itscurtains | 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

[Farrah’s back in the Girl’s Locker Room again today. She bustles between the lockers and the bathroom, with her remaining bottles and cans of alcohol with her.

Her crying? It’s loud, and echoes well outside of the girl’s bathroom. Her voice, too, carries.]

I poured the bottle out
Became myself again.
That hopeless loser girl who no one understands,
no one understands, no one——

Before the breakdown

[rip to all of Farrah’s alcohol. She pours it all down the toilet, crying all the way]

No one understands

No one stays.

[ Much later though—- after the funeral, after she’s cried and felt like she’s lost herself forever, she climbs the stairs and begins to explore. It doesn’t take long at all for her to clamber into a swimsuit, dive into the pool, and become a menace to the entire pool, with all the hooting and hollering and pool-toy throwing and water-gun squirting she’s doing.

If you come into the pool while Farrah’s in it, you’re gonna get splashed. ]

[Honestly, ever since the second body was discovered in the Girl's Locker Room, Spongebob started using the Girl's Locker Room over the Boy's. Gender was really more of a suggestion to him anyway rather than any hard thing.

So naturally he hears Farrah's voice as he goes in to take his morning shower. He hesitates, before going and knocking on the stall door.]

Farrah? It's me, Spongebob.

Spongebob? [Her voice is small—- but she does push open the stall door. She’s just sitting on the floor by the toilet, surrounded by empty bottles. The Balladeer’s jacket is draped around her shoulders again, and her makeups runny, but she’s here!]

[His eyes widen, slightly, when he sees the state Farrah's in. But after a moment he sits down on the floor across from her, giving her a look of understanding.]

Did you have another one of those dreams?

Yeah. [She sniffs—- realizing too late after rubbing her eyes with her sleeve that she’s in a bathroom stall, with literal toilet paper right there. So she starts spooling some of that around her hand, to wipe her eyes and blow her nose.]

It just. Made me sad. None of that—- back home—- needed to happen. Like. [She shakes her head.]

Sorry. I shouldn’t—— I just—— everyone else is just so… And I know we’re just new friends, but I feel like I’ve known you forever.

[He gently puts a hand on Farrah's knee.]

Look, you can tell me whatever you wanna tell me. Even if you've only really known me for a month, you're still my friend! I'm here for you, I promise.

You're a good friend, Spongebob. [She sets her hand on Spongebob's, and lets it be quiet for just a few seconds-- which may be a testament to how difficult times are, if Farrah and Spongebob Squarepants can sit quietly.

She throws the tissue into the toilet with the rest of the alcohol.]

Everyone says that Riley--- I mean, obviously, killing people is bad. She was fucked up for that. But there really--- there really wasn't even a reason, not even a shitty one.

I was going to quit getting so fucked up anyway.

"No reason"?

[Songebob's quiet for a moment. What do you say to that? "Oh I'm sure she had a reason"? No he knew less about this situation than Farrah. "At least it wasn't a bad reason"? ... Honestly Spongebob wasn't sure how he would feel if he was killed for no reason.

So instead, he pulls Farrah into a hug.]

You can still work on quitting being fucked up here.

Yeah. [Her voice is small, but at least she has her humor. She gestures back at the toilet full of alcohol with her thumb.]

Working on that now. Oh- and uh. Fucked up like— drunk. I… I didn’t like me, when I was—- so— [Oh god. She’s talking to Spongebob Squarepants about being a teenage alcoholic. She just had Spongebob Squarepants tell her she could be less fucked up.

This can’t be her life.]

If I was going to be out of control, at least I would be out of control in a way that seemed fun. But I decided I didn’t want to be like that anymore, and—- it didn’t matter then. It didn’t fix anything to stop, or be brave enough to change.

I don’t know if it’ll matter now.

[Spongebob pulls away from the hug to give her a shocked look.]

Of course it matters now! I mean, you're still here, right? You got friends and family here who can support you through the hard times when you're struggling! And besides, there's no time like the present, even if you are dead!

["Dead", that word gives him a pause. He shrinks a little and looks away. A part of him wonders if he should bring this up. Spongebob doesn't want Farrah to think he's making it all about himself, after all.

... But, she might want to know that she's not alone here. She deserves that much.]

After all... I think you might be in good company on the whole "dead all along" thing.

I guess you're right. [There... literally is no other time. But then he says that, and Farrah's face creases with concern. She reaches over, and puts his hand on his knee.]

What? Who?

[Spongebob takes a deep breath.]

Sandy and I were gonna go stop that volcano eruption. It was really dangerous and no one had... successfully climbed it before, but we knew we had to if we wanted to save Bikini Bottom.

[Gulps]

I tried my best, but there was this horrible tremble and I started falling. Sandy tried her best to catch me, but... but...

[Spongebob rubs his eyes. He just can't finish that thought.]

I-it was just us two. No one else believed in the mission. No one else could have...

[Tears start welling up at, at everything. Even after everything he can't help but wonder if he failed them all.]

Week Five

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Girls Locker Room

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cw: alcoholism + underage drinking

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