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]

[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!]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[OOPS OKAY OPENING THAT UP THEN.]

[stagemanagers]

[The drawer clatters as you open it. You found this throwback!]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Well, it's hers now! She grabs it and pockets it. Maybe she can find something on it later, but they should maybe sneak out soon. She'll just take a quick peek in the chest...]

1/2

[inside_yourmind]

[And that would be when the Phantom emerges from one of the curtains leading back deeper into the lair.

He is, immediately, a flurry of cloth. For a gentleman of his time, he's a bit underdressed, in his trousers and shirtsleeves with a dressing gown layered over top. The dressing gown has wide sleeves, one of which he uses to hide his face as he turns away from you and half-retreats back into the doorway he emerged from.]

What are they doing here? [Though he's still hiding his face, his head is angled upwards.] Remove them!

2/2

[stagemanagers]

[And, as if on cue, the ground drops away from underneath you both.

Luckily, you fall into water. When you surface, you'll see that you're in some sort of deep well. There's a ladder built into the stone walls you could use to climb out, but there's also a metal grate very slowly starting to lower from above.

You've probably seen this one before, though. If anything, the grate's coming down a bit slower than that. You'll do fine.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine barely has time to react to seeing the Phantom half dressed (just like in her fanfiction!) before they're both plummeting. With a shriek, she flounders in the water, searching for Nana. She can head for the ladder when she's sure she's safe!]

Nana! Nana, we have to hurry!

[Red better be right about the protection here!]

[musacal]

[ As soon as she sees him, she feels her whole stomach drop, But the floor is out from under her before she can even say sorry.

The water is a very sudden and cold and unpleasant and for a moment she’s so shocked she forgets how to swim. But then Christine calls out to her and she’s got it. So don’t worry Christine, she’s here! ]

O-Okay...!

[ Swimming to that ladder now! ]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[They make their way over to the ladder, and it seems that luckily enough, they're faster than that grate. Christine climbs up after Nana, weighed down by her very wet fur cloak and hoping they don't have much further to climb.]

[stagemanagers]

[Luckily, the trap is not that hard to escape from! It makes sense - that seemed to be more about getting you out of the lair than anything else, after all, and you're certainly out now.

The narrow stone corridor you find yourselves in resembles the one you went through to get down there, but you appear to have ended up somewhere else altogether. If you go down a ways, and climb another ladder, you'll find yourselves coming out of the trapdoor by the mirror trap. From there, you can make your way back out into the ballroom!]

[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.