You tap your feet against the floor. You're busy arguing with yourself over what you should do right now. You do remember those old samples you got from RUDOLF, you should probably study those, but you're conflicted on what else to do.

You would ask your coworkers but, no, they probably wouldn't have a good idea on what you should do. You argue with yourself for a while but you decide to NOT research missing person cases right now.

It'll probably be better if you do that before working on 199X anyways. So that leaves you with talking to NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER and actively growing some CIGARETTE MOLD. It's probably best to bring the MAN along for NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER since it can actually perceive him.

Now you wonder-

The Man calls your name in order to get your attention. He asks what the group should be working on. Oh, right, time to actually start working.

"Ashton, there's some old samples in the mini fridge. Get them for me, please."

"oh come on!" Ashton overdramatically leans backward until she's threatening to fall onto one of the tables. Her body is bent in an incredibly awkward pose with how far she has leaned back. You got to admit, she has pretty good leg strength if she's able to hold that weird posture. "samples, samples, sample...is this what you do every day? no wonder why you needed a hug."

The Man snorts at her comment but he quickly collects himself.

"Pft." You clear your throat in an attempt to stifle a laugh. "Kinda??? It's either this, building random stuff or studying anomalies. It keeps the lights on, at least."

"you know," Ashton carefully leans forward until she's back on her feet. "how do you get all of your money again."

"LOTS of cigarette mold." You give her a cocky smirk. "It contains enough nicotine to keep a smoker buzzed for ages. I even built a whole machine to make more of it."

"oh! so that's what that thing was."
The Man admits that it is a pretty clever design.

"alright, alright, i'll get the samples." While she's away from the table, you turn to address the Man.

"So. What's your theory on her?" You quickly recount what you saw only a few minutes ago, alongside the other information you have.

The Man hums, clearly deep in thought. He has a vague idea what she might be but he's not sure if she matches all of the symptoms. There's a rumor about a particular 'subtype' of human that work for ARC: Harvesters.

Harvesters?

From what he knows, they're most common at the bottommost layers of any given facility. So, Layer 6 and 7 would be where they SHOULD be gathering. They're similar enough to humans to the point where, to the naked eye, there's no real way to spot one aside from their teeth. Their biology is always subtly off, though, like Ashton's odd blood.

Until now, he believed they were just something people made up to pass the time, so he only knows some basic facts about them. One: Their blood is black.