Seeking to understand the microscopic degrees of freedom of gravity and matter in de Sitter spacetime, we develop tools for quantum field theory on a fixed de Sitter background and a toy model for gravity in dS2. We will consider the role of a particular series of representations of the de Sitter isometry group: the discrete series of unitary irreducible representations of SL(2, R). Focusing on theories with states and operators transforming in these representations, we are led to a highly constrained gauge theory, describing non-propagating gravity coupled to matter in dS2. We will make a conjecture that the microscopic degrees of freedom of the bulk theory may be described in terms of a solvable quantum-mechanical model. We will also consider the possibility of supersymmetrizing the model to include degrees of freedom transforming in the fermionic counterpart of the discrete series.