...Does death even count as an option? It really shouldn't be part of a multiple-choice question...

~Allison

[Wednesday, May 11, 2163 - 17:43]

[Butterscotch HQ > 'Section L' > Agents Quarters > Emilia and Allison's Apartment] 

Allison was left at the table, staring blankly, as food dangled limply from her mouth. The hologram pointed this out.

"Thorne, I believe is your name? You have a spaghetto hanging from your mouth."

Allison looked in confusion. "Oh, uhm, I have spaghetti hanging from my mouth," she corrected as she slurped it down.

The hologram raised an eyebrow, "Not when it's a single piece, it isn't. It's spaghetto. Now shut up and listen. I don't plan to die because of your bullshit, and if I must, I'll take you out first."

Allison audibly gulped, taking the rest of her last bite of food down with it, albeit barely. The short statured woman projected in the room cleared her throat. "Look, our agents fucked this all sorts of up. You aren't supposed to be here. You have preemptively been banned from transferring to any other teams, regardless of any evaluation outcomes, and you're seen as a security risk. Most of the involved parties want you dead."

Emilia interjected, "I know that's kind of common sense, but she didn't need her to know that!"

The hologram sighed, walked across the room, and stood at the table. Emilia got up from her seat and leaned against the wall. The hologram then occupied her chair. Allison, once again, stood slack-jawed at the spectacle. The hologram turned its attention towards her. "Michelle Mason, captain of team Lambda. Nice to meet you, I guess. I'm gonna cut the shit and get right to the point: We're all fucked. People want you dead, and people want us dead. We're a cross-functional team that's missing roles. That means our team could get disbanded. The problem is, this is a bit of a special team. If we get disbanded, we get executed."

Allison just sat there. The previous surprise hadn't even sunk in yet, so her expression remained exactly the same, with the addition of a bit of drool. Michelle the hologram merely folded her hands at the table. "I hear you can drive a manual transmission. That true?"

Allison nodded. The hologram nodded contentedly. "Alright, here's the deal: you join us as our transport member, and we may all live. If you refuse, I'll come kill you myself, Emilia's weapons be damned. We need to make you useful, yesterday. I've already had the forms sent. Complete them and join this team. We can figure out the rest later."

"...This... isn't a request, is it?"

"No fucking shit?! Fill out the forms or we're all dead. Does that sound like a fucking request?!"

"...I'm under durress!"

"Listen bitch, you wanna be under duress, or 6 feet of dirt, assuming they are gracious enough to leave a corpse to bury?" The hologram groaned in disapproval and pulled out a knife that it stabbed in the table, or tried to. The knife went through the table, though the sounds of a knife slicing the air and colliding with a table were carried over. "You do have a choice, it's just an obvious one." The hologram disappeared immediately afterward.

[Wednesday, May 11, 2163 - 18:01]

[Butterscotch HQ > 'Section L' > Agents Quarters > Emilia and Allison's Apartment]

[Quarantine Day 1]

The girls sat in silence for a moment before each slowly turning their gazes to the thick stack of paperwork. Allison's gaze lowered, "This feels like something Transactience would do in the name of 'being different' or something.""It's a pain in the ass, but some agency protocols from who knows when dictating that the initial documents are on paper. Makes 'em unhackable."

They stared at the documents again, "...uhm, you sure we have to do this? Looks like it'll take a while to read."

"You heard the boss. It's literally do-or-die."

"...but it's not even searchable."

"If that paperwork isn't finished soon, we won't be either." Emilia produced a pen and tossed it to Allison. "Let's get started. I can read through the important crap if you want."

"...but it's not like I have an actual choice. Just show me where to sign."

Emilia shrugged, "Fair enough", and the pair went through the stack of papers. After about 2 hours of reviewing things of critical importance, initialing 69 times, signing 30, and a blood seal, the documents were complete. They'd taken several hours to go over the first 60 or so pages, reading up on things to ensure that Allison didn't do anything to warrant some sort of punishment. Then they got tired and Allison opted for "just show me where to sign". To say that they 'skimmed' all 59 of the remaining pages would be an understatement, one that would inevitably cause Allison more than her fair share of otherwise avoidable headaches.

They finished the documents in the wee hours of the following morning. Emilia washed her ritual knife and put it away in a small kitchen that Allison had somehow missed. After getting another duckie bandage from Emilia, Allison applied it to her thumb and looked up to see Emilia standing with her hands full of bottles of nail polish. Allison stared at her and the brightly colored bottles. "...now you wanna do girl time stuff?"

"Nope. You're an official team member. We need to paint the nails on at least your middle fingers. It's part of, well... our only dress code requirement."

"....uh huh..." Allison looked at the colors present and chose a neon orange, which Emilia applied with all the speed and professionalism of a nail technician.

"This one glows in the dark too. and is already dry."

Allison looked at her fingernails that could be used to direct traffic and grinned wryly. "That's a weird rule."

"It is, but there's logic behind it, supposedly. Anyway, I'm wiped. I'm calling it a night." She went to the closet and exited a moment later wearing pink pajamas with yellow duckie prints. Allison was unsurprised, until a folded bundle was lobbed at her. "Those are for you."

Allison unbounded the bundle and glanced at the matching pajamas. "I've known you for all of 1 day and I can already say that this is on brand for you."

She was met with Emilia's wry smile as she got changed and they laid down for the night.