"Buttons" Ian thought as he straightened his brand-new white lab coat "it's been way too long since I've had a coat with buttons… or a shirt with buttons actually." He fiddled carefully with one, admiring it. "I've missed them..." He clipped his temporary access badge to his new coat, stepped out of his cell, which he had been given permission to leave on his own, and headed off down the corridor. The guards didn't even watch him go as he strode towards Dr Regent's office. He reached a guarded check point and handed over his access card. The guard, who was unmasked, gave him a second, suspicious look while Ian just stood there looking back innocently. He even tried an endearing smile. It almost certainly did not help and was almost definitely not as sweet as he had meant it to be. He wondered if all the guards would be judging him like this, under their helmets. He hadn't combed his hair well this morning… After a few seconds, the temporary doctor was let through the checkpoint, and he continued on his way.
He passed into the same area of the site he had been in yesterday. Spotting Doctor Loanyard's office, his thoughts turned to his ring. He stopped briefly, before shaking loose the unimportant thoughts from his mind and carrying on. Near the end of the long metal corridor was a door with the name 'Dr D. Regent' carved into the smooth surface.
Ian roughly patted the door with his knuckles and was beckoned is with the oddly cheery call of "Come i~in!" He was more than a little bewildered by the happy, youthful call of the highly notable "senior" foundation doctor. Nevertheless, he pushed the door open, and as he did, someone he assumed to be Doctor Regent span around on an office chair, raising his arms high and wide in greeting. He was half hidden behind a flamboyantly engraved black desk. The room had pale blue walls and a white floor as opposed to the dull grey of the rest of the facility. The door frame inside the room had been painted bright red, and while Ian could not see that, he would certainly have appreciated it.
Indeed, his eyes were fixed rather firmly on Doctor Regent, with his mouth parted ever so slightly.
"Hi! Hey there! What's up?" The happy doctor waved his hand as if wavering to a friend, but with both hands. He had neatly combed black hair and he was as thin as a rake, with a tight lab coat to match. Although his face was slightly aged, it wasn't given away by his cheery, high pitched voice. Regent's expression was the epitome of happiness, which was mostly made up by his cartoonish bright and airy eyes.
After a moment of examining the first Doctor he had met who actually seemed to possess positive emotions, Ian headed farther into the odd Doctor's office.
"Come on! Sit down! I don't bite!" Regent maintained his delightfully happy tone as he urged Ian to sit. The brunet couldn't help but smile as he slumped into the soft chair in front of the fancy desk. "So you're Ian, huh? Nice to meet ya'! My name is Dan Regent, and I've been keeping an eye on you. I assume Dr Loanyard already told you this." Though he spouted words without hesitance, he spoke elegantly. Ian nodded, fairly certain he didn't want to interrupt. It was only at this moment that he thought to close his gaping mouth. "Good. Well, if that's the case then we don't have much to talk about. What a shame." The doctor's tone dropped a little. "Oh well!" he perked up again. "That just means that we can get onto the experiment right now!" Dan stood and headed for the door with a spring in his step. "Come on! Let's go!" he chimed when he noticed that Ian hadn't moved. Having barley sat down, his chair was still cold as he staired into the corner for a moment. Then, like someone had thrown an empty bucket at his head, he quickly jumped up and followed the bouncy doctor as he began to bound down the hallway.
Dan swung his arms and took exaggerated steps, and Ian had to rush to keep up with him. If other members of staff weren't leaping out of the way, clutching binders to their chest and making faces of blind panic, they were so drained by Regent's energy field that they almost seemed to liquidate internally as he passed. This was of course metaphorical, most likely they were simply very, very tired…. Of him.
"Have you read the file then? I know it was at short notice, but you were still on file as D-class and no one tells them anything. It's facility policy of course but it does rather mean we have to rush!" Regent chatted cheerfully even as he took long, quick strides down the hall, looking back over his shoulder and speaking loudly to be heard. Ian, again, could only nod, huffing rather embarrassingly much as he tried and failed to keep up without breaking into a jog. Regent was not much taller than him, but he seemed to be made of legs.
At their current pace they made it to a so called 'testing facility E-7361' in only a few minutes. Ian had expected there to be more doors between the offices and the home of what he could only imagine were some very terrible things but was surprised to find that there were only two. The Doctors, temporary and senior, showed the guards at the door their IDs and were allowed access to the testing facility. It was a modest affair, far less, for lack of a better term, 'fear inducing' than 173's containment.
They entered a small room with two doors on the far wall. One was labelled 'testing area' and the other labelled 'viewing area'. The Temporary signage on the walls indicated that there was an SCP inside, Euclid, with Memetic effects. A sign above the doors, which was illuminated by a red light, read "Live", which Ian found to be morbidly ironic given the… general vibe of the place. The slide-in label on the testing room door revealed its contents to be "SCP : '4-2-6'."
"You go in here," Regent pointed to the testing area with a friendly but bony finger. "and I go in here." he said as he strode over to and opened the door of the viewing area. "You remember what to do, right?" He gave him a trusting smile, still hanging onto the door, waiting for a response, of any kind.
Ian nodded absently, adding a thoughtful expression at the last minute. He was still straining his mind to take in the numerous and very foreboding warning signs on virtually every surface.
"Good! see ya' in a bit!" and he entered the room and closed the door behind him. This left Ian alone. Having long since desided that he thoroughly did not like being alone, he let out a breath and headed into the testing room.
It was only at the last second, as his hand found and turned the handle, he found himself wondering;
"What am I Doing here again?"
-/-/-/-
Someone left a comment, and so I was summoned.
