thebackstage | It's Curtains Act 3 Test Drive

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test drive

It's Curtains Act 3 Test Drive

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!

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[Curtains Up]

[Farrah's head is pounding, and her body aches. Is this what old people have to deal with when they drink? If so, consider her unsigned up. She sits up, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead, groaning dramatically as she moves.]

Ugh. What did I drink? [and where can she get some more?]

[Hopefully there's no murder in Bread Club]

[Hey, club days are meant to be taken seriously. Farrah may seem weirdly spirited, as she waves any newcomers over to where she's sitting atop a desk, surrounded by small piles of bread spread with nutella, marmalade, and even a hot chili sauce.]

They're either trying to fatten us up, or make us fall into a carb overload. [She says it dryly, but there's a little bit of a smile.]

I'm all for it.

Edited 2021-04-06 00:03 (UTC)

I. I'm a new soul

Well this is - unusual. Orpheus takes a moment after waking to realize that this isn't his room above the bar, but when he does he sits upright, looking around with a groggy sort of shock.

he says, waving over at the person in the bed across from his.

He looks sort of sheepish about having to ask, like there's a chance he somehow wound up here by accident, or managed to miss the explanation for why he's suddenly waking up in an unfamiliar room with a stranger.

II. I came to this strange world

In an entirely predictable turn of events, Oprheus immediately finds his way to the music room. He misses his guitar, anxious about where it could've wound up without him, and while other instruments aren't exactly a proper substitute being able to play does help him take his mind off of things. Sitting at the piano, he plays a slow, contemplative piece, singing the words under his breath.

Kéklyth’ Helikōna bathýdendron
haì láchete Diòs eribrómou
thýgatres euṓlenoi
mólete sunómaimon hína Phoîbon
ōidaîsi mélpsēte chryseokómān
hòs anà dikórymba Parnassídos
tāsde petérās hédran ham agaklytaîs
Delphísin Kastalídos euýdrou
nā́mat’ epinísetai, Delphòn anà prōna
manteîon ephépōn págon

Yeah, that's not in English. The familiar may be able to pin it down as Attic Greek, if they're listening carefully enough. It's a hymn to Apollo that his mother taught him a long, long time ago, and with things as confusing as they are right now he feels like calling for some divine insight is appropriate.

V. Hoping I could learn a bit 'bout how to give and take

Orpheus is... not taking this whole death thing well. He didn't know the victim, having managed to miss talking to them, but the thought of what happened to them makes something go painfully tight in his chest and throat. Looking pale and alarmed, he hangs back as the others investigate, trying not to stare at the body.

It doesn't make any sense. Everyone had been getting along so well! Anxiously, he runs his hands through his hair and turns away, shaking his head.

»Curtains Up«
Uuugh-!

[That dialogue tag doesn't do justice to how drawn out and full of put-upon suffering that groan is, but don't worry. The- very purple? young woman bobbing out into the dormitory hallways will make sure you understand her suffering. By which we mean if no one immediately gives her attention or sympathy, she'll look around, annoyed, before finding a new spot and repeating it.]

This place is so BORING! It's like a nerd school for nerds! I'm too hot for this!

»Break a Leg«
Nope! Nope nope nope nope!

[That first motive's a little rough, the classic hostage situation; not that LSP seemed to especially care about the strange, conjoined lumps of purple that were apparently her parents. No, she didn't especially care until it became obvious that other people were deeply disturbed, and possibly considering taking the Wizard's offer.]

[At which point she rapidly grabbed up a large amount of supplies from the woodshop classroom and got back to her room as quickly as possible.]

I am not getting lumping murdered by one of you losers! Just cause I'm the prettiest one here doesn't mean I'm gonna be an easy target, you hear me?!

[Her door is shut, but she's pretty clearly nailing up a barricade on the other side. ...Which does not actually prevent her door from being opened, they open outward and she hasn't apparently nailed it shut yet.]

[But doing so will earn you a claw hammer shoved menacingly into your face.]

Oh glob, you're trying it already! WELL YOU'RE NOT GONNA MURDER ME, YOU HEAR? I'LL LUMPING SMASH YOU!

»Play Rehearsal«
Ugh.

[She is surveying the available spread with disdain.]

What, we're just supposed to spread our own jam like poor people?

»Wildcard«
[Come at me scrubs.]

[ Eurydice, on the other hand, stares at the body -- probably for a beat too long. It's definitely a horrifying sight, but it's also confirmation that there's a killer in this place. It's evidence.

She'll investigate it later. For now, she's worried about Orpheus. Eurydice turns towards him, laying a hand gently -- protectively -- on his back. When she speaks, it's barely above a whisper. ]

I don't know. People do stupid things when they're desperate. What's important now is that we stay safe.

[ Eurydice doesn't know what a bread club is, but she's not stupid enough to turn down free food. So here she is, making a beeline for the bread and pointedly ignoring that weird picture of the strange man.

She's busy grabbing as much bread as will fit in her jacket when the girl at the table nearby says something...truly bizarre. Eurydice frowns, a bit skeptical and also worried that she's missing something. ]

What do you mean, carb overload?

[ Orpheus just nods, swallowing hard and stepping closer to Eurydice, reaching out to wrap an arm around her shoulders. It's tempting to cling to her more fully, to hide his face in her hair and hold her and wait until someone else solves the problem, but he knows it isn't going to work that way. ]

I just - didn't think anyone would actually do it. [ he says, quietly. ] What should we do?

[ He looks to her expectantly, wide-eyed. She's better in a crisis than he is, sharper and more canny, and while he's aware to an extent that he tends to trust too easily, he knows he can always trust her. ]

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.]

People do things like this for all sorts of reasons. It's usually at least a little personal.

[Not to be judgmental, except he is totally doing that and he's not sorry, actually! The Balladeer seems to have no particular trouble looking at the body; he's solemn, but these things just happen.]

I usually know why. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do, here...

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]

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.]

[curtains up]

[Waking up is not what Mag expected. Not after gouging out her eyes and promptly being made to fall onto spikes onstage. At least she had made her point, she thinks.

She blinks a few times. She can see, that much is clear. Eventually she’ll leave her room.

She’s just going to set up what passes for tea and food in one of the main rooms. If you are a lost-looking person, she’s going to wave you over for a chat.]

[cue music]

[There has to be a piano in this place, and Mag eventually tracks it down. Anyone passing by will hear 🎶:]

Once a long time ago, there lived a bird, an ill-fated bird called Chromaggia

She flew towards an archer’s arrow off the islands of Saint Paul

For years, she fled from the arrow, believing it was chasing her...

It's some kind of sign, Farrah. [Just. Absolute deadpan.] The witch thinks we're too skinny. Too bad for her we're teenagers and our metabolism is still good enough to eat bread.

[He's putting sriracha over the marmalade that he already spread onto the bread. Don't question his life choices.]

[ Orpheus shakes his head - not disagreeing, necessarily, but unable to wrap his mind around the idea and struggling with the attempt. ]

What are any of us supposed to do here? [ he asks, glancing back at the body, regretting it immensely, and looking back at the Balladeer instead. ] I mean, find who did this? But, how?

[ They're not detectives, or at least he doesn't think anyone here is. What are they supposed to do about any of this? ]

Princess, is something happening in there--

[He was simply investigating the banging noises, yet for his valiant efforts, he was struck by a hammer. He held his armored forearm up to block it, suffering only a dull pain as she struck.]

Hey-Cease! I do not mean you harm!

Oh, you are. Everyone else is going to die if you don't.

[The Balladeer is a weird dude, who seems to know a lot of things he shouldn't and also rarely seems to recognize that it's weird! He tilts his head for a moment, then winces a little and adds ruefully:]

That probably wasn't my line. Just play along if the A.D. has a number about it later?

1. My body keeps adapting, ever faster

[For those of you just waking up, you may be quite surprised to see a young man, sitting in the corner of the room. His back is straight, and his hands are still with both eyes closed. He could be considered to be sleeping, or perhaps meditating, but his sutras aren't exactly common.]

Warning: unauthorized boot loader. Starting power on self test... Found 1024 CPU cores. Memory integrity check... Initializing ELA for learning acceleration... Initializing IO peripherals, Eighties Enterprise persistent storage controller, Body-Hack sensor controller, TAKASHI Inc. extensive serial bus...

[He just keeps going on like that for several moments, until finally murmuring:]

Visual analyzer initialized.

[At that instant, he opens his eyes. His face is rather blank as he scans his surroundings.]

Environment scanning... complete. This unit's location appears to be in an educational complex. GPS indicates distance to Node 08 is...

[There's a slight narrowing of his eyes then, a confused quirk in his brow.]

This unit's directional parameters must be in need of repair... along with this unit's...

[He looks down at himself, and nearly jumps out of his seat, turning his hands over in faint surprise.]

This is not this unit's body.

Analyzing failures while my fingers break the record

[Once ROBO_head somewhat adjusts to his new 'situation,' he's quick to investigate. He has much to analyze if he has any hope of finding a way out of here and back to his apartment, after all.

He can be found poking his head into each room, usually offering a mechanical wave when he spots someone else.]

Hello. I assume you are new to this school. This unit is as well. Perhaps you would like to accompany this unit in a search of the facility?

[Once he reaches the band room, though, all bets are off. He makes a beeline to the instruments, studying each one with obvious fascination. It's quite easy to hear the commotion he's making rummaging around for different instruments, and fiddling with the keyboard's input. Perhaps you might hear him playing a song, though how he got the keyboard to make all those sounds is anyone's guess.]

It tastes like happiness!

[BMO is similarly seated on a desk, shoving a slightly obscene amount of hazelnut-chocolate laden bread into their mouth. They're weeping with joy like it's the best thing they've ever tasted.]

[The Balladeer looks at ROBO_head, looks around for who he's talking to, and pretty quickly determines that there's no one else here.]

Oh...you mean me? Um...sure, I guess?

[The Balladeer, meanwhile, has largely been walking around attempting to find some other people to take his cues from. Of course he knows he's not in his own show anymore, but you don't just entirely stop being the narrator - he's not really used to being part of the action proper. This is all about somebody else; he just needs to see who they are, and then he can probably work out his own role in matters.

When Mag waves at him, he looks around as if expecting someone else, and then silently, inquisitively, points at himself. He's not gonna risk interrupting a scene, if there's one happening, but if she wants to talk to him...?]

[ Orpheus flinches a bit at the Everyone else is going to die if you don't, because that's a whole lot of pressure even if it's a general 'you' and not a specific one. He doesn't know what's going on here, but he's pretty sure if anyone is relying on him to figure it out then they're all in trouble. ]

...Your line? What? [ He blinks at the other man, owlishly. He's clearly missing something here. ]

[ Orpheus is successfully waved over, wandering over to the woman who seems to be the only other person in the room at the moment and wow her eyes sure are interesting aren't they? He stares at her with a childish sort of curiosity for a moment, before forcing himself to stop and say something. ]

Hi, [ he says, enthusiastic and chirpy as he holds out his hand for a handshake. ] I'm Orpheus. Did you just get here too?

»Curtains Up«
HOORAY!

[A small, green-haired child is running through the halls of Gershwin Academy, laughing delightedly.]

BMO is a real boy!

»This Petty Pace«
[If you're coming into the kitchen, there's a ridiculously large spread of foods now available. It's a lot of breakfast foods, but there's sausages, cake, charcuterie trays, pizza, sushi- someone's been busy.]

[Someone pretty obviously being BMO. They've even got a little apron and chef's hat from somewhere.]

It's not ready yet! Take a seat but don't touch anything.

[They sound very serious about this.]

We will need energy for our first day of school. It's very important. So this meal must be perfect, so don't touch until it's finished.

[And suddenly, very seriously-]

Or I will have to kill you.

[There's a quiet moment, and then BMO laughs and turns back to cooking. That's probably fine.]

»Curtains«
Oh.

[Well, that's definitely a body. It's not great! The fact that it's a body belonging to Steven Quartz Cutie-Pie DeMayo Diamond Universe, Most Likely To Be A Househusband, is just the sad little cherry on top of the awful sundae. Maybe the pink gem-shards are sprinkles of depression, maybe they're just a worrying additional detail.]

[BMO sits quietly for a moment, looking at the scene.]

This is real bad. One of us is a dirt murderer.

[They stand up, looking serious.]

This case is going to be rough. You prepared to be as hard-boiled as needed, partner?

»Wildcard«
[Choose your own adventure ~~time~~.]

Yes! The buddy system is important.

[This... lost sassy child sure looks a little young to be attending high school. But they're enthusiastic about exploring, at least?]

Don't worry about it.

[It'll probably be fine. Not his fault, anyway, that he ended up in their show. But now, with no songs to sing about the murderer...hm. Should he help out? Does he even know how?]

Do you know what people usually do, with things like this?

1. It's a cautionary tale!

[ Hm. So this is some kind of murder school. She's pretty sure she read something about a video game like this once? But for the life of her she can't remember. It's much less like a horror movie than she expected being kidnapped and told to murder would be!

Anyway, if the jacket didn't already make an impression, this sure will, as she approaches anyone else and just. ]

Hi, Katniss Everdeen here, quick question: What the fuck?

3. ...of fear and lust and...

[ So! The powers that be have gotten into the swing of motives, and this week it's hostages. True mean girl bullshit, but with murder. She can almost respect it, or she would if it weren't the person that it is. ]

Oh buddy, I do not know what kind of galaxy brain move you think you're making by picking her, but you can count me out of the running this week.

4. ... bread?

[ Rather than being too concerned with the piles of bread, Janis has pilfered some art supplies from elsewhere and, munching idly on a baguette, seems to be busy with the poster! It's hard to tell with her blocking him, but there definitely seem to be some... improvements at play. ]

Hey, come over here, I need a second opinion before I do any more damage to Master and Commander over here.

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Page 1 of 32

It's Curtains Act 3 Test Drive

farrah | we are the tigers

Orpheus | Hadestown

Lumpy Space Princess | Adventure Time

v

bread club

no subject

connor murphy | dear evan hansen

v

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

don't be this is hilarious

blind mag | repo! the genetic opera | cw for mention of eye gore in the first prompt

no subject

no subject

Break a Leg

no subject

ROBO_head | Cytus II

Bread Club

analyzing

curtains up

no subject

Curtains Up

BMO | Adventure Time

Analyzing

no subject

janis | mean girls