116 - video, post-flood

[mrs_persson]

[Una is sitting at her desk. She holds a curved black object in her hands, playing with it idly. It's the Alice band worn by her child self.]

Well then. Thank god that's over. If anyone needs me-I'm going to be busy for the rest of the day today, so talk fast or be patient.

[Filtered to wardens and to the inmates who helped deal with O'Brien.

Comments

[Private]

[majorum_pride]

Cunning, if morally ambiguous. I suppose I should tell you my own faults, as two wardens on board know them well.

I betrayed my closest friend, my captain, for a plot that I had been convinced was justified. I still feel that something was needed, but in the end, and 300 years later my people are spoiled decadents that engage in slavery under the guise of superiority. Ones that obliterate other Prides and vie over relics.

I'm glad your plot didn't lead to anything quite so dramatic.

[Private] (later, after she's had it out with O'Brien and is kind of wiped.)

[mrs_persson]

You needn't have told me that, but-thank you for entrusting me with that knowledge.

My childhood skulduggery was nothing near so dramatic, but there are things I've done as an adult, with the best of intentions and with the finest intelligence I had at the time, that had catastrophic results. Long stories, most of them.

[Private] D: Oh my god I just accidentally deleted a whole crapload of notifs and lost them.

[majorum_pride]

It's something that others aboard know or I might not have shared it. Though they know little else about me. Just that I betrayed my captain.

No story is short. It's always a part of a larger one.

[Private] (aaaa I hate it when that happens D:)

[mrs_persson]

That's certainly true. And the notion of who's the hero and who's not always changes, depending on how you look at it.

[Private] Because he's still embarrassed that people know things about him.

[most_feared]

Sometimes I get the impression, ma'am, you are to Chaos what I am to Order.

[Private]

[mrs_persson]

And that is?

[Private]

[most_feared]

We both use it as a useful means to an end, I think. I see a destructive panic, I settle it. You see a bad system, you throw monkey wrenches into it.

[Private]

[mrs_persson]

[She actually laughs at this.]

You've already got me thoroughly figured out, I see. Some of my oldest friends don't even realise that much.

Private

[naughtbutlife]

I would like to speak with you, but I think it best saved for to-morrow, when you are not quite so occupied.

And I admit, dwelling now as I do on how we all were as children, I am much surprised and somewhat bewildered. I suppose it is my own fault for assuming that an adult's personality would mirror their childhood self.

Private

[mrs_persson]

Tomorrow I'm at your disposal. Today is reserved for giving O'Brien the bollocking of his life and also taking Dios for a very long walk.

Some were pretty consistent, I thought. But some of us, myself in particular, grew out of it properly. Thank god.

Private

[naughtbutlife]

May both things be satisfying, Una.

Some were, aye, like Neil and Martha, but others were not. Yourself and Sexby, in particular, were very surprising.

Re: Private

[mrs_persson]

I was dreadful. I've always suspected as much, but now I know.

I don't think I saw Sexby at-oh, no, I did see him waving around his-

Hand. Oh good lord.

[Private]

[mrs_persson]

Flattering as always. Although that's hardly an inaccurate use of the word.

[Pause for the meditative lighting of a cigarette.] Call it a kind of déjà vu. Brought on by the child looking at the woman's relics, and finding them disturbingly familiar.

[Private]

[mrs_persson]

Isn't there some kind of word or verb tense in your language for these kind of temporal ambiguities?

[She's stalling, and she knows it.]

If you mean, do I remember, from childhood, being here? No.

Private

[greatlightother]

Una. [And then she decides she doesn't want to bring it up.]

At least you are no longer that way. And you had that part of your life to compare to what you have now. See how far you've come.

Re: Private

[mrs_persson]

...indeed. It's quite a journey. I suppose I must have got myself sorted somehow, eventually, and I'm glad for that.

[And ... awkward silence is awkward.]

Re: Private

[greatlightother]

[She lets it stretch for a moment. Then:]

You know he couldn't resist it. I'm not making excuses for h-, well, alright, I am a little bit, but- [And she stops because...really, how can she make more of an idiot out of herself?]

Re: Private

[mrs_persson]

No. You're right. He couldn't resist, but I just wish he had, all the same.

If he had I'd feel less like my efforts were bearing only the most stunted of fruit, or none at all.