Whatever was below PTSD; Troy had it. His body shuddered as the things, which he had seen, rapidly running through his mind, with no end in sight.

It had been hell. A wet hell. Then, a cold hell. After that, a hot hell.

The test had just been getting on and on and on. Troy thought it would never stop. With the amount of time wasted at each environment being well over ten full minutes, one would surmise there being a general maximum of twelve or so environments. It couldn't go on for longer than that, without violating some worker's rights... right?

Troy realized how wrong his assumption had been when they neared fifteen full descriptions. But, then, it would likely end at the clean twenty cuts, of course. No chance of it going longer than that!

… right?

Wrong.

The number of total minutes gone through, to finally end the suffering, which Adam had referred to as 'completely testing', had been over four hours worth of minutes. Any normal test only took two hours, plus-minus thirty minutes. If they expected him to go inside any more today, they would be getting something, which Troy would refer to as a 'polite declining.' Gruesome, he knew

As he stepped out of the puzzle room and making sure, that he had actually gone out of it, by touching the metal railing, his shoulders finally relaxed. They had been so tense, since the ocean at the very start. Troy just knew he would be paying for his tenseness tomorrow morning.

Standing the bottom of the few steps, which Troy needed to go down, to reach the floor, was Dr Fidelis, looking more than a bit sheepish.

“Good work, in there”, Dr Fidelis said, putting an appreciative voice on. It wasn't effective. . “I just knew you could do it.”

Troy didn't bat an eye, at the way he was currently acting. Already, he had played this exact scenario through his mind countless times. During the test, of course, and not in the few seconds of silence that passed. His mind wasn't up to such things anymore

“Your last sentence implies, that you knew that this would happen”, Troy accused him, as he took the first step down the short stairs. His tone was eerily calm. Could it be called… the calm before the storm?

… No?

“I suspected it,” Dr Fidelis defended. “With the lowered senses, which could be analyzed, I didn't think Adam would be spending too much time on each environment. There shouldn't have been enough data to occupy him for so long.”

“Yet, he did,” Troy threw right back, taking the second step down the stairs. At this point, with one step left, the two were equal in height, their eyes meeting. “Mind explaining why?”

The slightly uncomfortable face, on Dr Fidelis, vanished, replaced with gleeful appreciation. Troy just knew he had messed the suspense up when he asked him an analytical question.

“Well, buddy, there could, in fact, be several great reasons, for why Adam took so long”, Dr Fidelis proclaimed, any prior uncomfortableness wiped cleanly off the mind. “As the first guess, I'm thinking, that he was double, or even triple, checking every single thing around him. This theory does have some basis in the intentional design of the environments.

The simulations, which you saw, weren't even close to being static. They flowed, with some part always moving, just like it would be in real life. No looping animations were present anywhere. To my knowledge, this isn't something Adam has ever experienced before, so it is a great reason for his more than slow time-taking in each landscape if you can call them that.

Another theory could have been his frustrations, with not being able to use your other senses, when the inspection was taken on the simulations. The mentions of sight and hearing were the main methods used, in the descriptions made by Adam, which further proves the point. Throughout the test, I'm thinking, that you did get some rather unusual requests from him. I still don't understand what you were told, when you began shouting about tow jocks helping you file a big quiz. But, I'm just filling those eccentricities down as 'unusual learning methods'.

And, there is, of course, a final reason, for why Adam took so long, in the testing environments. I've even put it into a graph, just for my own pleasure.

Through most of the test, Adam wasn't analysing the environments, Troy. He was analysing you. The suit, which you're still fashionably sporting, measures everything we can scan, as stated before. It puts it all in nice little graphical collages, for me and Dr Hale's viewing pleasures.

During the test, other things get put in graphs as well. Its mostly inconsequential stuff, like how many breaths you take, how many steps, how many times you scratch your… nose. Things that we don't have to worry too much about. But, more general things get put in too. The most important of which is the timing on, how long Adam takes to answer the questions.

Here, there comes a pattern. In each environment, where anything about you rises, Troy, the amount of time it takes for the segment to be completed increases just as much. In the beginning, I surmised this to be a fault of your making. Nervous people don't act as quickly as those who are calm.

And, that was true in your case as well. But, it didn't hold up to the level that the segment was being delayed. Something else was making Adam take longer in his processing.

That was where it all came together. With so little to think about, with the few senses, that Adam had in his utility, he decided to focus more on you, Troy, than on the things you saw and heard. You turned out to be more interesting, than the literal sea's of content, which Adam had at his disposal.

Now, isn't that just interesting? It's why I'm putting my bets, on the last one being the true reason.”

Dr Fidelis' words made Troy hesitate in an immediate comeback, his desire to shape the atmosphere to the earlier suspenseful mood ruined.

The amount of information, which Dr Fidelis had about his actions were beginning to be staggeringly obvious. He now knew more about Troy than he did about himself. Should he be scared, due to that?

If Troy, at this moment, while wearing the suit, lied to him, would Dr Fidelis be able to tell it? Could he pull up a few statistics on his screen, cross-reference it with earlier tests, and find out the validity of it?

The thought of it was spine-chilling. Troy needed to get himself out of this thing?

“Sure,” Troy said, trying very hard not to react to his own thoughts too much, “Is there any way, that I could get myself a private place, to put this on next time? You two were right, in these boxers being too large for the suit.”

Dear Apollyon, the last two hours had been terrible. Halfway through the test, Troy had done himself in by taking a quick stretch, to get his limbs back to normal functionality.

During this stretch out, he had leaned forward, making the skin suit force the boxers to find a new place to be. Troy had been forced to continue wearing the suit for another two hours.

But, now, he finally had the means to get the thing off. He just needed Dr Fidelis to press a button, which wasn't at Troy's disposal, and the whole thing would stretch, making it possible for him to easily get out of it.

Dr Fidelis knew exactly, what kind of pain Troy was in, and he was showing how much humour he found in it, on his face.

“Really?” Dr Fidelis asked, with mock shock. “What reasoning do you have, for such a request? Do you not find your current inner-attire to be as comfortable, as you previously thought it would be? Was our, professionally-backed advice actually not just personal opinion, and was instead a straight-out fact about the design?”

He was enjoying it a bit more than Troy liked it. Yet, he had expected this exact reaction to coming from him.

“We can have it installed overnight”, Dr Hale finally said, after Dr Fidelis couldn't hold himself together enough, to actually answer. “It can be filed down as a 'generally-required work amenity', and the budget won't have to take the hit. It will be fully paid for, by management.”

“Are you sure that we can do that again, Dr Hale?” Dr Fidelis asked, getting out of his happy daze unusually quick. It showed that he could have done so, at any point in time, but just didn't do so. “After the last structural build, do you think they will just let a bot approve anything, which we sent their way?”

Dr Hale looked over her older notes, before nodding in affirmation.

“If we use some of the more confusing language algorithms, they won't have any choice, but to send it over to their bots. From previous instances, it does not seem like they have cracked our current code yet,” Dr Hale stated.

Troy was not too sure that their current conversation was up to his personal standards, of what should be discussed during legal work hours, but maybe that was just him.

“Splendid work”, Dr Fidelis said, before taking his attention back on Troy. “We might just be able to manage it for tomorrow. I can already say, that we will be doing more tests than usual. We have a tight schedule set up, and we're already behind.”

What a shame. Nothing to do about it.

Troy went slightly over to the side, ready for Dr Fidelis to release him from his personal, tightly held hell.

“Yet…”, Dr Fidelis said. He already knew he wouldn't like, what would be said. “Maybe, if we just do another test, right now, we could-”

“Sorry to break in again, sir”, Dr Hale cut in, not sounding sorry at all. “But, due to the longer amount of time, which Troy resided inside the puzzle room, he is legally not allowed inside for another… eight hours, where, at least, two hours have been spent sleeping.”

This seemed to dishearten Dr Fidelis, yet also excite Troy as well. The law had protected him, yet again.

“How terrible,” Dr Fidelis said. His face didn't show off the disappointed face, which Troy had planned for, though. It showed a face… which was deep in thought. “Well, you heard the lady, Troy. Get out of your silly costume, and get to bed.”

He was planning something! Troy just knew it.

Dr Fidelis pulled out the remote, which he had used before, pointing it at Troy. A button was pressed, and his suit released it held over him, with a slight mechanical hiss.

Oh, how Troy just wanted to sag down in relief. It took all of his willpower to stay standing, and not slap his body into a puddle on the ground.

…

Nevermind. The invitation of not using his legs was simply too alluring. His body disobeyed him, untighten all the muscles in his body, and falling to the ground because of it. He had been hoping to hold up his feeble facade of confidence. Yet, all just seemed to be against Troy today.

“Please control yourself, Dr Fidelis”, Troy heard Dr Hale say from the side. It didn't take a genius to figure out, what was happening out of his peripheral. And, he couldn't even blame him too much. Troy would have laughed at a half-naked man falling to the ground in a bundle as well.

At least, Dr FIdelis had the decency of not making his laughs too pronounced from behind him.

“Of course”, Dr Fidelis nearly stuttered, loudly trying to cough his giggles away. “Do get up now, Troy. When I say, that you need to get yourself some sleep, I am hinting at you sleeping in your bed, and not just on the floor. Trust me, now. I've slept on this floor before, myself, and it does not take mercy on your joints.” Troy should just continue his laying. His bed did not change its opinion to letting his back off.

Nevertheless, after some more angry mumbling, Troy did get off the ground. He shook the last bits of the skinsuit off himself, with some very creative leg wriggling.

Seeing Troy finally get up on his two feet again, Dr Hale looked at her watch, before noting down the time.

“Troy”, Dr Hale began her statement, sounding more irritated than her usual tone of voice would normally allow. “Was your head-first diving to the cold floor strategically planned? And, if so, what did you plan to get out of doing so?”

She was the one chastising Dr Fidelis for her behaviour, yet she was no better herself, tormenting Troy for things which he couldn't do anything against.

“I can't reasonably say, that I planned on giving myself red marks today”, Troy answered as a bitter remark. “Not from the hard ground, at the very least.”

Dr Hale noted down something Troy could see was only a three-letter word, before giving a nod to Dr Fidelis, to show she was done.

“The suit may have to be loosened slightly”, Dr Hale said. “While it is not by a massive amount, there is likely a notable pressure to his skin, making circulation harder for the muscles, once the suit is taken off. This may work against us in… future tests.”

This made Dr Fidelis' expression harden more by a smaller amount. How terrible it all was when it would hinder future tests! Troy felt a small bit betrayed, with how little care there was for him.

“How long, at an estimate, before the tightness of the suit become problematic?” Dr Fidelis asked.

“More than six hours of continuous use will cause momentary loss of leg use, while the skinsuit is still attached. Blood flow will simply be too hindered,” Dr Hale answered.

When exactly were they planning to have him use that damned suit for more than six hours, at a time? Four hours had nearly made Troy lay down while the test was ongoing. Any more, and he would be falling over from the sheer amount of time it would take.

“That wouldn't turn out good,” Dr Fidelis said, as a matter of factly. “It's settled, then. We'll just have to do a little slave labour level of work and make the designers work a little overtime overnight. I'm sure they won't mind when we throw a few bonuses their way. Can we make management pay for that, as well?”

“I'm not sure, sir,” Dr Hale said. “We'll have to check the manuals for that.”

“That'll take a lot of the time we have left. Troy, you can go. Be sure to get some sleep.”

He didn't need any more approval, hastily taking on his clothes, and getting the heck out of there. Troy did not want to be there, while they did questionably legal things.

Had he really been getting the good end of the deal, with those two as his superiors?