In which some gamers hang out, bond, and maybe, just maybe, help each other work through some Complicated Issues.

Parad knocks on the doorframe to Nico's old room in Taiga's clinic, which has been more-or-less converted into a mini office of her own. "Hey, are you free to talk?"

"Yeah, I'm taking a break from homework right now. Probably got another ten minutes before I need to get back to it." Nico doesn't look up from her handheld, but Parad hadn't really expected her to. "What's up?"

"I was – Me and Emu were – do you have any free evenings coming up? Like, enough that you'd be able to visit in a not-everyone type of way?"

"So, you guys are settled enough to be inviting people over, is that it?" Nico looks over the top of her handheld.

"Er, kind of?" Scratching the back of his neck, Parad shrugs. "Emu says we are, anyway. I'm still getting used to living in the real world as my own person, so I don't really have enough experience to judge, really. But he asked me to ask you if you wanted to… well, hang out on Friday?"

"So, what, you two are having a game night or something?"

"I think so? Maybe?" Parad groans. "Uggghhh. I don't KNOW, I don't have much experience with this sort of thing…"

Nico can't help but frown in concern, putting down her game. "Which sort of thing? Talking to people, or the normal life thing?"

"Yes."

"Kay then, first off: Of course I'll be there, just let me know what time. Second: talking to people sucks a lot of the time, and me and him aren't exactly much better at it, which you ought to know full well. Third: you're putting too much thought into this."

"Excuse you, I am putting exactly the right amount of thought into this, shut up!"

She grins. "That's more like it."

"Wh- you- you're all jerks."

THAT gets Nico to burst out laughing. "It took you this long to notice? The ONLY functional people in this entire group are Poppy, that government guy, and MAYBE the hospital director. And let's face it, neither of the other two noticed Kiriya staying at the hospital either, so we're down to Poppy."

"Eh… hang on…" Parad looks confused. "You're not including-"

"I went into Chronicle knowing the risks and that I stood a stupidly high chance of not making it out." Nico shrugs. "So it wasn't exactly a great idea, not gonna lie. Still better'n Emu, though. He was apparently all, 'Oh, no, I have no idea what's going on, and no idea what this belt thing does, but you were looking for Genius Gamer M, and here I am, so I'll just go fight this giant monster with zero idea how any of this works and figure it out as I go!'" She glares at Parad. "You're both idiots."

"…Yeah, fair enough. I can't really argue with either of those points."

"Sup."

"Nico!" Emu grins brightly. "You actually came!"

"Rude! Of course I did!" she scoffs. "Game night, heck yeah, let's go!"

"Right! Did you bring your own controller?"

"Duh." She drops her bag to the floor, and roots around in it. "Here. Get it synced up for me?"

Emu nods. "Got it. Parad, why don't you and Nico go grab some snacks?"

Parad slowly nods, while Nico gives a sarcastic salute.

"Hey, are you okay?" Nico looks over at him, where he's grabbing a large bowl.

"…Yeah. Just nervous."

"Don't worry about it, okay? Obviously Emu thinks you can handle this, so that oughta be a good sign, right?"

"…I guess…" He brightens a little as they walk back out. "That's a pretty cool skin on your controller, though."

"I know, right? Took a while to find somewhere to get a decent cover that they'd also customize for my colors, and it's COMFORTABLE, too. It's got a really good texture to the grip."

"Here ya go, guys!" Emu slides two controllers across the small table set in front of the TV. Parad grabs the one in the middle, and Emu takes his to the far end of the couch.

"…Hey, Emu?" Nico picks up her controller, looking at the number of indicators that are lit up. "Why d'ya have me as player one?"

His grip tightens on his own controller. "Does it matter? Besides, we had some sessions while you were still at Taiga's clinic, after Chronicle, and you were P1 then."

"Yeah, but I was the host then. You're the one running things here."

"It's an offline game, so it's not like it's going on anyones record."

"Yeah, but-"

"Hey!" Parad interrupts, slightly louder than necessary. "Nico, what's your stance on manuals – for, against, or indifferent?"

"Eh?" She looks at him weirdly. "I'm incredibly for them. Why?"

"See?" Parad looks smug. "That's four to one, Emu, you lose."

"No, no, not yet!" Emu pouts. "Your logic?"

"Pft." Starting to count off on her fingers, Nico elaborates. "Where do I start? You get warned ahead of time how much hell you'll be going through with the menus, because Arceus knows that those have gotten terrible over the years. Character art that's exclusive to manuals is always cool; and that's the same reason I'm pro-strategy guide, too. They're where all the good preliminary world building was, once upon a time. Game manuals are a dying art and I want them back."

"Not you, too!" Emu throws his hands in the air, exasperated, but also looking somewhat relieved. "I mean, I'll give you the part about the art, and guides do have a lot more behind-the-scenes features than they used to, which is always cool. But if the game is well done enough, then you don't NEED the world building to be in a manual! If it's not, or if the story isn't important, then it wouldn't matter anyway."

"Sorry Emu, but this makes it four to one on the topic. You lose this debate, that's all there is to it!"

Emu huffs in exasperation. "Well, when did you change your mind on all of this?"

"About six months into trying to find a new identity." Parad states, his voice level.

"…Ah. Okay, yeah, that's fair…" Everyone deflates a bit.

"Okay, let's just game, then?" Nico tries to grin.

"Right, yeah."

"Mm-hm."

"Hey, Parad?" Emu murmurs, while they wait for Nico to come back from the restroom.

"Mm?"

"Thanks for the distraction back there, with the whole controller thing."

"Right." Parad nods. "No problem. Not like I wanted to get on that topic either. Guess Nico's not so far off saying that Poppy's the most functional person around here, is she?"

Emu chuckles. "Yeah, well. It's not exactly something we can explain, now is it? I can't really go ahead and say 'Yeah, so back as a kid, I designed two characters, and of course one of them's a self insert, because I was eight, except he's actually the sidekick', now can I?"

"Not without us both getting in some sort of trouble." Parad shrugs. "Not yet, anyway. Can't get away with 'you prefer blue, but law of chromatic superiority won out for the main character', because we didn't learn about that until we were, what, 14, 15?"

"Sounds about right. Plus, I really do prefer warmer colors and it kind of shows." Sighing, Emu leans back. "I'm not… I'm not planning on telling them. That I made the Orange brother to be the hero I wasn't, and that if the game had been real back then, I'd've gladly used the Blue when I could, because it would mean I was playing with someone. That isn't really something I can explain."

"We should probably tell them sooner or later, though."

"…I'd prefer later. Much later."

Just outside the door, Nico and Kiriya share a worried look.

"Hey, can you explain somethin' to me?" Kiriya waltzes in when the three are between rounds. "I keep hearing you guys talk about things like 'player one' and stuff, and I just don't get it. Mind enlightening the non-gamer in the apartment?"

There's a pause for a bit, before Emu starts talking, an excited gleam in his eye. "Okay, most game systems can have up to four people playing on them at once. There has to be at least one person, of course, since otherwise the console's not in use. That's 'player one'."

"Or P1, 1P, or however the game decides to display it." Parad chimes in.

"Right. So, the console has four ports you can plug a controller into, and each of those designates itself to a specific player 'slot' – one through four."

"But you guys don't have anything plugged in."

Parad shakes his head. "No, we're using wireless controllers. Those got invented after four-player became the standard. And if we were in a competition or something, we'd want to use wired, because wireless means that a connection can drop, or the input can lag, or the batteries in the controller can die, but since this is a casual… well, mostly casual thing, wireless is fine."

"They're easier to bring places, too. Cables get tangled really easily, so a wireless is better if you're traveling to play at someone else's place." Nico chimes in, holding up hers.

"True!" Emu points over her direction. "And whoever is 'player one' is in control of the system – so they're the ones choosing modes, going through menus, and the like. Two through four are… hm."

"Guests? Is that a good word?"

"Sure, we can go with that. Like, when we… uh… oh…" Emu slows to a stop, looking over at Parad.

"You're talking about the first time you all defeated Graphite, aren't you?"

"…Yeah. Sorry – I should have remembered – it was basically just the two of you for a long time, wasn't it?"

Slowly, Parad nods. "Yeah. It was. But… I saw how you handled getting the gashat to work for all of you, and it's a good example for the topic, so…" He looks at the ceiling, "What Emu did there, when the Drago Knight gashat split into four, that was basically the same thing as having four controllers. The three of you – Brave, Snipe and Lazer, I mean – were basically players two through four. Emu had the original gashat, so he would have been considered player one in that scenario. When the Gear Dual came into the picture-" Parad pauses. "Well, Nico was here for that, but you weren't, so basically, Brave couldn't withstand using Taddle Fantasy and being level fifty at first, but he could use the combined Drago Knight on his own by then. Which doesn't fit the controller metaphor, really, but running it solo is basically level 20, and each individual weapon is closer to being level 5."

"That actually would explain a lot about the whole 'not being able to control it' problem…" Emu mutters under his breath. "I was just thinking about the problem with regards to the game's multiplayer aspect, I didn't even consider the potential that I was just comparatively under-leveled in a physical manner at the time…"

"So." Sitting backwards in a chair, with his arms crossed over the back of it, Kiriya fixes the two of them with a focused stare. "I've noticed something else, too. When it's just the two of you, whoever's in control of all the menus sits on that end of the couch." He nods to where Nico's sitting. "So if I understand you right, that means that's usually player one. Parad's sitting in the center, so he's probably player two, right? Process of elimination means that Emu's player three."

Sighing, Kiriya closes his eyes. "Emu. You were willing to get us to beat you up to make all four of us work together long enough to take down Graphite, and you were this 'player one' then. So, if this is your system, and it's your game, why aren't you player one here?"

Emu and Parad both freeze in place.

"And it's not just now, either." Kiriya points directly at Emu. "Almost every time I've seen you two playing together, Parad's sitting where Nico is now, and you're where he is. Meaning Parad's the one running the show.

"What gives, Ace?"

"I – Well – That's…" Emu swallows. "It's… still new to me, kind of. Playing alongside people, instead of competing one-on-one, I mean. The novelty hasn't worn off just yet."

Kiriya and Nico both narrow their eyes at him.

"I mean it! I'm just taking advantage of the chance, that's all!"

Taiga looks up from his computer at the sound of someone clearing their throat, to see Emu, Poppy, and Nico all in his office. 'When did they get here? Have they just been waiting for me to notice them?!' "What do you want?"

"We just want to talk, Taiga." Poppy spreads her hands, clearly trying to put him at ease. Yeah, like that's gonna work. Emu's got his blank neutral face on. He's in so much trouble.

"What about?"

Poppy begins. "We were just wondering – and we don't want to be rude, but we need to ask-"

"Oh, just cut to the chase, already!" Nico rolls her eyes. "Where do you live, dude? Cause I spent a long time living here. I only remember you leaving at night, like, two, maybe three times. And now that I'm doing some of my school and work stuff here, I still never see you leave!"

'Shit.' "Well, I wasn't about to leave my single long term patient here alone, even if I never actually admitted her. It's your own fault."

"Uh-huh. Then why do I never see you leave at the end of a day, even now?"

"You just leave before I do. I have to maintain some degree of professionalism, here."

Poppy crosses her arms. "I've taken a look here at night, you know. There's almost always a light on upstairs for hours."

'Shit.' "Look, there's a perfectly good explanation-"

"Taiga." Oh, crap, Emu's finally spoken up. "Are you living here?"

"No!" All three just stare at him, serious expressions on their faces. "I'm not!" They continue staring. "I have an apartment!" They don't appear to be buying it. He's not going to win this, is he? "I… ugh." Sighing, Taiga drops his head. "Fine. Yes, I live here, I converted one of the rooms upstairs into a decent enough bedroom, I did it years ago, it's fine."

Emu makes a considering noise in the back of his throat. "Mind if we see?"

"I mind a lot, actually."

"Which means that we clearly should see it, because you're obviously hiding something." Emu levels a stare at him. "We're asking because we care, Taiga."

"I'd really rather you didn't."

"Um, Taiga? Emu?" Nervously, Poppy speaks up. "Nico's already gone."

"Shit." Taiga's eyes widen, and he books it for the stairs. He'd fake-closed them off for a reason, and that was to keep prying eyes where he could know they weren't bothering him. "Damnit, Nico!" At the stairs, the door is ajar. 'Damnit!' "That's cheating, you know!"

"Like hell it is!" She yells from upstairs. "You call this 'decent'?"

Taiga can hear Emu mumbling something along the lines of 'please mean it's a bachelor pad' as he and Poppy follow Taiga. He really wishes he could say that, but…

Nico has her hands on her hips as she glares at his room. It's large-ish, given how it's a converted patient room, but… well, it doesn't have much going for it. The medical equipment was shoved out into the far hall, and a mobile divider was put towards the stairs to offer a semblance of a separate hallway and block the room from view. Aside from those removals, it's barely altered.

"Taiga…" Poppy looks at him. "How… did you even get this building in the first place?"

"Hmph." He doesn't meet anyone's eyes. He can't. "After I royally fucked up, I didn't exactly have a steady paycheck anymore. I'd saved most of what I earned in radiology, but I couldn't risk burning through that with rent payments. Managed to find this place, and the last owners were glad to see it go, and let me buy it full-out. The only upkeep charges have been utilities, so… Well, whatever. This is what I've got."

He hesitates. "Also, the clinic might have been declared 'non-hostile ground' by the assorted gangs in the area, but don't quote me on that. For so many reasons, please do not quote me on that." As Emu begins to try and probably ask something, Taiga cuts him off. "No license meant no background checks and no cops, and I was taking what I could get for jobs. I am probably going to be in trouble with them for practicing legally now. And no, I'm not giving a list of names, I'm not that reckless."

"Taiga, I do not say this lightly, but…" Emu shakes his head. "What the actual fuck."

"I can keep things as quiet as they need to be, I don't spread people's information, and all of that means I don't get killed. If I get murdered, I'd prefer it mean something, as opposed to being because I was a dumbass."

Crossing his arms, Taiga turns away from the trio. "So. You've seen my 'apartment'. You've gotten what you came for, now go away."

Poppy shifts nervously. "Have… you ever considered making this… more of an actual apartment, at least? Renovating a little?"

"That would require time and effort, as well as resources. And probably legal permits and such, and do I need to remind you that I wasn't supposed to be doing any of this?"

A scraping sound heralds Nico dragging a dented stool over from the supplies pile, which she promptly stands on, and summarily baps Taiga lightly with her hat. "Idiot! You have all that stuff now! You could have said something sooner! The thing with the fighting bugsters alone was bad enough, but you did this to yourself!"

Eventually, threats of telling the rest of their bosses about Taiga's living situation wear him down.

"Fine. Fine! I'll do something with the upstairs!" Taiga tosses his hands in the air. "I don't know what or how, but I'll get it more apartment-y! Are you happy now?!"

The trio all nod. "Very." Emu smiles. "You know, I'm really glad we can all get to something approaching normal. We all needed this, a lot."

Poppy has already pulled out a smartphone, and is taking notes on the layout. "Hey, Taiga, I've wondered for a little bit now. Do you have any ideas about making the clinic more… specialized? I mean, you already specialize in treating the game disease here, but what about updating the building itself? If you're renovating part of it, that might be a good chance to do some changes all around, too…"

"That's-" Taiga starts to protest, but stops. "Okay, that's fair. It… is pretty run-down. Again, budgeting."

"So, you really never got the chance to play 'Diamond of Elysium'?" Nico leans over the back of the chair, looking at Emu incredulously.

"I really didn't." He shakes his head, selecting his save file. "I was kind of busy with med school when it came out, so I didn't have enough time to devote to RPGs. I had to pick and choose what I was playing, and this didn't make the cut."

Nico's eyes widen as she sees where Emu's character is. "Oh, you're, uh, you're at the factory dungeon..."

"Yeah, so?"

Parad freezes as he reaches to grab a handful of popcorn out of the bucket Nico's holding. "Oh, no."

"Hey, guys, come on, keep the foreboding comments to a minimum, would you? I mean, really, Parad at least should know my stance on spoilers."

"Uh-huh. I do… just. Uh. Sure." He glances nervously at Nico, who shares his distressed expression. "We'll zip it."

Emu continues playing for a while, before making it to a small, hallway-esque room with a number of chests in it. "Ooooh, that's a whole lot of items…" he whistles as he opens them. "That's a whole lot of healing items. Must be just about boss fight time." He grins. "Let's do this."

Nico and Parad just look at each other, frowning.

After a half hour long battle, a cutscene begins to play. Emu holds the controller lightly as it progresses.

"Now, we have you… you won't get away from us again!"

"Heh… heh… No… I won't…" The defeated boss laughs, his face down and shoulders shaking, before lunging at the party.

"Wait-" Emu leans forward.

"If I must fall… then I will at least take one of you with me!"

"Wait, wha- no!" The controller falls from his hands as the boss drops from a broken walkway into the machinery below… dragging the protagonist's childhood friend along with him.

"What just happened?!"

'Now saving. Please do not turn off the power.'

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Nico chews at her bottom lip. "Yeeeaaahhh… So, that's a thing a certain game designer apparently thought was a good idea."

"Why – there's zero good narrative reason for this!" Emu throws his hands into the air. "We've fought this guy twice already, he had no signs of showing this type of behavior, and had even less reason to go after Haru, so why- What the hell?!"

Parad sighs, resting his chin on a propped up hand. "That's the same thing QA told Kuroto. We did manage to talk the other devs on the game into talking him into putting all of Haru's equipment in the chest that appears at the exit of the building, so there's that, at least."

"That's still no excuse for-" Emu freezes. "Wait a minute."

Both he and Nico turn to Parad, who's looking at them in confusion. "What? What did I say?"

"You kinda just implied you were part of the Quality Assurance team, dude." Nico shakes her head in disbelief when he nods. "Were you actually working for GenmCorp? That's something that would've been nice to know about four months ago."

"Well, it's not like I was officially employed or anything." He shrugs. "I was submitting error logs, and gameplay issues and the like, but I didn't physically work in the same area as everyone else. I contributed, yeah, and talked with the rest of the team, but it was all via the internal boards, and I wasn't there in person."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Emu exhales sharply. "Were you being paid, at least?"

"I mean, I was getting room and board, so that counts, right?"

Nico laughs hollowly. "…Emu, pass me one of those throw pillows, would you?"

"Here."

"Thanks." Nico takes a deep breath, before burying her face in the pillow and screaming. "Why is this stupid company so broken?!"

"You realize that that's illegal, right Parad?" Emu looks like he's on the verge of snapping, presumably directed at Kuroto. "That it doesn't actually count as being paid? Or employed?"

"Eh?"

"I have so many things to fix! Where am I even going to start with this one?!"

(The next week, at Genm Corp)

"Why aren't you all more nervous?" A young man looks nervously around his monitor toward the door.

"Just relax, Jun." A slightly older man doesn't look up as he answers. "You've been here for years, you oughta know by now. 'Corporate inspections' barely ever go to see the developers, much less make it here to the test floor. They just want to scare us into behaving. Nothing ever comes of this."

"I dunno, Shun. Something about that email felt different. It said something about resolving discrepancies with payroll – d'ya think we might lose some people?"

"Naaaah." A woman peeks over the divider. "We haven't had a single layoff since that new primary shareholder took over. Hey!" She grins. "If someone actually does show up, maybe we can finally find out what happened to MP!"

"It's… Mika, right?" A younger female voice asks from across the aisle. "Who's MP?"

"Well, that's part of the mystery, isn't it?" Mika shrugs. "He was in Q.A. for years. The guy just showed up on the communications forum around… oh, what was it, Shun, early 2011?"

"Late '10, early '11, something like that. He was one of the best bug-finders the team had, but we never actually saw him." Shun waves a pen in the air, still resolutely not looking up. "Now, if you don't mind, I've got an error log to make sense of."

"Nobody's ever seen him?" The woman sounds sad, for some reason.

Jun shakes his head. "Not a one. We don't know what his name was, either. Around mid-2016, he stopped submitting anything, and we haven't heard anything since." He sighs. "Some of the others went to human resources to find out where he went, but they'd never heard of him, and IT didn't make his account." He peers over at the door again. "For a while, I thought he might be the Genius Gamer M, since he was known for nobody knowing who he was, but-" He cuts himself off when he turns to look across the aisle.

"Please. I always said that was a longshot." Mika laughs. "Mind ya, MP never gave us a straight answer one way or the other when anyone asked. Ya know what I think might have happened?" She gives a conspiratorial laugh. "I think the guy got caught in that whole Game Disease mess, and Dan had him taken out."

"M-Mika, shut up," Jun stammers, swallowing.

"Hmm. I wouldn't put it past that egomaniac. Did MP have any friends or anything? I know there's a 'conversation' board, so did he ever talk to anyone there?"

"Sometimes." Shun speaks back up. "He was pretty chill most of the time, unless you hit one of his berserk buttons. Got into a whole lot of debates about older games, and had some pretty good insight on 'em."

"Shun, Mika, you really need to stop-"

"C'mon, you liked the guy, Jun! I know some of the folks in row C did, too."

"Thanks, you three. This is some good info. Ya might wanna take those 'inspection' emails a little more seriously from now on, though. Your new boss? She's a little more hands-on than you've had before. Also, unlike a bunch of your old bosses, I actually give a shit about my employees."

At this, Shun and Mika finally look up, and see Nico grinning at them, seated in a cubicle with a young man.

"Ch-Chief!"

"Ah, man, come on…" Nico grimaces. "Why'd Tsukuru have to get that started?"

"M-Mr. Koboshi said you'd refused to let anyone call you Madame Chairwoman, so…" Jun stammers.

The young man in the chair smirks. "Sounds like the lesser of two evils, 'Chief'."

"Emu, don't you dare."

Emu raises his hands defensively. "Hey, we're in your territory right now. I'm just going along with it."

"Of course you are." She rolls her eyes before turning to the three stunned testers. "Thank you though, really. It's good to know what was going on here."

Emu smiles. He looks really familiar, but where from? "It's a relief to know that he had friends here that weren't Graphite, honestly." He cocks his head to the side, as if listening to something. "Well, you never told us about anyone besides him and Kuroto, so what was I supposed to think?! Besides, I know full well how much of a shut-in we were outside of the tournament circuit, so it's not like you'd have talked to anyone from then."

Nico rolls her eyes. "He's giving you grief again?"

"It's fine, not much more than usual… Yes, you do!"

Jun bites his lip. "Sir…? Are you alright?"

"…Bluetooth."

He doesn't look like he's wearing an earpiece, but he's clearly not going to say what's really going on, so. Just gonna let the chief's weird friend, who apparently knows MP, slide.

Also, it sounds like MP knew one of the previous CEOs? Huh.

"So," The chief leans over the backrest of the chair she's claimed. "Which people worked with MP the most? Y'know, for certain definitions of most, since he was telecommuting."

Mika shrugs. "Jun here, and a bunch of folks from row C were closest to him. I liked the guy, but we only ever had one project together."

"D'ya think people would be open to him working here in person?"

Yoko, from the next aisle over, looks around the wall of her cubicle. "Are you kidding?! The guy became a legend! Our productivity took a huge hit when he vanished, and we'd love to meet the gu-" Her eyes bug out. "HOLY SHIT!"

Emu winces. "Language."

"HOLY SHIT YOU'RE GENIUS GAMER M!"

He winces even more, seeming to try and shrink down into his over-sized scarf. "Y'know, I was hoping nobody would notice that…"

Nico snorts. "Yeah, except you came to a game company. Just because I'm the only person to have tracked you down doesn't mean I'm the only person to remember you."

"Nicooooo…"

"For a while, some forums had entire subsections devoted to figuring out where the hell you went."

"They had what?!" M looks shocked. "Why?! I was a jerk!"

She shrugs unrepentantly. "About a third of us in there did wanna kick your ass if we found you, but most of the others just wanted to know what happened." Looking over at Yoko, she smirks. "For the record? The handful of us who said he went to med school were right. This loser-" she jerks her thumb at an indignant M "-works in pediatrics. Not that that's what makes him a loser. The fact that he's a total dweeb, however…"

"Nico, please, I am begging you to stop." M buries his face in his hands. Jun can't lie, it's kinda neat to see that these two legendary genius gamers – one of whom is his boss – are just normal people, if a little stranger than most.

"So…" He dares to speak up again. "Why are you asking about MP, anyway?"

M shrugs. "Group effort to re-introduce him to people, properly this time. He doesn't exactly… talk about the last six or seven years much, so Nico and I were surprised to find out he had a job here, even though it wasn't exactly," he hums in consideration. "It wasn't exactly above-board. Dan Kuroto did a lot of things that we're working toward fixing."

When his expression becomes a bit… distracted, the chief picks up the conversation. "Basically, Emu 'n me are some of the folks cleaning up a couple messes, and getting 'MP'-" She makes little air quotes "-going is a big part of it. We were thinking of helping him go back to working here, and it sure sounds like people'd be okay with the idea."

Emu jumps out of the chair, stumbling slightly. "I gotta go, he's trying to run – Parad, we talked about this!" The last part, said before he runs off, seems to have been directed at whoever it is that he's been occasionally talking to.

So, M's a little more off his rocker than advertised. Ooookaaaay then.

The department doesn't really think anything of it for the next week.

Or, well, it's more that the chief insisted that the people she spoke to keep what was said on the down low, and they mostly agreed. The rumor mill is a powerful thing, though, and Yoko's shouting had drawn a bit of attention.

So, with the knowledge that A; Genius Gamer M had shown up and B; had been discussing Top QA member MP, the rumor mill naturally came to the conclusion that MP was, in fact, M after all, and may or may not be coming to work with them again.

It sure didn't sound like they were the same person, though, from how Chief Saiba and M were talking.

But, about a week and a half later, they showed up again, a third person in tow. He's significantly taller than either of them, in a weird coat. Then again, Jun's seen weirder on cosplayers. There was that one guy dressed as the end boss from Drago Knight Hunter Z that made a ruckus with the writing team for the latest entry in the series about two and a half years ago. It was a really good costume, too – and the havoc he apparently wrought set development on said game halfway back to the drawing board.

(The team refused to talk about what happened, so nobody's even sure why he was so furious.)

The chief lets out an ear piercing whistle. "Hey, folks, listen up!" Once all eyes are in her direction – because there is no way anyone on the far side of the room can see her – she grins. "Okay, I know this isn't how this type of thing is usually done, but I thought it warranted a break from tradition.

"So, some things got a little screwy here over the past handful of years-"

A shout of "no shit!" comes from somewhere, and M gives a stern glare in their direction.

"-and most of that is from the past bosses you've had. But I heard you had this one really good tester back before everything spiraled way out of control…"

he can just make out the taller man murmur something about that being the 'understatement of the century,' to which M squeezes his shoulder supportively. (It's a little funny to see, since he has to reach up to do it.)

"…And turns out, he caught tangled up in it."

Another person yells out. "OH GOD, HE DID GET DELETED, DIDN'T HE?!"

All three of the people up front give very serious looks, but it's M who speaks up. "As has been said many times, those who were lost to the game disease have not been 'killed' or 'deleted'. They are effectively comatose, but we do plan to someday be able to retrieve them. I have had enough of people saying-"

This time, it's the stranger's turn to hold M back.

"…Sorry. I… we have a vested interest in the situation."

"Oh wait, hang on!" A third person calls out. "You're the guy from those press conferences, aren't you?"

"Depends which ones you mean, but can we please get back on track now?"

"Oh, to hell with this." The taller man rolls his eyes.

"Language."

"Both of you are making this way over-complicated. And here I thought I was the one who would make a mess of this." He waves. "Hi. My name's Parad. You guys used to know me as 'MP'. I'm back, I guess."

The room is silent for a moment, before an immense commotion starts up.

"He's not dead?!" "I thought you guys were lying about him being an actual person!" "How'd you always get away with working remotely?!" "OH THANK JENOVA YOU'RE BACK!" "Hey, I think I saw you sneaking in the cafeteria after it closed a few times…" "Are you actually working on site now?" "Are the three of you a thing or something?" "Dude you can't just ask people that!" "THANK YOU FOR BEING REAL!" "Any idea which project you're gonna be on? 'Cause I'm pretty sure you're still on the 'don't put on Drago Knight' list." "Wait, is that actually still in the works?"

M perks up. "Hang on, what was that about a new Drago Knight game?"

The tall guy – MP – Parad sighs. "Don't hold your breath. Graphite got real pissy about the final boss's concept. Think one of the people he confronted had a nervous breakdown afterward…" He runs a hand through his hair. "Anyways, I don't… think I have a workstation yet? This was. Kind of rushed, apparently."

M gives him A Look. "If you'd told us you'd worked here sooner, we'd have been able to do this a lot more efficiently."

"You didn't have to rush me back in, though!"

Nico chuckles. "Ohhh, yes we did. Ya already tried to run when we were talking to people without you here. Of course I pushed this through."

They both give her a scathing look. ""That was an abuse of your position and you know it.""

"I prefer to think of it as using our terrain to our advantage."

Parad forces his leg down to keep it from bouncing as his 'trainer' starts to explain the internal forums.

"Alright, you're going to want to click 'log in' up in the corner, and then where it says 'request ID'-"

He just logs straight in, and gives his startled 'tour guide' an unimpressed look. "I told you I worked here before. I'm new to being here in person, not new to the department, and definitely not new to the company."

"I'm. Still supposed to teach you how to use these, aren't I?"

Parad sighs as he navigates into his inbox, and then winces. "Oooohhhh, that's a whole lot of DMs. Guess they really did want to know where I went." Nearly all of the messages are from other members of the Quality Assurance department – some dated way back, asking for opinions on projects that he hadn't gotten the chance to answer; some from less far back, asking why he wasn't signing in as often; and the more recent part of the backlog – all of which are from around when Chronicle was running – asking if he was okay. "Wow. Didn't think any of them would care that I took off, but guess I was wrong." Resting his chin on one hand, he looks at the newest messages. "Let's see… welcome back message, welcome back message, why the hell is this guy asking what I am to Nico, a 'where the hell have I been' message, a 'sorry for assuming you died' message, another 'sorry for thinking you were dead' message, a few more messages asking where I went, a bunch more welcome back messages…"

Looking back up at the tour guide, Parad smiles. "You may as well head back. They said you were supposed to show me around, not how to use the systems. The messages must have gotten mixed up, is all."

The glorified guide nods hesitantly, and walks away.

"Now, where is my assignment…?"