Vaudevillain

Chapter 61: Drawing a Line

Dylan woke up the next morning tired and surly. Normally, his morning routine of a good breakfast and coffee erased those feelings, but not today. The aftermath of John's betrayal still weighed on his mind.

A yawn escaped from Dylan's mouth as he tapped his ID card on the scanner for work. Another yawn passed his lips as he took a detour through the cafeteria for more caffeine. Today was going to be a long day and Dylan needed all the pick me ups he could get.

The morning went by with no issue. Dylan composed emails and finalized drafts until lunch. The first hiccup came in the afternoon, when everyone started to unwind for the day. Mark sent an email.

Dylan sighed and threw his head back.

"What's got you so down?" asked Claire as she walked by.

"Mark sent me an email again."

"Jesus, that man will not stop bothering you."

Dylan twirled in his chair to face his project manager, "I know. And everything he talks about is something that you or someone else needs to approve. I don't know why he comes to me."

Claire shrugged, "Just how it is I guess. I know his boss got on to him a couple times about it. Surprised he hasn't stopped."

"Wait, Gerald got on to him? He's like, the biggest softie."

"Okay," Claire admitted, "maybe Gerald didn't get onto Mark about his emails. But they have talked about it."

Dylan rolled his eyes, "Like that helps me any."

Claire placed her hands on her hips, "Hey, don't bite my head off because of it."

"Sorry," Dylan said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Had a tough night. I'm not really in the right headspace."

Claire nodded, "I get that. The other day, little Jamie woke me up in the night talking about monsters. He kept me up all night tossing and turning. I couldn't focus on anything that day."

The computer pinged, "Ugh, Mark's emailing again. I'll talk to you later. If I don't respond he'll come walking by to talk in person."

Claire snorted, "Alright. Good luck with that."

Dylan gave a small wave goodbye and turned back to his laptop. Sure enough, the new email came straight from Mark. Dylan grumbled in frustration upon opening it, "What does he mean he wants me to cut out some of the ventilation? He knows we can't do that without approval. Why does he always think I can do this?"

Groaning, Dylan prepared to write up another CC'd email. His hands stopped after the first few keystrokes. A part of him warred against the idea, it felt too much like what he did with John. Well, Dylan wasn't about to accept being the email mule any longer.

Before he could stop himself, Dylan created a folder on his email and set up a new rule to send anything from Mark to it. Then, he grabbed a few of his things and walked over to Claire's office. "You busy?" he asked, rapping his knuckles on the door.

"Um, no? But I thought you were going to respond to Mark?"

"Do you know why he always emails me?" Dylan asked. He crossed his legs and leaned back into the short-backed chair opposite Claire.

Claire replied with a shake of her head, "Can't say that I do."

"Me either. I've told him countless times to stop, send the emails over to the correct people with CC's to all relevant parties, but he doesn't stop. So I figured I'd stop replying and see what happens when he can't get to me."

Understanding flashed through Claire's eyes, "Hence the impromptu meeting."

"Exactly."

"What if he waits?"

Dylan smiled, an evil twist brought forth from his time as Dr. Zlo. "Well, if he does, he'll have a lot to answer for."

Sure enough, Mark walked into their area a few minutes later. Noticing Dylan was out of his chair, the man twisted around to search through the office. He spotted Dylan in Claire's office a few moments later and confidently strode over.

"He's coming over," Claire said.

His knock sounded at her door and it swung open before Claire could even motion him away. "Hey, can I talk to Dylan for a second?"

"We're in a meeting, Mark."

"Seriously, it'll only be a minute."

Claire sighed, "Is it high priority?"

"No, but--"

"Then it can wait until after the meeting."

"Look," Mark argued, "Just give me five minutes."

"You can have them after our meeting is done," Claire's tone made sure to leave no more room for arguments.

Mark frowned, "Fine."

The door shut behind him. "He just went and sat down in your chair," Claire said.

"Well, I have all my work done for today," Dylan said. "Do you have anything else?"

"No, but if something comes up this 'meeting' is over."

The rest of Dylan's afternoon was spent chatting with Claire about her son, and how her husband kept trying to teach their three-year-old hockey.

"He's not even coordinated enough to hold the stick. How does he expect Jamie to skate?"

"You always said James wasn't the brightest bulb in the box," Dylan joked.

"At least I knew what I was getting into," Claire replied. Her computer pinged with an email. "Well, Dylan. Looks like you're out of luck, I'm needed in a meeting."

Dylan checked his watch, only ten minutes left until he left. "Oh well, talk to you later then?"

"Yeah. Good luck with Mark."

"It'll be fine," Dylan said as he closed the door.

"Finally," Mark began, "You get chewed out by her or something? I thought you'd never get out."

"What do you need Mark?" Dylan asked wearily.

"I sent you like five emails, didn't you get them?"

"I was in a meeting."

"Whatever. I need you to change some of the drafts."

"No."

Mark paused, "What do you mean, no?"

"I mean, no, I can't make the change."

Mark scoffed, "Of course you can. You do the drafting."

"After it's planned out. After all the regulations are in place. Then, I send it up through the pipeline and it gets approved. Then, it goes to you. If you want to make changes you have to send them back through the pipeline. You know this."

Mark rolled his eyes, "Come on man, you can't get any real work done doing that."

"I'm not doing it Mark. And any email you send about it in the future will go straight to the trash."

The stare from Mark's eyes could cut glass, "What?"

Dylan replied with steel in his voice, "You know the policy Mark. I tolerated it for a while but now you're coming down here and interrupting my job to go behind people's backs. I have half a mind to go to Gerald."

"You wouldn't."

Dylan cocked an eyebrow, "Try me."

The two stared off, Mark full of fire and Dylan an icy storm. Eventually, Mark flinched from the cold, "Alright. Fine."

The man stomped away, and Dylan breathed a sigh of relief. That had felt good. Dylan couldn't even remember the last time he confronted someone on an issue. Now he wondered why he hadn't tried it earlier.

He rode all the way home high on his success. It had even been enough to push away his morose thoughts when his new friends contacted him to get online. The whole problem with John could be dealt with later, Dylan couldn't do anything about it until his friend reached out. Instead, he'd enjoy his time in the game as Dr. Zlo, just like he intended.

Dylan jumped into World of Supers, ready to take on the world again. Riptide and Sweet Dream appeared next to him while all their minions scurried around the remains of the mansion.

"Dude, I'm ready to enact our next plan!" shouted Riptide.

"Hold up," Sweet Dream said. "I think Isaac sent the money over already."

The chocolate villainess pulled up a message and choked.

"What?" asked Dylan.

"We just got a million dollars for finding the bug," Sweet Dream said.

Riptide's eyes bulged, "Dude, what?!"

"Candequeen, due to the efforts of you and your teammates in finding a myriad of bugs we have opted to grant you some in-game cash as a reward. Yes, the amount you've been given is correct. Your efforts uncovered an entire piece of our game structure that would have had disastrous consequences if left undiscovered. Therefore, we felt it appropriate to reward you accordingly. Holy sh*t."

"Holy sh*t is right," Dylan replied. He had opened up his own messages to see the exact same text.

Riptide tackled his two friends in a hug, "Dudes! You know what this means?!"

"Get your smelly pits out of my face you idiot," Sweet Dream said.

"No way! We're rich! I'm going to buy the biggest boat ever and surf it across the ocean."

Sweet Dream struggled out from under her friend's grip, "Hold up. We should save this for the upcoming patch. The changes coming should make it easy to buy some private island or something and use it as a base."

"Dude, yeah!" Riptide cheered.

Dylan smiled at his friend's enthusiasm, but his eye caught another message in his friends list.

D.Black:

OOC real quick

What do you think of doing a teamup?

My plan of taking over the city fell through and I think it would be awesome if we worked together on something.

"Hey, guys?"

"What's up dude?" Riptide said.

"You remember Dextra?"

"That woman in the black dress who gave you some PHB?" asked Sweet Dream. Riptide took the opportunity to put the woman in another headlock.

Dylan nodded, "Yeah. She messaged about teaming up for a crime."

Sweet Dream shoved her friend away again, "What does she have in mind?"

"Let me ask."

Superfan39526:

What did you have in mind?

The reply came back a few seconds later.

D.Black:

If you want, we can meet somewhere to discuss it.

Dylan relayed the message.

"You sure we should trust this person?" Sweet Dream said.

"I mean, we can hear her out, right?" Dylan said. "It's not like we'd lose anything important if we died in an ambush."

"True," Sweet Dream replied. "Alright, I'm down for it."

Dylan looked at Riptide. "Heck yeah, dude," responded the man.

"Cool, I'll respond with yes then."

Superfan35926:

Sure, we're down for it.

D.Black:

Awesome

Oh, one more question.

Meet in character or out of it?

Dylan smiled.

Superfan39526:

In character, definitely.