“Yoo bro no worries haha! You can check my phone, just don’t look at the gallery! BAHAHAHA!” Crystal slammed her fist on the table as she laughed loudly, it shook a bit. Oof. “Alright, then…” I reached towards it, grabbed her phone and took a look at the messages.

“Oh… oh no…” Dennis sent us a bunch of messages regarding the meeting a while ago, but now it was just concern over us missing it. He did explain it at least. This was a bad idea… “Hey Michael, do you mind taking me to Silver T. Big?”

Michael replied, “Yeah sure chum-friend-buddy-o-pal, anything for you.” I didn’t know how to respond, but we got in his tiny ship, which was hard with Crystal, yet somehow, it worked. Soon enough, we were there. My embarrassment is killing me… Crystal and I stepped out of the ship. “Thanks Michael, I’ll see you soon. I have really important business to take care of, and it’s confidential.” “Yeah that’s fine, I’ll go enjoy the scenery a bit, if you want another ride call me!” He left… It’s gonna be hard to call him without battery, but whatever.

“Uh, Crystal, you think you’re in good shape to be at work?”

“What do you mean? I’m doing fine.”

“Wait, what?” I looked at Crystal awkwardly, she was standing normally, not having hiccups, and looked fine. Did she get sober that fast? Well I’m not gonna question it. “Nevermind, let’s just get in.”

Crystal and I walked into the building, lots of people were already leaving, and there I saw Natalie, Arthur and Dennis. I’m prepared for the worst. “Oh, there you are, you two. What were you up to?” Natalie was visibly upset.

I showed my phone to her. “I may have been dumb and forgotten to charge my phone…” “Ugh.” Natalie sighed. “Well, it doesn’t matter that much. You already know.” She took a small pause and clenched her fist. “I have no idea what to do, but with Arthur’s suggestion, it seems like the only thing we can do is wait.” “Yeah..” I looked down, feeling guilty and embarrassed. “Only wait.” Everyone just remained silent for a bit…

Arthur coughed. “Maybe we should hang out tomorrow? To put our minds somewhere else? Frankly, I’m tired, but I think tomorrow we could try to do something while we wait.”, “Oh, sure, we can do that.” Dennis smiled a bit.

Natalie pondered. “If we finish our job activities quickly enough, we could spend a bit of time in the lunchroom.”. “Then it’s decided, tomorrow we will try to do something together.” I replied.

Yet again, here we are, we all smiled together. I don’t know how, but I’m not gonna question it, we’re able to hold a smile even after we fear for the unknown.

We just went home after that. I didn’t want to bother Michael, so I just took a taxi home. Even if it meant yet another awkward encounter, but whatever.

Walking to my room, I left my phone charging, and lied down on the bed. Not that I feel sleepy, though. But I don’t know what else to do.

I aimed my hand at the TV’s remote button and pulled it towards me with telekinesis, managing to successfully catch it with no problems. “Huh, that went surprisingly well.” I looked at it a bit, then just turned on the TV. Knowing my luck, the TV would just blow up, but luckily, the gods had smiled at me this day. Or maybe realistically I am finally getting the hang of magic.

I just navigated to news broadcasts, and watched from the comfiness of my bed.

“With that said, here is the news about Emptiness. The anomaly hasn’t moved closer yet, but multiple Shielder departments are trying to discuss what to do regarding the situation.”

Huh? I thought these meetings were gonna be fully private, why do the media know about it? Uhh… “But it’s alright, we don’t have to worry! After all, there’s a lot we owe to Shielders, so we can all say for certainty that everything will be okay. They’ll deal with it.”

Yeah, I think we’ll be able to deal with it, but that reporter says it so casually, I still have my doubts but I’m still trying to be optimistic. I’m just… Not completely sure if we’ll be able to deal with Emptiness, but I’m at least mostly sure, if that makes sense. Oh well…

“And now, the weather. Looks lik-” I turned off the TV. And groaned into my palms in frustration.

GOD! I don’t want to think of anything anymore, so I’ll just… Go to sleep already. I closed my eyes and stood still, off to sleep…

...Then meanwhile, there was this:

A clumsy, distracted  and awkward guy, or so that’s how people would describe me, I guess.

When I read into how species worked, research said that monsters are more commonly socially awkward than the others. Well, fortunately my life hasn’t been that embarrassing, it has its moments but I’d say I wouldn’t regret anything I’ve done.

But what I want to do is work on that.

I don’t want to put limits on myself just because I was born as a monster.

I’ll try my best to give it everything I can. I am Dennis Spot. This is my brief interception…

It’s 10 PM. I’m not sleepy yet… But that’s alright, I can stay awake for a bit longer.

I walked out of my house with my bicycle and looked around, appreciating the moonlit streets, breathing into fresh air and standing still a bit.

It’s time to go.

Getting on the bicycle, pedalling forward with all my strength, making my way into the area that Matt was building houses in. Good thing Crystal told me about this… this was destiny.

It took some minutes, but I was finally there. I got off the bicycle and stationed it on a pole. Then, I started inhaling and exhaling to recover myself.

Walking around the area, I quickly noticed that this place is huge. A bit interesting. Using my ‘super assistant magic’, I marked a corner of the area, then got back on my bike and drove to the other side towards the other corner.

With both corners marked, I hit my palms together, forming a magical square. After that, I snapped my fingers and numbers displayed in front of me.

The measurement for this place… That’s good. And this planet has a population of about a thousand people, so if my calculations are correct… With this amount of buildings that hold multiple apartments…The rest of the area can be filled with houses, and that would fit every resident in Meex.

I’m pretty sure we have enough resources and money for Arthur’s anti-emptiness technology, although to be honest, now that I think about it, I wonder where that guy got it from.

Oh boy… As much as I’d like to know, I think my job here is done for now! I returned to my bicycle and drove home, satisfied with my assistant work. I’m excited to tell my results to the others!

I just went back to sleep, cozy and happy…

...The next day…

“Matt.”

…”Ehh??”

I opened my eyes and saw Crystal looking at me directly veeeery closely, and quickly jumped off the bed.

“W-what the hell, Crystal? How did you get into my house? Why are you in my room looking at me?!” My heart’s beating like hell right now, geez! What is with Crystal? She needs to stop doing this!

“Well…” Crystal tangled her finger in her hair and looked to her side. “They were gonna announce what to do today, I just got a message for it, so I figured I should tell you so you don’t miss it like we did last time.”

“Whew… That’s one way to do it, you know.” Facepalming, sighing, my frustration grew bigger.

“Heh, sorry. To be honest, I wanted to see your reaction as well, Matty boy!” Crystal gave me a pranking smile. “A-are you serious???” I got my hand off my face and just stared at her, looking at her, giving her the death glare.

“Well, I guess I said too much… I’ll be seeing you at work, Matt!” Crystal jumped out the window while it was closed, thus breaking it, and flew away into the sky.

...Great. After browsing through my phone for a bit to order a new window, I started my morning routine. You know, shower, get dressed, eat, drink coffee… Then I pulled out my phone.

I browsed through my contacts, and gave a call to Michael. It hadn’t even been two seconds and he had already somehow answered.

“Yes, Matt? What can I do for ya?” He replied, I could feel the devious grin through the audio already.

“Michael, I won’t be able to work for you today. The Shielders need me. I promise I’ll return to you once I’m free.”

“Ah no worriesssss Matttt!” He chuckled a bit. “I’ll be waiting, like your good old buddy o pal and stuff. No rush!”

“Thanks, Michael. Seeya… I… guess...” 

“Seeya!” I hung up and put my phone in my pocket.

I took a taxi to work, but… And just my luck, it was the same taxi driver from a few days ago. The Taxi Driver adjusted the car’s little rear view window to look at me. “Oh, dude! You’re going to work in my car again! I’m so honored!”

“Ah, uh, yeah well… I don’t think it matters that much, I’m just an architect.” I scratched the back of my head nervously, I wasn’t made for this. “So what? You still do a really good job! I’m hyped to see what you’ll do regarding Emptiness!”

“Okay then, thanks.” The Taxi took me to the Silver T. Big, I just walked to my corresponding floor, like always.

When I arrived there, I saw Dennis. He looked at me. “Matt! We need to talk with everyone! Come over here!” Dennis grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the meeting room suddenly.

“Ah, alright, Dennis, but your claws are kinda hurting me dude!” I kept up with his speed, but then he stopped. Ow… ow…

“Oh, sorry… Is human skin that sensitive?” “I guess so.” I rubbed my hand gently, not wanting to offend or worry him. We arrived at the meeting room and stepped in. Arthur, Crystal and Natalie were already there.

“Hey Matt! What’s up?” Crystal smiled at me.

“I need a new window…” I sat down and rested my arms on the table, mad at her, Crystal giggled despite my anger, much to my dismay… But then again that’s life for me I guess.

“New window? Uhh, anyway.” Natalie was understandably confused, but then started explaining the situation to us. “Seems like Dennis investigated that area you’re working in, and he arrived at the conclusion that we can fit everyone in there. The world can definitely be saved.”

“Ah, that’s a relief. I don’t remember telling you where it was though.”

Crystal chuckled. “I told him!”

“Ah, of course you did Crystal.” I chuckled a little bit, nervously.

“So, are we just gonna hire Michael and build a bunch of houses there?” [Blink]. “That man loves money, and it’s gonna be a lot. Where are we gonna pull so much money from?” Natalie answered with little interest. “Well… I guess the higher ups at the shielders talked to the mayor a bit and informed him there was no other choice. They’ll cover the costs to give everyone a new safe place to live in.”

“Oh, alright. But that makes me wonder where he got the same technology Arthur had for his so-called immortality.” Arthur chuckled. “It’s not spoken of too much, but it’s basically making a really tough object with technological materials, then protecting it with magic. What we made back then was a container of souls that stored mine and then could puppet my body from afar… Maybe the people who worked with that back then have contact with Michael.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if he had connections…” I looked to my side, gazing at the window as I watched some birds flying by, just thinking about the situation in my head. I suppose this thing could be possible if we exploited my work and Crystal’s magic.

“If that’s the case, can I ask you guys to come?” “What?” Natalie, Arthur and Dennis looked at me confused.

“This is for saving people, right? And we’re all Shielders here. Michael is obsessed with me, I’m sure we can make things work. And to be fair, I’d like you guys to be around too. You’re more than co-workers to me, friends.”

I chuckled nervously after finishing my sentence. I couldn’t bear how corny it was, but those were my honest feelings, and I had already said it, no returning now.

Natalie smiled. “Heh, that’s cheesy, but I like it. I guess I could join you for a bit. Maybe I can help too.”

Dennis’ eyes sparkled with glee. “You want me in? To hang out with you? That’s so nice of you, I’m definitely not missing this!”

“I suppose I can spend some of my time with you folks.” Arthur shrugged.

“Alright, that’s good enough. Thanks guys. All I need is to figure out when this will be done.”

“I mean…” Natalie chuckled. “Ever since this Emptiness stuff got all over the place, people have been doing less and have stayed indoors more often. We have nothing to do, so we could just ask the chief if he knows anything about this.” “Yeah, that’s good to know, then I can ask him.”

“Nonono!” Dennis stopped me. “Let ME ask him! You guys can stay here and chat or something, it’s my duty to go and handle chores for you!”

“Uhh… Alright, sure thing Dennis, I don’t see why but sure.”. “I won’t disappoint you!” Dennis saluted and ran off to see the chief.

“Huh, what’s the deal with him?” I pointed behind myself with my thumb and raised an eyebrow, looking at Natalie, Crystal and Arthur.

Natalie chuckled smugly. “He just really wants our validation, approval and liking. It’s kinda cute to be honest, and weird, but it doesn’t hurt anyone so I think it’s fine.” …“Well then. I guess you’re right.” Yawning a bit, I said, “Eh excuse me, I’ll go get myself some coffee.”

“Alright then, no worries.” I stood up and went to make some bitter coffee, not bothering with milk and only adding a bit of sugar, and waited for Dennis to arrive.

“What did you find out from the chief Dennis?” I looked at him wondering what that was all about. “Oh, looks like he’s gonna start doing that tomorrow, although I don’t think he told you so I’ll tell you this… It looks like you’re gonna do all the work.”

“Huh?” Looking at Dennis dead silent, I was hoping he’d explain himself better.

“Yeah Matt, I don’t know if you know this but… Between all the architects in this world, you’re the best architect there is.” “I… Didn’t know that, but how could I work on all those houses so fast?”

“No worries! Michael shared a video that everyone saw of you working on a house insanely fast the other day! I think you were under Crystal’s magic effects at that moment.”

“Oh… Okay then.” Crystal giggled in the background. Dang it, Michael. He knew Crystal and I’s work were gonna earn him lots of money, and now I’m gaining more fame. I.. Don’t want more fame, but it’s too late now.

“Alright, sure, to be fair nobody told me about it, but I’m not gonna back out, I’ll definitely work on it tomorrow.”

“That’s great!” Dennis wagged his tail.

I’m not sure what to think of this feeling… Whenever people give me attention, it feels weird. I just want my life to be as chill as possible, I wish I didn’t have awkward conversations like that one with the taxi driver.

Oh well…

I guess the next thing we’ll do will be working on building houses together, to think this came from a silly suggestion, yet actually worked… 

Geez.

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