unfringed | File #004 video

Entry tags:

File #004 video

[Walter turns on the video for the journal, sets it up and then moves back, sitting down on a chair in front of it. He's wear a lab coat over his usual checkered shirt and sweater cardigan combo and looks quite gleeful, gesturing toward the camera with a welcoming motion.]

Fellow denizens of Luceti! My name is Walter Bishop and I come to you with a unique request.

I would like to take a tissue and wing sample from every person in the compound - a simple test, really, very quick, not at all painful [Says the man who can tolerate electroshock therapy with a smile] - in order to help the scientists of our great community better understand the makeup of this universe.

Should you and several of your companions be from the same world, it would be most helpful if one or all could donate, although one should suffice if anyone is a tad squeamish.

I will be taking the samples this afternoon in the plaza.

Oh! And hot cocoa will be provided for compensation of course. I'm no madman.

This afternoon, starting at 1pm. Any and all volunteers are welcome! Those who don't wish to volunteer, don't worry - I'm sure I can find you somehow, yes?

[Action: Plaza, 1PM]
[As promised, Walter is bundled up in warmer clothes at the plaza with a little table of lab equipment and a rather large cooler that holds several Thermoses of hot cocoa. There are even little marshmallows for people who want them.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A sample... What would you like to sample of us? [Says the vacant-looking boy into the book.]

Just a small tissue and blood sample - shouldn't be more than five, ten minutes at most.

...

Are you quite alright, lad? You seem a bit dazed.

I see. I don't know what that's like.

[He pauses as he takes in the question.]

I don't feel particularly dazed at the moment. I feel... as if I could be considered to be 'alright'.

Well, I take a bit of your blood with a syringe and a test tube. Then I use a sharpened metal tool to scrape a few skin cells off your upper epidermis. A bandage and one or two days later and it'll be as if nothing had ever happened.

...

You aren't certain if you're alright or not? I. [Hm. He pauses.] Understand that. Sometimes I don't know if I am either. But I'm usually under a heavy dosage of medication at the time - I take it that you are not?

Really? That's all that it is? If my heart is unharmed... than you can do as you please.

I don't believe that I have any heavy medication at all. I'm not quite sure what that is.

Why would I take your heart? I have no interest in harvesting organs from the living.

...Or do you have a problem with it? The heart I mean.

I don't know why you would take it. I believe that I'm glad that you don't have any interest.

A problem with my heart... I'm still missing some of my emotions.

..You believe? Are you --

Wait, what? How can you miss your emotions? ...Oh. Are you-- [What's the polite word for it...] Emotionally retarded?

[Oh, that...wasn't the polite word. Oops.]

I don't know what that means. But I still have to regain more of my heart shards. I don't know where they are.

Unable to feel certain emotions. ...You don't strike me as the psychopathic or sociopathic type. You don't cause harm to things, animals and people without feeling any remorse, do you?

..And what do you mean by "heart shards"? The heart is a muscle. It shouldn't have shards.

I haven't done such a thing... in my current state. [He looks down uncertainly.

He was different when the raven's blood was in power, after all.]

I do have the feeling... of regret.

They're the pieces of my heart. Princess Tutu is the one who's been restoring my heart. It may be... complete, soon.

[In his current state - important information there. But regret? Also important. Walter knows what it is like to hurt things and then feel regret - it's human, isn't it?]

Pieces? Do you mean to say that your heart...isn't a normal human heart? Muscle and tissue?

I don't know. I don't know how it's different from other hearts. All I know is... It used to be whole. And, to seal the raven... It was shattered. So, Princess Tutu... She returns the shards to me. My emotions...

...A shattered heart...

It sounds like a fairytale. I never really read them, but my wife did. To- To our son, when he was very young...

I'm very sorry to hear your heart has been shattered. Will it be long before your shards are returned to you?

Yes. It used to be a story like that. But we left it...

I don't know how long it will take. I don't have all the ones I used to feel yet.

[Of the ones he felt at this canon point? He's still missing Loneliness, Pride... and Love.]

Do you know which ones are missing? Perhaps stimulating parts of your brain would help?

My brain...? I don't understand.

There are some feelings I remember at home. But I haven't felt them since I came here. I believe they are...

[It takes him a while to remember and say each one.]

The feeling of loneliness... the feeling of pride. And... the feeling of love.

[One is terrible, one leads to ruin and the last is the greatest gift given to man. Walter isn't sure if he wants the boy to regain any but the last.]

...And you wish to feel these things again?

Yes.

[He says automatically.]

I'd like my heart to be complete. That way... I can be the prince again. [But there's some uncertainty in his words; he wants to become the prince from the storybook, not the prince of crows again, after all.]

Do you stop being a prince just because your heart is missing a few pieces?

...If that's so, I wonder if I'm no longer a scientist. They removed parts of my brain, you see. Three pieces, to be exact.

Yes. I don't believe that I can truly be the prince, currently...

[After all, he was known as the prince who loved everyone. And right now, he had no love to speak of, in addition to the raven's blood that threatened to corrupt him.]

I wonder... What sorts of pieces are you missing?

But I thought prince was merely a title - did someone take it from you?

[Because he really doesn't get how this works, little heartless prince...boy.]

Pieces of my hippocampus - memory, important pieces. They stole them and now I can never get them back again.

No... The prince is who I've been. [He tilts his head uncertainly.] I'm the one... who shattered my heart.

Memories... I don't believe that I can remember everything either. But, perhaps... Princess Tutu can help you.

...You shattered your own heart? But why? Hasn't that been the root of all your troubles since?

And that is a nice offer, my boy, but I'm afraid no one can help me now. The parts of my brain that they removed have been destroyed. I can never get them back now.

I don't know. I had to shatter my heart... in order to seal away the Raven.

No one...? No one at all...? To lose such things completely... I believe that I'm feeling the emotion of sorrow.

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]

[Video]