Deep Axiom.

Chapter 3. Corporate Economics

The Night was full of tossing and turning. As Theodore lifted himself out of bed back into the slightly too bright lights of his bedroom, he didn't feel as bad as yesterday, he just felt trashed. The dream was utter nonsense. Some professors talk about speaking heads and the wonders of science. Lecture halls turned into space dust as it lasted. There was also something about Jello. At least there were no Vultures in this one. Those dreams were the worst.

Sitting on the edge of his bedside, Theodore overlooked his living quarters. The area given to him was sizable. Adjacent to the door was a side room slash workspace for whatever side project he assigned to (though those were rare), a singular bean bag (Astrid said it was for morale), and a can of Dr. Pepper labeled "Lime, Grape and Orange Stuff". Astrid said it was for "luck and memories" and not for drinking. He was always curious about what "orange stuff" was. Last day on the job, he was going to drink till the end. No matter how bad it tasted.

Theodore looked at the space given to him. A side room spaced out with a desk and a closet full of supplies and blocks, a singular bean bag next to his bed, a fridge, and several drawers. The personal bathroom was somewhere else. Even if it had been 5 months, it was kind of hard to get used to the abundance of space when he had spent most of his life rooming with someone, but it was...

Then it came back to him. Or at least mixed in with the teeth' dreams. Something about Astrid's head and Eli or something. Then the club teeth. The spinal column was still attached to the head as the eyes rolled back. Whatever dream he had last night must've gone into a nightmare down the line, somewhere past the Jello probably.

Whatever, it was a new day, his bones didn't feel like someone took a weed whacker to them, and he felt bright and set on the world in front of him, ready to change himself and it. First up that horrendous before bed routine, simply flopping down on the bed has done nothing but waste his resting hours with...

Ready. He was bright and ready. Or maybe he needed more sleep. Hard to tell at times but oh well.

As Theodore did the monotonous walk towards the main commons area, he heard the commotion familiar to him from the low points of his life. The sound of the impending office-wide meeting. He could feel his body slowly shutting down all-important brain functions as he entered the room. The smell of cheap food provided for the staff, the self-importance that Astrid stunk of as she prepared her PowerPoint. Even though those days were long gone, Theo could still feel the weight on his chest as though he still wore that tacky nameplate, like a phantom limb that has burned itself within his memory as an extension of him. Deep within his mind, he could feel his tongue reflexively uncoil to say whatever faux polite bullshit needed to get the torture over faster.

To rid himself of such societal pressures, he went the furthest possible distance away from the stage, who sat down by himself near the back, while the front of the stage was empty, lacking the intrigue and the odd intensity of which he had sat. Instead, Eli was nowhere to be found. He thought back to how... unhinged he was after they met. How he was hearing things. Even Theo could feel his body still needed some rest.  It was plausible and there was something in his heart that made him leave him to his work and allow himself to grow from there. Just needed to give him some time. The room slowly quieted down as the sound of construction stopped. Astrid ascended the makeshift steps as the projector was set up by the nameless handy workers in grey.  The new hires thought the whole thing unnecessary,it was an incident caused by a rookie and some has been.   The more experienced researchers however knew what this was as soon news of the incident came out. Eyes focused full of either disappointment for such an incident or some barely holding back their calls for more transparency, even if the contract they signed didn't give them a leg to stand on.  The room went silent with judgement. The company had an incident, it was time for damage control.