Maria, haunted by triumph.

Things were going great for Maria.

She had been struggling at work for weeks, but suddenly everything seemed to just click into place. She pulled into a space at the far end of the parking lot, grinning at the prospect of walking across the sweltering heat to arrive at the office sweaty and late. She'd overslept, fortunately, and lucked out when she encountered a major traffic jam on the way to work.

"Good morning!" she said chipperly to receptionist, who looked puzzled at her high spirits. She strode into her office, where her officemate Adam was sitting at his workstation with a mischievous grin.

"Hey Maria," he said. "How's your day been so far?"

"Fantastic!" she replied. "Everything's been great. Today must be my lucky day!"

"Yeah?" he asked. He was smiling like he was in on some joke or secret that nobody else knew. "What's been so great?"

"Well, let's see," she said. "I overslept, just like I wanted, and I got to eat instant oatmeal for breakfast. It took me a while to find my shoes and then I hit traffic on the way in. I even got to walk all the way across the parking lot!"

"You do look pretty sweaty," he commented. It was music to Maria's ears.

"Thanks! Man, I don't know how, but this day just keeps getting better!"

She sat down at her computer and opened her email client. When she read the first subject line she fist pumped, drawing Adam's attention. He read over her shoulder.

"They're asking you to recompile your research on Uthra visitations?" he asked incredulously. She spun in her chair with a smug grin.

"That's right!" Maria said. "I'm starting to think one of the fortune engineers has a crush on me or something. How else can you explain this run of good luck?"

Adam suddenly looked guilty. "Maria, that stupid report ate up six months of your life. You fucking hated it!"

"I know!" she replied gleefully. "And now I get to do a bunch of it all over again!"

She turned back to her keyboard, ready to send a grateful response, when Adam cleared his throat. She spun back around to see him looking even guiltier. He was obviously trying to broach a difficult subject, so she gently encouraged him.

"Spit it out already! Some of us have research to do."

"Uh, Maria, I- we, uh, the phantasmatology department might have... well, we played a little prank on you." He averted his eyes from hers. "We wanted to, I don't know, just mess with your head a little. I think we might have overdone it..."

Her eyes gleamed and she leaned forward in her chair. "Yeah? What did you do?"

"Well, we kind of haunted you. We didn't think it would be a big deal, just a funny prank, but I think it's kind of got you screwed up. We, uh... we haunted you with triumph."

"Triumph?" Maria had very little experience with phantasmatology- she always said that Divinities were more interesting than a bunch of noisy spirits who didn't know when to go home. "You mean an NSH? Is that why everything's breaking my way today? That doesn't seem like much of a prank..."

Adam cleared his throat again. "No, this isn't a fortune thing. It's a perception thing. The joke was that you'd have a constant sense of winning and coming out on top, no matter what happened. I guess I- er, we didn't think it through. You're acting kind of crazy, Maria."

She snorted. "Is that what's got you acting all sulky? Even if your team did haunt me, it worked out perfectly! Everything has gone exactly how I want. How long does this haunting last?"

He still wouldn't make eye contact. "It was only supposed to be a week, but I think we might have gotten something wrong. It's way stronger than we intended. We should get you over to the lab to take some measurements, in case we need to manually exorcise the NSH."

Maria looked at him like he was an idiot. "Why would you exorcise it? This is shaping up to be the best day of my fucking life! If the whole week goes this way I'll probably be CEO by Wednesday afternoon!"

Before he could respond, a beautiful woman in a form-fitting tunic appeared at the door. "Good morning, Adam. Good morning, Maria," the floor golem said obsequiously. "Would you like any coffee, tea, or other beverages to start your day?"

Adam quickly dismissed her, but Maria waved her in. "Hey Galatea, get in here. Why do they give all of you huge tits and blonde hair?"

Galatea smiled politely. "The office golems are handcrafted for aesthetic appeal. Would you like a latte?"

"Fuckin' perverts," Maria said. "Is there anyone in Yetzirology you haven't blown yet?"

"I haven't engaged any of the employees in unprofessional contact. Doing so would require me to-"

"Nevermind," Maria said dismissively. "I'll take a latte and Adam will have the bitterest coffee you can make. Oh, and if any of the milks are expired add some of that for him."

Galatea nodded and left the room while Maria made a jerkoff motion. Adam stared at her in shock.

"What's gotten into you?" he asked. "You can't just treat company property like that!"

"I can do whatever I want," Maria said with a grin. "Thanks to your little prank, I literally can't lose!"