Quoted By:
>While working, look over what you destroy, keep the interesting stuff. [Q-10]
>Ask how he fares. Complement his devotion and ask why. [DC25/70:25 CLOSE SUCCESS!]
>Talk with Angelina about how she feels about everything. Jaq be damned.
---
> [T: Afternoon]
> [RES: 58-2=56]
> [Quota: You(95-10=85), Jaq(51), Alex(51) = 187/200]
--- New HUD! Progress~
A cacophony of jagged, whirling blades echoes throughout the library's vast chambers as you slam yet another old newsletter down the shredder's hatch. Around you, obstructing most of the library, lies your today's quota - a wall made out of a few dozen of cardboard boxes marked with a red 'X'. Dust from before, now gone, replaced with a elusive whif of irritating smoke.
This is your task; your 'community service'. But the obnoxious reeving of the engines, awareness it won't stop anytime soon, and especially it's repetitive nature do nothing to quench the confusion and subsequent fire from before. Scratch that, they make it all worse. You can pay attention to only so many useless magazines, love letters, or random novels with insufferably long titles before your mind drifts away back to the nagging question...
...Are you being melodramatic?
A single offshoot comment of Jaq's set your blood ablaze with how utterly stupid it was. How could she expect you to trust her, if she doesn't believe in obvious monsters? How exactly all this is supposed to be explained by drugs and some hidden, unknown guard force?
With a huff, you peer over the veritable towers of boxes stacked upon each other, kinda like 'O's Tower-Throne, sperating each of you - a purposeful design of Jaq' to enable minimal visibility for Angelina, without rising too much suspicions - and furtively stalk Jaq. Her pace is steady and collected, as she seems deep in thought, focused on keeping pace with Alex operating the furnace.
How can she be so calm after impling that what you went through was nothing more than a form of advanced, drug induced illusion...? That all those gnashing teeth... The feeling of your flesh giving way... The fall... Senses fading away...
...That all of this didn't happen? Is it really more probable for her that it was just an elaborate illusion? That your death and revivial didn't really happen? That your bravery and pain was nothing?
It can't be right. You know what you've seen. Your senses DID NOT lie to you! ...If not this, who would you even be? A drug junkie with no memory of anything?
She's stupid. Monsters are real, and it's no psyop. Jaq can be smart, but she's not infallible. She lived a different life; she rules above ground. It's only natural for her to be sceptical of such matters, she's just realistic... But you know better. She would too, if she felt what you felt back the-
A hand grasps your shoulder. "Madam, are you alright?" Alex's concerned voice shakes you.
"Y-yes... I am. Owie." You moan in pain, and clutch your aching arm. The shredder whirrs menacingly, clogged with paper. "Damn."
