003. (visual) a list of the qualities a good girl lacks
"Hello, Taxon."
Leila greets anyone paying attention out there with a small smile, seated as she is on a grassy section in the forest, several paces away from the greenhouse Sol (and now Ambrose) has occupied, though it's not quite in view, thus making her location more difficult to distinguish. She's sleeveless, today, which means much of her ( Read more... )
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Ambrose, almost silent in his approach behind her, remarks, "I'm sure he'll be back soon."
(Anyone who glimpses this may or may not recognize the uncanny similarity to Solomon Koenig in Ambrose's features - if they can get past the lighter, longer hair, the addition of facial hair, the underweight frame.)
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She doesn't quite jump, but there is a stillness where that impulse might have occurred in anyone else. Leila stops outwardly transmitting with the push of a button on her tablet, and turns to look at Ambrose.
"Not quite why I was asking--well, not all of it. How long were you listening?"
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"A while." He sits down a few feet away, cross-legged and similarly still. His expression is hard to read, but maybe that's just some kind of exhaustion; it's hard to hold yourself in when all you're really doing is waiting for the knife to come down. "You're very organized, Leila. Do you have any skill with numbers?"
...just wondering.
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"I'm good with them, yes. They're necessary for my field--I double-majored in physics and biological engineering."
She hesitates for a second before adding, by way of explanation, "Numbers and science--they're so much simpler than people. But that's because they're only a small part of them."
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"--the language you speak is automatically translated. That's interesting." She leans forward, hands clasped at her knees. Kurdish and Turkish also don't seem to be automatically translated by anything, as far as she can tell, but in fairness Leila has mostly used the former of those to swear, lately.
"Can you tell me more about that?"
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"I wonder how prevalent that issue is," she murmurs, half-to herself. Hmm.
"Were they hostile, or just not especially interested in trying? I think a lot of people here have started to settle, in a way- they've made lives here and are hoping they're released instead of actively striving to escape. Quite understandably, since our captors have made it seem futile." Emphasis on 'seem'.
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"I don't think I have any answers either," he said, a bit glumly. "I I can tell you that English is the official language of my world, but that's...maybe some weird parallel dimensiony thingy." Yes, that is the technical term. "Maybe the same thing's going on here?"
He did have a solid response for the last part. "It kinda varies. I know I had my brain back for a little over a week, my friend Levi was turned human for just a few days...that's the usual range, b-but sometimes it's longer. I've been trying to track them, it-" Faint chuckle goes here. "It seems appropriate."
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"Well, if neither of us know, I suppose that leaves a good deal of room for improvement." To Leila this is no deterrent, but it is a little frustrating, she has to admit--she wishes there were more information. Solid information.
"But yes, studying the errors is definitely a promising idea. Do you think they're ever deliberately induced?"
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He tilted his head at the question, then shrugged. "By us? Kidnapees? It hasn't been reported, b-but since the...glitches usually aren't good things I'm not sure anyone would want one."
Aside fro him, at least. He'd downright begged the aliens to re-glitch him when they'd called to ask their questions, but all he got was a garbled apology.
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"Oh--I don't mean that the people experiencing them would want them. I mean I think the alleged aliens might inflict them intentionally; have you seen any evidence to support that?"
She does have some anecdata, some things she has been told, that suggests the people in charge have a somewhat cruel sense of humor.
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She does ask the right questions; a broader variety than most, cutting away from the ‘why are we here?’ and ‘how can we leave?’. It’s easier to find a way out when one best understands their opponent.
“I am always pleased with the idea of progress. Stepping forward, finding success. And, dear, before you ask, you may call me the Master - well, I really do insist.” He slowly starts to grin. “You could call me a scientist, but I am so much more.”
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"That does seem to be the general consensus..." At least, regarding the glitches.
Because Leila is not totally oblivious, something about this guy makes her a touch suspicious right off the bat--might be the fact that he calls himself 'the Master' and doesn't appear to be teaching martial arts in a Bruce Lee movie--but her standard reaction to this is curiosity, and she does value confidence, so she smiles back.
"With a title like that, I imagine you'd have to be. I'm Leila- Dr. Leila Yilmaz. What's involved in that 'more', may I ask?"
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"Like you, English was not my first language, but it has long been my dominant one. I'm not sure why there seem to be 'groups' of us all from one world, but it does seem to be the tendency..."
He raised an eyebrow as he finally thinks about the last question Leila asked. "The glitches usually last one to two weeks, from what I've noticed. But like with everything here, there doesn't seem to be any hard rules for it."
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She brightens, a little bit, when she sees Mohinder appear on the tablet screen--she likes him, they're contemporaries in a lot of ways in terms of their words and work. "Indeed I do. Thank you for that, by the way."
She's never been much of a team player, but in Taxon, Leila is considering the merits of adapting her methods.
"It creates a very different environment than if we were all strangers," she notes, "I've only found one person from home, though, and he's also the one presently experiencing what I'm pretty certain is one of those glitches."
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Leila's comment about it being a different 'environment' gives Mohinder some pause. "I'm sorry to hear about your acquaintance. The glitch isn't anything too serious, I hope." But even if it was, it wouldn't last long, at least. "I wonder if they brought us in groups for a purpose. Much of this seems to be oriented to speed the process of acclimation. Maybe that has something to do with it, as well."
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She smiles, faintly, saying nothing in regards to what Solomon is experiencing--to begin with, it's not her story to tell, and secondly she probably wouldn't say anything even if it were. It's hard to explain, and not especially scientific in any kind of conventional sense.
"To get us settled in- yes, I've noticed that. The people who have the most friends and family from home are the ones who are the least interested in trying to escape, generally."
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