"Hey! Troy?" Troy jolted up in his seat to be met with the startled face of Mark. He must have passed out briefly. "Man, are you ok? If you're tired, we can do a raincheck on the lunch workshop."
It took Troy a second to find his bearings. It was 12:30. Right… He forgot to plan his approach for taking the book during lunch. Great. Improvising it is. "Sorry, had a late night last night and I guess it finally caught up with me. Let me grab my bag."
"Oh… Okay." Mark said cautiously. He leaned himself over the cubicle wall to get a better view of Troy's desk. "Did you at least get down a few ideas before passing out?"
Troy quickly grabbed his bag and shuffled some items including the Book inside before Mark could see. "Yeah, totally. I got them all up here." He said pointing to his head. Mark rolled his eyes. As Troy got up he looked at the office for the first time in about an hour. The entire office had a rustic fee nowl. Solid oak desk and chairs, framed pictures and paintings of employees, even the break room was more of a large kitchen and dining room combo. Despite all these changes, the electronics still worked. It seems that whatever game Mark was making, it was still the modern day.
As Troy walked with Mark to the elevator, they passed Dustin who was heading to the break room. Dustin was maybe one of 10 employees who were still completely human. Dustin and Mark nodded briefly at each other but Dustin locked eyes with Troy and gave a little smirk. "Have a nice date!" he whispered. Troy almost stumbled. That caught Troy a bit off guard. That line wasn't unusual for Dustin. The sarcastic line had been used whenever any two people went off alone together but hearing it refer to Mark and him, Troy found himself feeling embarrassed. Why did he care? Why did the idea of having a coffee with Mark suddenly make his heart flutter?
The elevator doors were held open as they arrived. Ben was helping Marcel from off the ground. The Hobgoblin apparently had an inner ear condition that makes elevation changes difficult and a not unrelated fear of heights. Even when they were both humans, Ben would help Marcel out of the elevator. Mark shook his head. He muttered something under his breath but Troy thought it sounded like "It didn't work". Maybe Mark had tried to fix the issue? It made sense why it didn't work; the Book of Myth can only do so much. Changing that kind of thing probably fell under the Book of Body's domain. Troy suddenly felt a little guilty. He hadn't even thought about actually helping people with his book. Hell the few times he changed people it was against their will and only to cause pandemonium. Even Dustin didn't count because he still had a control spell on him at the time. Was Mark a kinder person than him?
"So uh… How are you doing? You said you had a late night?" Mark said as Ben and Marcel made their way out of the elevator.
"Oh. Yeah! I was helping Dustin with his girlfriend again. She was pretty mad at him so I gave him some advice on how to get back in her good graces." Troy said, trying to cut out the details involving the book.
"That was probably interesting. From what Emile said, Dustin has a knack for being a jerk to Amy. What did he do this time?"
"He slept with Sue in IT."
"Hah, I guess that would do it. Almost makes me glad I don't have to deal with that stuff anymore."
"Yeah?" Troy asked as the elevator finally started descending.
"Yeah. Last girlfriend cheated on me too then dumped me for a MtG player. Gosh, that was almost a year ago." Mark looked shocked but then a hint of sadness crossed his face. He rubbed his face a little and sighed.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."
"Nah, it's fine. Just wish I could…" Mark looked to his bag briefly. He leaned against the wall of the elevator. "I get that I am not exactly Adonis but I can't change what I look like. Not that I haven't tried." that last sentence came out almost under his breath. The elevator stopped on the ground floor.
As they made their way through the lobby, Troy tried to think of anything to pull this conversation out of this depressing nosedive. "I um… I don't think you look bad." Mark glanced at Troy as they walked. Troy felt that fluttering in his chest again. "I mean, plenty of people find your body type attractive. I think you look pretty nice in fact." Troy's voice was betraying him. The improv was slipping from his grasp and spilling his barely refined emotions directly into the air.
Mark didn't look at him as they left the building. Both of them were clearly deep in thought. Mark eventually breaks the silence as they enter the Cafe. "So, what character ideas do you have?" He sat at a table with only two sets of chairs, setting up a notepad and his laptop. Troy sat across from him and began listing off several of the character concepts he had actually thought up about 3 years ago when he found a D&D podcast. He only listened to a few episodes before dropping off but he liked making character concepts.