THE BOX OFFICE

[tellthestory]

This is where you can meet privately with the Balladeer! The Balladeer is almost always around during the day; just knock.

(Secretly, the door's usually not locked if he's inside. But you wouldn't want to be rude, would you?)

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[tellthestory]

[He leans forward slightly, arms resting against his desk, posture as straight as ever. This must make for an odd picture.]

What kind of difference do they want to make?

[inforapenny]

It doesn't matter what- What I could do with League funding! I could upset the status quo! Show the world that I'm not a joke! I'm not just some meathead's punching bag.

I could show them the true face of their precious heroes - that they're all bullies, deep down.

[tellthestory]

Byyyyy...beating them up in public instead?

[inforapenny]

...it's what...

[Billy swallows. He's never told anyone this before, but there's a part of him that still doesn't want to be right, that still doesn't want to have killed someone, either.

He closes his eyes and sees Joe Justice being beat to death with a pipe.]

...it's what made me see the truth.

[tellthestory]

[His brow furrows, and he seems honestly taken aback.]

...what happened?

[inforapenny]

[Billy squirms like he's doing battle with himself, with the truth.]

Y-you know how little kids are, they... they love heroes. Good vs. Evil. It's a good story, kids eat it up. But, uh...

...I was 8. I got to see my favorite hero in action against his archnemesis, Mister Maniacal. I had a black eye from a classmate who was four years older than me, and I... I realized that my hero sounded like the bully who... who hit me.

[His voice has faded out to almost silence, now.]

And the people around me, they- they didn't see--! They still don't see that being smart isn't- isn't bad! They glorify ignorance because that's all that they can comprehend, a-and anything else is... is horrible.

[He leans forward and presses the heels of his palms against his eyes, and for all that his voice is muffled he just sounds sad and scared, like a little boy caught in over his head.]

I never wanted to kill anyone...

[tellthestory]

Woah, hey, I know you didn't.

[The Balladeer seems entirely unsure how to handle this; he rocks forward as if he wants to reach out, but instead just clasps his hands together.]

I don't understand, don't you have modern technology in your world? Of course being smart isn't bad.

[inforapenny]

Of course we do, it's 2008-

[he has to take a minute and breathe because he almost sounds hysterical. Slow, deep, ragged, self-soothing breaths as he forces the reopened wound back closed again.]

I-it's all about being the right kind of smart. You can be an inventor, but you can't think too outside the box. You can be an innovator, but you have to stick to the status quo. You can be smart, but you can't be a genius. You can't want to learn, you can't care about knowledge for knowledge's sake.

[tellthestory]

How has your society survived that long?

[That's a rhetorical question but also kinda a serious one]

...hey, do you want some tea? Or cider? The book said people drink hot apple cider in the fall, so...

[inforapenny]

[Billy has no idea either. Presumably his world entered the Darkest Timeline some time before 1978 and just diverged from there.

Also he had to make most of his own iPhone apps.]

...The book? What book?

[tellthestory]

Raoul brought me a cookbook from upstairs. It said that you could serve "fall treats" with that?

[inforapenny]

Oh. Yeah, I guess that sounds about right. Apple cider or hot cocoa, probably.

[...We're talking about this now, I guess.]

You're, um. Are you the one who's really into Halloween, or is it a mandate from your bosses?

[tellthestory]

I've neeever even celebrated Halloween before. I think it's some kind of audience appeal thing? Like...there's special holiday movies, right?

Just gimme a second, I'm gonna run by the staff kitchen. [And he...leaves? Congrats, Billy, you are now successfully alone in the showrunner's office.]

[inforapenny]

Uh, okay, thanks...?

[And then Billy is alone. It takes him a moment to realize that apparently the staff kitchen isn't attached to the Balladeer's office, and he quietly stands up - furtively glancing at the door the whole time - and moves around the desk.

What are we looking at in terms of drawers, here?]

[tellthestory]

[There are four drawers, one large and one smaller on either side of the desk.]

[inforapenny]

[Well let's start with the big drawer on the left. Big drawers, big secrets, right?]

[tellthestory]

[There's a number of small booklets. They appear to have been haphazardly dumped inside; they're not exactly in a neat stack.]

[inforapenny]

[Gonna glance at the door again and then slip one out of the middle. What's this booklet about?]

[tellthestory]

[The booklet looks like a very old printing. Its front cover reads The Truth: A Companion to the Bible by Charles J. Guiteau, and the blurb on the inside cover sounds like it was written by someone who thought extremely highly of himself.

Also on the front is a doodle, done in pencil, of what looks like a Ferris wheel.

Just to save you time, all the other booklets are the exact same thing, varying only in what's doodled on them.]

[inforapenny]

[Well after a quick skim to prove that this is high falutin old fashioned hot nonsense, he's going to put it back where he found it because he's not risking the Balladeer's alliance for a pamphlet he can summarize in a few sentences.

Next let's check out the drawer right above it.]

[tellthestory]

[This drawer contains about a million extra strings for every instrument in this room and then some. Also some picks of various size.]

[inforapenny]

[Well alright that's adorable and not entirely unexpected.

Top drawer on the other side?]

[tellthestory]

[This drawer contains a pad of writing paper, a few pencils and pens, and two books. They're all placed neatly, with more care than the drawer of Jesus booklets.]

[inforapenny]

[If the writing pad is empty, then it's time to look at the two books.

...otherwise a brief detour to read anything written in the notepad first.]

[tellthestory]

[At first glance, the pad is covered in a lot of musical notations.

On second glance, there's some words scattered around - two pages are labeled D-ne and Gabe, and are covered in scribbles and half-formed lyrics, thick dark markings that seem to have become calmer and more coherent about halfway down the page. The end results aren't present, but this seems to be where the structures for the execution songs were formed.

The second one seems to have given him more trouble. Large chunks of Gabe's song were crossed out and replaced with a longer description of the murder, which was then crossed out itself and replaced with the original lyrics again. Billy will recognize the part in question; it was at the end, when he was expressing a desire to see the cast go home.]