The lights going out made Malika jump. She covered her ears, let out a faint whimper, and tried to block out the images in her mind. The darkness swam around in her mind. It felt as if someone was groping around in her skull, she felt lost again. Lost. Destined to wander around for all eternity, her only purpose to clean up after people, people who were a lot more powerful than she was, she was doomed to be a slave. That feeling of hopelessness began to swell and no matter what she did to fight back it only seemed to grow stronger. But she should not back out. She should fight it, fight it and establish that she was, in fact, worthy of standing up right here and now. Even if it was faint at this time, her newfound resolve was enough to keep her going. She listened to what the others were saying, trying to get it out of her mind.<br/><br/>But she found her eagerness to make friends beginning to fade.<br/><br/>“Time? Sorry… I really don’t know what time it is…” She answered honestly. Her sense of time had been thrown off significantly. There didn’t seem to be any clock in the room, from what she cared to take notice of, so it was natural that her sense of time would be thrown off.<br/><br/>“Maybe.” Malika responded to Tabby’s joke with a smile and a shrug. Then she added, when her name was mentioned. “It’s alright. I don’t mind huge messes, really…” Tabby seemed like someone who was light-hearted and enjoyed a joke. That was what she gathered by what she said, anyway.  She wasn’t so good at going along with jokes. Most of her life, she was told to keep quiet, like a mouse, or else. If she so much as looked at the ‘squishies’, as Alexei, the Russian, referred to them as, she knew it would not have gone well. Even now, she was avoiding the eye of a lot of people. The visions from that test, and the thought of the ‘squishies’ she was fighting against, causing her to retreat back into her shell. She took in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out slowly.<br/><br/>Her hands balled into fists and she took in another breath. If she wasn’t even able to keep herself together now, what use would she be when the time came to stand and fight? Maybe that voice was right… She was a lost cause. She had no purpose; she was not allowed to be human. Why should she be allowed? Had she known the thoughts of the others, she would not have been the least bit surprised. Perhaps she was not cut out for this. Perhaps the fact she was a cleaner really would deter others from wanting to associate with her. After all, being a cleaner meant that she was the lowest of the low, the filthiest of the filth. So insignificant that people could make messes because ‘someone would get it eventually.’ Would it be the same way here, she wondered? She really hoped it wouldn’t.<br/><br/>Malika had also turned her attention to the new person wandering in. She found herself staring, in spite of not wanting to. “More company, huh?” Another person? But the room was already pretty full, she thought to herself. Which was somewhat true, considering the room seemed to crowded with just who was all in here.