Delia, his boss and the owner of the store

In a darkened apartment, Delia Andrews looked over the numbers again, her face in her hands as she confirmed that things were just as bad as they looked. The Raven's Roost game store, her pride and joy, which she'd spent most of her adult life building, was dying, and there was nothing she could do about it. If it wasn't for Jack's willingness to allow the restaurant to buoy the shop and Andrew's wizardry at driving online purchases, they probably would have gone out of business ages ago. But, Jack had been clear that the drain on the restaurant's resources couldn't continue forever and Andrew's increasing reclusion and transparent depression left her increasingly worried that she'd find him slumped over his desk some day.

She was already down to three employees working regular overtime on the shop side and she was barely taking a salary herself, despite spending more time at the shop than she did at home. If she lost one more person, she'd have to stop renting out rooms for the game tournaments that they hosted and the resulting loss in traffic was bound to hurt them worse. She was tempted to try and see if Andrew would consider occasionally working the front of the shop, but she knew the man would absolutely refuse the task. He hated dealing with people on the best of days and she knew that the reality of trying to make a sale to someone who wouldn't want to listen to his passionate explanations would probably destroy him. Plus, he brought in more money per hour typing away on the antique machine they had in the back office than everyone in the front of store combined. It was a depressing thought that so much of her business had moved online, but she was glad it managed to keep the little shop alive.

As she tried to pull herself out of that train of thought, she realized how late it had gotten. She checked her email before going to bed, concerned that there was no update from Andrew. He was supposed to be back from his road trip the next day, but he'd mentioned that he was running behind and had promised to update her. She was glad that he had taken some time off, but she wished that his vacations had more of an impact. He always came back looking slightly better, but with this sad, wistful look on his face, like he was mourning something. If she could have afforded it, she would have loved to have given him more time but, as it was, every day he was gone was a serious hit to their business. She hoped that he would be there in the morning, but knew that there wasn't much she could do if he wasn't there. She fired off a quick message to Jack to see if he'd heard from his friend, ignoring a dozen notifications from her sister.

She took an evening shower and then threw on some underwear and an oversized t-shirt as she considered the ever-present problems of her beloved shop which had long left her with no time for a personal life for herself. She hadn't dated ever since her divorce more than a decade ago and, besides her employees, she had very little time for anything social. She loved to think of her employees as her little family, which made it hurt even more when she couldn't figure out how to keep the shop out of the hole it seemed to be constantly sinking into. This was the image in her mind as she began to brush her teeth, only to be interrupted by a flash of light that left her bathroom empty, with the sink still running. Another flash and the water turned off.

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Andrew’s face heated up as his greatest fears were laid out like a game show announcer reading off his bio which, he realized, sounded like exactly what was happening, but what kind of game show could kidnap someone out of a moving car? C2’s voice had said something about the show being called ‘HHI’ but he hadn’t clarified.

Suddenly, another circle of light illuminated on the ground and a woman in her late thirties appeared. She was short for a woman, with wide hips but not much else in the way of curves, and curly blonde hair that she kept at shoulder length. She was clearly dressed for bed, wearing only a pair of boy shorts underwear and an oversize t-shirt with a Chocobo on the front. It seemed they’d caught her just starting the process of brushing her teeth, and she was frozen in place with the toothbrush still in her hand, just inches from her open mouth. It was clear that she was just as paralyzed as Andrew was, but she looked fearfully around the room, her eyes filled with fear. Her vision locked quickly on Andrew, her face trying to ask what was going on, but clearly seeing his own paralyzed state and fearful expression, she seemed to quickly realize that he was just as confused and trapped as she was.

“Delia Alberts is Andrew’s direct manager at work. She is 39, divorced for fourteen years and currently single. She is the founder and owner of Raven’s Roost, the combined board game store and restaurant where Andrew is employed. She built the shop from the ground up and has turned it into a local hot spot with a dedicated clientele. She hired Andrew at the recommendation of the general manager of the restaurant side of the business to handle the online component of her business. She has similarly geeky interests, with a passion for video games, D&D, tarot, and all things witchy. On paper they’re a pretty great match. For a variety of reasons we’ll get into later, there was never anything romantic between the two, and they’ve lost touch outside of strictly work functions in the past few years, but they are still friendly and Delia considers Andrew one of her best workers. He's also her only back office worker since our next contestant left the store's employ several years ago. Let’s meet Andrew’s former coworker, Sarah!”