Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 65: Tug-of-War

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The mug warms his fingers as Joshua holds it close. He watches steam curl from the surface of the hot chocolate and sinks himself deeper into the stiff cushions of the couch.

A fair exchange, Marlowe had called it. The warm drink in exchange for his blood. The drink in exchange for getting Joshua to comply with what Rosalyn asked them to do. In exchange for not getting in trouble.

A fair exchange his ass.

    Joshua rubs at the bandaid on his upper arm. The sweetness of the hot chocolate doesn't quite wash down his bitterness, which sits on his tongue like a foul after-taste of compliance.

The couch is a dark green corduroy and smells faintly of old mothballs. The green is dark enough to hide any suspicious stains that might arise in a place like this, Joshua assumes. He'd hate to find out what's hidden between these cushions, other than stale breadcrumbs.

He resents sitting in it, this couch, but he's too tired to do anything but stay here where it's comfortable.

The questionable couch is situated in front of a small coffee table, with an armchair on either end it. It's in one of these chairs that Marlowe sits now, snuggled cross-legged into their seat with their own mug to their lips.

Both the chairs and the couch are adorned with square tapestry pillows, each with a different scene of flowers. Even Joshua is able to figure that, of what he knows of the scientists, these pillows were likely chosen by Rosalyn. 

The whole deceivingly-comfortable space is situated in a little room buried in the depths of the catacombs of the facility.

Behind the couch and the armchairs is a wooden table that seems to be a hand-me-down dining table, set up with four chairs and everything. Above it, just slightly off-center, hangs a green-glass lamp which casts the room in a yellowish, greenish dinge.

Across from Joshua on the couch are cabinets which line the whole side wall. He'd watched Marlowe whirl through these cabinets as they'd made the drinks. Marlowe had used their keycard to unlock a cabinet at the bottom—the only locked cabinet of the bunch—and had unsuccessfully tried to discreetly sift through the clinking bottles of alcohol to reach the tin of hot chocolate.

"This is Rosalyn's cabinet," they'd explained awkwardly when they had caught Joshua's stare.

Apparently, Rosalyn lets Marlowe use it to hide their hot chocolate mix because Marlowe had been worried about the other scientists getting into it. None of the other scientists' cards have access to the cabinet, a fact which Marlowe is very proud of.

"In fact, they give me the cold shoulder and make fun of me, but their cards can't access half the things mine can. I'd say I do pretty well, for an assistant." Marlowe had smiled proudly at him, showing off the card at their coat pocket.

Joshua got to wondering what the card could unlock, if it has access to so much. Can it unlock any door? The way out?

He watches Marlowe a little more closely, trying to read into their every movement. The problem, though, is that he can't tell. They offer to help him with lying to their boss and make him hot chocolate, but they're also terribly devoted to their boss, and won't go so far as to help Joshua and Sundo escape. What's their real motivation here?

Joshua peers at the assistant scientist from where he sits on the far end of the couch, nursing his still steaming drink. His hair is still wet from the shower, which had been in yet another room of this maze of a place. (Thankfully, he was able to do it without surveillance, though he wouldn't put it past this place to have found a way anyway.)