championoftime | [Audio]

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[The Doctor is pointedly going to ignore the sex sounding things going on.]

Dallas Winston, by the by, has departed the Barge. [And likely went back to being a ghost, according to what he heard last. He's been gone for a while, he just hasn't wanted to talk about it. He never likes talking about people leaving.] He was a good lad.

Mark Hoffman mentioned... a lack of good stories to be told. I'd like to hear a few if you have them. They needn't be about an occupation. Just good stories. Or good experiences, if you're willing to share.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not all the time, but we did build a lot. Some were only partially completed by the time...

[Most weren't used, even though they were good, because they weren't designed with specific test subjects in mind. It was really a teaching and bonding thing.]

...the time he became too weak to concentrate on them.

[And she hadn't wanted to finish them on her own, as they had SHARED them and she felt that would cheapen them.]

Even though he was fucking crazy he really did care about you.

[Hoffman is thinking of things. Not angry at all, just...quiet.]

...I envy that.

Yeah. He did.

[She has a thoughtful moment of her own.]

It's still for the best that he and Jill won't remember any of it when I get my deal.

[Hoffman studies her for a moment over the communicator.]

...That's your deal? Fix everything?

Yes. The night Jill lost Gideon, and John's cancer.

[Basically her deal requires erasing John's and Jill's memories of being with and loving her. She looks pained.]

[Hoffman's doing some calculation. Effectively...she erases that moment John doesn't kill Cecil. He doesn't give him an opportunity to disguise his crimes against Baxter.

He looks incredibly conflicted for a moment before a knowing look sets into his expression.]

...Erasing Everything.

I'm fixing their lives. They'll get their "happily ever after."

[As far as she's concerned, right now, that means she won't.]

...And everyone else's.

[He keeps going back to erasing Jigsaw's crimes. Which means that if history continued-he was a lone nut. A monster.

Unless he does something about it-but that's far off. So he's just quiet.]

Everyone. Easton. Simone maybe. All the Victims.

My squad.

The victims will come back. For better or worse.

[Her tone suggests that in many cases--like Matthews, Xavier, Easton, and even more--it will be for the worse. But that's a result she can't avoid.]

None of their endings will be happy. Their lives and their crimes will continue as if they were never tested. That includes your squad--they'll keep hurting people.

[Some of his peers were criminals too, whether he wants to accept it or not. She sounds on the verge of tears, her voice thick.]

I can only right so many wrongs with one deal, and I had to choose. I couldn't rehabilitate them. I couldn't even change Matthews and fix my past if I wanted to do right by John and Jill.

...The whole reason Matthews was so fucked up is my fault in the first place.

[It's all his fault but whatever. He really screwed with his guys.]

So you couldn't have fixed him even if you wanted to. [There is a brief flash of a nasty look] At least you didn't erase me.

Fuck you, Hoffman. I didn't graduate just to go around eliminating people again! And I could have fixed him, if I wanted! Just gone back in time and changed something in him so that you couldn't have corrupted him, once I graduated an inmate. I could have even fixed my parents, but I didn't.

I chose John, Jill and Gideon, and I don't regret that.

[This is seriously the first time she's been able to say that name to Hoffman.]

[He takes note of the difference and just-his face contorts. So she gets to play the martyr? Gets to be the hero?

He made a lot of progress in his post but not enough to see that what she's doing is the same thing his friends-his friend Rigg-his friend Tapp-the same thing they were doing. Their lives for another. Their honor for another.]

...What will you do?