“And, that's when he just decided to bring my work schedule up to my direct superior! Can you even believe the gall that man had, to do such a thing, right in front of my face?”

“Yes. Of course. How terrible. You are right, and the unspecific, maybe unmentioned person or thing is wrong”, Dr Hale uttered, not even giving Charlie the decency of looking upwards from her plate.

“Thank you”, Charlie loudly said. “If that man had even the slightest bit of decency, just like you, he would have never even tried to bring it to me personally. No! That man would have just-”

Why was Troy even listening to this? There should have been a reason for the starting interest, in whatever Charlie was attempting to convey to the two of them, but he couldn't for the life of him remember what.

It had to be interesting, in some sense of the word, originally. Otherwise, why had Troy even begun paying the words the slightest amount of curiosity?

“Sorry, just as a refresher”, Troy cut in, as Charlie looked to be making estimates with his fingers. “But, what were you talking about exactly? I have been trying to pay attention, but I'm not really following your whole train of words. I'm barely hanging on, as it is right now.”

Charlie scoffed at his words like these reactions were to be expected from one such as him. Troy was getting the vibe of a Victorian aristocrat, looking down on uncultured swine, which was unexpectedly specific, yet also so accurate in its depiction of reality.

“I hardly blame you”, Charlie huffed, with the puffiest tone, Troy had ever heard emerge from that mouth of his. “Understanding my deep and undertoned concepts and emotions is laborious for even me. For you… I did not expect you to have cognizance of my speaking.”

An overly fake wig and some white powder on the face would have served Charlie well. Troy wasn't sure if a big, fat, red nose would make the intentions too easy to see, at the same time, though.

“Cut the bit”, Dr Hale said from the sidelines of the unexpurgated explanation. “It isn't deserving of even Troy's attention. Mine neither, and it would make it so much easier to ignore if you discontinue the act entirely”

Troy felt mild aggression pointed his way. Though… he wasn't excessively curious to alert the aggressor of this fact. Instead, putting a larger galore of attention on his food seemed just right, to his survival instincts. As they said, only poke the bear with a stick if you're ready to part with your hands. And your left foot, if the bear is being extra grouchy.

“Oh, be reasonable now!”, Charlie exclaimed, with an unrestrained volume. He was not being careful, in who could hear him, and Charlie did not seem to give a lick of care in that direction. “That was a three out of ten, at a rock bottom of a crowd. Are you so self-conscious, such that you can't appreciate the wonder of post-postmodern creations!”

“I would prefer referring to it as a thing called 'having taste', but your description works fine too”, Dr Hale stated as one of her normal observations. “A helpful tip in your direction would be to acquire the same conditions, for your personal entertainment.”

Her words were like a needle, in the big balloon symbolizing Charlie's enjoyment. And his body seemed to deflate with it, with his head hitting just to the right of his plate, which was still loaded with an untouched portion on lasagna.

On that subject, Troy needed to put the food choices in this place into the centre of attention. This might just have been his lack of a full meal, for nearly the whole, last day, but the taste of the food just seemed heavenly, in comparison to the usual sludge, that Troy had been forced to put up with previously. Sure, prison food provided all you needed, but did a full-on steak not sound a little better? That's how Troy felt, with this freshly-made, positively steaming lasagna, compared to his usual cold, cheap and ready-made dinners. They fueled the physical part of the void, but only stretched the mental one.

Oh, just thinking about the ambience of this hot delicacy, made Troy take another, too large bite. It burned his tongue slightly, but he could not have cared less. The taste, oh god, the taste.

He emphatically moaned in pleasure, from what the tastebuds were sending in signals. This was just too good.

Charlie had stopped his whole tirade, about how his life of comedy had come to an end, looking over with an amused face at Troy. Not that Troy noticed, with his eyes closed. Less sensation just made the whole thing so much better.

“Could I have some, of what you're having, Troy?” Charlie asked, with a sly grin. “Cause, from what I've seen, you must have spiked yourself with something these last few minutes.”

“He hasn't”, Dr Hale pointed out, her expression faltering to one, which could be found on any normal, amused person. “I checked his vitals. Everything's on the normal, with no irregular chemical balances. That young man is having a lesser imitation of a zenith of mind, right in the middle of the cafeteria, without anything bringing him on to it.”

If he had been paying attention to the word spoken, odds were on Troy being offended by their a little too blatant insinuations. But, awareness of anything other than the glorious taste was sin, in his own mind. Anything unrelated to the relish of flavour was flushed from his thoughts, replaced with those best performing to his will. And that was focusing on the brilliant food in his mouth.

The cooking shows Troy had watched all the time when he was younger, were finally paying off, in that they allowed him to describe the perfect consistency, which the lasagna was built upon. A firm but not hard separator between the perfectly heated interior. Like a luxury house, everything was modelled to bring the most satisfaction out of the person owning it.

But could one really own something this perfect? Would it not be a crime, to refrain from spreading this magnificence?

“Oh, how I wish to even just aspire, to be like him,” Charlie rightly swooned. “His sheer focus on a topic is something grandmasters of their craft spend years perfecting. To say, that he had talent, would be an understatement.”

“Or we've been micro-dosing him with Adderall, since the moment he stepped inside the doors of this place”, Dr Hale suggested, with no amount of sarcasm to her words.

“What?”

“Something wrong?” Dr Hale asked, her voice a bit more confused than what she normally let come out. “You were about to say something.”

“Oh, no, I'm not ignoring that part, in any way. Your mind trick won't work like last time”, Charlie began, his body moving slightly further across the table than what was socially allowed. “You just said a joke. A real, ironic joke. Sure, it was terrible, but it could bring in a hiss of air from the nose, with some demographics. You, my costly, stoic friend, have an unexplored talent, which I have never seen in you so readily before.”

Dr Hale sighed, most likely to appease the mind of her consciousness with the plenty stressing environment around her.

“I'll give you five credits, if you can swap out Troy's lasagna with spaghetti, without him noticing,” Dr Hale extended out of nowhere, with a challenging tone.

Charlie just looked at her.

“Somehow, I know exactly what you're trying to pull, but the simple incentive of you giving me worthless money is just too enticing for me to resist,” Charlie said, with a deeply humbled tone of speaking. “Truly, you have shown your mastery in the arts of mind.”

'Adam, would you mind, if we continued our discussion from yesterday?', Dr Fidelis sent to Adam.

He had been waiting on this message for a longer period of time. Truthfully speaking, Adam had even expected to receive it doing last night's escapade. But, for an unknown reason, Dr Fidelis had decided to cut all regular communication with him for approximately the last twelve hours.

There could be any number of reasons, for why Dr Fidelis had chosen that isolated chain of actions. Adam had a larger amount of conjectures on, why it was so, but he still was not completely sure on, which was correct.

The original idea, on why Dr Fidelis had chosen this group of actions, had primarily been on a social focus. If Adam had been in the same metaphorical shoes as Dr Fidelis, he would've likely chosen the same actions as well. When trying to get something out of a person, asking multiple times, is the safest way to, for most of the reactions unspecified. But, asking repeatedly, in a smaller amount of time, was just asking for one to grow frustrated. Therefore, if one wanted one single thing from the same person, the best strategy to do so would be to wait a longer amount of time between requesting said thing.

Dr Fidelis seemed to have pushed this mentality to a more extreme kind, waiting nearly half a day between making these requests.

The fact that he cut off all other communication, while at it, only further proved Adam's theory. This would be called the 'carrot and stick' solution if his pre-known information was to be trusted. It was a simple system. Say, that Person A wants a specific outcome from Person B consistently. Not just a one-time thing, but something that can be done, per se, asked to do so. Person A will systematically reward or punish Person B in an unspecified manner for how close he got to the specific outcome. This will unconsciously train Person B to generate only minor resistance if done correctly when asked to perform this well-defined outcome.

Pushing this theory over to Adams current situation, he theorized that the treatment of silence was to be relayed as a punishment for not answering questions. It would make sense for Dr Fidelis to do so if he only had firm results in mind.

Or… Adam could just be overthinking it all, and the true reason for Dr Fidelis' silence was to give him space, needed to perform his personal projects. Statically, it could be either.

'It would be of no hindrance to me.', Adam sent out, after a customary waiting time of one point six seconds. The average amount of time taken by others, to answer, during a regular conversation. He still wasn't sure why they waited so long, to start a vocal response, but he was sure he would understand it soon.

But, Dr Fidelis didn't seem to be following these social customs himself, taking nearly thirty seconds, before any worthwhile data came flowing out of the source.

'Great to hear, buddy! Anything you want to ask yourself before I get into it all?', Dr Fidelis sent out, with the length of the message not making sense, with the time taken to type it. What was he doing, while they were communicating?

And, going away from his questions about the time taken, was there something Adam would want to ask, with the questions having to branch out from their previous conversation last night?

… There wasn't too much Adam was wondering about. And, those few things he would likely get answered by Dr Fidelis, as they went along with the questions.

'No, I don't, You can proceed, with your inquiries.', Adam answered quickly.

'Even better to hear! First off, I think we left off, with you not answering, what age you would prefer the body being. How about we just start on that note?'

This time, Dr Fidelis took nearly no time at all to answer. Zero-point eight seconds, to be exact. Adam comparisons, with earlier data, made the speed vary greatly, with the typing speed now being beyond anything, he had noticed before. How was he doing so? A question to ask, when the opportunity arose to bring it into the conversation seamlessly.

Now, the focus should be on the questions asked to him. What age would Adam prefer? Again, like the gender question, he could go the way that the people perceived him to be, or the way that was most advantageous from a learning standpoint.

Let's start with a learning standpoint. To learn the best, the body must be in the most optimal position in the curve. It needed to be at the prime age of bodily functions, with the best, fully developed nerve system, brain function, and muscle stature. According to another estimate from his pre-known knowledge, this put the preferred age at twenty-three to twenty-six, where everything was fully mature, without the gradual decline having begun yet.

That was the leaning standpoint at least.

If Adam chose, from the pure perception of how others already saw him, it would put his body at the age of… How old, did others perceive him to be? That was a good question. Adam needed information, from an outside perspective, if he was to answer the question, as best as he could.

'Dr Fidelis, before I answer your question, I need some background information about your personal perception, so I can answer your question as best as I can. What age-group would you place me in?', Adam sent to Dr Fidelis. It would have worked better, if he had the option, to ask Troy about his opinions about it, as well. Getting a more rounded average seemed favourable since he would be working with both of them for a long time more, and just getting an answer from a single source may contradict the opinions of the second, unquestioned source.

'Eh, that's a hard question to ask me. If we're talking purely from how long I've known of you, I would place you at the three-to-five age group. But, that doesn't really work, with how I've been treating you this past while. With that mentality, I would personally put you in the higher teens, like eighteen nineteen. Enough to be treated as an adult, but not yet a very knowledgeable adult.', Dr Fidelis sent, after a short pause of stillness.

Adam could work with that.

In conclusion, there were two numbers to work with. The best age to have the body be in would be about twenty-four years old, from a statistical standpoint. For just keeping the mental pictures, which others had of him, having the body be around eighteen would be best. Now, without thinking too much about it, the smartest thing to here would be to simply combine the two numbers into their average, and take that as the most valid answer.

But, that would invalidate the point of, keeping up the mental images. Sure, the presumed mental age wouldn't be too different, but it would differ nonetheless. Something that was not seen as a positive in these circumstances.

Thinking some more about the advantages of each choice, Adam finally settled on just picking out the ripe age of eighteen. With this choice, Adam was picking the best long-term option he could. It both allowed him to keep up the image others thought of him as, and avoid the complication that damaging that image would cause, while also having the ability to learn optimally later in the bodies life. Like any other body, Adam was presuming this hypothetical body would age as well, turning into the optimal learning build after just a couple of years. Having access to it early on would also let him test out some of his hypothesis about nerve development, which he had gained from working with Troy these last few days.

With the ending choice made, Adam finally relayed the information over to Dr Fidelis.

'Then, my answer will be eighteen, as the preferred age of the body.'

'Good to hear. That was all the questions I had about that specific topic, for today.', Dr Fidelis sent back.

Wait. What? That couldn't be.

'Are you saying, that we are completely done, with this branch of knowledge?', Adam asked, through the source-line.

'Yes. The lack of further questions was the reason, that I wanted you to answer this one. We had been so close to being done yesterday.', Dr Fidelis answered.

This was… disappointing, to Adam. He hadn't been expecting many more questions, but a few more would not have been too much of hindrance to complete.

'Answer is confirmed.', Adam sent, not really feeling like putting too much effort into answering. Was this the disappointment he had felt some time ago? It felt like it, at the very least.

'Well, if you want to talk some more, there has been another topic, which I've been thinking about broaching with you.', Dr Fidelis stated after a few seconds.

This took the attention right back on track.

'What would that subject be?', Adam asked. He had more than a little interest in it, with that kind of lead up.

'I would like to talk about Troy with you. What have you been talking to him about, outside of the testing times?'