Week 7

[stagemanagers]

[Last week, on It's Curtains...boy, that sure was a year-long week, huh?

But despite it all, you've gotten through it with less death than there might have been. Spongebob and Farrah both survived their ill-conceived plan; Maya, with the intervention of Janis and Hester, survived her triple murder. Since the failed execution, there has been no sign of the Wizard or of Hester. It seems like you may have gotten away with that cleanly!

When you wake up on Sunday, you remember everything. All the gaps, the missing pieces, entire chunks of time from back home - they're back and neatly fitted where they should be in your heads. Elle, Orpheus, and Eurydice have also been given graves alongside the others in the garden. These ones were filled in for you; after all, you were all pretty occupied over the weekend.

Other than that...it seems like some unusual posters have been put up around the school. Sounds like something's going to happen this week. You'd better prepare.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday

(( As per usual, endgame will ICly take place on Wednesday, so get those last threads in! As this is the last week, all characters should be at their true canonpoint memory-wise. Feel free to continue submitting regains and...well, you can certainly try to visit Hester. No AC this week, but be sure to check in for endgame! ))

Comments

SUNDAY

[stagemanagers]

[Come Sunday morning, you'll find posters hanging throughout the school. Or perhaps they've always been there, and you simply missed them? They look like they've been stuck there for a long time; some are only hanging by a corner now, and the walls behind them are tacky with old adhesive.

The posters themselves are faded with age, nearly yellowed, and often creased or even torn. The only words legible are:]

CLUB MEETING
WEDNESDAY

[brokeforgood]

Wow. [Farrah wakes up Sunday morning and… remembers everything. Thankfully, we already remembered the worst bits. So instead of like… this being traumatizing?]

That really was the worst sleepover ever. And that’s before the murder.

[Farrah spends the rest of the day bustling around. You might catch her in the kitchen with a bowl of veggies, or in the library studiously bent over books—— but wherever you find her, she’s in the company of a furry little rabbit that’s alive. Sometimes Ruddiger’s there, sometimes he’s not, but she actually seems concerned about both animals health. It’s a step in the right direction.]

[mcfife]

[Angus walks past Farrah in the hallway, holding his hammer and with the Legendary Enchanted Backpack strapped on, which still has the bow Elle left on it before she-]

Where did you find that? [Since when did the Wizard give out rabbits?]

kitchen

[comeandfindme]

[ Peregrine remembers food at some point. It's a little funny how in and out of her own head she is. She expects to see other people around, but what she certainly doesn't expect is a live rabbit as well. ]

Hi, Far— what. [ She looks at the cute little bunny, nibbling away. ] Where— vending machine?

[mayavericks]

[Perhaps unsurprisingly, Maya spends most of her day in Broadhurst. The door is propped open, and she has several mattresses on the floor for anyone to join her with. She's left any undelivered letters out in the hall throughout the weekend, so feel free to handwave that!

At least when she wakes up, she seems pleased enough? The memories she's regained... feel warm. Despite the tragedy she had witnessed, everything has panned out well enough. And even if she lost the lead role in the end, she was still with her friends.

She tries not to think about how that happiness must have been disturbed by her disappearance, by the disappearances of Claudine and Nana. She doesn't want to think about that, not after all of this.

In the end, she leaves her room twice. The first is to go to the Principal's office. Judging by the sounds of pounding and yelling, that... search doesn't go particularly well. So unwell that she emerges and promptly... slides down the wall in a heap.

Don't mind her.

Before long, though, she does manage to go to the makeshift graveyard. She brings with her some flowers (difficult though it is with her crutches), laying each of them on the graves -- ones that she had created. Before long she kneels on the ground. It feels like ages since she's prayed, but she tries it now.

And when she finishes, she just stares at the dirt.]

Can you hear me? I hope you can. You do not... really need my permission to be angry, I'm sure. But I want you to know that it's okay. I accept it. Deserve it, even. Even if my actions were not my own, I still... did that. Separated you from loved ones.

I should be there, with you. If anyone deserved mercy, it certainly was not me. I apologize for that as well. I... tried.

Broadhurst

[brokeforgood]

Maya! [Farrah basically busts down the door to Broadhurst pretty early in the morning. She’s got that plastic rabbit Peregrine brought inside under her arm—— Only. It moves.]

I brought you a visitor!

principal's office

[comeandfindme]

[ They have the same idea. Peregrine just gets there after Maya. Seeing her curled up against the wall terrifies her. Her brain's already switching into doctor-mode, when she rushes up to her and kneels down. ]

Maya? Maya, are you okay? Did your stitches open up?

[sugarlumps]

[Sunday morning LSP wakes up in the Ambassador Dorm as usual, except- kind of giddy? And laughing.]

AHAHAHAHAHA, I KNEW IT, I'M A HERO, I SAVED THE WO-O-ORLD- ...oh glob I am so tired.

[And just. Slumps back down in her bed for a while.]

[Once she's actually up and active she's just. Kind of actively checking on everyone? Like literally everyone, unless you're hiding. She's got a prop sword from the costume room at her waist and an armful of stuff from the kitchen.]

Okay, so Friday lumping fucked in the worst way, but that is why we need to stick together and be prepared so we can kick the Wizard's stupid butt before he tries anything else. Being a hero's about being prepared and junk. Hero time.

[dot dot dot]

[And then she's gonna shove a piece of fruit or a biscuit or a cold waffle at whoever's she's talking to. Possibly directly into their mouth, if she can.]

SO KEEP UP YOUR LUMPING STRENGTH, THIS IS IMPORTANT.

[mayavericks]

[Maya is. Quite literally, a captive audience. And even if she tries to protest, well -- There's now a cold waffle in her mouth, so...]

Mmmff mmmm mfm?

ONE LAST INVESTIGATION

[comeandfindme]

[ She remembers high school graduation. She remembers summer. She remembers moving into her dorm in St. Paul, remembers meeting her roommate, remembers her first month, remembers—
"Peregrine: You can't change what happened."
...
"Where’s the other half?"
"I don't know. I was thinking maybe he took it with him. Maybe he wants you to find it."

She remembers planting two trees. She remembers the fourth annual turkey drop. She remembers her mother sharing the news, remembers already making plans, remembers the excitement and joy, remembers finally finally feeling like maybe she was ready, ready to live her life—

And it abruptly ends. When she wakes for the first Sunday in weeks with a strange, almost incredible calm. Clarity.

It gives way to a heavy weight on her chest almost immediately and she untangles herself from Janis's sleeping form. It's so very early in the morning, but she feels rested. Once making sure someone else is with Maya, she decides it's time to finish something she'd started two weeks ago.


So. You know photoquest? It's back on and ohhh she is taking pictures everywhere. The lobby, east hall, west hall, the grounds (besides the woods), the entirety of the second floor, the roof— Peregrine is going to photograph every room, until she's out of film. She'll develop those in the darkroom and take more if she needs to. Feel free to find her in any of these places, taking some meticulous photos!

One last chance. What do these photos old?

Peregrine spends much of the day taking care of Maya. She changes her bandages, checks on her stitches, does everything necessary. But...at some point, she needs a break. It's late in the evening when she retrieves...something from the library, something that she then sets up in the band room. For quite some time, she can be found attempting to play something that is far beyond her skill level.

But still. She tries. ]

[fourbutts]

[ "And so, freshman, the moral of our story is thus: calling someone stupid won't make you any smarter."
"And even the people you don't like at all are still people!"
"SO GET OFF THEIR DICKS!"

Janis wakes up in Broadhurst late in the morning, after being asleep for a solid 36 hours, and spends a while just. Looking up at the ceiling. Peregrine is awake early, of course, and she hasn't gotten the courage to look over yet, but she knows Maya is here. She did that. She saved Maya, and now she remembers all the way up to curtain call and knows more about how she did it.

Janis extends a hand towards the ceiling and snaps. Nothing happens, of course, but... the memory is nice. ]

New morning
Feels different than before
It's dawning
This thing I've been waiting for
And I'm flying
My feet won't touch the ground
And I'm ready
To turn our lives around

[ Outside of the room, her step is light - lighter than it should be, perhaps, after three bodies yesterday, but she feels like she's earned it - as she heads up to the art room. She eyes a canvas for a while, then shakes her head and grabs some paint.

Then she heads to a hallway and pulls out a brush, cracking her knuckles as she does. ]

Let's do this.

[ And before long, in massive curly letters, she has written:

BECOME UNGOVERNABLE

And yes. I'm not doing the html for it, but rest assured: it's in a beautiful rainbow of colors.

After that, she's going to slide over to the library and grab a bunch of scripts to plays - they do all have something in common, if you know plays and care to look, but at the moment she's reading Our Town with great interest. ]

Damn, this guy rules...

[ And, later still, she actually... tracks down Peregrine. ]

[mcfife]

[Angus wakes up exhausted in Ambassador. So many deaths, so many lost friends and broken promises. The Phantom - no, the SQUIP - is now a friend among them, and he was posessing none other than-]

Evan Hansen?!

[He runs out into the dorm hallway.] The Wizard was using Evan Hansen?!

[He's got some things to work through. First he's dropping off the terrarium with all six of Ambassador's lizard in the cafeteria before heading into the garden. Elle is with the dead now, and he won't let her believe that he's moved on for a second. All of his old gifts to her, the hairpins, any living rose bouquets, the eidelweis encased in glass, that belongs on her tomb. He also has a flower crown made from thistles resting on it. He hopes she can make use of them.]

And even if you can't see me...know that I'm waiting for you. We will have the most epic wedding, all of us will be there. I swear on it.

[For the rest of the morning, Angus is training in the woods while Bruiser sits in a pile of pillows and naps. It's time he prepares to kill the wizard, no more waiting. The trees make for fine dummies as he throws his wright behind each swing of the Gloryhammer, denting the bark.]

[defyingfrigidity]

[Waking up with all her memories is... a lot. Most of it is incidental, like how she'd first met the Northuldra and wound up in the forest. But there are some important things - finding out that she and Anna were a part of the Northuldra, thanks to their mother, the near destruction of Arendelle, Kristoff's proposal! - that sets her reeling a bit. It's... a lot to process, how much her life has shifted in only a few days, so Elsa spends a little bit of the morning in Rodgers Dorm just. Staring at the ceiling.

Eventually, she gets up, feeling much lighter than she has since she'd dreamed of her own death weeks ago. That feeling doesn't last long, though, when she spots Orpheus's trunk. Her heart sinks, but... she still moves, getting up and out of bed and moving over to his section of the dorm. Elle had left letters behind, so maybe he did the same. She shuffles through clothes, neatly sorting out what little he has in there, before she glances over to the desk. There, she notices his songbook, and gingerly picking it up, like it was a precious treasure made of glass, she notices some paper sticking out.

Ah. There.


A little while later, Elsa sits in the cafeteria, a warm cup of cocoa in her hands and a piece of paper set out before her. Judging by how her eyes are staring down into her mug, rather than the paper in front of her, it seems like she's read it already. But it's still set out flat on the table, where anyone else will be able to see.]

[feudalladyshandmaid]

["I love you, Raps."

"I love you too, Cass."

Cassandra wakes in Rodgers Dorm, eyes blinking away the last bits of sand to behold the ceiling, and...]

I'm not dead. [Her cot is also conspicuously empty of a queen, but that's being set aside briefly. Her mind is abuzz, thoughts flying left and right, no longer lost. It's as if the holes in a net had been filled in. A whole picture that she can see now, and Cass loves it.] I'm not dead!

[And unless someone's in there to become the focus of her joy, she's very quickly rushing out of the dorms to search for... who else, but Elsa?

Cassandra spends the rest of the day hard at work. Whether it's practicing her sword hand in the dance studio. Or enjoying lunch outside in the courtyard with Owl and Fidella. There just seems to be a renewed vigor in Cass. A newfound spirit that's risen from the dead. Hope does seem to be contagious.]

MONDAY

[stagemanagers]

[mayavericks]

[Come Monday, Maya and her retinue can be found in the library. She goes through whatever cookbooks she can find in the non-fiction section, until finally she pulls away something that piques her interest. She hobbles over to a table to thumb through and.

Eventually rips a page out? Become ungovernable indeed.

Later, she'll be shuffling about in the kitchen, making some sort of cake? The cake has bananas too, so maybe it isn't too much of a surprise who she's making it for. She doesn't think it too suspicious, though. She'd been making banana treats since before Nana had arrived. It's just comfort. And who can blame her, on this day.

Toward the evening, Maya takes her cake to the locker room though. The same one she put her mattress in before, in fact! That part's a little weird. But hey, there's cake and a single candle (not a birthday candle, just a regular candle), so... maybe let's celebrate a birthday.]

[brokeforgood]

[Feeling extra motivated after the meeting on Sunday, Farrah's hit the football field on Monday morning.

She's wearing something she found with Varian's things-- you know, she should probably question why he had a cheerleading uniform, but the thing she's more hung up on is that they were the same size. Whatever. Things to dwell about later. She's got the Gershwin Groundhogs uniform on, and can be found out there on the field, rah-rah-rahing to her heart's content.]

It's the best we'll get
Take a chance and make it through here
Get in the clear
Get in the clear
And say that life's not fair
Oh I've so been there
So get in gear
Shut up and cheer!

[After that, she, Soup, and Ruddiger can all be found on the floor of the cafeteria, where she's taking turns feeding them, and herself, a giant bowl of celery. She's got one of the bulk jars of peanut butter, too. She's invincible.]

[comeandfindme]

[ Orpheus's letters yesterday and Elle's before make Peregrine start thinking. She stops by Longacre, to look carefully through her trunk. When nothing comes of it, she starts to actually think. To get smart.

That leads her almost immediately to the girl's locker room on the first floor. It doesn't take long for her to find what she's looking for.

For awhile, she just sits against the lockers quietly letting herself cry.

Then she gets it together. For much of the day she'll be in the gym, dividing up Eurydice's stash as instructed. Peregrine works diligently; this is what she wanted, so this is what she'll give.

After all this, she stops briefly in the kitchen to brew some tea before bringing it to Hester's empty office. She sets down a pot of it. ]

What the hell... Anything's worth a try.

[ She sits there for awhile, drinking herbal tea, contemplating. ]

TUESDAY

[stagemanagers]

[employeeoftheyear]

[Ever since Sunday, Spongebob has been the happiest he's been since before the first motive. His home was safe, and he did that through the power of friendship and team work. He wasn't a liability, not at all, he was a vital asset.

It still stung, a little, knowing that so many people died here despite all his efforts, but optimism was his specialty, wasn't it? There was still a chance they could save everyone, and by Neptune he's going to chase that chance to his dying breath.

For most of the morning, Spongebob dedicates himself to making the grandest brunch ever. If you thought the pancakes and eggs were fancy, then wait until you see his breakfast casserole, stuffed french toast, and entire pitchers of freshly squeezed orange juice. He personally serves breakfast to everyone left, just so he knows that everyone can read the little message he's taped to the bottom of each of the plate:]

You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart, I'll always be with you.

[When noon rolls around, Spongebob is already in the cafeteria, as if waiting for something.

Waiting for the motive.

And he waits, checking his imaginary watch multiple times as it hits 12:05. Then 12:10.

He seems nervous.

Eventually, he gives up and heads to the craft room before going straight to the rooftop garden. Once again he's doing origami of his fallen friends; two more dolls holding hands that look like Orpheus and Eurydice (notably, they look human), and a little dog origami. He doesn't stop there, however, as he makes a plethora of little hearts and stars for origami, practically drowning the area he's sitting in in little paper crafts.

When he's done, he starts to write letters. He's noticeably tearing up as he writes them, but he's smiling all the same.

[barberic]

[To say that Benjamin feels lighter this week than he has in almost a month would be an understatement. Not in the manic way that he felt the week after Rina and Varian's deaths, either, when he thought the Judge had eluded him and his only recourse was to throw everything he had at the Wizard.

He doesn't do a lot on Sunday aside from go to the meeting and look after his girls. Monday isn't much different, except that his circle of looking after others expands a little. Neither day does he really leave the academy building.

But on Tuesday, that changes. When it isn't his turn to watch over Maya, and he's sure that the living can do without him for the moment, he goes down to the garden.

He has the same basket that he collected flowers in, for Varian and Rina, but this time it isn't filled with flowers. He has a bottle of wine and a refill sleeve of dinky little cups from the teacher's lounge, he has a guitar book, and he has the guitar from the music room that he'd started trying to play weeks ago. When he emerges from the trees and sees the seven mounded graves stretching along one side of the pond, he stops, the full weight of them hitting him.

Two of them he'd dug with his bare hands. Two more he'd helped, in some small way, to fill. And the last three... He doesn't know if others had to fill them, or if they were filled already when the trial was over. But it hurts, somehow, not knowing which one is whose.

He enters the garden softly, reverently, and sets down his things on one of the benches (Antonio's), moving to kneel in front of the center of the three newest graves.]

...I still keep looking for you. Keep expecting to come around a corner and see you standing there, or to hear your voices. I miss you. It's hard to believe you aren't here. Elle, Orpheus, Eurydice... God, you deserved better than this. I'm sorry we couldn't save you, too.

[Orpheus and Elle, he knows, would be thankful that Maya was spared. Eurydice...has more right to be angry than anyone. He understands that anger. But she's a better person than he is.

He prays that she's at peace. He prays that they can still save them all, that their supply of miracles hasn't yet run dry.]

But I think...this is almost over. One way or another, we'll all see each other again soon. And I'm looking forward to that, I truly am. I'm not used to looking forward to anything.

[He sniffles, reaching up and wiping his tears away with a small smile, then he moves to get up, goes back over to his basket and tears open the sleeve of tiny paper cups, holding the stack under his arm as he starts at the end of the row (Elle or Orpheus or Eurydice, he doesn't know) and moving backward through time, over graves that have been progressively more and more flattened by the weather and the settling of earth. Discord. Antonio. Varian and Rina, in their shared grave, where he knows they lie beneath the earth nestled together in their shrouds like a couple of newborn kittens. The Balladeer. The first body they refused to give up to the Wizard, the first time they stood up and said No. These are ours.

Every body gets a little cup of wine, an offering. The other four - even the SQUIP - have one placed on the benches that mark their memory.]

I hope you don't think I'm being stingy with it. We can all share a proper drink when we're together, on that side or this.

[He pours himself a little cup of wine, picks up the guitar (and the book), and moves over to the edge of the pond, where he'd sat and listened to the Balladeer play his last performance to the silence of the woods.]

I'm sorry in advance. Especially to Bal and Orpheus.

[Antonio can suffer.

Benjamin clears his throat and hitches the guitar up onto his right knee, the guitar book open on the stone next to him, and carefully finds his starting chord before he starts to play.]

Drink with me, to days gone by
Sing with me, the songs we knew
Life without you here feels empty and wrong
Yet for you, our friends, we have to be strong
Will you help us see this through?

[He struggles a little to keep playing, between his still-sore left hand and the lack of calluses on the very tips of his fingers, but he gets going again.]

Drink with me, to days gone by
To the dawn that comes anew,
At the shrine of friendship, never say die
Let the wine of friendship never run dry
Here's to us,
And here's to you...

[He quiets the last chord and looks up, then raises his little cup of wine in a toast.]

ITS THE FINAL WEED THREAD (before endgame)

[comeandfindme]

[ There was no motive this morning. No sign of Hester. No sign of anything. There's ominous posters hanging around everywhere. Club tomorrow promises to be horrible. They're all some level of anxious, probably.

So. Sometime in the late afternoon, Peregrine strolls into the cafeteria with some pots and pans, like last time, and bangs them. ]

Hey! Hotboxing in the photo dungeons again. Be there.

[ Peregrine Wells has developed one whole coping mechanism that doesn't rely on taking her trauma, immersing herself in it, and screaming internally the whole time. Good for her!

Let's have some fun in the photo dungeons, friends. ]

[mcfife]

[In the morning, Angus takes a book on Victorian flower language, brings every opera glove he has in his chest, and works in the garden as Bruiser runs through the growth and gets his exercise. He collects mainly thistles (which the gloves help protect his fingers against), though the book has a different reading on their meaning, but he also collects plenty of French Willow, cedar, heliotrope, and whatever else catches his eye. The air is cool, and the area by the graves are a quiet and motivational space to create ten flower crowns. He already has one of this own, entirely thistles.

He had considered checking the rooftop garden for a wider variety of plants - especially as some people have requested specific flowers, but upon stepping out of the roof access door, he stops. He doesn't know if he can walk through here again.

Once his project is complete, he walks around the school to hand out the flower crowns to anyone he hasn't run into yet.] Here. We need some kind of symbol to spur us to action.

[fourbutts]

[ Club tomorrow, whatever that means. There's something in the back of her head that tells her this is it, that something is going to shift. She doesn't know what - is it a narrator feeling? It almost feels, in some way, like the days past today are... gone. Not there, in a way they usually are.

Weird.

Anyway, the main thing she's doing today is going to slam in some coins at the vending machine! She gets. Many, many, MANY things. She can be found sorting through them. ]

Oh wow, a lot of these are new. Or at least I haven't gotten them?

[ Hasn't gotten trombones, though! She remains safe! Anyway, some of the things she did get give her a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad idea. So after hauling them all back to Rodgers, Janis gets changed into the suit the machine gave her and uh. Slides over to Broadhurst, box of macarons and the nicest glasses she could find in the kitchen and fill with Mountain Dew Red in hand. And then just sort of, once she's made sure it's just Maya in there, Enters. ]

Miss Tendo?

pre-weed threads

[comeandfindme]

[ Here we are. Right before something that feels like...like an ending.

Peregrine's kind of nervous about it, honestly. About the uncertainty of seeing their dead friends again. About the fact that they don't know where Hester is. About the fact that there are so many things they don't, can't know.

But. She's prepared so much. There may not be any preparing anymore. So instead, Peregrine tries to see if there are any other supplies she can get, from the machine. Rather early on, she takes...oh, maybe half her coins to the vending machine, her many, many coins, and she receives just...so many things. So much is useless. But there's some food to put aside, to eat soon, she wonders if maybe, before tomorrow, she should propose another hotboxing... There's some practical stuff, a small telescope and some band-aids, and beans. She rolls her eyes at yet another deer skin, unfazed entirely. ]

This is just a complete waste. There's no time for me to do anything with it, if the Wizard's going to be ominous and creepy, like...

[ What pops out next stops her. It's a letter. She's heard about these, but...never before has she received one.

Peregrine's lips thin as she reads it over, and then— Well. Anyone rooming with Peregrine will know, she's not exactly a neat and tidy person. No surprise, then, that she just leaves all her things in the lobby to be taken care of later, goes digging around a certain trunk in Broadhurst, and takes a stack of letters out to the grounds. She can be found around mid-morning stoking a fire and tearing those letters into pieces to use as kindling. As she does, she grumbles: ]

Basic. Stupid fucking basic asshole. Where do you even get off— he's dead, and you call him a loser? Ugh! I bet— I bet you can't even take a good picture of a tree, fucking twerp, Evan—

[ She's having a moment.

In the early afternoon, she returns to the vending machine, for round 2. This is after she's at least shoved her things in Rodger's Dorm, setting that which she's decided is useful aside carefully and just kind of dumping everything else.

Maybe it's some sort of cosmic justice for this? But wouldn't you know it, a phenomenon that's happened to many among their group, one that Peregrine's dodged despite receiving so many coins—

It finally comes around to hit her, as 76 trombones start to launch out of the vending machine. It doesn't happen immediately. She starts depositing coins and receiving some pretty basic things, the other deer skin aside. There's a plant, some dry ice. A loaf of bread, another lizard that quickly skitters away. A little glass vial. A little glass vial?

And then, suddenly, she's ducking the slide of a trombone with a yelp. And another. And another. And another.

Peregrine ends up pressed flat against the wall watching as brass after brass create a pile in the cafeteria. She counts, because at this point she thinks she understands the gimmick, and once number 76 flies out and they cease, she barks out a humorless laugh. ]

Holy shit, he must think he's sooo clever. What an actual—

[ Yeah, you know, she's not expecting to pop a coin in and get trombone number 77, especially not when it clocks her in the jaw.

Thus how she ends up pressed flat against a different wall and breaking out the band-aids she'd just received. She grumpily spits a miniscule amount of blood from where she bit her lip. ]

I hate trombones.

[ At the very end of all this... Well, she finishes inserting her coins, cautious about the fact that 152 trombones could easily turn into 228, but relieved when it doesn't happen. It's as she starts going through everything, sorting into useless and useful, that she finds it.

A signal flare.

A signal flare that belongs to the Whitetail Sheriff's Department.

She may be forgiven this time, for letting her junk sit in the cafeteria for awhile, as she stares wide-eyed at the omen—the lifeline—that she holds in her hands. ]