week 5

[stagemanagers]

[That was...an absolute shitshow. More beloved friends are dead in a mess of a trial that's left Angus half the man he was, Riley in a free fall and the Phantom...somehow still standing despite taking two stabs to the torso.

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 door blocking the stairwell on the second floor has been unsealed. You can now venture up to the third floor! You have so much space now, it's just a shame it's all come at the cost of eight lives.

But despite the tragedy you have made progress! The trip into the Phantom's lair yielded some hints to the past of the Opera House, your house manager's apparently grim hobby and the possibility of an ally outside the Opera House. Who knows what this week will bring?]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday


(( Welcome to Week 5! Please remember to submit your AC and your memory regains, as well as your coins! You can also still contact the Phantom. ))

Comments

SUNDAY

[stagemanagers]

[heathencall]

[For all intents and purposes, Mephisto should waken... wholly satisfied. He'd succeeded. In his final moments, determined to kill the demon that had seduced him, Ariel had realized his truth. Mephisto had won, he'd be taken back into God's embrace for their deal and --

And it didn't change anything. Not just beyond the obvious, the lusterless wings still incapable of flight. It didn't bring any salvation here in the opera house, either. Riley was still gone. Everyone was still broken.

What it does bring is the lyrics he could not remember, the sound of Ariel's voice reaching truth. The truth that even Mephisto could now understand. The truth that he repeats aloud.]

Love, love is the only truth
Pure as the well of youth
Until it breaks your heart

[And now, in some cruel twist of fate, he understands that more than ever. He can feel that truth presence not just in the warm weight beside him, but in the cold, yawning emptiness in his chest.

Those lyrics weigh heavily in his heart as he rises for the day, retreating from Stephen's room, wearing one of his shirts, of course. It takes some doing to arrange his wing properly, and he hopes that Stephen won't mind the open gash in the back of it too terribly.

He spends his first hours in the cemetery, searching for Riley's grave and, once he finds it, laying the bear atop it. The feather is planted in the ground beside it, matched by a twin on the opposite side that he plucks from his wing.

He's not sure how long he spends there. He isn't even sure when he leaves. But he eventually finds himself in the chapel, kneeling down. He looks up at the stained glass window, and then beyond it. He clasps his hands together but... no, that doesn't feel right. He releases them just as quickly and stands back up. It isn't long until he's simply... speaking to the ceiling.]

I won't beg you for mercy. I won't beg to be back in your good graces. I only ask that whatever revulsion you have for me, you spare her. Don't damn her for what she could not control. For the burden you gave her.

Grant me that, in the place of our deal. As mercy on her soul.

[He isn't sure that he's heard, but... he feels better saying it. He leaves the chapel feeling marginally better. Well enough to do a little exploration, at least. Most of what's new here is... a little beyond his abilities, but he can at least take the time to sit on the edge of the hot tub and soak his legs.]

cemetery

[37773972]

[Stephen is quiet, not approaching at first; Mephisto was just as close if not even closer to Riley than he was. The man- the angel deserves some privacy. Eventually, though, he approaches, standing just behind him and by his side.

There's nothing that can be said. He knows, from experience, new and old; nothing will kill the pain. All he can offer right now is his company - and hope that it's returned.]

[heathencall]

[It takes... perhaps a little while longer than usual for Mephisto's attention to flick over to Stephen. He searches himself for something to say, but comes up empty for the time being. His head shifts back to Riley's tombstone.

He'd pitied the short, fleeting lives of humans, but even this was too brief. Too unfair.]

No one ever told her they were proud of her. Did you know that?

hot tub

[likemypicture]

[Sweet Baby Jesus, Mephisto, she's been looking for you everywhere. She storms into the pool and---]

Oh! We have a pool! And a hot tub! And-- there you are! [She's got some paper in her hand and she begins to wave it around like a mad woman, poor Tad Cooper on her shoulder getting a little bit of a roller coaster ride in the process.]

[heathencall]

[Mephisto blinks and... Honestly looks a little terrified! He looks left and right, considering running.]

Me? [He looks behind himself, just to be sure.]

[stagemanagers]

[A quick note for Mephisto when he leaves Stephen's dressing room in the morning-

There are four of the Tom Jones cut-outs from the dining room just crowded around Mephisto's dressing room door.]

[heathencall]

[Just.... gonna.....

look up and down the hall and head on over. And also maybe knock one over for good measure]

Christine? Steven? ... Jeremy? Are you playing games?

[37773972]

[In the middle of the night, Stephen sits bolt-upright, staring at nothing in the darkness. His heart is beating rabbit-fast, and there's a word - a name on his lips.]

Dana?

[She- Gregor- Stephen somehow finds sleep again, but it's not easy. Despite the body next to him, he feels...alone.

The emotion lingers when he wakes. When he goes to the dining hall for breakfast, he seems still tired - but that's understandable, given the recent events, isn't it? At least he's got clean bandages on, and he seems in just a little less pain than the day before. Progress is...progress, he guesses.

He also visits the cemetery. Lingering by...all the graves - even Angus's - but longest by Riley and Sigyn's. After a while, he just...sits down by the latter, and starts...]

singing.]

Empty spaces, what are we living for?
Abandoned places, I guess we know the score
On and on
Does anybody know what we are looking for?

[Eventually he gets up. Eventually he goes to the new floor. And eventually he finds the saunas, and he thinks- he thinks he's heard somewhere, about it being good for injuries. He looks at his arms, and awkwardly starts trying to get (re)dressed.]

[likemypicture]

[Anne's come to the cemetery too. She doesn't want to bother Stephen-- not right away, at least, and she has important matters to tend to-- so she passes by him, a woman on a mission. She kneels down by Richard's grave, and in a very stern and hushed voice, begins to speak to him.]

Dear cousin, I do not know if that was you that possessed dear Tad yesterday, but if it was--- ... I do not know. Consider me both greatly grateful, and disturbed. [She hugs herself tightly, since there is no Richard to hug, and delays a few moments, before she's quite done with that, and finds herself straying to Stephen's side, by Sigyn's grave. She invites herself to wordlessly plop down at his side, frowning at the grave.]

[37773972]

[You're more than welcome, Anne. Stephen even shifts over a little bit to make room. As before, there's another stretch of comfortable silence, and then;]

...I can understand why Shilo likes these kind of places so much.

Cemetary

[holyspit]

[So, Stephen's probably noticed the flowers planted at a few of those graves by now. Here's your bittier counterpart, uprooted flowers and trowel in gloved hands, coming to add some more to- let's say Spinel's plot, at this point.]

We need a hero, we need more time
Behind the Phantom, his cruel pantomime
Lives on the line...

[37773972]

Impossible to say what we are waiting for.

[o hai Steven. Your taller not-self glances towards the other voice before resting his head against Sigyn's stone, and...]

But we must go on
We must be strong, yeah

[holyspit]

[Steven wakes up in the stables this morning, breathing in sharply and grabbing at his stomach before reality settles back in. Lion is still here, rumbling slowly in his sleep, and Steven sinks back against the solid softness of his massive form. He takes a second to check his gem, like he's confirming its presence, one last time.]

[Anyone passing nearby in the morning might be drawn in by the sound of sobbing, relieved laughter.]

[Steven's still outside most of the rest of the morning, tending to the newly marked graves. All of them now have flowers, transplanted from the garden, planted near the headstones.]

[The kinds of flowers vary; Angus has just a few pale lilies growing next to his stone. Spinel has been given a huge variety, though if someone thinks to look they'll find a very deliberate lack of roses or pink flowers here.]

[Unless for some reason you count Steven himself, sitting quietly in front of her grave for a while.]

I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner. You deserved a better friend than mom or me.

[And much later on, in the bakery, he's- oh. That's a fire, things are definitely on fire here.]

Grease fire! GREASE FIRE! AAH-!

[At least he's beating at the flaming deep fryer with a large cookie sheet instead of throwing water on it?]

WHY WOULD YOU BETRAY ME LIKE THIS, DONUTS?

Bakery

[heathencall]

[Mephisto is the resident buffoon when it comes to technology and not creating chaos with it but... This. This he can handle. He'd already used baking soda to clean up his own messes in alchemy -- he actually knows what he's doing here!

After removing Octokitten from his usual spot on Mephisto's good arm, he sprints up to both boy and fire. He throws open a handful of cabinets until he finds the baking soda and rips the lid off. He tosses the lot of it onto the fire and then turns to Steven.]

Cover it.

[holyspit]

[Oh thank god, today's carrier of The Braincell has arrived. Or thank whoever's appropriate, since. Mephisto.]

OKAY! OKAY!

[And. Doing that.]

It, uh. Didn't have instructions, so I just turned it to what looked like medium. ...How long should we leave it like this..?

[recessives]

[ "And we will always have each other in our time of need
Shilo, you're the world to me."

"Free at last!"

When Shilo leaves her room, she's... different, somehow. Not as drastically as, say, Mephisto, but she walks with a lot more purpose than she used to?

The first place she walks with purpose to is, uh. The kitchen, where she can be found dumping the meds the Phantom gave her into the sink!*

(*Please don't try this at home, kids, real meds are important. Also, cw uh. abuse talk? and repo spoilers.)

From there, she goes up to explore the new floor! Some of the rooms catch her attention for a little bit - but the thing she seems most excited by is the pool. Almost enough to forget that she doesn't... know how to swim, rip. So she spends a while, after finding the swimsuits and changing into one, sitting by the edge of the pool with her feel dangling in. She seems to be, in fact, All About This.

In the evening, she heads out to the graveyard, because of course she does, and lays some flowers at a few of the graves. She sits down next to one of the blank ones, leaning up against it and holding one of the flowers she brought out, and sings, softly. ]

I'll keep on going, dad
Don't you worry
Even though I don't need a cure...

pool

[37773972]

[o hai Shilo, don't mind Stephen watching you for a moment before-]

You look like you've never seen a pool before.

[recessives]

That obvious, huh?

[ she looks out over it ]

I always kind of wished we could have one, but... wrong neighborhood for having a back yard at all, really.

graveyard

[justmeheere]

Shilo?

[He has. An entire bouquet of roses, because he got them out of the merch booth and well. What else was he supposed to do with these?]

cw emetophobia

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine... doesn't sleep much. She wakes herself up as often as she can, pretty much every hour on the hour, to check the halls. When she does sleep, she does wake up with... something in the back of her mind. An electric pulse, the taste of sickly sweet soda in the back of her throat. A buzzing in the back of her mind that turned into a voice, a command, so all-encompassing that they turned into strings around her wrists that led her limping from the stage into...

This feeling is true...

It should be another reason to hate Jeremy, but the thought of that sends her rushing to the bathroom, coughing and retching until one taste is masked with the acidic taste of her stomach's contents.

After that, though, she's back to patrolling. The new floor should be an excitement, but she really just pops her head in each room, looks for anything amiss before moving on. The smell of the bakery just makes her dizzy, anyways. She heads back down to the dressing rooms, and she might accidentally run into a few people, as she knocks gently on each door, tries the doorknob if she doesn't hear a response.

Probably what's oddest about the way she's taken on her bodyguard duties is how... silent she is. She doesn't say a word. Even when she runs into someone, she just nods slowly, ticking off a mental box, one more person safe and accounted for before she does it all again in an hour. Between that and her outfit, the long wolf's pelt and her historically appropriate Juliet's dress, you'd likely be forgiven for mistaking her for a ghost.

She's done with impassioned speeches and emotional tirades. It's very clear to her no one's been listening. Her microphone has been turned off, and the stage lights have already focused in on another scene, one without her.

It isn't until late that night that she maybe takes a break from patrolling, heading out to the graveyard. It's here that she actually makes the most noise, perhaps just by virtue of needing the sound to remind herself she's alive. She starts by taping letters to each of the graves. She lights candles as well, tries not to think of the ones that had been burning at the chapel. As she moves between each of the markers, she hums quietly to herself.]

You all meant so much
Have I given up?
Does it feel like a trial?
Does it trouble your mind the way you trouble mine?
Does it feel like a trial?
No, I'm thinking too fast, it's like marbles on glass...

[She shakes her head, rubs stubbornly at her eyes, and then finally speaks, her voice muffled and quivering.]

I'm... I know I'm not supposed to do this. So I'm not summoning you again. But if any of you... i-if any of you are still there, watching... I-I'll be here all night. If you want to talk.

Because I'd like to.

Cemetery

[heathencall]

[Mephisto also doesn't sleep. He should, perhaps, if only to distract from the still present ache in his wing. Maybe it will help him heal. Maybe it will help him forget. But like Christine, it's too difficult to fathom sitting idle. He has to be sure those that remain are safe.

... That. Includes Christine.

He hasn't been following her, not really. But he does keep an eye on her throughout the day. And when the hour grows late and Christine moves outside, he follows. He waits for her to finish speaking, and then moves to stand beside her.]

Mind some company, Princess Christine? Aside from your spirits, that is.

bathroom; cw emetophobia

[garbageface]

[ And your McKinley High School Prom Queen is —

Santana barely sleeps that night, but apparently, she sleeps long enough to dream. She wakes up ridiculously early, though, and decides to spend this extra time in the bathroom, working on her appearance. Everything has spiraled out of control, but she’s hoping that this will make her feel a little bit better.

It’s while she’s doing her eyebrows that she hears someone retching, and realizes she’s not alone. Ordinarily, she’d go about her business, but it’d be just her luck that this person is, like, poisoned or something, so she calls out: ]

Hey, you good?

patrolling

[holyspit]

Oh. Hey.

[Steven's checking out the recording studio, just kind of. Idly fiddling with the knobs and stuff.]

...neat stuff in here, right.

cemetery

[stagemanagers]

[Christine doesn't get a verbal answer from anyone non-living.

What does happen is, while she's passing by an empty grave marker, her arms move on their own and a soft tingly sensation fills her limbs. They lift in a jerky motion and slowly, carefully wrap around her in a self-hug.]