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

2/2 whoops

[violentenvies]

--before it's masked with annoyance and a thread of anger]

...I don't hope the answer is anything. I just want to know.

[disharmonizes]

And if the answer isn't entirely clear?

Apparently it's a hotly debated topic amongst people I imagine lead very boring lives.

[violentenvies]

...what do you mean it's debated? How can it be debated?

[disharmonizes]

Apparently people have trouble deciding if it was poisoning or disease, and if so what illness exactly, what his health was like before, it's a whole thing.

[violentenvies]

[Salieri pales at that, looking away, arms folding over his chest this time less in thought and more like some kind of protection]

....I see.

[disharmonizes]

I forget sometimes how young mortals can die, but this is pretty young even then.

[There's a reason he's decided against bringing up the "Salieri poisoning Mozart" theory, debunked or not.]

But I can see this really lifted your spirits, so I suppose it must have been important.

[violentenvies]

[Salieri's jaw works at that, fingers digging into his arms a bit]

Yes, well. [his voice a little hoarse] It's not every day you remember showing up to visit a man only to find him on his deathbed.

[disharmonizes]

Ah. [There we are, then, finally getting somewhere.] So a very fun memory this time, then.

And you wanted to know what had caused it.

[violentenvies]

I...yes. The memory is...foggy. I knew that he wasn't doing well, and I...I wanted to offer my assistance. [Salieri frowns, gaze going distant, as if trying to remember]

...his wife tried to turn me away, and I felt...[he stops, clamming up again, upset twisting his features as he turns his face away]

[disharmonizes]

Very agreeable to that, I'm sure.

[...]

You weren't exactly thrilled about the man the last time you spoke his name, so going all that way for him... You didn't really just leave, right?

[violentenvies]

No. No, I didn't. [Salieri's brow furrows] He welcomed me, even.

[he swallows] He was...ill. And dying. He said he wouldn't finish his Requiem, and I told him that he would live, that he must, because--[Salieri cuts himself off again, brow deeply furrowed in upset, eyes distant even as he stares at the bookshelf across the way]

[disharmonizes]

I suppose a lot must have changed, because you didn't sound fond at all, last time.

[violentenvies]

I'm...I wasn't. I'm not. [but he sounds...uncertain of that, voice quiet]

Only...

[disharmonizes]

...Only, what?

[violentenvies]

...perhaps I was, a little. In a strange way. [hhhh] And yet, I...

I think I did something that cannot be undone.

[disharmonizes]

[Salieri speaks about this quietly, uncertainly, carefully, and somehow Discord feels especially irritated about it, even though this was the goal.]

You think you had something to do with his condition.

[It's not a question.]

[violentenvies]

...I'm sure I did. What his wife said to me before he stopped her-- [Salieri's brow furrows again, stopping, expression going pained]

"No, Monsieur, not after the pain you have caused us."

[he swallows, hard]

The guilt I felt...I must have done something, but I know not what. Yet, despite that, he welcomed me as a friend, he called me Antonio, I...

[his lips press together]

...whatever I have done, it surely caused him great harm.

1/2

[disharmonizes]

[Oh, he called him Antonio, wow, like that's so amazing. Anyone could do that.]

2/2

[disharmonizes]

Yes, well, unless you suddenly acquired the ability to make people sick, I don't know that you can really put this on yourself.

[violentenvies]

There are other things that sickness can purely be the symptom of. [he looks worried, still, and on the edge of upset]

Not just last week, it felt like I could never hate anyone more than him. But now...

[he shakes his head] If I myself did not make him sick directly, then I certainly somehow had a hand in making him unable to fend off whatever did.

[disharmonizes]

[UH HUH GEE WOW SO INTERESTING]

What, do you think you left him a nasty review? A few too many mean spirited quips?

[violentenvies]

...possibly. [he's serious, looking troubled. He hasn't quite noticed Discord's attitude yet.] Within the Court, ostracization for a composer means a lack of commissions, and thus a lack of money. A lack of money means no food, and you can't pay your debts.

[disharmonizes]

Oh, always with the money and all that boring nonsense. Being mortal is such a pain.

But if that's what happened, then how is that any of your business? There's a lot of ways to make money.

1/2

[violentenvies]

Not when you're a composer. Or trying to be, and you come from a long line of famous composers.

Not when you've been raised to be what you are, and you know what's expected of you. It's...very, very difficult to change after putting your life into that one thing.

Especially seeing as, well...I don't think he was born to do anything except create music. [there's...definitely something admiring and also envious in his voice when he says that]

2/2

[violentenvies]

His music is...it's sublime. [that sure was breathed out of him with more than a bit of awe.]