Fragments from the Vault #031: My Name is Irenka

"We were machines... But terror and pain have turned us into souls."

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Game: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Location: Vincent van Aug, Překážka District, Prague

More information: Irenka Bauer | Deus Ex Wiki | Fandom 

Vision of the future. Photo credit: FetchQuester

FROM: <unknown sender>

TO: Adam Jensen <Adam.Jensen@si.det.usa>

SUBJECT: spiritus mundi

__________________________________________________

-ARCHIVED-

>my name is Irenka.

>you did not see me beneath the salvage of scrap-metal sculptures,

>keeping vigil for the sisters you abandoned at curfew

>while the fear of a footfall rattled our safehouses

>and the barricades blazed in the name of our "freedom" -

>having taken everything but our resolve to persevere

>and a tongue you dare not speak in your shame of coercion

>as you tallied our fates in the gantry of gods;

.......................................................................

>you did not know that our names meant compassion,

>or that we harboured a love for  a world

>whose  beauty  lay in    defiance of a   ragin g inner  monologue 

>that will,  one  day,     b ecome   our an  them -

>and  you   will    find my golden  tic  k et,

>floating   amidst    th e        sal  va g  e of scr ap- me tal sc  ulp t  ures

>in  the a  shes of   sisters you          bar tered at c  urf ew,

>invisi ble, unh        eard, b ut neve r   forg   otten:

>an d le ar n   that m y   na m  e is          Ir e nk  a.

Protests take shape in solidarity for the augmented. Photo credit: FetchQuester

Echoes of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam as Jensen grasps the hand of an innocent. 

Photo credit: FetchQuester

- Lucy A.

***

Sources: 

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Eidos-Montréal/Punch Productions/Square Enix); fandom.com [note the first quotation is directly attributed to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided]

*For those we have passed on the street.