thebackstage | MASTERMIND MEME

MASTERMIND MEME

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!

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But why? This obviously isn't working - she just has to go through this over and over again. We all do.

[Maybe they don't remember, but no one would want that. Certainly not Eurydice; she never struck the Balladeer as someone who'd take a life of being trapped.

He understands retelling a story, sure. Depending on how you look at things, it happens to everybody. But it's not supposed to be like this.]

Do you need...help? I don't have much pull here, but I've...changed stories before.

If I get it right - she won't have to remember. None of you will. It'll be my burden to bear.

[ And he smiles at the offer, just a little bit. It doesn't reach his eyes. ]

Thank you, but. We've tried before. Sometimes we make it better - easier on everyone - but usually... [ He shakes his head. ] The show has a mind of its own. We can't change the rules or avert its course. I've tried. We can only change out who plays what roles, when, and even then that's... asking a lot.

[ He looks around, at the gathered players, and sighs. ]

It's... kind of a surprise, to see you here? You don't make it this far very often. I'm glad you are, though. I don't have to explain as much to you.

[Oof. The Balladeer winces a little, but it's half a smile too - he gets it.]

I didn't make it to the end of either of my past shows, either. I guess some things do stick.

[That doesn't really matter now. What's important is that he did survive this one. He can't let it loop again - if it does, he won't be around to help, and he probably is one of the better people to help. Even if he...has apparently already failed to do so...well, Orpheus is still right. He does understand a lot of this, implicitly, in a way no one else will.

He drops his hand and steps forward, hunched in his oversized, soaking wet jacket.]

Maybe you just need to stop. Move forward from here. It's not the same as leaving everyone dead - we didn't do that. There's ways forward that aren't just...going back again.

[ Orpheus shakes his head, solemnly. ]

I can't. I can't move on. Not without her.

[ He's been doing this for so long. She's everything he has. ]

I've failed her so many times. Not just here, but - back home, every single time I looked back. Every time I let her go in the first place. If I give up now, I'll just be failing again. I can't do that.

[ He takes a deep breath, and lets it out in a long sigh. ]

I found a way to bring her out of the Underworld, in this place. I'll find a way to save her from all of this, too. It's just a matter of time.

[ And he has so much of that, now. ]

I'm not saying you have to just leave her like that, but - she wouldn't want this! Not for her, not for most of us, and not for you! You...you weren't always like this, were you?

[The Balladeer had noticed Orpheus's reticence, of course, his refusal to really engage with anyone other than Eurydice. But the two of them being so inseparable means that he never really got to figure out how Eurydice felt about all of that. Was Orpheus usually that way? He can't have been, right? No one would be the same, after all of that.]

There's other people here, Orpheus. I'm one thing, I can accept that, but you think she'd want you to kill a bunch of random people on her behalf? She hated this whole thing as much as anyone!

[ Orpheus's expression closes off even further at that, hands balling into fists at his sides as he looks away. It's not his first time hearing this lecture - usually it's not the Balladeer delivering it, but all the same, it still stings, because he knows it's true. There have been times where he's broken down and confided everything in Eurydice, and she's... never wanted much to do with him, in those cycles. And he knows he's a bad liar. He knows even if (when) they make it out of this, he won't be able to keep his involvement from her forever.

This ends in him losing her, no matter what. But at least if he succeeds, she'll be alive. ]

You're not random. Someone picked you. I don't know who, but - they picked well. Every single one of you is a murderer, in some telling or another. Sometimes I don't even have to give you reasons - you just do it. Farrah's snapped more times than I can count. The SQUIP almost always tries to leave early on. Spongebob keeps killing people over a sandwich recipe.

[ He almost snarls that last one, clearly a sore point, shooting a grim look Spongebob's way before turning back to the Balladeer. ]

I felt bad for you at first. I tried so hard to make it so every week you'd all be able to resist. But it never works out that way. You claim to all hate it here, but you're stuck playing your parts as much as I am.

[Distantly:]

But Mr. Krabs told me to guard it with my life!

[The Balladeer bristles a little at that, stepping forward as if to take the brunt of Orpheus's ire. Or, at least, distract him from Spongebob. He can accept being called a murderer himself. He's never harmed anyone with his own hands (that he knows of? in this timeline?), but he's...well, he's been on the other end of this equation. He can't argue his own innocence.

By that same exact token, though, hearing Orpheus blame everyone else rankles.]

Don't be so quick to claim the moral high ground. You're the one who brought them all here. You're the one making people snap. How's anyone ever supposed to play a different part if you won't let them?

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MASTERMIND MEME

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