Multifandom Oneshots

one hundred lies ~ breakdown (hurt/comfort) ~ liz/mindy

A/N : Took some digging, sampling part of the script, and reviewing a few recordings of the play but I have determined that the girl who comforts Liz at the end of the play is in fact Mindy. Anyways, for context - Today I attended the first day of my district's thespian festival. All of the one acts (for the most part) that my troupe saw were really good but this was the first one that was performed and also hit me like a fucking freight train. I was NOT emotionally prepared for this one, and it really touched on a lot of feelings about my own parents' divorce that I never really dealt with (and don't plan on doing anytimes soon). It's the same reason why AJR's song "My Play" makes me cry almost every time... Anyways, I want to write fanfiction for quite a few of these one acts but I will prioritize this one first. Basically just an extended version of the final scene. Characterizations and the specific lines will obviously be based on the performance I saw. After all, due to the inherent flexibility of theater, you can watch 50 different versions of the same play and almost every one of them will have a different reading of certain characters. So, where as the recordings I saw had Liz as more of an emotionally reserved, depressed type, the one I saw live was very hyper and frantic and anxious. So, I'm going based off of that... Once again I find myself 300 words in an author's note. Apologies. Onto the fic.

The game was finally over.

Most of the actors had left. The scoreboard's nature and number was reset to how it was at the beginning. Mindy had been the last to leave the lead girl, and her words echoed in her head as she walked around the empty stage. "We're here" she had said, referring to the real friends that she had. "In case... You don't win"

There was something weirdly serene about the scoreboard being reset. It suddenly changing midgame to stop giving a fuck about her more stupid lies had led to an absolute rollercoaster of emotions, and then it had exposed the ugly truth that the most important ones were the lies she had told herself. It left her vulnerable to the actors who had helped out, and so it felt nice to have that pressure gone away as the scoreboard went back to its intended function.

One point for a minor lie, two points for one that was a bit more hefty, and three points for a whopper.

"The Earth is flat" she spoke out to the empty crowd. Sure enough, that little lie was rewarded by one, satisfying ding and a single point added to the Guest team. "The moon is made of cheese" she chuckled, just walking around aimlessly and nodding as it gave another singular ding. She paused. "I'm no good" she said out, her voice a bit sadder than before, testing the waters. The board dinged twice this time and added 2 more points.

"My parents' divorce was my fault" She stared at the scoreboard, as if challenging it. It dinged three times. Those three dings helped to soothe her anxiety about that at least a little bit, but the pain was still there. She chuckled darkly to herself. "I don't need anybody" she said offhandedly, no real intention behind her words.

The board dinged once.

She looked up at it, worry and doubt forming a pit in her stomach. "I DON'T NEED ANYBODY!" she shouted at it, gaining the attention of someone in the other room as it dinged three times. She slowly collapsed to the ground and pulled her knees up to her chest, sobbing into her hands as all the shit she had been bottling up finally came out. She didn't notice the person entering back into the room.

Mindy looked down at her, sighed, and then silently sat down next to her, pulling her into a hug. Liz, who had prided herself on not being affected by this type of thing, found herself leaning into the touch slightly, not even caring to check who it was.

Eventually, her sobs died down and she pulled her faced back up, eyes glazed over as she silently scrubbed the remaining tears out of her eyes. "I told you I'd be here" Mindy said quietly. Liz just chuckled in response, giving her a thankful smile. It was hard to finally realize that she did in fact need a support system, but it was necessary for her to heal. As much as she wanted to push everyone and her problems away, she realized now that it would only hurt her and the ones she cared about.

"Do... You wanna talk about it?" Mindy broke the silence after a moment. Liz shrugged. "I need to, I know that" she admitted. "But, I would rather just go home for today..." she sighed. "I'm tired. This whole game show thing was a lot"

"Do you want me to join you?" Mindy asked with a kind smile. "We could watch a rom com or something" she said persuasively, causing the girl next to her to laugh and gently lean her head on her shoulder.

"That sounds nice"