It's Curtains Act 2 Test Drive

[stagemanagers]

1) CURTAINS UP

You’ve just woken up in a small dressing room, which is certainly not where you went to bed last night. Actually, do you even remember going to sleep…? Regardless, this isn't where you last were, and if you leave your room you’re going to find a lot of other people in the same state.

Go out and socialize! Most of these people may be strangers, but you’re gonna all have to get used to one another. And who knows? There may actually be a familiar face in the crowd.

2) THIS PETTY PACE

By now, you're acquainted with everybody here and you're slowly growing bored. Bored enough to kill? Hopefully not. You'd better try to find something else to do. You can always go hang out with your castmates, or maybe try and whip something up in the kitchen! There’s also a music room to keep you busy! I sure hope you like music.

3) BREAK A LEG

Comedies are fun and all, but that’s not quite what we’re about here. You’ve all just been handed this week’s motive. What do you make of it? Is it one that might actually tempt you to kill, or did you get off lightly this time? Either way, maybe you’d better look around the room and see who else is having a rough time.

4) CURTAIN

It was bound to happen eventually. Someone is dead, and now it's time to go off and investigate. Were they close to you? Are you, perhaps, feeling guilty? Either way, it's probably best not to leave anyone alone right now.

5) CUE MUSIC

Feelings in a murder-opera can get pretty gosh darn intense. Sometimes you’ve just got to let it out. And hey, if you sing a song about whatever’s going on in your head, maybe someone will hear and come help you? Either way, this is a musical – there’s not really any reason not to sing.

[Mod Note: The song mechanic is meant to be fluid and simple. You do not have to produce your own song lyrics, nor are you required to use show tunes (although we do encourage it!). If you want to rewrite existing lyrics to fit the situation, go for it! Anything goes - if Mumford and Sons expresses your character’s current emotions, then break out the banjos. We want to keep the musical mechanic as fun and simple as we can to encourage our players to use it as much as they like.]

6) WILDCARD

Make up your own prompt!

--

Questions, comments, concerned? Reach the mods on plurk at slothbless (Lynny) and lluosogrwydd (Lu) and at our public mod plurk stagemanagers. Our official Act 2 FAQ can also be found here!

Comments

Spinel | That One Show About Singing And Crying

[herwiggles]

[Curtains up]
[Once by one, the dressing room doors open, revealing a menagerie of folk. All different faces and different shapes. And they all step out into this flashy world of glamour and music.

Except for one. A door on the end that does not simply open, but bursts open. Kicked by a pink foot, connected to a pink leg, that goes to... well. The woman that somersaults her way out of her room like something out of a Claire's fever dream is definitely not entirely human; from her technicolor appearance, to the rubbery way she shifts to her feet.]

Tadaaa!! [A flourish! But no applause.] My Diamonds?

[Just.... holding that pose.]

Helloooo?

[This pretty place]
[Okay!! Okay. So she's stuck somewhere. Without the Diamonds. But! She has friends this time! She's not alone! None of this is just an illusion!

Probably!

Everyone's second favorite harlequin seems to disappear during the morning, unless you were astute enough... or just lucky enough, to pass by the music room, where you'll hear a musical toot. Followed by a smattering of giggles.

Toot.

Hehehehehe.

Someone just discovered a tuba.]

[Curtain]

Wow, check out this guy, huh? Poor place for a lie down, if you ask me.

[She says, standing over the still and very dead body of Kristoff Bjorgman - The Ice Man.]

C'mon buddy, up and at 'em! [She taps his side with her foot.] We're burning daylight, so don't be such a slow joke!

[...Hm. He's not moving.]

He's, uh - what is it... a heavy sleeper, huh?

MUSIC ROOM

[holyspit]

[Good gems can have one little Diamond, as a treat, question mark? Their mutual presence is probably more than a little awkward, but Steven's been spending a lot of time in the music room so this was probably inevitable.]

Heh.

[He tentatively picks up a ukulele and plucks out a couple short notes, following off Spinel's basso tooting.]

[herwiggles]

[One Diamond. The coolest one, that she sort of tried to kill that one time. But it's cool. They're fine.]

I'm a poet, and I didn't even know I could rhyme.

[Ah, but Steven's plucking a tune, and it, plus the tuba, sounds..... kind of like something! Something almost musical!]

[holyspit]

[Look, at least half of his friends and family have tried to kill him at least once, it's fine. Except, you know, for how it's highly traumatizing and not fine at all.]

[Steven picks up the pace a little, plucking out a basic melody around Spinel's tooting. They're jamming!]

It's a rhyme, and you wrote it!
Jamming here together, keeping in time.

[herwiggles]

Just gotta keep to the beat, and-

[...Hm.]

Boy, rhyming stuff's harder than it sounds.

[holyspit]

You're doing great! Uh-

[Hang on, he can do this.]

You just need to practice a few more rounds?

[herwiggles]

[snrk]

And I'm sure you've got this stuff down in bounds. Maybe I'll keep trying this tube-thingy, who knows. Maybe I'll like seeing where it goes.

...Course, I could always do it myself.

[Oh boy, she's making a horn out of her pinkie finger, cover your ear- Too late.]

[holyspit]

Dad taught me a lot, growing up.

[Mostly guitar and ukulele, but he could take a decent swing at a lot of instruments with some trial and error.]

[And that horn sure is something. Once she's done-]

Can you do other instruments?

[Maybe ones less associated with Beach City's near destruction?]

[herwiggles]

"Dads" must be pretty good at instruments. You Humans got a lot of variety.

[So many types! But there was only one Steven, she was aware of that much.]

Hm. Other instruments...

[She swings her feet, and they do that squeaky noise they tend to do. It's a tic as she thinks...]

How about... this?

[She grabs her right arm, stretches it out, and draws her other hand over it. Somehow, it creates a plucky bass sound.]

[holyspit]

Yeah, Dad's pretty great.

[He plucks a string a little sadly, missing his father for a moment. Despite Greg Universe deserving absolutely none of any of this.]

[But immediately brightens as Spinel switches to strings.]

Hey, nice! That sounded like a D, I think?

[He gives another, more experimental pluck at the guitar.]

[herwiggles]

[Another pluck, and another.]

Sounds like a arm you mean.

[But she is trying to match him.]

[holyspit]

Oh gosh, you're right, they must use a different musical scale on homeworld.

[He's kind of trying to match her again, too, or at least get a basic melody out of their back and forth.]

[herwiggles]

[They can come to some sort of musical understanding. An even beat slowly coming into being.]

It's aaaall music, Stevie. Or recursive harmonies to control the flow of data and energy.

[...]

Just music.

[holyspit]

Nah, that's a cool way of putting it! ....I mean, okay. Maybe not really poetic. But it SOUNDS cool! And kind of sciencey.

Curtain

[nobodysbismuth]

Spinel?

[Things here probably aren't quite so awkward. Yeah, they're probably not ideal either - Spinel did Rejuvenate a lot of Bismuth's friends and almost destroy everything they've built on Earth. But she's had to make nice with a lot of Gems lately, and...well, a lot of 'em have started to turn things around.]

What's...going on here...

[herwiggles]

Hey! Bismuth!

[Another Crystal Gem, but not one she directly interacted with. As "indirect" as "tried to destroy the earth" can be. Water under... the bridge. She hoped?]

This guy over here. He's not budging, and I'm wasting my best material on him, too.

[nobodysbismuth]

[Bismuth got locked away for ages by Rose, and then she kinda freaked out and tried to shatter Steven over it. Didn't do anything to the Earth, but then again, she was at least bubbled the whole time. At some point, you gotta figure it kinda all cancels out.]

Uh... [She takes a step closer and leans down to check Kristoff. She's spent a lot more time around humans, and seen plenty of them die.] Why don't you go grab the others, Spinel.

[herwiggles]

[There's gotta be a time limit on some of these things. Cancel it out with a song about how you can change for the better, that did wonders for her.]

Wha? [My, that sure is a knife sticking out of the man's gut. Fancy that.] Ya gonna deal with this, Bismuth?

[nobodysbismuth]

Uh...sure. Maybe ask any of the humans if they want to help.

[Look, she knows humans better than a lot of Gems, but it's not like she's ever studied their insides or anything.]

But don't let 'em come in here if they're gonna get upset. No sense in that.

[herwiggles]

...Ohhhhh. Ha! Yeah, this is probably one of those human things I don't know. Silly humans.

[She knows humans better than the Gem that stood in a garden for 6000 years.]

Uh, okay? How am I supposed ta know if they're gonna get upset?

Curtains up!

[arieltritonsdaughter]

[A human girl emerges from her room quickly. She is smiling. She has red hair and is wearing a simple blue and black dress. She did not kick her door open or summersault, but she does seem very excited to be here.]

Hello! My name is Ariel. Who are you? What is this about diamonds? What are those? Are you a human? Do you know where we are? Do you know how we got here?

[You might need to stop her before she really gets going... please.]

[herwiggles]

Hmmmmmm. I'm Spinel. That's the Diamond Authority. Those are Gems. I'm a Gem. I've got noooo idea where we are, or how I got here....

[She counts off on her fingers.]

That's about it.

[arieltritonsdaughter]

Gems! Oh, those are so beautiful. I have no idea how I became human, where we are, or how i got here either... Wait... Did you just say that you are a gem? You do not look like one. Of course, I do not look like a mermaid. I guess we should just consider ourselves lucky to have become human. This is so amazing! Should we look around. I do not remember when I last ate. We should search for food.

[As excited as she is, she has her priorities.]

[herwiggles]

...Foooooood?

[You ever just. Not catch anything?]

She has that effect on people.

[arieltritonsdaughter]

[Yes, she misses things all the time. It is fine. Did I mention she has her priorities?]

Yes, food. You do eat food, right? I think that we should find some. We can explore and see what else is here while we search.