Chapter Text
Michelle sat by herself at the table, eating her Egg McMuffin. Since the laboratory was in the outskirts, beforehand Michelle decided she would bring a lot of her own food in advance to eat. And by her own food, she meant a comically large bag of McMuffins. She heard the iconic humming of Elijah, and realized she had to hide her comically large bag of Egg McMuffins under the table, or else the worst may happen… she might ask for one.
Elijah swung in to the room, joyfully humming to herself as she held a Starbucks coffee in one hand and a few books under her other arm. She sat down across from Michelle, putting her books on the desk and taking a sip of her coffee. “You look like you’re in a good mood.” Michelle said.
“That’s because I am!” Elijah giggled. “The best thing happened. We managed to extract more physical cogito!”
“Really?” Michelle’s eyes widened and she scooted closer.
“Yes!” Elijah answered, placing down her cup and taking out her signature notepad. “It’s a massive red sword, with these big, creepy eyes on it,”
Michelle winced at the description. “Sounds… interesting. It must’ve been pretty late in the night as well if I wasn’t there for such a huge discovery.”
Elijah nodded, looking at her notepad. “3:22am. We were up all night!”
“Guess that’s why you need the coffee,” Michelle said “by the way, where did you get that?”
“Depends, where did you get that McMuffin?”
Michelle looked away embarrassed, blushing. She could see the comically large bag of McMuffins under the table in the corner of her eye. “Fair point.”
“Anyways, we’ve been thinking about giving it to Kali, she seems to be the only one able the wield it properly.”
“Makes sense, she is the strongest person in the city.” Michelle said.
“Yes yes,” Elijah said, “shame I never got to touch it though…”
Michelle raised an eyebrow. “You wanted to use it?”
Elijah chuckled, “oh, of course not! I’m not a fighter like Kali is, or as cool… or strong.” Michelle was still giggling at the thought of Elijah being a color fixer. Then she started to notice Elijah’s tone shifting. Elijah continued, “I mean, I haven’t contributed much of anything really. Just documenting, reading, writing about things that other people do. I’m just an observer, with no agency of my own. I feel like I need to do more. I need to do better. I need to do something, otherwise why would Carmen even enlist my help in the first place?” Elijah clutched her drink, looking at it. “Why me?”
Michelle looked at Elijah with a somber expression, putting down the half eaten McMuffin. “I’m sure there’s lots that you have contributed to this project, Elijah.”
“Like what?” Elijah looked at Michelle dead in the eyes. Her death glare always put Michelle at unease, even when she wasn’t at the other side of it. Michelle sank in the chair. “Sorry,” Elijah said, looking down at the books “it’s just…” she looked like she was struggling to find to words.
“It’s ok Elijah. I know you haven’t done any experiments by yourself. I haven’t either. It’s fine! Honestly, you don’t give yourself enough credit. You’re the only scientist I ever feel like talking to. All of the others, they’re really intimidating. They’re all really serious, except for Giovanni maybe. You’re the only one I think I’ve seen be happy like this except for Carmen herself!”
Elijah smiled. “Thank you.”
“I really mean it, Elijah,” Hod continued, “you’re the only thing keeping me coming back to this laboratory. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
People are screaming. Blood and body parts are splattered across the hallways of the control team like a shabby art piece from the Ring. It looked like this across the entire facility. Ayin stared blankly into the screen. What went wrong? Did it even matter what went wrong this day? Would this have had happened anyway, or was there some way he could have prevented it before it even happened? He could hear Hod’s voice faintly as it swirled through the department, and he watched his weakened and frail nuggets get absorbed into Blue Star as the joyful training music she had used in all her training videos played in the background. “Why does everyone stil hate me?” The voice asked. “I did everything I could. I’ll never be forgiven. I need to be a good person. I just want to be a good person…”
Ayin sighed, and rewinded the memory repository.
One week ago, a scenario like this had happened. Malkuth, after establishing a Starbucks inside of the control team, had it all become undone as abnormalities became loose because of her. The facility was almost torn to shreds twice. The second time was during her core meltdown. These scenarios needed to happen to complete the seed of light, Ayin knew this. But how much more death did he need to watch before life could be reborn, so everyone could be cured? He tried his best not to think about it too hard, and started the new day.
“Now, the procedure for when punishing bird breaches is as follows,” Hod explained as she used a projector to display a video of punishing bird and a nugget. She was inside of the training department, calling in all her nuggets early before the day started. “If you attack punishing bird, it will devour you, and no agent inside this room can withstand that attack. If you see it, remain calm and do not attack, even if it pecks you.”
One of the nuggets, Zach, was bored out of his mind. He knew all of this already, he was level 5, wearing the EGO and mask of the Mountain of Smiling Bodies. There was nothing he hadn’t seen, at least he thought. Luckily, he was not one to snore, and the mask hid his face perfectly. On the other hand, Ray was leaned forward, listening attentively. It was crucial for them, they were only a level 3 and hired a week ago, the day of Malkuth’s core suppression. They had misunderstood all of the work types because of that day, and let the Forsaken Murderer out the day before. They had the ego gear of Laetitia on, and her hat as well. From a distance, if it were not for the gun other nuggets would have confused them for Laetitia. The only thing that separated them in that outfit was that Ray’s eyes could look straight for more than 5 seconds. Yuri was trying to whisper something to Emma, presumably to get them to talk, but Emma was nervous of the consequences. Emma had the EGO of funeral of dead butterflies, while Yuri had Big Bird’s EGO. They always seemed to be together, even now sitting next to each other. And finally, far away from the rest of the group, but sitting in the front right next to Ray was Charlotte, sitting up and listening attentively. She specifically asked Ayin himself for the EGO of Der Freischütz, as she preferred to work alone.
“Now for Big Bird…” Hod continued instructing. However, as she explained the procedure, she could hear a voice in the back of her head.
“They aren’t listening to you,” the voice said.
Hod continued, “the lights will go out in the department he enters, and anyone in there is able to be hypnotized,”
“They remember what you did. They’ll never forgive you.”
“If you are about to be hypnotized, there will be a light over your head.”
“Why do you even try? You will never be loved. You will never be accepted. You are not a good person.”
“When that happens, you must leave your department immediately, and return afterwards to continue to suppress it.”
“Stop lying to yourself. Stop putting on this facade. You do not deserve their forgiveness anyways. Not after what you did.”
“Now Big Bird is weak too—” Hod stopped mid-sentence, “WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP?” She shouted.
The scream woke up Zach, who had to pretend he was awake the whole time. Yuri cleared their throat and scooted away from Emma. Ray looked horrified, and Charlotte looked attentive as ever. She spoke, “uh, Ms.Hod, none of us have spoken to my knowledge.” Yuri cleared their throat again.
“Yes… of course,” Hod put a hand on her forehead. “I just… I’ll be back,” Hod abruptly left the room.
Ray waddled over to a groggy Zach. “Zach, what happened?” Ray asked sheepishly. It was a question they had asked many times before.
Zach yawned, “I dunno, don’t ask me.”
“She just kind of snapped, I don’t think she’s alright,” Ray’s voice, usually full of sunshine and optimism, was becoming more weak. “She might be…” Ray whispered in Zach’s ear, “going crazy.”
“Aren’t we all?” Zach laughed hysterically. It was the first time he’d laughed in a while. It was creepy. Ray backed away.
Yuri had a smug look on her face as they turned towards Emma. “You know what I could REALLY go for right now?”
Emma sighed, “some McDonal-”
“some fuckin McDonalds, baby!” Yuri answered.
“You could go for some McDonalds everyday, Yuri.”
“Ok but could you get it for me this time please please please pleeease?”
Emma smiled, “we can get some on the way to the WARP train,”
“Yesss!” Yuri clutched their fist. “You know the order right?”
“Quarter Pounder, no pickles, large fry and soda, and an ice cream,” Emma responded almost robotically, “fat ass,”
“Wha- hey! Well sorry, I have to keep up with the 3 cookies you order every week we go there! Why don’t you ever get the burgers? The cookies aren’t even that good!” Emma raised her white gun to Yuri’s face. “WAIT-” They fired, and harmless white butterflies came out, flying in Yuri’s face and healing the bit of sp she lost, accompanied with a ding sound. Yuri pouted, and Emma giggled.
Charlotte seemed to be in deep thought meanwhile. Ray went to the front of the room again and sat beside her. “Charlotte, you were paying attention right? What happened?
Charlotte looked towards Ray with a blank expression. “She left.”
“Ok but like, why?”
“Several possible reasons. The most likely is a possible coming of an anxiety attack. Or she might be off her medication.”
“Medication?” Ray raised an eyebrow.
“Enkephalin.” Charlotte briefly answered.
“Wha- the stuff we produce?”
“Also is used in cigarettes and drugs.” She answered. “We do not have time for questions. We must prepare. The day will be starting soon and everyone else will get here. You will be assigned your abnormality soon.”
“Ok…” Ray was left with more questions than answers.
Hod was just outside the door. She heard everything they said. She knew it. She knew they thought something was off about her. But even now, they wouldn’t say it. They wouldn’t say they hated her. But she knew. A clerk walked by. “Hi Ho-”
Hod shushed the clerk. “You saw nothing,” she dashed across the hallway. The clerk was left confused.
Next morning, Hod goes to Netzach’s department, where she saw him there. “Hey Hod,” Netzach said, “rough day?”
Hod sighed, “as always. Pass me some Enkephalin.” Netzach gave Hod the pill bottle, and she took some. They sat together on the conveniently placed green couch that was always there. A few minutes later, she asks, “do you ever think your agents hate you?”
Netzach shrugged, “I don’t really care what they think about me. Wether they like me or not is honestly irrelevant,”
“Of course you’d say that,” Hod said, “you don’t have anything to make up for. You don’t need to be a good person,”
“Well, what makes you think you do?” Netzach asked.
“I need to be a good person, Netzach, and i’ve really tried. It just feels like no matter what I do, I can never come close to it. Everyone will still hate me,” she popped another enkephalin pill “why? Why me? I’m the only one who tries to do anything in this facility. I’m not a screw up like Malkuth, or cold and uncaring like Yesod, or lazy and apathetic like-” Hod caught herself mid sentence, “sorry.”
“It’s good, I’ve told myself worse,” Netzach said, “honestly, it sounds like to me you need to stop caring so much about what other people think.”
Hod chuckled, “you say that like it’s so easy, Netzach. Maybe it is for you, not for me. Not when I have so much I need to make up for.”
Netzach sighed, “well, if you really need to, I guess here’s some advice. If you want people to like you, you should give them what they like. Like I give you enkephalin, and you like me right?”
“Eh…”
“Point still stands. You seem like you care about your employees. You should try and give them things they like, they’ll think you’re nice because of it.”
“Things they like huh…” Hod thought back to the conversations in the training room, Yuri and Emma’s specifically. “That’s it!” She said, “I know exactly what to do!”
“It’s not happening,” a third voice came into the room. It was Angela.
Netzach rolled his eyes, “here we go again.”
“You all recall what happened with Malkuth’s failed experiment, yes?”
“That’s true,” Hod said, getting off of the conveniently placed couch that was always there, “but maybe, now I know where she failed, I can hopefully succeed where she didn’t!”
“Not happening. The Starbucks wasn’t even in the script, if it was, it would still be here. The only reason I let it happen was to demonstrate what happens when you go off script. I know you know better than this Hod.”
This only made Hod think more, “on the script, huh,”
“Yes, was I not clear?” Angela said, “you making a McDonalds isn’t on the script either. Now please, the day is about to start, go to your department.”