A ripple shuddered across the oil-slick surface of the coffee in the pot, the dispenser bleeding its’ last into the brew. Jenny shuddered right along with it. By some greater mercy or malice, there was just enough coffee left in the pot for one pitiful cup, enough for her to be able to leave the break room and start her day.

Jenny was hardly a star employee. In fact, despite her best efforts, Jenny was about as far from efficient as you could be in House Doras. An efficient employee would have known that ‘on time’ was no fewer than fifteen minutes before clock in and would have already forced in some pleasantries with her coworkers before having a day full of checking in and circling back. At the very least, an efficient employee would have been smart enough to get to work before the coffee went stale. Instead, Jenny was here wasting company time as she stood alone in the break room, hands in her pockets watching the coffee dispenser drip, drip, drip just out of sync with the clock above. Two empty vessels facing another fucking day in Avernus.

Normally Jenny wouldn’t have any qualms about taking the time to make a fresh pot- not as a workplace courtesy, of course, but simply because a good cup of coffee was necessary for her to cope with all the sycophantic try-hards that lurked the halls of House Doras. Today was the start of a new week though, it felt a little early to already dragging her feet. She tried to ignore the bitterness she felt rising at the back of her throat as she drained the remains of the pot into a white paper cup - no cream, no sugar, at least that much was efficient about her.

Jenny skulked down the cavernous marble halls of the Staffing Resources department with her cup in hand, stealing glances into each of the tinted glass offices as she went. Each was home to the menagerie of carefully refined Doras management, model employees that were all gleaming teeth and sharp edges. Jenny had never been to a zoo but she imagined the animals here were even more vicious than the animals they might have caged there.

By comparison, she was painfully out of place in these halls. Where so many of her coworkers were vying to stand out, it was almost like she was fading into the background. [describe jenny’s appearance]

At its’ best, ambition is the light that guides in the dark, the tide that lifts all ships. For those that are not careful though, ambition can turn- it can fester and fade into the darkness that smothers and consumes, it can swell like the waves that toss and crush. And Jenny had not been careful enough.

Sure she had been allowed to remain under the roof of House Doras, a great mercy indeed, but everyone knew that the Staffing department was an afterthought in the grand scheme of things. For gods’ sakes, Staffing employees weren’t even granted full lift access. Her transfer paperwork had listed her official reason for transfer as “internal restructuring,” but she knew it was little more than a petty punishment. Her time in a new department had long since corroded her enthusiasm for the work and to say that Jenny was in a bit of a rut was… something of an understatement.

Jenny shuffled to her desk in the middle of the floor and finally made to start her day. Like her, the desk was rather unremarkable in the cavernous common area. This was by design of course, as the less her workspace drew any attention, the less likely she would be to draw any ire. It was completely bare, save for her now half-empty coffee cup, a single standard notepad and pen, a company-issued phone, and her copper nameplate. Jendra [Lastname], D161648-SR4794. The dark letters etched on its surface swallowed the soft white light glinting through the veins in the stone ceiling high above.

As a bonus, a sparse desk meant clearing out would be that much faster when she finally made it out of this purgatory. Maybe they’d forget she had even been there at all.

Around her the rest of the department was already humming along in its usual rhythm. Incident reports flowed from the tips of finely sculpted arms and status updates spilled from behind carefully rehearsed smiles. Their voices bounced of the polished mausoleum walls of House Doras and settled around Jenny at her desk. Today they brought her whispers of something new finally trickling down from the higher halls of House Doras. Jenny pulled a well-used notepad out of a drawer and began making lists for the day as she listened.

“I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do drinks tomorrow night, Van, I’m slammed processing the paperwork for all these temp hires. I mean look at all this.” Exasperated, she waved to a stack of files already extending above the lip of the iron paper tray attempting to contain them all. “I’ll be lucky if I get through all of this before the end of the week.”

Alyona and Van were relatively new to the Staffing floor, at least compared to Jenny. Van had been hired on as part of a contract deal about eight months ago, Alyona not long after that. Ever since the two became quite a reliable fountainhead for office gossip. Jenny might almost be grateful for them, had she not found them to be insufferable lushes.

“It’s fine, we’ll probably have to reschedule anyway. Donovan was telling me at brunch yesterday that Materials has been running them ragged processing all these new samples. They said it’s getting harder to wash acid smell off their skin every night, they’re afraid it might be permanent if things don’t slow down.”

“Yikes, and I thought my ink stains were bad.” Alyona raised her left hand to show off the patches of skin that now held a faint blue tint. As Van inspected the damage, a squat yellow imp in a wool suit shuffled by with a mail cart bursting at the seams, depositing a thick bundle of papers into the already overflowing tray. Jenny thought for a second that a vein was about to burst in her forehead, but Alyona collected herself and went to work unpacking the files.

Jenny smirked from over the lip of her coffee cup as she watched. Materials, now there was a department worth paying attention to. In most Houses, Staffing Resources was the last bend in the river of information. By the time any bit of gossip made it to the department, it was as good as public knowledge. But Jenny had been paying attention. She could almost hear the house buzzing lately. She had been able to piece together disparate bits of conversations over the last few weeks and knew that wheels were turning somewhere in the Bowels of Doras. Even from the bottom, Jenny could sniff out her opportunity.

She flipped to a page deep in her notepad where she had written three things:

OUTSOURCE DISTRIBUTION / Tharla Kareniva had been seen taking meetings with someone in House Halostnaa. Avernus was a city of hundreds of meetings, but it wasn’t every day a big wig like Tharla was venturing into enemy territory for a quick chat. Jenny knew this had to be something huge if they were sending her in.

AGGRESSIVE EXPANSION / Once Jenny knew where to look, she kept her ear to the ground. After a couple of weeks of fishing for intel, she overheard a couple of Halostnaa yuppies at Glaive & Musters yammering on about not being able to get work any done, what with all the noise and dust of construction at the campus. Pitiable soul, the view from his office was ruined now. Of course, he hadn’t been so foolish as to let slip what was being built, but if Halostnaa was expanding, it meant they were either acquiring a lot more staff or offering some new service that required space.

QUALITY ASSURANCE / Jenny had been sending temps to more than just the usual places as of late, lots of new suppliers and exotic locales. Shipment descriptions had been vague but Jenny had a sneaking suspicion it was tied to Halostnaa somehow. This bit about testing new materials at least confirmed that Doras wasn’t sourcing a cheaper iron supplier- they were bringing in all new materials.

The gear were turning now. She had the who, the where, and the what, now she just needed the why.

A slim stack of files plopped on top of Jenny’s notes, interrupting her thoughts. The edge of one folder caught the tip of her pen mid-sentence and sent it careening off the page, turning ‘WHAT MATERIALS?’ into just ‘WHAT MATER-’ and scribble that leads nowhere.

“Add in your notes after the onboarding and bring me copies by end of day.”

They had done this hundreds of times before, and by this point, Jenny knew exactly how much Alyona to offer her. Jenny just cracked open the first file and leaned over her desk, offering up a saccharine smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “You got it.”

Alyona paused and studied her for a moment. “You know, you really might want to consider cutting back on the coffee. Your teeth are starting to yellow. I can recommend a good whitener if you want?”

Without waiting for an answer, she sauntered off to mete out the rest of the assignments. Delightful, that one. At least now Jenny was free to parse through the other two files in peace. She jotted down some quick notes in her notepad as she drained what was left of her coffee. Another onboarding on deck.

Jenny’s main function in the department was onboarding temp hires. In Avernus, these were people brought on temporarily to help with short-term projects or to help existing staffers cross the finish line in the busy seasons. “Temporary” might as well have meant “disposable” though. It was an open secret in the Hells. Temp work was mostly reserved for the gigs that were either too dangerous to waste good employees on or too messy to be traced straight back to company hands, and tended to attract only the desperate, the gullible, or the deranged. With temp work, there was plausible deniability on both sides. Jenny’s job wasn’t to get mired in the ambiguity of it all though - her side in all of this was clear. She was to explain the rules, make clear the objectives, and get the poor fuckers out the door as quickly as possible.

Who were the unlucky players this go around? A few locals, shuttled over from one of the many temp agencies that kept Avernus running. A former scrap yard machinist, a farmer from the outskirts of Avernus, and -this was a rare treat- someone with no prior experience? Adorable. She’d be sure to really turn on the charm today.

At least this one was only a smaller group. Generally smaller meant that the House didn’t expect to lose too many through the course of business. Larger teams meant they needed, well, a larger margin of error.

Jenny heard her coming before she saw her, kitten heel pumps clack clack clacking their quick tempo down the glossy hallway, the scent of her powdery perfume wafting into the room long before she did.

Karol.

If Jenny had been an optimist, she would have described Karol as someone who had truly found their life’s purpose at House Doras, someone extremely well suited to their station. She would have used words like ‘vivacious’ or ‘commanding.’ Perhaps if she was waxing poetic, she would have even compared Karol to a candle- a guiding light, a comforting presence in an otherwise dark and devouring place. Unfortunately though Jenny wasn’t an optimist, and Karol was not exactly radiant. If Jenny did describe Karol like a candle, it would be in the way she always looked as though her waxy face was slowly melting. Not to mention the fact that her hair stood up on the top of her head, just like a wick. It was a small wonder no one had tried to light her on fire after all these years.

“Jendraaaaa, good morning darling!”

Karol bustled over Jenny and poured herself onto the edge of the desk, angling her stout body to face Jenny.

“Just Jenny is fine, Karol,” she said flatly, edging her coffee cup carefully away from Karol’s perch. She despised it when the people here used her full name. Jenny surely had made this request dozens of times in her time in Staffing, and at this point, she wasn’t sure if people just didn’t remember she had ever asked of it or if they were doing it to spite her. The soil rejecting the roots. At least if she could convince them to simply call her ‘Jenny’ it would feel like she was wanted here. Respected, even.

“So Jendra,” Karol smiled and waved her coyly off like it was a long-running gag the two of them shared. “Another group of temps coming in today, ready to listen to what you’ve got to say! Are you ready?”

“Of course, Karol, you know me. This is what I do best.” More like this was all she was allowed to do.

“Oh this is true, my little superstar! Now, I know you are a seasoned professional dear, but I wanted to stop by your desk this morning because today we are going to change things up just a little bit.”

Karol leaned in conspiratorily to Jenny, and over her shoulder Jenny could see Van and Alyona snickering in her direction. Jenny pulled her coffee cup closer, raising it to her lips before she remembered it was empty already. Fuck. She sucked in a breath and prayed this would be a short conversation, but knowing Karol…

“You’ve been here for a while now,” she began carefully, ”and you have been just so wonderful to have on the team. You do good work, you’re smart. I know that I can trust you to whip any group of new hires into shape. But it seems like we still haven’t quite found your lane yet, where you fit into all this.” She gestured loosely to the office around her.

Jenny felt herself starting to panic. Surely if she was getting fired, it would be a closed-door meeting? She opened her mouth ready to defend herself, but before she could protest, Karol continued.

“Smart cookie that you are, I'm sure you've heard there’s a big new project coming down the pipeline at House Doras.” Karol produced two small leather portfolios from under her arm with a flourish and balanced them on her lap, the crest of Hose Doras embossed on the supple surface. Jenny straightened in her chair. This was promising.

“Normally your involvement with things begins and ends in the onboarding room, right? You get up there, you say your piece, they leave, and you start all over again. Not a lot of opportunity there for long-term involvement with projects. With this though,” she tapped a long fingernail on the Doras logo with a muted thump, “I think there’s a real opportunity for you to show us that you can see things through from start to finish.”

“Karol is this….” Jenny eyed her warily, testing the waters before she got her hopes up. “Is this finally a promotion?”

Karol stifled a laugh and tried to cover it with a shake of her head.

“Gracious no, darling, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” the shoulder pads in her blazer raised slightly. “It’s certainly a step in the right direction though.”

“Yes, of course.” Jenny visibly deflated at that, but she wasn’t surprised. She smoothed the front of her blouse and recovered, slipping back into her usual controlled demeanor. “Either way, I’m thrilled at this opportunity and I’m ready to expand my role in the House.”

Karol sighed and offered her a soft, crooked smile.

“Jendra, I’ve worked with you for a while now, and by now I think it’s pretty apparent that you just… don’t fit in here.” Karol’s eyes swept across the office around them, gliding over each of the bustling members of the Doras Staffing department as she spoke. “When you’ve been somewhere as long as I’ve been here, you learn a thing or two about what it takes to keep the wheels turning, what the machine needs to keep running. The people who thrive here, Jendra, you just don’t share their… temperament. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing!” Her focus settled back onto Jenny, the weight of it more than what Jenny was used to. She lowered her voice so that only Jenny could hear. “I wanted to make sure you were on this project because I see promise in you Jendra. I really do. And I think that something like this will be good for you. Maybe it’ll help you shake out the cobwebs.”

Karol rose from her perch on the desk and handed Jenny one of the leather folders.

“Be sure and read through that before orientation. Everything you’ll need for this mission is in there. Of course, your scope of ‘need to know’ is fairly limited, but I can tell you this much- big things are coming, hon, and I want to make sure you’re leading the charge.”

Jenny gripped the folder tightly in her hands and considered Karol’s words. She wasn’t sure just what her angle was, but at least one thing was true - this was indeed a step in the right direction for Jenny. She nodded resolutely, holding Karol’s gaze.

“You won’t regret this, Karol.”

“I’ll see you at orientation.”

Karol straightened her skirt before scurrying off down the hallway, sprinkling a trail of pleasantries in her wake with each of the floor workers. Jenny watched her as she left, catching Alyona’s eye as Karol turned a corner. She appeared barely able to contain her disbelief. Jenny just flashed her a big toothy smile before she tore open the portfolio in front and dove into the brief.

If big things were coming, she couldn’t waste any more time.