future is now more like future is wow

[resonantblue]

Who: fin and visitors?
Where: FIN DORM
When: Day 165, post-game

[how'd that game treat you? or, for those who didn't go, how did NOT going to that game treat you?]

Comments

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[He'll wait in the main room until she comes out]

[resonantblue]

[she has to come out eventually, specifically to pick up a delivery she ordered—but she pauses when she sees intensity]

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Do you want to talk about it now or later?

[A pause]

Or not at all.

[resonantblue]

...I do not know where I would begin with everything that happened.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Then shall we get right to the point then.

It seems Symphony kills for sport. Or for a reason similar enough that it might as well be the same.

[resonantblue]

[flinches, taking a deep breath]

I did not witness the memory myself, and I cannot recall it, but I gathered that from everyone's reactions and interactions with her.

It was horrible.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

I saw it.

Do you want me to recount it to you?

[resonantblue]

[after dwelling on it a few seconds]

Go ahead.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Symphony has been doing this for years.

I'm sure you recall the strings from Song's first memory. It appears Symphony can use those strings to cut or control, depending on what she was aiming for. Which I'm still not quite certain what the end goal is.

In one part of the memory, she forced someone to kill one of their friends at gunpoint. When the victim pleaded for their life, she replied:

"Come now, as the main character of this show you should know I can't just release him without a proper conclusion. You'd be disobeying my script! We need to know what happens when your friend here comes to—we need to see that horror on his face when I tell him what he's done! Remember once the curtains have been drawn, the show must go on!"

Throughout the memory, there was also this feeling of... satisfaction is not quite right. Perhaps thrill at being in control after being without it for so long.

[resonantblue]

[very quiet, very still—finally the epitome of her name]

Symphony wasn't controlling those strings...

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

... She wasn't?

[resonantblue]

She has a contract with Duldum—a large marionette that controls bodies and minds with strings.

...my true name is Duldum. However. I have no memory of this.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Do you remember what kind of contract?

[resonantblue]

[looks down at her feet]

I am a Chain—a creature born from the Abyss. Contextually, that makes it similar to a contract one would forge with a familiar...?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

And as a Chain with a contract, how much autonomy do you have over your actions? Or are you just used as a tool for whatever the contractor wants?

[resonantblue]

That I have yet to understand.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Then let's not catastrophize on what that means until you actually figure it out.

The Silence of today, right now, would not assist Symphony like that. And that's all that matters.

[resonantblue]

R... right. I cannot allow who I have become to be tarnished by my past.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Worst case scenario, if you were helping Symphony---

What changes?

[resonantblue]

—!






Oh...

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

What "oh"...?

[resonantblue]

"Oh... nothing would change." ...is the realization I made.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

See. One problem solved.

And the next is how do you want to deal with Symphony and by extension, Song, now that you know about this?

[resonantblue]

No clue. Song denies everything, and I cannot speak to Symphony unless Song has been subjected to whatever draws Symphony out.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Song denies everything as in...?