Stephanie had never really needed anyone to participate in a conversation with her in order to enjoy talking. She mostly directed her thoughts outward as a habit from when she'd told everything to her imaginary friend, a pink dinosaur named Toto, when she was three years old.

That, and she figured giving people a chance to be involved in her thoughts was simply common courtesy; her dad had always told her so.

Regardless, she fell silent as she took in the layout and equipment of the vetting room.

Honestly, she'd been expecting higher tech. She'd been hacking similar devices since middle school. This "Green Zone" was not nearly as interesting as she'd hoped.

She had no illusions that Howard or Melissa would actually give her any useful intel, and Raine hadn't seemed to like her enough to work with her. Staying felt … wrong. She and Raine probably already knew too much. Now was the best time to leave, maybe see if she could find that thing that had dropped out of the sky before anyone noticed she wasn't where she was supposed to be.

While one guard walked around to control the machine, she reached into her pocket and brought out some chapstick.

"My lips always get so dry, you know?" she said conversationally, shifting subtly closer to the female guard next to her. "I'm always dehydrated."

She moistened her lips, recapped the chapstick, and slammed it hard into the guard's temple. The woman collapsed into Stephanie's arms without a sound.

"Uh, Taylor? I don't want to alarm you, but your friend her just passed out."

The other guard approached warily but relaxed a little at the worried look Stephanie offered her. Clearly, she hadn't seen a thing. When she knelt over her comrade, Stephanie stood, leaned over, and struck the woman's vegas nerve repeatedly until she was also unconscious.

From there, it was a simple matter to swipe their key-badges, communications devices, and a security jacket and lock the door behind her.

She left her phone on one of the metal tables; she wouldn't be needing it anymore.

*****

Melissa almost wished she had gotten to see them question Sheeple; sitting alone with Howard and Raine, neither of whom she knew very well, was distinctly uncomfortable. She knew very little about their lives and couldn't talk about their work-- and there was a reason that she rarely talked to either of them online. She'd never quite gotten along with them in virtual reality, and now all those small incompatibilities seemed magnified, though she could't quite figure out why.

She pulled her hair from its ponytail so she could more easily twist bits of it between her fingers; it was a nervous habit of hers. As frustrating as Sheeple-- or rather, Stephanie-- was, she had always been interesting to talk to, and Melissa sorely missed her now.

"Um, does anyone want tea?" she offered. Since Howard had brought them to Melissa's assigned quarters, she figured he expected her to play hostess. That was, of course, one of their small incompatibilities. She would never have brought a stranger here.