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“I want an Aranara for this.” Tau scowls as Omega puts the ginormous coat on his shoulders.
“Yes, yes, whatever. Now, shoo. Some of us have important work to catch up on.” Omega sneers, shoving Tau out of the lab as he retches quietly. “Did you really have to use so much of it? A little queasiness, I can tolerate, but this–”
Tau opens his mouth to respond, but Omega slams the door in his face and locks it, the sharp clicking noise echoing down the empty hallway. Tau is left alone, engulfed in a Harbinger’s coat clearly meant for someone taller, with a thick binder of meeting notes he has no interest in reading. In the back of his mind, he can hear the other segments complaining and groaning in pain as they suffer through the poison Tau slipped in their meals last night. To be fair, he wouldn’t have done it if he’d known there was supposed to be a meeting today. There’s a reason he doesn’t attend these things.
“Omega, you dick.” He hisses as he storms down the hall. “Who sends an 8 year old to a meeting?”
You’re not 8, you just act like it. Omega hisses back. And quit stomping around, you’ll drop the binder.
“I’m sitting next to Miss Rosalyne.” Tau huffs. “She gives me candy.”
Brat. You’ll rot your teeth. Epsilon butts in. Remember to take notes.
“I’ll just take Feofan’s. He likes me best anyway.”
Brat. Epsilon repeats.
Tau ignores him. If Epsilon had any fight in him right now, he’d be going to the meeting himself, not wasting away in his stasis pod trying to recover from shitting half his brains out last night. And besides, it's not like they won't be able to hear the meeting through his ears. They just don't want to.
Tau pushes open the heavy double doors to the main conference room and scuttles over to the seat next to Rosalyne. She's already seated, using a cracked and worn mirror to reapply her makeup, and barely glances at Tau as he struggles to pull the seat out. Tau slips, landing on the cold floor with a smack, and furiously tries to restrain his tears. He can hear Epsilon mocking him as he wipes his eyes.
“Oh, goodness! That was quite the tumble.” Rosalyne says with a shake of her head. “You poor thing, are the others making you do their dirty work? Come here.”
She scoops Tau up, sitting him down in the chair and handing him candy. Tau takes it, nibbling on some kind of apple candy– probably from Mondstadt, considering who he got it from. As he snacks, Capitano walks in, stopping by the coffee station as he scans the room. After a moment, he turns away and grabs a second cup, pulling one of Fontainian hot chocolate powders off the shelf. Tau is mildly intrigued by that– Capitano isn't particularly fond of sweets, and rarely reaches for them of his own volition. Clearly, this deviation in behavior must be studied–
Focus, Tau. Iota snaps. You can't get anything done with sugar on the brain.
Tau grumbles, crossing his arms and glaring at the notebook in front of him. Maybe he should just leave. It's not like the others can do anything to stop him… unless they want to shit themselves in front of the Tsaritsa.
Capitano sets down the cup of hot chocolate in front of Tau. He takes it, immediately gulping down the sweet, warm liquid. As he continues snacking and reviewing his notes, Capitano takes a seat on his other side, passing a cup of something to Rosalyne. She also drinks it without hesitation– everyone knows Capitano is too honorable for poison. Unlike Tau, who adores them to the point where it's practically a signature. But can he really be blamed for that? Prime was the reason he came out the way he did.
“Are the older segments not available today?” Capitano asks quietly.
“They're sick.” Tau shrugs. “They made me come instead. It's just about the new hire, right? Scaramouche says that he's an idiot.”
“Scara says that about everybody new. Wipe your mouth, dear, you'll make a mess.” Rosalyne chides. “Goodness, how you run a spotless lab with those grubby fingers of yours is beyond me.”
Tau opens his mouth to snarkily respond that he washes his hands in the lab, but he's interrupted by the sounds of Sandrone and Scaramouche arguing as they sweep into the room, closely followed by Feofan. He seems surprised to see Tau sitting at the table, but doesn't say anything about it. Instead, he takes a seat directly across from Tau and opens his ledger, scribbling away as the rest of the Harbingers slowly filter into the room.
“8, you brat, get out of my chair!” Sandrone snaps, yanking him up by his collar as she pulls the chair out. “Rosalyne, is he bothering you? I can get rid of him.”
“Sandrone, use your words.” Rosalyne chides. “I'm sorry, sweetheart, but Sandrone is being protective of “her” seat today. Why don't you go sit with Regrator?”
Tau huffs, snatching his notebook off the table and stomping over to Feofan. He refuses the chair that Scaramouche pulls out for him, instead worming his way onto Feofan's lap. Feofan doesn't react, but he does reach down and ruffle Tau's hair as he scribbles in his ledger. Tau glances at it, noting that the numbers look a lot like their recent funding receipts.
“That comma is in the wrong spot. It should be behind the five.” Tau points to the page quietly.
“Trying to throw my numbers off? If there's one thing you all have in common, it's trying to get money out of me.” Feofan laughs. “I appreciate the attempt, Tau. If you want more funds, have Omega submit the request in writing.”
“Omega shorts my requests. I'll just do it myself.” Tau huffs. “Where is this new hire they keep talking about?”
“Funnily enough, I think he's one of your former test subjects. A decorated soldier, he specializes in hand‐to-hand combat and Delusion usage. He rose up the ranks quickly, joining through Junior Enlistment at 16, and recently received a promotion to Captain of one of the Northland Bank's collection squadrons. He has the highest kill count of any soldier I've seen, considering how short his tenure with us has been. He's only 22, you know.”
“Ajax Sokolov. Yeah, that name sounds familiar. He has some Abyssal mutations, I think. Iota caught them during a review of the infantry's health screenings.” Tau hums. “We haven't actually brought him in yet. We couldn't get authorization from Pierro.”
“You might have better access to it now that he's going to be working directly with us.”
“What's he even training for?”
“Specialized Support”, whatever that means. The Tsaritsa personally recommended him for the position. Apparently, they aren't retiring any positions, so he'll be number 11 on a ten man team.”
Feofan smirks when he says it, clearly pleased with his little jab at this new person. Tau rolls his eyes dramatically in response. It's no wonder Omega likes him so much– they both think they're soooooooo clever. As long as Tau doesn't have to listen to them kissing, he doesn't care. He'd much rather listen in to Iota's new experiment on body mutations.
“Iota got a new test subject. I want it.” Tau pouts. “He always gets the good ones.”
“I can talk to Omega.” Feofan reassures him. “Let's focus on the meeting.”
The door opens, and the Tsaritsa strides in, followed by Pierro and some scrappy ginger kid Tau's never seen before. Feofan helps Tau stand up, and they all stand at attention as the Tsaritsa sits at the head of the table. Her eyes sweep around the room, landing for a second too long on Tau, and then she motions for everyone to sit. Feofan helps Tau back into his lap, though they are stopped when the Tsaritsa raises her hand.
“Tau. Where are the older segments?” She asks in a calm voice.
“...Sick, Your Majesty. I poisoned them.” Tau admits quietly. “Omega made me come.”
“Did he?” She replies, glancing at Pierro. “I see. I will discuss this with him the next time I am in the laboratory. Feofan, please retain a copy of your notes for the segments. Tau, you are dismissed.”
Tau feels the rejection settle deep in his chest, heavy and cold like the sting of ice. He nods, silently packing up his things and shuffling out of the room. Of course the goddess can't be bothered to let him stay. That's just how the gods are– fickle and cold, never considering what viewpoints they might miss out just because of someone's age or status. But the rejection, the implication that he is less capable than the other segments simply because he is the smallest of them… it hurts.
He's still “young”, after all. He doesn't have Epsilon and Iota's anger, or Omega and Omicron's indifference, or Rho's acceptance. He's just little Tau, tiny and stupid and constantly learning and constantly helpless. Beholden to his emotions in a way none of the others are, and stuck like this for eternity.
Sometimes, in his weaker moments, he hates Prime for the curse of forever being 8 years old.
“Hey! Wait up!” A voice calls from behind him.
Tau turns around sharply, glaring at the source of the unfamiliar voice. It's the ginger child from earlier, befreckled and scrappy as ever, bouncing towards him with a shy smile. He kneels in front of Tau, tilting his head in a way that is likely intended to be friendly but frankly comes off as annoying, and extends his hand.
“I'm Ajax. It's nice to meet you!” He says with a grin. “Why don't we walk back together? It's kinda cold in here, and I'd hate for you to be stuck on your own the whole way back.”
Tau stares at this boy, completely baffled. The meeting he was just dismissed from centers around this very individual, and there's absolutely no way it's over already. Feofan would have come to get him if it was. And yet, here he stands, this lanky child, in the middle of a random hallway in the palace, offering to escort Tau to a lab that's existed for longer than this boy has been alive. A lab that he most certainly doesn't know the location of, because Tau would know if this ridiculous child had been in it before.
“You'll miss the meeting.” Tau replies flatly, not bothering to hide his disgust for the boy.
“Eh, they can't start without me anyway. Besides, I asked Her Majesty if it was ok!” The boy chuckles nervously.
“Ah.”
Now he understands. Her Majesty must have sent the child as a test. She wants to see if the other segments are really sick, or just slacking off. It's almost cruel, dangling a near perfect test subject in front of their faces like this while they're incapacitated. Unfortunately, the boy won't have anything interesting to report. Tau's not particularly interested in him as a subject, and Omega's likely to snatch him up anyway once he's well enough to stand.
“Well, then, come on. It's not a long walk, you know.” Tau insists, shrugging dramatically as he stomps down the hallway.
“Oh, good!” The child stutters, scrambling to catch up with him. “Y'know, I know Harbingers come in all shapes and sizes, but I never expected to see a kid in the meeting room.”
“I'm older than you.”
“Ah, right. You're… Really?”
“Give or take a few centuries.” Tau responds in a clipped tone. “We're here. You should go back to the meeting.”
He's lying, obviously. The lab is further back than this, up a flight of stairs, and requires far more twists and turns to get to. But the boy has no way of knowing that. He's new, after all, he doesn't know where things are.
Except… he frowns, looking at the walls like he's searching for something, his nose wrinkled like he's smelt something foul. And Tau watches in horror as this child, this boy, plants his hands on his hips and gives him a disapproving look more fitting for a teacher than a soldier.
“Uh huh.” The boy remarks in a disbelieving tone. “Sure, kiddo. Let's get you all the way back to your hidey-hole before you start trying to pull a fast one on me.”
Tau is infuriated. How dare this utter and complete tangle of a child remark on his behavior? How dare he question Tau's words? And more pertinently, how dare he actually catch Tau lying? The only other person able to see through his lies is Feofan! This is unprecedented, unseemly, and utterly unacceptable!
“I need to study you.” Tau declares angrily. “Omega can have you when I'm done with you. End of discussion.”
“Ok.” The boy replies, sounding a bit stunned. “Can we go now, orrrr…?”
“You are dismissed, child.” Tau hisses, shooing him away.
“Yeah, nope. The Tsaritsa said I gotta take you all the way back. Let's move!”
“Ugh. Fine.”
Tau nudges open the door with an exasperated groan, furrowing his brow as he trudges through the hallways. This insolent dolt probably thinks he's being helpful. Of course, the blundering boy is oblivious to it, following eagerly as Tau slinks back to the lab. He can practically hear Epsilon and Iota already laughing at him. And they'll probably try to poach the boy too, considering what a stellar piece of meat he is.
“So, can I ask something?” The boy questions.
“I can't stop you.” Tau snarks, still seething.
“Why are you 8?”
Tau pauses, his steps slowing as he turns back to look at the boy. The boy is leaning forward, like he was walking with a slight hunch– Pulcinella will love this boy, the short bastard– and seems confused by them stopping. He tilts his head again, staring at Tau with wide, curious eyes.
And that's when Tau sees it. Barely visible, hidden behind his big, blue eyes, is the glint of a killer. Tau straightens, staring at this boy who he was told was a decorated soldier, and finally sees the ruthless instinct that the Tsaritsa saw. Yes, he's a gangly, sloppy, wildly underprepared boy. But he's also a killer.
“...I like you.” Tau decides. “You'll be useful, I think.”
“...Thank you?” The boy stammers.
“Your name is Ajax, right?” Tau muses idly. “I'm Tau, but most of the staff know me as Segment 8. There's others, of course. Our collective designation is Il Dottore, though only Omega and Omicron actually use it. Iota could, if he wanted to, but he doesn't like going out.”
“Oooooohhh.” Ajax says in a hushed whisper. “I thought Pierro was joking.”
“The Jester told you about us? Cute, he tried to warn you.” Tau smiles. “Don't worry. I'm nicer than the others. But they'll definitely want a piece of you when I'm done. You're too interesting to leave alone.”
Tau turns on his heel and continues walking back to the lab. Ajax doesn't follow him this time.
Good. Things are about to get very interesting around here.