♫ ruby ♫

[dramatispersonae]

You're in a sumptuous room, with rich brocade in your team colors and fine appointments in copper and marble that should look bright and beautiful -- but everything is dusty and grey, with a furtive, abandoned air. This is a place that's been locked away for a long time. It feels as if it would be sad to linger here for long.

Fortunately (perhaps), after one good look at the room, you catch a brief, pained snatch of melody. Your vision goes dark, and you immediately find your mind somewhere else-- ♫

Comments

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

Don't know what you saw, do I?

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

[trying to ground himself, but he finds his face in his hands.]

I—I was right, I was sure of it ...

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

But you killed them.

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

... I didn't mean to ... I ...

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

It wasn't real.

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

No, it was. To all of us, it was. And to her it was.

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

It's only real if you let it be.

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

It was real in some aspect ... or we wouldn't be ...

[shaking? trying to remember to breathe? breaking?]

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

You're going to let your fears win?

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

What are we truly afraid of? Tell me—what of that struck us? What lie was so ingrained that we left like this? like I ... I ...

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

We kill the people we care about.

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

[very quietly, after a moment.]

I killed my brother.

I thought it the right thing to do. I destroyed Asgard's champion based on a hollow prophecy.

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

. . . I killed a little girl, damning her soul to hell. Tried to save her, but she slipped though my hand.

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

Did she really go there? To hell?

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

Yes.

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

...

It seems none of us are left without a knife in the back of another.

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

I doubt she'll be the last.

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

We mustn't keep thinking that way.

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

Then change it.

Re: discussion

[badnewsboy]

Is that our answer?

Re: discussion

[dutyfree]

Could be, if that's what the rest of you want.