Chapter Text
The second the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration campus got wind that the executives were sending seven people into space, the employees got antsy. Friendships were severed, people stopped trusting each other--if you wanted to be on the crew, you had to get serious. Every week, the higher-ups would relocate people to different rooms, testing to how certain employees reacted to being cooped up in close quarters. Sometimes, employees would be taken for days to be tested in isolated environments with other candidates. It was one of the most stressful times at IPRE headquarters.
Oh, and it was Magnus Burnsides' first week at the Institute.
Magnus was part of a program that brought in younger talent to the IPRE. With a research facility filled mostly with wizards and engineers, the actual talent pool of the employees was questionable. Rumors floated around that most of the people in this program were brought in because of the space trip--which would make sense. Magnus was a burly dude, and it would be so helpful to have someone like that on an exploratory trip. The other people in this program followed in the same vein. Two strange choices in particular: a novelist and some dude named Greg who was an elevator mechanic.
People were immediately suspicious and curious about Magnus.
A couple of pilots visited him during his orientation to see if he had what it took to drive one of the ships. He didn't. Some assholes from the amateur wrestling club tried to pick a fight. He won. Magnus tried to pick a fight with some of the other sports teams. He won, but got written up.
Magnus became a legend before he was even out of orientation.
But soon, he was assigned a roommate and a function. Most of his time was spent learning about the IPRE and its research, which wasn't too strange--the IPRE functioned as a school to many of its employees, even more so recently. Management wanted candidates to know as much as they possibly could before launching them into space. Safety protocol. As soon as Magnus was out of orientation, the mythos around him died down and he was seen as a threat. Coworkers would think, What if he gets picked instead of me?
Did Magnus care? Not really. Sure, it would be cool if he was launched into space. He could fight aliens! But he didn't feel like trampling over hundreds of other employees to do it. He was also ridiculously young compared to most of the scientists and engineers. Twenty years old. A baby. Elves laughed at him a little. Humans envied him. Dwarves and gnomes were uncomfortable around him--he was a giant to them. Even so, Magnus settled into campus naturally.
Magnus' first roommate was a quiet middle-aged dude that broke dress code on a regular basis: Sildar Hallwinter.
"But, please, just call me Barry."
Barry "Every day is Casual Friday" Bluejeans was at least twice Magnus' age. Barry was very prepared to be ignored by this kid, but Magnus always asked how his day was going, what he was working on, hey, what are you doing during free time tomorrow?
And, yeah, Barry wasn't expecting that.
"I'm putting my money on the giant fly trap," Magnus said, shoving his hand into a bag of jellybeans.
A few weirdos on campus set up underground fights between gross, stupid, or horrible contestants. Engineers would rig motors to scrap metal and ram them together. Wizards would enchant whatever they could get their hands on and let them loose on their coworkers. Magnus had fought a few people in here. Barry watched every show he was able to attend, and put a lot of bets down. They weren't technically allowed to bet money, but this was how Barry got the best lab times. Magnus thought it would be fun to come watch with Barry, but he was being pretty quiet. Dude brought a clipboard and five different colored pens. Tonight's fight: Dwarf Cleric versus a giant venus fly trap.
"Nope. Cleric's going to win," Barry sat back in his chair, very sure of his bet. He bet for the most well-stocked lab in the building closest to the dorms.
Magnus held out his bag of beans, offering them to Barry. "He's tiny, Barry! How's he going to win?"
"I saw him in the botany lab once. I think plants are his thing." Barry took a handful of jellybeans from Magnus. The crowd watched in awe as the cleric...
Oh. No, no--he was taking off his shirt.
After fifteen minutes of a very uncomfortable fight, Barry collected his time ticket for the lab.
"Do you win all of your bets, Barry?"
Barry ticked off a few boxes on his clipboard. "No, not all of them. I have a solid win-loss percentage, though."
Magnus got right in Barry's face, smiling. "Want to come back here with me next time and show me how you figure it out?"
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Barry adjusted his glasses and said, "Do you know how to do auto-programming on a Fantasy Exel sheet?
The two spent a lot of time together. Barry usually kept to himself, but Magnus pushed him to hang out. He seemed boring at first glance, but dude was interesting once you got to know him. He could hold a lot of liquor. He always needed one light on in the room. Barry sent a large portion of his paycheck to his retired mother every month. He had a pair of jeans specifically to sleep in. Had a strange fascination of denim. A little too obsessed with dead things. Magnus swore he saw him put a bird corpse in his pocket out in the quad.
People caught wind of their friendship.
The jeans guy? Hanging out with Magnus? No way.
When Barry complained his back was hurting, Magnus bear-hugged him until his back cracked.
Those two are kind of...weird, right?
When Magnus got lost in the campus hallway, Barry used tracking spells to find him.
I can't tell if they're using each other or if they're really friends.
Magnus dead-lifted Barry as a dare and got twenty dollars out of it.
I don't get it.
Barry took Magnus out for his "first" drink on his 21st birthday.
This makes Magnus way less cool...right?
Magnus and Barry became very good friends in a very short span of time.
Those two? I think they're starting some kind of cult.
They're trying too hard.
It's creepy!
At lunch, Magnus wasn't stopped as much. People stopped asking to arm wrestle him. At open campus sports games, he wasn't picked first anymore.
To Barry's surprise, Magnus didn't seem to care.
"Why bond sciences?" Magnus asked out of the blue, while he and Barry were carrying a piece of ship equipment to one of the labs that Barry had won during a betting night.
Barry shrugged. "It was a big discovery when I went into school. Lots of jobs in bond research at the time. I, uh, switched my major when they started offering classes on it."
"What was your major before?"
"Bioengineering." Barry smiled a bit as he said it. "But, well, I needed something that had a guaranteed job at the end. And even though it's coming back into favor, I just. I've spent my life on this, you know? It might be fun to go back to school, but..."
The two passed a couple elves and dwarves in the hall.
Barry sighed. "I just don't have a lot of time."
"Barry, it's not like you're eighty." Magnus frowned.
"I know," He said, a nervous laugh crawling out. "But, shit. Mathematically, given enough teen pregnancies, you could be my grandson, Magnus. And--going back to study something else would take years off my career."
"Mid-life crisis, buddy?"
"A little. I know it's silly, but." Barry went silent for a couple moments. Was he embarrassed? "I've put a lot of time into my work and I don't have a lot to show for it? I mean, I'm working on a spaceship engine, and that's pretty great, but I'm not doing too great in every other part of my life. Feels like something's missing, you know?"
"Yeah, I get that." Magnus grinned, walking faster and pulling Barry with him. "What if we had a party? Like a mixer, or something. The Get Barry Laid Mixer."
Barry laughed, shaking his head. "No, it's alright. Like I said, I don't really have time for that?"
"Your loss." The two turned a corner. The lab Barry rented was sitting at the end of the hall. Magnus grabbed the other side of the equipment out of Barry's hands, so he was carrying it by himself. He insisted it didn't matter, because it was for such a short distance. But as they approached the lab, the sound of an explosion rang from inside. Magnus dropped the equipment and rushed in.
Inside were lots of different types of machinery. Scales. Lasers. Prototypes of bond engines. Most of them were damaged by the explosion in some way. Dozens of fire safe lab tables littered the room, some holding burners or containers with arcane components. Behind one of the heavy lab tables stood an elf, their face blackened with soot. They took a cloth and wiped it off, revealing a sly sun elf with a crooked smile and a glint in their eye. Looked like they were playing fast and loose with the dress code like Barry was. Without a word, they grabbed a bag from another table and rushed out of the lab.
"Fucking Tostada...." Barry grumbled, rolling his eyes. He walked to the table that the elf (Tostada?) was working at. He started to clear off the top. Magnus came up to help, and after a minute of cleaning, the two heard the door click open behind them. Magnus and Barry turned to investigate.
Tostada was back in the room. They had a hand on the open door. They looked at the two with a guilty tint in their eyes. It almost looked like they were trying to exit the lab unnoticed, but they had already left, so that couldn't be it. Tostada let out a mumble of excuses before leaving again.
Magnus went back to clearing off the table. "Were they trying to apologize?"
"You never know with Tostada. They're just so--ugh, they're everywhere," Barry grumbled, "I swear, there's got to be two of them."
After the two were able to clean the lab, Magnus went back in the hallway to pick up the equipment he dropped in the hall. He gave it over to Barry and left him to his work. Magnus walked back to his dorm room. On his way, he passed a few other labs. More of the same: equipment Magnus didn't understand, people who were either grand wizards or engineers, and just...so much bullshit.
Man, this place was weird.
Magnus loved it.