Question 1

In LaMB, the process of lamination was first invented to preserve beauty until it evolved into a form of imprisonment. Would you commit a crime to stay young and beautiful?

Perhaps I didn’t notice it, but time went too fast. I was probably in high school putting on my face powder; the next thing I know plastic surgery has become a norm. Superficial beauty has become acceptable, if not constantly wanted.

If that want is insatiable, at what price can we afford such want? What if the price is not monetary, but a test of your morality and character? Would you still pay up or walk away and let your youth slowly wither away?

LaMBs have committed crimes, and are placed in “invisible cells”. No matter how you look at it; it is still a prison. Even if you are an ageless beauty, you cannot do anything about it. You cannot look at the mirror to admire yourself, unless your Shepherd instructs you to do so. Such vanity is wasted and such efforts have become futile. For what is beauty if it is not for yourself.

Besides the obvious downside of lacking free-will, there is the conscience one has to bear up with. Since a sentence for lamination may take centuries, how long will your conscience be able to endure the constant knocking and nagging deep within your soul?

I can never fathom being trapped in a cell for centuries; let alone the guilt seeping every day during my sentence if I ever chose to commit a crime. I don’t think I can handle the guilt over attaining something too superficial.

Beauty? What is the sense of that word? I smirked slyly as I pronounced it. Beauty in the sense of being a LaMB is not beautiful at all.