The colleague and co-owner of the company.

A man in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts is looking over a spreadsheet and a written report. “Man, Chris knows how to find things. That also means a lot of work for me as well. Luckily, he is also good at flagging when there are species from our list of interest on there.”

Ryan Roberts was lucky that he was the co-owner of his own company. He only needed to dress up for two reasons: he had a date or was meeting with clients. The first was infrequent. He hadn’t dated since college, a guy by the name of Kyle. The latter happened once a month unless the client wanted more or less frequent.

Their current client wants a weekly update on the status and what was seen. He continues talking to himself, “This is a first. Normally, Jackson and Sons is on the other end when the government, an environmental agency or charity asks us to review their work. Now it was them coming to us for the permitting report. If they had come to us sooner, we wouldn’t have so many notes. Harris Jackson hired us and signed the contracts, but we had to report to the snobby sister, Heather. Harris has said that if this turns out well, he will ask Heather to hire us sooner in the process. That way, our assessment becomes a part of the design instead of problems to solve after the plan is made. Heather likely will have a thumb on the scale as well. But if it turns out that way, we will have a good returning client.” He returns to reviewing papers, recommendations on minimising damage to several species of birds, insects, etc.

Around dinner, he has a small text exchange with Chris about Jackson and Sons. As well as a bird he had seen. Ryan had to look up the bird from the Latin name. He appreciated Chris's habit of sending the scientific names when he could. A swallow with a large range that likes waterfronts and nests in cliffs near waterfalls. The site didn’t have those, but the area was within the places where they do nest, so it isn’t necessarily migratory, as Chris suggested. Might just be foraging there. What would he put in his recommendations? The mandate from the client is to give minimalist recommendations. While also giving maximalist recommendations. He considers putting in the paragraph about the bird. In general, preserving waterways, streams with clay and soil banks would help the birds. It would be enough to minimise the impact the development has. Should they want to help and do the maximum instead? See if one of the buildings can be made to look like a cliffside with a waterfall that ends up in the water stream. It would increase the dissolved oxygen by creating ripples, turbulence in the water, mixing it more, and allow any lake or lake-like area it is attached to to cool the area better. The spray would also cool down the area in general. Not that they will ever go for that, but still better to do the recommendation than not.

After writing down the paragraph, he goes to the fridge to grab his dinner. A simple salad of half a can of tuna, some tomatoes, radish, an egg and a simple dressing. Unlike Chris, who is more active than him, he needs to watch his weight. Chris and Ryan often met at Chris’s place for dinner during college, and now for meetings. Chris always eats like he is starving, sometimes two whole steaks, multiple potatoes worth of whatever he is eating, two servings of veggies and never gains any weight.

Ryan’s thoughts wander. He is lean and has great calves if he dares to show them off instead of wearing his long ass cargo pants in his socks. A nice ass to boot, if he weren’t co-owner of the business, I might have hit on him. Never seen him without a shirt, I wonder how he looks under there. Ahh, well, I gave up on this after college. I still don’t know if he is Bi; his ex was with him from the start of college until 5 years ago. Sucks for Chris. Never seemed to have gotten over it. He thinks as he finishes his salad.

Getting up, he returns to his pc but opens a different profile called “Gaming Time Ryan” on the nose, but it works. He fires up a Rimworld and starts playing the game. After an hour, he receives a message and switches over to Valorant. He also enters a voice call with a buddy of his. He goes by Disguised Giraffe online. He isn’t all that good at it and is a bit of a ditz, but he is fun to hang out with. He sometimes complains about how his girlfriend needs to constantly take pictures. No day without at least five, he says. Today, he needs to air his frustrations about her skipping a date with him to film a video. In Ryan's opinion, Giraffe should just dump the girl; she isn’t worth it. Giraffe never told Ryan her handle. He would have known it was Missy if he had, and told him about her cheating with some gymbro over his best friend/co-owner of his company. She had demanded not to share her handle, by saying she doesn’t want online freaks to connect his nerdy activities with her. The match goes quickly, but that isn’t an issue. Ryan knew that when he started playing with Giraffe, he wouldn’t win. This was for fun and bulshit.

The type of thing he couldn’t do with Chris, who was obsessed with the outside and seeing the world. Still, he loves him; he is the best at making him see and enjoy the world around them. He had dragged him to so many places for holidays after they both were single. Ryan loved seeing the Great Lakes, Niagara Falls, and all the tiny restaurants that Chris had a knack for finding. Ryan went to bed satisfied with what he had done in the day.

B-roll is shown of all of the different trips the two have had, as well as sharing dinners, studying, and working, which is rolled before cutting back to Ryan at the entrance being greeted by Alex. “Let me check. Are you Ryan Roberts?”

“You are an elf.”

“Yes, and are you Ryan Roberts?”

“Yes, where am I? This seems a lot different from my usual dreams where I am banging some hot guy I have seen that day.”

“My colleague will explain once all the other campers slash contestants have arrived. You are the second one to arrive. We are waiting for four more. So, it might take a few more times the duration of this trip.”

“Uhhuh.. Contestants?” Ryan says, looking over the campsite, arriving near the semi-circle with Chris and Heather sitting there. I now know for sure this isn’t a dream. But what is it? I couldn’t tell you. I would never add a woman to my sex fantasies about Chris. He thinks to himself.

“Welcome”, Syl says. “Would you be so kind as to answer the following questions and then sit down next to your friend. Who are you? How old are you? What is your job? Hobbies? Last sexual encounter? Relationship to your Master? Anything fun you want to add?”

“Hello, I am Ryan Roberts. I co-own a company with Chris. I am the side that does most client-facing work, as well as other admin work. I am 31 years old and haven’t had sex since finishing my master’s degree in ecology. I game mainly as my hobby. But I do enjoy the trips Chris drags me along for. Like I said before, Chris and I co-own a business. But we have been tinkering together with things since college, and all around. I think we are also each other's free time for a significant portion of the time. I am a gay guy who has had, on more than one occasion, had sexual fantasies about him.” Ryan's eyes shift around before saying. “Why would I pick that as the fun fact I wanted to add?”

“The fun facts are partially based on your last thoughts you had before I handed you the compulsion mic. It is useful that you and all of the other contestants are here to compete for a place in the Master’s harem. So your biggest issue might be getting him on board.” Syl says with a smirk, looking towards Chris for a response. Who seems to be stunned by the revelation that his buddy has the hots for him. “Well, seeing how Master is unable to respond, let’s continue to our next contestant.