Friday May 24th - 10 h 15 AM

This time, Clark woke up on time and has been out for work already. He told Jano a strange “thank you”, the same way you pull a nasty bit of stuck meat out of your teeth, before going to work. A bit more gratitude and Jano will start to think he’s in the badlands all of the sudden.

It doesn’t help that yesterday’s events are blurry in his mind.

He remembers talking to Clark about something. He also remembers having this terrible nightmare. But the discussion with his housemate completely evaporated from his memories…

His morning routine includes working at a run-of-the-mill design firm. If Jano participates to Atmoscian economy in any capacity, it’s from the comfort of his bedroom. His choice of getting in web is tertiary, in all spheres of the industry but never quite mastering a niche. Design is not what inspires him most although he’s well versed in the practice. Programming’s got him curious enough to apply for a position after finishing his basic studies. He was playing left right and center with tech and added his stuff to his portfolio, making him one of the youngest employers on the market. He’s not a fan of writing for blogs (or anything else for that matter).

What he secretly harbors as a passion lives is outside his bubble of on the web. He’s all about martial arts… Well, he WAS all about martial arts. At least his current position is just here to help with rent. 

We could rip somebody’s head talking about his firm though. The company’s mission statement and their speciality is all background info compared to the theatrics. 

If the voices in his nightmares knew about true spoken despair , it would have referrecend the incensent, never ending calls, forced tasks that are way above his paygrade, with a parmesan after taste of restrictions and reminders that they work for rich ass clients. The Exosville fellas.

Speaking of reminders, Jano is putting himself through the brutal challenge of reading one of his boss's horrible performances.

“As a firm living in this shithole, we can only be grateful of the opportunity to make a difference in the Stratosville economy! With more luck, Exosville will come swing at our door for contracts! We will become a grandiose organisation! That also means y’all get paid more, so I suggest you get your dick out of your own fat ass and do your job!”

This is comic book levels of ridiculous talking, in a meeting no less!

This boss, no mercy gracing his backbone, is also a megalomaniac. Jano, as the rest of the staff, simply nodded and replied with the most customer service voice of all time: “Of course, boss”.

Knowing he’ll be stuck doing new formations for a platform he has a hard time caring for, he instead hops on a call with the title “Weekly let-down session”.

Now this is the call Jano wants to receive on a friday morning. And, to top it all off, he finishes at 1PM instead of 5PM. Classy Jano LeGrand.

The moment he gets on a call, the conversation shows its heated colors on full display.

This loser of a man! It’s been years since we’ve been rejected by Exosville yet he still begs for contracts with them. Is he insane? Our stocks have plummeted yet again!”, yells Louise-Marie, a woman in her forties, someone with a lot of knowledge of the industry.

“If this keeps up, Jano’s gonna lose his job!”, throws that one annoying employee as a jab, thinking he’s an hilarious guy.

“No worries handsome. If this keeps up, we’re all going to lose our jobs. More time to watch my favorite franchises if you ask me! We should have worked in the movie industry, especially you Silva!” Jano points to another employee on the screen of his laptop, an emo looking dude with but a few words to describe his demeanor at all times. “You are so good at telling stories”, throws Jano with a wink.

Silva shrugs the comment off with a grin, understanding and taking lightly Jano’s snobby remark. Louise-Marie has worked with Jano for long enough that she gets a bit of his escapist temperament. Any opportunities to stray off deep subjects, Jano will take it at lightning speed. This includes opposing openly the boss (if you consider talking behind someone’s back as open opposition).

The conversation remains in these waters for a few minutes, when Silva picks up on some “recent” news coverage.

“Y’all heard about the twenty-six new cases they found in the last two months?” 

“Yeah. I heard from some data analysts that the number of cases finally dropped to a significant degree, only to increase again in the first quarter of this year.”, continues Louise-Marie. “Yet another mutant disappears from the fold, without a single trace left of them.”

Jano is as silent as a statue. He wants to laugh, get up and move his body, punch something, do anything to erase the jolt of anxiety that is pumped through his veins at the mention of these mutations.

“The government loves to shit in our hands and call it a day, but it’s been a decade. Things gotta change soon. I mean out of all the investigations, the crimes, the murders, the monstrosities, you’ve got five different captured suspects…Five??”

Jano is sweating profusely.

“Right… hasn’t one of them recently escaped the country too?” Adds Silva. “Although I did hear that in some threads and forums online, nothing too serious.”

“Guys, hear me out!”, says the weird employee (his name’s Richie, by the way). “The police in his this case! They’re trying to make propaganda about how Troposville is a terrible place to live.”

Just serious enough for Jano to pull the plug out of the conversation.

As things are about to get heated once again, Jano sees the light at the end of this tunnel when another employee asks him about a website he recently worked on and wanted help with some programming concepts.

“Alright guys, gotta bounce, work is calling my name! Have a good rest of the day and happy weekend!”

Jano then uses his tried and true smile. The only thing crooked about it is the intention of people leaving him alone thinking he’s fine. It works all the time, most of the time. His hand dashes at the cursor and closes the call.

Jano breathes a sigh of relief. Now that he thinks about it, Louise-Marie and Silva both give him similar vibes as Clark. Where his housemate’s political uprising would somehow turn their exchanges sour, Silva just doesn’t seem like he cares enough to go the distance, while Louise-Marie plays coy and backs off from the topic on her own accord. They are employees after all. Last thing they want is to get thrown to HR because of some crappy interactions.

The one bit of grace Jano will give this firm is that they sure do embrace his escapism. He had to submit details about his personal life, although he kept quiet on some of the more troubling parts. 

He’s the youngest employee, and also the most fragile.

While doing his other work task, Jano can’t help but wonder if Clark has to face similar issues in his line of work…