[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/QVJPa75.jpg[/img][/center][hr][center][color=708090][b]SOLIDER Base; Residential Quarters[/b][/color][/center][hr]
Far from the morning hustle and bustle, two figures were standing silently in front of a particular door with grim expressions. “A-are you sure about this?” the young man asked the brunette next to him. Her eyes were staring at the door that separated them from the room’s resident. “He hasn’t come out of his room yet. We have to get him out of there.” Her expression softened for a moment, “Besides, I promised Evangeline that I would.”
“I know, but--…”
“Haziq, you don’t need to go in there with me. I can do this by myself. Just wait out here… just in case--…”
“No, Athene! I can’t let you do this alone! I’m… I’m coming with you.”
“Are you… certain?”
“Yes. I am. We’re in this together.”

The two scientists looked into each other’s eyes and nodded to one another before turning their full attention to the door in front of them. Athene took in a deep breath as her hand reached over and placed itself onto the handprint scanner. Within a few seconds the lock light on the door turned from red to green. She glanced at her partner, “Are you ready?” No. He wasn’t, but neither was she. There was, however, no point in prolonging the inevitable. So Haziq nodded and Athene pressed the button to open the door. 

When the door slid open, the two could almost see the stench flooding into the hallway. Athene was pretty sure she had fainted when foul smell stimulated —and probably burned off— her smell receptors, yet the smell was so bad that it snapped her back to consciousness as quickly as it made her unconscious. Haziq, on the other hand, was so overwhelmed by the feeling of nausea that he not only felt like regurgitating everything he ate this morning, but also vomit out his entire digestive system. It was through sheer willpower that he didn’t do either. 

Athene pinched her nostrils closed, “Are you okay?”
“Pretend I said yes.”
“Last chance to turn back.”
“I said we’re in this together and I meant it… But I’d also greatly appreciate it if we could get this over with as soon as humanly possible.”
“Agreed.”
With the knowledge that breathing through their nose was a terrible idea, Athene and Haziq ventured deeper into room —far enough that the door automatically closed behind them, cutting them off from the rest of the world.  

Aside from the tiny lights emitting from a number of machines, darkness dominated the room; if objects had not melted into the abyss, they were shadows that were impossible to correctly identify where there was little to no lighting. One of the first things the scientists tried to do was turn the light switch on, but when they did finally find the switch —after a good amount of fumbling— it had failed to produce any light. “Damn it Rainer,” Athene cursed her old mentor for not changing the burnt out light bulbs. Sighing, she began to guide her way to where the window should be with her colleague right behind.

On their way to the window, something in the darkness moved. The scientists froze, unsure what it was. “Henri?” Haziq offered. Silence. Haziq broke away from Athene to take a closer look at the thing, only to stumble on something he could barely see. “Let me open the window before we trip over something and break our necks.”
“Don’t you know what happens in horror movies when people split up?”
“We’re in the same room.”
“It still counts.”
“Good thing we’re not in a horror movie then,” Athene said as she continued her quest for the window. When she finally did get to the window, she pressed a button, which began to lift up the heavy-duty roller shutters outside. Slowly but surely, sunlight found its way into the dark room, revealing what was once hidden from their eyes —and perhaps should have remained a mystery. Calling the room “messy” would an understatement; the room was a disaster: all sorts of things where scattered on the floor—including, but not limited to clothes that never found its way to a closet or washing machine, empty containers that should have been in a garbage bag, garbage bags that should have been taken out long ago, and perishable items that were starting form colonies of microorganisms and were also the prime culprit to the stench in the room—, paper with writings on them covered almost every inch of the wall, and piles of files, books, and more paper formed a mountain range that made the room feel smaller that it actually was. 

Meanwhile, Haziq managed to find his way to the thing he thought saw moving. There, sitting at the desk, was a figure with his head on the surface, in a puddle of dark liquid that dripped off the table. Haziq’s breath caught in his throat. He rushed towards the figure, shaking it once he was in arm’s reach. The young man’s face paled when his eyes had enough light to see what the dark liquid was. “O-oh no! No!” the man shook the figure more fiercely, just enough to make the figure stir from it’s slumber. It groaned and moaned before looking up at Haziq. For the first time since he entered the room, he saw how serious the situation was —that a “very serious crime” had been committed— and Haziq let out a shriek. The noise was so sudden and ear piercing, the figure —a man as it turns out— screamed like a little girl in response. Although Athene initially jumped at the noises two grown men were making, one annoyed glance at them was all she gave to them before she opened the window to let some well-needed fresh air into the room. 

“HOLY CRAP! YOU LOOK LIKE A PIECE OF SH*T, HENRI!”
“THANKS! GOOD MORNING TO YOU TOO!” the man who Haziq called Henri, but also known as Hal, paused for a moment before screaming again, “WHY ARE WE YELLING?”
“Because you’ve committed a serious crime, Henri. I can’t believe you did this!”
“Huh? What? What did I do this time?”
“Oh, playing dumb are we? Then tell me that’s not the silk shirt we gave you last year!”
Hal looked down at the shirt the younger man pointed out, “It… might be?”
“What’s that stain?”
Hal sniffed his shirt, “Coffee?” He turned to look at the black liquid was all over his desk. “Coffee,” he confirmed before jumping out of his chair to repeat what he had just said, “COFFEE!? Ah, sh*t!” Hal quickly picked up his coffee drenched paper work and scrutinized each loose leaf, hoping that one of them might be salvageable. Alas, the world was not kind enough to give a damn. 
“Screw the papers! Take off that shirt, right now, you fiend! I might still be able to get the stains off! You know how expensive this was?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Athene cut in, “why were you not up already, Rainer? Didn’t you hear the announcement?” Hal stared at his ex-protégée with a blank expression. “You didn’t hear it, did you?” Hal shook his head and she sighed. “You and a number of other soldiers were summoned to the Council Room. It seems like you have a mission. Hurry up and get ready.”
“You mean I have to do actual SOLDIER work? Ewwww!” 
“Shut up and get ready. You’re going to be late if you don’t hurry.”

Hal groaned, “Oh fine.” He picked up his glasses and started to navigate his way out of his room before Athene’s cold voice reached his ears, “Stop.” He halted in place and turned around, “Yes?”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“You just told me to go to the Council Room.”
“I said get ready.”
“I am?”
“No you’re not.”
“Yes I am.”
“Take a shower. Put clean clothes on. THEN leave.”
“Its just Rayne, right? The silk shirt might be over dressing for the occasion, but it does have a nice coffee stain on it.”
“It’s not just the President so go clean yourself and the shirt isn’t the only thing that has a coffee stain on it. Also, you may not have noticed, but Haziq is getting teary eyed. Give him the shirt so that we don’t have to see him actually cry. We both know it’s not a pretty sight.”
“Hey, I am no where near an emotional break down just yet!” Haziq retorted. All Athene had to say was “Expensive branded shirt. Brown stain. Eyes. Starting.” and Haziq was already on the brink of a sobbing. She smirked at Hal as he glared right back at her.
“You’re a terrible person.”
“Anything to get it my way. Now hand over the shirt and go clean yourself.”

Shaking his head, Hal made quick work of the buttons of his shirt and passed the overpriced clothing to Haziq. His ex-protégé frantically grasped at the silk cloth, which apparently granted Haziq magical hurdling powers since he jumped over the book mountain ranges to catch it midair and was out of the room in a matter of seconds, just to save the precious shirt. Athene just barely had time to request Haziq to bring extra trash bags and a ton of air fresheners in time before he was out of sight and out of earshot. 

“If he likes the worm spit shirt so much, I should probably just give it to him.”
“Silk.”
“Silk worm spit.”

[hr]
With great confidence Hal can state that the military is not his true calling, but if there was one thing he learned from this life, it was how to military shower: he was in and out of the shower in three minutes. As he was changing into the cleanest clothes —well, truthfully, even while he was in the shower— he could hear Athene complaining about how dirty the room was as she was doing her best to clean said room. “I honestly don’t get how you can stand living in this filth. Really, Rainer, when is the last time you cleaned this place up?”
“The last time Bubbles cleaned it?”
“And when was that?”
“Uh… Hmm… four days ago, I think?
“Your room became this dirty… in four days?”
“Ahaha! I know, funny, right? I think it’s a talent.”
“No wonder Evangeline asked us to check up on you.” There was a moment of silence before Athene yelled, “Gods damn it Rainer! What the f*ck is this!?” Confused, Hal hastily buttoned up his last piece of garment before walking back to his room. Athene was waiting for him holding a moldy sandwich, “WHAT IS THIS!?”
“Oh, so that’s where my lunch went.”
“From when!?”
“Uh… three… four days ago?”

This man. This man was going to make Athene’s head explode one day. The brunette messaged her temples, “I can’t believe, we can’t trust a full grown man to live on his own for even four days.” She took a deep sigh before glancing at the time. Her ex-mentor had little time to waste, “Whatever. It’ll have to be a discussion for later. For now, get your butt out of here. If you run, you might make it in time.”
“But what about breakfast? It’s the most important meal of the day!”
“And you have no one else to blame, but yourself for missing it. Now go! Shoo!” Hal made no attempt to leave, however. Instead, Athene caught Hal’s eyes glancing down at the garbage bag where she had tossed the sandwich in. Her eyes narrowed and her gut told her to slap the first thing that came close to her. When Hal’s hand reached for contents in the bag, she was ready. 
“Ow!”
“Seriously?”
“What? It’s totally eatable! I just have to pinch out the moldy bits.”
“No. You know how fast mold spreads and you know it can be anywhere even if you can’t see it.”
“I’ve eaten worse.”
“I don’t care. You’re not eating moldy sandwiches under my watch.” Her finger pointed directly at the door, “Now leave! Be gone! Korfred’s at the meeting; try begging him for food! Just go and don’t come back to this pigsty until I say you can!”

The name of the ex-lawyer was enough to make the hungry 33-year-old man’s face light up with childlike glee, “Lawyer’s there? Why didn’t you say so!?” Hal dashed out the room without looking back. He sprinted down the halls, up the stairs, and straight to the Council Room. The the first thing that came out of his mouth when he slammed open the door was, “Lawyer! Feed me!”