FSE

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It was actually a rather new experience for her to get a room. Not so much from being shy as it was just from the fact that she was never allowed to handle her own finances before. It was always someone else handling all the payments. Even in the few times they were allowed to go to the mall Amber was never allowed to pay anything herself, or even carry her own bags. She had to resist the impulse to try and use her ability to help her. They probably think her to be some sort of college or high school drop-out that's running away to spite the parents. Which, she supposes, is somewhat what she's done from one perspective.

And as strange as it might have seemed the one thing she wanted to do most with her newfound freedom, at least for the time being was to simply hop onto the decently clean bed and turn on the TV. With so much of her day previously being monitored and regulated it was a very novel thing that for once she was able to simply lounge around and do nothing. The news didn't seem to have anything to say about her disappearance, which was not all that surprising for her. Not only would they need time to arrange for a press-conference if they were going to announce that she was leaving but that is assuming that they'll even truly let her go. They could send the three stooges after her and hope one of them can hit her or capture her and put her into a dark room until she agrees to cooperate again. There's a whole bunch of worst-case scenarios that may be happen and hopefully never will. This is her life, after all and she more than deserves the right to actually live it.

The news does talk the mission they had recently, however a good portion of it is of the variety just reporting that it happened. They showed a few quick clips of Jet, which is not of any surprise. Jet and Ruby are more or less the only two with rather photogenic abilities. Naturally there isn't any indication of her being there. There never would be outside of a clip of one of the others doing something impressive right after she teleports them. She's not some naïve little kid. She knows how well the general opinion of the world is of her. She was never allowed to do anything so there really was never any point in having the cameras point at her. She never did anything noteworthy to get a mention to the news. The general public consider her by far to be the weakest member of the team, even going so far as to say that they really should have replaced her with someone useful and not spend so much money on someone who never does anything useful. Amber goes ahead and orders the pizza and waits for it to arrive and thankfully the one she ordered from did take credit cards.

Which of course does limit her options for what she would be allowed to do going forward. First priority would be to find some place to call her own, somewhere to live peacefully for a while and probably something she can do as a project to fix up. Then it's a matter of finding some form of work. She has a decent amount of money in her account provided they don't decide to lock that out on her but it's not like she can depend on it for more than a few months to a year at most depending on how the bills end up going. She's not popular enough to be able to just go around making guest appearances and whatnot to make a living, assuming she'd even be allowed to do so. She'll just have to check in with like the help wanted ads when she gets a place and figure out what she can do to make some money. But that can wait a week or few before she really needs to do that.

Her pizza eventually arrives and she signs the little device they had with them to acknowledge that she did get there and verify payment. And once they've gone she goes onto the bed with her prize and pops it open, reveling in the scent of it. She takes out one slice and bites into the still hot pizza and closes her eyes. This was never something they were allowed to have, too unhealthy. Even still it felt almost like she should be getting in trouble for eating it. But feeling the need to take it all the way, she carefully extracts herself from the bed, making sure that her treasure won't fall over and then makes sure the blinds are fully closed. With that she takes a deep breath and removes the ring and puts it onto the counter. There most certainly were advantages to being human, but the senses of her other form, her true form were just that much stronger and thus would allow her to taste it all the more fully.

Once into her furry body she walks back onto the bed and grabs the slice of pizza again and just sticks it in her mouth with all the toppings facing down and then just holds it there. It's just something she had never been allowed to do in that place. Too unhealthy. Only allowed to eat what they wanted her to eat. Heck, even when she turned twenty-one, they never once allowed her to have a single beer. They needed her to be constantly at full capacity and able to perform at a moment's notice. So for the first time in her life she was able to just relax and enjoy a pizza and then just browsed the channels for a while until she felt tired and then went to sleep, making sure that any leftover pizza was not left in any location that would cause a mess.

Ideally she would have liked to have been able to truly sleep in, but when having had to wake up at a particular time every day for years with no exception outside of being sick, Amber finds that not only does she still just wake up at the normal time but can't really get herself to fall back asleep. There was a brief moment when she was considering whether or not it was a dream, but found it extremely hard to disbelieve that she finally made a break from the Core, at least for a day if not longer, when the bed she's waking up on is nowhere nearly as comfortable as the one she had at the base. But at the very least it's nice to know she doesn't really have to do much of anything in the immediate future. So she goes and decides to finish up the last of her pizza. She then puts on a new outfit and takes a shower in her fuzzy form. Technically it's much easier to clean with the ring on, but she just doesn't feel as clean if she ever removes the ring after rather than showering before. Just means being wet for a lot longer and smelling like wet dog. As she comes out of the shower she hears a knock on the door. Her one ability tells her that it's Amethyst at the door and based on her own reaction and Amethyst's it doesn't look like there are armed guards coming to take her back, so at least that is good. As soon as the door is open Amethyst is sitting on the bed with a rather excited expression on her face.

"You'll never believe how much of a stunt you've just pulled," she practically bounces on the bed she's saying it in that giddy a fashion. "And just jumping off the roof like that. Course for our lot that isn't impressive, but it's the thought that counts."

"How did you find me?" Amber asks.

"Well, they kind of tracked you by your bank records. They can still do that," she responds, looking over and seeing the pizza and seeming more disappointed that there wasn't any leftovers than anything else.

"So this is an official visit, then," Amber says somewhat warily. She's looking ahead but doesn't really see anything too much out of the ordinary. Perhaps they've found a way to mask themselves from her ability somehow?

"Little bit, yeah. Though don't worry, didn't come to snag you or anything. Though that was originally what they wanted to do, but get this, the one most adamant about letting you leave was Jet. I mean Ruby I can believe cause she's made it no secret that she wants to retire in a few years so that she can go raise a family and all, but Jet? Threatened to destroy the entire building if they mobilized against you just for leaving."

"No,"

"Oh yes, even grabbed a chair for emphasis. Basically, they were put into a situation of the entire team rioting against them or letting you go, so they've decided to honor your resignation with conditions. First condition, they're taking the ring back," Amethyst says, suddenly having the ring in her hand. Amber strokes at the spot where the ring normally resided. "Technically, the ring is Core property that you were allowed to use, so they're taking it back. Second condition, and the most important on in my opinion. You are to honor all of the NDA's of the Core. Meaning you aren't allowed to go do some big tell all about how the Core operates, nor tell all of our biggest weaknesses or insecurities," Amber nods slightly at this as this condition she was fine enough with as well as the unspoken one of not doing anything to draw their attention more than absolutely necessary. "Finally, they want to be able to keep tabs on you, so they've transferred a building to your name and you are to live there for a period of at least a year. I went there first and I got to say that to call it a dump would be a compliment."

"Probably just unloading a building the city couldn't get anyone to want to buy?" Amber asks, not looking forward to seeing the travesty of that building but at least relieved she won't need to hunt for a place now.

"Based on how it looked, probably. Pretty sure they're just hoping that they have strict enough rules that you become too overwhelmed by everything and come crawling back to the Core."

"Well thanks for the heads up I guess. Can only imagine how badly it would have turned out if they tried sending that counsellor at me again."

"Well, that all said," Amethyst pulls out an envelope. "Here's the full conditions of your freedom, which is mostly what I've already said. Also has the address to your new place." She moves quickly over and gives Amber a quick hug. "I wish you luck. Anyway, girl. Got to head back. Heaven forbid they think I'm slow at anything." Amethyst waves slightly once more then walks out of the door and is then gone.

Amber sighs slightly as she watches the space that Amethyst had stood a moment before, one hand idly fingering the area where her ring would normally be. "Well," she says out loud more to voice her thoughts than anything, "I guess that's one way to handle things. Try and make me as miserable as possibly now that I'm free so that I come begging to come back, all the while they can claim that they were being genuine in letting me leave. Would not surprise me if their legal team is already writing up an even stricter contract to remove my ability to just walk away. Oh well, might as well see how big of a dump I'm dealing with."

With that she opens the envelope and looks to see what all is in there. A few generic conditions, ones that browsing through do seem sort of like what Amethyst was talking about. More importantly she finds the destination of her new home and puts it into her phone's GPS and begins heading out. Having paid last night, there's no need to go and see the person at the front desk other than to simply hand in her key. And then goes about taking her luggage with her as she starts walking through the city in search of what is likely to be the saddest excuse for a house the government was able to find on such short notice.