The complimentary reconditioning really isn’t that much fun...
But at least when they finally finish with you, and you’re dragged back to your cell, a kind man is there to hold you until you can remember your own name again.
You feel like you should know him, like his face is one you’ve known for years, but the static is too sharp and your head is so numb and stuffed full of things you don’t understand.
The man gently brushes back your hair, his fingers ghosting over the electrical burns on your temples.
“Do I know you?” You try to ask, but your fractured mind can’t quite remember how to form the words.
“Sleep.” He softly hums. “I’ve got you.”
That voice? Why can’t you remember?
You try pressing against the static but it cuts sharper than a knife.
You attempt to push yourself off the ground to get a better look at his face, but the guards did their work on you, and shaky limbs fail you almost immediately, sending you back down to the floor.
He catches you in his arms and holds you close. You feel his body shudder under yours and something wet falls on your bloody face.
You look up into his eyes and see that they are full of tears. He quickly turns away, hiding his face in your hair.
His voice is strange, like his words are choking him.
“I’m sorry.” He’s whispers. “I tried to get to you. I-I really did try this time.”
"This time?" How many times have they done this?
You reach up with a shaky hand to wipe away the wetness on his cheek.
You want to ask him if he’s ok. You wish to give him some comfort in return for the kindness he’s always shown you when they bring you back from that terrible room.
But your tongue is like lead and refuses to obey. All that comes out are broken, guttural noises that hardly even sound human.
He quickly brushes a finger against your lips, quietly shushing you.
“It’s ok, you’re ok, we’re all ok.. I’ve got you. I won’t let them hurt you again. I promise.”
You relax your aching body against his chest, and try to pretend.
Pretending is easier than facing the fact that this man is utterly powerless to stop them when they decide to take you again.
This brief respite from the constant pain and terror will end sooner or later. The Clerk with the empty eyes will return with his clip board and his cruel guards with their batons and their unforgiving steel toe boots.
They will rip you from the arms of this man. You both know this, it’s the only thing you know with absolute certainty, and this knowledge almost breaks you.
It’s all too much and every part of you aches, but for right now he’s here, and he will keep you safe. For right now, his voice is soothing and his hands are gentle.
So you let yourself pretend, for just a little while longer.
i’ve been reading up on theories and i’ve been seeing people who thought MOAT was ministry of alternate timelines or ministry of approved therapy. but i’m 90% convinced the MOAT is a place. The only known ministry abbreviation is MCR for ministry of complementary reconditioning. Without the O from the ‘of’ in it. yes it could be for aesthetics but based on everything we’ve seen i fully believe it to be a prison. not a ministry. i believe that the most is run by the ministry of complementary reconditioning, based on the presumed reconditioning that is taking place in the moat. also i’m pretty sure that the eye symbol is the symbol of the ministry of complementary reconditioning, the workers of the MOAT, based on the people in the cloaks with the eyes who seemed to be overseeing the reconditioning and the black parade. “you’ve seen nothing” yeah because you were reconditioned, you’ve forgotten all about it.
okay i wanted to ask ab ‘the harrowing tale’ bc im just in love w everything you’ve posted about that one, but i figured i should ask about something new..
so what is ‘something familiar about this’? i’m intrigued !!
Something Familiar About This is based on the premise that what we're seeing in the tour with the MOAT and the recondition is post Danger Days, that the band is the reconditioned Killjoys, and pulls from my Jet Gets Nabbed and Cuts Ghoul Open in this version.
One day after the "extra therapy for prisoners with even numbers" RT506 finds GW886 and asks if any of the reconditioning seems familiar to him. RT506 can't place why. (The why is the "reconditioning" BL/ind put Jet through). GW tries to be encouraging about it, that maybe they once did have something beyond the MOAT, but RT is skittish and shuts him down. He's afraid to talk about his dreams. The dreams of the desert and the small white cell and the little girl he wakes up worried about.
