The general monotony that she experiences daily in Romdo, however, is somewhat different than the one she comes to experience in episode 16: the repetitious experience of a life in pause. Even though the sense of unnatural uniformity is everywhere in Romdo, it does not stop Re-l from carrying on with her professional duties and personal life. In episode 16, now finding herself surrounded by a host of seemingly hopeless situations--rationed food, harsh climate, close quarters, and forced idleness--the sense of boredom is focused. It's like when one takes a magnifying glass to concentrate the sunlight as a narrow point of light. Such a focused point of light burns and destroys whatever it falls upon. Unfortunately for a certain member of the Rabbit, this point of negative energy is seemingly focused on her experiences alone. It's in everything that she experiences. It's in her hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and seeing. Furthermore, it's in her thinking.
As it dwells in her mind, it creates what appears to be problems revealed to her alone. Perhaps subconsciously acting to counter its effects (the Romdo-rules at work), Re-l begins her days with a specific routine: wake up at a specific time; get prepared in a specific time; survey the situation and landscape; check the supplies, and so on. For several days, this is her routine. Notice that this is a routine, something that should come naturally to her. We should expect carry-over from her Romdo-life to her present situation. This carry-over, we surmise, transferred the set of Romdo-rules which had previously guided and determined her life in the dome. She inevitably embodies Romdo's rules. It could not be otherwise. With this Romdo influenced lifestyle--governed by a host of rules--she is able to manage the circumstances for a brief period of time. It gives her a way of (strictly) ordering her actions and experiences. Thus, her Romdo-life still exerts an influence on her, having embedded a sort of pattern within her. Unfortunately, this preset routine-building seems to make things worse, as we shall see. This Romdo set of rules no longer works as neatly as it used to, considering that she is no longer a part of Romdo's highly organized social system. What served as a background in Romdo became forced to the foreground.
As mentioned earlier, we had sketched Re-l's general framework of personality. We noticed her analytical nature, her reflective side. We also noticed her systematizing nature: how she orders and controls whatever she feels needs to be examined better, a natural offshoot from her Romdo-life. Here we have an individual whose main strategy in dealing with almost anything is demanding and regimented. Now imagine placing this highly ordered mindset, which worked reasonably well in a much larger environment like Romdo, in a somewhat different situation where the smallest of things can be amplified. Furthermore, in this situation only Re-l is following a given set of rules. What would be cycling within such a mind when it starts its daily analysis?
We can assume that her first task aboard the now idle Rabbit was the formulation of a routine, as mentioned earlier. Now imagine going over the same routine day after day, without experiencing the desired results or insights. Imagine acquiring, instead, the seemingly negative results, ideas, and insights as the days pass. When Re-l's dispositions go to work in this situation, she has to focus on virtually the same things as they reappear in their daily cycle. One of the noticeable changes, however, is the diminishing supplies, which definitely is not a good thing. As a result, the food supply eventually whittles down to a small daily ration of beans and sauce--now becoming a constant feature. Another constant is the weather. There is ice and snow, heavy clouds, and no wind. The weather itself becomes vividly trapped in her daily cycle. With no changes in the weather, save for even more snow, this changeless state of weather greets her day after day, never giving her the desired result: wind. And let us not forget the other two passengers aboard the craft: Vincent and Pino. For the most part Re-l studies their respective behavior, which is seen as exhibiting various dispositions. She notes the subtle things about them, e.g. both Vincent and Pino are left-handed. Often jotting down her thoughts on this or that feature of their behavior, Re-l keeps a notepad by her side. However, there is only so much she can endure while being around them virtually all the time, never really having any to herself. Also, it does not help Re-l's mindset that Vincent and Pino react to the situation differently than she does. She notes roughly halfway through the episode that she can barely comprehend their deeper inexpressible qualities, as if there is a barrier preventing any further interaction and knowledge. They have their own seemingly private rules, which she is not allowed to access while she is in her own private mood. On their side of the barrier, both Vincent and Pino seem to take it all in stride, Vincent with his lax attitude and Pino with her childlike wonder and questioning. Indeed, three hours of idleness does not bother the two at all (To Re-l's sheer amazement and puzzlement, she witnesses them sitting down outside doing absolutely nothing. They stare forwards, gazing at nothing in particular. In fact, she interprets this inactivity as a decrease in their moral, unaware of their respective serene, meditative expressions). Their countering behavior, as well, falls under Re-l's system of interpretation and study. She is met with much of the same results when she decides to ponder them. If there are any changes, they only add frustrating mysteries rather than stimulating discoveries to her thoughts. She still has no solid ideas concerning Vincent's nature, the mysterious Proxies, or the cogito virus which infects AutoReivs. It's all one giant question mark that refuses to shed any light on any path towards an answer.
