buywithme: (Bruised prefect)
[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.]
buywithme: (Bruised prefect)
[Click to a video of Prefect. He's sitting on a chair, holding a small stack of books, on the top of it, there's a dog eared copy of The Three Musketeers.]

This was the first book I read here on the barge, Comrades. Sam gave it to me... years ago now. [He pauses, leafing through the pages idly.] I haven't read many others. We didn't really have books like this where I'm from. I mean, Sometimes you saw people on tv reading them, and sometimes you could buy like... the book part of it, so that you could look like the people on tv, but the contents were always just advertisements.

[He turns The three Musketeers over in his hands, studying the synopsis.]

I don't really go to the library here much. I used to go there and get drunk in the historical agriculture section, when I needed a change of scenery, but I don't really get any books out. I mean, I liked this one? And I like parts of the Marquis's books although I do inevitably end up skipping most of them, but books... don't really have any kind of special significance to me. Burning them is just like... burning a cardigan that you were never really planning on wearing anyway.

[He tosses the book down onto the concrete floor of his cabin. The second book in the stack is a copy of Farenheit 451]

I understand that this isn't the case for most people here. I know that for Beatty, burning books is his job. He did it every single day, to wipe out something that he saw as harmful, it was his duty to protect the people of his society. I know that for most of you, burning books - and what Beatty did in his real life - is an act of oppression, and a threat against the authors of those books. It represents the destruction of free thought, and of totalitarian governments. So I can understand why seeing someone doing it makes you angry.

[He tosses down the copy of Farenheit 451, and it lands on the floor beside The Three Musketeers with an ominous little thunk. The final book in the pile is one that people could only recognize if they've been in Prefect's room. It's a thick, heat bound pile of papers, and looks more like an instruction manual than anything else.]

Beatty can't do any of those things here though. And he knows that he can't. He can't stop the books from being replaced, he can't stop you from buying more books in ports, he can't stop you from writing, or thinking, or reading. He hasn't done anything to oppress any of you. On the Barge, while living without freedom? Burning books isn't an act of oppression. It's an act of political protest. I don't care if you hate it, or if you hate what it's trying to say, or if you think that he should have been stopped, or that he should be punished for this...

[Prefect throws the last book down. The cover reads Acceptable Procedural Standards and Functions. Then beneath that, written in bold; Class: A+ Designation: Prefect. What remains in his hand, formerly hidden beneath the pile of books, is a lighter.]

...Non-violent protest is a right.

[It seems for a moment, like there's more he wants to say, but he stops himself. Instead, he grabs a bottle of gin, and douses the books with it, before reaching down with the lighter, and clicking it on, so that all three books are consumed into tongues of flame.]



FUN OOC NOTES: Prefect has shoved all his cardboard boxes to the far end of the room, and his cabin is made of concrete, so the fire shouldn't spread, annnnnd yes, all of these books are his <3
buywithme: (Puppy dog eyes)
Hello, Comrade.

I just wanted to verify my identity, and current status as being well, and not kidnapped or beaten savagely and locked in a room, or having had any contact with you in the last few days.

[PAUSE]

Not that I'm gloating or anything, Comrade, just that I thought you should know that if you'd done that to anyone lately, then that person wasn't me.

[cathspam done now!]
buywithme: (facepalm)
Barron... would you tell me, what do you think happens to someone when they die on the Barge?

[BECAUSE HE IS BETTING YOU'VE FORGOTTEN THAT THEY COME BACK :C]

[Added later: Private to Wardens]

I did this. It's my fault. During the flood, I just ruined his entire memory, and I told him that if he showed dedication to-- to ruthlessness, then he could graduate and go home. He changed so many people-- he lost so many memories, that when the flood ended, he didn't even really understand what was different.

So he did this, because... because he thought I wanted him too. Because I told him this was how to graduate.

I'm taking him down to level zero. I'm so sorry.
buywithme: (declanpout)
Sister, I'm fairly certain that O'Brien's going to try and rob Kay's cabin tonight. Or possibly right now.

Probably for alien technology he can use to delete himself.
buywithme: (Default)
[Prefect is heading through the hotel which O'Brien is staying at. He feels a certain concern for the other man, while this glut of spending and desperation to be seen as unique and attractive via the medium of clothes and purchases might appeal very strongly to him, he could more or less understand why O'Brien didn't feel the same way.

Arriving on O'Brien's floor, Prefect approached the room he'd been directed towards.]

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