Anomaly Acquisitions: The Case Files - Rupert (Patreon)

Name: Rupert Hathgurn

Anomaly Designation: Human 

Anomalous Properties: Exact details are few and far between on the former Director's being and attributes. A clearly extended life brought on by some mixture of meditative practices and Anomalous sciences (There are rumors about the exact source of this power, but due to the Director's untimely end... twice... this information has been lost.) His invention the Presence Projector Mk 2 allowed him to maintain a degree of physical form in this space and time. (Clear questions to be raised about sentience and cognition beyond the solid physical form amid the scientific reality of presence projection.)

AA Status: Deceased. Founder and Former Director of Anomaly Acquisitions

Interview:

[Recording Begins]

-Rupert: Hello there, friend. This is a log to be played in the event of my... death. What a strange word to use given my current form... but what is death but the complete loss of oneself? Truly I have seen my fair share of such and other tragedies, but such is the price one pays for immortality. Haha. 

[Sound of drink being poured. Sound of liquid spilled]

-Rupert: Oh what a silly old man I am. Of all the things I could be testing and researching and studying and I keep coming back to the bourbon. I do miss the taste. That fire on my tongue and the itch in my throat. It feels an eternity ago I last had a drop within me. 

[Silence]

-Rupert: I've lived quite a life. From my childhood in London looking through back alleys and basements for any hint of the extraordinary, to my time studying in China and India at the behest of my friends there, to my failed tenure at Utbridge, back to the basements and nooks and crannies of London. And then that goblin. You know goblins are not native to England? They migrated. How strange... the way the universe drives us all together in the end. A great swirling ocean of stuff and things... all smashed together and mixed in the great big pot of space until we collide with something that we react with and BOOM... that goblin sets you off to adventure. Such a small thing... that hope turn to truth, that myth become reality, that drive become results. 

[Presence Projector stutters]

-Rupert: I don't know that I'll survive this. I never thought I'd live this long in the first place. Every adventurer sets off feeling like they'll live forever... but who actually has? Me... Li Zhang Hu... Barnabus Finchette... that silly little farmer in... ahhh what was that country called back then... dammit. The real problem with immortality is not where you end up, but where you started. Human brains weren't meant to grow forever like this. It starts to loop back in on itself and fall apart from the fringes and... then you're out the door without knowing which door to go back in again. But I'm supposed to be in charge of these peoples' lives and safety and... 

[Silence]

-Rupert: I miss when things were simpler... I miss that stupid beautiful man. Both of them. Well... haha... I have some faint memories there were some pretty things before them but I'd hazard to say they were real at this point... oh Ian... what am I doing... 

[Silence]

-Rupert: Speaking of stealing the train and losing the tracks... this recording has gone off into the damn lake hasn't it. Ahh... what I'm trying to say... what I've always meant to say... is that no matter what happens... no matter where you end up... this journey we've been on... this... this... path we've taken... it was worth it in the end. All those wonderful things we've seen and done. All those beautiful faces we've seen and kissed. All those lovely stories we've told and shared and made true... it was worth it. It was all worth it. Good luck... with everything after. I know it's going to be hard. But I trust in you all. I trust in the future I know you can build. I trust you. 

[Sound of liquid spilling down drain]

-Rupert: Suppose I could leave this for you, but it was a gift and it would be rude not to finish it off myself. Haha... Good luck, and good night Guardians. It was an honor.

Interview End