Day 57: Arts & Crafts Room (Fourth Shift)

[gald_digger]

When she left the lobby, Anise still didn't know what to think about her visitor. All this time, she thought the one person the institute would never truly get to was the Colonel, and that if he was gone, then maybe he was hiding somewhere, plotting a way to rescue the rest of them. Now that she thought about it... maybe that was naïve of her. She

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[tasteoftruth]

"You don't get it," Badd snarled. "Anyone can fake up a picture, especially given the insane capabilities this institute has." They could snap you back to your from wherever you were whenever they wanted, they could drag people out of time and space or the reaches of death itself. That wasn't the issue.

"What I want to know is how they knew to do it? How do they know what she looks like and how did they know to pair me up with a woman I hate more than anyone in the universe?" He shook the letter at her, resisting the intense urge to tear both it and the photo into tiny shreds. They were evidence. He needed to keep every scrap of information he could wring out of them. "And why would they go to the trouble of faking up a letter that looks like it's from a fake wife talking about how I lost my mind and fell in love with a damned serial killer?"

There was no doubt they were talking about Byrne. It fit the pattern of making him doubt himself, by placing the one person he trusted in a position of doubt. If he ever got his hands on Aguilar's throat he was going to squeeze and keep squeezing until there was nothing left.

[mugenreppa]

"How do you know I don't get it?" she snapped back. Don't blame me for it. Mele leaned back, crossing her arms. And those were some very good questions.

"... Same way they got us here?" she said after a pause. They could make her think she was 'Airi' and they could make her think she was still a Genju Fist practitioner, and they could restore her Phoenix-style abilities back to her even though there shouldn't have been anything to 'restore' in the first place. As far as knowing who the important people in Mele's life looked like... it seemed like common sense.

"Same way they brainwash people for this SC thing or whatever?" He knew about that, right? Well, if he didn't, he would soon.

As for why they would go to the trouble- Mele was lost on that one. There were cheaper ways to cause pain. Maybe it was the type of pain that was important. She refrained from saying that last part aloud, biting her lip. Seriously, if he got any more agitated.... She glanced sideways at the guards, but they didn't seem to be moving.

... Or she could just walk away from him, but that just didn't seem right. Even when she was being yelled at. (Hmph!) And who knows, maybe they'd just blame her for riling him up in the first place. It didn't seem like they'd care if she'd actually done it or not.

[tasteoftruth]

Badd threw one hand up in frustration. He wasn't angry at her, just with the situation the institute had forced him into. "If they wanted to break us, why not just brainwash us and be done with it? They have power over our lives and our freedom, what is the damn point in psychologically torturing us?" There were children here, and weaklings like Meekins, and people like Skye who'd had enough torment in their lives.

Badd's hand fell again and looked again at the horrific picture. His double looked happy there, happier than Badd could ever remember being, and if it didn't mean betraying Byrne and Kay he would have liked to be that man. They made the alternate life seem so alluring.

Why, why, the question always came back to why and it was on the verge of driving Badd insane.

Of course there was one other explanation for all this insanity. "Is this hell?" Badd murmured. He wasn't a religious man, but the universe rarely cared about Badd's opinions.

[mugenreppa]

And she may as well have said it; he was getting angrier anyway. And here she'd finally thought up an answer for why the institute would do this kind of thing when they have other ways. "Because they're bored," Mele muttered under her breath. That was what Long did; messed up lives because he was bored. But before she could bring the thought of Long further down the conspiracy chain, the guy's next utterance interrupted her.

She'd wondered if this was hell the moment she got here. She'd dismissed the idea for...some reason or another, but as a metaphor, it was really, really...appropriate. Except for one, tiny little thing... 'Rio' was writing letters to her and that was enough.

Still... "You're angry, right? Get even." Rage was still power, after all. Mele couldn't even get angry, and that was why she was losing to her emotions. What else was there, jealousy? hatred? She couldn't do those, either. Except...she could. Get jealous of 'Airi.' But that was part of the problem. "Use hatred if you have to."

[tasteoftruth]

"I've got enough hatred to start a world war!" Again, probably shouldn't be letting the young idiot get under his skin, she was trying to comfort him. But she was being so damned obtuse.

He managed to get his voice lower. "And you can't load hatred into a gun and you can't bludgeon someone with it. You need a clear head if you want to get anything done." That was why he shut himself down when a murder started to get its hooks into him. Even Byrne's murder he'd taken with a deadpan expression and only the barest of flinches. You couldn't let rage take over or they'd already won.

[mugenreppa]

Of course you could- Oh, right. "Then what's the point of letting them rile you up?" Were they talking in circles or what? If you couldn't use it and you couldn't discard it, then what? You broke.

But obviously it was different for someone who wasn't a Rin Juken practitioner, but Rin Juken was how she'd become strong. Pointless to impart her philosophy to someone who didn't know this stuff, but she hadn't been thinking. She didn't know any other way- Well, there was the Gekiranger way, but she certainly didn't know the specifics of that. It was all mushy stuff, anyway.

"Take your own advice and clear your head!" It went for her, too. If she couldn't use it and she couldn't discard it.... Unfortunately, as she was starting to realize, this nameless emotion-this...heavy weight-wasn't unfamiliar. It'd been there for...more times than she wanted to admit. So she wasn't going to admit it. Ho hum, nothing important or depressing to see here; move along. "The heck is your name, anyway?"