The two gossiping gossipers stood with their mouths in an 'o' for a moment, before turning towards the VIP who had made what was, to them, a preposterous suggestion.
"Oh, no no no... surely you would want to bet on one of the humans, not one of the NPCs."
"And surely you would think twice before denying me what it is I want. I paid you quite a handsome sum of Credits, after all."
The Host's mouth ran dry. The prospective bettor was right, of course - and if one of their most loyal customers wanted to bet on Nikola, they would get to vote on Nikola. There was no point in arguing. He had been looking to reset her and take away what looked to be her budding personhood, but he supposed if he couldn't beat her, he would have to join her. What a headache. Did this mean he was going to have to make an AI sign their on-boarding contract? What might that even look like? He could already feel the pain setting in behind his eyes.
"Considering the 'twist' you have in mind for Phase 2, you'll need to allow us to vote for NPCs anyway. And I want to bet on her."
"Yes, of course, what was I thinking - you have every privilege under the sun at your disposal. You may place your bets on Nikola, or on any of the other NPCs as well. Thank you for pointing out that little oversight of mine." He spoke through clenched teeth, his lips painted into a gracious smile.
"I'll have to wait and see how she performs before I put any Credits behind her, but you make an interesting suggestion," said one of the Lavish from a few seats over in the other direction. "Maybe I'll throw her some crumbs in the form of a Boon and see what she does with it."
"Oooooh," trilled a VIP with peacock-like feathers jutting out from behind them, "yes, I need to start thinking of who I'm going to send my Boons to as well."
Em had gotten caught up in eavesdropping on their conversation, so she hadn't even noticed that several orders were beginning to pile up until the rectangle in her hands began to buzz loudly. She dropped it in shock, and it landed on the floor with a resounding thud.
Several eyes turned to face her. She brought her hands up to her chest in fright, gasping; had that been some kind of alarm? Oh no, no no-- Mildred had told her to be fast.
The snowy owl-themed Lavish sighed and reached up to snap their fingers like it was a deeply laborious task. They barely even had time to make the sound before a bullet had sailed through Em's head and she joined her tablet on the floor.
Mildred sighed inwardly and dashed over to the girl as her sanitary film began to fill with her blood. She made a single peep before her eyes rolled backward and her body went fully limp.
Mil was there within an instant, collecting her and putting her on a trolley to wheel her away on. Several others in the room groaned as they realized what had happened.
"Noooo... come on, who's going to get me my mimosa now?"
Mil willed herself to smile. "We have many more where that one came from," she assured them on her way towards the double doors.
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"But until then, I'll take over getting you your drinks. I know how all of you love the personal touch of being served," she purred, and then left the room with a wink. A cold sweat covered her forearms and the small of her back, and she let out a shivering breath when she got to the other side. She had been around to see a few of her employees be Terminated, and it did get easier, but the threat of being removed from existence at any time and for any reason did wear on her.
Oh well. She would have enough for her Platinum Rights Subcription one day; until then, she would just need to continue as quickly as possible, and then some.
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As soon as night fell over the world, draped over the horizon like a blanket, the two of them went to 'bed'. The galloping from the horses in front of them was just rhythmic enough to drive Nikola into a dark, blank sleep.
She woke up to the red-haired girl bumping into her knees repeatedly, and then proceeding to kneel before her and scoop at her lap as if it was some kind of feast. Nikola's eyes widened and she watched her, unsure of what the hell was happening. She blinked, wondering if this was a side effect of her sleep-dumbness, but the same situation was unfolding before her even after her blink.
"Do you think this would be when she would be eating her breakfast?" Luke's groggy voice rose from beside her, and Nikola skidded backwards, pressing herself away from the foreign sensations of the girl's hands scooping up her inner thighs.
"Perhaps," she replied, embarrassed redness all over her face as she began to rifle through her belongings for some food. The red-haired girl had switched her focus to the cushion she had been sitting on, thankfully.
"If so, do you think we may be able to get her to eat?"
The Awakened NPC broke up some disappointingly stale bread in front of the former prisoner, and she shoveled it into her mouth hungrily.
"It's working!" Nikola put the pointy end of a carrot in her path, and then a piece of dried meat. At this point, Luke was opening up his backpack with haste.
"Haha, nice - hey, let me get in there too," he blurted hurriedly, and stacked up some fattier pieces of meat like pork belly, some kind of rice ball Nikola had never seen before, and several sugar-drenched sweets.
"That'll get some meat on her bones."
She consumed all of them without regard for her personal preference; she didn't seem to notice their differing textures, either, since she scooped each type of food up with the same hand position.
A few morsels fell to the floor, and Luke was all too happy to pluck them back up and return them to their place in front of her. Their little feeding frenzy went on for a few minutes, but all good things had to come to an end, and eventually the girl stopped eating and turned around, crawling back towards her seat until her head bonked into it. Normally, somebody would stop when their head hit something solid, but she tried to continue onward as if it wasn't there at all.
"Uh-- get a blanket!"
Luke peeled the blanket he had been sleeping under off of him and folded it in half at the speed of light, forcing it over the red-haired girl's head and in between it and the seat she was colliding with. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief when she stopped trying to crawl past the obstacles in her path and simply thumped down where she was, not bothering to free herself from the blanket.
"Phewf," Luke breathed, "I think she's done."
"Well," Nikola hummed, reaching down to carefully pry the blanket from the floor-female, "I'm glad that she got her fill." Uncomfortably, she laid the fabric over her bottom half, waiting impatiently for the heat in her face to leave.