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❝Make them hate the fake, that way they won't see the real you.❞
【ɗιαƖσgυє cσƖσя:#0C94CC ♙ тнσυgнт cσƖσя #CC0C2E】
|| Azalea|| Nano.ripe ||
【ɗιαƖσgυє cσƖσя:#0C94CC ♙ тнσυgнт cσƖσя #CC0C2E】
|| Azalea|| Nano.ripe ||
School was, unfortunately, very much a sad venture. As always, it was both annoying and a huge waste of time. The worst part was how Mercedes kept winking at her as they passed through the halls. Elise didn't want to deal with that. Morning didn't give her any reprieve either, as she was forced by Ame to continue training out in the rear garden. Was there no mercy for poor Lissie? "Are you ready, Elise?" Claude asked, grinning at her as the siblings returned home and was greeted by Cynthia's sunny smile that only half of the siblings reciprocated. "I still don't think it's going to work. Winter wouldn't swallow truth, even if it was the only water available and she was in a desert." She of course had her arrogant mask back on. It's easy to do so when you have time to prepare.
Against Elise and Winter's will, they were gathered in the studio room on the second floor. Claude and Vincent had concocted up some horrible plan to try to re-educate Winter on some of the horrible things that the Chrysanthemum was responsible for. "Now begins the first session of the Chrysanthemum Exposed Project!" Claude began as he walked on stage, a screen behind him ready with the video reels that he and Gordon had prepared. Elise was forced to get on stage as well, she too, had a part Claude wrote for her to play. "Welcome, welcome, our lovely audience of one. Shall we begin?" Vincent was standing guard to make sure none of the other staff could overhear. Thankfully the studio room was built with sound proofing so no one who wasn't inside would be able to hear anything that was going on.
Eight years ago, during the Great War, the Chrysanthemum was knee deep in the conflict, fighting for their lives. The clip showed scenes of Chrysanthemum soldiers fending off enemy armies, shots as their fighter jets bombed enemy farms and hospitals, of the innocent civilians being kidnapped from the enemy state and taken to the Chrysanthemum for "re-education." "Naturally, we won the war, as we all know." Claude said with a charming smile. "But what became of the civilians of the enemy, people whose only crimes was to be born in the wrong city?" Photos released in the media came out then, of the children being put into labor camps, worked to the bone and trained to forget their heritage and home. "We were instructed to not let them escape." Elise read, her knees shaking, her hands gripping a fake rifle.
"Some of them were just kids!" She recited from an interview of a former guard of the reeducation camp. "If they asked for their parents, whip them. If they spoke in their home language, starve them. There were very specific protocols as to what to do and what not to do." A fake tear went down her face, copying the screen's replay of the interview. "We were not allowed to be kind. We were not allowed to call them by their real names. The Chrysanthemum gave them assigned names from an approved list." They were stripped away of everything that made them free.
Then the screen went to another scene. Elise sighed as she was forced to wrap a white coat around her, almost as if she were a scientist. "So, doc, what's the plan with that girl? We can't synthesize her powers, and we can't forcibly control them either." Elise, as doc, nodded, a hand on her chin. "Luckily for us, we still have avenues we can take. Subject X is a very valuable subject. In order to get results to satisfy our superiors, I propose a plan." She nodded, a slight smile on her face. "We can simply gain her trust. We provide her sympathetic kind hearted agents such as 009 to be her guardian, we allow her to partake in music competitions, we show her how kind we can be. We show her she has no other choice but to trust us and be safe with us."
"A superpowered girl like her, loyal to us... if anyone were to try to rise up and challenge our authority, the blizzards will be ours to command." Elise tapped an invisible pen, pushing the invisible glasses farther up her face, just like the Doc did on the screen. "She'll volunteer to help us, as thanks for all of our care. So we must earn her loyalty. Let's start by making more research into fixing that leg of hers." Claude raised his hand, a questionable look on his face. "But what about the activists? People are planning a march to protest our treatment of the Agarthan Internment Camp!"
Elise blinked, then nodded, balling her hand into a fist. "Well, on that day, if we agitate her, we can create a blizzard and our enforcers can eliminate the activists when no one can see through the snow."
The reel ended then and Vincent clapped for their performance. "And so ends the first day of Winter's enlightenment. Thank you, thank you, everyone!" Claude helped Elise off the stage then, who scowled. "Why did we have to act it out? It was already all on tape anyways!" Claude sighed, shaking his head. "We weren't able to recreate the audio, it's all corrupted. All we have are the transcriptions of the audio that I gave you." Even so, the black eagle didn't understand why this was necessary. "It's not as if Winter will listen. She'll ignore anything that doesn't fit her worldview of the Chrysanthemum as wonderful angels."
Claude shook his head. "No, I think Winter's plenty smart. It's hard to undo brainwashing, but this will get her to start thinking. She'll start wondering, and then she'll come to the truth on her own." Elise still didn't like any of this. Winter was a big liability. Considering her loyalty to the Chrysanthemum, who's to say that once she escapes, she doesn't tell Doc everything she knows about Elise, about Mercedes and Serenity too? For her own sake, she knew that her secret command to Vincent was necessary.
Containing Winter Matsuri is priority number one above all else. Even should Elise herself be in danger, Vincent's job is to make sure Winter does not escape the Hresvelg Estate.