Week Six

[stagemanagers]

[Last week, in It's Curtains, the weather changed, and with it your fortune in Dads. Discord took Salieri out - or perhaps Salieri took Discord out - and left the survivors with that much less impulse control. Nonetheless, a visit from a new friend might have provided a little bit of much-needed hope?

On Sunday morning, you'll find that the other side of the second floor has opened up - as well as the actual intended path to reach the roof garden. You can finally stop climbing up that rope every time you want to have a picnic or secret lover's rendezvous!

Outside, the weather seems to have calmed down. It's sunny again, with rather a lot of clouds. Though it's warm, the atmosphere seems very...still.]


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

[feudalladyshandmaid]

I don't know... [No, she's got a theory. She always does.] I was probably the easiest to manipulate. She... said we were alike. More like sisters than me and Rapunzel ever were.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

Honestly? I'd rather she wasn't here.

[She likes having her friends here. But.... What if she gets hurt? What if they get hurt? How many animals were stuck in that cursed machine?]

No. Not a knight. I... wanted to be a guard. [Wanted. It's distant now. Not for her, and might never be.] I used to be the princess's lady-in-waiting, but... that fell through.

[whatyouwant]

[Elle trusts Ben, and she's tired, so she goes with him and sits where directed. She lays her head on the cool table, turned so she can still see him.]

The Wizard is a dick.

[barberic]

Black tea it is.

[He takes a bag of basic black tea and drops it in one of the mugs, using the hot water tap on the water cooler to fill it and then putting it on the table next to her.]

I forget sometimes. Americans as a whole, not really 'tea people,' are you?

[themuseabandonsyou]

I don't think that's true. [ says Orpheus, quietly. ] I don't know what you did, back home, to make you think you deserved to die, or any of what happened to you. But here you've been nothing but a protector and a friend to us. And I think that - who you've chosen to be, here and now? - counts for a lot.

I know it hurts, and I know it's hard, and I won't tell you to stop grieving or anything like that. But we're like family to you, you said? And what kind of family would we be, if we turned you away now of all times?

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ After a moment longer to rest, Orpheus leans carefully over the lip of the roof and waves. ]

I did it! [ he shouts down. ] I don't think I can climb back down the same way, but I did it!

[ He's actually not sure he'll be able to use his arms at all come tomorrow, but he can deal with that when he gets there. ]

[themuseabandonsyou]

Mm. I can understand that. It'd be even better if she was safe at home.

[ He listens to her answer, frowning a little as he continues to pat Fidella gently. ]

I'm... sorry to hear that. It sounds like it must've been really important to you.

[comeandfindme]

[ Peregrine shakes her head, after quietly thanking him. ]

There are some. But...especially in Minnesota.

[mcfife]

No. [...He is certain of it. Just soap and stuff.]

That's all you need. Go on, close it and hit the button.

[mcfife]

[Now you'll get so good at hugging your wife!]

Drop the hook, we'll do this again tomorrow!

[feudalladyshandmaid]

Yeah!

[She anticipated this. They go slow at first, Cass directing Fidella from a trot into a slow gallop... Away from the school. Towards the field as a matter of fact.]

How are you holding up back there?

[barberic]

[When she sits down, he smooths a hand comfortingly over her back, with an amused quirk of his lips.]

That he is.

Wait right here, I'll be back before you know it.

[employeeoftheyear]

Uh... they're yellow...

[He's just

Going to look at the sign that's next to them.]

Oh, they're called daffodils! That's a cute name for a flower.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

It was. [She answers immediately, then...] It was my whole life; I just wanted to serve my kingdom. Then...

[Her eyes have shifted - away from Orpheus, away from all of this. Into the far distance.]

I, uh, made some bad choices. And... here we are.

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa bites her tongue; she wants to argue that no, Cass isn't easy to manipulate. She's strong, by far one of the strongest people Elsa's ever known. She managed to keep herself going week after week in the constant onslaught of new memories. But that would be invalidating everything she went through, wouldn't it?]

... She tried to prey on you feelings about your mother, didn't she? Your loneliness?

[Elsa may not be as wordly as Cass, but she's not stupid. This demon trying to make some kind of connection with Cass, tied to how agonized Cass had been when she found out about her abandonment...]

[whatyouwant]

[Elle smiles and gives a weak thumbs up. She doesn't move a muscle while Benji is gone making the food, just slumps there staring off into the middle distance.

When Benji reappears she perks up, sitting up as best she can.]

Aw, man! Soup! [Somehow she manages to sound tired and excited at the same time.]

[comeandfindme]

Uh! Pretty well!

[ She yells muffled into Cassandra's back. ]

For a given meaning of the word!

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa looks from him, to the pile of completed flowers, then back to Orpheus. She laughs.]

I'm not surprised at all. At the rate you're going, you might be able to fill a whole field in a few days.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Cass also wouldn't believe her. Because it's true, she knows it; she fell for the lies, hook, line, and sinker. ]

Yup. [She's quietly bitter. It's vile to even confirm, but... she can't deny it anymore.] I just wanted to be more in people's eyes than... than nothing! And she used that! She pointed me at Rapunzel...

[But it wasn't the demon that did all of it, was it?]

I did some terrible things, Elsa.

[barberic]

[He sits down at the same table, folding his arms on the top of it.]

What did tea ever do to the people of Minnesota?

[Said jokingly.]

[comeandfindme]

It's too highbrow.

[ A light expression, almost a smile. ]

All everyone drinks to unwind there is beer.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Oh. I'm sorry. Was it... the same thing we talked a little bit about, before?

[ Her betraying her friends, in the search of something they wouldn't help her with. ]

Sorry, I don't mean to pry. If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to.

[themuseabandonsyou]

That's right! I think they come from Europe, but they're all over America too.

[ He pauses, remembering that Spongebob is from... the ocean. How much does he know about land geography? ]

That's, um. Which ocean are you from? Europe is one of the continents that's next to the Atlantic, and America is next to the Atlantic and the Pacific both.

[themuseabandonsyou]

Okay. [ Gingerly, like it might bite him, Orpheus presses the button - and jumps back a little bit at the loud fshhhhhhhhhh of the machine filling with water, briefly alarmed before realizing what's going on. Fascinated, he stoops to watch through the little round window as the drum begins to rock back and forth, sloshing the water and soap and clothes around. ]

Oh! That's much easier than washing everything by hand. And it just goes like this by itself?

[themuseabandonsyou]

That's the idea! [ He beams. ] If you see Eurydice, try not to tell her what I'm up to. This is supposed to be a surprise for her.