memos-in-avernus - Tumblr blog

memos-in-avernus · 11 months ago

Text

Two / Loji

In a land of devils, free coffee was a small miracle. Loji had just been introduced to what surely was the most beautiful substance the Nine Hells had to offer- sharp, silky, decadent, it was richer than any tea he had ever had back home and more inviting than any ale he had encountered in Avernus. And it was free. Nothing in the Hells was free but as the Styx runs red, the attendant at the front desk had not accepted his money when he tried to pay her!

Loji was [describe loji], and this was his very first time in any of the Houses of Avernus. He and his two traveling companions were seated in one of the many conference rooms of House Doras, waiting to receive their briefing. Loji pressed his face against the pane of glass that made up one of the room’s walls and peered out into the long hallway of other small conference rooms. Each one was furnished with a gray slay table with sculpted iron legs and delicate black chairs, elegant but sparse. This was only the second floor of House Doras, after all. You had to take the lift much higher up if you wanted a room with a view.

Before today he had never imagined that he’d get the chance to set foot inside one of the Houses of the Hells, let alone that he’d be earning coin in one. And yet here was, he and his two best friends, about to start their new job together- his first real job! The idea of earning his first pay filled him with a sense of pride that warmed him to his core. Well, that along with the coffee.

Loji’s eyes traced the dark swirling veins in the glossy stone ceiling above from one end of the room to the other. He was awestruck at just how opulent even this simple room was. He was no stranger to a modestly furnished room, but this was the so far removed from any sort of modesty he was familiar with. This was decadence bordering on obscenity. He probably couldn’t even guess how much this one table cost, and there was a whole floor full of them. How many other fancy rooms like it were on the floors above him?

“Hey Meat, how high up do you think it goes?”

The Meat could not have been a more appropriate descriptor. The red dragonborn sat with his arms folded across his chest in a chair at the far end of the room, back against a wall covered in small white octagonal tiles and a large glass board. The small room only served to emphasize his massive form, his broad shoulders seeming to take up most of the corner he sat in. Sitting there in the white room, Loji thought his scales made him look like a bloodstain soaking into linen sheets.

The Meat’s eyes focused on the door while he contemplated his answer. After a thoughtful pause, he cracked his neck and grunted. “Hmm, fifty? Maybe more.”

Loji gave a low whistle. That certainly was a lot of floors.

Maybe if I work hard enough, he thought to himself, I’ll get to see the very top someday! I bet whatever’s up there is really something.

The Meat had been the one to tell them about the temp agency. Loji had been trying to earn some coin doing juggling shows in local taverns when they had first met. After a few nights performing, when Loji still hadn’t scraped together enough for a decent room and hot meal, The Meat had come to find him in the alley behind the tavern with an offer to split a room. Most people would have been afraid to come face to face in a dark alley with someone like The Meat, but Loji was just glad to have made a new friend. He slept on the floor of The Meat’s room every night after that.

The door opened behind Loji and a wisp of a receptionist slunk into the room with another cup of coffee, hot and beckoning and perfect.

“Here you are, sir.”

Loji began guzzling, downing nearly the whole cup in one go. The receptionist seemed both fascinated with and terrified by Loji’s capacity to consume the liquid.

Loji let out a satisfied sigh and turned to face his other companion, Caladan, who was patiently waiting in the chair closest to the door.

“You’re sure you don’t want any? It’s free!”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to pass on that, friend,” he drawled. “and you might want to let this fine young fella get back to their job. I think four cups is more than enough for today.”

Caladan had found Loji and The Meat in a tavern one night while they were trying to sort through the few temp jobs they had been able to find. Applying separately for jobs would have gotten them placed almost immediately, but it likely would have meant that Loji would be separated from his one and only friend. That was out of the question, so he and The Mean had been working through the agency as a two-man crew. Their most promising leads then had been a gig manning a chronoil drill out on the Abysall Sea for House Ahl-Arimya, and another recovering salvage from War Rigs that had been scrapped in the Barrens for House Tshyul. The former paid lucratively for temp work but was almost certainly suicide, the latter was safer but paid a considerably lighter coin purse for a longer work schedule. Thankfully Caladan had found them when he did, as a three-man team was a much easier sell for the tamer gigs in Avernus.

Caladan was considerably older than his traveling companions, and in the short time they had been together, Loji had come to respect him very much. He was so wise, and always so calm. That was Loji’s favorite thing about him- the Hells moved so fast, but Caladan was never in a rush. Loji knew he had a lot to learn from him, even if Caladan clearly couldn’t tell a good thing when it was right in front of him.

Loji shrugged and downed the last of his cup. Once he was sure he’d gotten every last drop he handed it back to the receptionist, who pointedly deposited the empty cup in the wastebasket by the door before they exited and stalked back down the hall. Loji sat in the chair next to Caladan, his legs bouncing under the table. The temp agency that had sent them here hadn’t given them much info on what their job was going to be, but The Meat said that was normal. Said that was one of the ways the Houses kept their secrets. Loji was excited though. He had never had a job outside the walls of the monastery, and this was his first real venture into the heart of Avernus. Before this he had only ever been allowed into the outer market districts to stock provisions with the brothers of the order. To anyone else a place like House Doras might have been stifling, suffocating, oppressive in its grandeur. To Loji though, it was where his first big adventure would begin.

After what seemed like an eternity of Loji fidgeting and Caladan politely asking him to relax, a woman in a button-up shirt and dark slacks came into the room carrying a handful of folders. Loji thought she looked tired.

She must not have had her coffee yet today.

She handed each of them a folder full of papers and a pen, then made her way to stand in front of the glass board. She folded her hands in front of her and took a deep breath before she began.

“Hello, and welcome to House Doras. My name is Jenny-”

“Hi Jenny! I’m Loji!” Loji beamed and waved enthusiastically at his new friend, which surprised her for some reason. She cocked her head and offered him a small wave in return before she continued. This satisfied Loji.

“I’ll be your Orientation Leader and Operational Handler for this mission. If you’ll please open your information packets and turn to page one, we can begin.”

Loji was already deep into his packet, devouring every word. There were maps to places he had never been, descriptions of things he had never heard of. To be fair most of it was a little over his head, but it was still exciting! From the looks of it, they were headed to some sort of factory way past the outskirts of Avernus for a few days.

“Uh, excuse me? Jenny? I have a question about this delivery.” Loji raised a hand high above his head and bounced in his chair. Jenny addressed him from over her shoulder while she began drawing diagrams on the board.

“That’s alright, I’m sure we’ll cover your question in the presentation. Now,” she snapped her pen down on the table, ”let’s begin with your objective.”

Loji lowered his hand but continued to bounce. Caladan gave him a look across the table as he carefully sorted through his papers. Loki was nervous though. The delivery seemed straightforward enough, but how were they going to get there? None of them had horses. Sure they could walk there as they had been doing in their time together, but how long would that take? There must be a deadline for this job, and Loji didn’t think Caladan could walk for as long as he or The Meat could. Jenny did mention where the factory was, but she was already moving onto who worked there. He had to ask before it was too late.

“It’s just that… It doesn’t say how we’re getting to the factory in these papers? Do we need to get a wagon? Or is there someone who can maybe teleport us?”

Jenny just stared at him, her head at an even more severe angle than the first time. Oh no, did they need to have transportation for this job? Was that something the temp agency had told them? He hadn’t been paying attention when they were there because Caladan had been the one handling the paperwork. Loji was starting to fear he was about to be fired from his first job, so he began backtracking.

“Oh! I mean- we can totally use our own wagon! Ours is… so sturdy and so fast. I just wasn’t sure if there were Dora’s Standard Protocols we’d need to follow that weren’t covered in the packets, you know? Because-“ Loki could feel his cheeks flushing. what would make him sound like a real professional? He fumbled for any other House names that would make him seem experienced. “Because at House Tshyul they were…. Pretty strict about that kind of thing.”

He folded his arms in front of him for emphasis and nodded. He felt pretty good about his recovery. The Meat just snickered from his corner.

If Jenny was surprised before, she looked absolutely flabbergasted by him now. Before she could break the silence though, a knock came from the glass conference room door. Two people he hadn’t met yet walked in, a short older lady in a puffy blazer and a younger lady in a work apron with green skin kind of like The Meats, but different. She stood close behind the short lady with her hands in her pockets.

“Oh good! You haven’t started yet! Everyone, I’d like you to meet Stjila, she’ll be joining you from the Materials department!”

Stjila gave a small wave and stepped out from behind the short woman, taking a seat at the table across from Loji and Caladan. Caladan reach out a hand and made the introductions and began chatting happily. Loji would have been ecstatic to make a new friend had he not been so focused on Jenny and the older lady. They had stepped out into the hallway and Jenny was talking a lot. She looked stressed, like she was definitely telling this lady that she needed a new crew. Oh this was a disaster, he had to fix this. He and his friends could do this job so well, he knew they could! He just needed a chance to prove that to Jenny. Loji tapped his hands frantically on the table, searching for something, anything that would get that lady to go away. If only he had more coffee to help him think…

Yes, more coffee.

He shot out of his chair and snatched the used coffee cup from the wastebasket, then slunk into the hall with Jenny and the lady. Gangly thing that he was, he towered over both of them so he stooped a little to make himself seem smaller. Then he put on his friendliest, most polite smile and help up the cup in front of him.

“Excuse me, ma’am, I’m so sorry to interrupt but… would you be able to bring me any more coffee please?”

The two women halted their conversation and turned to face him. In the silence, Loji couldn’t help but notice just how long and unending this hallway was, like it went on for miles in both directions, like all of it lead straight here. The quiet filled his ears like water and trickled down the back of his throat to his lungs, and just when Loji was starting to think he had made another mistake, the older woman’s entire face lit up with a lipstick smile. She reached up to pinch the meat of his cheek. From here, Loji could see the woman wore a small gold chain around her neck with delicate curving letters that spelled out the name Karol.

“Oh, such a polite young man! Of course dear, we’ll take care of that for you.”

Karol took the cup from Loji and in a flash of grey smoke, it vanished from her hand. Then she pressed a finger to a small device nested in her ear.

“What is your name, sweetheart?”

Loji tried out his best Caladan impression and introduced himself. Karol grabbed Loji and Jenny by the elbows and steered them both gently back into the conference room.

“Well Loji, why don’t you and Jendra head back inside, and we’ll get you some more coffee after Jendra finishes telling you about Doras. How’s that sound, hon?”

Loji wasn’t entirely clear on who Jendra was, but it seemed like Karol didn’t plan on firing him, so that was good enough for now. He smiled and returned to his seat as Karol shooed them all back towards their business. Jenny returned to her place at the front of the room, shuffling her papers and glancing nervously at Stjila. Now that he was closer to her eye level, Karol softly tussled Loji’s hair before she turned to leave.

“You’re not going to have any problems with this one, Jendra, I can tell!”

2/?

0 notes