behindmothersback | (no subject)

(no subject)

I have learned so much in this place, Father. I go to school now and have a job and do all kinds of things that real girls do. But there's still so much to do and tonight I hope to have another experience that I've heard so much about. I've watched movies and read books and nearly all of them talk about slumber parties as if they're the quintessential coming of age experience.

I want to have these experiences, things I never would have done had Mother succeeded.

So tonight I've planned a night with my friends, and invited them to invite a few of theirs. I have cookies and ice cream and pizza and games and scary movies to watch and I truly hope that everyone enjoys themselves. There are pillows and sleeping bags all over our living room and I have to thank you for allowing me to overrun the apartment like this.

I do hope we all have fun.

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"No one here has. Apparently, it's very rare, although it was rare back home. Rapture was a secret city. You had to be invited to live there, or be one of the workers that built it and once you were there it was, well, forever. Leaving wasn't allowed. The people above the ocean would have found out." I don't think about that much. My life had been tied to Rapture in such a different way than others' had been, it was hard for me to consider it. I couldn't imagine volunteering to live in such a place forever.

That sounded interesting - and more than a little bit sinister, Cissie thought. The name seemed familiar, though, but she couldn't figure out just why.

"I was going to ask what was so secret about it but then, that kind of defeats the purpose, right?" Cissie said. "I'm guessing you never got to go out of it or anything like that?"

"The man who built Rapture didn't want interference from the outside, it was that simple. No oversight, no rules." It's hardly a secret, I've even read some things, in philosophy and some political texts here that tell me Ryan was hardly unique in his views. Just unique in how he expressed them. I wonder, could there ever be a place that could live by Ryan's rules and survive? "My first time above the ocean was when I woke up on the train. I was born in Rapture and there were times... well, I thought I might die there."

No interference from anyone else, that sounded more than a little familiar to Cissie. She would have bet anything that the guy probably was Evil with a capital e.

"That must have been really weird," Cissie said. "Waking up on the train and realizing you weren't underwater anymore."

"I'd been heading to the surface, but yes, it was much more jarring than I anticipated. I... I'm still a little nervous in open spaces. Not as badly when I arrived, but... Father works in an aquarium and sometimes I go to visit him, just so I can stand under the tanks and watch the water above me." I'm a little ashamed to admit that, but I feel like it's safe. Like it's something she would understand.

Cissie nodded in complete understanding. Going to the aquariam to look at the water over her felt like it was her safe space. It was how the archery range was for her in a way - a place where she could go and lose herself for a bit and know that she would be okay at least for a little while.

"I bet," she said. "Do you miss being there at all?"

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