| 2 |- Voice

[handsomejack]

Sup, Tranquility.

Handsome Jack here. Just arrived, what, like a month ago? Yeah. So. I think we got to talk.

You know. Get everything real nice an out in the open. Not a huge fan about airing out dirty laundry, but it's best to put this out there now rather than have to explain myself later. There's two people out there that tried to murder me when I got here, and I figure they'll keep trying for as long as I'm here... You might be friends with my buddies- and I say this sarcastically-Lilith and Mordecai, and they might say some things about me. Why not hear it from the horse's mouth?

I got nothing to hide. It's story time, kiddos. Gather 'round.



You see, back where I hail from, I was tryin' to push the 'ol reset button on a planet whose society was running itself to the goddamn ground. I was rich, powerful, and I had some pull. So what did I do to a planet full of bandits, cannibals, and murderers that had every potential in the universe to become a utopia if it weren't for them?

The only thing that could be done. I got my hands dirty. I executed these disgusting parasites and worked on wiping out their cities. The good people of Hyperion, along with every other planet that looked at Pandora with the look someone would give a deranged serial killer foaming at the mouth, saw me as a hero. I was their hero. I did the job no one else wanted to take or was too afraid to take.

Of course I met with resistance. When you get a bunch of savage murderers together populating an entire planet, they don't like anyone coming in trying to civilize them. I pissed a lot of people off for the sake of the greater good. To be fair, I lost people I loved too... including my only daughter, who was just a child. She was murdered by these monsters.

At that point, I let things get personal. I tried to get revenge, and in the end- I failed. It was over. Lilith and her bastard Vault Hunter friends were pretty damn close to killing me... and that's when I got brought here.

After seeing past the fog of surviving, and ending up on this ship.... As most of you noticed, I was feeling optimistic. The burden of the planet... all those murders and acts of violence.. the things I felt regret over, well, were put behind me. The death of my daughter is still weighing heavy- I never got my revenge, after all. I was feeling alright, up until the moment I got ambushed and thrown into gunfight between these psychopaths from my past, and forced to fight for my life.

Who can blame them? Really. [He laughs]

Would I love to kill these guys? Oh ho ho you're goddamn right I would. They took everything from me. And yet... I'd be perfectly fine if any form of justice just fell on these mother humpers.

But if I'm expecting my past to be looked over, to be fair I need to look past theirs, don't I?

Ain't life a bitch. A large, ravenous, full-bodied bitch.

Needless to say--people who work for Security here, should probably keep a close eye on all of us. Yeah. Including me. I want to ride out this violent streak, however long it takes... Because I'm not going to lie... the first time they surprised me... but the next time I see those two child murderers, I can't guarantee I wont try to paint the walls with their blood. One, as I have learned from my mistakes back home, violent crimes solve nothing, and Two- While I'm just amazing at many things, I'm an awful painter.

See? This is how a civilized person handles things. Is that so hard?

Whoever says I'm not trying to turn over a new leaf can suck it.

Comments

[voice]

[fuckinghysterical]

[LB is a little wary, as she distinctly remembered part of Zer0's haiku talking about how Jack was "a douchebag. Granted, she also talked to him a grand total of twice and he attacked her the second time. Still, he seemed pretty cool and Lilith and Mordecai seemed pretty decent from the couple of times she spoke with them. Time to figure out what exactly was going on here.

Already, alarm bells were ringing about him "wiping out cities", due to the connection with her own past, but she'll still hear him out.]

I'm -- heeheehee -- I'm sorry about your child. But, ah, why did these hunters harm her in the first place?

[voice]

[handsomejack]

Kind of a personal question isn't it?

[Okay, Jack, you got to convince people you're "trying to change". He lets out a breath, sounding all too serious.]

They killed her because she was helping me with... my original plan of giving the planet a clean slate. It was probably my fault.

[He guessed. Maybe. He should've had Angel on a tighter leash]

Obviously there's nothing I can do about it now. Facts are she was murdered to probably pay back those thousands of people I killed on that planet. I begged them not to hurt her... I was willing to stop what I had planned and work things out. At that point, they couldn't be reasoned with... and I lost her. Then I lost my mind.

It.... sucks enough to think about without recognizing my hand on the whole situation. If I could have done it all over again, I would've paid more attention. I would've kept anything from harming my daughter, even if it meant not embarking on a planetary world scrub down in the first place.

...To tell you the truth, I really don't want to talk about it.

[voice]

[idkmybffbloodwing]

Thought about lockin' this to you, LB, but he'd probably just crack it anyway, so sorry if he tries to barge in on our conversation.

Jack needed to open a Vault on Pandora. Had a big monster known as the Warrior locked in it. He figured he could use that to kill everyone who opposed him. Thing is, the only people who can use those keys are Sirens, like Lilith. His daughter was one, too. The key wasn't charged - normally it can be hundreds of years before a vault can even be opened. So to speed it up, he sealed his daughter inside a tank an' hooked her up to a buncha pipes that'd inject eridium straight into her bloodstream. The stuff's tied to Sirens' powers, an' it'd make her charge the key faster.

I dunno how long he had her stuck in there, but imagine that. Just a kid, livin' out her life in some sealed-off room, alien minerals constantly bein' pumped into her, an' her dad, who's someone she should be able to trust to protect her, is the one who set it all up.

She didn't wanna help him but she didn't have a choice, so she told us how to get to her, helped us fight off his security forces. Unplugging her from all that shit would kill her, yeah, but that was what she wanted. She decided she'd rather die an' save everyone on Pandora than live like that.

So if people wanna blame us for bein' the ones who directly caused her death, fine. 'Cause it's true an' I can't really argue with that, even if I wasn't there myself. But Jack didn't leave her much of a choice, an' in the end, she made her own decisions rather than let him rule her life any more.

[voice]

[handsomejack]

First, thanks Mordecai, for taking what I had to do for Angel and twist it into me being a terrible dad. Yeah, I was using her siren powers, but I had to focus it somehow or she'd cause a hell of a lot more damage to the people around her. Two birds, one stone. I don't expect you to understand, because, well... you're a dirty no good bandit who wouldn't understand if I drew it out for you, and had your new little bird spawn translate it to you.

Angel learned to live with the conditions she had, because she had to. Getting that streak of rebellion children tend to get once they hit a certain age, yeah. She wanted out, and she wanted to stick it to me while she was at it.... thus lassoing you bastards to help her out of the very thing keeping her alive.

[Now, aside to the girl that asked to begin with]

I sure hate to say that by being her dad I knew what was best for her, but really... I did. And I'll tell you somethin' else- Lilith and Mordecai will argue to the end of their days that what I did was wrong, and I'll tell you what-- I wished there was another way.

[voice]

[fuckinghysterical]

It does sound like a shitty situation, eeheeheehee. Most people wouldn't want to live that way-- shouldn't have to live that way, but... are you certain that wasn't the best thing for her?

I don't know her situation clearly, but sometimes one's sanity is better off if they're put in a area where they can focus their powers. [After all, she herself was put in that situation, not that long ago.]

Or maybe the better question is how would have everyone lived if she didn't unplug herself?

video;

[justamobster]

[ Well. This shit isn't familiar, not at all. Ladon's used to a lot of mob bosses posturing themselves as "pillars of the community" and "good samaritans" for an audience. He's taken orders from the same types, ones that usually involved visitations of violence-- with just enough distance to keep their hands clean.

He takes a good, long drag of his cigarette, before leaning over casually to snub it out in a nearby ashtray. Then he leans back in the chair he's occupying in the eleventh floor lounge, his usual haunt. ]

Word of advice, pal. You want folks sympathizin' with you, might wanna cool it with the extermination talk. 'Specially when you're referrin' to people insteada cockroaches, yeah?

video;

[handsomejack]

[Jack blinks, and falls back to a subtle grin]

Who said anything about sympathy? I just figure that I should let the people know who I was.... because no doubt, the two assassins from my past would slowly but surely let it be known the crap I did. Might as well be truthful about what I thought about them all.

Now that it's all out in the open, I really feel like I can try to move on.

video;

[justamobster]

Sure you're "movin' on." By justifyin' the notches in your knife for the rest of us. Paintin' yourself the victim-hero. Real repentant.

[ He grins at that, humorless. ] Been 'round this block before, pal. Ain't buyin' it.

[ And not just because he's met Lilith and approves of her. This fella stinks of Joseph Nason and his ilk, and that's a sore spot for Ladon, even years later. ]

[voice]

[jurisimpudent]

Sir, while I am personally not unsympathetic to your story, I'll say to you what I said to them: we do not care what happened at home for you. The only thing that matters to us is what you do here. So my advice? Just stay away from them. If there is any blood shed, you will be held fully culpable.

[voice]

[handsomejack]

Sounds fair.

Thanks for the other day, by the way. Way to do your job.

[voice]

[jurisimpudent]

Thanks for doing my job are unwanted. I'm simply glad that there was no blood spilled.

[text]

[cobaltblue]

tl;dr

get off your fuckin high horse, nobody wants to read shit that's that long.

voice;

[handsomejack]

Yeah, I could really care less if you listened or not. I just better not hear anyone complaining that I didn't lay everything out on the table.

voice

[supfirehawk]

[To say she's pissed would be an understatement.] Are you kidding me? You're trying to use the daughter you enslaved and pumped full of eridium to get sympathy? She was dead before we even got there.

voice

[handsomejack]

Yeah. I was keeping her alive. You bastards were the ones that pulled the plug and shot her in the head.

Last I checked, before you guys arrived, she was breathing.

I'm not trying to get sympathy. Just stating fact here, kiddo.

voice

[supfirehawk]

What a great father. That must be why she called you an asshole with her dying breath.

text; I'M SO SORRY FOR THIS

[fraud]

oh my god, shut up, no one cares

voice; DON'T APOLOGIZE! Jack is long winded XD

[handsomejack]

How 'bout you just don't listen, cupcake?

text; CRYING okay good

[fraud]

but you're whining on the open community network. if you're going to do that, at least say a damn thing worth hearing, good god.

voice;

[sugarpills]

[ christ. how are you supposed to feel when you're stuck on the same ship with a guy who wants to kill people? granted it's two people, but still. he wants to kill someone. ]

I'm sorry about your daughter.

voice;

[handsomejack]

Yeah. Me too.

Thanks though.

[idkmybffjessie]

Why not just let the goddamn planet run itself into the ground?

[He hears you on the revenge thing, Jack. He knows what it is to want it so badly you can hardly breathe. But he has a healthy suspicion for anyone who claims they're trying to better anything, and the whole reforming a planet thing just sounds goddamn stupid.]

[handsomejack]

Thought about it. But the planet wasn't really theirs to start. Corporations had their grubby claws on the whole place, and for the sake of progress Hyperion- the company I eventually began to run- needed that planet for our research and to start up new settlements and, well, time is money.

We didn't exactly want to give the bandits time to get strong enough to be a real problem either.

[jilt]

My, what a tale. Do you really think it wise to share so many intimate details at once?

[handsomejack]

Why, do they matter?

Don't get me wrong, gorgeous. These details aren't so intimate. It's kind of what everyone already knew back home. Rather than have it bite me in my ass later, it's best to have it out in the open now. I could really care less who knows about what I did.