Double-blind interrogation

You nervously flexed your fingers, staring down at your feet as you sat in a new room. This was not like the glass containment room you had been previously put into, where experiments could be easily monitored externally--this room was private, isolated from the rest of the basement. It felt like the entire room was carved out of obsidian, with perfectly smooth floor and walls. The furniture also appeared to be part of the carvings, as you sat on a stone cube in front of an inverted pyramid table. Every edge of the room glowed with a soft light, illuminating the whole room evenly from every angle--there were no shadows to hide in. Only you sat in the room--Tori had been taken to another area.

And yet... Tori was here with you, in your head. You retained the channeled shape you'd acquired before you arrived in Spiral City, and that meant you retained a second mind.

So, what does all this mean? Tori asked, her voice even wavering in her mind. I'm a copy, made out of your rearranged cells? What happens when Emilia changes us back, I just vanish? I mean, I don't feel like I came from nothing, but there is a gap in time between when the channeling ended and then when Emilia changed us. I don't feel--I don't THINK I feel--any different from how I was when I was just myself, so what if I'm really Tori and the mind in my real body is the copy, like if it's a quantum physics thing, is that how it works..? I barely passed regular physics in college, you're the one who always talked about it.

You shook your head. "I don't know, Tori, I'm sorry," you said quietly. "You're right that this doesn't feel any different than it did before. I don't think you're an illusion. But I don't think it's some quantum thing either. It's almost like... time travel, in a way. Emilia plucked this form from the past, and maybe when she fixes this, it'll put you back to the time you're meant to be in."

You shivered a little. Tori felt slightly more reassured by your words, but you and she both knew you were just speculating and there was no good answer that you could know. The reflection staring back at you, Tori's reflection, helped calm you slightly as well, knowing that her--or a version of her--was with you, and neither of you were truly alone.

The far wall slid open slightly, allowing a woman to enter. The markings and tattoos all over her body were instantly recognizable to you, this was Kelly's form. This time, however, the robotic being that had been moving her about seemed to have been left behind, as a woman who seemed to be in your age range with bright orange hair stood before you instead, a complete human body with tattoos on her neck and sides of her face by her ears that indicated this was Kelly's real head. She stepped in slowly, setting down a laptop on the table.

"Some water? Maybe something to eat?" Kelly offered, setting down a bottled water and a sleeve of peanut butter crackers. "Apologies for the wait, Emilia considers this experiment to be extremely important and doesn't want to miss anything that might lead to false positives or negatives. Hence why I'm talking with you today, I've got a pretty strong investigative background."

You blinked, watching Kelly sit down. "You normally don't? You're usually just a body that a robot wears around this place?"

"Oh, of course not!" Kelly chuckled a little. "The robot is just a newer experiment. It's fascinating being moved so mechanically, but I'm often worn by other living people for various reasons. The magic makes it feel so amazing to have someone else inhabiting me, I love feeling someone's fingers in my own, moving me to touch things that they wish me to feel..." Kelly sighed wistfully, closing her eyes with a delighted expression. "Doesn't your channeler friend agree?"

I guess it is pretty common that people meant to be worn and controlled by others are made to enjoy it, Tori thought.

You shook your head, leaning forward as you bypassed her question. "What are we doing here, Kelly? This has gone above and beyond what feels fair! You know what Emilia's reminding me of right now? A con artist. That bracelet was a trap, this isn't really a help-me-help-you situation. The bracelet may as well have been a ransom note."

Kelly bit her lip a bit, as she thought of a way to calm you down. "I can understand your position. If you're concerned about Emilia going too far, then perhaps I can offer you something for the negotiating table if she continues to press for more experiments--me. As in, you can wear my body when we are done here and can choose to return me to her custody if she will bargain to let you and Tori leave without further testing. After this session only, though."

This felt like some sort of tactic from Kelly, as you tried to analyze her face to guess at how authentic her words have been. Maybe she just wanted to be worn by someone new? Maybe she wanted to escape Emilia's grasp and needed to be worn out of the building by someone else? Or... what if it was another way to keep you here, if she could somehow keep you locked in her and thus locked in the mansion, serving Emilia as this woman does? This whole act felt orchestrated.

Your bodymate, however, seemed intrigued. Even if it means nothing, I kind of want to try her body out... I never get to wear other people!

Sighing, you glanced at Kelly. "So, what is it you want from me?"

"Oh, pretty simple," Kelly said, flipping open her binder. "The other Tori answered some questions, and I'd like this Tori to answer some as well, as well as test something for me. This is an experiment meant to see who or what you are after taking a prior form. First, Tori, can you use your channeling magic?"

You relaxed, and Tori briefly took charge of your hands. She held out your hand and closed her eyes. You could feel your muscles flexing, like you were trying to push something forward. But when your eyes opened again, your hand did not show the characteristic blue glow of Tori's channeling magic. Kelly wrote a quick note in the binder. "It would seem that the channeling curse is not subject to the normal limitations of space and time, that power remained solely with the other body. Interesting stuff, I think. Okay, next! Tell me about the first time you channeled, Tori."

You felt a sharp inhale as your eyes glanced away. "Do we have to?" Tori asked.

"It's part of the experiment, yes. The other Tori answered, a pretty elaborate one as well. If your stories line up, that means you're not just Peter's mind pretending you're real, since the other Peter confirmed he didn't know the story as well. Of course, if the stories differ, then something else is going on, and that's going to prompt us to need to find something a bit more verifiable. So, if you'd be so kind."

Tori sighed, avoiding making eye contact. "I was in college, it would've been my second year working toward my chemistry degree. There was a particularly stormy day, heavy hail approaching the size of marbles, and it seemed like cell after cell was coming through. A duck and her ducklings were on campus, and there wasn't any good place for them to take shelter when the storm rolled in. Before the storm could reach its peak, the mother duck channeled me so I could get her babies to safety, I remember that she brought them into the nearby chemistry building, she'd taken a cardboard box from one of the nearby recycling bins and put them all inside to carry them around, and went into one of the empty lecture halls to stay away from crowds. Well, eventually that hall started to fill up as a new class had started, and the professor did not like my intrusion. But, when he tried to take the box to put it back outside, mama duck punched him in the face. In the end, I was able to convince administrators that he was going to put animals in harm, and I was removed from the chemistry department, but the school of veterinary medicine fast-tracked me into the program because of my apparent passion for the lives of other creatures. I did have to deal with the nickname 'ducktoria' for a while, but that didn't last too long when I was able to use channeling to turn what should have been eight years of school into five."

Nodding along with the story, Kelly took copious notes. "Very interesting... one last question before we return to discuss the findings with Emilia and your other self. I had Tori in the other room take three cards at random from a deck and memorize the results at the start of our experimentation. She reliably recited the three cards throughout the questioning and demonstrations. I want you to name those three cards, just relax, imagine yourself drawing from the deck as she had, and say the first three cards that come to your mind."

Tori frowned, but complied. "...two of hearts, queen of spades, seven of hearts." Kelly jotted this down as well.

A few moments of silence passed as Kelly flipped through her pages. The whole process felt like someone was grading you, or more specifically grading Tori. Eventually, Kelly snapped her binder shut, and looked back to you. "That should do it. Now, how shall we proceed? Would you like it if I was your 'hostage', in a sense, with you taking my body as your own? Or, shall we just walk over to the other room to discuss the results as we are now? State your preference."

This all still felt like part of the game... but you had to make a decision fast. It all depended on if you felt you could trust whatever Emilia was up to, or if this was all a way to pull you in deeper.