Evan Treborn from The Butterfly Effect
Evan blinked, looking down at his hands and realizing that, somehow, he was back in his own adult body. His hair wasn't the wild mop that he'd had in Sunnyvale Institution and he had his real clothes back.
As used as he was by now to regaining consciousness in absolutely strange situations, he honestly expected something different to happen ( Read more... )
As used as he was by now to regaining consciousness in absolutely strange situations, he honestly expected something different to happen ( Read more... )
Her shocked face turns more serious and contemplative when he looks away. Using the power to change fate to rid oneself of a bad end, Rika has known that sort of thing from about one hundred years worth of repeating her childhood in an attempt to create a world where her friends and she can live happily. An older version of Rika would have been glad that the other man also has the power to overturn the bad events of his life, but Rika has learned something important since that time. By not accepting her death Rika created many failed worlds where many peopled died, and in a way she now feels somewhat responsible for that. She accepted that she could not save her parents, but continued to live through worlds allowing them to die over and over again until she felt nothing for them anymore...
Instead of being accepting of Evan's power, Rika asks with an innocent child's voice that she was supposed to naturally have, "Does that make you some kind of god? How does running away from your problems make them better?"
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"It's not the same! The problem is me! I'm like...a ticking timebomb! Would you like me to list the reasons everyone around me's lives turned to shit because they did something so selfless as care about me!"
Evan balled his hands at his sides and turned away again. "They were all better off without me. Trust me on that."
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When Hanyuu suggested that it was the wrong thing to try and save Rika after that first world, Rika didn't understand and was angry at the possibility that all her hard work was being pushed aside. So Rika expects the other man not to take such news well, but that doesn't change that Rika feels this is something that needs to be said.
As for the part about bad things happening to his friends because they cared, that's exactly why Rika hid the hard truths from her friends. It never saved them from themselves, but it saved them from Rika's enemies for a bit longer.
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He didn't want to think about his mother. "I should say she. My dad's been dead since I was seven. He died in front of me. I went back to try to talk to him, get some advice -- he attacked my seven-year-old body and then I left it. He nearly strangled me. A guard hit him over the head with a baton and he died of intracranial hemorrhaging.
"His last words to me were 'He has to die, it's the only way!' -- come to think of it, he wasn't actually speaking to me."
But I saw the world being changed after I died -- I don't know how, but they were better off without me, ergo I'm the problem!"
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He's told her enough that Rika opens up a little bit. With a slightly darker tone Rika says, "Both my parents died because my mother was worried about me. Some things just cannot be helped no matter what we do to stop it."
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His head was pounding in that familiar way and reflexively, Evan reached up to touch his nose before checking to see if any bleeding was occurring (again). There was nothing. Maybe it was psychosomatic.
Great. Now just talking about this shit hurt like hell.
"Is there anything else you wanted to impart upon me?" he asked in a deadened voice, unsure whether or not he wanted the answer.
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The only ones she really talked about her own traveling with here were the ones that knew of her lifespan and seemed to care for her. Back home she told her friends, Akasaka, Detective Ooishi, and Dr. Irie at last when she decided to try to bring everyone together for her final showdown. Before that everyone else either thought she was crazy or died because she told them. And in that dream that actually wasn't they thought she was just lonely and making up stories.
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"And what'll that get me?"
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Like when her dear young friend's uncle came home. The poor girl was fine living alone with Rika since both of their parents were dead, but under that uncle's abuse Satoko's smile faded away and she would not call for help and Rika did not try to help. Her friend only wanted to prove she was strong, Rika had given up before even trying. After a long battle with child protective services that Keiichi brought the entire village into, Rika realized that she was the only one who could reach out her her dear friend and get her to finally ask for help. Nothing would have been done and the world would have been hopeless if Rika continued to believe it was.
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Evan wanted to laugh. The idea of telling his family, his friends anything about this crap was...preposterous. All it had ever gotten his father and grandfather was more antipsychotics.
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Rika would bet her last chip in a game of chance as long as that chance was greater than zero.
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"Did you turn the love of your life into a prostitute -- only after goading her into suicide by reminding her of the worst day of our lives, where her father forced us to star in a kiddie porn flick? Did you kill her twin brother in front of her? Did you advise their father to discipline him, leaving said fuckbag to beat him and God only knows what else?
"Did you blow your arms off, leaving your mother to take extra care of you and start chain smoking -- only to get lung cancer? Did you watch said brother set your dog on fire? Did you watch the last of your group stab him in the back, killing him and sending his sister down said road to prostitution? Did you -- "
Evan bit back a sob, turning away again and slamming his hands against the wall.
"Kayleigh...why'd she try so many times to kill herself?" he whispered gutterally. "Was knowing me really that bad?"
((I love Evan, I really do, but I honestly can't believe everything that went wrong could be traced back to him or that him actually leaving the picture meant those things would never happen. The movie says he's the problem, but other crap could have sent them down the same roads and no one made any of their choices for them. Le sigh.
He's had all this crap flung onto his shoulders -- and for what? Maybes?))
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Rika doesn't want to speak badly about her friends, but this man speaks as if bad things only happen around him and therefore caused by him. "Have you ever been told that your the only thing keeping the 2,000 residents of your village sane because of your birthright and then find out that someone wants you dead for a theory of theirs? Have you ever had to convince your doctor that dissecting your best friend for research while she is still alive is beyond stupid when he has medicine ready for her? You need to accept that bad things happen to everyone, and that people make mistakes! We're only human after all."
((That's why it's good for him to bitch about his problems~ No matter what the movie says, of which I haven't seen is probably years, he can't be the fault of everything.))
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He didn't mean to snap, really he didn't.
Evan sighed, "I know we're human. I also know that sometime shit happens, but when that shit can be traced directly back to you..."
Evan exhaled, "How better to make sure it never happens than to remove yourself from the picture entirely?"
((I own the DVD and love every minute of it. My sister is infinitely disturbed by it. And poor Evan. For someone so smart, he's being so dumb...))
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"I don't believe you could be responsible for everything if something bad always happened when you went back to fix it. Did you ask to be in that porno, or tell your mother to choose smoking as a way to cope? Do you have mind control powers that forces the people around you to do horrible things?" Rika's about ready to throw a chair and beat somebody with it. And this time Rika has no reason to be gentle with her chair smash because this person was never her friend in any world.
((I think the only part I couldn't stand to watch the second time was with the mailbox bomb, but I was eating dinner at the time.))
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Evan scowled more deeply at her before reaching up to run a hand through his hair. No.
((Oh, you poor thing. During the House season two finale's initial run, my sister was eating cereal when the patient's eye filled with blood and popped out. I think she might have turned away for the rest of the episode.))
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