I’ve seen every episode of House at least 5 times, if not 10, but I feel like it’s time for a rewatch. And I’m going to drag @titansdaughter with me lmao. We met because of this show back in 2007 so it’s only fitting if we do it together...right?XD
Another orchestrion roll she had all but destroyed from overuse. Sitting in her room before it while morning turned to night, every single day. If she wasn't training, she was there. She ate in front of it. She slept in front of it. She listened until they had to replace parts of the machine, and each time something new broke she banged on the door harder than the last.
Eventually, they added a second to her room - one to listen to while waiting for repairs.
Instead, she just put both on. Listened to songs layered over one another. She made the second play the birdsong recordings - her handlers quickly rushed an order for copies of that scroll before the inevitable happened.
There was some level of debate as to whether or not it would be wise to have her watch a live performance. The oversight committee expressed the view that the entire project was growing to be a liability, as more and more of the subjects started to degrade mentally and fall apart. Why put in almost a full cycle into preparation for a subject that only lasts a matter of moons, when a trained team could accomplish just about as much?
Until Lacina was the oldest one left in the program. The researchers insisted: this was their star experiment. Their ace in the hole agent. Lacina would be the start of a new generation, the first of a whole new line of assassins for the Garlean Empire. They staked the entire project on her shoulders. Previously, the longest shelf life they had seen was just under six moons - Lacina had been going for closing on a full cycle without cease.
It seemed that the way to achieve stability with the project was to twist the subject's psyche towards something consistent and repeatable.
It would not be difficult to requisition orchestrions. Her operational cost was a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of keeping a strike team on hand and ready to go. And her results could not be denied: a one-hundred-percent success rate was exactly what the project had aimed for from day one, after all.
The best part was, they had been throwing her against everything they could think of, and she had shown no hesitation or restraint. Political dissidents, deserters, prominent members of scattered resistance movements. They could ask for zero collateral damage - they could demand zero survivors. No matter what they pointed her at, she did exactly as told. Even in cases where she seemed to have lost, she would not stop until she had killed her target - and her victory was proven, time and again, to be inevitable.
And with each successful mission, she demanded more music. They watched every new development with the closest of scrutiny. To their fascination, she began demanding fabric and weaving supplies after her fifty-sixth operation.
And then the ritual changed. Work out, drill, clean equipment, then sit before the orchestrions and sew. Every single thing she created for the first moon, she threw into the fire. And yet she still tore into the work, the music, and everything else with a ceaseless obsession. An endless appetite.
They asked her, finally, the obvious question: why?
The interviewer's collar felt just a bit too tight for comfort at her reply:
"Perfection alone has earned its place. My creations are imperfect, but a pursuit of perfection. When what I make is precisely as I intend, I will keep it. Until then everything burns."
The committee did not like that answer either. Fortunately, it was only brought to their attention after the quarterly budget proposal.
Unfortunately, that also meant they needed to step things up this quarter if they would secure funding for the next.
Three subjects remained. Their performance going forward would determine if the committee would approve acquisition and production of further agents.
