I chose... Rapture. [Faith/ Dream]

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Welcome to Rapture. A city where the artist can roam freely, the scientist can create with the sky as the limit, and the power is with the people. Such a place could never exist on land therefore it was literally built on the bottom of the ocean, as far away from the governing powers as possible. Out of every jurisdiction. The extreme of extremes. It is a massive place with buildings that tower over head and long walkways that link different areas of the city together.
Everything you could ever want you can find in Rapture. There are stores, restaurants, hotels, spas, housing units, art galleries, markets, sports centers and for those who enjoy a little bit of nighttime excitement there are bars and love-houses. Everyone is welcome in Rapture! There are no minorities. Everyone is equal. Everyone gets a fair share.
All of this is thanks to to the hard work and dedication of our founder Andrew Ryan!

At least..that's how things used to be. Before the revolution. On New Year's Eve, at 12:00 on the dot, just as the clocks were ticking down and the champagne bottles were about to be popped, explosions rang through the entire city. The whole foundation of Rapture was shaken to its very core. Those explosions marked the beginning of what would be a long battle throughout the streets between those who supported Andrew Ryan and those who supported a man named Frank Fontaine. Soon blood coated every wall on every corner of the city. The year 1959 was off to a great start.

Hundreds died and those that didn't die..were left to slowly go insane. Driven only further to insanity by their addiction to Adam; the genetical stimulant that once kept the wheels of Rapture turning.
The side-effect of this drug was both an overwhelming addiction to it and a range of horrible disfigurations due to the way the drug affected the human body. Those addicted where named Splicers and those Splicers are all that are left in this city. They do whatever they can to get their hands on Adam..even if it means killing each other. Many have banded together in order to overpower those who are weak, making them even more dangerous.

The revolution was two years ago. There are now those who are merely trying to get by and those who are trying to escape. But to escape means going through hell and back again...straight through the center of the city. Can you make it out?
Let's see, shall we?

The girl compliments my name. I smile—It wasn’t the best of names, but it was a name. It wasn’t something that you heard around here often. You heard all sorts of normal names: Thomas, Diane, Jane, Ryan… All names that were used over and over again, but Mira? No one had such a name in all of Rapture, I was sure of it. The girl pulls a necklace from beneath her armor to show me. I hum quietly.

“Echo. Uncommon name. I like it; it has character. You know? It’s differ’nt Doll” I smile at her. I wasn’t sure if the name fit her. An echo was sort of reflection of sound. This girl was awfully quiet. Hm, it was quite ironic in a way. I chuckle quietly. It made me like the name even more.

My question doesn’t go unanswered for long. As I ask, she rises from her place on the floor, and answers, telling me that I could clean my wound were I was. Soon after, well, almost immediately, the girl turns and escapes into another room. I don’t bother calling after her. She will be back soon, I know it. I look down to the hand I am about to pour the vodka on. It’s going to sting, but I think that I can handle it. I brace myself easily. I have grown so used to pain. With everything that has happened, starting before the revolution, I have grown to ignore the pain. Hell I've limped through Arcadia with a knife sticking out of my leg-- I could handle it.

So without much thought about it, I poured the vodka over the wound. I take in a short breath through my teeth, making a quiet hiss. My hand curls up slightly before I straighten it out. It needed to clean itself out. I turn my hand sideways so that the alcohol can drain onto the floor, making a small puddle in front of me. I wait a moment before pouring it again. It needed to keep clean before I attempted to rewrap it. I waited a moment for the stinging to stop a bit before pulling my bag closer to look for bandages. Then I see that the girl had been standing there, holding some out to me. I grunt quietly, giving her a smile.

“Sorry…” I trail off looking at the bandages. So she had gone to get supplies that I was out of at the moment, well, at the present time I couldn’t find my own. I would probably find them later, after I didn’t need them. I reach up with my other hand, taking the box containing the roll of bandages.

“I owe you for this too by the way” I mutter, half serious, to the girl as I open the box and begin to unroll them just a bit. It takes me a moment before I get the wrap begun, but once I start it doesn’t take me long. I hum quietly, a small smile on my face once I have finished.

“There, good as new!” I giggle quietly to myself. I look up to the girl before pulling myself off the ground. I lean over to grab the bottle cap, taking a swig of the vodka before pulling myself up. I wasn’t a heavy drinker like my father. No—I knew what that stuff could do to you, and I wasn’t willing to do that to myself. A drink here or there could calm your nerves, and it could numb some pain as well. That’s why I did. I hold out the bottle to the girl, a small smile on my lips.

“It would be rude of me not to offer so, would you like a drink?” The girl didn’t look like a drinker, nor did she look like she could handle the drink. I doubted that she had even been offered such things being in the…field she was in. I wasn’t forcing it upon her. I was just offering out of courtesy.


So I got back from dinner about an hour ago and the lightning we are having outside decided to mess with the Internet. I'm sorry T_T I'll stay up later tonight though haha I suck.

Alright! I'll be here. Take your time.

I had never really understood why the people in the facility had decided it was a good idea to name me Echo..no matter how many times I thought over the different possibilities none of them made any sense. The most logical one was the strange kind of scream I could unleash while wearing my helmet. There were amplifiers on the inside of the helmet that projected the screech across a wide area. Loud enough to disorient and often scare away most threats. But it wasn't something that I used because it drew far too much attention to me even though it did rid me of the immediate threat most of the time.
Other Sisters didn't care when or where they used the screech. It was almost a way of announcing their arrival to the area that usually worked as an effective morale damager. Splicers were terrified of Big Sisters. The real ones in any case, not me.

When Mira commented on my name I found that the color returned to my cheeks, a smile spread across my lips, and I was once again as bashful as I had been before. I guess I just didn't know how to take a compliment from someone. I mean it's not like I was ever given any compliments while I was in the facility and I most certainly hadn't been given any while I was running around trying to survive after the city exploded into a civil war of massive scale.
In a way this was the first compliment I had ever gotten..ever.
"I kinda like it too.." I admitted with a slight nod of my head.

In a way there were two reasons I was leaving the room as she poured the alcohol onto the cut on her hand. The obvious one was to get the bandaging but the not so obvious one was because I didn't want to see her in pain. Despite being relatively unaffected by the drugs the scientists had given me, I was greatly affected by seeing others that I cared about being in pain. It was the kind of thing that triggered that 'protective' instinct that was hardwired within me.

Thankfully by the time I returned with the bandaging she had finished and was letting the pain subside. I caught her looking for her bandages when I came in with some from my own supply. She looked at them for a moment before she took them from me, telling me that she owed me for them too.
I gave her a slight smile as I let my hand fall back to my side as she applied the bandage to her hand. It only took her a couple seconds to have the bandage wrapped and secured properly. It was much neater now. I felt as though I didn't need to worry about her hand anymore seeing as it was now disinfected as well. What she did next surprised me though.
She took a swig from the bottle she was holding. Then she offered it to me.

"A drink? Sure." I reached out to take the bottle from her and I brought it to my lips. The smell of the vodka alone was enough to clear my sinuses right out but I continued to take a big sip from the liquid. The bottle came down as I felt the alcohol burn my throat. Yes I had taken a drink before but clearly not enough.
Only a second after swallowing I started to cough from the strength of the drink. It was a lot stronger than the beer I had tasted before when I happened upon a bottle at a looted brewery.
After a few coughs I found that I started laughing at myself and my reaction to the burn. It was a soft but hearty laugh that could make even the coldest of people smile. I held the bottle out for Mira to take back before my mixture of laughing and coughing caused me to drop it.

The way the girl flushed when given a compliment wasn’t strange. When did you have time to compliment someone? In this hell, it was hard enough to find someone you got close enough to compliment. My thoughts stopped a moment. Were we getting close? No. Not in any way really. Yes, we were being nice to each other, but after I found the record player for this girl, I would leave. I would be better if I left while she slept. That way, she didn’t have to worry so much. At the same time, I didn’t like leaving someplace without giving my thanks. I wasn’t sure how this was going to work out, it was just going to have to.

I was surprised that the girl accepts my offer. She couldn’t be anywhere close to my age unless she looked incredibly young. She speaks with confidence though, so I assumed she knew what exactly she was drinking. She takes the bottle and I watch her. The girl takes a swig and after she swallows she starts coughing. Just as I expected, whatever she had before was not this.

I watch her with a small smirk on my face. I was correct in my assumptions. She coughs for a moment or two more before beginning to laugh. I hadn’t heard someone laugh like that in a while. It wasn’t a chuckle or a grunt of amusement. It was full-on laugher. She holds out the bottle, afraid she might drop it if she holds onto it much longer. I shake my head, grasping the bottle by the neck and taking it from her.

“It’s much stronger than that Arcadian Merlot. Ryan had this stuff brought down here from someplace in Russia before it was restricted to have contact with the surface.” I smile quietly, tilting back my head and taking another swig. It burns my throat, but I’ve grown used to it. I place the silver cap on the bottle, screwing it on tight.

“The first glass of vodka goes down like a post, the second like a falcon and the third like a little bird. You’ve just got to get used to it” I nod to her, kneeling to place the bottle back in my bag. There’s still half a bottle left for what could be used later on. I could drink it or use it to disinfect, it all depended.


I hope you enjoyed your dinner?

In the two years I had been out of the facility I had matured a lot. Back when I was about three times as nervous, unsure of myself, and scared of everything that moved or could possibly cause me any kind of harm whatsoever. As the months went by though I could feel myself hardening with every passing day. Although now I still wasn't fully sure of myself, I knew how to use my Plasmids more than just effectively. I could take a life when it was absolutely necessary. Before I never would have dreamed of killing another person whether they were a threat to me or not.
But I suppose I hadn't matured enough for alcohol. It was just not something I was exposed to all that often. Though I did have a bottle or two of something in the storage room. I never opened either of them for my own consumption.

Mira watched me with a bit of an amused expression as I laughed and coughed at the same time. She must have been expecting this kind of reaction from my based off how young I looked. I guess I did look my age didn't I? Still, it was nice to see her smirk as she took the bottle from my hand for one last sip of her own.
I was amazed at how easily she managed to take the drink without so much as flinching. My god I had a lot of work to do if I ever wanted to drink the stuff. I doubted I would get another chance though with the short duration of her stay with me.
"Whatever it is..it's a lot stronger than what I've had." I agreed with her as I cleared my throat one last time with a sigh.

As much as I hated to admit it, the stuff was already making my head feel a little light. Not enough to where I was going to go stumbling around like a fool but enough to where I knew I was going to be a lot more smiley than I usually was. It probably didn't help that I hadn't really had anything to eat all day. I was drinking on a completely empty stomach.
"Hey, are you hungry? I've got some cans I could throw onto the cooker." I offered as I took a few hesitant steps towards the storage room. The more I offered her the more I knew she was going to start turning things down. I wanted to be gracious seeing as I had much more than she did but at the same time I didn't want to make her feel like she owed me anything in return.

The girl coughs a bit more before she quiets down. I was quite amused by the way she reacted. I couldn’t really remember the first time I had the stuff. I remember being younger and getting into father’s drinking cabinet. No, it wasn’t Vodka, but it was something that kicked me back of my feet It was either whiskey or Gin. Really it didn’t matter at the time. Mother came home early that day and I had to stay in my room until I thought I could walk a little bit straighter. The point was, I had more experience, and it seemed like the more I drank the stuff, the less I really wanted to. It brought back too many horrible memories. It was something that I liked to relax with, but I was so afraid of turning into my father. No—I wouldn’t turn into a monster like him. There was no way I would follow in his footsteps.

I am called out of my thoughts again. She speaks of something new, drawing my attention to what she’s saying. She was offering food. I watch her a moment before looking down to my bag. I wasn’t used to eating a lot. I had a pep bar or two a day and that kept me going. I didn’t want to accept food and then waste. I would be fine with my own food. I smile quietly, a nice smile. I am trying to be as warm as possible.

“I’ve got a pep bar and a Hop Up Soda in my bag. I’ll be fine with that…Thanks for offering though” I smile quietly at her, taking in a short breath as I take a knee once more to rifle through my bag. Out comes the two items I’ve spoke of before.

“I wouldn’t want to waste your food or anything”

Getting sis into bed, be back soon—sorry.

With the alcohol in my system I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before I did something stupid in front of Mira. It was bound to happen at one time or another tonight, that is unless I got some food in my belly to dilute the vodka.
As I expected she turned down the food I offered her. This disappointed me just a little bit but at the same time I knew it was coming. From the way she had spoken about said 'charity' she clearly wasn't the kind to ready accept things offered to her. Especially not the kind of things I was offering her now. A safe place to stay, sleep, food, water, bandages..such things weren't just given out for nothing in Rapture. At least not by Splicers in any case.

"Well..okay. I've got more than enough for just me though. I'd hate to waste what I have when I move on to my next hideout." I said as I slipped into the storage room to look for something to eat myself. As much as I wanted to tell her that she had no choice, really I was the one who had no choice. What power did I have over her? None.
She was my guest therefore she could turn down my offers and that was that.
This time around I went by that logic and did no further pushing towards making her take some of my food. I hated for her to waste hers though.
When I came back into the room with a can of pineapple slices I headed for a small box that contained a couple different tools I used often enough. One of which was a can opener.

While opening the can of fruit I turned my attention back towards Mira for a moment or two. It was strange having her up in my hideout with me. It was strange being around someone normal at all! However from the short hour we had spent together I had the feeling that it was something that I could get used to fairly quickly.
Company was nice. I enjoyed having someone to talk to that wasn't myself.
I wondered how she felt about my company..was it as pleasant as hers was in my eyes? I sure hoped so.
"You're probably wondering what I'm doing in this suit, aren't you?" I suddenly asked her in a quiet voice while peeling back the top of the can.
The smell of the pineapple made me smile but I kept my focus on my companion for now.

S'okay, don't worry about it.

I knew I should probably enjoy to cola while I had it. You couldn’t find these things everywhere, and when you did find them, they usually exploded when you opened them. I hoped this one wouldn’t be the case, but I would just have to open it to find out. Echo leaves to go get whatever food she is planning on eating. I don’t answer her, for I don’t want to make too much noise, even if we are alone and even if we are ‘safe. The chances of something hearing me that could climb were a little larger than I liked.

It wasn’t that I didn’t like the idea of eating something a little more substantial, I just didn’t like taking from people. Yes, I had lived in The Drop before the riots, but there was a difference between stealing and taking charity. The first rule you learned in The Drop was to not steal from someone you couldn’t outrun. That’s just how it was down here.

I look over the pep bar a moment before pulling open the white wrapping and taking a small bite. I hum quietly at the taste in my mouth before turning to open the bottle. I hold it up and out away from me as I open it. There’s a quiet hissing noise before the top falls to the ground. Nice.

Echo returns from the other room with a can in her hands now. I smile quietly, watching her a moment as she walks to a small box. Nifty, a can opener. She watches me as she begins to open the can. We are caught in this sort of staring battle between ourselves, both of us trying to take in as much of each other’s company while we could.

Her words catch me while I’m taking in a bit of food. I’ve looked away, lost in thought once again. Now though, my attention is back on her. I take in a slow, deep breath, chewing as I do so. I was trying to formulate some sort of answer that didn’t make it sound too curious. I couldn’t hide it. I wanted to know what was all about her. Why was it that she wasn’t like the rest of them?

“Actually yes…When I first saw you it seemed a little odd that you were backing away from a fight with a splicer.” I smirk quietly. I wasn’t trying to offend her. I was simply trying to make it seem like I wasn’t dying for answers to questions I probably would never find out the answer to.

The silences we shared were usually spent just looking at one another. It wasn't too awkward because we were both quite lost in our own thoughts at times. Too busy to even notice that things had fallen into silence. When I spoke to break the silence though I noticed her reaction to my question.
I guess she really was asking herself a whole lot of questions about me wasn't she?
That was understandable. Yet the fact that she was curious about me made me feel a little bit..I'm not sure how to describe how it made me feel. It was a good feeling that was for sure. Perhaps it made me feel significant or something like that. Either way she admitted to wondering about me while noting that the first time she had seen me was when I was backing away from a fight. I flushed with embarrassment.

"Yeah..about that.. Spider Splicers and I just don't mix." I said with a bit of a laugh though it was only short. It was the truth though. I had an experience in the past that had put this fear of Spider Splicers in my mind. In fact there was something to go with that story as well.
After setting down the can I began to pull off the straps of my left gauntlet, until the hardened leather came off of my arm. The glove came off with the gauntlet and after unfastening the wrist bindings, I pulled the arm sleeve of my diving suit up to the elbow. On my forearm, perhaps a few inches above my wrist, there was a scar in the shape of a penny. It was a puncture scar.
"See? It went straight through my armor." I pointed out before letting my arm fall back to my side.

"But that doesn't really answer what you're wondering about." I concluded as I started to pull at the other straps that held my armor to my body. I felt as though, if only for tonight, it would be better for me to take off my armor. It was a little bit strange for the both of us I was sure. She was dressed quite nicely in a green dress while I was dressed in a full diving suit with leather plating covering the majority of my body. That was the real reasoning behind my disrobing. Big Sister armor wasn't meant to come off so it wasn't a very easy task but I managed just fine.
"The truth is I don't really know why I'm in this suit.. One day I was walking through the market with my parents and the next I was waking up in a hospital bed years later surrounded by doctors. They said that my mind was fighting the drugs they were trying on me..so I guess that explains why I'm not like the other Sisters you see wandering the streets with little one's in their baskets."
By now I had gotten my chest and neck plating off, the only part of my suit that was fully metal, and I was beginning to work on the leg pads.
"I wish I could tell you more but I can't."

I was actually surprised that this whole situation wasn’t awkward. We were thinking a lot, and when we were talking it was mainly friendly conversation about normal things…well the most normal that you could get down here.

The girl was afraid of spider splicers? Hell, she was wearing armor! I nod though to her comments. You couldn’t expect everything of everyone. Really, I didn’t like spider splicers either, but that was because I didn’t splicers at all. The girl reached for a plating of armor on her arm and begins to pull at it to get it off. I watch her a moment, but I can already assume what happened. She pulls the plate off though and I make careful note of it.

“They will get you, if you’re not cautious around them” I nod my head, agreeing with her. Well, at least she had some battle scars. Man, I had enough scars to talk about. Even before the revolution I had scars. I didn’t like the idea, but hell, it was life. What could you really do?

We both knew though, that she hadn’t answered the question. She was getting to it though, and I had the patience to wait. She looked to me a moment before looking back down to take the rest of her armor off. I watch her with fixated fascination with what she was doing. It was all something new to me. It wasn’t every day you saw a sister take her armor off.

She begins to speak. The longer she speaks the more I get to thinking. The locket around my neck hangs loosely, and at one point I grab it and start rubbing the purple rose of the front. It was strange she didn’t remember her childhood—well what I assumed was more of a little sister-hood. They implanted the sea slug and made you forget everything. I shake my head, my eyes having focused themselves on the ground.

“Quite curious” I nod, looking back up to her a moment. I didn’t know how most of it worked, just what was broadcast on the televisions in the bathyspheres that took you from different places in rapture. I remember the one to Neptune’s Bounty always had some sort of Little Sister propaganda up. ‘Remember, approaching a Little Sister is a criminal offense!’ I rolled my eyes at the thought. Yeah, the punishment was getting your face drilled in by a hulking bit of metal.

“I don’t know. My childhood was…complicated. Nothing really worth telling about” I shrug. There was nothing that she needed to know. There was nothing that I wanted to remember. All of it was there, but the people who knew about it were dead so what did it matter?

“Don’t worry about telling me more—not to sound rude of course. If you don’t remember, then that’s fine by me” I give her a small smile before taking another bite of the pep bar. I really needed to get some food into my system.

Alright, I think this’ll be the last post for me. Getting tired . Goodnight

The more of my armor I got off the more at ease I felt around Mira. More because I was beginning to approach the same style of clothing that she was wearing to a certain extent. Sure I wasn't going to be wearing a dress or anything like that but at least I was going to be wearing plain clothes as opposed to a fully armored diving suit.
In a minute or two I had gotten down to my boots and I was pulling them off my feet with a quiet sigh. It felt good to be free from the confines of those clasps and straps.
With a little bit more effort I managed to get at the zipper at the back of my thickly woven diving suit. Without the armor the suit came off quite easily and I was soon pulling it off completely. Leaving me in a sleeveless white tank-top and a little pair of gray shorts that were made of an incredibly thin material. Although I did feel a little bit exposed I also felt that we were more closely dressed now.

Mira spoke only briefly about her childhood and mentioned only that there was nothing worth telling me about. This both piqued my interest and made me wonder what had happened in her life to make her so reluctant to share her story. Not that it was any of my business whatsoever.
I wasn't about to tell her that she needed to tell me. If she didn't want to talk about it I wasn't going to make her do anything. It would have been wrong for me to pressure it out of her with further questions too. So I just accepted her reply for what it meant.

"Okay.." I trailed off slightly as I looked at Mira for a few seconds. There was more to her story and I was sure a lot of it was worth telling. But what it wasn't worth were the painful memories that came with her sharing her past. That's what I got from her expression. Something during her childhood had caused her enough pain to want to shut it out of her mind completely.
It was almost funny how different we were from one another. She wanted to forget what had happened to her in the past while I probably would have done anything to figure out what had happened during the blank of my memory. I could always assume or guess but that was nothing compared to really knowing what happened for sure.

"What was it like?" I asked her finally without really thinking about my question. I blinked before managing to correct myself on the context of what I was asking her for an explanation of.
"Before this whole mess happened I mean. What was Rapture like before the revolution started?" I clarified my question with a curious glint in my eye. There really wasn't much I remembered about the time I got to spend in Rapture before being kidnapped.
All I had to go off of were the destroyed remnants of what was once a great and beautiful city. Some places I could not even begin to imagine the way they looked before they had been shot to hell and blown apart by rockets.


Alright, rest well! See you tomorrow.

I watch her as she pulls the armor off her body. You can tell by the slowly calming facial expression that she doesn’t enjoy being confined in. I understand, I wouldn’t want to be cooped up like that. Well…I don’t know how I would feel. Would I enjoy the feeling of knowing I was more safe than just wearing normal clothing? I would probably have to answer yes to that, even if it was probably uncomfortably warm.

I shake my head, taking in a small breath as I watch her. She’s unzipping the suit with a small bit of difficulty. Soon, she slides it off her body. She did look rather young now that she wasn’t in her armor anymore. Her skin was a much lighter color than mine. It seemed like she had never seen the sun, while I had seen it for seven years before I wasn’t allowed to see the sun anymore. My skin had taken some sun in before I took the bathysphere beneath the ocean.

I was caught staring at her for a while. I shouldn’t have, but the fact that such a small girl was the heart of a Big Sister just surprised me for some reason. Soon I noticed that I had indeed been staring and I looked down to the pep bar I still held in my hand.

Her voice is the next thing I hear. Really, it’s the only thing I’m paying attention to. She wanted to know what Rapture was like before the war. I chuckle quietly, shaking my head. I hadn’t thought about the fact that she probably didn’t know a Rapture before this time, but really, I couldn’t give her a good answer.

“Depending on who you ask, depends on the answer you get.” I turn slightly, crossing my legs once more. “I lived in The Drop the entire time I was in Rapture. Dad came down here for the work, and momma came down here because she thought this would be a better place for us. Times were always hard in Pauper’s Drop. Kids would steal just to eat a little bit more than what their families could provide.” I shake my head, taking a short swig of the cola. “If you lived someplace else it was better say...Olympus heights, then you were happy with life. You could go to Arcadia and walk among a forest of large, brilliant trees, or you could go to Fort Frolic and watch Sander Cohen work his magic on normal people.” I smile quietly. Oh how many times I dreamed of living where everything was beneath you. I always wanted out of the Sinclair Deluxe housing and into the Mercury Suites…It would never happen, but it was wishful thinking.

“Like I said, it all depends on how much money you had before you came down to Rapture, and if Rapture bankrupted you after that.”

I could feel Mira's gaze on me once every piece of my armor had come off including the thick diving suit that covered the rest of my body. With her gaze came this strange sensation of self-consciousness. It was a sensation I had never really felt before. What was I self-conscious about? The way I looked?
I didn't really have anything to compare my body to so I didn't know what the ideal figure was for someone my age. But then again I knew that she wasn't looking at me for that kind of reason. She was just taking in the appearance of a Big Sister.
That was the only motive behind her stare. At least that's what I told myself as I felt my cheeks remain the same hint of pink as I waited for her to answer my question about Rapture.

I listened closely to everything that Mira had to say about the way Rapture was before the civil war among citizens started. I was more than curious to find out as much as I possibly could. That way I could at least have a picture of how things used to be the next time I walked through an area looking for somewhere to move to for the next time I needed to abandon my hiding place. I was always searching for new places to settle down for a month or two depending on the Splicer traffic in the area. This place was a exception to that rule because the Splicers who came through never seemed to think that there might be something on the second floor. They probably all thought that the whole second floor had caved in the way the roof above the stairs had.

With her words I started to learn more about her though whether she was conscious of the fact that she was sharing things with me or not was a bit of a mystery to me. Either way I was happy to absorb this information as well. She had lived in the Drop her whole life? Around here?
Things in Paupers Drop had been tough after the revolution, like it had been hit the hardest, but I never would have thought that it was the rough part of the city before the fighting started too. In a way it made sense but at the same time I had always thought that the rundown buildings were only there due to the fighting.
"Olympus Heights and Arcadia aren't nice places anymore though..if anything a person is better off down here in Paupers Drop. Arcadia is Houdini Splicer territory now..at least here you only get your ragtag Splicer gangs." I spoke more to myself than to Mira because she probably knew very well that Arcadia was Houdini area.

There was a relatively long pause between the last of my words and the next ones that broke the silence otherwise disrupted by her occasional sip from the cola.
"I'm sorry.." I began with a bit of a hesitant tone as I bit my bottom lip slightly, almost trying to get my words together for what I wanted to say to her.
"For your family, I mean.." I finally continued as I reached down to pick up the can of pineapple slices from the ground. I wasn't sure how my words were going to be received so I tried to busy myself with chewing on a slice or two of the fruit, in the hopes that I would spare myself from saying anything else that might embarrass me.

My fears of making the girl uncomfortable were coming true even if it was in the slightest. I didn’t like the idea that her cheeks flushed as I watched her. It was really just a normal curiosity, nothing more. The girl listens to my words with curiosity. I couldn’t imagine being in her shoes. One day she just woke up and was in this hell hole of a city. She didn’t see the place fall from all its glory, into what it was now. A Capitan went down with his ship, but Ryan was one of the ones bringing it down in the first place.

She speaks about how Arcadia was Houdini territory. I didn’t like the fact that you couldn’t just go places anymore without having to worry about what kind of splicers you would have to face.

“I’m assuming you never go to Fontaine Fisheries or the Fighting McDonagh’s then do ya? That’s spider splicer territory, big time.” I smirk, shaking my head. I didn’t like fighting as much as the next girl, but sometimes, places had things that you needed and you had to fight to get them, or you died trying.

Then the girl catches me off guard. She apologizes. She says it’s for my family. I smirk quietly, trying to keep the laugh from being too loud. It’s amusing that she would apologize for their deaths. Yes, I was sad sometimes that I couldn’t have saved my mother, but my father…well it was my fault he was dead.

“Yeah, don’t be sorry, If you knew the whole story, I doubt that you would be sorry for them. Well at east for my father anyways” I roll my eyes, giving her a smile. It was a nice thought though, that someone was sorry for the pains that I endured. It didn’t matter. This place calloused you into not caring; you weren’t sorry after a few weeks of being down here.

“I’m sorrier for you…Even if I don’t worry about my parents being gone; I still knew them…You though…it’s different.” I sigh quietly, leaning back slightly to run a hand through my hair. My soda was almost gone. I didn’t mind it. I enjoyed it while it was there. Once it was gone, it was just a small memory that I could still taste on my tongue.

Its totally fine. The last few days I have kept you waiting for long periods of time. I've been getting into Bioshock again haha. I'm in the fort frolic lever and that's my favorite sooo I'll be occupied!

My face scrunched up a little bit when Mira mentioned Fontaine Fisheries and Fighting McDonagh's as places that were Spider Splicer territory. I knew Fontaine Fisheries a lot better than I would have wanted to admit. A long time ago I had made the mistake of passing through there only to find that it was completely infested with Spider Splicers that freely moved through the vents overhead. You could almost always hear the soft clanking of their claws and the soft cries of pain they emanated whenever it became too much for them to bear. In a way it was almost enough to make one pity them..but then they'd tear you apart before you got the chance to think twice about it.
I hated those places.

Mira's reaction to my apology about her family was a little bit surprising. She smirked at me and I felt myself blush out of embarrassment. Of course I had assumed that she missed her family as much as I used to when I first came to my senses after I escaped the facility.
Quickly she turned the attention of the conversation from her parents being gone, though what she mentioned about her father piqued my interest just a bit, to my parents or rather the lack thereof in my life. The fact that I didn't know who they were or how they looked due to my loss of memory.
"Well you know..because I don't remember anything about them it was a lot easier for me to get over losing them. It's hard to miss someone when you hardly know who they were. To me they are little more than a word. You know what I mean?" I gave her a bit of a smile as I took another bite of pineapple.

I looked her over for a few seconds as silence once again settled upon the room. I wanted to say more about my parents but it wasn't a subject I knew enough about. For a..however many years old I was..it was strange not knowing where I came from.
That's when my focus moved to looking over Mira's features from the curves of her body to the mature glint in her eye and her expression. How old was she? It was hard to tell. At most she was 5 years older than me but I could be wrong. It made me want to ask her how old she was but something told me that that wasn't a very polite question to ask someone you barely knew. So instead I decided I would take a different approach.
I set the can back down in front of me.

"Here, I want to show you something.." I said as I motioned for her to follow me while moving towards a third room that branched off from the main floor room we were together in. I wasn't sure what the room had been used for when the restaurant wasn't a pile of slowly deteriorating rubble but now it had been transformed into something completely different.
I turned the light on as I stepped into the small room and I was greeted by the welcoming sight of my record collection. There were hundreds of records in piles that reached near to the ceiling.
"I've got all of these but nothing to play them on." I noted as I ran my fingertips along the spines of a couple of the albums. My fingers paused when I noticed they had run over a record that was probably one of my favorites. I had never heard it but there had been a lyrics sheet inside with the disc, so I knew the words to every song on it.
Ruth Etting. I wondered what her voice sounded like with the beauty of the lyrics.

"I guess this is my way of coping with things. Whenever I hear a song echoing through the streets from a broken radio I can't help but want to find out who the singer is and what the name of the song is." I spoke while looking over the smiling face of Ruth on the cover of her album.
"Maybe you'll stay long enough to listen to a couple of these with me." I mused in an almost playful tone before I moved to return the record to where it had been in the stack.
"I bet you know a couple of these better than I do, now that I think about it." I added with a little laugh. Not only was she older but she had been around before things fell apart, meaning her family probably owned a record player that they used often.



Well, while we were sitting out in the sun burning away for the three hours we spent waiting for the concert to start.. I got the chance to think over where I wanted to go with the story of this.
I've got a pretty good idea that I think you'll enjoy. The bad guy from the story I wrote will be coming in to make our acquaintances.

Also.. FORT FROLIC IS AWESOME! Sander Cohen is a beautifully insane genius.

I can’t help, but watch as the girl’s face curls up. She really didn’t like that. She didn’t like the thought of Splicers in the Fighting McDonagh’s…well, she didn’t like spider splicers to say the least. I couldn’t blame her, but something told me that she knew from experience about Neptune’s bounty.

It always catches me off guard when the girl blushes. I’m definitely not used to seeing that. Her cheeks tint pink at the reaction to her apology. I can understand why…yes, I can understand why. Normal people would thank someone, and actually feel hurt about the passing of a loved one. When yes, I missed my mother, I was kind of glad she wasn’t here anymore to see this. I was glad she didn’t have to deal with Father anymore. I was glad she hadn’t gotten spliced up like the rest of us. So really, I couldn’t miss her, because I was happy that she was in a better place, wherever that may be.

She speaks and I look up from where I’ve been staring down to the ground, lost in a million and one thoughts. I nod slowly with her words. I understood what she was saying, even if I didn’t feel the same emotions as her. I understood that it was easier to loose someone you never knew, than to loose someone that you had ties and emotions shared with. I would never really know the feeling. For all she knew her parents were dead—they could have been one of these spliced up freaks we were killing. I shook my head. It was worse being a splicer.

I was about to say something to that effect, but I am stopped short. She shifts slightly in front of me before speaking herself. Had we been in silence awhile? I hadn’t even noticed it. I had grown quite quiet over the course of these few minutes, but it was natural for me now. If you were stopped. Well, even if you weren’t stopped, you were silent. It was just because you were afraid something could hear you and come looking, but after a while, you just became a quiet person in this place.

Her words were soft, and draw me up off my place on the floor. I was probably far too compliant to what she wanted out of me, but I enjoyed her company and I would follow her as she wished.
“Alrighty then” are the only words that fall from my lips, and they’re gone into the air in an instant.

I follow her into another room. It’s in as much disrepair as the rest of The Drop, but it seems as if she’s tried to organize something. I chuckle quietly. These were the records she was speaking of. There were far more than what I had always been allowed to keep at home-- Hundreds upon hundreds stacking themselves high and proud. I nod with her words.
“Now I see why you want it so bad” I mutter the words, taking no time to walk forward and start looking through the stacks. There were a lot of artist I recognized from the surface and down here in Rapture.
I could see how collecting something could be a way of keeping all those emotions aside. It kept your mind busy, and the reward was nice. I loved music. It was something that I enjoyed since I was little.

"Momma listened to Ruth Etting. I don't think you'll be too disappointed. She's a Doll" I smile, looking back to the records in search for the names I recognized.
I find one, a small giggle escaping my lips as I point it out.
“Adrian Rollini, Sweet Madness” I mutter the words, beginning to hum to opening orchestral part. I giggle again, continuing my search through the stack.

“Mom had a copy of this. She would play it at night when she looked out into the ocean...” I take in a deep breath, smiling quietly. All these memories. My finger taps on the Record. Ella Fitzgerald, Making believe. It was a pretty song, it always made me dance, well, want to. Mother had always been the dancer, not me.

“Yeah, a lot of these ring a bell.” I smile, looking to her a moment before back to a few of them. I point to a few.
“These are smuggled copies you know? Surprised you found them. Usually people kept their smuggled goods hidden quite well.”


I tried to send you a message on my ipod, but my computer was being stupid. The battery pack came out a bit and I didn't figure it out until I had checked everything else. Sorry this took so long.

I hope you enjoyed your concert last night?

Bringing Mira into this room was like bringing her into my own little world. I had spent months collecting this many records together and putting them in alphabetical order as best as I could manage. In a way this was the only thing I had managed to do in my life that I felt was an achievement. After all, I only remembered a few years of it and that consisted mainly of the last two years in which I had done nothing but fight for my survival.
It was only when I began to collect these things that I felt as though I had some kind of a purpose or goal rather in this mess. What else could I do? I wasn't programmed only to protect Little One's the way the other Sisters were.

From the expression on her face it looked as though she was quite impressed by the collection I had gotten together. As soon as we got into the room she began to search through the different titles for ones that she recognized from her childhood.
I listened to her closely as she told me of the different records her mother listened to as well as the ones that she enjoyed in particular. At one point she even began to hum a tune and I could feel something well up inside me..a kind of overwhelming happiness in a way. We shared the same love of music.
The more names she mentioned the more I could feel myself glow with happiness.
"I'm glad that you recognize them. If I could lock myself up here and just listen to all of these, I know I would be happy." I murmured before turning my attention towards the records she pointed out as being smuggled.

"Well you know, once things got ugly the very last thing people cared about were the records they kept. Most of these I found in housing units or littered on the floors of restaurants like this one. Though my favorite place to visit whenever I get the chance is The Limbo Room..have you ever been there?" I asked her as I turned my head to look at her fondly. All of these records brought back memories that made her smile and that alone made me want to smile. Although she had been hardened by her time in Rapture there was also a more soft side to her that came through every now and then. You could see it in the way that she smiled. There was more emotion in each of her smiles than there was in a hundred of my smiles. With a blink I realized that her smile reminded me of someone I had met what felt a long time ago.

Quickly I moved towards a different stack and began to scan over the titles until I found the one in particular I was looking for. As I pulled it out I glanced up towards Mira.
"I remember that there was this one time, as I was passing through The Limbo Room, I met a woman who was singing in the empty ball room. She was afraid of me at first but when I sat down to listen and I didn't make to hurt her, she started to sing again. I was mesmerized by her voice. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. When she finished she approached me and gave me this record.. Do you know of the singer?
I held the record out for her to look at. It was a signed copy of Grace Holloway's record 'The Deep Blue Revue'.
"She told me it was hard to come across people who enjoyed music. Especially among tin-protectors." I added with a giggle.
"I guess I really am different from the others." I mused as though it weren't the most obvious thing in the world.


That's alright, I hate when my computer acts up that way too.

It was a pretty nice concert after the sun went down. I was in a pretty bad mood until then.
Maybe you've heard of the band Pink Martini?

The records brought back so many great memories. I could think about the happy times before the revolution, when things were hard, but we could still smile and laugh and dance. There were a few hours after mother got home that we could enjoy together before she had to start cooking dinner, but even then, I was under her feet.

“Once we get to where I’m taking you to for the record player, I’ve got a few more you can add to your collection.” I smile, continuing to look through the records. Each one I recognized I could relate to a memory, good or bad.

Then she speaks of the Limbo Room. I smile. The jazz you could hear there, and the heart that went into it. The poor folk went there for a few singers, the ones that sand about Rapture like it really was. I didn’t know why, but it was something I would steal for. A few dollars here and you could sit, have a coke, and listen to the jazz all night long.

I smiled quietly, turning slightly as she questions me. She holds out a record, and continues to speak. Right there on the front of the record is Grace Holloway herself. I laughed quietly, taking the record from her hand to look it over. Her story sounded like something Grace would do. I nod slowly, looking to her.

“Grace lived in The Drop you know? Went and ate at the Fishbowl Diner when she had the chance. Got really big in Jazz, until Ryan started listening.” I nod slowly, holding it back to her. “If you stopped her on the street, she’d talk with ya. We kids used to always stop her. She knew most of us by name. She used to always tell the older kids things like ‘My folks lived in the St. Louis Hooverville in '32... and The Drop is worse by a mile. Nobody's supposed to live down here, city pissing on us. Never dry.’ Then she’d always tell us things like, ‘if you’ve got a chance to get outta this place, leave and never look back. The Drop ain’t nowhere for kids to grow up.’” I smile quietly, looking towards the records. “We needed people like that down here, to tell us that everything was gonna be okay. We needed someone to tell us that we could get out of here, that stealin’ wasn’t the only way to get by in Rapture. She fought for it, and got what she wanted…Until she was blacklisted…” I shrug. It was a sad time in Rapture. No one should have been living in The Drop, but that’s how things were, and Ryan didn’t like change even though the whole city was changing before his eyes.

Sorry, can't say I've heard of them. Are they good?

My expression brightened the moment she mentioned the fact that she had records to add to my collection. Where was she going to take me to get a record player from? My mind couldn't help but become full of questions that I knew I couldn't ask. I began to wonder what kind of music she was going to add to my slowly growing list of music.
What warmed me the most about what she said though was the fact that she was going to consciously help me with my silly little hobby. It wasn't so much that she cared, because I doubted that she did, but it showed that she did have some compassion and the ability to give to others out of the kindness of her heart. A trait that had long died in most who lived around Rapture nowadays.

I could feel my eyes widen when Mira began to tell me about how she had met Grace Holloway while she was living in the Drop as a child. Again she shared something with me that I never could have imagined. Having only met the woman for an hour or so at the most, I never would have been able to imagine her walking through these streets until now.
I could see her smile as she passed by all of the children and people she knew, giving them waves and greetings that were sincere in every way. The fall of Rapture had changed her but not like everyone else. She still retained the majority of her humanity both physically and emotionally.

"You met her before all of this happened? Wow.. that must have been amazing. " I said with an admiring smile on my lips. Although the Drop had been a rough place to grow up it seemed as though the best people came down here. Where else could such beautiful music come from? Only those who knew about the pains of life could sing about it in the way that Grace Holloway, Ruth Etting, Ella Fitzgerald, and the likes..all of them seemed to speak from experience. You could hear it in their voices.
"I'm just happy that she hasn't stopping singing..such a beautiful voice should never be quieted." I whispered while turning to glance back over the collection behind me. So many voices had been silenced over the last two years. Music was never going to be the same as it once was and that saddened me.

There was a pause before I turned my attention back to Mira and away from the music that surrounded us.
"Are you getting tired? " I asked her with a slight tilt of my head. She looked tired and unrested. Like she hadn't slept in a few days at the very least.
"I mean..I know straw isn't the most comfortable thing in the world but when you're tired it does just as well as any fancy mattress." I offered with a slight smile. The only reason I hadn't gone out to find an actual bed to bring into this hiding place was because it wouldn't have fit through the hole in the wall. And my teleportation Plasmid could only transport me and other beings, not items like beds and dressers.
Either way I was offering her what I had available.
"I'll keep watch too, if you're worried about Splicers.." I added with a hopeful expression. Mira needed the rest and she knew it. But what she would accept was a completely different question.


They aren't bad actually. I'd never heard of them either until yesterday.
Very lively and fun to listen to.

Emotion. It was something I hadn’t felt in a while. At least, I hadn’t felt emotions this strong in a while. Really, you didn’t want to think about the past if you didn’t have to. It did bring back emotions. It had you a Softie really, and you couldn’t afford to be soft here. This place made you hard, and the simplest things could make you break down. Emotions weren’t your friend down here.

The girl seemed surprised that I had met the artist from the record. Grace was just an everyday person. There wasn’t a time ever that she thought she was better than us. That would make her like the rest of them up top. Just like the rest of us, she wished to get by.

“You can’t stop a spirit. You can’t kill it like you can kill the body. Grace has spirit, and she’ll never have that taken away from her.” I nod quietly, the smile on my lips softening a bit. I was still looking at the records, just so I didn’t look at Echo. I didn’t want anyone to see how much of a Softie I was for all this stuff. People took advantage of the Softie when they came across one. I still hadn’t made up my mind about this one. She could be trusted, I thought, but only a few hours of being with someone didn’t tell you enough about someone to completely trust them.

That’s why when she asks if I’m tired, I look up. I knew how tired I was. The darkened circles beneath my eyes told anyone that looked at me that I was riding on pure adrenaline most of the time. I was tired. I couldn’t lie to her about that. Then again, was I tired enough to sleep? You didn’t sleep with someone you didn’t completely trust in the room unless you wanted to end up belly up in the morning. Yeah, I was afraid of the splicers, but I couldn’t just turn a blind side to this girl. You couldn’t trust people down here. As much as we spoke and laughed, it didn’t change the fact that we were in Rapture. We weren’t topside with the rest of the pencil pushing people. No—we were in hell where anyone could end up being a little screwy with you. How would you tell someone that you didn’t trust them without out and out saying it? You couldn’t. I was in a pinch, that was for sure.

“Why don’t you get a little bit of touch-eye and I’ll sit watch? This is your place, you deserve to rest too.” Let’s just see where that took me. I doubted it would take me far, but I wasn’t no stupid kid no more. I survived this long because I was smarter than the rest of them floozies and housewives.

I could tell from Mira's expression that something inside her had been awoken by being confronted with so many memories from her past. Although I couldn't tell whether it was a good or a bad thing, I could tell that it was a state she had not been in for a while.
It wasn't my place to ask her about it though nor was it my place to let her know that I had noticed. In fact it seemed almost as though she was doing everything in her power to keep me from noticing. For that reason I decided against saying anything. If she didn't want me to see the emotion in her eyes then I wasn't going to see it. That was that.
I hoped that she would have done the same for me if our roles were one day reversed.

When I mentioned rest she turned her head to look at me uncertainly. She was tired but she was not willing to allow herself to rest while in the presence of someone she didn't know. Understandable. Completely understandable actually.
Rapture could turn a trusting person into a very untrusting one in record time. Either you learned the hard way not to trust others or you came in with the notion that you weren't going to trust anyone.
I was the exception to the rule of course. I gave those who didn't attack me right off the bat at least some form of trust.
Especially in a case like Mira's when she could have killed me. As a Big Sister I may be tough but Plasmids are always a danger for me.

I gave her a bit of a smile before I shook my head slowly. She didn't know as much about Big Sisters as she thought she did. In fact a lot of people didn't know as much about us as they thought they did.. Hell, I didn't even know much about my own kind seeing as I wasn't one of the normal Sisters. However I did know about myself and rest was something I had struggled with since the very beginning. I just wasn't human in my rest patterns.
"I doubt you've stuck around Big Sisters long enough to notice but we don't really sleep..not very often anyway. I get by with a few hours of sleep every four of five days." I explained as I glanced down at myself for a moment, looking over myself.
"But if you don't trust me then I understand that fully. I just thought I would offer seeing as I'm not sure when the next time you're going to find a place as safe as this one is. One way in and one way out makes for very little chance of something sneaking in unnoticed."
I wasn't about to force her down onto the floor and tell her to sleep though. That was silly. Whether she rested or not was her choice.

"At least make yourself comfortable, okay?" I asked her this with a kind smile before I slipped out of the small room and back into the main room where I went to pick up the can of pineapple I had set down just a few minutes earlier before showing her my collection.
For a moment I strayed towards the hole in the wall, that was covered by piece of cloth I had hung up to make it less noticeable from the outside and so that I could keep the lights on without it shining out into the alleyway at the side of the building. Up until now it seemed as though no-one had so much of thought twice about the hole.
I pulled the fabric aside just long enough to glance out into the dark alley and beyond towards the empty street. There was no movement whatsoever. Thankfully nothing had followed us here.

After I answer, I look away from her. I didn’t want her to see how much I didn’t trust her. My eyes gave away a lot more than I liked. They had always done that. Fear, sadness, lies. God, I was a horrible liar, and that was mainly because of my eyes.

I know that she’s realized what I mean. She knows I don’t trust her, but for some reason, she doesn’t hold it against me. She doesn’t push me away or force me out of safety. She doesn’t try to kill me or insult me. She is calm, and the way she reacts is almost as bad as if she did start yelling and get angry. Or that was just me being me. I nod slowly to her words. She at least wanted me to make myself comfortable. Then, before I can turn to apologize, she’s out of the room.

I grit my teeth, looking silently at the records. I was going to have to make a decision. It would be awhile until I found another place even this close to being this safe. ‘You need to learn to trust people.’ I sigh quietly. Oh how much I wished I could. It wasn’t me and it wasn’t Rapture. I would never know how to trust people. I sigh, ever so quietly, taking in another look around the room. I didn’t know what it was I wanted. I would go back outside, get my bag, and see what happened. I wanted to trust this girl. I wanted to believe that not everything was evil…I wanted to believe there was something good in this world.

I turn quietly after putting the last record back into place. I take a moment to recollect my thoughts before walking out of the room and away from the memories I knew I would have to revisit later. When I make it into the room, the girl is crouching, looking down into what looks like a hole in the ground. It’s strange to watch her, almost curiously watching the ground floor beneath us.

“Thank you for your hospitality” I mutter the words, ever so quietly, to myself. They were meant for her, but for now, I would stay quiet. I had probably done enough damage as it was. I take in a deep breath, kneeling beside my bag. I open it quietly, putting the last bit of pep bar back into my bag. I leave the empty Hop Up Cola bottle sitting beside me. I would find someplace to throw it later. Now though, I needed to calm down. I needed to relax and rest, even if I didn’t end up sleeping.

I take a moment before pulling myself down onto the floor. My stomach rests against the floor, and my legs cross behind me. I pull out the Vodka once more, opening it and taking a slow sip. That was enough to hopefully clear my mind. I cross my arms in front of me, letting my chin rest on them. Now, I was ready to rest, even if my instincts were telling me not to.