#4ccol4de

Tim put a duplicate of Theo into storage because despite his interest being a longitudinal case study and thus didn’t account for a control, he knew he needed a baseline. And a backup. And insurance.

Theo was all three in a convenient package.

Typically longitudinal case studies were all about studying one subject over a long period of time. Its not a typical experiment with independent control variables and the like. But typical longitudinal case studies also didn’t have access the compound’s time travel technology.

In storage, they would be resistant to timeline changes. And any time Tim wanted to ask a question, he could. This would allow him to properly assess the other Theo. Compare and contrast, if you would.

Plus it didn’t hurt to see how the control would react to Mantis and the duplicate of Jessica Baker, who had given itself the appellation Jess.

It was irritating when they broke the illusion for her, causing an unfortunate incident that Tim had to explain. He had initially planned for each interview to end him correcting the duplication. But Jess and Mantis changed that. 4CCOL4DE had made a very persuasive argument, and so Tim made sure Mantis and Jess became aware of that Theo’s fate, as an… Incentive to reconsider messing with his experiments in the future.

Tim personally found it a bit distasteful, but it was easier when the Theo would be gone from sight, and on her way to Yellow.

She was angry in every direction. She was angry at Cicada, for getting in the way of her mission and abandoning her to Eli. She was angry at Eli, for consigning her to this torture and not telling her anything about it. She was angry at the other Elijah, the one she had once thought was her friend, for not intervening when her iteration had done this to it. She was angry at the Flinchites, for the horrible things they had put it through with smiles on their faces. She was angry at WOE.BEGONE, for forcing it into a position where he had to take Eli's deal. She was angry at the other Jessica, the one who was alive and supposedly working with Eli, for getting to live her life away from all this horrible shit he had been through. She was just a ball of empty, cold rage, her vitriol pouring in every direction, like the smoke billowing from a censer.

So it was little surprise that when she passed the man who looked just like Cicada in the halls, while being led back to her room, it wheeled around and punched him in the face. Hard.

He threw himself at the Cicada, animalistic fury bubbling out of her as it scratched and punched at him. She was shouting something, it couldn't really tell what over the sound of the blood pounding in his ears - something about how he had left her here. He was vaguely aware of others trying to pull him away from him, of the Cicada fighting back, but it did not care.

When the Flinchite employees had managed to hold her back, she shouted at him, panting on the other side of the hall, clutching the shoulder where he had landed a rough blow. "Fuck you, Cicada!"

And suddenly she was on the ground. It took it a second to realize he had charged across the room and kneed Jess, hard, letting it crumple to the floor. He stomped on her hand and it yelped in pain.

"That's not my fucking name," he spat.

The man behind not-Cicada touched his shoulder. "Bug-"

Not-Cicada wheeled around, shaking off the hand to interrupt him. "Don't. Just fucking don't."

💡 - How does your OC enact plans? Do they plan down to the smallest details, or do the wing it?