Receptor-Mediated Endocytosis | Emily+Akemi

Emily Lewenhock

After a journey through the facility that was equal parts perplexing and disappointing, Emily had at last returned to her cell. She wouldn't be falling asleep anytime soon, but that didn't seem to be her purpose here, anyway. Though it did involve related materials…

She stood with her bedsheet bunched over her shoulders, part of it trailing away like a very pathetic prison cape. One corner draped more purposefully forward, where she was attempting to feed it into one of the seams around the odd little hatch in the wall. Her progress or lack thereof was hard to gauge from a distance, but anyone peering inside could certainly figure she was doing… something. For science, probably. That was her thing, after all.

Emmy | Akemi

Was this going to be the rest of her life? Waking up, wandering aimlessly in this prison, eating sub-par food, reading a sub-par book, dealing with annoying-and-dangerous strangers, then repeating until she finally keels over?

Akemi was hardly the pacing type, but she didn't want to sit or relax. Moreover, she couldn't. So, around the prison block she walked, always wearing an expression that spoke to some unspoken purpose, despite her utterly abysmal lack of direction.

Eventually, odd movement in one of the cells caught her eye, and she found herself pausing to watch. Just what was this? Some escape attempt? Building a fort out of blankets? Some elaborate and ridiculous ritual?

Honestly, any of the above seemed plausible, given the range of cohabitators she had met thus far.

"…."

She stares for a short while, weighing the benefits of speaking up versus walking away. Ultimately, she decides that speaking up will tell her if this person is another one to avoid or not. Useful information.

"….what are you doing?"

Emily Lewenhock

Emily looked fully engrossed in her task, not noticing her spectator coming to a stop outside. Even after the question, a few beats passed before she looked up. Or, well, up from the hatch. Down to the visitor. She was pretty sure she'd glimpsed this one in passing at some point, but she hadn't felt the most approachable. Nothing to worry about if she approached you, though!

"Probably a fool's errand, but I can't seem to get the hatch open, so my options were limited." She looked back to her shoulder to make sure the sheet hadn't slipped yet.

"In theory, if I could feed enough of this in there, I could get some idea of the volume of the cavity without damaging anything. It doesn't look like that big a hatch, but we had to get into this place somehow, right? And these do look to be in all of the cells, so it'd be less trouble than dragging us all the way from one of the locked rooms."

She let out a puff of air that stirred her bangs.

"But who knows. I'm sure the best I'm likely to do with nothing but a bedsheet is maybe figure out where the lock latch is."

"Name's Emily, by the way." Best to get that out now so she wasn't having an entire conversation without the introduction part again.

Emmy | Akemi

"Right. And it's doubtful our captors were generous enough to provide access to a crowbar." She says dryly.

This one seemed scientifically-minded, if a little lacking in tact. She supposed that was something to almost praise, given the nature of some of their other cohabitators.

"We should hope that there isn't some sort of alarm mechanism in there. The last thing we need is to set off a blaring foghorn or activate emergency sprinklers…I'm certain several of our cohort would have an absolute riot at something of that caliber. Though, I am also curious to the purpose of those panels."

How many conversations has Akemi had where introductions waited until the end? A lot. Was Akemi keen to network like some businesswoman, sharing her name with everyone on first meeting? Not particularly. She will wait for the other to make an introduction first.

"Akemi Kuro."

Emily Lewenhock

"Crowbar might be too much work for me, anyway. Might have to call in one of the bigger fellows if we do dig one up." Be it the scarier bigger fellow or the flowery one… or maybe even Shiori? Emily didn't know exactly how much force a crowbar needed to do things. Not her field, not her monkeys.

"True… I haven't seen any sprinklers or speakers, though, so it might be worth seeing how they come out if they do. Not like we're getting much else done sitting nicely. Or… whatever else people are doing?" She wasn't sure she really wanted to know what she'd missed so far.

"Though if it's anything to do with completing circuits, dry cloth shouldn't trigger it, but it's probably too thin to really block one if it's the obverse…" She shrugged. This wasn't her field, either, if quite a bit closer to it than breaking and entering was. "Well. We'll see."

She attempted to push more sheet in, but without any sort of weight or guide it wasn't that impressive a process. Still, just testing the waters…

"Nice to meet you, Akemi. Might have to take a rain check on the introductory handshake, though." Or did people even still do that? Akemi seemed formal enough to warrant the thought, at least.

Emmy | Akemi

"I have a feeling that some of our cohabitators are going to be less cooperative than others, though the prospect of breaking something will likely entice them."

She continues to watch the unusual endeavor, not particularly inclined to comment on what might happen if the sheets get jammed in there, ripped, or covered in oil. Not her problem.

"Likewise, Miss Emily, though in less-than-desireable circumstances. There is no need for a handshake." She pauses, "You seem somewhat scientific in your approach. Have you discovered anything of note elsewhere in this place?"

Emily Lewenhock

“Very true. Just need to…” What was she going to say, figure out an angle for everyone? Sounded a little manipulative. Which would be warranted in the situation, maybe, but she still didn’t like the sound of it. “…get a better picture of who all we’re in here with. Still haven’t met everyone myself.” Adding that much socialization onto the whole kidnapping/dying/whatever this was would simply be too much at once.

Emily carefully shuffled more of the sheet over her shoulder, only for what she’d already gotten into the hatch to slip back out. She stared after it for a moment before heaving a sigh.

“This is why I’m not a physicist.”

Regardless, she inspected the corner that had come out before starting over again.

“Anything of note…” She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment. “Well, there’s the changing room situation, but I’ve got nothing scientific to say about that. Some experimental dosing or hypnosis or electromagnetic wave kind of thing going on, best as I can guess. Otherwise… locks are locked, things seem more or less functional, we’re probably not intended to hurt each other.” She started to shrug before remembering that would sabotage her current fool's errand.

“How about you?”

Emmy | Akemi

"There are several people I have little interest in prolonged conversations with. Given my current theories on the reasoning for our internment, I am hesitant to take most of these people at face-value, however."

She admits this casually, not one to mince words in an effort to sound nice about it. She listens attentively to Emily's explanation, brow furrowing at the description of the changing room.

"I cannot say I was particularly keen to explore that room. The effects sound unpleasant…is it a means to ensure we cannot simply find the way to remove these jackets? Or perhaps a cost-cutting measure to avoid employing guards to disarm us before a shower."

She thinks for a moment, "I have found little of note, beyond the strange room with the single chair in the center. It put me in the mind of a surgical theater, expecting spectators for something ritualistic. Something about that space is more concerning than the rest of the areas I have seen."

Emily Lewenhock

Emily snorted. We out here telling it straight, apparently. Nothing wrong with that.

"Theories on the reasoning, huh? Guessing 'this is some freak dark web reality TV show' wouldn't quite lend itself to that conclusion." Prison Theory or Hell Theory sure would, though.

"It's not a particularly pleasant room. Who needs carpet that close to shower drains?"

"I'd expect it to be cheaper to hire a few guards than design a whole bizarre automated system that we can't even watch to try and figure out… But I guess it depends on what kind of guards you could hire for a place like this, anyway." What respectable person would choose to work here?

She hemmed as she continued her mission with the bedsheet. "No high-up seating, right? Guess if it was an ampitheatre-type thing it could still work that way… Can't say I recall the angle of the floor in there, though." There sure weren't benches, at the very least.

"It does have less obvious practical use than anywhere else we've been able to get to. Something's definitely up with the place."

Emmy | Akemi

"Mr. Edgeworth and myself have discussed some theories, we both believe we were selected to be punished. Most have been rather tight-lipped as to why they may deserve to be punished, but some have been quite candid."

Akemi visibly cringes when the words 'carpet' and 'drain' are said together.

"Hearing that, though, perhaps we are simply all in Hell after all."

Akemi shrugs, "Machines do not require lunch breaks, days off, raises, nor basic respect. It is strange that we cannot better observe it," she frowns, "very few elements of our predicament make any kind of sense."

She crosses her arms.

"It is not built in a way that feels like any stage or amphitheater I have seen, but the presence of that lone chair, coupled with the size of the room, leaves me feeling as though someone will be put into that chair and be surrounded by others for some unknown purpose. The prospect of potentially being the one in that chair is…an unpleasant thought, as the only purposes I can consider in this setting are that of torture."

Emily Lewenhock

"…Hm." Emily had already been punished for her "crime" against the company, though. Anything else… wasn't anything she'd done, really. Maybe someone out there could have seen it differently. "Not much evidence of the selector, though, is there? Can't even be sure of a place of origin given the spread here."

She tapped her chin. "I guess it's mostly the research to get something like that together in the first place I was thinking of. If they just took somebody else's, yeah, likely cheaper. As long as they have someone that knows how to fix it."

She could only nod at the making sense, though. So true.

"That would… be bad. Were there restraints, or…" You know, maybe it was better to just not think about this, actually.

Emmy | Akemi

"No. I imagine whoever is likely watching us from that central tower area has a better idea, but the only commonality I have found is the punishment angle. We are of different social circles, ages, locations, and financial status. I have no idea how we were found, nor chosen, especially given how unknown some of us are compared to others."

She frowns a bit, "I cannot say for certain. The vague nature of that room unsettled me more than if there was a tray of obvious instruments of torture next to it."