itscurtains | Week Five

Entry tags:

act 3,
week 5

Week Five

[Last week, you had your very first minor body pileup! Granted, the Balladeer's death was entirely unrelated to anything, but at least he died as he lived - getting completely fucked up in some kind of carnival-themed hellscape. Only two days later, another terrible accident took Rina and Varian both from you. It's just been one of those weeks, huh? At least you got to add both of their corpses to your weird growing collection!

Again, you'll wake up this morning with another new snippet of memory. You'll also find that the stairs in the lobby are no longer blocked. You can only access one part of the second floor, but it seems like there's some neat stuff up there!

Outside, a few things seem to have changed. For one, the weather has turned - it'll be overcast this week, with periodic rain and even scattered thunderstorms. For another, the bushes around that rock out by the football field have bloomed. That's nice.

Get to it, friends! I'm sure everything will be fine this week!]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

(( Be sure to submit your memory regain and your AC for this week! As always, Hester's office hours and the merch booth remain available. ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You're certain of that?

[Janis doesn't quite have the energy of an angry, shaking chihuahua, but she's close. And that, especially in this place, worries Maya.]

It's okay if you are angry. Or hurt. Or any combination.

...

[ Janis chews on her lip for a moment. ]

I'm not that angry at her.

[She tilts her head.]

Who, then?

[ She's quiet for a moment. It's stupid, she knows it's stupid. And she is angry at Cady. But. ]

The one who should have fucking known better.

My starlight, I want to help you. [She cups Janis's cheek, pushing some wet hair aside as she does.]

I cannot do that with you being so vague.

[ Oh, that... that gets her eyes to water. ]

I just feel so fucking stupid.

It is only right, to want to trust those you call your friends. And it's only fair to hurt when they act against you. Especially after you have been hurt so badly before.

[Maya thumbs beneath Janis's eye.]

It is okay to be hurt, Janis.

I... I just...

[ She sets her jaw, teeth clenched tight. ]

I thought this time was different
Why did I think she'd be different?
But it's never, ever different

[ And the anger breaks, and she just. Collapses forward onto Maya, crying. ]

[Maya isn't sure what she expected but it... certainly isn't this. It's mostly out of instinct that she manages to grab hold of Janis, holding her as close as she can. She doesn't understand the full context, but she can make a few connections. She can draw the important conclusions. Like how Janis had been hurt, and that Maya needed to make it right.]

That isn't true, Janis. [She kisses the top of Janis's head, wet hair be damned.] It can be different. It is different. We are different.

[ Janis sniffs, gripping Maya... well, as tight as she can, considering she was recently in a pool. ]

I know, I know, I... I'm doing my best to remember that. I just...

[ She wonders if this wouldn't hit so hard if the last few days hadn't been... what they were. ]

... I'm scared what happens if it isn't a fucking choice.

No one will take me from you, Janis. And no one will take you from me.

[She traces her fingers down the span of Janis's spine, then up and over her sides. A reminder that she's there and alive, and that it won't be changing any time soon.]

I will protect you. You, and Peregrine and everyone else here.

[ Janis sniffs. ]

I don't... know what I'd do if you did. Leave me behind, that is.

[ Whatever it was, it wouldn't be pretty. Especially not right now, after the last week or so. ]

Sorry, I've been... doing a lot of crying on you recently, huh?

You don't need to think about that, Janis. There is no force on heaven or Earth that would keep me from you.

[She gives Janis another squeeze and just... keeps it up. Like maybe if she held on tight enough, she could make it true.]

You don't need to apologize, though. I would -- Rather you cry on me a thousand times than hold it in at the wrong time.

[ Janis thinks about that for a moment. ]

You know, it's funny... when Regina George forced me straight from "Wow, it's kind of weird how much I like Wendy from Gravity Falls" to "weird art lesbian," I didn't even really cry? Not at first, anyway. I cried in therapy, I mean... that's sort of what therapy is there for. I told myself... I told myself I wasn't going to let anyone make me cry anymore. To just get angry instead. Because it's easier to be angry, you know? It's easier to be mean.

[ She chuckles. ]

I wonder where I'd be if I started letting myself cry before I started seeing two corpses weekly.

Probably about the same place that I would be, if I had learned to cry before now too.

[She shakes her head.]

It's easier to be determined, too. To dance until your feet bleed, just to know that you would not be letting anyone down. That you, the thoroughbred actress, were not failing what your very lineage set you up to be.

I would not dare compare our scenarios. I... am wise enough to recognize my luck. But I can understand, how easy it is to bottle it up and force yourself forward.

Maybe both of us should try crying more. If it's just us, no one else gets to judge. Not... Regina or your lineage or whoever else.

[ She's not crying now, she's just... holding Maya. ]

How... was your memory dream?

Just you and me.

[It's a pleasant thought. She could get used to opening up. That's what her own memories had taught her, right? She could trust Claudine, trust that they were equal enough to win the Revues.

And maybe, if that was all there had been to her dream, she could get behind that. Instead --

that question stops her short. The breath rushes from her lungs, and suddenly she's not in the pool, in the school, anywhere near this place. She's on a stage, one that shines a sickly yellow, and she can't see.

It's dazzling.]

-- Long. It was long.

[ Okay, that's... not the reaction she was hoping for, but it is also a reaction she would rather deal with sooner than later from Maya. ]

... How long?

[ What is long code for here. ]

[She closes her eyes, trying to block the yellow out. It's easier when she can curl against Janis.]

I lost count. The same thing continued to happen, again and again.

[ Janis wraps her arms around Maya, easing into her turn on "take care of girl" duty. ]

Like... [ She frowns. ] Like Groundhog Day? Or... the two things I know that do that are Groundhog Day and Madoka, I'm so sorry.

I don't -- know.

[She shakes her head. Even as she tries to jog her memory, she fails.]

It was Claudine and I at first. We had made it to the final Revue, and I had selected her as my partner. We were supposed to face Aijo-san and Kagura-san, but then --

[How could she forget, now, after seeing it so many times.]

Everything was different. And instead of our joint duel, it was Nana and I. And she -- won. Again and again, Nana won.

But... why? And how?

[ she is a narrator, but she is also a slice of life character- wait. ]

Is she a narrator, too?

I --

[Maya freezes.]

How would I know? If she was, I mean?

I mean... I barely know that I'm one. But... it seems like knowing things you're not supposed to is part of it. And... controlling stuff.

[ She breathes. ]

And... telling the same story. Over and over again.

[ It's an old song
And we're gonna sing it again ]

I don't know. It... felt different. Not like the same story being told, but the same thing happening over and over again. Like a --

[She shakes her head.]

Like a scratch on a CD.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject