[hadal-hideout]

Blog intro!

Characters

☁️ Cyrus EXP-1720

🍄 Coming soon..

✨ Axel EXP-2334

🌵Marigold EXP-2018

🎀 Claire Z-10

🦦 Silber Z-23

Rules and text stuff underneath cut

Rules:

No nsfw, it makes me uncomfortable.

Along that same note; no shipping. I mean, you could try, but they're not likely to reciprocate and it's just gonna make me not want to respond to you.

Please be nice, I have anxiety lmao (obviously doesn't apply for during roleplays, just don't be an ass when we're just talking ooc).

Please keep in mind that I'm an awkward little guy and I'm new to this sort of thing! Please be patient with me.

Gore + violence is allowed, I just prefer that you keep it in text, because my brain is weird and is 100% okay with graphic descriptions of gore if it's written, but it freaks out if it actually has to see something (I dunno why, it just kinda does that).

If you're going to be sending asks that will be related to asks you've sent previously, please tag who you are if you're anon, either with emojis or like a nickname or something

Text stuff:

[Mod/ooc will be typed like this.]

"Rp talking will be typed like this."

"Whispering/muttering will be typed like this."

Actions will be typed like this.

Each character will have their own color, which will be noted with the color of their name + in their character intros

Tags

Untagged anons - #Mystery anon

Asks - #Find what you're looking for?

Ooc - #Mod emerges

Character responses (each has their own tag) - [Char name]'s corner

Blog - #Hadal hideout

[hadal-hideout]

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[exrp624-calisto]

624 glared at the girl with widened eyes. A child? Here? Of all places? She was immediately concerned, but upon closer inspection, she noticed the gills and tail and..

Oh. Of course, Urbanshade wasn't above this. And her concern grew more.

As the rapid fire questions continued, she realized she probably wasn't going to be able to write down anything quickly enough to satisfy her, so she hesitately pulled out a small device with a few tiny buttons and a speaker and never looked away from the girl as she typed in her responses.

"You can call me 624. I am here to find research for a friend of mine. And I'm here because I have to be.. Here as in Blacksite."

The voice was robotic and crackled with static every few words. It clearly hadn't been used in a while.. She wasn't fond of using her TTS device, especially considering those footsteps from earlier. She blinked, still against the wall as she typed in another message.

"Oh. I'm mute. I can not speak verbally. Apologies."

She adjusted her necklace, but she didn't make any sudden moves. (Not that she was in a hurry anyway.. Her wound was acting up again.)

She tapped away again, glancing behind her at the door. 624 was really getting nervous 'talking' this much.

"And you? Are you doing alright? I hope you aren't being tailed.."

[hadal-hideout]

She looked surprised at the use of the TTS, but she seemed to be less hostile than she was earlier. She leaned against the nearest wall, watching 624 with a curious look as she listened to the TTS.

She seemed slightly uncomfortable by the constant eye contact, but she ignored it and continued asking her questions anyway, not wanting to show any weaknesses. She decided to follow 624's lead of not sharing their actual names, but instead of coming up with a fake name, she elected to just not mention one at all.

"Is '624' your file name or whatever they call it? Who's your friend? And I meant 'here' as in this room. Usually this room's empty, which is why I'm usually hiding in here."

She fiddled with her dress pockets as she talked,not really caring to maintain eye contact anymore, as 624 had already broken it by glancing at the door. She instead focused her attention on the TTS device, trying to figure out as much as she could about it just from looking at it, knowing she probably wouldn't be allowed to touch it.

"Do you know ASL? How come– You seem to dislike using the machine thingy, I dunno the actual name for it, so it'd probably be more effective or whatever if we used ASL. If you know it, that is."

She cut off her original question, seemingly changing her mind last second and deciding to not ask anymore questions. She smoothed out her dress, fiddling with her bracelet instead as she continued talking.

"I'm fine, I'm pretty sure the expendable gave up already. They never seem to stay around for long, and they're always in a hurry, so I doubt it's still out there. That one seemed more determined than the other ones though, I dunno why."

[exrp624-calisto]

She seemed a bit taken back by the sudden.. change in demeanor. She hadn't bothered trying to use ASL since there weren't a lot of people who actually knew it down here. She wasn't fluent but was confident enough. 624 noted the curious gaze, and she could practically see the gears moving in the girls head as she spoke.

"624.. It is my EXRP number. I don't bother with names. You get too attached. And I was here because I thought there was research here. I wasn't aware it was empty or a hideout for that matter. Apologies."

She locked eyes with the girl for a moment to get the point across. She broke the eye contact pretty abruptly, though. (She wasn't used to it either, it seemed.)

She continued to type into the machine, every so often seemingly back-spacing or removing words.

"My friend.. Sebastian. He runs a shop quite a few doors from here. He trades various items for research. Business has been unexpectedly slow recently, and he's gotten a bit.."

She paused for a good moment before rolling her eyes and continuing to type.

"Moody. To say the least. So I decided to give him some space and try to find some research while I was out. He's letting me stay with him, so it's the least I could do, yeah?"

She glances around the room, scanning it. It seems no different than any other room here. Perhaps that's what she wanted, though? A room that's ordinary was overlooked often. She guesses she just happened to have some back luck while scavenging.

"I do know ASL. I'm not fluent in it, though. I'm rusty.. No one uses it down here anyway. I usually write in this book here with pen and paper. I just didn't this time since I could've probably startled you reaching behind me. This machine is really just a tiny keyboard and a speaker. But it's a bit loud and it's not a great idea to be loud here."

She holds up the device and spins it around in her hand openly. It's really not used all that much, actually.

"An expendable? If I were them I wouldn't go chasing anything or anyone.. It sounds like that happens a lot to you though?"

She tilts her head as she looks past the girl towards the door. (Looking out, perhaps?)

[hadal-hideout]

She briefly considers pretending to be upset about the trespassing, but she doesn't really see the point in it, so she just shrugs and fiddles with her bracelet again. She already got what she needed from the expendable from earlier, so there was no need to use her tactics against some random trespasser, especially since she didn't actually own the place.

"Eh, it's fine. I'm not too attached to this place, I just didn't want anyone to mess with the stuff I left in here."

She fiddled with her dress the second the eye contact was broken, clearly unused to maintaining it for this long. She seemed interested in the mention of a shopkeeper, quickly shaking off her uneasiness to ask more about him.

"What's he like? What does he sell? How long have you known him? How come you're staying with him? Do you do runs like this often? Is he moody a lot of the time?"

She followed 624's gaze around the room, making sure that the spot where she hid her items remained hidden, not wanting to deal with any questions about what she was hiding.

"Who'd you learn it from? I learned it from my Father, who learned about it from my Grandfather. How come you didn't want to startle me earlier? Where'd you get the machine from? Did you make it yourself?"

She looked curiously at the machine, resisting the urge to reach out to it to get a better look. Instead, she distracts herself by focusing on 624's questions, shrugging before answering.

"Eh. Sometimes they follow me, most of the time they don't. The most recent one was a lot more determined than the other ones, which is probably why she followed me for so long."

[exrp624-calisto]

Ah. So Claire hadn't heard of Sebastian. This was either a blessing or a curse. Sebastian had told her he had siblings back when on the surface, but she isn't sure what that means anymore.

"He sells things like Medkits, lights.. Survival tools. All useful. He prefers to trade for research for some reason. I assume it's to keep as much of it out of Urbanshade's hands as possible."

She thinks carefully about the next few questions she asked. She wasn't sure if she should be honest or if she should be vague. She could be both, truthfully, but.. Claire was clearly just a kid. She wasn't sure if underestimating her would end up badly for her later. Especially since Sebastian was the main topic.

"I'm staying with him because I won't survive on my own. I sustained a real bad injury. Nearly died. Should have, actually. I don't know why he's letting me stick around, but I'm great full, so I'm not gonna complain."

She wasn't used to dealing with children truthfully. She didn't dislike them or anything, but her town didn't have a lot of them since rich people didn't like kids unless they had to. (And they didn't have to go back home so no one brought or had any.)

"I don't, actually. He is usually rather passive. He's as polite as he needs to be with expendables and more than that with me. And I usually don't have the energy to go very far.. But he's especially ticked off today, so I figured I would make the most of it."

She looked down at her device once she was done with answering that set of questions. Was she this curious as a kid? It was only natural given the standards.

"My friend made it for me. He's an engineer. Notes aren't very efficient for either of us, so he decided to make use of what we have down here. And I learned a little ASL in prison. Had to do something in there, yeah?"

She wondered how much time had passed. She wasn't in any hurry truthfully, but she also didn't want Sebastian to feel the need to go fetch her. Not that he would, of course, unless she was gone for a day or two. She had confidence in her skills, and he.. Also, maybe he did, but he also may just be lazy.

"And I didn't want to startle you because it's not polite to startle people. Especially when you don't know the person. I tend to follow by two rules: Don't startle anyone or anything. It can, and will, end badly usually."

[hadal-hideout]

She recognized the objects 624 was talking about, obviously, they could be found all over the blacksite, including on the bodies of her meals. There was always one room that had an abundance of them, though for some reason that room always had a bunch of files in it, and.. Oh.

Oh no. Maybe she could quickly change the topic before it became obvious that she was guilty? Sure, she didn't take that much, but considering what little she knew about Sebastian, she doubted he'd be pleased with her. And 624 was friends with him, so she'd obviously tell him, and therefore she couldn't know about it, which meant she had to change the subject.

"..Ah. I think I've heard of him, but I haven't seen him yet. Anyways, who's Urbanshade?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly as 624 hesitated, clearly wondering what she was thinking about that was taking so long. Hesitation was never a good sign; it usually meant something bad had either happened or was about to happen, and as per usual, she was right. At least this time, it was just an injury.

"How'd you almost die? How bad's your injury? How come you haven't just healed your– Uh. Nevermind.."

She trailed off as she looked away, looking embarrassed as she remembered that most people weren't capable of healing themselves. Now that she thought about it, it's a bit odd how she was already forgetting what it was like before the experiments. She'd only been able to heal herself for a couple months (5? Maybe 6..? She didn't really bother to remember), and yet she was already forgetting what it was like to be human.

"Aaanyways, how come he's upset today if he's usually passive? Did something happen? Did you do something to annoy him so now you're trying to make it up to him by getting supplies?"

She fiddled with her dress as she spoke, always making sure to smooth it out after she was done. It seemed to be mostly out of boredom, unlike how she was nervously fidgeting earlier, as if she was just asking her questions to confirm things she already knew. Her demeanor changed, however, the second 624's friend was mentioned, even moreso when she learned he was an engineer.

"Who's your friend? Where are they now? Why were you in prison?? What'd you do? What was it like there? Oo are you actually more dangerous than you look?"

She seemed strangely.. excited? More than any normal person would be, but especially more interested in this than any child should be.

[exrp624-calisto]

Oh God. She really didn't know about anything, did she? 624, again, wasn't sure if she should beat around the bush or be as honest as she could. A huge part of her wanted to attempt to hide as much from her as possible, but considering the circumstances and the child's appearance, she isn't sure if it would even help anymore.

"Urbanshade is the company who owns Hadal Blacksite as well as this entire underwater facility. They own and "made" everything inside of it, too."

Vague enough. She really didn't know much else than that truthfully. She glanced up at a wall clock above the door frame and wondered how accurate it was. Realistically, the clocks had no reason to be incorrect, but considering the circumstances and the lack of seeing any visible change in the days, it made sense to be skeptical.

Her eyes snapped back to the child once the next question flew out of her mouth. She looked not dissimilar to a deer in headlights. It wasn't like she couldn't talk about it or anything, but it was probably her least pleasant memory. She had nothing to hide and even less of a reason to try to hide nothing.

"Vultus Limunaria. Or more commonly called Searchlights. You have seen them circling around open areas. Like the name suggests, they're large creatures with lights that spot prey and.. Large hooks to impale and capture them. I just got lucky. Or unlucky if you really wanna think about it."

624 seemed withdrawn after that exchange. It was difficult to talk about, but she found it more important to try to stay on Claire's good side. Not that she felt that she wasn't capable. She had survived down here for possibly longer than 624 had; that was something.

"Nothing appened that I'm aware of. It's like when something doesn't go your way for a while and you get frustrated. Sebastian is just.. Frustrated that things are moving slower than usual. Just a tad disappointed is all.. Unfortunately, being down here can make disappointment seem a lot worse."

Oh? Her friend. Right. Yeah. A lump formed in her throat at the question. No one had ever asked enough about her to get to the mention of her old friend.

"My friend. He died a while back. He was great."

That's as much as she was going to say. She quickly moved on to the next question.

"And I didn't do anything. I was falsely accused. And it was.. It's much better than this place. Much. I don't consider myself a threat, but Urbanshade clearly does so.. Maybe I am a bit dangerous, yeah?"

[hadal-hideout]

Her tail flicked behind her in annoyance, noticing that 624 was holding back information. It made sense why, but it was still annoying being treated like she needed to be protected.

"Oh– Wait I think I do know them! My Dad talked about them a lot, but he never called it Urbanshade, so that's why I didn't recognize it."

She noticed fairly quickly this seemed to be a topic that 624 didn't seem to like talking about, but a couple more questions couldn't hurt, right?

"Vultus Limunaria..? I don't think I've seen it before. Where is it located? How long ago did it happen?"

She looked skeptical that there wasn't anything else going on regarding Sebastian, but she didn't really have reason or proof to not believe her, so she let it go. Then again, it's not like she ever needed proof to voice her suspicions.. Regardless, she had more interesting things to ask about.

"How come he's upset things are moving slowly? Wouldn't he like a break from dealing with whatever he deals with?"

Her curious demeanor changed the second she heard that the friend had died. Normally when in this situation she'd ask more questions about who died; what happened, how long ago, etcetera, but doing it now felt.. weird. She didn't know why– she's asked questions about this in the past, so why did it feel so wrong now?

Maybe it's because she wasn't.. like this when she asked questions about it before. She looked at 624 as she thought to herself, noticing her expression. She was obviously upset by his death, and it made her wonder how long ago it was. Did anyone back home miss her the way 624 clearly missed him? Did anyone even notice she was gone?

She looked away from 624, smoothing out her dress in a futile attempt to clear her head. She wished she had some sort of distraction that wasn't making conversation, but there wasn't much to do unless she wanted to leave, and that seemed rude. She still wasn't quite sure what to respond to the information she received, so instead she just dropped the subject entirely, focusing on whatever topic 624 brought up.

"What were you accused of? Which prison did you go to? Do you miss it?"

[exrp624-calisto]

She was relieved that Claire had taken the hint and opted not to push further. She would've answered her if she did, but it wasn't ideal. Upon hearing the mention of the girls father, her eyes moved up to look at her from behind her bangs. (When was the last time she cut them?)

"I've only seen one. It's far. Door 70, I think? Not far from Sebastian's shop. And it's been a while now. A few months at least."

624 had felt odd. She usually would avoid the topic entirely. Other expendables were only ever nosy, and Sebastian had seen what happened, so he knew all he needed to know. Perhaps she was more open due to Claire geniuenly just being curious?

"Research is important to Sebastian, so he wants to gather as much as he can. I don't know why, but he says it's for the best, and I believe him. I don't know much else."

That was a half lie. She didn't know what purpose collecting the research had, but she knew that it was in regards to getting them out of here. Her eyes moved away from Claire for a moment. Perhaps when she got back to his shop, she'd question if he knew anything about her. (Could they take her with them when they left?)

"I do miss it. Anywhere that isn't here is ideal. That was years ago, though, so I don't remember. I went to a juvenile detention center first since I was pretty young when I was convicted. I was sent to prison when I turned 18, though, if that's anything."

She didn't say or do anything for a few moments, pondering if she should actually tell Claire the reason for her imprisonment. She really didn't want to, and yet..

"If you really want to know, you'll have to answer a question from me first."

This was a win-win situation. If Claire declined, she wouldn't have to share, and on the other hand, if she did answer whatever question 624 had, she would gain information.

[hadal-hideout]

She muttered to herself for a couple seconds, trying to remember what he referred to Urbanshade by, but she gave up pretty quickly, instead focusing on the new information. She was a little tempted to continue asking about the accident and for more information on Urbanshade, but 624 looked relieved that she wasn't pressing her on it, and she didn't really feel like ruining that right now.

"Oh, that's probably why I haven't seen it; I don't usually go past door 60. How far are we from Sebastian's shop? And how come you trust him so much? I mean, you've only been staying with him for a few months, right? Is that really enough time to trust someone? Especially someone who supposedly hasn't told you what he needs important documents for?"

There, maybe that'd be enough to see if she was lying or not. Of course, she could just ask her outright, but if she was lying, then there was no guarantee that she'd admit to it. Claire hated lying– regardless of whether she was doing it or whether she was the one being lied to. Though she didn't really believe that omitting information counted as lying (It was too vague, and therefore not reliable), 624 had explicitly not omitted information; she clearly said that she didn't know what he wanted for.

And sure, maybe she didn't actually know and Claire was just a bit more paranoid than the rational person, but she also claimed to trust him! Which was clearly impossible, because how could you trust someone who you don't know all the important things about? And why he collected research was clearly an important thing to know about, because she'd admitted that it was important to him.

So, clearly 624 was lying, the only question now was whether she would admit to it. Though there was a chance she was telling the truth, and Claire was just being paranoid.. But Claire had no reason to be paranoid! Sure, some of the expendables went a little mad after staying down here for too long (which, considering their life expectancies was usually a couple months), but that was just because they were at risk of dying all the time, and Claire didn't have to worry about that! There was no reason for this place to make her more paranoid, she was doing perfectly fine down here.

"Why do you hate it down here so much anyways? And how old are you now?"

She hesitated after hearing the deal, unsure of whether she wanted to agree or not. People didn't tend to ask as many questions as she did, so she wasn't used to having to answer questions about her, and she always said to tell people as little about herself as possible... But she was curious about what she was accused of, and her father always said that if she had nothing to hide, then she shouldn't mind answering any questions. And besides, if 624 was going through all this trouble to hide what she was accused of, then it's gotta be interesting, right?

"This is probably a bad idea but.. Fine. What's your question?"

[exrp624-calisto]

"My reasons for trusting Sebastian outweigh the reasons I wouldn't trust him by a long shot. He's letting me stay with him and he doesn't exactly have much reason to trust me either, let alone allow me to stay with him. That and.. I'd have been dead without him, in more ways than one. I.. Believe that down here it’s more crucial to attempt to reason for why you should trust someone then argue as to why you shouldn’t. Perhaps I am naive, but Sebastian is strong and capable.. He is stubborn and secretive. He’s been here longer than any of us. At least anyone I’ve met. Long before the lockdown. He has knowledge that none of us can obtain.. And he’s offered to take me in and all I have to do is scavenge every once in a while and behave. Pretty good deal, no?" That’s the truth. She’s just great-full that he took her in. And he did everything else, too. (That’s irrelevant for now, though. Neither of them like to bring it up.) 624 doesn’t trust anyone here easily, but she isn’t looking for reasons to not trust people. Those who earn her trust are far and few inbetween but those who do manage to do that have not let her down. The only way anyone has disappointed her so far is dying... But wow, this kid is seriously detail oriented. It’s honestly a bit unsettling. Is this how she’s survived so long down here? 624 had been told before that those who ask questions are smarter. She really shouldn’t try anything else like this again unless she has to. She really is smart.. And yet Sebastian had always called her nosy when she had asked him anything at all. (Perhaps Claire’s suspensions held weight?) She digresses this for now. As she listens to the tiny machine spit out her words, she ponders on her experiences for a moment. Particularly to her first run in with a Wall-Dweller. This was long before her injuries, the Searchlights, and Sebastian. She was alone, in a long stretch of a corridor. Silence was all that remained and the only thing besides that was the dull humming of the lights and the ambience of the deep waters that were outside of the windows. She was so focused on the silence that she didn’t hear the change that was manifesting within it. But lucky for her, someone else did. A shout, a strange alien noise, and footsteps retreating all happened within seconds of each other. The details are irrelevant, but that person was 624’s first official partner. And her cruel introduction to survival of the fittest. (And her reason for her one-sided rivalry with Wall-Dwellers.. That too.)

She’s snapped back from her memories when Claire’s next question is fired at her again. “Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a lady’s age?.. But since you’ve asked, I came down here when I was 21.. So either that, or 22. And why wouldn’t I hate it here? It’s dark, scary, deadly.. No hope or light. The only good thing about this place is.. Well.. I guess other people? I couldn’t imagine being here alone. Even if no one ever stays long. But I have Sebastian too.. Although he’s not very chatty.” This is also the reason 624 has entertained Claire for so long. It’s very rare to come across someone like her. Not just a child but someone with a drive to learn and communicate. Even if this clearly isn’t a leisurely chat, it’s still refreshing. And it pays off, it seems. “Do you have a name? And if you feel like a second question.. What else do you do besides flee from expendables.”

[hadal-hideout]

She stays silent for a couple minutes, thinking about what she said. It was clear that she was far too trusting of other people, but.. Something didn't make sense. 624 was clearly older than her, and as of such shouldn't she be more distrustful than Claire is? Her Mom always said– Ah. There's the problem. Why did she even bother retaining anything that woman said? Though, just because she was a bitch doesn't mean she wasn't right about some things. Most people couldn't be trusted– she learned this first hand, after all. Her mother was more distrustful than she was because she was older and had experienced more of the world; that made sense– that was just how the world worked. But 624 was an outlier to that; Despite being old enough to have experienced the world, she was still able to trust people. Why? Was she just an outlier, or was that how things actually worked?

She shook her head slightly to get her thoughts in order. She couldn't afford to spiral about this right now– 624 was probably waiting for a response by now, and she had more questions to ask. She managed to contain her thoughts and feelings for the most part, but 624 could tell something changed. Her tone was much less energetic, and while her questions were still extremely paranoid, it seemed like she was asking them out of familiarity rather than genuine curiosity or to try to accuse that Sebastian was doing anything.

"What do you mean by 'behaving'? What happens if you don't behave? Your deal sounds good, sure, but a deal like that sounds too good to be true. You get protection, a place to stay, and I'd assume food in exchange for a couple savaged items and good behavior? What's the catch?"

Unfortunately for her, asking more questions did not distract her thoughts for nearly as long as she wanted it to. She really needed to find a better distraction, but maybe if she asked enough questions and learned enough information, her head wouldn't have enough room anymore to do this sort of unnecessary thing. Until then, she'd just have to deal with it. Sure, she didn't really know how, but she'd been living– ..She had been around long enough to at least have some ideas.

...She was never going to get used to that, would she? At least her body was still somewhat humanoid, most of the anomalies down here didn't have that. Granted, most of the other anomalies were still alive, but still. At least she had some sort of choice about whether she wanted to be physical or not each morning.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts as she heard 624's machine start talking again. She tensed up slightly as she heard the first sentence, her ear fins flicking downwards as she looked away from her.

"Oh– I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to... Um, anyways, why don't you know your exact age? And it's not that bad down here, I mean it's not great, but it's not a horrible place to end up."

Was that all she was gonna ask? She felt slightly embarrassed that 624 had to ask for something like that, seeing as she should've introduced herself when they first met.. But if she had done that then she might've been able to ask a more risky question, such as the second question she asked. She wasn't entirely sure what she meant by the question, but if she was asking what Claire thought she was, then she doubted she'd enjoy hearing about it. Maybe if she just acknowledged the question but didn't answer it, she wouldn't notice?

She automatically started to give out her full name, before her paranoia kicked back in and she realized that giving a stranger her full last name would be a horribly risky idea. Unfortunately she had already started saying her middle name.. Maybe she could just leave it like that? Most people didn't introduce themselves with all 3 of their names, so it shouldn't be too noticeable if she stops after that.

"Claire... Rose. My name is Claire Rose, you can call me Claire. And for the record, I was not running away from the expendable, I was just.. making a tactical retreat."

[exrp624-calisto]

Claire was clearly guarded. Paranoid, even. These were not unreasonable feelings at all considering everything and it would be unreasonable for 624 to expect her to feel otherwise or change after one conversation. This wasn’t just someone down here, another person. It was a child that had been experimented on for who knows how long and left down here alone. This was enough reason for her to be as cautious as possible. (As she had been for most of their conversation.) She wasn’t used to being open about her morals or the reasons she did certain things as it wasn’t uncommon for people to take advantage of each other in this place, but she felt like it was more important to be honest (Or as honest as she could be.) with Claire for her sake.

She pondered in the silence that felt rather bizarre after all the questions she had. Had she been too honest? Truthfully she did have a pit of doubt in her stomach. She didn’t mean to paint her bond with Sebastian as sunshine and rainbows as it was quite far from such. Of course she meant what she said; Sebastian was kind enough to let her stay given his terms and he is the reason she is alive. (Although sometimes she detests him for that.) She feels as though Claire’s distrustfulness and paranoia didn’t start down here in the Blacksite. (Although it certainly didn’t help it.) She digresses this though as she isn’t here to theorize. 

“Behaving means not being annoying. Flashing him with beacons, asking questions, pestering him.. Although if anything.” She ceases typing for a moment and the machine stops. She takes a deep breath and continues. “..No, nothing. It’s never been an issue.. At least for me. Him however..” She was going to not say anything bad about Sebastian but come ON. There wasn’t ever anyone here who stuck around long enough for her to rant. Of course she wouldn’t complain to a child but she had to say something. She rolls her eyes sarcastically as if to feign annoyance at the mere thought of the leviathan. (She did hope he was feeling better.)

“As for the catch. I don’t know if there is one. I assume there is, but I don’t know when or what it is. Regardless of that Sebastian knows what I am and am not capable of. He wouldn’t ask me to do anything unreasonable. I believe that. And if a day comes where he asks me to pay up.. Well, he hasn’t charged me rent in a good few months, so I’ll have to oblige.” 624 chose these words specifically to seem light-hearted. Not just for Claire’s sake, but for her own. It’s true she believed Sebastian wouldn’t ask her to do anything out of her wheelhouse but she wasn’t sure if that applied to morals. She wasn’t aware of a lot but she was aware of Sebastian’s sheer rage and revenge for this godforsaken place and (almost) everyone in it. She didn’t know if Sebastian had any other plans for this place besides escaping, but it wouldn’t surprise her if he wanted to destroy this place by some means. And as she pondered how on earth he could pull that off, she remembered what they had done to him. The rage would be fuel enough.

She couldn’t blame him at all. Who possibly could? 

She snapped out of her thoughts at Claire’s next question. (Finally, she was getting worried.) “I don’t remember my birthday.” She stops typing and her brain seemingly shuts off for a good few moments. How unlike her. Vulnerability to that degree wasn’t like her at all. Regardless of who she was speaking to. She quickly began to type again, nearly dropping the machine several times in rapid succession. “So, naturally when you mix that fact in with the fact I don’t keep track of days or months here, it only makes sense.” She settled her breathing as best she could after she finished that. She looked so guilty. (and was aware of that.) It wasn’t a crime to forget something like that, of course. She had no reason to be so jumpy but.. She hadn’t exactly confronted that fact with herself yet. She felt like she had swung open a door in her home to a stranger that she didn’t even know where it went to. Why was she so upset in herself for admitting that? There were more important things to remember than that. She was too busy clutching her journal and looking anywhere else that she nearly missed the other girl introducing herself. “Claire.. Rose?” The machine parroted her name shortly after she had said it. (And 624 had typed it in, of course.)  It was a pretty name, truly. It sounded natural to 624. (Where she was from, pretty names and flower-y last names weren’t uncommon at all.) Perhaps to anyone else it may sound odd but..

“What a lovely name.. I mean it.” Despite the rather flat tone of the device, a genuine sentiment was evident.

[hadal-hideout]

It was obvious to anyone who knew Claire that something was deeply wrong with her. Well, everyone except herself, that is. Claire, having no other point of reference, believed that she, her family, and her upbringing were all completely normal and there was nothing out of the ordinary with being raised to assume that everyone wanted something from you, and learning how to use that to your favor. To her, waking up at 6:00am on the dot every day to receive early lessons about the people who wanted to hurt her and how (taught by her mother), and how to manipulate those people into doing what you wanted instead (taught by her father), all before going to actual school to learn what everyone else was learning. She didn't exactly enjoy the extra early morning lessons, but she still believed they were normal and got used to them, to the point that even now, 2 years later since the lessons have stopped, she still automatically wakes up at 6am every day. On the rare instances she did sleep in (until 6:05am), she'd get momentarily confused as to why her mother hadn't screamed at her to wake up and get ready, before remembering where she was and what happened to her. She typically tries to go back to bed during those mornings. It never works.

"What'll he do if you don't behave? And what were you about to say? Did he do something to you?"

She tried her best to limit the amount of questions she was asking ("Too many questions ruins a moment"), instead trying to figure out what 624 trailed off about by herself. Did something happen between them? She didn't seem too worried about it, so it wasn't something serious.. right? Was he the one upset? If so, why wasn't she more worried? Upset guardians are dangerous guardians, doesn't she know this? Why was she acting like she didn't care about appeasing him? She was going to get hurt, he could hurt her, she could die– She was getting off topic. Why did she care so much? She didn't know 624. They weren't friends. They had just met each other. She shouldn't care, why did she care? Why was she worried about her? She shouldn't be doing that. But her worry for 624 only grew as she learned that not only was she not concerned about appeasing him, she didn't know what the catch was??

"You don't know the catch?? Why would you agree to stay with him if you didn't know exactly what he wanted from you? What if what he asks for is more than you can give? How much are you willing to give up for him?"

This was bad. This was so, unbelievably bad that it was difficult for Claire to process. Not only was 624's guardian possibly upset with her and could hurt her, but she didn't even know what he wanted in exchange for his protection? How could she agree to a deal with him without knowing his payment? That was the first thing to note when making a deal– hell, it was the one thing her parents agreed on in their teachings! Knowing someone's currency was the single most important thing of deal making and she just– what, forgot? How could she forget that? He could demand whatever he wanted from her without her being able to protest, she could get hurt, she's going to get hurt, she could die, she's going to die, she's going to die, she's going to die–

Which is.. Fine. Perfectly fine. It didn't matter. Why would it matter? She's a stranger, a possible threat, why would she care? It doesn't matter. It never mattered. They're not friends, they don't know each other, they don't– they can't– care about each other. There's other things to focus on. Conversations to keep. Questions to ask. She asked a question recently, right? She focused back on the conversation, processing 624's answer and preparing to continue her premade conversation, when she actually processed what 624 had said.

"You don't remember your birthday? How do you not..?"

She trailed off after noticing 624's expression, noticing how uneasy she looked. It seemed clear she didn't want to talk about it, so she decided to just drop the questions and change the subject.

"..Um, anyways... What's your favorite number..?"

She internally winced at how horribly obvious that transition was (has she learned nothing from watching her father redirect people he's talking to? She's too old to be making rookie mistakes like that), but she didn't really know what else to say. Hopefully 624 wouldn't say anything about it, since the only reason Claire was changing the subject was for her sake.

Though looking at 624, it seemed she was a bit too lost in her own head to notice. Why did she look so guilty? Sure, it was a bit.. odd that she forgot her own birthday, but she looked as if she committed some heinous crime and was about to get sentenced to death over it.

She let out a small sigh in relief that she didn't question the name. She felt slightly guilty over lying, but it's not like she's really lying– she's just leaving off her last name! It's not that bad and– did she just get a compliment?

"Oh– Um, thank you.."

Was that really the best she could do? She could hear her father's voice echoing past teachings ("Always match a receiving compliment with one of your own, it's what they deserve after all."), but she couldn't focus. It had been so long since she's been complimented– let alone a genuine one. Honestly it had been forever since she even had a pleasant interaction with someone, especially with someone as nice as 624. She missed this. It was nice to just talk to someone without having to remember all of the rules all of the time, she could finally just.. relax.

[the-rubber-band]

Reblog if you're okay with people coming into your dms or ask box with storylines and rp ideas!

[exrp624-calisto]

624 was resting in her area of Sebastian's shop, when Silber crawled into the room, asking Sebastian about the information he needed before he was even fully out of the vent.

He didn't notice 624 once he was fully out, seemingly only focused on finding out whether Sebastian had the information about Claire yet or not.

- @hadal-hideout

[Lmao I don't know what I'm doing, hope this is good enough though]

624 lazily sat on the top of the area above the shops as she listened to the conversation. Sebastian couldn't even get a usual greeting out. At least this guy knew what he wanted, yeah?

However, as he exited the vent finally, she realized this wasn't any usual expendable. Between the otter features and the.. Silverfish? Maybe? She couldn't shake the feeling something was off. And she was correct.

Upon the mention of Claire, her gaze became fixated on him (more so than it already was), and she cut her eyes over to Sebastian every once in a while. (Could he take the hint? Probably not.)

She wasn't sure if Sebastian actually knew what she knew or even more.. Anything at all? Regardless, she decided early on that she would get involved.

[hadal-hideout]

As he's talking to Sebastian, he can feel someone's eyes on him. He tries to ignore it at first, but a quick glance tells him that it's not Sebastian who's watching him. He looks back towards the vent, thinking that it might be another expendable, but there doesn't seem to be anyone there, or anywhere else in the room with him besides Sebastian.

He steps closer to the vent as Sebastian answers his questions, taking a final look around the room before waving goodbye to Sebastian and crawling into the vent. While he's slightly disappointed that Sebastian doesn't have the answer to the most important question of his, there's no reason to be impatient.

After all, there's always the chance that he finds her file down here before Sebastian does. That'd probably be the best circumstance, as he'd be able to get the information he needed without paying almost a thousand data. It's incredibly unlikely though, which is why it's important for him to stay on Sebastian's good side (along with the fact that in order to actually read the information, he needs to stay alive).

Once he's out of the vent and in the main room, he leans against the nearby wall to relax for a couple minutes before moving on.

[exrp624-calisto]

As he's exited the vent and leaning on the wall, he can hear Sebastian's voice. Seemingly having a.. Conversation with someone? However, he seems to be the only one speaking? At first, one might assume he's gone crazy. (As anyone would down here.)

Until Silber hears clanking from the vents and a woman pops out of the entrance. She stands up and stretches her arms, dusting off her tank top and adjusting her arm bandages.

She's staring at the ground at first (the light outside Sebastian's shop is always disorienting) before her eyes slowly move up to Silbers figure. She's holding his gaze firmly but not harshly. She doesn't have her notebook on her, oddly enough, only her tts device.

She debates speaking. What would she say first? Should she be honest or hold back? It didn't seem fair to hold out on him, at least not for long and yet...

"It's easy to miss people here. Both physically and emotionally. Last I heard, she was.. Doing fine. Well, as fine as anyone can down here.. It's been a while, though."

The device reads out at a slow pace. Excruciatingly slow.

[hadal-hideout]

He initially shrugs off what he hears from inside Sebastian's shop, even though he doesn't hear anyone responding, he's not really surprised at the thought of Sebastian talking to himself. After all, the idea of someone who's stuck down here talking to himself is so common that he's started expecting it.

He was not, however, expecting the women to crawl out behind him. Was she the person he felt watching him? How long has she been in that shop? Who even was she?

He looks back at her, wondering what she wants. She doesn't seem like the average expendable, but then again, neither was he. He looked down at her tts device, recognizing it immediately. His Dad used something like that– though somehow, hers looked older than his was.

He took a step towards her as he realized she was talking about Claire, his hand fidgeting with something in his pocket as he questioned her. He wondered momentarily if she was lying– but what reason did she have to lie? She could've stayed hidden in the shop, and if she needed something from outside she could've just walked past him. So if she wasn't lying, where did she get the information on Claire? Was Sebastian lying when he said he hadn't found her file?

"You know Claire? Where is she? How long has it been since you've seen her? How do you know how she's doing? Do you have her file? Where is she?"

He realized a bit too late just how frantic he sounded, silently scolding himself. He knew better than to show how desperate he was– but this was the first bit of information he got about Claire in a couple months. He assumed she was with her mother, but that didn't tell him anything about how she was doing or how she was adjusting to normal life again, and he needed to know.

[exrp624-calisto]

Rapid-fire questions right out of the gate. He certainly reminds her of Claire. She felt everyone was somewhat entitled to curiosity, but that didn’t mean they were owed answers. Of course, she wasn’t opposed to answering his questions, although he would definitely need to give her a pretty good reason considering Claire is a child and she does not know this man.

“I know her, yes. I do not know where she is, though… And I don’t keep track of time very well down here. It wasn’t too terribly long ago, I don’t think.” She absentmindedly clicks her pen a few times as she thinks, genuinely. She can’t just not say anything, but she’s going to choose her words carefully. She knows that Claire doesn’t venture past door 60 usually and she keeps her stuff in rooms which may be more likely to have her return to them. This information was important, clearly. 

“As for her file, I wasn’t aware she had one. If she did have one and it was found; Sebastian would have it.. And he doesn’t. So it’s still out there somewhere.”

That last question was a loaded one. Hell, if anything there wasn’t an actual precise answer to it! Although judging by his face, he seemed to realize that as soon as it was spoken. This whole thing seems a bit odd. She watches him fiddle with something behind his back. She leans against the wall beside Sebastians vent in response. Was it for her own comfort or to warn him not to try anything funny? It could be either or both.

“Before I answer any more questions, could I have your name and maybe why you’re so hellbent on looking for her? I’m not too inclined on giving what very little information I have on a child to a stranger.”

The machine lets out a loud stutter and 624 wacks it against her side and it abruptly stops. (A common occurrence?)

[hadal-hideout]

"How did you two meet? Do you have a general idea of where she could be? Or at least an estimation of how long ago it was that you saw her?"

His foot tapped impatiently against the floor as he waited for her to be done thinking, before he switched to tapping his finger on his leg to try to seem less obvious. If she had seen Claire recently, then that must mean that she was imprisoned down here very recently then, right? But then why was she already having trouble telling how many days had passed? Regardless, he needed the information she had, unfortunately he had a feeling he'd have to give up some information as well to ease her into talking more.

"You likely weren't aware of it because she didn't have one until recently."

That was all he was going to say on the topic without further pressing from her. His eyes narrowed slightly as she leaned against the wall, seeing it as a threat. He didn't comment on it, instead painting on a fake smile to try to seem more stable. He felt embarrassed for a brief moment– he wasn't usually this.. open about how he actually felt, but it seemed like the usual mask he maintained on a daily basis had cracked. So instead he slipped on a different mask– the one he wore when dealing with potential sponsors.

"Oh, of course. You can call me.. Silber, I'm Claire's father. I can understand your hesitation though, I'm sure there's plenty of people down here where it'd be best not to share information like that to them. Your name is..?"

He startled slightly at the machine's stutter, noticing how quickly she was able to make it stop. How often did it do things like that? His dad's had hardly made any noise besides what he typed, though occasionally it malfunctioned for a couple hours until Silber fixed it for him. Maybe if he offered to fix it, she'd be less hostile?

"You seem pretty used to it doing things like that. I have a degree in engineering, if you'd like I might be able to look around in it and see if I could fix it for you in exchange for some answers, if you'd like?"

[exrp624-calisto]

624 was resting in her area of Sebastian's shop, when Silber crawled into the room, asking Sebastian about the information he needed before he was even fully out of the vent.

He didn't notice 624 once he was fully out, seemingly only focused on finding out whether Sebastian had the information about Claire yet or not.

- @hadal-hideout

[Lmao I don't know what I'm doing, hope this is good enough though]

624 lazily sat on the top of the area above the shops as she listened to the conversation. Sebastian couldn't even get a usual greeting out. At least this guy knew what he wanted, yeah?

However, as he exited the vent finally, she realized this wasn't any usual expendable. Between the otter features and the.. Silverfish? Maybe? She couldn't shake the feeling something was off. And she was correct.

Upon the mention of Claire, her gaze became fixated on him (more so than it already was), and she cut her eyes over to Sebastian every once in a while. (Could he take the hint? Probably not.)

She wasn't sure if Sebastian actually knew what she knew or even more.. Anything at all? Regardless, she decided early on that she would get involved.

[hadal-hideout]

As he's talking to Sebastian, he can feel someone's eyes on him. He tries to ignore it at first, but a quick glance tells him that it's not Sebastian who's watching him. He looks back towards the vent, thinking that it might be another expendable, but there doesn't seem to be anyone there, or anywhere else in the room with him besides Sebastian.

He steps closer to the vent as Sebastian answers his questions, taking a final look around the room before waving goodbye to Sebastian and crawling into the vent. While he's slightly disappointed that Sebastian doesn't have the answer to the most important question of his, there's no reason to be impatient.

After all, there's always the chance that he finds her file down here before Sebastian does. That'd probably be the best circumstance, as he'd be able to get the information he needed without paying almost a thousand data. It's incredibly unlikely though, which is why it's important for him to stay on Sebastian's good side (along with the fact that in order to actually read the information, he needs to stay alive).

Once he's out of the vent and in the main room, he leans against the nearby wall to relax for a couple minutes before moving on.

[exrp624-calisto]

As he's exited the vent and leaning on the wall, he can hear Sebastian's voice. Seemingly having a.. Conversation with someone? However, he seems to be the only one speaking? At first, one might assume he's gone crazy. (As anyone would down here.)

Until Silber hears clanking from the vents and a woman pops out of the entrance. She stands up and stretches her arms, dusting off her tank top and adjusting her arm bandages.

She's staring at the ground at first (the light outside Sebastian's shop is always disorienting) before her eyes slowly move up to Silbers figure. She's holding his gaze firmly but not harshly. She doesn't have her notebook on her, oddly enough, only her tts device.

She debates speaking. What would she say first? Should she be honest or hold back? It didn't seem fair to hold out on him, at least not for long and yet...

"It's easy to miss people here. Both physically and emotionally. Last I heard, she was.. Doing fine. Well, as fine as anyone can down here.. It's been a while, though."

The device reads out at a slow pace. Excruciatingly slow.

[hadal-hideout]

He initially shrugs off what he hears from inside Sebastian's shop, even though he doesn't hear anyone responding, he's not really surprised at the thought of Sebastian talking to himself. After all, the idea of someone who's stuck down here talking to himself is so common that he's started expecting it.

He was not, however, expecting the women to crawl out behind him. Was she the person he felt watching him? How long has she been in that shop? Who even was she?

He looks back at her, wondering what she wants. She doesn't seem like the average expendable, but then again, neither was he. He looked down at her tts device, recognizing it immediately. His Dad used something like that– though somehow, hers looked older than his was.

He took a step towards her as he realized she was talking about Claire, his hand fidgeting with something in his pocket as he questioned her. He wondered momentarily if she was lying– but what reason did she have to lie? She could've stayed hidden in the shop, and if she needed something from outside she could've just walked past him. So if she wasn't lying, where did she get the information on Claire? Was Sebastian lying when he said he hadn't found her file?

"You know Claire? Where is she? How long has it been since you've seen her? How do you know how she's doing? Do you have her file? Where is she?"

He realized a bit too late just how frantic he sounded, silently scolding himself. He knew better than to show how desperate he was– but this was the first bit of information he got about Claire in a couple months. He assumed she was with her mother, but that didn't tell him anything about how she was doing or how she was adjusting to normal life again, and he needed to know.

[hadal-hideout]

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[exrp624-calisto]

624 glared at the girl with widened eyes. A child? Here? Of all places? She was immediately concerned, but upon closer inspection, she noticed the gills and tail and..

Oh. Of course, Urbanshade wasn't above this. And her concern grew more.

As the rapid fire questions continued, she realized she probably wasn't going to be able to write down anything quickly enough to satisfy her, so she hesitately pulled out a small device with a few tiny buttons and a speaker and never looked away from the girl as she typed in her responses.

"You can call me 624. I am here to find research for a friend of mine. And I'm here because I have to be.. Here as in Blacksite."

The voice was robotic and crackled with static every few words. It clearly hadn't been used in a while.. She wasn't fond of using her TTS device, especially considering those footsteps from earlier. She blinked, still against the wall as she typed in another message.

"Oh. I'm mute. I can not speak verbally. Apologies."

She adjusted her necklace, but she didn't make any sudden moves. (Not that she was in a hurry anyway.. Her wound was acting up again.)

She tapped away again, glancing behind her at the door. 624 was really getting nervous 'talking' this much.

"And you? Are you doing alright? I hope you aren't being tailed.."

[hadal-hideout]

She looked surprised at the use of the TTS, but she seemed to be less hostile than she was earlier. She leaned against the nearest wall, watching 624 with a curious look as she listened to the TTS.

She seemed slightly uncomfortable by the constant eye contact, but she ignored it and continued asking her questions anyway, not wanting to show any weaknesses. She decided to follow 624's lead of not sharing their actual names, but instead of coming up with a fake name, she elected to just not mention one at all.

"Is '624' your file name or whatever they call it? Who's your friend? And I meant 'here' as in this room. Usually this room's empty, which is why I'm usually hiding in here."

She fiddled with her dress pockets as she talked,not really caring to maintain eye contact anymore, as 624 had already broken it by glancing at the door. She instead focused her attention on the TTS device, trying to figure out as much as she could about it just from looking at it, knowing she probably wouldn't be allowed to touch it.

"Do you know ASL? How come– You seem to dislike using the machine thingy, I dunno the actual name for it, so it'd probably be more effective or whatever if we used ASL. If you know it, that is."

She cut off her original question, seemingly changing her mind last second and deciding to not ask anymore questions. She smoothed out her dress, fiddling with her bracelet instead as she continued talking.

"I'm fine, I'm pretty sure the expendable gave up already. They never seem to stay around for long, and they're always in a hurry, so I doubt it's still out there. That one seemed more determined than the other ones though, I dunno why."

[exrp624-calisto]

She seemed a bit taken back by the sudden.. change in demeanor. She hadn't bothered trying to use ASL since there weren't a lot of people who actually knew it down here. She wasn't fluent but was confident enough. 624 noted the curious gaze, and she could practically see the gears moving in the girls head as she spoke.

"624.. It is my EXRP number. I don't bother with names. You get too attached. And I was here because I thought there was research here. I wasn't aware it was empty or a hideout for that matter. Apologies."

She locked eyes with the girl for a moment to get the point across. She broke the eye contact pretty abruptly, though. (She wasn't used to it either, it seemed.)

She continued to type into the machine, every so often seemingly back-spacing or removing words.

"My friend.. Sebastian. He runs a shop quite a few doors from here. He trades various items for research. Business has been unexpectedly slow recently, and he's gotten a bit.."

She paused for a good moment before rolling her eyes and continuing to type.

"Moody. To say the least. So I decided to give him some space and try to find some research while I was out. He's letting me stay with him, so it's the least I could do, yeah?"

She glances around the room, scanning it. It seems no different than any other room here. Perhaps that's what she wanted, though? A room that's ordinary was overlooked often. She guesses she just happened to have some back luck while scavenging.

"I do know ASL. I'm not fluent in it, though. I'm rusty.. No one uses it down here anyway. I usually write in this book here with pen and paper. I just didn't this time since I could've probably startled you reaching behind me. This machine is really just a tiny keyboard and a speaker. But it's a bit loud and it's not a great idea to be loud here."

She holds up the device and spins it around in her hand openly. It's really not used all that much, actually.

"An expendable? If I were them I wouldn't go chasing anything or anyone.. It sounds like that happens a lot to you though?"

She tilts her head as she looks past the girl towards the door. (Looking out, perhaps?)

[hadal-hideout]

She briefly considers pretending to be upset about the trespassing, but she doesn't really see the point in it, so she just shrugs and fiddles with her bracelet again. She already got what she needed from the expendable from earlier, so there was no need to use her tactics against some random trespasser, especially since she didn't actually own the place.

"Eh, it's fine. I'm not too attached to this place, I just didn't want anyone to mess with the stuff I left in here."

She fiddled with her dress the second the eye contact was broken, clearly unused to maintaining it for this long. She seemed interested in the mention of a shopkeeper, quickly shaking off her uneasiness to ask more about him.

"What's he like? What does he sell? How long have you known him? How come you're staying with him? Do you do runs like this often? Is he moody a lot of the time?"

She followed 624's gaze around the room, making sure that the spot where she hid her items remained hidden, not wanting to deal with any questions about what she was hiding.

"Who'd you learn it from? I learned it from my Father, who learned about it from my Grandfather. How come you didn't want to startle me earlier? Where'd you get the machine from? Did you make it yourself?"

She looked curiously at the machine, resisting the urge to reach out to it to get a better look. Instead, she distracts herself by focusing on 624's questions, shrugging before answering.

"Eh. Sometimes they follow me, most of the time they don't. The most recent one was a lot more determined than the other ones, which is probably why she followed me for so long."

[exrp624-calisto]

Ah. So Claire hadn't heard of Sebastian. This was either a blessing or a curse. Sebastian had told her he had siblings back when on the surface, but she isn't sure what that means anymore.

"He sells things like Medkits, lights.. Survival tools. All useful. He prefers to trade for research for some reason. I assume it's to keep as much of it out of Urbanshade's hands as possible."

She thinks carefully about the next few questions she asked. She wasn't sure if she should be honest or if she should be vague. She could be both, truthfully, but.. Claire was clearly just a kid. She wasn't sure if underestimating her would end up badly for her later. Especially since Sebastian was the main topic.

"I'm staying with him because I won't survive on my own. I sustained a real bad injury. Nearly died. Should have, actually. I don't know why he's letting me stick around, but I'm great full, so I'm not gonna complain."

She wasn't used to dealing with children truthfully. She didn't dislike them or anything, but her town didn't have a lot of them since rich people didn't like kids unless they had to. (And they didn't have to go back home so no one brought or had any.)

"I don't, actually. He is usually rather passive. He's as polite as he needs to be with expendables and more than that with me. And I usually don't have the energy to go very far.. But he's especially ticked off today, so I figured I would make the most of it."

She looked down at her device once she was done with answering that set of questions. Was she this curious as a kid? It was only natural given the standards.

"My friend made it for me. He's an engineer. Notes aren't very efficient for either of us, so he decided to make use of what we have down here. And I learned a little ASL in prison. Had to do something in there, yeah?"

She wondered how much time had passed. She wasn't in any hurry truthfully, but she also didn't want Sebastian to feel the need to go fetch her. Not that he would, of course, unless she was gone for a day or two. She had confidence in her skills, and he.. Also, maybe he did, but he also may just be lazy.

"And I didn't want to startle you because it's not polite to startle people. Especially when you don't know the person. I tend to follow by two rules: Don't startle anyone or anything. It can, and will, end badly usually."

[hadal-hideout]

She recognized the objects 624 was talking about, obviously, they could be found all over the blacksite, including on the bodies of her meals. There was always one room that had an abundance of them, though for some reason that room always had a bunch of files in it, and.. Oh.

Oh no. Maybe she could quickly change the topic before it became obvious that she was guilty? Sure, she didn't take that much, but considering what little she knew about Sebastian, she doubted he'd be pleased with her. And 624 was friends with him, so she'd obviously tell him, and therefore she couldn't know about it, which meant she had to change the subject.

"..Ah. I think I've heard of him, but I haven't seen him yet. Anyways, who's Urbanshade?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly as 624 hesitated, clearly wondering what she was thinking about that was taking so long. Hesitation was never a good sign; it usually meant something bad had either happened or was about to happen, and as per usual, she was right. At least this time, it was just an injury.

"How'd you almost die? How bad's your injury? How come you haven't just healed your– Uh. Nevermind.."

She trailed off as she looked away, looking embarrassed as she remembered that most people weren't capable of healing themselves. Now that she thought about it, it's a bit odd how she was already forgetting what it was like before the experiments. She'd only been able to heal herself for a couple months (5? Maybe 6..? She didn't really bother to remember), and yet she was already forgetting what it was like to be human.

"Aaanyways, how come he's upset today if he's usually passive? Did something happen? Did you do something to annoy him so now you're trying to make it up to him by getting supplies?"

She fiddled with her dress as she spoke, always making sure to smooth it out after she was done. It seemed to be mostly out of boredom, unlike how she was nervously fidgeting earlier, as if she was just asking her questions to confirm things she already knew. Her demeanor changed, however, the second 624's friend was mentioned, even moreso when she learned he was an engineer.

"Who's your friend? Where are they now? Why were you in prison?? What'd you do? What was it like there? Oo are you actually more dangerous than you look?"

She seemed strangely.. excited? More than any normal person would be, but especially more interested in this than any child should be.

[exrp624-calisto]

Oh God. She really didn't know about anything, did she? 624, again, wasn't sure if she should beat around the bush or be as honest as she could. A huge part of her wanted to attempt to hide as much from her as possible, but considering the circumstances and the child's appearance, she isn't sure if it would even help anymore.

"Urbanshade is the company who owns Hadal Blacksite as well as this entire underwater facility. They own and "made" everything inside of it, too."

Vague enough. She really didn't know much else than that truthfully. She glanced up at a wall clock above the door frame and wondered how accurate it was. Realistically, the clocks had no reason to be incorrect, but considering the circumstances and the lack of seeing any visible change in the days, it made sense to be skeptical.

Her eyes snapped back to the child once the next question flew out of her mouth. She looked not dissimilar to a deer in headlights. It wasn't like she couldn't talk about it or anything, but it was probably her least pleasant memory. She had nothing to hide and even less of a reason to try to hide nothing.

"Vultus Limunaria. Or more commonly called Searchlights. You have seen them circling around open areas. Like the name suggests, they're large creatures with lights that spot prey and.. Large hooks to impale and capture them. I just got lucky. Or unlucky if you really wanna think about it."

624 seemed withdrawn after that exchange. It was difficult to talk about, but she found it more important to try to stay on Claire's good side. Not that she felt that she wasn't capable. She had survived down here for possibly longer than 624 had; that was something.

"Nothing appened that I'm aware of. It's like when something doesn't go your way for a while and you get frustrated. Sebastian is just.. Frustrated that things are moving slower than usual. Just a tad disappointed is all.. Unfortunately, being down here can make disappointment seem a lot worse."

Oh? Her friend. Right. Yeah. A lump formed in her throat at the question. No one had ever asked enough about her to get to the mention of her old friend.

"My friend. He died a while back. He was great."

That's as much as she was going to say. She quickly moved on to the next question.

"And I didn't do anything. I was falsely accused. And it was.. It's much better than this place. Much. I don't consider myself a threat, but Urbanshade clearly does so.. Maybe I am a bit dangerous, yeah?"

[hadal-hideout]

Her tail flicked behind her in annoyance, noticing that 624 was holding back information. It made sense why, but it was still annoying being treated like she needed to be protected.

"Oh– Wait I think I do know them! My Dad talked about them a lot, but he never called it Urbanshade, so that's why I didn't recognize it."

She noticed fairly quickly this seemed to be a topic that 624 didn't seem to like talking about, but a couple more questions couldn't hurt, right?

"Vultus Limunaria..? I don't think I've seen it before. Where is it located? How long ago did it happen?"

She looked skeptical that there wasn't anything else going on regarding Sebastian, but she didn't really have reason or proof to not believe her, so she let it go. Then again, it's not like she ever needed proof to voice her suspicions.. Regardless, she had more interesting things to ask about.

"How come he's upset things are moving slowly? Wouldn't he like a break from dealing with whatever he deals with?"

Her curious demeanor changed the second she heard that the friend had died. Normally when in this situation she'd ask more questions about who died; what happened, how long ago, etcetera, but doing it now felt.. weird. She didn't know why– she's asked questions about this in the past, so why did it feel so wrong now?

Maybe it's because she wasn't.. like this when she asked questions about it before. She looked at 624 as she thought to herself, noticing her expression. She was obviously upset by his death, and it made her wonder how long ago it was. Did anyone back home miss her the way 624 clearly missed him? Did anyone even notice she was gone?

She looked away from 624, smoothing out her dress in a futile attempt to clear her head. She wished she had some sort of distraction that wasn't making conversation, but there wasn't much to do unless she wanted to leave, and that seemed rude. She still wasn't quite sure what to respond to the information she received, so instead she just dropped the subject entirely, focusing on whatever topic 624 brought up.

"What were you accused of? Which prison did you go to? Do you miss it?"

[exrp624-calisto]

She was relieved that Claire had taken the hint and opted not to push further. She would've answered her if she did, but it wasn't ideal. Upon hearing the mention of the girls father, her eyes moved up to look at her from behind her bangs. (When was the last time she cut them?)

"I've only seen one. It's far. Door 70, I think? Not far from Sebastian's shop. And it's been a while now. A few months at least."

624 had felt odd. She usually would avoid the topic entirely. Other expendables were only ever nosy, and Sebastian had seen what happened, so he knew all he needed to know. Perhaps she was more open due to Claire geniuenly just being curious?

"Research is important to Sebastian, so he wants to gather as much as he can. I don't know why, but he says it's for the best, and I believe him. I don't know much else."

That was a half lie. She didn't know what purpose collecting the research had, but she knew that it was in regards to getting them out of here. Her eyes moved away from Claire for a moment. Perhaps when she got back to his shop, she'd question if he knew anything about her. (Could they take her with them when they left?)

"I do miss it. Anywhere that isn't here is ideal. That was years ago, though, so I don't remember. I went to a juvenile detention center first since I was pretty young when I was convicted. I was sent to prison when I turned 18, though, if that's anything."

She didn't say or do anything for a few moments, pondering if she should actually tell Claire the reason for her imprisonment. She really didn't want to, and yet..

"If you really want to know, you'll have to answer a question from me first."

This was a win-win situation. If Claire declined, she wouldn't have to share, and on the other hand, if she did answer whatever question 624 had, she would gain information.

[hadal-hideout]

She muttered to herself for a couple seconds, trying to remember what he referred to Urbanshade by, but she gave up pretty quickly, instead focusing on the new information. She was a little tempted to continue asking about the accident and for more information on Urbanshade, but 624 looked relieved that she wasn't pressing her on it, and she didn't really feel like ruining that right now.

"Oh, that's probably why I haven't seen it; I don't usually go past door 60. How far are we from Sebastian's shop? And how come you trust him so much? I mean, you've only been staying with him for a few months, right? Is that really enough time to trust someone? Especially someone who supposedly hasn't told you what he needs important documents for?"

There, maybe that'd be enough to see if she was lying or not. Of course, she could just ask her outright, but if she was lying, then there was no guarantee that she'd admit to it. Claire hated lying– regardless of whether she was doing it or whether she was the one being lied to. Though she didn't really believe that omitting information counted as lying (It was too vague, and therefore not reliable), 624 had explicitly not omitted information; she clearly said that she didn't know what he wanted for.

And sure, maybe she didn't actually know and Claire was just a bit more paranoid than the rational person, but she also claimed to trust him! Which was clearly impossible, because how could you trust someone who you don't know all the important things about? And why he collected research was clearly an important thing to know about, because she'd admitted that it was important to him.

So, clearly 624 was lying, the only question now was whether she would admit to it. Though there was a chance she was telling the truth, and Claire was just being paranoid.. But Claire had no reason to be paranoid! Sure, some of the expendables went a little mad after staying down here for too long (which, considering their life expectancies was usually a couple months), but that was just because they were at risk of dying all the time, and Claire didn't have to worry about that! There was no reason for this place to make her more paranoid, she was doing perfectly fine down here.

"Why do you hate it down here so much anyways? And how old are you now?"

She hesitated after hearing the deal, unsure of whether she wanted to agree or not. People didn't tend to ask as many questions as she did, so she wasn't used to having to answer questions about her, and she always said to tell people as little about herself as possible... But she was curious about what she was accused of, and her father always said that if she had nothing to hide, then she shouldn't mind answering any questions. And besides, if 624 was going through all this trouble to hide what she was accused of, then it's gotta be interesting, right?

"This is probably a bad idea but.. Fine. What's your question?"

[exrp624-calisto]

"My reasons for trusting Sebastian outweigh the reasons I wouldn't trust him by a long shot. He's letting me stay with him and he doesn't exactly have much reason to trust me either, let alone allow me to stay with him. That and.. I'd have been dead without him, in more ways than one. I.. Believe that down here it’s more crucial to attempt to reason for why you should trust someone then argue as to why you shouldn’t. Perhaps I am naive, but Sebastian is strong and capable.. He is stubborn and secretive. He’s been here longer than any of us. At least anyone I’ve met. Long before the lockdown. He has knowledge that none of us can obtain.. And he’s offered to take me in and all I have to do is scavenge every once in a while and behave. Pretty good deal, no?" That’s the truth. She’s just great-full that he took her in. And he did everything else, too. (That’s irrelevant for now, though. Neither of them like to bring it up.) 624 doesn’t trust anyone here easily, but she isn’t looking for reasons to not trust people. Those who earn her trust are far and few inbetween but those who do manage to do that have not let her down. The only way anyone has disappointed her so far is dying... But wow, this kid is seriously detail oriented. It’s honestly a bit unsettling. Is this how she’s survived so long down here? 624 had been told before that those who ask questions are smarter. She really shouldn’t try anything else like this again unless she has to. She really is smart.. And yet Sebastian had always called her nosy when she had asked him anything at all. (Perhaps Claire’s suspensions held weight?) She digresses this for now. As she listens to the tiny machine spit out her words, she ponders on her experiences for a moment. Particularly to her first run in with a Wall-Dweller. This was long before her injuries, the Searchlights, and Sebastian. She was alone, in a long stretch of a corridor. Silence was all that remained and the only thing besides that was the dull humming of the lights and the ambience of the deep waters that were outside of the windows. She was so focused on the silence that she didn’t hear the change that was manifesting within it. But lucky for her, someone else did. A shout, a strange alien noise, and footsteps retreating all happened within seconds of each other. The details are irrelevant, but that person was 624’s first official partner. And her cruel introduction to survival of the fittest. (And her reason for her one-sided rivalry with Wall-Dwellers.. That too.)

She’s snapped back from her memories when Claire’s next question is fired at her again. “Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a lady’s age?.. But since you’ve asked, I came down here when I was 21.. So either that, or 22. And why wouldn’t I hate it here? It’s dark, scary, deadly.. No hope or light. The only good thing about this place is.. Well.. I guess other people? I couldn’t imagine being here alone. Even if no one ever stays long. But I have Sebastian too.. Although he’s not very chatty.” This is also the reason 624 has entertained Claire for so long. It’s very rare to come across someone like her. Not just a child but someone with a drive to learn and communicate. Even if this clearly isn’t a leisurely chat, it’s still refreshing. And it pays off, it seems. “Do you have a name? And if you feel like a second question.. What else do you do besides flee from expendables.”

[hadal-hideout]

She stays silent for a couple minutes, thinking about what she said. It was clear that she was far too trusting of other people, but.. Something didn't make sense. 624 was clearly older than her, and as of such shouldn't she be more distrustful than Claire is? Her Mom always said– Ah. There's the problem. Why did she even bother retaining anything that woman said? Though, just because she was a bitch doesn't mean she wasn't right about some things. Most people couldn't be trusted– she learned this first hand, after all. Her mother was more distrustful than she was because she was older and had experienced more of the world; that made sense– that was just how the world worked. But 624 was an outlier to that; Despite being old enough to have experienced the world, she was still able to trust people. Why? Was she just an outlier, or was that how things actually worked?

She shook her head slightly to get her thoughts in order. She couldn't afford to spiral about this right now– 624 was probably waiting for a response by now, and she had more questions to ask. She managed to contain her thoughts and feelings for the most part, but 624 could tell something changed. Her tone was much less energetic, and while her questions were still extremely paranoid, it seemed like she was asking them out of familiarity rather than genuine curiosity or to try to accuse that Sebastian was doing anything.

"What do you mean by 'behaving'? What happens if you don't behave? Your deal sounds good, sure, but a deal like that sounds too good to be true. You get protection, a place to stay, and I'd assume food in exchange for a couple savaged items and good behavior? What's the catch?"

Unfortunately for her, asking more questions did not distract her thoughts for nearly as long as she wanted it to. She really needed to find a better distraction, but maybe if she asked enough questions and learned enough information, her head wouldn't have enough room anymore to do this sort of unnecessary thing. Until then, she'd just have to deal with it. Sure, she didn't really know how, but she'd been living– ..She had been around long enough to at least have some ideas.

...She was never going to get used to that, would she? At least her body was still somewhat humanoid, most of the anomalies down here didn't have that. Granted, most of the other anomalies were still alive, but still. At least she had some sort of choice about whether she wanted to be physical or not each morning.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts as she heard 624's machine start talking again. She tensed up slightly as she heard the first sentence, her ear fins flicking downwards as she looked away from her.

"Oh– I'm sorry.. I didn't mean to... Um, anyways, why don't you know your exact age? And it's not that bad down here, I mean it's not great, but it's not a horrible place to end up."

Was that all she was gonna ask? She felt slightly embarrassed that 624 had to ask for something like that, seeing as she should've introduced herself when they first met.. But if she had done that then she might've been able to ask a more risky question, such as the second question she asked. She wasn't entirely sure what she meant by the question, but if she was asking what Claire thought she was, then she doubted she'd enjoy hearing about it. Maybe if she just acknowledged the question but didn't answer it, she wouldn't notice?

She automatically started to give out her full name, before her paranoia kicked back in and she realized that giving a stranger her full last name would be a horribly risky idea. Unfortunately she had already started saying her middle name.. Maybe she could just leave it like that? Most people didn't introduce themselves with all 3 of their names, so it shouldn't be too noticeable if she stops after that.

"Claire... Rose. My name is Claire Rose, you can call me Claire. And for the record, I was not running away from the expendable, I was just.. making a tactical retreat."

[exrp624-calisto]

624 was resting in her area of Sebastian's shop, when Silber crawled into the room, asking Sebastian about the information he needed before he was even fully out of the vent.

He didn't notice 624 once he was fully out, seemingly only focused on finding out whether Sebastian had the information about Claire yet or not.

- @hadal-hideout

[Lmao I don't know what I'm doing, hope this is good enough though]

624 lazily sat on the top of the area above the shops as she listened to the conversation. Sebastian couldn't even get a usual greeting out. At least this guy knew what he wanted, yeah?

However, as he exited the vent finally, she realized this wasn't any usual expendable. Between the otter features and the.. Silverfish? Maybe? She couldn't shake the feeling something was off. And she was correct.

Upon the mention of Claire, her gaze became fixated on him (more so than it already was), and she cut her eyes over to Sebastian every once in a while. (Could he take the hint? Probably not.)

She wasn't sure if Sebastian actually knew what she knew or even more.. Anything at all? Regardless, she decided early on that she would get involved.

[hadal-hideout]

As he's talking to Sebastian, he can feel someone's eyes on him. He tries to ignore it at first, but a quick glance tells him that it's not Sebastian who's watching him. He looks back towards the vent, thinking that it might be another expendable, but there doesn't seem to be anyone there, or anywhere else in the room with him besides Sebastian.

He steps closer to the vent as Sebastian answers his questions, taking a final look around the room before waving goodbye to Sebastian and crawling into the vent. While he's slightly disappointed that Sebastian doesn't have the answer to the most important question of his, there's no reason to be impatient.

After all, there's always the chance that he finds her file down here before Sebastian does. That'd probably be the best circumstance, as he'd be able to get the information he needed without paying almost a thousand data. It's incredibly unlikely though, which is why it's important for him to stay on Sebastian's good side (along with the fact that in order to actually read the information, he needs to stay alive).

Once he's out of the vent and in the main room, he leans against the nearby wall to relax for a couple minutes before moving on.

[hadal-hideout]

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[exrp624-calisto]

624 glared at the girl with widened eyes. A child? Here? Of all places? She was immediately concerned, but upon closer inspection, she noticed the gills and tail and..

Oh. Of course, Urbanshade wasn't above this. And her concern grew more.

As the rapid fire questions continued, she realized she probably wasn't going to be able to write down anything quickly enough to satisfy her, so she hesitately pulled out a small device with a few tiny buttons and a speaker and never looked away from the girl as she typed in her responses.

"You can call me 624. I am here to find research for a friend of mine. And I'm here because I have to be.. Here as in Blacksite."

The voice was robotic and crackled with static every few words. It clearly hadn't been used in a while.. She wasn't fond of using her TTS device, especially considering those footsteps from earlier. She blinked, still against the wall as she typed in another message.

"Oh. I'm mute. I can not speak verbally. Apologies."

She adjusted her necklace, but she didn't make any sudden moves. (Not that she was in a hurry anyway.. Her wound was acting up again.)

She tapped away again, glancing behind her at the door. 624 was really getting nervous 'talking' this much.

"And you? Are you doing alright? I hope you aren't being tailed.."

[hadal-hideout]

She looked surprised at the use of the TTS, but she seemed to be less hostile than she was earlier. She leaned against the nearest wall, watching 624 with a curious look as she listened to the TTS.

She seemed slightly uncomfortable by the constant eye contact, but she ignored it and continued asking her questions anyway, not wanting to show any weaknesses. She decided to follow 624's lead of not sharing their actual names, but instead of coming up with a fake name, she elected to just not mention one at all.

"Is '624' your file name or whatever they call it? Who's your friend? And I meant 'here' as in this room. Usually this room's empty, which is why I'm usually hiding in here."

She fiddled with her dress pockets as she talked,not really caring to maintain eye contact anymore, as 624 had already broken it by glancing at the door. She instead focused her attention on the TTS device, trying to figure out as much as she could about it just from looking at it, knowing she probably wouldn't be allowed to touch it.

"Do you know ASL? How come– You seem to dislike using the machine thingy, I dunno the actual name for it, so it'd probably be more effective or whatever if we used ASL. If you know it, that is."

She cut off her original question, seemingly changing her mind last second and deciding to not ask anymore questions. She smoothed out her dress, fiddling with her bracelet instead as she continued talking.

"I'm fine, I'm pretty sure the expendable gave up already. They never seem to stay around for long, and they're always in a hurry, so I doubt it's still out there. That one seemed more determined than the other ones though, I dunno why."

[exrp624-calisto]

She seemed a bit taken back by the sudden.. change in demeanor. She hadn't bothered trying to use ASL since there weren't a lot of people who actually knew it down here. She wasn't fluent but was confident enough. 624 noted the curious gaze, and she could practically see the gears moving in the girls head as she spoke.

"624.. It is my EXRP number. I don't bother with names. You get too attached. And I was here because I thought there was research here. I wasn't aware it was empty or a hideout for that matter. Apologies."

She locked eyes with the girl for a moment to get the point across. She broke the eye contact pretty abruptly, though. (She wasn't used to it either, it seemed.)

She continued to type into the machine, every so often seemingly back-spacing or removing words.

"My friend.. Sebastian. He runs a shop quite a few doors from here. He trades various items for research. Business has been unexpectedly slow recently, and he's gotten a bit.."

She paused for a good moment before rolling her eyes and continuing to type.

"Moody. To say the least. So I decided to give him some space and try to find some research while I was out. He's letting me stay with him, so it's the least I could do, yeah?"

She glances around the room, scanning it. It seems no different than any other room here. Perhaps that's what she wanted, though? A room that's ordinary was overlooked often. She guesses she just happened to have some back luck while scavenging.

"I do know ASL. I'm not fluent in it, though. I'm rusty.. No one uses it down here anyway. I usually write in this book here with pen and paper. I just didn't this time since I could've probably startled you reaching behind me. This machine is really just a tiny keyboard and a speaker. But it's a bit loud and it's not a great idea to be loud here."

She holds up the device and spins it around in her hand openly. It's really not used all that much, actually.

"An expendable? If I were them I wouldn't go chasing anything or anyone.. It sounds like that happens a lot to you though?"

She tilts her head as she looks past the girl towards the door. (Looking out, perhaps?)

[hadal-hideout]

She briefly considers pretending to be upset about the trespassing, but she doesn't really see the point in it, so she just shrugs and fiddles with her bracelet again. She already got what she needed from the expendable from earlier, so there was no need to use her tactics against some random trespasser, especially since she didn't actually own the place.

"Eh, it's fine. I'm not too attached to this place, I just didn't want anyone to mess with the stuff I left in here."

She fiddled with her dress the second the eye contact was broken, clearly unused to maintaining it for this long. She seemed interested in the mention of a shopkeeper, quickly shaking off her uneasiness to ask more about him.

"What's he like? What does he sell? How long have you known him? How come you're staying with him? Do you do runs like this often? Is he moody a lot of the time?"

She followed 624's gaze around the room, making sure that the spot where she hid her items remained hidden, not wanting to deal with any questions about what she was hiding.

"Who'd you learn it from? I learned it from my Father, who learned about it from my Grandfather. How come you didn't want to startle me earlier? Where'd you get the machine from? Did you make it yourself?"

She looked curiously at the machine, resisting the urge to reach out to it to get a better look. Instead, she distracts herself by focusing on 624's questions, shrugging before answering.

"Eh. Sometimes they follow me, most of the time they don't. The most recent one was a lot more determined than the other ones, which is probably why she followed me for so long."

[exrp624-calisto]

Ah. So Claire hadn't heard of Sebastian. This was either a blessing or a curse. Sebastian had told her he had siblings back when on the surface, but she isn't sure what that means anymore.

"He sells things like Medkits, lights.. Survival tools. All useful. He prefers to trade for research for some reason. I assume it's to keep as much of it out of Urbanshade's hands as possible."

She thinks carefully about the next few questions she asked. She wasn't sure if she should be honest or if she should be vague. She could be both, truthfully, but.. Claire was clearly just a kid. She wasn't sure if underestimating her would end up badly for her later. Especially since Sebastian was the main topic.

"I'm staying with him because I won't survive on my own. I sustained a real bad injury. Nearly died. Should have, actually. I don't know why he's letting me stick around, but I'm great full, so I'm not gonna complain."

She wasn't used to dealing with children truthfully. She didn't dislike them or anything, but her town didn't have a lot of them since rich people didn't like kids unless they had to. (And they didn't have to go back home so no one brought or had any.)

"I don't, actually. He is usually rather passive. He's as polite as he needs to be with expendables and more than that with me. And I usually don't have the energy to go very far.. But he's especially ticked off today, so I figured I would make the most of it."

She looked down at her device once she was done with answering that set of questions. Was she this curious as a kid? It was only natural given the standards.

"My friend made it for me. He's an engineer. Notes aren't very efficient for either of us, so he decided to make use of what we have down here. And I learned a little ASL in prison. Had to do something in there, yeah?"

She wondered how much time had passed. She wasn't in any hurry truthfully, but she also didn't want Sebastian to feel the need to go fetch her. Not that he would, of course, unless she was gone for a day or two. She had confidence in her skills, and he.. Also, maybe he did, but he also may just be lazy.

"And I didn't want to startle you because it's not polite to startle people. Especially when you don't know the person. I tend to follow by two rules: Don't startle anyone or anything. It can, and will, end badly usually."

[hadal-hideout]

She recognized the objects 624 was talking about, obviously, they could be found all over the blacksite, including on the bodies of her meals. There was always one room that had an abundance of them, though for some reason that room always had a bunch of files in it, and.. Oh.

Oh no. Maybe she could quickly change the topic before it became obvious that she was guilty? Sure, she didn't take that much, but considering what little she knew about Sebastian, she doubted he'd be pleased with her. And 624 was friends with him, so she'd obviously tell him, and therefore she couldn't know about it, which meant she had to change the subject.

"..Ah. I think I've heard of him, but I haven't seen him yet. Anyways, who's Urbanshade?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly as 624 hesitated, clearly wondering what she was thinking about that was taking so long. Hesitation was never a good sign; it usually meant something bad had either happened or was about to happen, and as per usual, she was right. At least this time, it was just an injury.

"How'd you almost die? How bad's your injury? How come you haven't just healed your– Uh. Nevermind.."

She trailed off as she looked away, looking embarrassed as she remembered that most people weren't capable of healing themselves. Now that she thought about it, it's a bit odd how she was already forgetting what it was like before the experiments. She'd only been able to heal herself for a couple months (5? Maybe 6..? She didn't really bother to remember), and yet she was already forgetting what it was like to be human.

"Aaanyways, how come he's upset today if he's usually passive? Did something happen? Did you do something to annoy him so now you're trying to make it up to him by getting supplies?"

She fiddled with her dress as she spoke, always making sure to smooth it out after she was done. It seemed to be mostly out of boredom, unlike how she was nervously fidgeting earlier, as if she was just asking her questions to confirm things she already knew. Her demeanor changed, however, the second 624's friend was mentioned, even moreso when she learned he was an engineer.

"Who's your friend? Where are they now? Why were you in prison?? What'd you do? What was it like there? Oo are you actually more dangerous than you look?"

She seemed strangely.. excited? More than any normal person would be, but especially more interested in this than any child should be.

[exrp624-calisto]

Oh God. She really didn't know about anything, did she? 624, again, wasn't sure if she should beat around the bush or be as honest as she could. A huge part of her wanted to attempt to hide as much from her as possible, but considering the circumstances and the child's appearance, she isn't sure if it would even help anymore.

"Urbanshade is the company who owns Hadal Blacksite as well as this entire underwater facility. They own and "made" everything inside of it, too."

Vague enough. She really didn't know much else than that truthfully. She glanced up at a wall clock above the door frame and wondered how accurate it was. Realistically, the clocks had no reason to be incorrect, but considering the circumstances and the lack of seeing any visible change in the days, it made sense to be skeptical.

Her eyes snapped back to the child once the next question flew out of her mouth. She looked not dissimilar to a deer in headlights. It wasn't like she couldn't talk about it or anything, but it was probably her least pleasant memory. She had nothing to hide and even less of a reason to try to hide nothing.

"Vultus Limunaria. Or more commonly called Searchlights. You have seen them circling around open areas. Like the name suggests, they're large creatures with lights that spot prey and.. Large hooks to impale and capture them. I just got lucky. Or unlucky if you really wanna think about it."

624 seemed withdrawn after that exchange. It was difficult to talk about, but she found it more important to try to stay on Claire's good side. Not that she felt that she wasn't capable. She had survived down here for possibly longer than 624 had; that was something.

"Nothing appened that I'm aware of. It's like when something doesn't go your way for a while and you get frustrated. Sebastian is just.. Frustrated that things are moving slower than usual. Just a tad disappointed is all.. Unfortunately, being down here can make disappointment seem a lot worse."

Oh? Her friend. Right. Yeah. A lump formed in her throat at the question. No one had ever asked enough about her to get to the mention of her old friend.

"My friend. He died a while back. He was great."

That's as much as she was going to say. She quickly moved on to the next question.

"And I didn't do anything. I was falsely accused. And it was.. It's much better than this place. Much. I don't consider myself a threat, but Urbanshade clearly does so.. Maybe I am a bit dangerous, yeah?"

[hadal-hideout]

Her tail flicked behind her in annoyance, noticing that 624 was holding back information. It made sense why, but it was still annoying being treated like she needed to be protected.

"Oh– Wait I think I do know them! My Dad talked about them a lot, but he never called it Urbanshade, so that's why I didn't recognize it."

She noticed fairly quickly this seemed to be a topic that 624 didn't seem to like talking about, but a couple more questions couldn't hurt, right?

"Vultus Limunaria..? I don't think I've seen it before. Where is it located? How long ago did it happen?"

She looked skeptical that there wasn't anything else going on regarding Sebastian, but she didn't really have reason or proof to not believe her, so she let it go. Then again, it's not like she ever needed proof to voice her suspicions.. Regardless, she had more interesting things to ask about.

"How come he's upset things are moving slowly? Wouldn't he like a break from dealing with whatever he deals with?"

Her curious demeanor changed the second she heard that the friend had died. Normally when in this situation she'd ask more questions about who died; what happened, how long ago, etcetera, but doing it now felt.. weird. She didn't know why– she's asked questions about this in the past, so why did it feel so wrong now?

Maybe it's because she wasn't.. like this when she asked questions about it before. She looked at 624 as she thought to herself, noticing her expression. She was obviously upset by his death, and it made her wonder how long ago it was. Did anyone back home miss her the way 624 clearly missed him? Did anyone even notice she was gone?

She looked away from 624, smoothing out her dress in a futile attempt to clear her head. She wished she had some sort of distraction that wasn't making conversation, but there wasn't much to do unless she wanted to leave, and that seemed rude. She still wasn't quite sure what to respond to the information she received, so instead she just dropped the subject entirely, focusing on whatever topic 624 brought up.

"What were you accused of? Which prison did you go to? Do you miss it?"

[exrp624-calisto]

She was relieved that Claire had taken the hint and opted not to push further. She would've answered her if she did, but it wasn't ideal. Upon hearing the mention of the girls father, her eyes moved up to look at her from behind her bangs. (When was the last time she cut them?)

"I've only seen one. It's far. Door 70, I think? Not far from Sebastian's shop. And it's been a while now. A few months at least."

624 had felt odd. She usually would avoid the topic entirely. Other expendables were only ever nosy, and Sebastian had seen what happened, so he knew all he needed to know. Perhaps she was more open due to Claire geniuenly just being curious?

"Research is important to Sebastian, so he wants to gather as much as he can. I don't know why, but he says it's for the best, and I believe him. I don't know much else."

That was a half lie. She didn't know what purpose collecting the research had, but she knew that it was in regards to getting them out of here. Her eyes moved away from Claire for a moment. Perhaps when she got back to his shop, she'd question if he knew anything about her. (Could they take her with them when they left?)

"I do miss it. Anywhere that isn't here is ideal. That was years ago, though, so I don't remember. I went to a juvenile detention center first since I was pretty young when I was convicted. I was sent to prison when I turned 18, though, if that's anything."

She didn't say or do anything for a few moments, pondering if she should actually tell Claire the reason for her imprisonment. She really didn't want to, and yet..

"If you really want to know, you'll have to answer a question from me first."

This was a win-win situation. If Claire declined, she wouldn't have to share, and on the other hand, if she did answer whatever question 624 had, she would gain information.

[hadal-hideout]

She muttered to herself for a couple seconds, trying to remember what he referred to Urbanshade by, but she gave up pretty quickly, instead focusing on the new information. She was a little tempted to continue asking about the accident and for more information on Urbanshade, but 624 looked relieved that she wasn't pressing her on it, and she didn't really feel like ruining that right now.

"Oh, that's probably why I haven't seen it; I don't usually go past door 60. How far are we from Sebastian's shop? And how come you trust him so much? I mean, you've only been staying with him for a few months, right? Is that really enough time to trust someone? Especially someone who supposedly hasn't told you what he needs important documents for?"

There, maybe that'd be enough to see if she was lying or not. Of course, she could just ask her outright, but if she was lying, then there was no guarantee that she'd admit to it. Claire hated lying– regardless of whether she was doing it or whether she was the one being lied to. Though she didn't really believe that omitting information counted as lying (It was too vague, and therefore not reliable), 624 had explicitly not omitted information; she clearly said that she didn't know what he wanted for.

And sure, maybe she didn't actually know and Claire was just a bit more paranoid than the rational person, but she also claimed to trust him! Which was clearly impossible, because how could you trust someone who you don't know all the important things about? And why he collected research was clearly an important thing to know about, because she'd admitted that it was important to him.

So, clearly 624 was lying, the only question now was whether she would admit to it. Though there was a chance she was telling the truth, and Claire was just being paranoid.. But Claire had no reason to be paranoid! Sure, some of the expendables went a little mad after staying down here for too long (which, considering their life expectancies was usually a couple months), but that was just because they were at risk of dying all the time, and Claire didn't have to worry about that! There was no reason for this place to make her more paranoid, she was doing perfectly fine down here.

"Why do you hate it down here so much anyways? And how old are you now?"

She hesitated after hearing the deal, unsure of whether she wanted to agree or not. People didn't tend to ask as many questions as she did, so she wasn't used to having to answer questions about her, and she always said to tell people as little about herself as possible... But she was curious about what she was accused of, and her father always said that if she had nothing to hide, then she shouldn't mind answering any questions. And besides, if 624 was going through all this trouble to hide what she was accused of, then it's gotta be interesting, right?

"This is probably a bad idea but.. Fine. What's your question?"

[hadal-hideout]

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[exrp624-calisto]

624 glared at the girl with widened eyes. A child? Here? Of all places? She was immediately concerned, but upon closer inspection, she noticed the gills and tail and..

Oh. Of course, Urbanshade wasn't above this. And her concern grew more.

As the rapid fire questions continued, she realized she probably wasn't going to be able to write down anything quickly enough to satisfy her, so she hesitately pulled out a small device with a few tiny buttons and a speaker and never looked away from the girl as she typed in her responses.

"You can call me 624. I am here to find research for a friend of mine. And I'm here because I have to be.. Here as in Blacksite."

The voice was robotic and crackled with static every few words. It clearly hadn't been used in a while.. She wasn't fond of using her TTS device, especially considering those footsteps from earlier. She blinked, still against the wall as she typed in another message.

"Oh. I'm mute. I can not speak verbally. Apologies."

She adjusted her necklace, but she didn't make any sudden moves. (Not that she was in a hurry anyway.. Her wound was acting up again.)

She tapped away again, glancing behind her at the door. 624 was really getting nervous 'talking' this much.

"And you? Are you doing alright? I hope you aren't being tailed.."

[hadal-hideout]

She looked surprised at the use of the TTS, but she seemed to be less hostile than she was earlier. She leaned against the nearest wall, watching 624 with a curious look as she listened to the TTS.

She seemed slightly uncomfortable by the constant eye contact, but she ignored it and continued asking her questions anyway, not wanting to show any weaknesses. She decided to follow 624's lead of not sharing their actual names, but instead of coming up with a fake name, she elected to just not mention one at all.

"Is '624' your file name or whatever they call it? Who's your friend? And I meant 'here' as in this room. Usually this room's empty, which is why I'm usually hiding in here."

She fiddled with her dress pockets as she talked,not really caring to maintain eye contact anymore, as 624 had already broken it by glancing at the door. She instead focused her attention on the TTS device, trying to figure out as much as she could about it just from looking at it, knowing she probably wouldn't be allowed to touch it.

"Do you know ASL? How come– You seem to dislike using the machine thingy, I dunno the actual name for it, so it'd probably be more effective or whatever if we used ASL. If you know it, that is."

She cut off her original question, seemingly changing her mind last second and deciding to not ask anymore questions. She smoothed out her dress, fiddling with her bracelet instead as she continued talking.

"I'm fine, I'm pretty sure the expendable gave up already. They never seem to stay around for long, and they're always in a hurry, so I doubt it's still out there. That one seemed more determined than the other ones though, I dunno why."

[exrp624-calisto]

She seemed a bit taken back by the sudden.. change in demeanor. She hadn't bothered trying to use ASL since there weren't a lot of people who actually knew it down here. She wasn't fluent but was confident enough. 624 noted the curious gaze, and she could practically see the gears moving in the girls head as she spoke.

"624.. It is my EXRP number. I don't bother with names. You get too attached. And I was here because I thought there was research here. I wasn't aware it was empty or a hideout for that matter. Apologies."

She locked eyes with the girl for a moment to get the point across. She broke the eye contact pretty abruptly, though. (She wasn't used to it either, it seemed.)

She continued to type into the machine, every so often seemingly back-spacing or removing words.

"My friend.. Sebastian. He runs a shop quite a few doors from here. He trades various items for research. Business has been unexpectedly slow recently, and he's gotten a bit.."

She paused for a good moment before rolling her eyes and continuing to type.

"Moody. To say the least. So I decided to give him some space and try to find some research while I was out. He's letting me stay with him, so it's the least I could do, yeah?"

She glances around the room, scanning it. It seems no different than any other room here. Perhaps that's what she wanted, though? A room that's ordinary was overlooked often. She guesses she just happened to have some back luck while scavenging.

"I do know ASL. I'm not fluent in it, though. I'm rusty.. No one uses it down here anyway. I usually write in this book here with pen and paper. I just didn't this time since I could've probably startled you reaching behind me. This machine is really just a tiny keyboard and a speaker. But it's a bit loud and it's not a great idea to be loud here."

She holds up the device and spins it around in her hand openly. It's really not used all that much, actually.

"An expendable? If I were them I wouldn't go chasing anything or anyone.. It sounds like that happens a lot to you though?"

She tilts her head as she looks past the girl towards the door. (Looking out, perhaps?)

[hadal-hideout]

She briefly considers pretending to be upset about the trespassing, but she doesn't really see the point in it, so she just shrugs and fiddles with her bracelet again. She already got what she needed from the expendable from earlier, so there was no need to use her tactics against some random trespasser, especially since she didn't actually own the place.

"Eh, it's fine. I'm not too attached to this place, I just didn't want anyone to mess with the stuff I left in here."

She fiddled with her dress the second the eye contact was broken, clearly unused to maintaining it for this long. She seemed interested in the mention of a shopkeeper, quickly shaking off her uneasiness to ask more about him.

"What's he like? What does he sell? How long have you known him? How come you're staying with him? Do you do runs like this often? Is he moody a lot of the time?"

She followed 624's gaze around the room, making sure that the spot where she hid her items remained hidden, not wanting to deal with any questions about what she was hiding.

"Who'd you learn it from? I learned it from my Father, who learned about it from my Grandfather. How come you didn't want to startle me earlier? Where'd you get the machine from? Did you make it yourself?"

She looked curiously at the machine, resisting the urge to reach out to it to get a better look. Instead, she distracts herself by focusing on 624's questions, shrugging before answering.

"Eh. Sometimes they follow me, most of the time they don't. The most recent one was a lot more determined than the other ones, which is probably why she followed me for so long."

[exrp624-calisto]

Ah. So Claire hadn't heard of Sebastian. This was either a blessing or a curse. Sebastian had told her he had siblings back when on the surface, but she isn't sure what that means anymore.

"He sells things like Medkits, lights.. Survival tools. All useful. He prefers to trade for research for some reason. I assume it's to keep as much of it out of Urbanshade's hands as possible."

She thinks carefully about the next few questions she asked. She wasn't sure if she should be honest or if she should be vague. She could be both, truthfully, but.. Claire was clearly just a kid. She wasn't sure if underestimating her would end up badly for her later. Especially since Sebastian was the main topic.

"I'm staying with him because I won't survive on my own. I sustained a real bad injury. Nearly died. Should have, actually. I don't know why he's letting me stick around, but I'm great full, so I'm not gonna complain."

She wasn't used to dealing with children truthfully. She didn't dislike them or anything, but her town didn't have a lot of them since rich people didn't like kids unless they had to. (And they didn't have to go back home so no one brought or had any.)

"I don't, actually. He is usually rather passive. He's as polite as he needs to be with expendables and more than that with me. And I usually don't have the energy to go very far.. But he's especially ticked off today, so I figured I would make the most of it."

She looked down at her device once she was done with answering that set of questions. Was she this curious as a kid? It was only natural given the standards.

"My friend made it for me. He's an engineer. Notes aren't very efficient for either of us, so he decided to make use of what we have down here. And I learned a little ASL in prison. Had to do something in there, yeah?"

She wondered how much time had passed. She wasn't in any hurry truthfully, but she also didn't want Sebastian to feel the need to go fetch her. Not that he would, of course, unless she was gone for a day or two. She had confidence in her skills, and he.. Also, maybe he did, but he also may just be lazy.

"And I didn't want to startle you because it's not polite to startle people. Especially when you don't know the person. I tend to follow by two rules: Don't startle anyone or anything. It can, and will, end badly usually."

[hadal-hideout]

She recognized the objects 624 was talking about, obviously, they could be found all over the blacksite, including on the bodies of her meals. There was always one room that had an abundance of them, though for some reason that room always had a bunch of files in it, and.. Oh.

Oh no. Maybe she could quickly change the topic before it became obvious that she was guilty? Sure, she didn't take that much, but considering what little she knew about Sebastian, she doubted he'd be pleased with her. And 624 was friends with him, so she'd obviously tell him, and therefore she couldn't know about it, which meant she had to change the subject.

"..Ah. I think I've heard of him, but I haven't seen him yet. Anyways, who's Urbanshade?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly as 624 hesitated, clearly wondering what she was thinking about that was taking so long. Hesitation was never a good sign; it usually meant something bad had either happened or was about to happen, and as per usual, she was right. At least this time, it was just an injury.

"How'd you almost die? How bad's your injury? How come you haven't just healed your– Uh. Nevermind.."

She trailed off as she looked away, looking embarrassed as she remembered that most people weren't capable of healing themselves. Now that she thought about it, it's a bit odd how she was already forgetting what it was like before the experiments. She'd only been able to heal herself for a couple months (5? Maybe 6..? She didn't really bother to remember), and yet she was already forgetting what it was like to be human.

"Aaanyways, how come he's upset today if he's usually passive? Did something happen? Did you do something to annoy him so now you're trying to make it up to him by getting supplies?"

She fiddled with her dress as she spoke, always making sure to smooth it out after she was done. It seemed to be mostly out of boredom, unlike how she was nervously fidgeting earlier, as if she was just asking her questions to confirm things she already knew. Her demeanor changed, however, the second 624's friend was mentioned, even moreso when she learned he was an engineer.

"Who's your friend? Where are they now? Why were you in prison?? What'd you do? What was it like there? Oo are you actually more dangerous than you look?"

She seemed strangely.. excited? More than any normal person would be, but especially more interested in this than any child should be.

[exrp624-calisto]

Oh God. She really didn't know about anything, did she? 624, again, wasn't sure if she should beat around the bush or be as honest as she could. A huge part of her wanted to attempt to hide as much from her as possible, but considering the circumstances and the child's appearance, she isn't sure if it would even help anymore.

"Urbanshade is the company who owns Hadal Blacksite as well as this entire underwater facility. They own and "made" everything inside of it, too."

Vague enough. She really didn't know much else than that truthfully. She glanced up at a wall clock above the door frame and wondered how accurate it was. Realistically, the clocks had no reason to be incorrect, but considering the circumstances and the lack of seeing any visible change in the days, it made sense to be skeptical.

Her eyes snapped back to the child once the next question flew out of her mouth. She looked not dissimilar to a deer in headlights. It wasn't like she couldn't talk about it or anything, but it was probably her least pleasant memory. She had nothing to hide and even less of a reason to try to hide nothing.

"Vultus Limunaria. Or more commonly called Searchlights. You have seen them circling around open areas. Like the name suggests, they're large creatures with lights that spot prey and.. Large hooks to impale and capture them. I just got lucky. Or unlucky if you really wanna think about it."

624 seemed withdrawn after that exchange. It was difficult to talk about, but she found it more important to try to stay on Claire's good side. Not that she felt that she wasn't capable. She had survived down here for possibly longer than 624 had; that was something.

"Nothing appened that I'm aware of. It's like when something doesn't go your way for a while and you get frustrated. Sebastian is just.. Frustrated that things are moving slower than usual. Just a tad disappointed is all.. Unfortunately, being down here can make disappointment seem a lot worse."

Oh? Her friend. Right. Yeah. A lump formed in her throat at the question. No one had ever asked enough about her to get to the mention of her old friend.

"My friend. He died a while back. He was great."

That's as much as she was going to say. She quickly moved on to the next question.

"And I didn't do anything. I was falsely accused. And it was.. It's much better than this place. Much. I don't consider myself a threat, but Urbanshade clearly does so.. Maybe I am a bit dangerous, yeah?"

[hadal-hideout]

Her tail flicked behind her in annoyance, noticing that 624 was holding back information. It made sense why, but it was still annoying being treated like she needed to be protected.

"Oh– Wait I think I do know them! My Dad talked about them a lot, but he never called it Urbanshade, so that's why I didn't recognize it."

She noticed fairly quickly this seemed to be a topic that 624 didn't seem to like talking about, but a couple more questions couldn't hurt, right?

"Vultus Limunaria..? I don't think I've seen it before. Where is it located? How long ago did it happen?"

She looked skeptical that there wasn't anything else going on regarding Sebastian, but she didn't really have reason or proof to not believe her, so she let it go. Then again, it's not like she ever needed proof to voice her suspicions.. Regardless, she had more interesting things to ask about.

"How come he's upset things are moving slowly? Wouldn't he like a break from dealing with whatever he deals with?"

Her curious demeanor changed the second she heard that the friend had died. Normally when in this situation she'd ask more questions about who died; what happened, how long ago, etcetera, but doing it now felt.. weird. She didn't know why– she's asked questions about this in the past, so why did it feel so wrong now?

Maybe it's because she wasn't.. like this when she asked questions about it before. She looked at 624 as she thought to herself, noticing her expression. She was obviously upset by his death, and it made her wonder how long ago it was. Did anyone back home miss her the way 624 clearly missed him? Did anyone even notice she was gone?

She looked away from 624, smoothing out her dress in a futile attempt to clear her head. She wished she had some sort of distraction that wasn't making conversation, but there wasn't much to do unless she wanted to leave, and that seemed rude. She still wasn't quite sure what to respond to the information she received, so instead she just dropped the subject entirely, focusing on whatever topic 624 brought up.

"What were you accused of? Which prison did you go to? Do you miss it?"

[asksebs]

There's a scratching sound coming from the vents, getting closer to the shop until a humanoid face pops out, looking up at Sebastian. He looks like an expendable, but he has an eyepatch and a hoodie, both looking hand-made with various random scraps of expendable jumpsuits.

"Hello. You sell stuff, yes?"

- @hadal-hideout

Pulling on his esca and allowing it to flicker to life, casting a dim glow of which illuminated the small room, Sebastian glanced at the other who had just crawled through the vent.

“You’ve got that right,”

He said with a slight chuckle.

“As long as you have enough data, I’m willing to trade some of my stock.”

[hadal-hideout]

He pulled himself fully out of the vent, leading against the wall next to it as he looked around the room.

"Do you sell information? And if, how much do you want?"

He pulled out a bag from his pocket, presumably filled with different types of data.

"I've obviously been collecting, but I haven't found what I've been looking for. But I figured that considering how much you receive daily from the other expendables, and that collecting information is what you're known for, you might have heard or seen something."

[asksebs]

His ear fins perking up at this request, Sebastian cast a curious gaze towards the other.

“That depends,”

He hummed.

“What kind of information are you looking for specifically..?”

[hadal-hideout]

He hesitated for a couple seconds before looking away from him, taking a deep breath before answering.

"I'm.. looking for a file of an experiment, it should've been made fairly recently. They probably put it under Z-10? Her actual name was– is– Claire."

[asksebs]

"Z-10.."

He tapped his chin in thought for a few moments before replying.

"I can't say that I've seen a file for a 'Z-10'. At least, not yet. Those expendables are bound to find it at some point, though- as stupid as some of them are, they sure know how to look everywhere..."

[hadal-hideout]

"Fuck. Maybe that means she escaped? But where would she go..? Did they kill her? No, she can't be dead.. not fully at least."

He mutters to himself for a couple minutes before remembering that he's still here and in a conversation. He turns back to Sebastian, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry, um, would you be able to keep an eye out for it and let me know when you find it? I'll pay you, of course."

[asksebs]

"I can do that. I'll make sure to keep ya updated."

Sebastian would nod.

"Would ya want me to come find you, or..? Would you be coming back to check the status?"

[hadal-hideout]

"Thank you, I appreciate your help."

He thought for a couple seconds before answering, deciding that he didn't really want to risk having his hideout discovered, regardless of how friendly the person discovering it could be.

"I'll probably check in every other week or so. How much data do you want in exchange for it?"

[asksebs]

"Hm. How about 650?"

He offered.

"Think you could do that?"

[hadal-hideout]

He seemed slightly surprised that the price wasn't higher, but he nodded, not seeing the point in mentioning it.

"Sure. When do you want the payment? Are we gonna do a half-before, half-after kind of thing, or are we waiting until you find the file to exchange?"

[asksebs]

“Never really been one for the half-now-half-later sorta thing, y’know? I’d much rather find the file and then do the exchange.”

[hadal-hideout]

"Alrighty then. How long do you think it'd take to find the file?"

[asksebs]

“Probably not too long,”

He replied.

“Assuming those damn don’t end up dying immediately for once..”

[hadal-hideout]

"You don't seem to like dealing with the expendables, why bother working with them? Are they really useful enough to deal with them dying all the time?"

[asksebs]

“Eh.. gotta get those loose assets somehow, I guess, and selling things to them in return for data is probably the quickest way of collecting them.”

[hadal-hideout]

"Fair. What do you need the data for anyways? Are you looking for anything in particular or are you just collecting for the sake of collecting?"

[asksebs]

“Trying to get out of here,”

He replied.

“I give the data I’ve received to Urbanshade’s rival companies in hopes of receiving a way out of here in return. It’s a shame that they had to leave all of their precious assets behind when they evacuated..”

“To them, at least.”

[hadal-hideout]

He nodded, looking like he was about to say something before he changed his mind, opting to ask more questions instead.

"How close are you to getting out? Any plans for when you finally escape?"

[the-pressure-multiplies]

As Dakota was exploring the blacksite for loose assets, he came across a small side room. These types of rooms were usually full of loose assets, but as he stepped inside he saw that he wasn't alone. Inside, sitting near the wall next to some item lockers, was a young girl who looked around 10 or so.

She didn't look like another expendable; the most obvious difference was her age, of course, but instead of the uniform jumpsuit the expendables wore, she was wearing what seemed to be a handmade purple dress that went to her ankles. She had pale skin, very light blue eyes, and her hair was blonde enough that it almost looked white.

She didn't seem to notice Dakota entering, seemingly focused on writing something on what looked like a notepad.

- @hadal-hideout

Dakota cocks his head to the side as he stands in the doorway. What's a child doing down here? This place, the Blacksite...it's no place for a kid, that's for sure. "...Heya. Uh...whatcha got there?" He's cautious. He has to be, in order to survive down in this watery hellscape. Sure, whoever (or whatever) this is looks like a human girl, but...for all Dakota knows, this could be some new entity he's never seen before- some kind of mimic, maybe- pretending to be human to lure him in. He wouldn't be surprised if that were the case...

[hadal-hideout]

She jumps as she hears his voice, snapping the notepad shut and putting it in her pockets as she looks up at him.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

She looks suspiciously at Dakota, and now that she's actually looking up at him, he can see that instead of ears, she has axolotl like fins, and he can barely see the tip of an axolotl tail peeking out from under her dress.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

Dakota raises his hands in the air. He doesn't want to scare the kid, after all. His eyes flick over to her ear-fins as he lets out a sigh, muttering under his breath. "They're doing this shit to kids now? Urbanshit just gets worse and worse..." He shakes his head. "The name's Dakota. Dakota Morrigan. The arseholes up in Urbanshade call me EXR-P #2934, if ya want something all pretentious and official-like." He raises a brow at the girl. "And you are?"

[hadal-hideout]

Her eyes narrow slightly at his introduction, seemingly trying to determine whether he's lying or not, before she gives up, crossing her arms.

"I'm not telling you anything. Father told me not to talk to strangers."

She leans against the wall as she looks away from him, trying to look as professional as she can in hopes of getting him to leave, as she knew that adults tended to not let children wander around on their own, let alone in a place like this.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Your father would be absolutely right. That's common sense, kiddo. Issue is, common sense kinda flies out the window in this hellhole." A couple of sparks of violet light dance around Dakota's eyes before he waves them away, grumbling to himself under his breath.

"Besides- from the looks of it, Urbanshit's little Doc Frankenstein wannabes got to you too. Us freaks o' nature should stick together- or at the minimum help each other out, when that's possible. Safety in numbers and all that."

[hadal-hideout]

She perks up slightly as she sees the sparks, looking at them curiously before she processes what he said, immediately recoiling as her ear fins pin back.

"Why would we do that? We just met, how should I know to trust you? And who are these 'Urbanshade' people you keep talking about? And I'm not a freak!"

Her eyes are narrowed at him, almost glaring, as she presses even further into the wall, clearly not trusting him.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Nothing wrong with being a freak, kiddo. The only thing that's bad to be is normal, the way I see it." Dakota shakes his head, a small popping sound coming from the side of his neck. "And you're right. You shouldn't trust me. If I'm being completely honest, there aren't many people you should trust down here other than the Northstar, the Saboteur, and the Serpent, and even then, I wouldn't throw my nonexistent hat in the ring with 'em." A whirring noise from above causes the sparks of electricity to once again appear, dancing around Dakota's eyes as he turns up towards a security camera now trained on him. "Oh, feck off!" With a flick of the man's fingers, an arc of violet electricity would burst out from his hand, shattering the camera's lens. "Anyways, Urbanshade. They're the ones that run this hellhole, and the ones that decided it was a good idea to turn animals into weird-ass monsters."

[hadal-hideout]

Her eyes narrow into an actual glare, her nails digging into the sleeves of her dress.

"Don't call me that. I don't know who anyone you're talking about is. And if you agree that I shouldn't trust you, why bother offering to work together?"

She continues looking suspicious, before she's quickly distracted by the electricity and the broken camera, resulting in her tail flicking in curiosity.

"How did you do that? What'd 'Urbanshade' do to you?"

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"What'd they do to me? Screw up my biology and stuff me full of electric eel genetic material, as far as I know." The purple sparks continue to dance around the Expendable's eyes, casting a dim glow over his dark skin. "As for your first question, I mostly offered out of courtesy. Most people don't take each other up on that kind of offer down here- wasn't expecting you to either, to be honest."

[hadal-hideout]

She looked confused and somewhat annoyed, her eyes flicking between him and the sparks as her tail continued flicking.

"Oh. Then why'd you bother asking me if you weren't being genuine? What if I had accepted? And how come Urbanshade did that? I thought you said you were an expendable?"

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"If you'd accepted, I would've helped you out. Simple as that- I may be a freak of nature, but I ain't a liar. As for why they did it? I have absolutely no idea. Maybe to make me more effective for whatever they want me to do for 'em?" Dakota shrugs.

"Anyways- I've gotta keep going. Pretty damn sure this thing's gonna explode if I stay in one place for too long." He points at the PDG strapped to his back, a scowl on his scarred face. "Sorry for wasting your time. I'd say I'd see ya around, but knowing how big this gods-damned place is, that's unlikely, to say the least."

Dakota waves goodbye before turning away. "Stay safe. I'd hate to find another innocent's corpse rotting in one of the halls."

[hadal-hideout]

She stays silent as she watches him turn away, fiddling with her jewelry for a couple seconds before she stands up. She starts to reach for his sleeve before she stops herself, crossing her arms again.

"Wait! Um. . Is it too late to accept your offer? Where are you going?"

She didn't look at him as she spoke, instead pretending to focus on smoothing out her dress and her hair, her ear fins flicking anxiously.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

He turns back around. "Right now? I'm trying to get to Sebastian's shop to offload some data and get some supplies. After that...well, I'll see where the wind takes me, I suppose." He may not know where he's going, but he knows one thing for sure. There's no way in Hell he's getting that Crystal for Urbanshade. Not after what he's heard, not after what they did to him.

"And...no, it's not too late. As long as you're sure, that is- you didn't seem all too keen on the idea a few minutes ago-"

[hadal-hideout]

She continued to avoid looking at him, scrunching up her dress in her hands before smoothing it out again.

"Yeah, well. . I'm hungry, and you seem to know what you're doing around here, so it'd be more convenient to just follow you around rather than scavenging or hunting."

She stammered for a little bit before coming up with a reasonable sounding excuse for why she changed her mind, she just hoped he didn't press her on it.

"Anyways, who's Sebastian?"

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Fair point." Dakota shrugs. "Sebastian is...well, he's definitely someone. He's a shopkeeper, of sorts. Runs a shop deeper in the Blacksite, selling supplies in exchange for Urbanshade data- files and data drives, that kind of thing."

[hadal-hideout]

She seemed relieved that he accepted her reason and the topic change so easily, eagerly trying to get more information about Sebastian.

"What sort of stuff does he have? Are you friends with him? How far down is he? Why's he down here? Are there any other shops down here? I think I've seen one, but there wasn't anyone in it so it might've just been a regular supply room."

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Woah, woah- that's a lot of questions-" Dakota looks around, grabbing a data drive off of a nearby table and shoving it into his pocket. "Anyways- he usually sells whatever he's scrounged up that day. Flashlights, batteries, medical supplies if we're lucky- all sorts of stuff. For your second question...I wouldn't say he and I are friends, per se, but we're not enemies either. We help each other out- that's about it. I'm not too sure why he's down here...he doesn't exactly talk about it much. Seems to be something of a sensitive subject for him, which I get-"

[hadal-hideout]

"Oh- sorry, I like knowing things about people before I meet them, and questions are the most direct way to get that. I can stop if you'd prefer that, though we'd probably be traveling in silence then."

She watches him grab the file, looking curious as to what it is and why he needs it, but she doesn't ask about it.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Ah- fair, fair. I like to know things too- it's not that rare of a desire, down here. Or...or really anywhere, to be completely honest." Dakota chuckles a bit. "And...you don't need to stop talking if you don't want to. It's honestly a nice change from how it normally is down here." Dakota checks the Navi-Path sign on the door. Door 46...they're almost at the shop. Good.

[hadal-hideout]

"If you like gathering information too, how come you don't ask as many questions as I do? And how far are we until we reach the Sebastian guy?"

She looked up at the Navi-path sign as well, watching it for a couple seconds before moving on to the next room, groaning quietly when the door opens to reveal a pitch-black room.

"Fuck, I hate these stupid rooms.. They're so annoying."

[the-pressure-multiplies]

Dakota shrugs. "Eh. You didn't seem like you wanted to answer questions- do ya? To answer your question, Sebastian's shop is somewhere around Door 50." Dakota enters the darkened room, sighing. These are always annoying. "Hm...I could light a path with my electricity, but...would it be worth it? Don't want to anger one of those weird squid things-"

[hadal-hideout]

She shrugs as well, looking away from him as she walks closer to the wall to use it as a guide to know where to walk.

"I dunno, that depends on your questions. How come you don't know which room he's in exactly? And you mean the squiddles? They're not that bad as long as you don't get too close, and I can't really blame them for– Fuck–"

Her sentence got cut off by her tripping over an overturned desk, promptly causing her to run directly into one of the squiddles. She quickly straightened herself up, smoothing out her skirt and glaring at the squiddle that just jumpscared her as she muttered to herself.

"I changed my mind. The squiddles suck and I hate them."

[asksebs]

There's a scratching sound coming from the vents, getting closer to the shop until a humanoid face pops out, looking up at Sebastian. He looks like an expendable, but he has an eyepatch and a hoodie, both looking hand-made with various random scraps of expendable jumpsuits.

"Hello. You sell stuff, yes?"

- @hadal-hideout

Pulling on his esca and allowing it to flicker to life, casting a dim glow of which illuminated the small room, Sebastian glanced at the other who had just crawled through the vent.

“You’ve got that right,”

He said with a slight chuckle.

“As long as you have enough data, I’m willing to trade some of my stock.”

[hadal-hideout]

He pulled himself fully out of the vent, leading against the wall next to it as he looked around the room.

"Do you sell information? And if, how much do you want?"

He pulled out a bag from his pocket, presumably filled with different types of data.

"I've obviously been collecting, but I haven't found what I've been looking for. But I figured that considering how much you receive daily from the other expendables, and that collecting information is what you're known for, you might have heard or seen something."

[asksebs]

His ear fins perking up at this request, Sebastian cast a curious gaze towards the other.

“That depends,”

He hummed.

“What kind of information are you looking for specifically..?”

[hadal-hideout]

He hesitated for a couple seconds before looking away from him, taking a deep breath before answering.

"I'm.. looking for a file of an experiment, it should've been made fairly recently. They probably put it under Z-10? Her actual name was– is– Claire."

[asksebs]

"Z-10.."

He tapped his chin in thought for a few moments before replying.

"I can't say that I've seen a file for a 'Z-10'. At least, not yet. Those expendables are bound to find it at some point, though- as stupid as some of them are, they sure know how to look everywhere..."

[hadal-hideout]

"Fuck. Maybe that means she escaped? But where would she go..? Did they kill her? No, she can't be dead.. not fully at least."

He mutters to himself for a couple minutes before remembering that he's still here and in a conversation. He turns back to Sebastian, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry, um, would you be able to keep an eye out for it and let me know when you find it? I'll pay you, of course."

[asksebs]

"I can do that. I'll make sure to keep ya updated."

Sebastian would nod.

"Would ya want me to come find you, or..? Would you be coming back to check the status?"

[hadal-hideout]

"Thank you, I appreciate your help."

He thought for a couple seconds before answering, deciding that he didn't really want to risk having his hideout discovered, regardless of how friendly the person discovering it could be.

"I'll probably check in every other week or so. How much data do you want in exchange for it?"

[asksebs]

"Hm. How about 650?"

He offered.

"Think you could do that?"

[hadal-hideout]

He seemed slightly surprised that the price wasn't higher, but he nodded, not seeing the point in mentioning it.

"Sure. When do you want the payment? Are we gonna do a half-before, half-after kind of thing, or are we waiting until you find the file to exchange?"

[asksebs]

“Never really been one for the half-now-half-later sorta thing, y’know? I’d much rather find the file and then do the exchange.”

[hadal-hideout]

"Alrighty then. How long do you think it'd take to find the file?"

[asksebs]

“Probably not too long,”

He replied.

“Assuming those damn don’t end up dying immediately for once..”

[hadal-hideout]

"You don't seem to like dealing with the expendables, why bother working with them? Are they really useful enough to deal with them dying all the time?"

[asksebs]

“Eh.. gotta get those loose assets somehow, I guess, and selling things to them in return for data is probably the quickest way of collecting them.”

[hadal-hideout]

"Fair. What do you need the data for anyways? Are you looking for anything in particular or are you just collecting for the sake of collecting?"

[hadal-hideout]

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[exrp624-calisto]

624 glared at the girl with widened eyes. A child? Here? Of all places? She was immediately concerned, but upon closer inspection, she noticed the gills and tail and..

Oh. Of course, Urbanshade wasn't above this. And her concern grew more.

As the rapid fire questions continued, she realized she probably wasn't going to be able to write down anything quickly enough to satisfy her, so she hesitately pulled out a small device with a few tiny buttons and a speaker and never looked away from the girl as she typed in her responses.

"You can call me 624. I am here to find research for a friend of mine. And I'm here because I have to be.. Here as in Blacksite."

The voice was robotic and crackled with static every few words. It clearly hadn't been used in a while.. She wasn't fond of using her TTS device, especially considering those footsteps from earlier. She blinked, still against the wall as she typed in another message.

"Oh. I'm mute. I can not speak verbally. Apologies."

She adjusted her necklace, but she didn't make any sudden moves. (Not that she was in a hurry anyway.. Her wound was acting up again.)

She tapped away again, glancing behind her at the door. 624 was really getting nervous 'talking' this much.

"And you? Are you doing alright? I hope you aren't being tailed.."

[hadal-hideout]

She looked surprised at the use of the TTS, but she seemed to be less hostile than she was earlier. She leaned against the nearest wall, watching 624 with a curious look as she listened to the TTS.

She seemed slightly uncomfortable by the constant eye contact, but she ignored it and continued asking her questions anyway, not wanting to show any weaknesses. She decided to follow 624's lead of not sharing their actual names, but instead of coming up with a fake name, she elected to just not mention one at all.

"Is '624' your file name or whatever they call it? Who's your friend? And I meant 'here' as in this room. Usually this room's empty, which is why I'm usually hiding in here."

She fiddled with her dress pockets as she talked,not really caring to maintain eye contact anymore, as 624 had already broken it by glancing at the door. She instead focused her attention on the TTS device, trying to figure out as much as she could about it just from looking at it, knowing she probably wouldn't be allowed to touch it.

"Do you know ASL? How come– You seem to dislike using the machine thingy, I dunno the actual name for it, so it'd probably be more effective or whatever if we used ASL. If you know it, that is."

She cut off her original question, seemingly changing her mind last second and deciding to not ask anymore questions. She smoothed out her dress, fiddling with her bracelet instead as she continued talking.

"I'm fine, I'm pretty sure the expendable gave up already. They never seem to stay around for long, and they're always in a hurry, so I doubt it's still out there. That one seemed more determined than the other ones though, I dunno why."

[exrp624-calisto]

She seemed a bit taken back by the sudden.. change in demeanor. She hadn't bothered trying to use ASL since there weren't a lot of people who actually knew it down here. She wasn't fluent but was confident enough. 624 noted the curious gaze, and she could practically see the gears moving in the girls head as she spoke.

"624.. It is my EXRP number. I don't bother with names. You get too attached. And I was here because I thought there was research here. I wasn't aware it was empty or a hideout for that matter. Apologies."

She locked eyes with the girl for a moment to get the point across. She broke the eye contact pretty abruptly, though. (She wasn't used to it either, it seemed.)

She continued to type into the machine, every so often seemingly back-spacing or removing words.

"My friend.. Sebastian. He runs a shop quite a few doors from here. He trades various items for research. Business has been unexpectedly slow recently, and he's gotten a bit.."

She paused for a good moment before rolling her eyes and continuing to type.

"Moody. To say the least. So I decided to give him some space and try to find some research while I was out. He's letting me stay with him, so it's the least I could do, yeah?"

She glances around the room, scanning it. It seems no different than any other room here. Perhaps that's what she wanted, though? A room that's ordinary was overlooked often. She guesses she just happened to have some back luck while scavenging.

"I do know ASL. I'm not fluent in it, though. I'm rusty.. No one uses it down here anyway. I usually write in this book here with pen and paper. I just didn't this time since I could've probably startled you reaching behind me. This machine is really just a tiny keyboard and a speaker. But it's a bit loud and it's not a great idea to be loud here."

She holds up the device and spins it around in her hand openly. It's really not used all that much, actually.

"An expendable? If I were them I wouldn't go chasing anything or anyone.. It sounds like that happens a lot to you though?"

She tilts her head as she looks past the girl towards the door. (Looking out, perhaps?)

[hadal-hideout]

She briefly considers pretending to be upset about the trespassing, but she doesn't really see the point in it, so she just shrugs and fiddles with her bracelet again. She already got what she needed from the expendable from earlier, so there was no need to use her tactics against some random trespasser, especially since she didn't actually own the place.

"Eh, it's fine. I'm not too attached to this place, I just didn't want anyone to mess with the stuff I left in here."

She fiddled with her dress the second the eye contact was broken, clearly unused to maintaining it for this long. She seemed interested in the mention of a shopkeeper, quickly shaking off her uneasiness to ask more about him.

"What's he like? What does he sell? How long have you known him? How come you're staying with him? Do you do runs like this often? Is he moody a lot of the time?"

She followed 624's gaze around the room, making sure that the spot where she hid her items remained hidden, not wanting to deal with any questions about what she was hiding.

"Who'd you learn it from? I learned it from my Father, who learned about it from my Grandfather. How come you didn't want to startle me earlier? Where'd you get the machine from? Did you make it yourself?"

She looked curiously at the machine, resisting the urge to reach out to it to get a better look. Instead, she distracts herself by focusing on 624's questions, shrugging before answering.

"Eh. Sometimes they follow me, most of the time they don't. The most recent one was a lot more determined than the other ones, which is probably why she followed me for so long."

[exrp624-calisto]

Ah. So Claire hadn't heard of Sebastian. This was either a blessing or a curse. Sebastian had told her he had siblings back when on the surface, but she isn't sure what that means anymore.

"He sells things like Medkits, lights.. Survival tools. All useful. He prefers to trade for research for some reason. I assume it's to keep as much of it out of Urbanshade's hands as possible."

She thinks carefully about the next few questions she asked. She wasn't sure if she should be honest or if she should be vague. She could be both, truthfully, but.. Claire was clearly just a kid. She wasn't sure if underestimating her would end up badly for her later. Especially since Sebastian was the main topic.

"I'm staying with him because I won't survive on my own. I sustained a real bad injury. Nearly died. Should have, actually. I don't know why he's letting me stick around, but I'm great full, so I'm not gonna complain."

She wasn't used to dealing with children truthfully. She didn't dislike them or anything, but her town didn't have a lot of them since rich people didn't like kids unless they had to. (And they didn't have to go back home so no one brought or had any.)

"I don't, actually. He is usually rather passive. He's as polite as he needs to be with expendables and more than that with me. And I usually don't have the energy to go very far.. But he's especially ticked off today, so I figured I would make the most of it."

She looked down at her device once she was done with answering that set of questions. Was she this curious as a kid? It was only natural given the standards.

"My friend made it for me. He's an engineer. Notes aren't very efficient for either of us, so he decided to make use of what we have down here. And I learned a little ASL in prison. Had to do something in there, yeah?"

She wondered how much time had passed. She wasn't in any hurry truthfully, but she also didn't want Sebastian to feel the need to go fetch her. Not that he would, of course, unless she was gone for a day or two. She had confidence in her skills, and he.. Also, maybe he did, but he also may just be lazy.

"And I didn't want to startle you because it's not polite to startle people. Especially when you don't know the person. I tend to follow by two rules: Don't startle anyone or anything. It can, and will, end badly usually."

[hadal-hideout]

She recognized the objects 624 was talking about, obviously, they could be found all over the blacksite, including on the bodies of her meals. There was always one room that had an abundance of them, though for some reason that room always had a bunch of files in it, and.. Oh.

Oh no. Maybe she could quickly change the topic before it became obvious that she was guilty? Sure, she didn't take that much, but considering what little she knew about Sebastian, she doubted he'd be pleased with her. And 624 was friends with him, so she'd obviously tell him, and therefore she couldn't know about it, which meant she had to change the subject.

"..Ah. I think I've heard of him, but I haven't seen him yet. Anyways, who's Urbanshade?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly as 624 hesitated, clearly wondering what she was thinking about that was taking so long. Hesitation was never a good sign; it usually meant something bad had either happened or was about to happen, and as per usual, she was right. At least this time, it was just an injury.

"How'd you almost die? How bad's your injury? How come you haven't just healed your– Uh. Nevermind.."

She trailed off as she looked away, looking embarrassed as she remembered that most people weren't capable of healing themselves. Now that she thought about it, it's a bit odd how she was already forgetting what it was like before the experiments. She'd only been able to heal herself for a couple months (5? Maybe 6..? She didn't really bother to remember), and yet she was already forgetting what it was like to be human.

"Aaanyways, how come he's upset today if he's usually passive? Did something happen? Did you do something to annoy him so now you're trying to make it up to him by getting supplies?"

She fiddled with her dress as she spoke, always making sure to smooth it out after she was done. It seemed to be mostly out of boredom, unlike how she was nervously fidgeting earlier, as if she was just asking her questions to confirm things she already knew. Her demeanor changed, however, the second 624's friend was mentioned, even moreso when she learned he was an engineer.

"Who's your friend? Where are they now? Why were you in prison?? What'd you do? What was it like there? Oo are you actually more dangerous than you look?"

She seemed strangely.. excited? More than any normal person would be, but especially more interested in this than any child should be.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

As Dakota was exploring the blacksite for loose assets, he came across a small side room. These types of rooms were usually full of loose assets, but as he stepped inside he saw that he wasn't alone. Inside, sitting near the wall next to some item lockers, was a young girl who looked around 10 or so.

She didn't look like another expendable; the most obvious difference was her age, of course, but instead of the uniform jumpsuit the expendables wore, she was wearing what seemed to be a handmade purple dress that went to her ankles. She had pale skin, very light blue eyes, and her hair was blonde enough that it almost looked white.

She didn't seem to notice Dakota entering, seemingly focused on writing something on what looked like a notepad.

- @hadal-hideout

Dakota cocks his head to the side as he stands in the doorway. What's a child doing down here? This place, the Blacksite...it's no place for a kid, that's for sure. "...Heya. Uh...whatcha got there?" He's cautious. He has to be, in order to survive down in this watery hellscape. Sure, whoever (or whatever) this is looks like a human girl, but...for all Dakota knows, this could be some new entity he's never seen before- some kind of mimic, maybe- pretending to be human to lure him in. He wouldn't be surprised if that were the case...

[hadal-hideout]

She jumps as she hears his voice, snapping the notepad shut and putting it in her pockets as she looks up at him.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

She looks suspiciously at Dakota, and now that she's actually looking up at him, he can see that instead of ears, she has axolotl like fins, and he can barely see the tip of an axolotl tail peeking out from under her dress.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

Dakota raises his hands in the air. He doesn't want to scare the kid, after all. His eyes flick over to her ear-fins as he lets out a sigh, muttering under his breath. "They're doing this shit to kids now? Urbanshit just gets worse and worse..." He shakes his head. "The name's Dakota. Dakota Morrigan. The arseholes up in Urbanshade call me EXR-P #2934, if ya want something all pretentious and official-like." He raises a brow at the girl. "And you are?"

[hadal-hideout]

Her eyes narrow slightly at his introduction, seemingly trying to determine whether he's lying or not, before she gives up, crossing her arms.

"I'm not telling you anything. Father told me not to talk to strangers."

She leans against the wall as she looks away from him, trying to look as professional as she can in hopes of getting him to leave, as she knew that adults tended to not let children wander around on their own, let alone in a place like this.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Your father would be absolutely right. That's common sense, kiddo. Issue is, common sense kinda flies out the window in this hellhole." A couple of sparks of violet light dance around Dakota's eyes before he waves them away, grumbling to himself under his breath.

"Besides- from the looks of it, Urbanshit's little Doc Frankenstein wannabes got to you too. Us freaks o' nature should stick together- or at the minimum help each other out, when that's possible. Safety in numbers and all that."

[hadal-hideout]

She perks up slightly as she sees the sparks, looking at them curiously before she processes what he said, immediately recoiling as her ear fins pin back.

"Why would we do that? We just met, how should I know to trust you? And who are these 'Urbanshade' people you keep talking about? And I'm not a freak!"

Her eyes are narrowed at him, almost glaring, as she presses even further into the wall, clearly not trusting him.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Nothing wrong with being a freak, kiddo. The only thing that's bad to be is normal, the way I see it." Dakota shakes his head, a small popping sound coming from the side of his neck. "And you're right. You shouldn't trust me. If I'm being completely honest, there aren't many people you should trust down here other than the Northstar, the Saboteur, and the Serpent, and even then, I wouldn't throw my nonexistent hat in the ring with 'em." A whirring noise from above causes the sparks of electricity to once again appear, dancing around Dakota's eyes as he turns up towards a security camera now trained on him. "Oh, feck off!" With a flick of the man's fingers, an arc of violet electricity would burst out from his hand, shattering the camera's lens. "Anyways, Urbanshade. They're the ones that run this hellhole, and the ones that decided it was a good idea to turn animals into weird-ass monsters."

[hadal-hideout]

Her eyes narrow into an actual glare, her nails digging into the sleeves of her dress.

"Don't call me that. I don't know who anyone you're talking about is. And if you agree that I shouldn't trust you, why bother offering to work together?"

She continues looking suspicious, before she's quickly distracted by the electricity and the broken camera, resulting in her tail flicking in curiosity.

"How did you do that? What'd 'Urbanshade' do to you?"

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"What'd they do to me? Screw up my biology and stuff me full of electric eel genetic material, as far as I know." The purple sparks continue to dance around the Expendable's eyes, casting a dim glow over his dark skin. "As for your first question, I mostly offered out of courtesy. Most people don't take each other up on that kind of offer down here- wasn't expecting you to either, to be honest."

[hadal-hideout]

She looked confused and somewhat annoyed, her eyes flicking between him and the sparks as her tail continued flicking.

"Oh. Then why'd you bother asking me if you weren't being genuine? What if I had accepted? And how come Urbanshade did that? I thought you said you were an expendable?"

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"If you'd accepted, I would've helped you out. Simple as that- I may be a freak of nature, but I ain't a liar. As for why they did it? I have absolutely no idea. Maybe to make me more effective for whatever they want me to do for 'em?" Dakota shrugs.

"Anyways- I've gotta keep going. Pretty damn sure this thing's gonna explode if I stay in one place for too long." He points at the PDG strapped to his back, a scowl on his scarred face. "Sorry for wasting your time. I'd say I'd see ya around, but knowing how big this gods-damned place is, that's unlikely, to say the least."

Dakota waves goodbye before turning away. "Stay safe. I'd hate to find another innocent's corpse rotting in one of the halls."

[hadal-hideout]

She stays silent as she watches him turn away, fiddling with her jewelry for a couple seconds before she stands up. She starts to reach for his sleeve before she stops herself, crossing her arms again.

"Wait! Um. . Is it too late to accept your offer? Where are you going?"

She didn't look at him as she spoke, instead pretending to focus on smoothing out her dress and her hair, her ear fins flicking anxiously.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

He turns back around. "Right now? I'm trying to get to Sebastian's shop to offload some data and get some supplies. After that...well, I'll see where the wind takes me, I suppose." He may not know where he's going, but he knows one thing for sure. There's no way in Hell he's getting that Crystal for Urbanshade. Not after what he's heard, not after what they did to him.

"And...no, it's not too late. As long as you're sure, that is- you didn't seem all too keen on the idea a few minutes ago-"

[hadal-hideout]

She continued to avoid looking at him, scrunching up her dress in her hands before smoothing it out again.

"Yeah, well. . I'm hungry, and you seem to know what you're doing around here, so it'd be more convenient to just follow you around rather than scavenging or hunting."

She stammered for a little bit before coming up with a reasonable sounding excuse for why she changed her mind, she just hoped he didn't press her on it.

"Anyways, who's Sebastian?"

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Fair point." Dakota shrugs. "Sebastian is...well, he's definitely someone. He's a shopkeeper, of sorts. Runs a shop deeper in the Blacksite, selling supplies in exchange for Urbanshade data- files and data drives, that kind of thing."

[hadal-hideout]

She seemed relieved that he accepted her reason and the topic change so easily, eagerly trying to get more information about Sebastian.

"What sort of stuff does he have? Are you friends with him? How far down is he? Why's he down here? Are there any other shops down here? I think I've seen one, but there wasn't anyone in it so it might've just been a regular supply room."

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Woah, woah- that's a lot of questions-" Dakota looks around, grabbing a data drive off of a nearby table and shoving it into his pocket. "Anyways- he usually sells whatever he's scrounged up that day. Flashlights, batteries, medical supplies if we're lucky- all sorts of stuff. For your second question...I wouldn't say he and I are friends, per se, but we're not enemies either. We help each other out- that's about it. I'm not too sure why he's down here...he doesn't exactly talk about it much. Seems to be something of a sensitive subject for him, which I get-"

[hadal-hideout]

"Oh- sorry, I like knowing things about people before I meet them, and questions are the most direct way to get that. I can stop if you'd prefer that, though we'd probably be traveling in silence then."

She watches him grab the file, looking curious as to what it is and why he needs it, but she doesn't ask about it.

[the-pressure-multiplies]

"Ah- fair, fair. I like to know things too- it's not that rare of a desire, down here. Or...or really anywhere, to be completely honest." Dakota chuckles a bit. "And...you don't need to stop talking if you don't want to. It's honestly a nice change from how it normally is down here." Dakota checks the Navi-Path sign on the door. Door 46...they're almost at the shop. Good.

[hadal-hideout]

"If you like gathering information too, how come you don't ask as many questions as I do? And how far are we until we reach the Sebastian guy?"

She looked up at the Navi-path sign as well, watching it for a couple seconds before moving on to the next room, groaning quietly when the door opens to reveal a pitch-black room.

"Fuck, I hate these stupid rooms.. They're so annoying."

[hadal-hideout]

[ooc: I'm trying to decide whether to publish the notes for the characters or not (mainly Claire cuz she's the favorite lmao), cuz on one hand I wanna let people figure out stuff themselves, but on the other hand I wanna let people know the loreeee

I'm too impatient for this stuff lmao. Should I add a little note saying that non-rp based asks are allowed?? Should I just publish stuff and let everyone know everything? Should I write little snippets and let people piece together the info themselves? I dunno lmao, please leave advice or whatever in comments (or just send asks about my ocs so I can ramble lol (ooo or if people still wanna send rp based asks someone could make a little researcher oc?? I think that'd be cool. Maybe I'm just tired lol I dunno))]

[hadal-hideout]

There was some rummaging that could be heard in one of the many rooms in the blacksite. An expendable sorted through the drawers as she had done numerous times before, however this time her motives were a bit different.

It had been slow in Sebastian's shop recently, and since she had taken up space there, she had decided to scrounge up some research for his sake.

Unfortunately, it seemed that almost every single room, drawer, locker, shelf, and desk had been looted. She let out an annoyed sigh.

She decided to take a break since she was getting tired after doing this for who knows how long. She leaned against a cold metal wall and slid down it to sit down.

- @exrp624-calisto

After several minutes of silence outside of the room, 624 could hear what sounded like shouting. It was accompanied by two pairs of footsteps quickly approaching the room 624 was in, along with what sounded like a child's laughter.

The noises quickly got closer, until a little girl ran into the room, crouching behind one of the desks while holding a small object close to her. She didn't seem to have noticed 624, as her attention was focused on the door.

The footsteps outside continued for a couple seconds before they slowly moved away, causing the girl to smile, tuck the object in her pocket, and look around the room. She quickly noticed 624, and her smile immediately dropped, her expression now filled with distrust, annoyance, and a small amount of fear.

"Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here?"

[exrp624-calisto]

624 glared at the girl with widened eyes. A child? Here? Of all places? She was immediately concerned, but upon closer inspection, she noticed the gills and tail and..

Oh. Of course, Urbanshade wasn't above this. And her concern grew more.

As the rapid fire questions continued, she realized she probably wasn't going to be able to write down anything quickly enough to satisfy her, so she hesitately pulled out a small device with a few tiny buttons and a speaker and never looked away from the girl as she typed in her responses.

"You can call me 624. I am here to find research for a friend of mine. And I'm here because I have to be.. Here as in Blacksite."

The voice was robotic and crackled with static every few words. It clearly hadn't been used in a while.. She wasn't fond of using her TTS device, especially considering those footsteps from earlier. She blinked, still against the wall as she typed in another message.

"Oh. I'm mute. I can not speak verbally. Apologies."

She adjusted her necklace, but she didn't make any sudden moves. (Not that she was in a hurry anyway.. Her wound was acting up again.)

She tapped away again, glancing behind her at the door. 624 was really getting nervous 'talking' this much.

"And you? Are you doing alright? I hope you aren't being tailed.."

[hadal-hideout]

She looked surprised at the use of the TTS, but she seemed to be less hostile than she was earlier. She leaned against the nearest wall, watching 624 with a curious look as she listened to the TTS.

She seemed slightly uncomfortable by the constant eye contact, but she ignored it and continued asking her questions anyway, not wanting to show any weaknesses. She decided to follow 624's lead of not sharing their actual names, but instead of coming up with a fake name, she elected to just not mention one at all.

"Is '624' your file name or whatever they call it? Who's your friend? And I meant 'here' as in this room. Usually this room's empty, which is why I'm usually hiding in here."

She fiddled with her dress pockets as she talked,not really caring to maintain eye contact anymore, as 624 had already broken it by glancing at the door. She instead focused her attention on the TTS device, trying to figure out as much as she could about it just from looking at it, knowing she probably wouldn't be allowed to touch it.

"Do you know ASL? How come– You seem to dislike using the machine thingy, I dunno the actual name for it, so it'd probably be more effective or whatever if we used ASL. If you know it, that is."

She cut off her original question, seemingly changing her mind last second and deciding to not ask anymore questions. She smoothed out her dress, fiddling with her bracelet instead as she continued talking.

"I'm fine, I'm pretty sure the expendable gave up already. They never seem to stay around for long, and they're always in a hurry, so I doubt it's still out there. That one seemed more determined than the other ones though, I dunno why."

[exrp624-calisto]

She seemed a bit taken back by the sudden.. change in demeanor. She hadn't bothered trying to use ASL since there weren't a lot of people who actually knew it down here. She wasn't fluent but was confident enough. 624 noted the curious gaze, and she could practically see the gears moving in the girls head as she spoke.

"624.. It is my EXRP number. I don't bother with names. You get too attached. And I was here because I thought there was research here. I wasn't aware it was empty or a hideout for that matter. Apologies."

She locked eyes with the girl for a moment to get the point across. She broke the eye contact pretty abruptly, though. (She wasn't used to it either, it seemed.)

She continued to type into the machine, every so often seemingly back-spacing or removing words.

"My friend.. Sebastian. He runs a shop quite a few doors from here. He trades various items for research. Business has been unexpectedly slow recently, and he's gotten a bit.."

She paused for a good moment before rolling her eyes and continuing to type.

"Moody. To say the least. So I decided to give him some space and try to find some research while I was out. He's letting me stay with him, so it's the least I could do, yeah?"

She glances around the room, scanning it. It seems no different than any other room here. Perhaps that's what she wanted, though? A room that's ordinary was overlooked often. She guesses she just happened to have some back luck while scavenging.

"I do know ASL. I'm not fluent in it, though. I'm rusty.. No one uses it down here anyway. I usually write in this book here with pen and paper. I just didn't this time since I could've probably startled you reaching behind me. This machine is really just a tiny keyboard and a speaker. But it's a bit loud and it's not a great idea to be loud here."

She holds up the device and spins it around in her hand openly. It's really not used all that much, actually.

"An expendable? If I were them I wouldn't go chasing anything or anyone.. It sounds like that happens a lot to you though?"

She tilts her head as she looks past the girl towards the door. (Looking out, perhaps?)

[hadal-hideout]

She briefly considers pretending to be upset about the trespassing, but she doesn't really see the point in it, so she just shrugs and fiddles with her bracelet again. She already got what she needed from the expendable from earlier, so there was no need to use her tactics against some random trespasser, especially since she didn't actually own the place.

"Eh, it's fine. I'm not too attached to this place, I just didn't want anyone to mess with the stuff I left in here."

She fiddled with her dress the second the eye contact was broken, clearly unused to maintaining it for this long. She seemed interested in the mention of a shopkeeper, quickly shaking off her uneasiness to ask more about him.

"What's he like? What does he sell? How long have you known him? How come you're staying with him? Do you do runs like this often? Is he moody a lot of the time?"

She followed 624's gaze around the room, making sure that the spot where she hid her items remained hidden, not wanting to deal with any questions about what she was hiding.

"Who'd you learn it from? I learned it from my Father, who learned about it from my Grandfather. How come you didn't want to startle me earlier? Where'd you get the machine from? Did you make it yourself?"

She looked curiously at the machine, resisting the urge to reach out to it to get a better look. Instead, she distracts herself by focusing on 624's questions, shrugging before answering.

"Eh. Sometimes they follow me, most of the time they don't. The most recent one was a lot more determined than the other ones, which is probably why she followed me for so long."

[asksebs]

There's a scratching sound coming from the vents, getting closer to the shop until a humanoid face pops out, looking up at Sebastian. He looks like an expendable, but he has an eyepatch and a hoodie, both looking hand-made with various random scraps of expendable jumpsuits.

"Hello. You sell stuff, yes?"

- @hadal-hideout

Pulling on his esca and allowing it to flicker to life, casting a dim glow of which illuminated the small room, Sebastian glanced at the other who had just crawled through the vent.

“You’ve got that right,”

He said with a slight chuckle.

“As long as you have enough data, I’m willing to trade some of my stock.”

[hadal-hideout]

He pulled himself fully out of the vent, leading against the wall next to it as he looked around the room.

"Do you sell information? And if, how much do you want?"

He pulled out a bag from his pocket, presumably filled with different types of data.

"I've obviously been collecting, but I haven't found what I've been looking for. But I figured that considering how much you receive daily from the other expendables, and that collecting information is what you're known for, you might have heard or seen something."

[asksebs]

His ear fins perking up at this request, Sebastian cast a curious gaze towards the other.

“That depends,”

He hummed.

“What kind of information are you looking for specifically..?”

[hadal-hideout]

He hesitated for a couple seconds before looking away from him, taking a deep breath before answering.

"I'm.. looking for a file of an experiment, it should've been made fairly recently. They probably put it under Z-10? Her actual name was– is– Claire."

[asksebs]

"Z-10.."

He tapped his chin in thought for a few moments before replying.

"I can't say that I've seen a file for a 'Z-10'. At least, not yet. Those expendables are bound to find it at some point, though- as stupid as some of them are, they sure know how to look everywhere..."

[hadal-hideout]

"Fuck. Maybe that means she escaped? But where would she go..? Did they kill her? No, she can't be dead.. not fully at least."

He mutters to himself for a couple minutes before remembering that he's still here and in a conversation. He turns back to Sebastian, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Sorry, um, would you be able to keep an eye out for it and let me know when you find it? I'll pay you, of course."

[asksebs]

"I can do that. I'll make sure to keep ya updated."

Sebastian would nod.

"Would ya want me to come find you, or..? Would you be coming back to check the status?"

[hadal-hideout]

"Thank you, I appreciate your help."

He thought for a couple seconds before answering, deciding that he didn't really want to risk having his hideout discovered, regardless of how friendly the person discovering it could be.

"I'll probably check in every other week or so. How much data do you want in exchange for it?"

[asksebs]

"Hm. How about 650?"

He offered.

"Think you could do that?"

[hadal-hideout]

He seemed slightly surprised that the price wasn't higher, but he nodded, not seeing the point in mentioning it.

"Sure. When do you want the payment? Are we gonna do a half-before, half-after kind of thing, or are we waiting until you find the file to exchange?"

[asksebs]

“Never really been one for the half-now-half-later sorta thing, y’know? I’d much rather find the file and then do the exchange.”

[hadal-hideout]

"Alrighty then. How long do you think it'd take to find the file?"

[asksebs]

“Probably not too long,”

He replied.

“Assuming those damn don’t end up dying immediately for once..”

[hadal-hideout]

"You don't seem to like dealing with the expendables, why bother working with them? Are they really useful enough to deal with them dying all the time?"