Season 3 / Andrew Edgeworth - "Time Is Money" [The Third Trial Projection]

Andrew Edgeworth

The brown LED grows stronger when your hand gets near.

You notice that you feel compelled to pull in a way that you might not in real life. It immediately feels like the chain is fighting against you, so you fight back for a bit, eventually getting a vague sense in the back of your mind to have some patience when you get nowhere. As you ease up, the resistance shows you patience in turn, letting you remove a section of chain without further incident.

The machine parts are starting to make a small pile on the floor.

While you pulled, various still images flash across the screen. It occurs to you that these are moments that Andrew has observed of you that are significant to him, such as you attempting to saw away at Kaoru’s straitjacket straps in Ellie’s projection, speaking with you in private, and when you first ‘greeted’ the group in the main hall.

The center screen violently distorts itself before dissolving entirely, morphing before your eyes into a regular PC monitor like the other two. The group might miss the reveal of seven locked folders appearing on the center screen when deafening noise* - what one could imagine to be the screaming of rusted machinery - drills into everyone’s ears the second that the last warden is finished.

(*CW: Volume, Trypophobia-Inducing Imagery)

Your vision is affected soon after in stutters, everything in sight jittering with analog noise and distortions, making it difficult to accurately judge how to hold onto anything, or even tell how big the room is. The gravity is now oppressive, making you take great effort for just the smallest of movements. Despite the projection turning incredibly hostile at a moment’s notice, you’re overcome with the feeling that your presence is hurting it.

The brown light shuts off, and a new group of four LED lights appears within the cavity: purple, yellow, teal, and a conspicuous gap of darkness.

Kaoru Naito

He mumbles to himself, “We’re pullin’ ’is damn brain apart…” This is interesting so far. He would never forget the wardens suck, but Muse’s comment makes him go ‘hah’.

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

“Hopefully only metaphorically pulling it apart, or… well, symbolically, I suppose,” Vincent comments with a hum to Kaoru as he watches this. Huh, Ei didn’t get hurt at all doing this, huh? Interesting. Maybe what happened to the people who pulled was also a symbolism thing, about Andrew’s opinion of them…? Curious.

The new NOISE happening now is… well, definately an interesting song, even if it grates Vincent’s ears slightly as it goes on. Rusted machinery sounds is right, and the visual and sensation distortion that goes along with it is definately messing with Vincent’s head, though he tries to stand firm as per usual despite that, taking slow breaths to not let it overwhelm him.

…Was this all Andrew’s feelings towards… well, the wardens in this case, he supposes? How they’d made him feel?

“…I’m going to go ahead and guess the three… four…? New lights are for us to do next, then. Purple for Akemi, yellow for… perhaps Kaoru, and teal for Muse, going by straightjacket color? I’d assume the dark portion is mine, then.”

Visually Vincent definately thinks Kaoru could apply to literally all of those colors actually, but you know.

Robert McCay

“Jesus christ!”

Everything about this projection’s sudden heel turn is upsetting, but the sound in particular is hell on the Muse’s sensitive ears. Their nonchalance evaporates in an instant and they struggle forward to the machine, desperate to just make it stop.

“I’m gonna– I’m gonna just go for it okay?” they yelp as they reach in. They’re not oblivious to the changes on the computer screen, but their brain won’t focus on anything but the cacophony right now.

Andrew Edgeworth

Robert McCay “I’m gonna– I’m gonna just go for it okay?”

The teal LED grows stronger when your hand gets near.

You notice that you feel compelled to pull in a way that you might not in real life. You’re not entirely sure how to go about it at first. There isn’t exactly an elegant way to rip out the insides of a mechanical simulacra of someone you know, but the chain snags like every few seconds.

Eventually, you feel a gentle nudging at the edge of your mind to just…go for it. You listen to the instinct and rip with abandon. Even though you’re the only one pulling, it feels like you’re working in tandem with someone else. Another section of chain and machine parts fall to the ground.

It occurs to you that these are moments that Andrew has observed of you that are significant to him, such as…well, you don’t recognize what the other two images are from, but you do know one of them is of you.

The teal light shuts off, leaving the purple and yellow LED’s as well as the darkness in between remaining in the cavity.

Before your eyes, seams and vents on the automaton seal away, closing up the major gaps in its “skin.” It looks a little bit more like Andrew, though it’s still very obviously a machine. On the center monitor, a folder unlocks and is able to be clicked on.

Robert McCay

Muse sees the glimpse of themself and stops in their tracks for a second.

…Someone else can click on the folder.

Emmy | Akemi

Watching the screens show obvious flashes of memory, as the machine that is Andrew slowly falls apart, leaves Akemi a bit uneasy. She hopes this isn’t having some adverse effect on Andrew, outside, but she mostly finds herself wondering exactly how this relates to his crime.

At the sudden and irritating noise, coupled with the strengthening of gravity, Akemi claps her hands over her ears and is very nearly brought to her knees by these oppressive forces. She is not a fan of the feeling that she’s potentially hurting Andrew by being here, if indeed that is the case. But there is nothing to be done for it, now.

When she’s able to settle and focus once more, she sees the new lights– one for each of them and furrows her brow. So, now they would see what he remembered or thought of each of them?

“That seems like a reasonable assumption.”

She is no more fond of this sound than the Muse is, and has no objections when they move to pull the chain.

Nothing horrible seems to happen, so far, but it seems that there is indeed information they can read on the computer now. Akemi wastes little time in clicking the folder.

Andrew Edgeworth

Emmy | Akemi Akemi wastes little time in clicking the folder.

When you double-click the folder, a video plays on its own and subtitles in your language scroll across the bottom.

The video is obviously from Andrew’s perspective as he’s slightly leaned over a table at the start of an argument. The man across the table has on a tight-lipped smile, making no real attempt to hide his irritation at this turn of events. Despite his annoyance, he doesn’t seem all that surprised at this reaction from Andrew. He looks remarkably like Andrew, though just in basic physical traits. Those who’ve met him in the second projection or know of him will recognize him as Simon, Andrew’s twin brother.

“Are you out of your mind, Simon?! Did you talk to even a single person before deciding to announce we’d go public?! If that’s what you really want, then fine, but you can’t drop this on all of us last minute and expect no consequences! Do you even know what you’re doing?!”

That last bit does no favors in getting Simon to change his mind.

“I’m a grown-ass man, Andrew - I don’t need your approval for everything I do. Besides, I’ve already taken care of the talks and set-up for it all. You’re hardly gonna have to do anything different from now on, anyway, just sit back.”

The camera angle zooms out, and you can see Andrew pinch the bridge of his nose under his glasses. If he’s hurt by not being told of the preparations, he isn’t showing it - not verbally, at least.

“You can’t be that dense, Simon; you need to be transparent with the rest of the company on what you plan to do next or walk all of this back entirely.”

“Oh, get with the times, already! You think anyone actually cares about the “art”, anymore? This is just what we’re supposed to do now, yeah? People get it, we don’t have to constantly explain ourselves. You don’t want to do it so bad, I can hook you up with severance if you don’t want to stick with this, goddamn!”

Andrew’s hand drops immediately, stunned into silence for a moment at what Simon is so casually implying.

From the corner of your eye, you see a few months pass by on the date on the phone.

Text appears on the center screen: The decision to go public and a company merger happened very quickly after each other with too little time to react, rapidly eating into that year’s profits. What did Andrew do next?

Two options that you can click on pop up under the question. On the left: Mass Project Cuts; on the right: Mass Wage Cuts.

Robert McCay

“Two of them…? Like the little grey cats?”

The Muse shakes their head to try and snap out of it.

“This one’s kind of an asshole, huh? But Andrew’s the one that wound up here…” Much to think about, much to ponder. “I don’t know much about business, but cutting projects right after a big merger would be a bad look, right?”

Emmy | Akemi

The content of this footage is all too familiar to Akemi, whose expression shifts to a deep scowl at the condescending manner of Simon’s speech. Yet another figure who was reminiscent of Jiro…right down to the callous disregard for sentimentality in favor of profit and glory.

“Hah…it’s not about the art, anymore. What a familiar line. I imagine the things that mattered to Andrew were no longer of any relevance to his brother…the greed of business corrupted what it was once meant to be.”

She shakes her head bitterly. She thinks back to the many conversations she’d had with Andrew regarding family, business, the position he was put in was all too clear.

“He either had to forsake what he and his brother built, what he’d invested everything he had into, and risk his own livelihood in the process, or he had to hurt the people who worked for him to keep the idea alive at all.”

She clicks on Mass Wage Cuts.

“I imagine he thought he could keep the ship afloat, and remedy any existing issues if given enough time to recover those lost profits. A temporary setback for the greater good of the business.”

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

“You can’t just… decide that kind of thing for a company on your own??? Who the hell even- A family member, I’m guessing…?” Very bad first impression of Simon for Vincent going on right here.

And… as Akemi explains… Vincent nods, all of this making sense to him even if it was still frustrating to know. Andrew’s brother had been the one to really put him in that tough spot, huh…?

“…In this case, at least, washing his hands of it all and walking away wouldn’t have helped anyone. Someone else would just do his job instead, and made cuts of their own.” Which Thing was cut, though?

Andrew Edgeworth

Emmy | Akemi Mass Wage Cuts

The screen flashes a big Incorrect message before returning you to the options.

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

Vincent looks slightly relieved when Wage cuts doesn’t work.

“Good- If a company is heading into the red it shouldn’t be their employees they take from to make up the difference. Downsizing projects is a more responsible choice.”

Emmy | Akemi

Her eyebrows rise in surprise at the ‘incorrect’ message, but she softens a little. Given how harshly Andrew spoke of himself, and how he’d laid out what happened, she was sure he’d made the difficult decision to cut wages. To see that he hadn’t…so far her impression of Andrew remained unchanged.

“So he tried to protect the workers, initially, after all. At least in terms of their wages. Neither was a pleasant nor responsible choice, given that he was in a position where the most irresponsible choices had already been made.”

She clicks the other option, instead.

Andrew Edgeworth

Emmy | Akemi She clicks the other option, instead.

The screen flashes a big Correct message before returning to the locked folders.

The sound of breaking wood demands your attention as soon as the video ends, showing you a new set of long, angry gashes in the walls - as if someone on the outside of the projection had stabbed inward with a knife, dragging it across multiple times. Through the scars, you can see red light flooding through, as if you’re looking through a thin sheet of blood stretching across the projection’s wounds.

Bright red LED numbers form over the cuts in the walls, marked with dollar signs, yen, Australian dollars, or euros; all of them long, going well into six figures. Slowly, they mend the cuts. Not all of them; not all of the way.

The air gets just a little bit heavier; the noise a little bit louder.

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

…Hm!! Vincent isn’t sure he likes that ominous stabbing going on! But he at least registers its… probably just symbolic again either way. Hemorrhaging money, maybe?

“I see… I imagine many still weren’t happy with the choice he had to make regardless, but I… really don’t think the burden of it should rest on him, here, and it seems the damage control he did helped at least some aspected of things.” His brother, on the other hand…

Vincent approaches the Andrew machine next, having a better feeling for what they’re actually meant to be doing now. He reaches as carefully as he can’t into the hole towards the Dark part of it, to see what happens.

Andrew Edgeworth

Erin | Vincent Churchwell He reaches as carefully as he can’t into the hole towards the Dark part of it, to see what happens.

The other lights go out when your hand gets near.

You notice that you feel compelled to pull in a way that you might not in real life. Right off the bat, you know that the chain is situated in a way that’s going to be awkward for you. Starting isn’t too hard, but it keeps getting caught and snagged on different corners and nooks. You start thinking that maybe you should try to be more careful when a gentle nudge at the edge of your mind urges you to just stay the course you’re on. After some time, the chain and more machine parts fall apart and hit the floor.

The pile of machinery has grown enough to touch your shoe.

While you pull, images flash across the screen. It occurs to you that these are moments that Andrew has observed of you that are significant to him, such as you looking at yourself in the mirror in a daze, your shock at his attitude towards his forgiveness, and giving Joe first aid.

The gap between the lights disappears, leaving the purple and yellow LED’s remaining in the cavity.

The metal panels of the machine’s hair subtly split while the ones on its clothes fuse together into solid pieces. It looks a bit more real; some combination of man and machine. On the center monitor, two folders unlock.

Kaoru Naito

Kaoru purposefully decided not to weigh in, but the mass wage cut didn’t feel right. Mass project cuts… ugh, this shit’s above his head. He imagines all businessmen sit in a room all day hitting random keys on their keyboard and declaring that business has been completed when money number goes up. And then they get lunch at a fancy restaurant and compare business cards.

(Most of his mental image is just American Psycho scenes, to be honest.)

“I don’t like this…” he grumbles as more memories of them appear on screen. What are they doing? Loading them into the automaton or taking them out? Is it supposed to correlate to something? Does he not get it cause he doesn’t know what the fuck a merger is? Ughh. Ugh.

What does he get? Money from a lot of countries healed shit. They had enough money to stymie the hemorrhage? Sure. He can wrap his head around that, the Edgeworth’s are afloat for now and the workers are getting paid. For now.

Emmy | Akemi

“Andrew knows fully well that he isn’t solely responsible for what happened…but he certainly believes he’s caused significant harm through his own choices.”

The violent stabbing sensations, and ominous glowing currency, leave Akemi feeling tense. Is Andrew okay, out there? So far, no one’s been actively hurt by the machine itself, right?

She swallows, watching Vincent pull on the chain next and further altering this Andrew lookalike. Why do these memories keep cropping up? What importance do they have? What are they doing to this thing? Why? The unease in her expression deepens.

Once again seeing the folders unlock, Akemi will click them one at a time to view their contents.

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

What an interesting sensation that was being guided like that while pulling things… Vincent glances over at the computer to peek at what imagery of him it shows, and finds…

…Huh. How strange, seeing those moments from the opposite perspective. Had he really looked like that, in those moments…? Vincent realizes he doesn’t have much of a mental image of himself and how he looks most of the time. He also gives something of a sad smile remembering how Andrew himself had been the one to come get him to help with Joe’s injury.

“…I wouldn’t have been there to help with that if Andrew hadn’t come to get me and explained what happened. Or I wouldn’t have been able to help right away, anyhow.” It was still imperfect, and had scarred Robert/Muse/Joe’s face, of course. But still, it was an Andrew moment that stuck out to him in return, too, just like their talk about if they should be forgiven did.

“…I think we’re helping the machine Andrew become more human Andrew like this. Maybe… humanizing his actions, perhaps?”

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