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

[honeyedtea]

Very well.

We're far from the first of this sort of "game", aren't we? Its rules and formula was conceived of by you and some of your fellow founders at the behest of Fontaine. And then it was used against you. Am I correct so far?

[bathymetric]

Correct. And fair is fair: the files from my office were the only other games like this I know of. Besides whatever that... Junko Enoshima did while yelling about despair and the end of the human race or whatever.

[honeyedtea]

That raises another question, though. Why were they running these games? After all – according to your very own files none of them remembered this place.

[ She tilts her head. ]

Did they lose the game?

[bathymetric]

You know what's funny about erasing memories? It's a stupid, tricky practice. You can put someone into autopilot pretty easily and keep them from gaining memories, but erasing them, especially if they're memories the person wants? The brain keeps pieces. A memory is stored in so many places - sight, sound, touch... do you know how much of your memory is scent-based?

Those two lost more than anyone else. I made sure of that.

[honeyedtea]

Did they do anything in particular to earn your ire? Or were you just feeling particularly spiteful that day?

[bathymetric]

If you want an answer you have to give me an answer, Miss Roscent.

[honeyedtea]

I suppose that's fair. I was hoping to spare you an unpleasant reminder, is all.

[ no she wasn't. ]

It all comes back to Wesker, doesn't it?

[bathymetric]

In what way?

[visiblepattern]

They sent her back to die without consulting you, presumably.

[specialyellthing]

... Mmm.

I think it's more than that, right?

Somethin' about love.

[visiblepattern]

Oh, I've no doubt that she loved her. But unfortunately, there was nothing she could do after Alex died. Because she could revive the murdered, but not those who died of natural causes.

[bathymetric]

[ The Mayor is a little quieter, more contemplative. ]

"The meaning of life is that it stops." She knew that. But I, apparently, forgot.

[visiblepattern]

...Did she love you, do you think?

Genuine question, not trying to salt the wound.

[honeyedtea]

You loved her. And they wiped you out of her mind then sent her back to her world to die, like a barren sow to an overdue slaughter.

[ She's been saving up a whole lot of Villain Monologue energy these past weeks huh ]

You had something taken from you and so you wanted to steal something in return to even the scales. You wanted revenge. Oh, I'm not judging you at all, you understand – I would do exactly the same. I have done.

[ Mielle smiles. ]

That's what makes us both villainesses.

[bathymetric]

[ That gets her to laugh. ]

Can you really imagine that? Me, your captor, the one who put you through all of this, capable of love?

[ The laugh lowers to a chuckle. ]

I knew I liked you. If Fontaine had bothered to pick you with the rest of us, I think we could have been friends.

[specialyellthing]

She'd never be friends with garbage like you-- [shes not even friends with THEM---]

[honeyedtea]

[ And that makes Mielle laugh in turn. Irritatingly, despite everything, it's still a very pretty laugh. ]

Oh, I doubt it. I would have loathed you from the moment we met and spent every moment wondering how I could get away with slipping poison into your tea.

[ .............. she says that like it's a joke but you get the impression she is one hundred percent Not Joking. ]

But even horrible heartless girls like us can surprise ourselves. You might not love us – but you loved her. And that's why you couldn't stand it. Love like that being taken from you drives you insane, doesn't it?

[bathymetric]

What's a little light poisoning among friends?

[ you get the impression she is probably? joking?? ]

Alright, you've found your truth. Yes, I sent Maelstrom and Jack out as revenge. Left them a blueprint for a Lutece Machine and tracked what they did with it. And both times it was like this.

[honeyedtea]

Because they remembered your little game. Even as hard as you'd tried to wipe their brains. And something about it appealed to them... perhaps that's not surprising given the sorts of men they seemed to be.

[ she knows nothing about handsome jack but his vibes? atrocious. l + ratio + no bitches + headshot by a brain damaged teenage girl. ]

Were you hoping to continue, perhaps? Did you hope to see where they had gone wrong and improve upon it yourself?

[howveryglib]

It does not feel particularly unimaginable to me, no. “Love” can manifest in ways that are not necessarily good and pure, after all.

[inaclearing]

It doesn't need to be romantic, even. Even the worst people usually love something outside themselves.

[inaclearing]

[Well. Brett's sort of terrified of the Mayor, but he was also fairly nervous of Howl when he first went to interview the man. So...interviewer hat on. Do not be a regular person who is talking to his murder-kidnapper; be a voice on a tape and nothing else.]

Is that what happens on Saturdays? Autopilot?

[bathymetric]

Correct. I just have you all go to sleep, mostly, so the Sparrows can do their work. That and, again, it's unsettling, isn't it? Losing a full day every week?

[howveryglib]

I am certain you intend us to keep being unnerved by that use of “mostly.”

[inaclearing]

It is. Though the days do blur together, down here.

[It's far calmer than he really ought to be, talking to her - but maybe someone has to balance out whatever it is Mielle's up to.]

What do you mean by "mostly"?