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

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ The beginning of the day starts with the usual routine. Wake up in Rodger's dorm as the sun comes up, head to Longacre dorm to meet up with Eurydice, go get breakfast in the cafeteria with Spongebob and the others. But today he has an actual job to do, and it's a welcome distraction from picking away at the song he's been working on for the past he can't even remember how long.

He heads over to the library, blissfully unaware of the goings-on in Mime Club, and starts pulling down books on various methods of preserving food. Survival foods, canning, fermenting, drying. Most of what he can find seems to be about canning and jar-fermenting, which hopefully won't be too much of an issue. He's pretty sure there are spare jars in the kitchen? And if not, they can start using the jars that the kitchen came stocked with as they empty them. He spends a good amount of time doing that, writing down promising recipes and methods in his notebook, before finally, inevitably, he gets distracted.

People coming in towards the afternoon are much likelier to find him sitting next to his stack of more on-topic books reading a biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with an illustration of him at the piano on the front. It's... aimed at late grade school children, so it's not particularly thick, but Orpheus seems absorbed in it nonetheless.

After someone eventually reminds him of what he's supposed to be doing, he heads back to the kitchen, where he spends the rest of the day trying to put what he found earlier into practice. Today he's focused on getting the fresh fruits into jars, consulting a book on the subject for all the ones he's less familiar with but otherwise just going for it, boiling them carefully in apple juice before pouring them into jars and sealing them according to the instructions. He keeps some of the fresh fruit reserved for people to have as-is through the end of the week, but by the end of the day he's assembled a respectable collection of jars of various fruits.

That accomplished, he'll finally head back to bed, collapsing after a long day of work and falling asleep. ]

Kitchen

[employeeoftheyear]

[The irony of Orpheus disaster prepping while Spongebob bakes giant cake is not really lost in him.

But still this is neat! After he puts his cakes into the oven he goes to look at the jars in great interest.]

Hey Orpheus! Is this for in case The Wizard decides not to give us any more food?

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus may or may not have been casting the occasional nervous glance at the cake in progress and all the supplies being used up while Spongebob wasn't looking, but it's fine. Don't worry about it. He smiles, nodding. ]

Yes! All of this should be good for over a year, if I didn't make any mistakes. And hopefully there'll be more fresh fruit on Sunday? If we're right about using it up like this counting for whoever's in charge of restocking it.

[employeeoftheyear]

[It's fine]

I'm sure Hester will make sure it's all restocked, but I guess it can't hurt. I betcha preserved fruit will be really good in a pie too!

[themuseabandonsyou]

Probably! [ Or at least Orpheus sure hopes so. ] But it's good to be prepared. And it probably would be! I didn't add much sugar to them, so you'd probably want to cook them again with some mixed in to get them softer and sweeter, but that would work.

[ He beams over at Spongebob. ]

So where'd you learn to do all of this, anyway? You said you work at a restaurant, right?

LIBRARY

[violentenvies]

[admittedly, Salieri hasn't really explored the upper levels yet. He's finally managing to explore the Library, going through some of titles of the books, skimming what's available.

As he turns a corner, he brightens as he spots Orpheus with a stack of books, turning to immediately make a beeline for him]

Monsieur Orpheus, good afternoon.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Good morning, Maestro Salieri! [ says Orpheus, brightly, waving with the hand not currently holding, uh, this. Then, after a moment's pause, something occurs to him. ] Oh! I'm sorry. I was looking through ways to preserve food, like I said I would at the meeting? But I got a little distracted.

cw: disassociation

[violentenvies]

[Salieri opens his mouth as he steps closer to respond, when he notices the book that Orpheus is reading, and who exactly it's about.

It almost feels, for a moment, like his soul has been thrown out of his body as he stares at the cover, reading the title over and over again, staring at it, almost certain he can hear strains of music, and a mocking, lilting voice over the top (Well, Maestro? Too many notes?)

He ends up, instead of responding, just staring at that book for a good several seconds, his expression going a bit far off, like he's suddenly not entirely there]

cw: disassociation

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus watches all this, expression going from friendly to deeper and deeper concern the longer it goes on. After realizing that it's not going to stop any time soon if he doesn't say anything, he slowly puts the book down and asks, ]

Um, Maestro? Are you okay?

cw: disassociation

[violentenvies]

[Orpheus puts the book down and asks if he's okay, and that's enough to snap Salieri mostly back into his own head. He shakes it a little, still feeling not entirely there, even as he puts a rather convincing small, apologetic smile on his face]

Ah--terribly sorry, Monsieur Orpheus. I was lost in thought for a moment. What was that?

[themuseabandonsyou]

I was asking if you're okay? You, um, saw the book I was reading and went kind of faraway for a moment.

[ He recognizes that look, sort of? Laertes and Heracles and some of the older Argonauts used to get like that sometimes, when people brought up certain subjects around them. He doesn't want to set it off again, so he's not picking the book back up to show Salieri, but he wants to know what's wrong so he can avoid it in the future, so he's treading carefully. ]

[violentenvies]

I'm fine, yes. I simply...recognized the name, is all.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Oh. Was he... a friend of yours? [ That doesn't seem quite right, but it's the first thing that comes to mind and thus the first thing to leave his mouth. ] I just picked it up because my mom used to talk about him sometimes.

[violentenvies]

No. [it's shorter than he means it to be, almost snapped--before he reigns himself in again]

...apologies.

No, I'm afraid I just...

I believe I've met him. That is all.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Oh, okay.

[ Something seems wrong here, but Orpheus is just... going to take that at face value. ]

My mom taught me a few of his songs, and said he was one of Aunt Euterpe's favorite people she's worked with, so I was just curious about what kind of person he was.

cw: mild disassociation

[violentenvies]

[Ah. One of his Aunt's favorite people. It's an effort not to flinch upon hearing it, but he's already lost too much of his control in front of Orpheus already.

So he sucks in a small breath, adjusting his expression, exerting control over his emotions and pushing them away, tucking them inside a mental drawer so he can put on a face that's a little more neutral, but at least he looks engaged in the discussion.]

Ah, well. He was certainly a character, when I met him. [that was dry, perhaps with a touch of humor]

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Something is definitely wrong here, but Orpheus isn't sure what it is or what to do about it, so he just... keeps talking. ]

That makes sense? The book said he liked practical jokes and party tricks. [ He frowns a little, pausing to study Maestro Salieri's face, and asks, innocently, ] Did he do something wrong?

[violentenvies]

[Salieri's lips press together a bit]

...he...that is to say, I don't believe our personalities match up well.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus nods, slowly. ]

I never met Aunt Euterpe, but mom said she always gravitated towards, um. Eccentrics? [ orpheus that's probably not helping - ] I guess I can imagine he could be kind of hard to get along with.

[violentenvies]

Eccentric might be a bit of an understatement. [he can't quite help the bit of snideness that comes into his tone, but he'll do his best to smooth his expression] ...ah, anyway. Apologies, I didn't mean to interrupt your reading.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Oh, it's not a problem! I probably should get back to reading about preserving things, anyway.

[ He glances over at the stack of actually relevant books next to him. ]

I just found this and got curious, but you probably got a better idea of what he was like than this book has.

[ What with it literally being aimed at small children. ]

[violentenvies]

Ah, well, our perceptions and others' perceptions of us can certainly change over time. Perhaps he changes after I meet him.

[He doesn't really believe that, of course. Not with such a boorish personality--

but his tone is pleasant enough]

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus nods. ]

Maybe! It also sounds like this book was written a long while after his time, and I know sometimes stories about people change, depending on who's doing the telling and how long it's been.

[ You have no control, who lives, who dies, who tells your story. Orpheus goes quiet for a second, thinking, before saying, apropos of almost nothing, ]

I wish I'd gotten to meet my aunts? Not just, because of all the people they got to know and work with, but. In general.

[violentenvies]

[Well that is...not what he expected. But this sounds like a Conversation so he'll just...move to sit down next to him] Oh? You never got to meet them?

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ The change of subject makes perfect sense to Orpheus at least, so that probably makes one of them. It's a clear line straight through thinking about how people are remembered to thinking about his immortal relatives who knew those people to wishing he knew them better, but since he leaves the train of thought that got him there unvoiced, well... ]

Mom talked about them sometimes? Mostly when teaching me about their past proteges' works. But I never got to talk to any of them. Aunt Melpomene might've visited once or twice when I was a baby, but I'm not sure about that? They were all really busy. It was an important time to be a Muse, back home.