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

...Your Host! [2/2]

[tailor_made]

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!

[Very suddenly the young woman’s voice from the announcement rings out, a little too sudden and a little too loud, but by god she is Trying. She steps out onto the elevated stage-like part of the cafeteria in front of the mascot mural.]

Fremde, etranger, stranger.

[The young woman looks around college-aged with long dark hair styled into a neat braid over her shoulder and, unlike the rest of you, is not wearing a uniform. She’s dressed in a simple dark blue dress that reaches just below her knees with matching kitten heels that click softly again the linoleum as she walks along the metal guard rail.]

Gluklich zu sehen, je suis enchante,
Happy to see you, bleibe, reste, stay.

[She looks over the group with a mixture of what looks like nerves and excitement, going from Elsa to Spongebob to Cassandra to Connor and the rest of the cast until she settles on the Balladeer. Her voice very nearly wavers, brows furrowing before she catches herself and straightens her posture with a bright smile.]

Thank you for coming, our beautiful school.
Happy to see you, hope you enjoy your stay.
Yokoso, bienvenue, welcome to
The Gershwin School, the Gershwin School, the Gershwin School!

[The music continues softly in the background as she stops in the middle of the high-rise “stage”, folding her hands over her midriff and speaking out over the new students.]

Hello, everyone! It’s so nice to meet you all finally. My name is Hester and I’m your assistant director and school secretary here at Gershwin High School Academy University! Since we have a little time to kill I’m happy to answer some of your questions. But please do keep rule number 4 in mind during this little meeting. Breaking that won’t end well for anyone.

[The music swells one last time for the big finish-]

Welcome, bienvenue, welcome to
The Gershwin School, the Gershwin School, the Gershwin School!

[With that, the music fades and Hester waits expectantly for the questions that are sure to come. The floor is yours.]

[employeeoftheyear]

...

[Raises hand.]

[tailor_made]

[Hester catches sight of his raised hand and points to to him.]

Spongebob, you had a question?

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer watches the entire performance quietly, although definitely with some raised eyebrows. When it's over, he remarks quietly:]

I can't believe she stole my song.

[tailor_made]

[Can't steal a song if it's not from your show, B~.]

[alchemistake]

[That...sure was a lot of pomp and circumstance for their "assistant director" to arrive. And while she seems perfectly unassuming on the surface- her voice wasn't bad at all, either- Varian hasn't yet let his guard down. Everything about this feels so...strange and staged, but he can't quite put his finger on why. And having seen those rules from earlier...well.

Elsa's comment from before still sticks with him, about how kidnapping might be the least of their worries about this place.]

Yeah...I have a question.

How did you get all of us here? I don't remember anything about agreeing to come to this place.

[tailor_made]

Oh, I didn't bring you here. [She smiles blithely, like there's nothing too strange about the whole kidnapping mess.] I can ask the Wizard for more details about it if you'd like, Varian, but from what I've heard the process was pretty quick!

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Oh, this already doesn't bode well.]

I don't remember agreeing to go to any schools.

[tailor_made]

Nobody agrees to go to school. School is just something that happens to you.

[yourattention]

[fun dear evan hansen fact: the early version of the show includes a terrible song called "this will be the year" that includes connor canonically thinking his mom is a bitch. anyway.]

How much did Cynthia pay you to get me kidnapped here?

[brokeforgood]

Tons. [Farrah's glaring at her fingernails, rather than look at the authority figure on stage.] That's how you make the big bucks. Send broke kids away and subject them to psychological torture till by turning, turning, they turn round right.. [..... The last part? Was sung?]

[tailor_made]

Cynthia, Cynthia... [She frowns slightly, thinking hard and running names through her head before she snaps her fingers in realization.] Right, your mom! No, she has nothing to do with what's happening.

[mayavericks]

[Well, let's just get this out of the way.]

Where is it? Where is the Giraffe?

[tailor_made]

...The Giraffe? [She frowns and tilts her head, clearly confused.] I know the school is big, but I don't think we could fit a giraffe in here-

[violentenvies]

[This has all been...so much. From the abrupt awakening to the outfit to dealing with the mocking he's received for the words in that so-called Yearbook...Salieri is rather fed up with all this.]

I believe I have many questions. First and foremost being as to the nature of the person that thought up this already ludicrous situation, and when this farce is going to end.

[disharmonizes]

[Just holding up a little sign with a 6 on it.]

The attempt at showmanship is admirable, but really, I'm sure you can do better.

[samefacesyndrome]

[ ...

?_!

She has no questions but she is going to just shift a little to move behind whoever is closest out of the people she's met so far. Let everyone else take care of this. ]

[sugarlumps]

AaaaaaAAAAAAAA-!

[Yeah, there's just. A kitchen knife flying at Hester. Very poorly, because LSP is a hands-on girl, but sometimes you just need to throw something.]

WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY LUMPS YOU JEALOUS HARPY?!

[wanderlusttitania]

...Are you Russian?

[THIS...is the most important question ever. Absolutely. Totally. not.]

[brokeforgood]

Assistant Director and secretary?

How cheap is this place that the assistant-director's doing secretary work? [yeah she's focused on the important things here]

[mcfife]

There must be some mistake. I already completed my schooling.

Are you sure this isn't a hospital? Did Ralathor send me here?

[defyingfrigidity]

[She raises a hand.]

Why are we really here?

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus, remembering his days at various dusty middle of nowhere schoolhouses and the ruler-based consequences to not doing so, also raises his hand. ]

Miss Hester? May I ask a question about rule five?

[whatyouwant]

[Elle claps enthusiastically.]

You sound great! Quick question: What's with the murder thing?

[prophetpriestandking]

[Mumble, after a lot of the commotion and scrambling and attempted murder and displays of divine wrath by way of punishment, waddles to the front for the host's attention.]

Hello! Excuse me! Miss Hester!

[Wave wave.]

Mumble here, from Emperor-land. C-could I speak to The Wizard, please? I-if I could just ask them where I am, and how to get back to Emperor-land, and if they know anything about the fish, and why they'd abduct a penguin with a bunch of aliens of all things, and what we could do for them to let us go - that would be great.

[Y'know, not a whole lot!]