itscurtains | once more with feeling [act 3]

You awake in an unfamiliar bed.

It’s comfortable enough, sure, but it’s certainly not yours. The room, too, is unfamiliar, especially in such heavy darkness. There seems to have been a great effort put into making it a livable space, with fuzzy rugs laid over linoleum, beds arranged as best to fit (and one bunk bed per dorm, rip whoever has the bottom bunk), and a single desk. You've also got individually labelled trunks; if you look inside yours, you'll find a yearbook with mostly blank pages, as well as a few with some interesting information. But even with all these changes it’s clear this room started it’s life as a classroom, every window hidden behind heavy dark green curtains.

To add to the strangeness of it all, your clothes have been swapped for some kind of uniform. It, though fitting your body perfectly, might feel a bit odd to some of you, as the body you have isn’t quite the same as it was before you mysteriously fell unconscious. The other important thing to note is the people in the other beds around you, all wearing the same color-coded uniform.

The hallway outside the dorms is narrow but well-lit, with fresh white walls and some scattered posters advertising some kind of midweek club meeting. The hallway goes on until, for the more contemporary of you, the pieces start to fall together as to your location: a school. Once you leave your rooms you’re free to wander as you wish but pinned up on a corkboard just outside the cafeteria there’s framed information that you might find helpful. If you explore further into the other rooms, in fact, you'll see there's an identical copy outside all of them.

In the lobby there are linoleum floors and fluorescent lighting, and a pair of glass doors that appear to lead outside. You can see out of both of them that the sun is shining brightly and there’s definitely more to see in the distance but the glass is unbreakable; you can't get out that way right now. A rolling metal sheet blocks off the hallway to the west. For the moment, both doors leading outside are locked.

It looks like you’re stuck. But hey - at least you aren’t alone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ah yes, she's found the Karen of the group.]

It means you can leave if you succeed in getting away with murder.

[You know. Charming.]

Oh! Okay then.

[He still... doesn't look that worried.]

So we get expelled if we actually do kill someone, got it.

In a manner of speaking, I suppose.

[Slow blinking.]

I think the idea is that it's the only manner of escape. There is no other way to leave this place.

[Oh.

That does get a reaction out of him and he looks genuinely confused by this.]

W-wait what? What about graduation? And can't we just enter through the front door?

[He definately has not checked for exits yet.]

[Definitely the Karen Aijo of the group.......]

Have you tried using the doors yet?

No? I thought I was just enrolled in some kinda school! Why would I wanna immediately run away from it?

Do you even recall enrolling in the first place?

Well, no, but I thought maybe it was a surprise enrollment. Or maybe it turns out I failed high school and this was an overly aggressive way to make me retake senior year.

[What...]

Does that sort of thing happen often where you are from?

... Not that I know of?

[Said very much in the tone of "it's still very much possible that this could happen back home."

In that case, you seem... Very composed for your circumstances.

[Even she is a little shaken. How are you doing that, Spongebob, me boy?]

Thanks.

[He says this like it's a genuine compliment.]

I'm sure this is all just one big misunderstanding though! I mean, what would anyone have to gain over kidnapping us?

[A shrug.]

My parents are very well-known and well off. Ransom would not be entirely off the table. What about you?

[He thinks for a good moment trying to think why anyone would wanna kidnap him.]

Well I guess I can see Plankton kidnapping me to get to the Krabby Patty secret formula, but that's about it. And I dunno why he thinks putting me in school would get that outta me.

Plank...ton? [Some of this all sounds vaguely familiar to her but... We don't have time to unpack any of that, so we're throwing the whole suitcase away.]

Is it not something you would give up if your life was under threat?

[He furiously shakes his head.]

Oh no of course I wouldn't! It's a trade secret; the Krusty Krab would be ruined if it ever got out!

[In his defense the movie did reveal that Bikini Bottom would become a horrible dystopia if Plankton got a whole of him.

... On the other hand Spongebob does not know this.]

A corporation is more important than your life? [She blinks.] You must be American.

Not just a corporation; it's the best restaurant in the entire ocean!

[But that second part gives him pause.]

"America"...? Oh! Oh, no, I'm not from there, but my friend Sandy is from Texas! She sometimes tells me about it!