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Marcello was new in the Iron Fort. Being a newbie meant, all the crappy jobs were given to him. Any and all graveyard shifts, sorting dusty files in the archives, messages that need to be taken to the Varia,(who sometimes kill the messengers) and occasionally the CEDEF, interspersed with kill-me-now dead boring guard duty in a variety of empty places. In front of doors no one really uses, next to vases no one goes near, in empty hallways and the latest, in front of a huge block of ice, still covered in chains.
‘Must be for the ice sculpture for the Masquerade Ball. Strange they haven’t taken the chains off yet. Must have been hell getting it in here.’ Marcello mused as he continued his mind-numbingly boring guard watch in an empty room, staring at an ice cube of unusual size.
His watch finished and he forgot all about it until 3 days later when he overheard one of the household staff moaning about the BRT Bartolini(1) people sending the ice to the wrong location for the Masquerade Ball.
Marcello, being a helpful guy, says “Don’t forget about the block they left in the basement. I thought it weird they didn’t Pre-sculpt, but I figured it might have been a part of the festivities to watch a master craftsman make a sculpture from a block of ice. It might be they just sent the wrong one.”
“Oh, I didn’t know someone dropped a block of ice in the basement. And no one said anything about a live performance. They may have sent us the wrong one, I’ll have to call the company to take it back. Thank you.”
Marcello nodded and continued on his way to the archives, as he had another shift sorting dusty old files, moving boxes and trying not to sneeze. This time he was a little more prepared… with a mask!
He forgets about it. The Masquerade Ball goes off without a hitch with fully finished Ice sculptures decorating the place, and no one dead. Which is always a welcome surprise.
He stays on the graveyard, crap jobs shift roster for another six months before a fresh set of newbies begin and he can gleefully offload his crappy jobs on the fresh meat. … he means new employees. He decides to be a little merciful and warn them to wear a mask in the archives, but not too merciful ( let’s their imagination run wild as to what kind of mask and why they should wear it, a gas mask? Is there poison? A flame trap? …Mwahahaha *evil cackle anyone?* the possibilities are endless!) and he wanders off.
Marcello still has boring guard shifts but they are locations that are used now. He couldn’t shake the Varia or CEDEF delivery though since he’s still alive, the higher ups will keep sending him until the Varia kill him. Or he gets high enough on the food chain to send someone else to replace him. Marcello lives for that day.
Three months later there’s a red alert at the Iron Fort…