PERIDOT

[dramatispersonae]

[you find yourself standing in a group, crowded uncomfortably close together under an enormous, leafless dead oak tree, in the middle of a courtyard with high stone walls and a floor of hard-packed earth. while ivy and grass grew in profusion here once, all of it that you can see is charred and dead as well. the sun is high, as it has always been in Firebird’s realm, and the shadows are deep.

all of you are wearing circles of black iron chain on your wrists, ankles and necks. though they do not constrict your movement right now, they are bitingly cold and uncomfortable to wear, and cannot be removed.

there is a wide white oblong of canvas hung on the air in front of you, rather like a movie screen. you can move freely in the space otherwise, but you cannot pass or look behind the material.]

Comments

[divincest]

What do you mean?

[grade3enabler]

Well, we were putting together a story from this Persona earlier and though we only had pieces, she seemed relieved that the Prince let her go...

...I don't know. I just don't get why anyone would let themselves get captured so easily.

[divincest]

Love. A game. There's lots of reasons.

[grade3enabler]

. . . I guess so. It might be understandable if she was testing him but...if it's her role does that mean it's her responsibility if something happened?

[divincest]

You think so...? She wasn't expecting to be bound like that. The Prince shares a fair bit of the blame for trying to capture her and causing those feelings too.

[grade3enabler]

[makes a thoughtful noise; feelings about competition conflicting with feelings about feelings...]

I think blaming someone for causing feelings isn't right, but we can't really blame her just for having feelings too...

...If we ignore the feelings part of it, she wouldn't have let herself get captured if no-one was trying to capture her. Nothing would've happened if he didn't start it. That might be one way to boil it down.

[divincest]

Mm. In this case, the simplest answer might be the best answer.

[grade3enabler]

Right...We could talk our way around in circles and divide each part of the blame up and try to tally it, but starting something is probably a pretty big piece of that blame.

[divincest]

That's practical.

[grade3enabler]

I think we're only going to get through if we're practical about it.