week 7

[stagemanagers]

[Seven weeks. Twelve deaths. Five survivors.

When you wake up at the start of the new week nothing in the opera house seems all that different. The Box Office door is still locked tight as it ever was but the box you've been submitting letters to for the past several weeks still appears to be open. The Phantom is still accepting correspondence apparently.

But something within you is different. You remember everything. All the gaps, the missing pieces, entire chunks of time from back home- they're back and neatly fitted where they should be in your heads.

Just like the previous week, there's a distinct lack of contact from the dead after all of their activity before. No moving Tom Jones cutouts, no recording studio mishaps, no mysterious deliveries for Tad Cooper or automatic writing sessions. It's probably fine though.

As the days trickle by you get the looming the end is near.]

[ Sunday Monday Tuesday ]

[ooc: don't forget to submit your final memories, toss in your regain coins and check in for endgame! Reminder, since this is the last week all characters should be at their true canon point memory-wise!]

Comments

[garbageface]

That’s the Phantom for you, I guess.

[ Santana, for better or for worse, was hallucinating her girlfriend from back home when Christine had her breakdown at the party, so she doesn’t exactly know what the SQUIP was suggesting. But she can guess, and it’s horrifying. Sick. Santana sighs. ]

Well it’s wrong. You know that, right? If you were stupid and weak like it said, you probably would’ve died already.

[ at the mention of Jeremy, Santana purses her lips. ]

Look, I don’t hate Jeremy much more than I hate, like, every teen boy on the planet. And yeah, being brainwashed sucks, but that was a choice he made. Not you. If you wanna save the red stuff for him, I get it, and I won’t pester you about it, but I just —

[ Santana pauses, swallows. ]

It would suck if that thing took over. So don’t let it do that on his account.

[ Santana doesn’t want to lose Christine, too — especially since she considers Christine a friend, now. ]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[It's definitely for the best that Santana doesn't know about that. She already hated how much Christine gave up of herself to try to make someone like Jeremy happy. If she had heard about her thoughts of sacrifice, it wouldn't have gone well.

She winces at the mention of how she would have died, anyways.]

No, that's the thing. It would've probably been fine with that. It... ugh, I can't explain it.

It's just that it's all about what's best for Jeremy. What's going to get him everything he wants... and it's pretty clear he didn't want me as much as he thought he did.

[She rests her hands on the console underneath her, looking down at all the blinking buttons.]

So I don't know. I want to save the Red, obviously, because as stupid as he's being, he's my friend and I care about him, and I want him to be safe and maybe have a chance to talk to me? Without making me talk to his creepy robot friend and leaving me to kiss his stupid robot face? But like, my SQUIP wants that too, because then I'm not shutting her up, plus, in a weird way, I would be 'subservient' to Jeremy or whatever if I gave up something like that for him...

[Ugh, it's so unfair. Why does her SQUIP have to be such a mysogynist while wearing the face of a feminist icon?]

[garbageface]

[ The more Santana hears about the SQUIP, the angrier the whole situation makes her. She tries not to let it show too much, although she does wince at the mention of being “subservient.” The problem is, she’s tried to talk to Christine about Jeremy before, but Christine seems so unwilling to realize that maybe...she shouldn’t be Jeremy’s friend. Ordinarily, the whole thing would exasperate her. But now, it reminds her a little bit of how she feels about her grandmother. It’s hard, to so badly want love from someone who refuses to give it. ]

That’s — I’m not gonna lie, that’s super fucked up. But if you wanna save the Red, then do it because that’s your choice. You’re all about being yourself, right? If anyone’s strong enough to tell that squat to shut up, it’s you. Sounds like you know what you want.

[ a pause. ]

And that’s — that’s pretty cool of you. But also, like, if you never spoke to Jeremy again after this, or you decided you wanted to beat the crap outta him, that would also be cool too.

[madgiganticfeelings]

It's all really... really fucked up.

[She almost stumbled over the swear, but manages to soldier through at the last moment. Her fingers tap absent-mindedly on the console, and her eyes are stuck on the little display where it's supposed to show the audio levels of the microphone, as if hopeful it'll suddenly jump to life, and someone out there will give her the right answers.

Or maybe it'll be Jeremy, telling her he's finally trying to be a better person, and Christine doesn't have to feel so guilty over giving him a dozen second chances.]

I hate him, a little bit. And I love him at the same time. I hate what he's done, but I love what he can be. And that sounds... so, so cliche, like I know I must sound like every girl who's ever looked at a bad boy and said they could "fix him." Or like I'm still reading fairytales, and I think if I save the Red for him, I'm being some hero somehow.

[One hand goes up to her temple and she sighs.]

I want to punch him so hard, but he probably wants me to, and I want to tell him I'm done with him, but he probably wants that just as much. And all I've ever wanted is just to have him, as the first friend I'd ever made for myself, and he can't even give me that.