A police car parks in front of the house. Two very friendly-looking police officers step out and walk up to the door. A man and a woman. The man knocks at the door. Luna wakes up after some rough sleep. Hearing the rather loud knock, she heads over to the front door. On opening the door, she lets out a rather large yawn, one that seems to dislocate her jaw slightly, "Oh hello. Erm, can I help you?"
Both officers are clad in the typical police uniform. However, they both have smiley face stickers on their hats and a bright powder purple badge on their chest. The man has trimmed red hair and the woman has dark blue hair and blue lipstick to match. "Still asleep at this hour?", asks the male officer.
Luna nods towards the officer, "Yes sir. It's a bad habit I haven't been able to break. Can I help you?" Luna looks over at the officers with a smile on her face, but it's to hide her suspicion. She squints very slightly.
"The name is Officer Bradley. May I ask when the last time you reported to work was?"
"Work? Uhhhhhhhh I don't work currently." Luna looks highly confused. "The last time I worked, I was a server at a bar in my home world."
"Oh, I see. That's going to be a problem... BUT all problems can be solved by Naomi! Come with us!" Officer Bradley smiles wide and makes a friendly waving guesture.
"How is that a problem, officer? I got a new gig working stage magic coming up next weekend."
He takes out a booklet from his pocket and flips through the pages. "You're Luna, right?"
Luna tilts her head side to side, not trusting any of this. "Correct."
"Says here you were assigned a flight attendant position in the Oxford Orange district. Why haven't you reported to your assigned position?"
Luna shrugs and frowns. "It's funny. You say I was assigned a position yet I was never once told of this. So then riddle me this. How am I to report somewhere when I am unaware of it? I'm not psychic."
The police officer furrows his brow. "Odd, says here you have already completed 600 shifts. It’s been weeks since your last one.. That's why we were called."
Luna looks worried upon this revelation, "What the fuck? No, this is my second time in Lavender Tower. Your data must be wrong. Though..." Luna drifts off in thought, closing her eyes.
"No. The record doesn't lie. We need you to come with us, or you will be evicted from the premises and your food deliveries will be cut off. We are trying to go about this the nice way, but the Neon Accord is absolute." Officer Bradley sighs.
Luna opens her eyes and the sapphire blue glow from them becomes a bit more intense, "Fine. Let me speak to the Neon Accord. I will get my record straightened myself. I understand you two's hands are tied in this scenario, but I don't play around with false information." Luna goes to put on her black hoodie and shoes on, then walks out.
"We don't believe in cuffing without needs be. So, please just sit in the comfort plush (copyright by Solcorp) backseat and pick your favorite tunes from the provided iJam music module. We will get you to where you need to be."
Luna raises an eyebrow, "But why would you need to cuff me? I'm going willingly. Now if I casted fireball, that's a different sto-- ugh whatever." Luna gets into the car and does not mess with the music thing.
The officers happily return to the vehicle and drive off. After she doesn’t pick a song for several moments, they turn on a song for her. It's annoyingly happy and super repetitive. They both sing along to the tune.
"Good gods above, I have made a terrible mistake," Luna groans. This is torture for her poor poor ears. The police car pulls off on an exit labeled 'Awesome Sauce Avenue' and merges onto a busy city street. Luna raises an eyebrow in confusion and mutters, "who the hell names their streets awesome sauce? Oh wait, this is Naomi, why am I surprised?" The purple sparkly energy surrounds her flattened ears, if only for the sake of silence and blocking out the crappy music. She still has the ear membrane Angie gave her on them though.
The police car pulls off the road and parallel parks in front of a tall, purple skyscraper. The front of the building has a giant, smiling sun painted on it.
"Is this Solcorp? I know I've seen this sun somewhere before." Luna asks while basking in the chaos.
"Yeah!", says officer Bradley. "Well... They own the workflow affairs building at least."
"Workflow Affairs. Right. Well thank you for being kind you two." Luna nods.
Officer Bradley offers her a handshake through the bars in the back. His arm contorts unnaturally to fit through. "Nice to meet you, Luna. Hope we don't meet again anytime soon! No offense."
Luna takes his hand and shakes it. "Same here. Same here." Luna gets out of the back seat if she can, considering it's a police car. Thankfully it’s unlocked.
Before stepping out, the female officer calls out. “Hey!” She balls her hand into a fist and pushes it through the bars.
“Can I help you?” Luna asks right as she was to hop out.
"Come on! Don't leave me hanging!" She requessts.
Luna blinks out of confusion, "y'all are way too casual, I'd hate to see y'all when you're pissed, but okay." Luna fistbumps the other officer while rolling her eyes.
She makes an excited noise, like a child. She then struggles to get her hand back through the bars. "Oh, we can be tough when we need to be." says officer Bradley.
"Oh I'm sure." Luna shakes her head then hops out of the car and starts heading towards the building.
The lobby of the skyscraper has various desks with cheery people seated behind them. The room is drab compared to the outside. Dimly lit grays cover the walls and the smell of dust lingers under the smell of cheap air fresheners. Each desk has a sign above it. Among the departments are "Workload Inquiries," "Workload Adjustments," "Lunch Extensions," "Bathroom Break Party Planning Committee" among many others, including "Directory and General Information".
Luna is overwhelmed by the sheer contrast of the boring decor, the musty scent of dust, and seemingly cheerful workers. It feels extremely strange to her, and she focuses her mana to keep herself calm. She reads over the signs to find something along the lines of 'I don't have a Naomi job', and walks up to "Directory and General Information." Her thin striped cat tail sways a little bit while she focuses on her task.
A man in a rainbow suit, with matching rainbow hair is seated at the desk. He waves at Luna as she approaches. "Hiiiii! Oh my Mara, your fur color is to DIE for! Is that all natural?"
"Eh? Uh wait, I'm a furry again?" Luna looks down, and sure enough, her old Sloth Demon form is back. She stands 4'6" with light purple and black striped fur, like a tiger's. Her feet and hands have soft pink paw pads, though they are digitgrade with sharp claws instead of fingernails. Long whiskers flail whenever she moves her head, her nose is a soft pink, and her large fursona-like eyes glow a bright sapphire blue. Past that, she looks just like Luna usually does, just much furrier and more catlike. "Yooooo this is so cool! Yes, it's all natural." Her smile is warm. "Anyway, I was told I work here but in actuality I don't. So uh where can I get that rectified?"
"Sure thing! Which department, dear?"
"Uhhhh lemme look at my notes.” Luna pulls out her phone from her jacket and scrolls down until she notices, “Oh yeah uh flight attendant at oxford orange. The only flight I'm capable of is broomstick flight. Never been on a plane before." Luna explains, her tone friendly.
The man's suit and hair suddenly shift to orange. His eyes shift from left to right as if reading something. "Okay, so according to records, you have been a flight attendant for three years and 2 days... And you say this is an error on your file?"
"Correct. I have been to Lavender Tower twice in my nearly 36 years alive. Do you need any identifying information from me?" Luna asks.
"No need, dear. I have already scanned your visage into the system." His eyes continue to scan back and forth.
Luna’s usual bright smile transforms into a frown and she looks worried, "M-my visage. Great. And you're certain that my furry self has worked here 600 times over the past 3 years and change? Nothing strange about a literal humanoid cat robot thing doing this out of nowhere?"
"No, I have visual confirmation that you have worked this job... Weird... Do you have any siblings?"
"In the most technical sense, yes. It's uh a long story, but I was artificially created and my younger sister was naturally born." Luna stares at the man, watching his movements for anything suspicious. "And as far as I know, Elara hasn't been to Lavender Tower either."
The man continues, as if not even listening to Luna, "No identical twin out there then?"
"Negative. I am the only Luna MK-1 prototype remaining." Luna states with very little emotion in her voice.
"Okay then... And you don't remember doing this job?"
Luna’s voice becomes upset and irritable. "What part of 'I've never flown on an airplane' did you not hear!" Her guard is up. "It is literally IMPOSSIBLE to be a flight attendant if you've literally never flown on an airplane!"
"Would you like to see record of your time performing this job?" The man offers her an open palm.
Luna growls at the man. She glares at him before responding, "Sure. I can guarantee you, unless there's some fuckery happening here, that I have never worked here a day in my life!"
"Take my hand."
Luna does so begrudgingly, worried this is a trap.
Needles emerge from his fingertips and dig into Luna's hands. Suddenly, every day 'she worked as a flight attendant' fills her mind. Every second of it. It feels as if she actually went through every moment.
Luna yelps from the pain. But then a couple moments later, she mentions, "Oh yeah, you're right."
Krystal - Oh gods damn it! But I can’t do anything about this. What the fuck is this shit??? I can't undo it. Alais, can you assist?
ALAIS - Negative. Something is blocking me from accessing these memories. They are literally stuck here. What the fuck Solcorp.
The man smiles. "I thought so. Anything else I can do for you?"
"No sir." Luna's eyes seem unfocused a little bit while her eyes quickly flash between red, green, blue, and purple. "I'll get back to work." Her eyes finally land back on blue.
"Great! I'll call you a taxi. You should still be able to make your shift if you hurry."
Luna nods silently. "Yeah...right." She looks extremely confused.
Four two hour (round-trip) flights later, Luna returns home from her shift. Food and a hot bath are prepared for her already, compliments of Solcorp Airlines. A notice arrived in the mail as well. All bills for this month are covered.
"Holy fucking shit, what a shift. Er.. quartet of shifts. Why is Krystal being silent?" Luna walks in and opens the notice and smiles knowing her bills are set. Then Luna goes to fall asleep after her hot bath and meal. She then disappears, returning to her previous life with The Gang.