okay so tartar knew about 401's alien species (name undecided for now) because the professor had found one and studied it before he died. (the alien was a scout that was there bc it was investigating the state of the world because it was flooding and in chaos)
so anyway tartar knew about the mind-controlling abilities and hive mind aspect of the species.
during the events leading up to OE, he had trouble finding a formula that successfully controlled his test subjects, until one day 401 stumbled into the facility. tartar recognized the features that were present on that alien a long time ago, and immediately tranquilized her and started running tests on her.
it worked, so he started injecting some of her alien DNA into some of his test subjects.
the only catch was that she had to control them (since she was the "mastermind" or the "original"). so he fashioned a mask that had mind control technology akin to octavio's hypnoshades to make it so she was on his side. (so,for example, if she was attacked, she would fight the attacker and be able to strategize, but she wouldn't be able to think for herself.)
401 was always held in a dark room with tubes and wires connected to her that constantly extracted blood and DNA without killing her. during testing, she was unconscious most of the time, with her being very drowsy and detached the only times she was conscious. the mask looked similar to that of the parallel canon in side order, and the outfit she was given was like Splatoon 2 enemy octoling gear.
she could free herself from the wires if she was in immediate danger--halting sanitization good production--to fight or defend herself (the mask prevents her from wanting to escape). since she was essentially connected to every sanitized entity, if one died (got splatted), she would feel the sensation of dying and would scream out in pain, but the mask muffles screams. she has no morals or memories while under tartar's control, so the only way to free her would be to somehow get the mask off, which is difficult considering how skilled she is at fighting.
"why didn't tartar just make all of them masks like tha-"
Because of the way it works, it wouldn't be possible to "update" it in real time, meaning he can't control their actual movements, only their autonomy.
I have so much stuff for this that idk if I missed anything explaining this but yeah. I didn't want to get rid of her half-sanitizedlooking skin that she had since birth (+100 years before OE)
Caption this Meme
