Voice Testing an Operatic Songbird

[chorusing]

You shouldn't be so ready to take me from the world I know. I appreciate your interest, but matters are complicated enough, don't you think?

I would much prefer your well-wishes for the life I have chosen.

Comments

[keening_phantom]

[Mun hopes you forgive them for tagging in.]

Matters are always growing more complicated. [While he wishes her well, he's also jealously wondering what life it is that she's chosen.]

What have you been taken from?

[chorusing]

[No need for forgiveness!]

Even for you, it seems. [Finding herself in odd circumstances in one thing, but he... He doesn't deserve it.] The book, mostly.

[keening_phantom]

[His world has always been complicated, he rolls with it for the most part, whether or not he 'deserves' it.]

Interesting. Regardless of the face before you now, so too is Erik.

[chorusing]

[There's joy and sorrow in that. She almost wanted to believe he was from a kinder tale - if such exists.]

What do you remember, Erik?

[keening_phantom]

[If only.]

I was to have a living wife if I spared your dear Viscount.

[chorusing]

And so you do. [Maybe not as he wishes, but she hasn't - and won't - break the vow.] I will not take my life.

[keening_phantom]

[He has to take a breath, because the Viscount de Chagny is not here, and he could keep the other half of it from her. But she was to be his wife, she was to have his full disclosure as such things should.]

And then I freed you. Because you wept with me. You let me -

[In his world she had not shied from him, had not turned pale or fainted when he'd kissed her forehead. It had been enough to make him happy.]

[chorusing]

[He makes her heart ache. She knows there is good in him - she had seen it when he had released her. It's his jealousy and fear of being abandoned that interferes, which is why she won't abandon him. Not completely. They will see each other before his death.

A soft smile follows his words and she stands on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.]

I remember. You were very kind to me and, at first, I didn't understand. I think I do now.

[keening_phantom]

[His heart simultaneously sings and sinks to his feet when she kisses his cheek. It takes a lion's share of composure not to kneel at her feet again, though tears threaten in his eyes.]

You have been so very kind to me, for all the devil's games I made you play.

[chorusing]

You are in pain. I would be angry with you if you played the games just to be cruel. [Even so, she wishes he had merely approached her as a friend.] I missed my father very much. When he died, there was a hole. I didn't know what would happen to me or where I would go.

It was then that you came into my life. You gave me opportunities I never dreamed possible.

[keening_phantom]

[A man so desperate and lonely, he'd far over-reached on that account and had paid dearly for it.]

I can only imagine your father, looking down from on high to see his Christine, and being proud of who you've become.

Earthbound as I am, I can't speak for him, but I do know that I am proud.

[ingenue_bait]

Who takes you, Christine? Your poor, unhappy Erik would never harm you. Tell him who is doing so.

[chorusing]

It is not you that causes me concern. [She gives him a faint smile.] Have you encountered these...mundanes?

[ingenue_bait]

There is nothing mundane about the complete loss of privacy and autonomy.

[chorusing]

I think the term they use is ironic; meant to coax us into a false sense of security. But here we are - away from everything we know. They are not powerless.

[imlapislazuli]

That isn't how this works. They take us away, and then they just... keep us. To entertain them.

[chorusing]

We exist; we are real people. Surely they must feel some guilt imprisoning us?

[imlapislazuli]

Not to them, we aren't.

[chorusing]

Is there anything I can do to better your situation? [She seems so sad.] I'm not overly worried for myself - though I admit this is unsettling.

[imlapislazuli]

... you should be worried about yourself, too.

[Lapis has problems with the concept of being trapped and controlled. It isn't her first rodeo.]

The only thing that any of us can do is just... let them forget us. The things that they make us do-- they don't care about what we want at all. But we can't fight them. Trying to only makes it harder for them to move on and let us go. If we just go silent, then maybe we'll be freed.

[chorusing]

I am - to a certain degree. I've heard no concrete plans as to where I might go.

[So it's a waiting game and she'd rather focus on others.]

But what if they see us as friends and companions? A friend shouldn't be silent.

[imlapislazuli]

They aren't our friends!

[The gem's voice shakes, but she calms back down fairly quickly after the outburst.]

We're just... toys for them to play with. Haven't you seen any of the others in this place, or what happens to others that your own mundane has?

[... she sighs.]

Maybe yours isn't like mine. But I've seen mine talking with others like her before, and all they want to do is hurt us and make us do things we can't even understand because they think it's fun.

[chorusing]

[The outburst worries her and she moves closer, peering at Lapis questioningly.]

My mundane seems to like bringing some happiness to those in her care. [Though not always.] I suppose it depends on her mood?

[Her brow furrows and she lays a hand on Lapis's shoulder.]

It's not fun. You are suffering. Can you tell her so or does she not listen?

[imlapislazuli]

[Lapis startles a little at the touch, and looks at the other girl almost questioningly-- but... well. She relaxes slightly after a beat.]

She doesn't listen. She's never listened to any of us.

[chorusing]

Don't lose hope. [That's the worst thing in her mind.] You may not be able to understand one another now. That could change in time.