Logs:A Resounding Maybe

A Resounding Maybe
Dramatis Personae Joshua, Skye
In Absentia	2021-10-16 "This isn't exactly how I planned all this." (after Joshua and Skye get off the inter-dimensional bus at the wrong stop; part of Prometheus plot)
Location <MA> Holding Cell - Dirac Research Laboratory
Not meant to hold anyone for very long, this is a tiny room furnished only with two hard bunks and a stainless steel fixture that serves as toilet, sink, and drinking fountain. Two small vents. One door. No windows. Skye had been dumped unceremoniously on one of the bunks at some earlier point with little regard to the comfort of her broken leg, but she had fortunately not been awake for that. Now she's waking up, and to judge by her pained groan she is not happy about this situation. Most of her hair has escaped the tight flat bun she'd carefully secured before the raid and she is trying to blink her bleary eyes clear. "Joshua?" Her voice is very hoarse and very quiet. "Mmmnh." This voice comes from up above; with no bones broken, Joshua has either claimed or been dumped in the top bunk. "This isn't," he tells Skye, quiet, "exactly how I planned all this." "I'm guessing pretty much nobody plans to end up here." Skye does not try to sit up immediately, but she does roll herself into what presumably is a slightly more comfortable position. "Well, I guess some people did, way back." She doesn't say anything for a moment, though Joshua might be able to hear her breathing, rapid and terrified, before she forces it back under control. "I'm sorry you got caught, too. Again." Joshua's cheek sucks against his teeth dismissively. "Could be worse. Dirac is cushy compared to my last lab. I just --" His expression isn't visible from below, but some of the cavalier ebbs away from his tone. "... I'm sorry. Gotten out before, though. If I find an opening I swear I'll jump us out of here." "Hey, they probably would have gotten me anyway. Not like there was any other way out of bus space." The faint creak of the lower bunk and the Mandarin profanities through gritted teeth suggest Skye is probably trying to sit up, though she does seem to be easing into it, at least. "They know what you can do, though. Would they even let you anywhere unsuppressed? Would they let me?" "They know what I can do." Joshua sounds resigned about this. "Pretty much a guarantee I get a rotating cast of labmates. Can't test shit with the suppression fields on, so --" There's a brief silence, An unhappy addendum: "... don't know how likely they'd let me near you without it, though. They're dumb. Maybe not that dumb." Skye is quiet for a moment. When she speaks again it's slowly, deliberately, trying to sound calm. "If you can get out, go. The team has a better shot with you, if..." She's struggling to keep her voice even. "I can wait." The sheets rustle as she shifts her weight again, sucking a harsh breath and then clapping her hand over her mouth to stifle a cry of pain. What little noise does escape her, though, is drowned out by the sudden humming of the bed frame, like a struck (and very badly made) tuning fork. "{Wh--what?!}" When she blurts this it comes out in Mandarin. "{How the fuck is this possible?}" "I'm not ditching you here if there's a chance --" There's an abrupt rustle from overhead as Joshua sits up, too. Then silence. Then, oddly cautious for the statement, "{What the fuck.}" Maybe Skye has used up her astonishment quota for the day already, because she does not question Joshua speaking her native language all of a sudden. "{The suppression field must be malfunctioning,}" she says evenly, like they're just having a perfectly normal conversation for two people in a secret government torture lab, "{let's go.}" "{Would if we could. How are you doing that?}" It's only now that Joshua swings his legs over the side of the bunk. Drops to the ground to saunter toward the sink, get himself a handful of water. The cut of his eyes toward Skye is far less casual than his posture. "{I can't do shit. I can't feel you. I can't feel anything.}" Skye's eyebrows shoot up before she manages to school her expression back to something looks reasonably like a person who is in pain and grumpy about it. "{I have no idea, I wasn't even thinking about it before but now...}" She closes her eyes. The water cupped in Joshua's palm ripples rhythmically, but gentle enough he can only feel it against his skin. "{It's just -- like totally normal, when I pay attention.}" Her eyes open again, a little too wide. "{Are some people just immune to this shit or...?}" She's eyeing the door with interest, now. "{No.}" This answer comes straightaway. Joshua dips his head toward the faucet, slurping another mouthful of water from his cupped palm. Then, after a moment's consideration, "{... guess you are. Don't suppose you could rumble hard enough to buy me a door?}" "{Lily said...}" Skye shakes her head and looks down at her hands as if she's never seen them before. "{I can't do the grid itself, metal wire is too flexible to shake apart. It'll probably get wrecked if I broke the wall, but...}" She frowns, considering this. "{Either I have to carefully build the resonance in one spot, which might take minutes for walls like these and it's loud. Or I can do it hard and fast, but that will shatter all of the reinforced concrete in reach, which like...}" She looks up at the (also concrete) ceiling. "{Even if you could get us out in time, it'll kill a lot of other people. I could do the actual door, easy, but that won't do shit to the grid.}" Joshua exhales once, heavy, but just nods. He turns the faucet off, wipes his palm against his pants. "{Labs are aboveground. Guess I'll keep my fingers crossed they throw us at each other, then.}"