PRIVATE MEETINGS

[andexecutioner]

If you'd like to have a private meeting with the Adjudicator, this is where you should go! The Adjudicator is available at almost all hours of the day; just knock and he'll answer.

Comments are screened for privacy; no eavesdropping, that's rude.

Comments

[andexecutioner]

[Well, that's interesting - enough so to actually get him to look up at her, one of his eyebrows arched lightly.]

"Everyone else"?

[oasisrose]

You gave us a choice, even if we didn't take it: "They win the game. At the expense of all of you."

You think I didn't consider it? Try to figure out if it was somehow better that we all died martyrs, rather than follow this path you've laid for us?

I'm asking if you could have given us a third option. One where no one has to be an expense.

[andexecutioner]

Look, you can be angry all you want, and you can keep trying to act like none of this comes down to a matter of choice on your part. In the end, what I could have done doesn't matter.

This is the game. Follow the rules, or don't and take the consequences. That's it.

[oasisrose]

[He's deflecting again. That figures. Not that his observations were entirely wrong -- she is mad about all this, and will probably continue to be mad for quite a while. But on the other hand, she's not here for a counseling session.]

How does it not matter? Your role might be very different from ours, but you're still a part of this game, aren't you?

[andexecutioner]

Technically, I guess. I'm here to oversee it, not interfere with it. My thoughts on the game and the people playing it aren't going to affect the outcome.

I'm not going to say I don't like some of you. You're interesting people. And if you play the game and screw it up, you're going to die just the same.

[He leans back in that chair of his, thinking.]

Could I do something about it? Sure. If I really wanted to. It'd fuck up what I'm doing, but I could technically do it.

Will I? No, because that's not my job and it's not my place.

[oasisrose]

[She's almost curious which people here he likes. But given that he made a similar comment about the trial being "interesting," she's unsure if she wants to know more about what fits that criteria.]

So you're not going to play favorites, then. Or even if you did, you'd still sit back and let the game go on.

[More importantly, though, it sounded like Fern was right -- that the early notion that they could convince the Adjudicator to help them was wrong. And that he wasn't avoiding the outcome simply because he didn't have as much power as he presented.]

[Of course, the fact that he added 'not my place' makes her wonder.]

But you think it's worth it, all the same?

[andexecutioner]

[He actually seems to have to consider that one.]

I think it might be. It's hard to tell right now.

[oasisrose]

[He's so nonchalant about it. Granted, he's nonchalant about all of this, but somehow Jean expected a more decisive answer on this question.]

[She turns it over in her mind, trying to decide if she should be preaching to their captor.]

... well, if I may offer some advice? There are some costs that aren't worth any reward. Things you can never reclaim, once they're gone.

[She folds her arms.] Whatever it is you're doing this for, I hope you've taken the time to consider that.

[andexecutioner]

[That gets an odd sound out of him; mildly derisive, but not overly so. Just enough to make it clear that he's sort of amused by that whole thing.]

It's kind of ironic that you're talking to me about all that, actually. Trust me, I know how it is with things like that.

[oasisrose]

Do you, really? You don't seem like someone who has many regrets.

[To be fair... Jean probably doesn't, either.]

[andexecutioner]

That's because I don't.

[Not...as though he seems terribly forthcoming about the entire thing.]

[oasisrose]

[So, not something she can sympathize with, but maybe...]

... something that was worth it, then?

[Or maybe not. At this point, she's guessing.]

[andexecutioner]

Something that will be, once I've got it.

[oasisrose]

[Part of his greater goal here, then. Unless he's doing a lot of multitasking.]

[Still, this has been pretty productive. There's still a very big, unsettling unknown, but she can't think of more questions to try and uncover more details about it. Except...]

If you don't mind, I have one last question for you.

Before this all ends, however that may be. Will we get an answer on what it was all for?

[andexecutioner]

[There's actually no hesitation in it this time, when he answers her.]

Yeah, you will.

[oasisrose]

... all right, then. I'll be waiting for it.

[That's the closest he gets to a goodbye as she departs. Now to find out whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Hopefully ahead of schedule, while there's still time to stop it, just in case they need to...]