OFFICE HOURS

[didntgetdadslooks]

Got something you want to say to your good friend The Professor's Assistant? Come on in, don't be shy! Her official hours are daylight hours - girl has to sleep? after all, probably - but if you knock on the door at night she'll generally answer. Please just make sure to leave the in-game date and time in the header of your toplevel!

All comments are screened for confidentiality during the course of the experiment.

Comments

WEEK FIVE, FRIDAY, EVENING

[nothingcanstop]

[ ...It's back to knocking this time, and then opening the door after a few moments. ]

Angel? You in?

[didntgetdadslooks]

[ Angel's sitting at her desk, drinking from a water bottle. The room is better than it was Tuesday, but it's still far from fully clean. ]

Yep. Hey, Della.

[nothingcanstop]

[ Water, that's...probably good. Della doesn't quite sit yet. ]

So. What was all of that?

[didntgetdadslooks]

Uh... The Professor is really upset that someone got into... something, and called in a lady I don't... [ She winces a little, and takes a sip of water. ] ... know to break things up. So to speak. After one heck of a trial.

[nothingcanstop]

[ ...Alright. She walks over. She's got a piece of paper as usual. ]

Word game?

[ Do you really not know her? ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

Sure.

[ I don't think so but something's wrong and I don't know what. ]

[nothingcanstop]

Good. ...After all that, I could use something a little mindless.

[ What does it feel like? ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

Same here. Just watching all that was exhausting.

[ I remembered my whole life when I saw that mask. But it still feels like something's missing. ]

[nothingcanstop]

Try having to live through it.

[ Do you think it wasn't just trauma? Was it him? ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

Trust me, I'm thankful I don't have to.

[ It's just that my memory of The Professor finding me is weird echoy blurrier than before. I don't like it. ]

[nothingcanstop]

Are you not allowed? To follow us down, I mean.

[ She taps the pencil on the paper once. You knew that mask, so does that mean you know the other things that were in that room? ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

Nope. I usually know who did it, so... not allowed.

[ No.

A pause.

The mask was my belonged to a terrible man I used to know. ]

[nothingcanstop]

...Right. The whole surveillance thing. ...Whose grappling hook was it?

[ Another tap. Do you know why that room is the way it is? The one the mask was in? ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

Nova's. I think she was trying to throw you guys off the trail with it or something.

[ I don't know - I still haven't seen it. I start panicking when I'm too close, and there aren't working cameras. ]

[nothingcanstop]

That makes sense. She's... She was all about that. Confusing.

[ Has anyone described it to you? ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

I guess so, yeah.

[ I overheard some at the meeting. A lantern and a couple shirts in cases, right? ]

[nothingcanstop]

...What did you think of her?

[ Graffiti too
"Lab rats no more"
It said they were keepsakes but not of who ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

I don't know. When I start trying to think too hard about who's a good person and who's bad in here, I get really hung up on... well, me. But obviously I don't like the, you know, murder.

[ Huh. What do you think about it? ]

[nothingcanstop]

Obviously. ...What do you think about what she was trying to do?

[ That they were keepsakes of a previous set of people here
Another one of the "experiments" ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

Go back and change things? I... can't fault her for wanting to. I know there's plenty of moments I've wanted to take back, but... at the end, it still comes down to murdering people to do it.

[ I don't know anything about a previous experiment.
Those are the exact words I've always used. ]

[nothingcanstop]

...Yeah. And that's never justified...right?

[ Do you want to know what I think? ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

I think... you can't start weighing lives against each other. Especially when it comes to changing what's already happened. Not in a sense of "what did I earn" or anything, but... if you view life as some kind of open-ended morality problem, no one wins. Time travel sucks.

[ Sure. ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ She laughs, dryly. ] Yeah. Yeah, it does. Wish I could tell that to a few other people, too.

[ I think there was another experiment, and you were in it
I think you were one of the survivors ]

[didntgetdadslooks]

I'm just glad some people I knew before all this never figured it out.

[ She doesn't... really have a response to that for a bit. And then.

Well, I can't say I like that idea. But it would explain some things.

She picks up the carved owl she's been playing with once in a while.

I don't remember where I got this anymore. ]

[nothingcanstop]

[ ...Fuck. Della finds her left hand, the one that's not writing, tightening into a fist.

Is he going to do that to the rest of them, too? An infinite, endless experiment? Will he discard them, when it gets too much? ...Has Angel had a choice, at all? ]

...What...can you say, about your past? Now that you remember more.

[ I'm gonna look for more evidence of this
If I find something, I'll bring it to you
You deserve to know just as much as we do ]