Day 032: Talks In A Corridor
Summary: Jael wakes to find Carlos setting up entertainment for the guests in their quarters, and their conversation finds itself in the fifth corridor.
Date: 2016-06-29
Related: None
Carlos Jael 


Level 5 Corridor

This corridor is almost indistinguishable from most corridors of Mount Weather. The ceilings and corners are rounded off, focusing on stability rather than sharp lines. It is crafted primary from cement, with glossed cement floors. The number 5 is painted on the floor, indicating that this area of Mount Weather is part of Level 5. This corridor gives access to the dining hall, and various residences.

The elevator bank is almost directly opposite of the dining hall entrance, which is accessed by stepping down two short steps into the almost cathedral-styled room.

32 days after descent; 5 days after kidnapping

Although one wouldn't be able to look up to check, the sky is dark and as the moon begins to rise up in the sky- the only manner of knowing what time is is a clock mounted up above the door.

Most of the delinquents are out, either eating dinner or already finished and killing time whilst Carlos is inside the visitor residences, kneeling besides a mobile stand with a monitor as he's connecting some plugs into it from a DVD Player. Carlos is quiet, as there are a few delinquents inside and already asleep while he's setting up.

She can't sleep. It's been a regular thing with her, after the first few days she spent doing more sleeping than anything else. Every little sound wakes her up. mostly she can crash back out…occasionally she can't manage. In this case, Jael can't manage. Eventually she carefully extracts herself from the bed she's been snuggled up to Cole in, careful to not wake him up. It takes her a few long moments, but she does manage. There's a yawn and a stretch before she pads over to where he's setting up the monitor and the DVD player, her expression quickly going from sleepy to cautiously curious.

Lazy eyes stare at a briefly black screen as Carlos presses the power button on the side of the monitor and turns the volume down on the speakers as to not wake anyone up. The screen lights up initially with white-noise, prompting Carlos to reach over to grasp the remote beside the DVD player, tapping the input button a few times before he looks over his shoulder as he hears Jael coming over. Offering her a smirk, Carlos speaks to her in a hushed tone. "Good evening, miss Ryan." he offers her along with a nod before he looks back over towards the monitor as he presses the input again, letting it light up with menu to Aliens. "Did I wake you?" he asks, looking back over to her with a quirk of his right brow. "If so, my bad."

There's a tilt of her head to the side at the smirk, a quirk of her eyebrow. Jael offers a smile in return though, friendly enough even if her eyes aren't particularly warm. "Evening," she offers in return, keeping her voice low, just loud enough to let him hear her. No whispering; that cuts through the quiet. "Don't know if it was you. Something did. I'm not quite sleeping well yet." Even with her lack of volume, the tone carries a bit of dryness. "If it was you, it's alright. Putting on a movie?" It doesn't take her long to put the picture together.

"I recall saying I would bring in my monitor, dvd player and movies for you guys." says Carlos as he ooks back around and over to the monitor, staring at it for a second or two before he looks back towards Jael with a lopsided smirk. "I figured being watched by old folks, children, and whatever inbetween would be a bit tiresome. Besides, nothing like a good show. Gets minds off things." he says, looking back to the monitor with a shrug of his shoulders. "I don't have the time to watch anything anymore. Last time I tried watching this, I got ten minutes in. Gotta be awake to work outside, and I only have time to watch at night. figured job comes first." he says as he leans over to set the remote down ontop of the DVD player, rising from his kneeling position as he looks over to Jael. "Or do you think I'm lying about that too? Maybe it's just some plot to keep you in your cell." he says with a somewhat amused smirk and risen right brow.

Padding the rest of the way over, Jael finds something to lean up against, watching him as he rises. Her eyes flick up to his face for his latter words, and she rolls her eyes. "Because mocking me over a very legitimate concern helps your case," she says dryly. "Or is antagonizing me some sort of plan?" She raises her own eyebrow right back at him, lips twisting up on one side into something of a smirk, and then it's settling out again. "I was trying to be polite."

Carlos offers her a shrug, his grin fading somewhat. "I was kidding. Sorry, I guess." he says, bringing his hands over to cross along his chest as he looks back to the screen. "I guess it's just hard to see things from your perspective. New place, new faces and few familiar… Being told you can't leave." he says with his brows furrowing somewhat at the last bit as his eyes dip from the screen to the floor. "I wanna say it's rough… But it's probably a bit more than that, isn't it?" he asks, looking back to her with a quirk of his right brow. "Besides, Truman's the one who's better with words. I just go outside for the brass." Pausing for a moment, Carlos stares at Jael as his brows settle down. "How are you and the others?" he asks, turning somewhat to look around at those resting in the beds.

The mostly-an-apology gets a little nod of her head in acknowledgment; she doesn't draw any more attention to that line of thinking than that. Instead, she's listening to the rest of what he has to say, nodding in agreement to his summation of the situation. There's a glance sent around the room and the sleeping people, and she gestures back out towards the corridor. "We're gonna wake someone up if we keep talking," she suggests softly. "I'd rather not talk to somebody good with words," she admits. "Good with words…would not make me more comfortable right now. Rather deal with a bad liar. Not that I'm suggesting you are one. But. You know?"

Carlos offers Jael a nod, leaning down as he takes the remote and shuts off the DVD Player and pushes the power button on the side of the monitor. "Right." he says, hushed before he follows after Jael. "I don't lie… That often, at least." he says as he steps out of the room and over to the corridor, quietly stepping along before stopping to look over to Jael with a shrug. "But I get you. If I had Truman outside with me, I'd have a headache- for as much as I love being with the guy." he says with a lopsided smirk as he leans against the corridor wall and crosses his arms along his chest once again. "So… Again. How are you all?" he asks, looking back to Jael with a quirk of his right brow at the earlier unanswered question.

"Cole's getting better," Jael tells him once the doors have closed behind her, and she moves to lean up against something, looking up at him through some hair. At least for a moment; she does eventually shove it back from her face. She's got pretty crazy bed hair. "He's talking to me, at least. So that's good. My best friend is…he's coping. Otherwise, folks seem to be dealing…alright. I mean, everybody's in different stages of it. Mostly folks are grateful for what you've all done for them." It's even all true!

With a slow nod, Carlos looks from Jael to the closed door once all is said. "I see… It's good to hear that folk are doing better than otherwise, at the very least. After all, with the state of affairs…" Carlos trails off somewhat, looking over to Jael before flicking his gaze away with pursed lips. "Again, I'm sorry I couldn't have done anything to help those left behind. I can't stress it enough." he says looking back to her with a faint frown. "I'll try to do what I can to make your stay as comfortable as possible…" he says with a nod. And then, he's silent for a few seconds as he's looking off and down the hall- as though he may just walk off. "Have you visited the garden?" he asks, looking back to her with a smirk, maybe forced or maybe not.

"You asked how folks were doing," she points out for his trailed off words, and then shrugs her shoulders. When he looks away and apologizes again Jael rolls her eyes, shaking her head at him as he looks back to her. "I wish you wouldn't apologize," she tells him. "You had orders, you had a situation to deal with, you made the choice you could with the information you had. Doing something else could've gotten you and your men killed…and you simply aren't capable of doing more than you are capable of. Don't apologize for doing the right thing, it devalues the sacrifices involved." Yeah, she'll get her words in when he stops to breathe. He starts to shift as if to move and she takes a step, though she stops when he doesn't move. "Not yet." She's starting to smile until he smirks at her, at which point she settles back to neutrality.

"I know I did." Says Carlos, a bit firmer and less thoughtful when she mentions that he asked. Nodding somewhat when she mentions he had orders, Carlos looks down to his feet for a moment, thoughtfulness back before he looks up. "I had orders… And there is only so much I can do…" he says in what sounds like quiet agreement. "But I also want to do more than that, if only puts me at risk… But it doesn't only put me at risk." he says as his eyes dip down and off to the side. "I still think I should apologize. Right thing or not, my action costed lives. It being the right thing doesn't make that any different, does it?" he asks, looking back to her with furrowed brows as his right index finger taps away at his arm.

"It's nothing to do with it being the right thing to do," she says. "Or the not right thing to do." Jael wrinkles her nose up at him. "It was the _correct_ thing to do, so I don't think you should apologize. It is sad, it is unfortunate, but you are human, and you have limitations. You did the best you could with what you had. Own it, don't wallow. Your action didn't cost lives, it saved them." She may not seem very grateful for the rescue, but she's certainly firm about this. "Your men are your first responsibility. Always. You have a duty to them that you have to look in the mirror every night. That's not something to apologize for, for all that you might grieve with us for the consequences." Again, those slight shoulders lift and drop in a shrug.

Carlos is quiet after she's finished, staring at her with furrowed brows as and after he listened to her. He opens his mouth, as though about to say something before shutting it once again. "Maybe you're right." he finally says as he looks away, again down the hall. He isn't smirking anymore, and doesn't look like he will begin either as he stares down the corridor before he looks back. "If you don't mind me saying, you reminded me slightly of Truman, there." he says with a blink before he looks back to Jael. "Sounds like something that could've left his mouth… You talk much with him?"

She waits patiently for him to mull it over, content to be stared at. Jael gives a little nod of her head for his initial words, for all that he's looking away for it. When he does look back his way, she offers up a wry little smile. Then he says she reminds him of Truman, and she wrinkles up her nose before shaking her head for his question. "Not really," she says, tone dry. "I heard him speak briefly, but I didn't engage with him." There's a glance towards the door back into the quarters herself, before she sighs and looks back to him. "Cole's going through a more drastic version of the same thing," she says. "What he had to do. It was pretty brutal. I've got practice on this topic. Even before that…I don't blame people for doing what they have to to survive, to protect their people. I know what I'm willing to do. Can't fault anyone else for being on the same page."

Carlos eyed that wry smile Jael offered him, briefly. Carlos looks away and to the door when she does, only he doesn't look back. "…I haven't talked much with Cole." he says, "He's been fairly closed away… Literally too, in a way." he says with a pause. A fairly long one, at that. "What did he have to do?" he asks, now looking back without smirk or quirk of brow- simply looking for an answer.

"I'm not really comfortable sharing that information with you," she answers, tone gentlebut firm. Jael sighs softly at his back, stifles a yawn with the inside of an elbow. "It's late. I'm going to go back to trying to sleep. But really. Looking out for the people you're responsible for. It's not bad." The smile offered up after those words is apologetic. "Thanks for setting up the movies. It'll help some of us."

The smile offered to Carlos prompts him to stare at her for a moment before looking away as he steps from leaning against the corridor wall to stretch his arems out overhead. "I hope you have a good night. Make sure they don't stay up too late, it's good to have a schedule and not miss breakfast." he says as he slips his hands into his pockets and makes his way down, into the elevator, disappearing behind the doors as they shut and the elevator ascends.

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