Bill G. said:
_Doyce T. said:
_RossumRkHe finally looks up. “If you want karmic retribution on me for my sins as a father, I assure you, the fact you’re working with them, and their son…” he looks away, shaking his head.
Aria takes his place as he walks away. “I think what Leo means to say is that anyone worth loving, mourning, and avenging is most definitely someone. I would like her name. I think we both would like to learn more about her. And… I suspect Leo does not agree with your choice of responses.”
Rossum shrugs, unoffended. “I merely meant that there would be no great revelation of a famous or even well-known name - no one who’d been secretly living in his periphery all this time.” He sighs. “Her name was Dr. Ji-a Lee, and she worked with KIOST, though you’d never know it from their archives or website.”
“As for the two types of people, well…” again, he shrugs, but with his hands. “I am a villain. That’s established. I embrace it. The greater sin in this world, though, is that I am a thwarted villain - all my plans failed, and incarcerated into perpetuity.” He looks around the room. “The successful villains still inflict their perceived slights on the rest of the world, but manage to win enough to make it look like justice.”
He tilts his head. “The hero’s definition is apt enough, but they are rare,” he says, dragging out the r sounds for several seconds.
Leo doesn’t want retribution. He wants you to stop hurting people. That’s all."
“Well…” Rossum spreads his hands. “I’m imprisoned. My contingencies are exhausted.” The hands lift. “Wish granted?”
Aria draws herself up, grows more serious in expression. “And on that subject. You at least pretended some regret when you realized who I was. May I ask what I did to earn this… honor?”
Rossum raises his eyebrows, as if mildly surprised at the question. “You are, as I understand it, an… expression of my son. Rossum’s son. Something he might have been in another incarnation and, thus, a different and distinct person, branched off from many of the experiences of his childhood. So I choose to see you as a child of mine or…” he holds up a hand. “If that’s too objectionable, a representation of a child, in potentia. I’ll never have more children, so it’s an unexpected gift to discover there are more.”
“I - that is to say, Rossum - committed horrible acts on Leo in his - my - efforts to… if you like… more perfectly create the tsunami sufficient to his needs.” He leans forward. “But those acts were intentional. Considered. Weighed and found necessary. I won’t defend the calculus of those decisions - they are either indefensible or obvious - I mention them because they were decisions. Whatever harm resulted was, if not intended, accepted.”
“What happened to you was none of that.” He sits back. Slumps. “You were a clumsily wounded casualty. Unintended. Unnecessarily harmed. Unwanted collateral damage.” He lifts a finger, as if making a point, but still does not look up. “And, most stinging rebuke of all, wholly my mistake - not an inherited memory of evil actions, taken by my progenitor. Mine.”
“From a certain point of view, I’ve only been alive a few years, and taken few actions that can be said to be wholly mine in that time.” Again, he’s looking at, and through, the table. “I’m not satisfied with any of them. I can’t determine if that’s because I am a flawed copy, or perfectly accurate.”
author: Doyce T.
url: Community Forums: 38.2 - Evening at Pops | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
