Play 2 Wage: Linked

A few hours later, I was jolted awake by a knock on my door. Forgetting where I was, I stretched and pushed against the covers, grumbling about not getting enough sleep. When I tried to roll out of bed, only to be met with more bed, I opened my eyes and remembered where I was.

As soon as my bare feet hit the soft carpet, the lamps around the room flicked on, casting warm lighting around the edges of the darkly furnished room. The knock sounded again, and I heard the door crack open before Ali poked her head into the room. I could hear muffled raised voices too dampened to understand in the background as she spoke.

“Your security detail is here. You should calm them before I have to disable the large one.” She glanced at me for just a second, then averted her eyes. “They are admirably worried for you.”

She retreated and shut the door quietly behind her, entirely blocking out the ruckus Tevin was making in the other room. I groaned and stood, looking around for something to wear other than the shorts I had pulled back on after my shower. Not spotting anything other than the massive blanket, and not feeling like searching through the unfamiliar clothes in the closet, I padded across the room and out into the hall.

When I opened the door and stepped through, Tevin’s voice was clear from within the dark hallway, and I hurried to defuse the situation. “Listen here, Suit! I’m not going to believe you until I see him, and if you think a couple of rounds from that little side arm is going to stop me before I get my hands on you, you’re about-”

When I emerged from the open doorway and turned into the kitchen, I saw Dalls standing in the center of the room between the front door and the entrance to the hallway, holding Tevin at gunpoint. He held the gun down low by his waist with his elbow tucked in, while Rin stood back, just inside the doorway, glaring at the prim man.

“Dalls! That better be a taser. Tevin is my friend, and my primary bodyguard. Stand down!” I stormed into the room, and Dalls quickly pointed his weapon at the floor.

He turned to me and gave a shallow bow at the waist as he holstered the weapon into his waistband. “These two managed to breach the doors security and barge in without permission. I understand they are your friends and your security detail, but entering your private rooms without permission is not-”

I cut him off, “Quiet, Dalls. I get it.” I wiped my hand over my face, groaning, then Tevin crossed the last few steps, shouldering Dalls out of the way, and swept me up into a bearhug and tried to crush my ribcage, pinning my arms to my side.

“Nick! I’m so glad you’re alright, I thought they black-bagged you! Then we got shoved into a truck and brought to this fancy pants place. They locked us in this sweet ass apartment, but we managed to-”

I frantically tapped on his arm, grunting, “Damnit Tev, put me down, put me down, you’re gonna break something.”

He set me onto my feet and beamed at me, holding me by the shoulders. I saw Ali had come up right behind him in a ready pose, something small and matte black in her hand, which she quickly hid away before stepping back.

I glanced at her and shook my head, then reached over and pushed Tevin’s shoulder, with a bit of a laugh. “That's your new sweet ass apartment, by the way. Didn’t they tell you that? They took me to see the City Director. Turns out the deal with the Dwarves went through, I negotiated the new place as part of a deal to stay local.”

Rin skirted around Dalls and walked over to form a triangle between us. I looked over at him, noticing especially deep hollow bags under his dark eyes, partially hidden behind his fringe of shaggy blonde hair.

“You obviously have not been paying attention to how they internally handle security personnel. Why waste an admin to tell us why the orders say what they say, when they can just give the orders?” He said as he stared at me.

I rubbed at my temples for a moment, closing my eyes and sighing. “I guess not. See if you can figure out who made that call at some point, would you? They should have known you two wouldn’t just sit on your ass. How’d you know I was in here if they didn't tell you anything, anyways?”

A trace of a smile pulled at one corner of Rin’s mouth, and he looked pointedly away. “They gave us a network connection. I did not risk breaking into any of the private camera feeds in the apartments, but the hallways are technically public space, therefore technically within my license.” Tevin laughed and grinned, shooting a look over at Dalls, who waited where he had been standing the whole time.

Rin continued, “We saw the CLE bring you in here a few hours ago on the footage, and that you did not come out. Tevin threatened to never call me anything but Bro if I didn’t get us in here, so…” we both looked back over at Tev, who was still smiling and nodding.

“Yeah, I meant it too. Your safety is my top priority, and I needed to confirm that you were secure. It’s my primary assignment, and they pulled me out of the ranks of herders for a reason: initiative. I figure they should’a expected something like this, and that's on them.” Tevin and I laughed, Rin rolled his eyes, and I noticed Ali and Dalls move around the far side of the kitchen island and start opening cabinets and pulling out containers and boxes as they began preparing something.

I asked my old roommates, “Did they pack up my stuff too? I left my knife somewhere at home, and there's some other old stuff that was in my room. I'll be pissed if they didn't bring it all.”

Tevin was busy watching the two house staff as they began to cook breakfast, the sound of a grinder buzzing from the kitchen area.

Rin was watching them too, but was the one who replied. “Yeah, they brought in a shipping truck and packed everything into it, stripped the whole place down. Most of it is pretty much trash at a place like this, but all of the trackers on my stuff say it's already in this building a few floors down.” He paused for a moment, watching Dalls and Ali in the kitchen.

“Never mind that though, who are they? I have not received any info on new additions to your security roster.” He finished.

I shrugged, glancing at Tev as he stared daggers at the two. “I guess they’re part of my new Retinue. Katie introduced Dalls, the serious dude, as my Seneschal. I guess he's an ex-admin type who worked for the ISL, and for one of the Council members. The girl is an ex proxy-op turned chef who is supposed to be my ‘Attendant’. I thought you two were going to be rolled into it as well, but maybe it hasn't come through yet. Katie seems to have some big plans of her own that she’s pinned onto me.”

Rin huffed out a breath in a single laugh. “Hah, Retinue? Seneschal? You realize those are the trappings of Nobility, right? Big plans indeed.”

I looked down, shrugging, and once again was reminded I was standing there in nothing but my shorts. “I do. Ali, the girl, mentioned my new title is ‘Diplomat-Consul’. I haven't had a chance to review the confirms or anything yet.”

Tevin grumbled something about eggs, and I glanced over at him. He was still angrily watching the two house staff in the kitchen as the smell of coffee started to fill the large open room.

I punched Tevin in the upper arm to get his attention. “Hey, play nice with them, alright? We’re all on the same team, if you wanna go help cook, you can. At least one of them has some training at it, maybe you’ll learn something.” I looked back and forth between them before I continued. “I’ma go try out some of the clothes they picked out for me, you two can hang around and try to smooth things over with them. Then I wanna check out the private Links these places are supposed to have. Your place is supposed to have one too.”

Tevin looked back to me and nodded, “Three four”.

I blinked in confusion. “What?”

Rin sighed defeatedly and walked away from us, headed towards the mugs that Ali had set on the kitchen island and started to fill with steaming coffee. “One too three four. Tevin has the humor of a 12 year old.”

Tevin laughed and walked off to grab a mug as well. I just groaned again and walked back to the hallway to find something to wear.

Everything in the closet felt ridiculous to me. Business suits, stiff and fancifully embroidered outer coats with gold or silver clasps, sleek designer button ups with pressed collars and built in shoulder pads. It all looked expensive, fashionable, and totally outside of anything I’d ever worn or even wanted to wear.

I eventually settled on the plainest of the suits, a black set of slacks with a light gray pressed shirt and a black jacket, with a subtle embroidered pattern also in black that was difficult to see from a distance. One of the lapels on the front was trimmed with golden thread with a portion of the pattern outlined as an accent. I longed for a hoodie, but it was the closest thing to my normal non-descript sensibilities that I could find. I couldn't find anything but shiny dress shoes, so I pulled on a pair, wishing I had grabbed my mag-boots and reminding myself to grab them from the load of stuff from the old apartment at some point.

Tevin started uncontrollably laughing as soon as he saw me when I returned to the kitchen, dropping the pan he was stirring to slap at the counter as he buckled onto it. Ali quickly took over at the cooktop set into the island, glaring at the big man as she pushed him out of the way.

Rin was the first to actually speak up. “Much better, Consul. You almost look the part.”

I noticed Dalls was still standing stiffly, looking at me as if he wanted to say something, so I looked to him as I walked up and claimed my own coffee mug. “Anything to say, Mr. Dalls?”

He quietly answered, his face a mask as he stood stiffly to the side of the island and supervised the activity. “Very dignified, sir.”

Rin spoke up again, as monotone as always. “He’s been sulking since you told him to be quiet. Hasn't said a thing or answered any questions since you left.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Is this true?” He nodded in reply, the corners of his mouth turning downwards. “You should make an effort, Koryn. I - and by extension - you, will be working closely with these two while you are all members of my team, or retinue, or whatever.”

I looked over the man, wondering how I could get him to realize he was the one out of place within our group. “How about you look into why they were unaware of the title change, and into their skills and the history of our little group? You’re supposed to be the router that everyone goes through, right? To do your job correctly, you should know what everyone is capable of.”

He nodded, his face unchanging. “Very well, sir.” He then walked to the corner of the room. To my surprise, he opened a panel in the wall next to the fridge, and stepped through before it silently closed behind him.

I blinked after him, then turned to Ali with a questioning look. She was already watching me and answered immediately. “There is a staff corridor that leads to our rooms. It loops around to the last door on the right in the hallway.”

Tevin was starting to recover from his fit of laughter, and broke into the conversation. “You look like a fancy penguin. Didn't you say you’d rather shave your eyebrows than put on a collared shirt again?”

“I like this idea, who needs eyebrows anyways? You all would look much better without all that fuzz you grow from your heads.”

The mental image of Max’s stick-figure appearance surfaced in my thoughts, with him rubbing his nubby arms over his perfectly round, smooth, and featureless head.

I coughed into my coffee, nearly causing it to splatter over the new outfit I had just donned. I put the coffee down and glared at Tevin. Unable to do more than direct angry thoughts at Max, I fired back at Tevin. “I’ll shave my eyebrows if you grow out your beard again, patches.”

He frowned and began to edge his way back into the cooking process that Ali had taken over entirely. He stirred a pan of slowly frying potato cubes while she poured beaten eggs into a pan filled with sauteed somethings, I couldn't quite tell what was in it other than onions. “Not cool man, you know my beard sucks, no need to rub it in. I was just joking,” he replied.

I softened and leaned onto the counter, trying to get a better look at what was in the pan. “You started it.” I grumbled under my breath.

Rin looked at Alianora, “Children. We’ve been assigned to children.”

She did not reply, and just looked down at the pan she was slowly stirring as the eggs came together.

“So, what are you making, anyways?” I chimed in.

“I was made aware that one of your favorite foods is breakfast burritos, so I secured the ingredients to make them, sir.” She stated, focused on her work.

I perked back up and smiled, grabbing my coffee again. “Excellent. Thank you, Ali.”

Tevin broke back into the conversation, starting to scoop the crispy fried potatoes out of the oil. “She even got a tortilla press and everything. This place is stacked, it has every gadget, pot, pan, and knife that a pro chef could ever ask for. Ours was almost empty.” He glanced over at the dark haired woman jealously.

“I’ll see if I can shake the credits out from Katie to help out with that, she seemed pretty hesitant to just hand over cash though. I might just have to foot the bill for myself.” I sipped my coffee, and a new thought occurred to me. “Speaking of credits, what are they paying you all for this anyways? You’re supposed to be my team, but I haven't heard anything about where the funds are coming from.”

Rin answered after finishing his coffee, “I can’t speak for the house staff, but Tev and I are still being paid our contract wages and collecting hazard and performance bonuses when applicable. They are tied to your performance as judged by the overseers now, so I hope you don’t blow it with the beetles.”

Ali nodded and added, “Mr. Dalls and myself are also still on the City payroll, no bonuses for us though, just a salary.”

Tevin grumbled, “Should give us a hazard bonus for that bogus search this morning.” as he sprinkled a seasoning mix onto the potatoes and shook them around in a mesh bowl.

I looked to Rin again, “Actually, I got the impression that the Director was not too happy about how that went down. After breakfast, I wanna get into the Hub and meet up with my new Clan, could you also look into that agent that brought us in, Rin?”

He nodded from the other side of the island where he was busy pouring himself a second cup of coffee. “Yeah, no problem. Do you remember his name?”

I thought for a moment, then shook my head, watching as Ali started to lay out plates and assemble the food. She even brought out a bottle of hot sauce, and I looked at her in a whole new light.

“No, I don’t. I’m sure that won’t stop you though. That looks amazing.” I grabbed the first readied plate, and the bottle of sauce, reading the label and nodding in approval before dousing the scramble with it and wrapping it all together.

I lost focus on everything else as we all dug into our food. I had to insist that Ali make one for herself and join us, which she only did so reluctantly.