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

[onemillion]

Because it was his daughter, and most people would prioritize a connection like that over anything else. Emotion, and a strong bond between loved ones.

Where are you going with this?

[bathymetric]

When pushed to the brink, Rossiu, you learn exactly who a person is and what they're capable of. The basic human instinct is "breed and survive." Anything beyond that is the true measure of a man.

[onemillion]

I'm well aware of that. So did you reach the brink during the game you were in, or afterwards?

[bathymetric]

The funny thing about being pushed to the brink? Sometimes you can just... swan dive right over it. Find something new.

[onemillion]

[Oh yeah, diving right off the slippery slope, that's definitely a thing that can happen!!]

Allow me to take a guess, then: this started as revenge. For what was done to you - for being tricked into making the very game used against you. You came to loathe Gunnar and Jack for their parts in this as well. So it started as revenge, against Fontaine and those that wronged you.

[bathymetric]

Interesting. Let's divide what happened into statements.

I invented this game, and then Fontaine put me in it.

When we won, Jack and Maelstrom betrayed me, so I sent them off to do research for me. Call them... interns, if you will.

I'll freely admit that those statements are true.

[onemillion]

[Ah, interesting...]

No wonder you hated them enough to leave your mark on their rooms. Were you hoping that they would remember as they were off running their own games?

[bathymetric]

Frankly, the less they remember me the better. Honestly, they got half of my revenge for me - Gunnar went and kidnapped Jack's daughter to be his little assistant. And then, like her father, she disappointed.

[onemillion]

So like you said, they had some memories. Maybe not enough to put everything together, but they remembered enough to run the games and perhaps, for Gunnar to betray Jack as well.

You never did find a way to perfect that, did you? To avoid memories resurfacing.

[And if so... are any of us going to remember anything about our time here?]