002 ♍ In Which Our Correspondent Discovers The Function Through Which To Visually Broadcast

[mamadonna]

[ The video clicks on to show Dolorosa fussing with the computer. Well, most of her. Only the bottom of her head is visible, as whoever used this terminal last is far shorter than she is. After a few moments of this, the camera shakes and refocuses to show her face, and after double-checking it against the display on the monitor, she smiles and places her hands in her lap.

She looks tired, and the bags under her eyes have deepened from getting very little sleep this past month. ]

Well, I'm pleased to see they have heard and followed my suggestion to improve the cafeteria menu! The recent state of affairs has been simply atrocious, we can't have growing children expected to receive their necessary sustenance from such negligent offerings.

More than this, it allows little excuse for one to not eat healthfully, so I must encourage you all to observe your proper nutritional schedule each day. Should you require assistance, or perhaps more direct motivation, [ ie. her pulling you by the ear to the cafeteria ] my services remain available.

I'm glad to see local operations improving following the dreadful events of the past weeks.

[ Of course, she...doesn't know about the puffer fish soup... ]

Comments

[moontothetide]

Vivisections. [Tara gives a little shudder of revulsion.] Um...take it from me. They're...really as bad as they sound. [And that hadn't even been Jason. Fuhito had actually been trying to go easy on her.]

With Riki, it's...it's our heads, that are in trouble. Our minds, and...reality in general, I guess. S-Still. Um, I guess that's not as bad. [Except the look on Tara's face is probably enough to see that she thinks that, yes, it is just as bad, and possibly worse.]

Unless we, y'know, die from the food.

[mamadonna]

[ Her face falls further. The starvation worry had been strong for her the past few weeks, but she's fairly certain now that those in the pods must have had it worse.

And she has a history with psychic and psychological abuse, as well. ] Hypothetically, it may be gentler. But it can leave one with a very slim grasp on her identity, under a prolonged exposure.

Dax's focus, what was it?

[moontothetide]

[Tara's experience with such things has been mercifully brief - a few days with her sanity torn out of her skull, a girlfriend that showed an unfortunate prevalence towards erasing her memory.

Even so, it's not something she's eager to repeat. Ever.]

Dax was...I-I don't know. Normal, I guess? I mean, um, there wasn't anything really strange or, or bad about it. The first week, um, it was almost like we were back in the tower, how it usually is.

Even the week after, when they were testing..."ph-physical and m-mental endurance", we weren't hurt. He just, um, kind of let us compete on our own time. The food was, was pretty weird, but they wouldn't give it to us if it would have poisoned us, and we could stop exercising whenever we wanted to.

[The other two pods hadn't had that luxury. It had reached the point where being a member of Dax's pod had been a source of guilt.]

[mamadonna]

[ Dolorosa's was more prolonged, but also done at the whim of a would-be girlfriend who didn't care for the possibility she might resist after stealing her from a previously vicious owner. She did not have any happy years in slavery. ]

So the worst you were subjected to was some exercise? I suppose we'll be lucky if he has become the more active warden.

[moontothetide]

Yeah. I mean, I-I don't know if it got any worse, after I left, but...when I was there, exercise was the worst. And he didn't even make us do it, like Riki and Jason did, we were just told to do as much as we could.

...but everyone worked r-really hard. We, we knew we had to win, and so we worked as hard as we could. Just because we wanted to.

[mamadonna]

Because it was more desirable than the alternative, or at least presented itself as such. Who was it that ultimately emerged victorious?

[moontothetide]

Um, Riki. Not as good as Dax, but...n-not as bad as Jason. He, he didn't even have any points, when I left, but...apparently, th-there was this one last contest, that was worth a lot of points, and s-somehow he won them all.

...th-they told us it would be forever. But...I've heard it's not. Th-Thank goodness for that.

[mamadonna]

We are no strangers to conflicting intelligence at this point. It has characterized the entirety of my stay thus far.

I suppose it's only a matter of time before we will witness what consequences Riki will bring beyond the surprises among our menu.