You might not guess it to look at her but this patient is one of our
greatest success stories. While having some minor celebrity on the outside
as a magician and escapologist within the Institute she was extremely
well known. In fact she was a strong contender for most infamous patient in
the Institute. Depending on who you asked.
The majority of staff members who joined the Institute from the now
defunct Delmo Corporation would vote for Aika Sumeragi as number one but
Brande had won fans among them and almost everyone else would also have voted
for her as holding the top spot.
I was part of the minority view, I thought and still do that The Blonde
was our worst patient of all time. She trussed up the entire night shift
during her escape and has never been recaptured.
Still until the recent unpleasantness (about which I can say no more)
most would have disagreed with me and I have to admit Brande had a presence
the others lacked. Aika is just despised and the Blonde's victims seem
bent on forgetting her but nobody ignored Brande. We have had almost no
escapes from the Institute and of those few she is the only patient to
escape more than once. To be more precise she escaped three times!
I had almost given up on her as incorrigible but when she was brought in
for her fourth stay Dr. Frost recommended the then recently approved Regression
Therapy and it worked wonders. Largely thanks to our revised usage of the
Infancy Inducer Collar and the modifications to the program to enhance what we
call the Second Birth effect.
File Photo: Therapy Center - Regression Therapy Wing
In fact Brande was the clinical trial subject for this latest version of
Age Regression Therapy which was so effective we still use the program. Under
its influence Brande soon became childlike both physically and mentally. This
completed what we call the Rebirth phase.
Having eliminated her overwhelming desire to escape at all costs that had
blocked all her earlier therapists' attempts at reaching her we were able to
begin the therapy's second phase, Personality Reconstruction.
While we began our efforts to "raise" a well adjusted Brande from scratch
it was only initially the same as bringing up a child. Her memories had not
been erased, they had merely become irrelevant to her. At the risk of
greatly oversimplifying the process as she was taught she grew into her
memories. They made sense to her again but she now saw them with a different
point of view.
That was the key. We hadn't erased Brande and replaced her with one of
our creation. Instead we had "raised" her to have a fresh perspective and
as we learned recently it worked far better than we had hoped.
The same day we celebrated the first anniversary of our Open House policy
that allows reporters such as yourself to tour the Institute there was an
incident. For security reasons the details have to remain classified and I
wouldn't even mention that it had happened were it not known that it had
occurred among a number of agencies worldwide. However none of them know the
specifics, just that there was an incident here, but given the circumstances
there was no way all our staff couldn't learn about it. So we had to brief
them afterwards on exactly what had happened to quell the flood of rumours.
I'm proud to report they have all been true to their non disclosure agreements
and that none of our staff have leaked any details. So while they're well
known internally it's still a secret to the outside world.
I'm not about to breach security but I can say that Brande was caught up
in the incident and gained the opportunity to escape a fourth time during it.
However this would have meant abandoning several of our staff members who were
in serious trouble. Rather than flee she attempted to assist them sacrificing
her chance for freedom in the process. Unfortunately Brande became caught up
in their troubles but the important thing is that she tried. Once this became
known the staff attitudes towards Brande began to shift to a more positive
view.
As a result nobody objected when she was transferred to the Grimbor Ward
rather than the Isolation Ward in the aftermat of the incident. Nor has the
news that she has volunteered to use her escapologist skills to assist the
Quality Assurance and Training Department with their restraint testing been
viewed with any suspicion. She is now regarded as a model patient and a
wonderful example of successful rehabilitation. Also as a tribute to the
skills of Doctor Frost who never gave up on her.
Brande could even have had a transfer to the Open Ward with no one
objecting but she chose to remain in Grimbor Ward. That straitjacket and
cuffs combination she wearing isn't Institute standard. It's actually a
present she recieved from a company called Juronco. Along with a note saying
that this modified CSJR jacket and cuffs combination was inescapable when
properly applied without the use of tools or outside assistance. Brande took
that as a challenge and requested to be allowed to disprove it. We agreed
subject to the condition that as it wasn't one of ours for security reasons
she would have to remain in the Grimbor Ward in case she succeeded. She agreed
(I gather she thinks the Grimbor Ward's ambiance helps keep her focused) and
continues to test it, so far without success, when not assisting the Quality
Assurance team with their work.
As I said at the begining a remarkable patient success story and it's not
over yet. Doctor Frost has petitioned the Board to consider a revolutionary
modification to our work therapy program. A work release program. Quite
simply her proposal is that Brande will be allowed to leave the Institute to
resume performing her magic and escapology act before audiences. She feels
it will be a major boost in completing Brande's rehabilitation. Naturally
Brande wouldn't be unsupervised and would be under the control of orderlies
and care of nursing staff when not on stage. Which would make for a very
unusual tour bus but I digress.
Outlandish as it might sound to you I strongly suspect the Board will
grant Doctor Frost's petition on a trial basis. She is our expert on Brande
and since taking on her case has proven to have excellent judgement regarding
this patient.
So before too long Brande's travelling Institute Roadshow might be coming
soon to a town near you. But right now from the looks of those Orderlies
heading this way she's due for another Testing Session in the QuAT Labs
There she goes. Nothing left to see except an empty room.
That concludes this info bulletin