Audience: Sheila Hammond

[probe]

Comments

[toesies]

[... LOOKS AWAY BUT HARDER.]

We died. Of starvation.

[probe]

...a faulty recalibration would make the most sense with the evidence provided. And you were alive upon awakening in the cage.

[hm.] Might there be anything the four of you have in common?

[toesies]

... It can't be our alignment because Takeru and I are gluttons, and Vira and Harrow are with Despair. And I don't think "not wanting to die" counts as something to have in common. [SHE SQUINTS, SHAKING HER ONE BRAINCELL.] Not eating people we like should also be a given, so that's a no.

[probe]

[they lift a few noodles up with a pair of chopsticks. they disappear into the void of the hood.]

In any case, I don't imagine you'll be going back anytime soon.

[toesies]

[...

A beat.]

What if we wanted to?

[probe]

I can assure you that you do not.

[toesies]

But what if we wanted to anyway?

[probe]

Again, I assure you, you do not.

[toesies]

And I am telling you, we need to.

[probe]

For what possible reason would you need to go back? If it was an error in the recalibration, what makes you think it will be exactly as it was?

[toesies]

Well... [She hesitates, frowning.] There was this little girl. We feel shitty that we left her behind.

[probe]

...are you sure that's what you did?

[toesies]

What do you mean?

[probe]

How can you be sure she was there at all?

[toesies]

[STARES.]

Are you saying she doesn't exist?

[probe]

It is a distinct possibility that she was an illusion you experienced prior to succumbing to your hunger.

[toesies]

... No, hold on! She was with us before we starved. We ran out of the room we first woke up in, and found her. We weren't even peckish yet.

[probe]

Let me ask you something, Mrs. Hammond. When you found yourself in the common room last week, or even in the medical bay this week on Thursday evening, was everything that you experienced actually real? Or was it only real to you and not really there at all?

[toesies]

[blank staring

she is but a simple milf with half of a braincell. greed, please.]

So, now you're saying all of it was a hallucination?

[probe]

It's a possibility, given the circumstances of this base.

[toesies]

Oh.

[Give her a second to stare off into the distance. It's fine.]

Okay, but. Wait. How can hallucinations hurt us? Hallucinations are, by definition, not real. And those injuries were very fucking real.

[probe]

In the same manner that some of you were coated in blood after spending the night in the kitchen and yet the blood was unseen by everyone else.

[toesies]

Yeah... I still don't understand what the fuck was up with that. [her brain... hurts.] Are we in a Matrix knock-off and that's why you keep talking about recalibration?

[probe]

...Mrs. Hammond, with all due respect now you're starting to veer off into ridiculous logic.

[toesies]

The kitchen walls bled and a mob of giant tried to eat me, but that's what you find ridiculous?