text @ everyone after wedding 2 | un: whitewitch

[beautifullies]

[ It only takes some trial and error before Claire is sure of her typing skills. Enough so to share with the group. Not that she's sure there's anything worth telling, but it seems better to be safe than sorry. ]

This may be a point of interest to someone, or helpful in trying to understand what's happening with Firo and the wedding. From what I can tell, her bride was more apt to let Firo lead the conversations and make their plans. To hear Firo tell it, Prassenze never gave any details of her own life. She couldn't answer much about her, beyond her bride rented from a matron using inheritance money. But that's mostly it, one of only a very small handful of facts (or what seemed to be facts) on repeat.

[ Pausing, Claire glances at the notes she's written for herself before continuing. She wanted to try and speak with Firo again, but that doesn't seem like it will happen soon. ]

Apparently, Prassenze os more of the watch-and-listen type, one to gather information on others siltnly. She had Firo convinced the details of her past didn't matter. As for how the bride was behaving before the second wedding, I asked; if Firo didn't remember the day repeating, then what was Prassenze like the day before? The answer: She was quite agitated about something, but Firo didn't know what. Perhaps in preparation for fleeing?

Oh, and one last thing. Firo was sure that Prassenze was afraid of weapons and fighting, that she was a very peaceful person who volunteered by making clothes for the less fortunate.

[ But what does it all mean other than a poor woman who was potentially fooled? ]

It seems to me that our runaway bride was very good at telling Firo everything she wanted to hear, and let her believe they would have it all.

[ It's sad, really. ]

None of this may matter, but I felt better sharing than not.

Comments

un: absterge

[downswing]

Why wed a stranger?

[beautifullies]

A perfectly good question. It seemed, to me, that Firo's intended put quite a lot of ideas in her head. At least, Firo didn't believe Prassenze to be a stranger at all.

[downswing]

Manipulated the circumstance.

[beautifullies]

To use someone for six months is quite a long con. And for what purpose? What did Prassenze get out of this?

[downswing]

A marriage.

[beautifullies]

Of course. One so wanted that she left.

[downswing]

Perhaps forced. Anguished. Extorted.

[beautifullies]

Perhaps. Odd that Firo didn't realize she had a completely different bride. But then, when you've never seen the person you're marrying, I suppose that's more believable.

Your suggestion implies someone wanted something either from Firo or another person on the train.

[downswing]

Renown heroines boast enemies.

[beautifullies]

A valid point. And if she'd never seen Prassenze, could she have been the enemy herself? After all, they'd never seen one another, and then she was completely different.

[downswing]

Why wed? Strike before vows.

[beautifullies]

Why target someone in such a visible location?

[downswing]

Rare opportunity?

[beautifullies]

Which leads to the next question: an opportunity for what, exactly?

[downswing]

Make new of herself.

[beautifullies]

There must be simpler ways to start fresh.

I feel as though I've missed something in trying to apply logic from my own world into the equation. A mistake I won't make in the future.

[ Perhaps she could have gotten more out of Firo, but all she can do now is work with the others trying to solve this puzzle. Her weirdest life experience is nothing compared to all this. ]

Do you think a goal has been accomplished by the bride then, that she was successful in her second attempt?

[downswing]

Then, why disappear once more?

[beautifullies]

Perhaps she's a ghost or something similar. Nearly everyone onboard has very much enjoyed explaining various situations with the dead you've all been through.

[downswing]

The dead do not walk freely among your kind?

[beautifullies]

No, not in either century I've lived in. Everything here has been a bit new, to say the absolute least.

[downswing]

...the dead?

[beautifullies]

We have plenty of dead, they simply stay that way.

[ Except, that isn't quite right, is it? She thinks of the skull. She has to amend herself. ]

There are ghosts. But they aren't able to do anything save relive their final moments, at least in my experience which isn't much.

[downswing]

Do not yet fear.

[beautifullies]

Then I'm supposing it won't be long until I see first hand.

[downswing]

Stay armed.

un: brightsun

[stephanivien]

You think this whole thing some sort of deliberately deceitful scheme, then?

Quite a ruse to maintain for six months, if so.

[beautifullies]

I suspect Firo was convenient. Everyone speaks of how heroic she is, and I don't doubt that could be true. But that doesn't mean she wasn't easily pulled in by promises.

What she was useful for, I don't know. But she's the one left behind and blindsided, unable to tell anyone much about the supposed love of her life.

[stephanivien]

While I cannot speak in defense of the wisdom of withholding personal details, I can understand that one's circumstances could lead one to playing their own personal cards close to their chest. Even more, more than one love I have known has sprung first out of convenience.

That aside, whatever other motives, I think it is a disservice to not at least give countenance to the fact that both in yesterday's wedding and today's, Prassenze's regard for Firo has seemed genuine.

[ There's a long pause, before the message that follows, as he's been mulling over a thought. ]

After all, wouldn't anyone like a second chance at a first impression?

[beautifullies]

When you've been doing nothing but writing letters to the one you wish to spend the rest of your life with, I don't know that I quite understand the need for secrets. Unless they could endanger, I suppose. And even then, if you're going to leave, why bother showing up at the station for the train?

[ It's a take that Claire hadn't considered, but she isn't sure what she believes about what's happening either. ]

The disappearing does make one wonder how much the second chance was wanted.

[stephanivien]

I do see your meaning. I won't deny the whole thing is quite strange.

Perhaps, it is only that I wonder now if the disappearing is a consequence of getting a second chance.

If it is only us—those from different stars—who seem to notice that the day is repeating... Would today have not been that second chance to try and make a better first impression? I don't blame the girl for trying; some of Firo's party seemed to think it terrible that the bride was of a quieter disposition.

[ He'd been speaking with Hugo, of Firo's wedding party, as well, and while he hasn't fully come to mind of the whole thought... the things the man had said have started the cogs on his mind turning away at speed. ]

The bride disappears, the storms of nightmares outside rage, and then the day resets, with a changed bride and few seem the wiser to it all.

[ Is it a cost? Is it a trigger? Hard to say at this point, but actually... ]

Did Firo say anything at all about her bride being able to do magic, perchance? Or some other such talent?

[beautifullies]

Granted, my own marriage was unusual, but there was nothing else potentially at play. Just political tension. I do understand though, how perhaps marrying someone you don't intimately know would be nervewracking.

[ On both sides, really. But there's something so odd about this whole marriage that Claire can't stop mulling it over. ]

Firo didn't mention much real information about her at all, other than her bride's devotion to follow Firo everywhere. That seems to be what they spoke of the most. But think about it: Firo has no idea what this woman looks like, and if things don't go the way you want them to, and if you have the ability, why not reset the day as a different person and try again?

[stephanivien]

Truly no one, then, seems to know much about the bride at all.

...Which is all the more support for that idea, indeed—to reset the day and try again as someone new.

How then becomes the question, and I guess... who?

[ Prassenze seems the most likely, in some resepcts, but its not like either of these seem to have been the greatest of weddings, either, with one's friends bad-mouthing your future bride. Or, as today, picking fights with them. ]

I imagine for neither Prassenze nor Firo, neither of these past two days would have been the sort of wedding either would have wanted.

To hear tell from the gentler of Firo's party, she was quite taken with their letters. Enough that they took first priority whenever they arrived. I could imagine her wanting things to go perfectly. And having your much-awaited bride disappear at the end of the night seems much the opposite.

And it is certainly no wonder why Prassenze might wish to try the whole thing over again.

[beautifullies]

Perhaps the wedding is a red herring. Prassenze is the most obvious culprit here, but that almost seems too simple. An easy suspect to point at, when she returns changed for another go and few can remember the previous attempt.

[ Of course, Occam's Razor and all of that, but this mystery seems beyond simple principles. ]

'How' is an excellent question, considering somehow Firo is immune to the loop. Other than Prassenze getting to try again, what could someone else get out of resetting things?

[ It's been one hell of a ride, trying to wrap her mind around things that didn't even seem real a few days ago. Claire feels as if her contributions aren't as well-rounded as others who've been here longer, simply because of her lack of knowledge regarding anything involving magic. But she tries. And she liked Firo well enough, she'd like some sort of happy resolution for her. ]