Taylor shifted slightly, the dried blood on his knee making his pants stick as he adjusted his position against the wall. It was quiet. Always quiet. He hated the quiet. Hated how still the dead man was. Hated that no matter how many times he came here, history never changed. He settled, back straight, knees up, the head of the dead man near his left foot. He couldn’t stop looking at the dead man, at the strip of white cloth he’d used to cover the man’s eyes, and the blood was wicking up from the cold floor, staining the shroud. It was silent. The same stillness that hung in the…

Whoever had said you couldn’t play with toys as an adult had been an arsehole. ‘Okay,’ Milla said, placing the Solstice figure on the city-map-playmat. ‘What about here?’ Stef tossed the little agent doll back and forth between her hands, then placed it halfway between where they’d designated the blackout zone and the little round cracker that represented the closest set of fairy stairs in this scenario. There was a ping in her HUD – Ryan, requesting video. ‘Gimme a minute,’ she said. She clicked the video accept button, smiled, and tried not to look at her own little picture-in-picture webcam face. [Hey.]  [They’re estimating that this will take at…

Magnolia stared into the bathroom mirror and wrinkled her nose. She’d gotten about an hour more of sleep than average but felt worse for it. More rest was good, but it had been some less-than-optimal arrangement of REM cycles. Nothing she couldn’t handle. She tapped her phone, swiped into the apps and opened the little custom app Screen had built, where her bestie-with-benefits built her a new playlist each week. Some kind of alt-rock with a female vocalist started, moody and uplifting in that perfect early-2000s kind of way. She discarded her shorts and cami and then began a body check. There’d been a few wounds not worth going to…

‘One-point-seven,’ Magnolia said. Taylor adjusted his aim. Exact. The Scholar would accept no less. The suspended shift cycle began, and he fired. The shot hit Mimosa’s chest and- Fear tasted like blood. ‘What-’ Magnolia’s voice. He reacted before he understood. Require: Macro: Shields Reflexively, his arms were across his body. Right arm protecting his lower half, left arm across his chest and face. He swept left and right. Magnolia was fine. Grigori was fine. Both protected by shields designed to withstand most physical, and some magical, forms of attack. Not guaranteed safety. All he could provide with a requirement and no notice. Important to protect- He looked at Magnolia. He…

‘Jonesy?’ ‘Hmm?’ Stef looked down at where her arm was strapped to the chair that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a sci-fi torture scene. ‘Are you a Bond villain?’ Jones looked at her, took a moment to pull his goggles up on his forehead and put down the wrench that glowed blue at the end. ‘Whatever do you mean?’ he asked, an absolute shit-eating grin on his face. She looked at the machine that had appeared in the lab and had taken over almost all of the free space. Easily six feet tall, something that looked weirdly…mechanical compared to the usual, space-age, Star-Trekky minimalist design of Agency tech.…

There was a knock at the door. ‘You know you don’t have to knock,’ Stef called as she tidied the circular table. The door opened, and Ryan walked in, two plastic takeaway bags in his hand. ‘It’s weird,’ she said as she set the last of the folders and tablets on the sideboard. ‘It’s dinnertime, and I want to say “I’m starving”, but I’m not because I’m, y’know, a robot now-’ She smiled, as he didn’t even react to the “robot” comment anymore. ‘But it still feels right to say. Am I ever gonna be hungry again?’ He set one of the bags near the folders on the sideboard and…

There was a chime on the door. Stef sighed and sat up, simulated nebula gasses swirling around her head. Go away. Another chime. She looked down at her phone and dialled down the space sim – restricting the particle effects mostly to the room’s walls, roof and floor. Conversation couldn’t really happen with galaxies passing in front of your face. Her HUD let her know it was Mags on the other side of the door – surprising, but probably better than one of the other options. Mags, at least, probably just wanted to let her know what weird violence would happen to her body next. Especially since that morning’s session…

It was important to know the areas under his protection. The general outlay of an Agency floor didn’t change without notice, but the smaller changes that recruits made could be just as vital to know in case of an emergency. Taylor paused briefly in front of a noticeboard. Anything official was handled by Magnolia. Anything unofficial was also usually handled by Magnolia. Anything social that affected working relationships were factors she had to consider when making schedules. Designating teams. Allowing downtime. Almost nothing made it back to him, and it didn’t need to. His Duty was to protect his recruits, not to be their friend. In an area of the…

Curt opened his eyes as his alarm went off. No nightmares, at least nothing that had survived the transition into the waking world. A small grace, and one he tried to always spin into a good omen for the day. A good start. A good day. Putting good thoughts out. Intentionally starting with a good mood. Whatever worked. He pulled his Genie phone off the charging plate to check overnight messages. One from Carmichel – a series of gifs and personalised reaction images expressing frustration at the contractors doing the overhaul of his holiday home. The frustrated images stopped, with a short message indicating he was going to have a…

‘I’m running out of jokes to make about dissociation.’ Sometimes, people would question how undead mythologies worked – if it was possible to get both a ghost and a zombie from the same person. Apparently, the answer was “yes”. Stef looked down at her ever-so-slightly transparent hands and flexed her fingers, enjoying the little bits of code that peeked through as she did. Jones had explained that it was a kindness they did for most augments – and anyone else who had to undergo extensive post-upload testing. Something to make the entire process a lot less traumatising. The “desire path training” which would ensure that all of her code was…