Chapter Text
“Who are you?” She asked it through a small microphone placed on a desk inside a tiny dark room with green cushioned walls, staring directly at the honey-blonde woman laying on top of the long wooden table surrounded by a green and a yellow carpet.
Eve P. can not believe she has to go through this again, so soon after the last one: Hugo T. In reality, she thought she would never have to do it twice after Bill P. took over for Kenny S.’s onboarding. The team had been solid, and hard-working, they always met quota and had even had a few waffle parties and music-dance experiences in the past few quarters since their implementation. MDR had been complete with Kenny S., Bill P., Elena F, and well, her.
However, when she walked in through the silver elevator doors this morning, something had already felt off. She wasn’t even surprised to see that Bill P. was missing once she strolled past the numerous white halls, brightly lit in white fluorescents, and into the green-carpeted area where their work cubicles stood.
“Is Bill sick?” Had been Elena’s question, Eve had just shrugged in response as she stirred an unhealthy amount of sugar into her coffee, leaning against the kitchenette counter. “You look like shit by the way.” Elena had added with a smile, prompting Eve to flip her off.
It’s not that she didn’t care, she did; Bill was her best friend in this office, the only one who truly understood her dry sense of humor and never seemed to think she had gone completely off the rails. But, she had to keep composure: As the Macrodata Refinement Chief the team looked up to her, and it was easy for chaos to stir in this place, after all the only thing that kept them otherwise busy were numbers on a screen, and that could get old fast.
So when Mr. Haleton walked in and asked her to accompany him to Ms. Martens’ office, Eve kept her cool. She turned her computer off by pressing a button on the back of the screen and watched her blue screen displaying a 20% completed “Thames” disappear into the darkness. As she stood up she winked at a worried Elena and conjured up a tight-lipped smile for Kenny.
Mr. Haleton kept quiet and walked swiftly with his long legs, making it difficult for Eve to keep up. At least the distance gave her some privacy to worry at her curly black hair, unmaking and re-making her bun.
As they approached the sign on the wall stating “Administration” Eve’s curiosity got the better of her.
“Is this about Bill’s absence? Has there been an issue?”
As she expected, Mr. Haleton simply stared at her condescendingly and opened the door to Ms. Martens’ office, leaning back to let her walk in first.
She had been there before on a couple of occasions, it was a big office for one person and had a plant and paintings of what she thought to be the sky, going off what she had seen in paintings of Kier. Eve wondered, not for the first time, if this was a way for Ms. Martens to compensate for the lack of sunlight she must be longing for as a non-severed employee. Eve had overheard her complaining about this to Mr. Haleton once, when they didn’t know she had been waiting outside the office.
“Good morning Ms. Martens.” Eve cleared her throat, her voice coming out strangled. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Ms. Martens looked her up and down, and, as she did so, Eve noticed Mr. Haleton setting up a little dark blue and cream speaker, connecting a long blue cord to it. This meant The Board would be present, and Eve had to steel herself to prevent the shiver going down her spine from shaking her whole body at the thought.
Mr. Haleton finished connecting the device and stepped away diligently. Ms. Martens smiled softly as the speaker crackled with static.
“And good morning to The Board as well, thank you for honoring me with your presence.” Eve forced the too-formal words, remembering against her will that Bill had warned her she had to be more respectful with the board if she didn’t want to piss them off.
“The Board says Hello.” Ms. Martens communicated. “I’ve brought you in today, Eve, to let you know that Bill P. will not be returning, and I need you to onboard his replacement.”
Eve’s eyes expanded wide, and she swallowed hard.
“Has something happened to Bill? This is all very sudden…” Ms. Martens raised a finger, halting Eve’s words.
“The Board doesn’t have a lot of time, and the new employee is waiting. I can answer some of your questions later. Now, I trust you remember the onboarding pro-”
“Bill was an amazing worker, he always fulfilled his quota and didn’t do anything to deserve-”
Carolyn yawned. Eve could swear she heard Mr. Haleton snicker in the corner of the room.
“Eve, please, don’t make this harder than it needs to be, being angry makes me very tired and your perfect friend has already angered me enough. Now, please follow Mr. Haleton to the interview room and take this with you.”
Ms. Martens handed Eve a neat plastic binder with Lumon’s logo printed on the front. Eve’s mouth remained half-agape from being interrupted, her body still with shock.
Questions and protests boiled on the surface of Eve’s skin, fighting to claw to the surface. She held them back, both fearful of Ms. Marten’s and The Board’s possible reprise, and rushed by Mr. Haleton walking swiftly out of the room without even looking back to make sure she followed him.
Which brought her back to this moment, in front of the small flickering screen, asking an unconscious woman on a table who she was. She had gone through the preamble stated in the handbook, contained within the provided binder, although the woman had only now begun to stir and Eve doubted she had heard any of what was said beforehand.
All of a sudden, the woman rose, standing on the table and brandishing the nearest chair as a weapon, eyes flitting around like a trapped tiger’s.
“Who the fuck are you? Show yourself!” She demanded with a thick Russian accent, which took Eve by surprise, as all of her coworkers so far had had a British accent.
Eve realized she had been gawking at the woman quietly for too many seconds, and the blonde had begun to dart towards the door. Frantically, Eve rushed through the guidebook.
“We can chat later, but first I would like you to take this brief 5-question survey. I promise you you’ll feel right as ra-” The door by Eve’s side shook in its frame and a shiver settled at the base of her spine. On the screen, she could see the woman pummeling said door with her full body weight and even throwing a chair at it with all her might, hazel eyes wild and wide, but an unsettling calm adorning the rest of her face. This created a split that unsettled Eve.
“I’m going to need you to relax and answer who you are, I promise this won’t take long.”
The blonde woman looked up at one of the cameras connected to Eve’s live feed and slowly drew a cynical smile.
“Are you a pervert? Did you bring me here for some fucked up sex game?” The woman began unbuttoning the cream colored buttons on her silky turquoise shirt while continuing to stare directly at the camera, piercing eyes. It took a moment for Eve to notice what was going on, but when she did she immediately averted her eyes.
“Please do not do that, it’s extremely unprofessional and this conversation is being surveyed by my superiors.”
This seemed to give the woman pause.
“Unprofessional, huh? Where are we then? I’d say drugging somebody and kidnapping them in a room is pretty unprofessional as well.”
“I assure you you are here of your own free accord. Once you complete this brief input survey you’ll be free to leave this room,”
Eve felt the thrill rush in her veins, one she usually only associated with rounding up a good amount of the right numbers and sorting them into the proper bins. But this time it was caused by this woman and the disconcerting rebellious streak she was showing, her refusal to submit to the control that Eve clearly had over her in her currently superior position.
The woman began laughing and nervously running her right hand repeatedly over her well-groomed hair, pulled back in a ponytail.
“I-I- can not remember my name… WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME? I will fucking kill you!”
Eve swallowed.
“Okay, so the answer to the first question: “Who are you?” is Unknown. Next question: In what county or territory were you born?”
The woman’s eyes lost the spark they had been holding and a severely defeated attitude replaced it.
“I do not know” It came out as a whisper, as if this woman’s mouth had not been used to admitting such things in the past, not knowing being a foreign concept to her.
“Unknown. Name any county or territory.” Eve waddled through the questions written on the manual, fascinated by each of this woman’s reactions, wondering if that beast that had shown its claws so quickly would pounce again. The woman arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow.
“Sussex”
“Sussex. What is Mr Eagan’s favorite breakfast?”
“What the fuck is an Eagan?” Irritation sparked behind those eyes again and Eve had to bite down on her bottom lip to contain the visceral reaction she had to this woman’s strong will.
“Unknown. What is or was the color of your mother’s eyes?”
The woman leaned forward and slammed her face on the table. “Is this some kind of sick joke? Or a stupid nightmare?”
“Please don’t do that.” Eve winced, remembering hitting her own head against the wall once she realized during her intake questionnaire that she didn’t remember what seemed like such an essential detail. “You don’t remember it, correct?”
“I don’t, of course, I don’t, and you know that. Why are you torturing me? I have no information for you, as you can see.” The woman rubbed her now red face with a grimace.
“Unknown. That’s a perfect score.”
Eve trembled, realizing the next step was to enter the room and talk with this woman face to face. She didn’t know that she would be safe, but at least she knew they were being recorded, and if things got out of hand her superiors would come to the rescue. She looked back at the surveillance camera watching over her from the corner of the padded room, swallowed hard, fixed her bun once again, and opened the door the woman had just been aggressively attacking.
When she stepped into the room, the woman was standing very close to her, eyeing her with intent. Eve blinked, the woman’s presence was somehow more menacing in person. Before she knew it, said woman was upon her, pressing her against the door with a hand tightly wrapped around her neck, Eve thought she heard a shriek somewhere, and then realized she had been the one to scream. The woman had been shockingly fast and the strength of her grasp wouldn’t allow Eve to escape.
The intense sparkling eyes were now millimeters from her own scared brown eyes, as the woman looked down at Eve like a cat does with its prey. Eve wriggled.
“You should have come out sooner. If I knew you looked like this perhaps I would’ve been more compliant.”
If there had been any air left in Eve’s lungs it was now gone and she desperately pushed the woman’s hand away while looking up at the CCTV, praying to Kier at this point not to let her die. The woman let go of her neck, mercifully, and Eve coughed repeatedly, taking deep breaths and bending over herself, lungs burning.
“Don’t worry, I don’t want to kill you, I just want to make sure there is no more games and you tell me the truth.”
Completely done with this, heart racing and deathly afraid for her life, Eve nodded, gripping the Lumon folder with her arms, and meekly sat at the table, attempting to steady her breath. She would most likely need an appointment with the Wellness Center after this was over.
She opened the folder and looked for the note.
“Your name is Oksana A., and you have been hired for a position on the severed floor of Lumon Industries.”
Oksana settled on the table by Eve, leaning menacingly over her.
“What did I say?”
Eve’s voice trembled and she cleared her throat “I understand you’re confused about the severance procedure. Before we hop on that, let’s chat about something I bet you have heard of, the work/life balance. To start, imagine yourself as a seesaw.”
Oksana A. leaped over the table, trapping Eve’s hands against the desk and watching her 5 inches away from her face.
“Do you want me to choke you again?”
Eve swallowed hard, blushing a deep red, feeling the heat creep up her neck all the way to her cheeks.
Oksana drew a slow lopsided smile, leering at her.
“Oh, maybe you do.”
Eve cleared her throat and stood up hastily, creating a safe professional distance from Oksana that allowed her to clear her mind and respond properly. She was realizing by now Oksana would probably not respond positively to any of the language used in the handbook, so, hoping to not get into too much trouble with Ms. Martens, Eve resorted to empathizing with her own experience.
“I do not. I- Umm- I’ve been in your position, I also had to understand and come to terms with my outie’s choice to undergo severance. I too woke up on that table to a disembodied voice-”
Oksana let out a loud, sharp laugh, eyes wide, incredulous.
“Excuse me? Your outie? Is your belly button taking decisions for you?”
Eve stared at Oksana bewildered, eyebrows tightly knit, a grimace, then she made sense of the thought and an unexpected burst of laughter that made her eyes water crawled its way up her chest and out of her mouth.
“Oh, so you do have a sense of humor” Oksana booped Eve’s nose with her index finger. Eve stopped laughing, taken aback by the unexpected physical contact. She cleared her throat.
“Alriight, I think we need to work on appropriate work physical boundaries… So, okay, I’m getting ahead of myself… I’m going to get into so much trouble… Anyways, Innies is what we call our selves who live here, you, me, those confined to the space within Lumon’s severed floor, and the Outies are the people we are when we leave this place at 5pm… Or around that time everyday.”
“What?”
“They stagger us, so you might leave at 5:05 or 5:10-”
“Not that, everything else! What do you mean confined?!”
A quick sharp knock and Ms. Martens walked into the room. Eve stiffened, straightening up like a rod, except for her head, which bent down slightly. She hid the trembling hand that betrayed her nerves behind her back.
“Ms. Martens.”
“Eve P.” Ms. Martens nodded at her in acknowledgment, her voice devoid of hints for Eve to cling onto, then she turned to Oksana, who watched her back with distrusting arched eyebrows.
Ms. Martens yawned. “Oh, excuse me. Oksana, it’s great to meet you. Welcome to Lumon Industries, we are delighted you have chosen to serve Kier on the severed floor. I believe you are ready to embark on the next step of your orientation.”
Oh, she’s angry, Eve felt the dread pool in her stomach. As far as she knew her supervisor was not meant to walk into this room as part of the onboarding process, but nothing about this orientation had gone as expected.
“Lady, I guess it’s great to meet you too, but I am extremely confused with everything you and… Eve P.? are saying.”
“Yes, I do apologize for this. Eve P. has failed to onboard you properly, but luckily there is no possible way she can mess up the following step, please follow me.”
Clearly, Ms. Martens inspired Oksana with more respect, which she couldn’t blame her for, or curiosity got the better of her because she did as told for the first time this morning and followed.
The walk was quiet except for Oksana’s eventual whistling, tongue-clicking, and a couple of questions as she dragged her fingers against the stark white walls. “Do these corridors ever end?” and “Are we in limbo?”
Eve had to contain a smile when remembering having similar thoughts her first time at Lumon. Ms Martens was of course completely hermetic and avoided giving an answer, causing Oksana to huff.
Onboarding Hugo T. had been so much easier, he hadn’t resisted much or had many questions, not going much further than “Is intercourse between innies allowed?” To be fair, Hugo T. wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, and clearly, Oksana A. was very intelligent.
“This is boriiinnnnggg” Oksana huffed and Eve covered her mouth to drown a surprised chuckle. Intelligent but not very patient, and extremely unprofessional.
“I am sorry to hear this experience hasn’t been to your standards, Oksana A. Luckily we have made it to your department and you will now view an introductory video.” Ms. Martens tilted her head toward the room with the carpeted green floor.
Oksana rolled her eyes and yawned but walked through the doorway with “Macrodata Refinement” written next to it.
“Eve, please return to work, I’d like Oksana A. to have space to watch her video.”
Eve nodded obediently, feeling a light sting of disappointment in her chest. She walked back to her desk and brightened up slightly when she realized she could take peeks at Oksana watching the video in the corner of the room from her position.
Elena and Kenny simultaneously lowered the dividers between their desks as soon as Ms Martens turned around to insert the DVD into the TV’s reader. Eve rolled her eyes as they stared at her and Oksana alternatively with wide inquisitive eyes.
“Could you two be a little more obvious?” She whispered.
“What is going on, Eve? Where is Bill? Who is she?” Elena bombarded Eve with questions. Eve bit her lip anxiously at the mention of Bill P.
“I don’t know where Bill P. is, but it doesn’t seem like he is coming back. Oksana A. is here to replace him, and I’ve been onboarding her.”
“You’re joking right?” Kenny stared at her as if he couldn’t quite process what Eve was saying. Elena was just staring at Oksana with her mouth agape.
“I wish I was. Can you believe she choked me?” Eve rubbed her neck, which felt raw and sore, causing Elena to look at it.
“Oh my Kier, you do have hand marks on your neck, are you okay, Eve? Will she not get fired for this?”
“I think I’m okay…I don’t think so, they are a lot more forgiving of rule-breaking as soon as we come to our innies, remember I tried to stab Bill with a pen?”
Eve attempted to look at Oksana watching the video of herself, she could hear the faint “ I will be unable to access outside recollections whilst on Lumon’s severed basement floor, nor retain work memories upon my ascent. ” Elena laughed, hysterically, Eve looked back at her, alarmed.
“I do remember… That old bastard, he never let you get over that did he?”
Eve smiled fondly and shook her head. “No, he didn’t.”
Elena’s eyes filled with tears. “Do you think we will ever see him again?”
Eve felt the knot that had been tied in her throat this morning tighten and she looked away from Elena F. not daring to see the bitter reflection of her own feelings on those watery eyes. Not trusting herself not to break down right there and then, lay down on the floor and cry for Bill to come back.
“I don’t think so.” She finished booting up her computer and typed in the name of her current file “ Thames .” Soon enough, she was staring at a vast expanse of turquoise numbers floating against a dark blue background, and she pretended to be fully immersed in the task in order to avoid her team’s questioning and reactions.
However, as she eyed the clumps of numbers, which all seemed scary today, she felt a tap on her shoulder.
“Eveee P.” She pronounced the P by smacking her lips together and letting out a little click with it “Ms. Martens said you would show me my workstation and assign me a file?”
Eve turned around, surprised, to see Oksana A. standing very close, looking at her file. Oksana grinned, cat-like.
“What?”
“Nothing, I’m just surprised that you are so calm all of a sudden, considering… Do you have any more questions about the severance procedure or…” Eve could sense what Kenny and Elena must have thought to be sneaky looks over the desk divisions, but actually felt like eyes practically tunneling into her skin.
Oksana shrugged. “I guess my outie thought this to be the best option, what am I gonna do?” She emphasized the word outie and pointed at her belly button with a quick chuckle.
Eve nodded, still confused by the sudden change of attitude, but she stood up and guided Oksana to her desk, Bill P.’s old desk, right next to hers. Elena jumped up like a spring.
“I can not tolerate her desecrating Bill’s space when it’s still warm- I’m going to the loo.” And she swiftly walked away towards the toilets. Eve fiddled with her hair and noticed Oksana’s stare fixed on her.
“I’m sorry about that… I suppose I should explain. You are my best friend’s replacement. He was here yesterday, but today it’s you and- It’s not your fault, but it is a lot too process.”
Oksana didn’t seem to care about what Eve was explaining, eyes blank, fixated on her hair.
“Wear it down.”
“What?” Eve looked properly into Oksana’s eyes for the first time since the unsuccessful intake survey in the conference room.
“Your hair, it’s so beautiful, you should wear it down.”
Red crept up Eve’s face again, against her will. Kenny made a strangled noise and stood up.
“I think I’m going to go check on Elena and make sure she’s okay.”
Eve wanted to signal the alarm and ask for help, she did not want to be left alone with Oksana again, but it was too late, and Oksana was staring at her eagerly.
“I-I’ll consider it, thank you”
Eve could see disappointment in her hazel eyes, which made her smirk. She leaned down onto Bill’s old computer and booted it up, describing the process as carefully as she could to the new employee as she did so. Then, feeling the tightness of the knot in her throat, she wrote the name of the file Bill had left unfinished “ Berlin ,” opened the drawer underneath the desk, and handed the MDR Handbook to Oksana, flipping to the first page where Sevy introduced her to the work she would be doing.
“Please let me know if you have any questions.” And all of a sudden Eve felt like she was drowning, gasping for air, staring at the chair Oksana had yet to occupy, and expecting to see Bill sitting there at any moment. With a choked low voice she managed to utter “I’ll be at my desk,” and she made a beeline for it.
Eve spent the rest of the day refining numbers as if her life depended on it, embracing any escape she was able to get from the thought of not seeing Bill P. ever again, and from wondering what could have possibly happened to him. She was only interrupted a few times by Oksana asking questions such as “Why does Sevy look like a weird dildo?” and “Is there a bin to sort BORING numbers into?” She otherwise tried to ignore her tapping her fingers on her desk and spinning on her chair. And Eve only sunk further into her work when Elena and Kenny returned to their computers not much later, both red-eyed and sniffly.
Eve looked at her watch. It was time to complete her Macrodata Refinement Chief duties, so she stood up, attracting brief looks from her team. She tried her best to ignore them and headed to the supply closet, retrieving a duster, with which she cleaned the dust collecting on the green Compliance books stacked in a shelf nearby, not wanting to spend much longer at the asphyxiating desk.
“What are you doing?”
Eve almost jumped out of her skin when Oksana startled her by sneakily appearing right behind her and loudly questioning her.
“What does it look like I’m doing, for Kier’s sake, how do you move so quietly?”
Oksana’s eyes turned all innocence, although a cheeky smirk still played on her pale pink lips.
“I don’t know, I only came into existence like today? To me it looks like you’re trying to rub the titles off those books with how intensely you’re dusting them.”
Eve noticed she had indeed been dusting the books for longer than intended.
“Ha! Dusting! So you do know what I’m doing!”
Oksana took a hand to her chin as in thought.
“Huh, yeah, I guess it came to me in the moment.” Then she reached out for one of the books.
“No! You can’t touch that.” Eve let her hand grab Oksana’s wrist to stop her. Oksana looked at it and then into her eyes.
“Eve, I’m going to need you to respect professional physical boundaries.” Her voice was serious and concerned, her eyebrows knitted together in a frown. Eve removed her hand as if Oksana’s was on fire.
“Oh, Kier, I’m so sorry, I deeply apologi-” Eve stopped mid-sentence when she noticed that Oksana’s shoulders were shaking, her posture hunched and her head tilted down. At first, she thought she might be crying, but then the sharp sting of her genuine laughter filled Eve’s ears, turning them hot pink.
“Eve, you’re too easy.”
There was something about the way Oksana said Eve’s name, a familiarity that shouldn’t have been there but that made Eve feel warm the way the numbers that went into the Frolic bins did.
“Go back to work, Oksana, I have other duties to attend to. Remember, Lumon is watching.” Eve pointed up at the camera in the corner of the room with her index finger.
Oksana raised a hand and ran it over the spine of one of the books, teasing. Eve half smiled but then noticed a faint red stain on the edges of Oksana’s nails, sunk into the cuticles. She didn’t know what that could be but it did strike her as strange. Eve’s outie would rarely do her nails, but they never looked that way. Oksana didn’t seem to notice and rolled her eyes theatrically, attributing Eve’s lack of reaction to her tease to a need for Oksana to return to work.
“Alright boss, whatever you say!” She performed a military salute and pivoted sharply on her foot to return to her desk with a stiff imitation of an army walk.
When the day finally reached the end for her at 5:15 pm Eve was exhausted, and she was hoping her outie would get a good night’s sleep for once.