Felice & Ezekiel
The room became increasingly crowded, in more ways than one. Indeed, those who filled in later than the rest seemed to take all of the space around them. Staring at the twitching, bounded guy on the floor. Ezekiel saw him in more ways than one - more specifically, he was a metaphor. For all of them.
The big teenager looked at the rest of the room's inhabitants. They have all noticed him, haven't they? Some observed for a while and lost interest, and the others just watched. Waiting for it to develop, to see what the chained human will do. It all suddenly became familiar to Ezekiel, as he had witnessed this more than once, in school. The new kid. Everyone wanted to see if the new kid floats or drowns. And just like back then, a realization hit him: None of them understood that they were all a team.
For a few moments, Ezekiel was fighting against the all-too-familiar wall of social anxiety, unable to get up and do anything. But once the girl entered the room, showing a different side of the metaphor, he let his survival instinct take over and smash through his fear like it was cobwebs. He threw the guards an apprehensive look and rose from his seat, perhaps more dramatically than he had intended.
"Hey," he said quietly, bending over the sitting young man. "Hey, you're safe, come on, can you stand?" He put a hand on the guy's arm. But having been very occupied with his very loud vocal assertions of just what he thought of the crazed scientist and his unjust decisions as well as unable to see anything around him, the loud boy did not take kindly to the contact that interrupted his shouting. "Lasciami! Scemo! Nessuno รจd al sicuro qui! Portarร via tutti! Mostri! Il tizio e tutti sono mostri!" Pulling away angrily from the offered attempt at comfort, he continued his yelling for the restitution he would likely not be receiving any time soon.
Ezekiel was at a loss. The new kid was definitely distressed, but he couldn't understand if it was of the inhabitants of the room or for them. It hit him that this reaction was not seen on any of the others. In fact, weren't they all given a choice to be here, like himself? But one look at the leather girl near the scientist, and at the passive figure surrounded by guards in the corner, made him realize this whole thing might be much more complicated than it seemed.
But his moment was coming to an end. He suddenly became highly aware of himself, and highly embarassed, his anxiety clawing back up from its pit. The effect of adrenaline on it was always short. The new kid was shouting at him now, wasn't he? A feeling that he was out of place began suffocating him. This was a job for the group leader, wasn't it? But the rest of the prisoners were losing interest in the new kid. And the guards seemed to be slowly gaining it. He wanted to swear at the guy for putting him in this position, to kick him while he's weak, wallowing on the floor.
He gritted his teeth. This feeling of sudden aggression at the weak for being weak triggered something else. With a fluid, accurate motion, Ezekiel stepped forward and to the side, and whipped the blindfold off the new kid's face. He also unknowingy gained a Darwin award, by not reading any comics that had people shooting plasma outta their face when someone takes away their glasses. And true enough, the moment the blindfold was removed, a deadly searing glare cut right through the unobstructed space to the much larger male, sending him reeling. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be in a literal sense this time, though the bright amber color of the eyes revealed could have been convincing otherwise with the sheer anger that glowed in them. The chained youth stared defiantly for a second, still growling, before glancing around to see the others in the room. Other experiments.
Sacrifices. Just like they wanted from the other one.
Catching Vlad's position more exactly without the cloth in the way, he let out a loud snarl before ignoring the others completely and attempting to rise to his feet. Stumbling slightly at first, both from the inability to use his arms and the chains connecting the rings on his legs to keep them from moving too far from each other, it took him a second to re-position his feet underneath him so he could just push himself straight up. "Non lo puoi tenermi lontano. Lui รจ mio! Non puoi tenerli!"
Ezekiel gave the new kid a last, sad look before returning to his chair. He wondered if the scientist met him before, but it was all in the back of his mind now. This brief exchange exhausted him, and he wished he'd have some metal thing, his guitar or just some alone time with a book to return the lost energies.