itscurtains | Week One

Entry tags:

act 3,
week 1

Week One

[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! ))

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[Benjamin isn't necessarily hungry - he isn't doing the kind of work here that leaves a man starved - but it is tea time. May as well eat something light with it, too.

He's surprised by the chill in the air when he enters the kitchen, and sees the other man staring contemplatively into the... ice box, for lack of a better term.]

Training for a polar expedition, then?

[Light teasing, as he carefully repeats the steps he figured out how to get water on to boil.]

Hm? Oh!

[CRAP you aren't supposed to leave it open, are you? The Balladeer shuts the fridge, sheepishly, without realizing that he still hasn't actually gotten anything out of it.]

I was just...thinking, I guess. [He's starting to sort of get the sense that pretty much everything he says is weird, though. Maybe he should just...] What are you doing?

[If he thinks the other man is more of an oddball than any of the several other weirdos, let alone the absolutely mad situation writ large, Benjamin certainly doesn't show it. What he does do is put on enough water for two cups of tea.]

Tea. Never been one to go all fancy for it, but there's nothing better than a hot cup of tea in the afternoon.

[He gets out some of the non-refrigerated fixings for a sandwich, then takes another look at the skinny American and doubles that.]

Oh - yeah, that's a British thing, isn't it?

[Look. What the fuck does he know.]

Lucky they had some around. I don't think that's a regular American school thing. 'Course, I could be wrong.

Mm. Surely not everyone in America lost the taste for it overnight.

[Sweet Tea doesn't count.]

I'm having cheese and pickle- would you like one?

[As he assembles his own sandwich, then starts with the innocuous but necessary smear of butter for the Balladeer's.]

...There's also the alternative, I'm afraid. That that woman knew our tastes ahead of time and planned accordingly.

Oh - sure.

[He'll try a cheese and pickle sandwich, as cursed as that sounds! He does come over to watch it be assembled; as much as he thinks he might have been able to manage something so simple as a sandwich, given enough time to fumble around, he feels better just seeing someone else do it.]

She would've known some things, sure. You cast a show ahead of time.

[It was an invitation to pick different ingredients, as much as it was also "you're too skinny you aren't escaping without eating something," but he is locked into the cheese and pickle now, too. Benjamin smiles at his agreement, too, despite the troubling subject matter.

Before he can assemble the second sandwich, the water is boiling. He takes it off the heating element and pours it into the two mugs, and then picks up where he left off.]

You really believe that that's what this is? Some kind of performance?

Yeah. What else would it be?

[It's sort of a rhetorical question; he understands that no one else here sees things the way he does. The Balladeer leans over to peer into the mugs.]

My next show was gonna have pretty much the same set-up, and it was definitely a show.

[He stops what he's doing, pickle slice dangling from a fork in his hand.]

Rather hard to have a performance, I'd say, when the actors aren't actors at all.

They're characters. Kidnapping actors sounds like some kind of awful reality show.

[hashtag airlocked joke

Also, he seems casual as ever, leaning up against the countertop.]

Unless the character is also an actor. But I'll tell you right now, actors are the worst. There was one in my show - my original show - just terrible.

And what of us, then?

[He rests the heels of his hands on the counter, fork still held between his fingers, and shifts his weight.]

Do you think the rest of us here are "characters," as well?

Of course! Maybe even Hester, too...I can't really get a read on her.

[And it's hard to have useful office hour talks because she hates him for some reason!]

Everyone here seems pretty good, though. I bet it'll go fine.

[He wants to probe further, but also lacks context on the idea of characters at all. It's possible this man is just a madman.

After a moment of silence, he says instead:] Right. [and layers the pickle he's been holding onto the sandwich.

By the time the sandwiches are done, the tea is ready, and he passes the Balladeer his sandwich and slides one of the mugs closer.]

Are you worried at all about that rule, sir?

Thanks!

[The Balladeer, as ever, is delighted and touched by essentially any act of kindness!

He takes a bite of the sandwich and chews that question over along with it.]

...no. No. [It was a little unsure at first, but more confident the second time.] Everyone here seems fine, right? I mean, some of them are a little bit...impulsive, but that doesn't mean they're gonna kill anyone.

[Benjamin takes a bite of his own sandwich, leaning against the counter and watching the Balladeer with interest.]

I pray you're right, sir.

Was your other production - the one that was interrupted - intended to have the same rule for escape?

Yeah. That's why I was brought in for it. The Player thinks I've got a great chance at talking people out of murder.

[He practically beams with pride!]

I'll just make sure to keep everyone calm and happy for an act or two, and then it'll all be over!

...Ohhh.

[He thinks he's picking up on this.]

We wait her out, then? If we don't give her what she wants, she has to let us go? Would it really be that easy?

Sure. Shows can't last forever, right?

[He leans forward, gesturing with half of a sandwich.]

Watching all of us get to know each other is probably interesting enough, but people won't stick with that forever. The Player ballparked it at maybe a month, for us. That's not that long. It's nothing, compared to killing someone!

Wait it out
Play it cool
Kill some time, 'til we leave this school
Don't let fear and mistrust rule
Wait

[He takes another bite, and goes on in speech:]

Of course, that's what our premise was. These people might have different goals. Maybe someone could ask Hester?

There's only one person here I think that deserves it, and that's the one who trapped us here.

[Jury's out on Hester.

He chews the next bite of his sandwich thoughtfully, and then takes a sip of tea.]

Could do that, I suppose. But then it'd be in her best interest to tell us no, wouldn't it?

I don't know. Maybe she doesn't care how the show goes, exactly, as long as it does go.

[The Balladeer cares about his own show, a great deal. But he's not sure if Hester's been making an effort to forestall any murder here or not.]

Or maybe the Wizard has an opinion. If either one of them is a narrator like me, they won't really be able to force us to do anything - but they could encourage.

[What is the world coming to where he, a perfectly normal man, has to entertain the idea of WIZARDS. Or at least one wizard, anyway.

But all that aside, there was something else that intrigued him.]

A narrator? What does that trade entail, sir?

Oh, you know - set the scene, narrate the action, deliver character motivations and stuff like that as necessary. It's very much -

Once upon a time!

[He spreads his hands precisely in time with the opening chords, as if he's cuing it.]

In a far-off kingdom
Lived a young maiden,
A sad young lad,
And a childless baker - with his wife.

[And he waves a hand again to cut off the music.]

I don't do it quite so much like a storybook - wouldn't really be appropriate. People get that version, though.

[For a moment he almost interjects that he is read enough to know what a narrator does in a story, but then the realization occurs to him.

This man is mad.]

Like an actor, then.

...I guess a little, sure.

[Not really, but he feels like he can never really explain it in a way people get, around here.]

Forgive me, I must not understand the craft well enough to know the nuance.

[Said with a polite nod of his head.]

Week One

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