FFFF

[X] Introduce yourself as Stella

"My name is Doctor Stella Anastasius. This is Juketta, an Eternalist," you say. The guard is obviously checking data on some kind of data link.

"Alright, please go into the main receiving room. Someone will come and collect you. Please be aware that you've been tagged for the security system and internal defences will engage you if you leave authorised areas."

You're scanned by drones and turn over your weapons. After shorts walk across the jungle, you reach the main door, and through it a small, rather cramped vestibule.

Chrysanthemum enclaves love to use these kind of old time tricks to seem more impressive, but as you step from the claustrophobic space of the entrance into the vastness of the receiving room beyond, it works. The room is long and open, but lit in such a way that its edges are in shadow, suggesting even more space than it really has. A single shaft of bright light falls at the centre, illuminating the semi-abstract statue of platinum and living flowers that is the Chrysanthemum symbol.

Radiating out from it, tables and sofas are arranged to allow business to be conducted, the space delineated by carefully underlit beds of Chrysanthemum flowers that glow with many colours and distract from the quiet privacy fields around most of them.

You and Juketta find a table, and order iced coffee and pastries. Local systems inform you you'll be waiting at least fifteen minutes. The coffee is brought by a living waitress in a brief white-gold outfit. Juketta sighs. "Every part of this place is so considered."

"That's part of the message." You take a drink of your iced coffee, which is of course, just the way it should be. You wonder if that's a bad sign. Do they know who you are? You haven't expressed any preference. Is there some distant well of Coffee Data for Doctor Stella Anastasius aggregated somewhere, or do they simply have the way you like your coffee on file from when you were a quite different agent? The shadow of Chalita looms behind you here. "Everything is mastered by human reason."

"Human reason used to manipulate those inside." <<Do you think the old you was Chrysanthemum?>> she asks, switching to the tactical link to avoid evesdroppers.

<<Probably.>> You take another drink of coffee. <<I seem to know a lot about them. It would be logical that Chalita was some kind of conflict specialist before she joined the conspiracy.>>

<<You really don't think of yourself as her?>>

<<For all I know, her alpha is still out there.>>

Just as you've finished your snacks and are starting to get impatient, two attendants in short white robes with silver hemlines arrive and bow. The timing is obviously another power move, but not a completely unwelcome one.

"Doctor Anastasius, Historian Juketta? Please follow us."

The two have that specific look of the Chrysanthemum core population, with precisely arranged features chosen in the name of aesthetics rather than any consistent ethnicity, but you can't help notice both of them are a little more muscular than your normal lean, even waifish Chrysanthemum Helper. They lead you to one of the main side corridors, which is busy with robes and uniforms, but also guarded by a number of security troops in full armour. When they're in full battle-rattle, Chrysanthemum security drawn from their core population tend to carry strange, rather alien looking weapons rather than the more photogenic Sakuran and Combined Response Committee guns they carry in dress uniform. There's incessant disputes in salons physical and virtual about whether the Rose or Chrysanthemum have better technology, and by stereotype the Rose have a broader and deeper well of knowledge but the Chrysanthemum more universal education and better engineering. But looking at the security troops you wonder what they know that they're keeping even from their allies.

You're almost glad when you step into a mostly empty side corridor. This area is normal secure office space, used when electronics are completely untrusted. "This is our intelligence section," one of the robes says, "but most of it has been moved off site, so could you please wait in the garden while someone arrives?" One of the robes opens a door, the other poised behind you. Through it, you can see some steps down to an enclosed garden in a well in the building.

Aletta looks over at you and raises an eyebrow. You're getting some bad vibes yourself. You suddenly wish you were armed. "Would you mind if we waited up here?" you ask. "I don't like enclosed spaces."

"Please, you'll be much more comfortable–" The robe breaks off and launches herself at you. You read her body language just enough to see the punch as a fake and block the head kick that follows. Aletta and the other robe are on one another immediately, whirling through a complicated dance of block and strike, a beautiful display of martial prowess that would look almost like an exhibition match if you could not see the force of each side's impact. You wish you had her grace. While you're excellent at fighting, you find that quite insufficient as your attacker quickly drives you back with a wave of fast strikes and hold attempts you can barely fend off. You feel a thread of panic under your concentration as you break free of another grab. If she takes you to the ground this will be completely over.

It might be over anyway, because despite her slight build she's clearly a close combat body. Something specifically designed for this kind of work. You get a hit into her gut but she rides it out effortlessly. Her mouth is set in a smug smile as she drives you back with a series of snap kicks, then grabs you by your raincoat and throws you to the ground. You send out a distress code to the building but find it blocked. There's a jammer, and the building information systems are not responding to you.

"Help!" You call "Help! Assassins!"

No response. You're too deep in the building.

"I'm here" Alex says. Her eyes start to open.

But it's a terrible risk. The last thing you want is to reveal you have Everdancing Flame in your head inside a Chrysanthemum facility. And yet the assassin is stepping forward and you may be out of-

There's the click of heels and a woman steps around the side of the corridor. You identify her immediately as from one of the unusual Chrysanthemum patterns, with a cascade of sea blue hair cascading down her back. She's albino pale, perhaps to offset the elaborate, lacy light and dark grey uniform she's wearing. It suggests Chrysanthemum security dress uniform but is far fancier, with lace-covered cleavage and boots that disintegrate into a thin web under high-slit petticoats.. Her eyes are covered in a mask like a crown. She's holding a sleek carbon pistol in a two handed grip; in a moment, she shoots the assassin looming over you.

The other assassin leaps away from Aletta, crossing the space between them fast. The newcomer (you pull the word Grey Shift Agent from somewhere in the ruined depths of your memories) steps back, catches her rush in a series of snapping leg blocks. Her gun is pulled in tight to her body, and she fires four times, then steps back as the assassin topples past her, side kicking her in the head to make sure.

The gun, however, stays covering you, even as her boot slams down on the assassin's temple.

"Hello Chalita." The Grey Shift Agent says, voice cool and amused. "Here to defect?" The black automatic is very steady as she points it at you.

You need to figure out what approach to take here.

[ ] Tell her the truth: that you lost her memory and that while you might once have been Chalita you aren't anymore.
[ ] Try to lie: Pretend like you're still Chalita and you're here to defect.
[ ] Tell a partial truth: tell her your telos stack was deleted but pretend your memories are a lot more intact than they actually are so you seem like you're more valuable.