THE BOX OFFICE

[tellthestory]

This is where you can meet privately with the Balladeer! The Balladeer is almost always around during the day; just knock.

(Secretly, the door's usually not locked if he's inside. But you wouldn't want to be rude, would you?)

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[tellthestory]

I've neeever even celebrated Halloween before. I think it's some kind of audience appeal thing? Like...there's special holiday movies, right?

Just gimme a second, I'm gonna run by the staff kitchen. [And he...leaves? Congrats, Billy, you are now successfully alone in the showrunner's office.]

[inforapenny]

Uh, okay, thanks...?

[And then Billy is alone. It takes him a moment to realize that apparently the staff kitchen isn't attached to the Balladeer's office, and he quietly stands up - furtively glancing at the door the whole time - and moves around the desk.

What are we looking at in terms of drawers, here?]

[tellthestory]

[There are four drawers, one large and one smaller on either side of the desk.]

[inforapenny]

[Well let's start with the big drawer on the left. Big drawers, big secrets, right?]

[tellthestory]

[There's a number of small booklets. They appear to have been haphazardly dumped inside; they're not exactly in a neat stack.]

[inforapenny]

[Gonna glance at the door again and then slip one out of the middle. What's this booklet about?]

[tellthestory]

[The booklet looks like a very old printing. Its front cover reads The Truth: A Companion to the Bible by Charles J. Guiteau, and the blurb on the inside cover sounds like it was written by someone who thought extremely highly of himself.

Also on the front is a doodle, done in pencil, of what looks like a Ferris wheel.

Just to save you time, all the other booklets are the exact same thing, varying only in what's doodled on them.]

[inforapenny]

[Well after a quick skim to prove that this is high falutin old fashioned hot nonsense, he's going to put it back where he found it because he's not risking the Balladeer's alliance for a pamphlet he can summarize in a few sentences.

Next let's check out the drawer right above it.]

[tellthestory]

[This drawer contains about a million extra strings for every instrument in this room and then some. Also some picks of various size.]

[inforapenny]

[Well alright that's adorable and not entirely unexpected.

Top drawer on the other side?]

[tellthestory]

[This drawer contains a pad of writing paper, a few pencils and pens, and two books. They're all placed neatly, with more care than the drawer of Jesus booklets.]

[inforapenny]

[If the writing pad is empty, then it's time to look at the two books.

...otherwise a brief detour to read anything written in the notepad first.]

[tellthestory]

[At first glance, the pad is covered in a lot of musical notations.

On second glance, there's some words scattered around - two pages are labeled D-ne and Gabe, and are covered in scribbles and half-formed lyrics, thick dark markings that seem to have become calmer and more coherent about halfway down the page. The end results aren't present, but this seems to be where the structures for the execution songs were formed.

The second one seems to have given him more trouble. Large chunks of Gabe's song were crossed out and replaced with a longer description of the murder, which was then crossed out itself and replaced with the original lyrics again. Billy will recognize the part in question; it was at the end, when he was expressing a desire to see the cast go home.]

[inforapenny]

[...Well that was.

That sure is a thing. Billy feels a twinge of guilt for snooping, now. But he's never thought that the Balladeer was a bad guy. Just working for them.

Making a mental note of that, now what are those books?]

[tellthestory]

[The larger book is a cookbook that seems to feature largely simple recipes. The smaller is a copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

There's a page dogeared on the latter. It's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.]

[inforapenny]

[Does this happen to be the same cookbook that says to pair apple cider with "fall treats" because if it is then he can disregard it since it was a present from one of them.]

[tellthestory]

[It sure is!]

[inforapenny]

[Aite cool, is the dog-ear the only mark in the Whitman's Poetry Sampler? Nothing highlighted or underlined or otherwise marked for emphasis, in that big ol poem?]

[tellthestory]

[There is a note on the top of the page, above the title of the poem.

You'll like this one.]

[inforapenny]

[...is it the same "artist's" handwriting as on the writing pad?]

[tellthestory]

[It is not.]

[inforapenny]

[Hoo boy. Anything else noticeable about it? Is it neat? Scratchy? The handwriting version of the Chiller font? Written in what looks suspiciously like dried blood?]

[tellthestory]

[The penmanship is quite elegant, and done in black ink. It definitely does not resemble blood, gosh.]

[inforapenny]

[Still Suspicious.

Putting those books carefully back and sliding the drawer shut. Let's take a peek in the last drawer?]

[tellthestory]

[There is a stack of manila folders.]