YC128
As soon as Veikitama entered the office of Taikukamo she was struck by how redolent it was with nostalgia and memories from another life within Kaalakiota circles. He was a taciturn man and the decor befitted a manager who operated with little embellishment. There was the walnut desk deep with nostalgia. Its brushed steel surface reflected the low light. Pictorial mementos of his past life lived in Kaalakiota circles, usually of their unit. There was nothing romantic or sentimental, he was a career professional. Two wingback armchairs in a rustic brown leather framed a low table with the usual magazine conversational starters for mid-tier management.
The man himself seated behind the desk as stoic as ever. His Deteis features were unworn, a sign of rejuvenating medicine although his cold blue eyes carried with them a lingering recourse of regret. His jet black hair with a hint of pepper was brushed back and framed his chilled features. He wore a well cut suit in deep graphite, a drop seven that seemed to burst off his muscular frame. The cufflinks were a ruby red just like the enamel Kaalakiota pin on his lapel.
“Please Veiki, sit,” Taiku intoned in his deep, rich voice, full of remonstrance,“It’s good you came willingly instead of my having to drag you back here.” He smiled wanly and scratched his right brow with his index finger. A sign of irritation.
“I don’t mind if I do,” She responded causticly sitting in an armchair and adjusting her white blouse and black skirt, “Now what is this about, Taiku?”
“Now, what is this about? That’s it?” He asked with an expression of bewilderment, “It’s been nearly ten years since we’ve sat down together and that’s all you have for me?”
She shrugged, “Consider it my largesse that I’m even here. Next time don’t get involved in my personal life and I might have dropped a line here and there.”
He rolled his eyes, “You’re still bitter over that woman? She was loose change. A few kreds and you get another blonde for ■■■■’s sake!”
“Bitterness is one sentiment I like to keep, Taiku,” She clenched her teeth, “Next time don’t get involved in my personal life. Thanks.”
“She was a pleasant woman, too idealistic. You know those Ishukone types, always trying to save the cluster.” He smiled crookedly, “I suppose it works for them.”
“You’re asking if she rubbed off on me.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
He nodded again, “A messy business. I never took you for a true romantic though.”
“You know I try to keep my ascetic sense of self,” She said, bemused.
“Oh yeah, a true celibate. ■■■■ off.”
She laughed, “I make waivers for the right circumstance, you know that.”
“Oh yeah, whenever you’re ■■■■■■■ horny you miscreant piece of ■■■■.”
“You’re one to talk, didn’t you enjoy it when we had to play brother and sister? I know you were curious if we’d role-play it out executive or Wiyrkomi style.”
“I’ve got standards.”
“Oh, I’m sub-par?”
“No, I can’t afford the price of admission.” He choked a laugh, “Or rather I’m unwilling to even look at the price tag.”
“You can afford it.”
“No. I can’t.”
“Oh dear, don’t tell me you caught feelings for the girl.”
“You, or…” He drifted off.
“You know who.”
“She got her closure.”
“■■■■ sake you’re dense Taiku. She didn’t want closure she wanted assurance from you.”
“Wrong place, wrong time.”
“Keep telling yourself that. How about you go and chase her.”
He rolled his eyes, “We’re distant friends. Of a sort.”
“This is like trying to decide who is more ■■■■■■■ dense. You or her.”
“She complicates matters. I can’t afford that.”
“What are you a pauper now?”
“I’m not going to reveal pillow talk to our rivals.” He said pinching his brow between his fingers, “It just doesn’t work with her.”
Veikitama threw her hands up in the air, “Don’t you get it you ■■■■■■■ idiot? She wants love, to be held by you, to have security in your feelings and you treat her like a damn phobia.”
“Maybe it is. A purely operational one.” He remarked flatly.
“You really are an idiot.”
“Perhaps I am.”
“You don’t have to treat her with professional detachment. You know what ‘closure’ sounds like to a girl? It’s over between us. Why do you think she hasn’t contacted you?”
“Okay, that’s enough of that.”
Veikitama frowned and shook her head, “■■■■■■■ idiot.”
“Life goes on.”
“Again. Idiot.”
“Changing topics. You’re a blooder now if I have it correctly from the gossip.”
“Hardly, just some technology transfer from my time in Zarzakh. Choice specifications. I rebranded the holding company into something akin to, ‘reborn in blood,’ then let it default to a Nefantar Circle. No one would look at some edgy cultist adjacent corporate. Most would think it me just being edgy as usual and not a way to circumvent the Gamma protocols.”
“Aha. But why Nefantar?”
“They’re rich.”
“Come now, that can’t be the only reason? Where is your humanitarian heart? Your sentimentality for the poor, downtrodden slaves?”
She gave him an acerbic glare, “It’s just kudos in kind. That Circle helped me out of a dire strait. Just paying things forward. You know I hate debts.”
“Here I am thinking you had gone soft.”
“Softness gets you killed.”
“Oh yeah? Back to being the ice queen I love and adore?”
“Now look who’s getting sentimental. You want to write a shitty fanfic about my love life or something?”
“I leave that to your fans.”
“If only my fans stopped the fanfics thinking I’m down to ■■■■, that would be great.”
“I suppose you have unintended parasocial relationships.”
“Tell me about it.”
“They could be useful.”
“Sometimes. When they’re not driving themselves to the point of bodily desiccation.”
“I hear it goes beyond that. Trying to say they’re one of your rogue clones and such. I’m sure they lack your sense of cynical aesthetics though.”
“I boiled all my backup clones when I had to go Cinnabar. New legend, new era.”
“No more shitposting?”
“It was part of the job.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes.”
“You went Posit or Render?”
“Posit path.”
“Your series?”
She smiled, amused, “Three-Nine.”
“You ■■■■■! No wonder…”
“It’s a clean slate.”
“You got the paperwork filed for the Business Unit?”
“All filed away.”
“Who’s the principal for the project?”
“They’re in Revel.”
“Just like old times, then. Welcome back into the fold.”
“Did I ever leave?”