Chapter Text
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.
- H.P.Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu.
A: “…testing, testing, one-two-three. Da de hvide kom til de vilde, ville de vilde vide hvad de-“
B: “What are you doing?”
A: “Hm? Oh, nothing much, just testing the audio logs. I have to make sure the old thing works before the interview.”
B: “Tongue-twisters again?”
A: “Hey, you fumble an interview with the physics professor once, you fumble them a thousand times.”
B: “Valid, valid… Hey ██████?”
A: “Yeah?”
B: “Say “Rødgrød med fløde."”
A: “Roh-th…um, Röh-gruh meh- Oh, fuck off.”
B: “Not how it says.”
A: “Har-har, █████.”
B: “Hehe… So, is that… them?”
A: “That’s the Expendable, yeah.”
B: “Huh, really?”
A: “Yeah? How many criminals get interviewed on the daily here?”
B: “It’s just, when you hear “the dude that survived the Blacksite’s Lockdown”, you’d imagine some great, confident, Captain America type guy. Dude who lives in the Amazon rainforest and eats snakes for breakfast. The one that actually knows his shit. And this is… well, they look more…”
A: “Lifeless? Shell-shoked? Sicker than a heroin junkie? Like their own soul went AFK?”
B: “I was gonna say basic, but sure, those too. Maybe ‘creepy’ also works.”
A: “Well, they wouldn’t be here if they weren’t special in some way.”
B: “I mean, yeah, one has to be special to even volunteer working down there, but it’s one thing sending EXR-Ps in vague hopes that some miracle will happen and to actually see them follow through.”
A: “Apparently chucking meat at a wall and seeing whichever sticks is a working strategy. Who would have thought?”
B: “Mmm… I wonder how they did it…”
A: “Did what?”
B: “Survived the Blacksite, I mean.”
A: “Whaddya mean?”
B: “It’s just, one thing is learning the patterns of normal monsters. ‘S dangerous, but you’ll get used to them and learn the obvious. Like in a video game, you get tangible progress, level ups and all that.”
A: “I mean, you can’t exactly compare a photoshopped guy with bleeding eyes on a screen and a literal life-or-death situation.”
B: “I know, I know, but regardless, the point still stands. The more you get intimate with one thing or another, the more you can understand it. Hell, maybe find a cheat or two to exploit. But even with outside help, there is no way they could have known all of the cheats at once. They’ve been there for a single day - if that - but from what I’ve heard, they act as if they lived in the damn site for half of their life!”
A: “Dude, why are you complaining?”
B: “I’m not! But the whole thing just doesn’t make sense to me.”
A: “I’ve learned that humans very, very rarely make actual sense.”
B: “But still, you have to understand the absurdity of the situation. In the most basic video game knowledge-“
A: “That’s the thing, █████, it’s not your common basic video game knowledge. Human mind is highly adaptable-“
B: “Adaptable enough to do all that??”
A: “Well, not gonna lie, it is a mighty impressive feat-“
B: “And what about him? I mean, twelve years of radio silence and suddenly he brings down a literal Ragnarök!”
A: “And that is quite a lot of time to prepare… Wasn’t there a small breach a couple years ago? In 20..19, I believe?”
B: “…Yeah, but nothing came of it. Got covered up nice and easy. You think he had a hand in it? Maybe rigged it or something? Testing the waters, so to speak, before showtime.”
A: “Maybe. I managed to get the glimpse of his documents. The data on him is quite… comprehensive. To almost an alarming degree.”
B: “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
A: “…sigh”
B: “…Jesus.”
A: “I have to admit, the fact that he remained sane - well, as sane as any creature can be down there - through all that says quite a lot. He must have been Moreau’s favourite for a reason. He’s unpredictable, just like any other human.”
B: “I’m pretty sure it’s the only thing left of him that’s still ‘human’.”
A: “█████!”
B: “What, I’m just sayi-Jesus!”
A: “Wha!-What now?!
B: “Christ Almighty, I- It’s- the Expendable looked at me!”
A: “I mean, the cameras are right there, no?”
B: “No, they looked straight at me! Look!”
…
…
B: “Yeah, scratch that. Creepy definitely works.”
A: “They couldn’t have heard us, right? I’m sure I’ve checked that the microphone was off.”
B: “…Are they even blinking?…”
A: “…Sigh. I need a vacation.”
B: “You’ve been wanting a vacation for six years now.”
A: “Yeah and look what happens when I try asking for one.”
B: “Hey, relax, you’re gonna be fine. Sure, they may or may not be a deranged criminal-“
A: “Gee, thanks.”
B: “But they are still human, through and through. Push comes to shove, just say the word and they’ll be swiss cheese before you know it. I’m pretty sure no one will miss them anyway.”
A: “‘Pretty sure’ is not the same as ‘sure’… still, they give me the creeps.”
B: “I can take over, if you’re really shitting yourself.”
A: “Nah, I got it. Besides, we’ve got the CCTV footage and the notes, kinda important for the questioning. And I’m pretty sure you know jack shit about how to conduct an interview.”
B: “Well, at least I’m not the one still using the same old recorder.”
A: “Don’t fix what’s not broken. This puppy here has been serving me faithfully ever since I got here.”
B: “Don’t you have your phone? That thing's much more reliable than this piece of junk.”
A: “Okay, first of all: it’s an antiquity-“
B: “It’s from the 90s-“
A: “AND it’s still doing its job perfectly, thank you very much! Secondly, it’s way easier to give it to the supervisors like this.”
B: “Just admit you don’t wanna risk the HQ seeing your bajillion cat pictures you have there.”
A: “At least my photos are of the appropriate kind of pussy.”
B: “Hey!”
C: “What’s going on? Did you prepare for the interview?”
B: “Oh, yes sir.”
A: “Just a moment, sir.”
C: “We are ready to record. Any problems with the Expendable?”
B: “No sir, it’s just… no problems, sir.”
C: “Hmm. Is the audio and video stable?”
A: “Yep, checked them myself. I was just testing the recorder before you came in.”
C: “I thought we were going to record them on my own recorder?”
A: “We were, but I believe it’s beneficial to have a second recorder during the interview. So that we won’t lose the data, I mean.”
C: “Ah, I see. And you’ve already started recording, I take it?”
A: “Mhm.”
C: “Good, that’s good. Well then, shall we, miss █████?”
A: “Yes, sir!”
09:38 AM, 21st October, 2025.
Case File: Incident #03-Boreas-2025
Subject Designation: Witness Echo-7 aka “The Expendable” (Refused to state legal name)
Interviewer (Behavioral): Dr. [██████ █████]
Interviewer (Legal): Dr. [██████ █████], Esq.
C: “Godmorgen, sir. Thank you for agreeing to sit down with us today. May we sit here?”
E: “…”
C: “I’ll take that as a yes. Miss [█████], start the recording, please.”
A: “Yes, sir.”
C: “Encrypted audio recording initiated, log 4-1-2. Today is October 21st, 2025, time is 10:02AM. This interview is taking place at the [███████████] Research Center. Present in the room are behavioral analyst Dr. [█████], Dr. [█████], and Mr…”
E: “…”
C: “For the record, please state your full name.”
E: “You already know who I am.”
C: “That we do. But you must understand that your name is required for data and research purposes. We know what you are, but we don’t know who you are.”
E: “Neither do I, really.”
C: “I’m afraid I’m gonna need your name, sir.”
E: “Need to or want to?”
C: “Listen, we simply-“
A: “Sir, if I may?”
C: “Sigh. Of course. Miss [█████]?”
A: “Right. Now, sir, you have to understand, we need your name not for mere purposes of research and data, but to grant you immediate, customized witness protection under your real name today.”
E: “Wow. I’m surprised you people would even bother with “protection” of someone like me.”
C: “Even I’m surprised-“
A: “Be as it may, we need to know how to address you or at least what to call you in this file. You don’t have to give us your legal name, but a simple nickname will suffice.”
E: “…call me The Expendable. Just for the sake of brevity.”
A: “Understood. For the sake of legal validity and your personal safety, we will proceed under John Doe/Jane Doe status, designated in this file as “The Expendable”.”
A: “For the record, please confirm that you understand this interview serves a dual purpose: first, for my behavioral study on extreme high-stress environments, and second, as a protected legal record. Do we have your consent to record?”
E: “Yes, you have my consent.”
A: “Good. Now, before we ask for your experiences and the timeline of the events, we need to establish your legal guardrails. You have signed the Special Non-Disclosure Addendum. Under this agreement, nothing you say here can be said outside of this room or used for your own, personal gain. We are not allowed to ask you questions that violate your personal immunity, but if you step out of line yourself, we will suspend the interview and you will be taken into custody.”
E: “Straight to the point. I like you already.”
C: “Under Section 9, this signature via your thumbprint will bind your testimony to a protected cryptographic key. This ensures your words are legally binding for our research, while keeping your identity entirely anonymous. Do you agree to proceed under these terms?”
E: “I agree. Let’s get this over with, already.”
A: “Expendable, you and 5000 other inmates volunteered to retrieve Z-2 or “Thor’s heart” from the Hadal Blacksite-“
E: “The Crystal?”
A: “Yes, the Crystal. You agreed to the terms presented to you by Urbanshade and on October 16th 2025, you arrived at the Hadal Blacksite at 7:00AM on the dot.”
E: “What can I say? I like to be punctual.”
A: “Right. In any case, we will need a complete timeline of events of the Lockdown. Please, if you could, that transpired in the Hadal Blacksite on October 16th of the current year.”
E: “I thought you had the CCTV footage.”
A: “Yes-well, the CCTV footage, while extensive, doesn’t cover all the sections of the Blacksite and during your… expedition, we noticed that you encountered some of these areas. And not to mention that the recent interference with the Blacksite’s mainframe definitely complicated the situation.”
E: “[soft laugh]”
A: “Expendable, we will need your full testimony regarding the Lockdown. Every detail matters, we both know that. Everything matters, everything that you can remember.”
E: “What’s there to remember? When you signed the documents, you pretty much gave your old life away. Who you were before is dead - be it metaphorically or literally.
From the day you step into the prison and to the time you see the lights of the Blacksite docs, there was only one and one thing only that ever mattered.
The only thing you were allowed to remember… ”