week 4

[stagemanagers]

WEEK 4
[Another week has passed in the opera house and things are looking grim as ever. With Gabe and Hime gone, the performers are down to 16 of them.

On Monday, the opera house is still heavily decorated with a few new additions. There are more cottony cobwebs, a few small ghosts hanging from the ceiling made of cheesecloth, even more pumpkins here and there. A few more candy bowls have been set out in places like the dining room and a few others and only a few of them are only filled with candy corn. In the dressing rooms the stars on Gabe and Hime's doors have fallen off, leaving behind a patch of star-shaped wood slightly lighter than the rest of the doors on Hime's and a different star underneath on Gabe's.

Like the previous week, the door on in the second floor lobby is unlocked and a new floor is ready to be explored. Have a good week, everyone.]

.


[Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday]

Comments

[dontfeedplants]

[He managed to look a little guilty as he went back to hugging his knees.]

Sorry about that...

[robitussin]

Seems like that was an adventure. At least you didn't burn the place down.

[robitussin]

...Yes, you are. That is factually accurate.

[This is awkward.]

first floor hallway

[robitussin]

[She isn't really intending to stop and chat with anyone as she walks down the hallway, but seeing him like that... Even she can't just wander past. She kneels down near him.]

...Are you hurt?

[stagemanagers]

[The star in Gabe's door reads The Nightman and under it The Nightman. In the right corner of the star someone has drawn a pair of cat eyes.]

[onthebusagain]

[Heather's a shadow of herself today, too- but she stops long enough to stare at Seymour in the hallway, stopping to frown at him. ] Alright, what's your deal this time? [Seriously, its her turn to wallow in melodrama, get with it. ]

[dontfeedplants]

[Seymour registers that it's Natalie, but he doesn't actually respond until nearly half a minute passed. His voice is hushed and full of fear.]

It was right.

[robitussin]

What was right? The—

[Oh.]

Oh, shit.

[allicareabout]

[Billy isn't moving to join her, per se; it's more that he's hovering in the general vicinity of the nearby shelves, and he doesn't say anything to her until the silence has gone on long enough that it seems he's going to be the one to break it, either by way of approaching or saying something himself.

He'll do the former eventually; when he speaks it's entirely straightforward in tone. Just business, nothing sentimental attached.]

I spoke to the Balladeer about your brother. He called that entire display on stage "dramatic license" - he wasn't anywhere near that over-the-top evil when he was carrying that whole thing out.

[...]

You've still got my condolences. I just wanted to let you know that at least one of us let him know that wasn't appreciated, any of that.

[dontfeedplants]

[It's not a competition, Heather.

Seymour hugs his legs tighter.]

Everything.

[Well he's not wrong there.]

[dontfeedplants]

I tried to stop it. I really did.

[His tone is almost apologetic towards Natalie. He was sure that everyone would all think he's a monster once this got out.

Because Seymour felt like he was a monster himself right now.]

[onthebusagain]

[Lies. Life is a contest.]

Yeah? [Don't mind her, she's sitting beside him.] Me too.

[bestof]

[Eliza isn't up and around Monday morning. It's unusual, considering what an early bird she's been the past month. She should be in the kitchen making a pot of tea or in the chapel or curled up in the library with a book. But her door is shut tight.

Considering their circumstances, checking up on her might be a good idea.]

[robitussin]

[She stays silent for a few moments. She appreciates him making the effort to tell her, at any rate, even if she doesn't say it.]

I mean, it was a dick move on his part no matter how you slice it.

[She should never have stood up for him, she thinks. A pause, a swallow.]

But, thanks.

[allicareabout]

I'm always here for helping people out. And that wasn't sitting right with me, either - I don't usually talk to that guy, but this weekend warranted an exception.

["Helping people out" just also consists of making sure everyone doesn't die, even if that means being an absolute dick to people during the trials. And usually he's paid for it, but these are kind of extenuating circumstances and he can always figure stuff out later.]

[dontfeedplants]

Really?

[That's... not quite a relief to him, but it's slightly comforting to not be exactly alone here.]

I guess we can go through this shit together.

[onthebusagain]

You have your girlfriend to look forward to, at least.

[dontfeedplants]

[There is a long silence. Seymour can't even look at Heather when he speaks.]

... I don't think I have that anymore.

[onthebusagain]

....Oh. [She feels a little bad, now.]

I don't have a boyfriend anymore, either.

[catliketread]

[Another week down and two more bodies. The Pirate King has been trying very hard to not get caught up on what happened to Hime because he's sure if he sits down and thinks about it, he'll be mad and upset. She was a kid. She was a weird kid he was very fond of. He would have invited her to be a pirate too, but...

Well, there are other things to do here, like pumpkin carving! Why would you not take the opportunity given to you to sit there and carve things into a pumpkin. Honestly. So he'll spend most of the day in here, working diligently on a pumpkin. It takes him a little while to get the hang of it, but when he's finished he's carved a surprisingly detailed and lovely scene of a ship sailing. Who said a pumpkin needed a face when you could have something awesome like this?? You can catch him while he's carving or after he's finished and cleaning up.

Once he's done there he'll make his way over to the paint room, which is... not something he was expecting at all. Who needs this many different colors?? How many different shades of blue are there??? The best thing to do is to make use of the resources he's been given, when means opening the cans of paint, dunking a brush in, and painting on a canvas to look at the colors. Sure, they're on the cans, but that's very different from the canvas! Once the Pirate King has found a few different shades he likes, he sets to work on - you guessed it - a pirate ship. He's actually much better at painting the ocean than he is the ship, and pretty soon he'll be focusing more on that since blending paint to create cool new colors is fun!!

Don't worry, he'll clean up in here too. But today's absolutely going to be arts and crafts day! What better way to ignore all the terrible shit happening, right?]

[robitussin]

...Like I said, thanks, but I don't really need any help. I'm fine.

[Clearly.]

[dontfeedplants]

Oh my god, I'm so sorry about that. Do you know what happened to him?

... You don't have to answer that.

[Because he knows his everything is a sensitive topic for him. He wouldn't be surprised if Heather didn't want to talk about it.]

[onthebusagain]

[Does she want to talk about it? She doesn't know. ...She might as well, it's not like she has anything to prove to Seymour. And she has a lot on her chest. ]

He killed himself, because he was sleeping with the quarterback. [And her. Awkward.] My best friend did, too. And everyone here... Everyone I know had been dying.

[dontfeedplants]

Oh my god... [That did get a genuine reaction out of him. God that is way too much for a teenager to go through. He moves slightly closer to Heather.] I'm so sorry about that. I wish I could say that this could be the end of all the death...

[But already sounds convinced that there's going to be another death this week.]

[robitussin]

Yeah...

[She doesn't really know what to say - there's no comfort for something like that. Still, even if it was his fault, she has no doubt it wasn't malicious. Probably just an accident.]

Probably could have happened to anyone.