★ the closest star ★

and like. clancy's truly so alone on this set. the bodies next to her on the couch are decaying and rotting. her torchbearer is just a ghost. backup dancers and musicians. seized bodies only there to make sure she complies. she folds her hands together and looks up as a prayer and asks Why won't you speak? Where I happen to be? can you save my heavydirtysoul? but no one answers. there's no one living and she's only halfway living herself. it's all screens and smoke and mirrors and dead bodies and memorized lines and conditioning her over commercial break.

she goes up to the screen of a distorted crowd . “repeat after me” but it’s prerecorded it’s scripted she’s not really talking to anyone. in fact hardly anyone on that set is real. her drummer and her guide is just a projection, the bodies next to her in the couch are decaying before her, the backup dancers are all seized vessels, just there to keep her in line. “repeat after me” but she knows it’s fake, she knows it’s just for the bishops, just for the idea of it all, except if she pretends, it’s real. they’re real and they can sing back to her and get her out.

in every universe but this one i save you? in every version of trench but the one i'm stuck repeating? if i could just get out If i could only rip apart this cycle i could get us both out. i could get us both somewhere safe and warm and loving. in every other universe i can love you forever. in this universe i will keep trying to get us there.

no no no put me back in the loop I almost did it perfect please put me back just a few more tries and I think I could really nail it please put me back

no no no put me back in the loop I almost did it perfect please put me back just a few more tries and I think I could really nail it please put me back

the night before the banditos were going to breach the city clancy and torch still shared a tent together. do you think they did their normal routine and pretended like nothing was about to change? do you think clancy knew that she wasn't coming back from this? do you think torch held her a little tighter than normal?