Night 71: Main Hallway, 1-West

[redcladidealist]

[From here.]

Still keeping a wary eye out for any kind of threat, Lloyd stepped into the hall and shined his flashlight around. Still nothing, and the stairs were just up ahead. He crossed the distance swiftly, planting his feet on the first stair steps.

[To here.]

Comments

[ryuuzaki]

"To Lunge? He had a 'sleep study,' but that wasn't anything unusual or particularly extreme within that category. It only seemed to unsettle him for a day or two." He hadn't ever been able to convince Lunge to tell him what had happened in precise detail, but what L knew about had seemed far less invasive than his own procedure.

"Then he disappeared one day a little over a week ago. I saw him in passing in the afternoon, but he didn't meet me after dinner. Although he told me at the time that his memory was affected, I don't think the sleep study had anything to do with what I saw today. I suppose it's possible, if it took a while to take effect.

"Still, to know that for sure, we'd have to look at whether or not there's a common, consistent passage of time between a patient's procedure and a patient's release. It's been much longer for me, for example, than it was for him, but my procedure was different. And in all, I'm not sure that it would be a fruitful line of investigation. It seems like a distraction to me... one of the wrong questions we can ask that will keep us too busy to think of the right ones."

Holding that opinion didn't stop his train of thought on the subject. The thing in his head, the minuscule device they had implanted that night... could it be altering his personality? A switch could be flipped to force him to think and behave like Daniel Laurier, but that had been demonstrated even before the procedure. The idea that the device might make it permanent caused an unhappy expression to settle in on his face.

"I don't think torture is the ultimate intent here... it seems to be primarily a side effect that comes from a lack of care and a willingness to behave in a completely unethical way. But I can admit that this is wearing on me."