Quoted By:
After you put away the fish piles, you turn your attention back to Benedict and Adam. You pull out that old filming camera you got. "Just stand there." The two are confused at what you're doing, given they're unaware of the nature of the PARADIGM in your hand. You turn it on and start recording. The footage is hazy and frankly incomprehensible but it's not your first time using it. You start fiddling with every button you can, letting your impulses tell you how to adjust and alter the footage.
Soon, something comprehensible appears. On the screen, a young teenager and a man in his mid 20s are standing in front of an empty building. They're currently talking to another man in a suit and tie with a pin of a beating heart hanging on his breastpocket. An F-Corp rep?
You step over to Adam and Benedict with the PARADIGM in hand. You hold it up to them so they can get a closer look. Adam's face softens upon seeing what the footage is. "Ah. I remember this. Not sure how you're getting this but I've learnt not to ask questions. This is when we first got the restaurant."
A glint of recognizance flashes through Benedict's eye. For a moment, his yellowish-green hair turns back to the brown hue it used to be before the yellowish-green returns. "I. You paid a. Lot to get it."
"It was worth it. Sure, things were hard after I had to get a loan from G-Corp but it was worth it." Adam wistfully remarks.
The footage soon shifts to something even further in the past. A young kid and a teenage boy are wandering around one of the many backstreets of the City. Dingy, rotten streets and condemned buildings surround them as far as the eye can see. The young kid is sobbing his eyes out as he clings desperately onto the teenager's leg.
You notice both of them are coated in blood. Mostly the teenager. A chef knife is held in his left hand, dripping with blood.
Adam's face twists with a flurry of emotions. Anger. Sadness. Gratitude? "I had to do what I had to do, okay? Those pieces of shit didn't deserve him." <<span class="mu-b">"His parents were only worthy of feeding the backstreet mutts.</span>">
Benedict only smiles upon seeing this footage. "I remember that." He speaks with an odd clarity to his voice. For a moment, you swear the metal half of his face recedes ever so slightly. "I don't blame you, really. You did what you had to." <<span class="mu-b">"I made a promise that day. If only I could remember it."</span>>
Adam is shocked at Benedict actually saying something without stuttering it out. "Huh. I didn't expect- Look, I know you don't but-"
"Have to break. Eggs." The lucidity vanishes almost immediately but for a brief moment, you swear you got through to Benedict. "Have to. Break. A few EGsS. You know?"
Soon, the footage shifts one last time to the two of them sitting around at their old restaurant, clearly drunk. They ramble on and on about something that makes no sense to you but, looking up at Adam and Benedict, smug smirks spread across their faces upon seeing this.
