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

[violentenvies]

[he leaves his hand there for the moment, gentle, putting little to no pressure] Take a deep breath, Benjamin. Please. I'll stay with you here until you can.

[he...doesn't know what else to do, other than to stay by his side and hope that he'll come out of whatever this is]

[barberic]

[It's a long moment until he speaks again.]

She told me that she was afraid of him. She begged me to move, to leave London, but, I thought- He was a judge... He wouldn't do anything, it was his duty to uphold the law.

How could I have been so foolish?

[violentenvies]

I...[there's a sick feeling that starts in his stomach. A judge. A man in power. And Benjamin's wife afraid of him. Salieri doesn't know what happened, but that information alone has a chill running down his spine. He's been in Court long enough, and he knows what men in power can be like.]

Benjamin...[his voice is quiet, concerned, but gently guiding]...Benjamin, come up off the floor. Come sit with me. Let me make you a cup of tea, and...and then we'll talk. Then you can tell me what happened.

[barberic]

[After another long moment of silence, Benjamin lets himself be led, picking himself up off of the floor and following Antonio to a table.]

[violentenvies]

[as soon as he's standing, Salieri will tuck an arm through his, pressing close to his side to try and provide some kind of grounding presence, leading him slowly towards the cafeteria and finding him a place to sit that's clearly visible from the kitchen, trying to gently lower him onto that chair]

Here. Just...I'll be right back with tea. I won't be long, I promise.

[barberic]

[Benjamin doesn't react, sitting down in the directed spot. He props his elbows on the table, tracing his fingers over the delicate locket cupped in the palm of his hand.

At some point, while Antonio is in the kitchen, Benjamin scrubs a hand over his face, covering his eyes with one hand while the other with the locket falls to the table, soft, silent sobs wracking his tall, sturdy frame.]

[violentenvies]

[Salieri hears the quiet 'klunk' of the locket hitting the table and looks over from where he's preparing the tea and sees Benjamin hunched over there, his shoulders shaking, and feels something painful twist in his chest.

He comes back as quickly as he can with that tea, setting it gently on the table before sliding into the seat next to his friend, reaching out to put an arm around as much of his shoulders as he can]

Benjamin... [gently, to get his attention]

[barberic]

[Benjamin flinches like he's been struck, when Antonio puts an arm around him, but doesn't jerk away.

The breath he holds shudders out of him, and he leans slightly toward the touch, but doesn't speak.]

[violentenvies]

[Salieri almost pulls his arm back at that, but a moment later Benjamin leans more into his touch, and Salieri shifts to hold him better]

...take your time. I'll be here. [murmured, quietly, just loud enough to hear.]

[barberic]

[When he finally speaks - no, sings - his voice is almost too soft to hear, at first.]

There was a barber and his wife,
And she was beautiful...
A foolish barber and his wife,
She was his reason and his life,
And she was beautiful.
And she was virtuous.
And he was... Naive.

[If his voice weren't so agonized, the last word would have been a self-hating growl. He picks up the locket of Lucy's hair, and turns it over in his hand.]

There was another man who saw,
That she was beautiful.
A pious vulture of the law,
Who with a gesture of his claw,
Removed the barber from his plate- [His voice cracks.]

Then there was nothing but to wait.
And she would fall, so soft, so young, so lost,
And oh so beautiful... [His hand closes over the locket tightly.]

She warned me, Antonio. She didn't like the way he and his toadie were always sniffing around asking for her... She wanted to move out of London, out into the country. But I didn't listen to her, and now...

[violentenvies]

[Salieri sucks in a breath at that, at the end to that story. To what Benjamin said. There's a painful roiling in his stomach, a sickness knowing what this Judge has done, what he's taken from Benjamin...what his wife might've suffered]

Benjamin...my friend, I am so sorry. [his voice is quiet, devastated]

[barberic]

[Benjamin shakes his head, his voice soft and broken.]

It was my fault. And now...

He had me transported for life. Botany Bay, in Australia. Told them I was dangerous, so they wouldn't believe me when I said I was innocent.

Fifteen years I spent, breaking my back under the blistering sun. And when they finally let me send for Lucy and Johanna to join me... There wasn't a Lucy or Johanna Barker to be found, in all of London, and I don't...

I don't know what happened to them.

[violentenvies]

Fifteen years...[that is so much time and it's absolutely horrifying to hear what his friend has gone through. And to not even know where his wife and daughter are--he can remember just short time ago, the joy in Benjamin's voice when he'd told him about his daughter. That he was a father.]

Are you...do you have the ability to go looking for them?

[barberic]

[Benjamin shakes his head.]

I don't... If, after this, I can go anywhere I choose, then I could go back to London, to our old rooms.

But I doubt if anyone's still there, now, who remembers some humble barber.

[violentenvies]

After all that time, it...seems unlikely.

Do you think someone might know what happened, though?