Chapter Text
It was a normal day in the Archives. Well, as normal as you can get in the Archives of the Magnus Institute when the head Archivist just so happens to be one Jonny D'vill. Of course, he wasn't messing up the place too bad, Ivy would kill him if he did anything like that, but he was most certainly not having a good time. His assistants were going to be the death of him (or at least, the temporary death of him that would lead to the Crew's departure from the planet, they very much couldn't stay after Jonny came back to life, and the Crew would decidedly not like that), the Crew was busy often with jobs that they had pulled out of a hat (well, except for Nastya who had to become a mechanic. And TS. TS fucked off and joined a clown cult. The freak), and he was stuck here; doing Ivy's job. Jonny smiled, remembering the day they picked out their jobs on this... old earth.
"Now as we arrive at this planet, earth, whatever, we should choose jobs. And before you get too excited, I had an idea of what we might do instead." Nastya's grin was wide and you could see the tips of her teeth. Sometimes, her experiments were worse than Raph's, and she always had the support of Aurora.
"I have asked Rora to gather some jobs available on this earth and we will be drawing from this hat to see who gets what. I know what these jobs are so I will not be participating. There is one job, however, that I really hope Jonny gets. It will be extremely funny if it does happen." She smirked and held out the hat. Not wanting to be called a cowered, Jonny immediately stalked up to the hat, tail swishing angrily behind him, reached in, and grabbed one of the small strips of paper that the jobs were written on. The others followed suit, and soon everyone except for Nastya had one of these jobs assigned. They opened them at the same time with varying reactions. Ashes let out a laugh, while Tim looked upset. Marius seemed annoyed, while Brian was panicking. Ivy simply snorted, while Raph seemed happy. TS simply looked the same, but Lyf looked angry and cursed in Midgardian. Jonny was just confused. He knew what one of the words meant, assistant, and had heard Ivy mention another once, Archival, but he didn't know what any of the others were. Growing up on New Texas meant English wasn't his first language. He grew up speaking New Texan. He wasn't bad at English, don't get me wrong, but he certainly didn't know all of it. These words had never come up before. He was just as lost as Nastya was usually. They all went around saying their jobs, one by one. Ashes: Police officer. Tim: Exterminator. Marius: Barista. Brian: Psychiatrist (they all had a good laugh at that one, and Marius looked robbed). Ivy: Publisher. Raph: Scientist. TS: Ringmaster? (Neither Nastya or Aurora knew how that got in there but it seemed happy so they left it be). Lyf: Police officer. Actually, they were to be Ashes’s partner. They looked significantly more relieved after hearing that. After everyone else had gone, they turned to Jonny. He swallowed hard, looking at Nastya for help. She simply smiled and shook her head. Bitch. He slowly began to speak.
"So I uh... I ummm... I actually don't know what this is. I know, like, one of the words and its 'assistants' but I don't actually know what, ah, any of the others are." He looked around nervously. Tim simply snorted and walked over to see what this job was.
"Lets see, um we've got… Archival assistant? That means you'll be helping out the Archivist. And umm, you'll be working at… THE MAGNUS INSTITUTE??? DUDE THAT PLACE IS FAMOUS. THEY'VE GOT LIKE, THE BEST STORIES. DUUUDEEE YOU ARE SO LUCKY." Tim looked excited while Jonny was just annoyed.
"Sounds fun, can't wait."
Jonny smirked at the memory. At least he got to go out for some drinks and maybe a little bit of arson with Tim and Ashes. Or as they were currently known; Jordan Kennedy and Basira Hussain. Jonny also was going by a different name: Jonathan Sims, or Jon for short. Also he was no longer Archival Assistant, he was now Head Archivist. Ivy had a fit when she found out about that. It wasn't his fault Bitchard had decided to promote him and not the obviously more qualified person; Sasha. As he was reminiscing on the past, there came a knock on his door. He hurriedly scrambled to get into a more professional position, (he had made a bet with Ivy he couldn't be professional for at least two years. He was going to prove her wrong) and quickly yelled 'come in' to the visitor. The door swung open to reveal Tim. Stoker not Gunpowder, not that there was much difference.
"Hey boss, was wondering if you wanted to come out to get some lunch with us? Give yourself a break? I know a great café and the barista there is really hot." He gave a wink at the last comment. Jonny sighed. Oh why the hell not, he thought to himself.
"Sure I don't see why not. It would be nice to get away from this God awful paperwork." Tim looked slightly taken aback at this, but responded joyously.
"Great! Come on then! Leaving now. Get on over here!" He ran over to when Jonny was standing up and proceeded to drag him out of his office.
"Tim. Tim. TIM! I can walk on my own!" He exclaimed, somewhat surprised. Tim sighed and let go of Jonny's arm.
"Fine, whatever. Come on! The others are waiting outside!" And indeed they were. They looked taken aback that Jonny had decided to join them but decided not to, umm what was the phrase? Not look the gift horse in the mouth. There. Jonny was proud he managed to remember that before he was getting corralled to follow them. He walked with them for a short while before they came to a café, and without getting the chance to see what café it was, went in and immediately went to order. As they walked to the counter, the assistants noticed Jonny looked slightly worried.
"Be with you in a sec!" The barista called out happily. Jonny seemed to smile when he heard the voice.
"All right then what can I get for... you?" The barista began to trail off but then returned with an even happier smile than before, practically beaming at Jonny.
"Jonny! Long time no see! How long has it been? A week? Two?" The assistants looked shocked that the two knew each other, but were even more shocked at the fact that Jonny was smiling.
"Not quite that long, only been three days. Haven't seen you since Tuesday night! Where did we go again?"
"That one bar that's run by that Russian couple. You know, the one Nastya likes?"
"Ah, that one! The one with the actual good booze. Leave it to my sister to find the best bar in town." The archival team were now even more shocked. A secret sister? The plot thickens.
"Anyways, how are you Marius? Been busy?" Jonny seemed to be actually having a good time.
"It's Kofi, remember? And things have been going great. How have things been for you?" Jonny sighed.
"Same old, same old. Hoping to maybe get Ivy to come into the archives one of these days. She will not stop pestering me about the promotion. 'Ain't my fault she didn't get the job." Kofi sighed.
"Yeah I can see that. Still not fair that umm, what was his name, Ben, got the psychiatrist job." Jonny smirked at that.
"Oh come on, you would have been terrible for the job and you know it." Kofi grumbled something under his breath before turning to the others.
"So what can I get you?"
They proceeded to order, and when they got their food they headed to the park nearby. Tim was practically buzzing with excitement and questions. The moment they sat down he belted them off, rapid fire style.
"Who was that? How do you know them? You have a sister? Why did you call them Marius? What do you mean 'bar with the good booze?' I thought you didn't drink!" Jonny chuckled and held up a hand to get Tim to stop. He waited, out of breath, for the answers. Jonny sighed thoughtfully.
"That, was one of my roommates. We don't see each other often. We met in Uni. Yes I have a sister. Well, we aren't technically related but she's still my sister. I called him Marius because that's a nickname he has based off this band we used to listen to. Also yes, I do drink alcohol. And yes, I do have a preference over the type. Have fun trying to get me drunk." He smirked at the last bit, almost as if reliving a memory. He was, in fact, reliving the memory of when some other people on this world tried to get him drunk. The alcohol here sucked. As he bit into his sandwich, the assistants looked at each other in shock. Their boss was way cooler than they thought! Tim spoke slowly, choosing his next words carefully.
"So would you be willing to come with us to get drinks tonight?" Jonny looked thoughtful for a second before shaking his head.
"Nah, I'm going out with some friends. Maybe a different time though." The assistants looked at each other with glee. This was more than they'd gotten every other time they asked. One day. Tim finally remembered the other question he was going to ask Jon.
“Oh also, is your friend single?” Sasha and Martin rolled their eyes and Jonny scoffed.
“No, actually. He's in a relationship with another one of my friends.” He muttered something under his breath that the assistants couldn't hear. Actually, even if they had heard they wouldn't understand. He muttered to himself in New Texan. What did he say? That is between him, and himself. They all finished their lunch and walked back to the archives, a million questions
still buzzing in their heads.