Event Private lab rats

He took a few steps back away from the glass after witnessing all those sharp pointy objects pop out of Lady’s arm. Nico frowned as he was going to say something only to stop. “Flip her off.” Said the tiny influential voice in his head.

So he did that. Just flipped off this lady he didn't know. “Get used to it.” Well it wasn't like he can do anything else.

Then there was a another and probably disguised voice which told the woman who was apparently named Jean to do her job. “Do your job right doggy.” Did Nico just say that? He totally just said that. So he got a face and her name and he will gladly remember that.

Once Jean was gone Nico began to pace around for a bit as more people were waking up and some commotion was going on with some other captive. Since panicking and banging on the glass won't do any good he tried to gather his thoughts and just wanted to mentally check out from all of this for just a few seconds.

Too bad that voice on the speaker had to speak and was some bell ringing ruined his thinking

So the voice was referring to him...great. Well he really didn't trust eating the food they could have put trackers or something in it. Though thinking about it, they would have done that while he was sleep.

He was hesitant at first however he was hungry and going the “I will starve myself” route seemed like a bad plan since everyone here is probably expandable. “PRETTY SURE I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR ANY TESTING.”

Abi closed her eyes as she reclined against the cold reinforced glass. There was no getting out of here, not by force anyways. The best course of action was to keep calm and figure out what was going on. All around her people were stirring. Some were like her, calmly waiting it out, others were losing it, one even appeared to be trying to flush herself down the toilette.

Abi couldn't help but sigh as she bit into the nutrient bar again. It tasted bad, but still, beat the gritty paste that she often ate while on long missions. This at least had a pleasant texture, like a carrot. Nearby someone else had followed her example. He was doing well to keep his head in all of this and had even spoken to her.

She opened here eyes slowly and looked at the man. He was a kiddy corner away from her, across the lane and one over. With how these cages were built though, it might have well been an ocean. Still, though, they had the benefit of being in clear glass cages, which would allow them an easier time of communication, if not vocally then at least visually.

"Eh..." She shrugged as she watched Havoc. Her voice was controlled and calm. Loud enough to be heard, but not so much as to gain attention from Jean or Anthony. "No reason to get bent yet. They ain't gonna do anything to us right away. How bout you though? You aint gonna scream like a hooligan? Or try n flush yerself?" She chuckled as she spoke, taking another bite, and swallowing it.

Schrödinger blinked sleepily, groaning. His neck was stiff. Someone was banging his bedroom door. The TV was on. Why was the volume so loud? So loud...

"It's too early," he complained, rolling over. Except there was no bed there and the boy tumbled to the floor in an ungraceful, yelping heap. The floor, which lacked the rocket rug and all the dust of a put-off cleaning day, was ice-cold and bit into his bare skin.

The eldritch jolted awake.

This was not his house.

Schrödinger stood shakily, limbs strangely weak, a pit in his stomach like the time he'd forgotten to eat breakfast. There was a pounding in his ears.

Also, what was he wearing? He plucked at one of the sleeves on the gown, frowning. Not comfortable. Something around his wrist caught his eye, and Schrödinger's frown deepened. It looked like a...? (He drew a blank. Not-right, he recognized, though he still didn't know what it was. A bracelet?)

A sudden thought struck him, and the eldritch glanced around. Where are my clothes? Where am I? The glass surrounding him made him shiver and feel exposed. There was a bathroom in the corner, but it had no walls or anything around it. What is this?

There were others, most of them in glass cages like his. Most of them looked stressed, and a few others looked (dead? Asleep?) limp in their...cells. Schrödinger tried to continue observing calmly, but a rising lump in his throat cut off his breathing. The pounding in his ears quickened.

They all looked older than him, and they were trapped and scared-looking.

Not-right.

An idea occurred, and for the first time that day, Schrödinger tried to summon one of his Boxes, the one with his favorite book stored inside. He startled as the bracelet-thing began to shake uncomfortably around his wrist. No Box, no nothing.

The feeling of not-right increased dramatically.

A plate with some weird food things lay on the floor by the slot, but Schrödinger didn't feel hungry anymore. In fact, he felt sick, accompanied by swaying sensation he hadn't ever felt before. Fear.

That made him irritated. He did not like this feeling. Not right, not right, not right. Scared, scared, scared.

In a sudden burst of impulsivity and anger, the boy grabbed the plate of food and threw it against one of the pristine glass walls. Hard, and the contents exploded against the transparent surface. He didn't know what else to do. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes.

His hands shook. His whole body was shaking. Soon, he'd be leaking shadows.

"Grandma," Schrödinger hiccuped, crying now. "Grandpa, where are you..."

Klef cocked her head, listening to what was probably someone over an intercom. Tests? This most definitely wasn't her dorm, but prison didn't really do testing either, nor would she be referred to as a patient, not that she would know. The kid had no blood on her hands that she knew of so prison was a stretch anyways, yet it was odd that she was in what may be a cell.

She was unsure if the intercom was referring to her for the testing. From what she had heard, it seemed like she wasn't the only one in there either, even if she had yet to run into anyone. Klef slid her hand on the cold floor until she reached something that felt like a tray. She wasn't sure whether or not to trust the person over the intercom, for all she knew they might have been referring to someone else. If she had learned anything from movies, eating whatever they had given her could totally worsen the situation. It could be poisoned or have something nasty inside, but an empty stomach was no good either.

" Please be food..." Klef croaked, hesitating to take a bite.

A grin crossed Abigale's lips as she took another bite of her nutrient bar. Naturally, havoc was right, everyone freaking out and screaming was doing no good. She knew this because she was a soldier. She knew that in circumstances that would defy normality, that one needed to keep their head in order to survive. This was simply common sense for her, though the reactions of the other captives showed that it was not the case for all.

"You know... I would say you were right. Gather all the information and decide what to do after that." She shrugged as she spoke, casting a quick glance to the other caages.

"I was jogging. I can't really remember much. I wasn't attacked though. No one stuck me with anything." This meant that they had had similar circumstances. Interestingly enough this meant that their captors were able to sedate them without direct contact. It would seem they had greater control over them than they thought.

The man's soothing voice did not do very much to calm the panicking eldritch, especially since it made LuLu even more aware of the fact that they were disconnected from the rest of the love eldritch and any bonded, and they couldn't sense any sentient minds, any minds at all around themself. But even though the bulk of LuLu's body was in the toilet trying to squish through the drains to safety, there were still seven nine-foot long tentacles undulating about for Anthony to press the cloth to. The drowsy sluggishness was an odd sensation. The eldritch did sleep, but was generally unaffected by drugs and such, so the circumstances of the feeling were new, at least to them personally. Whatever the reason the cloth affected them, it did allow them time to gather themself, at least partially; they were still terrified at being so alone. It definitely gave them a reason above and beyond biological imperative to want to bond as many minds as possible into the hive mind.

After being removed from the toilet, LuLu took the time to actually consider their circumstances. They still had all their own experience, which included the millenia of second-hand experience that they had had before they were somehow captured; they just couldn't get the help of the rest of the hive to sort through it. With a little time to think, they were fairly certain that the loss wasn't permanent. They couldn't think about being disconnected forever or nothing would stop the panic. Their next step was to observe their surroundings. The toilet or sink pipes might still be a viable escape, but the cages were obviously being observed from outside, probably via camera, and that Anthony man had just appeared from nowhere. Escaping from the small slot in the front of the cage posed the same difficulties, and even if they did get out of their cage that way, they would still have to escape the room the cages were in.

LuLu examined the bracelet. They were pretty sure that was what had caused their disconnection. Although a normal bracelet would just slide off their tentacle, this one was stuck on somehow, and some experimentation showed that they couldn't shift themself either. Biologically they were still the same; they could move their eyes, their body could squish, and they had no need to breathe or eat. But they were almost certain they wouldn't be able to bond or regenerate with this thing on either. The eldritch did consider chopping off their tentacle and then regenerating it, but they weren't sure it would work, and they couldn't see anything sharp enough anyways.

The funny thing was LuLu would most likely have not much desire to escape and would cooperate with his captors if they had not been disconnected from the hive. In fact, if they managed to remove the bracelet, they would probably not try to leave because they would want to persuade their captors to be bonded as much as they would want to convince any other sentient mind. The eldritch considered just saying this, but decided to stay quiet for the moment. They were usually very patient, when absolute terror didn't get the better of them, and they decided it would be more prudent to mention this if and when they were taken for experimentation. Instead they focused on the other captives. The eldritch still felt mentally deaf and dismembered, but it did love other beings. They heard people talking in the other cages, but there was also a lot of yelling and other noises, so they were having a hard time knowing who to talk to. LuLu decided to remain silent until someone spoke them or they could figure out who would.