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

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.

[madgiganticfeelings]

[She was pretty sure running into Mephisto wasn't really going to be a concern this evening. Certainly, they had their tensions to deal with last night. After that, she would expect him to want to avoid her, at least so she didn't dive headfirst into forgiving him before he seemed to want her to.

So when he approaches her after her preparations, she gasps, nearly trips over her own feet, but slowly relaxes and sinks onto the ground, hand at her chest.

...She shakes her head at the question. She doesn't mind company. She's also not sure why she decided to go back to not talking when Mephisto already heard her, but she's stubborn like that.]

[heathencall]

[Mephisto cringes as she startles at his approach. He'd been trying to do better about that after the last time he'd snuck up on her but... no dice, it would seem. He holds his hands up in a silent apology, before settling down beside her.]

When was the last time you ate, Lady Impaler?

[madgiganticfeelings]

[She's not very good at noticing things anyways, and she's a little trapped in her own head right now. Or in. Someone's head...

She keeps hearing a voice that's not her own. She hopes it's just Mephisto's.

She shrugs for a moment, trying to continue to play it cool, but she has a feeling that answer isn't going to fly with him.]

...Last night. I felt sick all day today.

[heathencall]

Did something happen?

[He leans toward her, hand lifting to -- well, he isn't sure what. He lowers it once more, balling his fingers in his pant leg for the time being. After everything, he still feels... guilty. And he isn't sure how to shake the feeling.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

I... sort of. It's more... I thought something happened? And it didn't.

[She doesn't notice him reaching towards her, seems to be still off in her own little world. No matter how hard she tries not to be.

She ducks her head down, as if hoping her voice will be too muffled for Mephisto to hear.]

Jeremy... said we aren't friends. Told me to stop acting like we are.

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?

[madgiganticfeelings]

'm fine. Just not feeling well.

[Christine flushes and reaches up to unlatch her stall door, still kneeling on the floor. She looks... not great. Especially with her eyes still red rimmed from crying.]

Sorry if I bothered you.

[Santana can feel free to go back to her life without Christine, which would be completely fair.]

[garbageface]

Yeah, no kidding, it sounds like you threw up half your body mass in there.

[ And that’s worrying! Santana puts down the tweezers. After studying Christine for a few moments, Santana walks over to the other girl and sticks out her hand, offering to help Christine up, if she needs it. ]

Look, I’ve heard plenty of people throw up before meets, it doesn’t bother me.

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine stares at the offered hand for a moment, and then slowly takes it. She wobbles when she gets up to her feet, but she otherwise stays standing.]

Before...? Oh, no. I don't... I know I'm not the ideal shape and size but I'm not doing anything like that. I promise.

[But what she was doing... it's not worth talking about. Because it'll annoy Santana or make her sad or angry, and Christine doesn't want anyone having to feel that strongly over her and her stupid memories.]

cw vague eating disorder reference

[garbageface]

What? No, I meant ‘cause they were nervous.

[ that other stuff happened too, of course, but she never really figured Christine was going through that ordeal, specifically. Especially not this early in the morning. ]

So are you nervous?

[ Santana still figures the culprit is either nerves or poison, and she doesn’t want Christine to freak out at the suggestion of poison. ]

[madgiganticfeelings]

I'm... upset. I'm just upset and scared. It's stupid boy stuff-

[Mostly. Does a supercomputer count as a boy?]

-so it's not like you'd think it was worth throwing up over anyways.

[Anyways, the important thing is it's probably not poison! And probably not worth Santana worrying about at this point in the morning!

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.

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine blinks in surprise when she finds Steven in a new location. The studio would be exciting, should be exciting, if only she hadn't decided to completely give up on that part of herself.

So instead of gushing excitement about the possibility of recording a radio drama, or maybe editing her current script to be made for an audio format, she just... shrugs.]

[holyspit]

[Okay? That's. Probably fine.]

My dad would really know what to do with this place. For a long time he just had a bunch of recording stuff in the back of his van, but he still managed to put together albums and stuff.

[stagemanagers]

[You may not know how to operate this well, Steven, but surely you can at least identify that there's some previously saved recordings in the system?]

[holyspit]

[Probably? If nothing else he can accidentally hit some kind of 'play recorded' button or something, he's at least familiar enough to figure stuff out from there.]

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.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine gasps softly as her arms move. For a dreadful moment, she thinks she can feel the buzzing in the back of her head again, that she can feel words that someone else wants her to sing on her lips.

But no, this feels different. It feels safe, oddly. Christine lets her arms wrap around her as her eyes overflow with tears for a moment.

But before the feeling fades, she realizes this must have been someone. So she stubbornly blinks her tears away and whispers out:]

Hello? Is... is someone there? Please, I left you all letters, I... I want to talk to you.

[heathencall]

[Mephisto hasn't gone far, and considering their proximity, he thinks at first that Christine is talking to him.

He turns to answer, but stops.]

Christine, what's going on? [He'll approach just a little warily.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

Something... no, someone, one of our friends, I think they're moving my arms.

[She has to believe it's them. Who else would want to comfort her right now? She bends over, chokes on another sob, but tries to whisper to them.]

Please. Please, if there's anything I can do to help you, anything you need me to see, please show me.

[heathencall]

[You know we can't help ourselves... ]

Riley?

[stagemanagers]

[Still no verbal answer but the hug tightens just a little more before releasing. But who or whatever has a hold of her isn't quite done yet- after a moment's pause her right hand lifts of it's own accord and traces something on the back of her right hand:

R W]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine waits patiently as her arms move. She doesn't dare fight it, doesn't even breathe as she feels her hands start to shift, one on top of the other.

She feels what she traces and chokes on a sob.]

Riley! Riley, you're here... you, you knew I couldn't let go, didn't you?