ID: Artemisia Sinclair | Location: Eternity One Career Expo

As the metal plate loudly clattered on the floor, Artemisia glanced towards one of the many corporate drones, the ones keeping an eye on the hall for her parents. A tiny, almost unnoticeable shake of her head, and she knew that the man would be struck from the process, unable to proceed to interviews or anything of the sort even if he managed to score superhumanly on the other sections. There was no place for snivelling cowards at Eternity One.

With a hum, she returned her attention to the applicant beside her. “Clever, aren’t you? Though sometimes the fodder surprises us.” Artemisia paused for a moment, slowly looking around the room, before looking back at Delphine as she stood from her chair. “Good luck, Miss de Rosier. Though it seems it is not needed,” she added, with an amused smile. “May you find the grass on this side to be greener.” With that, she strode away, not casting a glance backwards as she began to make her way through the rest of the list of potentially useful candidates.

While Delphine was clearly highly skilled, she was far too intelligent for her own good, Artemisia decided. Far too confident, even in how she spoke to the heiress, and too clearly aware of her position compared to other applicants. That kind of talent would be invaluable to have at Artemisia’s beck and call, but she would have to keep a close eye on the woman. Another job for her little spy, she supposed. It would be easy enough to find out what made Delphine tick, and exploit it - ambition, she thought. Or spite. Or a falling out of some kind, familial issues. There were too many possibilities. She made a mental note to get Mouse to investigate what she could of the situation at Elysium Core, and why such a prized applicant full of potential would be here, of all places.

As she reached the main area, she beckoned one of her parents’ observers over from his position along the wall, giving him a few subtle motions to instruct him to keep an eye on the de Rosier girl. Though Artemisia doubted she was here to spy for Elysium Core, it was a possibility she couldn’t be seen to neglect. And if she truly was here for legitimate reasons, then Eternity One couldn’t afford to lose the chance to snatch such talent - a couple notes from an observer, and her parents would understand that. As the man moved away to reposition himself, she began to make her way across the room to the stairs up to the viewing platform.

This year’s stress test was specially planned by her parents, and they seemed enthusiastic about its chances. Artemisia was more doubtful. The false timer alarm was inventive, she granted, but while its purpose was to make the candidates believe they had used far more time - and thus had far less remaining and lower chances of being hired - than they truly had, she suspected most candidates were aware of the times they had spent at various stations. This would weed out only the weaklings who had little chance of success anyway, the ones who had already been dismissed by the observers. Still, it was the type of test best watched from above, to see whether candidates’ speed and performance were interrupted on a broader scale, and so she began to climb the viewing platform’s stairs.

After a minute or two, spent making sure she was acquainted with the rhythm of the crowd before the stress test, Artemisia clasped her hands on the railing and gave a nod to one of her parents’ observers. Another brief moment, as the message was relayed, before the false chime was sounded, attempting to convince the candidates they had spent well over half an hour longer on the premises. The rotating hologram in the centre of the foyer lit up accordingly, an extra layer adding to the fabrication, and Artemisia watched like a hawk as the weakest candidates began to increase their pace, stumbling into one another - and employees, and as the number of errors at stations began to increase.

ID: Delphine de Rosier | Location: Eternity One Career Expo

The interaction had been short, as expected it had been eloquent and polite in tone but there was an understanding established almost immediately. It would be naive to assume that she wasn’t being watched closely, the Sinclair family knew who she was and where she was. The invitation was likely a form of test, perhaps a few rolled up into one pretty package. To test her loyalty to her lineage, to test her capabilities and to determine if she was there purely to benefit Elysium or herself. Quite clever.

As Artemisia made her exit, Delphine hovered in the spot where the conversation had ended. The grass may be greener but she did not doubt that there were snakes hiding within it.

A slight tap on her shoulder made the woman turn around, locking eyes with an older gentleman offering her a nervous smile. His hand moved from her shoulder to gesture at the station she was blocking.

“I apologise, ma’am, but may I use this station?” He asked in that overly polite corporate manner, to which Delphine met him with a placid smile and nod of her head before turning to walk to the next station. The moment she turned away, all hints of kindness dropped from her face and fell into a cold analytical gaze.

She was only a mere two minutes into fitting the artificial liver when the loud alarm rang out across the halls. She didn’t need to look up from her station as the message was on her screen, flashing amber. Her hand paused, still holding the portal vein elevated from the model as she looked at the announcement.

Delphine’s pause was momentary as she continued her work, neither a waiver in her pace nor her demeanour. That announcement was impossible, she had only completed two stations and that had taken under fifteen minutes. Even with her short interaction with the Sinclair heiress, it had not been that amount of time. Either that or she had time jumping powers she was unaware of.

Delphine kept to her work, as did a few other applicants, meticulously tinkering away on their models. Others were not quite as composed, the sound of metal hitting the ground came more frequently, as did the mutterings of people as they talked themselves down from an attack of some sort. In fact, it was rather distracting to Delphine when the person beside her began shaking their leg uncontrollably, their breathing harsh and loud.

Her head did not move, but her arm shot out from her side and clamped down on the man’s thigh and pushed it down with greater force than her small arms could be expected to exert, the cyber joints locking into place and divoting the muscle beneath his dress pants. He sucked in a surprised breath and snapped her head up to look at Delphine, eyes wide and sweat beading on his brow.

“Would you kindly stop vibrating and huffing like some sort of animal, it is terribly distracting.” Delphine’s comment was a level volume but the venom behind it was poignant in the way she articulated her consonants.

The man nodded after a heartbeat, a little too frantically for Delphine to feel any sort of sympathy for his anxiety as she peeled her hand away from the man and rose to her feet. She had completed the implantation with her other hand whilst speaking, the monitor attached flashing yet another impression time as Delphine stalked away from the station.