[Audio] @ SuprNerd - open

[moderatelymaladjusted]

[The first few seconds of the recording is just Quentin breathing, fast and shaky at first and just before he speaks, the breathing evens out. The whole speech will be said fast and jerky, like the words are just spilling out without thought.]

What the hell? I can't be the only one who's thinking this, but just what the fucking hell? What the hell just happened? This place, oh shit, this place just-- did any of you see things? Hear things? Fucking feel things? And why? Just, why? I thought we were here to help, to find a way to solve this-- this whole puzzle and suddenly there's something here that made me think I was losing--? That's just-- it was just to fuck with all of us?

What the hell? That's what I want to know - just, what the hell? Is this hell? Is that why?

So, if you're listening to this, lady in the lighthouse? Fuck you! Seriously. Fuck. You.

Also, someone took my hoodie and I need that, so please bring it back. Thanks.

Comments

[pearlstrings]

People are reacting to it. I can't speak to the choices made by everyone else, but I suppose my answer is this:

You said that you can't watch this happen and not do something. I can't either. But I can't use my pain and outrage this way, it isn't productive. I'd rather turn it towards investigating- asking questions and following leads.

When emotions run high it's very easy to make reactive decisions and rush to judgment. It's a good time to invite obstacles and force yourself to slow down. I need to think of more than just myself. I've seen what kind of person I can be when I don't.

[A pause. It's just long enough for Bruce to squeeze his eyes closed and count through his exhale- a practice he'd adopted at Alfred's behest. It's easy, and always has been, for Bruce's thoughts to spin out ahead of him.]

What I told you about making a list was that some people would have experience with lists like that being used against them and that we have no guarantee that people who arrive here wouldn't manipulate it. And also told you that we should look at more than super human abilities for a solution. It's reasonable to believe that powerful people have come in groups like this in the past and they were still reset. We need to diversify.

[His posture softens and with it, so does his voice.]

If you asked me I would say that I believe your intentions are good.

But you need to surround yourself with people who challenge your perspective and your strengths. Find people that you trust but who don't always agree with you. It isn't simply a matter of staying balanced. But sometimes we need to be protected from ourselves.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

[The reply comes faster this time, but mostly because the first four minutes are just Quentin breathing and moving around. The noises filtering through the message might sound like hands on cloth, rustling and Quentin's hitching breaths, erratic and unsteady as they are, he's still breathing.

Which is weird and stupid, because they're all dead.]

Oh shit!

I-- [there's a watery kind of laugh] Yeah, no. Eliot never really agrees with me on anything? I think it's just something he does now. Disagree with me. Maybe it's, uh, maybe he's trying to prove a point. I don't--[a deep sigh] I don't know.

[And he's revealing too much to a voice on the network. More than Eliot would want him to ever say, maybe just by the tone of his voice or the implied familiarity. But Quentin is tired, so fucking tired. Like someone ran his brain through a tenderizer and squeezed it out like toothpaste.]

Who? Who else do you need to think about? Is it someone who's afraid of the list? I didn't even-- I didn't think it through, and. And yeah, maybe some people are right to keep that part of themselves a secret? I just never thought it would be-- that it would be an issue in the afterlife?

[How to even begin explain the feelings of finding out that so many different places existed, with so many different kinds of powers. The differences that also felt reassuring because underneath it all, they were all people, with feelings and fears. How could he ever explain the feeling of being on the outside always looking in, and how he'd had to be protected from himself so many times in the past. And the one time no one looked carefully enough, he found a way to end it all.

He can't, not yet. Not without giving away things he'd rather keep to himself. Quentin sighs again, swallowing hard enough to be heard on the message.]

And yeah. Yeah, maybe we do. Sometimes.

[pearlstrings]

I don't have all the answers to a question like that. People here have experiences and lives far different than my own. Some that I can't even imagine.

But even without metahuman abilities, I think everyone understands the power of a secret. And if this is the afterlife, I've never known death to discriminate between good people and bad.

[On the opposite end Bruce eases backwards into his chair. The tablet is there when he looks down, cradled between his hands.]

I'm not asking you to love the people here. Perhaps that's something you're unable to give. But I know that you're trying to help, and I wanted to remind you that if one man was enough to solve the riddle of this place, we never would have arrived at all.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Yeah, tell me about it. Have you met Daylight? He's, uh, this really huge metal guy? But nice? Like, really nice. I can'timagine what his world must be like.

[But all traces of a smile is wiped from Quentin's voice as he goes on.]

Maybe because most people think they're the good guys, even when they're very much not? There's was-- this thing back in my world, and we had to catch a bad person? Who, uh, ripped people's eyes out and. And it turned out, he wasn't all bad? He didn't start out that way, and the real bad guy, thought he had every right to--uh, to do what he did.

{[Quentin clears his throat because Plover had been- a huge scumbag and that whole story was just a nightmare.]

Yeah, but. [deep breath] Yeah. I mean, not about the loving people because, I really don't know anyone, so expecting that seems-- uh, like a lot? But about the one man saving everything? Maybe you're not all wrong about that?