Tragic Kingtom
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom

Malkira




A thick velvet curtain is drawn across the entrance to this room. Drawing this aside you find yourself on a narrow ledge overlooking a theatre hall. The ledge upon which you stand must once have been the upper tier, or the entrance to the box seats, but this has since fallen into the rows of seats below and now there remains only a sheer drop into the main room.

The room looks, for the most part, well maintained. The hall looks clean and the brass figures on either side of the stage that bear the masks of Tragedy and Comedy are highly polished and gleam in the spotlights assigned to them.

Upon the walls are painted decorative murals depicting noble scenes. There, Mickey Mouse cavorts in his Sorcerer's Apprentice uniform, here Mr Punch beats a belated Judy with his stick.

The seats below you are covered with the same bright and decorative material as the curtain behind you. Each one of them's carefully brushed and labelled with its own number. Each seat waits, folded and ready, for its occupant. Towards the back of them, the furthest rows have been crushed beneath the collapsed balcony, though these and even the rubble itself has been carefully cleaned and kept in a well-maintained, pristine condition.

On stage a troupe of players act out a scene. They motion through their actions with happy smiles and exuberant gestures.

It is only as you stare and look closer that you notice the little touches. The thin, translucent wires that move their stiffened arms and legs through their actions; the carefully-placed and brightly-coloured pins that keep the smiles upon their faces and the glass that holds the sheen in their eyes. They perform their scenes to the cheerful music again and again, performing the actions all over once the cycle is completed.


The Mansion