SUN SIGN

[livestage]

You find yourselves in a surprisingly sterile room. It's entirely white, almost blindingly so. There are a few beanbag chairs to sit on, though perhaps not enough for your entire family. On one of the walls, there's a laminated poster of a wheel. At the center of the room is a table with a glass case on top. If you lift the case, you'll find a single red button. Behind a glass panel on the wall is a monitor that is currently off.

Curiously, it does not seem as though you can actually destroy anything in this room (save for a simple note by the button), regardless of how much you may try. The glass will never shatter. The poster cannot be torn into pieces. Furthermore, your blessings and powers are off and none of your personal belongings are actually on your person.

A simple note lays by the button on the table, a reminder of your directive: Will you push the button?

Comments

Re: DISCUSSION

[themightybosstone]

I'll handle the wheel. We'll figure out who's got the shit end of it an' make it up with em later.

Re: DISCUSSION

[heartlands]

—Can we at least talk about this a little before you decide on your own?

Re: DISCUSSION

[themightybosstone]

I'm willin' t'arm wrestle for it.

Re: DISCUSSION

[heartlands]

Brocade, come on. Seriously.

Re: DISCUSSION

[themightybosstone]

Fine, fine. Whatcha got?

Re: DISCUSSION

[heartlands]

[pausing for a moment]

...I don't want any of us to get hurt, either. So if the consensus we come to overall is that we want to spin it - I don't know if I'd like it, but I'd understand it, and I wouldn't make a big fuss or anything.

But I don't want you to feel like you have to be responsible for making that choice alone, and I don't want any of us to jump into doing stuff without talking to each other. Okay?

Re: DISCUSSION

[themightybosstone]

So you got a vote fer takin' it on ourselves.

...

Problem is, it just aint that we'd have t'worry about. If the other family hits us, then we have two problems, rather than one.

Only by hittin' out do we have a chance of minimizin' how much hurt happens to us an' ours.

Re: DISCUSSION

[demonicdomestic]

And if the group on the other end of our particular farce is Acidia?

Re: DISCUSSION

[themightybosstone]

...

Re: DISCUSSION

[themightybosstone]

Then yer a vote fer taking it on too?

Re: DISCUSSION

[demonicdomestic]

I see sense in both courses of action. And I'm also open to both.

If the question were just, "Will you sacrifice people you don't care about for those that you do," you and I would be fully agreed. I'd have no hesitation in making that choice.

But there are as many people I care about outside this room as there are within it. My allegiances are to people, not Families -- not even my own. And of the two... I have more faith in your ability to "tank a car" than I do Aster's or Snowdrop's.

Re: DISCUSSION

[themightybosstone]

Yeah, but I aint thinkin' many of the rest of yall can neither.

Re: DISCUSSION

[demonicdomestic]

No. That's very true.

[He sighs.]

Ideally, either everyone would press that button or no one would. But knowing the mix of personalities throughout the Families, I doubt such a perfect alignment will happen twice.

If you feel strongly about preserving the safety of those here, or if there is anyone else who is likewise not comfortable with taking this on, I am willing to concede. No one should be pressured into shouldering more than they are prepared to handle.

1/2

[themightybosstone]

[He stares at the button a long moment.]

3/3

[themightybosstone]

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGG WHY CAN'T WE JUST PUNCH IT OUT WITH THE OTHER FAMILY LIKE CIVILIZED FOLK

Re: DISCUSSION

[heartlands]

...Yeah. I know there's no good option.

[so he'll fall silent to see what the others say]

Re: DISCUSSION

[vitainmorte]

[ she just quietly listens, thoughtful, but not offering anything herself for the moment. Just basking in boyfriend hold. ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[wayofthehunt]

Is the alignment of the starts that the Madame was referring to a situation in which each family presses the button, or in which each family does not press the button?

Aside from which, is victory related to whether the button is pressed? It seems rather to be a matter of whose conversation suites the criteria she mentioned.

Re: DISCUSSION

[themightybosstone]

Far as I figure it, she's uh, picking what she likes. Fuck if I know how that actually translates, them Producers think weird.

Button or not's just the set dressin'.

And the ... I guess puppies?

Re: DISCUSSION

[wayofthehunt]

Ohlàlà it seems to me then that there is no particular strategy or certain way to avoid punishment. One simply presses the button and hopes the other family prefers the certainty of a punishment by their own hand--and if that is the case, we would certainly not be in any position to offer a proper and fair fight after, only to allow them to take their frustration out on us if they suffer twice.

Re: DISCUSSION

[themightybosstone]

I feel like I should be writin' shit down at this point.

Re: DISCUSSION

[wayofthehunt]

If we are punished twice we are allowed to ask for a fight.

Re: DISCUSSION

[demonicdomestic]

You're correct -- what constitutes "winning" and "losing" in these performances is often separate from avoiding harm. There have been times where we have fared poorly as individuals, but still been declared victorious as a Family.

Re: DISCUSSION

[wayofthehunt]

Unfortunate that I don't know enough about her to attempt to appeal to her sensibilities, I suppose.

Re: DISCUSSION

[demonicdomestic]

I think... in my read of her so far, she reminds me very much of the extremes one finds in Siren's Melodies.