"Based on yesterday, you're good to go! Congratulations, Phoo-bear! No more training needed!"
Aeshma stood up from behind her desk, letting go of the report she'd been reading. She came around the desk to hug Whinney. Whinney saw this move coming a mile away. Aeshma would take just about any chance she could to touch her nowadays, and Whinney wasn't in the mood to indulge her. She stood up and took a step back. Aeshma stopped, and her smile faltered for a moment before it returned.
"What's the matter, Whinney? I thought you would be happy about being done."
Her voice was smooth and thick like honey. Her eyes were dark. Whinney got the feeling Aeshma saw her step back as a challenge.
"I am. But... What now? Is there a job for me to do now, or what?"
Deflect. Aeshma looked at her.
"Not yet. I'll tell you as soon as we have something for you, but it might take a while. We need something that fits you and dead boy, that isn't too challenging."
"So I'll just be sitting around?"
"That's right! Spend some time getting to know your fellow freelancers, or study at the library. If you're ever bored, I get every other evening off, but I could make time for you any time."
Whinney felt that there was some kind of joke to be made about getting off, and was glad Aeshma hadn't made it. Elijah had said that the freelancers weren't exactly tight, but that didn't really seem to be true. When they had gone to eat with the other three freelancers, they all seemed friendly. Elijah must have a hard time opening up to people. She kind of liked him, though, and Dolion seemed to as well. He wasn't the type she'd have gone out of her way to be friends with outside this place. In here, it felt more like you got what you got. That said, she wasn't exactly mad about it. When he'd stopped by her room last week, it had been clear enough that he cared about her in his own way. He hadn't come by again since then, but she'd been able to coax him out a few times to hang out with Dolion and Hope.
"Yeah, I'll be around."
She turned around to leave the office. Aeshma took the chance and advanced, then embraced Whinney from behind. Whinney froze when she felt Aeshma's warm hand on her body. Aeshma giggeled, and tiny bursts of hot, humid air hit Whinney's ear. It wasn't a hug, not really. Her hands were grabbing her, feeling her. Whinney was hyperventilating all of a sudden. Her whole body felt empty and cold, but her chain was heating up. What was Aeshma thinking? Whinney felt entirely powerless; she just stood there. She managed to pull herself free and left the office. She felt Aeshma's eyes burning the back of her head as she walked away. Whinney felt the recidual touch of Aeshmas hands like filthy recideue.
She went straight to Elijah's room and knocked on his door. No answer. She tried the door. Unlocked. She opened it and entered. Elijah lay sleeping, snoring softly with a cigarette butt next to his face on the bed. She walked up to him and shook him.
"Hey, Elijah. I want to go grab lunch with you. Come on."
Elijah coughed himself awake and grogily opened his eyes. He looked like he barely knew where he was and yawned.
"Huh? Whinney? What're you doing in my room?"
"Get up! I need... I want to talk to you. Let's grab lunch."
"Hmmmmmmmh, no. Lemme sleep..."
A pressure had been building in her chest since she left Aeshma's office, and she felt it deepening. Elijah closed his eyes again and rolled over.
"No! Get up!"
"Are you deaf? Get out of my room! can't you see I'm sleeping? We're not training today anyway. If you wanna talk, talk to Dolion or Hope."
Whinney looked at him, her stomach falling. She'd expected something more from him. Had she done something to him? She stood there for another few seconds. Elijah was breathing heavily and was clearly falling back asleep. She clenched her fists and walked out, dejected.
She was headed towards the canteen when she passed the common room. From the outside, it looked just like another room, but inside it was far larger and had a couch and a TV. Te TV was the only electronic device that the freelancers were allowed to use. The door stood open, and inside she saw Dolion, Hope, and Lumi sitting around a table playing cards. She stepped inside, and Hope was the first to notice her.
"WHINNEY! Come here! We're playing 31! You know the rules?"
Whinney sat down at the table. The common room was a mishmash of decorations. The walls were the same white as all of the personal rooms, but this place had been personalized by innumerable freelancers, past and present. One wall was covered in posters of all kinds, bands, pinups, and TV shows, all plastered on top of each other. Who knew how long people had been in her situation? Generations of freelancers had passed through this room and left a mark. Elijah had been here for three years and was the longest survivor. This room was the last surviving memento of all of those who'd come before her.
"So basically you want to... Hey! You listening?"
Hope had been explaining the rules.
"No, sorry. Could you take it from the top?"
Hope looked exasperated, and Dolion chuckled.
"Ugh! We'll just play. It's easy, you'll understand."
Dolion examined Whinney's face as Hope was dealing cards. Whinney noticed him and returned his gaze. She scrunched her eyebrows questioningly.
"I would have brought chocolate if I knew you were coming, Whinney. You like chocolate, right?"
"Course I do. You don't have to get it for me. I'm totally capable of getting it for myself."
She picked up her three cards and looked at them: two of clubs, seven of hearts, and the king of spades. Hope pulled a card from the top of the deck and then placed it next to the deck. Jack of hearts. She took it and replaced it with the six of diamonds from her hand.
"You can have three cards on hand; you want to get as close to 31 as you can, within the same suit."
Lumi looked at her cards, then grabbed a card from the deck, and discarded the 9 of clubs. Dolion took a card from the deck and turned to Whinney.
"Getting a hold of stuff in here isn't that easy. You get expensive cigarettes from Aeshma, but she won't give you candy. To get that, you need contacts. You could get just about anything if you knew the right agents, like I do. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until you go on assignment, and then hope Aeshma doesn't confiscate it."
Hope looked at him, bored by Dolion's monologue.
"You playin', or what?"
Dolion chuckled and discarded the eight of spades. Hope continued her explanation of the game.
"Ok! So you can either pick up whatever the last person discarded or pull a new card. You can end the game whenever if you think you have the best hand. If you don't, you lose. Also you have to wait at least two turns unless you get 31."
Whinney took the eight and discarded her two.
"I hate being so limited by the S.O.F. Why can't we have computers at least?"
Hope grabbed a card and discarded it right away.
"Yeah, I used to beg Valentina for my phone back all the time. She says they can't risk a leak."
Lumi grabbed a card from the deck, took it, and passed the turn. Dolion looked at the card Lumi discarded.
"Lumi, you've discarded nothing but great cards!"
"..."
Dolion took the card, then said,
"You know, even the agents have very limited access to the internet. There are risks not worth taking. If the organisation stored information on servers and were somehow hacked, it would be catastrophic."
Whinney pulled the 2 of hearts and discarded it.
"No, most people would think this was some weird religious group. That's assuming anybody took it seriously at all. Honestly, even after seeing Elijah die and come back, I'm not sure I believe in these 'gods' and whatever else there is."
"Really? They based an entire world religion on just one man returning to life once. You see it with your own eyes a hundred times and still doubt it?"
Hope pulled a card and lett at a little whine.
"Oh no! Uhhhhhgh! I should've gone clubs!"
Hope discarded the ace of clubs, and Lumi slowly picked it up. She looked at her hand, then placed her hand face up on the table. The ace, king, and 10 of clubs.
"I win..."
Hope looked at the cards as if they were gold-plated hand grenades.
"Whaaaa! No way, I just gave you the ace!"
"You did..."
Lumi spoke quietly, with practically no inflection whatsoever. These must have been the first words Whinney had ever heard her speak. Her face was as calm and neutral as ever, but Whinney thought there was just the slightest spark of excitement in her eyes. Dolion began collecting all of their cards and shuffling the deck.
"Let's play again. Whinney, why isn't Elijah here?"
He studied her for a moment once again and continued.
"I would like to speak with him."
"Yeah, he's sleeping. Actually, I wanted to talk to him too, but he sort of snapped at me when I tried to get him up."
Dolion's ever-present smile widened, and his eyes sharpened. He dealt the cards and placed the deck on the table.
"Is that so? What was it you wanted to talk to him about? Perhaps you could speak to the three of us in his stead."
"I just needed to vent to him for a while. Aeshma... Well, it doesn't really matter. I'll wait until he wakes up."
Hope, who had lit up like a lightbulb all of a sudden, stood up and leaned towards her. Her hands made the table tilt, and almost made the deck of cards fall over.
"HE SNAPED AT YOU!? I swear, that guy."
"Well, he told me to get out of his room. Maybe that's not really snapping at me."
Hope sat back down and continued very matter-of-factly.
"He's a bitch. You should tell us instead, whatever it is. Screw that dumbass."
Hope actually looked a bit upset. Not in the exaggerated, faux-mad way she would sometimes make up. Despite that, there was no real animosity in the tone of her voice. Dolion chuckled inaudibly, only noticeable from the motion of his chest.
"He's... special, difficult, but he's a good person. To make you mad, Hope, that's a unique talent."
"Oh, don't cut him any slack, Dolion. Just because he was your partner doesn't mean you have to defend him whenever he's being an idiot. It's alright to point out to people when they're being assholes."
Hope sure was the brutally honest kind. Either that or she really didn't like Elijah. Dolion simply smiled at Hope.
"I'm not defending him, huhu. He sure could work on his sense of empathy, or at least his social awareness."
He glanced over at Whinney.
"But hey, I bet Whinney will prove to be a very good influence on him."
Whinney somehow doubted that, or at least she didn't understand how.
The four of them kept on playing and chatting. During the following two weeks, they would do so nearly every day. Whinney would occasionally pass by Elijah to invite him along, but he'd always decline. He was either sleeping or too tired to join them. Week two, she'd given up. He obviously didn't want to be disturbed. She didn't get the chance to talk to him like she'd wanted to either. It wasn't all bad, though. Whinney spent her time getting to know Hope and Dolion better. She and Hope turned out to have a lot in common and got along realy well. Even Lumi said a few words over the weeks. Wasn't there supposed to be one more freelancer? Elijah had said five in addition to herself. Whoever the last one was must be Lumi's partner. Noone ever mentioned them.
Week two of inactivity came to an end, and none of the freelancers had been called on assignment. Whinney had begun to wonder if they were ever going to get to do something. Something did come, a knock on Whinney's door one morning. This would be the beginning of the end for her.