Sometimes this fic gets rather info-dumpy. Got some of that SCP report style thrown into the narration. Mostly only a thing for the first chapter.
There's a prison complex in the west of the UK, smack-dab in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a forest, a few farms, and a tiny town.
The town isn't fake, exactly. It's a government town. There's no houses for sale, and it's not on the map. It has a name and a greeting sign and an inn just like any other town, just to sell the illusion in case anyone comes along, but it's not meant for outsiders. You don't come here unless you work for Cover, or you're very, very lost.
The farms are real enough, as are the shops. They're run by the families of the 'prison' workers. The families are in on the illusion, even if they don't have full details of what goes on at the 'prison'.
Amelia is one of those 'prison' workers, though without any sort of family. Her Uncle used to work for Cover at a different site, in fact that's how Amelia got started with the company; he put in word for her.
She lives in an apartment complex meant for single workers, right near the entrance to the 'prison'. She has a small, one-room apartment with few personal effects. Most of the important things she owns she keeps in her office instead, partially because they're anomalous.
In case it wasn't obvious, the prison… well it is kind of a prison. Both an actual prison, which is where they get their D class workers, and a supernatural prison. Anomalies won't contain themselves.
Amelia arrives as usual at 6:00 in the morning, greeting the receptionist and swiping her card to get in the door on the left. The door on the right leads to the actual prison complex, which takes up only a fourth of the ground space of the facility. Everything else on the surface, and below, is the containment facility.
Her first stop is her office, for her usual morning routine. She unlocks the door with her card. While her computer fires up, she unlocks her desk's side cabinet and checks that her watch and keychain are still there before pocketing both.
The watch is anomalous, designation 0-19037. Its casing is made of faded gold, with a small blue gem in the center of the face that serves as the point around which the hands rotate around. It has the name "John H. Watson" engraved into the back. It arrived along with the rest of her uncle's things after his death. Any time it is removed from a place that is considered as belonging to Amelia, and then goes out of sight, the watch will instantly move to a location belonging to her that is also out of sight. Amelia has found it in her pocket, under her pillow, and in all sorts of weird places.
If anyone who is not Amelia picks up the watch without her permission, they suffer migraines, and eventually vivid visions and hallucinations of a ruined cityscape until they release the watch.
Cover has no record of her uncle ever owning or coming into contact with the watch.
Beyond those weird quirks, as far as all testing can tell, it's just a normal pocket watch. Amelia is allowed to carry it on-site and store it in her office.
The keychain, on the other hand, is merely a good luck charm. She has a small accessory of a dog with a detective hat attached to it, as well as a pair of dice on strings. The dice are tied together with blue and red ribbons. She's had the keychain with the dice since she was a teenager, though she can't remember how she got it. The dog accessory came later.
Her schedule looks the same as always. Start up top with Phoenix, move down.
Amelia stops by the cafeteria first, grabbing her own meal and Phoenix's, and carries them to Phoenix's containment cell.
4-276 Phoenix's containment cell is located on the surface. Her cell is twenty by twenty meters and ten meters tall, with a heat-resistant glass ceiling and insulated titanium walls. The interior is opulent, with plush carpets, blankets, chairs, and a four-poster bed. The interior is not climate controlled, at the occupant's request. The interior temperature usually rests between sixty-five to seventy degrees celsius. The room is heat-resistant, but it is advised all personnel entering the observation room avoid contact with the wall, glass, and door facing the interior unless wearing protective gear. The room also has extremely potent automatic fire-suppression systems.
Phoenix herself (or "Kiara" as she prefers to be called), is a near-human anomaly that has been known by Cover for far longer than she's been detained. Most of the time she appears as a five foot five human Austrian woman with short, bright orange hair, pink eyes, and a supermodel's physique. She is always wearing extravagant clothes, primarily in the colors yellow, orange, and red, with occasional highlights of pink and blue. The clothes are often fluffy, sometimes feather-like, usually quite revealing, and often in the style of show girl costumes. On the occasions where the outfit is not revealing, it is often in the style of an elaborate evening gown.
Cover has no idea where the clothes come from. They've never provided her any, but Phoenix regularly steps behind a changing screen and comes out wearing something new.
Today, Phoenix is wearing a large, pink, fuzzy scarf around her neck, and two, forearm-length, red gloves with massive, two meter long orange feathers coming out the back of them. Her dress, if it can be called that, consists entirely of these feathers (albeit in more colors) and is pushed out to her sides, giving the look of a peacock and keeping her legs entirely bare. Her chest is covered by a neck-wrap bra top, which is red like the gloves. A singular pink feather is tucked behind her left ear. When Amelia steps into the observation room, Phoenix herself is seated just in front of the glass in a large, red, plush loveseat. Her legs are crossed and arms clasped patiently, though that stops as soon as she sees Amelia and the trays of food.
"Ame~!" The phoenix coos, standing up. She doesn't stand straight, instead having her hip popped to one side and leaning forward against the glass. "I thought you weren't going to show up!"
"I'm one minute early, Kiara." Amelia huffs. "You're just impatient."
The Phoenix pouts and stomps her foot. "I was hungry!"
"You don't even need to eat." Amelia says while opening the first of two doors to the interior room and setting Kiara's tray down. She then backs out of that door, closes it, and swipes her card to open the second door and allow Kiara access to the food. "You've told me before that you've gone for centuries without eating."
"Just because I don't need to doesn't mean it isn't fun." Kiara protests, setting her tray down on a table in front of the loveseat.
"Jenma has offered-"
"Jenma doesn't eat with me." Kiara sniffs, sticking up her nose. "Though it would be even better if you would eat alongside me." She pats the other side of the loveseat.
"Kiara, you know I'm not allowed in your cell." Amelia says tiredly. They have this conversation nearly every day.
"But you're in charge of my care, right?" Kiara argues, always fierce. "How are you supposed to care for me from over there? I haven't had my feathers preened in years!"
"You can preen your own feathers."
"What if I feel sick?"
"We have doctors."
"What if I'm lonely?"
"We've offered you conversation partners before and you've refused them."
"Because they're not you!" Kiara says in frustration. The fluff and feathers on her outfit flare out as she crosses her arms
"I know." Amelia says. She doesn't really understand why Kiara is so insistent on this, but she does empathize. The Phoenix has had no physical contact for years. "You know I'm trying, right?"
Kiara deflates. "I know. Can you at least take an egg this time?"
Amelia grimaces. "No. All eggs-"
"-are to be dealt with according to protocol." Kiara recites sullenly. "I know."
One of the Phoenix's stranger qualities is egg spawning. They appear in her cell in batches, beneath blankets and behind nooks the cameras can't quite see. It doesn't matter if Phoenix has physically been in that spot, the eggs appear regardless. They appear once a week, around fifty of them, just before the Phoenix is due for her weekly flight.
This is not a coincidence. Her weekly flight is deliberately scheduled to take place just after egg 'laying'. Phoenix also claims to be able to 'lay' them on demand, though this has only been documented once, and it nearly ended in a fight when Cover tried to take the egg, and was only prevented by Amelia herself talking Phoenix down. Usually Phoenix is rather indifferent to her eggs being taken, but after that incident egg gathering was scheduled to occur when she was out flying for the safety of the staff.
The eggs are always one solid color, though the color varies from egg to egg even within a batch. White, silver, gold, red, orange, yellow, black, brown… any color is possible. The eggs will hatch one month after 'laying', and always hatch into birds, usually poultry, specifically chicken, but sometimes geese, turkey, quail, or any other kind of bird up to and including large ones like ostrich.
The color and size of the eggs do not correspond to standard eggs of whatever type of bird ends up coming out of them, though the eggs will always be appropriately sized. The birds that hatch from the eggs are completely normal aside from a notably higher heat tolerance than normal birds of their kind. This trait does not pass down upon breeding.
Phoenix is the source of birds for the farms surrounding the facility. Each time a new batch is laid, they're sent out to one of the farms to be raised for egg production or to be eaten or, in the case of larger or rarer birds, sold for funds or donated to conservation efforts. Phoenix is fully aware of this and doesn't seem to mind, even when they're killed, though she won't eat any products containing her 'children' or their byproducts herself. She's perfectly content with eating other birds and eggs though.
"So, uh, how's that new chair you got?" Amelia asks. "Apparently it flew in from… China? Yeah, China. Some monastic order sent it to you."
"It's nice." Kiara says, accepting the change in topic. She stabs a piece of egg (not one laid by her 'children'. Kiara's meals are separately prepared to avoid exactly that) and forks it into her mouth, and gestures to the chair in the back of the room with her other hand. "Very soft."
"What do you need with all this furniture anyways? You haven't stopped getting it since you were detained."
"It's for comfort." Kiara says, waving her free arm dismissively. "They remember me, know when I stay in one place, and send gifts. That's where all of these come from. Different groups like them."
"How do they know when you stay in one place?"
"Because they remember." Kiara says, as if that explains everything.
"I don't understand."
"Do you need to?"
"I want to."
Kiara smiles, filled with gentleness and something else Amelia can't identify. "Then don't stop trying."
The rest of their meal is filled with inane smalltalk and routine questions to ensure the staff have been behaving appropriately around her.
"Will you be there for my flight?" Kiara asks, after Amelia has obtained her tray and is about to leave. "I can give you a ride."
"I always am." Amelia replies. "And no, you can't. The council won't allow it."
With that, Amelia leaves the Phoenix to her cell and moves on with her day. It's now seven thirty. She needs to be at Siren's cell in half an hour, but she also has a quick meeting right before it.
The meeting, thankfully, takes place in her office. It doesn't take her long to get back, and when she does, Boss is waiting for her.
"Caretaker Watson."
"Boss."
"The council has reviewed your suggestion on integrating 4-276 and 4-8467 into humanlike social events. 4-276 has been rejected. While her disposition is not likely to be an issue, there are no reasonable measures that could be taken to ensure the safety of staff or other participants on account of her strength level. However, if 4-8467 can pass a disposition test, the council has agreed to a trial period on the condition she wears a muzzle."
Amelia tries not to let her excitement show too much. Finally, some progress! It's been a hassle in general to get her charges to socialize. Kiara refuses forced companionship and has shown a distaste to most people who want to spend time near her, whereas Gura acts indifferent so long as she's fed, but Amelia has seen how much more active she is when engaged in conversation. She isn't fooled by Gura's distant attitude. "That's fantastic news."
Boss doesn't offer a reaction. "As per the rules, you are not to speak to 4-8467 about the test for any reason or hint at the purpose of it being conducted, and are not allowed to be involved in the running of the test to avoid bias."
"Can I at least watch?"
"Of course."
"When is it to start?"
"One week. We are currently locating appropriate D class for the test."
"How is the test to be conducted?"
"Once per day, just after feeding, a D class will be allowed entrance into the cell with instructions to converse with 4-8467 for an hour. If they survive uninjured and relatively un-antagonized until the end of the hour, that particular sub-test is considered a success. This is to be repeated dozens of times with D class of varied backgrounds and dispositions. The test is to be conducted without a muzzle and with 4-8467's pool fully filled."
Amelia frowns. "Isn't that setting her up for failure?"
Boss looks on impassively. "The goal is to determine disposition, and deliberate weakening of 4-8467 would be counterproductive to that goal. Any threat might seem passive when restrained and wary, but that does not indicate the absence of hostility, merely patience or subordination. The full ability to harm and the choice not to is what we need to see."
"Understood, Sir."
"Good. You, Caretaker, are to be allotted an extra half an hour of time with 4-8467 a day, starting today, to acclimate 4-8467 to higher levels of interaction before the test begins. This interaction is to be conducted from the observation room. You are still not permitted to enter her cell."
"Yes Boss. I'll take full advantage."
"Any other questions, Caretaker?"
"No Sir."
"Alright." Boss stands up, nods, and leaves. "Good day, Caretaker."
Amelia practically vibrates in her seat, a stupid grin on her face. She can't just rush off to see Siren though, she won't be allowed in before her allotted time, so she takes a visit to a different cell in the meantime on basement level 1.
This 'cell' is really a one by one meter fireproof metal box with a glass viewing port that is kept in the anomalous item storage wing. It houses 0-4-276, Phoenix Egg, which is a yellow egg with blue spots that is roughly the size of a football (or soccer ball for you westerners).
Yes, that's the same egg that Kiara created on request and nearly started a fight over. Unlike other eggs Phoenix has created, it has multiple colors, which alone would have been reason for study, but in addition to that, despite being nearly two years old, the egg has not hatched. Candling will reveal movement within the shell, but the (presumed) embryo has not grown over the years it has been observed, instead remaining as a loose connection of blood vessels, yoke, and a tiny heartbeat.
No one is not allowed to talk to Phoenix about the egg in any capacity, much to both her and Amelia's irritation. Doubly so because Amelia feels responsible for the egg.
After all, it was her who asked if Phoenix could create eggs whenever she felt like it. Amelia is the reason this egg exists, which was made doubly clear when Kiara screamed at the staff trying to take the egg that was for Amelia and not them. Amelia was only two months on the job and Jenma, who was supervising the conversation, wasn't fast enough in stopping the question. It's a miracle the situation didn't spiral further out of control than it did.
(She's doing her best to ignore the guard staring at the back of her head. She knows, even though she's never been told, that there are standing instructions to ensure she doesn't do anything rash and try to access the egg.)
Maybe her sense of responsibility is a bit irrational. The egg probably contains some bird just like all the others, and won't hatch due to a curse or something. Phoenix has never blamed her for not being able to accept the egg, she's said as much, but Amelia still feels guilty.
Seeing the egg always calms her down. That might be anomalous, but more likely it's just her conscience feeling reassured that she hasn't totally disappointed Phoenix. The egg is safe, if not in her hands like intended.
She decides to leave before the guard gets too antsy. She goes to the meat locker to get Siren's meal.
Unlike Phoenix, who eats human food but doesn't actually have to eat at all, Siren is an obligate carnivore. She can go months between meals, but reacts best to a daily meal of around 50 pounds of meat, specifically meat from mammals. She'll eat other meat (Cover naturally tried poultry at first), but will express a dislike of the taste.
Siren has also expressed a desire for live prey. The council has thus far denied her request.
With a heavy bucket of meat on a trolley, Amelia rolls it over to Siren's cell and into the observation room. Unlike Phoenix's observation room, Siren's is soundproof against the interior room and has a darkened viewing window. The soundproofing and darkening can both be lifted, though it is against protocall to do so unless the pool within her cell has been fully drained.
Amelia taps the button to alert Siren that the draining is about to occur, waits a minute, then pulls the lever to drain the pool. She opens one of the two doors to the room and deposits the meat bucket while the draining occurs (the intermediary room is also soundproofed and has blackened viewing glass) before backing out, closing the door, and waiting the rest of the five minutes it takes to fully drain the pool.
When the timer finishes, Amelia taps the button to open a few small holes in one of the walls to let sound through, and the black glass slides down and leaves only clear glass between her and the inhabitant.
Siren's room is much more barren compared to Phoenix. It's a blue tiled, five by ten meter room that is three meters tall but has a five by five meter pool, three meters deep, in the back end with a small cubby in the wall of the pool that serves as Siren's den with some gnawed bones and personal effects inside. It looks very much like a public pool. There are circular electric lights in the ceiling, and some in the pool, though none inside the den. There's a large titanium grate in the corner of the pool opposite the den, used to suck in water during draining. Similarly, there is a closed pump just above it, used to push water back in.
The room has a secondary viewing port on one side of the pool, parallel to the Den's location. The secondary viewing room is normally unused and kept locked, as they don't often have a reason to see into the pool.
The room has no furniture, as Siren has never expressed a desire for any even when Amelia has offered.
Siren herself is a thin, pale, soft-featured girl four foot seven in height with unnaturally large eyes, silver hair, claw-like fingers, a one meter shark tail of uncertain species protruding from the small of her back, shark-like teeth, and a mouth that can open all the way to her ears. Her eyes and small highlights in her hair change color with different light levels, showing as light blue in bright light and transitioning more to deep red as lighting dims.
She was captured just before Amelia's hiring. Her age is unknown, though Siren herself claims to be multiple thousands of years old. She has no proof of this.
When Siren opens her mouth (just a little bit, she doesn't open it to her ears unless to eat, she can emulate the look of a human speaking just fine), her voice comes out screechy, as if speaking with a damaged throat.
"WaAatson! WaAatson!" She calls, crawling on all fours out of the (now empty) pool towards the viewing screen. She's dressed in a long blue dress, tattered and worn and faded, that she's thusfar refused to change. "FoOod?"
"In the usual spot, Gura." Amelia smiles, hitting the button to open the second door.
"Aliiive?"
"No, Gura."
Gura clacks her teeth together in annoyance, but drags the bucket out of the secondary room and in front of the viewing room, before sitting down, sticking her face into the bucket, and grabbing a meat chunk the size of her head with her teeth. She latches onto the chunk with her claws, holding it firmly in place, before fully opening her mouth and biting into the chunk, tearing half of it off without any apparent effort. "WhaAat this?"
"Beef, like usual." Amelia says. Cover has done tests and knows that Gura can identify meat by taste perfectly well, so there's no reason for her to ask what the food is after tasting it. Amelia always humors her though.
"From cOoow?" Gura asks, tearing off another section of the meat.
"Yes, Gura." This conversation again.
"What lOOok like?"
"It's as tall as me standing up with four legs and hooves, black and white spots, little bitty horns on the head, a big nose with a pink snout, a little tail, and it's real fat."
"Make moOo?"
"Yes Gura."
"Want sEEe cOw."
"I've shown you picture books."
"NOt sAaAme."
"I know." Amelia says, smiling tiredly. "I'm still trying to convince the council, but they aren't budging."
"Mmm." Gura hums, devouring a smaller meat chunk in one massive bite. "NOoot sEE mUuUch. Iiisland smaaall."
"You mean where you were detained?"
"YEs. No cOw. No pIg. No hoOOrse. Ooonly bIrd and fIiish, and hUUUman on bOAt." Gura says. "WAaant seEE, wAnt EEeat, wAAAnt tAAAste. NEEEw."
"Yeah, I getcha." Amelia nods. "I've been stuck at this site for three years and I already feel cramped. I can't imagine staying on an island for centuries."
Gura nods in response and keeps eating, now without speaking. Amelia drums her fingers on the table, trying to think of what to say. She's got an extra half an hour to talk with Gura, but Gura isn't quite as much of a natural conversationalist as Kiara.
"So, uh-" Might as well tell Gura she's hanging around. "I'm gonna have an extra half an hour with you for the next little while, we should probably figure out what to do with that."
Gura pauses her meal, staring Amelia in the eye. Her head is somewhat tilted down, shielding them from light, giving them a mildly red tint. "StaAaying?"
"For a bit."
"JOOoin swiIim?"
Amelia shakes her head. "The council won't allow me into the cell, much less with water in the pool."
"SiIing?"
"Not that either. Nothing with water."
Gura frowns. "WaAater gOOd."
"I agree, but it's a safety thing." She doesn't tell Gura that she's read her file and knows exactly what she can do in water. She's not sure she'd swim with Gura even if she had permission.
She likes Gura. She really does. If she was allowed into the cell right now, she'd walk in with barely a second thought. Maybe tell a guard to watch, but nothing else. With water though? Well… she's read Gura's file. She knows Gura has a water immersion behavioral trigger. She might (tentatively) trust Gura, but the Siren? Not so much.
That's part of the reason she doesn't like the test. It's not testing Gura as she'll be around other people, it's testing Gura at her most predatory. It's the difference between interacting with a soldier on break and one on guard. You don't test a soldier's sociability when they're working. You don't test a hunter's sociability when they're hunting.
"WhaAat doOO?"
"We can talk. About all we can do, but only if you want to."
"TaAAlk." Gura parrots. She shoves aside the bucket and moves to the side wall. Her claws dig into the metal seams on the wall, giving her enough grip to crawl up the wall and onto the ceiling, where she hangs just in front of the closest light, eyes red. Her head, upside-down, slowly rotates on her neck like an owl's, moving until it's right-side up again and entirely misaligned with her body. Amelia isn't surprised. She's seen this before. "WAAant to."
"Cool, uh…" Now she needs a topic. "Did I ever tell you about my uncle?"
"NOOo." Gura says. "TEll."
And so Amelia spends half an hour talking to Gura about her uncle. Gura doesn't talk much back, but is a surprisingly attentive listener.
Gura growls in frustration when Amelia eventually has to leave. Amelia promises her more stories next time, which seems to pacify her.
The time is now 9:00 in the morning. Two of her charges down, three to go. She isn't due to visit the Mori until noon, so she has three hours to enjoy herself.
And by 'enjoy herself' she means do paperwork and read reports.
A lot of those reports pertain to the study of the recently detained (suspected) near-humans 4-8999 and 4-9000, the comatose twin angels. Specifically, it concerns the 4-8999-1 that 4-8999 generates. Most of the information is useless to Amelia, like the heat and cold tolerance of those entities (extreme) or how many times they need to be shot before they die (needlessly cruel in Amelia's opinion, considering they've shown no hostility).
Some of the reports pertain to Phoenix, Siren, and Mori though, like measuring the heat levels in Phoenix's enclosure and discovering a pattern that coincides with lower heat levels when she expects visitors and higher levels when left undisturbed for longer periods of time, or that the amount of eggs she 'lays' decreases when stressed, or that Siren often refuses to speak to feeders, or that Mori is going on one of her prophetic ramblings again and they might need to warn the rest of the government about it.
Or maybe yet another report complaining that Phoenix, Siren, and Mori are snubbing other workers because Amelia spoils them too much. Amelia largely ignores that report. They're always the same; accusing her of being 'too nice', as if basic human decency is too much to ask just because they're classified as near-human and not humanlike.
(The difference between near-humans and humanlikes are simple. Humanlikes have a psychology that is functionally human, and near-humans don't, but aren't so far removed as to be considered alien or animal. It's a borderline category for all those in-betweens. Mostly human, but not quite. Amelia's job title is actually "Near-Human Care Manager". This is her specialty, if not what she originally trained for.
She originally trained to be a field agent like her uncle. She has no idea how she ended up sitting in an office for half her day.)
The three hours roll by all too slowly. Email after email after email is opened, read, and shoved into the archive. Report after report is looked up on Cover's website. There's another protocall update to read that isn't remotely related to her job but mandatory to be read by all personnel, and more inane questions from the council about Phoenix's hostility towards clouds? Phoenix has never had an issue with clouds! What do clouds have to do with anything!? Is this because she dove into one on her last flight? Is that it? That's not hostility, that's playing. Are the council actually that stupid?
She swears to Baelz, the council always finds new ways to disappoint her.
When the three hours are finally over, Amelia almost leaps out of her chair to grab food for herself and the Mori (who eats normal human food) and rushes down to basement three.
The Mori's containment cell is a bit more… esoteric, than most. The cell is standard metal, with basic wooden furniture like a bed, table, chairs, and a dresser. There's a well-kept guitar in the corner of the room next to a television on top of the dresser. There is also a carpet on the floor, for comfort.
At eye-height around the wall of the entire room, carved into the wall, are glyphs. Amelia isn't familiar with the individual glyphs, but she does know that they originate from a tablet dated to and found in Mesopotamia, not written in Cuneiform but instead a similar-looking script. This script is not known to exist beyond the tablet, electronic copies, and the Mori's containment cell.
4-3 Mori's current host is one Theresa Smith, formerly a twenty-four year old American coma patient, female, orphaned at birth, with no known family and few personal connections. Most of her host's original physical features remain, like a soft face, exaggerated hourglass figure, and long hair, though there have been some alterations. The eyes are red rather than blue, the hair pink rather than blonde, and her skin is chalk white rather than peach.
If spoken to, she will identify herself as Calliope Mori, and does not appear to have any recollection of Theresa Smith's life experience or knowledge.
The Mori has been known to Cover since before its inception. Her designation, 4-3, indicates first her class, which is near-human, and then her list number with smaller numbers being older. This makes her one of the original anomalies noted into Cover's databanks. Her detainment, however, happened only two months ago, and is attributed to her decision to accept a host.
The Mori dresses herself in a black and red cape, an ankle-length, tight black dress with a slit down one leg starting from the hip and a large rectangular cutout on her chest, spiked epaulets, and a black tiara and white veil.
Most of the outfit is non-anomalous, being perfectly normal clothing. The tiara and veil are anomalous, and cannot physically be removed from her person.
Unlike Kiara and Gura, Calli is wholly unaware of Amelia's entrance into her observation room. Calli is standing at the corner of a room staring at a wall, foot tapping the ground anxiously.
This is not unusual.
Amelia slides Calli's tray of food into that secondary room and then clears her throat and knocks on the glass. "Calli?"
The woman pauses her foot-tapping. Her head turns, regarding Amelia from the corner of her eye. "Ame. Good. Someone reasonable. You'll listen, right?"
"I always try."
Calli nods. Her head turns back to the wall. "They're trapped."
"Who?"
"Two rooms over. Time of death: ten hours four minutes. Cause of death: incineration. Soul hasn't moved on. Tethered to the killer."
Amelia frowns and squints, trying to remember the third basement floor's layout and any notices she got. "Two rooms over, directly away… I think that's 2-8866. Some sorta flaming… thing. I think there was an accident report about it. Outside my purview."
"The soul is in pain." Calli says curtly.
"How do we save it?"
"Kill the killer, extract or free the soul via ritual, or let me help."
"The first isn't likely, we'd do the second if we knew how, and you know the council won't allow the third."
Calli's foot starts tapping the ground again. "They're cruel."
"No, just distrustful. We have plenty of near-humans and inhumans who will make up any random excuse to get out of their cells and escape or just cause chaos." Amelia explains apologetically. "If there's some way we can confirm what you're saying…?"
Calli stops tapping her foot again. "Does your council know how to perform an exorcism?"
"We have people who can, yes."
"Tell them to try the ritual of Saint Emran. The silver hand variant."
Amelia tugs a stack of sticky notes out of her pocket and scribbles it down, as well as Calli's assessment of the situation. She sticks her head out the door and hands it to a guard, with instructions to be delivered to whoever is responsible for 2-8866 ASAP. "Hopefully they'll listen, but no promises."
"At least you try." Calli grumbles, finally moving to grab her food. "I can hear the soul screaming, constantly. I don't know how you stand it."
"I can't hear it."
"Right, right, you're human." Calli sighs. "I forgot."
"I don't see how. You've only dealt with humans the entire time you've been here."
"I can feel something strong from you. Kinda blocks out the human-ness."
Amelia blinks, then frowns. "You sense something?"
"Uh, yeah? Did you not know? It's not subtle."
"No. What is it?"
"It feels like…" Calli gestures vaguely. "Like a person? Kinda? No, more like a gaze. Yeah, it feels like someone's looking. Back of the mind sort of looking. Not their full attention."
"Right." Amelia suddenly doesn't feel very hungry. She pushes around her food with her fork, and then sticks her hand in her pocket and tugs out her watch. "It's not because of this, is it?"
Calli squints at the watch. "Nah, that's unfinished. Template's there, but only the auxiliary functions actually got put in. It's not even using the gem."
That doesn't make Amelia feel any better.
"If it's any reassurance, the gaze doesn't feel angry or anything. Hard to tell with the glyphs getting in the way though. I don't suppose you're allowed to step inside so I can get a better look?"
"Nope."
"Figures. Bureaucracy, am I right?"
Amelia smiles. "You have no idea."
"Oh I do. Underworld bureaucracy is a nightmare." Calli says, making a face.
"You'll have to tell me about it sometime."
"Only if you'll tell me about human bullshit."
"Can do." Amelia agrees. "During talk time though. Not now. I've got to go see a flight in a little bit."
Calli perks up. "A flight?"
"Yeah, uh, another of the people under my purview likes having an audience for some reason."
"They wouldn't happen to call themselves Kiara, would they? Surprised I didn't sense her earlier if that's the case."
Amelia pauses, surprised. Her mind immediately begins trying to recall what she's allowed to tell Calli and what she isn't.
"Your silence says enough." Calli says, sitting back in her seat and looking up at the ceiling with a rueful smile. "If she's under your care, she's probably fine. Having an audience is an anchor for her when she's not in human form. She tends to drift away otherwise. Hard to feel grounded when you're flying, you know?"
Amelia frantically scribbles this down. If Calli is right, she just gave them vital information. Not that Cover would ever let Kiara fly without being observed, but knowing observation is important is still good to know. "We did not know. Thank you."
"No problem."
"...how much do you know about Kiara?" Amelia asks after another moment of hesitation. Her eyes flick to the voice recorder in the room. This is definitely against protocall, but…
Calli regards Amelia, eyes searching. "Enough."
Amelia is silent for several long seconds, trying to think of how she can phrase her question without breaking protocol.
"How about I tell you some Kiara stories next time too?" Calli suddenly offers.
"Yes please." Amelia agrees. She decides not to think about how much trouble she's going to be in for revealing Kiara to Calli. The council will have to get over themselves.
They don't talk about much for the next five minutes before Amelia has to leave. She waves goodbye and rushes up to the surface.
12:32. Two minutes late.
"Oh good, about time." One of the guards says when Amelia rushes up to Kiara's cell. "The bird is refusing to take off because you're not here."
"I did promise." Amelia says apologetically. She weaves through a few guards and into the observation room where the captain is arguing with Kiara. The glass roof of her cell is open, ready for flight, but Kiara is still in the outfit Amelia saw her wearing a few hours ago, standing with her arms crossed and back facing the observation screen. "Kiara!"
"Ame! You were late, again!" Kiara pouts, turning back around and totally ignoring the captain trying to talk to her.
"I was on time for breakfast." Amelia shoots back. "Besides, I was eating lunch with someone and this was scheduled right after. It's not my fault!"
"I'll forgive you this time." Kiara huffs. She turns on her heel and walks to the center of her room, where there is no furniture. "I'm ready, Captain." She says with obvious scorn in her voice.
The captain curls his lip, but maintains composure and says. "Please transform, Phoenix."
Kiara does so in a burst of light and flame that grows to fill half the room (but somehow doesn't set any of the highly flammable furnishings alight), and after the light dies Kiara has been replaced with a sleek, seven foot tall bird with luscious orange feathers with red tips, and a crest of fire on its head. Its wings flare out, filling nearly the entire length of the room.
The captain speaks on his radio. His voice can be heard outside over the PA. "Be advised Ground Control, Phoenix is about to take flight. All monitoring flights, keep your distance. All non-authorized personnel are to remain indoors for the duration of the flight. Please use the basement levels to navigate."
He waits for a second to get a response and confirmation of the monitoring planes being ready before nodding to Phoenix.
"Alright, you can go."
Phoenix turns a large eye to Amelia. Amelia nods and tilts her head to the open ceiling. With a flap and a screech, Phoenix takes off, launching into the air at shocking speed considering her stationary takeoff.
As soon as Phoenix has cleared the ceiling, the captain smacks the button to close it and calls in a few workers from outside to prepare for their egg search. Amelia takes this time to step out and move into the yard.
She's one of the few personnel who has clearance to be outside during Phoenix's flight. That's not to say she has permission to physically interact with Phoenix; she's allowed to stay outside for the purposes of 'monitoring health, disposition, and additional anomalies' of Phoenix, for which she needs a clear view.
There's a few chairs and tables in the middle of the yard, used by guards kept on standby. She grabs one and sits down, and stares up at the sky and the fiery bird soaring through it.
Phoenix is escorted at a distance of two hundred meters by several fighter planes and drones, each loaded with heat-seeking sidewinder missiles, large sedative dart guns, cable guns, and firefighting equipment. Phoenix has clearance to fly up to six thousand meters in the air, but only one thousand meters away from the complex, and nowhere near the road.
That's a relatively cramped flight space, but Phoenix navigates it elegantly, performing hairpin turns at the very edges of the space and making sharp dives and climbs to easily outmaneuver the planes escorting her. This outmaneuvering doesn't result in anything, as Phoenix eventually stops her evasive movement and allows the planes to return to formation, content that she's sufficiently shown off.
Amelia watches lazily, partially paying attention but also worried about her conversation with Calli. Her worries are quickly disrupted by Phoenix making a quick circle overhead before making a sharp dive at high speed. She rockets down almost directly overhead of Amelia, and Amelia can hear a few warning shouts from guards, but she keeps her seat.
At two hundred meters, Phoenix abruptly flares out her wings and lets out multicolored flame from her wings, abruptly slowing her descent and creating a brilliant display of reds, yellows, and oranges that swirl into spiral patterns near her feathers before fading into wispy ribbons.
Phoenix is looking directly down at her, and Amelia has the distinct feeling the display was entirely to keep her attention because she knows Amelia was getting distracted. She sheepishly waves up at Phoenix, who caws twice and flaps her wings to regain some height and turns her attention back to flight.
Feathers flutter down from where Phoenix suddenly stopped, each easily longer than Amelia's arm. They settle around and on her chair, with one landing neatly in Amelia's lap as if planned that way. She feels it with her hand, noting how perfectly shaped the feather is, as well as the intense warmth radiating off it, and how soft it is.
"Maybe council will let me keep one of these." Amelia muses, gathering a few other feathers on her chair and enjoying the heat between her fingers as she holds them. She surreptitiously slips one under the chair to lie across the supports, not visible unless you peer directly under it. "Probably not, but it's just a feather, so if they happen to miss this one and I 'happen' to find it later… no harm, right?"
There's a small chance she's a bit too attached to her charges, but she'd like to think that's just part of her job. It's everyone else's job to be skeptical assholes, and it's her job to actually have a heart.
(She's vaguely aware of a heat haze exiting the top of Phoenix's cell as the temperature difference between it and the outdoors is slowly equalized. The workers might already be inside looking for eggs. They have instructions to wait until the interior temperature drops to at least 40 degrees before searching to minimize heatstroke, and each individual can only work for ten minutes before being rotated out.)
Amelia watches Phoenix soar high and low over the course of an hour, occasionally letting off bursts of fire, often when directly overhead of Amelia, and Amelia doesn't doubt that Phoenix is specifically trying to show off to her.
The feathers in her hands are still warm by the time forty minutes have passed, and the workers finish extracting the eggs from Phoenix's room and are carrying them away. Phoenix circles far overhead of them as they travel, watching, but doesn't interfere or dive at them.
When the time comes for Phoenix to go back inside, she starts circling down close to her cell… only to swerve to the right while beating her wings and rolls in the air, as if buffeted by a strong wind.
Amelia knows for a fact that there's no wind today. The wind catchers atop the main building are almost completely still. Phoenix is putting on an act. Amelia squints suspiciously while Phoenix rolls lower and lower, dropping below three hundred feet, then two hundred, then-
Phoenix is directly overhead Amelia when she abruptly untransforms in a flash of fire. She falls quickly through the air, then flares her arms a moment later, the feathers on her clothes catching the air and slowing her fall, and landing directly into Amelia's lap.
"Oops." Kiara says with utter insincerity, smiling wide. She unabashedly slots her legs around Amelia's hips and leans forward to rest her body against the human. "My bad."
It's one thing to talk with Kiara through a barrier, or to see her press herself against the glass, and very much another to have Kiara pinning her to a chair and shoving her chest in Amelia's face. While she's not exactly thinking clearly, Amelia can at least confirm that Kiara is warm to the touch. The phoenix feels like someone with a fever, or a giant hot water bottle. Just hot enough to make Amelia feel warm in turn, but just below the threshold of discomfort.
Amelia stares dumbly, and Kiara looks supremely smug. Eventually, hearing rushing footsteps, she manages to get words out of her mouth. "K-Kiara, you're going to get in trouble-"
"I don't know what you're talking about, it was clearly an accident." Kiara hums, snuggling even closer. "The winds were just too strong and you had to catch me~"
"4-276!" The captain shouts from somewhere behind Amelia. "Remove yourself from the chair at once!"
"Rude. I nearly crashed! A little sympathy would be nice!" Kiara huffs.
Amelia knows the guards aren't going to buy that. "Kia-"
Kiara properly leans forward and muffles Amelia with her chest. The feathers on her clothes flare out, as if… alive?
Oh. Oh those feathers aren't 'clothes' at all, are they? That's why Kiara can make outfits from nothing. They're not clothes. There's a chance that even the sleeker fabric of her gloves and chest coverings aren't clothes either, just carefully sculpted down feathers or fluff.
"You're all quite mean, aren't you?" Kiara asks, pouting. "I stay in a cell, I answer questions and cooperate with tests, I never did anything against you before you stuck me in here, I even let you take my eggs, even Amelia's egg-" She bares her teeth in a pointedly annoyed smile. "-that wasn't yours to take, and I didn't burn you all to ash like I should have for such a crime. All I've asked for in return is company, physical company, from my caretaker and you've consistently refused with petty excuses, but you still have the audacity to point your weapons at me like I've done something wrong."
"Remove yourself from the chair and return to your cell." The captain repeats.
"Mmm, no." Kiara says while crossing her arms and resting them on the top of the chair. "I'm taking half an hour with my dear caretaker, and I'll thank you not to get in the way."
"If you don't return to your cell we'll be forced to subdue you."
"Mmm, and you really want to be responsible for starting a fight in the middle of your precious compound? With me?" Kiara asks. "When you could wait half an hour and everything would be fine?"
The captain audibly hesitates. Amelia starts pushing, and Kiara reluctantly eases off her weight to allow her to speak. "Captain, listen to her."
"Caretaker Watson-"
"The Phoenix has voiced concerns her needs are not being met, and no one has been hurt." Amelia cuts him off. "This is clearly a care issue, and as such, I outrank you. You may monitor the situation, but you are not to threaten our charge unduly, am I understood?"
She can't see him, but she can imagine how he's grinding his teeth. Eventually, after seven long seconds, he spits out. "Understood, Watson. Everyone! Twenty meter perimeter! If 4-276 tries to move anywhere but towards her cell, you have permission to subdue her! Lieutenant, get Boss on the line."
"Yes Sir!" Shout a chorus of voices.
Amelia breathes a sigh of relief at the same time Kiara huffs triumphantly. Amelia looks up while Kiara looks down, and Amelia is the first to speak. "So, uh, do you want to move?"
"I'm quite comfortable." Kiara hums, squeezing Amelia's waist between her thighs. Amelia's mouth goes dry, and she's very aware her hands are still resting on Kiara's stomach from when she was pushing against her. Her hands suddenly feel sweaty. "Aren't you?"
"Uh-uh, y-yeah." Amelia stammers. Kiara grins wickedly and Amelia knows her ears are red. "Just thinking that your room is comfortable, more comfortable, and the guards probably wouldn't come in."
"Well if you insist on seeing my nest…" Kiara says, and extracts herself from Amelia, but when Amelia herself tries to stand up, Kiara scoops her up in her arms and carries her towards her containment cell.
"Nest? You're not- well I guess you're sometimes a bird. Do you actually call it your nest?"
"Sure."
"'Sure' and 'yes' are very different answers."
"Yes then, I do. It sounds more cozy."
Kiara cheerfully carries her into the observation room, and reluctantly lets her down so she can open the doors and close the ceiling glass before scooping her back up again and walking in, radiating pride.
The room is hot. Even with an hour to vent out the heat, it's still noticeably warmer than outdoors, which is a warm twenty five degrees already. If she had to guess, Amelia would say it's probably thirty five degrees, which is sweltering for someone like her who spends all her time indoors in air-conditioned rooms.
"You're red, Ame." Kiara teases, depositing the human in a heavily cushioned chair and squeezing in next to her. Evidently, personal space is not a concern for her. "Enjoying yourself?"
"Well yes." Amelia coughs. "But I might be red because of the heat…"
Kiara's feathers flick, and a wave of cool air brushes over Ame. She can feel the room's temperature drop sharply over the course of a minute to something closer to the temperature outdoors.
"Huh." Amelia blinks. "Cool trick."
"Is that a pun, Ame?" Kiara laughs.
"...it wasn't supposed to be, but it is now." Ame says. "I didn't know you could cool things down though. Not a lot, anyways."
"I have control over heat." Kiara shrugs. "I'm just transferring heat from the air to the glass ceiling and then outside. Alternatively, I can suck it into myself, and I can hold a lot of heat. I could probably freeze the room if I tried hard enough."
"Huh." Amelia blinks. "Wow. I thought it was a more… personal thing. I thought you could regulate your own heat, and therefore the room's. A proxy thing because the heat gets stuck in the room."
"Ame, Ame, Ame." Kiara giggles, running her hand through Amelia's hair. "Did you never wonder why the glass to your looking room never heats to the point of burning your hand despite the heat of my room? Or why the looking room is never too warm? That's not insulation, or the broken cooling unit in there. That's me."
"The AC is broken?" Amelia blinks. "For how long?"
"A month after you first met me." Kiara hums.
That's nearly three years ago. Kiara, on account of her generally non-hostile disposition, was the first near-human Amelia was trained to deal with. She sat in on routine questionings from Jenma, and interacted with Kiara and eventually Gura under Jenma's watch for a year before taking over Jenma's position.
(Jenma had been long due for a promotion, but they couldn't find anyone to replace her until Amelia.)
"Huh."
"I only did it because you were friendly." Kiara shrugs. "When Jenma came on her own I didn't bother regulating anything."
"She's really not that bad Kiara."
The phoenix huffs and adjusts herself so her legs lie across Amelia's lap and her arms are around Amelia's neck. "She's boring, and not friendly."
"She's professional."
"I think you're just too nice." Kiara hums, nuzzling the side of Amelia's head with her nose. Amelia's hand hover awkwardly in the air, not quite sure where they should be placed. That decision is made for her a moment later when Kiara grabs Amelia's hovering hands and guides one around her (Kiara's) back and the other down to rest on her thigh. "That's your charm."
"Y-You don't say." Amelia stutters.
"Mmm…" Kiara hums in her ear. "There's a reason I gave you an egg."
"Uhh." Amelia's eyes flick to the cameras, which she knows have microphones, and the observation room where there are at least five guards watching and listening to them. This might be her only change. "Yeah. Hey Kiara?"
"Hmm?"
"Lean forward."
She's almost never given Kiara orders, so it's a relief when she listens without complaint. Amelia brings her mouth to the phoenix's ears and speaks as quietly as she can.
"The egg is in storage. Alive. Hasn't grown. I'm not allowed access to it. Can't tell you about it either. This conversation never happened."
She can feel a flare of heat in Kiara's body, though the phoenix gets herself under control quickly. Kiara nuzzles into Amelia's neck again. "I don't know what you're talking about of course, but I have the vague feeling no one else should touch… whatever you're talking about."
Amelia nods, just a little bit. She can't guarantee that. She has no control over the egg. Still, at the very least she knows Cover has no real interest in messing with the egg unless they feel they have to. If the egg does nothing, they're perfectly content with keeping it that way.
Hide, suppress, protect. Those are Cover's priorities, and in that order. Cover has no interest in having their anomalies act any up any more than they have to. If keeping their hands off the egg means it will stay dormant, they're not going to change that.
The rest of their time together is spent on much less serious things. Kiara seems content simply to cuddle until the half hour runs out and a guard steps in the room to firmly tell Kiara that her time is up and she is to 'release' Amelia.
Kiara does so without a fuss, and Amelia walks out of the room without further incident. Several people are waiting for her in the observation room, including the captain, Jenma, Boss, and some anomaly detection equipment.
Amelia knows this protocol. She removes her watch without being prompted and sets it down on the table (the captain orders two of the guards to keep their eyes on it) and allows herself to be scanned.
(Calli's words about sensing a 'gaze' on her run through her mind as a technician fires up the scanner and points it at her. She braces for an alert.)
The scanner doesn't detect anything. Amelia grabs her watch again, and the Boss speaks.
"Caretaker, report."
"Phoenix was feeling neglected in regards to physical contact, Sir. We repeatedly refused to meet such needs, so she took matters into her own hands in as harmless a fashion as she could think of." Amelia says. "I was the target on account of a fondness Phoenix holds for me."
"And your conversations?"
"Discussions of her heat control abilities mostly. Apparently the AC in this room is broken, and has been for over two years. She has been regulating the temperature herself. Her control over heat is not limited to her person."
"Anything else, Caretaker?" Boss asks. His one good eye bores into Amelia.
"No, Sir." Amelia lies. "Merely small talk."
"Do you believe there will be issues in the future?"
"It is possible, Sir, that if we continue to ignore her requests then there may be further incidents." Amelia says, and then, just a bit pettily, she adds. "This was part of the reason I suggested her participation in social events, sir."
"Noted, Caretaker. Is that all?"
"Yes Sir."
"Good. You are henceforth suspended from 4-276 care team pending an incident analysis. Jenma will take over your duties in the meantime. I expect a written report to be submitted by the end of the day. I'll let Jenma take over from here."
Boss turns on his heel and leaves, along with the scanner technician.
Jenma waits until he leaves, and shoos away the captain (who looks very annoyed at being shooed off again) and the other guards until she's alone with Amelia, albeit with Kiara watching them through the glass observation window from her chair.
"God, Amelia…"
"What?" Amelia sighs. "It's the council's fault. They're stuffing people into cells indefinitely and expecting them to cooperate without complaint."
"Kiara is dangerous."
"She's been nothing but cooperative until today."
Jenma narrows her eyes. "That is not true. She's been cooperative with you."
"Ame is cute and nice! You're not!" Kiara shouts from inside her room. "You don't even eat with me!"
"You've said you don't want me to."
"Because all you ever do is ask me questions! You can't even hold a normal conversation!"
"I need to maintain confidentiality."
"Talking is not a break in confidentiality!" Kiara huffs. "Telling stories is fine!"
"Not necessarily." Jenma retorts. "I could accidentally let something slip."
"Well I think you just don't like me."
"I-" Jenma looks like she wants to argue more, but realizes the conversation is going nowhere. "Amelia, just… be safe. She's not human, no matter how much you might want her to be."
"She doesn't need to be human." Amelia wants to argue. "She's sentient, and friendly, and that's more than anyone could ask."
She doesn't say that though. She keeps her mouth shut and follows Jenma out of the observation room, and only then says "I just want her to be happy, Jenma. It's literally my job."
"Your job is to ensure their care."
"Not just physical." Amelia snaps back. "Cover is using their status as near-human as an excuse to deprive them."
Jenma just sighs. "I guess I can't stop you from caring, can I? That's why you were chosen as my replacement. Don't get in over your head, Amelia."
With that, Jenma takes her leave, and Amelia trudges back to her office to write up a report. It takes every fiber of restraint to not make it a scathing mockery of the council and the attitudes of the guards, and she has to settle for systematically laying out their faults in as neutral a tone as possible and reminding herself to write "4-276" instead of "Kiara" or even "Phoenix" like she wants to.
After she submits the report, she checks her schedule again and readies herself for a visit to the lowest basement level, which is level 10. She digs a bag out of a drawer and makes her way down.
4-8999 and 4-9000. The Twin Angels. The title is a bit of a misnomer, because despite the fact they both resemble angels, they look nothing alike and have entirely different properties that don't interact with each other at all. The only reason they have their title is because they were found at roughly the same location at the same time, though it is thought that 4-8999 was present first and 4-9000 arrived on location only a short while before Cover detained them. In fact, it is suspected that the unusual comet that led Cover to their locations was, in fact, 4-9000.
Also, 'detained' is a bit of a strong word when neither of the entities is actually awake.
"Hey Jay, how're the girls lookin?" Amelia calls, stepping into the dedicated observation room that overlooks their containment cells. Unlike Kiara or Gura, the angels don't have a dedicated observation room because they're never awake and interacting with people, so instead they're situated in a group of cells intended for general surveillance from a 'tower' in the middle of the cell block that overlooks four cells. Two of those cells are empty, so the angels are the only things to watch.
"Same old, same old." The older woman sighs, and rubs her eyes beneath her sunglasses. "One of the workers got their finger bitten off because they punched a tako. I told 'em before they went in that they could just push 'em aside, but clearly they didn't listen, and now I have to file an incident report because of their stupidity."
"I feel you. Kiara decided she was tired of keeping her distance today. Gave the guards a scare and now there's going to be an investigation and I can't work with her for a bit."
"Sucks man." Jay says sympathetically. "So, who you doing first today?"
"Eldritch."
"Gotcha. Just give me a moment to prep the defences."
Unlike most of her other charges, Amelia is actually allowed in the angel's respective rooms. This is for the simple reason that she can't do her job without being able to check on their wellbeing, and if they can't talk to her she needs another way to check on them. Eldritch's room is considered 'hazardous' (which is bullshit because the takos are not a threat) so Jay has to prime the defenses anytime someone walks in.
4-8999, "Eldritch", is a curious entity. She appears to be a short, pale-skinned girl with clear skin and delicate features, but that's where the human resemblance ends. She has long, naturally purple hair that falls past her hips, pointed ears, strange fleshy 'flaps' just above those ears, and a pair of thin white wings exiting from her lower back.
Genetic testing has revealed that she does have some human DNA, but also octopus DNA, as well as a number of totally alien cells with no recognizable organelles and unclear functions. She reeks anomalous magic to any sort of sensor, and has broken the scale of several of them.
That's not the extent of her quirks, however. Beyond a strange dress (very short, very revealing, mostly purple), she passively distorts reality within a ten kilometers radius, with that effect being drastically increased in a ten meter radius of herself. This reality distortion mostly manifests in the appearance of multiple 4-8999-1 entities, known affectionately as Takos, but also the twisting pockets of space in her room, appearing similar to looking through the bottom of a glass cup. This distortion is purely visual unless it persists for more than a day, in which case it becomes real.
These distortions can technically occur anywhere within ten miles, but a thin spread of reality anchors around the complex and surrounding countryside is enough to keep them from appearing anywhere but Eldritch's room. Reality anchors placed in Eldritch's room will can suppress her local distortions as well, but must be replaced every six hours or they tend to break.
(There are greater changes that Eldritch can bring on, as evidenced by the twisted, alien surroundings of the cathedral she was found in and some of the monstrosities located within, but those only occur when her local reality is sufficiently distorted.)
Takos come out of these reality distortions at a rate of around one per hour, and it is important that at least twenty of them are kept within fifty meters of Eldritch at all times. If their number ever drops below twenty, a reality distortion will be forcefully created, breaking any anchor trying to suppress it, and new takos will spawn from the distortion at a rate of one per minute until their number climbs above twenty again, at which point their spawning will slow back down to the usual rate.
Takos are small, palm-sized, purple, octopus-like eldritch beings. They have no need to eat, drink, or sleep, though they will regularly do all three if given the chance. They are generally passive unless they, or Eldritch, are threatened. They have a limited ability to discern intent, as accidentally injuring one will not trigger retaliation, but deliberate harm will. They attack with centimeter-long fangs which can bite through flesh, bone, fabric, and metal.
(They're absolutely adorable, but Amelia can't say that without seeming biased.)
When Jay confirms the defenses have been armed, Amelia nudges her way into Eldritch's room.
The room is large. Thirty by thirty by thirty meters of bare metal with one glass wall, and several holsters on every surface for the placement of reality anchors (metal cylinders with runes inscribed on them). Eldritch herself is located in the middle of the room, fifteen meters in the air (to prevent distortions from appearing underground), accessible through a stone staircase.
"Hey little things." She greets some of the takos near the door. They turn in her direction, making soft chirping noises and floating through the air to bump their heads against her. The chirps cause a ripple effect through the room, and Amelia can see all the takos start to float towards her. "How's your angel today? Feeling good?"
Another series of chirps. The remaining takos who didn't have the chance to say hello do so now in the same way as the others. Amelia chuckles as they all rest on her clothes, clinging with their little tentacles. She can barely feel them, because each tako weighs less than one pound.
Takos don't show this clinging behavior towards other workers. Amelia suspects it's because she's the one who feeds them.
"I brought cookies for you." She says, pulling the bag out of her pocket.
"Again, Amelia?" Jay's voice sighs over the intercom.
"Hey, I have permission, and it makes them more docile." Amelia shoots back. She opens the bag and takes one out. The takos eagerly detach from her clothes and crowd around, and she feeds them one-by-one until all twenty have a cookie.
"Docile my ass. They still ate someone's finger."
"They got punched, of course they're going to fight back." Amelia scoffs. "Actually… hey little things, which one of you got hurt?"
She's still not clear on if takos can actually understand speech, or if it's simply coincidence that whenever she speaks to them they act in a way that coincides with what she's asking. Maybe it's an anomalous property of Eldritch, maybe they're psychic, maybe it's just blind luck.
Either way, one tako in particular flutters forward. It looks no different than the others, but it floats a bit slower than the rest and its flaps don't wiggle as much. From what the researchers have gathered, the flaps indicate mood. Wiggling is happy, flattened is sad, curled is angry, and stiff is anxious or on guard.
She gives it the extra cookie and pats it on the head. It makes a quiet chirping noise and lands on her shoulder, nibbling at its extra treat. The other takos gradually float off, though they stick within a general five meters of her even as she starts to climb up to Eldritch.
"Look at you, a regular Disney princess." Jay sighs. "If Disney princesses interacted with eldritch monstrosities."
Amelia doesn't bother to respond. She finishes the stairs and cautiously approaches Eldritch's bed. Eldritch is currently resting on a hospital bed, hands folded across her chest. The sheets are changed once a week, and Eldritch is bathed on the same schedule. Takos are rounded up and locked in a cage for the duration of Eldritch being bathed because they tend to get agitated, though they've never actually attacked anyone for it.
(Amelia has offered to do the bathing, because the takos like her, but the council has thus far refused her offer.)
There are a bunch of small effects Eldritch can manifest in people around her, none of which are consistent. Some people report hearing whispers, moving shadows in the corner of their eyes, temporary synesthesia, and a whole slew of strange but harmless effects.
Harmless as long as you don't stick around, that is. Cover did an experiment where they imprisoned five D class in the ten meter radius of Eldritch, and all but one of them slowly started to go insane over the course of a week, albeit at different rates. The official report says the reasons for the different speed of mental degradation are 'inconclusive', but Amelia knows that's bullshit. The only person who didn't go crazy was the guy who actually tried to get along with the takos. The slow insanity is a defense mechanism just as much as the takos are. It won't affect anyone friendly.
But will Cover listen to her? Nooo. Of course not. She's not a researcher, she's merely a care manager who probably pays more attention to the reports and studies than the actual people who are conducting them. What does her opinion matter?
There's a table and a few chairs next to Eldritch's bed, usually for researchers to sit at when conducting tests. Amelia grabs a chair and moves it to Eldritch's bedside instead, and takes a seat. The tako on her shoulder finishes its second cookie and floats over to its master(?), resting on the pillow next to her head.
"Hey E, how you doing?" Amelia asks. It always pays to be polite. Eldritch might be asleep, but there's more than one entity on-site that is aware of its surroundings even when sleeping, and Amelia isn't going to risk Eldritch being one of them. "It's Ame. Had a stressful day today. One of my other charges got a bit too friendly so management is throwing a tantrum again. You know how it is."
Eldritch, predictably, doesn't respond.
"One of your takos got hurt. A little bonk in the face from an angry worker." Amelia says. "Don't worry, he took a finger in return, and I gave him an extra cookie."
The tako chirps. Amelia is fairly sure it's reacting to her speech more than the actual contents of her words, but again, it's not clear how smart takos are.
"So, standard check, you know the deal." Amelia says, reaching out towards Eldritch's head. "If you want me to stop, just give me a sign. Waking up, for example. Just a suggestion."
Eldritch doesn't wake up. Not even as Amelia holds her face and checks her head, feeling for new bumps or anomalies. She slowly moves down her body as she works, checking for any damage or changes. She's not a full-on doctor, but she does have nurse training as a part of being a care manager, which is why she's allowed to conduct checks in the first place.
The official reason for these checks is to have advanced warning in case of the development of new anomalous features and to keep abreast of her general health. The reason Amelia checks is to make sure Eldritch isn't hurt.
See… some people don't like Eldritch. Some of those people are workers, some of those people are overseers. Sometimes both workers and overseers that don't like Eldritch have the same shift for changing reality anchors.
Sometimes those people have very low self-restraint, and decide that taking it out on the girl who literally can't fight back is fine, and the overseers don't call them out for it. Maybe they 'accidentally' bump the bed when replacing the anchor next to it, or 'fumble' an anchor so it falls on the bed, or any other 'mistake' that won't trigger an outright attack from the takos.
Whenever Amelia finds a bruise that wasn't there yesterday, that's her cue to look through the security footage and raise hell. She can usually tell when she'll find one because the takos will be agitated.
Today is a good day though. Eldritch's pale skin is unblemished, and the takos are calm.
"Another inch of hair, huh E?" Amelia sighs with a smile, picking up the end of her long purple locks. "You're going to need a haircut again if you keep this up. I've never seen anyone grow hair as fast. Do you know how much the workers complain about having to wash it? It takes so long to dry. I don't think they use conditioner either, so I guess the silky feeling must be you. Is that it? Do you have hair magic, E? Is that the secret you're sleeping to hide?"
Eldritch doesn't respond. The tako next to her head sways from side to side, and two of its little tentacles come up to rest on its own head.
"Come on, you can tell me. Girl to girl. I promise not to tell management." She jokes. "Reality warping is a small price to pay for good hair."
The tako chirps at her. The sound echoes around the wide, empty room. It almost sounds like a voice by the time the noise fades away.
"Alright, fine, keep your secrets." Amelia sighs dramatically, and pushes out her chair. "Maybe next time."
The tako chirps again, plaintive.
"Sorry little thing, can't stick around." Amelia says. "Got another angel to check on."
This time multiple takos chirp, and together she could swear the noise sounds like a giggle. It's probably just an auditory hallucination. This is far from the first time she thought tako noises sound like some sort of speech.
"Take care of E until I come back." She tells the takos as she walks down the stairs. They must sense she's leaving, because multiple of them move and cling to her clothes again. "Hey, I can't take any of you with me. Shoo."
She has to spend five minutes gently prying takos off her back before she can actually leave, and they whine at her the entire time.
"I hope you're happy to know they whimper at everyone who doesn't bring them food now." Jay says dryly. "You're going to start getting complaints about favoritism."
"Joke's on you, I already get complaints about favoritism due to my other charges, this is just another on the pile." Amelia mutters.
"Have you considered not spoiling them?" Jay asks sarcastically.
"A bag of cookies costs, like, two pounds. If no one else can be bothered to bring one, that's not my problem." Amelia huffs. "They should stop being cheap."
Jay rolls her eyes. "Whatever."
After another check to make sure no takos have attached themselves to her again, Amelia steps out of Eldritch's room and makes her way across the hall to Crystal's.
There's no defenses to arm in Crystal's room, and also unlike Eldritch, there are no floating eldritch abominations to keep an eye on. Instead, within this small five by five meter room, is a large, clear red crystal, held upright by metal clamps so that the woman within is easily visible.
The woman in question is a tall, slim woman in an alternatingly white and black dress that leaves the shoulders bare and has a gem-like dark red skirt to accent it. Her hair is just as long as Eldritch, though rather than being a smooth sheet it's a tousled, almost spiraling, mess that varies from pink to red to black depending on the angle it's viewed from.
That wouldn't be the strangest thing about her though. No, that honor goes to the horns and the halo and the crystalline wings. The horns are small, upwardly curved, smooth black spikes jutting out of the top of their head. They look like some sort of polished obsidian. The halo (as much as it can be called that) is a collection of alternatingly black and white, diamond-shaped gems (at least, the researchers assume they're gems) that vertically frame Crystal's head. Curiously, if Amelia walks around the side of Crystal and lines up two of these halo gems from opposite colors, they lose their individual color and appear purplish-red. The wings are rather simple, being a collection of three gems on either side of Crystal that are black on her left, and white on her right, arranged in the loose suggestion of wings. They're quite a bit smaller than Eldritch's wings, which are already on the small side to begin with, and as such are only the length of a forearm in total.
There's really not much to check with Crystal. There's no maintenance to be done aside from occasionally scrubbing dirt off the crystal's surface, and she doesn't have any anomalous effects to keep track of aside from a very slight boost to your mood if you touch the crystal she's held in, so Amelia's job is simply to check for any changes.
Well, okay, maybe there's another slight quirk to Crystal… but it only seems to affect Amelia. She hasn't actually told anyone about it because it's never been brought up in any report and it might just be her getting too attached to her charges again.
First, that 'small boost to your mood' isn't so slight for her. Laying a hand on Crystal's… uh… crystal, sends a jolt through her arm and never fails to make her feel calm. Her worries are brushed away so long as she keeps contact, and she knows that isn't how it works for other people. They report feeling 'a bit more happy' and nothing more.
She can also hear things if she presses her ear to the crystal, very faintly, with no understandable words. It sounds like singing.
(Amelia tries to resist the urge to listen to the crystal while Jay is around. She's the only overseer that actually cares what happens to Eldritch and Crystal and knows Amelia's usual procedures, so she could actually call Amelia out on doing something weird like that.)
"What are you mumbling, Amelia?" Jay asks, amused.
Amelia blinks, she hadn't realized she was mumbling. "Uh, sorry. Don't really know."
"Her eyes aren't even open."
"What?"
"Her eyes aren't open. You were muttering 'iris, iris, iris'. You can't even see the color of her eyes."
Why in Baelz name was she muttering that? She wasn't even thinking about eyes. "Yeah, I was just wondering if she'll have purple eyes, seeing as that's sort of her thing, or maybe one white and one black. Heterochromia." She lies. If she tells the truth, she might be prevented from monitoring Crystal, and she's already had an incident with Kiara today and she doesn't want to have to report something else. Besides, maybe it's a side-effect of being in Eldritch's room first.
"You're weird Ame."
"Says you, Chad."
"Fuck you too, you know I hate that nickname."
"Calli likes it."
Jay groans. "Look, I didn't know she was the Mori, alright? I would have let the guards do their thing if I knew she was an anomaly."
"Look on the bright side, you're in Calli's good graces. That has to count for something." Amelia says teasingly. "You were very rad, in her words."
Jay mutters something that sounds suspiciously like an insult.
"Now Jay, we're on coms, this is being recorded." Amelia taunts further, a calm grin over her face. "No insulting the care manager."
"Just get out here when you're done fondling the crystal or whatever."
Amelia didn't realize she was touching the crystal. She reluctantly pulls herself away, surprised at the feeling of mourning that washes over her when she's no longer touching it.
Her thoughts are all sorts of messy today. Maybe Calli's warning and the chaos Kiara created and that upcoming test for Gura rattled her more than she expected.
"Yeah, I'm done." Amelia says.
She can't help but shoot glances at Crystal every few seconds until she's finally out of sight.
This was originally going to be a one-shot, until I realized it would probably end up being 30,000 words and would be better off as a story somewhere between two to four chapters. Looking like three at the moment.
