Filtered away from Una, Beatty, and Edward Nygma, to avoid upsetting them.

[buywithme]

[Video clicks on. Prefect's sitting beside his comatose inmate in the infirmary, and looking... well... looking tired. He pressed one hand across his eyes, rubbing them, before glancing towards the camera again.]

When Eddie Russet left, he said he was going to try and change things in his world. To go... start a revolution, or join one. To try and change his world, even if he died in the process. Sonmi was the same. I don't know if anyone here got a chance to know her, really, but she was my inmate, before Barron. She was a worker. Born and bred and destined to be a worker, and she fought them. Like my workers fought me.

[He smiles, his gaze dropping from the Camera to stare out into space a little.]

I couldn't help her. I still don't fully understand why she was an inmate here, when she was a much better person than I was. She deserved... I don't know, he deserved to win. And when I think about that, I think, my workers? The people who killed me? They deserve to win too. They deserve a life outside the Factory. [He brings a hand up to scratch at his eyes, frowning now.] But-- but they won't get one, because the Factory is vast. It's vast, and it's powerful and it's omniscient, and it doesn't really need them. And it won't die in it's sleep. So they all lose, and none of them get that other life that they deserve, only I do. It's only me. [He drops his hand down again, staring into space, his expression desolate.]

Sonmi, and then Eddie, and now O'Brien. I guess Beatty too, eventually. I don't know if... if it's about atonement or suicide. Sometimes I think... eventually, I'll go back too. I'll have too, because if I don't actually try to change it, if I don't actually go out there and do something to fix what I did to all those people, then nothing that I've done here actually has any meaning. Nothing that I believe about justice, or freedom, really means anything.

[He finally glances back towards the Camera again.] I hate it though. I hate that they choose that. They just-- what kind of god complex do you have to have to think that your death, that your going back and fighting the good fight and dying will be the thing that changes anything? I'm sorry, Comrades, but Newsflash: This is not actually the end of history! The Factory is not infinite, eventually your totalitarian regime will fall with or without your intervention, and you have been lied too!

[His voice has sped up towards the end of this little speech, and his tone has hardened and he's openly agitated. As he finishes, however, Barron shifts slightly in his coma. It's really just a twitching muscle, but none the less, Prefect's attention is abruptly redirected to fawning over his unconscious form.]

Comments

[19centconstable]

It is difficult to get to know someone so well, and then not be able to see them again.

[buywithme]

Is it strange that I feel kind of responsible for him? Even though he was probably three times my age?

[19centconstable]

Of course not. I often feel responsible for mother, and she's my mother.

[buywithme]

Which would make her at least... ten years older than you?

[PREFECTS DO NOT HAVE MOTHERS, NOR REALISTIC SENSES OF PROPORTION.]

[19centconstable]

A bit more than that, I think.

[But actually not a lot more. Because George's mom...yeah.]

[buywithme]

What's she like? Your mother, I mean, if it's okay to ask?

[19centconstable]

It's quite alright. I don't yet know her terribly well I'm afraid, but she's lovely woman, who was quite willing to care for me for the rest of my days when she was told I'd never walk again. And that even though she's always a bit short on money.

[buywithme]

Comrade, she sounds incredible! Why did she do all of those things for you? Also, I am extremely glad that whoever told her that you would never walk again was mistaken.

[19centconstable]

Well. Because she's my mother. And I suppose she might have felt a bit guilty over abandoning me on those church steps all those years ago. But mostly: I think she's a good woman at heart.

I'm glad too, but it was never really a danger. It was more of a lie.

[buywithme]

She sounds like a good woman at heart. I mean, she could have abandonned you anywhere, but she chose a location likely to contain people who would help you! I think that indicates concern for your wellbeing, even before you were even really a person.

Oh? Why would they lie about that?

[19centconstable]

It's a bit complicated. I had put an advertisement in the paper, searching for my mother, and two women had shown up claiming to be her, and so the way Detective Murdoch ascertained which was my mother (and also helped to out a pair of murderers) was to shoot me in the back.

Of course, I was wearing a garment that the bullet was unable to pierce, but when told that I would be an invalid, and that my pension was now gone, only my real mother stood by me.