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

[stagemanagers]

[It goes on for a little while! The stairs are wide enough that they can walk side-by-side if they choose and for a few minutes it does get almost too dark to see. They may also notice that, for how seemingly abandoned these stairs are, there's no rats! Or mice or any sign of life really. Weird!

Soon enough the stairs stop and flatten out into a hallway. The hallway stretches out for several feet ahead of them and at the end they'll be able to see an outline of soft light.]

[musacal]

[ WELP... NO GOING BACK NOW. ]

Come on. I think we’re almost there.

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Light is... a good sign? Christine hopes it is a good sign! Hopefully nothing attacks them on the other end of the light.

Christine smiles (not that Nana can see in the darkness) and tries to sound reassuring as she feels her way down the hall.]

I'm with you.

[stagemanagers]

[As they reach the end of the hallway there's a veil of cloth covering a doorway, the outline of soft light shining around the edges.

The point of no return, girls.]

[musacal]

[ WELP..... THIS IS IT.... HOPEFULLY.

She looks to Christine one more time, before carefully moving the veil of cloth away. ]

[stagemanagers]

[When Nana pulls away the veil, a whole new area of the opera house is revealed.

An area surrounded by water, giving the air a heavy and damp smell, and that's a lot of candles. Someone please teach whoever decorated this place how to budget.]

[musacal]

[ OH THIS....

.............why are there so many candles.

Without much of a second thought or waiting to see what Christine does, Nana steps through, past the veil. Being barefoot is now an IMMEDIATE REGRET. ]

Is this... where the Phantom’s been living...?

[ She knows the show used some neat tricks with the candles but... ]

[stagemanagers]

[At a glance the area certainly looks lived in? Not far from where Nana and Christine are peaking in there's a slightly more raised rock formation where they'll be able to see the back of a very nice wooden desk with a chair and a chest similar to the ones in each of your dressing rooms. Farther away they might even be able to catch a glimpse of some kind of very fancy bed that is either shaped like a swan or a turkey depending on who you ask. It should also be noted the walls also look like they're lined with floor length mirrors.

What now?]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Well, first, Christine is going to mourn the fact that she didn't bring a knife to pry open all these mirrors.

Next, she's going to head over to the desk, to see if there's any writing to be found.]

Living, probably. Definitely working... and watching us here.

[She feels just a little uncomfortable. She just wrote a message for him that he hadn't been answering, so she knew she had ticked him off, and now she was in his lair?]

[stagemanagers]

[There are several things on top of the desk, most notably several sheets of blank stationary, a very nice fountain pen, stationary with actual writing on it and...a familiar bone white mask.

There are also a few drawers to look through.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

He... he went out without the mask?

[This seems maybe a little dangerous! But Christine is already in detective mode. Time to look at those papers with writing on them!]

Want to check the drawers, Nana?

[musacal]

[ She feels a little bad, kind of, just being down here. She knows everyone has been pro #screwthephantom and for justifiable reasons, but while she’s been upset at their situation she still doesn’t quite know how she feels about him. In her letters with him he’s actually been... pretty okay! Vague most of the time when she asks stuff but kind of... nice? Especially with her birthday last weekend and all. She felt like she might have been making some headway.

...So being in here makes her feel a little guilty.

She’s careful with where she steps while follow behind Christine and for a moment her eyes are transfixed on the mask with this feeling of dread until Christine brings up the drawers and snaps her out of it. ]

Oh— um. Sure. Okay.

[ Gonna just.... pull one of those open carefully, wow this feels even more bad! ]

[stagemanagers]

[For Nana, the first drawer she opens is mostly empty except for a few spare pens and two face down gold stars, exactly like the ones on your doors.

For Christine, the papers she picks up look...familiar.

They were once your one a true companion
They were all that mattered
They were a friend, a child, a father mother
Then your world was shattered

Wishing they were somehow here again
Wishing they were somehow near
How much are you willing to do
If you could bring them here

It's the motive song from yesterday! It mostly looks the same throughout, all in the Phantom's exceptionally neat handwriting but with the final verse the words are slightly different, more cynical and less emotionally charged than what you got in the cemetery.]

[musacal]

[ Okay she is picking up those those stars and turning them over. Anything on the other sides like any names? ]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Huh! This is very odd. But she also gets it Phantom, script writing is a huge process.

She might rub a pencil over the empty sheet of paper (what? It worked for her last time!) before bending down to search an unopened drawer.]

[stagemanagers]

[No luck with the pencil trick this time, unfortunately! That's just extra stationery. Hopefully he has some that isn't covered in graphite somewhere...maybe right next to that weird diorama? There's a weird diorama here, we forgot to mention that earlier. Might be worth a second look.

The second drawer is locked! There is a third, though!]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Wait. A diorama? Well... that's concerning. Christine reaches out to take a peek at it before looking at that third drawer.]

[stagemanagers]

[It appears to be a small-scale mockup of the last execution! The trees on stage are done in miniature, and there's three little wooden dolls with articulated joints - like the kind you can get at an art store. They aren't really dressed up or anything, but there's tiny pictures pasted onto their heads: the faces of Red, Richard, and the Phantom. Each is placed around where they started the display.

(And no, you can't see the Phantom's actual face, it's his mask.)

It's sort of shoved off to the side of the desk, in a corner. You see no sign of...others.]

[musacal]

[ The diorama’s caught Nana’s eye as well but once it’s dawned on her what it is she has to turn around with a hand to her mouth, images of Red’s death flooding to mind again. ]

Christine... I’m not sure how much longer we should stay here...

[ Her voice is just a little bit wobbly. ]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Oh, god. Christine's stomach twists, and she gently sets the diorama back down.]

He plotted out killing her. How to make her suffer the most. I mean, how twisted do you have to...

[And he was calling her a killer! Her anger is coming back and quickly twisting into determination.]

We gotta keep searching, Nana. There might be a clue to getting out of here.

[Maybe in the chest? Christine is going to... just take this diorama as she heads over.]

[stagemanagers]

[You forgot the last drawer, Chris!]

[stagemanagers]

[They do! The first reads:

RAOUL DE CHAGNY
THE CHARMING RIVAL

The second is:

MAGDALENE DEFOE
THE DIVA]

[musacal]

...Huh? Raoul? [ WELL THAT’S.... INTERESTING. ]

And why do they both have titles like ours...?

[madgiganticfeelings]

Magdalene is... Blind Mag. She's from the same... place as Shilo, I guess?

Maybe he wanted to bring them here with us? Or... maybe they were here before us.

[She doesn't like the thought of there being people trapped here before them...]

[musacal]

...He said something about that before, didn’t he? Back at the first trial... that he wasn’t the one who invented this “format”.

So it’s happened before. With others.