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

[comeandfindme]

[ Misunderstanding, Peregrine stammers: ]

You- you're gonna look like a sponge?! [ ... ] Wait— wait, you mean. Like. Like he looks...now, here. Oh.

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer laughs, surprised. Imagine - him, an ocean-based cartoon for kids!]

That would be a really weird adaptation! So inappropriate for children!

[comeandfindme]

I still think of him as the sponge! He's Spongebob, I grew up watching him on TV!

[tellthestory]

I didn't!

[He's still laughing a little.]

...did you though, really? Is he popular?

[comeandfindme]

[ She nods pretty insistently. ]

He's so popular! He's like... I think his show's been running since I was born.

[tellthestory]

Oh, wow.

[His mirth shifts, turns to something gentler. He's happy for Spongebob - being important to people is the most one could ask from an existence like theirs, isn't it?]

That's really nice.

[comeandfindme]

...It is, isn't it? I kinda...stopped watching it when I got older. Thought it was more for kids. But... He's still kind of an icon. You know?

[tellthestory]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Generally, I guess.

[What was someone thinking, bringing a character like that into a thing like this?]

You should tell him that. I think it'd make him happy.

[comeandfindme]

[ don't shame kat, bal ]

Me? Oh, jeez, I think it'd probably come better from, like...Farrah, or something. ...I made him cry like our first week here.

[tellthestory]

[shaaaaaaaaaame!]

All the more reason to tell him then, right? I'm sure he knows you thought we were both...Internet people? The first week?

[That was his one and only takeaway from kinniegate]

[comeandfindme]

[ Completely straight-faced, Peregrine replies: ]

Yes. Yes, that is exactly what I thought.

[tellthestory]

I really don't get it...

[Never has, probably never will!]

But I'm sure he's not holding it against you!

[comeandfindme]

[ She is 100% sure that Spongebob doesn't get it either. She's never going to try and explain it to them again. ]

I didn't think he would, he's— like, he's Spongebob. It was just...weird, for awhile.

[tellthestory]

Well, it was weird with us too.

[YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT but he is, he is absolutely just completely casual about it.]

But we're fine now, right?

[comeandfindme]

[ IT WAS WEIRD FOR EVERYONE, INCLUDING YOU. ]

Yeah! Yeah, not weird anymore. Definitely not.

[tellthestory]

Good! [He grins.] I was pretty sure you really didn't like me for a while there.

[comeandfindme]

[ Very hurriedly: ] It wasn't that I didn't like you! I just- I wasn't sure how to talk to you or...anything like that.

[ And. A beat— ]

Okay there was a bit where I didn't like you but I seriously didn't like, like, anyone that first day except for like. Rina and Connor.

[tellthestory]

Oh, sure, that's different.

[Waking up right after your kidnapping is probably not the time to like, trust and like everyone you see immediately.]

And really, it's fine. I know I could've been...I don't know, more normal about it? I did the same exact thing, meeting regular people for the first time the last time, and it didn't go great then either.

[At least he's moved to "regular people" rather than "real people"? He thinks he understands why that upsets folks, but the distinction still seems very real to him; he's just trying to find another way to put it.]

I'd do it differently now.

[comeandfindme]

[ She notices he doesn't say real people and that's...good, it's an improvement. She feels a small bit of satisfaction there. ]

Oh, yeah? Well, how would you do it now? Aside from not walking in and out of rooms to see if the scene changes.

[ she may be teasing him ]

[tellthestory]

That definitely works! I 've done it before!

[But he's smiling.]

I think I could've broached the whole "I'm from a play" thing a little better. And not called this a show. I can...I think I understand that better, now.

[Why it was a problem, at least. He's still of the opinion that it probably is one...but that makes him sound dismissive of it all, which isn't what he meant.]

[comeandfindme]

Yeeeah, probably.

[ After a a moment: ]

Like. I think I kinda get it now a bit more. With all the...narrator magic stuff you guys keep talking about. But it's still... It's not really how I wanna think about it.

[tellthestory]

That's fair.

[He's accustomed to that framework. As far as he's concerned, it's always been there, and thus can't really affect his perception of his own reality more than it already has. But it's not that way for everyone.

He could explain it, he thinks - how something being a show to someone doesn't mean it isn't real inside. His insistence that he wasn't a real person was always about being a narrator, never about that. But Peregrine pretty clearly doesn't want to discuss it, so.]

[comeandfindme]

[ Other people may have the world work this way. That's...fine. But it's not like that for her. She's very, very convinced of that.

Weeks later, when she starts to entertain the fact that Brett may be her narrator—

Well. She's going to sincerely regret not asking more about this. But that's a problem for the future. ]

It's fine. It's all in the past.