War Week

[mockmods]

[A week has gone and past, as has the first of your number. The Researcher revealing himself, more or less, by punishing Patches, the Trusty, for pushing an unclear boundary.]

[And yet, routine seems to have returned. The Researcher makes morning and evening announcements as if nothing has happened. Meals are served in the dining hall. The copies of Oregon Trail in the computer lab now have a text-only mode for some reason? Penny has not been seen since Friday, and attempts to access the Security Room have been fruitless.]

[But overall, life in the Facility has remained unchanged. But the atmosphere is getting tenser - sooner or later something is going to break.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Thursday

Comments

[windowsexplorer]

[For a moment Meredith seems not only unperturbed, but excited by the photo of a couple of people in labcoats carefully assembling what looks like a human-sized doll. It's nearly featureless, not something that would pass as a human ever, certainly not recognizable as anyone here, but her reaction clarifies.]

Oh, that's me, isn't it? That's--

[But then she freezes.

Maybe it's because the arm they're attaching appears to just be on a ball joint, with no electronics or other mechanism like you'd expect a robot to have.]

[in4apounding]

[Just gonna. Sidle on over here, carefully.]

[This day is not going how she imagined.]

Mer- Miss Meredith? Are you okay?

[windowsexplorer]

--I!

[Meredith snaps out of it upon being addressed.]

I'm fine! I just... I was...

[She carefully pokes at her arm.]

[in4apounding]

[Looks blankly at the arm. Looks up at the photo. Looks back to Meredith.]

...Okay?

[Deception successful.]


Do you want to talk about it at all?

[windowsexplorer]

[Meredith looks at her hand, opens and closes it.]

I don't know what this means. I...

...okay.

[in4apounding]

...Okay.

[Slightly awkward shoulder pat? Slightly awkward shoulder pat.]

We can talk in the security office. Um-

[She takes a quick glance around. Things are still sort of Tense, looks like.]

In. Um. In just a minute, I promise.

[windowsexplorer]

Yeah.

[It's her quietest "yeah" in the past week.]

It's the motive announcement, after all. You have to deal with that.

[in4apounding]

...that's an oddly formal way to put it, I guess, but- yeah.

[She gives Meredith's shoulder a small squeeze.]

This will- ...I'm sure everything will be fine. [hic]