She wakes up on a table. Sitting up, she looks around suspiciously, smoothing down her skirt. She's in a room she's never seen before. Where am I? she thinks, before the more alarming question hits her. Who am I?
The door opens and a man walks in, wearing a suit. "Hi," is all he says.
"Get away from me!" She slides off the table, backing away from him, looking around for a potential weapon.
"Hey, hey, it's okay." He holds up his hands. "You're perfectly safe."
"Who are you?" She clenches her fists, unable to find anything else she could defend herself with.
"First of all, who are you? You're probably wondering that, aren't you?"
She stares at him. How can he possibly—
"You've drugged me, haven't you?" Her voice rises. "That's why I can't remember anything."
"No." He pulls up a chair and sits down at the table. "Take a seat. Or you can leave, it doesn't really matter."
She looks at the open door behind him. If she runs for it now he could easily get up and grab her. She reluctantly moves to sit in the other chair instead.
"This is Waystar Royco," the man begins. "I know, you've never heard of it. Or its boss, Logan Roy. It's a media business—"
"What does this have to do with me?" she interrupts.
"To protect the privacy of his company, Mr Roy had all his employees' memories severed. That means that while you're here, you'll forget who you are outside. When you leave this floor, you'll forget everything that happens here. Does that make sense?"
It does make a horrible kind of sense. It would explain why she has no idea who she is.
"So I work here?" she asks finally.
"As of today, yes."
She sits still, taking this in. "So can I choose to walk out of here?"
"You can, but your outie will decide whether to come back or not. You might just find yourself right back here."
"My outie?" she scoffs.
"Yeah. When you're here, you're your innie."
"And why would my 'outie' agree to do this to me? To herself?"
"Can't help you there." He shrugs.
She takes in his appearance fully. He's pale and unshaven. He looks dishevelled, despite his smart suit.
"Are you an innie too?" she asks. She doesn't want to believe all this, but it's better than the alternative, that she's been drugged and stripped of her memories by a psychopath.
"I am." He nods. "I think our outies must be in some kind of pain, to want to forget who they are half the time."
"What's your name?"
"Some people call me Little Lord Fuckleroy… but that's just a joke," he hastens to add. "You can call me… Ken."
"Okay, Ken." She nods, beginning to accept this strange situation. "And what will you call me?"
"You can choose," he says. "Any name come to mind?"
She looks at her hands. Her nails are painted a bright shade of pink, a contrast to the bland beige walls of the room.
"Call me Pinky," she says. It doesn't matter, she'll never see him again.
"Okay, Pinky. You'll probably want to go home now. I'll see you tomorrow, if your outie decides to return."
She gets up and makes her way to the door cautiously, still not feeling entirely safe. He stays sitting where he is.
"Take the elevator," he calls after her. She follows the corridor, then jumps in the elevator with relief, looking at her strange reflection. There's no way she's coming back here, tomorrow or any other day.
PING!
Shiv steps out of the elevator. A look at the clock on the wall tells her she's been gone for nearly the whole day. The last thing she remembers is going to the room in the basement to have the chip implanted.
"Ms Roy?" A security guard greets her. "I have your belongings here…"
She goes and collects her bag and immediately checks her phone. There's a message from Tom, saying, "How's the severance going? So proud of you!" Nothing from her father.
He will be in contact, she's sure of it. He asked her to do this. He had looked her straight in the eyes and said Pinky, are you a part of this family or not? She couldn't let her brothers be the only Roys doing the severance program.
She can do this, better than either Roman or Ken can. And in six months' time, when she's proved to the world that severance is a positive thing, so much so that Logan Roy let his only daughter be its poster child, then he'll give her the top job.
Today is just the beginning.