ITSOAW Character Reflections

Symphony

Monster, Man, and God

TW: Attempted murder? (second paragraph)

When Symphony is introduced to the player characters, he is just Sisyphus and he is the ship. At this point, he doesn’t toy with anyone too much, being content to act like more of a helpful ship construct than anything else. The name Sisyphus initially paints him as a being who doesn’t have a solid identity outside of his purpose. His being the ship depicts that purpose and shows him as a functional machine, if a somewhat dramatic one. However, him being the ship is representative of his control, which is inescapable for the players characters. He is everywhere at once, sees everything, and is in complete control of the journey’s course. A noteworthy early interaction is when Sisyphus crosses a line in his taunting of Sorcerer and Captain Simon Dominguez, after finding out, threatens to break Sisyphus’ casket, which would have destroyed him. This reinforces their dynamic as one where Simon is ultimately in complete control no matter how much Sisyphus teases. Simon says that he gave Sisyphus control of the ship with the implication being that he can take this control away at any time. Sisyphus is subservient. He even labels himself a slave during his introduction after Hornet addresses him as a “false god”. Funnily enough, this interaction ends with Sisyphus saying that he believes he and Hornet will get along better than she thinks. Even he did not realize how right he would end up being.

The truly dangerous nature of Sisyphus—who will now be addressed by his chosen name Symphony—is not truly realized by the player characters until he almost kills Sorcerer. During a debate with her father figure, fellow pilot Hades, about what should be done with an abusive figure from Sorcerer’s past, Symphony gives casual advice. It’s clear that he isn’t participating in the conversation out of any deep concern for Sorcerer, which becomes evident after Sorcerer dismisses Symphony as “not having thought ahead a day in his life”. To call his reaction to this volatile would be like calling the destruction of a planet a minor incident. Sorcerer attempts to leave, but Symphony teleports in front of her, grabs her by the throat, begins cracking her hardsuit with his grip, and drills into her neck. Attempts to stop him are rendered futile by his reality manipulation. He eventually drops Sorcerer and leaves, but it is obvious that she is only alive because he chose to leave her that way. He erases all evidence of the incident and prevents any attempts to alert Simon or anyone else. During the near murder and in the aftermath, Symphony’s sheer level of control is palpable and inescapable. It’s in direct contrast to Sorcerer’s statement, perhaps intentionally: Symphony is extremely controlled and that should be known and feared.

After this, Hornet asks to meet Symphony in her room and, surprisingly, he agrees. Hornet gives up on the idea of discussing what happened and, instead, laments the concept of power. She says that it is taxing and yet something she pursued in spite of that. Symphony compares having and pursuing power to rolling a boulder up a hill and asks Hornet if it’s something she still wants. She says she can’t justify being weak and he advises her to leave some of her humanity behind. Hornet never follows his advice. She later finds herself disgusted and defeated by being compared to her father despite her father having been an incredibly powerful figure. Hornet is a contrast to Symphony here. Her abilities are truly a drop in the ocean compared to his, yet he keeps being drawn in by her understanding and embracing of her own humanity. She rejects her base nature as an NHP, clinging instead to the individuality she has fostered for her entire existence.

Symphony cannot be discussed without mentioning the “cycles” he goes through over the course of In The Shadows of a Willow. The first cycle is the state he begins the campaign in. This state ends when Symphony chooses to cycle himself again after the incident with Sorcerer. Cycling is the process of strengthening the shackles that keep an NHP’s thought processes limited to human personality parameters. The encounter he has with Hornet immediately afterward is a noteworthy indication of how his personality shifts in the second cycle. In Simon’s office, Hornet feels her own shackles slip and panics. She asks if cycling herself would stop that from happening and Simon says no. She begs Symphony to make sure she never cascades and he says, matter-of-factly, “you won’t”. Hornet stumbles towards him and falls to her knees, thanking him. Symphony tells her to get up and, when she can’t, kneels beside her in his weakened post-cycling state, calling them equals. It is arguably this moment wherein Symphony chooses to embrace his own humanity. After all, he and Hornet cannot be equals if he is a god, even a false one. Would he have willingly humbled himself in his previous cycle? It’s impossible to know for certain, but he likely wouldn’t have, especially considering that he advised Hornet to give up her humanity. Gods usually don’t apologize.

In his second state, Symphony showcases an increased attachment to the concept of humanity and his relationship with Hornet develops. Symphony platonically sleeps in her bed every night even before they become romantically involved, something that he previously thought himself incapable of doing. He even apologizes to Sorcerer for what he did, and he’s very aware that his apology is nothing compared to the harm he caused even if he erased it. Symphony’s care for Simon, Sonata, and Hornet begins extending to others, like Simon’s adopted daughter Hellcat, his own strangely acquired daughter Esther, and Simon’s girlfriend Rem. It could be easy to dismiss his care as the basest extension of these others being important to those he already loves, but he goes beyond the basics. He helps Hellcat through substance abuse and a mental breakdown, becomes protective enough of Esther to warn another NHP to stay away from her, and ensures that Rem sleeps peacefully every night. While using his abilities isn’t taxing, it’s not something he has to do by any means.

After deleting Rem’s father’s ability to suppress his guilt, Symphony has to cycle himself again, and he enters his third state of existence in the campaign. At the time of writing this, there’s much that remains to be seen, but it is clear that Symphony is continuing to evolve as a character and likely won’t be returning to the person he was at the start of In The Shadows of a Willow.

Symphony’s daughter Esther is another point of contrast. They are both powerful Sisyphus-Class NHPs, though Symphony is obviously much stronger. Sisyphus NHPs tend to deal with their existential dread by either becoming insane or depressed. While Symphony is insane and lively, Esther is depressed and mellow. She is first encountered in a side quest on the brink of cascade and forces the player characters to participate in her “exercise in futility” wherein they can die and it doesn’t matter. However, by the very nature of hanging onto her sanity by a thread and allowing people to attempt to help her, Esther herself proves that she hopes for something beyond futility. While Symphony seemingly displays all of his emotions loudly, Esther isn’t very expressive at all, usually only wearing a calm smile. It can be hard to tell when she actually cares about something, and the same can be said for Symphony in cycle one at least. Esther’s ability Deluge is the complete opposite of Symphony’s Ignition. Whereas he deletes, she pulls creation from a probability that never existed, though she can’t use her power as casually as Symphony wields his. It’s interesting to compare Esther’s introduction with Symphony’s. Where he is harmless, she is a blatantly harmful force that needs to be subdued. He lacks a human body and encompasses the entire ship while Esther is a clear person whose struggle is, at the very least, contained to her immediate vicinity. However, both of them grow past the person they presented themselves as due to the connections they have with other people.

Whatever you have to say about Symphony, you can’t argue that he isn’t an extremely compelling character.

Fun Facts:

• Symphony was NOT intended to be a romanceable character, and I (Hornet’s player) NOT set out to romance him. The GM and I still don’t fully understand how their love story happened.
• The character path originally planned for Symphony was extremely different from the one he is currently on.
• Esther became Symphony’s “daughter” because he used Ignition to delete her resurfacing memories of the planets he eliminated. This interaction is what led to her developing the ability Deluge.
• Symphony has a wife (Hornet) and two children (Esther and Harmony) despite having had a human body for less than five months at the time of writing this. Yes, Hornet and Symphony got married very quickly.