City Escape

City Escape
Please, what happened to the flame?
(It burned down the sides)
With a fondness for cooking history
Revealing thoughts of Ms. Terri

In the heat of the night
A woman wealthy of a parous plight erased a harlot’s life

(With the moon at her back, unaware of what could be)

Plagued by practical and a mercenary lust, they tear at her skin
(Oh, the trouble began, but it never ended)
Clawing at her throat with a smell of desperate and a lack of regret
(Oh, the trouble began, but it never ended)

Free, pardoned by the flame
(That burned down the sides)
Her feet began to bleed between the seams
But she persisted to the streets

In the heat of the night
The river rendered the chance she surely needs to stay alive

Plagued by practical and a mercenary lust they tear at her skin
(Oh, the trouble began, but it never ended)
Clawing at her throat with a smell of desperate and a lack of regret
(Oh, the trouble began, but it never ended)

Oh, but her breath escapes her
Oh, but the pulse remains
Oh, but her breath escapes her
Oh, but her pulse remains

Places, People, the stage is set
Places, People, the stage is set

Plagued by practical and a mercenary lust they tear at her skin
(Oh, the trouble began, but it never ended)
Clawing at her throat with a smell of desperate and a lack of regret
(Oh, the trouble began, but it never ended)

Plagued by practical and a mercenary lust they tear at her skin
(Oh, the trouble began, but it never ended)
Clawing at her throat with a smell of desperate and a lack of regret
(Oh, the trouble began, but it never ended)

🌲🌲🌲

What Happens?
Ms Terri sets her room in the Dime ablaze and, following the river to the lake, escapes the City with Hunter.

What’s in a Name?
You tell me.

Whose Viewpoint?
Omniscient

🌲🌲🌲

>0:00 – 0:13 Instrumental
The flame is started, and Ms Terri goes to exit the brothel.

>0:13 – 0:24 Instrumental
Ms Terri quickens her pace, putting distance between herself and the flaming brothel, only to glance behind her and see…

>Please, what happened to the flame?
…the flame is gone, and the brothel’s not burning! She no longer has such a potent distraction to cloak her and Hunter’s escape from the City.

>(It burned down the sides)
We get a description of Ms Terri’s room in He Said He Had A Story: ‘Our pace was quickened to her floor / There was a single feigning light / And there was silk all on the walls’. Unfortunately for Ms Terri, real silk doesn’t burn that easily, and this is before the advent of polyester. The silk curtains on the walls of her room smother the flame before it can spread to the building’s foundations, or anything else more vitally flammable.

Note, also, that Ms Terri’s room is above ground level, and this is before the advent of fire escapes, too. She had to go downstairs and use a back exit, hop out the lowest window she could find, or traverse the main floor where the patrons and TP&P hang out.

>With a fondness for cooking history
Burning the brothel was more than just a distraction: Ms Terri wants to erase her life as a prostitute entirely, and sever any tie from it that could catch up to her in the future, so she can be reborn as only Hunter’s mother. Cooking history has a bit of a double meaning too, as cooking is a creative process. She looks to burn down the past, but also create a future.

We have some references from Ms Terri about history in He Said He Had A Story: ‘This life has not been good, you see / It’s hard with such a history / Buried in misery’. Her life at the Dime has been hell, but I’m getting the impression that whatever was happening before wasn’t rainbows, either.

>Revealing thoughts of Ms. Terri
We’re formally introduced to the character we’re following, Ms. Terri. And finally I can mention that yeah. It’s a pun on ‘mystery’. Mystery is our keyword to know when vaguer songs are referencing Ms Terri.

It’s unclear whether her name is genuinely Ms Terri or whether she assumed that name after going into sex work (though would she have referred to herself by such a name to Hunter?), but it doesn’t matter, since as far as Hunter cares, she’s always been Ms Terri – mystery. Most everything about his mother has left Hunter with questions whose answers he can’t grasp. But moving on…

>In the heat of the night
Our setting is established a little: it’s nighttime, and we’re either in a region that’s hot for most of the year, or it’s summer. It could just be hot because there’s a fire going on, but the flame has already snuffed. (Or it’s just saying things are moving quick and chaotic, but)

>A woman wealthy of a parous plight erased a harlot’s life
Here’s our first instance in the acts of someone ‘erasing’ their old life, and hence their old self, to be reborn as someone new. This line also establishes that yes, this is the mother mentioned in Battesimo Del Fuoco.

‘Wealthy’ of a ‘plight’ — what a complicated situation. There’s a lot of uncertainty, risk, and danger in Ms Terri’s motherhood to Hunter, but she’s decided that the positives are worth it. I also question whether TP&P would’ve even let Ms Terri keep Hunter for long. So her options were either: ‘stay and raise her child in a sleazy brothel/run away’ or ‘stay and lose her child/run away’. Personally I like the latter idea… it would seriously put pressure on the need for Ms Terri to make a choice.

>(With the moon at her back, unaware of what could be)
oh boy it’s the MOON. Go away moon, I don’t want to think about you…

Taking the moon as a false persona, given that she’s turned away from it, maybe Ms Terri is looking toward being the ‘true self’ she might’ve been before joining the Dime, though it sounds like it’s been long enough that she’s lost touch with who that true self is. Either way, leaving with Hunter was an impulsive decision, she knows nothing of what to expect, and she hasn’t arranged anything in advance except that she go to the Lake.

>Plagued by practical and a mercenary lust, they tear at her skin
A recount of what Ms. Terri’s life is like in the brothel: bad. Lots of double meanings here… but fundamentally, this is to tell us what life is like in the Dime. This establishment is a sleaze shop that does not care about the welfare of its workers; so long as the client pays, and the girl can still come back to work tomorrow, anything is fine. Customer is king, and all.

We’ll see that the proprietor of the Dime is an extremely greedy and cruelly judgemental man. These low standards, apart from giving him a wider customer base, have probably helped him drive out competition and situate the Dime as the brothel in the region. And I mean I’m sure there are rules, to make the place look legitimate, but in practice I’d figure they’re more like ‘suggestions’.

Practical and mercenary lust, yup, that’s the essence of the Dime. You’re paying? Then do what you want with her.

>(Oh, the trouble began, but it never ended)
No kidding. Ms. Terri just tried to end the trouble by burning down the Dime, but instead of end anything, this has only set the seed for five more acts’ worth of unremitting troubles. Sort of the opposite of flame gone / fire remains, which promises a horizon.

>Clawing at her throat with a smell of desperate and a lack of regret
sorry let me correct that assessment of Ms. Terri’s life at the brothel: REALLY bad. Given that the Dime allows basically anything, it’s probably where the worst punters wind up.

>1:24 – 1:35 Instrumental
Not sure what this is, but it’s interesting. Some kind of realisation on Ms Terri’s part?

>Free, pardoned by the flame
The flame is characterised as a benevolent force that momentarily severs the link to corruption. Though the distraction it offered was brief, it was enough to get Ms Terri and Hunter outside of the Dime uncontested. Realising she’s escaped her biggest obstacle, she refocuses…

>Her feet began to bleed between the seams / But she persisted to the streets
…and, fearful of pursuit, runs so vigorously she cuts her (bare?) feet open, but keeps sprinting through the pain.

>In the heat of the night / The river rendered the chance she surely needs to stay alive
If she can just get to the river, then she can follow it to the lake. She fears TP&P’s goons will kill her if they catch her.

>2:00 – 2:47 Instrumental
Interesting but I’m clueless. The sound of Ms Terri flagging as search crews begin mobilising to find her? Lamps of carriages shining down alleyways…

>3:12 – 3:35 Instrumental
Ms Terri has deftly avoided her pursuers, and in the moonlight, sights and approaches the river.

>Oh, but her breath escapes her / Oh, but the pulse remains
She jumps into the river to cross it, rattled by its chill. But she successfully crosses, and travels a ways on its current, without drowning.
On repetition, she reaches shore and pauses to look back. She’s exhausted and panting after all this running, but triumphantly realises she’s made it out of the city alive.

>Places, People, the stage is set
‘Alright! That’s the key circumstances set up, now to get the story rolling…’

>5:42 The Lake South Reprise
Ms. Terri embarks for the lake, and reaches it.

The Lake South | Act I | The Inquiry Of Ms. Terri