It's Curtains Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stagemanagers) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
itscurtains2021-05-30 12:40 am
stagemanagers) wrote in itscurtains2021-05-30 12:40 am
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.
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.
no subject
[It looks just like him. Cassandra has no reason to believe it isn't her former friend. Stranger things have happened today, after all.
Stanger still, he's on full defensive, it's obvious why; Varian has none of his alchemy gear. No potions or serums. No giant automatons. He's as defenseless as she is. That calms her broiling blood, but only somewhat.]
I don't know how you got here, or how I got here, but I don't like this. So, no tricks, Varian.
no subject
[Varian laughs a little, nervous. Whaaat is she talking about...]
Hang on- why would I trick you? I...we're not exactly in Corona anymore, so, I'm just relieved to see somebody I recognize!
[She looks so angry. Like, genuinely, which is why Varian knows she's not trying to fool him, either. Cassandra is actually upset with him, and he doesn't know why.]
Did I do something wrong?
no subject
[She's not about to go off completely on him, Varian doesn't deserve that. He's a good kid, if just dealt a bad hand in life. Who hasn't? So, while she's angry at him, it's more defensive than accusatory.
Cassandra frowns. Surely, Varian's just playing coy, right?]
Old Corona? The Automatons? Queen Arianna?
no subject
Any moment now, your Highness.
What does that mean?]
Cassandra...you have to believe me, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anything about Automatons- [Or why...Cassandra would know about them, come to think of it.] And...what about Old Corona? Or the Queen?
We were just at the exposition. Don't you remember?
1/2
Varian keeps talking, and Cassandra's disbelief grows. How could he be so blasé about it? Was he really playing the lost memory card?]
The expo? Come on, Varian, that was months ago! You can't honestly expect me to believe...
2/2
And she looks at Varian. Their eyes meet as she gauges them. Wide baby blues, nothing like the last time she saw them, tinted by red glass and malice. Is this really not the same Varian who had her trapped?]
Do you... really not remember?
no subject
Months?
[He would have staggered back at that, but his feet suddenly can't move. It's like they've been cemented to the floor.]
Okay...okay something seriously wrong is going on here. The kidnapping, all these different people from other places, that much I could believe...but time travel? Is that what we're dealing with now?!
no subject
That can't be right. A part of her still doesn't believe it. For all she knew, this was a trick.
...And yet, Varian looked just as unnerved as she felt.]
...You're right about that much. Something is wrong here. [She sighs. Her anger has passed, for now.] If they could get you and me, I don't even want to think about what whoever's doing this is capable of.
no subject
Part of him wants to ask her to explain in more detail what it is that has her so defensive towards him...especially if she's from a time he hasn't been to yet.
What on earth happened?]
Okay...what do you remember last? Forget about me for a second, what about Rapunzel? Eugene? Where are they, do you know?
no subject
[Was that a laugh? Maybe more of a restrained sigh, harsh in tone as the state of everything was finally beginning to weigh on Cassandra.
Whatever this was, it wasn't a problem she would be waking up from anytime soon.]
Rapunzel and Eugene were right next to me! We were- I'm supposed to be far, far away from Corona, right about now! We were all traveling together, and we stopped to stay in this freaky house, and now...
[Now, she's here.]
no subject
Far away...
[That's...weird. He knows Rapunzel left Corona briefly to come see him, but would the King and Queen really allow something like that, especially for an extended period of time?]
Yeah, that's...not at all what I remember last. I mean, other than the expo I've been studying the black rocks on my own back in Old Corona. I guess maybe you guys could have left while I was doing that, but not overnight.
no subject
Far, far away.
[About over half a year's time spent traveling the land, from town to town, sea to island, ship docks to giant living trees. And so on.]
Well, the important thing about the rocks is... they're connected to Rapunzel. And to the Sundrop. It's her destiny to go to the source of the black rocks and use her powers to make them go away.
no subject
Her destiny? So you mean...
[Varian looks down at his hands for a moment, remembering how Rapunzel came to him for help in regards to her hair.]
The Sundrop's magic, her hair- all of that has to do with the black rocks? How did you figure any of this out?