Chapter Text
Some secretary was staring at her. Crystal gave her the eye right back. What’s wrong, lady? I’m tall, so what? You put on heels this morning. I’m not chopping my other foot off to match.
There wasn’t any room in this elevator. Not even a ‘if you suits sucked in your gut’ or a ‘S0 rats are too good to get out of your way’ problem. The only way to pack more people in was to rearrange their bones.
It sounded like her, every time.
Crystal thought this shaft was a monster’s throat. This mass of gross, sweating arms and legs, and eyes, it was food. Getting off the train, walking from the station, and entering the SHINRA building itself, she was swallowed.
The meal was digested slowly, until at floor 59 the doors opened for the only one left.
The marble floors laid the path out for her, to the information booth. It was framed by a view from windows higher than she ever managed to climb.
They didn’t even have a ‘real person’ here. But it didn’t matter. A hologram smiled in the same hollow way, She turned in the temp badge.
A new one printed out of the single slot in front of her. They used the same photo as her student ID.
She clipped it on the lanyard that hung down around her neck.
“Whatever.” She trudged to the nearby escalator. If she skipped it, maybe the Turks would save her somehow. But while she was in a prison or an unmarked grave, the Impostor would win by default.
Crystal came up to floor 60. A giant sign, Memorial filled her field of vision. There was an actual fucking arrow lit and blinking, pointing the way.
Ugh!
The time was exactly 8:45. The doors opened up for her on schedule, or maybe they scanned her dog tag.
The first thing she saw was a 3 meter golden statue.
The assistant AI wouldn't shut up.
Crystal turned around the polished marble base with a bit lip. Who is this for? Who? Who needs to know this stuff? If you were born here you already know and if you weren’t why would you care?
Why does the Impostor let this… guy… run the show? Why does he get the statue? He didn’t do anything important. There’s nothing special about him. It made sense why Sephiroth allowed him to be here — God is above things like money . Something has to keep the temple.
But the Impostor was an impostor. She wasn’t part of the order of heaven, or any material things. She came from outside.
She froze near the exit to the room as something caught her eye.
The rest of it was so easy to ignore, like a bedtime story told to a stupid baby about a man who wasn’t even a hero. It was tall tales about your dad. That’s the disappointing dad for all of Midgar. There was only one picture in the room with other people in it.
Other ‘real people’ who weren’t like, ‘the mayor.’
If any people were real!
You couldn’t tell if this was a ‘real’ old print or if it was a modern fake with a sepia tone. You couldn’t tell if these were ‘really’ people from 50 years ago, or a bunch of actors posed in costumes in front of a barn. You couldn’t tell which person in this photo was ‘really’ the young President Shinra — you wanted to guess it was the guy in the suit close to the center, but somebody in the back looked a whole lot like the VP.
Everything about it could be fake. It was a story, not reality.
And the Impostor was in it.
Sitting in the first row, a few from the right side was the doll in a costume that barely fit and the same dead expression. Hi! Are you looking? Why? I’ve been here since the beginning. You haven’t missed anything.
Not a thing!
Crystal opened her eyes and the tour was over. She could remember walking past the exhibits and skipping the VR presentation. She could remember the twists in the guts on the way down.
Up. She was standing in front of Conference Room 09, on Floor 63. 'Fat Chocobo.'
She pushed the handle to escape the glass behind her and the people with office jobs all squirming, whirling around. The teeth of every gear faced inward, so you could not crawl the wrong way out.
The one-way trip was full of pretty women.
“9:30,” Crystal said.
“Yes, sweetie, this tagup’s ,” said perfect waistline, hips, curves, kitten heels.
“It’s for,” the Impostor, you’re all it’s, her, she’s, “my internship?”
Brunette pencil skirt pantyhose stood up quickly. “You must be Lucy’s talked a lot about you.”
“What did ‘ she’ say?”
“All sorts of ll…” There was nothing behind her glassy eyes. “I forget! ”
“She got scouted in school, Vee. Of course she’s good,” said a slightly older hairspray white blouse manicure.
A claw steadied Crystal’s arm before she jumped.
“Good morning! It looks like everyone made it in one piece,” said the Impostor behind her. The demon chorus giggled vacuously.
Like the door, the Impostor made no sound passing behind her. The imprint of that grip lingered cold on her skin. Or it could have been air conditioning.
Look at you, Crystal couldn’t say. Look at this cheap carpet and the mesh rolling chairs. Look at yourselves, you belong in this building that smells like vinyl and acid rain. How can you look at this thing and believe it’s the same species?
The Impostor didn’t even move like a human being. Some parts of her stood perfectly still at the front of Fat Chocobo, while her arms lifted in a way that only looked alive. The people in here should have seen that the Impostor wasn’t like them. But nothing met the eyes staring, nothing felt the teeth lock into place. Heads bowed in prayer. Numb and plastic.
“Before we get to the agenda, we have a few admin items to cover… first of all, Crystal! She’ll be working with us part-time. Aside from her impressive academics, she is also a successful small business owner, so we hit SBE requirements! Her SWaP solutions in electrical and mechanical engineering are kind of a big deal. And she helps us meet the disability access quota for our team. Yay, more funding!”
Her ‘team’ applauded on command. The Impostor could tell them to be sad, or angry, or afraid, too.
“Crystal, would you like to say a few words about yourself?”
“Not really,” Crystal said.
“Fantastic,” said the Impostor, as if that was the right answer. All the other mindless cogs here had to nod and agree. “Why don’t you take a seat, and we can do a round of introductions?”
“I’m fine,” Crystal said.
The Impostor chose to stand, too. The office ladies went clockwise.
“I’m Bae, I made it into administration assistance two months ago. I like to study on in my free time.”
“I’m Billie, same thing, signed to the wa I like music and my favorite subject ath.”
“I’m Bala, I was doing office tech stuff for 2 years gram. I’m covering cr I volunteer at an animal shelter.”
Why do they all have the same name, Crystal thought.
“I’m the admin program for I’m hanracts. I lov”
Their faces and bodies melded together as they shared some kind of secret handshake across the table. “B Team! kiney!”
When getting a B in anything was being second-best! At least with a 0 score, you can say you never tried.
“I’m Ashley,” said the next one. But she looked the same as the rest. “I was a model for a while. I’m here looking to get married.”
That could have been rebellion. Actually she was too stupid to realize that she was admitting, I’m free-riding.
But the Impostor’s smile didn’t crack. She was glad to hear ‘Ashley’ wanted some small, real thing. It was something to destroy —
“ing on traffic cameras the library.”
It just went on.
“”
“”
“I’m Pam ,”
What the hell happened to Pam 1, Crystal wanted to yell.
“Great! Now, if anybody has questions about Crystal’s onboarding or training, feel free to shoot me an email. And Crystal, welcome aboard! You’re going to fit in,” the Impostor told her.
Sitting next to the perfect desk ornaments, wearing an old hoodie and jeans. Wait. Sitting? When did I sit down? I said I wasn’t going to.
Now that she was strapped in to get tortured, the Impostor got to work. She had a spreadsheet already prepared on the projector that logged down upcoming tasks for the week, project milestones for each person on the team, hours charged to each…
"Traffic throughput on the Sector 02-03 exchange…”
"Security door regulations were never observed in older Sector 07 development…”
"Train schedules are under review this quarter to maximize usage…"
"Increased pedestrian count has revealed dangerous intersections…”
"The origins of reactor coolant waste in municipal treatment…”
It was an hour later. The meeting was over. The props were gone. It was just the Impostor now.
“That was so boring,” Crystal groaned. Her head could barely lift from the faux-wooden table. “Why do you pretend to be helpful?”
“Is that what you think this is? Helping?”
The Impostor’s doll wouldn’t look at her. It faced out the tiny porthole window that was darker than the artificial lights.
“Traffic increases by 20%, and fatalities skyrocket. And when a building catches fire, the cinders can rise through the elevator shaft, the stairwell. Every emergency door decides who burns, screaming until they suffocate.”
It was sick.
“What about the water that’s slowly dissolving you from the inside? And when your intestines are necrotic, how long will it take to get to the hospital?” Sick, sick, “I know! You’ll miss the last train out of the sector and the ambulance will bankrupt you. You’ll die of sepsis in transit… but not before you hit one last pedestrian!”
“So what? You fuck with all of those lives? Playing God here too?”
“Crystal, you owe your existence to a mass of molten iron at the center of the Planet. It’s a sea of fire that spins up a magnetic field, deflecting cosmic radiation. It doesn’t think it’s anything. So where’s God? Up top? Down below?” The Impostor pretended to laugh through its stupid toy. “The last time I checked, I’m right here!”
“I’m being punished, I get it,” Crystal said. “You’re keeping me so I won’t interfere.”
“If you hate explaining, don't be so wrong,” the Impostor said.
Well, fuck me, I guess!
“You’re not being punished! You work too hard. It’ll destroy you. But if this is what you really want, I’m going to actually help.”
“Help what?”
“You!” The Impostor smiled at her. “You can take everything here, go back to your real friends, and get winning. No hints or clues — this is where all the solutions are generated.”
Crystal sat there for almost an entire minute before she realized that the Impostor was waiting for her to say something.
“This is where the problem is,” Crystal told her back.
“I know, isn’t it great? You love fighting fire with fire.” The hungry dead eyes filled the room, ashes over the air conditioning. “This will be so easy for you. In fact, you can’t fail.”
The Impostor snapped her fingers in gloves and metal and you knew nobody could do that, so she must have been snapping something else.
“There you go! You’re perfect now,” she was told.
| GENERIC_ID_BIN |  |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| Dig deep | SOLDIER_support_brigade | 23806WAVE | |
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Are you winning yet?
Look what you’ve accomplished in such a short time!
It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. But I don’t blame you, when it’s not your earth and sky.
Versus:
Every brick to throw. |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:Dig deep | SOLDIER_support_brigade | Incarn4dine | |
| First | |||
| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE: Dig deep | SOLDIER_support_brigade | Masamuneeee | |
| don’t first the Impostor, wtf | |||
| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:RE: Dig deep | SOLDIER_support_brigade | 23806WAVE | |
| =) | |||
| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:RE:RE: Dig deep | SOLDIER_support_brigade | Masamuneeee | |
| shes going to kill us | |||
| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:Dig deep | SOLDIER_support_brigade | Iron Maiden | |
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Guys, stop fooling around.
I’m already on my way to Sector 06. Come or don’t, I don’t know your plans. |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| Hold on IM | SOLDIER_support_brigade | AriBeth | |
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Slow down!! We have to organize this. It could be dangerous, or the message could be a secret code? |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:Hold on IM | SOLDIER_support_brigade | Iron Maiden | |
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The only things you should organize are activities today and combatives We have an address and it told us to dig. Don’t overthink the impostor’s messages. You’re not that smart. |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:RUDE! | SOLDIER_support_brigade | AriBeth | |
@cherished wtf!! |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:RE:RUDE! | SOLDIER_support_brigade | Iron Maiden | |
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Ari why would an enemy give you fun riddles to solve? It wants you to feel smart, that’s a kind of reward, it’s mind games. You and everybody else are just normal okay! You’re normal and lame and you’re not a hero with a mystery nemesis! |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:RE:RE:RUDE! | SOLDIER_support_brigade | Cherished One | |
| What about you, IM? Are you normal? | |||
“So I sent them to go dig up some bodies,” Luciana King said in aisle 3, next to the olive oil.
It was really nice of Kunsel to go shopping with her. He didn’t have to; he had all his food delivered. Trust Seven to be on the level of an elite operative, way back in the day. He really had everything together.
Luciana King knew she could set everything up like that for her. But the grocery store wasted your time in a horrible way that was secretly sort of good. Secretly sort of ‘real.’ SHINRA Corporation can predict what you might buy at the store. But it doesn’t have a single data archive that can predict how you are at the store.
“Are you sure this is a good place to talk?”
Kunsel pushed the cart ahead, looking behind. She didn’t need salad dressing or barbecue sauce or anything like that.
“Watch out,” Luciana said. Even a SOLDIER 1st Class with bullet-dodging reflexes could smash into the family of five hovering around for no reason straight ahead, because there was an old lady on the other side trying to compare rapeseed oil with vegetable oil without knowing that they were basically the same. One had some beans in it, something like that.
“Sorry.”
“The grocery store is one of the best places to talk,” Luciana King said. “Normal people must visit one, so it’s not strange to go. Everybody’s already thinking about what they want, so they aren’t listening.”
“You… really are right,” Kunsel said. “I never go to these.”
It felt good to be right about things, usually. It didn’t feel as good to be told by a mind reader, so true, Lucy. Everyone’s brains are turned off.
“I’m not tuned in all the time,” Kunsel said, as an answer to a question she never asked. “That’s a great way to paralyze yourself.”
“Um, physically?”
“It’s too much.” Kunsel turned the corner. Squeak, squeak, went the cart wheels. “You stand there with your mouth hanging open. Not trying to figure it out — can’t even do that.”
Luciana nodded. Very normal grocery store conversation. Not a single person blocking the shelf was paying attention. Kunsel asked her,
“What bodies, though?”
“I’m not completely sure,” Luciana admitted. “Political rivals. Crystal knows where to dig. It kind of sucks.”
She reached for a jar of pizza sauce on her tiptoes, bending around a random man. Kunsel’s hand appeared above her and picked it from the second-to-top shelf.
SOLDIERs! Tall people showing that they don’t see half the annoying things about the world, because they can reach.
Kunsel put it in the cart basket next to the eggs. “‘It sucks?’”
He didn’t need her to break it down, he was just being nice. He was pretending for her, like for everybody else here under the fluorescent lights. A song from 4 years ago was on the radio now, over the speakers. “I noticed this doing a cleanup survey for Sector 06 — they won’t fund more than that. There’s voids with remains in the bigger concrete masses. ’Sector 06 killer’, yeah right. ”
“X-ray vision girl.”
“M-hm,” Luciana said. “Who got sealed in when they poured the plate is a fun mystery for someone else to solve. It almost makes up for handing Crystal the location. I hope she at least pretends to let them find buried treasure on their own.”
“I don’t get it.”
Luciana wondered if it was a rare, limited-edition thing to hear an actual mind-reader say that. Kunsel did have to explain to her:
“You were the best of the best and I’m not kidding. Coordinating SOLDIER, you had every contingency covered. All the details. You were setting aside guys for ops before the slips even came in. Why isn’t this like that? ‘Finding treasure on their own.’”
“You’re a 1st, are you making SOLDIER’s plans? Do you have a flag? A cause? Political friends? Anything to avenge?”
She picked a pallet of instant noodles off the shelf and tossed it in the front of the metal cart. There were directions on every single package, even a child couldn’t mess it up. Luciana remembered making this when she was 15 and sick enough to hallucinate.
“It’s fun being ‘The Impostor’, it really is. But I don’t have time to hand feed them the whole way. They have to grow up and learn to hunt, like every other animal.”
“Some animals are herbivores,” Kunsel pointed out.
“Show me some grass!”
“Right, point taken.”
Squeak, squeak. The wheels in front of them blatantly had everything wrong with them, but nobody cared, because it was the grocery store. Kunsel watched her pull up to the frozen food aisle and pull out bags of frozen chicken strips, meatballs, piling them into the cart.
“Uh,” he said.
She added a brick of ground beef.
“Do you have room for that? In your fridge at home?”
It was okay. “I can put it someplace it won’t spoil.”
Kunsel was trying to ask her something else about it. “Are you… are you, er…?”
“I’m fucking hungry,” she told him.
| GENERIC_ID_BIN |  |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| LK health | SNDproxy132 | K_INFO | |
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I normally don’t reach out on the side like this but you’re in scidpt.
Don’t take this like I’m having second thoughts but I’m worried about LK.
She always had a habit of overworking and not taking care of herself. I think she’s improved in some ways from when we worked together. Other ways, no.
There’s no way to get around saying this. She’s not normal. Do you know anything about her? |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:LK health | K_INFO | SNDproxy134 | |
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I have access to her public and medical records, profiles related to voice and skin texture recognition, and our record of secure correspondence. Her qualifications are freely available. She’s shared some preferences with me. I have read her academics. I can pull up her virtual reality session history. I enjoy her recreational simulations.
I’ve never analyzed her directly. It would be unsafe. Please avoid me for the time being as well. My creator would find you both fascinating.
Did something in particular stand out to you? |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:LK health | SNDproxy134 | K_INFO | |
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Besides the mako poisoning that hasn't killed her? Before he died, the General was certain LK was related to the JP. I can’t deny there’s something about her that checks out.
In the short term I’m noticing some stuff that matches up to someone in the middle of induction but she's clearly not. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:RE:LK health | K_INFO | SNDproxy122 | |
| What are these symptoms? | |||
| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:RE:RE:LK health | SNDproxy122 | K_INFO | |
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She has a serious appetite for someone her size. She barely eats at work but she must get home and wolf down a plate of microwave hamburgers. That’s the giveaway, she doesn’t even like it. You feel like if you don’t get certain things in your body you’ll die
You got to trust me on the other big one but I think she remembers things in a distorted way. Something from her childhood is like watching paint dry. I think it had to be like 1/16th speed of the rest of her and she may have even been rushing it for me. Clock change hits some guys so bad they lose their minds but she doesn’t notice. |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:RE:RE:LK health | K_INFO | SNDproxy280 | |
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Are these recent developments? I’m worried about her too. |
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| GENERIC_ID_BIN | |
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| Subject | To | From | |
| RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:LK health | SNDproxy280 | K_INFO | |
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I don’t know. She probably can keep secrets for longer than 5 years. |
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