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

[fourbutts]

[ Okay, stage tape. She's familiar. ... She would take the giant stuffed animal but she gets the feeling this is one carnival prize Maya wouldn't be impressed to have won for her.

How are the vibes coming off the stage? Anything feeling... Off? ]

[stagemanagers]

[Dear Janis, there sure are vibes.

The vibes aren't...on full display, so to speak. It's more like they're baked in, just a part of the auditorium itself and almost entirely unnoticeable if you're not Looking for it.

Everything is tinged with a gauzy veil of fear (and whose fear is up for debate) but under that there's a strong sense of purpose and stability, a driving need to keep moving forward no matter what happens. There's something else to it though. Around the edges, it sort of feels like...something is fraying. Like the unfinished edge of a woven blanket, the threads holding that stability together are coming apart.]

[fourbutts]

[ Okay, that's... interesting. Janis takes a breath to center herself, and then... looks over the scene. Is there anything on the stage in particular with interesting vibes or just... being out here and looking weird? ]

[stagemanagers]

[Nothing in particular but if she moves closer to the front, toward center stage the feelings she was picking up before do shift.

There's a sense of love. Just devoted adoration and respect. Janis will feel it filling her whole chest to the point of near overwhelming. But after a few moments it stars to turn. There's a sinking sense of repetition, of that feeling of love slowly souring and compounding because you're stuck you're trapped you're stuck. You hate this place. You love this place.

It was beautiful but now
It's sour
Yes it's all
Gone sour]

[fourbutts]

[ Janis's hand moves up to her mouth, then she staggers back. ]

Feel the storm every night
Hope it passes by...

[ She looks at the Balladeer. ]

Time to go up.

[ And, screwing her courage to the sticking place, Janis heads for the ladder. ]

[tellthestory]

Janis?

[And now he's the one stepping forward to reach out for her. He wasn't standing center-stage, and he'd closed himself off to the entire carnival - he doesn't know what she felt.]

Are you okay?

[fourbutts]

It's... something's fucked up here.

[ The loop of the-
The loop of the- ]

But we need to find out what.

[tellthestory]

[He looks at her, then back over the carnival set. Maybe, if just for a moment he...]

I don't know why I'm frightened.
I know my way around here...

[.....]

Okay. Right. Let's check up there, then we can go. [He moves quickly over to the ladder, the better to get away from here. It's thin and metal. Looks sturdy enough, but...] Go in front of me. If you fall, I'll catch you.

[fourbutts]

Yeah, okay.

[ She gives him a quick hug, just... to settle her nerves, then it's back to being brave.

And... up the ladder she goes. Does she make it to the top? ]

[stagemanagers]

[She does.

The ladder is surprisingly sturdy and when she reaches the top she'll find herself on a raised catwalk. It's dark up here but not so dark she won't be able make out Hester's mechanical bubble and a lower back view of The Wizard's robot head.]

[fourbutts]

[ Alright, well... the bubble is probably closer, so she'll look there first. Did she leave anything in it, either physical or. Vibes? Also does it look properly machine-operated and run, like is there a real lift mechanism or is is Magic. ]

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer accepts the hug gratefully, squeezing her tight for a second before letting her go. Once she's up, he ascends behind her.

The catwalk's teeeechnically wide enough that he might be able to scoot around her, but he doesn't really feel comfortable doing that, so. He'll just hang out and check out the bubble too!]

[stagemanagers]

[It doesn't look like Hester's left anything behind physically other than a little glitter on the seat. If Janis looks up she'll see that it looks like the bubble is on a real lift mechanism! There's no controls in sight though.

As for the vibes...there's a faint sense of familial fondness attached to it and a general desire to keep the one who spends the most time on it safe. The faintness of it feels more like it's the result of a lack of time spent here than a lack of the actual feelings.]

[fourbutts]

[ HM... well, at least something feels genuine in this cursed-ass stage. Might be worse! Why are you such a creep, Wizard!

Anything else to note about the bubble or the inside thereof, or is it time to look at a head? ]

[tellthestory]

[Next to her, the Balladeer rests his hands on the railing, right on the edge of where it stops to allow access to the bubble.]

...he actually does care about her.

[That's. Hm.]

[fourbutts]

[ She frowns. ]

Or at least he thinks he does.

[ That bitch!!! ]

[tellthestory]

People can care and still be wrong.

[Hey, something else he learned from Peregrine!]

But I don't know. That sort of thing - I never had a family, you know?

[fourbutts]

... Yeah, they can be.

[ She hates this! ]

Mine are decent - what I remember about them, anyway. They're not in the show, so...

[tellthestory]

...oh. I...

[What does that mean, for them? For her? The same thing that the vague, off-stage presence of the presidents meant for him? But then, he was never intended to know them.]

I'm sorry. [He chews on his lip, looking down over the stage for a moment.] At least for now...we're sort of getting our own little family together, I guess? I heard Farrah call Salieri dad the other day.

[He hadn't quite known what to make of it - is that how it works? But he's happy for her.]

[fourbutts]

... You know, yeah. I guess going through something like this is a pretty good shortcut to being family.

[ A beat. ]

I'm like three talks from calling Varian my little brother, I get it. So yeah. We're family, I guess. One big, weird family.

[stagemanagers]

[Feel free to move onto the head! If you step onto the seat of the bubble you should actually be able to get to it.]

[fourbutts]

[ Then yeah! What's up with this head? Is there a sad little chair where the man sits? Does he have to pedal to make it go? ]

[stagemanagers]

[The funny thing about that...

It doesn't really look like there's a way in or out. It's just solid metal as far as she can see. But the lights in the eyes are dimmed and the head hanging so it's for sure not active at least.]

[fourbutts]

[ Alright then! Remote control! ]

So he's watching us from somewhere else...

[ Anything else unusual about this head? How are its vibes? ]

[stagemanagers]

[Not really! It's a big metal head. But the vibes. Oh the vibes.

This close to the Wizard's head you can feel the song rather than hear it. The soft synths, the steady drums, the pristine melancholy pop. There's no sound in the auditorium save for you and B but you feel this song radiating from where you are.

Living in the state of dreaming, of dreaming, of dreaming, of dreaming -

It plays on and on, like a record with a scratch. And again, you can feel something fraying at the seams.]