week 2

[stagemanagers]

WEEK 2
[It's been...

One week since you woke up here
Met your house manager and said "We’re angry"
Five days since he laughed at you saying
"Write me some letters and you’ll never see me"
Three days since the mirror room
You realized there’s more the Opera House wouldn't tell you
Yesterday you'd bonded more
But it'll still be two days till you get your motive


Welcome to week 2, performers.]

[Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday]


[ooc: happy week 2, everyone! Don't forget to submit your AC and your regains! Regain rolls are done Sunday and Tuesday nights.]

Comments

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Sigyn enters the room, looking a little unsure of herself.]

Hey, sorry, I just- If you're busy I can- [She lets out a heavy sigh] Do you have a minute?

[37773972]

[Huh. He swings his legs off the bed so he's sitting on it, looking at her curiously]

I have a few. What do you need?

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[She looks around, almost as if she is afraid someone else is listening]

What do you think of the Phantom's offer?

[37773972]

[...huh. Alright, serious business time. He has the feeling Sigyn is...trusting him with quite a bit in this regard, by broaching the subject, and he feels like...he should repay that trust in turn.]

I think it could tempt anyone, with the right person in mind. With the wrong...

[He folds his hands together for a moment- then seems to change his mind and reaches in to his dresser, pulling something out. That something is a photo, which he offers to her.

It's an older white male, with no resemblance to Stephen; he's bearded, and looks to be pleasant enough as he smiles for the camera]

That's Doctor Gregor. But if anything, I'd want him back, not...erased.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Sigyn takes the photo and considers the picture for a minute in silence. She pulls a now rather crumpled picture out of her pocket and hands it over. A stern older woman with white hair and an eyepatch stares straight into camera]

Odin. Countless lives would be saved if she never came to power, my wife included.

[37773972]

[Stephen takes it without a word at how everyone seems to be female in Sigyn's world, because- well, more the fact that why wouldn't they be? Just because it seems to share a number of things with what he knows about Norse mythology doesn't mean it's the same. At her own words, though, he makes a soft 'hnh' before offering it back]

That's a hell of a promise.

[A beat of silence, and then he looks at her face]

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting what he offers. A lot of people'd go back and kill Hitler.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

But do you think it's even possible?

[Sigyn hands Stephen's picture back to him as she takes her own. Her eyes are downcast]

He brought us all here, he can...mess with our minds. But erasing someone from existence?

[37773972]

[He's quiet for a second, considering, then speaks slowly;]

I don't know about erasing. But I know there's a thought experiment where you say, 'Time travel is possible'. Then you go to when someone like- [actually she probably doesn't know who Hitler is, scratch that]- someone was just born, or conceived, and...stop it from happening. However you want. There's plenty of arguments for and against it, but ultimately it's just talking, because we don't know what would happen.

[He looks down at his hands, not-quite-fidgeting]

Would memories change? How much of history would be changed? Or wouldn't it be changed at all, because you actually triggered something to happen in the first place, or- maybe something worse?

[He lets out a breath, and reaches up to scratch at the back of his neck]

...I guess I have to believe in time travel nowadays, and not just from this, but...logically, you could do something with it. I just don't know what.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Sigyn listens and thinks. Just because Odin disappears doesn't mean another wouldn't fill the spot.]

What happens if we don't go along with it then? If we tell him to fuck off? Will he start punishing us? Taking things? [Memories?]

[37773972]

[There's a short, humorless laugh, and a helpless shrug]

I'd imagine that he'd just- give us more and more reason to actually do it. Go ahead and grab those, will you?

[He nods at the letters]

I tried talking with him, but I didn't get much. Just enough to know that he's set on this.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Sigyn takes the letters and scans through them, her eyebrows drawing together as she reads]

It doesn't sound like he made the rules. Do you think it's possible he isn't working alone?

[37773972]

I don't think he can be. If he's really the Phantom of the Opera - or maybe the one the story's written after? - then that kind of technology doesn't exist in his time. Hell, it doesn't exist in my time. Angus thinks some sort of magic might be involved, but - magic is just technology that isn't understood, right? There has to be some sort of logic.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

So someone else has given him this power, perhaps even brought him here like we were brought here.

[Power...]

But what kind of technology can erase memories like that? Stephen, he made me forget Loki. I didn't even realize when it happened until they came back.

[37773972]

[A nod. And at her question...he reaches up to self-consciously scratch the tattoo at the side of his head] I'm missing the past six weeks, myself. But it was like that before I got here. They were just...erased. [There's some hair growth, now, but they're still fairly visible.]

I don't know if it's related. If you're asking for proof, well, I guess there's at least something in my world that can do it. If you're asking how...I can't tell you that, because God knows I'd like to know that, myself.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[It's hard to tell if that news is good or bad, even for Sigyn. On the one hand it's good that there is an explanation, but on the other no amount of explanation can make someone messing with your mind any easier to handle. ]

If we were able to figure it out, could we protect against it?

[37773972]

We could try. [What sciences are behind it? Messing with the brain? He's an astronomer, not a brain scientist. Nonetheless, she looks so worried, he can't help but try and be reassuring to her in this;] It's step one of the process, anyway. And you know what they say - knowledge is power.

[Attempt at smile?]

[reassuranceandrevolution]

Right. All we can do is try.

[She tries to smile back. It's clear there is an effort, a desire to smile, but she still struggles]

I'm sorry, you probably have your own issues right now and I just come in here and unload on you.

[37773972]

[the first rule of Adulting; Fake It Til You Make It. But he smiles a little more honestly, reaching up to touch her shoulder]

It's fine. Most of mine are pretty small, in comparison to what's on your plate.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[Sigyn puts her hand over his and squeezes.]

Thank you. I felt like if I didn't talk to someone I was going to explode.

[37773972]

[A squeeze back- he won't keep it there if she tries to move, but if she wants it to stay there, he'll keep it]

Don't worry. I'll keep it to myself.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

[The physical contact is nice, so she stays where she is.]

We haven't even been here two full weeks, but it feels like an eternity.

[37773972]

[And if they're to believe the rules, they'll be here until someone kills another. He doesn't say that, instead shrugging]

There's worse places we could be stuck.

[reassuranceandrevolution]

Our fellow prisoners definitely make things better.