Session 19: "Doing Time"
Session 19 is a stand-out from the regular arc. Sonnet has just been pinned to a door - her door, no less - by Selm's sword through her chest. Finndo has found her body on the brink of death and whisked her off to his high-tech shadow to provide her with top medical care in the hopes of preventing her death.
Session 19 happens in Sonnet's head while she is on the operating table. She's on trial for mass murder - for the sins of her existence. The issue is not whether she committed horrific deeds, nor is it whether she is insane. The issue is whether or not she is remedially insane: can she be cured or should she simply be executed as a hopeless case?
The other characters in the session are Sonnet's compatriots taking on roles that reflect her subconscious decision to live or to die, depending on how the trial plays out.
Oh, yes, and the GM warned all of the players about this session's layout (so that we could help direct it for him) with the little exception of Shai, who was under the assumption that this session would be Sonnet's funeral.
We have a guest for this session, Lisa Soto. Lisa has read the quotes. She hasn't played Amber before. (She would want me to point this out despite the fact that you couldn't tell.) She's a regular GM; we were glad to have her and she did an awesome job enduring Rob's unique debating style (see: steamroller).
Persons of Note:
The Real Character The Delusion Player The Role in the Delusion
Alyra Dorr, Benedict's wife Alyra Watson Lease Advocate for the Defense
Finndo, Amber's Crown Prince Finn Donogan Rob Prosecutor
Osric, Prince of Amber Dr. O. Sarich Jarrod Psychologist, Expert
Benedict, Prince of Amber Hon. Benedict Dorr Scott Lesser Judge
Sir Cyrus, King's Bastard Coram Rosewood Lydia Lesser Judge
Oberon, Amber's King Rt. Hon. K. Oberon Fred Greater Judge
Sonnet Karm, Finndo's Asst Sonnet Karm Shai Defendant
Sybil, King's Bastard & Fae Sybil Deborah Sonnet's cell-mate
Before the Game:
Miss Manners never has these conversations:
Shai explains: "I'm dead."
Lisa: "I'm sorry."
Shai: "I'm pinned to my bedroom door by a sword."
Lisa, agreeably: "How awful for you."
You can't always get what you want:
Jarrod: "I hate Mondays that start that way."
Shai: "It wasn't the kind of pinning I had in mind."
Lisa will fit right in:
Lydia: "Doom!"
Lisa: "Doom."
Lydia: "Doom!"
Lisa singing: "Doom de doom doom de doom."
Or maybe not (and for the record, I'm being quoted COMPLETELY out of context):
Deborah: "I was going to say that I've swallowed much bigger things than that; I wouldn't worry."
Lisa: "Gosh, look how perpendicular the walls are to the ceiling!"
Take your pleasures where you can:
GM: "Sonnet, you've been pinned to a door by a sword; Selm has just disappeared before your eyes. As things are going black, it's funny the things you notice - like a note wrapped around the sword. Too bad things went black. There's a light. Reach towards it?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
GM grins: "Okay, come with me."
Jarrod beams: "It's not me for a change. Yay!"
We begin the legal determination scenario, the idea being to immerse Shai in it as much as possible. The GM locks Shai up in a room and comes back out to tell us the next step. Opening assessments:
GM: "Welcome to Sonnet's brain."
Lydia: "What a bad place this is."
And the first words out of her mouth:
GM to Sonnet: "Two guys, big guys, in police uniforms - earth police uniform. One of them looks a lot like Cyrus - not entirely Cyrus, but a lot like him. And you appear to have handcuffs on."
Guard: "Come on. This way."
Sonnet: "Officer, I didn't do it."
And the first thought:
GM to Sonnet: "You're being led down a hall; it's obviously a prison of some sort."
Sonnet: "Shit, what'd I drink?"
The GM and Cyrus's player shine a flashlight into Sonnet's eyes, lead her out of the room, down the hall and into the general area. Feel the trust in the air:
GM to Sonnet: "After the last checkpoint, apparently outside of an area where prisoners are kept normally, you're led up to a door. There's a nameplate next to the door that says Dr O. Sarick. It's opened. There's a couch. "LIE DOWN.""
Sonnet lies down obediently.
GM to Sonnet: "Your handcuffs are unlocked but then your wrist is chained to the side."
Cyrus, helpfully: "I hover."
Osric does indeed have a clipboard out along with a pen. He does not bother looking up at Sonnet as if she were a person. It takes Sonnet exactly five seconds to start in:
GM to Sonnet: "There's a guy who looks like Osric, maybe 10-15 years older, physically, sitting there, clipboard."
Sonnet: "So this is where you're going to tell me I dreamed everything."
The rationales of a Karm:
Osric: "I'm not going to tell you anything. Please state your name for the record."
Sonnet: "Sonnet Karm."
Osric: "Right. Know where you are?"
Sonnet snorts laughter: "Uhm. Hell?"
Osric is there to do a psychiatric evaluation of the prisoner. Keep that in mind for the rest of the scene. As attempts to seem normal go, this is certainly extraordinary:
Osric: "What's the last thing you remember before coming in here?"
Sonnet: "Let's see. Having a sword shoving through my heart, how about that? Actually some guard came here and led me to this place."
Osric: "Sword through the heart; that happen a lot?"
Sonnet: "Usually I try to avoid them."
Weird. She's being generous under fire. Which /is/ weird, actually:
Osric: "People try to do that a lot?"
Sonnet: "Yeah; some strange friends. I run with a weird crowd."
Go out to dinner, take in a show, dodge a sword to the heart...
Osric: "How often would you say that happens?"
Sonnet: "At least once a week, sometimes twice."
Check, please. Several checks.
Osric: "But you say you usually survive that."
Sonnet: "Usually."
Osric: "How is that?"
Sonnet: "Uhm. Divine intervention."
Osric's brows go up. Blandly: "Oh."
This begs the question of the identity of Satan:
Osric: "Does God personally intervene on your behalf a lot?"
Sonnet: "Occasionally. Occasionally Satan does. I guess they like me."
Osric: "So you would say you have a personal relationship with your deities, is that it?"
Sonnet: "Yeah."
Because 'duck' was too short a reply:
Osric: "So, tell me, when someone comes at you with a sword, what do you do?"
Sonnet: "Run up the wall, flip over their head and stab them in the back, why?"
Someone's feeling disappointed:
Sonnet: "See, I can do it because I have a special relationship with my deities."
Osric: "Oh yes, so you said."
Sonnet: "I can't believe this. If I'd known it was going to be like this, I would have capped the bastard a long time ago."
Supercilious even as a delusion:
Osric: "Really. How many people have you killed?"
Sonnet: "You don't want to know."
Osric: "Oh but I do."
Osric as Count Rugen:
Sonnet: "I can't count that high!"
Osric: "Approximately. Hundred, thousand, ten thousand?"
Sonnet: "Depends on if you count my doppleganger or not because you know I have one."
Cyrus: "This is for scientific purposes. Answer with accuracy."
You are prisoner 17:
Sonnet: "What am I in for?"
Osric: "I am here to ask questions, not answer them, and I do have other people to see today, so if you could please answer quickly."
That infamous Charm:
Osric: "I can't answer that."
Sonnet: "Of course you can't. You're just a poor civil servant."
Osric: "No."
Sonnet: "Oh, so you're a lazy fucker in the private industry."
A little too much honesty:
Osric: "So when you kill people, you feel you're acting on the side of right?"
Sonnet: "No. Sometimes the side of wrong, sometimes they're just in the way."
Osric: "So do you feel better when you're on the side of right?"
You can give the man a whole new identity, but the aggravating manner stays:
Sonnet: "So how long have I been doing this?"
Osric: "That's an interesting question. Why don't you answer it?"
Who's pumping whom, exactly?
Sonnet: "As far as interviews. How many times have you talked to me, Doctor?"
Osric: "Just the once."
Ah. Cooperation, incentive to:
Sonnet: "This is the part where I will leave the room and wake up again at the end of the hallway, be escorted -"
Osric, in a tone of vague intellectual disinterest: "Alternately, we can take you away, strap you down to the table and run a lot of electricity through your body. Would you prefer that?"
Sonnet: "No. I can answer anything."
Difficult to impress:
Osric: "Are you lying to me?"
Sonnet: "No, I'm actually telling you the truth. Does that scare you?"
Osric: "Not especially."
Not all of us keep a diary:
Osric: "So have you killed anyone in the last month?"
Sonnet: "I don't think so."
Osric: "You don't think so. Can't you remember?"
Sonnet: "No. Not in the last month."
_Obviously_:
Osric: "So tell me about these special gifts your deities have given you. Running up the walls, I think you said? How did you come to learn to do this?"
Sonnet: "Years of hard work, training, keeping my nose to the grindstone, following the one true path."
Osric: "And what path is that?"
Sonnet: "The one true one."
Two can play at vague:
Osric: "So was this a dramatic change or a gradual one?"
Sonnet: "At first it was very difficult but when I accepted the one true path, things became a lot easier."
Osric: "Who taught you about this path?"
Sonnet: "There were various teachers."
I continue to advocate violence as a solution:
Osric: "Do you remember their names?"
Sonnet: "Yeah."
Osric: "Would you KINDLY name them?"
Sonnet: "Why?"
Cyrus: "Because there is a large man standing above you."
Well. Yes. That's the point:
Sonnet: "John Doe, John Smith, Peter Collins, John Collins."
Osric, agreeably: "Your funeral."
Learn something new every day:
Osric: "Do you ever feel it's wrong to kill?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
Osric: "When would that be?"
Sonnet: "When the innocent die."
Osric: "So you feel it's wrong to kill the innocent."
Sonnet: "Absolutely. One hundred percent."
Osric: "Interesting."
Not here to make this easy:
Osric: "Do you have a hard time relating to people?"
Sonnet: "Yes. And no."
Osric: "Please pick an answer."
Well, thanks for clarifying the question:
Sonnet: "Depends on the person."
Osric: "Would you say you find more often you have a hard time relating to a particular person?"
Sonnet: "Depends on the degree of relationship, what type of relationship -"
Osric: "Those you don't kill."
The Self Destructive Aspect is on Cyrus's sheet, not Sonnet's:
Sonnet: "I can get along with any number of people if I try to."
Osric: "Do you try to?"
Sonnet: "Absolutely. I don't like making a nuisance of myself."
Osric: "Because you're worried about what others will do to you?"
Sonnet: "Occasionally."
It's good to understand one's role:
Sonnet to Cyrus: "You're a very large, scary man."
Cyrus: "Yes. I know."
Sonnet: "But you're also a good man."
Cyrus: "Of course."
Sonnet: "You do what you think is right."
Cyrus: "No. I do what I'm told."
Sonnet: "How sad. I know what you mean. Don't worry; I'm not trying to get your sympathy, I'm fully aware you will beat me to a pulp if you have to."
Classic Sonnet:
Osric: "Are you proficient in the use of any weapons?"
Sonnet: "Yeah."
Osric: "Please list them?"
Sonnet: "How much time do you have?"
Osric: "As much time as there is."
Sonnet: "Several types of swords, daggers, chamber pots, cookware, franklin planner."
Osric: "Do you have a favorite?"
Sonnet: "Lipstick."
Setup:
Sonnet: "Yes, I have a favorite weapon."
Osric: "And that would be?"
Sonnet: "I received a present some time ago; it's my favorite weapon."
Delivery:
Osric: "And that is?"
Sonnet: "My smile."
You are as a small ant to me:
Osric: "Really."
Sonnet: "No. It's as close as an answer as I'm willing to give at this point."
Osric: "I don't care if you lie or not."
Maddening small ant:
Osric: "Do you ever worry that you've killed such a large number of people that you've become a menace to society?"
Sonnet: "Occasionally."
Osric: "Do you ever think more than occasionally?"
Sonnet: "Occasionally."
Capricious legality:
Osric: "Tell me about your sense of justice."
Sonnet: "What about it?"
Osric: "What do you believe is just?"
Sonnet is silent for a long moment: "In what sense?"
Osric, as though to a small child: "The difference between what is right and what is wrong."
Sonnet is again silent for several minutes: "Depends on how it's defined. There's a natural sense of right and wrong in the universe, a legal etcetera and a whimsical sense."
Yes, well, you have an island dropped on you and see how you handle it:
Osric: "What about yours?"
Sonnet: "Mine?"
Osric: "Your personal one."
Sonnet: "An innocent should not suffer but they often do."
Standards are so difficult to live up to:
Osric: "[They often suffer] at your hand."
Sonnet: "I try not."
Osric: "But you don't always succeed."
Sonnet: "I don't always succeed and yes, that bugs me."
The trouble here was figuring out who she meant; this is a game rather short on innocents:
Osric: "How many innocents would you say have suffered at your hand?"
Sonnet: "One that I can recall. Perhaps, I wasn't sure, and I didn't want to ask, either."
Osric: "Did that innocent die?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
ARGH:
Osric: "And how did you feel about that?"
Sonnet: "I wasn't happy. But that makes little difference; I'm usually not happy."
Osric: "That's very interesting; what do you suppose it means?"
But give us time:
Sonnet: "It means I'm in hell."
Osric: "No, not quite yet."
Hey! No turning the tables!
Sonnet: "Are we almost done here?"
Osric: "If you'd like to be."
Sonnet: "I thought there was a list of questions?"
Osric: "I ask as many as I feel are necessary."
Sonnet: "How many do you feel are necessary?"
Osric: "As many as I ask."
One word: Ismerelda. (All right, two more: wishful thinking.)
Osric: "What's the proper way to deal with somebody who disagrees with you?"
Sonnet: "Depends on who they are; how they're disagreeing, what they're disagreeing on."
Osric: "Is it acceptable to disagree with somebody so much that you kill them?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
Sort of a pre-snuggling agreement?
Osric: "So how strongly must they disagree with you that killing them becomes all right?"
Sonnet: "I'm usually honest with people that I'm going to kill them when they enter into contract agreements."
Osric has been working his way down the clipboard this entire time, rarely looking at her. Attempting to change the conversation again:
Osric: "That wasn't the question."
Sonnet: "No it wasn't. Fairly strongly. Do you have little black boxes that you're checking off, little gradients of boxes?"
Osric: "Would that change how you answer the questions?"
Sonnet: "No."
Failing again:
Osric: "If it wouldn't change how you're answering the questions, why do you care?"
Sonnet: "Because. Uhm. I could just not answer them and be beaten to a bloody pulp, so what would be the purpose of answering the questions?"
Running around in gore covered lingerie like fantasy book cover art does count as provocative, yes?
Osric: "So do you occasionally dress or act provocatively to get attention?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
Classic Karm:
Osric: "Why do you do that?"
Sonnet: "It's a weapon."
Proving the point:
Osric: "Attention is a weapon?"
Sonnet: "Absolutely. You've never tried it, have you? You arrange what someone sees and they do not - they see what you want them to see. They're wondering how deep your cleavage goes and they can't see what else is happening."
Lydia: "The guardsman views your cleavage."
Questionable praise:
Sonnet to Guard: "There's no weapons; believe me. I've already checked. That's unsettling by the way. That was very good!"
Lydia: "I loom."
In addition to being a ninja assassin and spy, I'm also an executive assistant, skilled in excel and word...
Osric: "So. You said attention was a weapon. Is it a deadly weapon?"
Sonnet: "Occasionally. Maybe you should go review the form and put in a blank for occasionally."
Osric: "The thought had occurred. Are you concerned with how others perceive you?"
Sonnet: "Occasionally."
It's still Osric:
Osric looks at her flatly.
Sonnet: "... Yes."
Perhaps you have noted the proliferation of males in the population?
Osric: "Do you feel others are often weak?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
Positive girl, she is:
Osric: "Do you feel everyone is weak?"
Sonnet: "Everyone is weak in some way."
Osric: "Does that include yourself?"
Sonnet: "Absodamnlutely."
She has a point:
Osric: "I shall have to make another box for that one. What would you say is your weakness?"
Sonnet: "Does it matter?"
Osric: "To me personally, no."
Sonnet: "My weakness at the moment is that I'm chained to this damn couch and I don't have a weapon."
Illusions are comforting:
Osric: "Some might argue that that keeps you from getting into further trouble."
Sonnet: "Some might. Especially the guard."
Lydia: "I continue to loom."
I don't remember the stealing part. Does anyone else?
Osric: "Have you ever stolen anything?"
Sonnet: "Technically."
Osric: "Another box..."
Here, let me help you...
Sonnet: "I'm very good at designing forms."
Osric: "Really."
Ambiguities and technicalities as bread and butter:
Osric: "Do you remember the last thing you've stolen?"
Sonnet: "No. Well. Assisted in stealing? Yeah. But personally? No."
Osric: "... really."
And now the flirting:
Sonnet volunteers: "Maybe a look."
Osric: "A look."
Sonnet: "Stolen a look."
Osric: "Yes."
Sonnet: "You don't get out much, do you, Doctor?"
Osric: "None of your concern."
GM: "I was waiting for that shit to start..."
Since 99.98% of the time, people go armed in Amber:
Osric: "Ever stolen anything from someone you've killed?"
Sonnet: "Occasionally a weapon."
Osric: "So the people you kill are carrying weapons usually?"
Sonnet: "Usually. In fact, I'd say 99.98% of the time."
Qualifier on the play:
Osric: "Would you attack someone that wasn't carrying a weapon?"
Sonnet: "To save someone else's life? Certainly."
Not even Cyrus would answer no to that one:
Osric: "Do you think it's important to save lives?"
Sonnet: "Yeah."
Osric: "Any ones in particular?"
Sonnet: "Yeah."
Brain. Dribbling. Out. Nose...
Osric: "And who would that be?"
Sonnet: "Various people. Depends on the moment. See a child being run down by a carriage in the street, you want to grab the child, of course. Well. I guess you would. I wouldn't know. Do you like kids? Do you like them on toast. Dry toast? No jam. See I would have figured you for a jam person. With or without the crusts? Kay, No answer from the big surly guard."
Osric: "That's not what he's here for."
Not by choice so much as by decree:
Osric: "Do you prefer to be alone"
Sonnet: "Yes."
Osric: "At several times, you've mentioned this group that you travel with, fight with, that sort of thing."
Sonnet: "Yes."
He had to ask:
Osric: "Who are they?"
Sonnet: "Just some people. I got thrown in with them."
Osric: "By whom?"
Sonnet: "Hard to say, really."
Osric: "These people have names?"
Sonnet: "Yeah."
Osric: "Would you provide them?"
Sonnet: "No."
Osric: "Any particular reason you're being difficult?"
Now that's paranoia:
Osric: "Any particular reason you're being difficult?"
Sonnet: "Habit. And just in case I'm not really dead and this is some grand plot of somebody's, I'm trying to be deliberately vague until I can figure out what's going on. When I have my bearings, I can be more forthcoming. Unless, of course, I'm insane."
Osric: "That would be a good step forward for you, probably."
Sonnet: "Probably. Are the walls padded here?"
Can't imagine why:
Osric: "You said you like to be alone?"
Sonnet looks at him evenly.
Osric: "Is this because you don't trust people?"
Sonnet: "That would be one reason."
That and the murder, the entrapment, the pinning to a door by a sword, the threat to Karm:
GM to Sonnet: "The light seems to be a little dimmer."
Sonnet: "Do you have a power problem?"
Osric: "Do you have a problem trusting people?"
Sonnet: "Yeah."
Osric: "Why?"
Sonnet: "They'll figure things out; weaknesses and shit."
Osric: "Right."
The lady is nothing if not civilized (in a psychotic, paranoid, violent, murderous sort of way):
Sonnet: "Why should you trust people?"
Osric: "That's the usual basis for civil society."
Sonnet: "I guess I occasionally trust people."
Osric: "Occasionally?"
Sonnet: "Occasionally."
GM to Sonnet: "And it's black."
Jarrod and Shai are married. Uhm. :)
Shai: "Tell me, Jarrod, do you often take that tone with me..."
And now the inquiry to determine whether Sonnet is irremedially insane begins. We still haven't actually told Shai:
GM to Sonnet: "It's bright. You're walking down a hallway again; it's a different hallway, part of a state building. You're accompanied by several people. Most of them are guards, really well armed. Your feet are chained, your wrists are chained. Walking next to you in a business suit is Alyra."
Sonnet: "Hi."
Alyra: "Uh huh. Ready for this?"
Sonnet: "I guess."
Thank you for flying Church of England:
Alyra: "Okay, you remember everything we went over, right?"
Sonnet: "Not a damn thing. You get this a lot, don't you?"
Alyra: "Yeah. Do you remember us talking?"
Sonnet: "No."
Alyra looks pained: "You don't remember the half dozen interviews we've had?"
Sonnet: "Those were a long time ago."
Alyra takes a deep breath: "Okay, you're going to be given a fair trial to determine your mental state..."
That's right; look on the glass as half full:
Sonnet: "You got assigned to this, didn't ya? Or did I hire you?"
Alyra: "I'm assigned to you."
Sonnet: "Oh good. At least I like you."
Size matters:
GM to Sonnet: "You're led up to big big big big doors."
Sonnet: "Oh fuck, what did I do?"
And then the first shoe drops:
GM: "Congratulations, it's the Sonnet episode."
Shai: "Aw, SHIT!"
Quick on the uptake:
GM: "The doors are opened. This is a big legal hall for lack of a better term, but instead of one judge, there are three. The central one is Oberon in a big black robe. Seated to one side is Benedict. To the other side is someone who looks like Cyrus again, but a bit different, older, more distinguished, not quite the hard edges to his features, a bit more of a fatherly side. Seated at the table to one side opposite the empty one is a guy who looks like Finndo in the whole power suit thing going on."
Sonnet: "Oh shit I am so dead."
Life is what you make of it, after all:
GM: "Dr. Sarich appears to be nearby but not seated in a particular bastion near to Finndo's table."
Sonnet: "I think this is real..."
GM: "There's a pedestal with a seat on it that you're being ushered to and Alyra takes her place at the empty table after you sit. It appears that your chains are being chained to other chains; you know the deal. Now that you're at this point, you can read the nameplates. Finn Donnegan just says Advocate under that. The honorable Ben Dorr, the right honorable Cade Dogan, the advocate. Alyra Watson. There's a bit of paper shuffling, there's no audience."
Finndo makes gladhands his way around the room, laying on the charm. Alyra doesn't argue with him:
Finndo, conversationally to Alyra: "So did she [Sonnet] have any idea today?"
Alyra: "Yeah."
Finndo: "You remember being here, Miss, uh, Sonnet?"
Sonnet: "No, but I'm pretty sure I've been here before."
He starts out with spin before the inquiry even gets off the ground:
Finndo: "You'll forgive me for not shaking your hand, Miss Sonnet. We have two guards with broken arms."
Sonnet: "I guess I do have superpowers. Sorry."
Finndo, warmly sarcastic: "We all appreciate your wit."
Succinct, concise, to the point:
Alyra to Sonnet: "Do you remember where we left off yesterday?"
Sonnet: "No. I think I had a black out?"
Alyra: "Describe the nature of the blackout?"
Sonnet: "Things get black, I wake up somewhere else."
How would she know?
Alyra: "Are these recent blackouts? Do you have historical problems with blackouts?"
Sonnet: "Uhm."
Holy handcuffs, Batman, I think charges are being pressed!
Finndo: "We don't have time for this farce. Do you [Sonnet] know why you're here?"
Sonnet: "I think I'm on trial."
GM: "Fuck me!"
Reassuring statement of the day:
Finndo, approvingly: "Good start. There's a lot of evil things you've done."
Sonnet, warily: "Uh huh."
Finndo waves that aside: "You're not on trial for that."
And the other shoe drops:
Finndo, cheerfully: "There's the delightful part. You are bug fucking _nuts_."
Alyra: "I object!"
Finndo: "I'm sorry. You are criminally insane. "
Alyra: "I object!"
Finndo, reasonably: "It has been found. We are here to determine if you are irremedially insane."
The objection is sustained. There were moments when it felt like Finndo was running the trial more than, say, the judges:
Benedict to Finndo: "Are you sure you're through?"
Finndo waves that aside: "Bah."
Benedict: "Quite through?"
Finndo, casually: "Oh, sure."
Please, give me an angle. Any angle:
Benedict to Sonnet: "What is the last thing you remember?"
Sonnet: "Being in the office with Dr. Sarich. And being very rude to him."
Alyra: "Did you feel threatened by Dr. Sarich?"
Sonnet: "No, he's not very intimidating."
The trouble with attractive mental patients:
Cyrus: "Do you enjoy being handcuffed?"
Finndo: "Oh, please, your honor."
Sonnet, flirtatiously: "Sir, I think that's a deeply personal question."
Finndo: "I believe we have enough deviant material on the record."
In that the normal surroundings involve murder, chaos and mayhem following us around like kittens follow string:
Alyra: "Do you frequently dream or hallucinate?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
Alyra: "Do you feel that you are dreaming or hallucinating now?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
Alyra: "Can you describe why you feel that way?"
Sonnet: "Because these are very unusual surroundings."
And grass is green:
Alyra: "And why do you feel that?"
Sonnet: "I usually work for a very powerful man and run an entire kingdom."
Alyra: "This is your deity?"
Sonnet: "No, he just has godlike powers."
It helps to think well of one's godlike employer:
Alyra: "What are these godlike powers?"
Finndo, drily overriding Alyra: "I believe we have the answers on record: bending reality to whim, time and, uh, space, something about cards and black bits."
Alyra: "Do you feel this is his reality being bent on a whim?"
Sonnet: "His sense of humour is bad but not that bad."
She has a point:
Alyra: "You've made references to 'being in hell' and persecuted. Why do you feel so persecuted?"
Sonnet: "Well, I'm chained up and on trial."
Finndo produces at this point a stack of index cards on which he has drawn a series of maimed, dead, dismembered, impaled or otherwise thoroughly slain stick figures, all of whom have unhappy faces. (He made them up on the fly while waiting through Osric's interrogation.) He then proceeds to wave the cards about as he pulls the next set of figures out of his, minty fresh:
Finndo leaps on that: "Do you feel you are unjustly persecuted?"
Sonnet: "Probably not."
Finndo: "Suppose you are justly persecuted. Suppose you have done a vast array of unspeakable acts." He leans in to talk to her casually, "And by unspeakable, I mean not the acts themselves but the sheer volume. 8,472 confirmed deaths but 18,000 for which you are suspected..."
One likes to know what one's evil twin has been up to in one's name:
Sonnet: "So which were me and were the doppleganger?"
Finndo, cheerfully: "They have all been attributed to you."
Sonnet: "Could you break those down for me?"
Er:
Finndo: "Do you remember Michael Rast?" He turns to address the court. "He was her guidance counselor. He recommended her to the merchant marine and said she was very talented." He holds up Exhibit A, a very dead stick figure. "And that is not what Sonnet said of the story."
Mr. Schindle is the index card (up on sessions.shtml under the Quotes link for session 19) labeled as such:
Finndo: "The point here is not so much for you all. You are very aware of what the lady has done."
Benedict: "Yes. What is your point, prosecutor?"
Finndo: "It is reasonably apparent that she is not [aware of what she has done]. I would like to show her the photograph of Mr. Schindle." He holds it up to the judges.
Logical enough point:
Benedict: "Is that necessary?"
Finndo: "I believe it is. Sonnet's a very bright young woman. She had high honors in school, several papers published, a very distinguished military career until she killed her entire carrier group -"
Sonnet: "Question. If I actually killed him, how did I have a brilliant military career?"
That is a very Sonnet solution:
Finndo: "That's a new piece of evidence."
Sonnet: "So I hid the body."
Finndo: "No, you slept with the deputy prosecutor. Speaking of which, let's move on to your first husband."
Lisa was trying to get a word in edgewise. She was. Rob just kept cheerfully talking right over her as if she wasn't there:
Sonnet: "I have a husband?"
Finndo: "Three of them. Let's move on the village of Garcia."
_Completely_ off the top of his head (this is why we don't let Rob argue points. Ever. Or, actually, why I don't. Because I'll lose. Hands down.):
Finndo: "The village of Garcia is no longer found on any map. Let's move on to the first picture, as Miss Sonnet is laying down the parking lot. Some of you may not have seen this picture in the sheer bulk of evidence," and he waves the thick stack of cards, "so I'd like to pass this around."
GM to Lisa: "See the real secret of my GMing is that I don't."
Controlling the conversation with a convivial plow:
Sonnet: "We plowed over the bodies to stop the spread of disease."
Finndo, delightedly: "Excellent!"
Alyra stares at Finndo: "Can you please describe of the events -"
Finndo interrupts Alyra to amiably announce: "I'm just saying that was very reasonable of her!"
Hey now. Starbucks is pretty scary stuff:
Alyra, determinedly, to Sonnet: "Can you describe the events?"
Sonnet, matter of factly describing a battle: "There was war passing through the area, two massive forces collided in the area, there was no time to evacuate the village, no warning, nothing."
Finndo: "I would like to point out that the village of Garcia is in the isolated wilds of Minnesota, where the greatest hostile threat of invasion is from Starbucks."
Dumbass:
Finndo: "Can you explain the cause?"
Sonnet: "I was called to service."
Finndo: "By?"
Sonnet: "My liege and country. I'm in the military. Figure it out."
We've been trying to figure that one out for a while, yeah:
Finndo: "Who is your liege?"
Sonnet: "Excellent question."
The Ninja Assassin Nun:
Finndo: "These are the folks you were unwilling to discuss with Dr. Sarich in case of some grand deception?"
Sonnet: "I took a vow of silence. And a vow of abstinence."
Oh. Hrm. Wolf's been not so much cried as slaughtered:
Finndo addresses the court: "We have here a very charming, very pleasant, indeed _very_ charming woman who, if we allowed her to speak freely, we would walk out of here thinking she was as sweet as mama's pie."
Sonnet: "My mama can't bake."
Finndo: "Someone else's pie." He turns back to her: "This is not the first trial. This is the first time that trial has gotten that far."
The sad consequences of violence:
Finndo: "Do you remember what happened the last time an attempt was made to bring you to trial? "
Sonnet: "No."
Finndo: "Do you remember venting butane and acetylene into the ventilation system?"
Sonnet: "No. But that's a neat idea."
Finndo: "Yes. Apparently you thought so at the time. For the record she has been denied access to the prison facilities."
Sonnet: "And the shower. Sorry guys."
Finndo: "Yes, well, there was that terrible soap beating."
Bank shot, straight into the pocket:
Cyrus: "What are you trying to argue, Advocate?"
Finndo: "I am trying to make the point here that -"
Sonnet: "Probably that I can't be cured."
Finndo: "As I said, sharp cookie."
Alyra: "Objection! Your point has been made."
Finndo to Sonnet: "I suggest you not agree with that."
When desperate, obstruct:
Benedict: "Do you feel remorse?"
Sonnet: "Did I say occasionally?"
Benedict: "On what occasions?"
Alyra: "I object to that question."
Finndo: "You can't object to the judge."
When Poland fell, Catherine the Great wept. She wept - but she took:
Benedict: "Describe a time when you felt remorse."
Sonnet: "I felt remorse when I had to put someone in a position where they could be harmed and I did not wish for them to be harmed and they were harmed by my actions."
Finndo, sarcastically: "... Right."
Twisting one way:
Finndo: "Names are good."
Sonnet: "Names are powerful things."
Finndo: "I am obliged to point out that at least one of the papers was a philosophy paper."
Alyra: "I don't see what a paper on - "
Finndo: "I'm just pointing out that she's riffing in a direction other than the one asked."
Dr. O. Sarich takes the stand as an expert witness. Alyra is trying to back pedal to the stance that Sonnet cannot now stand for the inquiry as she unable to speak for herself at all. Twisting the other way now:
Cyrus: "In your expert opinion, Dr. Sarich, is she criminally insane?"
Alyra: "Do you feel she is capable of standing trial?"
Finndo: "I'd like to point out that the trial has passed."
Deviation is such a flexible sort of word:
Finndo: "How smart do you think she is? "
Dr. Sarich: "Several standard deviations."
Using his own logic against him:
Finndo: "Do you think Miss Karm is suffering from mental illness?"
Alyra: "I would like to object to this line of questioning - already established."
Recurring frameostat. Very serious psychotic condition:
Finndo: "Which illnesses?"
Osric: "Quite a selection. Mental paranoia. And recurring frameostat."
No, this is what comes of /arming/ women:
Finndo: "How would you judge her social skills?"
Osric: "I would say she is excellently socialized and very smart."
Cyrus: "See, this is what comes of educating women."
Proving the point, in her own defense:
Finndo: "Would you say this woman is too smart - is she smart enough to fake it? Could she fake being well?"
Osric: "Probably."
Finndo: "Convincingly?"
Alyra: "I object to that question."
Finndo: "I believe this is what we're here for."
Cyrus: "Overruled."
Finndo: "Do you think she is capable of passing for a period of time? Is real rehabilitation feasible?"
Sonnet: "Sure, if she had enough compelling reason?"
As much a statement on psychiatrists as on Sonnet, to be fair:
Osric: "I believe that a psychiatrist would not be able to tell."
Finndo: "Would you feel safe knowing that she was out on the street because a psychiatrist was convinced she was cured?"
Osric, firmly: "No."
Can anyone else see the white seersucker suit and the half-chewed cigar?
Benedict: "You did not answer my question, Sonnet."
Sonnet: "Which question?"
Benedict: "The remorse?"
Sonnet: "Every day, every night."
Finndo: "I can hear the violin strings."
Borrowing tactics:
Alyra: "How long did you spend with her?"
Osric: "2 hours and 14 minutes."
Alyra: "And you believe that was long enough to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt a diagnosis of paranoia and recurring frameostat? How much time have you personally spent reviewing the diagnoses and clinical observations of your colleagues?"
Osric: "Approximately 60 hours."
Alyra: "Over the course of the last..."
Osric: "Over the two weeks prior to the interview."
Some things never change:
Alyra to Osric: "You've had 60 hours to review the records, spend 2 hours with Miss Karm - "
Finndo: "Your honor, this is moving into an attack, this is a friendly witness."
GM: "You get the feeling that Oberon does not like Dr. Sarich."
Well, that would be the point of the inquiry:
Sonnet: "That's getting really annoying."
Alyra: "What?"
Sonnet: "The tapping."
GM: "No one hears it except the crazy woman."
And some very very very padded walls and no men around:
Alyra: "What would you recommend as treatment?"
Osric: "Intensive psychotherapy as well as an extensive collection of chemicals."
And off he goes with the interrupting and the persuasive, conceding on principal argument (chapter 11 of Hardball by Chris Matthews; I'm just sayin'):
Alyra: "Can you comment on the historical effectiveness of this treatment?"
Finndo: "Look, we all know this isn't a science. If this was a science, we wouldn't need the judgement of three learned men." He sighs. "Look, I would be delighted if we could cure this woman; she has so much offer. If that mind could be turned to other pursuits, she could be a shining light of her generation."
Turning the charm back on her:
Sonnet: "What would you recommend, Counselor?"
Finndo: "Fortunately, I'm not that kind of counselor. I would be charmed. I'm not too dumb. I've got a lot of papers on my wall that say I'm not too dim - "
Hey, if it works:
Cyrus: "Miss Sonnet, should we let you out?"
Sonnet: "Why?"
Alyra: "Objection."
Finndo: "You're objecting to the judge again."
Because raising a town and /paving/ it didn't strike her as an unusual sort of order?
Sonnet: "Why? Because, now that I know the consequence of following orders, maybe I should have questioned them a little closer."
GM to Sonnet: "The tapping is crossing the room - a great big hooded figure, carrying a scythe."
Sonnet starts and looks across the room, away from the advocates and judges.
Finndo: "Something wrong, Miss Karm?"
Sonnet: "Just another hallucination, now that I'm - just another hallucination."
For certain values of:
Cyrus: "These voices; they come from your head?"
Sonnet: "Not usually."
Cyrus: "Excellent."
At least it's an appropriate hallucination:
Alyra: "Is something wrong, Sonnet?"
Sonnet: "Hallucination."
Alyra: "Could you describe that?"
GM to Sonnet: "Your hallucination is rummaging around in a pouch."
Sonnet: "Tall, hooded, scythe, grim reaper kind of guy. He's rummaging around -"
Interrupting at speed:
Finndo: "This is the third day we've been through this - "
Alyra: "We should recess - "
Finndo: "And on each day she has moved herself to the point -"
Wacky courtroom queries:
Cyrus: "Is the grim reaper actually interfering with your ability to answer questions?"
Sonnet: "No."
Cyrus: "Please continue."
Typically, Sonnet is trying to protect Alyra:
Sonnet: "Could I request something, as rude as it may seem? Could my advocate move closer to the other one?"
Finndo, with mock gallantry: "I will stand next to you and risk this grim reaper."
Tripwire:
Cyrus: "Miss Sonnet, would you like to be cured?"
Sonnet: "I would love to be."
Finndo: "Of what would you like to be cured?"
Sonnet is still watching the grim reaper: "I don't like the sound of that. Apparently I'm insane."
It's always something:
Alyra: "Are you paying attention to us?"
Sonnet: "Yes. Really."
Alyra: "What has your attention?"
Sonnet: "The grim reaper again."
Finndo: "Again, I point out this woman is using her shenanigans - "
GM: "He lifts his hood. It's Piero."
Define 'innocent':
Finndo: "Would you kill again?"
Sonnet: "If I had to, to defend the innocent."
Brave soul:
Sonnet: You really shouldn't do that. He's got an awfully sharp scythe."
Finndo: "Don't worry about me, I've dealt with that."
Chinese curse or a compliment:
Finndo: "Who are the righteous?"
Sonnet: "You're an educational man."
Dangerous profession, that:
Alyra: "If you returned to society, what would your occupational goal be?"
Sonnet: "My occupational goal?"
Alyra: "How would you make yourself useful to society?"
Sonnet: "I've always liked uniforms, but I suppose regular exposure to violence would be bad."
Finndo: "That rules out the postal service."
The argument devolves into Finndo asking Sonnet what she would do if attacked by the unrighteous. Sonnet makes the error of asking what she has to work with; is she supposed to kill the man with a typewriter. Walking right into it:
Cyrus: "Does the record show that the defendant has killed anyone with a typewriter in the past?"
Finndo: "That's in the 18000. It's unconfirmed."
Now super hero was a bit of an exaggeration:
Cyrus: "Would you assume the unrighteous were unarmed ninjas?"
Sonnet: "Not necessarily."
Finndo: "I would like it on record that the defendant has claimed on record that she is a ninja, a super hero, and a secret agent."
Not unreasonable queries:
Cyrus: "Miss Sonnet, do you expect to be rescued by those who employ you as a secret agent?"
Sonnet: "No."
Cyrus: "Do you have a poisoned pill embedded in your teeth?"
Sonnet: "No. I believe I was inspected for that."
Self-help logic:
Alyra: "I MOVE TO RECESS. The defendant is talking to the air next to her!"
Finndo: "Yes, and she will bark to the moon if it's to her advantage."
Sonnet: "There's no sky."
Finndo has Sonnet read back Oberon's name plate. Well, in my delusion, he's a fucking bastard of a shit for a King, why do you ask?
Finndo: "Does that mean anything to you?"
Sonnet: "Not as such. Not here."
Well, you never know till you try and several psychiatrists die:
Benedict: "Advocate, can you provide any evidence towards Miss Karm being curable?"
Sonnet: "The scary thing is that I know the names are similar to..."
Alyra: "I present to you the multiple instances in which this is [curable]. There is no precise science to psychotherapy."
Benedict: "Miss Karm, do you believe you have a problem?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
A little too much honesty sometimes:
Finndo: "What is the nature of the problem?"
Sonnet: "Besides the obvious?"
Finndo: "Yes."
Sonnet: "First off, I'm handcuffed to this chair."
No Self Helping!
Finndo: "I don't believe that was the question."
Sonnet: "I imagine my problem is that I'm going to become completely incurably insane and am going to be locked up or killed because I am so completely insane."
Finndo: "Do you believe this yourself?"
Sonnet: "I can become anything. I can be cured. Give me a reason strong enough."
Oh, yeah, that too:
Cyrus: "Why would you want to be cured?"
Sonnet: "I could live."
Cyrus: "What reason do you have to be cured?"
Sonnet: "So I could live. Why else?"
Finndo suggests, too helpfully: "Perhaps because you don't want to kill another 7000 people or so?"
Say, what is the guiness book of world records for murder anyway?
Cyrus: "Is that it?"
Sonnet: "To live?"
Cyrus: "Yes."
Sonnet: "There are other reasons."
Well, for one thing, she's chained to that chair:
Cyrus: "Do you believe you are a menace to society?"
Sonnet: "Society is an awful big thing."
Cyrus: "Answer yes or no."
Sonnet: "No. I am not."
Cyrus: "Why not?"
Logic is just a tool for self justification, you see...
Sonnet: "Society endures whether or not you are in it."
Cyrus: "But are you a menace?"
Sonnet: "Yes."
Cyrus: "And you believe we should let you go?"
Poor misunderstood girl:
Cyrus: "You are not horrified by the idea that if we let you go uncured, you might kill more people?"
Sonnet: "It does trouble me that I might get into situations that I might have to kill people."
Alyra starts driving home that Sonnet has gotten no therapy and therefore a determination of therapy's chances at curing her cannot be made. One small problem:
Finndo: "I object. Therapy has been tried; it has never been completed. One of these photographs is of the man who tried. It's the one of the man in very small pieces."
Shamelessness can't hurt at this stage:
Sonnet: "Well, I have a lot of potential as the opposing counsel has already stated. Has my potential been channeled in the proper manner? Obviously not."
Why aim small?
Benedict: "So you wish to kill another 30 or 40 thousand people...?"
Sonnet: "My potential does not come with a body count."
Finndo: "I believe we have a sufficient evidence to the contrary."
Never Ever Ask Him A Leading Question:
Sonnet: "Did I kill someone to write my philosophy paper?"
Finndo: "What a fascinating question. Not the philosophy paper, but there was that mathematics paper. Do you remember Donny - ?"
Sonnet is sent back to her cell. She blacks again as she walks to the door, past Piero. And then:
GM shines a alight in her eyes: "There's a light! It fades pretty rapidly to a dingy light coming in from outside of the cell that you are in; for once, you are not chained. Someone is in the corner on the bunk..."
That someone turns out to be Sybil, her cellmate. Establishing the ground rules:
Sybil: "Fuck, you awake?" She scuttles backwards. "Are you going to try and kill me again? NO strangling this time."
Sonnet: "Did I strangle you?"
Sybil hisses: "You tried to shove a shoe down my throat. Look. There's a problem with the plan. He's a little late today... the power outage might be off."
Not precisely the warm fuzzy arrangement:
Sonnet: "So we have to change the plan."
Sybil: "You're so fucking smart, you do it."
Those little disagreements can be hard on a friendship:
Sybil: "Last time I told you wasn't my fault. So if you're going to take your fucking shoe to me again, I can't follow it [the plan]."
Sonnet: "I was a little nuts."
Sybil: "You tried to pry out my eye with a shoelace!"
So never mind the shoelace incident:
Sonnet: "I'm having a really bad day."
Chin up, there, it might be all right (it seemed a very Sonnet way of going about encouragement):
Sybil: "Look... it looked like pretty good fellatio... I think he'll come."
There's a pause. Then a lot of laughter.
Bitter, aren't we?
Sonnet: "It's all abut pressure at the right time... "
Sybil: "That's what you said when you tried to take out my eye."
Really, really bitter:
Sonnet: "You haven't been eating well, have you?"
Sybil: "I never eat well, particularly after the problems with my throat."
Focus, durnit!
Sonnet: "Would it make you feel better if I let you beat the crap out of me?"
Sybil: "We tried that one before... can we get back to the breakout?"
Sonnet: "I must've hit my head very hard. I don't remember hitting you. Well, I hit you once."
Sybil: "Can we get back to the breakout? We don't have a lot of time. Are you sure he's going to bring the keys?"
Timing counts!
Sonnet: "Sorry. I've been blacking out a lot, I think it's the medication."
Sybil: "This is a fascinating act. I'm very impressed. It's at 2:41, gag a little more, Sybil. Don't you remember that part?"
Gee, thanks:
Sonnet: "No, I don't."
Rob: "I think she's referring to the shoe."
Oh, now there's a defense:
Sonnet: "I have never stuffed a shoe down your throat."
Sybil glares: "You told me to swallow."
Sonnet: "I don't want to argue about this. I punched you in the face. Once."
A born naturalist:
Sybil: "I don't want to go through the litany of what you've done -"
Sonnet bellows: "I have yelled at you! Ooh! GOD, that felt good! I never abused you... except maybe mentally. I've thought about it."
Terminology is powerful stuff:
Sybil: "Can we go back to the blackout?"
Sonnet: "Yah, I keep having them."
Sybil: "No, the power outage!"
Sonnet takes a shot at using her skills: she tries to run up the wall and falls on her ass. That finally gets the idea across:
Sonnet: "Oh shit, this isn't real!"
Sybil: "That happens every time, you know."
Sonnet: "I've tried that before?"
Sybil: "Do you remember what Dr. Waston said about pattern recognition before you kicked him in the balls?"
Discipline not a strong point of recurring frameostat:
Sonnet, conversationally: "I like my attorney. She's very nice. I'm sorry she has to defend me."
Sybil: "Sonnet, there's a bug crawling up my back. I want to get out of here."
Sonnet stares at the mirror. She makes a face.
Sybil: "Sonnet? Sonnet?"
Sonnet makes wilder faces at the mirror.
Sybil: "Sonnet, let's talk about Benedict for awhile..."
Some people just pay no attention:
Sonnet: "Oh no... I thought you were bored?"
Sybil: "I want to make sure we can leave when the power goes off."
Sonnet is back to staring at the mirror.
Sybil: "You're lovely, you're beautiful... can we focus?"
Wah, wah, wah:
Sybil: "300 prisoners in this fucking compound and I have to get stuck with a narcissistic bitch who has to strangle me with a shoe."
Prescient, isn't she?
Sybil: "No hell if we get out of here. We stay here and they execute you."
Sonnet: That guard is going to be Benedict, because my day is just not going really well."
Sybil: "Can we go back to the power outage?"
A little success is a dangerous thing:
Sybil: "Sonnet, let's talk about abusing me some more."
Sonnet: "No."
Sybil: "But we're focused now."
Sonnet: "Do you want me to abuse you?"
Sybil pauses: "No. Nonono."
Never believe the lunatic:
Sybil: "The door...the opening thingie!"
Sonnet: "It has a mechanical catch."
Sybil: "I thought you said you could break it."
Sonnet: "I also say I can run up the wall."
Hey! Petty vengeance feels good:
Sybil: "Gimme your shoe."
Sonnet gives her the shoe: "I've swallowed bigger things than that."
Sybil drops the shoe.
This is not entirely inaccurate:
Sybil: "Sonnet, My Lady. My lady."
Sonnet: "Why are you calling me that?"
Sybil: "Because you pay attention when I call you that. Come here."
Sonnet: "No. You're going to grab my ears. Or my hair."
Wistful thinking:
Sybil: "Okay, but anyway, when the power goes off and the lights go out - we can ding the door, both of us, together."
Sonnet: "He will be smacked by the door at which time we can make a run."
Sonnet has hit on the notion that she can be redeemed if she doesn't kill anyone in the breakout. Having trouble zigging when she zags:
Sonnet: "So you promise not to kill him until we saw daylight? This is very important."
Sybil: "You promised ME that you wouldn't kill HIM until we saw daylight!"
You have to ask?
Sonnet: "Yes. It really would be dumb."
Sybil flings herself back onto her bunk in exasperation.
Sonnet: "Am I annoying you?"
Sonnet glimpses something in the mirror and turns to investigate. Sometimes, you just have to be honest:
Sonnet: "Pardon me, I have to primp."
GM: "Piero is pounding on the opposite site of the mirror."
Sybil squints: "Sonnet? Ms. Karm?" Muttered, "Fucking psycho bitch?"
That recurring frameostat issue again:
Sonnet draws on the mirror in blood to communicate with Piero, whom Sybil cannot see.
Sybil: "This again?"
Commiseration. Sorta.
GM: Lines of fire are being traced by Piero's finger: "Are you dead?"
Sonnet: "I don't think so?"
Piero: "Trapped?"
Sonnet: "Maybe?"
Piero: "Me too."
Sybil watches: "What the fuck are you doing?"
But you PROMISED!
Sonnet writes: "Red glowing thing?"
Piero: "Huh?"
Sybil: "What the fuck are you doing? You said no episodes the day of the breakout!"
Only /mostly/ dead:
Sonnet writes: "If you are trapped, then why does Benedict have dark powers?"
Piero thinks about it; shrugs: "Technically dead."
Self perception is a powerful thing:
Sonnet: "Technically! "
Piero: "Probably like you."
Sonnet: "Nice, but you look like grim reaper."
Piero: "Yes..."
There's a limit for any person:
Sybil snaps her fingers in front of Sonnet's face.
Sonnet ignores her.
Sybil tries to drag Sonnet away from the mirror.
Sonnet: "You're hurting me."
Sybil flinches and starts to whimper and giggle madly.
And this pretty much passes it:
Sonnet: "I'm praying."
Sybil whimpers more.
Helpful suggestions:
Sonnet: "Take a nap?"
Sibyl: "Because the breakout is in 10 minutes!"
Small talk, chitchat, that sort of thing:
Sonnet: "They think I'm nuts. I'm beginning to wonder if they're right. How are you? How are things?"
Piero: "Usually nuts."
Sonnet: "Breakout?"
Piero: "Not my job."
Sonnet: "Didn't think so."
Sonnet bites her fingers to free up more blood to use to write on the mirror. Reasoning passes the time, at least:
Sonnet: "Ow."
Sybil: "No, shit. You bite your finger and it hurts. Fancy that."
Sonnet: "It shouldn't leave a mark."
Finding a use for every aspect of life:
Piero: "Sorry about the fingers."
Sonnet waggles her fingers at Sybil.
Two different plans going on here:
Sybil: "7 minutes. Let's go with that."
Sonnet: "It's a test."
Sybil: "Test."
Sonnet: "No loss of life."
Sybil reminds her: "We're going to kill the guard when we get to daylight."
And once again she has a point:
Sonnet: "Shit, my fingers hurt."
Sybil: "IMAGINE THAT!"
Sonnet: "You know I can yell a hell of a lot better."
That was not the sense of urgency Sybil was trying to instill:
Sybil: "Thankfully, you're not a whore... 5 minutes!"
Sonnet: "5 minutes?"
Sonnet goes back to the mirror.
Slow up on the uptake:
Sybil: "There's no you there; only blood. Are we done with the narcissism yet?"
Sonnet: "And they're really going to wonder if they see all the blood on the mirror and we get out without killing anybody."
Sybil: "Wonder what?"
Sonnet: "Not even you."
Sybil: "Not even me what?
Sonnet: "Not going to kill you."
Sybil squints.
Promises, promises:
Sonnet: "I'm Not Going to Kill You."
Sybil: "Wonderful! I'm so thrilled."
Sonnet: "I think I'm figuring this out..."
Jargon on the jargonless:
Sonnet: "What's the scenario?"
Sybil: "Scenario?"
Sonnet: "We're breaking out... "
Consistency, insanity, not usually two great tastes that taste great together:
Sonnet: "I will not kill him. I will not kill him... because I'm feeling helpful."
Sybil: "You said that the last time you saw the guard."
Beggars can't be choosers:
Sonnet: "Ok. Break out. Not death. Soon."
Sybil: "You've got 1 minute."
Sonnet: "You're not going to try to kill me either."
Sybil: "I'm not that fucking stupid. And I kind of like you."
Sonnet: "You like someone who shoved a shoe down your throat? God, you need more friends."
This doesn't bear close examination:
Sybil: "We're not talking about the baking people thing again."
Sonnet: "Did they taste like chicken?"
Sybil: "You shouldn't kill anything you don't eat."
The important details:
Sybil: "30 seconds. No killing?"
Sonnet: "No killing."
Sybil: "No killing?"
Sonnet: "No killing."
Sybil: "No wandering off."
Greeeeaaaat:
Sybil: "Still there? Ready?"
Sonnet: "I'm with ya."
Sybil: "Why do you sound so cavalier?"
Sonnet: "Because we're about to die."
Shiny new distraction tactic not involving shoelaces and eyeballs:
Sybil: "You never told me who I was in this fantasy world."
Sonnet: "You were my sister."
Sybil: "I was what?"
Sonnet: "You were my sister. You were somewhat adopted and, uhm, the best way to help you along, to keep you alive, was to make you my sister. I didn't like you very much at first. That changed. I got a little protective."
Never humour the delusion; it only hurts:
Sybil: "Is that the part with the shoe?"
Sonnet: "No. I gave you tea a lot. Tea, cookies, chocolate. Pretty dresses."
Sybil: "I'm a doll. I'm a fucking doll;"
Sonnet: "You were a dress up doll."
Sybil: "_That_ explains the shoe."
It seemed a fair question to ask:
Sonnet: "And then you learned how to cope and how to adapted and you became -"
Sybil: "You didn't kill me here at any part?"
Sonnet: "Nope."
Sybil: "Torture, maim, mutilate?"
Standards are relative:
Sonnet: "We were often back to back fighting evil." Pause. "Sometimes good."
Sybil: "But that's the kind of people we were with?"
Sonnet: "See, there was this beautiful queen. Okay, so she wasn't that pretty, but she was nice."
Sense a theme here?
Sybil: "Do you realize that your world doesn't contain any happy people?"
Sonnet: "It did."
Sybil: "And they all died, huh?"
Just a reminder:
Sonnet: "It was happy once."
Sybil: "Yah."
Sonnet: "I was happy."
Sybil: "I'm not striving for happy with the breakout."
Sonnet: "We're striving for daylight without killing anybody."
Empirical evidence suggests heavy use of discount crack:
Sybil: "Why don't you want them to cure you?"
Sonnet considers.
Sonnet: "Who says I'm not already cured?"
Sybil: "I really hate to point this out..."
Sonnet: "... but, yes, I just bit all my fingers to write in blood."
Sybil: "Blood on the mirror? Blue mud in your bellybutton?"
The lights go out. Small... catch:
Sybil and Sonnet: "Shit! "
GM: "That hum you didn't entirely notice before from the lock on the door is no longer happening."
Sybil: "C'mon. Let's go!"
GM to Sonnet: "Without your kung fu superpowers, you're not sure you can do something with that."
On the upside, old cohorts and friends:
Sonnet: "Let's go ahead. Let's go."
GM: "There are footsteps coming; the gate is uneven."
Sybil: "That's him." They hit the door. They try to shoulder it, to kick it, to no avail.
Guard: "You're making too much noise!"
GM: "The guard steps into sight. He has an eye patch and a limp."
Sonnet doesn't laugh. At all.
The best laid plans of mice and men:
GM: "The guard opens the door. Sybil dives for it. Sonnet follows. Lucan steps back. Someone walks up behind Lucan and cold cocks him. He falls to the ground. Sybil dives at him; he puts her up against the door.
Selm says into his radio: "ETA 7 mins. Captain, are you alright?"
Sonnet: "I didn't want you to kill him."
Selm: "We're on a timetable here. We have about 15 minutes here for the power outage. We can't make a move till we meet up with Ben."
Sonnet picks up Sybil.
Minutes pass. They wait. The guard arrives; it's the judge with a military haircut, but about a decade younger: Benedict. Let's split up and sneak off alone; we'll be safer that way!
Selm: "3 minutes before shift."
Sonnet: "No killing...."
Benedict: "2..3...4....6...7....8....9..10..."
Selm: "Hag on. I gotta go check on someone. I heard a noise."
Credentials:
Benedict: "What is she [Sybil] doing here?"
Sybil: "I masterminded this, you fuck!"
Life is full of little regrets:
Sybil to Sonnet: "No killing, remember?"
Benedict: "Oops!" He shrugs. "Let's go."
No plan survives intact outside a vacuum:
GM: "There are gunshots in the distance and then a hubub up on the walls. Selm is crouching across the courtyard and moving towards a garden. And then the power comes back on."
Sonnet: "Shit!"
A gunshot takes Benedict off his feet. The girls run straight ahead despite the gunfire coming right at them. The moment of decision:
GM: "Sonnet. Live or die?"
Sonnet: "Live."
GM: "Everything's black."
In the hospital where Finndo took Sonnet to be saved, the doctor is trying to explain his concerns to Finndo. Cheating:
Doctor: "The problem seems to be with her will to live."
Finndo: "All right."
Doctor: "They're fixing everything they can, but she's just not holding on. "
Finndo: "Keep doing what you can. I'll see what I can do."
It's not Piero if it's not cryptic:
Piero whispers: "You have to get me out of here."
Sonnet: "How?"
Piero: "Carry a message for me."
Sonnet: "All right."
Piero: "Tell them to mind the corridors."
Sonnet: "Okay."
Piero: "I have to go."
Sonnet: "Okay."
Finndo trumps Sonnet in an effort to tie her to her body. And it mostly works. Did we mention the cheating?
Sonnet: "Something's working right. Hi?"
Finndo: "SONNET!"
Sonnet: "HI!"
GM: "It's like you're talking to each other down a long pipe."
Sonnet: "FINNDO!"
Finndo: "Can you stay with me?"
Sonnet: "YEAH!"
Finndo: "Just concentrate! This is not a very good connection!"
Sonnet: "We paid the bill, right?"
Finndo: "Good to see some things are intact. Can you come closer?"
Sonnet: "Do you have a rope? Just say you have a fucking rope."
Finndo: "I have a fucking rope; just come closer."
Belated advice:
GM: "Inch by inch she comes closer to you. THe doctors are having a quick argument, there's a flurry activity, you start to see each other as a blur."
Sonnet: "There's a tunnel."
Finndo: "Okay, if you see a bright light, don't necessarily go into it."
Sonnet: "I am so sick of bright light."
Good to have these things settled:
GM: "And there's a bright light. She steps forward to the blur. She wakes up on the table."
Finndo: "So I don't kill the doctor's family."
It's that Legendary Graces on his sheet - that and the amazing power of bullshitting on the fly:
Sonnet: "Okay."
Finndo: "Hey."
Sonnet: "You have a law degree."
Finndo: "I think I'm reasonably sure I've got one or two honorary ones."
Typically of Selm, we don't know one way or the other for sure. Fuckin' gamesmen:
Sonnet tries to sit up: "Fuck. Ow!"
Finndo: "Yeah, I wouldn't. Be careful."
GM: "Selm apparently cut through a lot of stuff that is almost vital; missed by that much. He either had momentary bad aim or it was an intentional miss."
That's a once in a lifetime deal:
Sonnet: "You look like hell."
Finndo: "Yeah, well, still prettier than you at the moment."
A good boss is one who will be evil on your behalf:
Sonnet: "Thanks, I think. I don't wanna die."
Finndo: "That's good, because I just paid men a good deal of money and threatened their families."
The powers of good brought to low purposes:
Sonnet: "Why did you threaten their families?"
Finndo: "Sometimes it makes them work hard."
Sonnet: "Sometimes it makes them work less hard if they don't like their family."
Finndo: "Yes, this is why I go for family men."
Jarrod: "EvilCorp, a family company."
They never tell you to live well. It's less dramatic or something:
Finndo: "What is the last thing you remember? Because I just found you pinned to a door."
Sonnet: "Being pinned to a door."
Finndo: "That works out nicely. What's the last thing you remember?"
Sonnet: "Being told to die well."
Sonnet seems to have this issue with naming names:
Finndo: "By?"
Sonnet: "Who d'you think was good enough? There are two options."
Finndo: "The person who did this was very lucky or very good."
Sonnet: "He was very good and very unlucky."
Finndo: "If you could just tell me who, because I've got a list of five."
Justifying the paranoia:
Sonnet: "Selm did it."
Finndo: "Right."
Sonnet: "But I think he had help and he was told to do it."
Finndo: "Mother."
Sonnet: "Got it in one. Watching. Somebody's watching."
Thanks for the reassurance:
Sonnet: "Oh, and I have a message from Piero."
Finndo covers his eyes.
Sonnet: "And no, I am not shitting you."
Rank hath its priveleges:
Finndo: "This day gets better and better."
Sonnet: "Drugs aren't that good."
Finndo: "Oh, they do here and I'm about to go prove that."
If it was the key, the box would be several universes over and beneath the glittering stone:
Sonnet: "The hangover must be -"
Finndo: "Pain free stuff; it's good to be a villain. Message from Piero?"
Sonnet: "Mind the corridors."
Finndo: "Yeah, it couldn't be something straightforward like 'here's the key to my safe deposit box'."
Priorities:
Sonnet: "Ben and Selm worked together to break me out; kinda neat, really."
Finndo: "Okay. So. Right."
Lydia: "Drugs."
True consideration:
Finndo: "I think they're going to be putting you to sleep for a little bit here."
Sonnet: "Mind if I stay awake?"
Finndo: "The doctors don't think that's necessarily healthy."
Sonnet: "I'm going to sleep for a while."
Finndo: "Okay. No one knows you're here."
Sonnet: "So I shouldn't accept any trump calls."
Finndo: "I'd strongly suggest it until you know what you want to do."
Carpe Diem, Carpe Corpus, Carpe The Hell Away From Here:
GM: "Bump forward 8 hours. She's being brought back around again."
Sonnet: "You've got the technology to rebuild me?"
Finndo: "Better faster stronger kind of rebuild?"
Sonnet: "Different."
Sonnet's solution to being Karm: no longer being Karm.
Finndo: "Plastic surgery kind of stuff."
Sonnet: "Body rebuild? Yeah. I could say so my own mother wouldn't recognize me but she doesn't even do that when I'm home."
Finndo: "So. Tangent. Filed. So. Reconstruction."
It's good to have balance among extremes:
Sonnet: "And I'm feeling kind of compassionate for some reason, must be the near death experience."
Finndo: "Well, that's one of us."
And then the plotting begins:
Finndo: "I agree that returning to Amber would be a near death experience for you. And if they are watching, that would be a death sentence."
Sonnet: "I even have an idea of how I could be placed close to you."
How about simply thorough?
Finndo: "So you want a big funeral?"
Sonnet: "Lavish. Elaborate. I'll even help arrange it."
Finndo: "That might be too obvious. Let's assume that if we're being witty, Selm can spot it."
Sonnet: "Yeah. I don't think I'll ever be witty again."
Spare linens, spare silverware, spare bodies... regular housekeeping stuff:
Finndo: "I'm going back to Amber to report that you have died on the operating table. Excuse me; I have to go get a body."
Sonnet: "Are you going to get a body - a real one?"
Finndo: "I've grown one in a vat."
Sonnet: "I don't know why I'm so sensitive to that."
The GM and Shai have a bag of scrabble tiles from which they pull five letters to make up her name: A L I R G. Walking /right/ into it:
GM: "Grail."
Shai: "A Girl."
Deborah: "Rilga! Rilga!"
GM smirks.
Deborah: "Seriously, it says Rilga, it's - JEESUS CHRIST! What the fuck am I saying?!"
Lydia: "AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!"
The castle guard really needs to invest in some cowbells and tracking devices:
Benedict, looking at Sonnet's room: "There was a great swordfight here; the winner went out this way and the loser was pinned to the door."
GM: "It looks like some footprints originated at some point; they walked into the pool of blood but didn't walk out of it."
Benedict calls for a guard: "Fetch Prince Osric, immediately."
Guard: "Where is he? Is he in residence, sir? We are not often able to keep track of such things."
Benedict trumps Osric.
Osric: "Yes?"
Benedict: "I - ." And he stops.
Scott: "Ben doesn't seem to have any words; he just holds out a hand."
Osric: "Right. I set down my drink then."
Benedict brings Osric through to Sonnet's room, still fresh with the scene of her murder. Why be kind when you can be snide?
Benedict: "There was a note. I can't read it."
Osric: "Well, keep practicing. I'm sure you'll get it at some point."
It's better than twitching his nose like a super powered rabbit:
GM to Osric: "Are you going to use your - wiggles hands at eyebrows."
Jarrod: "Once he realizes he needs his psychic eyebrows of doom."
They trump Finndo to tell him about the note. It must be a family thing:
Osric: "It seems like a warning, brother."
Finndo: "A warning of what?"
Osric: "Not quite sure."
Finndo: "Keep practicing, I'm sure you'll get it at some point."
Finndo trumps into the main hall, collapsing with great drama. The Princes are summoned; Finndo lays Sonnet out on a table, covered in a sheet. Finndo is drinking. Bet Sonnet wishes she hadn't missed this:
Benedict: "Finndo?"
Finndo: "Couldn't save her."
Benedict strides over, rips off the sheet.
Finndo: "It's not as bad as it looks; mostly that's from the surgeons."
Let's get to the point: vengeance.
GM: "Osric enters."
Osric: "It is as bad as it looks."
Benedict: "Where did you find her?"
Finndo: "Pinned to a door in her rooms. I was trumping her from elsewhere; she responded but very weakly; I managed to pull myself through, found her run through, took her to a place in shadow with surgeons, but..."
Benedict: "Who did this?"
There's a place in the world for the angry young man:
Finndo: "Check her rooms; I didn't have time to take a weapon, look for evidence."
Benedict: "It was a very familiar weapon."
Finndo: "The strike was very precise. It was, wasn't it?"
Benedict: "I'm going to kill him."
Rob to GM: "I'm not going to stop him."
Professional interest:
Finndo silently offers the alcohol.
Finndo: "I take it you found the room, then?"
Benedict: "Yes."
Cyrus checks out the body.
Sybil looks past his shoulder.
Cyrus: "Dead how?"
Of course, since to be careful about the brothers figuring out this was a copy, Finndo got one pretty well mangled up:
GM: "Well, apparently something happened with her chest."
Cyrus: "Is there a clean wound amongst the mess?"
GM: "Whatever wound there was has effectively been obliterated."
Confirmation - as if we needed it. Which, on second thought, makes me think we do. Crap:
Finndo: "He hit her right about there."
Benedict to Osric: "Do you still have the note?."
Osric: "Mm. Yes."
Benedict: "May I see it?"
Osric: "If you like."
Benedict offers the note to Finndo: "Found on the sword.
GM to Finndo: "Hm. The note is - you don't know the cipher itself but it resembles games you've played with Selm."
Finndo has the unfortunate honor of informing Karm that his beloved daughter has passed. Sympathy for the sociopath:
Finndo: "I bring news of the worst kind. Your daughter is dead."
Karm: "By whose hand?"
Finndo: "We have no evidence yet but the suspicion is on Selm."
Karm: "I'm conspired against."
Finndo: "I believe that is the case."
Karm: "In order to avenge this I must be freed!"
Finndo: "I have every confidence."
Saddest thing yet:
Finndo: "I'll attempt to have you out in time for the funeral. Do you have any specific requests in that regard?"
Karm: "I'll prepare a List."
Finndo: "Very well. You have my deepest condolences. She was a wonderful woman."
Karm: "So I've heard."
Finndo takes his leave.
Benedict is the last to leave.
Karm turns his back to the door.
GM: "You hear the wet thump of a fist on stone."
Session over.