Week Five

[stagemanagers]

[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. ))

Comments

[barberic]

[He gives a small, hollow half-chuckle, at that.]

I hope you're right, Miss Wells.

[comeandfindme]

Me too. [ ... ] Do you believe in those? Miracles?

[barberic]

...I don't, no.

[comeandfindme]

Well, neither do I. So, it's not one.

[barberic]

[He manages a soft snort, at that.]

Well, then there you have it. Incontrovertible proof.

[He says it lightly, but not teasing.]

Have you any luck so far? In trying to find them?

[comeandfindme]

Well, I won't know until I develop the film. So, it's not like I can really get in touch with anyone, just...have an idea that they'd be there.

[barberic]

What do you think you'll see? Do you know?

[He smiles, faintly.]

Photography is a lot less cumbersome than I'm used to.

[comeandfindme]

I... I don't know. Sometimes people see shadows, or little balls of light. Sometimes they see figures. I was just hoping to get something to give us an idea of where they are, since...they said they were in the woods.

[barberic]

Well, it does feel a little... hallowed, here, doesn't it.

I've never believed in ghosts, but it's comforting to think the ones we love can still hear us.

[There's a pang of sadness, of longing, when he says that, his gaze going distant for a second.]

[comeandfindme]

…I didn’t either. [ She admits it almost hesitantly. ] Not until last night. I just… I just wanted to, so bad, so…

[ She notices the way he looks. Off, away. ]

[barberic]

[He comes back, a second or two after she trails off.]

I understand.

[There's a person in particular, one who isn't even here, who he'd love to be able to speak to.]

I miss them, too.

[comeandfindme]

...He said he'd be watching over me. I just— I wanted it to be true.

[ Peregrine lets out a quick breath. ]

Hopefully... I don't know. It's not... It's not just all over.

[barberic]

You're right, Miss Wells, it's not. If that was truly them speaking to us, if they're really still here, then...

There may yet be a way to see them again.

[Aside from the obvious 'die and join them,' that is. He's not dumb enough to say there's a way to bring them back - only a fool would call him an optimistic man. But to see them, to speak to them, to properly say goodbye, before they leave this place for good? That would be a gift that many, himself included, never get to have.

He gives her a small smile.]

Perhaps that's where your photographs will come in handy.

[comeandfindme]

[ A nervous but almost eager laugh bubbles up through her lips. ]

That's what I'm really hoping. ...Another way to see them, that wasn't— that's not our last memories of them.

[ Varian frozen in amber. Rina's small, lifeless body. The Balladeer broken on the ground. Connor so cold, so still. ]

It'd be nice.

[barberic]

[The weight of the Balladeer's body, as he and Antonio lifted him from the rubble. The much, much heavier weight of lifting first Rina, then Varian into their own deep hole, resting together far below the troubles that the rest of them will have to endure.]

It would be.

By the way, [he twists his fingers together, almost sheepishly.] I wanted to apologize for the way I behaved on Friday. You were right, to get Miss Hester. We let our mistrust of the Wizard get ahead of our better judgment.

[comeandfindme]

[ That clearly stuns her. Salieri said something similar, and yet, still... ]

No, it's— I can't...really blame you. I...didn't really wanna trust her either, I just... [ She remembers what she told Salieri. She bites her lip. ] ...I didn't want 'em to have that be the way they'd remember her.

[barberic]

[He nods, understanding.]

Still, it was quick thinking on your part. Thanks to you, we found a compromise that worked out for the best, I think.

[She's right, it would have been hard to hold a trial with the victim in the same room.]

...Do you...sit with the dead before burial? Where you're from?

[comeandfindme]

...It's— Yeah, we have...wakes. People can have time to remember them, but, like...anything violent's cleaned up. Or you have to have a closed casket.

[ ... ]

We had one of those, for my brother, but...we had to ID him too, so...I still got to see.

[barberic]

Your brother?

[His heart breaks for her. It's a terrible thing to endure. But, at least in his time, a terribly common one.]

I'm so sorry, I...had no idea.

[comeandfindme]

[ It's maybe weird for her, to have that. Everyone knows everyone in Whitetail, so everyone knows she's Jacob Wells's little sister, the girl throwing herself into the woods to try and cope. Everyone knows that Jacob died. Everyone knows.

So...even though it's inappropriate, even though she doesn't feel like it, a smile flutters to her face. It's thin and sad. ]

Yeah. Yeah, well. I wasn't hiding it or anything, but...didn't really wanna...broadcast it. Mostly. [ Even if she did a poor job of that, with the first trial, with her...very open outburst. ] ...Thanks.

[barberic]

[He doesn't know what brings the little smile to her face, but he's the last person to judge. He glances away, to give her space to feel without feeling like she's being stared at.]

I understand. Grief is a personal thing to talk about. Even harder when it's a tragedy.

[Like losing someone young. Like having to identify a body.

By now, with his own memories, he barely remembers the first trial. He remembers she had an outburst, that it was about the way that poor boy died. He suspects the two are related.]

Were you close?

[comeandfindme]

[ Her lips twitch. A tragedy. ...She can't blame him. She wants to rant and rave against the town, against the whole of Whitetail for letting her brother die, but—

But she'd have to rant and rave against herself too, considering. Woodsley lying there, so still and cold, no sign at all of Eric...

So she bites her lip and she nods. ]

He was... Mom's always working. It's like, it's not her fault, she's on her own. But...it means, growing up...Jacob was always the one who was really there for me. He loved being a big brother. He was really good at it.

[barberic]

[Where was your father? Obviously, it's the first question that comes to mind. But it doesn't matter - dead or absent, it's all the same to the children left behind.

He listens, can feel how much she misses her brother like it's a tangible thing.]

He sounds like he was a remarkable young man. I'm sure the world is a poorer place without him.

[He's sure she's heard the same consolation, dozens and dozens of times. But good men, kind men, are hard to find. And they're always the ones taken too soon.]

[comeandfindme]

[ It's all been empty condolences. Vigils where people expressed their sadness and then went on with their day. Times when they asked her, then...to move on.

There's something different in this. Some kind of common ground that Peregrine didn't really find in Whitetail. ]

...It is. [ Peregrine finds herself glancing at the various memorial benches. At the mound where Rina and Varian are buried. The world keeps going on, even if they're all dead. All gone.

...No. No, they're not quite gone. Not like Jacob is. ]

[barberic]

[Benjamin's gaze falls to the graves, as well. The ones he broke his back to dig, because it was the right thing to do. He barely even registers the ache in his back that lingers even now, the memory of fifteen years of backbreaking labor enough to dull it.

He doesn't offer more platitudes, about how we carry our dead inside us, or they watch over us through our actions, or anything like that. His Lucy is just as dead as Peregrine's brother, and he hasn't felt anything but empty about it.

Instead, he just offers her a moment of soft, companionable quiet, in the utter stillness of this green little grotto.]