On this very fine day, Troy had thought himself lucky. While true, he might not have slept as much as he would have liked to, and that he had virtually no way to access modern entertainment... What else was there? His left knee had taken a hit on a doorway when he walked out of his room. That had heard a lot. Still did when he put too much pressure on it. There was an immediate hope for it to get well soon, or Troy would be immensely screwed.

…

Where was he? Troy had thought himself- Oh, wait, no. He remembered where he paused his mentally-entwined reverse-bragging.

Even with all those bad things, nothing was stopping him from doing whatever the fuck he wanted to do. There were no job-related obligations on this fine day. He would have been able to enjoy himself, while not stressing about anything or anyone. His current position did not even make him do any paperwork of any kind, so he couldn't really have any way to bring home with him. Well, except Adam of course, but that little guy was more of a distraction than anything else at that point. Nothing should have been able to be a letdown. Yet there most certainly was.

Dr Hale had not gotten better. During last night’s debriefing, Adam had apparently been the one in charge of questioning. Dr Fidelis had been pumped empty of information about the other, more scary doctor. During the time where Troy had been located inside the puzzle room, much medical attention had been given to Dr Hale. She was in a sorry state, several parts having been utterly burnt out. In a literal sense. Scar tissue was a problem when it was inside the body apparently. The artificial stomach system did not take well to such alterations. Acid had gone uncontained for several minutes as well. That had been bad. If she had been awake at the time, Dr Fidelis did not doubt that she would have gone into shock.

Adam had attempted to go into more detail, but Troy had stopped him at that point. He was not a fan of gore. And with the recent actions done by yours truly, it was not a good mix of images being sent through his mind. If he had eaten breakfast at that point, he would have likely met it again earlier than expected.

They had talked some more inside the room before Troy had thought it wise to get to the cafeteria. Already, more time than necessary had been spent inside the sleeping facilities. It was only through a serious amount of disgust, that the man had been able to ignore his rumbling stomach.

Where to put the earpiece had been a subject of great discussion. Originally, he had just been ready to take the thing off and put it in his pocket. There wasn't really any need for it to be on. Troy would not be able to talk. And he certainly did not need help, when it came to choosing what to eat for the day. Oatmeal, one pastry, and an ungodly amount of coffee was the normal choice to take. He was betting on being the number one coffee drinker in the whole facility. Had to make a name for oneself somehow.

Adam had not agreed. The AI had not found any reason to take off the communication device. Instead of putting in a larger amount of focus on the communication itself, the entity put the breakfast up as more of a learning experience. Adam wanted to see Troy eat, however creepy that may have sounded. The man himself certainly thought of it as strange. One can write it down as information-gathering however much they wanted. Troy thought that it was weird.

Nonetheless, wishes had been obeyed. Mostly since Adam had used his last remaining favour on it. Now, neither owed each other anything. It was free reign from there. Troy did wonder what to ask for, though.

There weren't a whole lot of things that the AI could help with reliably. Troy had only gotten help with hyper-specific things by now. Helping him in poker? It was a scenario that a day-to-day person could end up in. Poker was a common game. Nearly everybody in the entire world had at least heard of it. But, checking to see if any alteration had occurred in a top-secret device, which Troy guessed there were only a few off in the universe? That was not an event that was likely to be reproduced. The man doubted that he would even need to ask for it by now. If there happened any changes to the earpiece, Adam would probably tell him. Anything being different could cause problems in fulfilling changes that were owed, so that had to be avoided at all costs!

The point of it was, that he was not sure what to ask of him. But, was that not a good sign? That he had nothing more to want. Nothing more that he needed. Currently, nothing needed outside assistance to be completed.

Could also be a sad thing, though. Depended on how one looked at it really. Nothing to do. Nothing to need help with.

It was meaningless in the end. With the earpiece still on, Troy had ventured out of his room. Not in a haste, but slow calculated steps. There was no point to be hasty about it. No schedule needed to be kept. And, his legs were kinda tired after constantly walking around all day. It was a wonder that he had only first felt it then.

The cafeteria was not the fullest it could have been. If Troy had gotten there only five minutes earlier, it might just have been halfway to empty. Yet again, the morons at the facility had all gotten the genius idea of coming at the last minute possible, creating an impenetrable line to the buffet. Getting any kind of food would take the upper limits of five minutes. No man could handle waiting on his feet for so long!

But! In the description of the line laid the loop-hole. It was only the food-related items that there was a line for. The drinks section was empty. Those idiots just had to get their food first. Nobody stood even close to the coffee machine.

Troy imagined the dispenser standing in full regalia, ready to save him from this meaningless world. He dreamed of savouring the taste, as he hurriedly trekked himself over to the machine. Swiftly, a grande-size cup was dispensed, steaming liquid hidden within. Food could wait. The dessert was already here.

While walking to the customary seating, there was one other entity who had different ideas about the slapped together planning.

'If this is your daily diet, I do believe solid foods would be a well-thought addition,` Adam sent to him. The earpiece was already proving itself to be an annoying mistake. Though, that might just have been the pre-coffee Troy talking. Once he had the scent, the man was known to get unnecessarily aggressive. If that was a primal instinct, or if he had just been watching too many trilogies, was a question nobody would ever truly know.

Delicately sipping from the large container, no heed was taken to either the extreme temperatures of the liquid and the muscled man sitting opposite of him. This was not intentional, as Troy was well and truly engrossed in the object before him. It had turned out that bringing oneself into a trance-like state was much harder than just doing it the natural way. A small wave was given to the man with a pretty serious caffeine-addiction, but it went as unseen as all other attempts to communicate.

This did not impede Charlie in the slightest. It was not the first time that he had been ignored. Darlow certainly did it a lot, when he turned down promotions. The promise of more money only worked so many times, before it became meaningless words. Retiring was not on any person's calendar here. Not even for their special little dream of a luxury, custom-built yacht. Darlow still said that it needed a leather interior, but Charlie swayed towards more of a liquid-pylon feel. They would probably meet somewhere in the middle when the time came for it.

'The line is sufficiently empty. I do believe that you can walk to the buffet, without any further hindrance to your objectives,` Adam sent to him, bringing Troy out of his slightly-confused state of mind.

Had he really been thinking right there and then? The taste of coffee had overturned him into something else most certainly. It had been too long since his mind had felt that sweet sensation. And people wondered why some got drug-addictions on purpose. That dopamine just felt too good to pass up on.

Taking a good long look at the buffet table, there wasn't really any more people up there. When had that happened? Just a moment ago, he could have sworn that it had been filled to the brim with people.

Taking a much more involved look at his cup, he saw it was nearly empty. Time had certainly passed quickly. Draining the last of its contents, he got himself up from the hard-plastic chair. Only then did Troy notice Charlie sitting just on the other side of the table. When had he sat down? More importantly, had Troy remembered to greet him? Anything else than the ideal situation was not worth thinking about, so he just assumed he had.

“I am going to get myself something to eat,” Troy told Charlie. The older man gave an over-the-shoulder thumbs up in response. Not the most sophisticated of answers, but who could expect more out of somebody stuffing their face full of wheat bread? Everybody knew cornbread was currently trending.

In a few minutes, he had acquired a half-full bowl of oatmeal, accompanied by the daily type of pastry. It looked like a hole-less doughnut with cream inside. Troy had absolutely no idea what the thing was, but at least it tasted good enough. Also, he had gotten himself another cup of coffee on the way. As quite frankly nobody said in this day and age, it was only on the second cup, that one could really feel the stuff. That quote might have been directed at alcohol consumption, but Troy felt that it fit just as well with caffeine. It really just was diet cocaine, if you thought about it hard enough.

'Is breakfast normally filled with so little talk?` Adam inquired.

Troy just twisted his face into a visible state of confusion. This was while eating a hearty spoonful of oatmeal, so to Charlie, at least, it looked like he was having a strong disposition about the usage of the word 'tangerine`. It was very specific, yet also so very correct.

With a natural hand-movement to bring it under the table, Troy quickly signed for the AI to explain himself a bit more.

'You have mentioned many times that you have had plenty of conversations during dining hours. From my current observation, this does not seem to be true. While Charlie has attempted communication, you have not replied in kind. I am unsure of which of you that is the offender in this scenario. Some cultures are against the idea of conversation during eating while others explicitly endorse it. Could you please explain this in some form? I understand that sign language is quickly becoming impossible. Charlie is giving you inquisitive glances about the placement of your right hand. You might want to move it just about now. To answer my questions, you could try talking to him, if it is normally allowed during eating. It certainly is at different tables, but cultures can be very localised.`

Troy was not sure why, but it was sounding like Adam was the one in need of sleep. That message of his was not pre-planned in any meaningful way. Was this the AI’s first attempt to create them linearly, instead of the standardized burst-fire? It was helpful to get the warning about Charlie’s confusion with his action. Troy wasn't sure he could have blamed the hand-placement on just scratching his legs if he had continued to hold it down there. Had the guy really talked to him, though? He couldn't remember being talked to. But then again, Troy also couldn't remember most of the walk to the cafeteria. It all just blurred together. Such were menial tasks. They did not make the brain too observant of its own actions.

But, anyway, if Charlie really had talked to him earlier, it would be common decency of him to answer back. As a matter of fact, that was what Troy was gonna do in that precise moment. The oatmeal had already gone done to its last few scrapes, and that second cup of coffee had been nearly guzzled straight down. It was not like he had much else to do now.

“Have I said good morning yet?” Troy asked rhetorically. He knew for a fact that he hadn't, but sounding innocent drew away from the chances of an-

“Nope,” Charlie bluntly answered. It would have sounded agitated on any other man, but that coy smile of his left no hidden meanings. The guy could understand that sleepiness and be drawing no blame to anybody. “I certainly hoped you had one yourself, but the only thing I got back was some very grouchy grumbles. Well, it was either that or some very deep breathing. Could be either, really.”

Troy was thinking that it was most definitely the latter, but there was no need to say that. Raising his half-empty cup of coffee, he gave a small nod towards the very muscular man.

“Then, a good morning to you, my friend.”

Charlie responded in kind. Though, he did not have a cup so he used his plate instead. It was not as dramatic, but Troy could understand the sentiments well enough.