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Ah, but she's not. What side would she be on? Inmate or warden?

[He doesn't always ask questions this brazen, but he's doing it now. For her.]

Probably inmate. After all, she's guilty of the same things I am.

[ she sure as fuck is not. But at this moment, at this place in time, Nana's not entirely sure what she's guilty of in the first place. ]

Oh? And what things are that?

[He's not playing tricks today. Just curious.]

We're hungry. We're selfish. We'll fight and claw our way to our final stage, our stage of dreams by any means necessary.

[ There's a pause before, ]

I think the Admiral views selfishness as my crime. But it's not. It's foolish to punish someone for being selfish. That's a stage girl's very soul.

Do you think that's why you're here?

[He isn't entirely certain that's what she's meaning here.]

It's got to be. I can't think of anything else!

Well, whoever you're paired with will get a file. That might help.

How useful are those files? How much will it say about me?

It goes over your whole life.

[He peers into the enclosure again.]

Every detail, anything you tried to hide.

[ Lettuce stares up at Sheehan with a blank frog stare that Nana would say is cute and everybody else would say 'yep, that's a frog.' ]

In that case, it's a good thing that I'm not hiding anything!

That's quite a claim. Everyone hides something for many reasons, Nana.

And, I should point out, you were hiding your very status on this ship when you arrived.

In that case, how about a deal? I'll tell you what I'm hiding if you tell me what you're hiding.

[ It's said in a bright and cheery tone of voice. Because frankly? Nana doesn't think Sheehan will take the challenge. This whole conversation feels like both of them talking about her. Only her. Well if he's her temp, she'll need to know about him as well, won't she? Why are they just focused on her?

Besides, she can let one or two secrets spill and keep the big ones hidden away safe. ]

[Unfortunately for Nana, this is not 'fresh off canon' Sheehan. This is Sheehan who has been on the Barge for a while.]

Alright. You first.

[ Fuck. There's a small moment of surprise on Nana's face before she settles on, ]

I've told you that I work in production as well as an actress, right? I joined the production class because I had a specific idea of what this year's 'Starlight' should be. And the best way to make sure your ideas happen is to be there when the product's created.

What does that entail? I'm- not really familiar with theater.

[He's not stalling, either. He's simply trying to actually understand.]

It means I help with the script, the direction, making the sets, things like that. Usually, actors aren't involved with behind the scenes work like that. But I wanted to make sure our performance went exactly the way I wanted it to go.

[So she wanted control. That's an easy enough impulse to understand, but he knows there's more. Still, a deal's a deal.]

I created an elaborate setup for a patient, once. To help him live out his delusion in the hope that it would help him.

[ That is intensely interesting. ]

What was that set-up like? What did you do?

I let him think what he needed to think. I simply gave him the props that he needed to make his own perception reality. We had people playing parts, helping him out, all with the goal to keep him from surgery.

Immersive theater, [ Nana muses. Immersive theater for just one person. A magnificent stage, crafted solely for one man. What a massive undertaking. And what love, what passion Sheehan must have felt for that patient to create something like that. ]

I'd have loved to see that. It sounds like a lot of work. How did you know who to cast? You'd have to have people who were good at improvising for your actors.

[ Somebody who isn't Sheehan might find Nana's interest in all this just a little bit worrying. ]

[Sheehan is seeing some signs here. Some not great ones.]

We asked who would want to help and went from there. Left him clues and notes so we could keep him on track.

[ Idly, Nana wonders if she could use that in her next 'Starlight.' She tries her hardest to push everybody on the right track. But clues...she'll have to think about that. She can rework that to something useful for her. ]

How did your play end?

[There it is. Another little hint. Another clue.]

Not well. That's what my first deal was. To fix it from the beginning.

[ Oh. Well that's good to know! Sheehan's just like her! He goes back to do it all again to make things better, Nana's doing the same! Really, she's still not going to tell anybody about her revivals, about how she redoes her production of 'Starlight' over and over again, but if she was going to tell anybody, Sheehan would be at the top of the list.

Oddly, Nana seems to relax a bit at that new information. She's still interested, she still wants to know more, but she's a bit more at ease than she's been this entire conversation. ]

So the Admiral can do things like that? Go back in time and do a repeat performance. Nobody else back home is going to remember that the first time failed.

[ Once again, Nana can't help but wonder why the hell she's even here. ]

I don't know how it works. Una would have said that we were just being sent to a different reality, I think.

[He shrugs.]

Your turn again.

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