Chapter Text
"Are you sure you want to do this Mischa? Deciding who goes back is a massive deal and you want it to be.... Noel?!" Ocean tried her best to whisper this to Mischa, while also conveying the amount of anger she had about this decision. A girl who literally doesn't remember who she is, and he wants the guy who wanted to be a hooker in post-war France to be the one that goes back. "I'm sure, you little orphan a-hole. He missed out so much on life just trying to hide who he is. He deserves to go back and be the poet he was here." Miscah was nervous to say the least, his hand shaking slightly. He genuinely cared about Noel and just wanted what was best for him, even if it meant sacrificing his chance to be with Talia again. Noel hadn't gotten a proper chance to be himself and he deserves that chance more than anything. Everyone else seemed content with their lives but something stuck out to Miscah after having heard Noel sing. Almost like... so much anguish, regret and pain was stuck within Noel and now he was in the afterlife, he couldn't do anything about it. However, he had already convinced the rest of the choir to allow Noel to go back. He just needed one last person to be convinced. That person being Ocean. He heard her do a massive sigh, "Fine. If you have the rest of the choir convinced, then I guess I'm outnumbered huh..." she seemed almost... upset? "Let's just go before everyone else starts to question where we are" Ocean was already speeding off, so Mischa followed along, almost hesitant to say anything to her in case it set her off again.
"So... we have a decision, I guess." Ocean took a deep breath and sighed, "Noel, you're the one going back." Noel's eyes flickered between all of the choir kids. Ocean, Constance, Ricky, the 'freaky monster' as Ocean put it and then Miscah. "W-what?" Noel started backing up a bit. "Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this??" Mischa came up to Noel carefully and put his hand on Noel's shoulder. "Your life was tragic. You deserve another chance at life" The curtains to the portal opened, the light almost being blinding to all the kids. "I guess this is it." He hugged Miscah so tightly, almost like he could suck all the air out of him. Mischa quickly gesturing for the others to come join the hug before Noel set off. They hugged for about 5 minutes before Noel let go. He slowly started walking towards the light, his memories with the others flashing before him before he was just... gone. The curtains shut behind him and that was it. He was just gone like that. The whole area started to shake, making all of the kids huddle together in the centre. Was this the execution or was the place just malfunctioning? They had no idea. They took one last look up and their vision all went black.
'Noel' blinked and started taking in his surroundings. Wait where was he? He didn't have any memory of the last 24 hours of his life. What happened? "Monique Gibeau hurry up or I swear I'm gonna tell the manager about you slacking off again!" 'Noel' could hear from the distance. So, her name was Monique Gibeau. Interesting name but she went along with it. "Coming!" Monique set down the drink she didn't even know she was swirling in her hand. When did that get there? Did she always have it there? She had no idea. She set down the drink and headed off, stumbling in her heels a bit. The bartender looked over, raising an eyebrow at Monique, "are you okay mademoiselle? You seem to be... what's the word. 'Off' today. Is everything going on okay with work? I know you say the boss can be a real bitch sometimes" Monique just nodded and walked off to what seemed to be backstage. There was a decently sized stage that lay before him with... a chair in the middle of it? What was this? "Finally, you actually made it, I thought you had gone off drinking again and had passed out. What are you waiting for, get out there and perform! We need this revenue you've been giving us recently Monique, you know our company's on rough times right now and I don't want to have to fire your pretty face, Monique." a man with a deep husky voice spoke. What was she even supposed to perform? She had only woken up an hour ago with no recollection of the past 24 hours. She just trusted her gut instinct and went out onto the stage, the crowd screaming in delight as soon as she took her first step onto the stage and was in the audience's view. The instrumental started playing from a band that was seen to be off stage from where Monique was. She felt herself feel the music and just started singing to her heart's content pouring passion, love and... regret into the song. Whoever this Monique was, she loved being her and would never give it up. No matter who tried to intervene.
The choir all slowly opened their eyes to find them on the side of a... bar? The music was blasting, and everyone was cheering and singing drunkenly as the night went on. They didn't know how much time had passed but they seemed to be... human? Ocean quickly woke up the rest of the group, starting to become confused herself. How were they human, they were supposed to be DEAD. Noel was the only one who was supposed to go back! What was going on? Her little overachieving mind couldn't comprehend it. "Aren't we supposed to be dead? Why are we here in the middle of the street?" Constance said groggily, holding her head. "Yes, we are sweetie. We were supposed to have died with the fortune teller, so why are we here? And where did Mischa go..." Ocean's head whipped round, almost giving her whiplash from how fast she was whipping her head round. Then she set her eyes on the bar. Of course, he would be in there. She made sure that everyone was okay to walk and carefully opening the door, the bell ringing to signify their welcome. Her eyes were darting round the room, trying to find Mischa until she eventually spotted him at the bartender's area and drinking what looked to be beer? She sped walked over and grabbed him by the shoulder and about to yell at him for walking off in an area where they had no idea where they had landed, but not before getting shushed by half the bar as the lights had dimmed and their attention had been brought by a spotlight which shone on a circular stage, a girl walked onto the stage. She was tall, slim and had a bob cut as well as a fringe. Her dress seemed like it was made out of satin. Her tights had a slight tear in them and her heels were jet black and her face had a layer of makeup on it. The lipstick was a dark, luscious red and her eyeliner was slightly smudged at the tips of her eyes. She looked stunning. She strutted out to the stage and the crowd started to cheer and yell quite provocative things towards her. None of it seemed to faze her, almost like she had heard all of this before.. Stuff that definitely didn't fly by the choir kids but Ocean reminded them that it's probably for the best to not intervene with a whole bar of angry, quite buff dudes who could definitely beat them in a fight if they even TRIED to lay a punch of them.
Mischa's grip on the drink tightened as the mysterious girl started to sing and the profanities continued. She was beautiful, but she seemed... hurt. Like something was hurting her but she could let out her anguish in song.
"For I sing songs until the break of dawn. I embrace a new man every night. My life's one never-ending carnival"
The girl had sung and that was enough for Mischa's brain cogs to start turning. This song.. he had heard it somewhere before. Then his brain finally settled on the idea that this was the most romantic boy in Uranium. Noel Gruber. He decided to keep it to himself, in the very minuscule chance that he was actually wrong and it was indeed this other person but too much of it seemed familiar to him. The name of 'Monique Gibeau', how she looked, the song. Even the choreography! All of it was Noel's fantasy in the afterlife and now they're finally living their dream. As the song ended and the lights dimmed, Mischa managed to excuse himself and exited the bar to find Monique or.. Noel outside smoking a cigarette and holding what seemed to be a glass of whiskey.
"Noel...?" Mischa asked hesitantly.