buildstherobots

Entry tags:

action,
voice

[54]

[Phone call! To the whole town! Except the drones and the usual meddling authority figures. The call is in a moderately hushed tone, but he's easily understandable.]

So, I see that there are many new people, and you may count yourselves as lucky as you can in this place because Dist the Rose is here to take care of you all. I'm sure you've been informed as to the basics of Mayfield, but I've put together a lovely little primer for just this kind of occasion, giving you all of the details you need to bring you fully up to speed, including the most important things that have been inflicted upon us since the first of us can remember arriving here. If you would like to be informed, then come to the library to pick up a copy. If you can't find it, ask any drone where it is, they'll be able to tell you. Look for a gorgeous man with pale hair; someone as extraordinary as myself will stand out.

[And, just a little louder but no so much so that he's quite up to normal talking level.]

And be sure to pick up your free library card! Knowledge is power and all that.

[action]

[And there Dist will be, flitting about, stacking things and shelving things and generally keeping himself busy. He'll also be available to assist anyone who just so happens to be in the library themselves, though every so often he'll have to stop and sit to rest a bit, possibly get down a granola bar outside the view of the head librarian. He can't fit his chair through the door, let alone down the aisles of books, so he's walking everywhere and carrying things and with his condition this tires him out quickly.]

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"Then why are you yelling?"

[he raises a hand to forestall further indignant behavior]

"Just tell me about those two you mentioned before. I owe you quite a bit, and I will repay the favor, but I need more information first."

[Rrrgh. Dist doesn't like being silenced, but he continues after a slight growl.]

Olivier is dangerous. She was a major-general on her world, and can fight as well as anyone I've seen. In the time I've been here she's made the most effort to gather an organized resistance group; she was droned for a while but came back, and hasn't been quite as active since. She's also intolerable; the loyalty she inspires in people baffles me.

Frederick... I don't know much about him. He's a king or something, and he likes strategy over force, but he's not very good at it. People like him, though, and he's making an effort.

Everyone wants to "deal with the situation," okay? You think you can just walk in here and change everything when brilliant minds like myself have been here for a year with almost no progress? It's insulting.

[Okay, yeah, bitter. But he doesn't like being hushed, as though he were a child!]

"Sometimes it takes only a single change to utterly upset the scales, one way or another. I think I can only do what I can, which is fight, and lead, if need be. I am not trying to insult you, but I will not give up hope just because others have adjusted."

[he looks down at Dist.]

"Even a brilliant mind still needs a strong arm and a firm will to execute certain tasks. I can offer you those two things, as both payment and for the good of everyone. Don't let your pride get in the way of moving forward. There is a clear objective here."

I've learned that it's not so clear as "get home." I've used force; the important buildings can't be knocked over and the important people can't be physically threatened.

[Why does he feel so small? Probably a combination of a creeping helplessness that he's otherwise been able to bury by throwing himself into daily life, as well as the size advantage his companion has on him. Dist shoves his hands into his pockets, looking down at the sidewalk.]

We've tried so many things. What could you possibly have to offer?

"When I was among the Astartes, I was a member of the Mournival. We were strategic and moral advisors for our Primarch, Warmaster Horus Lupercal. I was very specifically the naysmith, considering the consequences of our actions. My place is there was to make sure we did things for the right reasons, and never went off the path that would be best for humanity."

[That makes Dist curl his lip.]

Do you know how many people I've heard back home talking about what's best for humanity? I don't care! I just want... I just want to go home. I want Jade, and the Professor.

...The people here think this is what's best. We don't know the details, but there was... some kind of weapon. It was used in what I guess was a war, and if Westport was any indication it destroyed everything. So they built this.

Edited 2011-02-12 23:36 (UTC)

[he stares at Dist in disgust]

"In all of humanity's history, there is only ever war. But... this is wrong. To take us out of our own times, our own places, was wrong. I don't care what they do after we're freed, but..."

[he shakes his head.]

I didn't say I agreed. I said that saying you want what's best is meaningless.

"I disagree, but we're clearly very different people."

I've heard it too many times from too many people wanting too many different things to take it seriously any more.

"Cynicism will kill you as dead as a bolter will, eventually."

So what do you suggest?

"Find something worth believing in. Even if it's just yourself."

...You don't know what you're talking about. There's nothing left!

"That's a foolish way to think."

You don't know me. You don't know what you're talking about.

"Possibly. Are you entirely dead to hope, then?"

My best friend killed the closest thing I ever had to a mother. When he recreated her, she went insane and had to be sealed away in a cave. We spend years trying to perfect the process, trying to learn how to give a replica the personality and memories of an original, so we could have our Professor back and undo that mistake. Then, one day, he abandons me and the project for no reason and chases me out of the country.

[His tone is rising; he no longer cares that he's in a library and will probably be reprimanded for shouting later.]

The next chance I get to pick it up is by a megalomaniac who wants to kill everyone in the world. But, you know what? I don't care! Because then my life's work won't have come to nothing. He's the one who thought he wanted what's best, by the way; replace the population with replicas of their originals to break a prophesy people seem incapable of deviating from. Of course he's stopped, I'm tossed in jail by the man who killed my professor, I figure out that everything I'd worked for was impossible and a waste of my time, and then I'm brought here, to be tortured and humiliated at will!

So you tell me! What's left for me to hope for?!

Edited 2011-02-21 21:22 (UTC)

"Forgiveness. You have a chance to forgive yourself, and the people that hurt you."

Why should I forgive them? They have absolutely no remorse for the things they did to me. I might, if they apologize.

Forgiving myself? That doesn't even make sense.

"You told me yourself you did an awful thing. Don't you have even a little regret for it?"

Awful is a matter of opinion. And that isn't the point; are you saying I shouldn't regret it, or I should?

"I'm saying you probably should, make amends, do what you can hear, and learn to live. I appreciate the losses you have had in your life, I've lost everything too, and I will likely die upon return to my own time, but bitterness won't solve anything here. I'm not saying you should run around all smiles and joy... just try not to dwell on what you've lost, think about what you can salvage, and do."

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