The hearing room feels like a pressure cooker in a suit, wood-paneled walls, federal seals, and rows of folding chairs packed with reporters, clerks, and Department observers.
Amilia stands at Sally’s side, file folder open. In the gallery, The Rose sits rigid and watchful, Devlan leans forward with his jaw set, and Mark V keeps his metal hands folded.
Judge Harlan Pike
This hearing is now in session. State your appearances for the record.
Prosecutor Ellis Wren
Ellis Wren for the Department of Superhuman Affairs. We are here because Sally is an unregistered synthetic asset with dangerous capabilities and federal property at issue.
Amilia Jacobs
Amilia Jacobs, defense. Sally is a person, not property, and this court is going to hear how the Department built a cage around her life.
The prosecutor slides a thin stack of records onto the table, stamped, sealed, and marked with routing codes that look uncomfortably familiar. One page bears the same relay chain tied to Sally’s trail.
Amilia spots the mark at once. If that chain is admitted, it can expose the Department’s infrastructure, and Sally’s case becomes a direct attack on the system that made her.
✓ Quest Accepted
Defend Sally's status as a person in court
“Amilia stand up and tell the court that those documents are proof of Sally's illegal containment.”
SUCCESS (Good Persuasion, rolled -1)
Amilia rises before the judge can look away, and the room tightens around her like a drawn wire. She lifts the records stack, the relay chain page visible on top, and turns it toward the bench.
Amilia Jacobs
Your Honor, these are not harmless personnel papers. They are proof of illegal containment, routing, and control, the paperwork of a cage built around Sally.
A murmur ripples through the gallery. Mark V tilts his head toward the page, already tracing the codes with his eyes, while Devlan’s stare hardens on the prosecutor.
Ellis Wren
Objection. Defense is editorializing. Those records identify an asset, not a person, and they are not evidence of unlawful status.
Judge Pike’s fingers tap once on the bench, then still. The fluorescent lights hum overhead as the clerk reaches for a stamp and pauses mid-motion.
Judge Harlan Pike
The document will be marked for review. Ms. Jacobs, lay the foundation. Tell the court exactly what this chain proves.
Amilia squares her shoulders, file folder open, and sets the relay page beside her notes. Sally feels the room swing toward her as the prosecutor waits for the first word that will make her visible to everyone here.
“Is Ellis Wren trying to classify me as property?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 38)
Ellis Wren
The defense is grasping at straws, Your Honor. The subject is a biological asset, a piece of federal property that has been improperly removed from its designated containment.
Sally
He is not just arguing a case. He is trying to erase me, piece by piece, until there is nothing left but a serial number.
Amilia Jacobs
Sally is a person, not a serial number, and the court will see that the Department's own records prove they have been treating a human being like a piece of hardware.
“I let Amilia answer the objection”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +3)
Sally goes still and lets the room keep moving around her. Her silence lands like a decision, and Amilia takes it without missing a beat.
Amilia Jacobs
The defense objects to that framing. The Department can call Sally a tool if it wants, but its own records track her as a transferred person, not seized equipment.
Amilia lifts a marked page from her stack and holds it where the judge can see the transfer line. The red relay indicator printed in the exhibit photo catches the light like a warning.
Ellis Wren
Convenient language. A file can be mislabeled. A biological asset still belongs to the federal government.
The Rose
No, it does not. I have seen what a control system looks like when it is built to own a living body, and that is what these records describe.
Mark V
The routing chain matches relay infrastructure, not inventory control. The Department built a path for monitoring and handling, then hid Sally inside it.
Across the gallery, Devlan lowers his chin in grim agreement while The Rose keeps her gaze on Amilia, steady as a shield. Amilia turns one more page, and the hidden folder of press clippings peeks from her legal brief like proof she came prepared for this fight.
Amilia Jacobs
Your Honor, the defense has laid foundation. The state is describing a person as property, and these records show exactly how that fiction was maintained.
Quest Complete
Defend Sally's status as a person in court
Skill Upgrade: Persuasion Good→Great