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

[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.

[tailor_made]

That would be the Wizard. [She says as if this is a totally normal thing to say and maybe just a little bit of pride mixed in.] He organized all of this, I'm his assistant.

And as for when it's going to end, Monsieur Salieri, I think you've read the rules by now.

[voicerights]

Then he is the one responsible for our current conditions?

[Confirm that for it, won't you]

[tailor_made]

For the most part, yes.

[voicerights]

How are we able to speak with him?

[tailor_made]

You can't. Not right now anyway. Anything you want to know from him, you ask me. If he wants to speak to you himself, you'll know.

[violentenvies]

[Salieri's jaw clenches at that, hands curling into fists]

I cannot regard those rules as anything but a joke. [there's a sneer on his face, twisting his expression] This entire set up is a farce that has gone on for far too long already!

[tailor_made]

You're allowed to consider them a joke all you like but it doesn't make them any less real. You don't have to go through with rule 5 but it doesn't mean someone won't use it against you.

[violentenvies]

This is madness. Kidnapping people, bringing them here, telling them they have to murder someone to leave--it holds nothing but the trappings of someone who is playing either a very cruel trick or a terrible game. [he folds his arms, eyes narrowing as he looks up at her]

I, for one, refuse to bow to the whims of such a madman.