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You humored hiring Edward, but no, no. He's been a great help, but you have other people you want to work with.
"See you around."
"Don't be a stranger." Edward points a pair of finger guns at you. "Glad you got your promotion, man. See you around." And with that, he turns around to leave. You head the opposite way, in the rough direction of your lab.
>EDWARD left the party!
You are left only with your thoughts. You address the flower growing out of your wrist as if it were an old friend. "Hey. It's going to be a long day today. We're going to be working on a LOT of anomalies."
"Do you think you can pull your weight today?"
The flower briefly stirs, as if waking up from a dream. It shakes up and down as if 'nodding.' Good. The least it can do is help you out if it's going to live in your body rent-free.
You ruminate over who you should hire. Lucy's a safe choice with your particular sponsorships, but as for your second coworker? That's trickier.
You really wanted to hire SACA, but you can't justify hiring them right now with the sponsorships you have. Maybe tomorrow, you DO want to work with them again. They're a cool, giant robot; who WOULDN'T want to work with one of those?
Maybe Colt? Colt would be a decent choice. He has the firepower to keep 199X in line, and he could make up for Lucy's weak social skills. Though time is of the essence this shift, and he's not a particularly efficient worker.
No, no, wait. Anthony. Anthony might be your best choice. He survived working in this facility for god knows how long, he's armed, AND he's probably a better worker than Colt is. He'll cost a pretty penny to hire, but it'll be worth it.
It's going to be a LONG day; you can feel it in your bones.
Right as you're about to arrive at your lab, you notice someone running down the hallway. One person quickly becomes two. Then ten. Then twenty.
Soon, dozens upon dozens of frantic researchers are running down the hallway you're standing in. Their mouths are contorted into feral, snarling maws. Their eyes shake and dart with pure, animalistic panic.
Their hands clench loose dollar bills and small bags filled with god knows what. You recognize that panic in their eyes. The panic of MISSING A DEADLINE and the CORPORATE PUNISHMENT it begets. Today is the last day they can pay off their QUOTA; after all, no wonder why they're panicking.
You scramble to reach your lab before the whole hallway is blocked off by waves on waves of desperate, thrashing wageslaves just like yourself. You manage to open the door to your lab right as the crowd is about to slam face-first into you.
You duck inside, closing the door behind you. A thunderous cacophony of at least half a hundred footsteps booms right outside your door. Hoo. Close one. You make your way to your computer so you can actually call over your coworkers.
You shoot a few quick messages over FRIENDCHAT. While you wait for them to respond, you check on the supplies you ordered yesterday.
