[…Elise pointedly looked over their glasses. “Excuse me?”

Ashley grinned. As if that did anything. As if the request that she’d just made wasn’t just completely inane. Smiling as if they were giving them a puppy instead of the stupidest, most out-of-this-world request they’ve ever received.

Elise looked around the room that they’d been pulled aside to talk to: small, confined, dark. Looked private enough, but who knew if it had cameras or some sort of recording device hidden within a shadow? They’d have to choose their words carefully.

“I just got done being almost killed by a Chimera,” they said, not even bothering to hide their contempt, “and you want me to donate my blood to a baby one? I’m not an idiot. Goodbye,” they said, reaching for the door…]

“Wait,” Ashley said, reaching for their arm. Elise dodged out the way, but reluctantly stopped trying to leave. They had some curiosity as to why this manager type was trying to get them to do this - it was the main reason why they didn’t just shove this girl out the way and leave - but it wasn’t enough to let themselves get manhandled, especially by someone they had such little fondness for. Ashley, for whatever reason, didn’t seem to take any of the numerous hints that’d Elise had previously laid out. They wished that she’d stop trying to be buddies. It was annoying.

”Maybe I should explain,” Ashley said. She reached to touch their shoulder - Elise dodged again. “This is really, really important. We’ve found the egg of a xenal lifeform… We know that they need blood to survive. If we could get a live one, under our control, that would really mean a lot. I mean, it wasn’t my idea, trust me, or I wouldn’t be even doing this in the first place.”

Elise scowled. “This sounds like a terrible idea. Why do we want a live one? I thought the whole point was to kill them,” they said, voice dripping with toxin. “Why me? I don’t want this. Go get some other shmuck to do it.”

Ashley shrugged. “The higher-ups really want this. It’s desperate, that’s all I know. They’ve tried it with other blood samples - it doesn’t work. Maybe someone like a hunter, like you, can pull it off.”

Elise frowned. “I’m going to need a lot more information before I even think about saying yes.”

“Okay. I can show you something that might change your mind.”