Here we go, the theater level, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in this.
DM77's Psychonauts Chapter 20
Sally's Theater Part 1
Nigel was back at the Thorny Tower Asylum, he found all the brains of his campmates he can find which means the others along with Rachel are up on the higher floors but to get there he needs to trick Croker by disguising as Nerfarious.
He recalls seeing something blue claw like in the Greenhouse with Sally and has gone their first and sees the blue trophy near by where Sally was continuing to entertain her 'audience'
"Excuse me, ma'am, but did you see a girl…" Nigel said trying to get Sally's attention.
"You must be my new leading man." Sally said smiling in her delusions as she turns to look at Nigel "Aren't you handsome! But my goodness, you're so young! Tell me WHY do they keep casting me with such mere babes? I guess that's the curse of having an eternally young face." She goes back to bowing to her 'audience'
Nigel shrugs and decides to just grab the trophy figuring she is so distracted, so he picks it up. He was mistaken.
"Oh, you found my old trophy!" Sally said looking at him smiling "I should really put that thing away, before somebody hurts themselves on that gleaming, metal, clawlike part on the top. Say, would you like to hear the story of how I won that award, dear boy?" She steps out of the light as she gets closer to Nigel but when she's how her smile turned to a glare as she stares at Nigel angrily "Or are you trying to take it, because you don't think I deserve it?"
"No, no. You deserve it!" Nigel said concerned over Sally's sudden moodshift.
"I didn't take anything from you! I didn't ask to be famous!" Sally said angrily as she takes the trophy back "I just wanted you to love me! Hey…"
"What?" Nigel asked confused
"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!" Sally yells out. She then moves as if to attack Nigel who yelps and runs away.
Nigel hides and looks back into the green house and sees Sally was back in the light after putting the trophy back. "Clearly something is up with her, best get to the bottom of this." He pulls out the Psycho-Portal. He then chucks it at Sally Stageplay when she turns to look at him.
"Oh!" Sally said surprised as the door landed on her forehead "If you don't like the performance, a simple 'boo' will do."
Nigel adjusts his shades as his mental self is pulled into the doorway and enters Sally's mind.
When Nigel looks around after opening his eyes he find he was in a theatre and through he couldn't see the audience he hear clapping. He looks and sees sitting a man in a stage box, he was yellow skinned with red palm tree like hair and wearing a professional suit. Before Nigel could saying anything someone else did.
"Cut!" A female voice said as a red haired worman with blue glasses wearing a yellow top ands orange skirt approached having a clipboard and radio headset, her name badge read 'Janine Melnitz' on it. "Hey! Kid! Can't you see I'm trying to produce a play here?"
"Uh…no." Nigel said a bit confused. There was laugh from the audience.
"Oh, lord!" Janine said shaking her head in her hand. "Even a child can see I've lost control of this production! Okay Janine, get a grip…"
"Child?" Nigel asked.
"Look, kid, it wasn't always like this!" Janine said and explained "We used to have a hit show on our hands! Everybody love us! But then our big star, Dr. Girlfriend, got stage fright and locked herself in her dressing room! So now we're stuck flipping between 'Sunshine Shenanigans' and 'The Horror of Olga Home!"
"Which is like flipping between a root canal and a sharp stick in the eye!" The man in the viewing box called out.
"Just ignore Sideshow Bob." Janine said to Nigel "He's a critic, who happens to be right."
"I'll go talk to Dr. Girlfriend. I'm sure all she needs is a little pep talk." Nigel said thinking on it.
"That, and acting lessons." Bob said with a chuckle.
"If you can get Dr. Girlfriend to take the stage again, then you're the star of my show, kid." Janine said smiling and goes back to her work station near the door that led to backstage.
Nigel goes back stage and finds the door to the dressing rooms, he guessed the one at the end was Dr. Girlfriend, where he also heard sobbing. He approaches it only for it to close immediately when he gets close, showing she doesn't want visitors. Luckily Nigel knows what to do, he steps back until the door opens then turns invisible and goes in.
Once in he finds a beautiful black haired woman in a butterfly like outfit with a crown who was sobbing on a chair near a mirror she was also slightly glowing but it was covered by a cloak. Nigel figures this was Dr. Girlfriend. He becomes visible and said "Excuse me, Miss Dr. Girlfrined? I heard you were feeling bad, so I just wanted to say that…whatever you're going through, you're not alone. I used to be a performer myself and I know how hard it is when…"
"Kid, can't you see I'm trying to have a moment here?" Dr. Girlfriend said in a surprisingly masculine voice but also surprisingly was even through she stopped crying, there was still crying being heard.
"Whoa. Sorry, I was looking for Dr. Girlfirned." Nigel said thinking he got the wrong person.
"You mean the personal muse of Sally Stageplay? Her inner sunshine?" Dr. Girlfriend asked him
"The spirit of her youth, yes." Nigel said nodding.
"That's me." Dr. Girlfriend told him "What do you want? An autograph? I'm kind of busy here."
"So, who's that crying?" Nigel asked confused.
"Oh, sorry." Dr. Girlfriend said and calls out "Hey, can we kill the waterworks for a second?" A speaker stops "Thanks!" She looks to Nigel "It's a recording. It helps me focus."
"They need you on stage right away for your big number!" Nigel told her.
"Am I not playing this right or something? I'm drowning in a quagmire of self pity!" Dr. Girlfriend told him "Why aren't you getting that? Should I be doing more with my hands?"
"So, you're not going out on stage?" Nigel asked her.
"Have you seen any of the plays we put on here?" Dr. Girlfriend asked him rolling her eyes "Those god-awful slices of Sally's terrible life? How am I supposed to bring light to those? Listen, the burden of being the only sunshine in this theatre is just too much for one beautiful, glowing, inspirational muse to bear you know?"
"Is there any way I can get you to take the stage? For the fans?" Nigel asked hopeful.
"If you can get me some help out there, so I'm not the only light on the set…" Dr. Girlfriend said thinking.
"I'll turn on the spotlight!" Nigel figures out thinking.
"Eh, that could work, but you'll need a candle…" Dr. Girlfriend said nodding. "I think there might be a spare in the storeroom. If you can get a candle into a spotlight and light it, I'll come out and give the show one last try. But I'm not promising anything!"
Nigel nods to that "I'll leave you alone now. I know you have a lot of crying to do."
"Thank you. Now where was I?" Dr. Girlfriend said and the recording starts up again.
Nigel exits the room and sees the store room to the right and enters it, inside he finds a mental vault and smacks it open and sees a reel titled 'Sally's Cruel Training' The first slide showed the building known as Olga Home for Girls, the next slide should a young Sally being dragged into the home by it's cruel teacher Miss Heinous as her mother drives off leaving her.
The third slide showed Sally with other girls doing ballet lessons while Miss Heinous yells at them with a whip. Next Slide was singing practice while Miss Heinous plays the piano and whips one of the girls. Next one showed the girls watching a movie on ballot while Miss Heinous holds the whip. The next slide showed Miss. Heinous dressing up the girls in costumes and again with a whip and then the final one them doing a play while Heinous directs them with a whip.
Nigel shakes his head feeling sorry for Sally, he then searches the storeroom and finds the candle. He goes back to the main stage and climbs up a ladder to the spot light and puts the candle in it and uses Pyrokinesis to light it and when he does two mask plates come down and rotate a golden happy one and a blue sad one. The gold one was one the side with the flame so it shines down on the stage.
As it does a happy sunny scene came down on the stage. Janine seeing it said "Look alive people! Dr. Girlfriend is about to take the stage!" Nigel goes down to join her "Flower girls in position one. And…ACTION!"
"Tonight I will be playing the part of Sally Stageplay, the famous actess!" A girl in a flower costume with pink petals said smiling as she stood on stange with two others one in a blue flower costume with orange petals and a tall one in a green flower costume with blue petals.
"In this nostalgic memory of her breakthrough role in the smash hit muisical…" The blue petaled flower actor said
"Sunshine Shinanigans!" The orange petaled flower actor finished, and they cheer.
Unknown to any of them however up in the rafters a green hand removes a stage light and holds it over the stage and waits for the right moment, chucking as they do.
"And where would Sally be without her muse?" The flower kid playing Sally continued
"Her inner sunshine!" The blue petaled flower actor said
"The spirit of her youth!" The orange petaled flower actor added
"Played tonight, once again, by…" The Sally actor and motions to the sun part of the set "Dr. Girlfriend!" Dr. Girlfriend opens up the sun to reveal herself her and begins to remove her cloak "Oh, I do so hope that my mother is proud of me!" Just then the stage light comes down and crushes her.
"Not again!" Janice said in annoyed shock.
"The Green Ghost!" The orange petaled actor said.
"I've seen some bad plays in my day, but this one's an actual menace." Sideshow Bob said from his view box and adds "And it's all HER fault." He points accusingly at Dr. Girlfriend "It's her bad acting that makes the Green Ghost strike!" Dr. Girlfriend actually cries and runs off "This time, I'm going to file a formal complaint and get this theatre shut down!"
"Great. Well I'm off to go kill myself." Janice said sighing and walks off.
"You know you could be a more constructive critic." Nigel said to Bob.
"Young one, if you want to see an actual GOOD play, come talk to me." Bob tells him "I've got a script here that will knock them dead, I promise."
Nigel goes to first check the spot lift Janice seeing him said "Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa! Careful! That's the manual mood override. That's how we set the right mood for the play. Mess with that, we'll have happy plays on sad sets, sad plays on happy sets….Total chaos, or worse…IMPROV. So whatever you do. Don't mess with the manual mood override unless you want to see some strange stuff happen!"
Nigel figures it best to talk to Janice to get the full story on the problems, while looking at the play on the happy sets one showed Sally playing around the Maypole and the other Sally meeting her mother again who was not at all jealous of her success rising faster than her own.
Of course changing it to the sad set turns it dark and gritty, even the actors. The first set shows Sally being dropped off at Olga's School for girls, her mother abandoning her for the sake of her career and boyfriend, the second has Sally waiting for a mailboat and then attacked by a dragon. During this Nigel spots a hot air balloon that leads to the catwalks, if he can find a play that uses it, he might be able to get up their and deal with the Green Ghost, but he still needed more information about why the ghost is doing this.
Nigel changes it to the happy set then goes to see Dr. Girlfriend first and said to her "Now you see that performance is exactly why we need to practice."
"Beat it kid. I'm through." Dr. Girlfriend told him "As long as Bob and that Ghost are out there, I'm staying back here…wallowing in my glamorous torment."
"The show must go on!" Nigel told her.
"Yeah, it must go on without me, as long as Sideshow Bob and that Green Ghost are out there!" Dr. Girlfriend said to that. "Sorry kid."
"You're not scared of that Green Ghost are you?" Nigel asked her.
"No, it's not him I'm frightened of." Dr. Girlfriend said "It's that palm tree haired one who clings to the side of the theater like a blood-swollen tick, sucking out it's life."
"Ew." Nigel said in response to that imagery.
"He's always been there, but he wasn't always that loud and unsilenced." Dr. Girlfriend explained "I couldn't hear him much at all, when a well place rake knocked him out, until Sally's mother hit the stage."
"He didn't like her performance either?" Nigel asked her.
"No, I mean HIT the stage. Ker-splat." Dr. Girlfriend corrected "Jumped from the catwalks while Sally was in Paris."
"Ew." Nigel said in response to that it was literal what Dr. Girlfriend said.
"Yeah, that's what the janitor said too." Dr. Girlfriend said nodding.
Nigel leaves and goes to talk to Janice and said to her a bit suspicious "Hey, you said if Dr. Girlfriend performed, everything would be okay."
"Okay, so I left out the part about the deadly Green Ghost. I'd thought you'd chicken out!"
"Ma'am, I'm a Psychonaut." Nigel told her "Just show me how to get up to those catwalks he hides out in and…"
"Sorry. No way up there." Janice said with a shrug. "Well, there was this ONE play…We would lower this prop hot air balloon down from the catwalks, and then pull it back up again…If you find it or any other play for crying out loud just bring it to me and I'll run the actors through it. We're so desperate for new material around here!"
Nigel nods, if he was going to get to the bottom of helping Sally deal with her mental demons he will need to get up to the Green Ghost's hideout, but first to need to find the script that uses the hot air balloon, well he knows Bob has a script so he goes to talk with Sally's Inner Critic.
Well gang looks like Nigel's got a mystery on his hand with the Green Ghost, next time he will work to get to the catwalk. Also yes I am skilling the play scenes to make it a bit easier.
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