[Roboticization, Brainwashing]

“Let me get this straight. You’ve already punished her for underperforming once, and she’s still not making up for that lost time?”

Two white-haired young looking people sat across from one another, with a brunette idly swinging her legs as she sat a bit further away from them. She knew that she had done something wrong, you could see the dread glowing on her expression. She just didn’t know what.

“You’d think that spending time as a mental infant would do the trick, but no, she can’t even bring me a good cup of coffee in time.” One of the youths, the ever-arrogant and ever-bothersome Atlas Grimwald, took a sip from his cup as he leaned back in his chair. “You know how it is, don’t you, Byakko?”

The other young looking individual, a tiger-eared white-haired girl in a suit by the eloquent name of Byakko, nodded as she took a sip from her cup of milk. “The amount of employees I’ve had to grill ever since you put me in charge of this division numbers in the double digits. I can’t believe you hire such trash on a daily basis.” She narrowed her eyes at her boss, not even bothering to soften the blow of her scathing opinions.

“If you didn’t grill them, they’d be worth pennies. After you’ve made them grow a couple of spines and understand their place in the world, they’re worth their weight in gold.” Atlas chimed as he finished his cup, putting it on the desk behind him as he took a brief glance towards the brunette at his side. “And yet, she’s the only one that’s never really been able to understand that. You’d think all the conditioning she’s been put through would make it easier, but no, she just keeps on having no lights on upstairs.” He scoffed, stretching in his seat…

Byakko swirled her milk around for a bit before downing it in a single gulp and throwing the renewable cup into the trashbin at her side. “Why do you even care?” She asked very pointedly, turning around to face the computer on her desk. “Logistics show that you haven’t cared about a single employee beyond the first few visits, and then the occasional rewards package to keep them motivated. Why this one in particular?” She asked, spinning around with a glint of annoyance in her eye. “And don’t tell me it’s because she’s cute.”

“She is cute.” The albino boy immediately replied with the smuggest smile imaginable. “Just like you, Byakko. Remember when you come crying to me because Suzaku and Seiryu’ve been mean to you? You always look so pleasant when you’re on my lap, your tail waving around in the air as I scratch you behind the ears. Just like a good sister should.”

The tiger-girl spat into the trash as she got up from her seat. “Not the time, Atlas. Take the question seriously, or I’m going to go work on the latest piece of tech. You know, the thing you ordered yesterday and wanted done the day before that?” She barely concealed her worsening mood, even if her cheeks were flushing red thanks to the pleasant memories blossoming in her head…

“Fine, fine, bust my balls why don’t you.” Atlas shot back as he looked over towards the brunette, who was quietly shuffling back and forth on her seat as she waited for the two higher ups to finish talking amongst themselves. “Well, maybe I just think she’s got a certain charm to her, something that makes it fun to bully her? Really, the fact that she’s failing this hard is more a blessing than anything.”

Byakko sighed from the depths of her heart. “Right. You’ve found a new plaything. Great, fantastic. So what do you want me to do with her? She doesn’t seem special in any way, so I don’t get it.”

“She’s terrible at everything I tell her to do, so why don’t you give her a chance at getting better? Nothing major, just a few touch ups that should make her a much better employee. I’m sure you have something laying around in your toolbox that’ll make that a piece of cake. In fact, if you solve it right now, I’ll extend the deadline and stop bothering your team for the last few projects, as a reward for my dear sister.” The boy laid out the task at hand, while dangling the proverbial carrot on a stick in front of his ‘sister’s face...

The white tiger took a deep breath, weighing her options for a very brief moment… before tugging on the young man’s cheeks. “You’re the worst.” She chimed, her mood improved simply because she had a chance to bully somebody else. Which begged the question, who did he inherit that love for bullying from?

Atlas grinned as he decided to push his chair towards a corner, eager to see what the tiger girl might just try and do.

The brunette, Maddy, blinked now that the conversation was over. “A-Are you guys done? How much longer is this going to take? I’m sorry that I spilled coffee all over the boss’ trousers, I promise not to do it again, honest!” She begged for forgiveness, her heart worrying as the white-clad tiger got closer to her…

“So that’s what you did to make him act like this.” Byakko said as she grabbed the girl by the shoulder, smiling gently in a foreboding fashion, just like her ‘brother’ commonly would. “Don’t worry. You’ll be fine, we’re not going to punish you like that or kick you out and burn your allowance. You’re just going to get a few tools that’ll help you work instead of trying everything by yourself. Doesn’t that sound good?”

Maddy blinked a few times as she put her hands into the pockets of her purple hoodie, nervously nodding. “I mean, if you’re willing to help me, Miss, that’d be great! The less I embarrass myself while helping out the boss, the better, right?” She chimed, smiling from ear to ear like the gullible girl that she was.

“Of course, of course. Now come on, I have a special seat just for you.” The white tiger helped her onto her feet and slowly guided her towards the chair she had just been sitting in minutes ago. “Just face the screen, alright? I want you to do a few things for me before we can give you the tools that will make you better.”

The brunette nodded obediently as she faced towards the screen, blinking a few more times before realizing that the thing was pitch black. “Uh, Miss? Why’s the computer turned off-”

Before she managed to finish that sentence, she felt a massive shock pouring through her body as something was rather violently jabbed into the back of her neck. “Ssssh. No questions.” Byakko hushed her as she pulled the keyboard over to her, tapping away at the keys as a bunch of characters appeared on the pitch black screen.

So what if she had told her a white lie and just skipped straight to the part where she’d upload all the necessary elements of a good employee to her brain? Atlas didn’t bother giving her enough warning, so she wasn’t going to give the girl any warning either. Just to be petty.

As Maddy’s jaw hung loose and drool started pouring out thanks to how much had collected in her mouth, a bright flashing warning sign appeared on the black background, with sirens and trumpets and the whole shebang telling the white tiger that she was about to erase any and all personality still left in the connected user’s head. Without hesitation, the girl slammed her fist down on the Y key to confirm it, rapidly even. She didn’t care for the girl, nor would she care about her current treatment.

The brunette gasped and moaned as a suction noise started echoing from the spot where she had been jabbed with a wire. Then, the gradual slurps of large thought matter resounded and caused equally large bumps to travel down the wire, showing that her mental state was being converted into waste and absorbed by the operating system in front of her.

While all of that was happening, a subtle metallic shade was spreading its way across her body, letting flesh turn into steel in mere moments. This was a nasty side effect of the memory and mental capacity replacement process, usually resulting in the connected individual turning into a robotic shell to store information within. Not that it mattered considering neither of her higher ups really cared about her, which was probably the reason they went this direct route in the first place.

The black space on the computer screen gradually filled up with a myriad of 0s and 1s as it just repeated into infinity, with the empty eyes of the poorly performing employee reflected upon the glowing screen. The more she looked at them, the more the numbers started appearing in her irises, almost as if she was accepting some sort of wireless transmission. Or maybe it was just some of her stupidity being attracted to bright things, it wasn’t easy to tell since those numbers meant nothing.

Once her head fell forward ever slightly, her body growing limp thanks to the lack of any thought left in her brain, it was easy for the reverse process to begin. What had been a suction now became more of an injection as things were being pumped straight back into her, useless knowledge filling the space that had previously been occupied by vapid knowledge that only a terrible employee would be focused on.

Knowledge of what she should do in response to common situations, knowledge of where she belonged in the hierarchy, knowledge of how to treat the higher ups and most importantly knowledge of the jobs that she had to do filled her brain, leaving little space left for any kind of personality data. Not that she needed one, a bright-eyed and endlessly smiling drone was all that she needed to be, and that was exactly what the programs could fit into the spare space in her brain.

With all of that crammed into her head, it was no wonder that her body ended up transforming to suit the mind’s view of herself. She was a model employee, so all the clothes on her body were replaced with metal plating that looked more like a proper suit than anything else. She was an employee that knew how to assist people, so a bright smile was practically painted onto her face, with no real mouth to speak of so she couldn’t ever ruin it. Her eyes lit up equally as brightly, almost mesmerizingly so which would let her easily converse with any other newcomers and indoctrinate them in the ways and methods of Atlas Corp. And of course, since she needed to tend to the men and women that worked above her, she needed assets that could impress them. A little bit of a curve to her hips, her rear and her bosom helped that, even if none of them were soft enough to play with, but that was good enough for a common drone like her.

“Thank you for replacing my Personality, Miss Byakko!” The bot that once was Maddy kept on smiling, her synthesized voice coming from a speaker on her throat instead. “I am a Happy Atlas Bot, and it is my sole duty to serve you and satiate your needs, like a good Atlas Employee should!” The chime was artificial, and it wasn’t hard to see through the facade. Still, to the common eye, it’d do. And she’d probably be better at doing the things she was ordered to do from now on, instead of messing everything up.

Byakko took a deep sigh as she disconnected the cable she had jabbed into her neck, turning towards the white-haired boy she called a brother with a bit of a proud smile. “Tada. One AtlasBot MK1, at your service. What do you think?” She introduced the roboticized girl, who just saluted like a good machine.

“Could be better, but I did put you under pressure.” Atlas replied as he got up from his seat, grabbing the cable from his ‘sister’s hand as he eyed her with a certain leer in his eyes. “Maybe you’d like to use yourself as a bed to make improvements on, Byakko?” He chimed chillingly, being entirely serious.

She just glared at him in response. “Just bring me more employees. Genbu would be disappointed in you if you turned one of us into a machine.” She replied as she grabbed the cable once more, tossing it away. “And don’t even think about it ever again. I’ll make you regret it.”

The grumpy kitty just made the boy laugh. “I won’t do it, Byakko. I’m just teasing you.” He chimed, eyeing the saluting robot once more before nodding. “You did do good though, I’ll make sure your team gets time to breathe. Now, if you excuse me…”

With that, the boy made his exit with his new employee by his side. Maybe now, she’d actually be useful...