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!

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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

[holyspit]

Stage managers laugh, under pressure we're breaking!

Can't we give ourselves one more chance?
Why can't we give hope that one more chance?

[Just lost in the sauce music.]

[mcfife]

Why can't we give hope, give hope, give hope, give hope, give hope, give hope, give hope, give hope, give hope?

'Cause hope's an old word from the past,
And hope dares you to care for the people without fear of the night,
And hope dares you to change our way of protecting ourselves.
This is our last scene.
This is our last scene.
This is ourselves.

[holyspit]

I guess it's curtains.
This might be curtains.

[That got a little depressing at the end, but hopefully it was more cathartic than anything else.]

[Steven plucks a last few notes on the guitar, letting the sound strum out into space.]

[mcfife]

[Angus stares at his loosely clenched fist for some time after Steven finishes his song. It was helpful, getting those emotions out there (especially with the part where he could sort-of scream), though they have returned to this world of chaos and murder.]

This has gone for far too long.

[holyspit]

Yeah...

[He makes another sad little strum on the guitar.]

But one of us will find something sooner or later! There's always a way out, even if it's not obvious.

[Steven might be trying to convince himself a little more than Angus, honestly.]

[mcfife]

Somehow...but the two of us haven't found it. [There's only so much that two motivators of royal lineage can do. Angus is just as lost here and he is in his fight against Zargothrax, if he will ever return to his planet to continue it.]

We're trapped. Either we fight our way out or call for help, but we have no idea what's out there.

[holyspit]

Maybe we could convince one of the stage managers to help us? They have to be doing all this for some kind of reason.

[He doesn't like the idea of most of the people here trying to fight, especially with their powers missing.]

[mcfife]

Why would they willingly do such evil without remorse? [His expression darkens as he looks into the distance.] To work for this opera house is to enjoy watching us suffer. What good would it be for them to stop it?

[holyspit]

...I don't know.

[The usual, general answer is probably "someone hurt them real bad" but what kind of pain would make someone do this?]

I don't get it! What are they- what could ANYONE actually get out of this?

[mcfife]

Steven. [He rests a heavy hand on his shoulder.] There are many people who only seek power to harm others. Evil will not cease unless it is met with a force powerful enough to annihilate it.

[He mainly thinks of armies, of magic weapons that can counter sorcerer spells of immortality.]

To them, this sort of torture is entertainment.

[holyspit]

Do you actually believe that?

[That's about the saddest thing he's heard ever, and he's from That Show Where People Cry A Lot.]

I mean- I've seen a lot of people I thought were bad too, but- there was always something that hurt them, that they didn't know how to deal with- there's got to be something like that here too! I- we just don't know what it is.

[mcfife]

[Angus looks confused. Of course Zargothrax is evil. Who could know his actions and say otherwise? People like him exist.]

I do not know why they think so. I never sought to destroy a town to become its rules. I never laughed at someone's suffering. But what is most important is to stop the evildoers and save those in danger.