Theatre and Themes

Today was another normal day for Rumia, which was another day still stuck in this place. She’s been doing a lot of thinking lately, and she woke up with a headache.

Her brain was completely fried, and she was still tired. Honestly, she just wanted to spend today sleeping in for the entirety of the day. Her room wasn’t that bad, really. The bed was comfortable, she had all of the amenities she could want, and she didn’t have a surveillance dog following her all the time.

‘Dog’ was probably too rude of a term to apply to Grimace. He wasn’t that bad, but the girl liked having her own space. The room was the closest thing she could get to that. However, she couldn’t lie in this bed forever.

This day was a day off from classes. Most students would probably take today as a chance to hang out and live their lives. Rumia however, couldn’t live her life until she was out of here. That included her goal from yesterday, which was mapping out the sewers properly.

Rumia dragged herself out of bed and grabbed her cloak. She was fully expecting to open the door and see Grimace on the other side, but that shouldn’t be a problem for her. He probably wouldn’t object to Rumia going to see the city.

The one thing she did forget about though is…

“Morning Rumia!”

“Good morning, Anise.”

She never really accounted for Anise in her plans. She just spared some time of day for her experiments, but never expected much of her.

“Today’s our day off, outside of the experiment later, of course,” Anise said.

“Yeah, I’ll get back to you on that,” Rumia said, preparing to leave. However, Anise suddenly moved in front of her.

“So I was thinking that maybe we could hang out for today?” Anise said. “If you want, that is. I don’t have anything else I need to do.”

“Huh? I was just going to go out to see the city,” Rumia said. “I’m still not fully familiar with this place.”

“I can help you with that!” Anise said. “I know a lot of great places around the city, plus we can have fun on our day off right?”

Rumia stopped to think for a moment. She wanted to walk around the city on her own accord so she could jot down specific locations on her map. However, Anise posed an interesting option that she hadn’t considered yet.

She weighed the options here, and figured that Anise would be more helpful than not. Not only could she be a guide around the city, but only talking to Grimace for the entire day would probably cause her to go crazy.

“Sure,” Rumia said, taking her map out of her cloak. “I’m trying to map out this place the best I can. If you can tell me about the buildings you know, that would be really helpful.”

“Yes!” Anise seemed to internally celebrate, before composing herself. “Alright. Tell me where you want to go, and I’ll show you everything!”

***

The trio walked through the crowded marketplace, as Rumia has already made a fairly decent amount of progress on her map. She had managed to mark down multiple areas already, and she managed to trace these paths back down to the sewers.

There were a few buildings of interest, mostly stores. She could probably buy materials herself, but if she ever needed items in secret, then she would be able to utilize the sewers. There was also the library, the guard station, and city hall. All were potentially useful for gathering information, especially if her current situation ended up getting more political than she’d hoped.

“Oh!” Anise said. “I should show you guys one of my favorite things before I went to school.”

“What is it?” Rumia asked.

“Grumble’s Theatre! It was one of my favorite places to go before school took over.”

“Don’t we have the theatre kids at school? Why spend money on another theatre?”

“Well, the theatre kids aren’t professionals yet. These guys are pros!” Anise said. “Look, they’re even advertising a show!”

The three of them walked up to the front of the theatre, and a poster stood looking back at them.

Murder Mystery! Come and help us solve the murder of nobleman, Wale Thy. An interactive experience for all of the viewers.

“Oooh, murder mystery. I love those!” Anise said. “Come on, it’s our day off. It’ll be fun!”

“I suppose, it couldn’t hurt,” Rumia said, checking her map once again. She noticed that this theatre was also connected to one of the sewer entrances she had marked. She quickly jotted that down.

“What about you, Grimace?” Anise asked.

“Eurgh,” Grimace’s face twisted into displeasure, before shaking his head. “It is fine if we watch, I do not have any objections.”

“Sweet!” Anise ran up to the ticket stand and bought three tickets, before running back. She seemed to be pretty excited.

“I used to go here with my mom and dad but I never brought any friends along. This is going to be awesome!” the excited engineer girl said.

Her smile was pretty cute, to say the least. You couldn’t say no to that.

***

“But, who murdered Sir Thy? The answer is unclear still,” the man on the stage said. Dressed as a detective, looking around the entire theatre in a dramatic performance. An entire cast of other actors surrounded him, alongside one of them playing dead. They all looked very distinguished, as expected of a noble party. “There are still so many suspects, so many problems… I need a moment to think. To ponder, and perhaps call for some help. I will be back soon!”

The detective walked off, and the curtains closed for intermission. The audience clapped, though the amount of people in said audience was relatively little.

“I would’ve thought there would be more people here,” Rumia said. “Maybe not filling the entire theatre but… more than we have right now.”

It was a quite empty show, every few seats had a person in it but this was nowhere near bustling business.

“Lockdown,” Grimace responded. “Tourism markets have taken a huge hit, so it's mostly up to locals. That basically slashes the market in half.”

“Well, that’s their loss isn’t it?” Anise said. “In my opinion, this company should earn a hundred, million, trillion lunar for their efforts!”

“I always wondered why you were such a theatre nut,” Rumia said. “Seems a little bit weird for someone of your… study.”

“Well, I love my inventions, but a girl has other hobbies too. As said, my parents used to take me here a lot, but these guys do immersive storytelling. It’s like I get to hang out with them for real.”

“I’m surprised that didn’t carry over to talking to people in school,” Grimace said.

“Shut up, that’s different,” Anise pouted. Rumia just shrugged, she was surprised Anise didn’t go out too much if that was the case.

“What do you think of books, then?” Rumia then asked. “They tell stories just like these plays do, and you can replay them as much as you want.”

“I do like books, I’ve read a lot of them for school,” Anise said. “They’re fun! It’s just, they don’t have that special oomph to them, you know? We get to see everything happen here, and it’s only once. Plus, the actors change depending on their audience as well.”

“So can your mind too,” Rumia interjected. “I would say that’s something you can definitely do.”

“What do you mean by that?” Anise asked.

“As a pretty avid reader myself,” Grimace spoke up. “Think of it as you’re directing your own play every time you read. You can theoretically create the perfect interpretation of the text for yourself.”

“Mhm,” Rumia nodded. “Adelyn taught me that a while back. A play really is just that kind of interpretation but like, here and all.”

“I guess, but isn’t making that interpretation clear something that makes it special, no? If everyone can imagine their own story, then making it tangible… and making it known to the world. I dunno, there’s some kind of magic to that.”

“I suppose that’s fair. I just grew up as a book person.”

She could thank a certain someone for that.

“By the way, who exactly is Adelyn?” Anise asked suddenly. “I think you talked with her over PASCAL but never in that much detail.”

Rumia paused and considered how to answer this question. She didn’t want to get Anise wrapped up in her escape drama more than she already was, so she decided to go with a simple and vague answer.

“She’s a friend, we lived together for a while. We just aren’t able to talk to each other now,” Rumia said. She shot a glance at Grimace, who knew the full gravity of Rumia’s situation, but tried to overall remain neutral.

“I see. It was just me and my parents,” Anise said.

“We lived with someone too, Mr. Svector. I haven’t seen him in a long time either,” Rumia said back. “I wonder how he’s doing.”

Rumia realized that she’s been very focused on Adelyn throughout her entire trip, so she’d only given Mr. Svector a few thoughts as a result. She did miss him a lot, and she hoped that he wasn’t too worried.

She and Adelyn were handling themselves, so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

“The show will be resuming!” the announcer yelled. “Please remain quiet in your seats. A special guest investigator will be chosen from the audience soon.”

Since this was an interactive experience, the three of them had to sign on whether they wished to be apart of this call. Both Grimace and Rumia said no, while Anise said yes.

“Oooh! I hope it’s me,” Anise said. Shortly after, the curtains got pulled apart. The cast returned, and the detective stood forwards in front of the stage.

“Ladies and gentlemen, do not fear. We shall solve this mystery posthaste!” The detective called out. “From the clues we have gathered so far, I believe there is one person best suited for the job to solve it. I would like to call…”

The man reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small piece of paper. He looked up and smiled, before announcing it to the crowd.

“ANISE OURANIA!” he said. Anise practically jumped out of her chair in delight before walking through the aisle to the stage. Grimace and Rumia both gave their due applause for her.

“Now, Detective Ourania, I’m sure you have many thoughts on this murder. Why would someone kill Sir Thy? How could it have happened? It seems like he died from blunt force trauma after all. Please, compile your thought process for us.”

Anise began to speak to the crowd, and she seemed pretty natural. Her performance actually impressed Rumia, she didn’t know that she had it in her.

“Considering her academic record, I am surprised she does this well on stage,” Grimace said. “I am impressed.”

“Maybe she’s too busy working on her experiments to try?” Rumia suggested. “Perhaps some more time off would be due for her.”

“I’m afraid I’m not in charge of that, Rumia,” Grimace said.

It was worth a shot. Regardless, seeing Anise happily deduce her thought process on this stage was surprisingly enjoyable. A few details about how exactly the murder could have happened, examining the scene, and even some subtle body language cues she caught on. Rumia herself wasn’t paying attention that closely, so some of these flew over her head.

And, she was doing it all with a big smile on her face too. That was the kicker. She still needed to escape this city, but maybe some things inside this place weren’t too bad.