“Good morning, Ed. Are you feeling better now?” Buddie asked, seemingly concerned for him.

“Yeah, I’m feeling better now, thanks for asking.” Ed says, feeling slightly better now that he’s well rested and had some time to think about things. I need to remember why I’m doing this. They’ve forced me to do this, I’m just trying to survive. But I also went too far this time. I need to set some boundaries to stop this place from changing me too much. No matter what happens, I mustn’t become like them. They aren’t doing this to survive, they’re having fun. No matter how vile a person is, or what crimes they have committed, I must not make use of their past trauma. I will solely look at their actions and what they’ve done.

Seeing that he’s feeling better, Buddie offers him breakfast to make up for the lack of a meal yesterday.

After eating, Ed goes for a light jog through the hall waiting for today’s file to come.

~

Name: Mason Caldwell

Age: 18

Occupation: unemployed

Biography: Born to parents Elliot and Lucy, Mason was expelled from high school for attempting to set fire to a classroom. He spent a bit of time working at a gas station before being fired for drinking on the job, and is now currently unemployed... He freeloads off his parents, refusing to get a new job while frequently asking them for money... One night while out on a drunken stupor, he found himself in front of the gas station he worked for. Fuelled by the alcohol, the anger he had been holding in erupted. Hiding his face, he ran in, saying that he had a bomb under his jacket, and threatened to blow the place up. He blocked the door, causing the customers and staff inside to panic. The police were called, however he fled before they could arrive, and nobody was able to identify him because the person working didn’t know him, and he hid his face from the camera. He is currently still jobless and living with his parents, who are completely unaware of what happened.

-End of document-

I’m going to take this one easy. I don’t want to go too far this time. Ed takes some time to think about what he wants to do. Should I use actors for this one, or do I put him by himself this time... I’ll think about it. Opening the app, he quickly gets to work. “Okay Buddie, this time I want a perfect recreation of the gas station interior at the time of the bomb threat. How many other people were in the store?”

“There were four other people in the store. The person working, and three customers.”

Four people... yeah, I’ll have them as well. “Include the people who were there at the time, have the actors match them perfectly."

The screen fills up with the gas station interior. The shelves covered in a variety of items typically available for purchase at a gas station. An employee appears behind the counter, and the customers appear spread throughout the room.

“Have Mason enter the room through the automatic door, but then immediately have it stop working, and fog up all of the glass so that they can’t see outside.” Mason appears, his face covered by the hood of his jacket. “Can you temporarily take control of his body to have him repeat what he said that night?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“That can be done. When do you want him to gain back control?”

“Give it back to him immediately after he finishes saying it. At the same time as you give it back, you can have your speech, so that he can understand what’s happening.” Switching over to the design a trap function, Ed pauses for a moment, figuring out exactly what he wants to do. “Bring up the model of Mason for me.” Where should I put the bomb? Thinking for a moment, Ed settles on placing the bomb on Mason’s back, in a place he can’t see. “Place an IED on his back, hidden underneath the jacket. Have his back coated in a somewhat thin layer of wax, causing the explosive and his jacket to be stuck tightly to his skin, and unable to be pulled off. Instead, what he’ll have to do is get a knife from the gas station and cut through the wax himself to cut the explosive off. He will have three minutes from the end of your message to cut the explosive off before it explodes. The wax will be thin enough that he will most likely cut into his back, while still being strong enough, that using a knife is the only option.”

“What if he tries to get help from the other people to cut it off?”

“Have them run away from him whenever he gets close and have them refuse to get near him no matter what he says.”

“Good. Is there anything else you want to add?”

Ed stops to think for a moment. “Yes. Have the worker on call with emergency services and have that act as the timer for the bomb. It will explode just when the response team is supposed to get there... I think that’s all I want to add. You can go ahead and make it now. I’ll talk with the actors as usual; it shouldn’t take too long.” To fill in time before the actors get there, he slowly enjoys his meal, deciding to have a nice lasagna this time. The rest of his time is spent leisurely reading through the files for more information.

~

Ed walks into the gas station, seeing the actors waiting for him. “Hi everyone, my name is Ed, it’s nice to meet you all. I won’t be taking up too much of your time today as both this chat and the trap will be a relatively short one.” He goes up and shakes hands with the actors.

“Hello again Ed, we’ve already met before. I was one of the players in your poker trap.” One of the actors says while shaking his hand.

Oh, it’s somebody I’ve already met. Ed looks at the person, trying to figure out which one it is. I’ve got no clue; I’ll just pretend I know which one he was. “It’s nice to see you again, how have you been?”

“Well, I’m doing fine. Work hasn’t been too bad, and I’ve almost saved up enough to go on holiday... You’ve got no clue who I am, do you?”

“Yeah... I’m sorry, I know you’re not lying to me, but I just can’t tell for the life of me which role you played... Well, it’s difficult to tell when you look completely different. Speaking of which, how do you guys tell each other apart?”

“You just figure it out after a while. It’s like how if someone gets a new haircut you can still tell that it’s them. The change is just a lot more extreme and happens incredibly often. Also, some species have special ways of telling people apart, like through scent.”

Huh, that’s good to know. “Thank you, that explanation makes a lot of sense. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to do that. Also, you said that you’ve almost saved up enough for a holiday, I thought that the company paid for those?”

“The company will sometimes give certain employees holidays for good performance, but usually you’ll have to pay some company credits if you want to go on one yourself, but that’ll all be explained to you when you get the job, so you don’t have to worry about that for now.”

Company credits? Does it have its own form of currency, and in turn its own internal economy? I guess I’ll just have to figure that out later... I’m getting distracted. Ed turns to face all of them. “Your job today is going to be fairly simple. The target is going to come into this gas station with a bomb, you just have to act like ordinary civilians and stay as far away from him as possible out of fear. No matter what he says, or how close he tries to get, you have to refuse to even get near him, let alone help him.”

Seeing them all nod, Ed turns to the one playing the employee. “You’ve got one more thing you’ll need to do. You will call emergency services when he threatens to blow up the room. When Buddie stops talking, you will say that the emergency services are on their way and will be there in a few minutes. Essentially, you will be acting as the timer until the bomb explodes.”

Having told them everything, Ed says his goodbyes before heading back to his room, waiting for it to start.