So how does it feel to think that we're all the ungrateful friends of a lonely little girl?

[He doesn't care. About Ruana, about many of the things he'd glimpsed on the network yesterday before it was all deleted, or even who might be reading this.

One thing he is learning is that in order to glean truth in the Tower, knowledge is power. Knowledge provided by the Tower is unable to be proved, but only so many people can make the same observations. Power was important.

Besides he's not moving far from the first few floors today.]

...I don't understand this at all. Not one bit.

Are we supposed to feel sorry for this girl Ruana? Be her friend? She sounds like a confused child. If they did the same kinds of things to her that they're doing to us, she deserves at least some sympathy.

At the same time, though, if she's happy to go along with what they're doing, and it isn't an act, then I can't exactly be sympathetic.

...I will say that I'm glad that the translation mechanisms are working again, however. That's such a relief.

[ on the screen is a small, unassuming character. the only startling thing about him is the large, tired blue eyes peering in. there's the glint of a chain beneath his clothes when he stirs, and over his body is a worn green cloak.

when he speaks, it's slowly, carefully. he looks pale, a bit shaken still from the network but his voice is sure: ]

While I haven't been here long, I'd like to leave as much as anyone else.

[ quietly: ]

I do not believe our homes are truly destroyed.

[ frodo's eyes lower, before he speaks again: ]

Not only that but I should like to know how many come from the world of Arda. Or 'Middle-earth'. To me, it is my home.

And..if any of you have seen a hobbit about my size, with lighter hair, a bit stout, with a frying pan? His name is Samwise Gamgee. Or perhaps a strange creature, who calls himself 'Smeagol' or 'Gollum'. He tends to like the shadows. I am..responsible for him.

[ it's sad how he's used to this. first the ship, now this strange place. it seems his road is far longer than he could have imagined, and frodo quietly despairs a little in his heart, though it stubbornly clings to hope. ]

If not, I would ask if any come from a ship called the 'Tranquility'. I had been dwelling there for a time, and would wish to know of it's fate. 

[ he seems to hesitate for a minute, but the question is necessary ]

Should you be from Middle-earth..I would ask if the Fellowship is a familiar word to any of you.

[Majora's been doing a lot of thinking since talking to Ruana. Well, she's been doing a lot of thinking, period, lately, but mostly since Ruana. So she'd spent all evening and today working on some pictures for a story.]

Hey, Tower? I want to tell you a story.

( Following is image heavy, this is a warning )

[The feed cuts there, though Majora will still be waiting at the terminal. She's moping now, tracing fingers over the images.]

Seeing as how we're all so keen to talk about this new information in regards to one of our captors, and with it about sympathy for devils as a manner of speaking, let me ask something first: did anyone transcribe, or manage to save in any way, the conversations that were had with Ruana? It would be better to have a record of what was actually said and the information gained than to have to rely on memory.

As for the issue at hand that seems to have presented itself: please. Explain to me how knowing this about here changes anything? Are we meant to sympathize with her more because of her plight? Why? If she really is a "fellow experiment" she doesn't conduct herself as such and clearly doesn't view us as sharing that trait with her. Alongside this is the fact that all living beings have their own hardships and pain; there is no such thing as a painless life. To say we should reconsider our opinion of viewing her as anything but another captor is foolish if we're going to base it solely on evidence presented to us that shows us she has, in fact, had pain in her life.

Surely no one would be at fault for their actions if we knew everything anyone has ever had to endure.

Or should we empathize with her because she's a child that's gone through pain? It's always seemed odd to me, to differentiate between a child being in pain and an adult being in pain and how humans react so differently to both. Understandable that they do, but the fact is that their empathy for child blinds them. Makes them think that children are naive - or innocent is I suppose the word often used - and that they can't mean to do harm. That no child is cruel by nature. But the fact is that children are capable of cruelty. And they know it's cruelty. And don't care.

Imagine how cruel a child can be, if you haven't had to deal with some of the tests she's been responsible for yet.

I suppose my point is this: if you think Ruana is to be empathized with, or can be related too or that we might somehow find some common ground with her, you are blind. She's one of our captors, and thus an enemy, and a sympathetic enemy is still an enemy. If you want to waste the time and effort and emotion to attempt to relate or try to find ground with her I suppose that's your choice. But it's wasted effort.