The sky shines differently today than it did yesterday

[employeeoftheyear]

[Perhaps to the surprise of no one, there is no after party after that trial. Two children were dead. Two children were dead over a simple accident and the Wizard cared more about himself than anyone else. But they won't give up, they can't give up. They had to keep fighting until everything's been set right.

At the Lobby ofrenda later that night, there are six origami pieces accoupling the other memorials. A penguin, a rose, an octopus man, computer, a music note, and the last one are of a boy and girl holding hands. Along with that there is a plate of strawberry cupcakes with blueberry icing and a note that reads:]

There is still hope and love in the world

Never let The Wizard make you think otherwise 💗

Comments

[employeeoftheyear]

[Spongebob, despite the offerings, is not seen around the school at all after trial and it seems like both him and Gary completely vanished.

If anyone were to come out to the Courtyard, they’ll hear quiet, sad ukulele music, but it’s not immediately obvious where it’s coming from.]

[mayavericks]

[Maya's mostly... wandering idly. The sound of music draws her attention, and so she starts to follow it. Maybe she wants to avoid talking but... listening? That's alright.]

Courtyard

[fourbutts]

[ Janis sort of... wanders out, almost in a daze, on her way to try to be alone for a while, but. The ukulele gives her pause.

So she'll just sort of. Listen and look to see where it might be coming from. ]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa is a girl from the far north of Europe. She's never heard a ukulele before, so as she wanders outside for some fresh air, she just. Pauses. Her head tilts to one side, curiously listening to the sound of the instrument, and as the song goes on, it seems like her shoulders relax. Just a tiny bit.]

Who's out there?

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah doesn’t attend any group activities. All of her energy is completely drained from trying to protect Varian—- and her head still spins and her stomach churns from the flask of tequila that she emptied into her body before the execution. She looks, quite frankly, like shit. The colors drained from her face, and she looks like she could fall down any minute.

When she arrives in Broadhurst, she hesitates—- eying Varian’s bunk, then ending up sprawling on the floor. If anyone tries talking to her, she’s not likely to respond. She just lays there, and wishes it were her that had died instead. Sometimes, she even watches the video of her fall, again and again and again and again——

A few hours after this, she can be found in the Girl’s Dressing Room, the only place where she can duck out of any parental figures. She takes advantage of this by busting a bottle of wine out of her locker, and standing in the showers wearing all her clothes, drinking shower wine straight from the bottle, and wailing in anguish like she’s dying.

After that, later still, once the booze has worn off, she can be found in the library. She’s got the Balladeer’s jacket draped around the shoulders, and she lays on the floor with books surrounding her. Here she rips pages out of books one by one. Mostly, it’s crummy books she’s decimating—- but she’s also ripping out any pages about Mozart that she comes along.]

Library

[employeeoftheyear]

[While Farrah is ripping through the books, she might paper slide under the doorway.]

[mayavericks]

[You know what's better than therapy? Going to get changed and preparing for a long practice session. Maya heads into the girl's dressing room and -- ]

Oh. My apologies.

[Just kidding she'll find a corner to change in, bye.]

Library

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus peers into the library, the bottle of water and apple chips still tucked under his arm, and for a moment he just... watches Farrah, perplexed, before shrugging it off and wandering over to sit down next to her. ]

Hey. [ he says, gently, setting down the bag of dried apples between them and holding out the water bottle to her. He picks up one of the pages she's torn out of an encyclopedia, squinting at it. ] ... Were these all about Mozart?

Library

[defyingfrigidity]

[The good thing about suffering in isolation for thirteen years is that you kind of... don't judge other people for their coping methods, for good or for bad. Elsa's brows furrow when she wanders into the library and sees Farrah surrounded by books, but makes no move to stop.]

What are you doing?

girl's dressing room

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[....there's a lot Cassandra could say about this. But. No, she doesn't really want to.

She just wants to get the water running for an actual shower. Not... whatever this is. But she can't exactly ignore this either.]

...Farrah?

broadhurst

[comeandfindme]

[ Well... It's like an hour after. But Peregrine, exhausted and covered in dirt, walks into Broadhurst. In her arms is a scared, scared raccoon. ]

Farrah? ...I have someone for you.

broadhurst

[disharmonizes]

[Farrah is on his list of people to find right now, so he'd have ended up here anyway, even without the fact that Salieri's going to just end up dragging him here regardless.

He knows the video now, of course, recognizing the sound of it.

And he almost has some sort of comment ready, but... well. He'll leave it, this time. He's just going to sit down on the floor next to her.]

Broadhurst

[violentenvies]

[When Salieri makes his way to the dorm, he pauses in the doorway--Farrah getting his attention first, before his eyes catch on the hand-drawn pictures and notes all over the wall.

Varian's handwriting and chicken scratch, inventions, plans, ideas--they're plastered there, a stark reminder of what they've abruptly lost, of how there won't be any more added.

His eyes sting again and he closes them, swallowing hard, frantically trying to pull that mental mask into place, to regain some control. When he opens his eyes, there are some quiet tracks down his cheeks from the corners, and he's going over to his trunk, opening it, and pulling out a bottle of a sparkling light amber liquid.

Salieri twists the top off and takes a swig straight from the bottle before going to attempt to sit down next to Farrah, setting the bottle between them]

dressing room

[howtheworldwas]

[ Eurydice sits on the bench outside the showers, holding a large towel. Once there's a gap in the wailing: ]

Come on. Better if you drink it out here.

[ She gestures to a spot on the bench beside her. ]

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus makes it his mission to check on absolutely everybody, after what they witnessed today. He starts by heading to the kitchen, where he grabs a bottle of Persephone's wine and a stack of cups, a bottle of water, and one of the many large bags of dried apple chips he prepared earlier in the week. It's not much, but it's the best he can do on the short notice.

Then it's off to search for people. Whoever he runs into, however fleetingly, wherever he finds them, he will try to talk to them. It'd be easy enough to wave him off with enough persistence, should one really not want to, but he's trying his best. ]

kitchen

[howtheworldwas]

[ Eurydice follows him to the kitchen and also gathers what provisions she can. She keeps quiet, until she slams a kitchen cabinet perhaps a bit too loudly. ]

They were family, Orpheus. They relied on each other, and the Wizard didn't even care.

[mcfife]

[Early in the afterparty, Angus is always by Elle's side, watching the others from their seats with a barely restrained look on his face. He's angry. All of this, and everything hat happened earlier, he hates it. And he can't even fight the Wizard.

The lizard terrarium isn't here this week. He doesn't want to think about them for too long.

Eventually, the two make their separate ways, with Angus roaming into the kitchen looking for some place to direct his rage.]

What can I do to help?

[After the ordeal woth Rina's body, he's found at the side of the building with the gapping hook Varian built for him earlier in the week. He swings it up high, but misses the right stable spot. He then throws it up again, pulling on it tightly, and sighs.]

[whatyouwant]

[Elle doesn't let got of Angus as they exit the trial. She doesn't speak either.

Eventually they sit down and Elle lets out a shuddering breath. Her brows furrow as she stares at the table in front of her.]

This is just going to keep happening, isn't it?

[fourbutts]

[ Janis... isn't doing her usual rounds, after all of that is over. Not really. She wanders a little, probably into a couple other toplevels, but mostly she actually. Hangs out under the bleachers at the football field, of all places. Looks like she's... well she has a notebook and a pen, and she looks like she's trying to figure out something to sketch, but... she also looks like she's busy crying. So there's that.

And through her tears, which are not as strong as they could be but also not nothing, she's singing. ]

Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive
Do every stupid thing to try to drive the dark away
Let people call you crazy for the choices that you make
Climb limits past the limits
Jump in front of trains all day
And stay alive

Just stay alive

[ ... It's been one hell of a week. ]

[comeandfindme]

[ Sometime late but before Janis joins Maya, Peregrine tromps out to the football field. Really she's not sure where she's going, what she's doing. She keeps needing a place to think but nowhere seems to work properly.

It's here that she hears Janis's voice rather than sees her, though it doesn't take long to find her. ]

...Janis? What're you doing down there?

[comeandfindme]

[ There's one place to go first. For the first time all week, Peregrine enters the woods without hesitation. She walks over underbrush, taking an apple from her pocket. ]

Ruddiger! Ruddiger, here boy! [ How does one call a raccoon? She doesn't care. She's not leaving until she finds him. It may take awhile. It may take all night. But she doesn't care.

And after that, she...can't really be found anywhere for a long while. Don't worry about it. ]

the woods

[feudalladyshandmaid]

Ruddiger!

[True to her word, Cassandra's - somewhere in between stepping away from Elsa and showering - joined Peregrine in their search of the woods, trying to locate their furry little friend. In lieu of an apple, Owl swoops over head, a small shadow, moving fast and falling on the two women for only a second.]

It's Cassandra! [It is. This is the most attentive Cassandra has looked in A Moment.] You can come out, little guy!

[mayavericks]

[Maya is... restless. Normally, she might practice but without the sword, it all feels empty. The dance studio feels wrong as well, considering what Rina had been doing there the night prior.

So she just... wanders. She avoids the garden and the corn fields, but... sort of wanders circles around the football field.

Later in the night, she does settle in Broadhurst. She tries to lay down, to get comfortable but --

Nope. Instead she gathers a blanket and a pillow and goes to the gayseball field. It's not too cold out, right?]

gayseball field where else for them

[fourbutts]

[ And, not long after, Janis appears with a blanket and pillow of her own. ]

Not feeling sleeping inside?

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa's good at holding tears in. In the long, lonely years of her isolation, she learned how to best hide her crying from her parents, and from Anna. But when they all leave the auditorium after that trial... she can't hold it in anymore. She leans against the wall of the Lobby and cries. It's not the loud or especially heaving sort of crying, but it's still a lot, coming from her. Tears stream hot and fast down her cheeks, and she clamps a hand down hard over her mouth to muffle her sobs.

Two more people. Two children. One being a boy who she'd felt responsible for, who felt like a brother to her. A boy who struggled with his sense of goodness in the same way Elsa did, who she tried so hard to assure that he wasn't some terrible, heartless monster...

It's too much. It's all just. Too much...

For most of the day, Elsa can't be found alone. She's nearly plastered herself to Cass's side so wherever Cass goes, she goes. But eventually Cass goes off, insisting she needed to take a long, hot shower after all of that, and Elsa's left on her own. She wanders back into the lobby, in front of the ofrenda. She just... stares at it for a while, then looks down at the origami figures in front of it.]

You know... I was told by an ambassador from the east that making things like this can be a token of good luck. [She crouches down, not to pick one up, but just... to look at them closer.] You have to make a lot of them, though. Maybe...


[And later still, before Elsa goes off to find Cass again, she stops by Broadhurst Dorm. Bruni the fire spirit seems to be leading her there, giving out worried and sad squeaks as he occasionally looks over his shoulder at his friend. He crawls up the desk the terrarium had been set up on, and places one little paw on the glass; Rapunzel and Eugene, the lizards Varian had received through the vending machine, are inside.]

Oh, buddy... [He must have made friends with them, huh...?] Do you want to look after them?

Broadhurst

[mayavericks]

[Maya is just leaving when Elsa approaches. She glances at the woman and lizard and --]

Can I -- [She looks at the terrarium.] Did you want to take that?

[tailor_made]

[Anyone trying to track down Hester to get into her office immediately post-trail isn't going to have much luck. Her office is locked and she's nowhere to be found. But that doesn't meant she didn't keep her word.

The cart Rina had been laid out on is parked right by the front doors, exactly how they'd left it a few hours earlier with one exception: Rina is not alone. Laid out next to her with a bright yellow sunflower laid across his chest and wrapped in a grey-blue shroud of fabric just like his girlfriend is Varian. There's no signs of blood or physical trauma, just two kids ready to be put to rest in that lovely garden outside.]

the cart :)

[barberic]

[Benjamin finds the cart waiting by the front doors, but when he sees the second body laid out on the cart, he drops down to one knee, then both, reaching out and running his hand over Varian's shrouded head, and letting out a soft gasp when the touch confirms that the body is solid. Real.

His other hand reaches over to touch Rina's body, fingers tightening in her carefully-swaddled shroud, and he bows his head over the two children and just.

Sobs.]

[barberic]

[Benjamin is handling this... Well, he's handling it fine. He's. Fine. This is fine.

He doesn't immediately go to Hester's office to retrieve the solemn duty that they left there before the trial. It'll take them a few hours to dig, though her hole will be smaller than the Balladeer's, and he needs his strength to do it.

So at first he can be found in the Cafeteria, nursing a cup of tea and staring wordlessly out into space.

Then after retrieving the (unexpectedly) two bodies, he can be found down in the garden, digging. There's a couple of extra shovels, for anyone who wants to join in.]

garden

[howtheworldwas]

[ Eurydice takes a shovel. The weight isn't all that different from a pickaxe.

She'll dig in time with Mister Barker, focusing on the rhythm rather than the task. ]

cw: slight disassociation

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Surprising possibly no one, Cassandra isn't around to stand guard like she did the last couple parties... party due to the fact that there is no party this evening. The unfortunate loss of two kids - two friends is nothing to even try and recover from. Cassandra's head is still spinning; it's like she's barely within herself, even while Elsa guides her out of the auditorium.

They spend most of the evening together before Cassandra breaks off to take to the girls locker room for a shower. The water... helps. It washes away some of the utter despair she's feeling, also makes her look less like shit. Brings some color back to her face. It won't bring Varian back to them, or Rina-san. But maybe it's a start.

After the shower, just for a couple minutes, she treks down to the scene shop. There, she combs over shelves and over the tables. She peers in the prop barrels and kicks one over out of sheer frustration. She's just about to give up... when she finds it, hidden beneath a loose sheet of paper.

The music box she gave Varian. Fully repaired. She tests it. Just taking in the soft tune that plink away on the cyllinder.

Once that's settled, Cassandra heads outside - not to the courtyard, but all the way out into the gayseball field, where she plops down in the grass and just... sits. And thinks. And listens to the softly whistling grass, feels the breeze against her warmed skin.

Owl, who has been with his owner since she returned from the trial, swoops around her. Appreciating the space, but never going too far from his sullen mother.

The music box is still in her hands. She shudders, once. Then swallows. One hand takes the wind up switch and turns it, again and again. Soon, the same music from the scene shop fills the air above her, and with it.... a song.]

Guess we all are born with parts to play
Some of us are stars and some are just... in the way

I thought I was meant for glory, but that's never what my story brings... And yet I keep on waiting.

Gayseball Field

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa promised Cass she wouldn't leave her, and she meant it. Maybe she was being a little overbearing, maybe she was annoying Cass with how clingy she's been since the trial, but she can't help it. She promised, and... a part of Elsa is scared. Scared that if she leaves Cass alone for too long, she'll disappear. Disappear off into the fields outside the school, disappear too far into her own head...

She can't lose Cass. Whether it be to murder or to her own inner demons. Cass... Cass is as much her rock right now as she is Cass's. So a little while after Cass finishes her shower, Elsa goes looking for her. When she finds her on he gayseball field, she stops a few feet away - she's not sure if she should be intruding on this, but she wants to let Cass know she was there.]

Hey...

[violentenvies]

[for anyone that is looking for him, he'll be found sitting in the courtyard, holding a little, slightly crooked music box with a slightly crooked tune that comes out of it. Whenever the song starts to slow, he'll turn the crank again, and it starts back up.

And he just sort of...sits there]

[employeeoftheyear]

[While Salieri is out in the courtyard, he will hear something gently fall behind him.]

[whatyouwant]

[Eventually, when Elle and Angus part ways, Elle goes to Longacre to pick up Bruiser. The tiny dog can tell something is wrong with his human, she looks like she's been crying and she isn't smiling at all. He allows her to pick him up and starting licking her face as they walk, hoping to offer some comfort the only way he can.

They go outside to the Courtyard and Elle sets him down. Bruiser leaves briefly to go do his business before returning and sitting on Elle's lap where she's sat in the grass. This is not play time, this is sit time. Elle sits, staring off into the middle distance with a pinched expression on her face, absent mindedly petting Bruiser.

If anyone walks by, Bruiser will spring up and go to them. He yips and, if there is any fabric there for his to bite, will attempt to physically drag them over to Elle with all the might his 5lb body can muster.]

[brokeforgood]

[The tiny dog is enough to pry Farrah from her sorrows, at least a little bit. She’s never been good at saying no to animals. And, Elle has been like a cool older cousin to Farrah—- so when Bruiser tries attacking her socks, Farrah’s more than happy to appease him.

She all but collapses next to the older girl, and then onto her, as if she’s unable to hold herself up.]

Pretty good dog.