———————- [for mcboss threads: tortured cyborg torturer brings out the whips. “boss says to try to free you guys, so i’m obeying him by torturing you more. this will help the rebels notice.” torturee: “it’s not your stupid secret language of deniability! he really means it!”] tortured cyborg torturer sub-boss: “i can’t take it on your word that now, after years of mind control, boss is somehow actually trying to free people. i’d be risking everything. i think freeing people is a great idea, so i suppose we might want to let the rebels know, just in case. but usually when boss says to free people, he means to punish them, or anybody who cares about them, for letting anyone find out they were enslaved.” torturee looks at TCTSB in fear TCTSB [starts crying]: “but honestly if we really are freeing everybody, i need therapy or something because i don’t know how to believe it!”