Amara returns, but she finds nothing about us.

Your hair isn’t even dry by the time Amara comes back, but you aren’t going to complain about that. Instead, Flora retains her lady-like composure and strikes small talk with Amara, giving you no more than a single glance or two every couple of minutes.

When you finally decide it’s time to pack up and leave, you have to make sure it’s at peak traveling hours so you can remain undetected during your exit— it works! Or at least that’s what you and others are led to believe.

Once you are back underground, you remember how much you didn’t like this place. It was colder than the hotel and a lot dirtier. You all lived like Hazel and the rest of his fluffe of rabbits, with Kenji being some kind of Big Wig and Amara being some kind of Hazel. You make brief eye contact with Scarlet and Alexandra and wonder which rabbit they represent. You then look at Flora and notice how out of place she is, a hutch rabbit.

Suddenly, you blink. Where did all of these thoughts come from? Kenji, still looking rough from his engagement from the Heights, crowded Amara and conversed with her that was all whispers and hisses. Eventually, Alexandra also comes over and sides herself with Kenji. Kenji is holding his side, but he doesn’t seem distracted by anyone else in the room, but you do notice he’s pleading about something, which surprises you.

Flora goes over to Scarlet and starts talking, leaving you alone in a corner. Great.

For the entirety of the day, you are primarily lazing around and doing nothing, picking at the wall with a knife and cleaning your nails with a toothpick. Then, finally, Kenji and Amara leave, leaving you and others underground.

The girls circle around each other and continue a conversation of their own: past interactions and deep subjects about life. Scarlet doesn’t share a lot about herself, and Flora only gives chunks about her childhood. Alexandra goes on about her upbringing in Neo Torch in pre-war New York outside the borders of the recently constructed state.

A thief. A gunrunner. A spy. A whore. She shows the others her tattoos on her biceps. They’re primarily numbers indicating some kind of time spent with a gang or crime syndicate. All but one of them is crossed out—a Roman numeral “7,” which she brags about seven years of service with the ARS.

After Alexandra finishes talking about torturing someone, Scarlet looks back at you and invites you in to talk about your background too. Unfortunately, you aren’t much of a talker, and all considering, it was boring when compared to what they had just talked about. Your lack of interest is what gets Flora more involved, however.

“Tell them about the movies!” She said. “You watched an animated film about my book not long ago! You said so yourself.”

Alexandra knits her brows and leans her back into the dirt wall. “What’s your stupid book about? Bunnies?”

Flora blushes, pushing her book under some pillow. Scarlet smirks at Alexandra's comment as she glances at her. She then brings her attention to Flora and laughs slightly. “Fucking nerd.”

That comment makes Flora look up and glare at Scarlet.

“Hey,” you sit down, now joining the circle. “The book is good, and so was the movie. I read the book when I was a teenager. About 15 when I was working with my dad in his workshop.”

You share a bit more about your life in Oklahoma. Your family’s business. Your work with weapon repairs and time spent as a competitive shooter. Your first contract and then life as a bodyguard. This causes a general chat about childhood memories and first-time events. Alexandra leaves briefly and comes back with an entire bottle of Schnapps and a couple of glasses, and after that? A lot of nostalgia and melancholy reminiscing.

“When you were a kid, did you have this” or “that”? Dumb laughs and head shaking and drinking. However, Scarlet keeps her head leveled and never spills too much about her life. She even admits Scarlet isn’t even her real name.

When she’s pressed to say her name, she cleans her teeth with her tongue and stares into her empty glass. Her knee bounces idly and everything being said to her goes into one ear and out the other. Finally, to knock all of you off her tail, she eyes the empty bottle of Schnapps and offers to play games with it.

“You called Flora a nerd for reading books about rabbits, and you’re going to offer that we play what? Spin-the-fucking-bottle?” Alexandra places her glass down after discovering it is empty. “Excuse me, but what the actual FUCK, Scarlet?” She says to Scarlet with a tone of mockery, but it doesn’t offend her.

Flora folds her hands together, obviously liking the idea, but is too bashful to say anything.