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

[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.]

[fourbutts]

[ Janis's brow furrows. Marina and the Diamonds? At this time of night, localized entirely within this thread?

She steps back, towards the catwalk. ]

Do you hear it too?

[tellthestory]

[He shakes his head, like he's trying to rid himself of it. The Balladeer absolutely does not recognize the song, and he can't seem to find his way through the looping chorus to any of the rest.]

Why is it skipping like that?

[stagemanagers]

[The moment Janis steps back onto the catwalk, the walkway creaks loudly.]

[fourbutts]

I don't-

[ Janis grabs at the railing. ]

What the fuck?

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer also grabs at the railing.]

Janis?!

[stagemanagers]

[There's another terrible creak as the Balladeer and Janis feel a violent jerk under their feet as the catwalk starts to give out.

Better think fast, Narrators.]

[fourbutts]

[ When faced with danger, Janis historically doesn't. React well. Not violently, not even poorly, but just. Not well. The last real conversation she had with Regina George is proof enough of that. She goes, well, kind of stupid with fear.

So when the catwalk starts to give out, as Janis stands there, next to Hester's bubble and the Wizard's stupid fucking head...

She freezes. And feels the start of the fall. ]

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer, on the other hand, has always lived with danger. He's lived his whole life with guns waved in his face, with invective shouted his way, dancing right on the edge of what they would tolerate from him. He misjudged that in the end. But right up until that last moment, he'd been cool and defiant. He'd seen where he was meant to go and what he was meant to do, which in this case is practically being shouted at him:]

Run!

[He starts to scramble backwards - just for a second, until he sees that Janis isn't coming.

He can make it to the ladder if he runs. He's closer to it, because he made her go up first. She said they could be family. He lunges.

His hand finds the front of her shirt, clutching at the fabric and pulling her close. But that isn't enough. The catwalk is still falling, the whole catwalk, and now he doubts that either of them could make it down the ladder in time. He's had a family member for a total of two minutes, and he can't even keep her safe? He can't protect -

His eyes fall on Hester's bubble.

The Balladeer spins Janis, almost as if they were dancing for a moment, and shoves her hard into the bubble's little seat. And then he falls. He hits the striped awning of the dunking booth below, but this is not a cartoon, and it is only a set piece. The structure collapses beneath him, in a horrible crash of splintering wood and shattering plastic.]

[fourbutts]

[ It happens in slow motion. Not really, probably, but she imagines it does. The Balladeer pushing forward, spinning her around...

Is this how Hester feels, every week? Everything looks so small from up here. So distant, suddenly, and yet... so close. ]

B!

[ It's a loud, sharp cry, but... Janis is here. She's reaching towards someone she can't reach, someone she'll never reach again if she doesn't think of something - she took down Regina George, she should be able to...

to...

The loop of the-

Thanks to the Balladeer, Janis lives. ]

[tellthestory]

[Everything went black during the fall.

But down there amid the rubble, the Balladeer briefly swims back into consciousness. The back of his head's wet. There's wood sticking through his clothes, and through...oh. Oh.

For a moment he almost expects the curtains to swish shut around him, or for rough hands to drag him offstage. There's the red-and-white, the lights, he's been here before. But - no. The only thing there is Janis, in a glittering halo above him. The Balladeer tries to push himself up on an elbow, slips, and falls back again. He tries to speak, but his words come out slurred and too-quiet. He takes a breath and tries again.]

- limited.
And just look at you.
You can do all I - I couldn't -

[But the curtain's falling, and he can't finish his verse.

The Balladeer is dead.]

[fourbutts]

[ Janis knows, somehow, when it hits. When he dies. Maybe she can feel it, maybe it's a narrator thing, she doesn't know.

She looks at the Wizard's head. ]

It's fine for you
Control you exert
It's fine
When someone gets hurt
Now you're gonna hurt

[ Her voice breaks into a sob. ]

Someone! Anyone! Help, it's... we're in the theater!

[mayavericks]

[Maya's girlfriend senses are tingling. And weaponless though she is, she comes running anyway.]

Janis? Janis?!

[fourbutts]

[ And from your maybe-third-gf's sky bubble, Maya: ]

It's- the Balladeer, he- we were...

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus comes running when he hears the great crashing sound from the auditorium, arriving a little after Maya and Cassandra. The surprise at the theater being open barely registers. ]

Janis!! What happened, are you - What's wrong?

[fourbutts]

It's... I'm fine! I don't know how I'm gonna- that's not important! The Balladeer fell.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[WAS THIS... ALWAYS HERE?]

Janis? What do you mean he-- Oh.

[The rubble.]

Oh.

[mayavericks]

[Maya looks up and... really, she should expect Hester, but -- No, it's Janis. There she is.]


What --

[She looks to the pile of carnage.]

Oh no.

[comeandfindme]

[ Peregrine isn't far behind. Backstage they go. Investigate, Janis told them she was going to investigate with the Balladeer, that she'd be back. ]

Where are we...? [ For a brief moment, all the various things scattered about demand Peregrine's attention—but that moment is, indeed, brief, because—

Well. ]

Shit. Shit, Bal—

[ She runs over to the carnage, because of course she does. ]

[fourbutts]

It- he...

[ She sniffles. ]

He saved me.

[mayavericks]

Peregrine, help me.

[She's sprinting toward the bubble. Can they form a girlfriend tower???]

[alchemistake]

[Once again, a crowd has formed.

Varian for once isn’t far. Not so far that he can’t hear people starting to shout. The telltale building thrum of anguish that signals that something terrible has happened. It’s so early, so early-

He staggers into view some distance behind everyone else, not quite close enough to be in the action, but close enough that he can see the wreckage. He can see B’s body, this time. The splintered wood. The blood that almost seems like it could be fake in its sickly brightness. And he can hear the booming voice of the Wizard when he says there will be no trial.

Only people have trials.

Varian turns and runs out, as fast and as hard as his legs can carry him.]

[samefacesyndrome]

[ Rina was also not too far away and she's here... but thankfully no one has to shield her this time either.

Because the instant Varian runs she's after him. Wanting to be there for him and comfort him (and to an extent, herself). ]

Varian-kun...!

[alchemistake]

[Fortunately for Rina, Varian doesn't make it that far. He got stopped in one of the hallways leading back to the dorms, because he realized he would probably start running into people if he went that way, so the best thing for him to do had been just...

Pace in a tight circle, gripping his head- almost pulling at his hair- before turning and slamming both fists against the wall, hard. It's a brief outburst that doesn't last more than a second before the wind leaves Varian's sails, his expression screwing up as he lifts both hands to cover his face, turning around with his back to the wall.

From there, he slides down until he's in a hard sit on the hallway floor, moving to bury his face into his knees.]

[samefacesyndrome]

[ Rina follows him but stops when she sees him pacing and slamming his fists.

She doesn't really know what to do... even once he's on the ground. ]