tellthestory: (Default)
The Balladeer ([personal profile] tellthestory) wrote2016-10-05 08:20 pm

THE BOX OFFICE

This is where you can meet privately with the Balladeer! The Balladeer is almost always around during the day; just knock.

(Secretly, the door's usually not locked if he's inside. But you wouldn't want to be rude, would you?)

Comments are screened for privacy!
inforapenny: (tell you how how you make me feel)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-03 03:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know, I think his collar sticks up because it's chemically 95% salt at this point. Maybe he's just 95% salt.

[He puts his empty mug down on the desk carefully.]

...I-I, um. I wanna say, thanks for... talking to me. I guess I just, uh, just needed to talk to someone who knew...

[He doesn't seem in a big hurry to leave, though, he just wanted to say it in case the Balladeer decides to kick him out.]

...It'd be a long shot for me to ask if you knew anything about how our memories got removed, right?
inforapenny: (underthings tumbling)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-03 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
...I-if you didn't already know, I don't think I would've come in here.

[Secret identities and all that.]

...I don't believe in magic. All magic is is science that's more advanced than the beholder. A cell phone would be magic to a caveman. Or, uh, probably also to a pirate.

...Where did my phone go?
inforapenny: (mumbling)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-03 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh. Heh, for a second I forgot that Garfield was a president, and I thought you were talking about the cat.

[He looks awkward at that.]

I haven't, um. Visited the booth, yet.
inforapenny: (underthings tumbling)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-03 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I bet a lot of presidents were nice enough, some of them have that kind of big friendly grandpa aesthetic to them. The older ones, anyway.

That's weird. Another plot device thing? Like, uh.... What's the one with the gun on the mantle? Only I guess it's like, um, the...random crap that comes out of the booth in Act 1 has to be relevant by Act 3...
inforapenny: (mumbling)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-03 08:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I only kinda know the ones from my lifetime. Carter and, uh, Reagan, and...them.

[Anyway!

That response is very interesting, and Billy considers it for a moment, before something that the Balladeer said earlier comes back to him.]


Can I, uh. Can I ask you...something else?
inforapenny: (underthings tumbling)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-03 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[The difference is that Billy knows that Penny won't be happy if he kills Hammer, he just has a contingency plan.

Also he doesn't remember that yet um.]


...Why do you want to help the Showrunners, if you don't agree with what- with what they're making us do?
inforapenny: (Laundry day see you there)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-03 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
[Billy glances around the room to see if they're being monitored, and then scooches forward and lowers his voice, too.]

What did you think it was going to be?

[He sounds curious, not judgmental, an ironic echo of earlier: What difference do they want to make?]>/small>
inforapenny: (mumbling)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-04 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
[Yeah he'll act as well.]

Did they tell you that you could maybe change it? Or did you decide to try on your own?
inforapenny: (anyways)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-04 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
...Have you thought about making your own chance? You don't have to let this be the status quo.

[Because the status is not quo.]
inforapenny: (underthings tumbling)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-04 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
They're... They're trying harder to break us than you thought they would, right? So we need to stand together, more than they expect us to.
inforapenny: (with my freeze ray I will stop)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-04 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
But there's only so much we can do by ourselves. You're- you're part of their experiment too.
inforapenny: (anyways)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-04 11:08 am (UTC)(link)
Twenty people brought together from all different backgrounds, with the hypothesis that isolation and stimulus will make them commit murder. The motives and the promise of freedom are all the independent variables, because they're the factors that the Showrunners control, with who kills for which motive being the dependent variable, because it is dependent on the independent variable.

But then... They have one person who's dealt with murderers and with a comparable format before. They could have just told you when you were recruited to do the same thing you did last time, to not interfere or try to help us. But they told you that you could help. And in so doing, they made you an independent variable, too.

Their hypothesis is that even with exposure to hope, any person can fall into despair with the right stimulus. What they're not counting on... is losing control of an independent variable.

[It's science, Jim!]
Edited 2016-11-04 11:10 (UTC)
inforapenny: (with my freeze ray)

[personal profile] inforapenny 2016-11-04 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
...I don't know, either.

[He doesn't say what he suspects: that the Balladeer is supposed to try and try and try to save them until he falls into despair like the rest.]

I don't know what all you can do that we can't, or what, if anything, you can't do that we can.

[It's a quiet admission, compared to the hushed passion he had when he was talking about the science behind this social experiment.]

But... This isn't about history, anymore. I-I mean, most of us aren't even from the same time, let alone world. Balladeer, this doesn't have to be just our story anymore. You can be more than just a narrator.

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