Author's Note:

It's a long one today! Feel free to skim over the legalise if it's less your thing, but I really enjoyed making it for anyone who likes it :)

• • • • • • • • •

"Is that okay?" Tanya whispered to Ishita.

Ishita didn't look away from Sebastian, but she nodded.

"Excellent." Sebastian opened the drawer beside him. Tanya craned her neck to look, but she couldn't unless she stood. Papers shuffled like he was flicking through a filing cabinet. He pulled out 2 pieces of paper, uncapping his pen lid, making some changes, and then handing one to each of them.

• • •

Binding Modification and Release Agreement

This Agreement is entered into on this ___ day of ________, by and between:

Tanya Angelo ("Technician"),

Ishita Priya Sharma ("Healer"), and

Sebastian Salvatore ("Subject" and "Binder"),

collectively referred to as the Parties.

1. Purpose

The Parties enter into this Agreement for the purpose of (a) modifying the tattoo summon titled "Esquire Frames" located upon the Subject, and (b) performing a subsequent alteration of an existing pact between the Technician and the Healer as set forth in Section 3 below.

2. Performance Obligations

a. Technician's Duties Tanya Angelo shall carry out the modification of Esquire Frames continuously and to completion, using all skills, methods, and resources reasonably available to her, until the earlier of: (i) completion of the modification process; or (ii) the point at which the Healer's restorative abilities are fully exhausted or fail to restore life to the Subject after three (3) total confirmed deaths during the procedure.

The Technician may not intentionally sabotage, neglect, or otherwise cause the modification to fail. Any act or omission undertaken to cause harm, or with knowledge that harm is substantially certain to occur, shall constitute intentional breach of this Agreement.

b. Healer's Duties Ishita Priya Sharma shall provide continuous healing, regeneration, or protective measures throughout the modification process, applying her full capacity until her healing ceases to function. The Healer is obligated to sustain the Subject through up to three (3) total deaths and resurrections, if such occur during the procedure.

The Healer may not withhold healing, delay intervention, or intentionally allow the Subject to perish before the third and final failed restoration.

c. Subject's Duties Upon completion of the above procedure—whether successful, halted due to exhaustion of the Healer's powers, halted due to resurrection limits being met, or termination by death beyond recovery—the Subject shall perform the pact alteration described below in Section 3.

3. Pact Alteration

The Subject, Sebastian Salvatore, shall modify the standing pact currently binding the Technician and the Healer by removing any and all clauses compelling or constraining the Healer's behaviour or will, specifically including the provision requiring that "Ishita Priya Sharma will do anything Tanya Angelo wants."

The modification shall permanently end all behaviour-altering effects of the pact and restore the Healer's independent will, while preserving any non-coercive bonds or alliances.

4. Binding Nature and Limitation

Each Party acknowledges full understanding of the risks involved and accepts them without reservation. The obligations described herein are absolute within the limits defined above.

No Party may refuse, abandon, or suspend performance on grounds of danger, duress, or moral objection once the procedure has begun, except where continuation is physically or magically impossible.

5. Intentional Breach

Any Party who intentionally causes, permits, or conspires toward failure of this Agreement's purpose shall be deemed in material breach and subject to all corresponding consequences, including magical backlash, forfeiture of pact rights, or any other penalties enforceable under binding law or system authority.

6. Completion

This Agreement shall be deemed fulfilled upon completion of the modification process and successful alteration of the pact as described above, or upon the point where the Healer's restorative ability is proven to have permanently failed after three (3) total deaths.

7. Execution

By signing below, the Parties affirm that they understand, accept, and voluntarily enter into this Agreement. This document shall become binding immediately upon signature or magical seal.

Tanya Angelo ______________________ Date: ________ Ishita Priya Sharma __________________ Date: ________ Sebastian Salvatore _________________ Date: ________

• • •

Before Tanya could study the document for loopholes or issues, Sebastian said, "Deposition Field. Exhibit Projection. Disclosure Mandate."

Then all at once, the area around the three of them glowed as if a photo with too high exposure, an Interface appeared beside Sebastian's head, and Tanya's head throbbed under the pulsing of information she didn't have before.

Tanya clamped her eyes shut, trying to lessen the overwhelm to her senses as the headache worsened, then lessened, then went completely. Thoughts were jumbled inside her head that she knew weren't her own.

Tanya opened her eyes again, furious.

"What the fuck did you just do to me?!"

Sebastian's polite smile didn't waver. "System, may an Exhibit Projection or Disclosure Mandate be modified, untruthful, or exceed a person's Concentration limits?"

No. An Exhibit Projection or Disclosure Mandate are Administrative Invocations; Abilities which are a request for System Activation, rather than any part of the skill coming directly from the requester.

The thoughts were starting to make more sense. If she thought about any of the words Sebastian had just said, she knew they were his Abilities and what they did. The Deposition Field prevented intentional lying from anyone within it. She knew that Sebastian could have chosen to place it around the two of them, but not himself, but didn't. She also knew that "no comment" was a valid response to any question within the field, but that intentional lying wasn't possible.

Exhibit Projection was allowing Sebastian to show a section of his Interface. The entire thing was filled with legal jargon that Tanya didn't even try to understand. She somehow knew she wouldn't forget it word for word, despite it not being something she could understand.

Finally, Disclosure Mandate would state and explain any Abilities used by or on the person who used the Ability for the whole of its length.

Tanya could tell that the only Ability draining Sebastian was Exhibit Projection; the others used limited Attributes to trigger, but then lasted until untriggered.

"Is it beginning to make more sense now?" Sebastian asked.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

System, can Deposition Field, Exhibit Projection, or Disclosure Mandate be faked?

This time, she could feel that the response was only to herself.

Deposition Field technically may be faked by the Ability holder by multiple persuasion Abilities and memory modification Abilities.

Exhibit Projection and Disclosure Mandate are Administrative Invocations; Abilities which are a request for System Activation, rather than any part of the skill coming directly from the requester.

Tanya was pretty sure that this was either the truth or that Sebastian was so high-level he could pretend to be The System. If it was the latter, then she'd be utterly screwed anyway if he got pissed off, so she decided she may as well continue.

"Yeah," Tanya said. "I get it." She looked to Ishita.

"Yes," she said.

Sebastian passed each of them a pen.

Tanya's mouth was dry. She swallowed. Then signed her name on the line.

Ishita and Sebastian's names appeared as if signed by an invisible hand as she wrote her own.

Contract Manifestation. An Ability which allows for Pacts to take a physical form, similar to a contract. These are unified between drafts of the same Pact, including signing.

This Disclosure Mandate was one of the most interesting powers she'd seen. Not only did she hear the System explaining what it was, but she also had an innate sense of how it would be used. In this cas,e she knew that destroying any of the Pact documents wouldn't end the Pact and that Sebastian could just create another one from the real Pact in his Interface.

As Tanya placed down the paper, complete with all three of their signatures, a thought struck her. She focused on her Design Overlay, inspecting Sebastian's projected Interface with curiosity.

Improved Design Overlay. An Overlay which allows the user to see the components of tattoo,s including potential designs, existing designs, transfer potential, and design modification options.

"Interesting," he said.

Tanya froze for a moment before looking up at Sebastian. He'd definitely heard it. The idea that he now knew part of her Interface was very strange.

No harm in it now.

She looked at Sebastian's Exhibit Projection. There wasn't much information attached to it, she supposed, because it was neither a material nor related to tattoos in any way, but she found the tattoo ideas it inspired interesting. It seemed to suggest she could make a tattoo capable of doing this, which could circumvent the need for Pacts—something more like Olena's cannon.

Sebastian adjusted his sleeve again, holding it out.

"I see that design modification options are one of its uses. What can you do?"

Tanya glanced down at the tattoo with the idea of modification in mind and was bombarded with options. The Overlay began by suggesting ways of expanding it, but soon after seemed to be trying to find a way to erase parts of the Design in order to make more extensive changes.

Tanya blinked over and over, trying to lessen the eye strain it was causing, but even when she shut her eyes, she could see its afterimage on her eyelids.

"I can change most elements of it," Tanya said. She looked at it again, then shut her eyes, then looked a third time. Each time it became less overwhelming. "The more you want modifications to what it can already do, the riskier it will be to do." She furrowed her brows. "But the more you want to intentionally keep its current capabilities, the more Attributes it will drain."

"Similar to the Pacts then," Sebastian said, offhand.

"In what way?" Tanya asked.

"No comment," he replied.

Tanya's mouth set into a firm line. If that's how they were going to play this, then two could play at that game.

Tanya wondered if he was reading her mind. She assumed he couldn't without flagging the Ability. She hoped that meant he just wouldn't.

"If you lost the Ability it currently has, would you be disappointed?" she asked.

Sebastian pondered. "Yes but not greatly, as long as it did what I wanted it to."

"Which is to see people's Pacts without them sharing them intentionally?"

"Precisely."

Tanya squirmed under the request. She hadn't thought about what it truly meant until now. She was giving this scumbag yet another way to spy on people. If she was a better person, maybe she'd refuse on principle, but even without looking, she could picture the desperation in Ishita's eyes.

She wanted this too much.

"Ours first," Tanya insisted.

"Understandable due to the risk of mine," Sebastian said. "But I should be able to do this during the tattoo for time efficiency," he said

"You are sure?" Tanya asked, eying him suspiciously.

"Am I correct in assuming that your process will only take my Vitality?"

"Actively, yeah. People generally drop in other areas too from the pain an' exhaustion stuff too, though."

"Then yes," he said. "I'm sure."

It wasn't like he could lie.

"Do you want me to push to keep its current functionality or just focus on the edits and let this do what it wants?" Tanya asked.

"How risky would it be to have both?"

Tanya studied the Improved Design Overlay. The more she looked, the more red exclamation mark boxes appeared.

She weighed it up. "I don't know your Attributes. My answer depends on them."

It was true, but also a lovely coincidence that it shared more information with Tanya for free.

Sebastian changed the Exhibit Projection to his Attributes. The information around it was hazed out, dark enough she could tell words were there, but blurry enough she couldn't read them.

• • •

Attributes

Strength: 18/18

Dexterity: 26/28

Vitality: 13/13

Concentration: 14/23

Will: 42/56

• • •

If Mrs Eceer was here, she could get a better understanding of his Level. She bet from this that he had a Subclass already, but she wasn't as sure how they related to each other.

"If an ally of mine was here, I could give you a more detailed idea of how risky things were," Tanya said.

"What's her Class?"

"No comment."

Sebastian's gaze hardened. "Tsk, tsk. Would you allow someone to join without information?"

Tanya relented. "Bunker Wizard."

He looked surprised. "That isn't very System related. Are you sure she would be useful?"

Tanya wondered if the response would get stuck in her throat, but it didn't. She felt sure. "Yes."

"But that isn't the only reason you would want her here, is it?"

Tanya paused. "No."

"What is the main reason you would want her here?"

Tanya considered another 'no comment', but supposed it wasn't very out there information. "She has the best understanding of the System of everyone I know, so she'd figure out stuff about you that I couldn't."

Sebastian tensed his face, stuck in some impossible decision Tanya couldn't understand.

"What's her name?" he asked.

"No comment."

Thought Subpoena. An Ability which allows the user to see surface level thoughts for a limited time. Drains Will.

"Petunia Eceer. An old lady and your neighbour, hm," Sebastian said.

Tanya smirked. He may have Mrs Eceer's name but she could tell more about how he'd been doing it now. He'd been reading her thoughts typically after questions, that was because he wasn't able to determine the truth of what she thought, or probe into them, just see what she was actively thinking. She could work with that.

"What level is this Petunia Eceer?" Sebastian asked.

Thought Subpoena.

Tanya recited 'no comment' in her head.

"Does she understand the intentions of the aliens yet?"

Thought Subpoena.

For a moment, the question caught her off guard, then she focused on the 'no comment' again.

Sebastian smirked. "Do you know why the aliens are stealing bodies rather than killing us?"

Thought Subpoena.

It didn't work twice. Tanya's control over her thoughts didn't waver.

"You got that quick," Sebastian said to Tanya. He turned to Ishita. "But not as quick as her."

Tanya smiled at Ishita. She smiled back.

"So how risky is each option in your opinion?" Sebastian asked. "This Petunia intrigues me, but not enough to complicate matters today. I will have to trust your judgment."

Tanya noted the 'have to.'

• • • • • • • • •

After a while of circling around options, they settled on the least risky. If Sebastian had been a high Vitality person, Tanya would have considered otherwise, but levelling it being harder was better than him dying—for him anyway. Tanya wasn't sure what she thought of Sebastian's existence.

On the one hand, he was a scumbag taking advantage of people's suffering. On the other hand, he was pretty much the only person Tanya had met in the apocalypse, helping strangers on this large a scale.

She had a long time to consider it, finalising the design, cleaning her gear. This Pact she'd signed was there to guarantee she gave Sebastian the best work she could, and she wasn't going to give it a millimetre of uncertainty in that.

Sebastian had made it clear that as long as it wasn't ridiculous looking, he valued use over aesthetics, so rather than showing him versions of the design, she instead read out potential Abilities that came up as she made different tweaks.

Again, they spoke for a while before returning to a more original option.

Her main focus would be seeing Pacts, followed by low Vitality drain. She integrated more and more law components into her later designs, as she tried to capture this idea better than her original squiggled words in the lenses had. Even going so far as to make the words in the glasses real words from the contract they had just signed for this. It felt fitting.

The final design had a subtle gavel design along the arms and the subtle flicker of one of Sebastian's deepset eyes behind the reflected contract.

She showed it to him, and he nodded, taking the page from her with care and studying it deeply.

"This is the one that changed the name to Solicitor over esquire, yes?"

"Yeah. Remember that this one did have a couple changes. It's a bit riskier than we originally talked about."

"Scope creep," Sebastian asked, shrugging. She couldn't see any fear on his face.

Ishita looked between Tanya and Sebastian. "I just want to make this clear. You will likely die at least once from this, that's right, isn't it, Tanya?"

"And then you'll bring me back," Sebastian said. He reached over to a mobile phone on his desk, pulling it into the truth circle around them. Tanya had almost forgotten how it was changing her vision until she watched Sebastian's hand leave and look normal on the other side. It was like a glitch in her vision, watching the line like a light reflection between a normal hand and the slightly glowing illumination within.

"If I am still dying after the third resurrection, one of you say Code Black into this." He passed it to Ishita, and Tanya leaned over to look too.

It looked like a normal Apple smartphone, but the screen was completely blue with a rippling texture across it. The ripples increased whenever one of them spoke.

"Not performing this would be a breach of the contract," Sebastian said. He recited a section without blinking. "Any act or omission undertaken to cause harm, or with knowledge that harm is substantially certain to occur, shall constitute intentional breach of this Agreement."

Tanya nodded. "Just speak into it, yeah?"

"Yes. Is there anything else you need to know?"

"Our Pact breaking?" Ishita said.

"Modification," he corrected. "I will make sure it happens before the completion of the tattoo. That is when the most risk is apparent, yes?"

"Yeah," Tanya affirmed.

Sebastian adjusted his chair back, arm stretched out on the desk, the picture of control. "Are you ready?"

Tanya raised an eyebrow, turning on the tattoo gun. "That's normally my line."

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