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! ))

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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.

cw: dissociation mention

[brokeforgood]

[You know what’s the best, after you’ve rah rah rah’d and dissociated for a little bit?

This shit. This shit right here. Farrah’s fresh from the showers, her hair still down and wet, and it’s a good thing Spongebob’s serving her, or she would have just dug straight into the serving dishes.]

Holy shit, Spongebob, this is amazing!

Letters

[defyingfrigidity]

[Elsa's been feeling antsy today, for similar reasons as Spongebob. She'd held her breath for what felt like forever, waiting for the next motive, and when none came... well. It's worrying. There's a feeling in the air, one she's not sure if she's imagining or if she's perceptive to it because of the return of all her memories.

It doesn't scare her, though. Everyone's preparing, together, and she has to do her best to help them. So as she's puttering about the school, she spots Spongebob with his letters, and approaches.]

Hey. What are you doing?

brunch!

[barberic]

[Spongebob doesn't have to go far to find Benjamin; the man is on his way to the cafeteria already when Spongebob pushes the overflowing plate into his hands.

He looks at it like he's never seen quite this much food before, then looks up at Spongebob.]

For me?

[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.]

[brokeforgood]

[After that toast, two of Benji's girls roll up.

It's ya girls, Farrah and Soup.]

This is not the party I had in mind.

Pre-weed, post-garden!

[barberic]

[When there's no motive, Benjamin hesitates a little, looking at the vending machine with the sign he made still glued to the front of it.

It's been a while since he got anything from it, ever since he got the flannel. He has coins, but after seeing them laid on the eyes of people he cares about, week after week, it's been hard to imagine that they're for anything else.

Still, though, he has a whole little pile of them. And if this really is about to be over soon, he may as well.

He spends a fair part of the early afternoon just feeding coins into the vending machine and sorting what comes out.]

((ooc: feel free to react to any item on the list!))

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]

[Angus winces over his sandwich and salad. The salad is mostly for the six lizards beside, him. The last time he got high, he was tuned into a three-way conversation and was kind of mind-controlled. It's way too soon for this shit again.]

I'll pass. Someone has to cook for you. [And it gives him something to focus on instead.]

[defyingfrigidity]

[So the last time they all got high, Elsa... hadn't really minded it much. It was a sort of relaxation she's never felt before! They'd all just been happy for a while! But with a final confrontation with the Wizard looming before them, she doesn't want to risk not feeling all there when the time comes.

So instead of partaking like everyone else, Elsa spends the first portion of the night baking up a storm in the kitchen. Whoever decided to join Peregrine will notice the (now former) queen entering around the time the weed starts hitting them, with a fresh batch of lumpy yet perfectly edible chocolate chip cookies.]

I know several of you were saying how hungry you were getting through the night the last time we did this, so... I decided to come prepared.

[employeeoftheyear]

[Well the others have food covered so Spongebob is just going to spend his time at the weed party just Vibing.

He brought a warm blanket and several plushes this time, so he looks like a painfully cozy bundle.

For most of the night, he’s just busy being incredibly cuddly and quiet, but as the night goes on he eventually starts crying]

Y... you guys are just such a good family. I love you all and I wanna show you my town and... and my home... my work...

[He’s gonna just keep babbling like this.]

[brokeforgood]

[Farrah's brought her pompoms to the darkroom, and ever now and then, she'll get this giddy little smile and just rustle them at the nearest person.]

D-R-U-G-Z!

What does that spell?

[Or... maybe, she's a little less hyper. They're a pretty tightknit group now, and the only dudes left around are brother-figures or The Final Dad-- so she yanks out her ponytail holders, knowing that everyone loves to play with her hair high, and will insert herself into anyone's lap that's empty. Or anyone's not-empty lap, if it looks like she can fit.]

[feudalladyshandmaid]

[As the matter of food is well in hand, it falls to Cass, once again, to do the unthinkable... the indescribable... For the second time in her life - third? Maybe? Whatever - Cassandra is going to... indulge in some relaxation.

Honestly, she handles it much better than she did before. Managing to stay sitting upright and all. But partway through the afternoon, she just starts talking. To everyone.]

Hey - hey! I... I love you, you know? You're great. I'm... so not good at mushy-feely stuff, but I wanted to... say that. You know?

[sugarlumps]

I dunno, I think last time we did this I hugged Discord or something.

[There's no one left she secretly hates or anything- Maya might be kind of in a weird spot right now, but LSP knows hatred and that's the wrong word for it. But what if she hugs someone and it's so amazing it pushes them past good and back around into evil? That's a thing that might happen, right?]

[But later on, there she is showing up at the photo dungeons with an armful of packages from the concession stands.]

I brought snacks guys.

[And it's not long before she's sitting, back to the wall, looking intense and gesturing with an off-brand swiss roll.]

Guys. Guys guys guys guys guys. What if. What if we shared this junk with, like, the Wizard. And got him totally chilled out and junk. ...so then he really wouldn't see it when we totally murdalized him.

during weed time

[mcfife]

[While everyone is getting high and relaxed before the epic battle (at least he hopes there will be one), Angus sits in the hallway outside the hotbox dungeons with Bruiser and six lizards with the Hammer of Glory by his side. Will something try to attack them? Probably not, but he's less stressed knowing that he's making sure they stay safe and don't to anything too stupid. Who knows what might happen on the happiest of nights?

But to pass the time, he has a few of Elle's law textbooks to look over. If he's going to rule a kingdom, he might as well learn a few tips from an alternate Earth. Unfortunately, university texts tend not to have the most riveting of narratives.

Most of that reading entails of Angus staring at the page and wondering how Elle ever retained all of this information.]

cw: ending in some bad high prompts, brief emeto

[barberic]

[Benjamin doesn't know what hotboxing is or entails.

But Farrah has dragged him to the photo dungeons, so he's here. And for a while, everything is Great. The smell takes a little getting used to, but the more he's in there the easier it gets.

Mostly he stays to himself, but anyone who comes over to sit with him is welcome.]

This may sound weird- [A word he's definitely learned from Farrah.] But will you let me play with your hair? Strictly professional- I'm a... [Buffering...] Hair artist man.

[But it's not all good vibes - after a good while of just, being totally content to vibe, his demeanor shifts a little, glancing around nervously. The bodies around him are lying too still. Why are they so still? He may reach out in concern, and give the person nearest to him a little shake.]

Sorry. Just... just scared for a second, sorry.

[But the worry continues to build, nonetheless. He feels too relaxed, heavy and sleepy. And everyone around him is... They've decided to trust him, knowing what he is, what he's done, and he can't protect them all. He can't protect anyone like this.

Others might catch him before he leaves, when he looks miserable and a little ill, like he's about to start crying any second. But when he does, when the fear that they aren't stacked in content little puppy piles gets bad enough that he can't convince himself any of them are still breathing, that's when he steps out of the room. To get fresh air. To get help. Something.

The fresh air outside the photo dungeons turns the smell of smoke lingering in his nostrils into burning flesh. He gags a little, where he stands, and barely makes it down the hall to the boys' room before he loses everything he'd managed to eat that day.]

[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.

Rooftop Garden

[employeeoftheyear]

[Spongebob's already here, and he gently waves to Angus as he stops at the threshold.]

Hi Angus! Enjoying the weather today?

garden

[barberic]

[Benjamin is in the garden with his guitar when Angus comes down on a mission, and he stops fiddling with the guitar perched on his knee to watch.]

Do you need a basket? I've brought one, but I can just as easily carry my things back up.

[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?

vending machine

[mcfife]

[Angus is planning to get some new stuff that will help him feel better, but he's distracted by a familiar face...]

That's Tom Jones! [Someone managed to explain who that guy was after escaping the opera house!]

[mayavericks]

[Maya is currently, very diligently, cleaning off a new sword. The one that had skewered her leg sits beside her, but she's currently got her attention on one that's substantially longer. She almost doesn't look up at first, recognizing Janis's footsteps. The sound of her voice, though, does draw Maya's attention upward.

The sword clatters to the ground almost immediately.]

J-Janis?

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. ]

vending machine...2!

[mcfife]

[Hello lizard friend, Angus is going to scoop you up and feed you apples and bring you to your new home filled with friends. A school is no place for a mighty reptile.


And then a fuck ton of trombones fall out of nowhere and engulf Peregrine in a brass prison.]

Hey! Peregrine! Answer me! [PLEASE NOT ANOTHER BODY, NOT SO SOON.]