It's Curtains Act 3 Test Drive

[stagemanagers]

1) CURTAINS UP

You’ve just woken up in some kind of dorm 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 worse still - there's other people waking up in the same room with you, in the same state.

Talk to your roommates! Go out and meet everyone from the other rooms! 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 even a band 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) I LOVE PLAY REHEARSAL

It's Club Day! What's Club Day, you ask? Come to the classroom on the poster to find out! It looks like this week's club is Bread Club. Be wary, when you enter the classroom you'll face a shower of various bread slices but be rewarded with a surprisingly fancy layout of spreads and jams to go with them. Don't mind the oddly threatening poster on the far wall. He's just here to supervise.

5) 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.

6) CUE MUSIC

Feelings in a murder-school 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 3 FAQ can also be found here!

Comments

connor murphy | dear evan hansen

[yourattention]

2. he was everything i'm not

[Does Connor look like a character who cooks? Because, uh. He's in the kitchen making.... bread? It looks like bread. Why the fuck does Connor Murphy know how to make bread from scratch?

You might also find him furiously ripping up something. Weird! Don't worry, about it. I'm sure that wasn't an important metaplot clue or anything.]

3. my whole universe

[How about that motive, huh? Whatever it is exactly, Connor's looking down at a picture of a brightly smiling young Latino man. It's maybe the first time he's shown visible emotion and it's uhhhhhhhh. He's definitely sad about it, but the other emotion is harder to pin down. Angry? Maybe! Wistful? Could be! Whatever it is, he eventually crumples up the photo and throws it down.]

Fuck this shit. Fuck it all! Should we all just sing kumbaya and pretend nothing's gonna happen? Are you all gonna bury your heads in the fucking sand?

5. and i was a footnote, a slim second verse

[Aw, fuck. Jeremy Heere, the Loser/Geek/Whatever is dead. Thankfully, that also means the SQUIP is dead but you know. Still sucks! And somehow, for some reason, Connor found the body.]

Fuck. Fuck, hey! Someone get over here, 'cause I'm not searching a dead fucking body!

[Alas, Connor is not allowed nice things and he's very carefully walking around and trying not to step in blood. This is horrible. He hates it.]

2 - I'm only a little sorry, also I don't have an actually appropriate icon for this

[sugarlumps]

Heeeeeeey Connor.

[That is certainly an attempt at striking some kind of pose in the kitchen doorway, as Connor- really rips into that dough? That's probably fine. Also LSP doesn't actually care.]

You got the ovens running already, or is that just you?

[wonk]

don't be this is hilarious

[yourattention]

It's all me obviously. [This is said in the deadest pan, without even looking up. Then, slightly less deadpan:] What do you like on your bread? There's already tomato and rosemary focaccia in the oven.

[Why is he making more than one bread? Who can say. Connor Murphy works in mysterious ways and has an even mysteriouser skillset of absolutely random nonsense. He does look up from kneading the dough he's currently got on the counter for her answer, though.]

[sugarlumps]

AHAHAHA, you're so FUNNY.

[The laughter's not ENTIRELY fake? She sidles into the kitchen and sits at a counter opposite Connor.]

Ooh, how 'bout some kind of fruit filling? Fruit pies are lumping amazing.

[yourattention]

[Connor rolls his eyes, but like. Nicely. It's just a reflexive thing, not him actually trying to be rude or anything.]

Sure, I can do fruit. [He starts rolling out the dough flat.] Strawberry or apple?

5

[wanderlusttitania]

[She sounds very small as she responds, even as she kneels.]

Must I?

[yourattention]

[Aw, shit. Uncomfortable girls are his one weakness.]

I mean, you don't have to. I can, I just—

[Was Jeremy his friend? He's not sure he'd say that, but he actually liked Jeremy and that's something. If he has to touch a body, he doesn't really want it to be this one.]

—nevermind. I'll take the bloody parts, you check his pockets?

[wanderlusttitania]

[To be fair, most girls don't have Death playing pranks on them at random points in their life and for all she could know the body'll pop up and turn out to be him possessing it going COME WITH MEEEEE I LOOOOVE YOOOOOU~ again so



After a moment, she finally steels herself and nods, despite the fact she's still very violently shaking. As long as she doesn't have to touch their flesh. She's got this.

After deep breaths, she shoves her hands into the pockets as fast as she can, grabbing out what contents she can before bringing them back out, her fingers dropping the contents into her lap.]

I--I think I have it...!

[She's hoping at least. Give her a second to compose herself.]

[yourattention]

[Jeremy's pockets looted! You now have his room key, a pen, and a friendship bracelet.

Meanwhile, Connor's trying not to get blood all over himself as he tries to work out what the hell happened here. Weird that Jeremy got stabbed, given that the SQUIP's been talking big game about protecting him.]

Hey, do you—what was that stuff Christine gave to Farrah for safekeeping? Did anybody else get some of that?

[It was Mountain Dew Red.]

[wanderlusttitania]

I don't think I did, no...

[Room key, hmm. But...something does catch her eye, though further from the body.

She slides over to pick it up. Paper-she unfolds it-]

A letter?

[yourattention]

A letter? What's it say?

[He comes around to crouch next to her, not quite reading over her shoulder but more to look at the handwriting and see if it's a match for anyone's.]

[wanderlusttitania]

MUSIC ROOM. 2AM. YOU KNOW WHY. That's all it says.

[It's also a little bit hard to tell the handwriting. Well, ok, it's lots hard.

It's typed out with no signature. Still, she hands it to Connor, just in case there's something she's missing.]

'You know why'...

3

[employeeoftheyear]

Maybe if we sing "kumbaya" really loudly...?

[Spongebob, however, looks noticeably shaken up looking at his own photo of a dopey looking man with a pink pompadour.]

[yourattention]

That's not what I f—

[Man, he can't yell at Spongebob?? That's a sin.]

I don't really think it's gonna make anything better.

[employeeoftheyear]

[The only reason Spongebob is even alive at this point is because it feels like a horrible crime to even be rude to him.

Which is why Squidward has no soul.

Spongebob looks again at his photo, looking like he's about to cry.]

...You're right, but killing each other to save our friends isn't the answer! I mean you are all my friends too; and we lost a lotta you guys already!

[yourattention]

[Part of Connor wants to scream, to yell about how absolutely none of this is solvable. That's the whole point. It's a Kobayashi Maru: a scenario you can't win unless you cheat.

The rest of him is just tired.]

Shit's fucked, Spongebob. [He runs a hand through his hair.] We—it's just gonna keep going, you know? The best you can do is fumble your way through it until it's over.

[employeeoftheyear]

... Yeah, I know it's fucked.

[Spongebob has zero idea what the word means but this kid who's younger than him is using it a lot so it's probably cool.]

But... but I still don't want any of you guys to die, even if it is to save our friends. I don't know if I could ever face Patrick again knowing that he's only alive because I killed an innocent person.

[yourattention]

[BLANK NO I CAN'T BELIEVE I CORRUPTED SPONGEBOB]

I know. It's—M would be so fucking mad at me if I went for it, but I know not everyone's gonna feel that way. People die and we. We just gotta live for them until we can figure out how to undo this shit.

3

[alchemistake]

[Varian had been standing not too far away, holding a photo of his own. His own expression had been a lot more...agitated, but he doesn't have much time to dwell before Connor is exclaiming nearby. It prompts Varian to put the picture in his pocket, at least for now.]

You say that like most of us haven't been spending our time trying to think of ways to get out of here.

[Varian has, at least. Just...without any success. But it's better than doing nothing.]

What are you going to do?

[yourattention]

['cause all that it takes is a little reinvention.
It's easy to change if you give it—]

Yeah, but see that? That's part of the problem. You think there is a way out that doesn't involve more of us dying. [Connor throws his arms up, a little hysterical.] There isn't! It's like everything else in life: fixed.

[alchemistake]

Well, I'd rather spend the rest of what time I do have here trying to come up with an alternative. The only way we're even going to get anywhere is to not play the game.

[He hesitates to say "win", because, well. There's no win condition when you can't get out. They could just be trapped here forever...but at least they'd be depriving their captors of whatever entertainment they seem to be deriving out of this. That in itself is worth something, he feels.]

[yourattention]

Nah, see that's the thing: we're all playing. We're being forced to play. Better to just admit it than keep pretending any of us has the moral high ground.

[He bends down to pick up his crumpled photo, the gesture slightly incongruous with the way he's acting.]

We might as well fucking play then, don't you think?

[alchemistake]

[Varian is far from someone who could have moral high ground over anyone here, that's for sure. He might not remember everything, but coupled with the photo in his pocket...

He remembers enough.]

...maybe.

[Maybe, he says, as if actually killing somebody can be considered an option.]

I guess it's just hard to do that when the rules change by the week.

[The motives, he means. It's always something different, it's never as simple as "kill somebody and leave". It's "kill somebody or somebody you care about dies" or "kill somebody and we'll give you a million dollars". It's too specific.]

[yourattention]

The circumstances changing doesn't mean the rules change. [Connor shrugs.] It just means the rewards or stakes are different.

[The immediate example for him is video game levels, but well. He's sure Varian won't understand so... Card games? It'll have to do.]

The rules for poker are the same whether or not you bet money on the game. This? [He holds up the crumpled photo.] This is just what we're betting on. It has nothing to do with the rules.

[alchemistake]

[It sure feels like the rules change, but...Connor's right. And with Varian's own photo currently burning a hole in his pocket, it's just a reminder that they're like mice in a cage, being poked and prodded until they either go for the food being given to them or snap before they ever get that far.]

The incentive is what gets more people to play. Meaning more of us are going to die.

[To put it bluntly.]

What happens if we all decided we'd had enough and gave in to that?