Chương 227: Book 4 Chapter 7.1: The Elephant in the Room

"Should I be worried?" Why would you be worried?" Kim said.

"Dean Lichman loves us." Dean Lichman had asked the two of them to stop by his office, though his brief message had not said what for. That left Vell to concoct nightmare scenarios in his head.

"He doesn't love all of us."

"Alex doesn't count as 'us'," Kim said. She was a looper in purely a technical sense, mostly due to her own refusal to be a team player.

"Besides, she's been behaving lately. She's only been an asshole, not an active liability."

"That we know of."

"If we don't know about it, Dean probably doesn't either," Kim said.

"It's fine, Vell, he probably just wants to ask us for advice or deal with some problem he has."

"That's not much better," Vell said.

"How weird would things have to be that the Dean is asking us for help personally?"

"Only one way to find out," Kim said. She gestured to the door to the Dean's office. Kim entered first, and found it in much the same state as it always was. The desk piled high with paperwork, a small bowl of assorted candies shoved into the corner of the desk, and Dean Lichman behind it, frantically tapping away on a laptop. Vell had not been in this office for several years, and it was vastly different than the last time he'd been here.

"Ah, there you are, come in, have a seat," Dean Lichman said.

"Unless you'd rather we have our conversation elsewhere, Vell."

"Why would I want that?"

"Well, it's my understanding you haven't been in this office since my, uh, predecessor," Dean Lichman said.

"Oh, right, the kidnapping," Vell said.

"No, I'm good, I don't really get traumatized by things anymore." Vell had been killed too many different ways in too many different places to have a functional trauma response. A few days ago he'd gotten his legs chewed off by a vending machine, and still stopped by it to pick up a soda on his way to the office.

"That's a very concerning response, Mr. Harlan."

"Yeah. Anyway, what did you need?" Dean Lichman gestured for the duo to take a seat, and both did so. He folded desiccated hands in front of himself before beginning to speak.

"I would like to ask you two to take a look at an experiment that will be occurring later this week," Dean Lichman said.

"I don't have any reason to believe it poses a threat, but I would like to be assured it is a safe and ethical environment, and, well, you two have a knack for identifying trouble spots."

"You could say that," Kim said. It was more accurate to say that trouble had a way of identifying them -and then leaping at them and ripping their heads off.

"I'd appreciate it if the two of you could simply examine the laboratory and give it your approval, or disapproval, as the case may be," Dean Lichman said.

"Though if you're too busy, I fully understand."

"If you don't think this is dangerous, why are you asking for our help anyway?"

"Simply for my own peace of mind, frankly," Dean Lichman said.

"The school's policies on animal experimentation are... satisfactory, I suppose, but I do want to take extra precautions when the subject is a creature as smart as an elephant."

"An elephant?"

"Yes, a resident of a reserve in Thailand," Dean Lichman said.

"An older elephant by the name of Mae Noi. She has cancer, apparently, and she is submitting to experimental treatment in the hopes it will be useful for younger elephants." Kim's digital face briefly flashed with a facial expression of concerned skepticism."'She' is submitting to treatment? As in the elephant?"

"Yes. Apparently the elephant can talk," Dean Lichman said.

"No, I don't know how it works, they said it was 'more impressive in person'."

"Well now I kind of want to go just to see the talking elephant," Vell said.

"Same."

"Well, do try to take a few glances at the experiment's safety while you're there," Dean Lichman said.

"Sounds like a plan," Vell said.

"Thanks for the heads up."

"I'll be there too," Kim said.

"Excellent. Thank you both, and I'll try not to take up too much of your time," the Dean said. He then bid them both a polite goodbye and returned to his mountains of paperwork. Vell took a step out of the office and then took a sip from the soda he'd recently retrieved from the evil vending machine.

"So, what do you think?"

"I think I really do want to see the talking elephant," Kim said.

"Obviously, yeah, we all want to see the talking elephant," Vell said.

"I mean the whole situation. You think the elephant thing is going to be the daily apocalypse for that day?"

"Well, on the one hand, an elephant seems like the kind of thing that would kill us," Kim said.

"But on the other, I feel like the fact we have advance warning means it's not going to happen."

"True. The universe probably wouldn't make it that easy for us."

"Yeah, but the elephant thing still feels pretty threatening," Kim said.

"Only way to find out is to wait a few days, I guess." A FEW DAYS LATER"Hello you two," Dean Lichman said.

"And Hawke."

"Hey," Hawke said.

"He also wanted to see the talking elephant," Kim explained.

"Well, that's not a problem, it was an open invitation," Dean Lichman said.

"Thanks. Still, sorry for not saying I was going to show up in advance," Hawke said.

"It took me a long time to make up my mind whether I was more interested in or afraid of a talking elephant."

"They are rather large, aren't they? I suppose that could be intimidating."

"I'm okay with elephants on their own, it's the talking part that doesn't sit right with me," Hawke said.

"What if the elephant doesn't like me? What if I'm the first person to ever get insulted by an elephant?"

"You're less afraid of getting trampled by an elephant than insulted by one?"

"I'm a little afraid of trampling, but elephants are chill," Hawke explained.

"They wouldn't attack unless provoked. I kind of feel like one might call me a dipshit unprovoked, though."

"You have oddly specifics fears, Mr. Hughes," Dean Lichman said.

"Yeah." In spite of those fears, Hawke happily stepped through the door to the zoology lab. It did not take a long time to locate the elephant in the room, as it was a literal elephant. The towering pachyderm was in a makeshift pen in the center of the lab, with an ample supply of food and a strange pedestal in front of her.

"Dr. Chanthara," Dean Lichman said, with a polite wave to one of the researchers in the room.

"Good to see you. These are the students I told you about."

"Hm. Nice to meet you," Dr. Chanthara said. He was, perhaps not unreasonably, skeptical of why three seemingly random students were in charge of a safety inspection. The fact that one of the three was a robot made him even more skeptical.

"Hi, nice to meet you too, and, uh, don't mind us," Vell said.

"We just have an eye for weird things other people might miss."

"Sure. I- wait. Aren't you that kid who got chosen by a god?"

"Yeah, that's me," Vell said.

"And her too, technically." Kim shrugged. She didn't care for any extra attention on that point.

"Right," Chanthara said. He was beginning to see why these students might know their stuff.

"I suppose we should start by introducing you to Mae Noi. Say hello, Mae." The elephant shifted on her feet and poked her trunk at the wide pedestal in front of her twice.

"Hello. Friends," a synthesized voice droned. Vell stepped a little closer to the pedestal, just enough to see that there were an array of buttons on the side facing Mae Noi.

"Oh, it's kind of like a keyboard," Vell said. He'd seen similar things used with dogs, though usually in a much simpler fashion. Mae Noi seemed to have a few dozen buttons at her disposal.

"Smart," Mae Noi said, with another prod of her trunk.

"We initially put it into our sanctuary as a bit of a novelty, something elephants could choose to interact with," Dr. Chanthara explained.

"Mae Noi took to it a bit better than most. Especially once she found out she could use it to ask for food."

"Food. Pumpkin. Pumpkin. Pumpkin."

"No, Mae, no food until after experiment," Dr. Chanthara scolded.

"Experiment," Mae Niko said with a prod.

"Pumpkin."

"Yes, experiment then pumpkin," Dr. Chanthara said.

"That's not really a talking elephant, is it?" Hawke said.

"It's more talking than most elephants," Dr. Chanthara said.

"Elephant. Smart," Mae Niko said.

"Smart."

"Yes, uh, right, elephant smart," Hawke said. He took a step back, to avoid any further offense and any further risk of being insulted by Mae Noi.

"You're very impressive, Mae, don't mind him," Kim said.

"How many words does she know?"

"Our platform back home has around three hundred words, though she's still learning some of them," Dr. Chanthara said.

"The 'travel' version we put together only has a hundred, just enough to make sure she can get her basic needs met and communicate about the experiment."

"Right, speaking of, I do believe we should put some time into our reason for being here," Dean Lichman interjected.

"You're welcome to stick around afterwards, at Dr. Chanthara and Mae Noi's discretion, of course, but we should get underway."

"We probably should get to business, yeah," Kim said. She tapped the side of her metal head.

"I'm going to scan the lab. Vell, you talk to the elephant and make sure everything's above-board."

"Abov- oh, right," Vell said.

"Sorry, not exactly used to being able to ask animals if they agree to animal experimentation."

"Experiment," Mae said.

"Yeah, experiment," Vell said, as he turned to Mae.

"So, Mae Noi, this experiment might hurt, do you know that?"

"Experiment. Hurt. Elephant," Mae Noi prodded.

"Experiment. Help. Elephant. Help. Baby."

"Help baby?"

"Baby. Baby. Elephant. Sick. Baby. Sick."

"We've explained the nature of her condition to Mae Noi as best we can," Dr. Chanthara said.

"She has several children, and is concerned they might be similarly affected."

"Help. Baby," Mae Noi said.

"Experiment. Help." The way Mae Noi frantically tapped the buttons tugged at Vell's heartstrings, but he choked those emotions down.

"So you want to do this experiment to help baby, got it," Vell said.

"Even if it hurts you?"

"Elephant. Old," Mae Noi said.

"Hurt. Okay. Help. Baby."

"Huh. Well, that does sound like informed consent to me," Vell said.

"Passes ethical muster, at least." The campus rules allowed students to be experimented on, with their consent, so Vell saw no reason not to apply the same standard to an elephant.

"You speak up if you change your mind about the experiment, okay?"

"Stop. Stop. Stop," Mae said, mashing the same button a few times.

"Yes."

"You got it. I'm going to go help my friends check things out," Vell said.

"Good talking to you, Mae."

"Good. Talk. Friend," Mae said. She waved goodbye with her trunk, and Vell waved back. He wandered away from Mae Noi's pedestal and found Kim and Hawke carefully examining rows of beakers and various other supplies.

"Nothing sus yet, boss," Hawke said.

"Nothing caustic, mutagenic, or explosive?"

"Well, something mutagenic, but it's supposed to be," Kim said. She had scanners built into her body much like those that had once been in Vell's glasses, allowing her to analyze the complex chemical formulas at a glance.

"They're going for some gene editing similar to what we've tried to do on human cancer patients. Low success rate, but not harmful. Some adaptations to work on elephants, of course." If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"Run it by any of our chemistry and biology student friends yet?"

"A few," Kim said.

"Haven't gotten anything back yet, though."

"Maybe run it by Skye, too," Vell said.

"She'd recognize anything that'd mutate an animal."

"She does love to mutate things," Kim said.

"Benevolently," Vell insisted.

"Just show her. I'm going to check for any stray equipment." The presence of an unusually large test subject had resulted in the lab being rearranged and reshuffled, so Vell did a quick scan for any misplaced equipment that might pose a threat. He found, to his surprise, a tidy and well-organized environment, with any and all extraneous materials securely locked away. There wasn't so much as a shrink ray out of place. Vell did another loop just to be sure, but returned to his friends empty-handed.

"This place has less safety hazards than my lab," Vell said. Hawke stared at him for a while.

"Why does your lab have safety hazards?'

"I do runecarving, there's like, hammers and chisels," Vell said.

"Those can hurt people."

"Mm, true," Hawke said.

"So you really didn't find anything?"

"Nothing," Vell said.

"This place is secure as I've ever seen a lab be."

"It's like I said," Kim began.

"We got an actual warning about it, so obviously nothing's going to go wrong. That'd be too easy."

"Maybe," Vell said.

"Things can get teleported in, or someone could cast a spell, or something."

"Yeah, but that applies to anywhere, at any time," Kim said.

"Kim's right," Hawke said.

"I say we go business as usual."

"I guess," Vell said.

"We have to branch out a little, at least. Can't keep an eye on one room all day." The trio stopped sulking around the outskirts of the lab and returned to Dean Lichman and Dr. Chanthara.

"Everything looks good," Kim said.

"Probably the safest lab I've ever seen."

"I'll choose to take that as a compliment," Dr. Chanthara said.

"We have very high safety standards here at the Einstein-Odinson," Dean Lichman said, defensively.

"Relatively speaking. Innovation requires some risk."

"I understand perfectly. So does Mae."

"Hurt. Okay," Mae said.

"Not that okay," Vell said.

"Nice meeting you, Dr. Chanthara. You too, Mae."

"Wait." Mae prodded one of the buttons on her pedestal and then pointed her trunk at the three of them. Hawke looked deeply concerned, but stepped forward alongside Vell and Kim. Mae Noi appraised them with massive brown eyes, and then moved her trunk back towards the pedestal. Vell noticed a distinctive scar on the bridge of her long nose just as Mae Noi pressed another button.

"Joke."

"... Joke?" Dr. Chanthara sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Just go along with it," he said.

"She likes to tell her joke."

"Uh, okay," Vell said.

"Let's hear it."

"What. Elephant. Favorite. Part. Tree."

"Umm... I don't know, Mae," Vell lied. He'd heard this joke from a kid, once.

"What part?"

"Trunk," Mae said. She gave a loud bray of amusement and then slammed her trunk down a few more times to emphasize the punchline.

"Trunk. Trunk."

"Oh, ha, I get it," Kim said, hoping her feigned laugh was convincing. She'd never tried to lie to an elephant before.

"Good one, Mae." Mae Noi shifted from side to side, looking pleased with herself, while the trio took a step back and stopped their feigned laughter.

"Did you give her buttons just to tell that joke with?"

"She gets upset," Dr. Chanthara said.

"I'm not even sure she understands the pun, she just likes people's reactions."

"As long as she's having fun," Hawke said.

"We'll get out of your hair now," Vell said.

"Good luck with the experiment, feel free to let us know if you need a hand with anything."

"I'll keep it in mind," Dr. Chanthara said. Some of his earlier skepticism seemed to have softened, but he did not seem entirely onboard with three strangers mucking about with his experiment. Vell and his friends left before they stretched what little goodwill they had any further. Mae Noi waved her trunk goodbye as the three left the lab and stepped back onto the quad.

"I'm going to try and sneak some classes in," Hawke said.

"Later."

"I'll check some of our usual hot spots," Kim said, before she too left. Once again alone, Vell headed to one of his own classes, and called up Samson.

"Hey, Samson," Vell began.

"See anything interesting while we were playing with the elephant?"

"Well, I thought I clocked someone acting suspicious, but it turns out he was only sneaking around to go see his boyfriend," Samson said.

"Nothing apocalyptic, but I did get called a homophobe, which is pretty emotionally devastating."

"I'm sure you'll recover someday," Vell said.

"Keep an eye out. Usually the safer things look, the more dangerous things end up being."

"Will do," Samson said, before saying goodbye and hanging up. Vell got increasingly nervous the longer the day went without its daily disaster. He thought about checking in on Mae Noi again, but then recalled Kim's warning about it being too obvious, but then remembered that nobody had seen anything suspicious anywhere else, but then remember that Mae Noi's lab had looked perfectly safe-"Vell."

"Huh?"

"You're spiraling," Kim said.

"I'm not spiraling, I'm just," Vell said, with a pause for contemplation.

"Considering multiple options."

"In a spiral fashion," Kim said.

"Eat the damn french fries. Honestly, what's the point of ordering so many if you're just going to let them get cold?"

"It's not like they're going to go to waste," Vell said. The same time loop that allowed him to eat massive amounts of french fries without fear of gaining weight also allowed him to avoid food waste. One of the upsides of life in a time loop.

"Just eat, Vell," Kim said.

"You worry too much about all this shit."

"I'm in charge, it's my job to worry about it," Vell said.

"It's your job to handle it," Kim said.

"There's no point thinking about this shit before it happens, you spend all day thinking about an elephant and then the universe drops, like, a bat with tentacles on your head. Just deal with as it comes, Vell." Vell leaned on the table and managed to chomp down on a french fry or two.

"You know, next year, when I'm not running the show anymore, I'm going to call and see if you still think it's that easy."

"I sure hope so," Kim said.

"I'm saying all this shit trying to make myself believe it too."

"Oh good, you're lying to both of us," Vell said.

"That's cool."

"Fake it 'til you make it, Vell, that's how it goes," Kim said.

"Eat your damn french fries." Vell rolled his eyes and returned to his fries, which were now starting to cool. Thankfully he would not have to worry about finishing them. A loud crash from across campus interrupted him mid-bite and nearly made Vell choke on his fries. He painfully swallowed the half-chewed food and then looked over his shoulder.

"Son of a bitch, finally," Vell said. A few years ago he'd found it weird whenever he was relieved about a disaster, but now he was just genuinely glad to get it over with. The waiting was as killer as the apocalypse. He tossed his fries in the trash and headed toward the sound of chaos, with Kim right behind him.

"Already told everybody?"

"Well, I may or may not have left Alex and Helena out of the loop…"

"Kim."

"They'd find out anyway," Kim said.

"I got to use my brain parts to get in touch with them, even over wi-fi that shit feels dirty."

"Just get in- stop." Vell held out his hand. Kim froze in place and did not move. Not intentionally, at least. There was a small amount of unintentional movement. The ground was vibrating.

"Always love a good earthquake," Kim said.

"That's not a quake," Vell said.

"That's... footsteps!" Vell grabbed Kim and dove out of the way just in time for something to barrel through the walls of the dining hall and stampede across the room. Tables, chairs, and more than a few students were crushed under the feet of a hulking, brown-furred behemoth as it charged. Kim picked herself and Vell up off the floor and tried to trail its progress.

"That's a- oh fuck me," Kim said.

"Please don't say you told me so." Vell got his bearings and looked across the room at the titanic form of a woolly mammoth. Though it was definitely recognizable as an archaic mammoth, the ancient creature was also heavily mutated, unnaturally large even by mammoth standards, and with multiple curled, jagged tusks protruding from a slobbering maw.

"Well that could be unrelated," Vell said.

"Mammoths can come from a lot of places, cloning accidents, time machines…" The mammoth reached a wall, and rather than barreling through, turned around, facing directly towards Vell. A prominent scar covered the bridge of its broad trunk.

"Oh, nope, that's definitely Mae," Vell said. The scar was in the same place and at the same angle. Even a clone wouldn't have an identical scar. Once the revelation had struck, Mae took her turn. Vell found himself staring straight down the barrel of a very angry mammoth coming right at him at Vell-squishing velocity. Luckily he'd been charged at by a lot of creatures over four years of looping. Vell jumped up and to the side, and latched on to one of the curled tusks, which made for very convenient handlebars.

Kim did the same on the opposite side of Mae, and punched her in the head.

"Wait, wait, hold off on the violence for a second," Vell shouted. He tried to wave at Kim to stop, but Mae was thrashing so violently he had to grip the tusks with both hands.

"Good plan," Kim shouted.

"Can you get Mae on board?" Another set of tables got crushed underfoot. Thankfully the other students were out of trampling range by now, but Mae Noi's feet were still coated in the blood of earlier victims.

"Mae's smart, maybe we can calm her down," Vell said. He then ducked to dodge a swat from Mae's mutated trunk.

"Call me crazy, Vell, but I think this is more than just a bad mood," Kim said, as she climbed up Mae's seven jagged tusks like a ladder.

"We have to try," Vell said. The loopers rule against hurting other intelligent life forms had some flexibility for blood-crazed mutants on violent rampages, but they had to at least try to reason first. Vell climbed up on of Mae's tusks and looked into one of her bloodshot eyes for any sign of recognition.

"Mae! It's Vell, do you remember?" The only response Vell got was an enraged trumpet, which he didn't think was a "yes".

"Come on, bud," Vell said.

"What's an elephant's favorite part of a tree, right? The trunk?" The massive brown eye staring at Vell blinked, and he felt a brief glimmer of hope. He then felt a brief glimmer of his lungs being crushed as Mae swung her head and slammed her tusks into the wall, and Vell along with them. Kim punched Mae in the throat and then jumped across the tusks to grab Vell and carry him to safety.

"You okay, Vell?" He opened his mouth to respond, and a pint or two of blood came out instead.

"Apparently not," he mumbled.

"I might be down a few ribs. And a lung. Or two." Kim carried Vell a safe distance from the fight and set him down on the ground, where he promptly spat out another mouthful of blood.

"Okay, uh, you just lie there and try to die peacefully, I guess," Kim said.

"Way ahead of you."

"Was that last bit as funny as I thought it was?" Vell asked.

"I think the blood loss was affecting my sense of humor."

"It was kind of hard to appreciate in the moment," Kim said.

"But as far as dying jokes go, it was pretty good." Vell and Kim walked into the lair for their morning meeting and joined the loopers that had already gathered.

"Okay, what'd I miss while I was dead?"

"Well, after Alex was done getting herself killed," Samson began.

"You're saying that as if it's something to be ashamed of," Alex said.

"Vell also died."

"Yeah, but he got killed trying to do something good. You got killed trying to do something stupid."

"Trying to eliminate a threat is not stupid," Alex said.

"We don't kill intelligent creatures," Hawke said.

"Sometimes we punch them into a coma, but we don't kill them."

"When a dog bites, you put it down, I don't see why the same principle doesn't apply to a mammoth that's crushed seventy people."

"That wasn't Mae's fault," Vell said.

"She got mutated, or something. On that note: did you guys figure out what happened to Mae Noi?"

"Nothing," Hawke said.

"Looked like Mae smashed up the entire lab, trampled everyone involved in the experiment too. Nothing left to investigate, and nobody left alive to interrogate."

"Typical," Vell sighed.

"At least we have an easy out. Dean Lichman was really concerned about the ethics of that whole experiment. We raise some kind of complaint, we could probably get the whole thing shut down."

"The problem is getting the complaint," Hawke said.

"That lab was airtight, Vell."

"Apparently not completely airtight," Kim said.

"I can camp out in the lab and raise an entirely justifiable stink whenever something capable of making a murder-mammoth shows up."

"And what if it happens so suddenly you can't complain about it?" Samson asked.

"For all we know that could've been some kind of dimensional rift, or time anomaly, or something. It might not be as simple as somebody just putting in the wrong syringe at the wrong time."

"He's got a point," Vell said.

"We might want to shut this down before it gets there."

"Seems like our best option is to plant evidence, then," Alex said. Everyone else at the table spent a few seconds brainstorming ways to prove her wrong, and much to their frustration, could not.

"Okay, fine," Vell said.

"But it needs to be something incidental, not something anyone would get blamed for. We want to cancel the experiment, not get anyone in trouble."

"I could have a seizure on some sensitive equipment," Helena offered.

"It'll break something and nobody would dare get mad at me."

"Can you fake a seizure?"

"No, but I'm allergic to elephants, so I'd probably have one anyway the moment I stepped in the lab," Helena said.

"I don't feel entirely comfortable sending you into anaphylactic shock for a bit," Vell said.

"Offer's on the table," Helena said.

"I'll live. Wouldn't have made it through that trip to the zoo otherwise."

"Anybody have any non-medical emergency suggestions?"

"Seagull in the air vents," Kim said.

"Will that work?"

"It happens now and then," Kim said.

"Seagull gets in, and Dean has to close down the whole lab for potential material damage and biohazard risks if they shit in the vents."

"Really? We've never had to deal with anything like that," Hawke said.

"It may shock you to learn that sometimes minor, tedious bullshit happens that we have nothing to do with," Kim said.

"That is kind of surprising, actually."

"Enough. Kim, can you grab a seagull?" Vell asked. He shouldered his bookbag, and stuck a hand into the extradimensional pocket that existed within it.

"I can probably smuggle it in with my bag."

"Yeah, I can get you a seagull," Kim said. Since she did not need to sleep, she had to find ways to keep herself entertained at night, seagull-grabbing being among them.

"Alright, we'll go grab one and put it in the bag," Vell said.

"The rest of you, be ready to meet us when I call." Roughly three minutes later, Vell put out the call and they reconvened in front of the biology lab.

"Yeah, that was much faster than I thought it would be," Vell said.

"I'm great at grabbin' birds," Kim said. Seagulls were among the easier birds to snatch, even. They were suckers for food, and many of them were attracted to her shiny metallic body anyway.

"Let's just get this over with," Vell said.

"I want this thing out of my bag ASAP." Even though the seagull was safely within a pocket dimension, Vell would swear he could still feel the bird thrashing and squawking inside his bag. He tightened his grip on the shoulder strap and led the way towards the zoology lab entrance. He grabbed the handle and held it as he froze for a second.

"Vell, what's up? Is this bird escaping?"

"No, the handle's vibrating," Vell said. It was shaking the same way a wall near an incredibly loud speaker might. He pressed his ear to the door and listened closely. He opened the door immediately, and let all his friends hear the frantic trumpeting of a panicked elephant. Inside the lab, Mae Noi was stomping her feet and trumpeting as loud as he long trunk would allow.

She swayed from side to side in her pen, bumping against the walls not quite hard enough to damage them, but hard enough that it was clear she was doing it on purpose.

"What the heck is happening here?"

"Ah, Vell," Dean Lichman said. He hustled over to Vell's side and gestured to the entire room.

"Maybe you can figure out what's going on." Mae Noi stopped braying long enough to start mashing her trunk against her pedestal, mashing out the word "Bad" over and over again.

"Our test subject, Mae Noi, has been throwing an absolute fit ever since she got here," Dean Lichman said.

"Dr. Chanthara, these are the students I was telling you about earlier." While Vell reintroduced himself to Dr. Chanthara, Kim and Hawke stepped up to examine Mae Noi and her enclosure. It was a far cry from the peaceful, orderly scene they had examined on the first loop. They were half an hour earlier this time than before, but Kim found it unlikely that they had been able to calm Mae Noi down, clean everything up, and get back to work in such a short amount of time.

They hadn't mentioned any of this panic on the first loop either. They were soon joined in their confusion by Chanthara and Vell.

"We've tried everything; food, water, her favorite toys, even videos of her children," Dr. Chanthara said.

"We've even offered to call off the experiment, but she won't listen."

"She is an animal," Alex said.

"Sometimes they do things arbitrarily."

"Not Mae," Dr. Chanthara said.

"Some of our sanctuaries residents from traumatic backgrounds can have outbursts, but Mae was injured in the wild. She's never been like this."

"Maybe some experiment on the island is upsetting her," Vell said.

"A sonic experiment only she can hear, or something…" Vell stopped and thought about it. If there had been such an irritant, it would've been there on the first loop too. Everything always repeated exactly the same, except for-"Could you, uh, take a step back for a second?" Vell mumbled.

"I want to try talking to her."

"Don't get close," Chanthara warned him.

"I'm not, I'm not," Vell said. He didn't need to get very close to tell a joke. The massive brown eyes of Mae Noi stayed locked on Vell as he approached, and she continued to mash the "Bad" button on her pedestal.

"I know, I know, bad," Vell said.

"But, uh, do you want to hear a joke?" Mae Noi stopped. She locked eyes with Vell for a few seconds, and then cautiously tapped a button on her pedestal.

"Joke."

"Right, joke," Vell said. He tried to recall the exact sequence of words Mae had used on the first loop.

"What elephant favorite part tree?" Mae didn't blink.

"Trunk," Vell said. After a moment of contemplation, Mae Noi let out one final, fervent, trumpet, and then started mashing buttons on her pedestal again.

"Bad. Help. Help. Experiment. Bad. Help. Bad. Help."

"Yeah, bad help, one second," Vell said. He turned away from Mae Noi to look at Dean Lichman.

"Hey, uh, excuse me, Dean? Hey, uh, if I remember correctly there are some pretty complicated rules on having intelligent animals on campus, yes?"

"Well, yes," Dean Lichman said. After hearing of some questionable ethical practices involving an octopus back in first year, he had instituted a few clauses into the school's ethical code of conduct regarding intelligent animals like elephants, octopuses, and dolphins.

"Mae's presence here is a bit of an outlier, but there were workarounds, given her apparent consent to the experiment."

"Yeah, about that, is she, uh," Vell began.

"Is she registered as a student?"

"Yes." Vell pursed his lips. It took a few seconds for his friends to catch on.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Samson snapped. He turned his back on the crowd and leaned against a wall while Hawke put his head in his hands.

"The first rule of looping," Alex said quietly.

"Loopers are randomly selected-" She looked up and locked eyes with Mae Noi.

"From all registered students."