Pearl Porter



Pearl Porter was Charles Milton Porter's wife. She met Charles when she worked at her mother's diner. Charles had fallen in love with Pearl at first sight, coming to the diner every day for the same breakfast just to see her. Pearl's mother informed her that Charles wasn't interested with the food, but with her. Upon this, she began to date him and they got married a year later. In 1939, she moved to London with her husband, where he later started working with Alan Turing in an effort to crack the Enigma machine. During that period, Charles was unable to spend much time with Pearl, which frustrated her. Before he was able to soothe her, she died in the first Blitz bombing. Pearl's death, along with the memories of their last moments Charles had spent with her, caused him an immense amount of grief; which led him to accept Ryan's invitation to Rapture and, ultimately, build The Thinker.

Soon after creating The Thinker, Charles speaks to it about Pearl. The Thinker shows interest and requests data on her. Charles begins feeding The Thinker old audio recordings of her, slowly working his way to the most painful ones. Reed Wahl is disgusted by Porter's personification of The Thinker, but he continues despite this. When he had fed all the audio he had to The Thinker, he decided to test the "personality duplication function" with Pearl's personality.

He begins to talk to The Thinker, now simulating Pearl's personality, but stops himself moments into the conversation. He sees that saying any of this to anyone but Pearl, herself, will not end his pain. He orders The Thinker to stop the test, although he must demand it again for The Thinker to stop. Back in the present, he makes his way through the offices, passing a set of computers in front of a panel. It is adorned with images of Pearl; news paper articles on The Blitz, which she died in; and a large explosion. The ending of Minerva's Den features Charles speaking the letter he leaves at Pearl's grave, stating his pain but saying he will let her go, although he will never forget her.