Destinys reminder

Day 2 "Helpful tip"

As luck would have it, despite going so early, they still somehow managed to miss the bus they had planned to take and Gabriel, not wanting to wait another 30 minutes suggested they'd just run. So after just having jogged around the next (maybe a couple more than) a few blocks they made it on time. But once again Destiny luck must've been hiding somewhere far away in some hidden cave, because when they actually got to testing out and talking about the code the others had brought for display she, and her wonderful talent for creating difficult situations for herself managed to somehow crash the computer of one of the game developers they met. A young art student called Lana. Gabriel was quick to jump in and help set it back up. And lord knows if it hadn't been for him, Destiny might've dissolved into the ground out of sheer embarrassment right that instant. but despite all odds it turned out fine and they all got to talking about the fragility of todays technology dependent society. Surely one of the stranger ice breakers any of them had ever experienced but it seemed to work and they got along great. The day had gone by like that and when both of them returned home the sun had long set and Destiny found her eyelids so heavy that pretty much as soon as her head made contact with the soft heaven that was her pillows, she was out cold.

Frantically Destinys clicked through her tabs, trying to find one that would at least somehow match what she was supposed to be doing. With the office being so quiet today she'd almost not even noticed when Matt, her supervisor, approached her. "Fresh back from the weekend and already slacking off are we? How's the Poster looking so far Sullivan?" She half successfully put on a crooked smile and answered nodding her head "yeah. Uh.. It's goin." Man She Really couldn't stand him. There was always something that was not right for him and no matter how much effort Destiny put in her designs and websites he always had some nasty backhanded comment just waiting to make her insecure about her work. She, Destiny Sullivan was an employee at Digiline, a design and web design company, and having lately become one of the more well known, it was inevitable that a lot of the employees, like her, would be overworked or put under extra pressure. Matt was one of the younger higher-ups, but even he talked about wanting to stay true to the firms "cozy family feeling" and not wanting to raise the size of their team. Something about him and this attitude just didn't sit right with Destiny. Gabriel, her and loads more of their team had already reported that they were unable to provide the amount of work demanded of them, staying true to their usual quality, but he didn't care. What made it even worse, was that after Destiny had filed her out her complaint all that had done was give Matt another reason to belittle her. Now when he was walking his rounds he made sure to stroll extra slow when going by her desk. Usually a mean comment or two got dropped as well. But what made today especially worse, was that for once Destiny had actually been slacking off. Even though she was able to push it out of her mind yesterday, due to the meet and all of the buzz and commotion, the weird box that appeared still never really left her mind. And when she caught it again this morning, still sitting there ominously in her peripheral vision, she officially couldn't ignore it anymore. It was unnerving. But today it looked different. The textbox still had its signature half transparent glow like a hologram might, looking almost gamelike even. But today the text had changed. When Destiny inspected it this morning while brushing ber teeth, it said this:

" Acheivemnts today:

- Need a hand? Giving and accepting help.

- Under Matts watch.

- This food is flipping good.

- Jam on!

- Comforting stroll."

Destiny's search history was filled with threads about peoples hallucinations and conspiracy theories about life being nothing more than a game. It's unbelievable how many people just communaly agreed to be simulations, to tell the truth it was starting to scare Destiny a little. Everything she read in the box yesterday had come true. She shivered at the thought. This stupid hallucination had been able to predict her day. The entirety of it. She couldn't shake the eery feeling that it wasn't just a coincidence. No it couldn't be. What are the odds? There was no way in hell she was just gonna let this slide. Even this morning Destiny had spent at least 30 minutes trying out every possible thing to see how the box would interact. It was getting ridiculous, so when she got to work she decided to ask the good old all knowing internet for some advice. Well, what she forgot about was that on the internet you could find just about anything, so her initially planned to be very short little google search had now been ongoing the entire morning. A byproduct of which being that sadly and now to Matts delight there was no work to show. "Oh come on. Isn't this the exact spot I saw you working on yesterday? Can this really be that hard? Come on Sullivan, it's just copy pasting information that the clients already gave, even I could do it." Matt peered over her cubical at the big clock hanging over the office door. "Then do it yourself asshole-." Destiny whispered with a slight hiss. "What was that?" The situation was getting increasingly dangerous, both for Destiny's sanity and her career. "Nothing nothing." She quickly added. "Ah, Anyways. Sullivan. How about you treat me to lunch today. It would be a great opportunity for a nice little chat about this part you seem so incomprehensibly stuck o . Oh, and I'm sure this will also do wonders for your reputation here at the Office. I mean, can you even imagine what it might do to someone of your standing if they were to turn down such a great business opportunity. Just think about all of the possibilities, who knows, might even be a way to climb the ladder." The grin directed at Destiny was all telling. Matt was leaning over the wall of her tiny little personal space, very much intruding as usual and very much intentionally staring her down like some hunter out for his next kill. "Lord knows you need it." He added pressed through his teeth. His voice reeked of disgust. At this point he wasn't even trying to hide it anymore. He was always like this. Knowing exactly what to do to get exactly what he wants. What Matt had offered was as much a suggestion as one would consider a slap an open invitation. But Destiny had no choice. He was right. There was basically nothing she was able to do about it. Matt knew his craft. If Destiny were to decline, he would simply go crying to the other managers and spine them some farfetched tale, about how she allegedly publicly humiliated him, maybe about how she was somehow disrespectful to the higher-ups or other coworkers. But worst of all was the fact that, due to him being very much in charge of all that was happening, regarding this project, he possessed the ability to straight up delete all of Destiny's, and her teammates work at a whim. All of it gone like that, just because Destiny tried to be brave and stand up for herself. She could never let that happen, so as much as she and her wallet would hate her for it alter, she gave him the most honest sounding "Yeah sure that sound wonderful." that she could muster. She even added a, looking back now, probably not so convincing, but very forced smile. Even after this all had just gone down matt was still planted there, his demanding demeanour making Destiny worry again. What was it now? Is he still not done. Another quick look at his Wristwatch suddenly made Destiny realise. "OH-, hum, you mean right  uh, now?" Per usual she almost managed to drop a couple of pens and even a cup this time, fumbling with her keyboard, trying to save the pathetic two lines of text she'd been able to manifest this morning. Well at least it all seemed to have silver lining. While following Matt out towards the cafeteria she dared another look at her holographic fortune teller. If she could hope for anything, then it was that at the very least it knew what it was talking about, and that the food today would not be too terrible.