We wanted to end suffering. We wanted to restore humanity. Each time we sacrificed part of ourselves, our leaders kept saying, "it'll be worth it."

Now we've disbanded. With nothing to show for our sins.

I thought coming here might reignite something. Some purpose. My parents loved bringing me here. It's one of my earliest memories from before the outbreak. Before all of the cruelty and savagery.

Those memories just made me angrier.

I don't want to be in this world anymore. I can't look at the person I've become.

Ever since I played 'The Last of Us Part II', this level always stuck with me. What starts out as a bittersweet flashback scene turns into a dark and desolate admission of sins. This scene is arguably what starts to convince Ellie that Joel isn't being 100% honest with her about the Fireflies. She gets her first glimpse through the cracks in his story; she was the last hope for the Fireflies, and Joel took her away from potentially saving humanity. But I digress.

The note details a Firefly who has lost his purpose after committing so many brutal acts of violence and depravity; a Firefly lost in the darkness, with no light to look for. Thinking that visiting a treasured childhood memory could jog something back into him, he instead admits his past transgressions by spray-painting them onto the walls of the museum, before finally taking his own life after succumbing to guilt and hopelessness.

Once I decided that I wanted to try voice acting, I immediately thought about this letter. I did the best with what I could, and I am happy with my performance, but the quality of my tools really shows here (speaking way too close to my $100 USB microphone in Audacity). I might redo this in the future now that I have a better $100 USB microphone, and plan to buy an audio interface next month, but for now, I'm putting this out to start compiling a demo reel.

Enjoy, I guess? My voice isn't really enjoyable to listen to, and the story here is kinda depressing. But enjoy regardless of all that.