POV: Trigger
"All Agents prepare for Work"
I heard the Manager's voice and I got off from the floor, pipe still in my lips and a bitter taste in my mouth… I really can't seem to actually relax anymore.
Wonder what I'm going to be doing today? Hopefully nothing too stressful…
"Trigger… the Manager say's to work Yin"
"Angela, Netzach is no longer allowed to get any kind of beer from the vending machine"
"Noted Manager"
"Wait wha-?"
I pinched the bridge of my nose… amazing, simply amazing. Now I have to go and meet depression given shape and form.
Not that I can do much about it, walking towards the chamber, with one hand in my pocket, while the other was comfortably wearing Gold Rush. When I entered the chamber, I wasn't sure if I expected a… gigantic floating Yin pendant.
Ok, so I read the papers. Insight work is all about trying to understand its general existence? Something along the lines of that could take my head away from more troublesome thoughts.
Literally, when my mind went there, the pendant twitched, making me frown for a moment. I wondered if it would also react to my emotions just like Yang did, and it twitched again.
…
Maybe this is a nice opportunity to really use Gold Rush's drawback to my advantage. I don't think I can… get positive right now, not through normal means.
Ah fuck it, I really need to let some stress out anyway. I just need to keep going, and eventually it will happen, the moment where everything connects into place and truly feel like I belong here, just a bit more.
And I would finally feel like my life would have a meaning, I can already see it! The moment of true happiness, my deepest desire achieved.
To have a life.
I glanced upwards, feeling something rubbing against the top of my head, then I saw it. The pendant was now a black fish once again, it's single eye looking at me with something akin to kinship, it understands, we don't belong. We wonder why we are here, and we look for the moment that would make it all worth it.
I caressed him with my left hand, "You are pretty understanding for a depression fish." He leaned on my hand, closing his single eye. Huh… it's pretty cute when not trying to kill everyone.
Glancing down at my gauntlet arm… did it grow a shoulder guard? Suddenly, the gauntlet that only covered my arm up to my elbow had grown armor that covered my shoulder. The shoulder plate has a similar golden diamond to that of the gauntlet, and the white cloth below it too.
Huh… it kinda feels even better to wear now, wonder how I even remove that thing now. As if reading my thoughts, the armor retracted into the gauntlet with ease. With a mental command, the armor went back on.
That answers that question, not that I would take this thing off anyway.
Feels too comforting to wear, why even think about removing it?
I kept caressing Yin with my hand, feeling kinda calm around him… well, he was still radiating negativity, but at least we were having an understatement. We will eventually get what we want.
…
Right?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, the fish stopped leaning against my hand and looked at me for a moment, before he closed his eye and slowly morphed back into a giant Yin pendant again.
I sighed while giving the pendant an inquisitive look, guess even a bit of negativity can make him close off… still, that makes me wonder what happens if both fish meet each other. Seems like both want that to happen.
After a couple of minutes more of… nothing really, the room flashed green, and I took a moment to look at the pendant before shrugging and walking out of the chamber.
Once outside, I simply leaned against a wall and started smoking without much of a care, just waiting again for my next job being given.
I glanced to my left and saw Amelia approaching me with a frown on her face, "Sup…. I have literally nothing to do. Zele is apparently taking care of the Festival, and my equipment sucks for anything else." Sounds pretty boring.
Which is fine I guess, "You will probably get new stuff soon enough, also you will probably be called to do an Abno somewhere else." My response was a little… dispirited.
She hummed and narrowed her eyes at Gold Rush, "Did that thing just grow armor?" I gave her a brief nod, not sure how to even explain that.
"... You have no idea why that even happened?" I shrugged while keeping introducing the relaxing drug to my body. Does it even have a name?
Amelia sighed at my lack of verbal response before perking up with a confused expression, "Huh… Angela giving direct orders? That's new." She now has my full attention.
Noticing my stare, Amelia shrugged, "Said I should go and do work with Punishing Bird. Weird… but orders are orders." She waved at me while walking away, leaving me a bit surprised by what I heard.
That's… some uncanny timing. I was about to start smoking again until I felt something bump on me and whined in pain. Someone fell to the ground.
Glancing at said direction to the floor, I saw Zele holding her head with her left hand, while the other one was holding a green mace with wings. Fairy Festival's E.G.O is very weird.
Preceding to ignore her, I was about to try and smoke, just to be interrupted again... by the fallen woman pulling my pants. I took a deep breath, "What do you want?" I asked through gritted teeth.
"Don't you have like an… aspirin or something?" I felt the corners of my mouth twitch upwards in a very insincere smile.
"Yeah! Something close to it called 'pain'!" I half shouted, and with Gold Rush I put my fingers in a flicking position, Zele stared at the oversized fingers from the E.G.O in confusion.
Then her face snapped backwards and her body literally did a 360-degree turn in the air, before her back hit the ground again. She sloppily got up and looked up at me.
She had the gall to give me a fucking THUMBS UP and a shaky smile, "Cool man, now I'm only seeing double… rghsgk!" She proceeded to puke on the floor. While walking away, a small flock of fairies following behind her head.
I grumbled to myself and continued to smoke in peace.
Seeing as I had nothing better to do, I started to try and remember what I read on the Abnormalities in Safety.
Der Freischütz is a HE, was quite literally a devil with no fucks left to give, who has apparently killed a lot of people, and just does what he feels like at any moment. He can help us if we pay him in Enkephalin too… what does he even do with that?
Yin, a WAW that is a bad luck charm, quite literally too. Seems to hate his general existence and is impulsively trying to encounter with his counterpart… makes me wonder what would happen if they do meet.
King of Greed, WAW… seems to be a girl inside a chrysalis that mesmerizes people, some even just deciding to try and get her out if they stare long enough. Something about 'greed' and 'desires' being heightened... I glanced at Gold Rush once, makes sense.
Fairy Festival, a ZAYIN and just… not that dangerous, or so it says. Easy to please and as long as the queen and her subjects are fed, it should be fine. The fairies also follow people that work the abnormality, to heal you… well, to keep the meat fresh. They also seem to react violently when you are tasked to work with any other abnormality that isn't the Festival, resulting in…
Being… eaten…
FUCK.
My body moved instantly, and I ran after Zele. Where the hell was she going!? I could see her reaching out to Der's chamber while Tiffany was walking next to Jeremy, both noticed this too and their expressions shifted into high alert.
Just a bit faster! Almost ther-
The fairies acted, one digging into Zele's left eye, another in the right, two inside her mouth… and then started to eat her from there, from the inside. She didn't even get to scream. I had already reached Zele's downed form, and I was on my knees.
SHIT- what do I do?!
I can't pull them out! I don't- what do I even-
Feeling something fall on my shoulder, a hand. I glanced at Jeremy, who looked at Zele with a certain amount of pity. Tiffany just sighed despondently not for Zele, but for how easy she could be in her position, she walked into Der's chamber soon after that.
We- we really can't…
No, I could have done something. I just… got angry, and this happened.
Because I just felt angry... at what? She was getting high out of not wanting to deal with this fucking facility. The fairies slowly went out of her body.
Smiles on their faces, a fulfilling meal.
…
Do you… really know, how angry this makes me?
My gauntlet arm lashed out and crushed the four flying fairies in the air. Not nearly enough, my body was already moving down the hallway, towards the Fairy Festival, to take payment in blood.
I can't get what I want, not even saving people, or acceptance?
Fine… fine.
Revenge sounds like a nice back-up plan.
Revenge for whom?
I think someone was talking to me? Whatever, I went inside the chamber of the chubby fairies, the big one in the middle had a big dumb smile, along with her little failed abortions.
She was… talking with the rest of her little hive, without a care in the world. They have their flesh and fed their desire.
Understandable…
Unfortunately, that clashes with what I want, with what I need, what I crave.
My gauntlet moved in an arc, a backhand that pulverized the top half of the Queen, and turning the little fairies into red stains on my gauntlet and the wall.
… That's it?
Too soon, too soon.
Abnormalities respawn no matter what, then I just have to wait here, so that this THING understands what it has done to me, so that it gets who they should fear.
If they fear, then it won't happen again.
POV change: Manager
I stared at the Fairy Festival's chamber, gauging my option. On one hand, Trigger will… probably not be available for a while, along with a source of energy in that Abnormality he apparently decided to torture.
On the other hand, I have no idea if I can actually order a suppression on him without getting any casualties, his mental corruption is still below the 70% mark. So… he should still be lucid, to some degree.
And the Festival is a ZAYIN, it isn't like we are losing anything important.
"Manager, I believe Trigger should be… dealt with, before it gets out of hand." I heard Angela give a suggestion and while it's true that Trigger could go over the edge and start attacking others, I believe he is too busy making Fairy Festival… oh that's just wrong.
The slow process of crushing something usually means that blood and organs are going to come out from… certain holes in your body. The Queen found this out when her body slowly lost all life for the fourth time, along with everything she had inside her.
Are those four stomachs… explains a lot.
I took a sip of my Bear brand Beer and had to really wonder why dealing with Trigger is basically a coin flip. I'm going to bet in the fact that he is too angry with those fairies to actually become a problem for anyone else.
"All employees, as long as he only focuses on the Festival, it should be fine. Continue work as usual." Can't have Malkuth try and send someone. Yesod… he'll probably only act if Trigger became a problem to the actual agents or clerks.
Netzach? Don't talk about Netzach. Can't wait to see him now that Enkephalin usage is going to be handled better from… Malkuth didn't say who, but mentioned whoever it was disliked Netzach, so it should work out.
Angela made a weird sound, not sure what it meant, but she had been eerily silent after my words. I glanced back once and quickly looked back at the monitors.
It looked like the AI had developed heat vision, it genuinely felt like her stare could burn something to cinders... that something is me.
"... Very well." She walked back to her part of the office, and I heard her seat creak. Oh, thank god, she was no longer looking at me…
Looking back to the Festival's chamber, the little fairies were nibbling at Trigger without much success. He rose his now gold glowing gauntlet… is that a shoulder guard?
And punched the floor, a golden explosion of pure power killed everything in the room. The fairies smacked all around it, leaving now a red room, and a Queen ripped in half with his bare hands… this is the tenth time he killed that thing.
…
I looked closer at the fairies, are they looking more… monstrous all of a sudden?
Whatever, I need to focus on the rest of the facility. I don't want to have another pillar incident on me again.