DAY 55: Sun Room [2nd Shift]

[autophoenix]

[ from here ]Either she was the only unlucky person to experience a freezing shower, or she just hadn't built up the tolerance for it that the more seasoned patients had. Whichever it was, she was the first person into the sun room and while normally she wouldn't mind that, the soldiers were majorly creepy and she was kind of hoping for some kind

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[heroesdontshave]

Yeaaah, looked like he was right. Barely a minute looking this damn thing over, and he was already bored with it. It was mostly just people checking in on each other or friends talking about something or people wanting to meet up later or whatever the hell. It wasn't exactly anything he had to pay attention to. Not like he was nosy or anything. And since he'd already seen Light was okay, there wasn't anyone he needed to write a note to either. So the whole thing was pretty pointless right then. Welp. Least he killed a whole minute without thinking about the armed guards or the stupid uniform.

He noticed a little too late that someone was standing next to him, looking at him. For a moment, he thought maybe it was another one of the people who'd been put on cleaning duty coming to glare holes at him up close and personal. But when he looked over, it was just this girl he didn't recognize looking up at him blankly. Maybe he looked weird since he was just standing there in front of the board without writing anything onto it himself. Or maybe he'd startled her without noticing. Heh. Whoops.

He gave her a big grin. See? Not scary. "Heh. Figured there'd be more complaining on this thing today. Guess everyone's afraid they'll get yelled at if they go and try that, huh?" Hm. He wondered. How close were these soldier guys watching the note-exchange activity here? "Well. Not like they can keep track of who's postin' what with everyone usin' scraps of paper, right? 'S prolly okay."

[scientist_skye]

Oh, he noticed that she was staring at her. Ema started a little when he looked down and gave her a smile; she was busted. Despite her mood--which, while improved, was far from pleasant--she gave him a bit of a smile back. Despite his size, he seemed friendly enough. As far as being angry with him about breakfast, Ema had been so withdrawn during the cleaning that she hadn't even bothered to see who was excluded from scrubbing duty. He could have been right in front of her and she hadn't noticed.

In response to his comment, Ema tilted her head and gave it a bit of thought. "Scientifically speaking, that's not true. They might have handwriting samples from each of us so they could conduct a handwriting analysis of anything we write on that board. Many police departments have that capability. I'm sure these military people do." Although, she had to admit, it was incredibly tempting to right something insulting and inflammatory about the new regime on the board. And he had a point--surely she wasn't the only one with that urge. Statistically, someone should have decided to forgo caution. Or did the breakfast punishment really have everyone on edge?

After some thought, she looked up to her companion again and asked, "Do you think the military are reading this as closely as the nurses do?"

[heroesdontshave]

As the girl spoke, the smile on Snow's face slowly started to fade until he was looking at her with a slightly baffled expression. What... was she talking about? Handwriting samples? As in... a sample of things written by hand? That was the only thing it could mean, right? But he didn't quite understand how that could be important.

Back home, people didn't even write anything by hand much. Things were usually done through computers and machines. Not to say no one knew how, but it just wasn't common practice at all. It was astonishing for him to find that writing on a piece of actual paper was the way people communicated in this place. You know, outside talking face-to-face. It was still something he was getting used to and another reason why he didn't write on the thing too much himself (though it was kind of fun in that novelty kind of way).

He put his hands on his hips and looked from the girl to the board and back. Hmn. "IIII dunno about 'analysis,' but they gotta be keepin' some eye on this thing. Probably enough so people can't organize stuff against them. But all this other stuff? They probably don't care." His eyes went back to the board, thinking it over. "...Guess if you're careful you can slip all kinds of things past them 's long as you make it look boring."

He scratched the back of his head. All this secret message stuff sounded great and all in theory, but that was just way too much time and effort to put in just to talk to someone. "I dunno. They're probably too busy shoving guns in everyone's faces to care about what goes up here anyway."

[scientist_skye]

Ema watched as the expression on the man's face slowly shifted from smiling to confused to some sort of understanding, even if an only rudimentary one. He didn't seem to fully follow her point, but he wasn't totally lost, either. "Oh, you mean like speaking in code?" It wasn't quite what she was getting at, really, but it was a good enough work-around. "Some people already do that. I learned that the first time I used the board."

Looking back at the board and listening to his final verdict on the issue, however, Ema couldn't help but sigh. "You're probably right, though. At least Dr. Landel and the nurses pretended to be nice to us during the day. This guy and his officers... they're just jerks. Like this morning. Why make all of the people who didn't do anything wrong have to clean up? They're not fair. After everything else that happens to us here, especially at night, you'd think they'd be a little nicer during the day."

Ema withdrew a little at that last part, staring pointedly at the floor.

[heroesdontshave]

Oh, people did that already? He knew everyone was supposed to be careful on the board and watched how they phrased things, but he didn't realize they were using code already. Heh, not bad. Now he wondered how many of these boring looking conversations were actually something more interesting. Maybe if he got bored later he'd try to figure it out. It was something else to focus on, anyway.

Speaking of things he didn't want to focus on, that bit about the punishment this morning sent a pretty sharp pang of guilt through him, enough to make him wince slightly. Well. Er. Okay look, he didn't really have much reason to feel guilty here. I mean, yeah, it was kind of his fault a bunch of people got punished this morning, but it's not like he was the one going around punishing everyone, right? So he shouldn't be feeling bad. That's what he told himself. But honestly, he did feel guilty about it. He was the one to blame here.

Dammit. Who did these people think they were, anyway? Most of the prisoners here were just regular civilians. You can't just slap a uniform on normal people and expect them to act like soldiers. And this girl was just a kid. He didn't like the thought of these guys getting in her face and yelling at her just like they had been with him and everyone else. The way she looked all shaken up over it made it pretty obvious she wasn't used to this kind of thing.

"Eh, don't let 'em get to you, 'lright? These guys're just a buncha bark and no bite. They get a nice power trip outta bullying people around. Even if it doesn't make any sense. 'S how the army works." That was always how they worked. Push people around to make them fall in line. "They just wanna get everyone good and scared so we're all too busy worrying about them to think about how we're gettin' out. Probably think we'll be 'shaking in our boots' too much to leave our rooms."

He put on a huge smile like the thought was almost laughable. "We're not gonna go and prove 'em right now, are we?"

[scientist_skye]

No, Ema wasn't used to military rule at all. The closest she'd ever come to it was Lana's cold dismissals these past couple of years, but even then Ema had never actually gotten to a point where that didn't upset her. Sure, Ema was familiar with order and structure and uniform, given her experiences hanging around the police station, but... well, officers of the law weren't soldiers. Being a degree removed from that, Ema was even less of one.

The comfort from the man standing next to her, while not expected, was not at all unwelcome. He had a point--this, like anything else in the Institute, was a mind game. Everything that had happened today and last night was just more evidence to support that hypothesis. It was almost scientific, in a way. Ema had been too far lost in her own funk to really think of it that way, so it was a good thing that the man next to her was friendly and willing to give her a reminder. She looked up at him, putting on her bravest smile (which was much improved, but still a bit shaky) and gave him a resolute nod.

"No, we're not. I don't plan on giving up until we're out of here. I won't let them get to me." Any more than they already had, anyway. "My name's Ema. Ema Skye. What's yours?"

[heroesdontshave]

"Ha ha, Attagirl!" he laughed, obviously happy with the strong change of heart. Now that was the kind of attitude they needed around here! He was really glad her spirits were in the right place. People were a lot stronger than soldiers or government ever gave them credit for. Stronger than people themselves realized. As long as they held onto hope and stayed defiant, they could do anything they set their minds to. All they had to do was stick together and believe that. The downfall of this place was going to be a result of these bastards underestimating the whole lot of them. He was sure of it.

"It's Snow. Snow Villiers. Pretty rotten place to meet up, but I guess it'll make for an interesting story later, right?" He was trying to keep it light for her sake. It really stank that these people were so willing to grab anyone and throw them into a mess like this. Snow completely understood how messed up this whole thing probably seemed. Kind of made him wonder, actually, how civilians like her were dealing with stuff. "How you been holdin' up in this place, huh? You got people you been movin' around with, right?"

Sorry to say it but even though he'd just met her, Ema didn't exactly strike him as much of a fighter. Then again, people had a way of surprising him and proving they were tougher than they looked. ... There was some kind of nostalgia in that thought but he couldn't quite place from where. Huh.

[scientist_skye]

Snow's laughter was almost infectious; while Ema didn't quite have the heart to laugh herself, her smile grew both in size and in genuineness. She was glad that her ability to bounce back from trauma and depression (something she'd had two years to work on) had gained his approval. Friends and allies were important to have here, especially since people tended to vanish with only the barest of traces left behind. There were people that Ema knew she could trust--her sister, Mr. Javert, Mr. Dent, Mr. Carter, Renamon--but any or all of them could be gone before she could find a way to override whatever brainwashing led to release like with Agatha. She needed to meet more people.

Especially people like Snow. He was big and seemed really strong, both physically and emotionally. She was pretty sure, judging from his stature and muscular structure and attitude that he was a man who could take care of himself and then some. In contrast, Ema must have seemed really small and weak; his question, therefore, was not very surprising.

"I'm... all right, scientifically speaking. I'm alive and not sick or really injured. And I have my sister and some other people I travel with at night, especially since I can't see very much in the dark." He didn't need to know why, although the pin in her beret would probably give him at least a passing idea. "Mostly, I just try to learn more and stay out of the way of the more... fighting stuff."

[heroesdontshave]

Her sister, huh? So Ema had family here, too? It was kind of messed up when you thought about it, but in the end, it was good to have someone you knew actually around. He hadn't realized it until just this second, but Snow admittedly did feel a little better about being in this place once he'd found out Lightning was here, too. He knew she wasn't really his biggest fan or anything, but it was someone familiar and someone he trusted. Though the comfort might've also had to do with not wondering where she might be, too. But anyway, it was good the kid had some people looking out for her, especially since it sounded like she had something weird going on with her eyesight. Maybe she'd had glasses she left back home? Not exactly the safest way to walk around at night with monsters crawling all over the place, was it?

Snow had to admit that he was a little surprised by what she'd said, though. Staying out of fights made sense but the fact that she was trying to learn stuff? Learn what stuff? Learn how to fight by watching, maybe? She could have also meant learning more about this place, he guessed. Personally, he thought it was better to focus their energy on getting out, but he could actively admit he was not an information-gathering kind of guy to begin with. Some people? They were just more comfortable handling intel and stuff. Not everyone was good with fighting, so they tried contributing in other ways, right? Guess this girl was like that. That was really good, actually. It showed she wasn't going to just stand around and do nothing.

"Heh, way to go. With all the crap these people're trying to pull, I'll bet there's a whooole mess of dirty laundry they wouldn't like anyone to find. Digging up intel's probably the one thing they don't want us doing." Which of course meant they should go and do it as much as possible just to screw with them. Heh heh. He nodded his head at her once. "Still, you and your sis be careful out there. You guys ever go wandering around and feel like you need extra hands, you give me a holler, alright? Things've been gettin' pretty crazy lately, so it's best if we all stick together as much as we can."

[scientist_skye]

As far as Ema was concerned, gathering information and learning how the Institute operated was the first step in getting out. The patients (or were they considered recruits now, with the change of atmosphere?) couldn't be expected to fight back unless they had a clear idea of what it was they were up against. Dr. Landel was very good at being vague and obfuscating what was really going on; General Aguilar, so far, had seemed much more direct. With any luck, he would eventually slip up so Ema--or any other investigative type--could finally get some much-needed answers.

Dr. Landel's and General Aguilar's dirty laundry, Ema cared less about. They'd both demonstrated plainly that they were terrible people who were willing to run an unethical experiment. For Ema, that was reason enough to stand against them. Still, she had to agree with Snow's sentiment. "They wouldn't go through all this trouble to hide what they're doing if they wanted us to know. So, I'm going to try and get to the bottom of this.

"And thanks, I will! My sister's usually good at self-defense, but sometimes we end up separated at night." It was really nice of Snow to offer protection to a near-stranger. Ema really liked his work-together attitude. "If you ever need a question answered scientifically, I can help you out, too!"