[004: Video]

[rianofski]

[At first, the video is normal, held up so that everyone can see his face. He begins to speak.]

City, I've been meaning to inquire as to several things. Not, perhaps, the most pressing things, but questions nonetheless, I...

[There's a pause, and then the device is flung to the ground.]

I won't be a part of this ridiculous system any longer, a system that takes and takes and never gives back -- and people who want to take from the system without hard work. Hasn't anyone around here heard of capitalism? The free market? Are we happy to live in a society like this? Are we?

[And now he flings his cigarette to the ground emphatically.]

Comments

[rudeandginger]

You certainly don't lose any points for enthusiasm of rhetoric.

[rianofski]

I appreciate your endorsement.

[rudeandginger]

Is that how you ran your 'Rapture'?

[rianofski]

It's similar.

[wouldnotkindly]

[Well. That's the kind of speech Jack didn't need to hear today. Or ever.]

I don't know. I'd be pretty happy to live in a society like that, if it means it doesn't end up like Rapture did.

[rianofski]

Where's your imagination? Your understanding of a better world?

[wouldnotkindly]

I don't need imagination to know that the kind of society you'd rather have would just end up in disaster.

[rianofski]

Why do you insist on fighting with me, Jack? From what I hear, you had your fair share of it in Rapture. Or are you really so convinced that my ideas are so bad you're required to hound me about them?

[wouldnotkindly]

[That's a good question, actually.]

Because... A lot of people ended up hurt because of those ideas. [To say the very least.] I don't want to see that happen again.

[rianofski]

[He shakes his head firmly.]

The ideas were not responsible for hurting them. Their mismanagement of my ideals was. An idea is harmless, until someone misuses it.

[whitetwoguns]

You gotta take the good with the bad. Sure ain't paradise.

[rianofski]

I'm not sure how much of the good I see.

[whitetwoguns]

That depends on what you're looking for I suppose. What're you expecting?

[rianofski]

A better system.

[aperfectthird]

I don't think anyone is happy to be living in this system, but we don't seem to have a choice otherwise.

[rianofski]

Don't we? With hard work, we can change things.

[aperfectthird]

What sort of changes would you like to see effected?

[Genuinely interested, not being sarcastic.]

[rianofski]

I'd like to see people taking more initiative, exercising their free will! We may be trapped here, but that doesn't mean that we can't do something productive.

[aperfectthird]

So more shops, more exploration of the City's surroundings? Learning about each other's worlds?

[rianofski]

All of that, and more! More business, more industry, more hard work.

video;

[majorcrotchgrab]

Capitalism... Heh.

Re: video;

[rianofski]

Do you have a problem with capitalism?

video;

[majorcrotchgrab]

I'm a Soviet. Of course I do.

Re: video;

[rianofski]

Not everyone from Russia is displeased by the idea of capitalism.

video;

[majorcrotchgrab]

Then they are traitors.