001 - Video / Audio
[At first there's only audio - the sound of someone fiddling with the electronics for a minute or two - before the video flicks on. Sarah looks up at the camera, then down at a keypad before doing a double take, realizing the video recording is now working.]
Hello? Hello? Testing? Great.
[Satisfied, she settles down and leans forward to make her ( Read more... )
Hello? Hello? Testing? Great.
[Satisfied, she settles down and leans forward to make her ( Read more... )
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[Brief pause here while she checks to be sure.]
You're the one who gave...Comrade his Tetris game, right?
I don't know his name. Sorry.
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[Private]
It was meant as a sort of joke, but as frequently happens with him, the joke has taken on a life of its own. He's my inmate; has been for over a year now.
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I don't generally recommend video games as a means of handling one's inmate, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
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I didn't realize these had a function for privacy. That's handy.
O'Brien, huh.
He seems to be enjoying himself, at least. It's better than sitting and brooding about the nature of life, the universe, and the Party, right?
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He is that. A year ago he was convinced we were all figments of his big brain created as a test of his own Party orthodoxy. He still refuses to own up to the things he's done and still asserts the superiority of the collective over the individual, but ... well, he acknowledges his existence as an individual and he has a friend of sorts now. Which is an enormous improvement.
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He's interesting to talk with. Do you mind?
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I don't mind at all-it's good for him to talk to people who don't automatically decide to shout at him. He is cunning, so caution is advisable, but I'm less concerned these days that he'll pull one of his old tricks-to wit, making people trust him so as to betray them later.
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Anyway, it'll all be worth it for you in the end. The harder you work, the more pride you take can take in what you achieve. It'll be more meaningful for him, too - not just some quick fix, but an actual recovery.
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[She holds up the tome of Hobbes that O'Brien gave her for a Christmas present-which is no small effort, as he ensured that it was quite a brick. She's clearly amused by this.]
This was his Christmas gift to me. I suppose we're even.
And I daresay you're right. I try to remind myself of as much when I can.
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You could use that as a doorstop. I guess they didn't have the condensed version available.
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[She puts the book down carefully, so as not to drop it or have it fall on her foot.]
So you mentioned something about research in Tanzania? What's your field, if I may ask?
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[She jerks her chin at the book.]
O'Brien's idea of a joke?
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[She glances at the book, smirks just a bit.]
Something like that. Or an attempt to make a point. My politics tend toward the mutual-aid form of anarchism, which I suspect is why the Admiral saw fit to assign O'Brien to me in the first place.
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[She looks vaguely amused; most people aren't interested in the work part of the "I work in Africa". At the comment about anarchism, she has to stop herself from laughing.]
I'll bet he loved that.
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Oh, we got on like oil and water for the first few months. It didn't help that I was pretty confrontational with him when he first arrived-I've spent much of my life fighting against totalitarian regimes and would-be tyrants, and so my initial reaction was ... far from diplomatic.
[She sobers a little.]
It hasn't been easy, I'll admit, and it continues not to be. But the conversation you're having with him now is far more civil than he'd have been capable of before.
[Pause.]
Have you heard yet about the quirks of the place? The floods, the ports ... death or lack thereof?
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We can't die here?
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