dramatispersonae

CORAL

[As the game begins, each team finds themselves standing in a small ring of stones. The crystal pillar rests in the center of the circle, easily within sight and hearing of everything that will be going on. You can leave and see the other columns if you like, but once the game has started you can't see what the other teams are doing.

Also present is a small wrought-iron table, on which a curious mechanical swan rests. There's a glass panel set into its back, under which you can see a corroded key. The swan seems to be completely lifeless.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We're choosing the black swan and naming her Katerina, Katya for short.

As for her memory. . . we couldn't give her one of ours, because then it wouldn't be a memory of her own, right? So we decided to collaborate and forge a memory for her.

Once, when Katya was little, she was swimming around in the pond in the early afternoon when she came across some daisies growing near the edge. Charmed by their beauty, she picked the entire bunch to take home to her mother, for her mother was the sweetest, kindest swan she knew and she cared for her greatly. The mother, pleased with this gift from Katya, turned the daisies into a bed for her to sleep on that evening, telling her they would ward off scary dreams and monsters. She also told Katya that wearing a daisy attached to her head at all times would bring her good luck, wherever she went.

And ever since then, Katya has worn a daisy on top of her head.

That's her memory.

[The swan's wings sprout beautiful, glossy black feathers. It whirs to life, turning to face you and opening its beak:]

Katya. Katya.

[And as the key begins to shine in its body, you ... suddenly forget what the hell you did for this task. A name?? And there was something about ... daisies ...

Either way, the water crashes in faster now, filling your captive's tube up to the quarter mark.]