What the... duck? Huh?

~Allison

[Wednesday, May 11, 2163 - 16:12]

[Butterscotch HQ > 'Section L' > Agent Quarters > Emilia's Apartment] 

[Quarantine Day 1]

Allison and Emilia were escorted out of the room, the people in white being substituted for more people in purple. They were given their general state of health, and some footnotes, the most important of which was that they, their team, and anyone who had to come in direct contact with them, would face a mandatory 7-day quarantine.

A few turns and some minutes later, they arrived in front of a door. Emilia stepped forward, placed her palm on a sensor, and stared briefly into a camera. A response was received from a robotic voice "Access granted" and the door slid open.

Emilia stepped aside and motioned for Allison to enter. Allison stared into the darkness beyond the doorway. "Any day now" Emilia nudged.

Allison turned slowly to Emilia, who was grinning slightly, almost bashfully. Curiosity swiftly overtook her and she entered the darkened space. Emilia entered behind and lights came on as the door began to shut behind them. Allison was momentarily blinded, not by the fact that the lights came on, but due to the onslaught of color reflected into her pupils.

If Allison had to describe the room in a single word, it would be "bright", followed by "cheerful", and possibly "cute". However, a cursory inspection of her surroundings, once her eyes adjusted would be "Overwhelming", and "ducks".

The jarring transition from darkness to duckie yellow hit Allison hard. As she scanned the surroundings, she struggled to comprehend the duckdom she'd stepped into. Most things were yellow, blue, or white, in that order. The vast majority of everything was yellow. Yellow bedsheets with cute rubber duckies, matching pillowcases, a bedside table painted to match the sheets, and three of the four walls. The fourth wall, an accent wall, had a depiction of "A Starry Sky", but the stars were replaced by yellow ducklings. There were floating shelves installed, on which sat various duck-themed odds and ends. The shelves themselves were white, but accented with yellow and ducks. The lamp on the bedside table had a yellow shade and duck prints. The desk off to the side of the room that was seemingly too large for a single occupant was yellow. The handles of the drawers were molded like ducklings. There was a round yellow rug beside the bed, on which sat a pair of duckie slippers. A  duck-themed bean bag rested in the corner of the room. The floor was hardwood, and the only 'normal' and not duck-themed thing in the room.

Allison's eyes spun as she grappled with her surroundings. There were three options she could come up with: she was either going to be converted to whatever duck-based religion that Emilia served in, be killed for not converting (or some other made-up reason), or the option she found least likely - absolutely nothing. Her expectations were thoroughly subverted.

"So, welcome to my room, our room now I guess? There's already been a request for another bed. Good thing there's room for two, huh? So, you want a shower or...?" Emilia, the woman with a weaponized hand, stood, staring at her feet, blushing to her ears, clearly embarrassed.

"Uhm, you... really like ducks, huh?"

Emilia's head snapped up "Yup!" Then her voice gained an edge "That's not a problem, is it?"

Allison heard her own gulp as she frantically spit out a reply, "No! I like ducks, and it's honestly kind of cute. It's just... a lot to take in all at once... is all..." Her voice trailed off as she spoke more. She too, was embarrassed, though she would not be able to answer why if asked. "So, uhm, a shower?"

It had been a while since Allison last showered. She'd had to think longer than she cared to admit about when her last shower was. It wasn't out of bad habit or not wanting to be clean. It was that she was bothered less if she made less effort in her upkeep. Since she was generally objectified by coworkers, she didn't bother with her hair or make-up, If she didn't smell like she just showered, she wouldn't get perverts sniffing the air as she passed. It was better for her peace of mind to stay within a reasonable state of uncleanliness. She looked at Emilia "You don't get harassed by your coworkers, right?"

Emilia met her gaze, and gulped, choking down the fear that she saw in the eyes that looked back at her. "No. Nobody here ever has. They even avoid this team unless its some sort of prank. We're quarantined for the time being, so you can rest easy, and after that, we'll be stuck together for a while. I won't let anyone bother you."

"...uhm...I'm not so sure that finger-pistol... whatever it is... is going to help."

"Then I'll use the bigger one."

"...the what?" Allison paused, wondering if Emilia somehow had another hand attachment that was unreasonably large or something.

Sounds of clicking, whirring, and moving parts met Allison's ears. They were sounds that were not supposed to come from a human, but her ears and eyes dictated that the origin of the sounds was Emilia. Allison's jaw dropped, and her eyes swam in their sockets as Emilia's right arm, or what was one moment ago, had transformed into something else entirely. It appeared to be a high-caliber rifle, along with some accouterments that seemed a bit out of place, likely due to some additional functionalities.

"This baby shoots .50 caliber anti-vehicle rounds. It WILL stop anything short of a tank or aircraft. Anyone who wants to get through this team, or to you, has to get past me first." Emilia smiled triumphantly and gingerly pat her arm-cannon as Allison's knees buckled. Allison found herself caught between Emilia's left arm, the hand of which had been previously used to shoot her own teammate, and the high-powered rifle that used to be her right arm.

Embraced between weapons, Allison could no longer comprehend her circumstances and fainted on the spot. 

[Wednesday, May 11, 2163 - 17:08]

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

Allison awoke in a comfortable bed, covered in duckie yellow satin sheets. Her pillow was cool so she knew she hadn't been there long. She grappled with her thoughts. She remembered Emilia, then her knees collapsing, then... nothing. She mentally inspected herself. There was no pain, at least nothing new, and she was still clothed. As her eyes opened ever-so-slightly, she glanced at her surroundings, making it a point not to move more than needed. She instinctively moved to grab her nonexistent side arm and heard Emilia beside her. "I guess it is a bit much to take in at once." She shrugged in place of an apology. "You're safe. You were out for 14 minutes and 19 seconds. We can't clear you for a gun yet so you obviously aren't going to find one there."

Allison's eyes darted open and her gaze turned to Emilia, who was casually sitting in a chair beside the bed. Allison noted that the chair was not there previously. "...uhm, sorry about taking your bed. You didn't have to do that."

"What are you talking about? This is your bed."

"...huh?" Allison's face was the textbook definition of bewilderment.

Emilia simply pointed her right thumb, yes, it was back to an arm now, in the direction of the previous bed, which had been moved over to accommodate the new bed of equal size. "You remember what I said when we first walked in, right? 'Welcome to my room, our room now I guess'. We're going to be rooming together until they figure out what to do with you."

Allison's train of thought diverged into 2 distinct paths, with extremely different levels of urgency and relevance. The first was "How did Emilia get a bed in here, assemble it, make it, and place her in it, within the span of 14 minutes and 18 seconds?" and also "What do you mean figure out what they are going to do with me?!"

Allison opted to ask the second question. "...uhm, when you say 'figure out what to do with me.... what exactly do you mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. I'll answer the rest later, for now, we have some things to take care of, like lunch!" No sooner than Emilia had finished speaking there was a doorbell chime or quack. Emilia got up and the door opened as she approached. A small, motorized cart wheeled itself in. "Oh, you're in luck. This was made by Nicel."

Allison pulled herself out of bed, and her feet found an identical pair of duckie slippers on an identical round rug. She slid her feet into the slippers and moved over to the newly appeared nearly suspiciously similar desk. This one had not been painted. Emilia motioned her over towards a round table which was also not present in the room. "C'mon over. We have a proper table ya know."

"...uhm, where did all of this come from? You said I was out for 14 minutes."

"Rinoa assembled most of it and had it sent the same way our food arrived. The bed was a bit trickier. Rinoa assembled the smaller sections and brought them. I put them together once they were inside."

"...uhm, who's Nicel?"

"Baguette."

"...Huh? Baguette?"

"Of.... Cocoa-Baguette? You were watching them when we met?"

"Wait? Seriously?! His name is Nicel?"

"Duck! That's his last name, and don't say shit about it. Could cause some real issues for him if you do."

"No Doxxing, got it." Allison and Emilia grabbed their dishes from the cart, set the table, and sat down to eat. Allison's mouth went agape as she stared at the spaghetti and meatballs before them, "Didn't they cook this on yesterday's video?"

"Yeah. It might even be exactly the portion from the video. They did make a few portions."

"LUCKY! You get to eat their cooking all the time?!"

Emilia noted Allison's change of tone and answered as she had any other question, "Not all the time, and you're eating it now too, right?"

"...oh, right." Allison nodded and then began to devour her food, as did Emilia. They each released very unladylike burps and laughed at each other before Emilia's gaze grew vacant for a moment. Immediately after, her face twisted into a look of discontentment.

"Well duck! Looks like we got work to do." Before Allison could ask anything, there was another quack of the doorbell, and in wheeled a cart with a stack of papers bound together, along with a tablet.

Emilia picked up the tablet, which immediately lit up as she made contact with it. It simply stated, "Yo, bitch, turn on the thing." Emilia rolled her eyes and fixed her gaze upon an empty section of the wall without bothering to search for a remote. An empty section of the wall opened, as if afraid of Emilia's stare, and a large TV came into view. As if expecting, or watching, the voice continued from the tablet, "No, the other thing!"

Emilia rolled her eyes again, and the wall closed, hiding the TV. Instead, a small hole opened in the ceiling, and a life-sized image of a woman was projected in 3 dimensions. Allison gazed at the projection, realizing it couldn't be quite life-sized. Jesse was slightly taller than average and stood a full head over her. Allison was on the slightly short side. This person, at least the hologram version of her, stood a full head shorter than herself.

The hologram sighed and turned to look at her. "Yes, the projection is life-sized, now listen up, bitches. The next few minutes could determine if and when we all die."