☞ 020. (memory theater)

[wouldnotkindly]

[The above plays out on the network in its entirety minus the thirty-second intro, health bars, weapon indicators and other in-game displays. Though he doesn't speak throughout it, those who know him might recognize the chain-link tattoos and familiar sweater cuffs as belonging to Jack...]

( ooc: for those who can't/would prefer not to watch the video, a basic summary: Jack encounters a man who tells him that not only was everything he thought he knew about himself a total lie, but also that he's been under mind control for pretty much his entire life, then forces Jack to murder him with a golf club; he is then further mind controlled into giving over control of Rapture to the man responsible for it all, who reveals his entire villainous plot and leaves Jack to be horribly killed by robots. but it's okay, because little girls show up to save him! ... Bioshock is a complicated game. )

Comments

» audio

[thenormalsquint]

Who is he? Some big cheese with a cruelty streak?

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[wouldnotkindly]

He was a conman. [But he won't say she's wrong, because she's not. Definitely not.]

Everything horrible that happened in Rapture... [Everything horrible that happened to him, really, even his own birth, but that isn't something he'll dare to say just yet.] If it wasn't because of Andrew Ryan, then it was because of him.

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[thenormalsquint]

[She's quiet, not quite sure what to say, but Angela says the first thing that comes to mind. Hopefully it's good enough.]

I'm sorry. But you're you now, not what they wanted to be you.

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[wouldnotkindly]

[That's really the crux of the matter, isn't it? But despite that, it doesn't reassure him.]

How do I know that? [How does anyone know that for sure, except for the people who made him?]

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[thenormalsquint]

Because... Because you're not in that environment anymore. He's not here. No one here is going to say those words to you to make you do anything. What you've done here so far has been on your own choice, by your own free will.

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[wouldnotkindly]

Maybe not those words, but... But how do I know that there isn't something else controlling me? [Tenenbaum had removed the would you kindly conditioning, sure, and had helped him cure the Code Yellow that came soon after, but — knowing what she did, what she was responsible for, how can he trust someone like her?] How do I know if I've ever actually had my own free will here?

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[thenormalsquint]

Is there anybody else from your world here? Is there anything you have done here, outside of curses, that you can look back on and think of as strange?

[This conversation about choices and free will is the last conversation she wants to have right now, but cutting off Jack when he is clearly in a time of need... not even Angela in her lowest of lows can do that.]

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[wouldnotkindly]

No, no one... [He's pretty sure he'd notice a splicer or someone else from Rapture running around the City. As for her other question, though...]

I don't know... I have to think about it.

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[thenormalsquint]

Do that. There's no rush.

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[wouldnotkindly]

[He's silent for a long while, but he finally sighs.]

Okay... I will.

[He doesn't sound like he feels much better about it, but—] Thanks, Angela.