The Coworker

‘Yaaaawwwwwn’

This would make it the eighth time Gabriel had yawned today. Working a surprising four extra hours would do that to a guy. Or perhaps it was the fact that he stayed up until 4 am to complete his viewing of “Legends of Aloya.” The show has only been fully out for a single day, but the nerd couldn’t help indulging in his latest interest.

‘It’s just so good. I can’t believe how faithfully they adapted it from the source material. They better get that second season greenlit. They haven’t even gotten to Best Girl Eliana yet!’ Unfortunately, Gabriel could only fantasize about his new favorite show while in the office, thanks to the damn firewalls IT Security put in place after they caught his PC streaming all sorts of media. ‘I could easily get past them but… I don’t want to get Dan in trouble just because I wanted to watch some anime…’

After yet another yawn, Gabriel went back to focusing on his documentation. Dan had just left and warned him about heading home, but he really wanted just to get this last thing knocked out. Today’s incident involved a network failure that interrupted the counts for admission, so he quickly wrote up a script that would help restart the program so no counts were lost in the meantime. He considered it simple and not worth praise, but Dan seemed to hype him up at every opportunity. His manager always seemed to do that for him. It was nice being somewhat friends with the manager.

**********

One Year Ago

When Gabriel joined the Application Support Team at Funway: Atlantica, he had expected to work with other nerdy folks who would understand the value of being “Introverted.” Yet the reality was the opposite. His team consisted of dudes who watch sports and follow the latest crypto scams, not to mention hanging out outside work. IT was supposed to be all introverted nerds, damn it! We’re not supposed to be social… None of them even talked about the latest seasonal anime or recent fantasy series on Webflix. At least, that’s what he thought until someone was walking by his desk when he was zoned in on his work.

“Huh, is that The Wolfer?” Dan Whitaker, his Manager, just so happened to be walking by Gabe’s desk when he saw a glimpse of a Webflix show called “The Wolfer” on his second monitor.

“I-I uh… I’m sorry, Sir! I won’t do it again!” Gabriel panicked about the fact that he had been caught watching Webflix while on the clock and quickly prepared an apology.

“Woah, calm down, man. You’re not in trouble here.” Dan held up his hands to appease him.

“I’m not?” Gabriel asked, confused.

Dan shook his head. “I know how it is. I’m guessing you used it mostly as background noise, right?”

Gabriel sheepishly nodded after a few moments of silence.

“Listen, you’ve been here a couple of months now, and you know how dead and boring it can get sometimes. The way I see it is that as long as nothing is on fire and if there isn’t something important you could be doing, I don’t mind if you have something going on your second monitor. So no worries, Gabe.” Dan gave him a smile and a thumbs-up.

Once Gabriel processed his words, he was finally able to calm down. “Thank you, Sir.”

“Never really cared about being called Sir. Just call me Dan if you’d like.” The grinning man then pointed back toward the show. “Now, back to my original question. Did The Wolfer get a TV show?”

Gabriel's eyes widened again. “You know about The Wolfer, Sir?”

“Yeah, my buddy Matt streamed the game once and got me interested, so I bought the games and gave them a shot. The first one was kind of a slog, and the second was okay, but everybody, and I mean everybody, kept telling me that the third was amazing and I had to play it.” The man put a lot of motion and emphasis when he said “everybody.” “So I pushed on and played it, and sure enough, I loved it. Highly recommend it if you’re into RPGs.”

This was it. This was a chance for Gabriel, a fantasy nerd, to show his quality.

“I’ve never played the games, but I am a big fan of the books and short stories they came from.”

“Huh, I had no idea that they were books.”

Gabriel then went on to describe the books and the lore behind them and how the new Webflix show was adapting from the books and has been amazing so far in quality. By the end of the conversation, the two coworkers were grinning ear to ear. Unfortunately, Dan had to run to a meeting and promised he’d check out the show and perhaps the books when he caught up.

“I’ll talk to you later, Gabe. It was pretty fun talking to you.” Dan waved with a smile.

The programmer sent back a smile of his own. “You too… Dan”

**********

Back to the Present Time

‘Ring Ring’

A call to Gabriel's work phone jolted him out of focus. He grimaced as he reached for the phone and read the caller ID.

‘Niall… ese cabrón…’ Gabriel couldn’t help but think negatively of the man who was the Assistant Manager of his team. If Dan was the best, then Niall O’Brian was the worst.

With ****, the programmer answered the phone. “...Hello?”

“Gabriel! Finally, you answered. Is everything taken care of there? I've got the manager of Back of House asking if their numbers will look right on the reports tonight.” The Irish accent came through his speakers and instantly gave Gabe a headache.

“Yes, Sir. An email was sent out by Dan about 30 minutes ago detailing the resolution to the business.” A part of Gabe enjoyed it when he brought up Dan in conversations with Niall, knowing he couldn’t stand the guy.

Gabe could hear him scoff on the other side of the line. “Tch. Alright. You’re still in the office, right?”

‘Shit.’ Gabriel felt his headache growing. “Yes, Sir, but I was…”

Niall cut him off. “Good. I want you to send another email to the team about your fix. Get your credit on the work.”

‘It’s always about credit with him…’ Regardless, it was still an order from management.

“Okay, sir, right on it,” Gabriel replied as he pulled up his email.

“Good.” Niall hung up with no further words.

Gabe sighed as he opened up a new email. ‘At this rate, I’ll still be here when Dan sends his text. Let’s just get it over with…’

As Gabriel slogged his way through writing his pointless email, nausea overcame him then his world turned black.

**********

When Gabriel became aware again, he found that he was in some sort of a hotel room. A king-sized bed with decore that looks way fancier than anything he would be able to afford. He looked out at the balcony and noticed that he must be pretty high up in order to see that much of the cityscape.

“... Maybe Dan was right. I should’ve gotten more sleep.” Gabriel muttered as he went to sit down on the lounge chair. He finally noticed a rather out-of-place pamphlet that he subconsciously was drawn to.

‘“Welcome to Harem Hotel… The show where girls compete for the love and affection of their chosen Master. Please read through this pamphlet at your earliest convenience.” What the hell is this.’ The longer Gabriel read through the pamphlet, the more his anxiety flared up. The information overwhelmed him, and a certain thought gave him dread. ‘Am I the master? Or am I…’

“Ding Dong. Gabriel Hildago, you may now take the elevator to the penthouse suite. Please come at once, or you will be guided there.” A robotic voice sounded through his suite, and Gabriel did not like the way it said: “guided.”

“I guess we’ll find out.” He shakily spoke as he left to reach the elevator.

As the elevator deposited him onto the Penthouse Suite and the pretty Host-sounding lady welcomed him to the show, Gabriel Hidalgo knew what side of the coin he fell on.

“Welcome, Hun! Please go ahead and sit down next to Victor here. Plenty of tacos to go around if you’d like.” Vanessa ushered Gabriel toward the couch.

Dan didn’t know what to say as his nerd friend sat down without saying a word or looking at him. ‘First my best friend and now my coworker. Both men. What’s going on here.’

“Ooh, I can tell you’re getting excited, Dan, but no worries! We have plenty more folks to introduce! Next up, we have a blast from Dan’s past. An old “friend” of Dan and Victor here. Though they haven’t seen each other since High School, this pal hasn’t forgotten their faces in the slightest. Please join me in welcoming Cody Stewart to the set.”

“The fucking bully?” Victor yelled out angrily.

‘The fucking bully…’ Dan swore in his head.