Day 57: Sun Room

[bodhiandspirit.livejournal.com]

It figured that night would end before Rita and Taura could progress any further. Rita wasn't particularly disappointed to wake up abruptly, as they had reached a dead end. Really, the institute was doing them a favor by bringing them back to the starting point, where they could regroup.

What she didn't appreciate was the loss of valuable time, and the fact that her equipment had been confiscated once again. Rita didn't have time to mess around... which was precisely why the cheery voice broadcast over the intercom only served to grate on her nerves more than usual. In fact... how was the Head Doctor even giving that announcement? She doubted he'd managed to take the institute back in such a short amount of time, though the broadcast itself was suspicious for a number of reasons. Even though she could clearly hear the man's voice, it didn't necessarily mean that he was there. She had to look at things critically.

Still, it seemed almost as if everything had returned to normal... with a few exceptions. The different staff was one, and her lack of possessions was another. It didn't seem like the staff was expecting to fool the patients into thinking this was the same old institute, so why...?

Even as she went about preparing for the day and walking to her first destination, Rita kept her most pressing questions in mind, coming up with multiple hypotheses to explain what was happening. Since she didn't expect that the Chapel would hold anything of interest to her, Rita opted for the Sun Room instead. She was interested in seeing the bulletin board, for one.

When she entered the Sun Room, Rita brought a pen and her journal with her. If no one approached her, she would at least have a chance to document her discoveries from the previous night. First, however, she checked the bulletin board, only to find it completely empty. That confirmed a few suspicions of hers. Content to see evidence supporting her ideas about the strange occurrences, Rita sat down on a couch, opened her journal, and began to write.

[Free!]

Comments

[madeinthehrl]

Soma nodded. Truth be told, she hadn't really expected it to work--a teleportation ring just sounded too much like magic to her--but she couldn't really deny that it had pulled her and Mele out of their cell and deposited them in another room.

"It worked," she said, her voice still a little disbelieving. "We ended up in a dark room full of filing cabinets. I checked the map later, and I think it's on the first floor, near the main entrance. It was full of files about us--not us, but the fake lives the nurses and soldiers say we lead. I took my own file with me--there's got to be some information in there that'll help me act my way through visitor and therapy sessions."

[hairraising]

"Visitor and therapy sessions?" Rapunzel asked, confusion bleeding into her excitement. Right, Landel had said something in his announcement about friends and family visiting, hadn't he? She had been so caught up in thinking about the previous night that the words from the ceiling hadn't really sunk in. "What do you mean? Who would visit us? And why would they want to be therapeutic with us, of all things? Aren't we just prisoners to them?"

Rapunzel understood that this must have had something to do with their fake selves, if Soma was bringing that up. However, the concept of institutionalization was still so new to her that she couldn't quite fathom everything involved in it yet. Many things still went over that blonde head of hers at this point.

[madeinthehrl]

"That's right--you arrived just before the military takeover, didn't you?" Soma settled back on her heels. "It's a little complicated. The soldiers are a new development. For weeks before you came, this entire place was set up to look like a mental hospital. They told us we were deluded, and that we weren't the people we thought we were. We weren't prisoners as much as we were patients.

"The monsters still came at night. But once a week, we'd have visits with doctors who tried to convince us we were those fake selves. That was all right, though, since they expected us to be uncooperative and we usually obliged them."

She frowned a little at the memory. "That's not as bad as the visitors, though. They're...people you know from back home. Always someone close to you. Nobody can tell if it's really them or just a perfect copy--but they act like they know you from your fake life, and they tell you they want you to get better..."

Soma stopped for a moment and looked at the ground. It had been so tempting to just give in, that day the colonel had visited. She wasn't sure she could go through it again today.

[hairraising]

Okay, patients instead of prisoners made a little more sense. Sort of. Okay, not really. But Rapunzel took in the information anyway, telling herself that she would write it down for reference in a little while. The main thing she took away from this explanation so far was that Soma had probably seen both doctors and visitors at some point, because the other girl looked visibly perturbed just talking about them.

She could imagine why, if what Soma was saying about the visitors was true. "I still don't really understand. How would they get someone to go along with telling you something like that? Or how would they make a perfect copy of a person? Would they make an artificial person to do that?" she asked, wondering if a copy would be an android like Aigis, or that cyborg from the bulletin board.

Getting answers to her questions wasn't really the most important thing here, though, it looked like. Soma had stopped talking, and was now staring at the floor. Oh no. Okay, yeah, it looks like whatever happened, it was bad, Rapunzel thought, concern overtaking her expression. "Hey. You okay?" she asked, reaching out to touch Soma's shoulder. "Is there anything you wanna talk about?"

[madeinthehrl]

"I don't know. Maybe they were brainwashed--maybe they were here before us, and they gave into the lies." But Soma could never imagine the lieutenant colonel falling for that, not even if he were here for years. "Maybe they injected them with something that made them think they were their fake selves. That happened to us once. Or they might be copies--artificial people, like you said, though I don't know how you could make a perfect copy so quickly."

She was quiet for a long while. Rapunzel's hand on her shoulder was unexpected, but not unwelcome. Soma supposed if anyone could understand, it would be her. "They can make your fake life sound good. Or worth giving up your real life for. I spent my entire life in a laboratory surrounded by scientists, and then two weeks ago my commanding officer came and said that he was my father. That I had a family waiting out there for me, and that I could live like a civilian, not like a decommissioned soldier waiting for the next war to come around. He gave me a photograph--I recognized his wife and son's faces--and there I was, smiling and happy with them."

Her voice had grown quieter, but at least it held steady. "I know it's not true. I know his wife's been dead for years and his son never speaks to him anymore. But the man who visited me that afternoon was--it sounds so stupid, but he's all I have left in my own world, and I would know if it weren't him. I wanted to give in so badly--not just for my sake but for his. I just want to warn you, if you do get a visitor. The monsters aren't the worst this place can throw at you."

Hope this is okay? <3

[hairraising]

Rapunzel didn't even want to think about the how of it all when she heard Soma start describing just how it was to get a visitor. Whether they were brainwashed (a strange word, but it said all it needed to) or androids or whatever, the point was that they were there to tempt people. Tempt them toward the promise of a better life, only without their sense of self. What could be waiting for people who gave in to that? Rapunzel could only wonder in hollow dread.

"You did the right thing, at least," was all Rapunzel could really offer, not knowing any more than Soma did. "If all you said about that man and his family is true, there's no way that anything he promised you could have been true. It's all some kind of trick." Easy enough to say, she thought, chewing on her lip.

After a few moments, she continued: "...I'm really hoping I don't get someone or something like that. But if I do, I'm really glad you warned me." Rapunzel offered Soma a soft, sympathetic smile, tinged with sadness. She really meant that. The thought of being visited by some doppelganger of Mother Gothel or Eugene chilled her to the bone, but the thought of being taken completely by surprise by them frightened her even more. The only thing she regretted right now was that Soma had to face one of the visitors herself in order to help her like this. And so, with her hand still on the other girl's shoulder, she drew Soma into a hug.

"Thank you. And I'm so, so sorry you had to see that," she said, holding her new friend close.

<3

[madeinthehrl]

Soma nodded tightly at Rapunzel's words. She knew there wasn't any use in accepting what the lieutenant colonel had offered. It had taken her time to come to terms with the fact that if there was some semblance of a normal life out there waiting for her, it was back in her own world, with Sergei Smirnov, not Stefan Medvedev. But she understood now, even if it hurt.

She stiffened slightly when Rapunzel pulled her into a hug, startled at the sudden contact. After a moment, she hesitantly returned the hug before stepping back and holding Rapunzel at arm's length.

"It's...it could have been a lot worse." She offered a faint smile. "If it happens to you, you should let it become your motivation instead. It probably means the people you care about are out there somewhere, and if you can escape, then you can help them, too. That's what I've been telling myself."

[hairraising]

As they drew out of the hug, Rapunzel nodded, giving Soma a smile tinged with moistness in her eyes. "That's a good way to look at it. There is someone out there that I'd like to know is alive, that's for sure. So if I see him..."

Okay, so she wasn't ready to talk about what would happen if she did end up seeing Eugene as one of these "visitors". The idea still terrified her. But she wanted to be strong, for herself and for Soma. And for Eugene, for that matter. So, for that sake, she was determined take Soma's advice to heart. And she could only hope that the other girl was still okay following that advice as well.

It wasn't long afterward that the voice of Landel in the ceiling sounded again, signalling the change in shift. Rapunzel swiped at her eyes quickly, hoping Soma wouldn't notice. "Well, I just have to check the bulletin again real quick before we eat. I'll catch up with you again later," she said, giving her friend a wave as she started to turn away. Before she started walking, however, she paused, looking back over her shoulder. "And if you end up getting a visitor again? How about you pretend I'm there with you? I can hold onto your hand really tight when they ask if you're gonna go with them. Then you can hold onto yourself a little bit stronger. Okay?"

She smiled a little more at that, waving again as she headed to the bulletin.