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

[mcfife]

[For the first time since he's woken, Angus laughs.]

You don't have to worry about me. I only fight forces of darkness.

[prophetpriestandking]

Forces of...darkness?

[He hopes for an explanation, but doesn't expect one.]

[mcfife]

Goblins, trolls, really evil wizards, the undead [A gesture meaning "et cetera..."] That kind of thing.

[prophetpriestandking]

That’s a relief. [Genuinely!] I don’t think anyone here’s a goblin, or a troll, or a really evil wizard.

[As if he knows what those are. But right now the two categories are ‘alien’ and ‘penguin’, and he’s mentioned neither. This guy is all right!]

What was your name again?

[mcfife]

[Thankfully evil wizards a very theatrical and would let you know the moment they spoke.]

Angus McFife the thirteenth from the Kingdom of Fife. [Wherever they are, it shouldn't be far from home. Asking where people are from will narrow down their location.]

[prophetpriestandking]

That’s a lotta Fife.

[Not too much Fife, mind you. Just a significant amount of it.]

Well...I’m Mumble, from Emperor-land. [He does a head bobbing feature.] Nice to meet’cha.

[mcfife]

It is good to meet you, Mumble. [But now he's confused.] Where is Emperor-land?

[prophetpriestandking]

Oh, it's, uh, by the ocean, on the ice. You can't really miss it. I mean - I know there's a lot of ice around there, and it all kinda looks the same from a distance, but you can't find Emperor penguins anywhere else!

[mcfife]

[Iceland. No.]

Antarctica?

[Sir are you badass enough to live in subzero temperatures all year?]

[prophetpriestandking]

[Nod.]

Yeah! Around there.

[mcfife]

I...would imagine it can be a struggle to survive. Do your people have underground villages? Are you coexisting with the dwarves?

[By Hoots, this is one of the most impressive people he's ever met!]

[prophetpriestandking]

No. [Laugh.] It'd be kinda hard to live underground. We don't really dig. A-and I have no idea what dwarves are.

But it's really no trouble, besides the fish disappearing.

[mcfife]

That is a grave situation. I worry.

[It's a death sentence.]

If I were free from this prison, I would ask my court to send food to your people until the fish returned.

[prophetpriestandking]

[Oh, wow.]

T-thank you. [He's taken aback.] That's - [Unexpected kindness from a creature that could easily have him at their mercy.] - you're a swell guy, Angus.

[mcfife]

There is no need to thank me. If fish are disappearing on one part of the planet, then what will happen to the oceans across the world? It would be good to ensure that the peasants of Fife also are fed.

[There's a lot of coastline on Scotland.]

Do you not get many visitors to Emperor-land? This may have been your one chance for help.

[prophetpriestandking]

[He shakes his head]

No - I heard that sometimes Aliens came for abductions, but that's it.

[Emperor-land is kind of a lonely place.]

[mcfife]

Which aliens?

[And why a planet that is so isolated?]

[prophetpriestandking]

I-I don't know. I've only heard about it from a Skua, once.

[mcfife]

Anything about their names? What they look like?

[prophetpriestandking]

All I know is that they have these fat, flabby faces, frontways eyes, no feathers at all, and these...appendages.

[Sound familiar?]

[mcfife]

[Angus reaches for his own face, brushing the outline of his cheek with his fingers. Flabbier than his own? He doesn't have features, and most species have front-facing eyes.]

You'll have to be more specific. That description could fit a human, or troll, or goblin, or dwarf.

[prophetpriestandking]

[Shrugs.]

That's all the skua told me. I've never seen one up close before. Until today. [A pause, because now...this is being called into question?] I think.

[Hm.]

Do your species usually probe their abductees?

[mcfife]

Of course not! That would be in the realm of evil science wizards.

[He's a hero, his weapon of choice doesn't even go inside a person!]

Are you saying that I'm an alien? Are you not human?

[prophetpriestandking]

Right. I see.

[Okay...evil science wizards = aliens now?? And humans = ??? Just weird guys???]

I thought you were at first but now I'm...not so sure. [Now we've got freaking wizards in the equation. Taxonomy, ugh.] Oh - but I'm not human. I'm a penguin. No doubt about that.

[mcfife]

[He stares.]

...Emperor-land... You are an Emperor penguin in your human form? Is that how you safely travel to other lands?

[magic penguins, of course.]