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

[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.]

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah’s busy destroying things right now, but at some point she does notice that paper—— and sprints to it. It might be from Rina, or Varian somehow—-]

[employeeoftheyear]

[Unfortunately it's not! It's an envelope that's initialed "From SB"

Want to open it?]

[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.]

[brokeforgood]

[Really, Maya? Are you able to ignore the heart wrenching wails she’s making, or the fact that she’s just standing completely visibly in the open shower with all her clothes on like some kind of hot mess?

She hasn’t even noticed Maya yet.]

[mayavericks]

[Honestly, in her own feelings as she is, she doesn't necessarily recognize the wailing until

oh.]

Farrah-san?

[Now she's heading in, fully expecting some sort of disaster. Blood everywhere, that kind of thing.]

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?

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah nods, though she ignores the bottle of water and the apples.]

Yeah. I’m erasing his existence from history. I just gotta find a paper shredder.

[Her gaze flickers to the water again.]

Don’t need any of that. Thanks.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Why? [ It's not accusatory, or dismissive. Just curious. Orpheus even takes a mildly cursed biography off the shelf and hands it to her. ] I guess Maestro Salieri said he was hard to get along with, but. Is there something else?

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?

[brokeforgood]

Acting out. [Farrah replies bluntly, before she glances up at Elsa, and raises a brow.]

It doesn’t really help, but it’s something.

[defyingfrigidity]

Everyone gets their frustrations out in their own way.

[Elsa doesn't like to see such terrible book murder, but... if it's between some books and Farrah hurting herself or others, well. The books can be a necessary sacrifice.

She wanders closer, picking up some of the discarded pages.]

What subject holds your ire this much?

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?

[brokeforgood]

[Oh. It’s Cassandra—- it’s Varian’s friend. Farrah almost feels compelled to pull herself together for this young woman, but she couldn’t, not even if she tried.]

What?

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Varian's friend. The one who first lead Varian down this path of paranoia and fear... she's feeling more than a little sick about it.]

Ah...

[She can't be the responsible older woman right now.]

Are you up for sharing some of that?

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.

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah’s planning on ignoring her when she enters the room. But when she realizes what Per’s carrying—- who she’s carrying, she scrambles up.]

Peregrine! You brought Ruddy home! [There’s clear relief on her face.]

[comeandfindme]

[ It's something that's almost a smile, so a small warmth fills her up. She didn't think anything would make her feel better after Connor, even a little, so...

Ruddiger's clinging to Peregrine with his little dirty hands, trembling slightly. ]

Shhh. Careful. He's still pretty shell-shocked. [ She speaks very softly, petting Ruddiger's head as he chitters. ]

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.]

[brokeforgood]

[Discord is… weirdly enough one of the few people she can tolerate right now. When he joins her on the floor, she actually does look up from her phone. She drops the phone, actually, onto her stomach—- and just stares at him with a dead gaze for a while.

Then she rolls over, to be closer to where he sits.]

… Thanks.

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]

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah is very specifically not looking at the wall. Seeing all of Varian’s work up on the wall—- pinned up the same way that Salieri had pinned up her own nonsense doodles—- it’s too much. She keeps her eyes focused on the video, watching herself again, and again, and thinking of how Varian had just comforted her about it the night before.

It’s not until he sits down by her that she drops the phone, and sits up—- scooping the bottle up to move it out of the way so she can wiggle right up next to him. Then she takes a swig, and passes the bottle back to him.]

I don’t care if she was right. If Maya says anything about you next time, I’ll rip her throat out.

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. ]

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah almost doesn't reply-- but she does stop wailing at least. Instead, it's just quiet crying, and the water running. Eventually, though, she does get up-- and turn off the water, before stumbling out to meet Eurydice on the bench. She does not look unlike a drowned rat.]

's already got water in it. No difference.