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

[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.

[howtheworldwas]

I didn't, actually. [ Eurydice follows Mister Barker's gaze. ] I came to look at the sky.

[ She's tasted oblivion, and it's not all it's cracked up to be. ]

What was she like? You don't have to answer, if you don't want to. I just -- [ she swallows. ] -- it helped me, to try to remember.

[barberic]

[He's silent for a long moment. Almost long enough that she would be forgiven for assuming he somehow didn't hear her.]

...My daughter. Johanna. She was only a year old, when...

[He takes a deep breath of fresh air and holds it in his chest.]

Last week I remembered when she was born. Holding her for the first time, holding her every night in my arms. Her skin was as soft and smooth as ripe peaches. She had little curls of blonde hair, nearly white, and she smiled like an angel... Lucy teased me. Said I was spoiling her. But how could I live with myself, if I didn't hold her every second I could?

I couldn't believe that something so perfect could be mine.

[howtheworldwas]

[ He got a year. It's better than a few months, but it's not enough. Not even close. ]

She sounds wonderful. I am sorry you did not get to hold her for very long, but...

[ Eurydice trails off, and is quiet for a few moments. She's thinking, again, about Orpheus, and the few months they had together. ]

...I hope you know it -- it mattered, I guess. You loved her, and that's not something that goes away, even after the person does. [ I remember someone by my side. ]

[barberic]

[He braces himself, but it does nothing to stop the sob that rends its way out of him, as his chin drops to his chest again. He covers his eyes with his hand, to hide from her.]

I'll never know what happened to her... No, I'll never hug my girl to me...!

[His voice breaks, wretchedly, and he lapses into miserable silence until the tightness in his chest loosens.]

I'm sorry. I got... I waited fifteen years, and by the time I was allowed to send for them, there was- there was no one there...

[howtheworldwas]

No, no, you don't need to apologize. You've gotta feel it. I don't think you have a choice.

[ She watches Mister Barker hang his head low. It's a position not unlike that of the other workers, and it makes something awfully sad twist in her stomach.

If he allows it, she'll lift a small, hesitating hand, and give his shoulder a gentle squeeze. ]

When Orpheus and I... [ she swallows, hesitates, tries again ] ...after it happened, I couldn't stop crying out for him. I can't imagine what it'd be like to wait fifteen years.

[barberic]

[He allows it, though his muscles are tense at the first second of contact.

When she talks about herself, he lifts his head from his hand to look at her, surprised.]

When you... [She doesn't need to say it. He thinks he understands. Well enough, anyway.]

...You're lucky to have each other here, then.

[It's said without jealousy or malice - but there's an intense sadness to it.]

Johanna is alive. I know that, at least. And well taken care of - Hester gave me a photo of her, before I even knew that I wasn't-.

[The thought of another man raising his daughter makes his stomach turn. He can only hope that he was kind to her. That they couldn't be found because Lucy had taken her to escape the Judge.]

God... If I found them, what would I even say?

[howtheworldwas]

We are.

[ There's a heavy melancholy to Eurydice's words that matches Mister Barker's tone completely. Even if she and Orpheus only get a few extra weeks here, it's more than she ever thought she was going to get. (It's probably more than she deserves.)

Eurydice drops the hand and brings her knees up to her chest, still looking at the sky. ]

You hold them. You hold them and you don't ever leave.

[barberic]

[Benjamin's whole body aches, with how badly he wants to hold his girls. He thinks of the last time he saw them, fifteen years ago, a few weeks ago, both and neither at the same time, when Beadle Bamford pulled them apart and told the guard he was a dangerous one.

He can't hold Lucy now. Johanna might not remember him, might have grown up calling another man 'Father.'

He reaches out and puts a hand on Eurydice's back, his throat tight, rubbing tight, comforting circles.]

...I'm sorry.

[howtheworldwas]

[ Eurydice stiffens briefly at the touch, on an old, old reflex. It's nothing personal, though, and she relaxes a little, a few moments later. Even though murder hangs over all their heads here, hunger and cold don't. She doesn't think Mister Barker is going to rob her, and, given the conversation they just had, he's probably not going to kill her, either.

Now, it's Eurydice's turn to be quiet for a long while. There's something about that gesture of comfort, the quiet I'm sorry, that breaks down a section of Eurydice's carefully-constructed walls. Before she knows it, her eyes start to feel damp, and her breath threatens to come out in shuddering, hitching gasps. She is trying very, very hard not to cry, and she's only partially succeeding. ]

[barberic]

[He doesn't move closer, as much as he wants to offer her a hug. But he keeps up the touch she's accepted, widening the comforting motion of his hand to broader motions.

There's nothing he can do to make her feel better.

So he offers the only thing he does have, the words that brought him back around when his memories were so much that he fainted.]

...You're safe now. You're not alone.