Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ciri is pretty sure she won’t get the job. She lets out a long sigh as the third interviewer leaves the room. He was scarier than the wise guy, but not as intimidating as the first one — the big manager. She’s been so nervous throughout the entire interview, at this point she figures they’re just doing her a courtesy by bringing over the last person on the team to meet with her.

The door to the conference room opens up a few minutes later and Ciri freezes up. This guy is completely different from the first three: not in the way that he's also lumberjack huge, and wears flannel business casual. He's striking and she can’t take her eyes off the scars on his face.

“Hello. Cirilla?” he says in an unexpectedly gentle tone. “I’m Eskel.”

“H-Hi, nice to meet you,” she says. “I’m Ciri.”

Eskel smiles at her, the motion tugging at his scars, and he sits across her with a clipboard in his hands. “I’m guessing the others have asked you all the boring questions,” he says, “so what do you say we just skip that and have a conversation?”

Ciri is relieved to see him put away the clipboard which has her resume on it. “Sure,” she says. “I’m sorry, I’m really nervous. I shouldn’t say that but it’s my first big interview a-and I’ve been practicing a lot.”

“Oh yeah?” Eskel says. “Practice with a friend?”

Ciri nods. “And with the people from the Job Placement office at my college. They’re super nice and gave me a lot of tips, b-but I still get really nervous.” She looks down at her hands, wishing she could have curbed her nerves a little more earlier.

“Well, being nervous is pretty normal,” Eskel says. “It’s supposedly our instinct telling us we’re in a dangerous situation. I hope the team hasn’t made you feel like your life is in danger, though.”

Ciri cracks a small smile and shakes her head. She meets Eskel’s eye more fully and he returns her smile.

“Good. So I'm sure you heard a little bit about the company,” he goes on. “Our team does mostly end user facing support, so you would be helping people with minor issues on their computers, troubleshooting the printers — sometimes they’re just low on ink. Things of that nature. You have experience in that, right?”

“I do,” Ciri says, “it’s pretty much what I do at school right now, in my student job, which is going to end when I graduate in two weeks. A-And I’ve also had a couple of internships but they didn’t last longer than a semester at a time.”

“What made you go into computer science for your undergrad?”

“I like to fix stuff,” Ciri says easily, “and I’m kind of a nerd. The school I go to is hard to get into, and there aren't a lot of girls, so it’s been tough these last couple of years being in classes with guys who don’t think you’re really all that smart.”

“Especially when you’re probably smarter than them, huh?”

Ciri laughs and it feels genuine. She likes him. He seems like the cool older brother, and not at all as scary as the other guys on the team.

“Well, unfortunately as you probably guessed, there are no women on our team right now,” Eskel goes on to say. “It’s been the case since I started here a while back. We had a Network Engineer before — that’s my role, but she was only here on contract and then moved out of state. We’ve been wanting to change that and diversify the team a little more and the way the budget worked out, we had an opening for the junior role you’re interviewing for. We talked to a lot of folks so far, and I think you’d be a great fit.”

“Really?” Ciri says, a little too hopefully. “S-Sorry. It’s just, the other guys I just talked to on your team didn’t really give me any kind of feedback. O-Or much of any reaction, actually.”

“Damn.” Eskel rubs his chin, disappointed but not surprised. “Yeah, they’re your typical IT guys. We’re all pretty tight knit though, and believe it or not, they actually know how to smile. Gotta trick 'em to see it, though.”

“Lambert made a joke but… I didn’t really get it.”

“I asked him not to do that.”

“I’m worried I might have offended him," Ciri says with a grimace.

Eskel chuckles. “Nah. Don’t worry about that. So, do you have any questions I can answer? Not sure if they gave you enough time to ask any.”

Ciri has a ton of questions and she only managed to squeak out two or three, to Vesemir, no less. “Um I-I was just wondering how long you guys expect a new person to pick up on stuff, I-I wouldn’t want to mess up in a new environment, a-and I know there’s training and stuff b-but-, um yeah.”

“So,” Eskel leans back in his seat. “Learning curve, I’d say, is about five to six months, sometimes more. What environment are you in at your school, Apple?”

“Yeah, we support macs.”

“Alright, we’re mostly windows here, but our developers run macs,” Eskel says. “So you would be supporting both, but we don’t really expect you to to know everything right away. We all do something a little different and we’ll all train you, in our own way. A lot of things will just take getting used to. Anything you're unfamiliar with comes up, ask one of us and you’ll have an answer. We won’t throw you in the fire on your first day. It’s true we haven’t onboarded in a while. But, the way we’re hoping to make this work is that you’ll shadow us on tickets and work orders, and do your own thing as well until you get used to things. Does that sound okay?”

“Yeah, no that’s perfect. I-I have another question.”

Eskel gestures that she goes on, and smiles at her. “Shoot.”

“Um, what do you think it’ll take me t-to be good at the job and, like, successful on the team?”

“That’s a great question.” He considers it for a moment, and Ciri wonders about the scars on his face. He doesn’t seem bothered by her staring, as if he's grown used to it. “Well the biggest thing I’d say is good listening skills, and being friendly. We fix issues for people on a daily basis but the team is not the most, uh ... approachable, I guess. That’s one thing we’re trying to change and it’s tough. We’re hoping someone new, someone younger, you know, will be able to relate with the rest of the company better. And hopefully help improve our image. We’re nice guys but I hear people see us as wolf pack.”

“Wait what?”

“We keep to ourselves in our office. Folks call it a cave, which is absurd considering all our lights work. We work well with each other but with the rest of the company it's sometimes an uphill battle. Doesn’t stop people from chatting us up once in a while, but I can also count those people on one hand.”

“Oh, no…” Ciri says.

“Yeah,” Eskel laughs, gruff and sheepish. “So good attitude, good listening. You know, being nice to folks — empathy, stuff like that. The tech will take some time to get used to but, you studied it and you’re working in it so you’ll be fine.”

Ciri smiles at Eskel. She asks him all of her remaining questions and he answers them patiently, in his gentle and steady tone. When they run out of time and someone else needs the conference room, he gives her a tour of the floor and shows her the IT office, taking her all the way back to the recruiter where he extends his hands.

“It was nice to meet you, Ciri,” Eskel says. “Hope to see you again soon.”

“Thank you for answering my questions, I know I was really nervous before.”

“You seemed fine to me. Have a good day. You have my email if there are any more questions.”

Ciri waves at him when he departs. She has another word with the recruiter and thinks maybe the interview wasn’t so bad after all. If only Eskel was the manager. She really hopes she’ll hear back within the next couple of days, but doubt also creeps in her mind that maybe they want someone more outgoing and less shy. Maybe they’ll hire a guy, she thinks.

It only takes her about thirty minutes from the office to get back to campus. The call comes from the recruiter as she walks into her work-study job.

“Congratulations, Cirilla, we would like to offer you the position!”

Chapter Text

“Should we set up her next to the door?” Geralt asks, staring at the haphazardly strewn mice and keyboard. He's been attempting to clean up the IT office for the last ten minutes and still has a long way to go.

“Yeah," Lambert replies. "Finally somebody else will suffer all the walk ups we get.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Eskel counters, with his back to them at his seat a few desks over. He’s got his headset on but it's unclear whether he's on a call or not. “She’s shy. You set her up as the first point of contact for walk ups and she may get overwhelmed too soon.”

“What about right here?” Vesemir calls from the back of the office. “Desk next to me is open.”

Geralt shakes his head. Vesemir's voice carries. “She won’t hear herself think over there.”

Each of them has an open desk space beside them. Lambert's is his "office", where he sets up walk ups and does general support. Geralt’s seat, a standing desk, is elaborate with dual monitors. A test machine takes up the space next to him, where he works mostly on VMs and other cumbersome tasks. Two empty and discouragingly messy desks across him follow, and then Eskel’s seat in the following desk space, diagonal from Vesemir.

“What about next to you, Eskel?” Geralt suggests, looking over the neat area. “Her back would be to the door, though.”

“I think the spot across yours is best.” Eskel turns and rises to help clean out the area. “She will have you and Lambert to ask questions, buffer any walk ups, and me and Vesemir at her back in case of anything.”

The cleanup goes faster with Eskel helping. He’s meticulous, more so than Geralt. Soon, Ciri's workstation is all set, decorated with a goodie bag from HR.

“Here.” Vesemir trudges forward from the back, with his contribution: a city team baseball cap in its original packaging, adorned with a husky logo. They all have one somewhere around their space — it’s their welcome gift. “I hope she likes it.”

Geralt tucks it as part of the goodie bag and returns to his tickets.

“What time is she coming again?” Lambert asks, once he gets off the phone with a client.

“Lunchtime. Did you block out your calendars?” Vesemir says. “We’re taking her to Charlie’s.”

Geralt grunts. It's the team tradition, going to Charlie's Bar & Grill whenever someone new comes onboard. The calendar invitation reminder has been dismissed these last few days and it pops up again. This time he accepts it and it shows him who else is coming: the immediate team, and a couple of the Cybersecurity guys.

“You should have invited others,” Geralt says with a frown.

“You mean Marketing? Legal, maybe?” Lambert teases.

"Jesus, Lamb," Eskel says with a chuckle.

“Jesus got nothin' to with it," Lambert persists. "It's okay Geralt, you can invite your special friend.”

“Shut your mouth." Geralt clicks out of Outlook and goes back to the ticketing system. “She'll need someone to talk to--. Never mind.”

“She has us!” Lambert says. “We’ll talk to her. She’ll be fine.”

"She barely answered my interview questions with more than a few words.”

“That probably was not her fault,” Eskel says.

Geralt glares at him across the room and they bicker for a few minutes.

“Ah shit,” Vesemir grunts. “HR just pinged me — she’s here. You guys be nice to her.”

“I’m always nice,” Lambert says.

Geralt scoffs.

“Listen up,” Vesemir says, “on her first day, we make sure to set the tone, so it’s smooth sailing going forward.” Vesemir shifts past them to head for the door, adjusting the cell phone holster at his belt. “Ask her questions, make her feel welcome. Scare her and it's going to reflect on your Year End Review.”

“Yeah Geralt, don’t scare her,” Lambert laughs.

Geralt ignores that, and checks Ciri’s workstation one final time, just to make sure it has everything. He imaged and set up her machine when Lambert was too busy to do it, giving her the beefiest hardware and newest peripherals she’ll need to work efficiently. He’s ready to answer any questions on it, aware that she’s mostly used macs, though he feels the transition shouldn’t be too difficult.

“I hear them,” Eskel says a few minutes later.

“It is amazing how you can do that.” Geralt frowns and stands up in time with Lambert to see Vesemir and Ciri return to the office.

“I told them to be on their best behavior today,” Vesemir is saying, “so they better keep their end of the bargain if I’m buying lunch. Alright, Ciri, you remember Lambert?”

“Yo.”

“Geralt,” Vesemir goes on.

“Good afternoon. Welcome,” he says.

“And Eskel, back there,” Vesemir finishes.

"Hey Ciri!"

Geralt notices that Ciri nervously shakes both his and Lambert's hands, but the moment her attention is directed to Eskel, a smile breaks on her face and she waves happily at him.

They all stand and watch as he shows Ciri to her workstation and points out her welcome package.

“Hat’s got a husky on it,” Eskel says. "We all have one."

“Like a wolf pack!” Ciri replies, after trying it on. The Dad Cap fits a little big on her head. "I love it!"

She then sits at her desk and goes through the motions of setting a new password.

“Let me know if you have any questions,” Geralt says, unprompted.

“O-Oh, okay.”

They all try not to hover — except for Lambert who is on his phone — yet invariably end up looking as if they’re trying to crack her new password from keystrokes. Finally, Ciri is all signed in, and everything opens normally.

“Look good?” Vesemir asks, and Ciri nods. “Geralt will set up your admin account in a couple of weeks, so you can do more stuff. Ready for lunch?”

“Right now?” Ciri asks, her eyes wide. She’s so innocent, even though she just graduated college, Geralt feels like they’re all centuries older than her. “S-Sure!”

“Great. Come on, fellas.” While Vesemir moves over to get his keycard so they can lockup, Geralt tries to think of something to ask their new hire. He draws a blank. Lambert laughs at something on his phone, then looks outside the IT office and spots their pals from Cybersecurity.

“Come meet our new hire,” he declares. “From now on, you can direct all your infernal email issues to her.”

Laughter ensues and Ciri becomes the center of attention as everyone extends their hands to introduce themselves. Geralt thinks she won’t remember any of their names in ten minutes.

By the time they are walking out of the office toward Charlie’s, Ciri has somewhat quietly retreated to the back of the group. Geralt finally has a decent question he can ask — what kind of food she likes. He looks over his shoulder and sees Eskel beside her.

“Do you have any favorite foods, Ciri?” Eskel asks.

Geralt grinds his teeth. Back to square one. He does eventually think of another question, asking about her college and what she liked about her program, but most of her answer is so quietly spoken, he has to pretend he's heard it.

Their table is rowdy, like many of the others. It seems anytime Ciri looks to be even slightly out of place, Eskel, who sits across from her, tears his gaze from the football game on the television at the corner of the bar, and strikes up a new conversation with her.

“Did you like the place?” Geralt asks Ciri once they are back at the office.

She nods enthusiastically. “I want to try what Eskel had, next time. Do they do takeout?”

“They do,” Geralt says. “We order from them sometimes. Vesemir usually treats us.”

They settle into their seats. Lambert is called away and Geralt does a quick scan of his email before coming over to Ciri’s workstation, to show her a couple of things. He explains the phones to her, tells her all of their lines ring when someone calls the main number, but that she doesn’t have to answer this week if she’s not comfortable. He shows her how to transfer calls to each of their extensions, and directs her attention to some helpful reading material to tide her over the rest of the day.

Vesemir rises by five o’clock. “I got an appointment, fellas. Ciri,” he says, “you can go home if you like. There won’t be too much for you to do while you’re training, and in general you’re welcome to head out whenever you’re done for the day, or when you need to. Alright?”

“O-Okay, thank you,” Ciri says. “Thank you for lunch.”

“My pleasure.” With that said, Vesemir is gone. Lambert is next. He’s on the early shift and should have left an hour prior, though he always stays longer.

“See you guys tomorrow,” he says, “I hope anyway.”

“You hope?” Ciri squeaks.

“If ya come back,” Lambert says to her, “it means we did somethin’ right today.” He laughs and is out the door quickly enough.

“He’s… interesting,” Ciri says quietly.

Geralt chuckles. “Yeah. He is. Smart as hell, though.”

“What did you think of your first day, Ciri?” Eskel asks.

“It was good!” Ciri swivels in her chair to face him, and Eskel instinctively does the same. Geralt doesn’t know how they’re already best friends who mirror each other’s postures—but he’s suddenly glad Eskel is on the team. “Lunch was pretty fun, I liked that place. I wanna do more of the stuff Geralt showed me tomorrow. And I think I’ll start answering the phone, too… i-if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, sure,” Eskel says. “You can always transfer if the person on the other line seems to be speaking gibberish.”

Ciri giggles, and Geralt wonders how Eskel does it. He doesn’t think the guy has a little sister or anything, but he’s a natural.

“I’ll get going for now,” Ciri says, grabbing her stuff. “Thanks for a great first day.”

“Have a good night,” Eskel replies. “See you tomorrow.”

“See ya! Bye Geralt!”

“Bye, Ciri,” Geralt says. Long after he’s seen the last of her blonde hair, he tucks his headset away, and gets to work on deploying some updates with Eskel. “Guess that wasn’t so bad.”

“Yeah,” Eskel agrees. “It’ll be good to have her around. People might actually start liking us again.”

Geralt sure hopes so. "Wanna grab a beer after this?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Eskel replies.

They share a smile, without their eyes meeting, and hurry to finish.

Chapter Text

Ciri’s new colleagues are completely different from each other. Lambert is kind of a wise guy, making jokes while resolving issues. Ciri can’t read him that well. Some days she thinks he doesn’t like her, other days he’s extremely helpful while training her, which he does a lot. Geralt is silent ninety percent of the time. He shows Ciri some stuff, mostly server related, and sometimes has her tag along when an issue needs him in person to be resolved.

Eskel is always friendly. Whenever the office is silent, save for the steady click-clack of typing, he sends Ciri goat memes that make her laugh out loud. He is their networking guy, so his interactions with other company people seem to be the most limited on the IT team. But Ciri likes it when he offers to show her the network closets and explains cabling to her, as it pertains to her daily work.

Vesemir spends his days in back to back meetings. Nonetheless, Ciri sees that he keeps the balance in the room, especially when her three colleagues find themselves in an intense discussion on the best way to resolve a technical issue that requires each one of their specific skills. They’re having another heated debate in front of a dry erase board, with Vesemir waiting for the right moment to mediate, when a guy walks into the IT office with a laptop clutched to his chest.

“Hi there,” Ciri says, glad for the distraction from the technical jargon coming out of Lambert’s mouth, and actually eager to help someone.

“Hi! Ciri, right?” the man says.

“Y-Yeah.”

“I heard IT got a new person. I’m Jaskier, in Marketing.”

“Oh!” Ciri shakes his hand. She still feels a bit shy when people recognize her as the new girl, though she’s been onboard for a few weeks now. She feels like the fact that this man is in Marketing should be relevant for some reason. “It’s n-nice to meet you. How can I help?”

“Well, my laptop randomly disconnects from the WiFi while I’m in meetings,” Jaskier says, raising it in one arm, “and it’s really starting to become a hindrance. I had this issue last week a couple of times and, um, Geralt actually took a look…”

At this point Jaskier’s eyes drift deeper into the IT office, while Ciri reaches out for the laptop. She opens the laptop to see what she can do to figure out the issue, thinking back on a few things she’s learned about the wireless signal in the office.

“Can you sign in please?” Ciri asks Jaskier, only to find his gaze on her colleagues, who have suddenly gone rather quiet back there, considering they were just aggressively discussing Multi-Factor Authentication like it's a competitive sport.

“Hey lads,” Jaskier says with a wave.

“Well, look who it is,” Lambert practically bellows. “What’s going on Mr. Jask?”

“WiFi issue again,” Jaskier says, making an unhappy face. “Hiya Geralt.”

“Afternoon.”

“Well, I guess this meeting is adjourned,” Lambert is quick to say. “Go ahead, Geralt.”

Geralt glares at Lambert. Eskel snorts and slides an eraser across something he’d just written, to amend it.

“Um,” Ciri says. “Can you sign in, please?”

“Oh, yes, sorry!” Jaskier’s fingers move quickly across the keyboard. “Here we are. So, it takes a couple of seconds to reconnect, which I know is normal… There we are.”

“How often do you lose connection?”

“Couple of times a day?” Jaskier guesses. “I’m in a lot of meetings, and I noticed it happens in certain conference rooms more than others. But I’m the only one on the team who encounters it. Geralt took a look a while back?”

“Really?” Ciri says, unsure why he feels the need to repeat that. She multi-tasks, endeavoring replicate and isolate the issue.

“Oh yes, I think everyone in IT has looked at this computer of mine by now.”

“For the same problem?” Ciri finds that hard to believe. Everyone on the team knows their stuff. How could they not resolve something so simple? “Well, depending on how long you’ve had the laptop, it might be time for an upgrade, but I’m pretty sure I can fix it, with some more testing…”

While she focuses, Jaskier excuses himself to go have a word with Vesemir. Ciri glances his way, watching as the sea that is Eskel, Geralt and Lambert, parts for Jaskier to cross.

Ciri identifies the problem pretty quickly, but there is something weird about it.

“WiFi card,” Geralt says, startling her as he slides up nearby. “I already fixed it.”

“That… That’s what I thought,” Ciri says, with a whisper. She frowns at Geralt, who points out a few things on the screen, and makes her reboot. “But why does it keep happening? It seems—”

“Intentional.” Geralt meets her eye, and she can see his jaw working. They both look toward the back of the office, where Jaskier is laughing heartily with Vesemir. “Nice work. Test it out with him in that conference room. Eskel already looked into the network router there, so the issue is local to the machine.”

Ciri nods her understanding, somewhat puzzled by the ‘intentional’ part of Geralt’s statement as the man goes back to his seat. She decides to wait until Jaskier is done speaking to let him know about his resolved issue. But his conversation with Vesemir attracts Eskel’s attention, and then Lambert goes back there, too, and the three of them are like old pals catching up.

“I should get back,” Jaskier says, at long last. Ciri lost track of how long he’s been in the room, but now she remembers why Marketing is important — that’s the team that likes IT the most, more specifically, this guy. “How’s it looking?”

“Oh, it’s all set!” Ciri hands him the laptop back. “I threw an invite on your calendar so we can test in all the rooms where you’ve had this issue.”

“Great!” Jaskier gives her a dazzling smile, and Ciri feels like she’s been slapped across the face by how handsome he actually is up close. “I’ll have a look at that right away. It’s the weirdest thing, isn’t it, how it continues to act up?”

“Yeah. Since… it was a pretty easy fix.”

“She’s on to you, Jaskier,” Lambert guffaws and Ciri looks over to him. “Ciri this guy only comes in here to hang out with us, his computer doesn’t actually have any issues.”

“That’s not true!” Jaskier gasps, mock offended. “Although speaking of hanging out, we’re going to a rooftop bar this Friday after work. You lads game?”

“Hell yeah,” Lambert says. “I’ll tell Aiden.”

“What time?” Vesemir wants to know. “We’re doing some work Friday after hours, Eskel is on that.”

“We’ll be around quite a while I’m sure, you’re welcome anytime.”

“Is it that new place with the funky IPAs I’ve seen ads for?” Eskel asks.

“Yes that’s right,” Jaskier says. “Ciri you are welcome to join us as well.”

“Th-Thank you,” she says, genuinely taken by the offer. “I-I’ll try to come.”

“Excellent. Geralt?” The room goes quiet, and Ciri feels like she can hear the sound of his head turning, extra stiff, toward Jaskier.

“Yes?”

“Friday after hours? Rooftop?”

“Oh.” Geralt pauses. “Friday is the day I am taking the… cat. To the vet.”

“When did you get a cat?” Jaskier asks purely, while Ciri, Lambert, Eskel, and Vesemir all frown with sideways looks.

“I didn’t.”

“I don’t… I don’t understand...”

“It’s a friend’s cat.”

“I see…” Jaskier breathes. “Shame. Well, maybe next time?”

“Yes,” Geralt says, and Jaskier seems to be content with that. “Let us know if your WiFi acts up again. You’re in good hands with Ciri.”

“You’re the best Geralt, thank you so much,” Jaskier says. “Alrighty, bye IT.”

“Bye!” Ciri says with the others. Finally, a few minutes later, she looks across. “A friend’s cat? Really?”

“Don’t start,” Geralt replies, while the room cracks up, and the color in his face is adorable. From that day on Ciri no longer finds him as scary as before.

Chapter Text

It’s a busy morning of putting out one fire after the next. Lambert can’t believe it’s only nine thirty.

Morning sunshine, comes Aiden’s Slack message. You alive down there?

Barely, Lambert writes back, with a crying emoji.

He gets a pitiful face and a heart back, and wants to type something else when the phone rings. “IT, this is Lambert.”

“The fax machine is not working,” answers a pissed, male voice.

“Good morning, how are you today?” Lambert says in a syrupy voice. He checks the caller ID and inwardly groans. “Can I have your name, sir?”

“This is Shane Mills in Finance, and I am not happy. Can somebody come take a look? I need to send some documents to a client and they don’t want it via email.”

“Alright, I’m on my way up.” Lambert grunts as he hangs up the phone, thinking he’ll just finish up the response to a work order he was going to send. He ignores the next phone call, which Ciri picks up, and it sounds like a remote connection issue that she’s going to have to troubleshoot.

The phone rings again just as Lambert locks his computer and gets up. “Geralt, you mind getting that?”

“Yeah. IT, this is Geralt,” the man says in a monotone. “Have you tried turning it off, and back on again? Go ahead and try that.”

Lambert snickers. Geralt is a Sys Admin who hasn’t been a help desk guy in a long time. He’s a brilliant engineer, though if he plans to move any further up the ladder, his phone etiquette is going to need some improvement.

“I’m going up to seven,” Lambert calls vaguely out to whoever will hear him, but he only gets as far as the doorway where a woman stands before him, looking very distraught. “Everything okay, ma’am?”

“No, we need someone to help with a Zoom meeting,” the lady says, sounding extremely stressed. “I have a room full of execs who are not happy right now. Do you have a minute?”

Lambert doesn’t, but he nods anyway. “What’s the issue?” he asks, and they hustle to the meeting, which thankfully doesn’t get held up much longer once he figures out how to fix the problem.

He gets pulled aside by various people on the walk back. One of them is to check out a suspicious email, and Lambert narrowly prevents the fellow from clicking a malicious looking link and compromising his account. “Let me show you how to safely forward stuff like this to IT,” he says, “and we’ll diagnose that for you. When in doubt, just don’t click. You can also hover your mouse like this, see whether it leads you to the same path as what’s written. Or just give us a call to ask.”

“Thank you so much,” the young guy says, and promises Lambert he’ll be more careful.

Lambert returns to the IT office and is startled to find at least an hour has elapsed, and it is time for their daily team meeting. Vesemir asks him to close the door and they spend thirty minutes debriefing about their morning and also adding tasks to move bigger goals along, loosely following the company’s Agile methodology.

By the time their meeting ends, Lambert is ready for lunch, even though it’s still mid-morning. “I’m going to get food,” he says. “Y’all want anything?”

“Get me a coffee, Lamb?” Vesemir calls from the back.

“Sure thing.” He departs when no one else says much of anything, and going outside helps to clear his head. Though, as he thinks of all the work waiting for him, Lambert decidedly comes back to the office with his lunch in tow, planning to eat at his desk.

Those plans quickly go down the drain when he sees Ciri coming out of the IT office looking thoroughly perplexed.

“What’s wrong, bud?” he asks.

“O-Oh, L-Lambert… Thank God. Umm… Where is the fax machine?”

Lambert frowns at her, and then remembers. “Shit, they called about that again, huh?”

Ciri nods her blonde head. “T-The guy sounded really, um, mad.”

Lambert sighs. “It’s my bad, I got sidetracked. Hold on a sec.” He moves past her to put down his lunch, and hands Vesemir his coffee, then re-emerges. “I’m going to take a look, if you want to come see how it’s done. Probably the network cable was unplugged by accident.”

“Sometimes the machine goes into a bad state, too,” Geralt calls from the office.

“Yeah. It’s janky as hell, folks barely use the fax machine.” Lambert leads Ciri through the floor over the nearest stairwell. “You been up to the big printer room on the seventh floor?”

“Yeah, I replaced the toner in a couple of them a few times.” Ciri hastens to keep up with him. “B-But I never saw the fax machine.”

“Collecting dust in a corner is probably why. You know how it works?”

Ciri shakes her head sheepishly and Lambert laughs. “Neither do I, and I’m five times your age.”

“That would make you one hundred and…” Ciri counts under her breath. “Fifteen.”

Lambert barks out a laugh. “I’m not as old as I look, though. I’m younger than Geralt and Esk. Vesemir is the IT dad in there.”

Ciri smiles at his little quip, and Lambert feels a bit proud of himself. He’s used humor to get across most people, and for all the two or three months Ciri has worked with them so far, she seems a tougher nut to crack than even Geralt, who is known to give Lambert the occasional approving chuckle while he frowns. Weird guy.

They go up to the seventh floor and weave to the back where the printers and the fax machine are kept.

“Finally,” a voice snarls. “It’s been broken all morning, IT. What do you guys even do in that office?”

“Really sorry about that.” Lambert looks at Shane Mills, finance director and downright rude suit. “Walk ups sidetracked us, but we’re here now. We’ll take care of it.”

“Good, I need this ASAP for budgets.”

Lambert doesn’t reply. He goes over to the fax machine, showing Ciri where the cabling runs, and sees the machine is offline. “Alright, so it’s like Geralt said,” he tells Ciri. “I’m gonna disconnect the ethernet cable, and also give it a reboot.”

“What if that doesn’t work?” Ciri asks very quietly.

“A few more things we can try if not.” Lambert grunts when he tries to reach behind the fax machine, but his hand is too meaty for the tiny space. “Hey can you reach back there and jack the ethernet cable?”

“O-Oh, sure.” Ciri nimbly takes care of unplugging the cable. They power cycle the machine, but the issue persists when everything comes back up.

Meanwhile, Shane breathes heavily down their necks, checking his watch and tapping his foot. Lambert is tempted to believe he’s been standing here since that first call. “Well, how long is this gonna be? I’ve waited all morning.”

“Looks like a bad connection,” Lambert says evenly. “Facilities have been doin’ some work on this floor, which could have interrupted the fibers.”

“I don’t know what that means and I don’t care. Are you going to fix it?”

Lambert meets his eye, tempted to say some very not nice things. “It’s going to take a bit of time, but I’m on it. Ciri,” Lambert turns to look at her, because Shane’s face is not going to help this go any faster. “You mind running up to the server room and checking whether Port Thirty Five is alive? If the lights are blinking that should tell you, though they don’t always do so either. To be safe, take whatever cable is running through there and hook it up to the next available port.”

“Okay… Port Twenty Five.”

“Thirty Five,” Lambert corrects. “35. OK?”

“Yes, thirty five. Sorry. Server room on this floor.”

“You got your cell on you?”

Ciri nods.

“Alright good. Call or IM me from there if you have any issues.”

“Jesus Christ,” Shane sighs loudly, just before Ciri leaves. “Do you need to write that down?”

The girl blanches and Lambert swears her hands shake a little. “Okay, pal,” he puts himself between Shane and Ciri, crossing his arms. “No need to talk to her that way. It’s my fault for not coming up here on time, but that doesn’t give you the right to talk down to my associate.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Shane huffs and keeps standing there, staring Lambert down. How much money they each make, displayed in their varied dress, is the only difference between them. And Lambert really hates entitled pricks like him.

“We’ll fix the issue. You can expect us to follow up with HR on the way you talk to people around here,” Lambert says.

“I-I’m sorry, I’ll be quick,” Ciri says, and runs off to the server room.

Lambert watches her go. Thankfully, by the time she’s back, he’s managed to reboot the fax machine again and it’s back up online for Shane to do as he needs. Of course, he requires Lambert's help for a few more minutes on how to use it.

“Put in a ticket in our system when you get a chance, so we can track it,” Lambert finally says to Shane, once the work is complete, he and leads Ciri away from there. “Hey,” he mumbles, when they are a safe distance, “you okay?”

Ciri nods glumly but Lambert doesn’t believe for one second that she is.

“I’ll talk to Vesemir about it,” Lambert says. “Don’t worry about a thing.”

“He was so rude…” Ciri whispers as they walk back.

“He’s an asshole,” Lambert says. “He had the right to get mad, but that doesn’t excuse his behavior.”

Lambert doesn’t know how to tell Ciri they’re unfortunately used to stuff like this. By the time they reach the IT office, she’s sniffling.

Geralt sees her first, quickly sending a wide-eyed and blaming look toward Lambert, when Ciri goes over to her desk.

“WindMill strikes again,” Lambert says, and Geralt mouths a curse.

“What happened?” Vesemir asks, standing up from the back. The motion catches Eskel’s attention, and he, too, turns from the meeting which makes his headset display a red light, looking at Ciri who’s now hastily wiping her eyes. With a concerned expression Eskel opens his drawer, pulling out a box of tissues which he silently hands to Ciri — all while on his call.

Lambert explains the situation, standing beside Geralt who’s also taken to his feet as work goes forgotten.

“This is unacceptable,” Vesemir says, marching up and looking at Ciri. “I’m sorry about this, Ciri. That guy’s notorious for his mouth. I’m going up to talk to him and then HR.”

“No it’s okay,” Ciri hastens to say, “I don’t even know w-why I’m crying.”

“It’s not okay,” Geralt says. “Vesemir is right, but we’re also in the wrong here.”

“We are,” Vesemir agrees, turning to Lambert. “Next time, redirect the walkup to Geralt or Ciri and get your ass up there, you got it?”

“Yeah, I will,” Lambert says. “Just let WindMill know, nobody messes with our new hire.”

“Don’t you worry about that, boy.” Vesemir disappears with a glint in his eye and Lambert hovers by Geralt’s desk, exaggerating a bit more on how the whole thing went, declaring all the comebacks he should have thrown if only he’d thought of them.

“Take care, guys,” Eskel says on his call, and suddenly rips off his headset to spin in his seat. “Ciri, what happened?”

“I got yelled at,” she says, with a melancholy smile.

“By who? What’s their name?”

“WindMill,” Lambert contributes, and Eskel’s brows jump predictably.

“Ohh. He’s a very uppity guy, Ciri,” Eskel says. “Ever since he became director, he yells at everyone and expects the world to revolve around him. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to buffer. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Ciri says, “I promise, I’m good. Lambert was there.”

“Damn straight,” Lambert says.

“A-And I just wish I knew that I could tell you guys,” Ciri says, “when stuff like this happens.”

“You mean that’s happened before?” Geralt says.

Ciri nods hesitantly, looking over her shoulder. “But I didn’t know w-what I was doing s-so I thought it was okay.”

They all collectively bristle.

“Who was it?” Lambert asks. “Was it WindMill again?”

“Oh n-no!”

“Cirilla, it is never okay,” Geralt says, “for anyone in the workplace to yell at you. If that ever comes even close to happening again, get on your phone and send me a Slack message with your location.”

“If Geralt is not available, call me,” Eskel says. “I’ve heard you de-escalate frustrated users on the phone before. This is no different. But when it gets too challenging, take a step back and come to one of us.”

“Hit me up too,” Lambert says. “Hell, ping Vesemir if none of us are here. We got your back, buddy.”

“Thanks, guys,” Ciri says, smiling. “I will. I feel much better.”

“Alright, IT lunch outing when Vesemir comes back,” Lambert declares. “You up for it, Ciri?”

Her smile widens. “I am, but didn’t you just get your lunch?”

Lambert looks toward his desk and finds his food is still there waiting for him. “Shit,” he laughs. “More for me, then.”

He’s glad when laughter diffuses any remaining tension in the room.

Chapter Text

It’s just past nine fifteen in the morning. Eskel has his headphones on as he walks into work.

A holiday weekend is coming up, so there aren’t as many people in the office. This is typically when his team is the busiest, catching up on projects which day-to-day tasks don’t allow time for.

He finds Lambert making remarks on a conference call. Geralt is ignoring his three monitors in favor of setting up a Macbook for a chatty man with conspicuously fluffy brown hair.

“Mornin’,” Eskel calls out. His grip on his coffee mug tightens when he sees Jaskier.

“Good morning, Eskel!” Jaskier chirps, while Geralt gives him a nod.

“Morning!” Ciri beams at Eskel from where she sits, typing at lightning speed on her computer without needing to keep her eyes on the monitor.

“How are ya, Ciri?” Eskel says, focusing on her.

“I’m good, I just closed like five tickets in a row.”

“Five! All before nine thirty?”

“Yep!” Ciri pauses to stretch and crack her knuckles. She spins while he settles in, and says, “A new vegan place opened nearby. Their menu looks so good.”

“Yeah?” Eskel wakes up his desktop and signs in. He turns to meet Ciri’s eye while the machine loads up. “Want to go for lunch?”

Ciri nods eagerly. “Geralt and Lambert wanna come, too.”

Eskel looks over to see Vesemir’s place is empty, remembering their manager is working from home today.

“Do you want to come with us, Jaskier?” Ciri asks the Marketing Specialist.

Eskel watches the programs firing up on his monitor, trying to pick up where he left off working late the previous day, and yet invariably finding his ears focused on Jaskier’s answer.

“I’d love to, but unfortunately I have a lunch meeting with the London office,” Jaskier says. “Tell me how you like it, though?”

“Okay, sure,” Ciri replies.

Eskel ignores the flash of disappointment he feels. He tunes out Jaskier’s continued happy chatter, so mismatched to Geralt’s steady baritone, and hops on his first team call of the day. The office quiets within a couple of hours. Both Ciri and Lambert come and go, or sit together to work on a project. Geralt drinks about five cups of coffee.

By lunch time, Ciri is hovering by Eskel’s desk while the others stand in the doorway and stretch.

“Vegan place?” Eskel inquires, prying off his headset as he looks at her.

“Are you ready?” Ciri asks sweetly, “or do you want us to get you something?”

He smiles softly at the kind offer and stands, needing to get some fresh air anyway. “Let’s go.”

Eskel locks his machine and grabs his jacket. It’s chilly outside. Ciri is bundled up in a fuzzy looking hat and mitts, while the rest of them tower over her. Eskel likes to think they look enough like her colleagues but he’s definitely caught people’s wayward glances outside before.

The same thing happens at the vegan place, for which there is a long line that moves surprisingly quickly. By the time the IT wolves are at the counter under the scrutiny of the bespectacled cashier, Eskel knows what he wants, and so do Geralt and Lambert.

“Alright Ciri, what do you want?” they all ask at more or less the same time, and then exchange looks, much to the bemusement of the cashier.

“Oh, you guys can order first,” Ciri says, slightly freezing on the spot.

“You go ahead,” Geralt says, stepping back so she can scan the menu. “Take your time.”

Once Ciri makes her order, Geralt tacks his own to it, and extends his credit card.

“Thanks Geralt,” Ciri says, “you didn’t have to, um, get that.”

“No problem,” Geralt says as he leads the way to the waiting station.

Eskel was going to pay for her, but in the end it doesn’t matter who gets it. Once they sit down and shed their outer layers, Ciri remarks that she can count on one hand the number of times she has paid for their own lunch when they go out. It makes Eskel chuckle.

“I’m keeping track, don’t worry,” Lambert says. “Start paying us back when you get a raise.”

“He’s joking,” Geralt supplies, as he bites enthusiastically into his food.

“I did forget my wallet one time,” Ciri says. “That was just with Eskel, though.”

“You usually bring lunch from home,” Eskel points out. “Anyway, it’s not a big deal. We should go back to that lobster place from that time.”

“It was soooo good,” Ciri agrees.

“Which place is this?” Geralt asks.

“The one by the water, like two streets over?” Ciri says, checking with Eskel for accuracy, and he nods.

“Vesemir told me about it,” Eskel says. “We should order from there, next team lunch.”

They idle for a while after they finish eating, talking about work related matters. Ciri engages naturally in the conversation, now that she is immersed in the environment, and Eskel is impressed by how much she has learned in a short amount of time.

After about an hour since they left the office, they agree to head back — opting for a coffee stop first. Eskel gets Ciri her drink this time, and she chats happily with Geralt and Lambert as they head back.

They are near the office when Eskel sees a beautiful woman in a long, elegant coat. Her booted heels click steadily toward the building. He reaches the door first and gets it for her, which causes her to look up.

An enchanting smile forms so quickly on her face, Eskel actually wonders if she maybe needs glasses to see him.

“Hi,” Yennefer says. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” Eskel enters after her, and his teammates catch the door he’s held a second longer. They file into the elevator. Yennefer looks in all their faces, then presses the button for her floor.

“It’s an IT party,” Yennefer says, roaming eyes quickly returning to find Eskel. “Where did you guys go for lunch?”

“New vegan place. Ciri found it.” Eskel shoves his hands into his pockets. He’s not nervous, but he feels somewhat embarrassed. “You come back from lunch?”

“No, I needed a run to the post office,” Yennefer replies. “Vegan place any good?”

“Uh, yeah.” Eskel looks toward his team for support, as they have fallen uncharastically quiet and he wants them to rescue him. “It was good, right guys?”

Lambert grunts and hums. Geralt stares in silence at Yennefer as though transfixed by the devil.

As a last resort, Eskel turns to Ciri, but even his young savior only smiles nervously at him.

No help whatsoever.

“I had the avocado, uh, thing,” Eskel supplies to Yennefer.

“Oh, avocado.” Her finely manicured brows rise subtly. “Very nice. I did hear something about a new place, but I haven’t been... Send me the name and address?”

“Okay,” Eskel says.

The elevator feels unusually slow, and Eskel’s face is warm. It must be all red, which he hates, as it makes his scars more prominent, and he can’t say it makes the way Yennefer looks at him any less awkward.

“He’s available on Slack,” Lambert finally says. “You can message him there.”

Eskel wants to kill him.

“I will,” Yennefer says. At last, the elevator opens on her floor. “Bye IT. See you Eskel.”

Eskel gives her a stiff wave, more a limp salute than anything, and the elevator closes once more. Her expensive perfume lingers in the air. He idly presses the already lit button of their upcoming floor.

“Who was that?” Ciri whispers.

“Eskel’s crush,” Lambert and Geralt both automatically say.

“I don’t,” Eskel snaps, though he sounds like a broken record, “have a crush on her. She’s in Legal,” he says to Ciri. “Yennefer is the General Counsel.”

“Wooow,” Ciri says, her eyes widening.

Eskel thinks ‘wow’ is absolutely correct. “Yeah. Not my crush.”

And there’s no chance the General Counsel would have even the slightest interest in him.

Chapter Text

The company town halls used to be held in the office, but ever since they started expanding, a hotel nearby seems more suitable. Geralt only attends because they serve good appetizers and drinks afterwards. He supposes it’s nice to hear about how the company is doing, although he can’t say he’s super invested.

Besides, in his experience, the company town hall requires a lot of set up from his team, sometimes days or weeks prior. He looks up as Ciri manages to stuff two laptops in a backpack that she swings around her shoulders.

“Ready to go?” he asks her, and she nods vigorously.

“Lambert says he’ll be back in two minutes. We’re going early to test the hotel’s AV system.”

Geralt knows the drill. He’s done this years ago and on the occasions Lambert was out.

“Make him carry the bag,” he suggests, and returns his attention to his work while Ciri giggles and goes over to half-sit on the desk beside Eskel’s.

The two of them talk about an upcoming concert for a few minutes. Once Lambert returns, he and Ciri depart with promises to meet the rest of them there.

Geralt manages to get some work done but his productivity is cut short at the sound of a bright and cheerful voice just outside the IT office. He quickly searches for his headset, to pretend he’s on a call, but it’s too late.

“Hellooo IT~” Jaskier says. “Ready for town hall?”

“Jesus. Is it time already?” Vesemir calls from the back, as he rises with a stretch and groan. “Lost track of time.”

“It’s in about twenty minutes, but the marketing gang is heading over now,” Jaskier says, “so I came to get you guys. Heya Geralt!”

“Hey,” Geralt says, with no more than a glance over his shoulder.

He does his best to type more aggressively, hoping to give the impression he is Very Busy. Eskel rises and together with Vesemir, they crowd around Geralt’s desk talking to Jaskier — who always has something to say. Geralt knows they’re waiting for him, and he wishes they wouldn’t, even though the best seats get taken pretty quickly at these sorts of things.

“I’ll be a few more minutes,” Geralt says, looking at Vesemir. “Need to reboot a server for someone.”

“You sure? We can wait,” Eskel says.

“You guys go ahead.” Geralt glances at Jaskier, and he’s glad when they all finally leave. He sighs out deeply and goes looking for something extra to do. The town hall has probably started by the time he stands up and makes to lock the IT office.

“Geralt!” Jaskier says, hustling into his outerwear. “Looks like we’re both late.”

Geralt stands like a deer in headlights. “Thought you left already,” he tries feebly.

“Oh, yes, but then I remembered I just had something to finish.” Jaskier gives his most convincing smile. “Shall we go?”

Geralt doesn’t see another way out of this. A stop at the men’s room and Jaskier will just wait, or probably follow him inside. So they make their way out of the building.

Geralt is silent. He doesn’t know what to say — small talk is not his strong suit like it seems to be Jaskier’s, who talks about the weather and what his team is working on and is Geralt going to the holiday party at the end of the month?

“Uh…” Geralt remembers how quickly he deleted the invitation emails. “No. Maybe.”

“Maybe?” Jaskier says. “The venue is really neat and posh, you know. You have to come. And it’ll be Ciri’s first holiday party. Don’t you want to be there for it?”

“She going?”

“Oh, she must,” Jaskier declares. They walk to the hotel which is not too far from the office and Jaskier has a smile on his face almost the entire time. Geralt wonders how someone can be so cheerful all the time.

Geralt holds the vast conference room door open and Jaskier waltz in, beaming like a ray of fucking sunshine. Some people at the back turn around to look at the latecomers — though Geralt is fairly certain they won’t be the only ones — and there are almost no seats left.

“Looks like we’ll just have to stand,” Jaskier whispers to Geralt. He sounds oddly pleased.

“Guess so.” There are executives on stage up front going through their slide decks of forecasts and other highlights. Geralt isn’t paying attention. He’s thinking about the food later.

“You didn’t come to the holiday party last year if I remember correctly,” Jaskier whispers to him. “It’s going to be much more fabulous this time, I can guarantee it. Marketing has been helping to organize.”

“I might be busy,” Geralt supplies uncomfortably.

“Ah yes, you may have another trip to the vet, eh?”

Geralt blinks rapidly.

“Well there’s an office party the day before,” Jaskier says, “which is on a weekday, so anyone who can’t come to the posh night will at least get a chance to celebrate with their team. You’ll be around for that, right?”

Before Geralt can reply, Eskel thankfully sees them from his spot a few rows over and he raises a hand to catch Geralt’s attention.

“I’m going to sit down,” Geralt says.

“I’ll come with!” Jaskier replies.

Geralt figures there is only one available seat when he notices Eskel slides over two spots and looks toward them with a sneaky smile on his face. Jaskier goes in first, and Geralt takes the outer seat. He’s glad when Jaskier chooses to whisper with Eskel instead, leaving him to his thoughts.

One of the executives goes over highlights for the global IT department, says something mildly congratulatory. Jaskier claps the loudest and looks at Geralt like he wants to elicit the same reaction.

“It’s been a good year for you guys,” Jaskier says, “and you have a great addition to the team.”

“Thanks,” Geralt says.

The town hall’s end can’t come quickly enough. Geralt waits until Jaskier is distractedly chatting with Vesemir to slip away. He doesn’t go out of the hall just yet, beelining instead for Ciri and Lambert toward the AV station.

“How did it go?” he asks Ciri.

“Smooth sailing.” Ciri smiles at Geralt. “Is there really food after?”

“Catered by the hotel I’m pretty sure.” Geralt helps her collect the hardware they brought over for the event. He even offers to take it back to the office for her, but Lambert ends up doing it, since he needs to head out early.

“Where is Eskel?” Ciri asks Geralt. “Is he staying back?”

Geralt has no idea. “Let’s check the reception area,” he suggests, and as they make their way over, he hopes Jaskier has been swallowed up by the crowd and relocated with his team — at least.

Eskel is in line for a drink and there is a stunning brunette in a pantsuit at his side. Geralt slows his gait. He would recognize the form of the General Counsel anywhere.

“Geralt?” Ciri says, standing in front of him. “Helloooo. Geralt?”

“Eskel is over there,” Geralt breathes. “I gotta hit the men’s room.”

“Oh, okay,” she says, confused as she watches him leave.

He washes his hands a few times at the sink when the door flips open. “Oh hello again, Geralt!” Jaskier says cheerfully. “Staying for the food?”

“Uh,” Geralt says. He’s starting to think the guy's got a GPS tracker on him. “Yeah, actually. I’m hungry.”

“Excellent! Give me a sec and I’ll be right behind you?”

Geralt agrees and goes to stand outside the men’s room to wait. When Jaskier emerges, they make their way to the food bar and after a while try to relocate somewhere they can put their food down. But all the tables are full and crowded.

“Too bad,” Jaskier says, leading Geralt to one corner of the food table. “This’ll do. Let me know if you need me to hold your drink or anything.”

“I’m fine,” Geralt says, since that’s what he plans to use the few inches of the nearby table for.

Maybe it’s the fact that he’s completely silent but Jaskier speaks until it seems he has no words left to say.

“Delicious. Wonderful.” Jaskier wipes his mouth. He looks at Geralt like a very eager puppy.

“So, you like sports?” Geralt finally asks.

Jaskier lights up the fourth of July. “Oh, I looooooove sports!!”

Chapter Text

Eskel is really tall and big. The quickest way for Ciri, at five foot four, to catch his attention is either to jump up waving, or manifest somehow in front of him.

She chooses the latter as she comes up behind him, and pokes her head from around the wall that is his back.

“—doing pretty good supporting the network infrastruc—Hey! Ciri,” Eskel laughs as he peers down. “I was looking for you.”

Ciri blinks. “You were?”

“Yeah!” Eskel rubs the back of his head, looking relieved. “Where were you?”

Ciri thinks Eskel’s face looks slightly tinted because she snuck up on him, but then she realizes who he's just been talking to. Her eyes go wide.

“Ohh,” Ciri says, looking between Eskel and Yennefer. “I was with, uh, Geralt, but he just went somewhere and I was looking for you too, actually. H-Hello,” she adds to the General Counsel. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“That’s okay,” Yennefer replies. “Nice catching up, Eskel.”

“You too, Yennefer.”

As she walks away to help herself to the catered food of the town hall, Ciri and Eskel stand in her wake, both quiet for a moment.

“Sorry,” Ciri says to him, “I didn’t know you were having an important conversation, I-I didn’t even see her!”

That much is true — all she saw was his back.

“Don’t worry about it,” Eskel says. “I’m actually glad you stepped in.” He relaxes and leads her to the drink station. “I really need a beer. You want one? They’ve got wine, too.”

“No thank you,” Ciri says, opting for a soft drink. “I don’t like the taste of alcohol.”

“Right you did say that before.”

They get some food, fancy hotel appetizers Ciri is not even sure how to pronounce when Eskel tells her the names, and take their plates to the table where Vesemir is in conversation with a couple of silver haired executives.

“So,” Ciri says. “What were you two chatting about?”

“Firewall.” Eskel laughs awkwardly. “Ah, jeez, don’t look at me like that. She caught me off guard.”

“So you started talking about FIREWALL?!” Ciri cries.

They both crack up at how much of a defense mechanism it really is.

“Eskel that’s so boring.”

“Well, it started with IT’s highlight for last quarter,” Eskel admits. “And it’s true a lot of that work was late nights with networking coordinating work with other offices. She said she's going to the Singapore office soon, so I latched on to that and began explaining some stuff the rest of the network team and I have been working on to build it out. We’ve gotta migrate people from the co-working space out there over to the place we leased, you know.”

Ciri loudly fake-snores. “Yawn!”

“I know,” Eskel says with a grimace. “I should have just talked about music.”

“Exactly,” Ciri says. “You love music, concerts, craft beers, animals. Baby goats!! You’re so funny, you can have a conversation with anyone. Eskel, you are the most interesting person ever. What happened?”

Eskel waves off the compliments with his little flattered smile. “Funny thing is, I can have a casual conversation with any of the other big wigs.”

“But it’s different with her.”

“Yeah.” Eskel takes a pull of his beer. “Best stick to work with her. That’s what I think.”

Ciri doesn’t understand but she accepts it. “She is a very impressive lady. And she’s so pretty, oh my gosh. I can’t deal with it.”

Eskel snorts. “So, what’s this about Geralt ditching you?”

“Oh that,” Ciri says, falling into the distraction. “We were looking for you together after Lambert left, and then he saw you and kinda just froze up and was like,” Ciri deepens her voice, though it isn’t nearly a match for Geralt’s, “Uh, there is Eskel. Farewell for now, young Cirilla. Good road. I’m going to the bathroom. Godspeed. And then he did the awkward robot as he walked away.”

Eskel cracks up at the last part and Ciri joins him. They both know Geralt didn’t do an awkward robot dance, but it suits their beloved SysAdmin.

“You should start acting,” Eskel says. "That voice was pretty convincing."

“Thanks, I've been practicing.”

Ciri goes through the appetizer and heads off for a second portion since it’s so delicious. On her way, she sees Geralt and a very animated looking Jaskier talking, which makes her grin. She returns to find someone she doesn’t know well talking to Eskel. This time, she has every intention to keep quiet and not interrupt.

However, Eskel’s body language shifts when he notices she is back, and for every sentence he tells the guy, he delivers part of the next by making inclusive eye-contact with her, until Ciri catches on to what they are talking about and is able to participate.

“Ciri, this is Aiden by the way,” Eskel introduces. “He’s in InfoSec and he’s—”

“Lambert’s Aiden!” Ciri chirps. “Yeah, he always talks about you.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Aiden says. “I was traveling to another office when you started, and then I was on vacation for a while. Lambster giving you a hard time yet?”

“Every day,” Ciri says dramatically, endeared to that little nickname: Lambster. Something tells her Aiden is the only one to get away with calling him that. “Anytime something goes wrong he’s like, ‘Ciri, it’s your fault’. Please take him with you next time.”

“He’d love that,” Aiden says with a smile. “I just might. Good to see you’ve figured him out.”

Ciri enjoys chatting with Aiden. Together, the three of them leave the hotel where the town hall was held and walk back to the office. Aiden heads off to finish some work, so Ciri follows Eskel over to the IT office.

“Do you have anything to work on?” she asks Eskel.

He’s already frowning at his monitor and it takes him a few ‘ums’ to answer. “Yeah, I just need to answer this one thing…”

Ciri lets him do his thing. She doesn’t have anything urgent to get done, and starts getting ready to leave. She waits for Eskel to finish, sitting next to his desk on her phone.

Vesemir’s voice carries through the hallways upon his return, as he bids someone outside the IT room a nice night.

“What are you guys still doing here?” Vesemir says. “Eskel, go home. Ciri, go home.”

“I’m going,” Ciri says to her manager. “I’m waiting for Eskel.”

Eskel meets her eye. “Are you?” he hastens. “Okay, let’s go, I’m done. I can do the rest at home, sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Ciri says.

“Well, I’m ready too now,” Vesemir says, and the three of them hustle out of the building together.

They bid their farewells to Vesemir at the car park, then Ciri and Eskel walk over to the train station, talking until it’s time for their paths to diverge on separate platforms.

Chapter Text

Vesemir is surprised when it occurs to him first. For the last few years, Eskel has brought up the topic of pre-holiday party planning. He’s so damn popular compared to the rest of IT — which Vesemir really likes since Eskel is one the team’s star players — and he is good with people.

He’s proud of all his direct reports. But the fact that party planning doesn’t cross their minds is curious enough. So, toward the end of their daily meeting, he brings it up.

“One last thing, wolves. Pre-holiday party.” Vesemir lets that sink in. He can almost see the gears in all their heads switch with one statement. “It’s coming up real soon. Now, no one in this room is obligated to participate, but it is a fun little tradition.”

“I volunteer Ciri as tribute,” Lambert says.

The girl elbows him in the ribs and Lambert mock-doubles over.

“Shit,” Lambert hisses, “that’s harassment.”

“You’re harassment,” Ciri tosses back.

“That’s it. I’m calling HR on you, pal.”

Vesemir swells with pride. They all play so well, it’s a dream to watch. But they’re also very easily distracted.

“I volunteer all of you,” Vesmir calls out, bringing their attention back to him. “So let’s start with the basics: costume or regular party?”

“Costumes?” Ciri asks brightly. “You mean like halloween?”

“We did a superhero theme one year,” Eskel explains to her. “Years ago, though. Whole company was in on it for the pre-holiday bash.”

“What did you all wear?” Ciri asks.

“I was Deadpool,” Lambert says. “Got to whack this guy over the head with my blades.” He clings to Geralt’s neck and the Sys Admin bares his teeth at the memory.

“I was Thor’s pirate old man,” Vesemir supplies and Ciri’s gasp of surprise makes him smile.

“Odin,” Geralt corrects. “The All Father.”

“Yeah, him. Had the eye-patch and all. Nancy in Procurement even said I looked like Anthony Hopkins. And Eskel here,” Vesemir says, “came dressed as my very good son, Thor.”

“We made a great duo,” Eskel says. “He has pictures.”

“I wanna see!” Ciri says, and now Vesemir is the one who gets distracted looking through his phone and showing her the pictures. “Wow. You guys look cool. What about you Geralt, what did you wear?”

“I don’t like costumes,” Geralt says, which is true, but not the entire story. “I came dressed as usual.”

“Weren’t you feeling a little out of place?” Ciri inquires.

“He was Clark Kent,” Vesemir supplies. “At least, as much of a Clark Kent as a Superman t-shirt and glasses make him. There should be a picture in there.”

“I gotta say it was a little on the nose,” Lambert admits.

“Somehow I can see it perfectly,” Ciri grins. “That sounds really fun! Have there been more costume parties since?”

“There was a Disney theme one year,” Vesemir says, when she hands the phone back. “Never seen so many middle-aged mice in my life.”

Ciri is very invested in this so they tell her more about their respective costumes that time too.

“And Jaskier was Prince Charming,” Eskel says.

“Of course he was,” Ciri replies. “I bet he went all out.”

“Looked pretty good,” Eskel agrees. “I think he won best costume that year.”

Ciri gasps. “There are prizes?!”

“Alright so what’s the consensus?” Vesemir says to reel them back in. “Costume or no for the pre-party? The theme this year is open ended.”

“What does that mean?” Ciri asks.

“Means we can choose one, or not,” Vesemir explains. “And judging on all your reactions — except for Geralt’s, of course, sorry bud, — the costume thing really sells.”

“We should take a vote,” Eskel says.

“That always ends with costumes winning out,” Geralt says. “I say let’s just order food and eat it before people come do it for us.”

“Alright Geralt, you’re in charge of ordering food,” Vesemir says, and ignores the Sys Admin’s wounded look. “That’s done, add it to your to-do list.”

“What do you think, Ciri — costume party?” Lambert asks.

“If we do one, it has to be a theme Geralt can at least wing in his regular clothes,” she says, looking up at him. “I don’t want him to be left out.”

Geralt looks touched. “Thanks. Glad someone cares.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Vesemir says. He likes Ciri’s attitude. “Lambert and Ciri, you’re in charge of the theme. Go off and plot. Eskel.”

“Yeah?”

“You got the same job as last year.”

“Ooh, what’s Eskel’s job?” Ciri asks.

“He’s in charge of music,” Vesemir says, and it has never disappointed. “Alright. Back to work. I need something by EOD.”

Chapter Text

“Hey Ciri,” Lambert says, as he walks up from the back of the office where he was just chatting with Vesemir. “Did we ever tell you why you should always lock your screen anytime you leave the room?”

Ciri takes a minute to finish what she is typing before turning toward him, a puzzled frown on her face. “For security purposes?” she tries. “That way if someone with nefarious intentions comes into the room, they won’t be able to access sensitive data cause it’s password locked. I mean, we are keeping this company running.”

Bless her and her logical, textbook answer, Lambert thinks. “I see you got the Geralt version,” Lambert says, “but there is actually a whole ‘nother reason, bud.”

Ciri arches a brow and Lambert sinks comfortably into Eskel’s empty seat. The scarred network engineer is usually very good about this but occasionally, even Eskel gets distracted — as was the case when someone unexpectedly called him away a bit earlier. Lambert smirks at the unlocked desktop and Eskel's open Outlook, pleased with the opportunity to teach young Ciri a new prank.

“We also gotta lock our screens to avoid this,” he says, firing up a new blank email at the bottom of which Eskel’s signature auto-fills in.

Ciri glides over in her chair and frowns curiously as Lambert begins to type.

Subject: Holiday Pre-Party Costume Ideas

Hey guys,

Your friendly neighborhood goat-dad here. I’m drawing a blank on what costume I should wear to the IT pre-holiday party this year. As you know, I look good in anything—

Ciri bursts out laughing at this point for Lambert has been reading aloud. “Are you really gonna send that?”

“Oh yeah,” he says. “What do you think, send it internally to the team, or the whole company?”

“Lambert!” Ciri’s eyes are wide. “What has Eskel done to deserve this?”

“Too many crimes to name, buddy,” Lambert says. “Anyway, as I was saying…”

I look good in just about anything, what with my fantastic form and all that (thanks college rugby).

Now, our theme for this year is Star Wars. So far, Geralt is going to be Chewbacca—

“Lambert, don’t you dare hit send on that,” Geralt interrupts.

“Oh, so you can hear me under that headset.” Lambert snickers and swivels. “I mean think about it, you got enough hair, you’re pretty vicious looking for Sys Admin, even though deep down you’re a big softie.”

Geralt sighs. “I’m not dressing up,” he says. “I’m getting… a mask or something. From one of those party stores.”

“Ooooor … you can wear all black and borrow one of Lambert’s lightsabers,” Ciri suggests. “That would be pretty convincing, and easy. You could be Kylo Ren!”

“Hmm. Good idea.”

“Don’t ease his suffering,” Lambert says to her and returns to the email.

Geralt will be Chewbacca, but no promises there, although if anyone wants to do a duo costume with him and come as his Hans Solo (looking at you Mr. Jask) please reply to this email.

Vesemir is probably going to be Palpatine, or Darth Vader. I don’t want to dress as his son again, afraid we’ve already tired that idea out.

Which leads me to ask for your help — what do YOU think I should wear? Send me your suggestions in this email, and I’ll make a SurveyMonkey of the top choices. So far, all I can think to come as is Rey.

Thanks,

Sir Eskel

P.S.—

“I think I hear Eskel,” Ciri says.

“Oh shit, gotta type faster,” Lambert replies.

Geralt pushes out of his chair and glances out the door. “He’s talking to marketing,” the Sys Admin says, which is not very subtle code for Jaskier. “You got another minute.”

P.S.: Everyone is invited to provide suggestions and join the party (with costumes!). And remember, couple ideas preferred. Just be ready to show up and look good against the three time Best Costume winner at this company (defeated only by the inimitable Mr. Pankratz)

“You really gonna send that?” Vesemir asks, finally raising his chin from the back. “Cause it is very funny. Eskel should know better than to leave his machine unlocked.”

“You betcha.” Lambert types some distribution lists in the send field. He’s feeling merciful, and picks mainly local IT (which is quite a few branches on its own) and local Marketing. He begins searching for ‘Vengerberg’ when Ciri grabs his wrist.

“A-Are you sure?” she says. “She’s a head honcho.”

“And they don’t have fun?” Lambert retorts.

“No, I just think… it’s taking it too far.”

“She’s right,” Vesemir says. “No execs, Lambert. Keep the prank professional.”

“Eh. Fine.” Lambert sighs and deletes the name after all. Just their pals, then — the ones Eskel mostly made. Finally, he hits ‘send’.

“We taught you well,” Lambert tells Ciri once the email flashes up on Eskel’s inbox, and all of theirs.

It takes less than five seconds. Jaskier is heard laughing brightly just outside the office.

“Ah, shit,” Eskel curses. “LAMBERT!”

“And that,” Lambert says to Ciri as he jumps out of Eskel’s seat, hearing the thundering footsteps, “is why you should always lock your desktop whenever you leave the room!”

Chapter Text

Hello IT,

I am heading to the SG office next week and I wonder if someone would be available to set up my laptop for the network there. I may have to remote back into the desktop in my US office, thus I’d like to make sure I will be able to do that without a problem.

Thanks,
Yennefer

-/-

Hi Yennefer!

I can help you with that. It should just entail a quick configuration of the VPN client on your laptop. When is the best time for me to swing by your office?

Thanks,
Ciri

-/-

Hello Ciri,

I will be tied up in meetings most of the day, but I can stop by the IT office at 4:45PM. Does that work for you?

Thank you,
Yennefer

-/-

Hi Yennefer, that works! I’ll be here! I sit at the second desk right across from Geralt.

Thanks!
Ciri

Ciri cracks her knuckles and clicks through the ticketing queue to answer other correspondences. She suddenly feels excited and wants to tell Eskel she will be helping Yennefer later on that day, but any time she turns around, the network engineer goes from conference call to video meeting to deep troubleshooting session.

Lunch rolls around and Ciri goes to grab food with Geralt, who makes purchases for their busier colleagues. By half past four, Ciri has completely forgotten about her appointment with Yennefer — though later, she will be thankful the woman has offered to come down from her office near the Legal pod.

They are currently wiring the IT room with speakers. Eskel has brought his spare Alexa echo from home, something he told Ciri he has been meaning to do and found the perfect excuse in DJing the pre holiday bash. However, it needs to be connected to various sets of speakers which share wiring, and he enlists Ciri’s help in running two of the cables under her desk.

“Wouldn’t it be better under Geralt’s desk?” Ciri asks, blowing stray platinum blonde hair from her eyes, as she assesses the cable.

“I don’t think it’ll reach,” Eskel says. He is at the very back of the office, standing on a table and setting up fairy lights. Vesemir and Geralt are out for their weekly one-to-one meeting, and Lambert is on a call. “Best to run it under your desk. You have a power strip there, right?”

“Yeah, but there is so much connected to it. Hmm.” Ciri frowns and decides on a separate power strip. She goes to the supply closet then returns, and crawls under her desk. She’s never realized how much space is under there until what comes to pass next.

It starts with Lambert, who gets off his call and begins speaking to someone, though Ciri is too busy with her iPhone flashlight setting up wires to hear what he says.

“So, can I help you with something on your laptop?” Lambert asks.

“Actually, I was looking for Ciri?” Yennefer says, now right next to Ciri’s desk.

“Uh… Esk, where is she?” Lambert asks.

Hearing that, finally, Ciri quickly climbs out from underneath her desk and announces herself apologetically. “I’m here! Sorry!”

Yennefer, Eskel, and Lambert all burst out laughing at her sudden appearance — like a rabbit from a magician’s hat. Even Ciri, realizing how it must have looked to crawl out like that, can’t help but to smile, and they spend an honest five minutes cracking up and wiping stray tears at the silliness of the situation.

“So, VPN for Singapore office, right?” Ciri says, finally outstretching her hands for Yennefer’s laptop.

“It shouldn’t be any different connecting from there back to the states, right?” asks Yennefer.

“Not too different, no,” Ciri says, quickly making a configuration. “In the new office there, you won’t even need to connect to the VPN — they’ll give you a docking station and that’ll be hard wired in so you can access the network as if you were here.”

“And remote into my desktop when I need it?”

“Right,” Ciri nods. “But at the end of the day when you go back to a hotel, or in the event you are off site with clients and have a different, secure WiFi connection, you’ll need to VPN in. For that the easiest way will be to choose this link.” Ciri shows her the one. “It’s the Singapore gateway, so there won’t be as much traffic and you’ll be up on the network quickly.”

“Alright, and I take it we can’t test right now because we’re in the office.”

“Correct, we’re already on the internal network so VPN would be redundant.” Ciri smiles, happy the woman is so savvy with her tech. Most people in the office aren’t this easy to service. “But when you go home tonight, you can test out the new link the same way you would if you were working from home. Although it might be a little slower than these other sites…”

“Because it’d be trying to connect all the way to Singapore from here.”

“Yes!”

“Excellent. Understood.” Yennefer smiles at Ciri. ‘That was so quick, thanks so much.”

“No problem!”

“Any chance you’ll tell me why you were under the desk?”

Ciri laughs and feels her face turn bright red. “Well~ I have to crawl under a lot of desks to set up cables for people, you know.”

“Of course.”

“But! It’s cause I was plugging in the speaker! We’re having our pre-holiday party in this office and it’s going to be costumed.”

“Oh, right.” Yennefer nods slowly. “I heard something about a Star Wars party. Eskel you were taking votes…? Right?”

Lambert laughs like a smoker in the background.

“Ah, yeah. Well,” Eskel dusts off his hands on the back of his jeans, comes over to lean against the desk Ciri usually takes up while waiting for him, and sets his gaze steadily on Yennefer. “Somebody hacked into my email.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. This office is real cutthroat,” Eskel says sarcastically.

“I bet,” Yennefer laughs. “What are your costumes?”

“Well, the general populace really wants to see me as Rey,” Eskel says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Which… whatever. I can make it work.”

Yennefer smiles at him and Ciri looks between them, all in favor of this moment.

“I’m sure you’ll look great,” Yennefer says. “What about you Ciri?”

“I’m still deciding,” Ciri quips. “Kinda wanna be Poe, honestly. I love Oscar Isaac.”

“Do you have a Finn?”

“I don’t!” Ciri laments, refreshed her reference has not only landed but has been met with expertise. This General Counsel lady is a lot more down to earth than Ciri expected. “You’re invited if you want to come. It’s going to be so fun.”

“Sorry, I think I might still be in Singapore by then,” Yennefer says. “But if I’m back early, I’ll come as Finn.”

“REALLY?” Ciri says, and the word is echoed by both Eskel and Lambert.

“Are you for real, Yennefer?” Lambert asks.

The woman slides her laptop shut and gives a coy smile of her Chanel red lips. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see.” She returns her gaze to Eskel. “Right, Rey?”

Eskel’s brows jump as his mouth curves downward, and color rushes to his face.

“Thanks for your help Ciri,” Yennefer says. “Have a good evening.”

“Y-You too!” Ciri says, watching her go, and then directs her stunned gaze between Lambert and Eskel.

“What just happened?” Eskel asks.

“Your Star Wars OT3 dreams coming true,” Lambert says, and Ciri can’t help her snicker.

Looks like she’s made up her mind on a costume after all.

Chapter Text

Eskel ends up driving to work, which takes longer, but it’s better than taking public transit in his homemade Rey costume — most of which is under his jacket but still. It’s all a little tighter than he likes his clothes but, it doesn’t look bad. Besides, he brought a change for later on. Of course, his bare calves are first thing Lambert notices when Eskel walks into work that Friday.

“Oho, Eskelito,” Lambert whistles. “What’s in the duffel bag sweetheart?”

“Good morning,’' Eskel replies with a slight huff, and a smile at Lambert’s extremely hairy attire. “I thought Geralt was coming as Chewwy.”

“Morning,” Geralt responds. He looks goth, like usual, but when stands up a cape sprawls dramatically to the floor. “I’m Kylo Ren.”

“No kidding.” Eskel chuckles and walks over to his desk. “Where is Ciri? Morning Vesemir.”

“Morning!” Vesemir cries from the back

“She’s out helping someone,” Lambert says about Ciri. He comes to stand beside Geralt, looking expectantly at Eskel.

Vesemir rises too, wearing a white shirt and a vest. He may as well be Harrison Ford. They look at Eskel, who sits down with his jacket on and pretends he can’t see them.

“How long until he gets too hot in that thing, do you think?” Lambert asks Geralt.

“Under five minutes,” Geralt replies.

“I say three,” Vesemir chimes in. “Let’s turn up the heat just in case.

Eskel shakes his head in disbelief while entering his computer password. “You guys are goddamn hyenas.”

Suddenly, Ciri bursts into the office from the back door. “Eskel!” she says, bright eyed, her cheeks slightly red. “You’re here.”

“Morning Ciri.”

Now all four of them crowd around his desk and wait. He can’t get out of it. “Alright, fine.”

Eskel stands up and unzips his big coat. He’s wearing dark grey pants cropped at the knees, and he’s managed to cut the sleeves off a tight white t-shirt, wrapping similarly colored fabric around his torso — kept together with a belt. His wrists are also nicely bound in fabric. Eskel wonders, at their stunned silence, if they’ve noticed he also combed his hair back more.

“Oh wow,” Ciri finally says. “Eskel, you’re ripped!”

“I am not—” Eskel begins but Geralt cuts him off.

“I think he’s going to get Best Costume again.”

“No doubt about it,” Vesemir agrees. “Look at you!”

“Goddamn it Esk,” Lambert grunts. “How dare you make my prank look even better than it was supposed to be?”

Eskel shrugs, encouraged by their visible approval. “You look great, Ciri,” he says, taking note of her Poe get-up. That orange jumpsuit looks adorable on her.

“Thanks!” Ciri puts her hands in her pockets and models it briefly. “But I’m not sure if our Finn is going to make it.”

Right, Finn. The same Finn that Eskel was supposed to try and not think about these last few days.

“I can’t believe you guys got her to agree to that,” Geralt says in a low voice.

“We didn’t have to Geralt, she offered, now stop pouting,” Ciri teases.

“I’m not pouting,” Geralt says, with a pout.

Ciri reaches up to pinch his cheek and he languidly scrunches up his nose.

Once they settle down the office is productive only until about two o’clock, when food starts arriving. Geralt has done a fine job with the variety he ordered, but he’s also the first one to drop all his work and start eating. Eskel hooks up the music and launches the playlist he’s been working on.

By two thirty, a whole hour before they’re even supposed to start any festivities, all the floors of the company have stopped being productive and laughter filters throughout. The music from the IT office carries out nicely.

“Beer is here,” Geralt announces, returning with a large case and Lambert trailing closely behind with the same.

“Nice,” Eskel says.

A few people trickle in, some wearing costumes, others just here for the beer and food. There is Vesemir’s thunderous laughter to be heard. Ciri poses with each of her colleagues. She takes about forty selfies with Eskel before he convinces her to let him get another beer. He meets Jaskier at the makeshift beer station and Eskel can’t help but laugh.

“Damn, Jaskier,” Eskel says. “You would be Obiwan.”

“You look fantastic yourself! My god,” Jaskier cries. “You’re even better than lady Rey.”

“Ah jeez,” Eskel says. “Don’t flatter me.”

“I’m not,” Jaskier says. “Believe me, Geralt’s had my share of flattery today.”

Eskel chuckles, looking at the SysAdmin, who frowns as he engages in awkward conversation with a group of developers nearby.

“He looks marvelous, doesn’t he?” Jaskier says, following Eskel’s gaze.

“I guess.” Eskel shrugs. “Did you see Ciri? She’s Poe.”

“Oh yes!” Jaskier beams. “Was that planned?”

Eskel nods proudly. “Still missing a Finn, though…”

“Actually someone in Legal dressed as Finn,” Jaskier says, “and I could have sworn she was—” The marketer stops speaking as a figure catches his attention in the IT office entryway. “Right there.”

Eskel looks toward the door. He sees Yennefer and it’s like the air goes out of him. It doesn’t seem to return to his lungs as she approaches both he and Jaskier yet smiles only at Eskel.

“Hey Rey,” the General Counsel says.

“You made it.” Eskel laughs softly, eyes sweeping over Yennefer’s costume. She looks too damn good.. “And you actually did it.”

“Of course I did. Where’s our Poe?” Yennefer says.

And Eskel gladly leads the way to find Ciri.