hadriel | video; ☢ 002

[ Eleanor was still sleeping rough, in a waterlogged building, dank and cold, that was the location of this broadcast- but that wasn't the problem she had come to the network with, no.

As she switched on the feed from her device, it displayed some little girls, all with glowing yellow eyes, a pretty if not scruffy little dress on. Some had syringes in their hands, huge and oversized much like the one Eleanor had mounted on her wrist. The others had little ragdolls made of tennis balls and rope.

She was weak, yet her altered DNA made it so she was still able to move, talk and if need be, possibly fight. Eleanor shook her head as one of the girls came close to the camera, smiling at her and taking her hand. She filmed as she was lead by the child around her basement-like home. ]

Did I hear some of the residents here talk of Ghosts? I'd like to know more.

[ Eleanor had her helmet off this time, still in the oversized diving suit, but she was showing her face for the first time since her arrival. She was a pale girl, sickly looking like she could do with a good dose of sunshine. But it wasn't her she was concerned about. ]

I could have seen Father... Mother possibly, depending on Father's mood... Yet I'm tormented by this?

[ The camera shows two little sisters, laughing and playing a game of chasing each other. ]

I knew they were here, my Little Sisters. I could feel them. Though, I've come to understand they must be dead? Harvested by the sick and deprived no doubt... Is swear, if I should find that these girls really were here and that--

[ She stops herself, feeling her anger rise. No, no, Eleanor your Father taught you better than that. ]

What if I'm really their ghost? Would I know any different? Would you know, if you were someone's ghost? I mean, I arrived here only a short while ago... What if I'm the one who isn't real?

[ It seemed that in Eleanor's case, the drain her ghosts had on her, was more of a mental one. Her mind was slowly fading though her body fought on. Soon she'd be no better than the real Big Sisters that roamed the seafloor in search of little ones to rescue. ]

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It's okay.

[Oh god. It's not okay. It's not okay, because he knows, he's learned what's necessary for them to endure, and he's made his choice as far as his parents are concerned, already - they're worth every moment of this, and more. He's died before. He can die again, for them.

Because they're real.]

If they...if...if they're not real, you have to... [He can't say it. The word chokes into something approaching a sob. He has to cup a hand over his mouth.]

Don't.

[ She's a little shocked at what she thinks Jack is implying. Shaking her head as she looks over to where they play. So innocent, so undeserving of the life they have been forced into.

Eleanor then looks down at her free hand, the video showing it as she makes a fist and flexes her fingers. ]

I can possess them. Make them carry out tasks for me and such. But I can't free them. I don't have that ability...

[ And the thought of killing them is just out of the question. ]

Am I... Am I going to have to die?

[ Straight to the point, her logical thinking outweighing the emotions she was feeling for a moment. ]

I can.

[He has the plasmid necessary. Maybe...that has to be enough. That has to be. He isn't hurting them. Not any of them. They're just children, twisted and warped by Rapture's distorted, hideous version of morality through no fault of their own. They deserve a second chance. They deserve what he can allow them.]

I can free...I have the plasmid.

[That has to be enough.]

[ It's a long moment before Eleanor responds. Crouching down on her knees, the Little Sisters scampering over to be at her side. Holding up their ragdolls and smiling as they touch her face, her hair.

She feels sick in the head. Like a fever brought in by a rolling fog. It makes sense though, that her body would outlast her mind. Eventually, she agrees. ]

If you could... I'd be grateful.

[ She won't ask why he has that plasmid. She wants to believe in him. If her Father had taught her anything, it was that sometimes, people aren't always evil. Some deserve mercy, some deserve what they get and others deserve a chance. ]

And if it's not enough?

[If it's not enough?

He can't let that hold him back. He can't let that justify whatever it is that would be done to them. But Eleanor - he can't let someone just die, no matter what happens.

When he speaks again, his voice is very small.]

I don't want you to die.

[ While Eleanor is still bemused by this whole ordeal, she has done some investigation. Watched people on the network and the ones she managed to stalk in person. She knows that the ghosts drain their hosts, like a leech or underwater parasite. She's fearful that if the Little Sisters she is haunted by, are not real and here in this Cave-City... Well... She doesn't want to die, not yet, not like that.

She can tell by his voice that he's fearful of the same thought. He's so caring and kind. However did someone like him survive in Rapture without having been taken advantage of? ]

I'd rather not die if it can be helped... Nore do I wish for any harm to befall them.

[ She considered his voice then. Same accent, same tone only smaller. ]

Jack, who's there with you?

[ She can just tell something is not right with him. She fears the worst for him and his health too. ]

My...

[There's a murmur, breaking off. A hum of quiet voices, spoken in hushed tones, as though the conversation is taking place in a funeral home. Given the waxy pallor of Jack's skin, the way the strength has completely and utterly dissipated from his limbs, perhaps it may as well be.]

My mother and father.

[ Ah, his parents are the ones haunting him? That's unfortunate, more so than the Little Sisters are to Eleanor. She wonders for a moment, what it would have been like if it had been her Mother or Father instead of the girls?

It takes her a moment before she says anything else. Maybe it's a bad idea to ask him for help, he must be exhausted too. ]

Oh, I see. I hope you don't mind my asking but... Where they here when you arrived or?...

No.

[There's a doubt lingering on his tongue, unspoken. But they're real. They're real because they're here now, and they wouldn't be here if they weren't real. There was no puppy. No Suchong. There was a farmhouse, and he can picture it so clearly, every moment of it.

A lie. Some kind of elaborate scheme on Ryan's part. It had to be.]

They...they were at home. Safe.

[And now they're down here. He can keep them safe for as long as he's alive, but how much longer is that going to be...?]

It's funny, to hear you say safe when talking about Rapture.

[ She had no idea, of course, that Jack and his ~~imaginarry~~ family were from the surface world. All she had seen of it herself, was a few worn out pictures, printed in a book and childhood friend had shown her.

Thinking about home made her a little sad. Looking down at the Sisters as she entertained themselves, seeming to grow stronger and stronger the longer Eleanor sat still and spoke. ]

I'd like to cure them. Take them to the surface and give them a real home. A safe one, away from the life they've been made to suffer. Do you know if there is a way out of here? Even if it's just a small opening in the rocks?

[ Maybe if she could get her Sisters out, maybe that would stop them draining her too. After all, ghosts are supposed to have unfinished business. What if there's was that she never saved them, never took them in the life pod? ]

They weren't from Rapture.

["Home," he realizes, means a very different thing for a Little Sister, or someone who used to be one, than it would for someone like him. Wouldn't it?

(Wouldn't it?)

A farmhouse that he knows was there, because it feels real in his memories, in the texture of his thoughts. The smell of maple syrup and the cluck of chickens, and the exact chord of his mother's laughter. He remembers all of it. That can't be faked. It can't be.]

They're from the surface. Like me.

[No matter what Ryan says.]

I... [He shakes his head, reluctantly.] Everyone says there's no way out.

video; ☢ 002

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