week 4

[stagemanagers]

[Another week, and two more dead. King Richard and Red are both gone, and once again, it was through nothing more than an accident in the heat of the moment. Maybe if you all stay calm and collected, nothing bad will happen again?

Well, maybe not.

When you wake on Sunday, you'll find that you've recovered another one of those memories - or had another dream, if you still wanna be in denial about it. The grounds remain as they are, but this time, the door blocking the stairwell has been unsealed. You can now venture up to the second floor! This is the second time that's happened; it's almost as if you get more space every time someone dies. Or maybe the whole place just seems quieter.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday


(( Welcome to Week 4! Please remember to submit your AC and your memory regains, as well as your coins! You can also still contact the Phantom. ))

Comments

[isawallflower]

[ There are a few specific warning bells going off in Riley's brain. There's always warning bells, but these are louder.

So, her smile stretches and she waves a hand. ] Oh! Right, of course. Okay. I'll hold on to this...thing [ gestures at the beaker ] And. We can talk a bit later.

branching off, here we go...

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine just smiles, but doesn't do much else to silence those alarms. She hesitates for a second, like she has something else to say, but...

Well, hopefully Jeremy was lying about what the SQUIP said, and if not, she'll have a lot more to tell Riley then.

She goes to the coffee shop first, making two cups of tea. Raspberry. Sweet on its own and already tinted red. When it's done brewing, she uses shaking hands to break the seal on the soda bottle. She's still trembling, but she's careful not to spill when she adds a capful of the liquid to one cup, setting them both on a table. The Red itself is hidden in a cupboard, behind a variety of flavoured syrups, just in case she needs it. She'll just hope the SQUIP can't do anything as crazy as giving Jeremy X-ray vision.

With that done, she knocks on Jeremy's door, tone sweet, as if she hadn't been left feeling completely helpless by him a few days ago.]

Jeremy! You up? I made us tea... You want to come with me? We should talk a bit.

[justmeheere]

[It takes a hot sec for Jeremy to show up at the door. His hair is also a hot mess and he is, unfortunately? Fortunately? It's a choice. It's a choice to open up the door only wearing the gay coat he got from merch and boxers.]

What's - Christine? Uh. Can you. Please just. I'm not wearing clothes.

[Sorry, he's just gonna. Try and close the door.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Oh, what a pretty coat! Christine smiles a bit to see it, but holds up her hands, relenting.]

Okay, okay! It's fine, Jeremy, just take your time!

[What a weirdo. But she loves it when he's acting weird, because then at least she knows it's him.]

[justmeheere]

[This is that trope where someone shuts a door and then there's just. Waaaaaaaay more noise than there should be for someone getting dressed. Like, what are you even doing Jeremy? How much stuff do you have to knock over to get dressed?

(Actually he's hiding his embarrassing "potential gifts for Christine" hoard, but that's neither here nor there.)

Anyway, he does eventually open the door again. It's been several minutes, and he's now wearing clothes. Minus the creepy trench coat. He left that part of the costume on the rack. He does actually open up the door and step aside so Christine can come in.]

What, uh. What did you want to talk about?

[madgiganticfeelings]

[There sure is a lot of noise! And Christine is very curious about it, but... does it matter? What matters is that she needs this to work, and she doesn't want to risk this happening in Jeremy's room. She shrugs one shoulder and shakes her head.]

Not here, silly! I made us tea, in that little cafe room that opened up. Come on!

[She takes his hand and pulls him along gently, until they get to the room. The tea cups are still there, one with a spoon still in it.]

I already added honey to mine, but I don't know how you take yours, so... [Which explains why she's already picking up one of the glasses. It's just that she already added stuff to hers. It's fine.]

[justmeheere]

[It's Jeremy, so he just follows behind her blindly because Jeremy is good at very few things besides taking orders. He's actually never been in this room? He literally looked into all the new rooms and then promptly ignored them when he found the computer room. It's fine. Jeremy deals with things normally.]

Uh, I don't. [Do you know anything about tea, Sigyn?] I don't really. I'm not a. A big tea drinker. What, um. What kind of tea is this?

[It looks. Weird? He hasn't had that much tea in his life, but this tea looks weird. Pretty sure it's not supposed to be orange? Pretty sure.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

Oh... well, just try a sip of it? It's okay if you don't like it, but it's raspberry, so it's sweet!

[She sits and looks at him expectantly. Come on, Jeremy, it's just tea. And it's fruity tea, so of course it's going to be slightly reddish. This isn't weird. This is fine. It's going to be fine, if Christine can just convince him to get a mouthful of the soda.]

[justmeheere]

I thought. I thought you wanted to talk? [That was the only part he heard through the door.] Not. I mean. I'm sure. I'm sure the tea is great, but I. Uh. You. You know! Sensitive. Sensitive palate?

[He actually just doesn't want to drink it, but saying that seems really rude.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Okay... plan B. She sighs and gives him a more serious look.]

Jeremy. I can talk to you a lot easier if you drink that tea. You know, like you asked me to do whenever I wanted to talk to you...

[She raises an eyebrow, like she's implying the tea has... something a little better than just tea. It's just that it's not alcohol.]

[justmeheere]

Wh - Christine, what did you put in here? [He doesn't sound afraid, exactly, but he does drop his hand back into his lap.] Because it's. It won't just let me drink. Stuff.

[Christine ......... what did you do?]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine hesitates for a moment. She had been sure he'd at least agree then, when she implied the alcohol, but he's still refusing and she's starting to get antsy.

She tries not to show it. She's got one last attempt to make this work, so she smiles reassuringly.]

I found some wine in one of the cupboards here. Do you want to see it?

[She gets back up and tilts her head, indicating for him to follow after. She goes behind the counter, kneeling down to check her hiding spot. If she just waits until he gets close enough...]

[justmeheere]

No, that's. That's what I mean, if it has. I can't. It has self-preservation instincts like. Like anything else, Christine. It doesn't want -

[So forgive me for doing what's best for you
So forgive me for trying to
make this easier -]

It just wants what's best for me.

for once in her life, riley has the brain cell

[isawallflower]

[ ...SO we've got! A problem! Don't we! Riley doesn't know what the problem is, but she knows there's a problem! And like- here's the thing. She doesn't really have a metric for this, usually, having an adult she can go to for help.

But, she's got an ex-professor and a fallen angel here, and they work pretty well. Without even gathering the rest of her stuff, once Christine leaves, Riley hurries along to find them. Something feels wrong and- well, she's not going to let something else go wrong. ]

[37773972]

[Luckily enough for Riley, Stephen and Mephisto aren't hard to find. They're outside, with a chess board between them, talking quietly, but Stephen's the one to notice her first and he raises his head]

Riley? [She doesn't look too good.] Is everything OK?

[isawallflower]

[ Oh thank goodness. Stephen doesn't even need to finish his question before Riley launches into a whole Thing. ]

I think Christine's about to do something stupid with novelty Mountain Dew, which sounds stupid and ridiculous, but everything's stupid and ridiculous, so whatever, because she was acting really. REALLY weird, and deflective, and Christine doesn't deflect things, she's always open! But I couldn't convince her to tell me what was going on, and she's going to talk to Jeremy, and anything involving Jeremy and Mountain Dew is a nightmare, so please, please help.

[ ...Yep! ]

[heathencall]

[That's... a lot, actually. He glances toward Stephen with a brow raised, expression caught somewhere between greatly amused and deeply troubled.]

Did any of that make sense to you?

[37773972]

[He may or may not have been just getting to the subject of his latest exchange with the Phantom, with Mephisto, but this- this immediately catches his attention, and not only just because of that. His eyes widen]

Riley, what color was the Dew?

[Whether or not it's actually the right mix- he can't help the worry that they'll somehow find something else that has the chemical signature]

[isawallflower]

I don't know, she wouldn't let me see it! That's weird, right? That's weird! And not normal-Christine weird, like...worrying-weird!

[ She's buzzing like she's just inhaled a bunch of caffeine. It's the adrenaline, probably. ]

[heathencall]

[It's certainly weird enough that Mephisto unfolds his legs and pushes to his feet. He reaches down, half gripping Stephen's shoulder, half using it to drag the other man up to his feet. He understands precious little of the implications of these details, but full comprehension wouldn't change much, as far as he's concerned. What he does understand is that Christine is in trouble.]

Where is she? Where are they?

[isawallflower]

[ Riley shrugs, helplessly. ]

She said she was going to go and talk to Jeremy. So- maybe his room, or...or the computer lab, or...

[heathencall]

[It's enough of a lead for him to take. He keeps hold of Stephen as he moves, back toward the doors, aiming for the dressing rooms first. He pauses only for a moment.]

Stay behind us, Riley.

[37773972]

[Riley worries a lot, but Stephen has reason to worry, too. He looks from her to Mephisto, and getting to his feet without hesitation and moving forwards and-

faster. Ahead of them.]

Mephisto- if she manages to do something to the SQUIP- it counts.

[isawallflower]

[ Riley, trailing behind not because she can't outrun them but because Mephisto told her to: ] What?!

[ Panic mode is full. ]

[heathencall]

And you didn't think to mention this sooner?

[Mephisto doesn't exert all of his energy for much.

He's breaking into a sprint for Christine.]