18:00

53 : Goodnight

Blurry.

That was the best way Fan could think to describe it. Blurry. It felt a bit too simple to be real, yet that was all it was. It felt like his eyes were just watery, or like he was looking through poorly mended glass. Not to mention how odd the pink tint to his vision was as well. Everything looked slightly more pink. Normally, it'd be easy to just ignore it, but when his entire sight depended on differentiating colors, it became a bit irritating.

He laid down on his back with a groan, trying to make out the ceiling above him. It was plain white, but even that was hard to tell. His eye was still sore, but at the very least it wasn't bleeding all over the place anymore. It was still numb from the anesthetic Test Tube gave him, so it felt odd.

"...Is your vision doing any better?"

Speaking of which, she was sitting off to the side in her office chair. She was currently updating her logs ( when was she ever not updating them? ), as she was waiting to see any sign of recovery from Fan.

"Oh yeah, my vision magically came back a couple minutes ago. Thanks for checking." Fan huffed sarcastically, already fed up with her being around.

She let out a small sigh, looking back down at her laptop. "...Fan, I'm sorry. You know I'd never do anything like this intentionally."

"That's not what I'm frustrated about." Fan grumbled, folding his arms. Test Tube looked back up at him, an almost curious expression on her face now.

"It's not?" She questioned.

"No! I mean, obviously I don't want to have my vision absolutely wrecked but... god, you just can't tell what I want, can you?" Fan said, burying his head in his arms. Though before he could get himself comfortable, he felt Test Tube pull his head straight back up again.

"You shouldn't put any pressure around your eyes until they're healed." Test Tube said firmly, before turning back around. Fan let out an irritated but understanding 'mhm' before looking back down.

Test Tube stepped back before pausing. "...I really am sorry."

"You can stop saying that, I know." Fan muttered, not returning her glance.

An awkward silence settled over the room, as Fan kept his back to Test Tube. For a moment, she considered just going back to her laptop, still having more to add to her notes. Though after a second thought, she hesitantly spoke up again. "I don't know what I'm doing wrong, Fan. Could you just tell me what you want me to do?"

Despite how soft she tried to lay the words down, Fan's entire body still tensed up as she spoke. He turned back to her, glaring. "You seriously don't realize what you're doing wrong?"

"No, I don't." Test Tube said. "I want to help you however you need, so-"

"How about you try helping someone else for a change?!" Fan shouted in a sudden outburst. His eyebrows were furrowed to a point that couldn't have been comfortable for his injured eye, yet that barely bothered him. "How about you do the subjects a favor? Or, I don't know, let them go? Is that too absurd of an idea to ask for?!"

For a split second, Test Tube only stared in shock. Fan felt his stomach drop, as he swore he recognized a glint in her eyes. Though soon enough, she spoke up as well.

"I already told you why I can't do that." Test Tube said.

"But you could!" Fan argued back. He tried to stand up for a moment, only for Test Tube to push him back down on the bed. "You- you just have to let them go! Just let them go back to their regular lives, where they should've been about now!"

"Hypothetically, I could do that, yes." Test Tube huffed, her patience slowly thinning as she intertwined her hands. "But I warned you about this. It's inertia, as I told you before."