itscurtains | week 4

Entry tags:

act 1,
week 4

week 4

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.]

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[Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday]

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I'm not sure yet. I wanted to make a match for those we've lost but that would be a thankfully small quilt. So I think I might make one for each of us. Twenty patches should be enough if I make them big enough.

[Ugh. Feelings.]

What are you thinking of using for each of us?

I'm not sure yet. [She goes back to her embroidering, glancing down occasionally to make sure she hasn't missed a stitch.] For Monsieur Valjean I'm using his candlestick obviously. For Miss Hime I have a cake in mind and for you perhaps piano keys.

Yeah, piano keys would work, I think.

[She hesitates for a moment, thinking about it.]

You should use flowers for Seymour. Maybe a sun for Anna?

A sun would fit Anna perfectly. Perhaps a paper and quill for Mister Leach, a pink bow for Darla. I'm not sure about Miss Astarte and Heather though.

Astarte likes books a lot. Heather... Clothes?

Clothes could be nice. Or maybe make-up, she's very fond of that. A rapier could fit the Pirate King nicely.

[She'd like to ask Natalie if she had any thoughts on what Gabe's could be but she's trying to refrain from bringing him up as long as she can. She knows firsthand now how it feels to lose a family member.]

For Billy... The lawyer one, at least, we could do scales? That's, like, a symbol a lot of attorneys like. Who knows why. I don't know the other Billy, but his title is the doctor, so maybe something medical? A hook for the other pirate here seems pretty fitting.

[They're running out of people before they inevitably reach the elephant in the room. Yikes.]

[She nods along, taking mental notes of their choices while she takes a moment to switch embroidery thread colors for the candlesticks.]

Inspector Javert needs something law-related, obviously. Miss D-ne should have a ribbon, a crown for Prince Hans.

[Getting down to the wire before things get Dead Teenage Boy awkward.]

Winslow's mask... Maybe a suit for Raoul? I want to say horns for Jezebel, but that seems kind of awful.

We can always come back to Miss Jezebel later. [She hasn't...actually talked to her for Reasons but she seems very nice though. For someone literally from Hell.

And then there was one.]

...Did...you have any ideas for Gabe, Natalie?

[She pauses, but it's not like she hadn't seen this coming. She's been thinking about it the whole time. With most people she would give some flippant answer and brush it off, but it's different with Eliza.]

...Him and D-ne - they shouldn't be on there.

[Eliza stops her embroidering mid-stitch.]

Because they were culprits.

[She doesn't sound upset or disappointed. She sounds very matter-of-fact about it actually.]

And if they're on it, everyone's going to think about how they killed Valjean and Hime and get upset whenever they look at it.

And we want the quilt to bring up happy memories, not the murders, trial and executions.

Yeah. I mean, I get putting on the people who've been killed, but... It's different. They didn't do anything wrong.

[She just wants to put this behind her, besides. She doesn't want to think about him anymore.]

I understand what you mean. [Back to work again, pushing the needle and pulling the thread. The candlesticks are just about done and she reaches over to pick up the black thread again.] They were good people, Valjean and Hime.

[Their killers did many, many things wrong but they didn't deserve to be forgotten either. She might do something else for them, a pillow maybe. She already has one pillow planned for the Balladeer, what's one more?]

...Yeah, they were. It sucks.

[She frowns, looking at the ground.]

Be careful tonight, okay?

[She's started adding a black border to Valjean's patch. It seems fitting, black for mourning.]

...You too, Natalie. Stay safe. [Stay alive.

It would break her heart to have to add a black border to your quilt patch.]

Yeah, totally. Anna and I are sticking together earlier, so we'll be fine.

[She pauses for a moment.]

Hey - what you said yesterday about not being okay... You wanna take me up on that offer yet?

[She purses her lips, hesitant at first. Shutting down and holding things in hasn't been doing her any good and Natalie did offer...]

I haven't mentioned it to many people but I have children back home. I didn't remember when we all first woke up, [And that stings like the dickens to admit. What kind of mother just forgets her children?] but I know now I have seven.

...Had seven.

Seven? Man, that's—

[For a moment, she assumes Eliza's distress is caused solely by worry that she won't see them again. It takes a moment for what she says last to sink in. Had.]

...Oh my god, I... I'm so sorry.

We always wanted a big family. Alexander is an orphan and I was the second of three sisters. The first thing we agreed on when we got engaged was wanting a house full of children. [She swallows hard, setting down her needle again.]

Philip was our oldest. Just nineteen and freshly graduated from King's College. [There's a little bit of an edge to her voice but at the same time she sounds so proud.] He was a good boy, gentle as a lamb. He studied poetry. I taught him piano and he would... [She quickly wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, fighting off the tears that threaten to fall.] He would always change the last line, just a half-step off key every time.

[She has no idea how to help with this, how to make this better. From what she remembers, there was never anything that was enough to help her mother after Gabe died. Still, this strikes enough of a chord with her that she's more sincere with what she says.]

...He sounds great. He must have known how much you loved - love him.

[It's not so much a need for comfort right now as just getting it out and telling another person what happened so it's not festering inside her anymore.]

I think he did. I pray he did. [She looks down, focusing on her hands in her lap.] It was a duel, in New Jersey. Someone had said something insulting about his father and Philip took it on himself to challenge him.

He didn't even shoot at the other duelist when the time came. He fired into the air and threw away his shot because he knew how- [Her voice cracks, tears starting to fall freely down her cheeks.] He knew how disappointed Alexander and I would be if he didn't.

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robitussin - 2016-11-05 04:40 (UTC) - Expand

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