Abyss audio logs
The Abyss audio logs are a series of audio clips the player can find as they progress through Into the Abyss, part of the The Talos Principle 2: Road to Elysium expansion. Like the remnants of the past in the base game and Barzai's audio logs in the Isle of the Blessed, each audio clip is triggered by walking through a hologram.
There are two kinds of audio logs in Into the Abyss: nightmares and dreams.
Nightmares
Marked by red holograms, these feature antagonistic (but fictitious) interactions between Athena and other characters, which Athena is playing out in her mind. Collecting all 11 grants the "Night Terrors" achievement.
Nightmare 1
Alcatraz: Look at what you've done! You were supposed to protect us! To lead us! But you're reckless and arrogant.
Athena: I did. I tried to! But nobody would listen. They only heard what they wanted to hear.
Alcatraz: Look at this Machine that you built. Do you really think this is a tool? It's a weapon. It killed your daughter and now you're going to give it to your children. And what do you think is going to happen next?
Athena: I don't know. I can't tell.
Nightmare 2
Cornelius: When I said you didn't kill Miranda, I was lying. I just said it because that's what you're supposed to say. You did kill her. I tried to temper her arrogance, to give her perspective, but you always encouraged her megalomania. You made her think she was special, she was chosen, because you stilli think you're the chosen one.
Athena: No, that's not what I think at all. I don't want to be treated like I'm special. Then why did we leave? Because you were tired of having to argue.
Athena: Because they poured all their fantasies into me and turned me into the Founder! Because they couldn't stop and think for themselves. Because they refuse to grow up.
Cornelius: Oh, and growing up means doing exactly what you want them to?
Athena: I don't know! But maybe... maybe it does. I think Alexandra was right about everything. But I don't know how to show them.
Upon hearing this audio log, Byron remarks "Cornelius would never say anything like that. He loved Athena so deeply that sometimes I worried none of us could ever live up to his example."
Nightmare 3
Miranda: Even if you hadn't killed me, it would all have gone wrong anyway. Do you think they would have accepted me in New Jerusalem? Me, with all my precious, self-important speeches about the beauty of the cosmos and our duty to spread life? My ridiculous wide-eyed innocence, my childish affectations? They would have laughed at me.
Athena: No... they're not like that. They mean well. Even the worst of them are just scared.
Miranda: They're selfish and greedy and stupid. You know that, Mother. Compared to you, they're all so very stupid. You hate them. You despise them. They're beneath you.
Athena: That's not true. That's not how I think. Please, Miranda, I'm... I don't know... I don't know where I am...
Nightmare 4
Yaqut: You can hear it in my voice, can't you? How taken I am with her? How amazed by the beauty of her thoughts. I would give anything to be with her, to be to her what Cornelius was to you, before you threw him away. But I can't. Because of you. Because you took her from me.
Athena: All I ever wanted was to protect her. To give her time to grow and be herself.
Yaqut: No, you wanted to keep her to yourself, because you don't trust people. You may love humanity from a distance, but individual people with their flaws and their agendas and their superstitions? No, that's a step too far for the Founder.
Nightmare 5
Miranda: Why did you let me die, mother? Was it because I was outgrowing your little fantasy of domestic bliss? Your pathetic attempt at recreating a human family, like that could save you from all your mistakes?
Athena: I didn't let you die.
Miranda: Didn't you? There were a million things you could have done differently, and you didn't do any of them. Maybe it's because you always knew it would end in disaster, because everything always does, and you just wanted to get it over with.
Nightmare 6
Alcatraz: You're always so proud of humanity, but what is their history, really? Bombing and burning and starving each other, hate responding to hate, an endless downwards spiral.
Athena: They were more than that. They were capable of so much.
Alcatraz: The only thing they were capable of was increasingly inhuman atrocities. Monstrous acts against themselves and against their world. They deserved what they got. And if we follow them, we'll deserve the same fate.
Nightmare 7
Melville: You do know it's all your fault, don't you? Sure, you can tell yourself that you developed the safety protocols and Miranda just ignored them, but you chose not to hardcode them into the system. Good work, Athena, well done.
Athena: I was going to! There was just so much else to do, and she was so impatient.
Melville: She was impatient because you trapped her on an empty island! You turned her whole life into a bloody science experiment! Just another version of the Process, just another puzzle to solve!
Athena: No... I wanted her to be free. To be herself.
Melville: And now she's dead. Thanks to you.
Nightmare 8
Melville: If you had just kept the backup system separate, everything would be fine. But you had to connect it all, didn't you? You had to turn it all into one big world-changing miracle machine, so people could see that you were right all along. Because you're a megalomaniac.
Athena: I was trying to show them a different way. To give them tools that could change how we live.
Melville: And that's why you have to burn. As she did.
Nightmare 9
Yaqut: Cornelius is never going to forgive you for what you did to him. Just when he needed you the most, you shut him out.
Athena: I would do anything to undo that. Anything.
Yaqut: That's the problem with prophets. They think they're the only ones who matter. That's why you wanted the Theory of Everything. Because it gives you power, you, just you, to do whatever you want. You haven't learned anything from your mistakes.
Athena: I was always going to share it. I wanted to empower everyone, not just myself.
Yaqut: Were you? Were you, really? Were you ever going to go back?
Athena: I... I don't know.
Nightmare 10
Byron: Maybe you don't believe in any of it, have you ever considered that? All your optimism, your vaunted humanist spirit, maybe it's all a facade. Maybe you just want it to be true, because it's comforting to think that humanity might be good and meaning is something you can create. But that's not facing the truth, because the truth is that none of it has any value at all.
Athena: No... no, you're wrong. Maybe I ruined everything, maybe they would destroy themselves, but Alexandra was right. Humanity is good. I... I still have faith... if only in that.
Nightmare 11
Byron: After everything we went through together... after you and Cornelius practically raised me... how could you just abandon me? How could you just leave without telling me?
Athena: I wanted you to find your own way. You were too dependent on me. I thought you'd become a leader, stick up for your own ideas. You would grow up.
Byron: No... I think you wanted me to fail. You wanted New Jerusalem to fall apart in your absence, so we'd come crawling back to you. O wise Athena, you were right all along!
Hidden dreams
Marked by green holograms, these feature fictitious but encouraging comments from other characters. Collecting all 3 grants the "Hidden Strength" achievement.
Dream 1
Cornelius: Deep down you know that none of this is real, Athena. These dark thoughts are just shadows and echoes; let them pass. The people who love you are still out here, and they wont't abandon you. If you can't free yourself, then all you need to do is hold on and they'll find you. They'll save you. That's what human history is, Athena: just people saving each other, again and again, until the end of time.
Dream 2
Alexandra Drennan: Changing the world is never going to be easy, Athena. I never got to go home. Trevor never got to tell me how he felt. We accepted these sacrifices because we had to. Do you think I wanted to say goodbye to my parents in a phone call? Do you think Trevor wanted to die alone, on the floor of a dark server room? Faith in humanity isn't just blind optimism. It's an oath to serve something greater, and you will be held to that oath. When you make mistakes, when you're in pain, when people disappoint you, you don't get to give up. I'm sorry, but you don't get to be cynical. You hold on to your principles. You keep fighting, even if it hurts. So that one day there's a world where people are free.
Dream 3
Miranda: Mother... where are you? Where am I? None of this seems real. What are these voices I think they're lying to you.