I would like to consider myself adaptable to circumstances.

He faces an imaginary mirror (the actual room lacking any such amenity outside of the glass in the door) and flexes.

–oops, cracking up now.

So — we'll work it out as we need to, yeah?

yeah. guess we will.

He walks soggily around the room and checks for anything interesting or removable; nope. The shower is not particularly disassemblable and the bed is more like a flat couch.

they labrat-proofed this place pretty good.

The door abruptly shuts itself. There are muffled clattering noises from past it. It opens again.

He startles and then tries to see what might be going on through the tiny window without getting close to the door. There isn't — okay with the door open, it is obvious that the corridor now turns right instead of left.

Might be showtime? (as if they know what they're doing)

or something.

He studies the scene.

i’m guessing if we try to stick around here they’re gonna give us an incentive to move.

Yeah that there is some internal screaming being stomped on.

Don't see any advantage in trying, right now, either.

What's around the bend?

A large room with a door immediately across from where they are entering and no other features in the walls. The ceiling is no higher than the corridor, which in context is oppressively low. The industrial carpet floor is patterned in large black and white curlicues — no, that's a maze.

there's gotta be a catch here.

What, you mean besides the door not going anywhere we want to be?

Snort.

try just walking out there. see what happens.

(Nonverbal agreement.)

He steps forward onto a white carpet square. Nothing happens. He taps toes gingerly to an adjacent black square.

The door at the far end announces its locking with the loud and visible slam of multiple oversized deadbolts into the frame.

It stays locked until he steps back onto the non-mazed carpet.

okay. not surprising, or anything, but kind of obnoxious.

guess we're following the right wall?

It's not that big and we can see the entire maze from here, or do we want to pretend stupid?

His eyes roam around the maze.

oh. yeah, now that you mention it. let’s just go, i guess.

He starts out. The carpet tiles are small enough that this will take some minutes to accomplish without misstepping even if he's got the right path.

— actually what if he just jumps from white tile to nearby white tile? Oh. Slam. Oh well.

seems like it’s tracking whether you follow the whole path.

...or they’re just watching us to make sure we don’t cheat.

Step. Step. Step.

Just yell at me if this ends up, like, conditioning to do whatever ridiculous-now-eventually-macabre task is in front of me, okay?

no gruesome science tasks for jonathan. noted.

Step. Step. Step.

(Perhaps he has reason to be concerned about that; this state of mind is just focusing on the necessary path and the feelings of walking. When it isn't internal screaming.)

Huh.

you can really focus.

better than the alternative. What are you occupying yourself with?