darling it's better down where it's wetter

[did_unkindly]

It's been a day, it's been a day, it's been a whole damn day -- as near as it's possible to tell in this soggy excuse for a city. It's been a day since he killed Fontaine. And Jack is no closer to getting out. He's still down here. He did everything he was supposed to do and he's still down here.

All he's found is locked-down bathyspheres. Broken submarines. Even the goddamn boats are out of service. Where's Tenenbaum? Where's his fucking rescue?

Jack stares about into the greenish gloom, checks the ammo in his pistol, and then kicks and yanks off the rusting panel of a vending machine. His hands are soon full of little wires and pipes. A few seconds later, he straightens up with a grunt, and the machine gives him a tidy discount on a couple glowing hypos of EVE.

With his visit extended indefinitely, he's begun to wonder how many of them are left.

Now arbitrarily divided into chapters!
Part One: A Scene at the Rapture Adoption Agency ~or~ You Found [Pot of Ham]!
Part Two: Come On-A My House, I'm Gonna Give-A You Candy ~or~ Sinclair? More Like Sin Pantalones!
Part Three: Dream Sequences are a Fresh New Concept in Fiction ~or~ It's My Existential Trauma and I'll Cry if I Want To
Part Four: Southern Education Jokes ~or~ Engineer, Engifar, Engiwherever You Are ~or~ The Grave Escape
Part Five: Golfing Accident Memoirs ~or~ Mom... Dad... I'm Immortal ~or~ How To Make Friends And Immolate People
Part Six: Is It A Pie? Is It A Plane?? ~or~ Two's Company, Three's a Row
Part Seven: Escort Missions! In Rapture! Council's In An Uproar ~or~ Bioshock: Cheesecake Edition
Part Eight: Bread, Milk, BATTLE! ~or~ Pleasant Conversations, How They Bore Me
Part Nine: Choices, Schmoices ~or~ Baby's First Moral Philosophy ~or~ Go Away I Want To Take A Damn Bath
Part Ten: A Man Snoozes; A Slave Delays ~or~ The Four Second Rule Applies To Drugs
Part Eleven: A Hearty Meal ~or~ Skeletons In The-- That's Not A Closet
Part Twelve: We All Live in a Secret Submarine ~or~ Plasmids: Not Even Once
Part Thirteen: Paging Dr Tenenbaum To Surgery ~or~ Bribery And Deduction
Part Fourteen: The Prodigal Son Returns

Comments

[so_shower_maybe]

She thins her lips, unmoved.

"If you think you can trust him, knowing how he kills without a thought, then I have nothing to say that will change your mind."

[modestman]

So much for the easy approach.

Sinclair drops his gaze to the floor, lacing his fingers together. "I don't think he's what you think he is, doctor."

[so_shower_maybe]

"You judge character with the same skill that you fire a pistol."

[modestman]

"You think he's some kind of monster," he continues, "but all I see out there is a kid who'd give anything to go home. Am I wrong?"

[so_shower_maybe]

Tenenbaum closes her eyes briefly, rewords her answer so that it's less... revealing. She has more reason to keep Jack's secrets -- and her own -- than she does to help Sinclair.

"From what I see," -- she opens her eyes -- "he is perfectly at home."

[modestman]

It is an effective rewording. Sinclair takes it as a shot at his own moral code, about which he's not going to argue with her. Not that her nose is the cleanest, but that's not why he wanted her here.

"He doesn't belong here," he says, although really if anyone was made for this place, it's Jack. He can't die, he's a war machine, and sometimes it seems like he enjoys it. But that's not a life, and he doesn't want to stay here.

But Sinclair sits back again, easing up. "I'll ask him about the sisters, but I think the answer might surprise you. He's not a bad kid, doc."

[so_shower_maybe]

"But you do not trust him."

Flatly. And yet you're defending him awfully hard, Sinclair.

Tenenbaum doesn't think Jack'd have much to say that she'd want to hear on the subject of Sisters -- but that conversation is going nowhere, and Sinclair doesn't seem like a type who'd have any sympathy for the girls. So she drops it.

[modestman]

"I only just met him," Sinclair laughs, as if the idea that he would feel anything other than distrust toward a virtual stranger is completely absurd. Which it is.

"I don't know the first thing about him, really, except maybe a branch or two of his family tree." And if anything, that's cause to trust him less. "Looks like that reunion didn't go so well."

[so_shower_maybe]

Tenenbaum draws on her cigarette while Sinclair speaks; it's almost down to the filter, but waste not want not.

And -- now that was an interesting statement. If by 'interesting' you mean 'whoa hold up what did you say'. Her eyebrows are up again, surprised.

"He has -- told you much about his family?"

There are a thousand things at stake in that question -- and she tries to hide it, but a little of that intensity comes through. He knows about Ryan. Maybe picked up through rumour -- maybe not. The child is trusting, and Sinclair is a creature built for smooth-talking. Might the truth have come out about Fontaine? About Tenenbaum herself?

[modestman]

Sinclair shakes his head. "Not the most talkative, especially when it comes to whoever he was before he came here. Andrew Ryan's his old man and it sounds like he must have come from a couple others in Kansas, but that's about the whole of it."

But Tenenbaum knows. There's more to Jack's story, a lot more it seems like, and Tenenbaum knows about it.

"Can't figure out why Ryan would have left him topside, unless he didn't know about him. Which I suppose isn't impossible."

[so_shower_maybe]

Tenenbaum continues to look surprised for a few moments. After the way Jack railed against Fontaine, she wouldn't have expected him to stick to the story Fontaine came up with.

You know what, she's going to tackle the least difficult part of that, and with truth to make things simpler.

"Ryan did not know." The cigarette's gone; she stubs it out in an ashtray, watches the embers go out. "Not until the end."

[modestman]

"How did he find out, I wonder?" Sinclair muses, mostly to himself as he picks up his glass again and takes another sip. Once Ryan left the surface for Rapture, he must have been damn near impossible to track.

And yet somehow...

"Convenient plane crash, too," he continues. Just. Casually letting her know how well these pieces REALLY DO NOT fit together AT ALL.

[so_shower_maybe]

"Not so convenient for those who it killed."

If she had another cigarette she'd be lighting it blandly, but alas.

[modestman]

"No, I suppose not," he laughs. "Bad day for everyone, really. Bad day for Jack, he wishes he'd never come here. Especially bad day for Andrew Ryan, but then again something was bound to happen sooner or later. Not too many people who didn't have it out for him."

And it's pretty appropriate that he should be killed by his own son, his own creation. If it was going to be anything, it was going to be something he caused himself.

[so_shower_maybe]

"He was a tyrant," she says, shrugging. "Tyrants lose, and then to escape losing, they die. The only question was of when."

Just trust her on this one.

[modestman]

Sinclair laughs again at that. She's definitely not wrong.

He looks her over for another moment before getting up and taking his glass with him for a refill. He should offer her one, but she's still got a little left. If she wants another, she's perfectly welcome to ask.

Meanwhile, this conversation isn't going anywhere very quickly. But judging by the way her secrecy aligns with Jack's, whatever they're not talking about must be something pretty huge. Something that big doesn't stay a secret for very long in Rapture. One way or another, he'll find out. Fortunately, he's a patient man.

He sits back down and takes a sip, letting the silence linger. If he swallows it quickly enough, he can almost imagine it tastes like real whiskey. He's not going to miss this shit.

[so_shower_maybe]

In the silence, Tenenbaum's mind is on her girls. She hasn't been away from the safehouse for a huge amount of time, and she trusts them to stay put, but it's still natural to worry. (You know. As if she has any right to judge what is natural.)

Fontaine was the greatest threat to them. Now Fontaine is dead for keeps. Ryan's dead; splicers have never been able to find or enter her hideaway. Which means the biggest threat to the girls currently is...

Well, sleeping on a couch in a room just some feet away.

"Today was your first try to escape?" she asks, and lifts her glass. "Together, I mean?"

A sip, a shudder.

[modestman]

"First try for me at all," he admits. "Call it a learning experience." They won't get it wrong again.

"I'm sure you're not keen on staying here much longer either. This is no place for your girls to grow up."

[so_shower_maybe]

"You read my mind," she says, in a 'no shit, Sherlock' kind of tone. But she's not here to share her own escape plans with this guy.

"But the security system... it will be an interesting job to get around Ryan's 'defences'."

(You can just hear the air quotes in her voice.)

[modestman]

"We've got a couple ideas here and there, nothing solid," he says. "Well. Some things are solid, but the majority are still up in the air."

And that's enough about that. He wouldn't mind having Tenenbaum as an ally, but from where they are now it looks like she's not particularly interested.

"I don't want to keep you, doctor, you're a busy woman. I'm sure the girls are wondering where you ran off to."

[so_shower_maybe]

Wow, way to dismiss her.

"Of course." She takes the final drop of whiskey, looks at him without warmth, and stands.

"If only there were more alive to wonder." Matter of fact. He's a smart guy, he'll know what she's referring to.

[modestman]

Sinclair offers her a tight smile, rising from his chair. "I'm not your enemy, Miss Tenenbaum, I hope you'll be able to see that eventually. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you or your girls."

[so_shower_maybe]

"In fact there is something I can do for you, Mr. Sinclair."

It hurts to say. She has given Jack more than his share of chances, paid that debt -- and if he and Sinclair collaborate to reach the surface, her girls will be in danger -- but it hurts. It hurts to say. And that, in part, is what gives her voice so much gravity.

"It is to give advice about the child. Help him if you choose, but do not expect him to remember the kindness."

[modestman]

"Have a good evening, doctor," Sinclair says before he has a chance to process her words enough to have any sort of reaction. "I'm sure you can find your way out."

He holds the door for her, but doesn't follow.

Maybe she's right about Jack. After all, apparently she knows him better. But he can't make himself buy it. He's not sure it's something he could explain if he tried.

[so_shower_maybe]

Wow, that failed to stick. Tenenbaum rubs her face, suddenly feeling tireder than she has in a long time.

"Good evening."

And she leaves -- noting with considerable relief that Jack is still asleep. It's time to go home, with a little more knowledge than before, and a lot more discomfort.