Being Brainwashed sucks
Hey is this thing working? Testing… 123… okay then, it works. Hey. I’m Merculina Mendita, you can call me Murk. Call me whatever you want Merky and Mercy work too. I’m here in… 1500 MT Yeah, I think so. Oh yeah, if you’re an Earthling guy it is… Hold on, uhh, 2850 AD? Yep. I’m a bandit, ‘cause I have to since there was this big energy outage thingamajigger. Now, I am 45 Martian years old and, also known as 26 years old in your Earth years. Man, your Earth years are so funky! I am 50% human and 50% AI, so I am a female cywoman.
“Hey Rover,” I said to my pet robotic dog
Rover is a dog I got as a kid. He likes to play Earthfetch, a game where you place a hologram frisbee underground. His record is 24 meters deep. His eyes are red, and his body is transparent, showing only his bones, which are made of iron. His battery slot is in his mouth.
“ARF, ARF, ARF, ARF!”
I checked his battery life. Rover had 3% battery left.
“Rover, I’ll get you some batteries, how does that sound?”
“ARF!”
“I’ll take that as a ‘great’”
I checked my bin of junk. Smelly pair of socks, nope. Can of cheese-it spray. Nope. Chocolate cake. Nope. But wait… I take a slice of it and spray some cheese-it spray on it. Choco-Cheese Cake. It’s my invention. Pretty good too.
I search through the entire bin, and I didn’t find any batteries.
“Bin numero dos, then.”
This bin is full of my achievements and prizes as a young girl. I find a medal for all S honor roll, which is a score from 100+%. I find a swimming medal. I despise swimming. I should probably just chuck it. A pet competition participation certificate. Heh. I remember Rover tried to eat the ref’s uniform. One battery.
I insert the battery into Rover’s mouth. He looks like he is digesting it. What happens here is he sucks all the energy out of the battery and then poops out an empty battery.
“So Rover, how much battery now?”
Rover projects a screen in front of my nose.
“Rover, don’t make the screen that big.”
It shrinks, and I can see the tiny number 14 go down to 13% battery.
“Ok Rover shut dow -- no, sleep mode”
“AARrff…”
Rover starts snoring.
“Sweet dreams, Rover.”
Time to go hunting for batteries.
...
I got next to the hillside of the dictator’s house, he’s a wealthy idiot with lots of food, and he doesn’t even care about the people who are starving in Mars city here. I know this place very well, having raided it so many times.
I open the door. There was a great deal of food in this tiny shack known as the storage. Smelling the wonderful smell of fresh and delicious food made me hungry. I grabbed the MarsMelon, 2 chocolate cakes, a couple of batteries to ‘feed’ Rover, another can of cheese-it spray and of course, my favorite type of candy, MartianGummyRockets. All my loot heavier than me, it took me a while to get to the gates.
As I was struggling to open the gates, a guard who just came around the corner shot me with his tranquilizer pistol. Thinking back, I probably could’ve escaped if I hadn’t taken so much food. I mean he came in the nick of time, and I wasted a lot of time trying to pick up the MarsMelon.
I woke up in a chair tied up. The room was dark and was lit by the ropes full of energy. What a waste of energy! It smelled of lavender air freshener that almost made me barf. You should know that I hate perfume. I twisted and turned, and when I bit the rope, I was electrocuted.
The taste of electricity(Yes, it tastes bad, in case you were wondering) still in my mouth, the bright lights turned on.
“It won’t work,” said a very familiar face that belonged to none other than the dictator. “Many people before you have tried before you. None of them have succeeded yet. Now, why don’t you tell me why you were stealing from me?”
“You little evil bastard. Who do you think you are? I’m just trying to feed myself!”
“I was under the impression that you were here to steal government property.”
“Government property? This food you collected as taxes?!”
I may or may not have cursed there, but let’s not talk about that, all right? That’s not the point though. What he did next was extremely infuriating.
“Get ‘er, boys.”
The guards in their purple uniforms pressed a button. A robotic hand stretches out and turns into a pair of cymbals. Just as I start shouting in protest, they clap the cymbals over my head.
Immediately, my mind went blank. Who was I? What was I doing? Where am I? When is the year? Why are these people around me smiling? Who are these people?
“Hello, Ellen Lintillium,” says a man with a bald head, goatee, and bushy eyebrows. He seems like the leader of the group since he is wearing a golden badge that said ‘dictator.’
“Ellen?” He asked. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
I finally understand that he is talking to me.
“Yes. Um, where am I?”
“What? You must have lost your memory.”
“That could be possible…”
“Let me fill you in, Ellen,” said the ‘dictator'. “You are Ellen Vinda Irvel Lintillium, my twin sister, friend, and an ambassador for the country of Cymenia, a brilliant place for tourism and technology. I am the dictator of this marvelous country.”
Something didn’t seem quite right. It didn’t add up. Why am I tied up? Why did these guards have guns pointed at me seconds ago? Why was there a robotic hand with some instrumental symbol?
“I need you to help me make trades with the people of Io. I need you to travel to Io with this document.” He continues. “It says that the AI and only the AI of Io are welcome to tour here, but they must give us a supply of iron.”
As he hands me the classified document, I look at the ropes binding me. They aren’t there anymore. I am sitting in a lavish chair that felt cozy and smelled like lavender. Lavender smells good. Which one was an illusion? The ropes, or the chair?
I get up and discover that there are no ropes. The ropes were an illusion, I concluded.
I take the document and head to the rocket. Somehow, I knew the way, even though I just lost my memory. I reached to open the door to the hallway, but a guard that came from the room I learned my name in opened it for me. I looked down at my clothes. A minute ago they were dirty rags that seemed like what a lower class serf would wear. Now they were a modern, dazzling, charming, electric blue, white, and grey dress. The dress smells like it has never been used in all of its existence and it feels nice and silky.
I come up with a conclusion. I must be a royal queen-like figure, and I must also be loyal to my twin brother, the dictator of this impressive country.
The hallway in this building was white with electric blue circuits. There are levers next to these white flaps that open up the windows. I press the pull the smooth white lever, and the white flaps open to reveal a wasteland. Red and scarred, it seems as if many meteors have struck this place. The buildings are pitch black and look as dead as the landscape. Hmmm… That’s interesting. I imagined something looking like Port Seattle, Washington State, USA, Earth, in modern times, 1500 MAD (2850 AD). Port Seattle is one of the most prosperous places in the solar system. I can remember it now with my new memory of Ellen Lintillium. The more I look outside, the more I am convinced that something is not quite right. Is this the utopia he is talking about? It seems like a dystopia. Gradually getting my memory, I understand that this is just confinement for the wrongdoers and lawbreakers of Cymenia.
“MOVE!”
A man in a navy blue suit has barged through the door in front of us. His shocking blue eyes made me jump.
Through his bangs of black hair, I see an electric blue radiator on his forehead, the same color as his eyes. It has the word EVIL on it. He has an assault rifle in his hands. As I take in his bizarre appearance, with his golden star badge, he shoves the guards to the ground.
“What in the cosmos are you doing?!” I exclaimed.
“Get out”
His words had a compelling meaning behind them. I wanted to follow them no matter what the cost. It seemed like this was the one thing I had to do it, and I had to do it now.
I ran and tried to escape through the locked door when a voice said ‘Ellen, what are you doing?’
“Trying to get out of the place”
“But why?” exclaimed Elian
“I have to,” I say while trying to figure out how to unlock the complex door.
He facepalmed and said, “You do realize what you are doing, right? That’s the door into the scientific testing chamber”
“It’s the exit”
“Why do you have to ‘escape’?”
As I wondered why I was doing this, I didn’t get why the man in the navy suit’s directions seemed that they must be followed, and I could just stop following them if I wanted.
“A man in a navy suit asked me to”
“A high guard? Hmm… Get to safety and I’ll deal with him.”
I suddenly had no desire to follow the high guard’s orders, and I have a feeling he was controlling me.
Cursing out loud, I tried to get back to the rocket to finish my mission, but another high guard jumps out with his electric blue radiator and eyes, this time with dark purple dreadlocks, stops me, and says, “Get out.”
“Oh, I’m not falling for your petty tricks today”’
I kick his shin, but the force of my kick bounced back with a magnified force.
“OOoOoOooOOooOOooOooOooOwWWWwWwWwWwWwWwwwWWww”
“Get out.”
I ran away, to not get out, but to get back to Elian. He would be able to solve this. He was the dictator, after all.
I try to get in the room, but a man with the same electric blue eyes blocks me.
“Hello Ellen Vinda Irvel Lintillium.” said a shocking and familiar face, that belonged to none other than Elian Lintillium.
Being utterly bewildered, I didn't even know what was going on. I don’t think you do either.
“Hey Rover,” I said to my pet robotic dog
Rover is a dog I got as a kid. He likes to play Earthfetch, a game where you place a hologram frisbee underground. His record is 24 meters deep. His eyes are red, and his body is transparent, showing only his bones, which are made of iron. His battery slot is in his mouth.
“ARF, ARF, ARF, ARF!”
I checked his battery life. Rover had 3% battery left.
“Rover, I’ll get you some batteries, how does that sound?”
“ARF!”
“I’ll take that as a ‘great’”
I checked my bin of junk. Smelly pair of socks, nope. Can of cheese-it spray. Nope. Chocolate cake. Nope. But wait… I take a slice of it and spray some cheese-it spray on it. Choco-Cheese Cake. It’s my invention. Pretty good too.
I search through the entire bin, and I didn’t find any batteries.
“Bin numero dos, then.”
This bin is full of my achievements and prizes as a young girl. I find a medal for all S honor roll, which is a score from 100+%. I find a swimming medal. I despise swimming. I should probably just chuck it. A pet competition participation certificate. Heh. I remember Rover tried to eat the ref’s uniform. One battery.
I insert the battery into Rover’s mouth. He looks like he is digesting it. What happens here is he sucks all the energy out of the battery and then poops out an empty battery.
“So Rover, how much battery now?”
Rover projects a screen in front of my nose.
“Rover, don’t make the screen that big.”
It shrinks, and I can see the tiny number 14 go down to 13% battery.
“Ok Rover shut dow -- no, sleep mode”
“AARrff…”
Rover starts snoring.
“Sweet dreams, Rover.”
Time to go hunting for batteries.
...
I got next to the hillside of the dictator’s house, he’s a wealthy idiot with lots of food, and he doesn’t even care about the people who are starving in Mars city here. I know this place very well, having raided it so many times.
I open the door. There was a great deal of food in this tiny shack known as the storage. Smelling the wonderful smell of fresh and delicious food made me hungry. I grabbed the MarsMelon, 2 chocolate cakes, a couple of batteries to ‘feed’ Rover, another can of cheese-it spray and of course, my favorite type of candy, MartianGummyRockets. All my loot heavier than me, it took me a while to get to the gates.
As I was struggling to open the gates, a guard who just came around the corner shot me with his tranquilizer pistol. Thinking back, I probably could’ve escaped if I hadn’t taken so much food. I mean he came in the nick of time, and I wasted a lot of time trying to pick up the MarsMelon.
I woke up in a chair tied up. The room was dark and was lit by the ropes full of energy. What a waste of energy! It smelled of lavender air freshener that almost made me barf. You should know that I hate perfume. I twisted and turned, and when I bit the rope, I was electrocuted.
The taste of electricity(Yes, it tastes bad, in case you were wondering) still in my mouth, the bright lights turned on.
“It won’t work,” said a very familiar face that belonged to none other than the dictator. “Many people before you have tried before you. None of them have succeeded yet. Now, why don’t you tell me why you were stealing from me?”
“You little evil bastard. Who do you think you are? I’m just trying to feed myself!”
“I was under the impression that you were here to steal government property.”
“Government property? This food you collected as taxes?!”
I may or may not have cursed there, but let’s not talk about that, all right? That’s not the point though. What he did next was extremely infuriating.
“Get ‘er, boys.”
The guards in their purple uniforms pressed a button. A robotic hand stretches out and turns into a pair of cymbals. Just as I start shouting in protest, they clap the cymbals over my head.
Immediately, my mind went blank. Who was I? What was I doing? Where am I? When is the year? Why are these people around me smiling? Who are these people?
“Hello, Ellen Lintillium,” says a man with a bald head, goatee, and bushy eyebrows. He seems like the leader of the group since he is wearing a golden badge that said ‘dictator.’
“Ellen?” He asked. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
I finally understand that he is talking to me.
“Yes. Um, where am I?”
“What? You must have lost your memory.”
“That could be possible…”
“Let me fill you in, Ellen,” said the ‘dictator'. “You are Ellen Vinda Irvel Lintillium, my twin sister, friend, and an ambassador for the country of Cymenia, a brilliant place for tourism and technology. I am the dictator of this marvelous country.”
Something didn’t seem quite right. It didn’t add up. Why am I tied up? Why did these guards have guns pointed at me seconds ago? Why was there a robotic hand with some instrumental symbol?
“I need you to help me make trades with the people of Io. I need you to travel to Io with this document.” He continues. “It says that the AI and only the AI of Io are welcome to tour here, but they must give us a supply of iron.”
As he hands me the classified document, I look at the ropes binding me. They aren’t there anymore. I am sitting in a lavish chair that felt cozy and smelled like lavender. Lavender smells good. Which one was an illusion? The ropes, or the chair?
I get up and discover that there are no ropes. The ropes were an illusion, I concluded.
I take the document and head to the rocket. Somehow, I knew the way, even though I just lost my memory. I reached to open the door to the hallway, but a guard that came from the room I learned my name in opened it for me. I looked down at my clothes. A minute ago they were dirty rags that seemed like what a lower class serf would wear. Now they were a modern, dazzling, charming, electric blue, white, and grey dress. The dress smells like it has never been used in all of its existence and it feels nice and silky.
I come up with a conclusion. I must be a royal queen-like figure, and I must also be loyal to my twin brother, the dictator of this impressive country.
The hallway in this building was white with electric blue circuits. There are levers next to these white flaps that open up the windows. I press the pull the smooth white lever, and the white flaps open to reveal a wasteland. Red and scarred, it seems as if many meteors have struck this place. The buildings are pitch black and look as dead as the landscape. Hmmm… That’s interesting. I imagined something looking like Port Seattle, Washington State, USA, Earth, in modern times, 1500 MAD (2850 AD). Port Seattle is one of the most prosperous places in the solar system. I can remember it now with my new memory of Ellen Lintillium. The more I look outside, the more I am convinced that something is not quite right. Is this the utopia he is talking about? It seems like a dystopia. Gradually getting my memory, I understand that this is just confinement for the wrongdoers and lawbreakers of Cymenia.
“MOVE!”
A man in a navy blue suit has barged through the door in front of us. His shocking blue eyes made me jump.
Through his bangs of black hair, I see an electric blue radiator on his forehead, the same color as his eyes. It has the word EVIL on it. He has an assault rifle in his hands. As I take in his bizarre appearance, with his golden star badge, he shoves the guards to the ground.
“What in the cosmos are you doing?!” I exclaimed.
“Get out”
His words had a compelling meaning behind them. I wanted to follow them no matter what the cost. It seemed like this was the one thing I had to do it, and I had to do it now.
I ran and tried to escape through the locked door when a voice said ‘Ellen, what are you doing?’
“Trying to get out of the place”
“But why?” exclaimed Elian
“I have to,” I say while trying to figure out how to unlock the complex door.
He facepalmed and said, “You do realize what you are doing, right? That’s the door into the scientific testing chamber”
“It’s the exit”
“Why do you have to ‘escape’?”
As I wondered why I was doing this, I didn’t get why the man in the navy suit’s directions seemed that they must be followed, and I could just stop following them if I wanted.
“A man in a navy suit asked me to”
“A high guard? Hmm… Get to safety and I’ll deal with him.”
I suddenly had no desire to follow the high guard’s orders, and I have a feeling he was controlling me.
Cursing out loud, I tried to get back to the rocket to finish my mission, but another high guard jumps out with his electric blue radiator and eyes, this time with dark purple dreadlocks, stops me, and says, “Get out.”
“Oh, I’m not falling for your petty tricks today”’
I kick his shin, but the force of my kick bounced back with a magnified force.
“OOoOoOooOOooOOooOooOooOwWWWwWwWwWwWwWwwwWWww”
“Get out.”
I ran away, to not get out, but to get back to Elian. He would be able to solve this. He was the dictator, after all.
I try to get in the room, but a man with the same electric blue eyes blocks me.
“Hello Ellen Vinda Irvel Lintillium.” said a shocking and familiar face, that belonged to none other than Elian Lintillium.
Being utterly bewildered, I didn't even know what was going on. I don’t think you do either.