Dayshift 42: Bus 2

[liveforthispart]

Before anyone could come to any decisions for their next move, the room suddenly filled with a thick fog. Faster than he could realize what was happening, it had filled up the entire room and swallowed every single one of his friends. Then there was that undeniable stench of iron, blood and... he last remembered taking a step back and feeling that

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[141_12]

"I know that!" Otacon exclaimed, volume temporarily going higher than he'd like. He fumbled guiltily with his glasses, remembering how he'd been forced to tell Kaworu about Neon Genesis Evangelion. The boy had taken it pretty well, all things considered, but then... who knew what he was really thinking behind that preternatural calm? Still, Otacon did realize that it would be prudent not to give this knowledge away. He'd just have to become a better liar, that's all. Somehow.

Silently, he prayed for the second time that the next person he met was not Char Aznable. "But.. if they're messing with my memories, that's mental manipulation far beyond anything I've experienced." SOP had been frightening precise and fine-tuned in many ways, but to seamlessly integrate years of otaku obsessions into his consciousness? "Unless... they just put the information in my head and let my brain smooth out all the connections by itself," he murmured, thinking aloud. "But why? I understand psychological warfare, but it seems like letting me know personal details about other patients would be giving me a tool. Of course, I suppose they're capable of time travel and dimension hopping too, apparently exclusively for the use of kidnapping people and making them play Silent Hill, so maybe it's all a moot point to ask how and why."

Otacon leaned back against the worn bus seat with a sigh.

"It's funny. I had times in my life where I'd wished an anime character was real. Even my memories were overwritten, I still think that feeling was genuine. I would've never wanted it to happen like this, though." He looked over at the soldier. "Same with meeting you. I'd wondered what you were like before Shadow Moses."

[prisonerofdeath]

"This place is capable of mental manipulation far beyond what Psycho Mantis was capable of. I even knew a telepath that was trapped here for a while that probably would have beaten out every psychic from our world combined in terms of power," Talking about Lyta still wasn't easy, so Fox tried to skip over saying anything else about her.

"You're not the type that would use that information to hurt them," Fox said to counter Otacon's argument about giving them a tool. "And everything here is two-sided. They do give tools to the people trapped here, but the cost is always very high." Fox was completely unwilling to consider that maybe they were fictional characters. He wasn't sure he believed his own explanation, but he was real, and the people he knew and cared about here were real too. Self doubt was not something anyone could afford here.

After a moment he added, "I'm afraid you're a bit late to know me like I was before Shadow Moses, but I am much more myself now than I have been for a while."