Chapter Text
“Programming’s expectations of us are completely unrealistic. The art takes time, more time than their code takes, and yet they drown us in new asset requests, expecting immediate turnaround.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked down the table at the man speaking. Head of the Design Team, Alex Mullner. He listened to what he was saying, slowly turning a mint he had put into his mouth at the start of the meeting over and over again against his tongue.
He was so tired of this conversation. Design was forever complaining that Programming, Sebastian’s department, had expectations that were unreasonable or work requests that were unrealistic. As though they all didn’t have deadlines to meet that all of the departments had agreed on together.
Sebastian smiled when Alex finished, a bland and emotionless smile, and used his tongue to push the mint between his teeth, biting down on it hard to splinter it into little pieces. He said nothing while he chewed the bits that were left, then swallowed as he got to his feet. “If we’re just here to listen to the same complaints, I have far better things to do with my time.”
Alex spluttered a protest, looking at Sebastian angrily. “You aren’t even going to address this?”
“I’ve addressed this countless times already. Programming is doing things the way we’re supposed to. We request assets and we implement them. My team can’t work if we aren’t given assets, can they?”
“But your requests are unreasonable! We can’t just churn things out to you if they aren’t done!”
Sebastian closed his laptop and shuffled the papers he had been reading into a folder. He stacked them on top of each other, then picked them both up. “It isn’t my fault that your team is behind. Don’t drag mine down with you.”
Alex stood up then, abruptly enough that his chair skidded back a bit when he did. Tall and broad shouldered and red faced in anger… Most people probably would have been intimidated, but Sebastian was unmoved. “Problem, Alex?”
“My team is not behind, and I’m deeply offended that you’d imply that.”
Sebastian smiled again, sickly sweet and saccharine this time, and tilted his head to one side. “If your team was on track, we wouldn’t be making so called ‘unreasonable’ demands. Everything we’re asking you for is according to the calendar that all of the departments agreed to. Nothing more and nothing less.”
Alex opened his mouth, then closed it again without saying anything.
His eyes said enough, though. ‘Pissed’ was an understatement to how he looked right then, and Sebastian tried not to snort to himself as he walked out of the meeting and down the hall.
He could hear Alex start to try to reason with the people left in the room, but the sound faded entirely as he stepped into an elevator and the doors closed behind him.
Sebastian knew he had been mean in there, but he wasn’t lying that Programming was only asking for what should have been completed according to the project calendar. All requests from his team went through him, and he checked very thoroughly to make sure they were playing by the rules and not asking for things that were not yet due.
If Design needed more time, that was on Alex to bring up and negotiate. Sebastian would have been happy to agree to any and all extensions without question, but Alex seemed determined to make this Programming’s fault and try to blame them for everything.
And Sebastian wasn’t going to let him drag his entire team for something they weren’t at fault for.
The whole project had the company in a chokehold that promised to continue for at least another year. Consumed entirely by the race to get dating games and simulators out into the market after a stunningly popular TV show centring around virtual dating had taken the world by storm almost two years ago.
Quite a few other gaming companies had already put their titles out, wanting to be the first and therefore capitalize the most on the dating game craze.
Sebastian’s company wasn’t aiming to be the first, though.
They were aiming to be the best.
They weren’t working on a game or even a simulator. They were working on a fully immersive virtual reality dating experience. The kind seen in the TV show that everyone, even Sebastian himself, had been fully and completely addicted to when it came out.
Even though they weren’t aiming to be in the first rush that flooded the market, the deadlines that had been agreed upon for the departments were still ambitious. They still required that everyone be absolutely full on to get things done.
And that seemed to be where the Design Team was losing out. Alex had clearly over promised on what he and his team could reasonably deliver, and he didn’t want to admit to it.
Sebastian got off the elevator and walked through the Programming department to his office. He huffed out a breath as he set his laptop down and moved to settle into his chair.
He had just enough time to take out his phone to start checking his messages before someone knocked on his door, and Sebastian looked up just as his assistant, Zander, walked in and over to his desk.
“How was the meeting?” Zander asked, tilting his head a bit, his expression obvious and avid for whatever happened.
Everyone in the department knew how the meetings were going, but Zander knew more than most.
“We’re asking too much of the Design Team. Again.” Sebastian said, quirking one side of his mouth up. “Apparently, the way we’re asking for things on schedule is just too difficult for them.”
Zander snorted softly, then sat down in the chair across from Sebastian’s desk. “How many times has this been brought to a meeting now?”
“This is the fourth.” Sebastian said, resting back in his chair and crossing one leg over the other as he scrolled through his email on his phone. “I’m refusing the next request.”
“It’s just a waste of your time at this point.” Zander said, shaking his head. “If he’d show a bit of humility…”
“And therein lies the problem.” Sebastian flicked his eyes up to Zander and shook his head. “All Alex has to do is say that Design needs more time. That the timeline doesn’t work in actual practice for them and it needs to be extended out. I’d happily comply without question, I’m well aware that their job is the biggest and the most difficult.”
“I don’t understand why he won’t. It’s not that big of a deal.” Zander leaned forward and rested his arms on the edge of Sebastian’s desk, looking at him curiously. “Would you suggest it?”
“No.” Sebastian said the one word simply, then looked back at his phone again.
He knew why Alex wouldn’t ask for more time. It was actually pretty straight forward- asking for more time would, in his mind, make himself look weak in front of Sebastian. Something he absolutely wouldn’t do.
Something he’d never done.
Not when they were seven years old and had just met, and certainly not now, twenty-some years later.
Zander was looking at him curiously and expectantly to elaborate, and eventually Sebastian lowered his phone to look at him and sighed out a short breath. “He wouldn’t agree even if I suggested it. He wouldn’t agree simply because I was the one suggesting it.”
“You guys are messed up.” Zander said, sitting back again. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Sebastian said, shaking his head a bit as he looked back at his phone again. “Do I have any more meetings today?”
“No, you’re done now. Your dry cleaning is in your car. Did you want me to order groceries or dinner for you to be ready when you get home?”
“Thank you, but no. I’ll take care of it.” He tipped his head enough to look up and smile at Zander as he got to his feet and walked to the door.
Once he was alone in his office again, Sebastian set his phone down on his desk and squeezed the bridge of his nose while he closed his eyes and exhaled a very long sigh.
These meetings were so unproductive and completely ridiculous. He wasn’t joking about refusing any more of them. Anything that came through with Alex’s name as the source he was turning down. And he was extremely tempted to bring this up at the general meeting they had the next day.
Alex wouldn’t accept it if it was Sebastian who suggested that Design needed to adjust deadlines, but if Sebastian spoke directly to the higher ups about it in the meeting, he may grudgingly have to agree.
Anything to stop this cycle… It had been bad enough to find out that they would both be working for Qi Studios several years earlier when Alex joined them, but they’d done a good job of avoiding each other and remaining professionally polite. But things definitely took a turn for the worse when this project started, and it forced everyone to have to pull together and work together far more closely. They couldn’t avoid each other now. They had to be in constant contact, and it was definitely wearing on them both.
They’d just… Never gotten along. And it was the sort of friction that made them both extremely antagonistic towards each other right from the very start. Sebastian had been a shy and extremely withdrawn kid, and Alex grabbed onto that and ran with it. He teased him and tricked him and taunted him constantly. He took the toys he knew Sebastian wanted at playtime in school and tried to force him to do things he knew Sebastian would find embarrassing before he’d give them to him.
But Sebastian didn’t let that go on for long before he was getting his own back. It was one thing for them as peers in kindergarten, but as soon as they got into classrooms and were being taught how to write and how to add and subtract simple sums, it became obvious that Alex lagged behind Sebastian.
Not horribly, Alex wasn’t stupid, but he wasn’t as quick as Sebastian was, and it finally gave him fodder to hit back with.
That was just the way it went. Always. They picked at each other and made snide comments and exuded a general energy of hatred towards each other that no amount of time, experience or maturity managed to cut through.
They had gone to different colleges after high school, and that should have been the end of it.
But apparently the universe had a wicked sense of humour and saw fit to slam them together again, and in an environment where they couldn’t take their frustrations out openly.
After making a low noise, Sebastian sat up again and rolled his chair forward and closer to his desk. He opened his laptop and decided he’d better just lose himself in work for the next few hours or he was just going to drive himself insane.
By the time he surfaced again, the department was pretty much cleared out, so he packed up his things and pulled on his coat to leave.
He checked his email again in the elevator and as he walked out to the parking lot in the half light of late evening. Aside from work stuff, he had a text from Sam asking him if he was busy that weekend and asking to call him, so as he pulled out of the parking lot he did just that.
“Seb! Shit, I thought the chances of actually hearing back from you today were pretty slim.” Sam said, his voice filling the car from the speakers in the front and back. “How’s your shit?”
“Shit’s shit.” Sebastian said, smiling as he turned out of the building drive and onto the street. “How’s your shit?”
“My shit’s decent. So, are you busy this weekend? Pretty, pretty, pretty please say that you aren’t.”
Sebastian could practically see the pleading and hopeful look on Sam’s face while he spoke, and he smiled as he slowed down and stopped at a light.
“I’m not busy this weekend. What did you have in mind?”
“Video games? Pizza? See a movie? Shop for new video games, see a movie, then go and play the video games and order pizza?”
“The last one.” Sebastian said, smiling even more. “I’m so glad you finally got out of retail so you have weekends off.”
“Ugh. Yeah, but this 9 to 5 and wear a tie bullshit is really wearing.” Sam said, the disdain obvious in his voice.
“Tell me about it.” Sebastian replied, shifting his hands on the steering wheel. “I’ll text you Friday afternoon and we can make firmer plans, okay?”
“Don’t forget!” Sam said, happiness practically oozing out of the speakers just from his tone of voice.
“Like I could.”
The call ended, and Sebastian kept smiling to himself as he turned onto his street. He had given up apartment life two years earlier and bought a townhouse that had more stairs than he wanted, but the space outweighed the annoyance of everything being on different floors.
Or so he told himself.
He parked in front and grabbed his things, going up the stairs and in through the front door.
“I’m home!” He called through the house as he set his things down and took off his coat and shoes. Within moments after he spoke, lights flared to life throughout the house, and he smiled as he heard sound coming from his TV in the living room.
Sam had looked so suspiciously at the Home Smart Hub Sebastian had bought when he moved into the house, calling it invasive and warning him that it would listen to every word he said and everything he did, but Sebastian absolutely loved it. It saved time walking through the house and turning on all the lights he wanted on in each room, and he loved that it would turn on his TV and start playing whatever he had been watching last so there was immediately some background noise.
What he didn’t tell Sam about it was that he found it creepy sometimes to walk into the house after work. Dark and silent and so empty feeling that he would race around to turn on lights and turn on the TV just to calm his nerves.
At least in apartments he could hear his neighbours. The solid brick walls of the townhouse blocked out the people on either side of him. For all he knew, those houses were completely empty…
Having something to speak to and light the house all at once made it feel far more comfortable.
With a half sigh he went up three flights of stairs to his bedroom and stripped out of his work clothes, which he tossed into the dirty clothes basket. He pulled on something more comfortable and hung up the shirts and pants that Zander had picked up from the dry cleaner for him, then he flopped down on his bed and scrolled through his choices to order something for dinner.
He had intended to cook… There was food in his fridge to make a chicken and pasta meal, and he had sworn to himself he was actually going to do it, but… Tiredness was winning out. It was halfway through the week, he’d had to deal with Alex’s bullshit complaints again, and he didn’t feel like putting in the effort right then to turn ingredients into dinner.
He ordered pizza. Then lay on his bed for another twenty minutes staring at the ceiling while he thought about the general meeting the next day. He didn’t actually want to have to drag the shit with the Design Team out in front of the higher ups. He didn’t want to make it look like he was being an asshole to Alex. He knew he would take it personally- which is how Sebastian would take it if the roles were reversed- but there was nothing else he could do. They were not getting things done effectively, and Sebastian wasn’t going to let Alex make it look like Programming was being unreasonable, nor was he going to let him make it look like his team was slacking behind when they weren’t.
Eventually Sebastian pushed himself up and got to his feet. He made his way back downstairs and into the living room, where he sat on the couch and changed what was playing on the TV. When the pizza arrived he retrieved it and got a drink from the fridge before settling back on the couch to eat.
While he ate, he scrolled on ‘Pulse’, the hookup app he used quite frequently. He looked at the profiles of people who had looked at his, read his messages which included a couple from guys he had been with before and were looking to see if he was available, and then ultimately just closed the app entirely with a sigh.
He ate another piece of pizza while staring blankly at the TV, then put his plate on the coffee table and sat back against the couch.
He didn’t have the energy to put into a hookup. Not even with someone he’d been with before, which would have been a lot easier than trying to find someone new. He really just wanted to relax and go to bed. And maybe when he was lying awake at 3am because he had decided not to seek out a proper endorphin rush he’d regret this choice…
But for now, he decided to end the night by scrolling on the local cat rescue site and considered those matches instead.
Not that he was even certain he wanted a cat.
But sometimes he thought it would be nice to come home to something that wasn’t just his Home Hub turning on the lights and TV for him.
************
Zander was already waiting in his office for him when Sebastian walked in the next morning.
It wasn’t unusual for him to be there ahead of Sebastian, but the fact that he was waiting inside his office instead of at his own desk was a little bit strange.
“I’m guessing whatever requires you to wait in here for me can’t wait until I’ve had some more coffee?” Sebastian asked, glancing at the paper coffee cup in Zander’s hands that he knew was for him as he tugged his coat down his arms and hung it on the rack.
“It’s just gossip…” Zander said, his voice slightly hedging as Sebastian sat down at his desk. “Someone heard from someone who heard from someone...”
Zander held the cup of coffee out to Sebastian, who took it gratefully, then raised his eyebrows a bit. “What did they hear?”
“That some of the department heads are going to get clearance to start testing the project. That it’s far enough along that they going to be letting some of you in.”
Sebastian swallowed the mouthful of coffee he had taken, then set the cup down as he worked to not give away just how fucking excited he was to hear this rumour.
The higher ups had already tapped him as a tester, as they had several other department heads, though no one knew who all had been chosen, and Sebastian had been unreasonably excited at the prospect.
The whole idea of this project had been something he latched onto fast and hard from the start. It was groundbreaking and innovative and so incredibly ambitious that it was hard not to be totally absorbed by it. The coding alone was like nothing he had ever done before, like nothing he had ever seen, and rumours flew regularly about one team that was working on it that no one knew about and who were the ones really bringing this to life.
Sebastian was dying to actually see what it was they were creating.
“It’s entirely possible.” He eventually said to Zander, raising his shoulders in a shrug that he hoped looked entirely casual. “It’s been a year and a half of the entire company devoting itself to this, we’re likely at a testing stage now that would support users.”
Zander looked at him hopefully, and Sebastian chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t know anything.”
“I know… But do you think you’ll get asked?”
“Maybe? A lot of the department heads who are working on creation would be beneficial to have as testers since we know where to push things and what to look for as problems.”
He hated having to lie to Zander, but a secret was a secret. Especially at this company…
He took a larger gulp of coffee, then sighed as he got to his feet. “I have to get to the meeting.”
“Keep me posted?” Zander asked as Sebastian picked up his laptop and tucked it under his arm so he could hold his project folder in one hand and the cup of coffee in the other.
Sebastian just smiled at him and promised nothing before he slipped out of his office and headed for the elevator to go to the top floor.
When the doors opened, there was one other person inside, and Sebastian squelched down a noise of distaste when he saw it was Alex.
But he stepped into the elevator anyway and jammed his finger onto the ‘close doors’ button.
For a few seconds they stood in silence, then Sebastian heard Alex take in a breath and he steeled himself for whatever bullshit was coming.
“I heard they’re going to be opening things up for testers soon.”
Sebastian turned his head to look up at Alex in surprise. Of anything he could have said, repeating a rumour that was going around wouldn’t have been something Sebastian guessed.
“Zander said that to me just now.” Sebastian replied, turning to look forward again.
He heard Alex shift his feet a bit and clear his throat. “You’ll probably be chosen to test.”
“Maybe.” Sebastian said, turning his eyes to the side. “You probably would be as well.”
Alex didn’t reply to that, and the doors opened a few seconds later to let a couple more people in, so they didn’t have any reason to speak again.
As a group, they all stepped out of the elevator on the top floor and filed down the hall into the massive conference room that was used for general meetings like this, even though there weren’t enough people to even fill it by half.
Sebastian watched where Alex sat down, then made sure he was as far up the table from him as he could get, and then got himself settled.
It was about halfway through when Sebastian was addressed directly to speak about where he and his team were at and how things were going, and it was thankfully before Alex was given the floor, which was what he had been hoping for.
He spoke first just about Programming, sticking to the things they had done and what had been completed. He talked about a few of the most recent challenges and how they were resolved… Then he stopped and he took in a breath that he held for a few seconds before he let it out again slowly. He raised his head and squared his shoulders a bit as he got to what was going to be the main point he had to talk about.
“We do need to talk about Design and how they’re impacting Programming.” He said, looking at the four people at the head of the table. They were all representatives of the company’s president, and they were the highest level anyone who worked in the departments had ever spoken with. The actual company president and owner had never been seen in the building, as far as anyone knew. These four people were the be all and end all.
“I’m not standing up here to point fingers.” He said, cutting his eyes to Alex, who was already looking ready to murder him. “I’m only here to try to find a solution to a problem that both of our teams are facing.”
Sebastian spoke pointedly as he looked back at Alex, holding his gaze until Alex himself faltered and looked away. Sebastian then turned his eyes back to the people at the head of the table as he continued.
“I admire the ambition that the Design team had in creating their calendar to work from. It’s clear that they are very dedicated to this project and are putting their all into everything they’re doing. However… I think they need longer timelines.”
“That isn’t up to you to decide!” Alex spoke, standing up and resting his hands on the table as he leaned over to look at Sebastian. “This isn’t your department!”
“No, it isn’t.” Sebastian agreed, shaking his head slightly. “But you are repeatedly telling me and other department heads in meetings that Programming has unrealistic expectations with our asset requests. But what you seem incapable of understanding is that every single asset request we’ve made has been on the timeline in the calendar. We haven’t asked for anything ahead of schedule. Every single request has gone out the day after those assets were intended to be completed by.”
“You shouldn’t be asking. You should let us come to you.” Alex said, getting angrier by the second. “Putting undue pressure on us won’t get things to you any faster.”
“I agree that we shouldn’t be asking you. We shouldn’t have to. Those assets should be ready… At least, they should be if the calendar you outlined was in any way feasible for you. And it doesn’t seem like it is.”
Sebastian sighed out a short breath, trying to keep himself as calm and professional as possible when really he just wanted to scream at Alex for being so unbelievably unreasonable. “There is nothing wrong with re-working your calendar. There is nothing wrong with realizing that your time frames aren’t working. There is, however, a problem with you claiming my department is causing you problems when all we’re doing is asking for the assets that you, yourself, said would be ready on the days we’re asking for them.”
There was silence for a few seconds, and Sebastian could see Alex working himself up into an absolute fervor of anger and resentment, but before he could fire back at Sebastian, one of the people at the head of the table spoke up.
“I would have to agree with Sebastian.” She said, folding her hands on the table as she looked first at Sebastian and nodded to him, then at Alex. “It doesn’t sound like he’s suggesting that your department is incompetent by any means, only that your projections and time frames are not sufficient. Is that correct?” She asked, looking back at Sebastian again.
“The assets that Design has provided so far have been absolutely flawless. Alex and his team do exceptional work, I would never say that they’re incompetent in any way.”
Everything Sebastian said was true. And had Alex not been such a jackass about all of this and continuously tried to make this out to be Programming’s issue, he would have settled this privately between them and not put it out here in front of everyone.
Unfortunately, that hadn’t been how things played out.
And he would have been lying if he said that this moment right now was unbelievably satisfying.
“Is there anything else, Sebastian?” She asked, then smiled again when he said no. “We’ll move on and offer instructions on what we believe is the best course of action to take to resolve this at the end of the meeting.”
“Thank you.” Sebastian said, then sat down again.
He listened through the rest of the meeting as the rest of the department heads, including Alex, who was markedly subdued, spoke about where they were at with the project.
When they were done, the two people sitting in the middle at the head of the table stood in unison and looked over the rest of the group.
“Thank you all for coming today.” The man on the left said, his eyes moving around the table as he blinked a smile onto his face that was clearly not genuine and was borderline creepy because of it.
“We do have one final topic to address today, and then we’ll move on to our suggestions and requirements for moving forward towards our project goal.”
“We are exceptionally pleased to announce that the project has come far enough that we are entering our first user test phase.” The man on the right was speaking now, his smile just as uncanny as the man on the left. “Those of you who have been chosen to test the project already know who you are. When you arrive home tonight, you’ll have a parcel from the company that will include all of your equipment as well as all instructions you need to begin testing the virtual reality environment.”
Murmurs went around the table, but Sebastian was only paying attention to the two men standing at the head of the table, unwilling to potentially miss anything that was being said, and practically vibrating with held in excitement.
“You’ll spend a month with unlimited access to the environment, and you will have no set requirements on how much time you spend there. We’re curious to see how much everyone is naturally drawn to using it and will take our information from both users who use it a great deal and those who find it not as compelling to be part of.”
They sat down again, and that was clearly the end of what they were going to say about it. Sebastian had a million questions he had hoped would be answered, but… It sounded like not everyone in the room had been chosen to test, so it probably made sense for them to only say what was absolutely necessary without going into detail.
He couldn’t wait to get home now. He wanted to unpack the parcel, read everything and try it out as soon as he could… He absolutely could not wait to—
“…Sebastian and Alex?”
Sebastian’s head jerked up in reflex to look at the head of the table. The woman who had spoken up before to agree with him was now addressing himself and Alex both.
“We agree that Design’s timeline needs adjusting. We also agree that it would be most efficient for you both to work together and come to an informed decision on what the new calendar should look like. We look forward to having that information on Monday. That is all.”
She moved her attention onwards after that, addressing someone from Finance to say something about the budget. Sebastian kept listening, hoping that somehow she had more to say to him. That somehow she was joking because…
Oh no.
Oh no no no no…
Sebastian knew his expression was probably one of absolute horror and disbelief, but he didn’t have it in him to rein it in and force it into something somewhat professional.
He and Alex had to decide together on the calendar and timeline changes? They had to come up with something together…
And they had to have it done by Monday.
Without meaning to, Sebastian’s eyes turned over to Alex down the table from him and he found Alex already looking back at him.
His expression made it clear that it might be a miracle if Sebastian lived to see Monday.
Shit.
This was not what he intended at all…