Week Four

[stagemanagers]

[Last week, Gershwin High School Academy University saw its very first intentional murder! What a milestone! And right after Spongebob's No Murder party, too - that doesn't seem like it bodes very well for anybody's future.

You all wake up this morning with yet another new memory returned to you. You'll also find that the school's external doors have now unlocked. Congratulations! You're free! Unfortunately, you also seem to be entirely in the middle of nowhere. So maybe it's more of a symbolic victory.

Still, you should look around and do some investigation! Maybe you'll find a fun surprise.]

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

[alchemistake]

Scale the-?

[Varian blinks, already taking the rope even though he hasn't like, AGREED to anything yet.]

Wait, are you sure that's safe? What happens if you fall!?

[mcfife]

That is why I will have spotters. I have scaled cliffs before. What is a sturdy building to me?

[Angus is stoked for the first time today. Please don't deny him of this opportunity.]

[samefacesyndrome]

Um... w-well...

[ She gets really flustered again, grateful for the face board to hide behind... even if the face she's changed to gives it away anyway. ]

V-Varian... I found a nice garden earlier [ well it was nice until the bench thing got pointed out to her but ] and I thought it'd be nice for um... a d-date...

[alchemistake]

It- no, no, it wasn't that. Having you here...helped.

[It made him have to fight harder to keep his emotions in regards to the memory he saw inside, but...that would have happened even if Rina weren't here.]

...did you dream anything, last night?

[samefacesyndrome]

Hm?

[ She looks over at Cass ]

What do you mean...?

[ Yeah she hasn't looked the benches yet at all, whoops ]

[samefacesyndrome]

Mmhm.

[ She nods and then flops back down next to him, laying on her side facing him. She's still holding Sonic close enough that only her eyes are visible but they're... bright and alight. ]

It was a really nice one... and I think it was more than just a dream.

[alchemistake]

More than a dream...

[That's what he was thinking too. Worried about.

But he manages to soften his expression a little, for her sake.]

What was it about?

[mayavericks]

[Maya startles at Cassandra's voice but -- Only a little. She blinks a couple of times, before giving a deft sort of nod.]

In a way, yes. Where he was from... His people valued singing, and didn't understand dancing. Until he got here, until he met me, he had never danced with anyone else.

[barberic]

[He doesn't react when she moves closer, but that also means that he doesn't reject the closeness, either.

Up close, she can see when he squeezes his eyes shut, his shoulders tensing slightly, as he shakes his head.]

I never got to see her grow up... My beautiful girl...

[He swallows hard and looks up, casting his gaze into the treetops and the clear sky overhead, drawing a couple of shaky breaths as he tries to regain control.]

I'm sorry. I shouldn't trouble you, I'm sure you came out here for your own peace of mind.

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah had fallen asleep in her own space, in a pile full of stuffed animals. When she bolts up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, she looks around the room, assessing her options.

Salieri’s too boney. Discord’s too boney, and she doesn’t want to wake up graffiti’d on her face. The Balladeer’s too—- jesus christ, why were all the guys here so skinny? In the end, both the safest and the comfiest option is wriggling into Varian and Rina’s personal space, which is where she can be found on Monday morning.

After she wiggles out of that pile, she can be found fluttering around the entire school, acting with a purpose. Her favorite place so far is the football field, where she can be found soaking up the sun while sprawled in the turf, or occasionally doing handstands or cartwheels.

She can also be found in the cornfield. She’s jumping out at people through the corn.]

Boo!!!

[samefacesyndrome]

Um... Well I...

[ She casts her eyes down at the Sonic head, her gaze becoming softer and fonder. ]

I was... in the School Idol Club and I... actually got to put on a real concert for a ton of people. And I had so many friends from the club supporting and helping me...

[ She closes her eyes. ]

It felt... better than anything I could have ever dreamed of.

[comeandfindme]

[ Wouldn’t Peregrine start rambling about some kind of technique she’s learned now, or fervently insist it wasn’t a camp or something. Yeah, she would. However, she simply stays quiet for a moment. ]

…Nah. Nothing like that. It’s not really…helpful for all that.

[disharmonizes]

[The glitter and confetti bomb is definitely unexpected... and absolutely delightful. He maybe laughs a little as it happens, because oh, that's good.

And then he actually looks down and reads the card and

oh.

Oh, that's... really sweet and nice and... he doesn't even know how to handle this?]

Ah... Yes. Thank you. [This is so much more softness than he's used to and he feels all thrown off.] This is... very kind.

And I do love a good glitter bomb.

[sorry he's just a little feelings here h e l p]

[alchemistake]

[ANGUS...god. It's...really hard to say no to that face.]

...mmm. Alright. I'll build you a grappling hook. It should be done by the end of the day- [He'll be held up a little by the sleepover, but not too badly.] -but you have to promise me you'll be careful, okay? I'll make it as sturdy as possible, but that doesn't mean accidents still couldn't happen...

[alchemistake]

Wow...really? That...that's great, Rina-chan.

[And as shitty as he feels, he does mean that. Genuinely. He knows it's Rina's dream...and with how shy she can be, she probably worried if it would ever even be possible for her.

The fact she was able to, and had the support of friends along with it...]

It had to have happened, then. You just...just now remembered, you know?

[It's like Farrah said.

They're not just dreams...huh.]

[mayavericks]

[Maya looks... almost sheepish.]

27, not including myself. And that is only if we include the 99th class, and from there, only the actor training department.

[samefacesyndrome]

Mm. [ nod ] That's what I think. And it was much longer than the last one too... it really did feel like something being filled in...

[ Reopening her eyes she looks right at him. ]

What about you?

I need both dads pls thank you | Courtyard

[alchemistake]

[It's a bit later in the day, meaning Varian has wandered around from the forest and garden area back towards the courtyard. Ruddiger is still playing in the forest, so he's leaving him out there for a bit while he just goes for a walk...you know, fresh air outside of the school which he's never going to take for granted again.

...he hadn't seen that giant-ass chess board until just now, when he stumbles upon a game in progress between Salieri and Discord.]

What the...?

[alchemistake]

Me? Oh, well, it was uh...

[How is he supposed to tell her what HE saw after something that nice? He doesn't want to lie- not to Rina, she'd probably be able to tell anyway- but...he's not sure how much of this he really wants to divulge to her.

So...half of it will just have to do.]

Not...great? I mean, maybe- I don't know.

[He turns over onto his back, looking up at the ceiling. His papers and diagrams look down at him, tacked all over haphazardly.]

My village...is dying. I think there's a way to save it though, but...my dad, he's...

We went to the kingdom together. To ask the royal family for help about what to do. Dad told my village we'd go get help.

But when he got up in front of the king...

[He screws his eyes shut before bringing both hands up to cover his face, pressing his palms hard into his eyes.]

He lied. He...he didn't tell him. Told him...everything was fine.

[...]

How can I trust anything when my own father...lied to the King's face?

[comeandfindme]

[ That and not her name? Peregrine smiles, similarly somber, but she listens. ]

She sounds like the kind of girl to take care of everyone else. …Tell me about them? Your classmates. Nana too, if- if you want to.

[tellthestory]

No, it's a famous musical. A play, with singing.

[Since weirdly a lot of people here don't seem to know what musical theatre is exactly.]

It's about...he's a creepy guy who lives under an opera house pretending to be a ghost, because he's disfigured and...that was some kind of big problem. [Look, he knows stuff about the 1800s too, but he's reasonably sure maybe the guy could've participated in society somehow? But then, it's a story convention.] That's why he wears the mask. He's in love with an opera singer.

[samefacesyndrome]

[ Oh. That

That sure is the opposite of what her dream was like, huh?

She suddenly feels... bad? Here she was all happy and excited, talking about her nice, wonderful memory... and he'd gotten something like this? He'd been laying here tormented by something like this while she'd been dreaming so peacefully? ]

...I'm sorry. [ It comes out of her before she can even think of anything else or say. ] That's...

...Why would he do something like that?

[brokeforgood]

It’s probably good for him to get the exercise, too, with—— you know. [Look at him. He’s so cute. But so fat.]

Thank you for your help last night. I... really wanted to make Salieri happy. I thought if I learned, it’d make him happy.

[alchemistake]

[The thing is, he doesn't want Rina to feel bad. It's not her fault his situation back home isn't quite so happy. She deserves to be happy.

He drops his hands back down after a moment, looking over at Rina out of the corner of his eye.]

I don't know. I confronted him, but...he told me he was going to take care of it. He asked the King for more land, telling him it was for our bountiful crops this year, but...it was really just to buy time.

[Things had gotten worse. Much worse. Every time he closes his eyes he can see it- the horrible rows of black spikes piercing the ground and everything in their path.]

He's our leader. I just...I really don't understand it.

[samefacesyndrome]

[ ...

After a moment of thinking she carefully sets the Sonic plushie aside and reaches out to take one of Varian's hands in hers. ]

Maybe... maybe everything ended up okay? Everyone says we only have... bits and pieces of our memories still. The one I had last night DEFINITELY came before the one I had last week.

There could still be memories from afterwards. Ones you don't remember yet... where everything works out all right.