As the melody-induced gyrations continue further, 23 rotates its head to stare directly at the newly arrived individual. Past due for a little oil, there is a slight creak from its movements, and the young man immediately looks over at it. Noticing that 23 is looking right at him, he flashes a smile and raises up one finger in a ‘shh’ gesture before turning his attention back to Josephine.Mikah has glanced at the recent arrival a few times with an amused smile, obviously looking forward to seeing people’s reactions once they realize he’s there.Considering that Lucas would rather die than be outdone; when he can tell the song is winding up for a flourish before ending, he leads Mark for a spin, and during the return, he takes on a wide stance, crouching slightly. Once Mark has returned, Lucas supports

While Lucas is still leisurely taking his sweet-ass time before finally joining the others in the brotherhood HQ-destined elevator, Mark, Miss Calculated and 23 have already left to go examine 23’s instruction set progress. Unable to continue using Mikah as a walking handbag, Mark had to settle for stuffing his phone halfway down the front of his dress, keeping it pinned in place by virtue of the dress’s snug fit.Standing inside the waiting elevator, Jonathan’s tense expression finally relaxes a little bit. He successfully finished his nerve-wracking task of passing on the contents of their ‘totally normal and definitely not incited by a system’s request’ conversation to Mikah, thankfully managing to skip the extra challenging modifier of having to actually say it out loud.“Hmm, I t

While the elevator is in transit, Mikah sighs softly and reaches up with one hand, gently kneading his forehead for a few seconds.“Hey, you okay, man? If you need us to give you a few minutes alone or something, it’s cool.” As Lucas notices these movements on Mikah’s part, he speaks up without even pausing to give it any thought, eliciting a small smile from Mikah.“It’s fine, I’m fine. It’s nothing to worry about.” While saying this, Mikah can’t help feeling self-conscious about his actions upon having attention brought to them, so he lowers his hand and turns his line of sight to the steadily climbing floor counter above the door.&ldqu

Once Mikah has ensured that the desk drawer is securely shut, he wheels his chair back a short distance, getting ready to stand up. However, rather than getting up, he stays in place, visibly lost in thought for a few moments before finally speaking up.“You know… Isn’t it rather, hmm, fortunate, I suppose? That the bots decided to test out the climate system in advance, with enough time to report the results to us accordingly? That we were caught just in time to put in a request for the masks and everything, mere moments before heading up there ourselves? Sure, coincidences happen all the time, but if you don’t mind my asking, do you have any plans that involve Alley Cat anytime soon?” Once Mikah puts his thoughts in