Oh. Great. Okay. Talking.

"Hello!" she says, cheery. "I was told to chat with you for a bit for inspiration for a new invention?"

"You a new hire? They're hiring just about anyone these days, huh. Well, sure, I can tell you what to invent."

On one hand: rude. On the other hand: there was literally no hiring process, she basically just got this job because she wanted it, so objectively speaking they actually are hiring anyone these days. Not that she likes the implications about herself. Grumble.

"That would be great, thank you."

"Well I had this idea for a little doodad that you could spin and it would keep spinning. I call it... the momentum conserver. Pretty neat, huh? Why don't you invent that?"

"Would it just keep spinning..... endlessly? Forever?" confirms Yvette, slowly, even though she feels that this should... not be a thing.... that can exist. Because of physics. Outside of a vacuum, anyway. Possibly that's the trick of it?

"Yes."

......

"Neat. Yeah, I'll give it a shot."

This is insane and makes no sense, but, sure, maybe she can go casually make a thing that breaks physics on her first day as a lab technician. Very logical.

The machine provides her with a neat and intuitive holographic interface to try to design stuff and test it out in simulation!

The interface is neat, and she does genuinely have fun playing with it, but frankly the task seems impossible. Also, pretty pointless? It's hard for her to care about this dumb task when it feels so... divorced from reality. After an hour of making random spinning junk, she gets frustrated and returns to the Invention Constructor for some kind of guidance.

"Hi, could you perhaps... expand on your idea? Explain how it would work?"

She can't quite keep the frustration from her voice, because she feels like she's been given a snipe hunt.

"Well if I knew that I wouldn't need you, now, would I?" it explains slowly, voice dripping with sarcasm. "No one programmed 'creativity' into me."

It is very tempting to ask, 'Then what, exactly, do you do to contribute, actually?' but she doesn't think that will get her anywhere useful.

"Right," she sighs, and she leaves to instead go ask Eleanor if she can just... make stuff... instead of following the directions of the condescending artificial intelligence.

"Do I... need to follow inspiration from the Invention Constructor for making stuff?" she asks, a little plaintively.

"Hmm? No, of course not, why?"

"It has given me what seems like an impossible task, without direction as to... how to make it."

"It does that sometimes," says another co-worker of hers, nodding understandingly.

"Why... is it around, then?"

"Oh it can fabricate whatever you design."

"Ohhhhh. Okay, yeah, that makes it worth putting up with an asshole," she sighs, and then she can traipse back to designing stuff to see if there's anything sensible that she can design in what's left of the dwindling workday.

Unfortunately despite the robot's cajoling she does not come up with anything by the time her shift is over.

"Good work today," says her boss, staring intently into his screen. "You're promoted."

..... It's ... been a single day???

Possibly 'lab technician' is a euphemism for 'intern,' and they decided to actually hire her properly???

"Oh. Thank you," she says, blinking with surprise. "Uh. Are my hours the same?"

"Yup. You're making 32 per hour now."

"Good job, sweetie," says Eleanor as she walks past.

"Thank you," she says, a little bit in a daze. "Uh, see you tomorrow."

And then she'll... go home, she guesses???

Yup! Here's home.

Okay. Home.

She closes the door behind her, carefully inspects her house for any changes while she was gone (there aren't any, as far as she can tell), and then takes a deep breath and looks upwards, vaguely.

"Am I in a simulation?" she asks the ceiling.