Aegir had not elaborate further on the matter. It was as if he couldn't or thought she would be delighted to know and was like a little child that couldn't wait to tell her a secret though she had other matters to tend to as she was secured to the table about to play childish games with the machine.

'AFFIRMITIVE.” It responded to her as she gave the explanation back at the forbidden topics. It had not seemed to mind and consented to allowing her to ask the first question.

“AFFIRMITIVE. YOU HATRED OF RENA, THAT MUCH SEEMS APPARENT, HOW DO YOU KNOW HER?” It had another part to the question but figured that it was another question entirely and in fairness broke them apart.

Juniper took a moment, cocking an eyebrow at the machine as he loomed passively close to her prone form. She lightly licked her lips, making no effort to conceal her efforts as she tests and twisted the bonds she was locked into.

"Well, that little acid rub-down sure as hell didn't win her any points with me." she said, not quite meeting the machine's eyes as she looked up and gave one wrist cuff a hard jerk, causing it to rattle slightly in place though there was no real give to it, "Still, it isn't hatred that makes me act the way I do . . . " she trailed off for a moment, trying to organize her thoughts.

"She scares the crap out of me." she said, rotating her shoulder and trying to work out a kink before she moved to check the other wrist clamp, "I mean, first she was just some . . . predatory thing that was crazy strong. I do a little digging, and then she's a demon. And a sadist. And has these brainjacking fifth dimensional worm things. And all I can think is that she's after me specifically, amongst all the rest of the student body."

She took a moment to look up at him, "Can you imagine what that's like? To feel so small, and helpless? I'm engaged in a fight for my life and my self, I can't afford to fixate on it. So, I take the piss a bit, I mock, and I rile, and I get under her skin. I try to make her less unconquerable, so that I can keep the strength to strive." she arched her back and strained with a low growl as she tried to sit up, "Maybe I'll luck out and kill her off with high blood pressure or something."

"Okay, Big Guy, your turn. Truth, or dare?"

Tinman had listened to her. It had picked upon the dislike though it may not have picked up on the meaning behind all those little exchanges in the past. It could not really imagine being anything than it was. Empathy had not been a strong part one it yet and it had not been to imaginative in it's day to day feelings.

“NEGATIVE. I CANNOT FULLY APPRAISE THE SITUATION. I DO UNDERSTAND SOME OF IT I THINK.” And he had though he did anyway at least as far as the matter went.

It spent a moment processing information in it's mind though. It would start off easy enough as it tried to understand.

“TRUTH.”

"Ah, let me see if I can envision a parallel." Juniper took a moment and closed her eyes, the only thing that came to mind was an imperfect scenario at best, "Try and think of it this way. Imagine if a living magnet had entered the labs, and started seeking you out intent on wiping your brain. Worst yet, this magnet claims that it was sent by Dr. Balnab to clean away his imperfect creation." she shrugged slightly, "Now, of course, you don't know that Dr. Balnab sent the thing, and if you allowed your functions to be terminated, you would cease to be useful to the Staff or your creator if he should return. What would you do?"

She paused a moment before laughing a bit, "Well, okay, you'd probably laser it to death, but I don't really have that option." she shook her head a bit, "That's kinda what having a demon hunting for me is like. I know I've done some bad things over the years, it's hard not to think that this is comeuppance for that. Of course, I don't know, and I wouldn't trust Rena whether she confirmed or denied the idea."

"Mmn. Truth." Juniper let herself settle against the table and take a few measured breaths, trying to decide on a single question to ask. She openned one eye after a moment, "How would I go about getting myself upgraded from lab animal to scientist?" Okay, that was probably being a little too optimistic on her part.

It followed the example better than the last figuring a few matters that it otherwise would not have been able to comprehend. Sure enough the model that was laid out had been one that could easily be considered e vents easier.

“NEGATIVE. AT FIRST I WOULD ATTEMPMPT TO ACERTAIN THE TRUTH THOUGH IF IT WERE PERSISTANT I WOULD HAVE TO DESTROY IT.”

Tinman paused for a moment. It wasn't as if there were others that had asked about making that elite list of scientists before though in a sense everyone was a scientist …

“THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH. ANSWERS. TAKING UP AN INTERRNSHIP IN THE LABS AND EVENTUALLY GETTING WORK AS A FULL FLEDED SCIENTIST AS GRAD WORK IS PERHAPS THE EASIEST. THOSE SCIENTIST WITH SENIORITY ARE LISTENED TOO FIRST, THERE IS A PRIORITY AS IF THEY WERE ISSUING ORDERS AS A MAJOR AND ORDERS FROM A NEW SCIENTIST TREATED AS IF ORDERS FROM A LIETUNATE.

“OTHERS WITH A PASSION FOR SUCH WORK ARE DEEMED AS SCIENTISTS ON A CASE BY CASE BASIS THOUGH ANY ORDERS FROM A SCIENTIST AT THE LABS SUPERCEEDS THERE OWN, IF THEY HAVE BEEN PRACTIONERS OF SCIENCE FOR YEARS THEY WILL OUT RANK GRAD STUDENTS IF THEY WERE SCIENTISTS LONGER ...”

Tinman explained the situation casually. “BASE ORDERS CANNOT BE SUPERCEEDED. THERE ARE A FEW INSTANCES WERE SUCH ORDERS CANNOT BE OVERCOME AND TRUMP ALL.DR. BALNAB'S ORDERS ARE ALWAYS TOP PRIORITY.”

"TRUTH OR DARE?"

Mmn, that made sense. If 2179 was a thinking machine, it wouldn't be as easy as getting into an administrator's office and checking a box on her profile. He'd recognize her on sight, after all, and know that she lacked the appropriate credentials. Even if she had mentioned that, she'd be bottom of the list in terms of seniority, meaning that she'd still have been unable to override Rena's instructions. Essentially, she had as much pull with him at this particular moment as she was ever going to get.

"Hmn . . . alright, let's get a little adventurous." she nodded her head towards him, "Spin me a Dare, Tinman."

It seemed to be quiet clear that she was attempting to gauge if she could gain a degree of influence over it though it did not mind the attempt for her trying such a matter. It was clear that she would be fairly low … well there was one way where she could jump all others save for it's creator though that was not likely to happen.

Of course that entailed orders from Dr. Balnab himself. But if she were to get on that list now then she would gain greater rank over new interns and such but probably never to the state that she would have liked.

Rena was always going to out rank her here and it was pretty clear that there were other top notch scientists that would make her state of being virtual useless, that at best she might hope to gain some minor things that had not gone against the direct commands of other scientists.

It calculated a dare, then stopped.

“I HAVE DETERMINED ONE BUT IT MAY BE TOO COSTLY ...”

"Heh, well, now I'm all curious." she said smirking a bit, "That's my place to determine, isn't it? If it's too much, I can always Pass."

She looked around for a moment, "Though, I guess, there's noone to Pass it to really."

It nodded at that. “VERY WELL. REFER TO RENA AS A GLOROIFIED GASTROPOD AND TELL THE SLUG DEMON THAT LIKE THE CREATURE HER KIND EVOLVED FROM SHE HAS NO SPINE.”

But the machine did not know if that would be too much, dares would be limited with the subject restrained in such a fashion as it were and Tinman was not reckless or destructive with her thus far, it was merely trying to determine something interesting and selected something similar that another student revealed a few months back, it cleaned up some of the language of course and added in some general knowledge that it possessed and she probably didn't have.”

"Ha!" Juniper barked a short laugh at the dare, "I probably would've done that anyway. Do you mind if I tinker with the wording a bit? "Gastropod" doesn't quite have the bite for a good insult."

She forced a bit of a smile, putting on a brave face though she felt a bit sick at heart. It was kind of hard not to think that, upon finding herself standing at the bottom of a pit, she had resolved upon trying to somehow dig her way out. Rena's power over her at the moment was practically absolute, bolstered as it was by restraints and the presence of aligned creatures, pretty much the only thing she could do to protect herself was try and court the creature's mercy. Which, of course, she was resolved against, not even certain if it had any.

"Are there any mic pick-ups in here, or do I have to wait until she arrives?" she asked, looking around as if for a camera to speak into.

It pointed to a spot in the ceiling.

“AFFIRMITIVE. IT IS THERE. THERE ARE ALSO TWO CAMERAS THOUGH RENA MAY BE ON THE WAY DOWN HERE AS WE SPEAK. I CAN TURN MY RADIO BACK ON AND YOU CAN ADDRESS HER THROUGH IT OR WAIT UNTIL SHE ARRIVES.

“BUT I AM NOT CONCERNED WITH THE EXACT WORDING AS LONG AS IT IS SIMILAR TO THE WORDING.” It already had her earlier statements to base things off of.

“HOWEVER, IT IS YOUR TURN. I WILL TAKE TRUTH ONCE MORE.” Maybe it would mix things up with a dare next time assuming that Rena didn't barge straight in here.

"No delays." Juniper said, shaking her head, "C'mon, lean over here and turn on the radio." she smirked a bit at that. If she had a little more time, was a little sharper, maybe she'd have something up her sleeve to take advantage of his proximity. Alas, such was not the case at the moment, though she was still feeling out the situation to figure out her next move.

"HEY! Queen Slug!" Juniper shouted almost cheerfully, "You're missing all the fun! You were plenty tough up there in your monitoring station earlier, c'mon! They've got me contained and strapped to a table over here, even a spineless, mucus secreting, slow, ugly old bat like you could take a cheap shot without fear of reprisal!" her tone took an angry and bitter tone as she heaped on the insults. She dropped her head back with a sigh, a bit of tension loosening from her shoulders as she vented her frustration.

"Does that work for you?" she said with a bit of a wane smile. Oh, that might've felt good for the moment, but she had enough self awareness to realize she was indulging in the same kind of activity she was accusing Rena of. Repeating it to her face . . . she wasn't entirely sure even she had the gumption for that. Not under the circumstances.

"Hmn . . . Truth." she chewed her bottom lip slightly, "Well . . . what's next on the agenda? No, wait, not that, I don't want to know." she exhaled through her nose, "What's the quickest route out of here that I could access?"

Tinman approached. It did not feel as if she were capable of doing much given her circumstances and it had reasoned that she was enjoying herself too much. While there were always odds that she was luring it in for something nefarious it had not determined her angel just yet and so complied with her wishes turning on the internal radio that had been installed in it for today.

Rena was displeased though she was surprisingly cool and collected about it. She chuckled a little as she shook her head.

“You displease me Two One Seven Nine so you can share in her punishment.”

The radio on her end clicked off. He was still in the control room watching the live feed and waiting, letting those words sink in. She studied Amelia's reactions to her words, the girl had been good at concealing her name up to now though eventually she would figure it out. Now she would wait, her eyes flickering to the clock soon … though she was already thinking beyond that matter, pondered sending in Aegir though her thoughts were shifted to sending him in last as clean up …

“AFFIRMITIVE. THAT WAS SUFFICIENT. HM … PROCESSING … FOR YOU I ASSUME, IF I USED THE SAME ROUTES IT WOULD TAKE ME MUCH LONGER.

“THREE DOORS DOWN ON THE RIGHT IS A LAB THAT HAS ACCESS TO A LIFT STRAIGHT UP TO THE LOBBY LEAVE AND WHEN EXITING IT THE LOBBY IS TWO DOORS DOWN ON THE RIGHT. IN THE LOBBY IS THE LIFT THAT YOUR MADE IT TO EARLIER. AT THE TOP OF WHICH EMPTIES OUT INTO THE ISLAND.

“TRUTH OF DARE ...”

Juniper considered the cool and even tone that responded to her from the radio for a moment. It didn't take her too long to piece together the meaning behind the tone, if anything she should have been more aware from it from the beginning.

"Tut tut, Darling. You've been listening in." of course, Juniper could curse and poke all she liked, once her motivations were known it'd lose all sting, "If you want the Truth, you need to play, Dear. Quid pro quo and all that." she cooed sarcastically. Even if she'd blunted her own barbs, so to speak, there were other avenues of attack left to her.

"Would you be so kind as to isolate us, 2179?" gesturing with her chin towards where the robot had indicated the microphone was mounted in the cieling. So far as she knew, the machine was under no particular orders to interrogate the subject for Rena's benefit so it wouldn't actually be countermanding an order. And with Ms. Duval's threat of punishment, she imagined an opportunity to act out would be welcome to it.

"Sorry to get you in trouble, Big Guy." she added after a moment. How the hell did one even punish a robot? She supposed she'd find out . . . the notion that he'd be taking Rhaine's place in the procedures to follow echoed in her mind, though she wasn't sure exactly how that would be punishing for him.

"Ah . . . Truth." she finally stated, running over the directions he'd given her in her mind. Two elevators . . . easy to wind up trapped again, but at least she knew the quickest route now. Three doors right, elevator, two doors right, elevator, sunlight. She took a deep breath at that. Sunlight. She just had to figure out how to give this place the slip a second time . . .

Rena had not been baited into further conversation though she grinned seeing that Tinman complied with the request using it's laser to mute the sound in the chamber. Tinman did a lot of collateral damage so a little mic was nothing it the grand scheme of things it must have guessed she thought but she still had video at least. Still, she'd probably head down closer to the time, she wanted to hear the girl and the fact that Tinman was at least honoring her requests meant that this was going to be worse for it in a few minutes.

Aegir picked up on the thoughts though he knew that it would do no good but to worry Juniper if he relaid them so he did nothing.

He dared not tamper with her mind further, just that little nudge least she or another get suspicious later on. He was watched closer here and the fact that Juniper was present had given him a bit of pause, his fun had gone a bit too far. They were probably watching him now.

Tinman considered for a moment. “OF ALL YOUR ISLAND EXPERIENCES WHICH HAS BEEN YOUR FAVORITE AND WHY?”

Though it had processed the fact that she might not have liked any of them it was likely that she did have a favorite amongst them. A best of the worse so to speak. Of course this answer had not been a huge interest to it, Tinman was not seeking to gauge in conversation that directed it towards determining her identity.