Written Wonderland

"Temptable?" Anya frowned thinking about it. "I'm really not sure. I don't really notice that sort of thing a lot of the time. But maybe?" Anya shrugged an awkward upside-down shrug. "I mean...they're all stuck in here with us too, so it would make sense that they wouldn't have a lot of places to go with that sort of energy. There was something weird, though... see, I arrived naked and I find these suits a bit uncomfortable sometimes. The first few days I didn't have the right jumpsuit, so...I had to like...make a hole, you know...for my tail? And it didn't turn out that well. It's not like I had scissors or a knife, I just had to use my claws and rip! Anyway, it was really uncomfortable, so I figured I'd just...take it off! In the forest there's a lot of times where it's just nice to not have to wear clothes, but...the guards didn't think so here. I dunno what the big deal was, but they made me go back and put it on. Luckily, I think one of them listened when I said it didn't fit right, because they found Hybrid clothes with a place for my tail after that."

"So anyway, I don't remember which guards were around that day, they were all new to me at the time. I thought they were being pretty prude, like naked people don't have to be a big deal. I don't know if I'd notice if they were looking...uh, thirsty? Besides, it's not like I'd have been interested, yuck!" Anya stuck her tongue out and wrinkled her nose before continuing, "Still, it was after that when I got clothes that fit, so...I guess that's the one time I feel like the guards listened instead of just barking orders, you know? Maybe that means something?"

"Temptable?" Anya said, "I'm not really sure." XJ then listened to an adorable--but perfectly reasonable--rant about having to find a jumpsuit that would fit her tail, some of the guards being prudes, and then... "Besides, it's not like I would be interested, yuck!" That XJ could definitely relate to. "That's the one time the guards listened instead of just barking orders, you know? Maybe that means something?"

It was honestly difficult not to get lulled into a false sense of comfort listening to Anya ramble, and honestly, XJ was grateful not to feel like she talked more than anyone else, as was typically the case. But maybe that was the brainwashing talking? They still needed to get out of here. One cute chatterbox was not going to make this prison situation tolerable.

"Wait," XJ thought, considering. "Do you think some of the guards are sympathetic?" Lowering her voice, she said, "We need a convert on the inside!" Thinking about it, XJ looked up at the ceiling and added, "it'd be risky, though. Talk to the wrong guard, and they'd watch us more closely, I'm sure."

"Sympathetic?" Anya did make an effort to speak quietly. She gave XJ a quizzical look. She propped her legs up on the wall, swooshing her tail side to side subconsciously while she thought. She had committed to this upside-down pose, and aimed to make it comfortable, but more important things were on her mind anyway.

"I'd be sympathetic...but then I wouldn't be caught dead signing up to be a guard in deep space. Who does that?"

Anya shifted her eyes up and toward the ground, examining the lines in the floor. She went through the short mental catalogue of all the guards she'd seen. She didn't know any by name. There was no-touchy 'stache bro. Probably not the most sympathetic. There was that lady that was always sneezing with her nose running...what was up with her? Sheesh... There was that one guy that seemed kind of chill, but he always just minded his own business. She hadn't dealt with him at all except that he had been around during the nudity incident. The rest of them were all faceless goons to Anya.

"Rrrrrr" Anya growled with a very human sounding frustrated trill, leaving the bestial side out in this particular instance. "I don't know the guards at all, but it might be worth talking to some of them...I guess."

"Sympathetic?" Anya asked, looking at XJ questioningly and swishing her tail from side to side. " I'd be sympathetic... but then I wouldn't be caught dead signing up to a be a guard in deep space. Who does that?"

Anya had a point. If it had taken the guards this long to question their decisions, they probably wouldn't question them now just because an inmate asked them nicely.

XJ heard Anya growl--or maybe imitate a growl--before the hybrid added, "I don't know the guards at all, but it might be worth talking to some of them, I guess."

The idea of going up to the guard who hated touching and telling him their plan to escape sounded wildly naïve now that XJ thought about it.

"Well, all I know is that we've got to get out of here. I'm not going to spend another two decades eating the garbage they feed us after staring at that ugly screen all day. Maybe we'll dream about something useful. Let's keep thinking about it."

To be honest, XJ would just be happy to not have dreams related to her brainwashing incident earlier, but she supposed that was probably too much to hope for.

((OOC: feel free to write up a dream if Anya wants to have one. If not, I can go ahead and write one up for XJ.))

Anya finds her comfy that night. Easier said than done in a prison bed, but after a short time she finds a decent resting configuration. The meager sheets and padding provided by the prison fade from her perception. Eventually, she is laying in the grass, in an open field. She lies on her back watching the pigs flying through the sky. Clouds are gathering. Anya muses about the weather out loud, “It’s going to be a tasty one!” Small flashes of lightning jump from cloud to cloud. Each pig it touches turns to dozens of strips of bacon. REAL bacon! Anya sits up awaiting the feast. Soon the field is a drum, bacon the percussion of the sky; a musical bounty that will never cease. Anya twirls herself, her skirt swishing ever outward to catch the sky bacon. She reaches down and grabs this piece and that piece. It’s so good! Real bacon! She hadn’t had such delights in so long! Twirling and twirling and twirling in this empty field Anya goes, when suddenly; there’s XJ! Anya stops twirling and looks at her new friend.

XJ speaks: “Hey…aren’t you thirsty?” The thirst! It’s unbearable! Anya is so thirsty, and there’s nothing to satiate it! She had eaten such salty, tasty bacon, but with nothing to wash it down this is torture! She’s trapped in this field with no relief in sight! Anya falls to her knees and begins to cry. XJ pats Anya’s head, petting the space between her fuzzy ears. Normally that’d be an exquisite comfort, but the thirst doesn’t stop. XJ looks down at Anya and says “It’s okay. All you have to do is trick Oh-Bee by saying you haven’t had anything yet.” XJ cranes her neck, turning to the sky and shouts to the heavens “Anya is thirsty and she wasn’t given any rations! Send down water!”

As if a shaman finishing a majestic rain dance, the sky answers XJ’s call. The rain is heavy, and Anya drinks to sate her thirst. She springs to her feet; revitalized, and hugs XJ to thank her for saving her from her desert mouth. She giggles in appreciation, and XJ says “Don’t worry about it, that was nothing.” A booming voice calls forth from the heavens; “No Touching!” The clouds have come together to form a hand with an angry finger pointing at the duo in their field. Above the hand, a mustached face made of storm and sky expresses disdain at their friendship, and at the relief from their troubles. Anya replies, yelling at the clouds, “You have to keep raining, or you’re out of a job! You’re supposed to make sure we’re well cared for… And we were promised some Blue Drink! Get us Blue Drink and leave us alone!” The mustached clouds loosen their stern posture. “Okay. You’re right,” the sky booms. The mustached guard rains heavier now, and this time with Blue Drink instead of plain water. Anya drinks more, and it’s so tasty! It tastes like all the flavors that blue could be and more. She joins hands with XJ as they cross their wrists, spinning around in a circle in their field, drinking up the Blue Drink of the skies. The sky guard cries out, “It’s so beautiful!” and begins to cry. Thunder crashes harder and harder, and sharper and sharper. The clouds are growing darker. Pretty soon it’s so dark that Anya can’t see, can’t feel XJ’s hands anymore. She reaches out, but nothing. That thunder is shrill now, more mechanical. Anya sits up with a start. Oh-Bee’s been trying to wake her up.

XJ laid on her back, staring at the new ceiling for a long time. Looking at Anya for a moment, the hybrid was fast asleep, maybe even drooling a little. XJ chuckled quietly.

But her mind was restless, discomfited. She didn't like that they had sent her through brainwashing, and she didn't remember much of it. Wait, there was the... induced psychedelic trip. A woman--a simulated god--telling her she should cooperate with her captors.

Not difficult to disbelieve that one.

But there was a niggling sensation in the back of her head like something had been stashed there that she couldn't see.

She didn't like it. Taking some deep breaths to stave off panic, XJ shut her eyes tightly. It was all so much after so much time in isolation--sleeping anywhere near other people, not to mention the mind-numbing work. XJ couldn't do this. Did they really think she would survive through five whole years of this?

And she'd heard of corporations pinning on false charges in these sort of places. Gross.

Nope. Not gonna do it. You'll have to drag me back to that work station. I'll stop eating. I'll...

XJ heard a tinny sensation between her ears for a moment, and then it was gone. XJ opened her eyes and looked around. Anya didn't stir, and XJ had a strong suspicion that the sound had been entirely internal.

You're not helpless, you know. A neutral voice-- in XJ's head--said, clear as a bell.

Uh, yeah? Really? And who are you?

Silence.

A map of the interior of the station they were on suddenly unfolded in XJ's mind. If she focused, she could zoom in and see all the blueprints of the station--architectural, environmental, and technical.

Wait... was this... real?

XJ opened her eyes, looked around the room, clocked a couple landmarks out the bars. Numbered cells. She closed her eyes again. Blackness. Nothing.

Wait, no, there was the unfolding again. The zoom. The neighboring cell numbers and her own had marks for where all the cameras were, how the chute and vents connected.

XJ looked up at iObey. Sure enough. In the right spot

If this is part of the brainwashing... what is this, some reverse psychology shit?

But XJ thought something else might be happening.

She opened and closed the map behind her eyes, studying the prison schematics until her consciousness gave in as she fell into a dreamless sleep.

At least, until iObey no longer found that desirable.