So it has to end The false personae, the manipulated facts, the confected memories, all of it, until all that's left is the truth, warts and all, and whatever world can be built upon that scoured foundation And he will not survive to see it
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
WHEDON hesitates, biting his lip, and then types simply, "I'm sorry, and goodbye. - Joss Whedon" He freezes still for a long moment. We get the sense that he might cry, but no tears come -- his crying was all done long before, he is empty. He clicks SEND
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
He rolls back from the desk, exhaling a long-held breath, head lolling limply toward the ceiling There is now nothing to do but wait And then, his eye twitches, he catches a glimpse -- some shadow or reflection -- and turns around, to the back wall he hasn't even glanced at
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
He sees the words "TO REMEMBER:" scrawled on Post-It notes on a cheap corkboard, and below, above, and around it, sprawling out far beyond the space initially meant for them, are Polaroid photos An endless parade of faces, all of them faces he remembers
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
Some of them people he gave a passing glance to once or twice in the hallways, some of them faces that dominated his waking hours and his dreams for years But all of them came through here on their way out All of them took these photos to celebrate their escape
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
And in their scars, their mismatched panoply of scavenged outfits, their exhaustion and the pain that still shows in their eyes -- so different from the polished perfection of the Dollhouse in its prime -- you can see it Whatever the Dollhouse did to them, they survived
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
They are and were not Actives, not assets, not cogs in a machine, but *people* They forgot it once, but they remember now And the cruel blows of experience -- most of them blows that he knows he had a hand in, one way or another -- bruised but did not break them
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
They were a family A fucked-up broken family formed under duress and not by choice, but such is the way of most families They became who they were through what they shared -- both the traumas and the joys -- and that bound them to each other
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
Some never regretted finding the Dollhouse, even after all that's happened Many do But they all know it cannot be undone, they are who they are now because they found it, and it is an experience Imprinted into them that no signal can erase
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
And here, at the very end of it, through all the grief and the rage and the loss, there is peace This, at long last, for good and for ill, is who they are, and they are not ashamed
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His gaze wanders across the wall for a long, long moment, tracking our camera's pan, quietly savoring each and every photo, working out who passed through when, revisiting the complex web of connections that bound all these lives together
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
The one missing face is his own His family, the one created by his actions, that exists in the shadow of his dream, is a family he can never truly join One last price to pay But he can see it, and he can know that, at last, he has set them free
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Replying to @arthur_affect @dr_i_rohl
The camera cuts back to an ECU of JOSS His quizzical expression finally breaks, and he says, simply, "Huh!" And his face relaxes into a genuine, surprised smile The world goes white
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