[After...party?] I would give anything, but for the grace of God I'm here and still aware

[madgiganticfeelings]

[So that... certainly happened. Christine ran along with everyone else to escape the suffocating smoke, slamming the doors behind them in the hope it would slow the flames down. She tries not to see sticky beer-stained carpet as she runs, tries to hear the voices of her newfound friends, rather than the screams of teenagers, but it's certainly difficult.

She only stops to hastily throw open the door to Steven's room and let out Lion with them, but otherwise retreats into the gardens before... letting herself watch the opera house in silence.

Thankfully, it doesn't end with as much damage as the last fire Christine experienced. In time, she can stop shaking and unfold the note still clenched in her hand. And then she looks back at the opera house with... a different kind of fear on her face.

A fear so deep that when Mephisto and Anne finally start suggesting the possibility of returning inside, she's up on her feet in an instant.]

Meeting in the woman's first floor washroom. Give me ten minutes and I'll be there.

[Before anyone can argue with her, she runs off, hoping she sounded firm enough for them to follow her request.

She and Lion move to Stephen's room first to acquire whatever notes might still be there, but she's returns to the bathroom soon enough, all the papers now collected in her binder.]

Okay. We're probably freaked out. God knows I still am. And I want to encourage you to leave when you need to, take a break if this all gets to be too much. But I think... I think I speak for everyone- [Finally, finally she can speak for everyone. Her voice is strong enough now.] - when I say this.

[Her knuckles go white around her binder and her eyes spark back to life.]

We are not letting that fucking Wizard win anymore. So let's talk time loops.

Comments

[likemypicture]

[Anne allows herself a few more minutes of childish sulking on the floor, even briefly closing her eyes-- then she sighs, and sits up again, rubbing her eyes with her hands.]

Fine. Let's talk time loops. I don't.... understand them. I'm just a woman. I thought I lived my life with simple greatness, through my social position, handed to me by men of power. The most extraordinary thing that happened to me happened after I died, when God gave me a second chance at life, to tell my story--- [She rubs at her eyes again. She's too old for this. She's tired.] -- the story I only held because I was remembered for being married to the same man as five other women. And I thought that was extraordinary enough, but now we're here, and people are time traveling and murdering and--- [She takes a breath to steady herself. She settles her expression into something determined. She will be strong, for all of them. She stands up, stretches, and leans against a wall.]

So I don't know that I have much that will help here. But I'll listen to anything anyone else has.