Week Three

[stagemanagers]

[Last week, some shit went down! Salieri's scene went off without a hitch, but the good mood didn't last. The first motive was a bit of a doozy, and yet it didn't even have anything to do with the eventual accidental death of Mumble Happyfeet! At least Sissi was already pretty much dating Death anyway, right? She's probably fine, wherever she is.

This week, new menus have been posted in the cafeteria. But, more importantly, it seems that other new information has emerged. Everyone wakes on Sunday with some new memories - or are they old ones? - floating around in their heads. Maybe there was something to your discussions of time travel after all. Maybe there was someting to the Wizard's knowledge of the future.

Regardless, you're still stuck in here. At least there's some new places to explore this week. Maybe you'll find something helpful.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

(( Be sure to submit your memory regains and your AC for this week! Hester's office hours and the merch booth also remain available! ))

Comments

[mayavericks]

[Maya looks at her books, and then at the Balladeer.]

No. [A beat.] What is it? Were you looking for me?

[fourbutts]

Regina George deserves being unpopular.

[ That's... said with a bit of uncharacteristic bitterness, but! ]

We, uh. Sabotaged her social life, basically. There... wasn't really a more straightforward way to deal with her. If there was, I would have done it a long time ago.

[tellthestory]

Oh! Yes! I - I had a dream last night, but I think it was...maybe more of a memory.

[He's got more reason to think that than most people here. It's something that happened in his show, too.]

I think we're all actually missing memories. Did that happen for you, too?

computer lab

[tellthestory]

Um...

[He's already talked to Farrah about a lot of dark stuff this morning, and now here's another crying teen. One whom the Balladeer, admittedly, does not know nearly as well. That makes it a little tougher.

But what's he gonna do, just walk away? He leans down in front of the desk.]

Hey, are you...okay? [alright look he's sort of new to comforting people in practice.]

[mayavericks]

I did.

[Still, if the Balladeer thinks that --]

What did you recall?

[tellthestory]

My show started! I met my cast, we got through a week, and everything was fine!

[See, Maya, you were right! The Balladeer is partially excited about this; it's great to know that things were going fine! Went fine? Something like that - although, there's definitely downsides.]

I - sort of wish it weren't like that. I feel like I've...learned things here, that I could have used there. But if it already went well, maybe it's okay? There's a few people I think might be a problem, but I already knew I needed to keep an eye on them.

[yourattention]

Yeah, I'm fucking. I'm great. Just fucking. Absolutely peachy.

[He's scrubbing at his face as he says it, still kind of hiccuping. The thing he was working on is still up on the computer, by the way. It's cute! Unclear who the hell that is, but it's cute.]

libarby

[sugarlumps]

This place has, like, NO trashy novels, it's terrible.

[Despite her complaints, LSP has a small armful of romance novels.]

You having any better luck?

[tellthestory]

...it's fine if you're not. I don't think most of us are.

[Ask a dumb question, get a dumb answer. But maybe he doesn't want to talk about it to begin with? The Balladeer does sort of jump on the next potential conversational tack he sees:]

What're you making?

[yourattention]

... That's Miguel. [It's quiet, but not quite a whisper.] I... I think I loved him, once.

[Or is it that he still does? He can't tell. All he knows is that his dream handed him the agonizing information that Miguel had chosen him and he... ruined it, like everything else in his life. He burned the sketchbook, deleted all their text messages, trashed half the photos Miguel had taken, and edited Miguel out of the other half. There was so much anger, a kind of furious hopelessness that makes him think he understands what Peregrine meant about "three months without hope" now, but he doesn't... He doesn't have any of the context for it. What the hell happened between sophomore and junior year?]

[samefacesyndrome]

[ Rina was just playing some solitaire when she hears Varian. She looks up and shakes her head... before putting up a piece of paper with a happy face drawn on it in front of her own. ]

No, these are computers. You can do all sorts of things with them!

[samefacesyndrome]

[ Rina jumps when she hears LSP and on instinct puts one of the faces in front of her own. ]

L-Lumpy-san! You surprised me!

[samefacesyndrome]

Mm?

[ Rina looks up from her work, and immediately feels a little embarrassed, shyly trying to hide some of her work. ]

N-Not really, though I doodle sometimes...

[fourbutts]

[ Exploring takes about a day, as usual, and Janis is less... Affected by her memories than some of the others here? She finally got her revenge on Regina George, after all this time! That feels great!

... But it doesn't feel awesome? Even in just the last couple weeks, her perspectives have sort of. Shifted. So she's mostly trying to avoid thinking about it!

First off, she heads towards the regains machine to redeem a few of her coins! She gets a few things, including a photo and a telephone that slightly unnerve her and uh. A picture of Connor that doesn't seem quite right. But if you aren't Connor, you'll probably see her slightly losing her shit over a lizard. ]

What were you even doing in there? What do you eat? Do you know that I love you?

[ And then, carrying her new lizard in her mostly emptied popcorn container, Janis heads out to raid the new areas for things to do. After all, if they make the motives a weekly thing, better to have fun today before they emotionally knock half of the people she knows.

She starts in the library, going through the movies. ]

Why does every school have some of these?

[ Or, later on, she's relaxing in the teacher's lounge, new scarf from the vending machine around her neck and camcorder on the table in front of her - next to a couple basic film-making books and a few snacks raided from the room. What, she's going to be able to hang out in a teacher's lounge and not take some Teacher Snacks? ]

Okay so like... I don't know what state we're in, so I'm covering my bases - permission to film you? I kinda want to try some documentary work while we're here, and uh. You know, could be useful to have a video record, someday.

[comeandfindme]

In...what is this, stage dueling?

[ A light smile at the edge of her lips. ]

Not exactly my usual workout. How's it go?

[comeandfindme]

[ He's...oh jeez, she holds back an actual genuine laugh, crosses the distance between them, and starts looking around for a towel of some kind. ]

No, actually, this is my first time looking around. The word you're looking for, by the way, is car.

[comeandfindme]

[ She turns over in her bed to stare at him. ]

We're gonna rip the bandage off right here. At the very least that first one? Not a dream.

[comeandfindme]

[ She wishes she could step in front of it, but he's a good half foot taller than her. So, instead, she takes him by the elbow and starts to lead him away. ]

I don't really think this is a great place for you right now.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

["Cassandra? What are you doing?"

"I'm fulfilling my destiny!"

Cassandra wakes up with a start in Longacre dorm, feeling as though she's drowning, scrambling for air. For a good minute or two, she sits up on her bed, running her hands back through her hair, and thinking. Nearing the end, she seems downright frantic, tugging on stray strands of raven black.

But she can't stay like that forever. Once she's taken the time to regain her senses, Cassandra ventures out to do her usual routine; preparing breakfast in the kitchen -- or trying to. It has to be something light and easy. Something she doesn't have to go into the walk-in freezer to grab. And she's wracking her brain for options.

...Was that wing of the school always there? Her intentions were to head on her way for a bit of training in the gym, but now... Well, she could afford an investigation.

The library is what first draws her interest. Rows upon rows of books, not quite up to the standard of Corona's royal library, but it was easily an interesting find. Cassandra even finds a number of books for herself, stacked neatly on the floor next to where she stood, propped up against the shelves; some nonfiction, a couple young adult fictions, and even a book about medieval weaponry?

After that, somehow, Cassandra winds her way into the autoshop, where she stands like a sore thumb against the hard concrete, tools, and... whatever that thing is. A metal carriage? Wheels, doors - it fits the general shape of a caravan, but Cassandra's aware enough to know when she's completely out of her depth. So, she decides to leave it alone and focus on other things.

Such as that door over there. Where she'll spend a good minute or two attempting to fit her hands under the garage door and strain to lift it. Try as hard as she might, it isn't budging.]

[comeandfindme]

[ A frown flashes across her face. ]

Weird kinda thing to party about... C'mon, let's get you sitting down.

[comeandfindme]

...Not. Actual tea that sings, right— ...stupid question. Anyway. Didn't strike you as a tea drinker, that's all.

regains

[yourattention]

[Connor sees Janis just kinda. Standing in front of the machine and looking down at a photo? So he goes over to her instead of grabbing food because if two weeks in this place have taught it's anything, photos are maybe bad fucking news.]

Hey. Something from home? [Now that he's closer, he looks down at the photo and freezes.] Oh.

[He doesn't make a move to take it, just stands there looking at it. The last time he saw that photo, he was burning it. The copy in his phone fared slightly better: he only cropped Miguel out of it, because it's the rare photograph of himself that he didn't hate and he thought he might need it in the future.]

[fourbutts]

[ It's... she hasn't known Connor long, but she doesn't get good vibes off the idea of whatever this picture represents, or why it's in this fucking vending machine. ]

Uh... yeah, but not mine.

[yourattention]

Yeah, that's.... M. He liked to take pictures when we went places.

[His hair is much shorter in the photo, which was taken... he remembers taking it, actually. They'd gone to a park after school, hanging out in the shade of a tree.

Hey, come here. I wanna take a picture.
M, I don't—
No, c'mon! Just one photo, CJ.]

choir room

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Cassandra had woken with a start, her heart was racing, mind lost in a storm of indescribable feelings and loose-knit thoughts. Which is a lot to say that this is not what she needed first thing in the morning. Because the moment Farrah starts screaming, Cassandra is startled, badly - badly enough to stand up and immediately bang her head into the top bunk.

Her head hurts, and the room spins. But she's awake, and Farrah's gone, so that left Cassandra with the options that she all too quickly ignored. She shakes her head, pulls herself together enough to clamber out of bed, and hurries out the door after her. With all the screaming, following her is simple enough, and she enters the choir room just as the rant is reaching it's crescendo. This time, it's not fear, but anger.

Maybe that was worse.]

Hey! [Cassandra calls, her voice a sharp tone to cut through this explosive outburst. She might also be just a little annoyed about the rude awakening.] I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say that you didn't sleep well either.