buy an ending at the mall, it's not for sale!
So ends our cautionary tale!

[ Janis looks around at everyone. ]

The Wizard's been gone for eighty-seven loops now. I'm the only one who remembers. Guess that makes me the villain.

So come on and sit
In the dark with me
In the dark with me
No one and nothing can break through
No one and nothing can break through the darkness out there!

[ hey do you guys hear boss music ]

[wanderlusttitania]

Wh-

[No. Not Janis. It can't be. She died.]

Janis...you can't--

...

This...this isn't real. This can't be. You died. We...we buried you-

[fourbutts]

Yeah. Not the first time, not the last.

[ There's so little of anything left in her voice. She just sounds tired. ]

You'll all forget, though. You always do.

[wanderlusttitania]

No...I refuse to believe that you-

Janis...you are our friend! Why would you do any of this!?

[fourbutts]

I tried not to. But just... nothing happened. The story didn't move.

[ She looks up at the tree. The leaves don't move. There's no wind. ]

I had to move it. I have to keep it going.

[wanderlusttitania]

The story?! Janis--these are our lives! This madness must end, surely you must...

[This is all wrong. Why aren't the leaves moving. Why-]

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ It's not that Orpheus isn't happy to see Janis again - he is, he's overjoyed, honestly, but then she starts singing, and explains, and it just raises more questions than it answers, really. ]

Eighty seven loops... you mean - we've been doing this for that long? Why? If there's no Wizard anymore, then - why is any of this still happening?

[fourbutts]

Beats me. The story just doesn't have the right ending yet, I guess.

[ One of the screens displays all of them, standing in the garden, same as now, just for a few moments. ]

I've been trying to get out. Every time we all get here, we try. Sometimes we team up. Sometimes you guys say you hate me. It never works. Nothing ever works. The curtain closes and we start over the next day.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus shakes his head, brows furrowed. It doesn't make sense. ]

But - who kept giving us motives? Who talked to us at trials? I don't - I don't understand. Why would we hate you?

[ He hasn't put two and two together, just yet, too overwhelmed by the implications of it all to really see them. ]

[fourbutts]

Really? You can't tell?

[ She gives a single, humorless "ha" of a laugh. ]

See, someone's got to tell the tale
Whether or not it turns out well

[ She cracks the closest thing she can to a smile. ]

But who knows? Maybe it will turn out this time.

[ There's no hope left in her voice. ]

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ It takes a second for that to sink in, his brows furrowing as he watches her. ]

You mean... you're doing this? You're the Wizard, now? Why? Is there - something that means you have to, instead of just... not taking his place?

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer had tried to mentor Janis in narration, as he always does when they're both still around. But she'd died before they could get very far, which is maybe why he never quite recognized that she...didn't really seem to need those introductory lessons.

He's felt guilty about it, since. Something about it just felt like his fault. Maybe it was that he was the last narrator standing. Maybe, after a while, it was because he was an NPC who hadn't quite managed to die yet. But he's quietly nursed some survivor's guilt for a good long while, and seeing Janis again...does not help, actually. What she's talking about - he should have been able to help.]

Janis, what - what's going on? Really, I mean?