He prepares that day, which isn't as restful as he'd planned to have, but isn't all that different a day. He still does his paperwork, he still gathers his evidence and his requests, he still journals for an hour to air his grievances.
Without realizing it, night falls.
He settles his area into some form of order, arranging it for an early start tomorrow. All his teammates are already asleep, work piled away and rooms silent.
Pearl's space is filled with little art projects, the result of her various friends who know various crafts. Besides those trinkets, everything is neat and orderly, the spitting image of clean. Her computer is polished, her keyboard dusted, even her chair is lined up and pushed in.
On the other hand, Max's area is organized chaos.
There are wires and devices and all sorts of things scattered about. Drawers sit partially opened, the screens are still going to sleep, and the only thing that never moves is the picture of a cat on his monitor. Granted, Max has a better reason than the rest for his space being disorganized.
Len is the most like Tussle. His space isn't overly neat, but things that won't be needed or are done have been put away. A few sticky notes are scattered on various leftover documents. A hard drive with a flower keychain sits right next to the mouse. Left-handed, of course.
He smiles. He loves his team. They're weird and different and annoying. They've been there for some of the worst and best of each other's careers.
With a small sigh, Tussle walks over to the bedroom. They'll need to add a few more bunks soon.
Three more, it seems.
~
The interns, he finds, are rather… interesting.
All three are dressed in grey shortsleeves, black slacks, and black running shoes. Two have their hair in tails, the third has too short of hair.
One is black-haired, green-eyed, pale-skinned. He's tall, lean, with the start of scruff and his hair only just long enough to go in a tail.
One is brown-haired, blue-eyed, tanned-skinned. She's average in size and stature, with a look like she's prepared extensively vibrating through her frame.
The last is white-haired, red-eyed, white-skinned, almost certainly an albino of sorts. He's the shortest, skinny as a twig, and perhaps the most nervous of them all.
"Great, names?" He doesn't mince words, getting straight to the start of all this mess.
For a long moment, none of them speak. They glance at each other uncertainly instead.
Then the black-haired one finally answers.
"I'm Ti- uh, Thrasher. I'm Thrasher." Almost slipped up, this one. Tussle holds back his sigh, to try and be nice. They're learning, after all. He just gestures for the others to answer, too.
"Oh, I'm called Snow White," the albino answers next. The guy seems eager to follow someone's lead. Good to know.
Tussle looks at the woman, who blinks as if only realizing now that she's meant to be part of the group.
"My handle's Sparkaline, but I usually get called Sparky or Sparksy."
He nods approvingly at that. She's into gaming, at least, to know about that stuff.
"I'm Tussle, and these are the others on the floor. Guy on wheels is Maximpowow, aka Max, guy in the hoodie is All-In, aka Len or Lenny, and our gal is Pearlple, aka Pearl. That's Max, Len, Pearl, got it?" After getting some nods, he turns around and walks over to his desk. The other side now has three chairs and three clipboards set up.
Once the trio has taken their seats, he sighs deeply and practically collapses into his own.
He takes a moment to breathe, pulling the necessary papers closer. He has his pen, the correct color ink, his clipboard prepped for later... And then his purple water bottle, of course.
"Great. I don't want interns, I'll make that clear now. I don't get a choice, really, so I'll be doing my best. I expect that you lot do your best even if you don't want to be interns. Especially if you don't want to be interns. Am I clear?"
They nod.
"Glad to see it. You lot will be accompanying me on a few contracts. That refers to the runs in Daimon Quaerere, our major game. Everyone starts with it. You need to learn the game fast, or you won't be able to do anything until you have. Contracts are tests on the game, meant to keep an eye out for any bugs or other issues. Questions so far?"
"Are we going to learn about other games after?" Sparky asks.
"If you want, sure. It's a matter of evaluating the skills. Most people have heard of DQ in some form or another, so it ends up where you start. Every intern starts there, learns how to do it, and once they've graduated to being proper recruits, you get a say on where to go next. Personally, I've always been in this game, but I like the spooky VR vibes."
"Oh. Then...
...when do we start the contracts?"