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

[mayavericks]

Good.

[She's quiet for a bit. Long enough to seem as if she might have fallen asleep. But then --]

I had another dream. A memory.

[fourbutts]

Yeah?

[ She draws Maya a little closer. ]

Good memory dream or bad memory dream?

[whatyouwant]

Yeah. I think it was a book or something first, then dome guy wrote a musical for it. It's super popular.

[Elle's eyebrows scrunch together.]

Wait, why do you ask?

[mayavericks]

Well... I did descend from a ceiling on a swan, so you tell me.

[She laughs faintly.]

But it did remind me of something I should talk to you about.

[mcfife]

I met a man calling himself that. I was captured with other people in a building with similar “rules” as this one.

[Its a huge bomb to drop on someone, and Angus needs a moment to gather his own thoughts. The man he saw could not be real. He was using a persona. That explains some of the reactions of the others.]

[fourbutts]

[ Janis whistles. ]

Now that's an entrance.

[ She blinks. ]

Yeah? What's up?

cw: scars, dissociation

[barberic]

[Benjamin is far steadier on his feet today than he was yesterday, although just looking at him makes it clear that he's far from back to normal. He's miles away, but also troubled at the same time.

In the morning, he goes to the Boys' Bathroom, going through the motions of taking care of his basic needs and splashing water on his face. But then he catches his reflection in the mirror and spends an agonizingly long time scrutinizing it, the wrinkles and the stubble that's started to come in along his jaw and down his cheeks from four weeks without a razor.

Then with shaking hands, he takes off his shirt (a first, since he's hardly even undressed in front of his roommates), turning and trying to look over his shoulder to see his back in the mirror. Anyone walking in will see the copious thick, white scars that crisscross his back.

After what he finds in the bathroom he seems even more distant. He goes outside, where one might be forgiven for being a little worried about him wandering off into the woods by himself. But he can be found at the garden, sitting on Sissi's memorial bench, his elbows propped on his knees and his head hanging down.

He comes back inside when it starts to get dark, going to the vending machine and putting in some coins that he found. The first eight items are nothing exciting, and he's about to just kind of sad-roomba them in the most logical spots to leave them for others, when he finds one more coin at the bottom of his pocket. He puts it in, because he may as well.

A small, silver locket falls down into the receptacle. He takes it out, and as he turns it over in his hands, they begin to shake. He drops to his knees, clutching the locket to his chest, all of the emotion that he hasn't shown all day flooding out of him in great, wretched sobs.]

[mayavericks]

It was quite the show. I wish I could have shared it with you.

[It's probably better this way. Janis wouldn't survive the performance, she's sure.]

Last week, I found a tablet that belonged to my friend and closest rival. Claudine Saijo, a child starlet and one of my favorite actresses growing up. It turned out that Saijo-san had been taking photos of my performance. I tried to tell Mur-- Connor that it was for studying purposes, that it meant nothing.

He knew I was wrong. And this memory proved that much.

[fourbutts]

[ Janis Sarkisian found dead of gay in the secret underground theater by local giraffe.

But that does get her expression to turn more serious. ]

So... she's into you. And are you...?

[mayavericks]

I was. Maybe I still am. But I was willing to give her up as part of the revues. Told her that her dream was not enough compared to mine, and that I would be the only one to stand at the top of the stage. And I believed that the only way to do that would be to cut away the bonds in my life.

... It all seems so embarrassing to consider, now.

[fourbutts]

Ah.

[ She's quiet for a moment. And then, unfortunately, because this touches on. Well, a nerve: ]

So this... isn't the part where you ditch me?

[mayavericks]

[At that, she sits up. She gives Janis a very firm look.]

No, it isn't. I'm not going anywhere, Janis.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Oh, this is unexpected. Orpheus actually smiles a bit as he walks in on her at the piano, and a little bit more when he notices all the beginner's books around her and realizes what she's doing. ]

I like to think I'm good at it! [ he says, brightly. ] Are you trying to learn to play?

[fourbutts]

Well.

[ When I was ten, in love again-

Her eyes are watering, slightly? ]

That's way better than what the last girl I liked half this much said.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ There's a delay between Peregrine calling his name and Orpheus actually looking up, long enough that she'd be forgiven for worrying he hadn't heard her. But he does, blinking blearily at her. ]

Oh, hi, Peregrine. Did you need something?

[brokeforgood]

Yeah. I want to... I want to learn. Like Salieri. [Not for him—- though, it is for him, a bit. But like him. It’s more of that.]

I’m not normally... the kind of girl who tries something new. But while I’m here, why not?

[comeandfindme]

[ Peregrine nods once and ties it around her wrist. ]

I think...he was trying to make them for everyone important to him.

[mayavericks]

[Oh. Oh that's unexpected. Maya reaches up, ready to catch any tears that fall.]

I didn't mean to upset you. I just wanted to be honest with you. We... keep regaining pieces of memory. I don't know what we might recall next. It simply... felt right to tell you, in the event that I did remember something more about Saijo-san.

But it does not change how I feel about you, Janis. It will not unless you want it to.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Oh, that makes sense. I grew up around all sorts of people, though, and I don't think I've ever noticed people liking foods more or less because they were men or women, so it's probably safe to assume that's not usually something that happens?

[ Orpheus smiles, glad to have been of some help. ]

Who are you taking with you? If you don't mind me asking.

the balladeer!

[tellthestory]

[This morning, the Balladeer is sitting gloomily in the cafeteria! He got up late enough, and spent long enough in the shower after, to more-or-less entirely miss the incident with Benjamin; he's just sitting here not really drinking his tea.

Still, when Janis enters, he manages a:]

'Morning.

around

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer seems sort of withdrawn today, unusually for him. He casts a disinterested look at the mask.]

Yeah, that's a Phantom of the Opera thing.

[fourbutts]

[ ah. she moves to stand near a chair near him. ]

Is... this a bad time to talk about something? I'm not. I'm not sure anyone else here would get it.

[fourbutts]

[ She shakes her head. ]

No, it's... you know. You have two hands, right? I'm cool with it.

[tellthestory]

No, it's fine. I'm not doing anything.

[He seems a bit more interested in the possibility of being helpful, at least?]

What's up?

[mayavericks]

I do. But... Don't forget that you held mine first.

That is to say... You are very important to me.