Who will tell your story?

[solomonjihad]

[Sometimes after the trial, Astarte decides to burn her anger off in the kitchen. That's a good idea, right? Right?? This trial really opened her eyes. Monsters - real monsters - they could be in any form.

The voice would be enjoying the anger, if it had not been so suppressed beforehand. If the anger hadn't been real, righteous anger like Astarte feels.

At some point, the small of cooked pumpkin wafts through the air, and soon enough in the first floor lobby, there's a little paper at the merchandising booth.

CAKE AND COFFEE IN THE TEA ROOM.

Its not a crazy recipe - its just pumpkin bread. Where did Astarte get the pumpkin to make it? Who knows? In any case, at least one loaf is a little burnt on the bottom. There's also a large thermos of coffee on the table. Feel free to help yourselves.

Astarte, for her part, is sitting in the tea room, staring at the fire as she drinks her cup of coffee. Staring, and thinking. Ruminating.

There are more question than answers that have come up, after all.]

Comments

[dechagny]

[Well, they did hack the crap out of pumpkins in the beginning of last week. Honestly, it's a nice smell, so Raoul will be showing up to the tea room in a little bit. He's not...as shaken by this execution as he was from D-ne's and from the murder played out before them the week before. Has Raoul grown cold to watching death play out before him? Not really - he just considered Hook a dirty scoundrel the moment he met the man, and is...glad, for Eliza and Darla's sake, that he's been apprehended. They should not have had to die, though. Not one of the victims of the opera house should've had to die.

...God, fucking...to hire Billy Flynn as a lawyer, really? He's still not over how stupid that was.

But back to the present. Raoul enters the tea room, spotting Astarte lost in thought, and does his best to be quiet as he prepares himself a slice of pumpkin bread and a cup of coffee. France isn't big on caffeine, but he'll try a cup - it's hilariously light and sweet, though. Because why not. And once he's all set, he comes to join Astarte by the fire.]

...You've done an excellent job on the bread, Astarte.

[solomonjihad]

[Miss Astarte? She blinks, looking up.]

Ah, thank you...Raoul.

[dechagny]

[It's...been a long month. They've all gotten to know each other very well. It's about time the titles were dropped.

Taking a small sip of coffee. Making a...face...what a weird taste that is, he's not used to it, but he takes another sip.]

...Should we, perhaps, suggest...locking our doors and staying in our rooms on Thursday nights?

[solomonjihad]

[Ah...too true.]

That is a good idea. I...don't know how many people will heed it, though. Javert did mention something similar, after all.

[Barricading people, you know...]

[dechagny]

If it is a trend that continues, I would not mind making things safer for all of us - not that I want to suspect anyone, either.

[solomonjihad]

Yeah.

[She looks up.]

And, there's that poison. If it wasn't Hook's...whose was it?

[dechagny]

He said he simply found it, and I believe we thought it might have been placed in the workshop...but, did he find it there?

[solomonjihad]

...I don't know. That's what I'm wondering, myself. And if so, who put it there.

[dechagny]

[...Honestly his first suspicion is the Balladeer, but...he wants them to get out of here as much as they do, and he always seemed to express regret and sadness at the outcomes. Raoul can't blame him.]

Perhaps...the stage hands who stock this place and set things up might have left it out on accident, or...on the management's behest.

[solomonjihad]

...That...so the management wanted someone to use it.

[Its wrong. And of course someone took advantage of it...]

[dechagny]

At this point, I put nothing past them, not even something so deplorable.