[ For a while sometime after the mission, Sam just... disappears. For exactly three hours exactly. That's how long he can lock the sim room for, that's how long he can withdraw into a painful memory and keep everyone else out. Holding Karli's lifeless body, and letting his mind go painfully blank. Redwing chimes a notification at Sam when, three hours later, the locks automatically disengage, allowing anyone else to enter the simulation room. And Sam immediately switches away from this reconstruction. The simulation seamlessly changes before anyone enters, whether they're looking for Sam, or for any other reason whatsoever - they'll find themselves in a simulation currently running.
The setting is a T shaped pier jutting out into the water in Delacroix, Louisiana. The pier is home to a fishing business, faded signs declaring it 'Wilson Family Seafood'. The Louisiana air is hot and thick with humidity, but a gentle breeze blows in from the water and further inland through the cypress trees. The sun is setting, bathing the pier in rich golden hues. There's music, faded into the background - people seem to be having a cookout; rather a crawfish boil for those familiar with the region. The mood is good, laughter is in the air, overlapping the sound of children playing and the faint cacophony of cicadas in concert. The focus of the simulation is the boat anchored to the pier though, a small and old fishing boat that's recently gotten some loving work and a fresh coat of paint. The name declares it the Paul & Darlene. Sam's sitting perched on the bow of the boat, shoulders slumped and unaware of the company, though there's an unmistakable tension in his body that he can't quite seem to shake, and his gaze seems far away without actually going to the distant, wide horizon.
If someone joins him, though, he shifts, pops open the lid of a cooler. There's a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Local beer, mostly, and some soda, and whatever else one might desire. It's a quiet invitation for company to be kept. ]
Open: Simulation Room
✪ You Put Up Your Defences When You Leave.