Another loud alarm sounded, ringing out through the cafeteria and causing TO to wince once more. As the alarm faded, the noise increased in the cafeteria as everyone seemed to get up and once and surge to the exit.
“What now?” Pearla asked as she rose, pressing against the wall to keep from being stepped on by the crowd.
“Not sure.” Mira said. She looked around and after a moment she tapped the shoulder of a tiny person with scale covered skin, and who moved about on undulating muscles on the bottom of their wide body.
“Sorry, we’re new.” Mira said, “Where are we going now?”
The person glanced at them, then shrugged, “Doesn’t matter.” They said, “You can go to the showers, bed, the cage, the shops… It doesn’t matter where you go, but you can’t stay here. Maintaince has to clean the room, and the guards’ll get nasty if you make them work.” They shrugged again and continued on their way.
“The shops?” TO asked, “They have shops?”
“Well, yeah.” Mira said, “It’s like this; say you make one hundred credits in a day, right? Eighty percent of that goes to your basic debt, the remaining twenty goes to a pool that you can use at the shop. Some cheap legal drugs, mostly extra food, blankets. I don’t know. Anyway, you can save that twenty percent, and it gets pulled if you’re sick, or gets added to money you can leave with once you’ve paid your debt. Otherwise, you can just use it in here.”
“Food?” TO wasn’t hungry at the moment, but they knew they’d need food before they got out of here, “We could go there and-“
“We don’t have the right chips.” Mira said, “Technically, Pearla has one, and I suppose that guard was expecting her to get it sorted out on her own, but right now her chip is just a tracker, and it’s not linked with her information, her debt info, or any credits she might have. If that gets linked, then getting out of here is going to be a lot harder.”
“Right.” TO said, their ears dipping. “Anyway… where should we go…” They tapped the back of their hand, just below the chip to avoid activating it.
“I say we will use the cage later.” Mira said. “We’ll go a few minutes before the proper time; If he sent us there, then it should be empty-“
“What is the cage?” TO finally asked, “I don’t think it’s a good idea to be put in a cage here, or anywhere!”
“‘The cage’ is just slang.” Mira said, “There’s a large patio on the roof, enclosed in bars; like a cage. People can go up there for fresh air, to smoke if they have smokes from the shops… You can go up there anytime you like; something about some fresh air law or something-“
“It’s a Basic Provisions law.” TO said, their ears perking up, “Yes! I guess where this is an official, non-criminal holding facility, then they have to obey those laws! Food has to have a minimum nutritional value, people in here have to be given the opportunity to keep clean, have free access to basic medical care, and they have to have free access to fresh air, sunlight, and mental stimulation. There’s a lot of other regulations of course, but those are the most basic things.” They glanced at the canteen, which was closing up, “Of course that also says that such facilities have to make sure they can accommodate the nutritional needs of the inhabitants. Maybe I could explain that I can’t eat their slime-food.”
“But if you do that, they’ll ask to see your chip which is not set up for this place.” Mira said.
“Will they really want to see my chip?”
“They will.”
A sigh escaped TO’s lips. They could go for a while without eating no problem, but DH wouldn’t like it and they knew if they were here any length of time they would need to eat.
“Look, the plan until then is to kill some time until we can get a private place to activate your thing.” Mira said. “We don’t have beds, and we don’t want to seem like we don’t belong here, so we’d best try to blend in.”
“Showers?” TO suggested, “That one we spoke to said that there are showers.” Hopefully, the showers were better than the setup in the underground. They didn’t have high hopes for that, but at the very least they’d be proper showers and not the makeshift ones TO used in the underground.
“Ugh, no.” Mira said, “The showers here are public, group showers. I do not want to deal with that. No, thank you.”
Ears flicking back, TO frowned, “But.. Arkane has nudity taboos.”
“Yeah, but the people in control here don’t care about that; Showers with any level of privacy require more maintenance.” Mira looked TO up and down, “What, do you lot not have nudity taboos?”
“They don’t.” Pearla said, a smile flickering over her face, “It.. led to some awkward moments between GiDi and I when we first met.”
“Well, that makes sense.” TO said, “They didn’t get a briefing on the planet like we did, so they wouldn’t have known-”
“They absolutely did not know.” Pearla said. “When they first came here, they crashed into the waters around Okoia. I brought them home for the night and offered them a bath. Now, there’s not much privacy in my little place, but I had a screen around the tub for some privacy, so I put that up.” A flush covered her face as she laughed nervously, “They cleaned up, ignored the robe I left, and came right out from behind the screen wiping off their face with the towel I gave them!” She giggled, “I mean, it’s funny now, but at the time…”
“Well, we should leave anyway.” Mira said, “This place isn’t safe to talk in anymore.”
Even TO could see that Mira was right. The cafeteria was mostly empty now, and the noise had died down to where TO’s ears didn’t hurt from overstimulation.
“Maybe we should go to the shops, anyway.” Pearla said, “We can look around for a bit. We can’t buy anything, but maybe we’ll find some food for TO.”
“It’s really not that important.” TO said, their ears flicking down.
“How long can you go without food, anyway?” Mira asked.
“About a week.” TO said, “Depends on different factors, So if I don’t eat now, it’s not a big-”
“A week?!” Mira said, “That’s not long at all!”
“I don’t need to eat a lot.” TO muttered, “But-”
“But you have to eat regularly.” Pearla said. “Or you’ll get sick.” She frowned, “I read something about this when I was young, or maybe my parents told me about it? Something about how birds have to eat all the time, or they’ll starve. They said it’s so they don’t get too large to fly. Maybe it’s the same for some other winged animals? They have high metabolisms.” She grinned, “I can go a month at least before I suffer from lack of food. Of course, it’s better if I eat at least once a day of course.”
“Well… we might as well go to the shops then.” Mira said, “We can’t guarantee that the other meals they have prepared will be suitable for TO, so we should scrounge.”
The crowds had thinned, and guards were coming in from an entrance near the back, looking around angrily at the stragglers. TO tapped Mira on the shoulder, and gestured to them. The sight of the guards drew a grimace on her face, and she pulled Pearla and TO forward.
“Yeah, I’m not messing with that today.” She said, “Let’s get out of here.”
======
The shops were in one of the upper levels of the indebted center, and was entirely underwhelming compared to what TO expected. They knew it wouldn't be like the shops they saw in the shopping district of course, but they didn’t expect how shabby and outright depressing this would be. One wall had five booths build into it, each with a list on the side showing products. There were no tables or benches, and the sharp fluorescent lights overhead buzzed with electricity, and flickered oddly in a way that would hurt most civilian eyes. It was worse for TO; the lights were too bright, the flickering bothered them, the buzz of electricity from overhead mixed with the echoing chattering and made them dizzy. Clearly this was not a place intended for relaxing. Nevertheless, some of the indebted had made it a place to loiter with their friends. Many had carried thin blankets up with them, and spread them out of the floor in a feeble attempt at making a softer seat for themselves. Sitting in one corner, a group of four split a small dessert cake, portioning out mouthfuls to each other, then eating the food in tiny bites. Most others sat, talked, and drank from small green tinted bottles. The only ones that didn’t seem to loiter were the ones that bought thin plastic packages; those people bought their package and left immediately.
“Those packs, those are pink seaweed wraps.” Mira said, “A cheap enough drug, but it’s addictive and it can mess up your eyes. They have to go to the cages to smoke them though, so they don't hurt anyone else’s eyes.” They glanced up at TO, “That’s why we have to go so late; by midnight, everyone else will be gone to sleep if they have assignments in the morning.” They pointed to the small green bottles, “And they make those drinks from distilled sea berries. Poisonous raw, but when made right they get a person very -”
“It has an intense inebriation effect.” TO finished, remembering the night that they got highly intoxicated at The Cottage. “I’m aware.”
“I'm thinking,” Pearla said, “That might be a way to get you some food.”
“What, getting drunk?” TO shook their head, “No, I’ve done that once before; got hung over-”
“No, no.” Pearla said, “No, that won’t help us at all. What we can do is try to collect the discarded bottles and try to pour out any remains. If we get a full bottle out of it, we might trade it.” She frowned as she watched someone else rush past them to get to the cages, A small little packet in hand, “Or, we might look for butts of those wraps. They sometimes have some unsmoked seaweed in it. We could trade that for food. Still, I don’t enjoy handling that stuff.”
“Oh, touching it with your hands won’t cause your eyes any problems.” Mira said.
“We don’t know that!”
“That’s… we don't have to do that!” TO insisted, “I can get food in the morning-”
“If we get there in time to get that sludge, and if that’s food you can actually eat.” Mira said, “And if it’s not, then we have to wait until tomorrow evening to get you some food and I doubt you’ll be feeling very well after that.”
That was true. By tomorrow evening they were sure they’d be in substantial pain from hunger, and that would affect their ability to think and react. The last thing they needed to do right now was make some stupid mistake because they were hungry.
“Maybe the cages.” TO muttered. They didn’t like the idea of being around smoke that could mess up their eyes, but the lights and the noise were rapidly making the disorientation TO suffered worse.
“Nah, hold on.” Mira said, “I think I can manage this quickly with the bottles.” She grinned, “You two hang back; I know how to deal with drunkards.” She flexed her thin hands and scurried forward, muttering just loud enough so that TO could hear over the din of irritating noises, “Momma Mira’s gonna provide.”
