also while i’m at it i wrote a bunch of lines to use as a stunt in my Mirror Flag play if you might like to read them:
basically the play is the story of an upright Magistrate who loves the law, who has been pursuing the criminal mastermind Thorn-in-Roses across the country for years. (the Magistrate was originally a female character but Manus thought it would get the point across better if he played her so chose to change her gender over crossdressing on stage.) Thorn-in-Roses is wily, brilliant, manipulative, and intensely alluring to the Magistrate, who is just as much a criminal genius as she is, but spends his life suppressing his base urges to profit off others, devoting himself to keeping the law instead.
as Thorn-in-Roses dances through a glittering array of parties, robbing a glittering array of nobles, the Magistrate follows a few steps behind. the only way he can head her off in the end is by committing a spectacular crime himself; Thorn-in-Roses is captured, her ill-gotten gains seized and returned. the mastermind goes to her execution serenely, knowing that the Magistrate has done the one thing he swore to her, over the course of their long dance, that he would never do, and she leaves behind not a triumphant enemy but a partner in crime.
watching as Thorn-in-Roses is led to the block, the Magistrate muses alone:
A Quiet Respite 