Ever since you began working at SDN as a Dispatcher for the Phoenix Program, you’ve felt like your life’s been going downhill.

Not necessarily literally, but you know it’s there. Every day is more tiresome than the previous one, and you’re getting less and less sleep.

Look, you love these bastards. As much as they like to fool around and act like they own the place, they respect you. So you respect them.

But they’re still reformed villains. They’re still volatile. They mess up from time to time, and it takes even longer for them to recover.

What is this, the 4th? 5th overtime you’ve done this week? You’ve lost count already. Even the coffee that’s sitting beside your mouse has gone cold from how long you’ve been staring at a point on the screen.

And then your dissociation is broken by a donut being placed right in front of you under a napkin. Neat.

“Here you go, dork. You’ve been staring at that screen for like 20 minutes.” She’s leaning against the wall of your cubicle, face propped up on her forearms as she looks at you. And then her gaze softens.

“Why’re you still here? Everyone left like… uh, i dunno. I just know they left.”

She knows something’s wrong. Despite not showing it much, she knows you. You can tell because she remembers your favourite donut. Or how you like your coffee.

She can see the days where you’re up, and the days where you’re down. And today seems to be… like bottom-floor level of down.