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Adaptability was a fundamental in achieving greatness. Erica had never actually wanted greatness, but she could still appreciate the sentiment behind it. It was one of those basic rules. Adapt or die. That was basic biology. Sure she hadn’t actually studied the subject since her senior year of high school, it wasn’t exactly something that was

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[floozyfacade]

Olive wasn't even in the Hub. She was passing by, she was close, but she wasn't actually within the building itself, mostly because she had no call to be. When something hit her back, though, the only response was to crouch down and retrieve the little ball, heading in to hold it out to the older girl. "I can tell," she said, brow raising a little as she stifled a laugh. "I didn't think it was that hard a game. Don't worry about it."

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Walking over towards the door, drink in one hand and a smile on her face Erica shrugged sheepishly. Pulling the swizzle stick from her mouth, she felt a little bad that she had done it in the first place. The redhead was right; foosball wasn't typically something that needed to be practiced.

"I was just distracted. Apparently I've got some sort of pent-up aggression or something. I'm fairly certain psychiatrists would have a field day with me," she said with a laugh.

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"Well, if I remember what I've read correctly," Olive said, "it's all about sex and your mother, if that helps any." She shook her head, eyes rolling, and glanced around at the other scattered occupants of the Hub before she looked back again. "I'm pretty sure they'd have a field day with any of us, stuck here like this." There were all kinds here, for one, and for another, she was pretty sure most of them were afflicted with some variation of Stockholm Syndrome - even, at times, herself.

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A bemused frown crossed onto Erica's features for a split second before she laughed. If nothing else could be said about this girl, whomever she was, it was that she definitely knew how to put as sentence together. She had to admire that. It made her think in the way that she was supposed to. Her mind didn't feel like a hamster on a treadmill.

"Ah yeah. And let's not forget penis envy. We can't forget that one." She held out her hand for the ball, figuring that even if she wasn't going to play she shouldn't leave the thing down a key component. "Probably. This place sort of begs for us to be studied."

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"Kinda feel like we're already being studied," Olive admitted, letting the ball drop into the other girl's hand. "And I haven't even been here four months yet. I can't imagine five years in this place." For all she knew, her newfound conversation partner had endured exactly that - there were too many people for her to know all of them yet - but if that was the case, Olive was sure she'd forgive her. It couldn't be an uncommon sentiment in a place like this.

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That was actually a dark thought. Erica can't say that her mind hadn't already gone there, hadn't looked for signs of observation towers or whatever people used to study those in the wild. So far she hadn't actually seen any, but there was no saying that someone with technology powerful enough to rip people from their lives couldn't make themselves invisible.

She stopped herself from following that train of thought further. It was wandering way too close to paranoid territory. Bad as these past few days had been, going there would only make it worse. A frown wrinkled her forehead, before giving herself a slight shake to snap out of it. "Neither can I and I've only been here for a few days. If we were being studied, then I hope whomever's on the otherside likes their results."

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"Yeah, I kinda hope they don't," Olive said, and glanced upward, "'cause they can suck it." She didn't really believe anyone was up there, and she wasn't even sure she believed anyone was watching. For all she knew, being here was really some kind of natural phenomenon she didn't understand; there were clearly a lot of things in the world beyond her comprehension, so how was she to be sure portals between alternative universes didn't actually just exist in the wild? She looked back to the brunette, shrugging, giving a lopsided smile. "Seriously, though, it's not so bad. I mean, home's better, but if you've gotta be stuck somewhere, it could be way worse. So, um, welcome. To the island. I'm Olive."

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The way that the redhead said that caused Erica to burst out laughing. Maybe it was the alcohol, but she knew that it was probably nothing more than the fact that it was funny. If there was someone or something watching them, then telling them to suck it echoed exactly what she was feeling. This wasn't the sort of thing that majority of people who were at all sane seemed to take easily.

"Yeah, I could probably name a few places that would be less than ideal to take a weirdly permanent vacation to," Erica said with a slight nod of her head. "But thanks. I'm Erica."

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"Not permanent," Olive started with a laugh, because that seemed like an important point to her (she needed, even now, to believe this wouldn't last above a year, that she'd see home again sooner rather than later). The name, though, made her stop, head tipping slightly to the side as she considered Erica and smiled, a measure of curiosity in her expression.

It could have been a coincidence, of course, but new arrivals on the island only came in a handful at a time, and she doubted many of them shared a name. "Albright? Sorry, um, wow, creepy of me - Eduardo mentioned you showed up." It was difficult to imagine a girl like this with a guy like Mark.

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"Well, it feels permanent." Erica was fairly certain that she was using the right word. Anything that didn't have an immediate end date and pushed the boundaries of 'long term' was definitely permanent. Or permanentish. In three days the only real conclusion that she has reached was that she didn't actually know how people did it. How they managed to stay and stay sane.

Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, confusion crossing her features for a moment. Then it was gone, ushered off with a shake of her head. "Yeah, Albright. You're right that does sound creepy, but I think given the few days I'll let it slide." She paused thinking it through. "I guess I sort of cramped Eduardo's style by showing up here, so it makes sense he talked about me."

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"Cramped his style?" Olive echoed, brow arching a little as she stifled a laugh. "No, just, you dated Mark, right? I'm sorry, I feel weird knowing that, but uh -" This time she let it out, a huff of a laugh, not wholly amused. "If it's Mark, it's news." She was tempted to ask Erica how she could date a guy like that, but given that she really didn't know Mark beyond some weird dream hallucination thing and everything Eduardo had told her, maybe there was a side of him Erica had seen she just didn't know. Besides, everyone made mistakes. "I don't think he ran around telling just everyone, though, it's - we're dating, so."

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Erica wanted to know when she stopped being Erica Albright and became the girl who dated Mark Zuckerberg. She cannot recall when that change happened, only that it had become markedly worse after that night. It wasn't fair. Shouldn't he get to be the one who gave up his identity to her? This seemed like yet another unpleasant side-effect to being nice long after she probably should've thrown in the towel.

"Ah," she said, eyes wideningly slightly as this revelation as she nodded. This was the girl to whom he had scampered off to after dropping her at his place. It made sense that he would go to his girlfriend's, even if she couldn't remember Mark ever mentioning that Eduardo had one. "I didn't know that, but now I do. You're the girl whose place he went to, aren't you?"

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Olive nodded. "After you showed up, yeah," she said. In spite of herself, she kept straining to hear some trace of judgment in Erica's voice at that, but there was none. Maybe it was true that things were different in college. Maybe people in her particular class were just assholes. Either way, it was nice, almost a relief. "I just live... right over from it, actually, from his place, so it's, you know, it's... convenient. Not that that's why - yeah. He came over, he mentioned it. Sorry if I'm, like, prying all over the place. It's nice to have a face to go with the name and all that."