Grayness. A whole bunch of grayness. The entire room, including the people were gray. All of them wearing grey long shirts, pants and shoes. Their hair grey, their eyes gray, their complexion sickly gray. But somehow there was a speck of redness standing out.
Adrien was sitting in the uncomfortably silent room, waiting for the smaller room filled with people to talk. His dark red hair and neon eyes were standing out for obvious reasons, but even the way he dressed, which was pretty professional, looked lively in comparison to the bunch there. Everyone was right when they said The Judgers were a creepy bunch.
"Mr. Marais, tell us about your progress with the young lady." The voice the main one spoke was chillingly robotic, but Adrien didn't seem to mind one bit.
The woman he was talking to was older, although their age was hard to tell due to all of them looking exactly the same. Even the females', their hair was cut short just to look the same as the men. Neither of them were allowed to wear tight clothing, baggy was a must have. All of them looked similar enough to confuse their gender.
"She still doesn't remember anything." Adrien answered coolly, drinking his coffee like it didn't matter much.
The people in the room only nodded, writing down something Adrien said. He disliked that he couldn't quite tell what they had on their minds, but he was sure he'd persuade them somehow. Nothing would go wrong, it was him after all. He could make anything happen.
"A hard case. You should handle her to us." The woman told him, getting ready to write something on the paper.
"There will be no need for that. I have some plans in mind for her. I'm sure I'll be able to bring her back." He told the woman in grey, not really looking like he cared much.
"We'll have to decline." The gray woman answered swiftly.
Adrien still didn't look nervous. He'll get to her good side.
"You can have trust in me. I just ask for a little bit of time." Adrien continued, trying to persuade her and the rest of the people in the room.
"Mr. Marais, you know how things go here with people who can't remember." The woman stated, the people behind her nodding as if they were in tone.
"I know, but there's no more need for Judgers, am I wrong?" He continued trying, still not worried much, just a bit annoyed by their constant straight faces.
"You aren't. But there's no need for them currently. We might need them later. It's better if we have spare ones." The woman simply answered, not giving any indication of changing her mind.
But Adrien disliked this quite a lot. This was a hard case, but it was just another opportunity to prove himself. Why would he just let her become a Judger if he can give her a better future? Having all of her memories erased, it just seemed horrible, not to mention the removal of emotion... He couldn't let this case go unsolved, he just couldn't.
"Count on me. I can do this. I've never failed you before." Adrien persisted, not wanting to fail at anything.
The grey Judger gave him a long stare, as if she was thinking. The other ones gave him the same look. It felt uncomfortable and it reminded him of that... incident. He didn't want it to repeat itself. He hated how they waited and waited, it's like they waited for him to crack under their gaze, crack from the anticipation of their answer.
"We could give you another shot." The woman stated.
"We do not agree with that." One of The Judgers said.
Adrien got confused. This was the first time seeing them disagree with something. This wasn't normal. Usually they'd agree a hundred percent with each other, never questioning each other, but this was something new entirely.
"I made my choice." The woman stated, ignoring her fellow Judgers.
Adrien didn't know what stunned him more. The woman Judger that referred to herself as 'I', or the fact that they even disagreed in the first place.
"I won't disappoint you." Adrien said, his grin growing, feeling very satisfied with himself.
"Good. Because otherwise we're firing you." The woman said, to which Adrien's stomach dropped.
"Explain, if you could." Adrien stated calmly, completely hiding his nervousness and dissatisfaction.
"You have one month, Mr. Marais. If you don't do anything, you'll be fired. We don't need people filled with pride in our system." Once she said that, it felt like a blow on his ego.
Filled with pride... It wasn't pride. It was confidence. They couldn't just call it pride, he did a lot of things to get here, a lot of things that were worthy of this status. He didn't just magically appear on the position he was now, he wasn't just magically the best at his job. They couldn't just fire him because they judged him as 'filled with pride'.
"So, you either take another chance. Let your pride eat you and your job, or hand the girl over to us. Your choice, Mr. Marais." She stated coldly, not showing hints of remorse or any emotion at all.
He looked at them with bitterness. His neon red eyes were glaring, not believing what he was hearing. It's like she knew he wasn't going to succeed. Just because she was some fancy Judger. Well, guess what, she didn't know anything. He wasn't just filled with pride. He'll show his competence, she'll see. Judgers are humans too, they can be wrong too. Oh, and he'll show just how wrong they can be.
"I accept your offer." Adrien said, picking up his stuff, ready to leave.
"We sincerely hope you have the skill to be prideful, Mr. Marais, or else we're losing a valuable worker." The woman said with her usual poker face.
He swallowed up all the rage he just wanted to spit in her face. It all seemed like she was mocking him, even with that poker face. He could feel it. He didn't care, he shouldn't. He'll show just how much he could actually do. She'll see just how much of a bad idea this was, just how much the other Judgers were right to disagree with her. He couldn't wait to prove her wrong.
