“You greet all your employees like this?” Who: Winn and Xanatos What: Xanatos is waiting for Winn after his first day of work When: Monday, June 8th Where: Inside Winn's apartment Rating/Warning: Low/none Status: Complete
Xanatos finished his tour around Winn’s new apartment, more or less satisfied with the work the interior designer he had hired had done. He didn’t know Winn’s personal tastes, but the furniture and the arrangement was classy yet comfortable, and he couldn’t imagine anyone disliking the work that had been done. The problem, of course, was that Winn hadn’t finished unpacking yet, despite the fact that he’d had the entire weekend to do so. Xanatos would have to talk to him about that.
He made his way to the kitchen, opened one of the ‘Welcome to the Orange County’ wine bottles he had had placed on Winn’s countertop as a welcoming gift, and poured himself a drink.
Frankly, he would have preferred to have brought Owen to California. Owen was just as competent as Winn was at cyber security, and Xanatos knew he could trust him - he did trust him, more than anyone else in the world. That, and Owen was considerably more competent at every other aspect of the business - physical security, administrative tasks, decision-making. But that was precisely why he was required to remain in New York to keep things running smoothly there. With Owen in New York, Winn was redundant, whereas he could be infinitely useful here in California. It was a small price to pay to pay for his move and his lodgings while he was here - especially since the skyscraper Winn was lodged in was owned by Xanatos Enterprises - indeed, it was the same building where Winn would be doing the majority of his work.
He poked around the few belongings Winn had bothered to unpack, before taking hold of Elon Musk’s biography - autographed, no less, Xanatos noted, amused, as he opened the first page - and sat down in the plush recliner that sat in the corner of Winn’s living room. When Winn got home, he could sit on the couch.
Xanatos had just finished the first chapter, sipping on his wine, when he heard the front door unlock. “How was your first day at work?” Xanatos asked when Winn walked into the room.
When David Xanatos told Winn he needed him out at the Orange County office, Winn hadn’t objected. Even if Mr. Xanatos had given Winn a choice in the matter, he still would have taken the opportunity. He had lived on the East Coast his entire life, and while no one really brought up his father anymore Winn was excited by the idea of living across the country where he hoped the Toyman bombings weren’t as big of a deal. Of course twenty years ago the whole nation had talked about it, but given they all took place in New Jersey, maybe it wouldn’t be as big of deal in California. Winn was beyond ready to start the next chapter in his life.
He had less than a week to pack up his belongings and move across the country. Luckily Winn didn’t own many things. The apartment and furniture were being taken care of which left Winn to pack up his electronics, books, clothes, and a few other personal items. He arrived on a Saturday and started work Monday, so not much unpacking had happened over the weekend. Sure he had a bit of time, but Winn was also a procrastinator. At least when it came to his personal life, at work he was on top of things.
His first day had gone somewhat smoothly. It was his first time starting as a boss somewhere new. Granted it was the same company but there were different people working under him now. People who didn’t know him. He was just the new guy coming in and taking over. He brought donuts and cracked jokes but he knew it was going to take his team some time to warm up. He stayed later than the rest of them making sure everything was taken care of, the codes were up to date and there was no gaps in the firewall that could be breached. Finally the day was done and he was ready to relax with some video games.
The commute to his apartment wasn’t bad given that it was in the same building as his office, just up a few floors. He unlocked the door and walked inside, only to be greeted by none other than his boss. Still the initial shock of having someone in his apartment caused his heart to jump. “Shit,” he muttered before the realization of who it was sunk in. It shouldn’t have surprised his that Mr. Xanatos had a key to his apartment. He did own it after all.
“You greet all your employees like this?” Winn finally said when he recovered from the shock, not even bothering to answer Mr. Xanatos’s question.
Xanatos couldn’t help the small tugging of the corners of his lips, but he tried to suppress the bulk of the smile at startling Winn like that. “Only the important ones,” Xanatos said, closing the book he’d been reading and placing it on the table next to him. “Can I get you a glass of wine?”
“Not sure if I should be flattered by that or not,” Winn replied honestly. He probably should be, being called important and all. But having his boss randomly show up in his apartment scaring the shit out of him wasn’t exactly ideal.
Winn finally shut the door behind him stepping further into the apartment. “Oh, uh, I can get it myself.” Mr. Xanatos shouldn’t have to serve him. It should be the other way around really. He made his way to the kitchen pouring his own glass before heading back into the living room and taking a seat on the couch considering it looked like Mr. Xanatos was going to be there for at least a few minutes. “Wh-what brings you by?”
“I am a busy man,” Xanatos reminded Winn, though lightly as if the comment wasn’t made in any amount of seriousness
He followed Winn with his eyes, turning his head as he made his way to the kitchen, taking a sip from his wine, but he said nothing until Winn sat down. “Oh, nothing too much,” Xanatos said. “I mostly wanted to check to see how you’re settling in. I hope that I didn’t rush you off to work before you were really settled in,” Xanatos said, with a pointed glance at the still-unpacked boxes in Winn’s living room.
Winn caught the the way Mr. Xanatos was looking at the boxes. It was true that he had rushed him in to work a bit fast. Considering Friday he had been working in New York and then over the weekend he flew out and moved and started on Monday. But he couldn’t exactly tell his boss that. Besides, Winn probably wouldn’t have unpacked even if he had more time.
“Nah,” Winn replied with a slight head shake. “Unpacking is just my least favorite thing to do.” Which was also true.
Xanatos frowned a little, but far be it from him if he would tell Winn what to do in the privacy of his own home. Still, he couldn’t help but think of the fact that the first thing Owen would have done would undoubtedly be to unpack.
“And how did your first day go?” Xanatos asked, moving on. “I hope your new team is acceptable? No major problems on the first day?”
Winn noticed the frown and just managed a sheepish smile. It wasn’t like he knew he was going to be having company so soon. He might have at least shoved the boxes in the spare room. But there wasn’t much he could do about it now.
“They’re great,” Winn assured. At least as far as he could tell. “Still getting used to them.” And they were getting used to Winn as well. “No problems.”
“Good, good,” Xanatos said. “I hope you won’t hesitate to come to me if any of them prove to be a problem.” He took a sip of his wine. “I’m trusting you to keep our assets safe. I can trust you, can’t I, Winn?”
Hopefully there wouldn’t any be problems that Winn couldn’t handle for himself. But yes, if it was necessary he wouldn’t hesitate to go to Mr. Xanatos. He just gave a small nod to the statement because his boss was already moving on to something else. “Of course you can trust me,” Winn replied brow slightly furrowed. “Is uh, there something particular I should be looking into?” He wasn’t sure he should even ask the question. Hell he already regretted it. But there was something about Mr. Xanatos’s statement that led Winn to believe the man was talking about more than he was letting on.
“Yes, actually,” Xanatos said, smiling like the cat who’d just caught the canary. He leaned back in his - Winn’s - chair, swirling the wine in its glass. “There’s an online forum called Valarnet,” Xanatos said. “It’s piqued my curiosity. I’ve tried to discover its credentials - who made it, for what purpose - on my own, but I’m afraid that that sort of thing isn’t exactly in my expertise. I was hoping I could find someone I could trust to look into it for me.”
“Yeah,” Winn replied taking a sip of wine. “I can look into that.” Seemed easy enough. Online forums weren’t usually that difficult. “I’m guessing you’re not going to tell me why you’re so curious?” Was it a competitor or something? It didn’t make much sense to Winn. Not that he would argue it. Whatever Mr. Xanatos wanted he’d do. That was his job.
“I don’t see why not,” Xanatos said, shrugging. “It seems as though the Network has some connection to strange dreams the residents seem to have. I can’t explain it, though it seems almost as though somehow, this Network is able to cause or encourage people to Dream.”
It sounded insane, but one of the perks of owning a multi-billion dollar company and having a reputation for genius was that your employees had to go along with whatever you said, no matter how unbelievable it seemed.
“Doesn’t everyone dream?” Winn questioned still not understanding the fascination. However, Mr. Xanatos was a smart guy. If there was something off about this network or the dreams it apparently produced Winn would look into it. See if he could figure it out. He had a feeling some of his questions would be answered when he saw the network for himself, but still he couldn’t help but ask Mr. Xanatos.
“Not quite in the same way,” Xanatos said, wondering just how much he should reveal before Winn saw the Network for himself. Then again, what difference could it possible make? “There are those who believe that these dreams are a window into parallel worlds. That they’re more than just the normal dreams people have.”
“That’s an interesting theory,” Winn commented. It kind of made sense, the theory at least. Winn didn’t actually believe in parallel worlds. He also didn’t quite understand why Mr. Xanatos was so fascinated with other people’s theories. But then who knew how his boss got some of his ideas. Whatever he was doing was clearly working for him. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
“I agree,” Xanatos said. One that he believed entirely, despite only having one dream. “You don’t need to confirm that, however. I just need to see if you can find out where the Network came from, and if there’s anything particularly strange about it, whether you think you can explain it or not.”
“Noted,” Winn replied taking another sip of his wine. “I’ll do my best.” Which was better than most people’s. And really how hard could figuring out where this Network came from be?