Audio Transcript – 'Impossibility'
[When I was locked in my tower, I enjoyed reading Sherlock Holmes. In the light of some baffling mystery, Holmes always told Dr. Watson that if one eliminated the impossible, whatever remained, however improbable, must be the truth. Sage advice. The problem is... such advice can be uncomfortable... if you happen to be one of the impossibilities that need reconciling. I am standing in a city at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where people can shoot lightning from their fingertips and wield fire in the palm of their hand. The Prophet would call it the work of God. Frank Fontaine would call it 'high-grade scratch.' And those like Brigid Tenenbaum and Yi Suchong would call it science. I suppose everything is impossible... until it happens.]
As the Olympus Heights trolley trundled towards Mercury Suites, Elizabeth was surprised to find that a security barricade had been erected around the entrance to Apollo Square, to prevent anyone from entering or leaving the district. Several members of Andrew Ryan's security detail were posted around the bulkheads. When the trolley stopped at Mercury Suites and Elizabeth disembarked, two turrets tracked her movements towards the foyer.
"Expecting trouble?" Elizabeth asked one of the security officers.
"Just splicers." The man shrugged. "In case one of 'em gets tetchy and decides to try his luck. Had one of the shocky blighters messing about in a puddle the other day, damn near blew me head off."
"The security is heavier around Apollo Square. What's going on over there..."
Elizabeth trailed off. The security officer blinked uncomprehendingly at her.
"You're having a laugh. Where the hell've you been?"
Elizabeth pursed her lips. "Humor me."
"Well, it's where they hang Fontaine's lot innit, them smugglers. Apollo Square's become a prison."
It was Elizabeth's turn to look bemused. Smuggling contraband as a capital crime: it didn't seem to mesh with Andrew Ryan's objectivist philosophy or his laissez-faire economics.
... my god... I had no idea... there's armed men all over the place... I saw a woman climb over the fence trying to escape... one of Ryan's guards pointed at her, and she lit on fire... just like that. What's happening here...
... Hey jiggle jiggle, the squirm and the wriggle, the hangman's knotted his noose...
It took Elizabeth a few seconds to realize that the security officer wasn't speaking from behind the Doors: "And when McDonagh comes and airs the place out, when the wind blows the right way, we can still smell 'em, rotting and black. Sullivan just leaves 'em dangling up there..."
"I have to go." Elizabeth pushed past the young man. He watched her, shrugged, and then aimed his shotgun in the general direction of Apollo Square.
Elizabeth collapsed against the foyer wall. Her breathing came in harsh, ragged gasps. She shivered violently.
"What," she said through gritted teeth, "what the hell is wrong with this place..."
"Why raise questions you don't wish to hear the answer to?" asked Rosalind Lutece.
"All those people, Andrew Ryan killed all those people... and just because they wanted a taste of the surface. Fontaine's activities are criminal, but they don't warrant hanging! It's obscene."
"Rapture is a world its own," said Robert Lutece, "any hope for a better one destroys the illusion of utopia."
"And hopes, much like quantum superpositions, have a tendency to collapse."
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Tympans of Temples Held
Fanfiction"I never shoulda told anyone about that light; about those weird buildings I saw, floatin' in the clouds. And most of all, I never should have told no one about that girl who showed up one day... in that old-timey blue dress..." - Morris Lauderman...
