2012-10-28 Alien Rat in a Cage

Somewhere in Kansas... no, that isn't right more like somewhere in an undisclosed location in a hidden lab in a V.R. program in a replicated Kansas town hardly more than a rural village... a young man stands staring out over an expanse of flowing wheat fields. There is a strong wind a nice one that it makes a ripple across the wheat that reminded Superboy of waves on the ocean or what they might be like. Not that he has ever seen an ocean... or even been out of a lab. In all reality the breeze he is enjoying isn't even real. He knows this too. He knows he is a captive and they seek some secret hidden inside his cellular memories what it is he has no clue maybe they don't either. All he knows is that playing along means they'll get sloppy some day and he'll escape. He'll be free and actually see a real ocean, the real Kansas.

The Virtual Reality program they have him trapped in, learning in, being studied in is almost flawless. Almost. He's known for some time what is going on; that all of his friends on here are not real, his girlfriend Rose, even the Helpworths - his "adopted" family are fake, constructs like everything else around him.

While the V.R. played out Ravager watched the screen, watched 'Conner' focus elsewhere as she watched herself approach behind. A planned little meeting, a date in the flat-lands of a state that's scenery would bore anyone into sleeping it off until death. Ravager did not like her personification - Rose, her V.R self, it made her nose wrinkle and hand clench into her bicep as she watched.

"For someone who suffered traumatic brain damage you seem to get lost in thought quite often." Rose states as she approaches behind Conner and steps to his side, plain jeans and a white button up shirt adorning her frame, truly a lie. "I take it you wanted to share in the scenery?" Rose continues as she looks from him to out across the flat rolling landscape.

Conner's lips quirk as he hears Rose, "Yeah. I suppose so... it's just familiar out here and peaceful." Even if it a complete and utter facade. Something still feels... home about it. They did good work. "How did you find me? Mr. and Mrs. H tell you where I was?"

Moving over he sits down on a fence post drawing one knee up to wrap a forearm around it. A simple white t-shirt and some jeans all that cover his virtual self's lean frame.

Blue gaze flicks to Conner briefly as he moves to take a seat, moving to the fence but what rests before her, folding her arms and leaning forward to rest them upon the old wood border into a neighboring farms field.

"Then don't let me spoil your dinner, I'll with hold my offer for Burt's until later." Rose smiles as she mentions the small diner, though only going there for floats and to be entertained by the night life that congregated in the parking lot. "Mrs. H's cooking sound better anyway." Tilting her head Rose looks back at Conner, her brow dipping slightly. "You seem more bothered inside then you should be. Enjoy the now, and that you're still alive. If not you'd have missed out on more then just scenery." The smirk that comes on lips lets what she really means go unspoken.

Ravager smirked as well behind the screen, V.R Rose is full of herself, and she can at least empathize with that.

The set of Conner's mouth changes to a more uncertain and caught off tilt as Rose speaks, "I am aren't I?" He says while recomposing himself. His larger hand sliding over top of her own to encase it. It's funny how what feels like months ago this felt so real and natural, now it's a show, a game, something to just occupy his keepers and make them think hes still as dim and clueless as he has always been. Worst part is once he thought he had genuine feelings for this computer program called Rose.

Outside of a contained room and behind a thick pane of plastic composites and glass a man frowns over at Ravager; tapping a fingertip on his notepad. "His readings keep spiking oddly and more frequently." His words not really directed at the woman he is observing so much as those around him, his co-workers, the other monitors of Experiment 13. "We might have to terminate the girl. She's not bringing out anything new in him and I don't like these changes."

"That is because you play it too safe, Doctor. But perhaps this is a not a bad idea, we'll see what it does to our subject. If anything it will at least be entertaining."

Rose smiles as her blue gaze focuses on his large hand sliding over hers, fingers flexing to let him cup her hand as she tentatively returns the soft squeeze and holds. "It's fine, just trying to lighten you up a bit."

Ravager heard the words of the man and the grip on her bicep that had gone lax as she watched returned to tension, fingertips biting into the black shining fabric over them. That wasn't her, but for a moment she got lost like it was and they were speaking /about/ her as she stands there. Turning her head she looks over her shoulder and around the wave of white hair towards those speaking.

"If anything it may make my job more interesting." If what she said is even heard, the undertone in the background at least took her attention from the V.R Leave it to Beaver.

Hopping off the post Conner lifts Rose by her waist to fall against him so they can briefly touch lips in a kiss before he takes off in a sprint towards the Hepworth farm. "I bet foods ready! Lets go before they start getting nosy."

"So we are agreed then?" The scientists around her carried on the conversation in the background as the initial speaker confirms his vote in before he turning to give Ravager a wry smile and very cocky smile,"Our little Mary Sue has outlived her usefulness. I hope this isn't too awkward for our pretty assassin. Watching a version of herself get murdered all for the sake of science." Smug, the man always has been since they assigned Ravager here he has taken his jabs, at first to impress her, make her attracted to him, now it was just out of having been rejected - that bitterness.

Rose laughs, a genuine smile coming to her face and not erased as Conner's lips press to hers, returning that embrace only to be put down and entered by default, into a race for some good home cooked food. Why not? Taking off across the field she presses to keep up.

Ravager's smile back to the man was full of malice and teeth, her eyes leaving the screen for its final time to land upon the scientist. "If you're looking to bother me further then you already have, you've got the wrong girl. It's not real." The final three words were said, but all the same, it helped her inside somewhere, regain comfort with it all. The science part of all of this Ravager loathed, she was here for one thing and one thing only.

The man clears his throat after being bold enough to lock eyes with the warrior for a split second adjusting his collar. Abruptly he waves his notepad in the air, "Alright, lets not waste time. Run the rest of the simulation and we'll prepare for the next phase while hes /asleep/." Pausing with his back still to Ravager, "I suggest you be near when we do this. We do not know how the subject may respond." That smile creeps back across his lips as he quickly strides out of the room with several others, the room clearing out aside from Ravager, a couple of the remaining 'low-ranking' scientists and one of the automated security bots behind to play lookout.

Ravager snorts derisively, her upper lip unable to resist the pull upward into a sneer after the man. She knows the difference between poking a rat in its cage though, and poking an alien rat in a cage as brittle as paper to it. She does call out after the doctor though before that door shuts. "If he isn't showing any reading of changes towards her I'm sure he'll sleep through the whole thing. Why can't I go get coffee, I'm tired." Cocking one hip to the side Ravager exhales and presses fingers to her temples, rubbing in slow circular motions. This is why she does what she does, science... Is absurd.