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[network] @hotstud_xxx; audio; Morning 282 [open]

[It's House's voice that comes through the tablet, but his accent and tone are markedly different. Rather than the harsh and sneering Jersey boy, there's something softer and he has a far more generic American accent with some vaguely French and Arabic inflections.]

Captain's Log, Stardate 197005.3. I've escaped Sinai and crash-landed on a mysterious snow planet. There are monsters here according to the locals. And lots of dead bodies. I must have been captured when I crashed. I was in a body bag--it was pretty creepy, but cool! Maybe they thought I was dead. The Vulcan resurrection hypo must be doing its work... I'm really old for some reason, though. Could be a disguise.

Trying to get in contact with Mo... with Lieutenant Blythe, but dialing her communicator isn't working. Suspect sub-spatial interference from the sinister General John and his entourage.

Anyway, I found a graveyard outside the nearby chapel--What gods could these people worship? The Prime Directive forbids me from interfering, whatever it is, of course. They basically look like Christians, though, which is kind of boring. No. Delete that last sentence, computer. Their god's a giant cross. That's burning with light. It's probably symbolic of something. I'll have to find the nearest library and study up on their history.

But first I'm doing some rubbings on the graves. The visible inscriptions have faded away, but I have some paper and crayons. I don't know what happened to my charcoal... but this works, too. I'll add to this log once I have more. Over and out!

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It could have been. I've never asked and I doubt I would be permitted to hear the true answer. But I do suspect Lucifel was the snake anyway. He loves fashion, he would have loved the chance to set the very concept in motion.

[By...creating the concept of nudity taboo at the same time. Questionably silly angel factoids aside, he sees what he forgot to mention (and what he just hinted at by saying the snake could have been someone loyal to Heaven)...]

We're mostly correct about what happened, when, where, and with whom - or we're mostly correct to the best of my knowledge. The missing piece I gained insight into is none of these things.

You learned why, which is the whole free will thing. It seems kind of... not good that God would set up humans to have free will and then throw them out of the Garden when they took it.

[Yeah, there's no getting around that. Enoch eventually made peace with it, in a way.]

There is cruelty in there, however unfortunately necessary. I can't make any excuses for it, and can't blame anyone who thinks of or learns of it for begrudging Heaven for it.

What do you think would happen if we continued living in the Garden?

Nothing.

[The answer is immediate.]

Nothing happens if you do nothing. But it's a bad design if your entire experiment hinges on the subject failing.

[Give him a second to try to word this properly. It's a thing he's told, but never set up to be found.]

Humans as an experiment, hm? ...Well, think of it this way - angels are sapient, but not free. Beasts are free, but not sapient. We were the first to be both. What one thing would set us apart from angels, more than anything else?

Being... free? Or not being in heaven with god? Not being able to talk to him?

[House isn't entirely following this as Enoch seems to have already answered that question.]

Ah-...sorry. I should have clarified I meant an action that would set us apart, proof we were not simply angels made of flesh and bone.

[House already got it earlier, but that is- did they fail?]

Making the wrong choice? [He's still puzzling over this, more because he doesn't see what they're getting at here. It's supposed to be a puzzle, but there doesn't appear to be a clear direction for it.] You said that free will sets us apart. It makes us take risks, do things angels wouldn't. Because God tells them what they have to do?

[He hasn't really tried leading another person through this before. Things that have seemed clear to him for decades, if not centuries, he's realizing he has to provide more context for. It's not easy to let go of the idea that Adam and Eve failed, he's realizing. His own length of time with this knowledge and his forgiving nature and faith in the best of humanity have made it much clearer to him, apparently.]

The ability to choose wrongly is important too - though that's not, exactly, what Eden was proving, it is why we had to gain knowledge of good and evil before we were left to our own devices.

Eden's concept was simpler. We can say no.

And if we'd said 'no,' nothing would have changed. I understand that, sir. But you've kind of said all this. It seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it?

You're saying that the whole Eden thing was a sort of experiment that needed to be done. That way humans exercised their free will, they learned about good and evil, and they could go off into the world and choose what they'd do with that knowledge. You have to know what evil is before you can do any good. They're just concepts. If you don't have anything to measure them against, then they don't mean anything.

Well, exactly. We didn't learn what was good or what was evil - we learned they existed. That they were important. We also needed to learn that with choice came consequence.

[Well, now he wonders what he'd make of it if he just gave him the track he's been trying to lead him to.]

Did we really fail?

That depends on the goal of the experiment. If it was just to introduce the concept of free will and the knowledge of good and evil, then no. It was a success from god and the angels' perspectives.

That still kind of seems mean to the humans, sir. It's setting them up to experience a negative consequence even though they did what the experimenter wanted.

...the negative consequence was, ah...well, I think that was part of it too. It was a demonstration of consequences. And...it gave us something to strive for.

It was cruel. There's no making it sound kind, by any means. I won't try. I feel the lessons learned were necessary. Was the way they were taught necessary? I can't answer that. I don't know.

[This is veering into horribly dangerous territory; he's acutely aware of the father/child parallels often drawn between God and man, and the damage condoning this could do were he to be actually speaking to the child House and not the adult with only the child's memories.

He swallows.]

It doesn't sound good. That's why I don't talk about it at home. It might invite violence on innocent priests.

It's why I sincerely hope He was wrong. That there was a kinder way He hadn't anticipated. Some men are predisposed to cruelty. It's bad enough when they blame demons that aren't there. I don't want them to be able to, in all rationality, point to God and say He had no other choice either. Because we always, always have a choice.

Whatever else you take away from this, please don't forget that.

People would be dumb if they attacked priests over that. They're not the ones who did anything. Even if they're kind of not great for preaching about loving and worshiping someone who did that to you.

[This has veered into personally uncomfortable territory for House. 'I do it because it's what you need to learn' is one of his father's favored explanations for punishments.]

I don't think I want to talk about this anymore, sir. I should get going.

[He knows. He talked himself into this corner and dragged poor House along with him.

He really hadn't thought this through.]

...I- I'm sorry. I hadn't thought of- I'd never meant for this to-...to turn out this way.

[Maybe, though, just maybe, he can make it right in some other way:]

Before you go, what year was the last you were aware of? I can- I'll live forever, so if I know when to look, I can... I can try to help. It won't be you, or likely not, but you'll know, somewhere out there is a version of you who may not have had to suffer.

It's 1970, sir. But I'm fine, sir. I'm not suffering. [He's lying, but the discussion isn't exactly endearing him to Enoch.]

Goodbye, sir. I'm sure I'll talk to you later.

Of- of course. Take care of yourself.

[He has memories of that anomaly and now this to know he's lying. But at least he can try, now, if he just remembers that year. He has a time, a place, and the names of both father and son. Surely he can find them. Surely he can help where everything went so wrong here.]

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