Chapter 3: The Dawn of Austerity
It didn't occur to Lara until much later that the 200,000 pounds would actually be necessary to pay for the treatments that she would undergo while she was imprisoned within the Black Hole. The technology they used on her was cutting-edge, and it certainly didn't come cheap.
The first thing they changed about her was her eyes.
Lara always had 20/20 vision - an eagle-eyed huntress, she could hit a rabbit with a bow and arrow from twenty yards, even if it was hiding deep in the brush. So it was with great trepidation that she agreed to have 'vision adjustment' surgery. She would have never accepted it if it weren't a necessary condition of her getting out of her cell and joining their educational program. In the end, all Nurse Cerys had to do was dangle that carrot in front of her and Lara would begin finding reasons to justify it to herself.
She found herself on the operating table, sedated, staring at a pernicious-looking laser. It was controlled by computers, and spent quite some time carving grooves into her corneas. Somewhere during all of that, it sprayed a substance beneath her incision that created a tingling sensation she felt through the anesthetics, then she was blindfolded and led back to her cell.
That began an entire day of healing, but it also marked a welcome break from the constant pink light that flooded her cell. For the first time in her stay here, they allowed her a full night's worth of sleep. She even had dreams, although they all seemed to entail her working as a waitress or a maid for some demanding employer. Robin appeared in those dreams, not as a friend, but as an especially demanding customer who whined about how her feet hurt.
The next morning, Nurse Cerys removed her blindfold, and Lara found the difference bone-chilling.
She could see the woman's angelic face when it was just a few feet away from her face, but if she moved much farther than that and she seemed to dissolve into a pink fog. Added to this was a newly-developed nearsightedness. Even if the ever-present fog didn't grow thicker the more Lara tried to look into the distance, she still had an amazingly difficult time making out the woman's face. Squinting didn't seem to help, and the Tomb Liberator was especially concerned that even within this small cell she was having difficulties seeing clearly. What would the larger world look like?
She hurried over to the mirror, perturbed by how close she had to get to even see her own face clearly. Lara gasped when she noticed that her eyes looked completely strange! They were still grey, yes, but they had noticeable flecks of gold floating about around the iris - hypnotic things that looked a little like little golden leaves. They reminded her of something she would see in a snow globe.
"What - what is this?" Lara asked. It was beautiful, but in an otherworldly way, like she was some mythical nymph.
"It is a symbiotic colony of bacteria that reside atop the iris. They coalesce into different shapes, isn't it amazing? They say it provokes the appetite of whomever you make eye contact with, like it's the miracle cure for erectile dysfunction."
Lara couldn't believe such things existed. They were entrancing in a purely objectifying way, like she was a doll with a very specific purpose.
"But why the pink fog? Is that a temporary thing? And why can't I see very far - am I still recovering?"
"That's a side effect of the procedure. And no, it's permanent."
Lara felt a pit in her stomach at this news. She could barely see five feet in front of her - forget hunting for game and sneaking past guards. Practically anyone could get the drop on her.
"But it can be fixed with these proprietary glasses! Here,"
There wasn't much comfort in that. The glasses that Nurse Cerys handed her had large lenses and thick black frames, and they seemed to be made of glass. Odd, because nearly all eyeglasses were made of plastic these days for reasons of convenience.
When she put them on, she had to admit they accentuated her face nicely, but she looked like a sexy librarian! They only improved her vision slightly, for all that hassle. Sure, she could see Nurse Cerys's face, and they cut through the fog in the near distance at least. But she knew it was still there, just off a bit farther. This 'treatment' had effectively foreshortened her vision, and to an alarming extent.
The glasses threatened to fall down her face when she bowed her head even slightly, because their arms barely gripped her ears. It would take almost constant attention to keep them on - another subtle way that the institution was exerting its control over her. For how expensive they looked, she was certain that they would shatter instantly if they fell from her ski slope nose.
"Oh, and they will need to be polished very often with a proprietary gel, or they lose a lot of their effectiveness. We will get you some, but it's quite expensive and it must be kept in a special freezer to work."
Another jab to send the poor girl reeling! Already the glasses seemed like they were fogging - or was it her imagination? She could see it in her mind now: a new, nagging compulsion to tie up more of her time. A girl in the habit of meekly removing her bulky eyeglasses to reverently polish their surface, before putting them back on. And the freezer was just another layer of dependency! A subtle anchor to keep her tethered in a single place, for her constant need of refills. How could she possibly carry such a thing on an wilderness hike or an adventure? She fumed about it: trying to enjoy a winter forest or sweeping landscape, only to have the fog roll in and remind her that the institution didn't permit such things.
But to what end?
Nurse Cerys left her, and Lara had to leave the stupid glasses on to watch the smartscreen in her room. It was probably no more than an hour before the things had lost much of their effectiveness, and a pink fog cluttered her vision, lightly obscuring the small distance between her and the screen. There was nothing she could do about it, either, until Nurse Cerys came back and gave Lara a small plastic vial and a disposable eyeglass cleaning pad that was scarcely larger than her fingertip. It took the teenage girl quite some time to properly clean her glasses - at least ten minutes, and judging by the size of the pads, she would never manage to clean them much faster.
The institution responded by moving the smartscreen lower, since it was obviously impractical for Nurse Cerys to constantly give Lara more of the cleaning gel. This was worrisome. If this ritual with her glasses was impractical here, where she had basically nothing to do all day and a staff looking after her needs, how in the world would she fit this restrictive practice into her daily routine once she got home? Lara had to sit very near to the smartscreen when her glasses fogged up, her regal face no more than half a meter away from it, bathed in its bright lights and comforting images.
Was it her imagination, or did this help the screen dominate her thinking all the better?
She knew she should be more outraged, but this place did mess with her sense of reality. The march of days seemed to wear her down and make it difficult to rouse herself to meaningful action - she knew from the tattoo incident that any amount of resistance would be punished. Beyond that, the longer she stayed in this room the more her memories became jumbled and distant. The smartscreen was a blessing: she was sure she would have had a panic attack if not for its constant comfort. Whenever she felt anxiety or anger come on, it was so much easier to calm herself by stroking her tattoos and losing herself in whatever it showed.
To her great relief, the meeting with her uncle wasn't just an exercise in humiliation; apparently he did succeed i getting Lara into the educational program. Nurse Cerys had told her so, and had even said that she would have another interview with Doctor Wu. If that went well, she could start school the next day!
Lara was on pins and needles as she slipped on her straitjacket and stepped into the white micro panties that Nurse Cerys held open for her, although it was quite a task to keep her glasses on her face without being able to touch them at all. She adapted to this challenge by moving differently: keeping her head high and taking slow, measured steps. At this point, she was so starved for a challenge that even this absurd task provided relief.
This time, Lara readily sat down on the little wooden stool, and smiled sweetly at the doctor. Instead of using the ankle cuffs to keep her in place, this time Nurse Cerys stood behind her with one hand resting on either of her shoulders. It was wonderful to have the human contact, even if it was an obvious way of keeping her in her place.
"Well, your eyes look amazing! Even from here, they are quite beautiful... It's a little distracting!" the Asian woman quipped.
"Thanks...?" Lara answered. She found no joy in the fact that her eyes were so pleasing to the view. Could they 'awaken the appetite' of women too? She didn't like the look Dr. Wu was giving her.
"Well, we have reviewed your psychological profile, and we've drafted a personalized program just for you. And the tuition has been fully paid: your beneficiary was extremely concerned that you get the therapy that's... most suitable for your well-being. In fact, she even gave us 400,000!"
"Who was-" Lara began.
"She requested anonymity," the doctor said, "what generous friends you have! And believe me, she is helping you. You would kiss her feet in gratitude, if you knew what she spared you from."
The idea of kissing another woman's feet was an anathema for Lara. She wrinkled her pretty nose at the mere mention of it, even as the repugnant image bounced around her mind in the way that offensive ideas will.
Please, not Robin. A memory flitted through Lara's mind of when she and Robin were sharing a sofa and the girl had the audacity to try and rest her bare feet in Lara's lap. She said it was something friends do, but Lara knew that Robin would never in a million years permit someone else to use her as a foot rest! Then Lara thought of Robin's awful smirk she had whenever she got something she wanted - ugh!
"Anyway, Miss Galkowska will be your instructor," Dr. Wu continued, pronouncing the woman's name gal-cough-ska.
"Of all our instructors, she is probably the most severe. I know you might clash with her personality, but we think that you would grow under her."
"What is happening with my court case with Mrs. Liao?" Lara asked, feeling the sudden absence of Nurse Cerys's hands from her shoulders. She didn't dare to turn her head - or her glasses would certainly fall.
"Nothing - still delayed sixteen months, maybe more. Unless, you have re-considered her settlement? I will warn you: she is a bit angry you didn't accept her first offer. Her new terms are that you would still be her live-in domestic servant, but now as a permanent non-resident alien, and without any labour protections. She's old-school Taiwanese, like caning her servants for leaving the butter out, so you'd probably want those protections."
