[b][color=007236]Level 72, Reception:[/color][/b]

“Hey… HEY!!!” Zach yelled across the room. The tranquility of the waterfalls being drowned out and the piano background music coming to an abrupt stop. Inwardly, Uthaleia grinned a little: As expected the perpetually-cheerful Jess had gotten under Zach's skin again! She skipped fowards as he beckoned her over, the upbeat smile never wavering as he reminded her of the rules and scanned her wrist. Like every other employee, she had a chip in her wrist... unlike every other employee, her's didn't stay there full-time. Once working hours were over, she would shift her limb around the chip, carefully removing the foreign object and placing it in a sterile container for the evening. Being a laboratory creation she was- she suspected by design- able to operate at peak capacity on less food and sleep than others were, which left her several hours of the evening to play with- and what she did and where she went as Uthaleia; those were things she kept as separate from Jessamine Halecourt as possible. She listened as the scanner gave the customary beep, expecting Zach to give her another earful about the rules before hustling her out of his reception area. Today though, it seemed, Zach had something more to say... something different. Keeping her ears open and the sunny smile on her face, she inwardly analysed every word.

“Well… now that that’s out of the way,” Zach told her as he cleared his throat “yourself and some others have been flagged.”
“What does that mean you may ask?”
“The Director’s office.”
“Today.”
“Midday.” His eyes opened abnormally wide. A serious look hovering on his face, before it melted into a drawling expression of glee.

Inwardly, Uthaleia considered the words and the implication they held, given the phrasing and the look Zach had given her once he'd finished dropping the pronouncement on her. [i]'Flagged'[/i]- that usually meant there was some concern over a matter.. or a person. That Zach did far more than serve as receptionist wasn't lost on Uthaleia: It didn't take one predator, that stalked its prey and lurked in cover, to spot another. Zach was always watching... and Uthaleia could very well guess that, whatever matter Jess might have been flagged upon, the one who had done the flagging was right in front of her. Her guess was 'consistent inappropriate behaviour' i.e; acting like a person instead of a robot.. or rather, like a [i]happy[/i] person. On strength of that alone, she suspected Zach might have flagged her several times. Uthaleia suspected- and hoped- it hadn't been any of her more covert activities; the discrete enquiries she'd made and the more... investigative... approach she'd taken to certain files and databases on the system that were need-to-know access only. The handling of those matters she had been especially subtle with, the being overly-cheerful... well; that by nature was something that couldn't be done subtly. She wondered, with some curiosity, who the others might be that had been flagged... who else hadn't been doing what they were supposed to do- or been doing more than they were supposed to and been noticed? 

[i]'The Director's office'[/i]- there was a phrase meant to instill uncertainty and fear if ever there was one! It was true, multiple accounts of inappropriate behaviour- and possibly, horror of horrors, the crime of treating other employees like people- could probably get her a trip to the Director's office to 'discuss her misconduct'. That, in and of itself, wasn't a prospect that daunted Uthaleia too much: If the worst came to the worst, she could feign her death, lie low for some years, and then return in a new identity and begin her investigation anew. It would need more planning though; she'd been curiously fortunate with the identity of Jessamine Halecourt... Back when she'd been probing the cracks in the system, looking for an angle of approach she'd discovered, by chance amongst what files were still kept of the deceased, a single mother who'd died some years before of a terminal sickness- but not before giving birth to a daughter. Curious as to what had happened to the daughter- since there was no follow-up account on record- Uthaleia had discovered the infant daughter had died maybe a day or two after the mother... and either there had been no-one left to report it or, by some oversight, it had never been reported. A citizen with an offical date of birth, an identity in the system that was still valid... and with no original owner or living relatives to protest another taking it over. Uthaleia had siezed upon it swiftly, acquiring the necessary trappings of an adult citizen, of the age the child would have been had she lived and taking to herself the name on the birth certificate... Jessamine Halecourt.

[i]'Today-Midday'[/i]- that, coupled with the expression Zach's face assumed suggested he was pleased about the development and that, therefore, she certainly shouldn't be. Giving no outward indicator of all that she was processing in her mind, Uthaleia decided upon a response that was most certainly not anything of the kind that Zach would prefer, and very definitely in keeping with the sunny disposition of Jess. Blinking, she tipped her head, gazing curiously at Zach- then her already happy smile widened into a beaming grin of pure delight; as though Zach had just announced that Santa was real and that Christmas would be extended this year so that everyone could get a chance to meet him.

"The Director's office?" She chirped in Jess's sunny tones, the voice sounding positively thrilled, "that mean's he's noticed me then! He really [i]does[/i] care!"

Drawing no small measure of satisfaction from Zach's bemusement at her response, and knowing full well it would [i]definitely[/i] earn Jess another flag to go with all the others, she skipped forwards and threw her arms around Zach's shoulders, hugging him before planting a kiss right in the middle of his forehead.

"I smell promo-o-o-o-otion!" she chirped, trilling the word 'promotion' as she said it, "thanks ever so much for letting me know [i]Zacky[/i]- you're such a sweetie! Don't worry though, I won't forget you when I'm an executive!" That said, and awaiting no response, Jess skipped- practically danced- down the hallway as though the good news of the century had just been delivered to her.