The sensor over the gaming screen faded back to green.
Elias kept looking at it after everyone else returned to the match. The change had been small, barely worth a blink, but it answered more than the staff had. The room watched the space before a fight, when irritation turned into motion.
Tid noticed him noticing.
"Planning to write us a review already, new guy? You have been staring long enough to charge rent."
He said it from the couch with his knife resting flat across one thigh now. The blade had stopped moving. That made Elias more aware of it, not less.
A white haired young man on the next cushion paused his game and glanced up. Gum sat in one cheek. He had the lazy confidence of someone who had not yet been punished by life in a way that stuck.
"You are the new guy named Elias Kael, right? I am Colby Tunsil, and the quiet one on my shoulder is Spock."
The small white Ikona perched on Colby's shoulder blinked once. It looked at Elias, looked at Dot, then settled back into place as if introductions were a tax on its energy.
Elias lifted his water bottle. "Nice to meet both of you, assuming Spock accepts forced introductions."
Colby checked the Ikona's face. "He looks willing to tolerate your existence today."
"That is stronger approval than I expected today."
Tid tapped the flat of his knife against his leg. "You still have the face of a man trying to decide whether this room is kindness or surveillance."
"I was leaning toward both with better furniture."
"Good answer, because they keep us fed, entertained, and easy to watch. Then they decide whether we are useful enough to keep close."
"That is a cheerful reading of captivity today."
"I am cheerful when I expect betrayal early."
Colby returned to his game. "Tid gets dramatic when nobody applauds his distrust."
Tid pointed the knife at him without looking. "Tid Well, since manners are apparently dying around us, and my Ikona is Puff."
A round, soft looking creature opened one eye from the curve of the chair beside him. It bobbed once in the air, then settled back down like even greeting people required a union break.
Elias looked from Puff to the knife. "What does Puff actually do for you in practice?"
Tid lifted his forearm. Pale cloud gathered over the skin, thin at the edge and dense near the bone. When he tapped the knife handle against it, the handle bounced away without sound.
"Impact gives up when it reaches me most days. Punches, thrown bottles, small rounds if the angle is friendly. Nothing heroic yet, but it lets me be irritating with fewer bruises."
"That sounds useful in most fights to me."
"Useful if I get paid for taking hits. Useless if someone wraps it in flags and asks for gratitude."
Colby snorted. "He means he wants hazard pay and a better pillow."
"I mean I want the option to leave," Tid said. "The pillow is a separate civil rights issue."
The gaming station chirped. Colby's character died on screen because he had stopped paying attention. He stared at the respawn timer with betrayal written across his whole face.
"That death belongs to this conversation, legally speaking."
"Claim it on your emotional insurance and move on," Tid said, just as Kikaru's voice came from the doorway behind Elias.
"That is why your scores barely improve, Tid."
Tid groaned and leaned his head against the couch. "The hallway has gained judgment again, fantastic timing."
Kikaru stepped into the room in a clean training top. Her hair was still damp at the ends, and she carried a towel over one shoulder. She looked from Tid's knife to Colby's abandoned match to Elias's water bottle.
Everything became evidence in her eyes.
Kikaru aimed the question at Elias. "Are you following the regimen, or joining the couch group until command drags you out?"
Elias turned with the bottle still in hand. "I arrived ten minutes ago and have already received a room, a badge, a medical test, and a social hierarchy. I was hoping to schedule poor decisions after lunch."
Colby laughed into his next respawn.
Kikaru did not reward the joke.
"The requirements update daily, and anyone treating that like decoration is gambling with consequences nobody understands."
That changed the room.
The controller clicks slowed. Tid's knife stayed still. Even Puff opened both eyes.
Elias understood the shape of it then. Kikaru was not trying to sound superior for sport. She was angry at fear because fear wasted time, and time was the only thing she trusted.
Tid rolled the knife once across his knuckles. "The Doctor was vague, and I do not rearrange my life because a dream man uses bad wording."
"Then do it because your body changed and your numbers matter."
"If my numbers matter, command can offer better incentives."
"You want a contract before survival gets serious."
"I want proof survival is what they are selling." Kikaru's jaw tightened, but Tid looked more tired than amused now.
Elias leaned back against the counter and felt Dot go still beside his cheek. The divide Geras had described was here, but it looked uglier on real faces. Kikaru wanted discipline because it gave fear somewhere to stand. Tid wanted distance because every structure in the building called control protection. Colby wanted the room to stay fun until fun stopped being possible.
The others listened while pretending not to, and Elias felt the room waiting for someone else to step into the middle.
"I think both things can be true here," Elias said.
Kikaru's eyes moved to him while Tid's knife stopped.
Elias regretted speaking early and kept going anyway, which seemed to be his new survival pattern.
"Training probably matters, and so does refusing to let command turn fear into a leash. If we do not learn our own shards first, everyone else gets to define us before we can argue."
Dot whispered, "That sounded dangerously organized for a man who forgot lunch."
"Please do not mock me during accidental diplomacy."
Colby leaned over the back of the couch. "Your Ikona talks a lot for a new arrival."
"She considers it a personal calling with no retirement plan."
Dot placed both hands on her hips. "I also remember everything I see, which makes me valuable and underappreciated."
Elias looked at her. "Humans call that memory when we do it."
"Humans do it poorly most of the time."
Tid raised his bottle in Dot's direction. "I like that one better than I like you."
"Most people eventually reach that conclusion about us."
Kikaru turned away first.
"If you want the morning regimen, we start at five thirty. Be there or be weak somewhere else on your own."
She left before Elias could answer.
Tid watched the door close. "Warm woman, very welcoming in the same way winter is educational."
Colby restarted his match and muttered something about never pausing for politics again.
Elias looked down at the badge on his chest. Low Perception Watch sat under his name, blunt and permanent until someone with access decided otherwise.
"I am starting to understand why Oliver led with compatibility issues."
Dot leaned closer to his ear. "That means you are learning, which is a terrible development honestly."
Across the room, the sensor above the display blinked yellow again when Tid laughed too hard.