<span style="font-family:Acme">Getting food wasn’t meant to be a difficult task here in the community. After all, someone had decided to decree that killing all the criminals would simply be too wasteful so they did have to make sure everyone got fed. It was also easy because they made it intuitive. It was set up just like middle school. Most of the community members had at least made it that far in life and even if they hadn’t, they knew enough to play follow the leader and that was good enough to teach them how to grab a tray and scoop what they wanted. <br/>
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While getting food was easy, though, getting <i>good</i> food was extremely difficult. The problem there was that the cooks had a very limited supply of real ingredients and the rest was all fake and, well, quite frankly it was crap. The people who got into line first - the ones who either pushed and shoved or were too terrifying to have to even try any of that - always got the good food and then everyone else was left with bowls of mystery goop. Everyone got used to it sooner or later, but it took a while. Even the real prisons - where all the new recruits were coming from - had better food than this. It didn’t quite make sense, but it’s how it was. <br/>
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Half expecting to get food that would make her throw up didn’t exactly lead Brandy to be wearing a pleasant face as she grabbed her tray and started walking behind the rest of the line, eyeing up the different options. Really, they didn’t look too different at all. Each goop was just a different color and in the end she settled for one that looked like cheese. Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t. <br/>
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She was in the process of scooping herself a plate when Aaron walked up to her again, flashing her something that she really didn’t get a good enough look at before he put it away again. Brandy still hadn’t even received her own room number so she wasn’t honestly sure how he could know they were neighbors. That wasn’t the important part, though. <br/>
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“They’re going to come after <i>you</i> if you don’t stop messing with their toys,” she replied with significant annoyance. “And I won’t be giving you more than one warning. Just like I don’t need more than one warning. I’m a girl, not a child.” Brandy couldn’t help but feel like he was babying her and she wouldn’t have it. She certainly would’ve been open to making a friend, but that didn’t seem to be at all what he had in mind. In prisons, the only men who had tried to protect her were the ones who wanted her even more and who ended up doing things that were even worse. <br/>
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Although she didn’t necessarily shove him away, Brandy certainly wasn’t paying him too much attention. Instead, she was scooping her food onto her tray. “I don’t know where you’ve been in the past however many years, but the prisons I’ve been in have done a good job of teaching me to take care of myself instead of letting someone else do it. Having someone else step in always lets you down in the end.” <br/>
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It is within these words that some of Brandy’s inner workings are revealed. She was a woman who didn’t know how to trust. Either the ability had been stolen from her, or she’d never had it in the first place. With someone standing where she was standing, it was really hard to tell which was the truth.</span>