Day 59: Intercom, Evening

[damned-intercom.livejournal.com]

As the day began drawing to a close, the intercom flickered to life. Instead of Harrington's voice, however, Berg's calm tone filtered through the speakers.

"Attention all personnel: please escort subjects to their quarters for the duration of dinner shift. After that, you are expected to report to your stations -- no exceptions. Anyone caught away from his or her post without direct orders will have to personally answer to the general."

An odd tension hung in the air, but Berg didn't say anything more than that. Once the intercom clicked off, soldiers began to gather up the patients and bring them to their rooms. Most didn't know why Harrington wasn't handling the announcements, or why Berg sounded particularly serious this evening, though no one would admit that to the subjects themselves.

The few who did know had more pressing matters to contend with.

Comments

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth.livejournal.com]

Byrne would be expecting him tonight, Badd knew. And he also knew there was no way he should be around his best friend if he was so weak that the slightest bit of needles or wires could turn him into a killing machine in Aguilar's army. He had Lana as an excuse, anyway. They needed to go make sure the old bastard was really dead.

Badd stewed. He was less antagonistic towards Javert than he had been the previous night, now that he knew the extent of his own helplessness. "So no one's ever made it away from the staff before their session's done?" he tossed out, staring into his food bowl.

Might as well do something useful today.

Re: M14

[unmocked-lawr.livejournal.com]

So Badd was deigning to speak with him. That was a change. Javert hid the involuntary spike of irritation well, settling for a brief shake of his head.

"Certainly not for lack of trying, but I can't think of a single instance where the patient was not either forcibly restrained or paralyzed. Breaking into the experiment room from the other side appears equally impossible."

Re: M14

[tasteoftruth.livejournal.com]

"What about the brainwashing? You ever have anyone break out of that?" Badd kept his voice neutral, and most of his disdain wasn't directly pointed at his eighteenth (nineteenth? Who cared) century counterpart.

If it was so impossible, then Javert went from useless to futile. All the little organizations were known to Aguilar anyway, and he probably had cameras everywhere.

Re: M14

[unmocked-lawr.livejournal.com]

Javert pondered the question for a moment. One never heard anything definite, but there was the occasional remark on the bulletin board, a telling word or two--suggestions that the brainwashing could be got at, if not entirely overcome.

"It isn't out of the question," he allowed at last. "I have never heard of anyone breaking out of it completely, but there have been instances where someone who was particularly close to the brainwashed patient succeeded in restoring his senses for at least a short period of time."

[tasteoftruth.livejournal.com]

"Huh." So then it was possible to be broken...which meant that if Badd had been stronger, he could have resisted that pull. Badd considered the matter, sucking on his spoon with a foul expression. "If someone had enough will, then...if they were doing something they were stalwart against, they might be able to stop the effects?"

Funny how Javert hadn't asked where he'd gone last night. Perhaps he'd been here so long that he didn't need to ask.

[unmocked-lawr.livejournal.com]

"In a way. From what I know, the patients are made to believe that what they are doing is right. As far as I can tell, they have only been known to resist that training when confronted by someone they knew particularly well in their own world."

The sudden interest in Special Counseling was, as far as he was concerned, unsurprising. Badd's note on the bulletin board hadn't escaped him--but he supposed it was better to approach the subject indirectly. His roommate had probably had enough to deal with over the last few days.