Interspecific Hybridization | Emily+Andrew

Emily Lewenhock

Craning one's neck to look down at what was perhaps some variety of doggie door would have been highly uncomfortable for quite a few people here. Emily was among them, but this didn't seem to be stopping her at the moment. Nor did the fact that nothing about the door was changing.

She finally looked up at the sound of footfalls that were very definitely not the Jackalope's.

"Oh… Hey."

"If you're hoping to talk to our tiniest warden, I'm not sure it's in at the moment."

Andrew Edgeworth

Andrew wasn't feeling particularly sociable after the…big reveal, but he couldn't just step over the woman in his path. If this stranger didn't look so different with such a different demeanor from Tatsuko, he may have gotten déjà vu.

"That's…quite alright. I don't think it would like you eyeing the entrance to its 'office' like that, though." He nudges his glasses up to look at her a bit better. "Were you hoping to?"

Emily Lewenhock

"Now, now. I promise I wasn't trying to gauge what kind of acid might be able to eat through it." Not quite her field. And bacteria didn't really get through solid materials fast enough to work for the joke.

"I was just wondering what's going on with it, I guess. The other wardens made it sound like it had spoken to them, and it's not like jackalopes exist biologically, so I guess it's some kind of robot…? Either way, there's got to be something worth learning from it." Even if it was only… Well. She didn't even know what to hope for at this point.

Aside from hoping no one here decided to kill again. But if she and the sisters, at the very least, were so sure they hadn't committed murder, the same could apply to others. This guy… at least didn't seem aggressive. She'd take that.

"I don't think we've met. I'm Emily." She offered a handshake.

Andrew Edgeworth

Acid? Hopefully not while in those bunny slippers. "…I don't think the jackalope would appreciate that very much." He was a bit curious as to why she didn't seem all that bothered by the "announcement." Well, it could very well be a facade.

"Even if jackalopes were a real animal, this one certainly isn't - as it can talk." He briefly looks to the side in thought. "It has to be quite an advanced animatronic for sure, but I wouldn't hedge my bets on any of them letting us open it up without dire consequences. I doubt asking would yield much result either if they're as in the dark as they say they are."

"We have not; I'm Andrew." He reciprocates the handshake firmly and briefly.

Emily Lewenhock

Oh, wasn't everything a facade when you got down to it?

"You never know. Everyone appreciates changing up the decor once in a while, right?" Yes, melting through your door was a change in decor.

"Fair enough. I wouldn't know how to take one apart, anyway." She hummed. "Wonder if there are any x-ray machines or anything locked up in here?" That… could also be useful for the humans, depending, but she was trying not to think about that.

A business-deal handshake has been executed. Jolly good.

Andrew Edgeworth

"At the very least, ask before you melt someone's office door down." Somehow, Jackalope gave the least amount of information on his disposition, but it wouldn't really be that strong of a factor in the hypothetical.

"Given that somebody has received medical attention already, there very well could be one in a place that we don't have access to." Andrew looks sideways at her, briefly. "It's probably ultimately beneficial to be more selective with what you take apart."

Emily Lewenhock

Emily nodded conclusively.

“It’s only common courtesy, right?”

She blinked.

“Oh? Who’s gotten medical care?” Or even needed medical care already. Surely fights weren’t breaking out so soon, right? Then again, those broken-up chairs in the hall… Mmn.

Or, well, it could have just been diabetes or something. All kinds of things could need treatment.

“Hmm, they probably would have something available, at least for the wardens… Not so sure about us. I don’t know what kinds of ethics committees have jurisdiction over prisons, but this one definitely went under their noses.”

Andrew Edgeworth

"…I'd rather not broadcast that person's business. Something expected to cause external bleeding was implied to me."

He makes a skeptical face. "Whatever happened to…the rather bold prisoner seems to be a measure to avoid the wardens needing medical equipment to begin with. If there even is a dedicated ethics committee, they certainly have their priorities."

Emily Lewenhock

Boo, GDPR. Oh well.

"…At least easier to treat than internal, I guess?" For now. If someone got an infection in here… Well. She just had to hope whoever it was took decent care of it. That, or it was someone she didn't like. Haha. Big funny. Moving on.

She snorted at "bold prisoner," but, well, yeah, that's about right.

"They could still accidentally injure themselves on some equipment or other, though, right? Not a lot of sharp edges available, but you can always hit the floor. Surely whatever effect got our, eh, bold prisoner to back off wouldn't apply to inanimate objects? Or… Hmm." This would require further study. Which would be… difficult.

"Maybe the rabbit is the ethics committee?"

…She felt a sudden edge of fury in the air but couldn't gauge a source. Huh.

Andrew Edgeworth

"Yes. I wouldn't put much confidence in the staff we've seen here to handle a syringe, much less a scalpel." The mental image of Jackalope hopping around with a toy stethoscope and handing out cartoon-themed bandaids while Ei, Bea, and Sie had Looney Toons antics was kind of funny, though.

With this crew? Absolutely. "With how advanced and unknown a lot of the technology we've seen here is, not needing traditional medical equipment to deal with things like that is a definite possibility…" He pauses for a moment, unable to pinpoint the vague source of rage, for a moment, as well.

"The…jackalope being the sole arbiter of ethics here would make a lot of sense."

Emily Lewenhock

"Maybe there's a hidden doctor somewhere? Along with a hidden cook…" The rabbit couldn't really be preparing all their food, right? How could he have held anything necessary??

"Guess we could always ask for a volunteer. Not sure any of them would want to try and get themselves hurt, though. Even for science." Were any of them scientists? She wasn't getting that vibe.

"Oh, but I haven't heard anyone calling him 'Dr. Jackalope.' Surely you'd need some kind of doctorate to be the ethics board, wouldn't you?"

Andrew Edgeworth

"Personally, I'd rather not use anyone as sacrificial lambs, even if some here would probably jump at the opportunity solely for the kicks. Or offer someone else up." He wasn't entirely certain if calm-mannered Emily could be excluded from either category.

Maybe it was best not to let their imaginations run too wild. "Are we in some kind of sitcom?"

Emily Lewenhock

Party pooper, maybe, but a good view to have for an accused murderer and all. If he was one of them, it was only for something pragmatic, right? And surely it would never be particularly pragmatic to kill her. Even if she wasn’t that fully entertaining.

“Ooh, sitcom! I hadn’t thought of that one. Just assumed reality TV at best, but depending on how comedic it is, you may be onto something…”

“Don’t suppose you remember signing any contracts lately? Plain kidnapping seems a little more likely, but odd that no one seems to remember getting chloroformed or tranq’d or… whatever else you do to people.” Microbes were much easier to kidnap.

Andrew Edgeworth

Emily was quite…imaginative for someone in the scientific field, and he found it almost charming in its own way.

Andrew lightly side-eyed the question, though. "Certainly not. What kind of accountant would I be if I just idly signed a random ethically-dubious TV show waiver on my desk? Memory manipulation is definitely not unheard of, but I've never recalled it being this precise. To only take out a short amount of time and leave everything else untouched - at least that we're aware of."

Emily Lewenhock

"But what if it was ethically dubious but interesting? You have to consider the whole context." Between scientists and accountants, the latter weren't especially known for that kind of reasoning, Emily.

"Right… I think losing your memory of events right before a brain injury—physical or chemical—is pretty common, but hardly anything in life is straight across the board. You'd think someone would have retained something suspicious leading up to it…" Not that she'd gone around asking every single prisoner, exactly. "Though I guess a sample size of fourteen could be pretty skewed. Or maybe we were even chosen because we have some genetic predisposition to a longer retrograde amnesia response?"

"…There's no way, right?" Never say never, really, but…

Andrew Edgeworth

"Personally, I don't feel that anybody should be making legal decisions based solely on what's interesting. A good amount of people may be here for that exact reason, as far as we know." Weird way of wording 'definitely,' Andrew.

"…let's bring our theories back down to reality, yes?"

Emily Lewenhock

"You make it sound like you have particular suspects." Hallo? Where the prison goss at?

She pouted a bit. " 'Unproven' and 'unreal' aren't exactly synonymous, you know."

"I assume you mean a more concrete reality? Still don't have a lot to work with there."

Andrew Edgeworth

"I don't like making assumptions with a matter like murder, but Tatsuko strikes me as someone impulsive enough to fit the description. And I'll learn his name eventually, the prisoner we saw attempt to attack a warden."

He brings a hand to his chin for a moment. "The reality that we're typically used to, as it seems we'll drive ourselves mad on hypotheticals. Unless there happens to conveniently be a book on this specific place's physics in the warehouse we have yet to find."

Emily Lewenhock

"That seems fair enough."

"Or if they're that impulsive, would they even sign a contract on the dotted line, or just make some hats out of it?" Or set it on fire, but she wasn't aware of that personality facet yet.

"Sounds like the wardens would like that book as much as we would." She nudged the air in front of Jackalope's door with her foot. "Except this one, maybe, since it apparently knows everything. Guess it'd have to be the author?"

Andrew Edgeworth

"…I feel like they would be just as likely to outright eat the contract." If nothing else, the tenacity is admirable.

"Can't imagine it would be the sole arbiter of this place, but it would be the most likely." He discards what he was initially going to say. "…if the Jackalope can - seemingly - cook, writing would probably take little effort. Who knows, maybe it's writing an autobiography as we speak."