*beep* *beep* *beep*
As soon as my brain recognized the sound of an alarm, I woke up. My eyelids feel heavy, and to tell you the truth.
I don't want to get up.
Not because I am tired mind you, but because I feel… too rested. It's strange to say it well, but if I need to say why, that's my answer.
*beep* *beep* *beep*
"Urg… stop it." I say in annoyance as it continued to ring louder.
My hand moves by itself trying to stop the alarm from sounding, however after some seconds since I reached the nightstand, I stop.
There isn't an alarm.
*beep* *beep* *beep*
"Please somebody turn it down…" I say while drowsily getting up and trying to find the source of the sound.
My eyes turn to the table but on it only a framed photo is found.
On it a girl with a soft smile plastered on her face appeared, although the thing that took my attention wasn't her beautiful smile, but her unnerving blood red eyes.
.
.
.
Seconds following that, I fully open my eyes and start looking from wall to wall in disbelief.
'Metallic looking walls with blue lines all along them, check.'
I inhale some air.
'Photo of Carmen found on the table next to the bed, check.'
And I exhale it.
'And…'
I think while slowly turning around and seeing a full body mirror with my reflection on it.
'…Yep It's Ayin.'
As soon as I see the dumbfounded look that my Ayin's face has, or better said mine, I let myself fall onto the bed…
"Arg!"
However I didn't know that the space between myself and the wall was closer that I thought.
'It hurts…' I think while caressing my head. 'I can feel pain, that's another check...'
.
.
.
"Fuck…" I mutter to no one.
I am not somebody who says the f word a lot, but…
I can't help it okay?!
I thought that it was a dream!
A hyper realistic one alright, but still a dream!
*beep* *beep* *beep*
"Please somebody stop that alarm!" I shout almost in desperation.
*bee-*
.
.
.
'It stopped…'
An all too familiar sigh comes out of me.
'I am tired… I…'
And just when I thought that I was going to have some peace of mind and think about what is happening-
The door opens and on the other side, the last person I want to see right now appears.
"Manager, please prepare yourself faster, as the day will start soon." Angela's soft voice resounds on the room, making me to utter a small…
"Yes…?"
…fatigued and confused affirmation.
"Face the fear, build the future. It's the motto of the founder, whom we call 'A'." Angela comments in her silvery voice as always. "Which part of the motto do you prefer?" She ends, directing her gaze from the almost never ending hallway to me.
Hearing the question directed at myself, I respond.
"I think it would be Build the future."
After tidying myself fast, both of us found ourselves walking down the hallway right to the office, and one thing led to another and before I knew it, Angela started talking about the company.
"The future is inevitable, but undecided. One could just give in to the future, or shape it with a purpose…"
As I continue to hear her, a question rouses in my head. However the fear of asking it is gnawing me ever so slightly.
"…These technologies could be the salvation of the mankind. We're changing the future." She says softly, although with an unknown feeling behind those words.
"…I see." I say still deep in my thoughts.
Seeing how I respond without much attention at her words, Angela stops for a moment and looks at me.
"…Manager I am not someone who likes to intrude on other person's thoughts, but I am someone who doesn't like being ignored on a conversation."
After hearing such words, my legs falter for a second.
"I am sorry, but I was thinking about something since we started talking about the-" I try to say, however when I turn my eyes to see her, I am greeted by her amber eyes.
Her beautiful and at the same time terrifying eyes.
After taking a deep breath, I talk.
"…As I was saying, my question is a bit more personal, so I was thinking if it was a bit inappropriate to ask it."
"…As long it isn't about the secrets of Lobotomy Corporation, then I won't have any problem responding them." She says still making a hole in my face with her gaze.
"Then… I would like to know about…" I say while putting a weird expression. "…How you see your own future."
I can feel how my face starts to get hotter after asking it.
.
.
.
'Why did I open my mouth?'
"My… future?" She says confused while tilting her head. "I don't understand what you are talking about."
"Yes, I…"
'Mmm…'
Right now I am regretting asking the question.
"I mean, you said that these technologies could be the salvation of humankind, right?"
She nods.
"Then, what about you?"
She continues to look at me, but even though her face doesn't change, her eyes feel softer than before.
"I am not a human, but a machine. A mere tool if you may. I am pretty sure I told you about it on the first day. My one and only purpose is to serve the company as you know." She says like nothing before continuing down the hallway.
Seeing the response I stay still for some seconds while looking at her back. Then I continued following her like before.
"…"
'You are lying Angela… Those emotions that you showed weren't one of a machine…'
They looked so genuinely human too...
So much that I forgot that she was a machine even though she said it just some seconds ago.
As I continued to look at her, I was thinking of calling her, but…
I did not.
I just stayed silent and followed her.
"There was some confusion last time, as I am in charge of the security of your office, but I forgot to pay attention to the meeting room." Angela says while we are waiting for Malkuth to show up. "The employee who made a fuss yesterday resigned. Good job."
As she finishes her words, her face turns to look at me.
"You know what it means to 'resign' here in the company, don't you?"
Hearing her, I don't need to think too much to know what she refers to.
More, I know pretty well what it means.
With a nod on my part, she looks at the door where the employee from yesterday knocked.
"Good. Lobotomy Corporation is one of the wings of the world, and as such, it has a prestige and efficiency that it has to conserve. We can't let one of the many gears that move the system to affect those two qualities of the company."
I nod again, but this time a bit more hesitant.
Thankfully it wasn't seen, as Angela is distracted looking at a door opening from which Malkuth appears.
"Manager!" Malkuth exclaims while rapidly stopping right before us. "I am sorry for the trouble caused yesterday. I forgot that the Agent Camille was under your command." She says while bowing energetically.
As I was about to open my mouth to respond to her, I am interrupted.
"Malkuth, it's good that you reflect on your mistakes, but right now time is being wasted." Angela says coldly. "I strongly recommend that you proceed to the principal matter of why you were called."
'…I feel like I shouldn't be here.'
"…Yes Lady Angela." Malkuth responds less spirited than before. With a little cough and a straight gaze from her, she continues. "Manager the reason I called you was because I want to say thanks for completing what I asked for, and that I need your approbation for which of the following research proposals we should continue."
The moment she finishes, a question arose in my head.
'What did I complete? Better said, what did she ask?'
Seeing my face, Angela responds.
"The Sephirah will present you with different 'missions' that you need to do. Completing them will accelerate the different researches that each department has. This should have been informed by Malkuth, but because of the employee who interrupted us yesterday, she forgot." She says without taking a breath.
Hearing what Angela said, Malkuth starts bowing while apologizing like before.
"M-Manager could you please select the research?" She talks after some seconds of intense bowing.
At those words, she takes three different papers from her little clipboard and hands them shakily to me. Their titles are the following.
TT2 Protocol, Joint Command and Assembly Summons.
'This…'
Without even reading completely the paper, my selection is obvious.
"Advance with this one, I think it will help a lot down the line. Then go with Joint Command and finally Assembly Summons." I say giving them back in the same order.
"Alright!" She says without second thoughts.
The moment that she takes them, she says goodbye and goes back to god knows where.
"Then Manager, let's go and start the day." Angela says neutrally as always.
The moment I sat on the chair and looked at the monitors, the leftmost one lights up. On it, an exclamation sign appears on the light brown tab.
'This must be from Malkuth.'
Opening on it, the following message appeared:
"Hello manager! The new function unlocked thanks to the research should be working without a problem now! If you need help with anything, don't forget to tell me! :)"
.
.
.
I needed to contain myself from letting out a little laugh thanks to the happy face that she sent.
Touching the voice button I respond.
"Thanks Malkuth, and don't worry, if I ever need something I won't hesitate to ask for help."
Ending the message I was going to ask Angela to start the day, but another exclamation mark from Malkuth appears.
Looking at it, a small but stiff smile appears on my face.
The message was:
"Okay! :)"
And nothing more.
"Angela start the day, please." I say looking at her still with the smile on my face.
"…Alright." She says a bit slower than normal. "However, I need to say something before we continue."
Ending that sentence, she first sits on the chair behind me before continuing.
"Starting from today, a new update will take place, which will help you on performing better that your predecessors."
I nod.
"First of all, you'll be able to examine and send Agents to do works with the other abnormalities located on the department of the Control Team. I prepared some files with the corresponding documentation on how to deal with them efficiently."
Ending that, the leftmost monitor lights up and where the LOB points should be, a tab called Abnormality Entries is found. After touching it, the part where the details of the Agents disappears, and is replaced by a list composed of the following titles.
[O-03-01]
[O-03-03]
[F-04-83]
[F-05-52]
[F-01-48]
Touching the first one, the code is replaced by the name Whitish Glow, then a file with an image of a ball of light appears. Below it, text about tips, experiments and entries with it appear.
"Now the second thing, is that after selecting an Agent to perform a certain task, you can input a short message with details about how they need to perform, as from today onwards you will need to work with trickier Abnormalities."
"I see…" I respond.
'Everything suddenly becomes harder… However it wouldn't be Lobotomy Corporation without these spikes on difficulty.'
"With these, we hope that your work here in the company will become more efficient." Angela says with a small smile on her face.
I stay still for a second before I continue.
"Thank you Angela." I say looking at her one last time.
Turning back to the monitors, I start reading the entries.
"…No problem." She says quietly before the gloomy voice appears again.
"Day start…"
"Yet again… we almost… didn't make it." Ray says while panting on one of the corners of the main room.
*pant*
*pant*
And he wasn't the only one.
"I… I am…" Shao tries to talk, only to be stopped by Camille.
"Yeah… you are… sorry… We know…" She says between breaths, but still with a bit of anger behind her words. With a gulp she continues. "Just wake up… earlier… and eat earlier… will you?"
"I… I… I…" The girl tries to respond, but before she could, she blacks out.
"O-Oi! Shao! Are you alright?!" Ray says preoccupied while grabbing her just in the nick of time before her head hits the floor.
Shaking her doesn't do anything so when he was about to shout, Camille's left hand appears on his shoulder, stopping him.
"She… will be alright… Just a bit of… hyperventilation." Camille says like nothing while searching for her tablet.
"Hyperventilation?! We need to call-" Ray says rapidly but stops at the action of the blonde.
Taking the girl from Ray's hands, she puts her on the floor.
"She will be alright, just a bit of air and our energetic clown will resuscitate." She says while taking her tablet out. "Take her legs and lift them, this will make it so that the blood will go faster to the heart and the brain. She will wake up faster if that happens."
"A-Alright." He says while dropping the baton he had in hand and raising Shao's legs.
'She is lighter than I thought.' The moment that thought enters his mind, Ray shakes his head.
After some seconds, Camille's tablet vibrates, and she talks again.
"Got a job with One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds." She says while putting her tablet back on her pocket. "The moment she wakes up give her a bit of water."
"Alright." He responds with a nod.
After seeing him nod, Camille starts walking to the leftmost door on the room. But just before she goes out to the hallway she says one last thing:
"And don't try to take advantage of her, there are cameras all over the place." Camille says with a cheeky smile on her face.
"…You…" Ray says a bit angry but with rosy cheeks on his face.
"See you later."
With that, Ray and a passed out Shao are the only ones left on the room.
.
.
.
'The other Agents already left before we even got here.'
Looking back at the unconscious girl, Ray thinks about Camille's words, but rapidly shakes his head and thinks of the person in question.
'One Sin and a Hundred of Good Deeds is a Zayin abnormality, and I already worked with him so I can say that he is pretty docile, but I can't help but be concerned.'
As he ends that thought, he is surprised as Shao suddenly makes a big inhalation of air.
"Shao are you okay?" He says while lowering her legs and checking her.
"Mhmm? Ray… what are… you doing on my bedroom…?" She says while caressing her eyes and putting her carefree smile as always.
"…This isn't your bedroom Shao, but the main room." He says while taking a bit of air.
'I can already see a headache incoming.'
As she slowly starts to get up, Ray helps her.
"You just fainted when we got here…" He lowers his voice a bit in defeat because of the girl in front of him.
"Eh…? But I am pretty sure I was sleeping so soundly just now…?" Shao responds clueless about the events that just transpired. "Oh… Wait a minute don't just let go… I feel a bit dizzy."
"…"
Just when Ray was going to say how careless one person can be, his tablet vibrated.
'Perform Instinct work with Opened Can of WellCheers… But after drinking the can, get another two for later? And I shouldn't consume them? What the hell? These task are stranger than before…'
"…I knew my tasks were coming late." Ray comments a bit speechless while looking at the clingy girl.
With a sigh on his part, he leaves her with a cup of water and goes to complete his odd job.
'What the hell did just happen…?' I think while seeing the lone girl on the control room drinking a cup of water. 'Well, I just hope that the special task I gave him isn't troublesome…'
With a sigh on my part, I turn my eyes to the entries of the abnormalities.
'This department has two abnormalities which weren't in the game.'
The first one is Whitish Glow. Following the entries, it's a Zayin and as easy to manage as One Sin. If not easier. He only likes Attachment work. Anything else, and then that Agent loses its white colour. It's dangerous because that lets us recognize who is an abnormality and who not, so I need to remember only attachment. Thankfully it won't kill the Agent.
'Although it's interesting that his chamber is located just below the control room…'
I close the file and open the last one.
'This one though…'
F-01-48 or by its other name, The Red Queen.
An abnormality who has no arms nor legs, but a being akin to a snake sat on a checkered chair. It had a crown on top of what should be called its head, which was decorated only by a single eye that came out from a crack in the middle of its white face.
To tell you the truth it's a bit creepy.
It's between a Teth and a He, so it was classified as a High Teth, but reading its managerial tips, makes me feel like it's more of a He.
A total of four tips.
They aren't hard, but a bit complicated to do.
Number 1. The Red Queen loves talks resembling tea parties. Using fruit tarts while doing instinct work is extremely recommended. If fruit tarts aren't in hand, then some soda cans can be good enough as a replacement.
'That one is easy to satisfy, as we have Opened Can of WellCheers, although why soda cans? Moving on, the next one is easy too.'
Number 2. The Red Queen loves chatty people. Although it doesn't look like it, a talkative and energetic person is the preference of this abnormality.
'…I am sorry Shao, but from what I seen, you'll be thrown under the bus here…'
Number 3. The Red Queen only likes Instinct and Attachment works. Performing any of the other two will result with the Agent being decapitated no matter if the result was good or bad.
'Just ignore Insight or Repression.'
And finally Number 4. The Red Queen loves entertainment. No matter what, keep her entertained. If the result of the work is bad, then the Agent will ends decapitated.
'Another instakill abnormality… I need to have caution or I'll lose an Agent on my second day.'
I take a look at the situation with the blonde girl, and I can see that it's going good enough.
The moment the blond girl entered the containment chamber, the gigantic skull directed its gaze at her, however it soon looked to the ground in front of him.
Camille, without making a single sound, got to where the abnormality's gaze ended and kneeled.
With that her story started.
.
.
.
There was once a girl who loved her family.
Her dad gave her a lot of hugs, and her mom a lot of kisses on her cheeks.
Although they weren't a lot of time together, and she only saw them on the night, she cared for them a lot!
She always helped her mom to make the meals and sometimes she received help from his dad to do her homework.
She was happy.
"The debt is becoming harder to pay."
She loved her dad.
"We can't do Urban Legend requests, that's akin to suicide!"
She loved her mom.
"But then what can we do!?"
She loved them so much.
.
.
.
"…Let's sell her."
…But why didn't they love her back?
"Mom! Dad!"
Her cries fell on deaf ears.
"Mom! Dad! Please!"
She shouted harder.
"Please!"
However they never looked back.
Before she knew it, her little but cosy bedroom became a putrid and cold room which wasn't even hers alone.
One, two, three, four… no matter how many times she counted the number of voices, the amount of people here seemed endless.
She made friends there, but before she knew it, they disappeared.
"Where is Marcos? Where is Jacob?"
She asked the other people, but response never appeared.
Already a bad man came here a lot of times, and grabbed crying children, but she couldn't know who they were, as she was blindfolded.
Nor could she help them as she was tied from both her wrists and her legs.
They were forcefully feed with cold and disgusting food. She almost threw up some times, but she endured, as a slap came whenever she was close to vomiting.
.
.
.
She wanted to see her mom and dad, and ask them.
Why?
However, living in a darkness which felt eternal, her sense of time became the same.
.
.
.
Almost never the other persons talked, but when they did, the same thing was repeated.
"I am hungry…"
"He is dead…"
"Please stop…!"
"Couldn't endure the cold…"
"More…"
"Please…!"
She sometimes asked about her friends, but one time…
"Argh!"
She was punched.
She didn't knew who did it, but after several times, she learned to be silent.
Like the others.
.
.
.
She was scared.
She just wanted to go back.
With her little but warm bed.
With her tasty meals.
And…
With her mom and dad…
However…
"Shit… we only have one alive!" A raspy voice which she remembers even to this day made an echo on the now empty room.
The moment she heard it, she was hit.
Over and over.
She was thrown across the room, slapped, and even times bitten.
.
.
.
She couldn't see it, but she could feel it.
Her beautiful blond hair became disgusting, probably by the waste of the corpses surrounding her. Her skin which was white as a pearl was manifesting purple spots all over it. And her fair figure which didn't have any single marks on it, was now filled with scars and bites hidden beneath layers of rags.
.
.
.
This happened an uncountable amount of times.
Each time the bad man said the same thing while he came to do the usual.
"Shit! Where is the meat! Why is it so hard to get nowadays?!"
But then one time…
"I can't use this exotic one for the normal clients… I need someone worthy of this meal."
Time passed, and she was fed a bit better, and was hit less and less…
When she was regaining strength, and was recuperating a bit of hope…
She was lifted.
"Well the meat now should be soft enough to cook with after some weeks… I just hope these scumbags like it..." The same voice as before came while grabbing her pain filled body.
When she heard it, she confirmed what she didn't want to.
This was a restaurant.
A human restaurant.
As she started trembling on the shoulder of the person carrying her, she only received another hit, but unlike other times it was on her face.
"Now don't become nervous! Your meat will become too hard for the clients!"
This was the first time she felt fear.
Or better said, true fear.
She tried to stop trembling but it only made her tremble more.
"Hey! I said...!"
Another punch.
And another.
Each tremble became a hit.
And before long, with each one she trembled less.
Little by little.
.
.
.
After being beaten and ungodly amounts of times, the man's breathing was rough.
"Ha… Ha… I lost it a bit and now your face doesn't look as good as before... I just hope they-"
But before his words scarred the girl's heart even more.
"Let her go."
A deep feminine voice resounded on the room.
Then everything went like a flash.
A faint red light which even passed the blindfolds befell, and before she knew it she found herself on the arms of another person. They were covered by clothes, but she could feel how thin but strong her muscles were.
.
.
.
Red was a bad colour.
One associated with blood.
On her childhood she hated it because one time she saw a lot of it on his father's clothes and was scared so bad, that she couldn't see him until the next day.
But now…
Every time she saw it…
She liked it.
She felt safe.
She felt strong.
She felt hope after a long time.
.
.
.
The strange person removed her blindfolds and cut the rope that was hurting her.
She tried to look at her saviour, but the light coming from another room was too much for the girl who lived almost half a year on total darkness.
But in just that little time she opened her eyes, she was able to see the colour of her hair.
A beautiful crimson red.
"Thank… you…!" It was a raspy and almost impossible to hear voice, but she heard it.
"…If you want to thank me then become stronger. Will make my work easier like that." After those words ended, a familiar smell of cigarette entered the girl's nose, but she didn't mind it.
They were harsh words, without a single ounce of care or affection, but they were enough to let the girl get up even if her legs hurt.
Still without even being able to see her saviour, she said the following.
"…Then how can I become as strong as you?"
The person stopped.
"…Just survive. That's enough."
And she continued walking without looking if the girl was okay or not.
"…just survive."
The girl repeated those words an unknown amount of times through her life, and before she knew it she found herself working on a nest for a wing.
There she made two friends.
A Hyper energetic girl who didn't care if she was late for work, and a guy concerned with too much things to her own liking.
.
.
.
With a strong sound, the door opens, and Camille looks up.
"…I got to engrossed talking about that old story." She says while taking a little tear out of her face.
However when she moved, she felt her head heavy.
She reaches out to the top of it and there she prickles her hand.
Lowering her hand, she looked at her finger which was bleeding just enough to do a small droplet of blood.
After some seconds, she put both of her hands on the crown of thorns and pulled it out of her head with a bit of force.
With her hands and part of her face bleeding, she puts the crown in front on the abnormality and said the following.
"Thank you, but I don't need your pity. Just that you heard is enough." She says while looking directly at the floating skull.
.
.
.
Seconds passed in silence, but they ended with a nod from the abnormality.
Seeing that, she gets out of the containment chamber.
'…That was something.'
I think after looking at how the girl took the E.G.O. gift from her head, hurting her hands in the process.
'Who would have guessed that employees could reject E.G.O. gifts…?' I think while looking at the exiting blonde. 'The amount of energy produced is the maximum too. I don't know if she has a great or a bad compatibility with that abnormality or what.'
With a sigh I turn my eyes from her.
'Let's see how the other girl is doing…'
"Perform Instinct work with The Red Queen, bring two sodas there and have… a tea party? Ray you know her? And why does she want soda? Plus, what is a tea party?" Shao says clueless as always and bombards the poor Ray with questions.
He stays silent and looks at the girl with a face of confusion, but responds her anyways.
"…From what little I know, The Red Queen is a Teth, but nothing more." He says concerned as always and a bit weird about the use of the two sodas that he brought over. "And a tea party is a social gathering between people of high standing where they discuss different topics, while drinking, you guessed it, tea."
"Oh!" She says amazed. "You know a lot don't you?"
"…Yeah a fair bit." Ray says a bit weird. "Anyways, just have caution with it alright? It's a Teth and I don't want you to be harmed alright?"
"Yeah!" She says while grabbing the two sodas that Ray had on each of his hands and running to the hallway.
.
.
.
Seeing her run to the chamber only makes him worry more.
With a sigh he was going to sit a moment, however…
"Oh? A new work? Fairy Festival…" He says while going his way.
"This must be it…" Shao stops talking to herself as she looks at the containment door with the code F-01-48.
The moment the door opens, she becomes able to see the abnormality on the containment chamber.
"Hello! I am Shao!" She says while entering the chamber like it was her own home.
The Red Queen, startled, looks at her and frowns, but just before she became able to do something, the rude intruder continues.
"I heard that you like something like tea parties, but unfortunately we don't have tea, so I got you some sodas! I heard you like them too!" She continues with her energetic attitude.
Hearing the words Tea party and soda, the abnormality calms a bit. Plus the friendly attitude from the girl makes her ignore the rude form of entering before.
"From what I read, tea parties are like a social gathering between people of high standing and yada yada yada, the thing I understood is that we talk!" She says while nearing one of the cans to the abnormality as it was one of her friends.
The Red Queen looks at her for some seconds, but nevertheless accepts it, making it levitate right in front of her face.
*Squish*
She opens it without touching it. Then a mouth appears on her face and starts drinking a bit of it through it.
"…Wow!" Shao says awed. "If I could do that, I would do this and that!"
The girl puts the can on the ground and then starts making strange poses while jumping from one part to another. This, surprisingly, makes the abnormality move like its giggling.
"What the hell is she doing?" I say without thinking as I watch the girl jump from there to there like nothing.
"…That's a good question manager." Even Angela stops working and appears behind my shoulder to say that.
"Ha… Ha… I worked up a sweat without even wanting to!" Shao happily says after drinking and ending the little bit of soda she had.
The abnormality only looks at her.
Sitting on the floor, Shao looks at the Queen back.
"Ha… Well… What can I say with you now…?" She says without caring much about her agitated condition. "Ah! I know! How I about I tell you about my friends!"
The Queen, interested in that topic, moves closer to her.
Seeing that she has the attention of the abnormality, she smiles a bit and continues.
"Let's start with Ray! Ahem. He is one of the best looking between all the employees I seen, and not only that, but he is pretty good with me and Camille. Although his concerned nature is a bit too much, he gets an 8.5 on my list of people that I like!" She says moving from side to side still sat on the floor.
The Queen, interested, moves her head to one side.
Although it isn't possible to know what she refers to, Shao responds her anyways.
"Camille? She has a bit of a shy personality normally, but when she opens her mouth, it looks like another person took her place. She goes all sharp making sometimes remarks that hurt a bit, but they are bearable." She says calmly, however her face rapidly transforms into one of false irritation. "But she is too nagging with that mouth of hers sometimes! Like today. Just because I took a bit more of time eating than usual, we almost arrived late, and then she got all mad with me…! For that, today she is an 8!"
She continues the talk while pouting, but is interrupted by how the Queen suddenly inches closer to her.
Again, like she knows what the abnormality is doing or asking, Shao responds to her.
"How I am with them?"
The Queen nods.
"Mh…" She does a pensive pose with her legs crossed.
Hearing such a question, she stops to think, then responds after some seconds passed.
"They sometimes feel a bit too… negative? Yeah that's the word. Like they have their own ghosts behind them which are always torturing them." Shao stops smiling for some seconds. "It's a bit hard to explain… Anyways!"
She stops thinking of how to say it in other ways.
"This is a problem that happens almost daily… Especially with Camille. I don't know what happened in her past, but sometimes she remains unresponsive even after I call her. This happens with Ray too of course, but in a smaller amount thankfully."
She sighs and looks at the empty can of soda in her hands.
"On those moments I take a bit the personality of Ray and start worrying about them. But I am not as good as Ray in taking care of people. Nor the collected mind of Camille. So in the end I feel more stressed out and worried myself."
She lowers her can on the ground.
"So what I do is simple."
She leaves the can on the floor, puts both of her hands on her face, and pulls her cheeks to make a smile.
"I smile. As easy as that."
The Queen looks at her surprised and confused at the same time.
"It easy. If I smile and I go happy-go-lucky, then they won't need to worry about me. And sometimes that helps them in come back to their senses." She takes her hands out of her face and continues smiling. "When I do it, Ray worries if I am going to injure myself while playing, and Camille then nags me of how dangerous what I did was, even if it was something small like moving glasses and playing with them. I make them forget about their own worries by making them worry about me instead… A bit selfish isn't it?"
The abnormality stays still for some seconds.
Seeing that the abnormality stays still, she stays silent too, and after some seconds, the door opens.
"Oh, you knew that the time was coming to an end." Shao says while taking both of the empty cans. "Well, it's time I get going, as-"
But just before she finishes talking, something sharp comes flying.
.
.
.
Opening her eyes expecting the worst, she sees a hairpin just in front of her.
A red crown shaped hairpin.
"…" She looks at the abnormality shocked, but rapidly smiles. "Thanks! Wait I minute, I'll put these cans down and I'll try it right now!"
As she puts down the empty cans, an invisible force stops her in place and another puts the hairpin on her blue hair.
"You have the dignity of a true noble." A grown up and regal sounding voice resounds on the chamber
"…eh?" The girl exclaims in surprise while looking at her surroundings.
Not finding anyone, she looks back at the abnormality in question.
Without a mouth on it, the Queen continues.
"Well that's a bit of a stretch, but what matters is that you are someone who even being of a higher standing than others, you still stay true to them." The voice stops for a moment before continuing. "You have two faces, however you don't use them for a bad purpose, instead you use them to comfort others. You are selfish, but you use that selfishness to help others. That's what I mean by dignity of a true noble."
"I-I…" Shao stutters without end.
The girl is a glass canon.
She is someone who gives a lot of comforting words, however when the situation is reversed, she becomes a mess.
"I-I t-thank you…"
Seeing that, the voice makes an elegant giggle.
"Until this moment nobody was able to get my gift because they were scared of me or wanted to have my favour, however you didn't see me as a Queen but as a friend. And even then, those who considered me their friend still looked at me as a 'monster'."
Receiving a pat from her, Shao's face becomes red as a tomato.
But her next words makes the redness disappear.
"However have caution. Some other abnormalities aren't as pleasant as myself." The Red Queen says in a warning voice. "I don't want to see a friend, especially one as good as you go."
Shao looks at her and smiles.
"Thank you, but I already know that not every single one is good." She says reminiscing with a grim face.
"Then that is enough. Just have caution."
"Hehe." Shao smiles. "You sounded a bit like Ray right there."
With those words, Shao says her goodbyes and the door closes.
.
.
.
"Ha… that girl she forgot the empty cans here." The Queen says in an exasperated voice. "Well, I'll overlook it this time."
Picking them up with her invisible hands, she puts them in front of her and says the following while her red eye becomes a pinkish colour:
"Off with its head."
Then the cans disappear. The only thing remaining is the abnormality and its chair.
"It looks like I'll need to wait at least tomorrow to continue having these tea parties or as she calls them, 'soda parties'." The Queen says with a small giggle.
'What the hell just happened with the cans? A pinkish light appeared all over them and then they disappeared… That's an abnormality for you.'
Just when I was going to select the following task Angela interrupts me.
"That's enough for the day Manager."
"I see…" I say turning my head to see the bar totally full. "The other Agent already finished his assignment too… The TT2 protocol works just as I expected. It made the day pass much faster than I thought."
'And to tell you the truth, having the entries of the abnormalities made it less boring.'
"Great to hear that. Let's end the day and prepare for the next one alright?" She says with the same melodious voice as always.
"…" I stay silent for some seconds, but in the end I respond. "Alright."
With those words, one by one the monitors start to shut down.
"Let me accompany you today again manager." Angela says while putting a soft smile.
With a nod on my part, we start walking together to the faraway room while everything on the room turns to black.
End of Day 2
Author's note: ON!
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.
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Hey... A bit late right?
I... Have reasons...
Not good enough tho...
Just know that I'll continue updating the fanfics even if it takes months.
On another note, i am planning on releasing two new fanfics (Yay, more irresponsible writing!)
The first one called Hilichurlian (Genshin Impact), which has its description right here:
"Dances, meals, and fighting. In Teyvat those are the three laws that all hilichurls follow. However I don't care at all about the first and the last one. I…
I only want to rest without problems."
And the second one called Immortal Network (Punishing Gray Raven), which has a description too:
"In a world destroyed beyond repair, humanity tries to find hope while fighting against the Corrupted and the Ascendants. However what they both didn't took in account was a third party…
Or better said a third person."
And... let's just... don't talk about the time between chapters and go right to the reviews ok?
Doomguy69: Yeah, don't worry about it too much. Even if I don't update in a year, I'll try to do it in one year and one day.
Karizen Magnamos: Thank you!
Skittie: Ah... I remember reading this review. The moment I read it, I could feel the eagerness written... I just hope you still have it even months later. Thanks for the review.
Synopsynthesis: Thanks for the review, and I use everything Canon that I could find (Lob Corp, LoR, Wonderlab, Distortion Detective, etc.) to try to make it as true to the story.
Rotten: Thanks! Don't worry, Roman/X, Angela and the Agents will have some form of closure.
SnippyO: Hahaha. I Imagined that too. If the story even reaches LoR, then there will some good and interesting parts that I thought about some parts of the game.
Mr mystery: Thanks!
Sunnyboi221: Yeah... Next month...
2lazy2login: Yeah I seen it! Thanks for the info!
The Mob Reader: It took a good trip to the internet to find some fanfics about Project Moon on a whole, so I thought, well, why don't I try to do it? Then here we are...
That's all for now, and let's just pray that i can upload and update more things before the year ends...
Anyways!
Have caution, and I hope you'll be okay for when I update the fanfic, so...
Author's note: OFF!