Parallel: Avalon's Journey

Chapter 4: Interview!

After getting off the phone with John, Xander could barely stay awake long enough to plug it in before he hit the pillow, surrendering to the land of Z's. Luckily, it was Saturday the next day, since he slept until noon, when his "Get up you lazy bastard!!" alarm went off, set for exactly this purpose. After contemplating the destruction of said nuisance, Xander decided on mercy for the device & rolled out of bed to turn off the irritating wailing siren. After allowing his ear drums to recover from the close proximity to the max volume alarm, the 20 year old got dressed in his standard outfit for a cool day in the former Canadian part of NorAm, (so called since the USA, Canada & Mexico united their nations). Donning a pair of blue jeans, t-shirt with an obscure graphic of a dragon on it, & a pair of sneakers. Deducing that nothing edible remained in the fridge, Xander grabbed his old black leather jacket and headed out the door to a local cafe called Cool Beans, an old double decker bus converted into a into a coffee place.

Ordering a sandwich & drink, Xander wandered back to his apartment, opening up his computer to check out what was going on in the world. As he was checking his email, he noticed an odd email, Sender: Genaco, Subject: Primary Interview & Details. Memory suddenly jogged, Xander recalled his conversation with John the night before. He anxiously opened it, butterflies in his stomach, expecting it to inform him he had been rejected. Instead it contained a link captioned by "Click Me!". Bemused & slightly puzzled by the unprofessional looking email, Xander quickly ran the link through an antivirus software & came up clean. He clicked the link, thinking that this couldn't get any weirder than it already was. Instead of bringing him to the official Genaco site with an application form, the link opened up to a video player. Noticing that his camera had suddenly turned on, Xander realized that it was a video conference site, and that this was the interview, not a way to set up it up. Before he could process more than that, he heard a chime through his speakers, and the player clicked on, showing himself in the bottom right corner, while the main screen was filled with none other than James Shouyou. Grinning like a maniac, Shouyou enthusiastically exclaimed "Hey! You must be Xander, cousin John has told me a lot about you!" Xander could see skyscrapers against the night sky in the background. Xander hesitated, giving himself a quick once over in the screen that showed his camera: Tired, with crows feet under his eyes, wrinkled clothing & slight stubble since he didn't bother shaving when he got up. He frowned. He did not like appearing to possible employers like this.

"Good afternoon, or rather evening, Mr Shouyou, I hope John didn't tell you too many bad things" Shouyou chuckled at that, his eyes focused & analyzing which, along with his bizarre grin, sent an oddly mixed message of a madman who knows he's mad, but enjoys it. "No, no. Just the interesting things. That's why I set up this little chat, so I can get some insight into your character & personality, before I give your local branch the okay to hire you." That gave Xander pause. "You mean, you purposely set up this up, when I had no idea what was going on, so I had no idea what that link did?!" he immediately questioned. Shouyou gave a small bow in his chair, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "You're quick on the uptake! I like it! Yes, that's exactly what I did. I wanted to know how you would respond to the unexpected. The game will throw all sorts of things at you. As a tester, we need you to be able to recognize, accept & adapt against anything you come across." Xander sat a little straighter at that, as he tried to analyze the older man for any hint of a gag or joke, but.. nothing. Just that crazy grin & probing eyes. 

"H-hang on.." Xander stuttered, shocked by the sudden change of topic, "You mean I'm accepted? I got the position?" The deep belly laugh from the speakers nearly knocked him off his chair. Shouyou's laughter was so contagious, Xander found himself chuckling along with him, despite his anxiousness. "Of course you're accepted!" Shouyou exclaimed "I would have told you straight up of you weren't. Report to 7 High Street on Monday, say 11 o'clock? I'll let them know you're coming. Ask for Crowely when you get there, he's the Head Designer for the game at that branch, he'll get you set up." Xander barely had time to stammer a thank you, a look of shock & bewilderment on his face, before Shouyou closed the connection.

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A/N

I'm baaaack! Holy crap, that took a while. Sorry about the delay guys, got busy with work & other IRL things. It's been a month since I've posted, what the hell? *smacks head on desk multiple times* Anyway, I was hoping to actually get into Live No Evil this chapter, but it didn't turn out that way. Any surprised? *crickets chirping* Didn't think so. Anyway, thanks for holding on, I'll try and post another chapter soon! Let me know what you think of this one, any kind of criticism welcome! Also realized that I wasn't including paragraphs in my writing, so hopefully it looks better now. How do you think you'd do if an employer set you up like Shouyou did Xander?

-Merlin