thebackstage | It's Curtains Act 2 Test Drive

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.]

[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!]

[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.

Just gotta keep to the beat, and-

[...Hm.]

Boy, rhyming stuff's harder than it sounds.

You're doing great! Uh-

[Hang on, he can do this.]

You just need to practice a few more rounds?

[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.]

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?]

"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.]

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.]

[Another pluck, and another.]

Sounds like a arm you mean.

[But she is trying to match him.]

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.]

[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.

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

Aw gee, I just heard it from Pink one time. Kinda stuck with me.

[She had time to think on it.]

I was never really one of those science types like the Peridots. They could never really take a joke.

Peridot's got a sense of humor once you get to know her. It can just be a little strange.

[Probably best to shift discussion away from Mom, as much as possible.]

I've only really known the one, though, but she's pretty fun!

[They can just gloss over that entirely.]

Ha! I'd love to see that! A Peridot telling a joke!

[She laughs.]

No really, I wanna.

Do you wanna come hang around Little Homeworld for a bit after all this?

[Might be a little awkward, but. Honestly. There are multiple gems who've tried killing him there, including Peridot.]

It's Curtains Act 2 Test Drive

MUSIC ROOM

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