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

MONDAY

[stagemanagers]

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah’s returned to the art room today. She’s got a wide variety of supplies set up in front of her, bowls scattered about, bottles of glue, food coloring and—- contact solution? That’s weird.

There are a few bowls with… awful mixtures in it. But the one she has before her is actually turning out pretty good. That’s right kids.

We’re makin slime.]

Slime Time

[employeeoftheyear]

[Spongebob: Nothing can break me out of this spiral
Farrah: Makes Slime
Spongebob: HOLY FUCK

Needless to say that when he sees Farrah in the art room making slime, he practically runs into the room.]

Farr, is that slime?!

[He's a Nicktoon, he's practically obligated to love slime.]

[brokeforgood]

[She’s pouring a shit ton of glitter in now, and looks up at him and—-]

Yeah. I thought… It’s fun, right?

[employeeoftheyear]

It is! Slime is the absolutely the best thing ever and-

[And then he looks at what she's doing.]

I didn't know you could put glitter in it!

[brokeforgood]

Spongebob. [She says it with a certain level of seriousness—- adding a few drops of food coloring to make this slime hot pink.]

You can add glitter to anything.

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Awful is right. Cassandra's ventured back to the art room for... something. It isn't apparent exactly what, because the moment she's about to go through the drawers, she spots Farrah and her... brew.

The handmaid in her visibly cringes.]

What the heck is that?

[brokeforgood]

Oh, Hey Cassandra. [Farrah’s got her bare hands in this stuff, and when she raises a hand to wave at her, it’s all stuck to her hand, gooey and gross and pink.]

I’m making slime. You want some?

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[Oh. Oh no. Oh god. The stains. It's everywhere. And it's never coming out.]

Ummmmmm, no. I'll pass. But, uh, why the slime?

[brokeforgood]

[Just wait until she touches fabric with her gross slimey hands. Then it’ll really be everywhere.]

Because it’s fun? [She stretches it out. So gross, and messy.]

And… I needed something to do.

sliem

[sugarlumps]

[Walking in. Staring at this setup.]

[Taking a second to figure out what's going on.]

...Why.

[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]

[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.

[howtheworldwas]

[ Eurydice hears footsteps, and turns to see who's there. When she sees Farrah, she offers the younger girl a sad little smile.

...And then Farrah starts wiping stuff?? All over the bench?? That's. Hm.

...Well, it's probably what Discord would have wanted. Her smile softens a little. ]

Mmm. Wish I didn't have to. I'm glad you brought something for Discord. He...didn't deserve that.

[brokeforgood]

[It's so sticky and gross! She's working on trying to get it all off the palm of her hands currently.]

... Yeah. I thought he'd-- like this stuff. [Her brow furrows, and she plucks a gooey pompom from the slime, then pats it back in.]

He didn't. He really loved-- I think he really loved--

Dad really messed up. He betrayed us all. But... probably Discord, more than anyone else.

[howtheworldwas]

[ Ooof, good luck girl. ]

He did. [ Eurydice's tone isn't angry, but it is firm. Sounds like she feels pretty strongly about this. ] But I think he knows it was a mistake. I hope he gets to apologize to Discord, wherever they are.

garden

[mcfife]

[On the other end of the garden benches, Angus makes his offerings.

Today, he must stop wallowing in his misery. Everyone, the ghosts, are watching him. Mumble and Connor and Rina and Salieri wouldn't want their deaths to be in vain. The SQUIP must be shown that humanity can be better. Discord would probably be disappointed if Angus ran off to be alone again. So he will be better. For all of them.

He has his own gifts, tap shoes for Mumble the penguin-man, a multi-colored scarf and coat for the SQUIP.] You never had any other focus in life than Jeremy, but being human means appreciating the smaller things in life. Such as art and fashion. [...They may look terrible according to it, but robots have to start somewhere. Angus can try to reach out to the robot from the realm of the living; giving up after its death would be shameful.

He stands up, walking around the benches for a final show of respect, before stopping by Eurydice as she sings.]

Spring will come soon. There is no mistaking it.

[defyingfrigidity]

[It's hard to leave offerings in a place where there's nothing to buy, nothing that lets them create as much as they could in the outside world but Elsa manages. With the constraints of her magic, she's able to produce a few small, icy flowers of various kinds - daisies, crocuses, daffodils - and tie them into a little bouquet. She does this each time for each of their dead - yes, even for the SQUIP - and was about to cross into the area of the garden with the benches, but pauses when she hears Eurydice sing.

It's... it's nice, hearing that sort of optimism now. Especially from Eurydice, who seemed as hard to open up as Elsa once was. It gives her hope, that they can still find a way out of here, and move past all this pain.]

... It won't be that much longer, until we can find a way to push back.

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ The hopeful glow of all the good news Orpheus has received recently has yet to wear off on Monday. He wakes early, per usual, in Longacre before going through his morning routine. Shower in the boys' locker room, breakfast in the cafeteria. He's got more coins from whatever mysterious benefactor keeps handing them out, so in the hopes of not having to use them for anything else, he heads to the machine and starts loading them in.

Seventy six more trombones come out, which he's narrowly able to sidestep, along with another Death Note - now that Hester's said they have no real power, he's a little less anxious about it, but he still sets it aside with the intent to take it outside and burn it later. He also gets one of those strange blue plush toys of some unidentifiable creature, an entire French flag, and a bunch of other garbage, when at last something clunks in the machine, apparently getting stuck inside. Frowning in confusion, Orpheus kneels next to it and slides his hand into the slot, fishing around until he's able to get a grip on the object lodged inside. He pulls it free, and -

Finally, after all these years; Orpheus, son of Calliope has a gun

He drops it immediately with a yelp and it skitters across the floor, under one of the tables.

Anyway, after that debacle and after he sorts all of his garbage into the appropriate rooms for storage, he'll head outside to the woods to burn the Death Note, sitting down cross-legged next to the fire and humming softly to himself. If anyone happens across him while he's doing that, he'll wave them over cheerfully and gesture to the ground beside him. ]

Hi! Sorry if the smoke worried you, I just got another one of those cursed notebooks out of the machine.

[ He beams, figuring that's explanation enough. When the fire's burned down, he'll make his way up to the art room with a book he found in the library. Gathering a stack of paper in various shades of red and pink, he carefully cuts them into squares before folding each one into a delicate paper flower. Over the course of the day he develops quite the collection of them, covering the table where he's sitting as he tries out a few different styles but mostly sticks to the roughly carnation-looking ones, which look more and more practiced with each one he does. He hums to himself quietly as he works, gradually surrounding himself with flowers. ]

MEAT PIE

[barberic]

[Benjamin is drawn to the cafeteria by the now-unmistakable clatter of seventy six more goddamn trombones (he's never encountered it himself, thank God, but he's familiar with the tales, by now.

Unfortunately, as he comes closer to check on Orpheus, his nose catches a familiar smell that turns his stomach and immediately causes him to break out in a cold sweat.]

What is that... Did you get a pie from that machine?

oh god

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ Orpheus looks up, setting the meat pie on one of the cafeteria tables along with the chocolate one. ]

Yes? Do you - [ want it, is what he's going to ask, but then he notices the look on Benjamin's face. ] Do you feel all right? You don't look well.

[barberic]

[Benjamin takes a breath and holds it, swallowing the excess of saliva that's flushed his mouth.

When he speaks, his voice has a gravel to it.]

I'm fine, lad.

[He comes closer, staring down at the meat pie with an unreadable expression.]

May I?

Art Room

[defyingfrigidity]

[Oh. Oh, hey. That... looks familiar. Watching Orpheus fold the paper into intricate little shapes makes a harsh pang lance through Elsa's chest; she'd watched Discord do something similar last week, at the ofrenda. He'd used magic, and she'd tried her best to fold along, but... she couldn't quite get it right.]

Hey...

[She's always careful to announce herself now, after so many weeks trapped in this place and surrounded by death. With how many accidents they've had, they can't be too careful now.]

Can I help?

[themuseabandonsyou]

[ The first couple (dozen) attempts Orpheus made were pretty clumsy, and sit in their own corner of the table looking lopsided and creased, but he's gotten better at it as he's practiced. He looks up as Elsa walks in and smiles, raising a hand in a brief wave. ]

Sure! [ he says, pulling out the chair next to him for her. ] I just found a book on how to make these in the library, and I thought it looked like what Spongebob and... and Discord, had been doing. So I thought I'd make some, for around the school. And for Eurydice.

[ He nods to a small stack of red "carnations" specifically. ]

[defyingfrigidity]

The library... of course. I didn't even think to look there.

Elsa laughs as she pulls up a chair next to Orpheus, plucking one of the little squares of paper off the stack and setting it out in front of her.]

Could you show me how to do it? I promise I'm a fast learner.