I would argue that they still benefit from their predecessors. I could swear the House we have now is more calculating with his recklessness than the first. Of course, that's difficult to tell now, given the town has forced the wrong versions' brain maps on all of them...
[A slight reveal of empathy there, the caring he was trying to hide breaking through. It was heartbreaking what this town was doing to the different versions of them.]
[Peter can't admit it out loud. Doesn't want to admit it out loud. But Enoch is so right.
Those poor people.
But then...]
We deserve better than this. What this town is doing, bringing them back. They're not gonna remember being repeated. We see it. People who are... [Say it.] Who were close to us. It's like the town is teasing us.
Maybe...maybe it knows who is best for it. Maybe it will be one of them who finally breaks through, with the incentive of their lifespan, with their fresher perspective. And we, those of us who can't die, we have all the knowledge collected before to guide them.
We all deserve better. But maybe the way it is, maybe that will, one of these centuries, prove to be the way out. Our session had all the tools it needed to begin with - all the right minds that come together in all the right ways. We just need to find the right combination of ideas and motivation.
Then it takes a million years. As long as the system sustains us, we can keep trying. If need be, we can help preserve the knowledge the newcomers need.
It isn't a pleasant prospect. I don't want it to go on this long for any of us But if that's what it will take, then I would rather try to do my part to ensure it doesn't take even longer.
[It wasn't a pleasant prospect at all. The idea that this could go on for that long, or longer, or simply forever...that was terrifying. But if it took a bazillion years for them to eventually get the combination right, to stop this, to stop the town from taking...them over and over again, well. What other choice did he have? And this could be a way out. Even though he'd stopped believing in a way out. Dare he believe in this?]
That's not much to go on. Hoping, I mean. Maybe we missed our shot and this whole system is glitched out. Takin' people over and over again.
We've seen what happens when a session misses their chance, and this isn't it.
Giving up is the only way to absolutely guarantee we lose. If hope is all we have, then we shouldn't squander it.
[There's a pang of something like mourning when he says it. He'd said something similar to Beckett, a long time ago, when the vampire had been struggling with giving up, himself.
He hadn't had a chance to say anything last time, and he'd just...slipped away, into the beast. Thinking too hard about it, it almost makes him feel like he should think of giving up too. But he's not gone, is he?
Neither are they.]
If we lose hope, we lose the ability to help them, and one another, and consequently ourselves.
[Giving up is the only way to absolutely guarantee we lose.
That really hits home. As cynical as he was, as hopeless as he was, the thought of this place winning was even worse.]
This is shaping up to be quite the session. [That's said dryly.] Maybe the system just likes us.
I...want to hope. [It's reluctantly said.] But I've been disappointed so many times. There's nothing to go on except just...what we think might happen.
I know. But holding on to whatever hope we can is the least we can do. Even if it doesn't look like it, even if the only hope is to survive to the next day.
Hold on. It's all anyone can ask of you - hold on, and try to help others do so when you can.
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[Norfinbury, why do you do this.]
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I hate this town so much.
[A slight reveal of empathy there, the caring he was trying to hide breaking through. It was heartbreaking what this town was doing to the different versions of them.]
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[The Rhys he was traveling with didn't deserve to suffer what the first had...]
This place is awful. It's why- it's as I was saying, all along. They deserve better than this.
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Those poor people.
But then...]
We deserve better than this. What this town is doing, bringing them back. They're not gonna remember being repeated. We see it. People who are... [Say it.] Who were close to us. It's like the town is teasing us.
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We all deserve better. But maybe the way it is, maybe that will, one of these centuries, prove to be the way out. Our session had all the tools it needed to begin with - all the right minds that come together in all the right ways. We just need to find the right combination of ideas and motivation.
...I hope.
[It's the only way any of this will be worth it.]
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[He's too old, too jaded to even dare to allow himself to hope again.
And yet...
And yet it's...it's something.
It could be nothing, but...]
What if that takes a million years?
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It isn't a pleasant prospect. I don't want it to go on this long for any of us But if that's what it will take, then I would rather try to do my part to ensure it doesn't take even longer.
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[It wasn't a pleasant prospect at all. The idea that this could go on for that long, or longer, or simply forever...that was terrifying. But if it took a bazillion years for them to eventually get the combination right, to stop this, to stop the town from taking...them over and over again, well. What other choice did he have? And this could be a way out. Even though he'd stopped believing in a way out. Dare he believe in this?]
That's not much to go on. Hoping, I mean. Maybe we missed our shot and this whole system is glitched out. Takin' people over and over again.
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Giving up is the only way to absolutely guarantee we lose. If hope is all we have, then we shouldn't squander it.
[There's a pang of something like mourning when he says it. He'd said something similar to Beckett, a long time ago, when the vampire had been struggling with giving up, himself.
He hadn't had a chance to say anything last time, and he'd just...slipped away, into the beast. Thinking too hard about it, it almost makes him feel like he should think of giving up too. But he's not gone, is he?
Neither are they.]
If we lose hope, we lose the ability to help them, and one another, and consequently ourselves.
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That really hits home. As cynical as he was, as hopeless as he was, the thought of this place winning was even worse.]
This is shaping up to be quite the session. [That's said dryly.] Maybe the system just likes us.
I...want to hope. [It's reluctantly said.] But I've been disappointed so many times. There's nothing to go on except just...what we think might happen.
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Hold on. It's all anyone can ask of you - hold on, and try to help others do so when you can.