I do not own Chaotic nor anything related to it. It belongs to TCDigital.

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The Mipedian Foreman

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Time 14:

It's been three weeks since that day. People don't even call it anything anymore, they just say that day, and everyone else knows what they're talking about.

Today's a bit of a special day for me, too. Out of all fourteen times, this one is now my longest. I'm a little giddy, but I need to remember to be careful. I don't want to have to start all over again. Though I am going to celebrate once I'm done at the dew farm.

Three weeks of working at the dew farm have made me in better shape than anytime else in my life. I arrived here with a bit of a gut, but it's gone now. I have a solid muscle tone, as well. It's not just me, everybody's looking more fit. The struggle to survive can do that to a person.

"Shift's up! Next shift, start working the moment the person you're replacing stops!"

Twenty days of working out here, and the foreman says those exact same words each time. He's had to deal with so much crap here it isn't funny. Water thieves, dropped jugs, fights... There was even this one time when a woman was working topless and distracting everyone.

I put down my last two water vessels and head for the foreman's shack to collect my pay. The foreman is writing in a scroll when I get there. He doesn't seem to have seen me. "Um-"

"In a moment, Michael," the foreman says before clearing his throat. Ah, I guess he did see me. He writes a few more numbers down before rolling up the scroll. "Yes, your pay." He takes the coins out of a box and hands them to me.

"Thank you." I turn to leave.

"Can you stay a bit?" the foreman asks. "I want you to come with me when I'm done handing out wages."

I pause. This is new. "I... guess?"

The foreman clears his throat again. "Thank you."

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Well, this is somewhat of a surprise. The foreman is taking me to a bar. As in "place you go to get drunk" kind of bar.

The foreman takes a seat at a table in a corner of the main room, and I sit across from him. Another person quickly arrives. "May I bring you anything?"

Holy crap, the barmaid is a human. I didn't see that one coming.

The foreman clears his throat and leans back in his seat. "I'll take the hardest kainekot brandy you have."

The barmaid nods and turns to me. Crap, um... "Do you have any fresh beverages?"

It looks like I've confused the barmaid. The foreman chuckles. "He wants an alcohol-free drink."

"I see," the woman says. "In that case, anything that's on the menu, there's a fresh variety as well."

Perfect. "A kainekot fresh brandy, then, please." I have no idea what a kainekot is. I hope it tastes good.

The woman bows and leaves, and it's not long before she comes back with two identical looking glasses. She sets the cups on the table, bows, then vanishes again.

The foreman picks up one of the glasses, sniffs it, then sets it down in front of me. "That one's yours." He takes the other glass, sniffs it as well, then draws a drink from it. "Ah..." he sighs before clearing his throat.

Now that I can compare him to others, I can see that the foreman is rather atypical. For one, there are his dark green scales. Everyone else in the bar, save maybe one or two across the room, has scales that are some variation of yellow or orange. Even their eyes are usually those kinds of colors, while the foreman's are lime green. Maybe there are different races within the Mipedian tribe?

He even dresses differently, although that might simply be because of his work. He's wearing an odd leather skirt, like a Roman gladiator might have worn, and there are a pair of thin leather straps running across his muscular chest and stomach. He even has that whip still tied to the belt of his skirt. Is it the only outfit he owns? Wow, you need to get some new clothes, mister...

...Wow. Do I seriously not know his name? I am bad with remembering names, but I at least know that I used to know a person's name. This guy's basically my boss, I really should know his name.

I decide to get it over with. "I just realized I never learned your name."

The foreman opens one eye to look at me. He clears his throat and says, "Sett." Then he closes his eyes and takes another drink.

It's been bugging me so long, I forget to be polite when I ask. "Why are you always clearing your throat?"

It's that one-eyed look again. "It's nothing, it'll go away eventually."

Um, no, it's not. He's had it ever since we met.

Before I can say what's on my mind, Sett puts his glass on the table. "Tell me, Michael. Which stone on that wall is the most important one?" He's pointing at the entrance.

I look at the wall, at the carefully layered stones, at the archway that creates the entrance. "There are a few different answers to the question."

Sett clears his throat. Again. "Tell me all of them, then."

I take another look at the wall. "If you mean which stone makes it a wall, the answer is all of them. They're all working together to create that particular section of the building."

Sett nods. "What else?"

I point at the archway. "If you means which stone keeps the wall from falling, it's the keystone at the very top of that arch. The weight of that one rock keeps the other stones from slipping, locking the wall into place."

"Very nice," Sett says. "You don't sound like you're finished, though." He clears his throat.

I nod. "You're right, I have one more. If you're talking about building that wall, then the most important stone is the first one that was placed, the cornerstone."

"Oh?" Sett interrupts. "How so?"

I wave my hand around so it points to the walls of the bar. "Every other stone in the building, and by extension that wall, uses the cornerstone as a guide. If the cornerstone is crooked, the whole building will be out of alignment when it's finished."

Sett grins. "That is absolutely correct, Michael." He points at me and continues, "If you don't start something correctly, you're going to have a hell of a time fixing it later."

Trust me, Sett. I know all about starting things off wrong. "Why did you ask me that anyway?"

Sett grins and leans forward. "I need to hire another foreman."

I'm very glad I haven't touch my drink yet. That spit-take would have been messy. "And you're considering me for the job."

"Remember your first day?" Sett asks. He clears his throat and continues, "It took you mere seconds to understand our monetary system, and you weren't even looking at all the different kinds of coins!"

"Maybe I simply learned beforehand," I counter.

Sett shakes his head. "Your expression as you examined the coins told me otherwise. Now, remember that thief?"

I shrug. "Which one?"

Sett snorts. "The first one. You sure as hell intimidated him into obedience. And most of the others for that matter."

I grimace. "Thieves don't actually get their hands cut off here, do they?"

Sett shakes his head. "Didn't feel the need to mention that, though." Then he waves his hand as if brushing a thought aside. "Then there's your work ethic, your patience, your focus. Hell, I should have hired you for the position a while ago."

Michael the foreman. Some training required, I bet, but I'm a fast learner. "I'll do it, then."

"Many thanks," Sett says before clearing his throat. Then he lifted his glass to the air. "To the new foreman!"

I lift my glass as well. "To twenty-one days." I take a drink. Kainekot tastes like banana. Awesome.

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The afternoon passes. Sett orders and pays for another three drinks. I hope he isn't drinking too much. He's already acting more than a little odd.

"...and of course both armies are drunk as hell when the finally meet," he says before coughing a bit "Captain Kezzet greets the Overworld general as if they were meeting in a bar, and of course everyone's following along with it and having a great time. Right up until one of the Overworld soldiers claims that Captain Kezzet's compensating for something with the size of his sword."

I bury my face in my hands. "Oh no. And then the fighting started?"

"Nope," Sett giggles. "No, what Captain Kezzet does is stand up and pull out his penis to show it to the Overworld soldier!"

"Oh dear god," I mutter, my face probably red as a tomato.

"And then just to rub it in, the captain tells the soldier that his is smaller than other Mipedians' penises!" Sett howls with laughter that turns into a coughing fit. "I've never seen a face as humiliated as that Overworld soldier's, before or since!"

I shake my head in my hands. "I don't know how you survived that encounter."

Sett doesn't answer. I look up and see that he's passed out on the table. Oh dear.

I stand up and ask the barroom, "Does anyone know where Sett lives?"

The barmaid appears next to me. How does she do that? She's not even a Mipedian. "It's alright, the barkeeper always helps him get home."

I raise my eyebrows. "Always? Does this happen a lot?"

"Nearly every day," the barmaid says. "It started long before that day."

Sett's liver either looks like cheese now or is a world record holder. I sit back down. "Is he okay?"

The barmaid opens her mouth as if to say something, then closes her mouth. Finally she says, "If you're asking why he drinks so much, I can't tell you because I don't really know."

The barmaid picks a bucket out from under the table. She repositions Sett's unconscious form so that his face is over the bucket. Moments later, Sett vomits forcefully.

I cover my mouth and look away. "Ah. This must all be very routine now."

The barmaid nods. "We'll take care of everything. You should probably get on with your day, this will take a while."

I stand back up. "Thank you for the drinks, then." I leave a few palms on the table for her.

As I leave, I glance back at Sett. I really hope he's all right...

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Up next: The Seventh Time

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Like I said before, Chaotic belongs to TCDigital.

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