Week One

[stagemanagers]

[Yesterday, everyone woke up in a strange place and realized that they'd been kidnapped, and also that everyone else around them may or may not be kinnies? Wow, what a weird escalation of kin drama! Given what some people have seen of Spongebob's freaky arm thing, though, maybe it's not that at all?

Your Assistant Director, Hester, showed off her stuff and immediately had her life threatened by Lumpy Space Princess, who got her life threatened right back. Maybe you should keep that in mind if you decide to pay Hester any more visits! She won't be making another public appearance this week, but as promised, she'll be available for visits and consultation in the Principal's Office during business hours.

If you don't want to chat with Hester, there's always the school to explore! Some of you might also be receiving mysterious coins next to your bedside this week - those must be useful for something, right? There's lots to do, and you all seem like a group who can make your own fun, so enjoy your first week of school!]


Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday


(( OOC: This will be the last mod post for this week! Feel free to start submitting regains for any threads that aren't with Hester. Remember, song threads mean an extra coin! This is a peace week, so get all that CR while you can! ))

Comments

[themuseabandonsyou]

It sounds like they have this all planned out? So I wouldn't be surprised if she was telling the truth. But I don't think it'll be simple as just walking out of here. Elisabeth and Elle and I are all from completely different years, and I think Elle and I are from different... versions? Of Earth? So if one of us could walk home from here, the rest wouldn't be able to.

[ Probably. He thinks that's the logical conclusion to draw from this incredibly illogical situation. ]

[comeandfindme]

[ Different years, different Earths, this is all just— ]

...Well make that three of you. 'Cause I'm definitely from Earth too.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus nods. ]

What year is it, where you're from? And you said you're from somewhere called Whitetail, right? Where is that?

[comeandfindme]

Minnesota. I'm from Whitetail, Minnesota. It's 2016.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Elle said she was from 2007, I think? And Elisabeth said it was eighteen-something. But it was spring of 678.2, for me.

[ So that's a problem. He frowns, thoughtfully. ]

And you're from Minnesota, and Elle's from California, but both of you said the gods I know are just old stories, even though I've met some of them and they're definitely real.

[comeandfindme]

[ Her face scrunches up even further with confusion. ]

And I've never heard that way of telling time or the year or anything.

[themuseabandonsyou]

It doesn't seem like anyone else I've talked to about it has? But people have been using that calendar for something like twenty four thousand years. Not everyone uses it day to day, but it's what the temples and the government in the US use to keep track of holidays, so it'd be really strange for someone from the same United States as me not to have at least heard of it, even if they don't know the exact year.

[comeandfindme]

The same United States... I keep hearing it, and it keeps sounding weird.

[ She rubs her temples. ]

Like- like this is something outta a sci-fi movie.

[themuseabandonsyou]

It's the best explanation I have. [ says Orpheus, shrugging. ] But it does make things much harder. Even if we break out, where can we go? I can see a road out some of the windows, but where does it lead? If it goes somewhere Eurydice and I know, then it'll be somewhere unfamiliar to the rest of you, and the other way around. So we probably have to find a way to either get the Wizard to send us home or find some other way.

[comeandfindme]

The Wizard can't be the only person who can do all this...stuff. If there's magic, then it stands to reason other people've got it, right? I...don't think we should give up trying to break out.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Right! There might be other people in this world who can help us, or maybe if we get far enough away from the Wizard's territory, our friends from home could find us. I'm sure Mister Hermes could figure out a way to get people back to where they belong. If anyone I know could, it's him.

[comeandfindme]

Mister Hermes... The god.

[ She broaches this slowly and carefully. ]

I...guess...he'd probably be the one...

[themuseabandonsyou]

Right. The gods aren't... around, where you come from.

[ And that's still a weird and slightly existentially terrifying thought, but Orpheus is just going to shove that down for now and try to explain a bit. ]

He's the god of travelers, roads, and between-spaces. I've never heard of him talk about other worlds? But I wouldn't be surprised if he could reach them. And he's probably noticed I'm gone by now, if he isn't away on business.

[comeandfindme]

[ She nods, almost idly, but...well, she's listening. ]

He's got those...speedy shoes. [ In addendum: ] They're myths but I know a bit. Like...what I've seen in movies.

[themuseabandonsyou]

The winged shoes Hephaestus made for him, yes.

[ Orpheus nods, looking a little excited that she gets at least some of it. Then he thinks about it for a second and it gets confusing all over again. ]

So you have movies and stories about the gods, but they're not real. And you don't have any magic where you come from, but you know what magic is. It's all just fiction?

[comeandfindme]

[ She nods. ]

All stuff like magic, gods...people coming back to life... [ ... ] It's all fiction.

[themuseabandonsyou]

I mean, people don't really come back from the dead where I come from either. I guess we also have a lot of stories about that, but they're all fiction too.

[comeandfindme]

[ Don't they?

No. She doesn't know what's a story and what's not. Besides, if she remembers it correctly, that's...not how it ends. ]

The gods never...take pity on anyone?

[themuseabandonsyou]

Oh, they do sometimes? Usually by giving mortals they've fallen in love with the gift of immortality, or placing them in the stars, or there was one couple a long time ago who was turned into a pair of trees when they passed of old age, so they'd never have to be apart?

But that's prolonging or memorializing life. Once someone goes to the Underworld, they don't come back out. Lord Hades would never let someone undermine him like that, not even his siblings.

[ And the idea of him letting someone out of his own accord is just too absurd to even bother mentioning. ]

[comeandfindme]

[ This conversation feels uncomfortable. It feels voyeuristic. It feels like she's going behind his back, hiding something, like— ]

...Sounds cruel. Like...if there're actual gods...just letting you guys suffer.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus cocks his head to the side slightly and thinks about that for a moment, going quiet for a moment before responding. ]

There's a lot of problems that the gods could fix, if they wanted to. Or if they knew about them, or if they weren't too busy with their own issues. But they're like anyone with a lot of power, aren't they? They only see the big picture. So they solve the big problems that are right in front of them, like running the Underworld, or the seas, or the sky, and everything else sort of... gets ignored, unless enough people raise their voices. I don't think it's cruelty. But it isn't fair, either.

[comeandfindme]

Ignorance is no excuse. Not knowing about something that's a problem, when you should know it's a problem... It's just as bad as turning a blind eye.

[themuseabandonsyou]

It's not an excuse, no.

[ Orpheus is in full agreement, though he seems more melancholy about it than angry. ]

Um, Mister Hermes, the god I know best out of all of them - he works really hard to look after everyone under his protection. They tend to be the ones who need it the most? Thieves and travelers. But there are a lot of both those things these days, and there's only one of him, and he can't be everywhere, so. People slip through the cracks. He claims he's not a kind god, but I think it gets to him, not being able to do more.

[ There've been a lot of nights where he's found his uncle up late drinking at the bar, looking weary and indescribably ancient. ]

I like to think the other gods are working just as hard for us. But it's... um. [ He looks away, unable to finish the thought. They probably aren't, is the thing, but he doesn't want to admit that out loud. ]

[comeandfindme]

...But more often than not you gotta do it alone. You gotta...rely on yourself. Even with gods.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus gives her a slightly odd look, at that, expression going slightly distant as he thinks of Eurydice, sitting at one of the tables in the bar with her votive candle, the first time he saw her.

People turn on you just like the wind
Everybody is a fair weather friend
In the end, you're better off alone
Any way the wind blows

But he shakes it off and brings himself back to the present, giving Peregrine a sad smile. ]

It's not an easy world. Even with gods looking out for us. But we have each other, at least? We look out for one another.