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

[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.

[bathymetric]

My whole life, I've been empty. There's never been anything worth loving before. And it turns out I really shouldn't have started.

[sastruga]

[oh never mind her sass she's deeply uncomfortable all of a sudden]

[bathymetric]

[ there's a reason she likes you, mafuyu :) ]

[sastruga]

[she hates this!]

Empty. Hah... so it's like that.

...No wonder you were so easy to talk to.

[specialyellthing]

...

Don' let her get to you, Sparkles. [SHE IS EXTREMELY CONCERNED BY THE WAY MRS MAYOR IS TALKING TO HER GIRLS RIGHT NOW....]

[sastruga]

...It's fine. I just... relate.

[specialyellthing]

... Alright, but if she upsets you-- you don't have to talk to her.

[bathymetric]

[ For what it's worth, her voice while speaking to Mafuyu is definitely the softest and most... human she's managed. ]

Some people spend their whole lives trying to fill that emptiness. I thought Alex could, even though I had already stopped trying. We both joked about it - "If only they could see me now back home." I started feeling that way about other people, too, almost. And then she died, and I remembered what a gift emptiness can be.

[sastruga]

A gift... I could see that. It's familiar, isn't it? If you try to fill that and it doesn't work or... doesn't last... it's much worse.

[She can't really dismiss it entirely. Not when she's spent so much time hiding herself away in the Empty SEKAI.

Except, maybe, that's exactly why she gets it.]

...It's a delusion, though. It isn't a gift.

And if you were really empty you wouldn't see it that way.

[bathymetric]

I learned what I had to do. To... push through it.

[ She chuckles. ]

God, some days I miss being a terrorist. That's so much easier than this bullshit.

[sastruga]

...It's really exhausting, isn't it?

[She isn't even trying to get at anything, right now, she's actually

oh god is she commiserating with the mastermind right now, dear god.]

[specialyellthing]

[inaclearing]

[.....

flashing back to a conversation he had with Rossiu like two days ago but don't worry about it]

So you feel it would be better to never love at all, than to lose the object of that love one day.

[specialyellthing]

An' she thinks she's smart, thinkin' like that...

[inaclearing]

...I don't think it's that uncommon, when someone is grieving. To try and isolate yourself so you can't be hurt again.

[specialyellthing]

And then to start a murder plot? That ain't normal!

[inaclearing]

That isn't really what I was trying to say, no.

[specialyellthing]

I ain't gonna say anything about her is normal.

[inaclearing]

[are you displacing your feelings about both the girls relating super hard with the mayor onto him right now]

[specialyellthing]

[yes but to recognize that she'd have to think and she's never for a day in her life had a single thought]

[bathymetric]

I was right, my whole life. Humans are fundamentally alone. Love, family... it's not worth the trouble.

[inaclearing]

...a man who resists being saved...

[what like we weren't gonna do this today]