*Ba dah duh*
*Ba dah duh*
*Ba dah duh*
"Uhhhh, what time is it?... Did I fall asleep?"
After pushing himself off his keyboard, he reaches for his phone to check the dinging noises. Then starts swiping off notifications.
"Spam, spam, spam, spam, email from my boss, spam... Wait, the big boss emailed me?! Oh crap."
The email opens and he begins reading it.
"Max Dorkins, Jim Jones here! Just checking in on you to make sure we're set for the release of this year's title. As you know we've had to push the release date a couple of times due to employee slack. I trust you have been working diligently to get your portion done. We can't afford another drawback. Get back to me within 48 hours and remember we have an off the books meeting at 1 pm today. Be there! Capeesh!"
Max's head drops against his desk again as he sighs in exhaustion.
"Yup, that's me. Max Dorkins, I'm 21 years old and a game developer or at least I wanna be. I'm studying coding and learning how to program, but they mostly just have me write story progression and make sure things are in order. It's honestly aggravating, but it's what needs to be done. I don't wanna give up no matter how many times I get told I should follow a different career. I'm determined and I'll show them that!"
Max begins clearing out his emails, glimpsing through the countless spam as he marks them for deletion.
"Free assets, monthly subscriptions, I'll get revenge, newsletters for stuff I haven't seen before."
Max marks them all and deletes them, giving him a sense of organization.
"Well what next? I've got some time before I have to head to work for the meeting." Max looks at the clock, 11:40 am.
"I could go for some cereal." Max stands up from his work station and heads into his kitchen, he lives in a 1 bed, 1 bath space. You could call it a shoebox if anything, but it worked for him.
"Lets see, we have Lucky Charms, Cookie Crisps, Cap'n Crunch, Cheerios, Chex, Corn Flakes, Cocoa Puffs... I need to stop buying so much cereal."
Max pulls out the Cookie Crisps and pours them into his favorite bowl. One that has just the right amount of space for the exact portion he likes to eat. As he goes to open the fridge he finds himself staring into it.
"F***."
Max just realized he forgot to buy milk.
*Time: 12:50 am, location: Arcadia, USA. Arcadia Studio, meeting room*
Max walks in to see most if not everyone already there. All sitting around the wooden rectangle table. All six of them.
"Don't forget to write that down, I don't want to lose another good idea due to your stupidity... Oh look Max finally f****** showed up."
"Good to see you too, Jen."
Jen Jules, rude, arrogant, two faced. Works in the audio department for the game sounds and music. Her short red bobbed hair and angry eyebrows really give her that intimidation charm.
"Max! Have you finished the main lead's final progression arc yet? Not to brag or anything, but I'm already done with my portion of the work. I mean I'm just that good after all."
"Don't worry Lars, I'm almost done with it. I'm positive you'll get it soon."
Lars Barr, programmer, scripter, and designer. He's the MVD of our studio, it's like the MVP but instead of most valuable player, he's the most valuable developer.
"Cool, Cool. But feel free to ask for my help, I truly don't mind. But if it was me I'd already be done."
He says as he smooths his hair back, even though it's tied into a messy knot. Why does he need to do that if he's gonna wear it like that, what an egotist.
"Alright, alright settle down everyone. It's time to get this meeting started."
A small suited man walks through the door, with a dark blue dress shirt, black slacks, black shoes and navy accents with a light brown suit jacket. He combs over his slicked back hair and pushes his rectangular glasses up onto the bridge of his nose.
"Right, run down time! I want to hear progress people! Progress! Progress! Progress! We'll start with you Angie."
"Right sir, the modeling team has finished the last few models that we need. I personally put my final touches on them to make sure they were properly prepared for the final product."
"Fantastic work as always Angie, going above and beyond like usual! Right next, Lars go."
As Lars begins gloating about his work, Max finds himself spacing.
"Blah, blah, blah, blah, my work, blah, blah, blah."
The taste of dry cereal pops into his head as he can feel it in his mouth still. Making him wonder why he forgot to buy milk. Maybe it was the workload he had, maybe he just wanted to skip out on doing anything for a day. Specifically the day he was supposed to go get milk.
"I hate dry cereal." Max blurted out unintentionally, interrupting the meeting.
Everyone looks at him confused.
"What kind of stupid shit are you on about Max?" Jen asked as she tapped a pen on the meeting table in frustration.
"I uh, got lost in thought..."
"About dry cereal? Do you like trying to be an idiot?"
"No, I just had to eat dry cereal this morning and it's still lingering in my mouth, it's really annoying."
"I understand your pain." Lars shakes a fist into the air towards Max acknowledging how he feels.
Max felt a question mark appear above his head, and just felt more embarrassed about the situation.
"Right anyway, Max let's get back to the reason we're all here okay? Jen bring it down a bit. We don't need you scaring away anyone else from the studio."
Lars laughed abruptly as everyone else remained silent.
"Lars since we're basically done with you, let's move onto our lead artist Kenzie. Alright Kenzie how are things going on your end? Any struggles, bumps in the road?"
"Well I do have some concerns actually."
"Go on."
"With the recent demand of the final release, I've had to redo a lot of the artwork for the game. While that's not a big issue, the part that's getting me is my time restraints. I'm the only main artist in our department and I can't keep redoing a majority of the game's art every time. It's putting a real hindrance on my mental health and body."
The room sits quiet for a second, everyone registering what was just brought up.
"I'm actually glad you mentioned that, because I had actually planned to talk to you about that. You see we actually have a new member joining us. But it seems she didn't get here at the-.
"S-Sorry I'm late!"
Suddenly a woman bursts through the door, panting heavily as if she just ran a marathon to get here. Her long auburn hair, messy as it covers parts of her face. Her pale skin slightly drenched in sweat, causing her pastel green blouse to slightly stick to her skin. Her pastel green slippers and dark brown skirt that hangs below her knees all crinkled up from the seemingly rapid movement of her long legs. All showing signs of her hasty sprinting.
"Ah, you must be Miss Emma. How great of you to show up, 20 minutes late."
"I-I'm so sorry! I overslept after working all night on some new designs I was thinking of. Then I missed the nearest bus, so I had to run here then-."
"It's okay Miss Emma, I'm just pulling your leg. Why don't you take a seat so we can continue."
"Y-You're not mad?"
"While I may not be fond of the idea of one of my new employees turning up late. I understand certain... Circumstances can happen at times. So from now on why don't we put a bit more thought into the future of coming to work on time."
"R-Right, s-sorry!"
Emma quickly takes the seat, sitting across from Max.
"As I was saying, Kenzie I had thought about the workload that was on your shoulders, and that's where I bring in our newest artist! Miss Emma Embers!"
Jim reaches out at Emma with open arms. Causing everyone to stare at her again.
Her face gets bright red and steam suddenly blows from her ears as she stands up abruptly.
"M-My name is Emma! I-I've been doing art for 16 years and I-I will do my best to get my stuff done!"
She quickly plopped back down into the chair still staring down at her feet. As everyone clapped, except for Jen, Jim continued talking. But Max's eyes didn't stray from her. She peeked up to check if she was safe, but the moment she caught Max's eyes on her she looked back down at the ground. Max quickly snapped out of it as Jim spoke his name.
"What do you think Max?"
"I'm sorry?"
"I said I'm thinking of pairing her with you, you can show her the ropes and she can help you with designs for visuals as you write them out."
"Oh, I mean wouldn't it be better if she worked with-."
Suddenly something started clicking in his head.
Click click, click click, click
Or so he thought, as he turns his head he sees Jen staring at him menacingly as she rapidly clicks her pen. Then poof a lightbulb appeared above his head. He mouth quietly but furiously mouthing out the words. I want this meeting to be over!
"I think that's a great idea!"
Max said with sweat sliding down his face as he looked back at Jen.
"Great! You guys can start working right after this meeting. Which ends..."
Jim looks at his watch.
"Now." Jim quickly walks out of the room as everyone else picks up their stuff and prepares to leave. Except for Max and Emma.
Max feels a pat on his shoulder as Lars walks past him.
"My offer still stands little bro."
Lars points finger guns at Max before getting kicked in the back by Jen forcing them to leave quicker.
Once everyone leaves, Max and Emma find themselves left alone in the meeting room.