Final Trial

[bathymetric]

[ After a long while of investigation in areas that she definitely did not authorize you being in, the Mayor speaks up over the loudspeakers throughout the entire city. She's not using distortion at all, for what it's worth. ]

If you're all done rifling through my past and looting my things, there's a show that we really ought to get on the road, don't you think? Don't worry, I'm not going to come to you. You'll come to me.

[ And, one by one (along with your evidence), every single one of you is teleported into, rather than the underwater dome, a sectioned-off area of the Hall of the Founders. The walls around you are thick glass, and you can see beyond them that the Sparrows have begun restoring the statues. Massive stone renditions of the original Founders of New Rapture surround you, though some are still covered in cloth. A series of podiums have been set for you.

And within your final trial box is another box of frosted glass, ominous before you, just transparent enough to see a figure inside, sitting at a desk, her feet up as she lounges in a rolling office chair. ]

I love the dome, but there's nowhere for me to sit, you know? I was going to reveal this to all of you, it was going to be a whole big thing, but then you woke up early and ran off to do God-knows-what in a bunch of places I didn't need you in! Almost as if someone tipped you off to my plan.

[ Inside the glass case, the figure leans back in the chair further. ]

So you know what? Go ahead and talk amongst yourselves. Air my dirty laundry. Maybe I'll even join in in person. See if you can figure out what happened here, for starters.

[ Welcome to the final trial. ]

Comments

[sastruga]

...You were talking to Fontaine. In a recording studio.

[inaclearing]

[Brett goes a little pale.]

What...? But - he's been dead for years, probably. I -

[He found his body. The body of a stranger. Right?]

[sastruga]

...I don't understand it either. I don't... I don't get it at all.

[More like she doesn't really want to, actually.]

[inaclearing]

....I don't think I would've come here willingly. Not just for money. And I wouldn't have done it alone.

[hey actually where the fuck IS his husband???]

[visiblepattern]

I don't think most of us would... Can you see Adaman coming here solely for money? Hodaka?

[inaclearing]

And we didn't look...coerced?

[Like, was this a friendly talk with Fontaine?]

[sastruga]

It didn't look like it. It seemed amicable...

[inaclearing]

...I know I haven't always been the best judge of character - [no offense Forrest he is genuinely thinking about Jobu right now, and maybe Tommy and like several other instances] - but that seems extreme.

[howveryglib]

There are other incentives to participate in a project such as this besides money, in fairness. I can imagine myself being tempted by the prospect of getting to meet individuals from other realms and witness novel technological advancements even if there was no compensation included.

There are many reasons I would not have come personally, so I do believe there is an alternative explanation. At the same time, we do not actually know if anyone else would be present who simply is not pictured…

[inaclearing]

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about...

[Though now that we've brought up alternate dimensions, he's at least not actively starting to freak out about it anymore.]

[honeyedtea]

... if he'd offered me a place to go where I could escape my death. I would have accepted without question.

[specialyellthing]

… And I wouldn pass up the chance to be a hero again.

[sastruga]

If I wanted money, I would've gone public with my music by now. But I was... I was recording...?

Why would I have...

[It's hard to understand that picture of herself, in a real recording studio. Not just doing her work in the late hours of the night on her own laptop, after her parents have gone to bed. It doesn't fit at all, for so many reasons.]

[honeyedtea]

... I don't think it was you. Or rather... I think it was a different you. And the same goes for the rest of us.

[inaclearing]

...from another universe?

[honeyedtea]

Yes. It was in the audio log between the Mayor and that Wesker woman, wasn't it? Using that technology of hers, she was able to find and synchronize with a universe where she hadn't come to New Rapture.

Who's to say it wouldn't be possible to find a universe where we did?

[inaclearing]

...if other universes are real, then anything that can happen must have somewhere.

[He repeats it a little hollowly: something he said to Aiba, weeks ago, foolishly.]

Who we are, what we'd do - that doesn't have any bearing.

[sastruga]

[...Mafuyu's gonna continue to quietly have a crisis about that regardless, don't mind her.]

[sastruga]

...

[...She was considering that possibility, too. It doesn't make her feel any better. Not worse, either. Confused, mainly.

How different could another Mafuyu Asahina be, really...?]

...That machine...

[honeyedtea]

That's right.

[sastruga]

Another me...

Another me who... I don't understand it. Why would she--

[this is going to get her nowhere. she cuts herself off.]

...Sorry. I know it isn't the time.

[inaclearing]

Hey, they - they must have been pretty different from us. I mean, what good is a podcaster for founding a city?

[he's just assuming now that this was some far-distant Brett with actual useful skills!]

[howveryglib]

…

Do you believe that attempt to control people through music and the missing weekdays could have something to do with it? I know Fontaine’s presence makes that questionable, but we have undeniable proof that the dead can be revived.

[honeyedtea]

[ ok they're definitely already holding hands, but she's going to step in a little closer and loop her arm through Mafuyu's instead. She's weedy and delicate but so's Mafuyu so she can probably support her. ]

There will be some explanation.

[sastruga]

R-Right... Right. There will...

[Hold it together, Mafuyu... Just a bit more...]