“Sh… Sh… Sh…”
It seems they can’t quite get the word out. Whatever has a hold of them seems to be very insistent on keeping their voice under control.
Unfortunately for the controller, you’ve handled shy audience members before.
“It’s okay, you don’t need to shout it,” you reply calmly. “If the words aren’t coming, try showing me. With your hands.”
The thrall awkwardly makes a downwards triangle with their hands, then starts making odd back-and-forth motions. Then they start making clearer hammering motions.
Oh! The triangle is a boat. The motions are waves, and the hammering must mean they were a shipwright. Okay, that gives you something to work with.
“Shipwright, then,” you say, and their head moves in a way that might be nodding. “Right, then! We have our scene, so let’s run it!”
You say that, but you don’t actually know what you’re doing here. Maybe you’re trying to make this scene trigger a memory of ship-building, and hoping that does the trick?
Well, the other two jump right in, if anything getting even more ridiculous than when they were playing your parents. They pretty much start off by not letting you get a word in edgewise, which might be because they’ve picked up on your thinking face and they’re trying to buy you time.
Which means when you say your first actual line, it had better be a damn good one.
“You don’t get to decide what I was made for.”
“If I walk away from this, I’m not being obedient. I’m being empty.”
“I’d rather die standing than live kneeling”
“I’m never gonna dance again, guilty feet have got no rhythm”