once more with feeling [act 3]

[stagemanagers]

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.

Comments

[tellthestory]

Never known that to stop any murderers.

[Like. In his personal experience.]

I don't know how much you're supposed to apply real-world logic to it.

[themuseabandonsyou]

I guess not.

[ People do seem to still get murdered on a fairly regular basis despite prison existing, it's true. ]

What do you mean by real-world logic, though?

[tellthestory]

I mean, you need to suspend your disbelief a little, when you hear a story. A lot of them don't really make logical sense - mine basically never did. But that wasn't the point.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus just kind of looks at the Balladeer for a solid moment, trying to make sense of what he just said. It drags on for long enough to be kind of awkward, before he asks, ]

But this is real life, isn't it? Am I asleep?

[ He guesses this could be a really bizarre dream! It's not like any he's ever had before, he thinks, but it isn't like he remembers every dream he's ever had perfectly anyway. ]

[tellthestory]

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?

[Mmmm. No. We don't have time for that.]

No, I'm pretty sure you're awake.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus does take a deep breath like he's preparing to sing back at this strange man when he starts up, but then he stops two lines in and starts talking again. Oh well! ]

Oh. [ yeah okay he'll just buy that without questioning it further ] But this isn't a dream, or a story, then. Or, it could become a story in the telling of it later? But right now it's just people doing things. So why bring up murder in the middle of the normal rules?

[tellthestory]

That is usually how I work.

[In the telling of them later, that is.]

But this one's happening now. It's about murder, I guess - or not murdering! Maybe you all can not murder! [He hasn't seen the script!]

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus still feels like he's missing something big and important with this conversation, but that just kind of... happens to him sometimes, so he just does his best to keep up. ]

It's really easy not to murder people, [ he says, sounding kind of out of his depth but really trying. ] I'm sure we can?

[ Unless someone gets possessed of a divine madness or something but how often does that happen, right? ha hahah a h a ]

[tellthestory]

That's the spirit!

[yeah boy you'd think it's easy not to murder people, but usually people attack him when he says stuff like that, so]

I bet it'll be fine. Just some regular character drama!

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ That's another really confusing way to put things, but Orpheus just nods along. Yeah, sure! Just regular drama. ]

I guess everyone else here is probably awake by now? Do you think whoever brought us here is going to explain what's going on soon?

[ It is a school, right? That means teachers, and not just letting the students (or 'students') mill around doing nothing all day. Orpheus isn't really thrilled about the notion of any of that, given his past experiences with education, but if it means getting some kind of answer he'll cope. ]

[tellthestory]

Yeah, I'm sure they will. They kinda have to, right?

[Admittedly, his reasons for thinking so are somewhat different from normal - but he's right.]

They'll probably make an announcement about it first, so I guess we can do whatever we want for now.

[themuseabandonsyou]

I guess so. Should we just wait for that? Or should we keep looking around?

[ It feels like maybe they should wait instead of walking around touching everything, but that sounds really boring. ]

Oh, I'm Orpheus, by the way. It's nice to meet you.

[tellthestory]

We can do whatever you want.

[He tells characters what they ought to do often enough, but it never helps. Orpheus seems a decent sort anyway. Speaking of:]

Oh, Orpheus? Like in the story?

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ There's another confused pause, though it's shorter this time. ]

Maybe? [ Orpheus looks a little nervous, still kind of shaken from his conversation with Elisabeth. Is this man talking about the story he might've been named for? Or about the Argo? Or some other thing he might not have considered? ] What have you heard?

[tellthestory]

Uh...

[oh wait this might be dicey]

...you and Eurydice?

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus nods. ] We just got married recently. How did you hear about that, though? Did you have a friend who was there?

[ Because otherwise that's a really weird thing to be telling stories about. Neither of them are particularly remarkable - well, no, Orpheus thinks Eurydice is the most remarkable person in the world, but neither of them are famous or anything. ]

[tellthestory]

Uh...no, that's just...part of the story.

[oh god oh no]

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus just looks at him, confused. ]

What story?

[ How much is there to tell? They've known each other for a season, and while it's been the best of Orpheus's life he's not sure anyone else would care enough to regale others with the details. ]

[tellthestory]

Oh, you know...

[Look, he hates dishonesty, but he also hates waltzing up to people and telling them about inevitable tragedies!]

If it hasn't happened yet, I probably shouldn't tell you.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Oh.

[ Orpheus thinks about that for another moment longer before something seems to click into place. ]

Are you an oracle? [ Because that would explain a lot of the, uh, eccentricity. ]

[tellthestory]

Isn't that someone who tells the future? Nah, not really. I just tell stories.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Some of them contact the dead, too, or speak to the gods when they're far away. [ Lots of very important duties like that. ]

How else would you know our story, though? If it hasn't happened to us yet.

[tellthestory]

[How, indeed?]

Well, I think it happened a long while before mine was written.

[themuseabandonsyou]

What?

[ It's an old tale from way back when, but Orpheus has no idea about any of that. ]

But we're both here right now. How could I be from before you?

[tellthestory]

Happens all the time, in the right sort of show. Most of my old castmates weren't even all alive at the same time!