The Compound seemed to be in a state of chaos. Pam just had to count herself lucky, she supposed, that she and Jim hadn't, like so many others, woken up to find themselves having suddenly changed genders. Worrying about anyone else who might've fallen prey to the island's whim would come after coffee, though. With a cup of coffee in her hand, she turned, nodding in greeting at the guy who stood near her -- one she didn't remember having seen before -- with a smile. "Morning," she said casually. "It's crazy around here, huh?"
Sarah reached Pam for the coffee, nodding. "A madhouse," she agreed, glancing around. The area was too public to admit to being herself, not if she wanted to keep up the pretense however long this lasted. There was always someone to overhear, and while breaking a cover she'd made up just for the sake of being someone else would hardly be much of a loss, she didn't want to risk it. Someone who saw her playing this part well and knew who she was might start to wonder what other parts she was playing. "Is it always like this? Morning rush?"
That explained why Pam didn't remember having seen him around before. Though she nodded, she let out a quiet laugh, ducking her head apologetically. At least, for someone new, he looked to be handling it fairly well. She'd have felt a whole lot worse if he'd only just shown up and she'd been assuming he didn't need an explanation. "Well, it tends to be pretty crowded in the morning," she explained. "This is... kind of a weird one, though. I just didn't realize you were new." Pausing, she set down her coffee and stuck out a hand. "I'm Pam. I guess you've gotten the speech already?"
"Eric," she offered, shaking Pam's hand with a warm smile. "And yeah. A couple times actually. People are pretty helpful around here." She did her best to look grateful that, if a little sheepish, overwhelmed by the whole process of settling in. She knew from experience that it was a lot to handle, and it was safe to assume that someone without her background would be more flustered still. All the same, this persona was fairly calm and put together. She wasn't going to waste all her time flailing about like a chicken that had lost its head.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Eric," she replied, smile still fixed in place. It was definitely for the best that he'd heard enough about the place from other people. No matter how much better this place had seemed to get in the last few months, she wasn't wholly convinced of her ability to paint the island in a good light. It'd been too awkward for too long for that. "Let me know if you need anything, okay? I'd be glad to help in any way I can."
It was kind of fascinating, really. Pam was by no means unintelligent - Sarah knew that much from the time they'd spent together as friends - but even with all the people around them changed, she had a feeling Pam wouldn't put two and two together now. Given no reason to do so and having no reason to doubt Eric's word, familiarities and similarities could reasonably be written off. The human mind did half the work for any agent. It wasn't about smart or stupid. It was about expectation. Never giving more detail than she had to to keep people hooked in, Sarah was willing to bet she could fool anyone there.
God, she'd missed that.
"That's really kind of you," she said, nodding, "thank you." Pam really was just that sweet to everyone, apparently. That wasn't a surprise. "Have you been here long?"
Pam had to pause at that, furrowing her brows and holding a hand by her waist to count how long it had been. God, she didn't even know when she'd started keeping track, but it had to be a good sign, at least. She was content enough that it didn't matter. "Four months," she said after a moment, looking just a little surprised. "It'll be four months come February. Sometimes it feels like a lot longer, though." The first few weeks had been excruciating. Now, she'd come to like the place, and the life she had here.
"But you like it," she said, waving a hand, a vague gesture, her words a guess. She smiled, nodding downwards, considering that. "I guess that's a good sign, right?" It was clear from the slant of her smile, the slight raise of her eyebrow, that she - he - was trying to make the best of a situation that was, if not bad, at least troublesome. Sarah had a feeling that she herself disliked being on the island considerably more than Eric would. He had no reason to suspect the involvement of enemy agents, after all.
"Well, it took a while," Pam allowed, her own smile wry. "This place does weird things, like I'm sure people have told you so far." She wasn't going to go giving unnecessary detais of her situation to a near stranger, though, and especially not someone who'd just arrived. That would have been painting the island in too bad a light, and wouldn't have been fair, despite the fact that it happened at all. She was happy here now. That was what mattered. "I'm sure you'll be fine. It just takes a lot of getting used to."
"Well, there's still coffee," Sarah said, by way of a joke, a way to lighten the conversation. "So the important things in life stay the same." She smiled, small, a man at least pretending things were okay. Under the surface, he was probably more freaked out than he was willing to let on, but he'd had a little time to catch his breath and to steady his thoughts. "Is there sugar around here? Seems like a lot of stuff to be crashlanded in the middle of nowhere."
"Yeah, it's -" Pam cut herself off, dodging a couple other people's hands to reach along the counter for where there was sugar and brought it back to hold it out with a smile. "Right here," she continued. "Things like this just show up. No one really knows how it works, just like pretty much everything else around here. But hey, if we're gonna be stuck here, at least we don't have to completely fend for ourselves, right?" It was all weird, but suspicious as it might have been, there was comfort in it, too, some sense of normalcy.
"Thanks." Sarah just stopped herself from reaching up to tuck her hair back. While it would have conveyed a certain level of awkwardness, diffidence, as a woman, but now it would have been a whole different kind of awkward. She'd watched men closely enough to have an idea of how to behave, what to avoid, but she'd had no time to practice. She reached instead to stir some sugar into her coffee. "I guess it's no stranger than being here to begin with."
Nor was it any stranger than her own showing up to find a husband and child she had no recollection of, and entire years it was as if she'd lost. That part still made no sense to Pam, no matter how many other people it had happened to. It was also better kept to herself. "You could say that about pretty much everything to do with this place," she replied wryly, giving a quick shake of her head as she looked down. "Is there anyone here you know, at least?"
Sarah furrowed her brow a little. "I didn't even know that was possible," she said, then stopped, shaking her head, eyes closing a moment. "That's - that's pretty stupid. I didn't know any of this was possible. I, uh - no, I haven't seen anyone I know. Yet." There was a spark of hope there, one that couldn't possibly be fulfilled, seeing as how Eric didn't know anyone at all. Pam didn't need to know that, though.
There were ways in which that could be good and bad. Showing up to find that people from home were there and had moved on could only hurt, but so would their absence. It was one area she had no real experience in. Her own situation was just complicated, though far less so now than it had been in those first couple of months. "Well, they keep records over in the Council office," she offered, her expression fading to one more sympathetic, if slightly hopeful. "I can take you over there to check, if you want." Pausing, she bit her lower lip. "You have a lot of people to be missing?"
She'd toyed briefly with the idea of a wife, foiled by the fact that her hands were the wrong size now for the wedding ring she'd arrived with. Instead she glanced down and sipped her coffee, buying a moment. "A few," she said. "Family mostly. I haven't been here long enough to make any friends really." She closed her eyes, shook her head at herself, managed a small wry smile. "San Francisco. Not here. Here, too, actually."
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God, she'd missed that.
"That's really kind of you," she said, nodding, "thank you." Pam really was just that sweet to everyone, apparently. That wasn't a surprise. "Have you been here long?"
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