[25] - [Voice]

[sharpememory]

I just thought that I should mention that I'm straight. Just so everyone knows.

[Private - Prefect]

I guess we should talk about Philip. It's a pity that he didn't get the memo on filters.

[Private - Dean]

You should play pool with me. Also, we should invite Wanda and Arkady. If you haven't met them yet, you should.

[Private - Wanda and Arkady]

Do you guys want to play pool with me and Dean? There'd potentially be beer involved.

Comments

Private

[sharpememory]

Memories are just memories, Prefect. They don't put money in your hand or food on a table. We all do what we gotta do.

Private

[buywithme]

Comrade, your memories are what make you! You can't not know that there are other ways to make money and put food on your table?

I just... Comrade, can you imagine waking up one day and not remembering what Phillip or Cassel looked like? Do you really think that could ever be worth it?

Private

[sharpememory]

Other ways tend to get you prison time, not to mention get people pretty peeved if they work out what you've done.

There are photos, man. Photos and journals. It's the same thing.

Private

[buywithme]

Well... Comrade, I was talking about other legal ways?

I remember you told me that you wanted to be a fireman when you were a little boy? I was wondering if... there were any other things you'd ever considered doing?

[SINCE THAT SEEMED LIKE A LIE TO HIM.]

So, if you and I were to go out and get drunk, and build a bridge out of lego together? Then do you really think that me just telling you that we had done that, and showing you a picture of a lego bridge, would replace that experience without there being anything missing?

Private

[sharpememory]

Prefect, I lied about the fireman thing. I am so not up for that. Too much climbing into people's smokey houses.

Well, I guess I'd miss all the chit chat we'd had.

Private

[buywithme]

[Prefect smiles, ghostlike]

Well, Comrade, I didn't want to assume.

But is there ever a legal job which you'd consider doing?

Also, you wouldn't remember what input you had had into the construction of the Bridge. Also, you wouldn't know what it had felt like to have tried to make the bricks together when you were drunk, or what parts of making it would have been funny, and, maybe when you looked at the bridge, you wouldn't feel proud, in the way you might have if you remembered making it.

Private

[sharpememory]

I don't know, I actually enjoy the law bits sometimes. Not to mention that I could help out a lot of workers if I was a lawyer.

Yeah, but you could say the same thing about everything that you do in life. I could make good memories in the future and it wouldn't matter about the ones that I lost.

Private

[buywithme]

I think it's something you'd be good at. Especially, if you were a court lawyer, I think it might have a lot of the same appeals as pulling a con would.

You get to know your mark, you put together a story that you have to sell about them, and at the end, if you've done it all right, you get to win.

Comrade, don't you think there's something wrong with being able to say that about anything in life? [He pauses slightly, trying to think of an actual good event they've had together] Do you remember when we were in Paris, and we bought those suits and got lost? Or, when we painted that really horrible mural on the wall?

Or, Comrade, do you remember when that dinosaur picked us up and took us back to it's nest?

[He is pretty sure Barron will have forgotten at least one of these.]

Private

[sharpememory]

I guess so. I reckon you need a lot of the same skills to do it. At the same time, it's not something that's really easy at home. Worker discrimination and all of that.

I've got the suits in my room and I've seen the mural. I remember them, though. [Mostly.] As for the dinosaurs, are you sure that that wasn't you drinking?

Private

[buywithme]

Maybe you could be a civil rights lawyer, then? You could defend the rights of other Workers, and try to change the image of them as being criminals!

It definitely happened, Comrade! I think it was the first port we went into together? We thought that this pterodactyl was going to eat us, and you stepped in front of me, to try and give me a chance to get away.

You don't remember this at all, Brother?

Private

[sharpememory]

That would be pretty good, I have to say. I know a lot of workers that need defending, like my mom.

[A pause.] It didn't get you, did it? And no, I can't really. I mean, it's just one of those things that the Admiral probably didn't want me to remember. [Ah, back to excuse making.]

Private

[buywithme]

You would need to stop working people, if you wanted to help her like that. I mean, once you graduate, you'll have your power back, so you would be able to use it, in an emergency? But you'd have to make the decision not too.

Do you think you'd like to try some of those exercises for retrieving lost memories, later?

[He pauses a little himself, before replying:] No, Comrade. I didn't leave you, and we both got away all right. But you standing in front of me, to try and let me get away even if you were injured? That meant a lot to me. It's something about you that is important, and good, and you don't even remember it happening.

I know that you can always make more good memories, but sometimes there will be important things which might only happen once. If you forget them, then you forget... what kind of a man you are capable of being.

And I don't think that's the Admiral's objective.

Private

[sharpememory]

I suppose that's true. I'd like my power back here and now though. Because I've got to learn to be discerning with it sooner or later, right? I'd even by more willing to try the memory stuff.

[Barron takes a moment to reply.] I'm glad that I didn't let the thing eat you. I guess that's a pretty important thing to forgot. But that's kind of the way it is, you know? Maybe that's the Admiral's point.

Private

[buywithme]

I'd like you to have it back eventually as well, just... not quite yet, Comrade. If I give you your power back and you misuse it, then people here who have been looking for an excuse to hurt you, will take that as their excuse.

That doesn't have to be the way it is though, brother! You haven't had your power for months now, Comrade, so there should be a period of time, in which you can remember everything that's happened. Doesn't that... I don't know, doesn't it feel different to you?

I don't think this is being controlled by the Admiral, Brother. It's just the blowback from your power, it's something that you've done to yourself, and that you have the power to stop from happening again.

Private

[sharpememory]

Perry Dawsey apparently isn't here anymore, so that's one person down. Not that many other people have a problem with me. So it might be worth the risk? Good could come of it.

[Pause.] Well, I guess so. But it's not the be all and end all, you know?

It could be either, to be fair. [Backtrack, backtrack!]

Private

[buywithme]

I am thinking about it, Comrade. Just give it a little more time.

Things must be less confusing, at least?

Private

[sharpememory]

If there's one thing I've got a lot of at the moment, it's time.

I guess so. They're certainly more linear.

Private

[buywithme]

Could you tell me what it's like? I mean, when you don't remember things?

[Pause]

I mean, you don't have too, this isn't like, a warden-ish question, really. I just can't imagine how you could be happy living like that.

Private

[sharpememory]

Well, you know when you forget your keys? And it sucks, because you know you left them just there but you can't remember where just there is? It's like that. But with your name.

I'm used to it. It's not really that bad.