As the conversation surrounding amusement parks and beaches and what all took off, Roy watched over the group, waiting patiently for everyone to be together. Sometimes it was rather difficult working with such a large team, but nevertheless, Roy was happy to have a team at all, even with how ramshackle they all could be. It was refreshing, in a way, how often their individual personalities clashed. It made for the perfect spread to represent his project. The very program he led. The very program of which this chaotic cluster of once-villains embodied.
He found himself thinking back to his meeting with Agent Bell. How the man had dismissed his arguments regarding the Grey Scale so adamantly. With so much variety, it was hard not to believe in the validity of Malcolm Grey's writing. Here they had a total of ten individual villains, once thought to be irredeemable criminals, now sharing the same space with each other, cracking jokes and making witty quips as they waited for his announcement. They had come a long way already, even with their past failures, and Roy had faith in them yet.
It was all he really had in his life, after all...
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Harper was the last to join the group, dragged out of their room by the same guard who had gone off after them following their retaliation on Sabriel earlier. The same guard with which Sabriel had spent much of the morning flirting. The same guard who had a clear stick up his ass compared to the other guard. Or maybe Sabriel's observations were more on point than the two guards let on?
Harper stomped along across the common area, the guard not far behind them. Stopping, Harper turned on the guard and stared him down, sneering. The man held up his hands in a gesture of defense and backed off without a word, turning to go join the rest of the staff as the morning duties were handled. Once free of the guard, Harper whipped back around and stared down the group scattered around the seating area, white gaze flicking over each member of the team before they looked to Roy. The agent offered them a kind wave before signing a good morning greeting to them. They rolled their eyes, giving a huff, then signed a greeting in return before striding over and flopping heavily down beside Sabriel and crossing their arms their chest.
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Smiling still, Roy looked over the group one more time, "Once again, I'd like to say good morning everyone," he said cheerily, "It's good to see you all. I know I've been absent for a while now, and I apologize. I had some business to see to out of state and only just got back yesterday. I trust you've all been well?"
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Sabriel was the first to scoff at the man's obviously rhetorical question, "If you call getting yelled at and pushed around whilst a certain someone ran amok through the halls in a senseless attempt at escape, well, then sure. I've been bloody well peachy."
The words were cold and pointed, laced with a tone that was almost a snarl as the white-haired man sneered. He looked off, away from Roy and away from Dr. Gate in particular. Much as he played it off as not caring about everything that had happened surrounding the doctor over the past few weeks. Much as he kept up his flirtatious guise. He was still upset with the woman, and found himself wishing she had never come back from her brief period of isolation from the group, or better yet. He wished she had just escaped like a normal person when she had the chance.
The whole event had been, an outrageously wild spectacle. A spectacle that apparently had led to mass destruction of much of the compound outside their unit and what Sabriel could only imagine was more than a few injuries, if not full out deaths. Yet all that was witnessed by those still in the 'Doghouse' as the staff called it-- Dehumanizing in Sabriel's opinion --was a droning alarm, wild chatter on the guards' radios, and the absolute panic attack a certain angel. That, and the incessant demands of one certain day guard who seemed to have an issue with each and every one of the 'Hounds' for no reason other than their status as 'past' criminals. How he hated that term. Hounds. At least the media referred to them as 'renegades'. That was far better than Hounds.
After everything though. All the chaos. All the destruction. All the possible casualties. She was still among them. Dr. Gate was still there, and it bugged Sabriel to no end knowing that not only was she still there, but she was back Back on unit. Back in the Doghouse. Back in his space.
What bugged him more, however, was the knowledge that before all the chaos. Before everything. He would have been happy she was still there. Happy she was in the same space as him once more. At times, he felt like that happiness was still there. Something had to fuel his flirting after all. Yet as much as he clung to that speck of dying emotion, that care-free don't give a crap view on life in general, it just wasn't enough to make up for all the aggravation he felt instead. And that was what made him truly bitter. Truly sicken by all of it.
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While Sabriel was lost in his sulking, Harper glanced at the man beside him as the incident from about a week prior was brought up, then turned their gaze to Roy and raised their hand.
Roy looked to them and nodded, "Yes, Mx. Willard?" he prompted.
Harper rolled their eyes at the formal title and moved their arms to have one sticking out with a fist, while the other formed a C, which they moved in a circular motion to tap the fisted hand, before pulling the C into the finger sign for the letter H-- their sign name, essentially telling the man to just call them Harper. With that, they sighed, shook their head, and gave a dismissive wave before bringing their hand up with their fingers outstretched and thumb folded in to tap their index finger to their chin with the rest of their fingers facing out. They followed this by pressing their thumb and fingers together and moving the index finger of their other hand around the 'closed mouth' shape of their first hand, before finally spelling out 'Gate' as a name.
Roy watched them carefully through their signing, and when they were done, he spoke carefully, "You're asking if we're going to talk about Dr. Gate, yes?" he asked.
Harper nodded and shifted to bring their legs up on the couch so they could sit lotus style, hands resting on their knees. Like everyone else in that room, Harper was no stranger to the incident that had taken place about a week before. Unlike Sabriel, however, they were less sour about all the chaos, and more just annoyed that there seemed to be no serious repercussions for the whole ordeal. They knew far more about the event than any of the other Hounds, having witnessed it fully through the camera system. Though...they weren't about to reveal that they had access to that. Still, there was no denying that Dr. Gate's little spree had been absolutely catastrophic for more than just a handful of individuals. It rubbed them the wrong way, to see Dr. Gate go off on such a destructive frenzy, only to be let off the hook just like that, when they themself had to deal with talk after talk just for lashing out now and then. If they didn't know any better, they would assume that Roy and the rest of the higher ups were trying to pretend the whole thing never happened. Worse yet, they would think that Dr. Gate was getting special treatment.
As they simmered quietly, Harper listened to Roy's cop-out answer to their question. The man simply smiled and shifted where he stood as her said, "No, Dr. Gate will not be the topic of our conversation today. We've already dealt with all we can regarding recent events, and while I know it may not be pleasing to some, in favor of keeping the program on track, it has been decided that Dr. Gate will be remaining among us, with a few revisions to her procedure, at the very least. Dr. Gate is already well aware of the actions being taken in response to her recent excursion, and I feel it is outside the concern of anyone else here what the actions entail."
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"So in other words," it was Casey who butt in then, "Whacher sayin' is, y'all'er jus' gonna sweep it all under the rug n' pretend it never happened."
Out of everyone, Casey surely had the most reason to be upset with Dr. Gate. Yet, ne was a little more forgiving than others, which was truly remarkable considering Dr. Gate's antics prior to her separation from the main group had nearly gotten nem killed. Ne wasn't upset about the fact that Dr. Gate's rampage was being wiped off the table. No. Casey was more fixated on the fact that, whenever lives got tossed around here, it seemed like everyone was quick to look the other way.
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Roy frowned at nem, not an angry from, but more of a stern expression than he'd held before, "Not quite, Mx. Von Braun, but, as I said, this is not the focus of our meeting today."
"Then what in Hell's name is it!" Sabriel groaned and Roy immediately diverted his attention to the man as he continued, "I swear you're worse than a bloody strip tease!"
Always with the crass remark, Roy thought with an inward sigh and resisted the urge to shake his head as he pulled his attention away from Sabriel to look back over the rest of the group.
The rising commotion was concerning, but Roy just straightened his posture and lifted his hand to show a letter containing the signature of Agent Bell and a few others, "We've made it past our probation period!" he announced, "As of today, you all will be seeing some pleasant changes. You can expect more freedom in your regiment from here on out, so long as you keep out of trouble, and best of all, throughout the day, you all will be meeting with a member of the legal team who will be going over the return of any approved personal items you may have had with you, or which you have requested otherwise. In addition to this, you all can expect to begin receiving payment for your services with the DNCC!"
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Sabriel stared at Roy dully, as though the man had just told them he finally had a bowel movement after three days of being backed up. The so-called announcement felt, to him, like the most useless information that had ever come out of the man's mouth. So they got to have their clothes back. Big whoop. Who even cared? Scrubs or civis, they were still prisoners, as much as Roy tried to tell them otherwise. They were still Hounds. The only thing that truly caught his attention was the last bit. Being paid. Frankly, he hadn't expected to even get a paycheck at all, but the fact that they were now, and hadn't before rubbed him the wrong way.
"You mean to tell me we haven't been getting paid up 'til now?" he questioned, purposely wording it to start something. If it hadn't been voiced, it might have been overlooked, and the whole meeting would have been for nothing but telling them they could wear shoes now. Now that it was out there. Now that the seed was planted, it was sure to take root, and Sabriel knew that at least someonewould take the bait and turn this little drop of information into a whole ordeal.