open to: anyone location: the hallways, IT, depending on where you stop him

The blackout was weird and hit them completely out of the blue. Something Jax had never expected to see happen. Not at The Circle. But what made matters worse – weirder were all their backups failing. Confused whispers went through the party goers, soon turning into concern the longer they stood in darkness.

Using his phone lights for guidance, Jax excused himself from the colleagues he’d been talking to. Now, he technically wasn’t IT but curiosity to find out what really happened had him jogging down the halls to ITs office. He didn’t want to wait before they were given some bullshit excuse playing down the significance of the power failure to try and weather not only people’s concerns but the resulting PR storm as well.

Nye had helped illuminate the area with the flashlight on his phone, as many others were, but the space was open enough that it didn’t entirely make up for the lack of lights. Nye had just about no idea what to do. Being a digital artist, this wasn’t exactly something he had any involvement in. His only concern was if he could charge his tablet that he drew on, but he didn’t need that now.

Or, did he? Maybe the situation that they now found themselves in did spark a few ideas. Nye ambled down the hallway, shining his flashlight somewhat toward those he passed in search of familiar faces. When he spotted someone he was fairly certain he recognized, he addressed them. “Any idea what all this is about?”

preston smile, and her head shook as laughter slipped between her lips. nye always for the dramatics. and she loved him for it. “ maybe even better. ’ she challenged, a smiled painted on her expression.

nye was the only person who knew preston to the core. for a multitude of reasons. he was also her favorite person ever to have existed, which wasn’t an understatement. “ honestly nye, i don’t think coffee is cutting it anymore. ’

Nye flipped his journal open to the marked page, where he had been working on a sketch for a future logo of some sort. It was evident that he had erased a handful of times. “It’s not cutting it for me either, if that helps.”

“Never really did.” He continued, but was sure she knew that, though. And the lengths he often went to sometimes. He drew a total of two lines in the journal, before rubbing his eyes, and ultimately closing the journal again. “Did you want to just head back home?”

“Not that I’ve ever seen,” Victory murmured.

Their gaze moved back to Nye, and then to try to see what the hell the rest of the people around were doing. By now, the back-ups for the back-ups should have kicked in. Something was seriously wrong. “For a tech company you’d think we would be prepared for this.”

A pit sunk in their stomach, and Victory wasn’t entirely sure how to react. Maybe this was all a sick prank or something by the higher-ups, to see how folks would respond to a crisis. Mostly everyone stood still in confusion, probably just as stunned as they were about how this could have happened.

Nye’s hand lingered on theirs, as a means of knowing that they were still there, or maybe... something else. But, he let his arm fall back to his side after a few moments. “I... guess I thought they were prepared for this.” he commented, in a hushed tone that suggested that the situation made his nervous. Like, he wondered if this wasn’t just simply a blackout. Maybe there was more to it than they realized.

He pulled his phone from his pocket, and used his flashlight to illuminate the area. Hardly. Some others were doing the same, though, and it made somewhat of a difference with all of the various lights combined. “What do we do?”

Victory rolled their eyes at Nye as he tried to explain himself. It was uncanny how alike Preston and Nye were. “Dude,” they said, shaking their head. 

“Anyway, this is nicer than what they usually do for events.”

They nodded toward the spread of food and the decor; it was all a bit overwhelming. But they were hungry and didn’t want to wait for food, so here they landed. Victory was about to speak again but their thought process was interrupted by the abrupt loss of light and music. 

“What the fuck,” they mumbled, putting a hand on Nye’s shoulder to keep him near.

It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the dark, but once they did they slowly but surely pieced together – the backups were failing. The nature of their job was to deal with this kind of potential, but they never thought of it happening for real.

Nye looked around the room again, as if he hadn’t noticed the decorations before that moment. “This is the first I’ve been to, so they could’ve fooled me,” Nye admitted, with a one shouldered shrug. 

Now that his attention had been brought back to the food laid out before them, he moved to make a step toward it, figuring that they would follow or at least stay close enough for them to continuing talking. But, just as Nye lifted his foot off the floor, the room went dark. Nye felt a hand grip his shoulder and could only assume it was Victory’s. He responded ny reaching back for them, partially because he didn’t know what else to do, and instinctively wanted to reassure them in some way. Nye’s hand ended up covering theirs, both on top of his shoulder still.

“I assume this has never happened before?”

      event no. one starter.    loc: the dorms.

god, amber hated liquor with a burning passion, but she needed some desperately. she was mostly wondering how the hell she got herself into this in the first place, then she was wondering how the hell her parents had let her. she chugged half the bottle of bailey’s before heading towards the bathroom with her stuff. beginning to unpack her toiletries, she thought she heard a knock at the front door. “hello?’ she called out. “if you’re not one of my dorm mates, get the hell out of here before i call security.”

Nye furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes focused on the numbers on the dormitory door... or rather, trying to focus on them. “Preston?” he questioned through the door, unable to distinguish the voice from afar. He sat down on the floor, his back against the doorframe. “I mean no harm, this place is basically a fucking maze.”

lock-in: event thread.

god how i’d much rather be home - — dorm completely to myself, take a bubble bath, with a candle, and a good book. there was a faint smile painted on her lips as she leaned against the bar, glass of rose in hand. she wasn’t even sure what she was staring at. she shook her head, shaking herself out of the cloud she was in and painted on a brighter smile as steps approached her. “ so, what do you think? they really went all out, huh? ’

Nye squinted at the glass of Jack and Coke in his hand, his shoulders lifting brief in a shrug. “I guess.” Nye took a sip. “Not much alcohol in this... or any of the drinks.” It wasn’t his first, as foretold by his prior statement, and the slight slur of his speech.

Location: Cafeteria in the dorms Event thread.

They’d decided to emerge from their self-imposed protest of the Lock-In Event because free food was free food, regardless of why it was happening. It was 11pm, past the time the offices were closed, so more people were there than they expected to be. They eyed the spread of available food, buffet-style catering offering dinner still. “What d’you think?” they asked the person they’d approached.

He had been standing in the same spot, seemingly staring at a metal tin of mac and cheese, for several minutes; but his eyes were glazed over and vacant. Until their voice cut through the haze. “Huh?” Nye’s eyes flitted from the buffet table to them. “I was, uh-” he gestured around himself vaguely, in a way that offered no actual explanation- “I didn’t hear you.”

They leaned over the counter to see what pulled up on the computer screen, and sure enough… “There are two reasons this message could be popping up,” Victory started, handing Nye back his tablet.

“One, you’re using unverified software. Two, you’re using verified software, but forgot to uninstall the torrented one you had on it before.”

“Two,” he said, not to cover his ass, but because it was true. “A guy has to get his start somehow, right?” Sure, he could’ve afforded it if he wasn’t so busy trying to drown his woes- but that wasn’t the point. “I think I can figure it out from here, the installation and all that. Thank you.”

her lips curled into a smile at his obvious disgust in her choice this time around. ❝ i went with their strong roast, no creamer, no sugar. ❜ she shrugged, an airy laugh slipping between her lips. she spoke below her breath now, in a hushed tone. ❝ i have a deadline, and i have… no idea what to write… so it looks like another all nighter… ❜ there was more question in her tone then certainty, and the smile that lay upon her face now was hardly a believable one.

“I imagine that if, for some reason, you decided to drink the mysterious liquid from the bottom of a trash can-” Nye pointed to the cup of coffee- “it would taste a lot like that.”

Nye nodded, he understood the seemingly unending pressure to produce. He tended to barely meet most deadlines, and was rarely proud of whatever design he sent out. There were a few, however, that he showed off afterwards. “Anything I can do to help? Get you some coffee that doesn’t taste like garbage water?”

anxious fingers tapped quickly on the edge of the table. she could hardly process whatever it was her mother was spewing at her over the phone, not that she was trying very hard to concentrate on it at all. her inner monologue was almost a constant chorus of ‘please, release me, mother.’ that woman could talk a wall to death.

colette’s tired eyes closed a little too long, inhaling deeply and exhaling very sharply. “yes, mom, i’m fine. still fine. you don’t have to check in with me every twelve hours. i’ll call you tomorrow, okay? okay.” she nodded out of habit in response to the other side of the line and shut off the call. “gotta love a maternal migraine. sorry.”

Nye was leaning against the wall, his eyes focused on the overworked pair of Vans he wore on his feet. He tuned the conversation out, for the most part. But, the word “mom” echoed in his subconscious. He tried to disregard the pang of sadness. He thought about searching his bag for a miscellaneous pill, and excusing it as Tylenol, but didn’t want to risk her asking for some too. “Get over it.” he mumbled to himself, as if it were that simple, quiet enough that he was sure she wouldn’t hear.

He wished he could relate, but said nothing about it. He didn’t want to make her feel guilty, because she had nothing to be guilty for. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, with a small smile. “I was just stopping in to say hi.”

“Look, dude, if I’m about to stumble into some baby genius hentai by fixing this, you gotta warn me,” Victory cautioned, keeping it together for just moments before laughing. “Okay, okay, let’s see…”

They tapped around, pulling up a few apps only to have them crash. Most Circle apps didn’t pull errors, but once they opened a third party app they finally caught an error number. “See the computer right there?” they asked, nodding toward the help desk laptop.

( Truth be told, it’d be weirder if he hadn’t noticed the laptop. Someone made a cute little “IT HELPDESK ASSISTANT” chat bubble out of neon paper for it, held up by an empty mechanical pencil taped to the back of the paper and the back of the laptop. ) “Type this error number into the portal: e-as-in-elephant one-five-six-two-two.”

In a feeble attempt to stifle a laugh, Nye snorted quietly. “Just a bunch of artsy bullshit, no worries.” he assured them with a wave of his hand. Revealing, nonetheless, but in an emotional sort of way. He didn’t often draw anything overtly sexual.

Nye did as instructed, standing over the chair at the desk, rather than actually sitting. It seemed somewhat presumptuous, as if he knew that the issue at hand was easily fixed and therefore he wouldn’t be at the desk for long enough to bother sitting down. He had no idea, though. E15622, he typed as the numbers were recited to him. The resulting information was virtually meaningless to him, unfortunately. “Okay... what now?”

“You look like you aren’t old enough to have a job in the state of New Mexico, but here you are,” Victory teased.

 “Okay, so what’s wrong with it?”

“This is no laughing matter, building my fake identity just so I could have my dream job here at the Circle was hard work." He raised his eyebrows. “Took just as long as getting a degree in graphic design might.”

While the hours could vary, namely some work days were much longer than others when something desperate popped up or meetings went on for longer than expected, being able to walk out of the main office was always a relief. Richie liked his work, for the most part, but he also liked taking breaks when they were well deserved. 

The day had been particularly long, a lot of discussion around developments in taking Circle products and providing them in educational settings, namely in communities lacking in funding. It was a project Richie was extremely passionate about, hence the late hours he’d agreed to work that day. He was more than ready for a drink and moment to relax by the time he was walking out from the building.

Nye had made a handful of friends since working at the Circle. Actually, if he were being completely honest, he made maybe two or three friends. But, they had a handful other friends, all of which Nye typically went out with after work. 

They were all ready to leave work at six, but Nye was still hunched over a sketchpad with paintbrush in hand. Acrylic smudged across his skin. “I’ll be ready in a few minutes,” he called out to them, so focused he hadn’t noticed that their chatter dwindled out into nothing. Nye held the sketchpad open in his hand when he finally exited the office, intending to allow the paint to dry in the Uber on the way to the bar. “Sorry, guys, I’m-”

Nye’s words fell off, the entryway was barren, aside from one somewhat familiar face. Nye had seen him around, but not often enough to know his name. Apparently, they’d left without him. Friends. He silently questioned the meaning of the word. “Uh, hey.”

“It’s better than only saying you broke something,” they replied, relaxing their posture.

Victory hadn’t seen this one around before; must’ve been new. Subtly giving the other the once-over, they shrugged. They took the tablet into their hands, acrylic tips clacking lightly on the screen as they checked out exactly what was going on with his Circlet. “I don’t care what you do in your spare time, my job is just to fix things” they started. “But - before I ask what’s wrong with it - have you tried turning it off and then back on again?”

The tablet that Nye now released into the hands of Victory was one of few things of value that he had to his name. It was his livelihood. His stomach was in knots at the thought of it being irreparable. It was reminiscent of when Kat destroyed his computer... granted, she had bought it. Some may say it was hers to ruin. Too bad it also ruined him, all because he wouldn’t be hers.

Nye sighed, thoughtlessly. His eyes lifted to Victory and smiled gently. He trusted them to figure it out. “Do I really look that clueless? Yes, I tried that.”