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

[howtheworldwas]

[ Eurydice nods, ecstatic, and takes both his hands. ]

He did! He -- it's a little weird, because we have to walk out single file? But we're almost out of there. We're so close, and the hard part is already over. You did it.

[barberic]

[He doesn't acknowledge her careful approach, but nor does he seem to be startled, so her caution has been well-repaid.

Or it's possible he barely noticed her at all, the way that he stays huddled on the ground, his broad shoulders trembling from this new, unbearable weight placed upon them, his hands stretched out in front of him, clenched into fists and held together like...

Well, like they're bound.]

...I don't deserve your kindness.

[barberic]

[He remains where he is, unmoving except for the shuddering breaths he takes that rattle in his whole, broken chest.]

...Leave me. I beg of you.

[barberic]

No.

[That answer is quick and decisive and honest, at least, and gets him to sit up and look at her.]

But I want... to protect you. And I-

[She looks so small and scared. He wants to reach out to her, to hold her. He wants to say never mind and just take his shoes off and get into bed, to hold her, unsleeping, while she dreams, and shush her back to sleep when the nightmares come.

But he remembers Johanna's face, dressed as a dirty street urchin with her hair up under a hat but Johanna nonetheless, and how could he not have recognized his own flesh and blood, his own eyes staring wide and scared back at him? Her voice screaming, begging as he shoved her into the chair and put a razor to her throat-

How about a shave, boy?

He looks away from Farrah, and back down at his hands, sucking in a sharp breath and holding it, to avoid letting out a sob.]

I'm an evil man, Farrah. I don't...want you to get hurt. By being around me.

[howtheworldwas]

[ Eurydice spent yesterday with the living. Today, she heads to the garden to see the dead. She stops at the graves first, distantly looking them over. This time, however, she's not here for that. She continues onwards to Antonio's bench.

She doesn't sit on it -- instead, she sits on the ground in front of it. Eurydice pulls a small jar of applesauce out of her coat pocket. Attached to the jar is a note. ]

Hey, Antonio. I know you probably can't hear us, because we can't hear the Balladeer when he plays, but it still feels wrong to do this in silence. [ She shrugs, chuckling to herself, before continuing. ] So. I just wanted you to know -- I get why you did what you did. I don't like it, but I get it. You know I made a bad deal, too.

[ She sets the jar on the bench. ]

But you were also my friend. So even though you made a really bad mistake at the last minute, I still wanted to tell you...I'm going to make it out. [ She's smiling now, her voice filled with a soft, fragile hope. ] Lord Hades let us go. We've got to walk single file, and Orpheus can't look back, but I know he can do it. I trust him.

[ She gets up to sit on the bench, turning her face towards the sky. ]

Antonio
Are you listening?
I'm right here
And I will be to the end
And the coldest night
Of the coldest year
Comes right before the spring

[ She falls into a comfortable silence before adding, quietly: ]

If we can make it, so can you.

[ The note reads: I understand. Wait for me. ]

[brokeforgood]

[She doesn’t get a chance to be relieved by his reassurance. Instead, it plunges her into a different kind of worry. A less self-obsessed kind of worry.

He wants to protect her.

Farrah knows what he’s doing. She’s tried to do the same in her own way, the past few weeks—- the past year. Since the fall. She’d been testing people’s patience, pushing them away when they finally broke and failed, up until her death. In her new life, no one has accepted this from her. She has to return the favor.

And besides all that, she’s sincere when she reaches over, and gently sets Milky White onto his lap. When she sets a hand onto his knee immediately after.]

That’s okay. I don’t care if you’re evil. I’m a bad kid. And you still—-

You still love me.

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah smiles a bitter smile, but- she’s still grateful for Elle, bubbly and airheaded, but also so thoughtful. Just like Annleigh.]

We don’t have to talk about it. You wanna just… sit in the hall and chat? We can talk about nice things. You can tell me how you and Bruiser met. I’ll tell you about my sister.

[fourbutts]

Well, who better to track down a magical giraffe than your charming girlfriend who happens to be a narrator?

[barberic]

[He was expecting her to get up. To say something furious, maybe, or tell him she hates him, call him a liar. He was even expecting her to press him with questions, curious, determined child that she is, or insist that he isn't as evil as he says.

What she does, putting Milky White in his lap and touching his knee, quietly accepting what he said without question or rebuttal, is the furthest possible thing from what he could have expected.

And it utterly unmakes him.

He covers her hand with his own. The bandage around his hand is fresh, and more meticulously applied than the one she put on him during the trial, but it's probably for the best that it isn't the same bandage.

Every time he thinks of violence his vision goes red with Lucy's blood, he feels the razor cutting into his throat like cutting a marionette's strings, but there's still a writhing, withered hatred in his heart for whoever told this child that she was bad, so many times that she believes it.

The first sob out of him is physically painful, his fingers tightening around her hand, and his voice is small, barely above a whisper.]

I don't want to hurt you. I can't-

I can't lose another daughter.

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah’s headed to the garden with her own… much grosser gift for the dead. Actually. It probably seems like she’s still really angry at Discord, because—— we’ll get back to that.

She’s stumbled upon this scene towards the end, and has frozen outside of the garden, feeling awkward and intrusive. Farrah considers leaving, and coming back later, just because it’s so personal. And also because seeing Eurydice hopeful is… weird. She doesn’t want to go the whole way back inside and have to come back later, though, so she waits, and once Eurydice’s done with her song, Farrah joins her in the garden.

She doesn’t join Eurydice on her dad’s bench, though. Instead, she sits near her, on Discord’s, and silently dumps an entire bowl of disgusting, shimmering purple and orange slime with glitter and pompoms in it onto his bench.]

… Thanks for thinking of him, Eurydice.

[employeeoftheyear]

[He is surprised to feel a coat draped around him. After he recognizes the cost, he smiles up at Eurydice.]

You kept it.

[brokeforgood]

[She scoots across the edge of the bed, to close the small amount of distance between them. She doesn’t even have to think about what to say next, leaning against him, her voice equally small—- but so sure in what she speaks.]

I cant lose another dad.

I’m here.

[employeeoftheyear]

ANYTHING?

[This is dangerous information.]

So instead of beads, I can cover all my clothes in glitter?!

[howtheworldwas]

[ Oh, no. That's not good. (low, keep your head --)

Eurydice sits with him and presses her shoulder against his. To be fair, it's more like her shoulder against his arm, since she's so much shorter. But the sentiment is still there. ]

I know I'm still kind of new at it, but...I don't think that's how that works.

[mcfife]

[That long groan can answer a lot.]

I remember killing her.

[He leans his head into the stream of water.]

It's nothing like the slaying of undead forces of evil.

[barberic]

[He doesn't have anything that he can say to that. Even if he did, he couldn't form the words.

When she presses herself against him, he thinks about the night before, when he didn't remember the full weight of damnation on his soul, and how it had almost been...easy. To fall asleep. How it was all he'd ever wanted, and even the guilt, feeling like he'd abandoned Johanna, was less.

And though I'll think of you, I guess, until the day I die,
I think I miss you less and less as every day goes by, Johanna...

He can't fully lean against Farrah, but he brings her hand up to his lips and presses a kiss to her fingers, as the sobs overtake him completely.]

[barberic]

[It doesn't matter how tall he is. Not when he's laid so desolately low. He doesn't rise to meet her, but the shudders wracking his bent shoulders do ebb.]

You don't understand. I'm a murderer- no, not just a murderer, a monster.

My life is over. This place is my personal hell, forced to forget, and care, and love, and lose, and kill, and die, over and over again, week after week- God, any hell would be more merciful than this.

[howtheworldwas]

[ She smiles back. ]

I did. When you gave it to me...I really needed it, you know. But now it looks like you might need it more.

[mcfife]

[he did what.

Elle is gorgeous, obviously, and that's part of the reason Angus likes her along with her bravery, intelligence, and kindness. The last three are the most relevant traits in her job, but there's only one reason her professor cares about her looks.]

What did he do to you. [His grips tightens protectively.]

[employeeoftheyear]

[He pulls her into a hug.]

Thank you Eurydice. You’re the best.

[When he pulls away, there is a sad smile on his face as he bundles himself in the coat.]

... You know, I wonder why this time is so much harder than the last time I’ve been through this.

[mayavericks]

[Maya sits across from her. She holds a hand out into the space between them but... doesn't dare intrude otherwise. She'll let Farrah make this call in the end.]

We have to have hope. That is what he would want, I think.

[mayavericks]

No, it's --

[Well it isn't exactly fine, but.]

What's going on?

[mayavericks]

Please do not ask me to do that.

[She kneels beside him, hand on his back.]

You have been so strong for me. Please let me extend the courtesy to you.

[whatyouwant]

[For a moment she thinks about lying, saying it was nothing. But she remembers talking to some of her Delta Nu sisters.

"You need to be honest. We're here for you."

Angus wants the truth.]

He kissed me. I slapped him, he fired me. There's no reason to stay. He's one of the most respected professors on campus.

[brokeforgood]

[He may not be able to lean fully against her, but she tries to be solid next to him anyway. Tries to be as brave for him as she can, to do anything she can to keep him there. She doesn't dare relax, not even when he presses a kiss to her hand.]

Promise that you won't forget me
Someone has got to hold on to me

Promise that you won't forget me--
Live and let live but don't let go [She had sung the same plea last week-- and Salieri had promised. He had promised and broken the promise. And as Benji sobs next to her, she makes her own vow to herself. If he promises-- she won't let him break it.]