Greedy.

When Max was assigned to work with the "King of Greed," she expected something rather grotesque, something monstrous. She was only half-right it seemed. Staring through her bandages at the sparkly, gilded egg and the girl inside, the Extraction Employee couldn't help but wonder.

"Jeez, lady… You're quite something." Max muttered to herself, her good hand pressed gently against the smooth window of the abnormality. Light scattering through the translucent film gave the young woman an odd pallor, and Max was unnerved by how young the human— potential human, Max corrected herself silently— looked. Had she always been like that? Inside this jagged, solid gold egg? Or had she once been like Max, with a family, with friends?

"EX-Level Agent Piper, what's your status? No changes have been noticed, any problems?" Buzzed in the voice of the Manager in her ear. Ugh. Don't blame your manager for what happened, Max. It wasn't his fault. At least, not entirely. But the feelings were there, mental reminders or not. 

"EX-Level Agent Piper, reporting. There's nothing wrong, just assessing the abnormality. Work will begin shortly. My apologies, over." Max replied into her headset, eyes still locked on the woman and the blissful look on her face. It could've been a trick of the light, but it almost seemed like… Was that movement?

Unsettled, Max continues her work. Feeding, grooming, cleaning. Easy fortitude work, but long. Too long. She didn't like having so many angles of the shimmering egg, she didn't like hearing it sparkle, she didn't like the way it made her feel and what it made her think. A voice that wasn't hers spoke softly in her mind, a voice of hunger, honor, wealth, power. Soft, but one containing multitudes. And yet, the woman's mouth never moved from the closed smile it held. Maybe it was all in her head, it had to be.

Max couldn't get out of that room fast enough. When her tasks were finished she hesitated only once, staring back at the abnormality as she grabbed her trusty hammer, The Smile at the door.

"Knock once for yes, twice for no," Max said to the egg out of morbid curiosity. "Do you understand?"

And to Max's shock and utter horror, the woman within the egg replied, her arm drawing up sluggishly to the translucent shell, as if through thick liquid.

Knock.

"Are… Are you trapped?"

Knock Knock.

"Ex-Level Agent Piper, please exit containment." Buzzed the headset, but Max was laser-focused.

"Do you want… Do you want out…?" Max asked the girl one last question, knuckles white and shredded hand already on the door. 

Knock.

This was too much. Max opened the door hurriedly. She'd learned too much, she wanted out. But as she scurried, a cacophony of frantic knocking. Max didn't look back but she could feel the anger radiating off the abnormality and it filled her with a horrid dread.

Max took a deep breath when she safely exited the corridor. She sat down with a huff and took a second to relax… When the break was cut short by the telltale sound of a first trumpet emergency.

God damn it.