Jim's PoV

Jim was looking at the young wolves with incomprehension. Originally he thought that combining his beloved old time game with his breakthrough knowledge would result in an awesome updated game, but this seemed too real for just a game.

It turned his stomach when he looked at the orphaned wolf pups. He loved dogs dammit. Killing imitations of aggressive mangy looking animals was one thing, but orphaned cute betrayed looking puppies was something else.

It really annoyed him that he was feeling guilt over something that was not real. Even now he was trying to restrain himself from running over to console the creatures. He really needed to do some tweaking and try this out again. It had great potential but he needed to dial the realism down a notch.

Jim found a tree and sat down with his back to it. Opening the menu he glanced down to the logout button and tapped it.

As his vision shifted from the game world to his home, he noticed that he was feeling quite sore for some reason. He felt like he hit the gym hard the other day. When he stood up some muscles he didn't even know he had hurt too. Was it possible for muscles to be exercised while playing his game in his mind?

It would be epic if he could replicate that and eat oreos all day. Spacing out he was envisioning himself being on a bodybuilding reality TV show. He could imagine himself saying seriously into the camera "Yea, I'm going to hit those oreos really hard today and make some excellent gains! With the power of Oreos, and awesome anime series, and a comfy couch, I'll show these other body builder upstarts how to get things done."

He would have to look into it. Best diet plan ever!

Snapping himself out of it, he picked up his phone and powered it on. He had ten new messages. A smile appeared on his face, this should be good. He had a good idea who called and why. With a grin he started playing the messages.

The robotic female voice said "first message" followed by a short pause. A second after the line was filled with the panicked voice of his late employer.

"Hello Jim, this is Charlotte. I'm sorry, we need you. We have one week or else we will be shut down! We have to show the investors that we can make a marketable product or that's the end of the line! I am sorry about the whole firing thing. I'll try to give you the space you need to work. Please give me a call back!"

"Second message" the mechanical voice said. Jim grinned evilly as he thought insincerely 'who could it possibly be?'

"Jim, this is Charlotte, call me back. I know you had something else you were working on! I know you took unauthorized company property! It won't be a problem, just please give me a call!"

The messages continued in this vein and progressively got more demanding. The last message wasn't so nice.

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The mechanical voice announced that it was the final message and Charlotte started to speak. In an angry raging voice she said, "Goddamn you Jim. I know you've been just ignoring me this whole time. I will end you Jim! You will never work in this field again, mark my words! Whatever you took, you won't be able to sell it! Police are going to be knocking down your door and taking you to jail! I'll sue your ass into poverty! You think you can just take your toys and run to the next company? I don't think so! You will be living in a cardboard box when I'm done with you! Do you hear me Jim? A cardboard box!"

Jim looked at the time and it was 2 AM in the morning. Going over to his computer he found the right bookmark for the best video on YouTube. He maxed out the volume on his speaker system and he was ready to go. Good old Rick was about to spread his words of love once again.

He gave her a call and Charlotte picked up on the second ring. The speaker filled with a rushing of words. Charlotte quickly started saying, "Thank god you called! I'm so sorry about that last message. I'm under a lot of pressure. Please come to work tomorrow!"

Jim pressed play. The sounds of Rick Astley reverberated around the room. "You're no stranger to love. You know the rules, and so do I."

Charlotte started to yell thru the phone "I am going to kill you Jim, do you hear me? You're dead, you're friggin dead!"

Jim responded with restrained merth saying "Get Rick Rolled! Hope you have a great week!"

There were crashing sounds at the other end of the line. Did she throw her phone? The line cut off shortly after and Jim watched the rest of the video.

"Rick Astley strikes again!" he said exuberantly.

When Charlotte fired him she might have had good reason. But hey it was only the seventh time he rick rolled her, and seven was a lucky number right? Maybe the one with the board of directors was too much? Nah, they all thought it was hilarious! He had never seen so many smiles from that group of geezers before.

***

Charlotte's PoV

Charlotte looked down at the remains of what was once a phone. She sat slumped in her office and was in a state of disbelief. Why was there this sudden rush to prove it was profitable? It was an absurdity combined with incompetence.

Any sane person that saw the demonstration yesterday morning would have been throwing money at them, but then the money seemed to dry up for all branches of the company. In the back of her mind she knew what it was. Office politics.

The money was drying up for some reason, so the other branches were trying to fight over what was left. In the end some projects were going to get the axe while personnel were shuffled over to other projects just because they had a product to sell right that instant. Or friggin nepotism.

Some people had useless projects that would never produce a damn thing, but they knew the right people. Charlotte didn't have that luxury. She was trying to get ahead of the curve.

She thought if she could get rid of some people and keep a core team it would keep the costs down enough. Then maybe the project could continue for longer. But that surprise visit and ultimatum screwed her efforts. She reacted too slowly.

To make things even worse, she was on such a tight deadline that if she did go to the police about the theft of property, it would eat into the precious little time she had left. This research had been her dream, and it was a week away from dying.

What made it worse was the fact that what she said to Jim would be true for her as well. She couldn't just take the research elsewhere. She wanted to cry. Was her life's work really just going to die on some server farm, never to be used again?

Looking at a picture of a small boy on her desk, she could only feel a sense of defeat. The young pair of eyes looking back into the camera were not quite right. His eyes were looking slightly down and away while the child posed and smiled happily.