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

Longacre

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Cassandra ventures back to her dorm, not to dump off any items per se, but for the sake of giving her oldest companion the "tour" of their current situation. As it is, the door to Longacre suddenly opens as Eurydice is investigating the mirror, and Cassandra steps through, talking animatedly with... an owl? Perched on her arm?]

This is Longacre, and I sleep in that bunk. I know, it's a mess, but you don't have to stay in here, so don't-

["I love you, momma!"

She stops. A cold hand grips her spine, turning her. She searches for the source of that voice - because it could only be one thing. And she finds Eurydice, and the mirror in her hand.]

...What is that?

[She's almost afraid to ask.]

[howtheworldwas]

[ Eurydice looks up at Cassandra. Looks back down at the mirror. Back up at Cassandra.

Oh, shit.

She offers it to the other woman, a tad apologetic. ]

I'm sorry. I think it's yours.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[The resemblance to the little girl in the mirror, besides the longer hair, is uncanny. There's no mistaking it. That's Cassandra in that "video", hugging her mother before rushing off, completely unawares.

That same sense is mirrored on the older woman who carefully accepts the mirror from Eurydice. The way she handles it, it may as well be made of priceless crystal. Or fragile glass.]

It's not. I... I've never seen this before in my life...

[And yet, when she touches her cracked reflection... it shows her. Her and-]

Mother?

[Cassandra stands there, frozen. Just watching the small scene play out.]

[howtheworldwas]

[ Cassandra seems to not know the mirror, but she knows the vision. That's so, so much worse. Eurydice is quiet for a moment. How does she respond to this? Cassandra has always seemed tough and strong, and Eurydice doesn't know her that well. She probably doesn't want this intrusion. ]

I wouldn't have looked at it, if I knew.

cw: parental neglect

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Cassandra doesn't respond to Eurydice. Not yet. She may as well not even be there, just as the rest of the world has closed itself off from her. Leaving her alone in this space, with the mirror in her hands that told a very specific story, about a very specific little girl and the mother who....

Who didn't love her?

Is that what this is trying to tell her?

As the vision fades, the world returns, and Cassandra looks... heartbroken.]

I... I-I can't believe it. [She stammers.] It... it looked like a happy memory, but...

[howtheworldwas]

[ Cassandra doesn't have to say it. It wasn't. Eurydice hasn't thought about her own mother in years. She left long ago, just like everyone else. ]

...She turned on you. You, um. You didn't deserve that.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Cassandra is very, very silent for a good few seconds, staring down at the mirror in her hands.]

I haven't deserved anything, all my life. [It's bitter, but not directed at Eurydice, but at herself.] My own mother abandoned me for someone else, so... how is this any different?

[howtheworldwas]

[ Eurydice doesn't really know what to say, there. Sorry your mother abandoned you rings hollow. People do that all the time, anyway. Mothers included.

Instead: ]

Did you...find someone else? To stick by you? [ she's got Orpheus, after all. It doesn't make up for the people who've turned on her, but it helps. ]

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[That... is so out of left field that it actually stops Cassandra in the throes of whatever numbered breakdown this was.

She blinks.] W-what?

[Somehow, she manages to reply] Uhh... I.. I guess? I have a new dad. Friends. Well, I guess I did. Friends... here, too.

[howtheworldwas]

[ okay, that's good. much better than a no.

gentle, yet firm: ] Then they're the ones who matter. Not -- not some old lady who happens to be related to you. [ Eurydice thinks about her own parents, for the first time in what feels like years. Are they alive? Probably not, but she hates that she doesn't know. ] It's...bad, when the family you were born into turns on you. But if you can make a new one, that's -- that's good.