hello! wanted to say i love your art and your PN AU, i keep checking for updates and it's amazing to see it growing! can i ask: did the doctors at the asylum pretend to be on dib's side and fake understanding to get him to trust them enough to start working on him? or did they strap him down from the start and go wild? i wonder if he had anyone in there that he could trust (even if it was fake) and if he could even trust himself at that point
I'm so happy to know that you are enjoying it so far (*´ω｀*) it really warms my heart to know that people like the AU
To your question, here it is ↓
The doctors presented themselves as these friendly and well intended people that only wanted to help and understand Dib. After all, Dib is one of those patients that are considered reasonable enough to have a cordial conversation when his pride and sense of truth aren't challenged. If I were to compare them, it would be like Oliver Thredson from AHS: Asylum.
Of course, this superficial trust falls into pieces the moment Dib realizes the abuse the other patients go through in that asylum, and it's his rebellion that makes the doctors be more harsh on him, although maintaining this kind "I do what's best for you" attitude, specially from the main doctor in charge of him.
The ones that are more aggresive towards Dib and other patients in general are the security guards (the ones that wear that cartoony armor seen in the Crazy House for Crazy Boys). It's their job to make sure that nobody escapes the place, and mentally ill patients aren't always the most pacific to deal with, hence why they use tasers or brute force to immobilize them. Sure, they do this because it's their job, but it's not surprising to know that some of them cross the line between getting the job done and causing harm out of spite.
Dib's main source of trust ends up with fellow patients, with those who are reasonable enough to know that the asylum is fucked, but it's a kind of careful trust because, after all, most of the people here are mentally sick, so their word needs to be taken with a grain of salt (how can he be sure of who is telling the truth of not being insane and wanting to help, from those that only are leeching off of him to escape and continue unhealthy behaviors?). Knowing Dib's habit of only helping others if he can gain something for himself (seen in his interactions with Mortos, for example), he might have taken the advice from any of them and left them behind to try and escape. He could have been betrayed by the same patients, too, either by a misunderstanding or a betrayal where Dib is left behind as the bait to be captured by the guards (since probably the patients realized that he wasn't going to save them, maybe).
It's a mess, at the end of the day, with enough destruction of his will and mind through punishments by electro shock therapy and brainwashing to the point of being killed, he ends up siding with the doctors; he helps to uncover any escape plans made by the patients, acting like a exemplary student that will reproach those who disobey, winning the hate of fellow patients and the doctors trust. At that point he would be convinced that he can't trust himself with his fucked up mind and thus, accepts his fate by not wanting to keep suffering.
["Perfect Nothing" — Invader Zim AU]
