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Exiting another unoccupied room, Benrey roves around the complex in loops like a haunt. A rambling gait and vacant gaze cast in shadow by the unnatural lighting of the complex only further sells the guard as an apparition. The sound of heavy footfalls are the only thing that distinguishes his presence as that of a real man. It echoes off the walls as he continues his rounds.
He has to make sure to scan for anything out of the ordinary, he knows his job. It's ingrained, a routine. He dips around the corner into the next cubby off the hallway.
There he is. Benrey's brain sparks faintly with recognition. The new guy. Transfer from… Actually Benrey can't remember. Somewhere from the other side of the sprawling complex, he's pretty sure. Something with a B. Biotics, biology, bionics? Regardless, it's that guy, the one he's spotted a few times in passing since the transfer but never long enough to scope out. But here he is now, sitting alone at a table in one of the many small break rooms with a can in his hand, another unopened still on the table.
Beelining towards the scientist, Benrey's puppet-on-strings shamble straightens with new intent. New target acquired. All previous subroutines are dropped from his mind with a snap as he makes his way straight to the occupied table. He stops directly across the table from the smartly dressed scientist. His body casts a shadow over part of the scuffed surface, shielding it from the buzzing fluorescent rays.
He clears his throat. "uh, hey."
The man seated at the table looks up at him, mid sip and eyebrows raised. He takes a long drag from the can before responding.
"Hi."
"what do you think youre doin?"
"Uh… I'm having, I'm having lunch?" his head cocks to the side. His voice is higher, soft and friendly, and clearly confused by the intrusion. The expression on his face sours a bit with confusion but the subtlety of the change is lost on Benrey.
"i dont think you can do that, thats not a thing thats allowed, thats not lunch," he automatically falls back into his first instincts when it comes to communication, to bluff and to badger.
He's met only with a stare. Benrey's words hang in the air. The lines by the scientist's eyes crease slightly deeper, narrowing a touch as they dart around like he's reading a diagram printed across Benrey's face and body. Benrey notes his eyes are dark. Brown. Pretty.
"Well ok, then you can have it. Officer," the scientist says, jerking Benrey back to the present. Oh shit he's already standing up, when did he do that? He is so much taller up close. Benrey knew this on some level, he's spotted the crown of dark hair above the other scientists before. It's different being so close. And just like that, cold metal is pressed into his hand as the can is passed on. He didn't even realize he extended a hand as the offering drew closer in the first place.
The starter spinning in Benrey's head fails to engage, mental ignition sputtering as he stands in place, drink in hand. A… gift? A gift, he has never been given anything by one of the science team that he can remember. This is a new and intriguing deviation. Wait, he didn’t even get the guy’s name. He can't leave Benrey behind yet!
A moment passes to blink as a lever turns in Benrey's mind and he swivels in the direction the other man went. Out the doorway. He's already gone, the echo of dress shoes bouncing and distorting down linoleum corridors, obscuring their direction.
Benrey looks down at the drink in his hand in contemplation for a moment. He raises the half empty can to his lips as he slips back out into the hallways himself to continue his rounds. The sharp artificial flavor tinges the typical routine to follow with a new and lingering focus.
After their first meeting in the lunchroom, Benrey has a new mission in the coming days. Track him down, and interrogate. He is easy for Benrey to zero in on him. His hair is dark. Like his eyes. Pretty. It stands out amongst the sea of silver and salt the other scientists tend to have. Even if it is thinning. The slicked back style is neat, clean looking, but with a few stray hairs of cowlick that spring away from rest and bounce freely, softening his appearance. It's befitting.
Their interactions were more of clashes in the beginning, full of awkward pauses, dead air, and quizzical looks and stares. None of it was helped by Benrey framing his attempts at friendship as 'guard duty, just following the rules' as he tried to put it.
In another encounter he learns the man's name, Tommy. Dr. Tommy Coolatta. He introduces himself with just his first name, a laid back greeting. Benrey appreciates the aura of casualness, so different compared to the usual pretension of the other science team members. They were always wrapped up in titles and formality, ostentatious and clearly meant to separate the Them from the Us. It made something unplaceable in the guard embittered. But this Tommy was more interesting.
For his part, Tommy had been working there for long enough to know the pattern. New hires come in, dismiss him or make fun of him, and get annoyed when being shown up later. But this guard is different.
It takes a few interactions for Tommy to recognize it. Oh, this Benrey guy likes me and he's not just another guard looking to poke at a perceived weak link in the science team. He clearly wants attention and friendship, he just sucks at it. The hovering, seeking him out, awkward but insistent conversation starters. Looking at how dedicated he's been, it's kind of endearing. He can empathize, masking is a learned skill, and an often difficult one. This guy just does not seem interested in doing so. Fair enough.
Cans tumble down through the machine to a waiting hand. With his drinks in tow, Tommy sits down at one of the benches by the vending machine. He crosses one leg up to rest it on the knee of the other and cracks one open. Having been hovering around him, Benrey automatically plunks himself down in the spot next to him without second thought.
By the time his ass makes impact with plastic, Tommy is already extending a hand to him, offering a drink. He had bought an extra, correctly guessing ahead that the guard would join him. Benrey takes the can and he notices the scientist's socks. The position he sits in pulls up his crisp white slacks at the ankle to reveal a decidedly less professional pattern of little yellow cartoons and bananas. Cute.
"You know, you don't have to make up or- you don't have to lie about what you're doing. You can just... you can just talk to me." Tommy breaks the silence. Benrey's eyes flick away from his shoes to his face at the sound.
Benrey's heavy lidded eyes widen. The little Rube Goldberg machine in his head takes him a bit to process that, marbles of unexpected events and thoughts colliding and pinging until they reach his mouth.
"i can just... talk to you?" The starter in his brain spins and sputters behind a flat affect.
"Yeah, I think you're funny."
Click. Click. Engage. Success.
A grin splits open on the guard's face, met with a smile on the scientist's.