Sleep was a beast rarely conquered. It was a part of life that was as inevitable as death, yet few ever looked at it as such. Maybe it was due to the commonness of it around, or maybe it was due to the brain not having been engineered to ignore that part of life. Cassandra certainly wouldn't ever get the fact of it existing out of her head, her body reminding her of the fact every single day.

What she wouldn't have given for it to help her along into the world of mindlessness, instead of just complaining about not being there. It was like the dog that wouldn't give the toy over, yet would still endlessly complain about it not being thrown. The end result was just the same as always, Cassandra having to lie down silently, waiting for the day to come around with nothing to show for it.

At the very least, the lack of movement on her part made it possible to still rest her body somewhat. Sure, it wasn't close to what would have been gained by sleeping, yet just the act of letting her body rest did somewhat recuperate her to the point where she could hold out another day.

And maybe it also helped that she took a few energy pills. But, that didn't sound as good on paper, so she just ignored that part of her daily routine.

Seeing as she hadn't slept the entire night, Cassandra was more than capable of getting up at her assigned sign, not even letting the construct outside her door get comfortable with standing around. That allowed her plenty of time to get ready and more than enough to pull herself together enough to get some in-room breakfast. Rations meant for emergencies were always the best.

Jules had barely been allowed to knock on the door before she had pulled it open. That did leave the automation looking somewhat surprised, but Cassandra didn't really pay attention to it that much, the woman just walking right down the hallway immediately.

“Uhm… good morning?” Jules said, having catched up with her after having been left at the door. The construct was clearly not on the assumption of having needed to move, having seemingly pulled off power to its legs for some time. An interesting idea of power-conservation, yet it did leave the construct without the ability to quickly restart movement.

“Good morning to you too,” Cassandra said, keeping pace with her heart. Step after step, she was making sure to walk as quickly as she could without going into a run. The automation matched her speed easily, even if it had been left behind at the start. That did leave her wondering about something, however. “Was the repowering successful?”

Cassandra had been left to herself earlier that morning since the automation had been forced to use the last hours of the night charging itself up. A completely understandable necessity, since the construct didn't have the battery capacity to run for more than a day or two at full speed. And with how much action had happened over the last twenty-four hours alone, the woman had been surprised about it not happening sooner.

“There weren't any major problems to speak off,” Jules began, clearly having some form of a story about it ready. “I was contacted by my manufacturer halfway through it, though. Something about me displaying abnormal, never seen before actions that they needed to check through. Spent a good ten minutes having to send over every log that I had ever created. Not that it actually did anything, since they never actually got back to me what it was about.”

Well… that was weird. Weird enough that Cassandra briefly looked over at the construct, who looked similarly weirded out by the displayed behaviour of the superiors. Or whatever the manufacturer was called. She didn't know the specifics about their ranking within the system itself. However, she did know a few facts about the rules of interaction.

“Aren't they required by law to inform you what they used the data for, when during a search so extensive?” Cassandra asked, trying to remember the details word-for-word. When she had been told about her starting out working with automations, it had been recommended to her that she should read the rules and guidelines on how to properly interact with the constructs.

Most of the rules set out had been pretty basic, basically being retellings about the rules involving violence, ways of speeches, in what way death threats would be handled, and many other things like that. But some of the later ones extended to how specific amounts of confidential information was to be handled. Even if Cassandra was fully allowed to overlook information about the automation, she was only allowed to do it in a manual sense. She wasn't allowed to send in a program that searched through large amounts of information for any specific mention of some kind. Anything searched above fifty per cent of the total amount of information actually required direct approval from one of the higher-ups. And even at that point, there was a very hard-set rule about the construct itself needing to be told what the information was used for. The rule itself had been created due to public demand, and Cassandra knew just how dead-set the government was on not breaking protocols made in such a fashion. The amount of bad press due to it had the potential of being devastating to everybody involved, after all.

“They most certainly are,” Jules agreed, nodding its head feverishly. “Which is why I’ve sent in an official complaint concerning it. Not that I should expect anything to be responded to soon. The waiting list is checked manually and can apparently take months of waiting just to begin the reviewing process.”

Oh, how she loved the bureaucratic way of life, everybody dying of old age before any problems could be taken seriously. It was the way things turned, and the way it would always turn. Any who tried to change it would just wither long before the proposal was brought up. That was always fun, and exactly the reason that Cassandra had never dreamt of joining that business.

Anywho. The two of them finally did reach the cafeteria. Cassandra hadn't originally desired to go anywhere near it, yet felt there was an actual need for it due to her body requiring some form of liquid. The only real thing she could get from her own room was from bottled water or from the tap, and one was being saved for her snack-times while the other was dangerous for humans to drink. Not the greatest choices in the world, leaving the woman with the need to go where others could do the same.

And that fact was cemented hard into the earth, as the woman instantly saw officer Grunwald standing by the kitchen counters, eating the same kind of monstrosity she had seen the day prior. A small bag of them sat on the table, ready to be taken from. Cassandra did her best to avoid them, giving that table a wider berth than normal.

“Morning, Cass,” Grunwald greeted, seemingly not noticing the woman’s antics. The woman in question was happy with that, not wanting to explain just how much she detested the need to even be in the same room as those things. “I hope you slept well.”

“I slept fine, sir,” Cass said, lying as easily as she breathed. “And good morning to you right back.”

“Good to hear,” Grunwald said, moving to the side so that Cassandra could get to the coffee machine. The name of it was misleading since it could give out so much more than that, yet the woman just used the name it had been given since that start.

There was an idea about getting herself some hot tea to start out the day with, yet she knew the quality of it would be lacking to her taste. She hadn't actually had a good sample of Jared’s brew in the last days, the woman not too happy about that fact. Not like she could request the man to wake up and make her some, Jared still lying half-dead in the medical wing. So, with no other chance of getting herself a drink of actual quality, Cassandra chose to skydive into the abyss and choose a cold, sweet tea. Even her superior officer had to look at her twice to make sure she hadn't mispressed anything on the machine.

“Trying out new things is always good, I guess,” Grunwald stated, sipping his own, very hot coffee. Cassandra had never been one to enjoy that brew, yet it was clearly popular among her colleagues. Not like the feeling of caffeine actually ever hit them, their bodies resisting the effect before it ever had a chance. That was why the two others in the station usually put a few extra ingredients in there, so the kick was actually felt. A placebo could do that much, after all.

“Indeed it is,” Cass said, trying out the cold brew in her hand. The taste was alright, yet it did not match the temperature at all. She almost wanted to spill it into the sink and get the hot version immediately, yet she knew she couldn't do that. A certain construct was waiting outside the door for her to come out, after all.

The silence was enjoyed for a minute, Cassandra doing her best to get through her morning drink. It was hard, and the cup was much larger than she usually felt it was, but hard work made her empty half of it into her gullet in record time. Quite the achievement, with the taste sending her so many feelings of uncanniness.

Grunwald just stood in silence, looking forward into the empty air. Cassandra had originally seen it as a good thing, the man just enjoying the quiet morning that they had at their disposal, yet time progressed with no real change to the man’s features. It seemed he was deep in thought, the subject not being easy on his mind. In other words, it was something that the woman wanted to know as much about as possible.

“Is something wrong, sir?” Cass asked, making sure to bring up the innocence up to a level unprecedented. To the unexpected, she seemed just like a worried colleague, only just noticing that her dear friends and coworker looked to be a bit off early in the day. “You seem rather disgruntled about something.”

That certainly brought the man out of his hole, a small jump at the sudden noise. Had he really forgotten that Cassandra was in the room? The officer couldn't have possibly passed the spatial awareness test put out in the current day. Or maybe it was just a bad mix of age and emotion that made that mind of his seem so dull to the outside viewer.

“It’s nothing incredibly serious, Cass,” Grunwald said quickly. That made the woman want to press the topic even harder, yet the man had seemingly just been knocked hard enough on the head for her to not even need to do anything more persuasive. “It’s just a report that was sent in by a civilian a few minutes ago that has left me rather surprised.”

Oh? A report that was extreme enough that a near-veteran of the industry was put off his game, yet still not serious enough to warrant immediate action.

“Just what did that report include?” Cass asked.

“There was a robbery reported,” Grunwald stated. “It apparently happened several days ago, yet nobody had the slightest clue of it ever happening until now. No security alerts were triggered. Nothing at all, actually.”

It took Cassandra no guesses at all on why exactly that disgruntled the man so much. The thieves from before were back, and they hadn't noticed at all.