thebackstage | It's Curtains Act 2 Test Drive

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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!

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1 - Curtains Up

[There's a young lady who's emerged from her own tiny dressing room, clad in a school uniform with the poofiest sleeves you've ever seen. She closes the door gently, humming a soft tune under her breath, looking for all the world just...incredibly not bothered, honestly. Placid, calm, she turns to walk down the hall at an even gait, observing everything with wide, green eyes. There's...the suggestion of curiosity, and of unfamiliarity, but beyond that she's eerily impassive. When you emerge from your room, in whatever state you find yourself in, she stops short of stumbling into your path, hands clasped in front of her, and says,]

Oh, hello there. Is this your home?

[...Girl.]

2 - This Petty Place

[You fools. You utter buffoons. Who let Anthy access the kitchen? Do you not value your lives?! Sure, she seems relatively chipper - or as chipper as she usually emotes - while she slices onions and carrots and potatoes, breaks open a package of curry roux and starts to stew these ingredients in a pot. They look perfectly fine going in, so...why does the mixture bubbling on the stovetop resemble sludge? She seems perfectly attentive to it, and yet...]

I wonder if there's any rice for the curry...

[She says it to herself, but it's loud enough for you to hear if you're passing through or biding your time learning how to cook a Hot Pocket. Maybe you want to stop Anthy before she ruins your supply of rice on this...abomination she's made, or maybe you can convince her to scrap this attempt and try again. Surely she knows how poorly this is going to end up...right?]

3 - Break a Leg

[This is supposed to be a motive? Something embarrassing will be revealed to everyone you know? Anthy stares blankly at the paper in front of her before she smiles, turning it over to reveal...a math test.

A math test with a score of 0 on it, and her name at the top.]

This isn't so bad. I thought they would try harder.

[Anthy are you...not bothered by flunking math? Really?]

4 - Curtain

[If it was a normal person, Anthy could muster up the niceties and usual expected empathy for the dead. At least, in her mind she could - to an outsider, her attempt would seem incredibly phoned-in and potentially suspicious. But when she emerges at the announcement to encounter the scene of the crime...no. No, that cry of shock, those tears, that weakness in her knees that makes her legs give out? That's all honest.

Because it was Skimbleshanks, the Railway Cat.

Skimbleshanks! He had never done anything wrong or hurtful to anyone, and he was a cat, or so he claimed to be, before this Opera House warped his form. Anthy had, of course, believed him, and now he was gone and...]

No...not him...why would someone...

[She's weeping, and she wouldn't shrug off a kind word or supportive shoulder, but on the inside? Oh, there's an urge within her to find the culprit, and show them just how much havoc angry cats can wreak upon a soul.]

5 - Cue Music

[Huh. That sure is some kind of tune you can hear. And...is that Anthy singing along, there in the music room? She's pacing it very slowly, a hand to her chin, deep in thought...]

Dog goes "woof",
Cat goes "meow",
Bird goes "tweet",
And mouse goes "squeek".

Cow goes "moo",
Frog goes "croak",
And the elephant goes "toot"!

Ducks say "quack",
And fish go "blub",
And the seal goes "ow ow ow"...
But there's one sound
That no one knows...

What does the fox say?

[Oh no.]

Curtains Up

[And so, the valiant warrior Angus McFife awakes in a new dimension, not having recalled ever falling asleep. Stranger yet, he is in a rather pleasant room.

This had to be a trick! Angus leaps off his rather small bed, his cape swirling behind him in a perfect arc, and finds that his hand is devoid of any weapon. He searches underneath the bed: nothing. The dresser: nothing. There was no where else in this room where it could have been hidden. This could only mean one thing...Angus had been captured and taken prisoner by Zargothrax's forces!

He flings the door leading outside wide open to scare any foes that dared subdue him. Incredibly, there no bars of iron, no sinister guards, and no sign that he is in an evil land. There are humans that resembled civilians...or at least the appeared to be so.]

You there! [Angus points an accusatory finger and whoever had the fortune to be near his room.] What is this place, and where did you take my hammer?

This Petty Place

[He had fought a gigantic army of demons. He had battled alongside the legendary Ser Proletius and his spaceknights. He had survived many deadly events, including an encounter with the Dark Sorcerer of Auchtermuchty, and traveled through spacetime. Here, Angus McFife finds a new challenge.

Boredom.

How can a warrior prince ever be bored when there is ruling and defending the galaxy to be done? How could one man who had the entire solar system as his home survive being confined to a small building with little to do?

And thus, the idle hero finds himself in the music room. What a collection! Why, he could learn just about anything he wants as long as he has a proper teacher.] Perhaps the trumpet? It seems simple, but there must be some trick to it...

[Yes, this requires some mighty pondering.]

Break a Leg

[Angus glares at his envelope when the Stage Manager requests they open it and, powerless to stop himself from investigating, finds a picture of his late friend. A mighty, proud, and all man with a braided beard and armor made from wolf stands in the photograph.

The image is crushed in Angus' hand.]

How can I trust you to bring him back? Surely, your plan is to use dark magic to raise all of these people from the dead for your sinister plans! [Without any way to attack their captor, he throws the crumpled piece of paper at the speaker.]

[Why hello there, mysterious mister! A young lady blinks at your abrupt appearance, the only suggestion of any reaction to it, before she waves.]

Good morning! I don't know where we are, and I don't have any hammers with me.

[Stellar introduction, cuts right to the point.]

How can that be? Do you not live here?

[And if this mysterious girl was at ease here, then what could this place be?]

2) This Petty Pace

[ Nana’s been keeping herself busy these days mostly with baking and cooking - if your character isn’t the kind to do any cooking for themselves, rest assured they have likely had no difficulty keeping themselves fed anyway. What with Bananamom around making daily batches of banana muffins and other treats to pass around.

Today though, Nana isn’t wandering around handing out treats— well okay, that’s a lie, there is ABSOLUTELY a basket of fresh muffins hooked over her elbow if you really want one, but that isn’t the main thing she’s doing. Rather, she has a yellow and brown smartphone held up sideways in front of her face with both hands — recent gift from the merchandise booth. It has no service of course, but that’s not what’s important to her.

Click.

Click.

She’s taking pictures. Not just of people but of all the different rooms too.

And, of course, of you too. ]

Good morning. [ Just going to act like she’s... not looking at the whole world through a camera lens right now. ] Did you sleep well?

3) Break A Leg

[ So, all of the motives so far have been rough in their own way. Nana’s still just a teenager, despite her “mom friend” kind of personality, so they’ve all affected her in some way even if she has done her best to stay strong. But today’s... today’s seems to have hit especially hard.

They could be your one companion,
They could be all that matters,
Whether they are your friends or family,
Without them, your world shatters.

You wish you could hear their voices again,
But without a death you never will
Dreaming of them won’t help you now
All you need to do is kill.

The ones most precious to you... gone. Taken from you forever. Whether through death or cosmic force.

Nana’s hands had been shaking as she held the picture given to her during the motive. But before anyone could approach her about it she took off, the picture hastily shoved in her pocket. Now she was holed up in the kitchen again, baking and cooking a storm. There’s muffins, individual jars of pudding, cakes, cookies, hot pot, stew, pasta, omelettes... Nana was always cooking a lot, but you get the distinct impression this time that this is more than just her nature of caring for others at work. You get the feeling that Banana is engaging in stress cooking.

She turns and smiles when she hears you come in, but it looks different from her usual one, like it’s forced and cold. She has a bowl of whipped egg whites in her arms, but it’s already looking like they’re well beyond stiff enough to work with now. ]

Oh, hey there. Are you hungry? Feel free to help yourself— though if you’re up for a little wait, I’ve got some macarons and banana merengue pie on the way! They’ll be real “bana-nice”, promise!

[ ...if that’s the level of rigorous mixing she’s got going on the macarons probably aren’t going to turn out so well but hey. Can you blame her. ]

6) Wildcard

[ I’m down for mostly anything! ]

[A vain man Angus was not, but the presence of the camera had cast a spell of flattering on the prince, and so, he spun out of his chair to allow his cape to follow a regal arc as he came to a triumphant pose.]

Better than yesterday, of course. [That trial sure was something and he doesn't want a second murder after the first...and hopefully the last.] How do I look?

[ She giggles a little bit at the pose, before another loud click as she takes the picture. ]

Pretty slick! [ She lowers the phone slightly so her face isn’t as obscured. ] Definitely like a cool prince.

"Cool"? [Angus cannot help but laugh.] My journey was long an harrowing, and someone without a pure heart of steel could not have made it as far as I did. My ancestors and I wield the power of astral fire, the opposite of cool!

[He punctuates this with a light tapping over his heart.]

[ Her eyebrows furrow just a little bit she stays smiling. It’s been a few weeks since this all started, but she’s still used to all her castmates and still has to remind herself that they’re not all going to get what she means sometimes. ]

Ah, right, right— my bad.

Is it better to say “fiery prince”, then?

Hmm...

[Angus holds a hand to his chin and ponders this choice of words.]

Yes, that will do! [He grins and holds out his hands.] Can I see my pictures?

Oh! Sure.

[ She taps through the phone and brings up the gallery before turning it towards him. Along with the pictures of him, everyone else and all the rooms, there’s also several pictures of other girls Nana’s age as well as her school and dormitory. ]

I think they turned out pretty good.

I do not.

[She's just. Anthy. That's why.]

Do you not, as well?

[Wh...at is that rectangle...]

Yes, I did, thank you. What are you doing?

[Guess who lived in the time before cell phones weren't limited to Nokias]

Just taking pictures!

[ She pauses for a second. ]

Oh— but if it makes you uncomfortable Himemiya-san, I can stop.

No...

[No to her question, and no at the incredulity of this situation.]

You don't appear to be in danger. Could it be that that we are not prisoners...but why are we left with no answers? [This is a mystery, indeed!]

[Angus nods in approval.] Yes, they capture my heart well!

[Nana will remember the fiery prince from another world forever. At least, as long as she holds this handheld electron photo-taker in safekeeping. His finger shoots out to point at the photo of the unknown girls.]

Are these your friends?

I couldn't say. Though, sometimes a bird doesn't realize its gilded home is indeed a cage.

[It's an almost contemplative observation.]

...No, I don't mind. But, how can that device take a picture?

Prologue: Not Invisible Anymore (Curtains Up)
[It had all happened so quickly. A storm of light and sound, the terrified screams of Charles, Delia, Maxie D. and his sycophants, all accompanied by the ringing of maniacal laughter—which she may have joined the demon in indulging in—through the halls of the Maitlands' house.

"Guess we're not invisible anymore!" he'd said, snapped his fingers, and-

Now she was here. Lydia groggily rolls off the bench in her dressing room, yawning as she takes in her surroundings.]

You know, Beetlejuice, it really doesn't surprise me that you were a theater kid, but I figured you'd go for something... I dunno, a little more jazzy when you got around the redecorating? Something with pizazz that screams, "unfathomable horrors live here, turn back to whence you came lest you find you cannot return, mortal." Maybe with some tasteful obelisks.

...Beetlejuice?

Beetlejuice!

[Still nothing. Lydia knits her brows as she steps out into the hallway, head whipping back and forth. One call was usually enough to get the demon to show up, and three should have summoned him fully into the physical world. So where the Hell was he? Lydia wouldn't say that she was worried about him, but Beetlejuice did kick her parents out of the house, so she at least owed him.

Wait, was that-]

...I'm gonna take a guess and say you're not one of his wildly defective and deformed clones? [she says, half-smirking.]

Fright of Their Lives (This Petty Pace)
[Lydia is bored. So utterly bored. It only took a few days for her to completely memorize the floor layout of the theater, and a few days after that to familiarize herself with the maze of catwalks above it. There's practically nothing to do... except for Lydia's favorite hobby:

Messing with people.

She flops down from the rafters, hanging upside-down by her legs as she takes aim at her hopefully surprised victim.]

Scream for the camera.

[There's a click, then a bright flash as the camera takes the photo.

Hope you weren't having a particularly private or embarrassing moment, since Lydia's now immortalized it forever.]

The Whole Being Dead Thing (Cue Music)
[Lydia has experience with being dead. Not directly, of course, but she's been around enough dead people of various persuasions for it to barely faze her when she ended up being the first victim. Oh, what twisted irony that she finally got killed, but in a place where whatever afterlife her mother was in was out of reach.

At least Lydia is taking her position as first ghost very seriously. When the next victim rises into the spectral ether, she's right there to introduce them to the world of the dead... through song and dance.]

Hey, folks,
Begging your pardon
'Scuse me, sorry to barge in
Now let's skip the tears and start with the whole
Y'know
Being dead thing!

[Why would Lydia want to stop Anthy? No, no, no. This looks like prime time entertainment just waiting to happen. Grinning mischievously, she sidles up to Anthy, taking a deep whiff of the witch's brew in the pot.]

I think I saw some in the cabinet just above you?

Hm...

[She pretends to contemplate the curry, then snaps her fingers.]

I think it needs more salt.

[Horrors! With cursed luck, Angus was victim of the second case. If only he had been more wary and less trusting of Veronica Sawyer! His only hope would be that his fellow prisoners would find his killer as they had with Lydia's!

Upon opening his eyes, he realized that he was no longer in pain nor dying. Could this be the afterlife or some evil torture? To his surprise, what he saw approach him was not a foul creature...but Lydia, the girl who spoke with the dead!]

Lydia!
What am I seeing?
Have I become a ghostly being?
Somehow this doesn't feel freeing!
So where are we now?
Apart from
The dead thing!

Curtains Up
[So, you've woken up in a strange place with no memory of how you've gotten here. It happens, probably.]

[But look, your kidnappers haven't cut you off completely from the outside world. As you're wandering the halls of the theater, you might run across a radio which is either incredibly archaic or fantastically advanced, depending on where and when you specifically call home.]

[Either way, it's sitting there, crackling out what sounds like a news broadcast.]

Tragedy struck in rural Oklahoma today in what officials are calling a case of Otter Chaos. A careless accident at the local zoo and aquarium set loose an invasive population of giant river otters that rampaged through the local poultry farms in a swath of destruction that left coops plucked empty-

[This is probably normal.]

Break a Leg
[Well, that's a heck of an incentive. Kill someone or watch your loved ones lose all memory of your existence, like you never existed.]

Oh come on pal, let's negotiate, no need for this to come to violence! You want a death in exchange for calling this malarkey off, that means you've got a price, the rest is just haggling, right? Right? I can get you anything you want, how about a lifetime supply of fresh lemons straight from the lemon groves of scenic West Virginia, these were the very same lemon trees that flavored William Taft's morning tea. Fresh tart citrus, as much as you want, I know a guy!

[Maybe the rest of you are handling things a little better.]

Curtain - Cue Music
[Ah, well. That sure is a lot of blood. The Radio sags a little bit as he surveys the scene. As his speakers click on, the voice crackling out is notably more subdued than usual.]

Sad news today folks, one of the best and brightest minds of our time has been taken from us, cruelly cut down in the height of his prime. A braver, more heroic soul I've never known, and this loss will be felt deeply by everyone here, I'm sure. More news as events develop.

[Aquaman, The (Truly) Outrageous is dead. The Radio's speakers go to wavering static for a moment as his dial slowly adjusts itself, seeking something in the airwaves before settling into something with a click.]

We'll meet again.
Don't know where,
Don't know when,
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day!
Keep smiling through,
Just like you always do,
'Till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away-!

Wildcard
[Choose your own adventure.]

Whoa, careful with the lights there sweetheart!

[Lydia, did you actually mean to snap a photo of the Radio? If not, too bad, that's who you're dealing with now.]

That kind of thing can blind a man, I've seen it happen! It was on an expedition to the arctic with Teddy Roosevelt, one of our Sherpas caught a camera flash full in the face and pow, lights out. Poor little lemming of a man wandered straight off an ice-flow, we never saw him again.

Good morning folks, and welcome back once again to Breakfast News Radio.

[He's not exactly ignoring you as such, Nana, but even in a situation as unique as all this, certain pretenses are habitual.]

Sad news to start off today, everyone. Local banana girl and owner of Daiba's Downtown Bakery struck with sudden and virulent short-sightedness, unable to see anything more than an inch away from her face. We've been told doctors are making every effort to cure the young confectionary prodigy, but little progress has been made. We'll be providing updates as the situation develops.

[Yeah he might not actually know what smartphone is.]

1 - I must be brave...

[ So there are a number of remarkable things about the way Shilo wakes up! The first one is that she isn't where she's supposed to be, which on its own would be enough to create a need for immediate panic, but she's also in a very different outfit than she last remembers, and... oh god, is there blood on her? Whose blood is on her?

This is where you come in, scene partner! Shilo sort of stumbles out of her dressing room, and looks over at you, clearly distressed! ]

What- who are you? Where are we? I don't... what's going on?

3. Come, God, what may...

[ "If you kill this week, we'll bring someone back from the dead." is a... strange motive, to be sure. Her mother, maybe? But she wouldn't kill for her, surely neither her or her father would want that.

And yet, when she opens her motive envelope, Shilo is just sort of. Frozen in place. Staring, not quite comprehending. ]

I... I'm sorry, there must be some kind of mistake.

4. Can I be saved?

[ Oh. That's... sure a dead body. Poor Will Schuester surely didn't hurt anyone, did he? Shilo Wallace, perfect judge of character, sure doesn't think so! But she's also, like... for all the things this girl gets weirdly stressed about, somehow this dead body isn't one of them? ]

Uh... anybody? I think I found, uh... I think we're going to go to the courtroom again!

6. Is there a way?

[ Wildcard! Don't like any of these prompts? Planned something with future me? Pitch me one here or by PM! ]

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It's Curtains Act 2 Test Drive

Anthy Himemiya | Revolutionary Girl Utena: Blooming Rose of Deepest Black

Angus McFife XIII | Gloryhammer saga

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Nana Daiba | Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight (made this account yesterday just for this woot woot)

2, let's voicetest together...

\o/

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2

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Lydia Deetz | Beetlejuice: the Musical, the Musical, the Musical

2.

Cue Music

The Radio | Brave Little Toaster

This Petty Place

This Petty Place

Shilo Wallace | Repo! The Genetic Opera