Uhh, it's an Archives story

A-1 StarLight

[I am NOT putting any more yaoi for these dumb pictures, so have this diabolical image.]

Cold air filled these rooms. The scent of paper plagued these offices. The thought of work ran through these employees' minds. If they had a real mind to even begin with.

You wouldn't clock in anywhere, you wouldn't have a desk, you wouldn't have a proper keyboard. Neither would you have a proper interview, their boss only cares that their employees are EFFICIENT.

Yet. Why would one bored, lonely boss only care about efficiency? Past the inky employees and the endless organizing, one could care about more than just work.

The lights looked like they were dimmer than they actually were, this was caused by the repetitive sight of these same two rooms over decades. The escalators ran continually with no plan of stopping, water bubbled with poison, and rain poured. It has poured indefinitely.

Papers were scattered across the smaller of the two rooms, each one had at least one sketch of a four-point star on it. Many unread books sat on the shelves, coated in dust. Untouched for they all had the same thing in each book despite the differences between each one. The air was a mix of this dust, a hint of deceitful pizza and that smell of coffee. The forever smell of heartless coffee.

A chair faced towards the one window in the room, watching the endless rain. It was motionless, focused on the outside for who knows how long.

Suddenly the sound of something choking shattered the quietness of the room. Or more like someone. The chair sprang around and a person slammed the coffee cup on the desk while trying to regain air from their slight mess-up of breathing while drinking. In trying to breathe, they accidentally knocked something off their desk with their cup. A golden-rimmed nameplate that read-

"HONCHO"

Honcho was finally able to breathe and then started searching their desk for something. After they searched through multiple papers, they picked up one without any sketches on it and they started wiping their face with it.

Well. One wouldn't call it a face. It was a black, glitching mask in front of their face that replaced their real face years ago. Something also weird about them is that they were made of paper and were almost 2d despite the need for organs. This would have made it hard to, at least, stand but on the back of their legs were stilts that seemed to be physically attached to them.

Besides the blacked-out face and stilts, Honcho wore a blue business suit with a white dress shirt under it. They had a blue tie, blue pants, brown shoes, and they wore maroon suspenders that held up their pants a little too tightly. Their sleeves were rolled up, displaying three staples on each of their arms that mimicked arm hair.

Another thing about their arms is that there are tons of stars drawn on them. They drew these themselves.

Honcho looked down at the coffee-stained paper, deep in thought with a slow steady airflow. They stared blankly at this paper for way too long.

Their intent staring was interrupted by a tapping sound on their desk. Honcho broke out of their daze with a yelp, not knowing what it was.

Looking up, finally noticing the small, inky creature standing in front of their desk. It blotches randomly making it look like it is constantly moving.

It has three light blue sticky notes on its face and two ponytails that almost touch the floor. This is nothing special as there are many, many other beings with the same appearance. But what made this one special is one single sticky note placed on its chest. Drawn on it is that same star on all those papers and Honcho's arms. This Drone was one of the two most prized of them all.

Honcho sighed with a tone of aggravation before sitting up and questioning rudely, "What prize employee want?"

The prized Drone reached up into one of its ponytails and pulled out a folded piece of paper then slid it carefully across Honcho's desk.

"Huh?" Honcho took the paper and unfolded it. There was a lengthy amount of words that they tried to read, struggling because of their broken English and the handwriting looking scratchy and scribbled.

Dear The Boss,

Hello there! I am Scribbles! I have asked your friendly workers to send you this because I have been wanting to meet you! We have heard all about you and we haven't been able to locate exactly where you are, it also doesn't help that your workers won't say where you are (or really they won't say anything in general). But, getting to my point of writing this, I was hoping you could join my friends and me at Sector B-50. If you can't, please write me back and maybe, just maybe write where you are. I'd LOVE to see you!

From your new inky fellow,

Scribbles. (Also if you come, just know Bash and Ransom will be there. Just saying if you know them already.)

Honcho thought about it for a moment before shaking their head and pushing the paper aside. "Me not am explore office again. Not again." Honcho crossed their arms and turned away from the prized Drone. Slouching with those dreadful memories of being lost in the office for so many years. "Make slackers work."

Honcho was going to turn back towards the window but heard the sound of graphite marking paper. They turn back towards the prized Drone to see it offering a sticky note that was originally one of its eyes. Honcho took the sticky note hesitantly.

They analyzed the paper with an eye on it before turning it over, revealing one sloppily written word.

go

They looked back at the prized Drone with a feeling of shock and disrespect but also curiosity. Honcho sucked their nonexistent teeth. They wanted to go but they didn't want to get lost again. Sighing, Honcho put the sticky note carefully back on the prized Drone's face.

"Prize employee sure?" They asked it.

The prized Drone shook its head aggressively to ensure that its boss saw.

Putting two hands on their desk, Honcho pushed themselves out of their chair. They felt slightly lightheaded due to sitting around all day and doing nothing, but there was no reason to stop now. Knowing that new people were located in this office and they personally invited Honcho to meet them in person filled Honcho with dopamine and adrenaline that they tried to hide from the one employee located their personal cell.

Honcho was halfway across the room before stopping and turning to look at the prized Drone, which was still standing near their desk shyly.

"If prize employee see god, type god on paper!" Honcho pointed towards the piles of paper near their desk.

The prized Drone picked up a blank sheet of paper and a pencil then lifted them in the air to show its boss. Honcho nodded before continuing out of the room.

Taking the escalator down and stepping into the elevator, Honcho whispered a prayer to themselves.

"God, please spare Honcho," they said to themselves as the elevator started its ascent.

After hearing the elevator's doors close, the prized Drone sat in desk's chair and turned towards the window, swaying its head for no apparent reason. Pencil and paper in its lap.

It turned back towards the desk and grabbed the half-drunk cup of coffee on it. It turn back towards the window, cup in hand. It attempted to drink the coffee but with nowhere to go, the coffee soaked the sticky note on its face that had a mouth on it.

The prized Drone slouched in sadness as its attempt to feel like its boss was unsuccessful.

It looked back up at the window then it jerked its head back in surprise. The prized Drone started drawing on the piece of paper immediately while keeping an eye on the window.

That same shape glowed in the sky. The same shape on hundreds of pieces of paper, the same shape Honcho had drawn on their body, the same shape that badged this little Drone with importance, the boss's reason to keep going.

StarLight.