Chapter Text
Derek and Avery kept talking for weeks as Halloween rolled around. On a crisp October afternoon, Derek ordered a new coffee again in an attempt to find something he truly liked.
Spoiler alert, he didn’t find it today.
Avery was not a stranger to serving freaks, weirdos and other buzzwords but a strange man with a wide smile and bright yellow eyes was new.
The way the man walked was robotic, his legs never seeming to crease his ironed pants. His hands also would never shy away from the hot coffee cup when he downed the scalding liquid in one go.
Every day he’d stroll in at exactly 4:32 pm. Order a 12 ounce cup of black coffee, and drink the liquid so fast he had steam coming out of his mouth when he thanked Avery for the drink.
The man’s name was apparently Ryan as he always set the order under that name.
Ryan always wore a suit and a yellow tie, his brown hair slicked back with mountains of hair gel.
Safe to say, neither Avery nor Derek liked him. They both tried to find out more about him but nothing ever came up.
On Ryan’s fifth visit, Derek pointed out that he always seemed to stare at Avery when his back was turned, he would also whisper things under his breath.
“May I have a 12 ounce cup of black coffee.” Ryan asked in a monotone voice like always.
“Sure, that should be up pretty quick, that will be uh, 10.39.” Avery replied.
Derek stared at Ryan, waiting for him to do something, but he didn’t have to wait long.
“Ah, Avery! Since you have been such a good barista, I shall give you this.” He passed over a pamphlet for a program called “The Department of Metaphysical Science, Project Brilliance”
“Uhh thanks?” Avery took the pamphlet and looked over to Derek, mouthing “What the fuck?” with his hands up by his shoulders when Ryan turned away.
“Project Brilliance is accepting volunteers to help bring humanity into a new tomorrow.” He explained as he turned back and adjusted an octopus catching arrows pin on his suit.
Ryan ran a hand through his damp, sticky hair and turned his neck a bit too far to look at Derek, waving a paper at him.
“You sir, would appreciate taking this.”
Derek got up from his seat and looked at the front of the paper.
“Project Brilliance - Humanity’s door to tomorrow!
Provided by the Department of Metaphysical Science.”
Avery and Derek locked eyes again, sharing a mutual feeling of uncomfortableness.
Ryan wrapped his long lanky fingers around the coffee cup and slid 11 dollars across the counter to Avery.
“Keep the change.” He smiled as he tilted his head back and poured the scalding liquid down his throat, letting steam leak out of the corners of his mouth.
Then he turned around and marched out the door, shoes hardly making a sound.
“That guy creeps me out.” Avery murmured as he put the 11 dollars away in the cash register.
After the cafe was closed up, Derek insisted that they meet at his dorm to look up more information about Project Brilliance.
Their setup was Derek highlighting any strange wording on the paper, looking for any loopholes or hidden messages while Avery was checking for any websites that matched the name.
Derek took a bite of his sandwich before Avery prodded him in the shoulder.
“Yo I think I found something.”
The website was for a government looking genre, the symbol at the top being an octopus with arrows in its tentacles. The same as the pin on Ryan’s suit.
“It says Department of Metaphysical Science and has a bunch of links for former projects, including Brilliance.” Avery explained.
“I’m looking for a list of employees, but I can’t find anything. I assume Ryan works for them though, it’s the same logo.” He continued as he shook his head.
A popup appeared on Avery’s screen.
“Hello,
If you are an employee of the DMS, please click the link below.
If you are not, provide your first name, last name and reason for viewing. You may or may not be approved to continue your use of this website.
Thank you for your cooperation,
The Department of Metaphysical Science.”
“I’m not gonna do that.” Avery muttered as he closed the website and opened another tab to get around the popup.
Derek eyed the URL and inputted it into his own laptop, revealing the same website. Quickly clicking on “Project Brilliance Sign Up” he found a number and dialed it.
“All messages are recorded into the Department of Metaphysical Science database. If you are interested in applying to work for the DMS, press 1, if you are interested in Signing up for Project Brilliance, press 2- BEEP.”
Avery looked at Derek then back at the phone ringing.
“This is an automatic messaging system, please state your name, age, birthday, current location as of making this call, address and social security number.
Derek disconnected the call.
“Ooo yeah no.” Avery remarked
“That feels like a scam website that takes your data and sells it to the highest bidder.” Derek deadpanned.
Avery paused for a second, thinking over what to do. He grabbed Derek’s laptop and started scanning the website again for any useful information.
The same popup asking for a login occurred again, so he slammed the screen down in frustration.
“Okay great, that’s really great.” He muttered.
“Wow, I am so excited to send my data to a data broker.” Derek said in a cheery sarcastic tone.
“Psh, yeah okay so like what are we saying.” Avery chuckled.
Derek grabbed his laptop and went to plug it in and made grabby hands at Avery to have him pass over his laptop.
“Do you wanna uh, like get dinner or something.”
“Bro get what, all the places are closing soon.” Avery replied.
“Taco bell closes at 2am.”
“Oh hell yeah.” Avery stood up and stretched his legs, having to stabilize himself from going up too fast.
They both hoped a meal would help dispel the stress of almost getting their data stolen.
Derek pointed out the scooters for rent on the side of the road, pitching that they would look really cool riding them at this hour.
Arriving at the restaurant, Avery flashed his wallet in with a cheesy “Don’t worry girl, I’ll pay for this!”
Derek ordered for the both of them while Avery went to fill up the drinks.
A black van rolled into the parking lot, reflecting the building and the faint stars in the sky on its body.
Out of the black van stepped out a man and a woman. Both wearing the same suit and tie combo.
“Men in black looking ass guys.” Avery remarked as he sat down with a soda. Derek however, got a cold feeling that crawled up his spine.
The two walked into the building, looked at Derek and Avery huddled over their food and the woman stuck up her nose at the sight.
The man walked up to the register and ordered something, while the woman scanned the entire restaurant.
“You gonna pay?” The man asked, poking her.
“Nah, you brought us here.” She replied.
“Eh, fair enough.”
Avery looked at Derek and waved his hand across his face. “Bro you’ve been staring at them, what’s up?”
The woman’s head turned to look at Avery, who mouthed a quick “sorry” before taking a sip from his soda.
The woman quickly unpinned something from her suit jacket, stuffing it into her pocket.
“Those people give me Ryan vibes.” Avery muttered.
“Psh, tell me about it.” Derek remarked.
The man collected the food and left the building. The woman however looked at both Derek and Avery, wrote something down on a mini notebook and followed after the man.
Derek felt a pelt of unease. “Avery, uh, I don’t like the idea of either of us walking back alone.”
Avery took a sip of his drink and nodded. “Yeah no, I swear sometimes I felt like I was being watched by 20 eyes instead of 2 during that.” He shuddered.
“Are you good to stay at my place then?” Derek asked.
“Yeah, you’re probably normal.”
Derek chuckled and smiled with appreciation for Avery.