[Niamh]: Oh my god!!! Ryo!!! That's you, isn't it???
I opened Niamh's private message and my stomach sank.
Damn it.
Attached was a photo of me and Llewellyn after the Distorted Realm—taken just before we could teleport.
My phone buzzed again.
[Opal]: HEY—sorry if this is weird, but I'm on the other shift and… the one all over my feed is you, isn't it?????? Right?????? I've only seen you in video meetings like three times so I could be wrong???? But it really looks like your profile pic and I'm lowkey freaking out OMG!!!!
A moment later:
[Altan]: Man!!!! This you??????
Llewellyn glanced at me and frowned.
I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. I guess there was no way around it.
I opened the pic full screen and turned the phone toward him.
"They got pics," I said.
Llewellyn took one look at the screen and seemed to deflate a bit. "It was bound to happen, eventually."
Yeah. But.
I scrolled through the work chat. My team was losing their minds.
I hesitated then opened social media. My eyes landed on the trending tag, and I closed it immediately.
Fuck.
"It'll die down," Llewellyn said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a small silver coin with strange markings etched into its surface. "Here."
I took it, turning it over in my palm. "What's this supposed to be?"
"Basic concealment artifact. The System Shop sells them for 200 coins. You can get more advanced ones, like the one we used for Penguin, but this one you can just keep in your pocket and it activates with pressure. Squeeze it when you need to go unnoticed and don't have time to equip a wearable." He demonstrated with a pinching motion. "It makes people's eyes slide past."
Okay, that was useful.
My phone buzzed again.
"That's it?"
Llewellyn raised an eyebrow. "What did you expect? A press conference? Public statement? That only makes it worse."
I knew that, but.
Besides, Llewellyn's tone was off. I supposed he was upset by this.
"Does it bother you?" he asked after a moment.
Huh? Me?
"Being photographed with me," Llewellyn added. "Your life's about to get considerably more complicated. I should probably have made you aware before this happened."
He looked unhappy.
Wait, what? Did he really think I didn't know?!
This was literally my whole thing!
"You can't seriously believe that I didn't know this was a possibility. I work in social media. Your accounts, specifically."
Llewellyn's expression remained dark.
Honestly.
I rubbed my face. "Look. My life before all of this started wasn't the kind for which even something like this would be a downgrade. It's fine."
I mean, what did he think would've changed if he told me?
For one, I did know. And anyway, let's not kid ourselves. I'd have accepted regardless.
Llewellyn gave me a weird look.
"Then?" he asked after a moment.
"Then what? I thought you were bothered by the fact that I was in the photos. And wanted to do damage control, or something."
Llewellyn looked baffled. "Why would that bother me?"
Wait. Was he serious?
I stopped walking and turned to face him.
"People are going to have opinions. About who you associate with. In this case… me."
Llewellyn just stared at me, one eyebrow slightly raised.
"And?"
Okay, nevermind. Maybe he'd been dealing with this for so long he was desensitized by now.
My phone hadn't stopped buzzing. Even Llewellyn seemed a bit impressed at the amount of notifications.
"My team is having a collective meltdown," I said.
Llewellyn snorted. "You should probably respond."
He had a point.
I sighed and opened the group chat, scrolling through the new messages.
What should I even tell them?
I typed a quick message.
[Ryo]: Hi, hello. Yeah. So. Yes, that's me. 😅 No, I'm not dead. Yes, I'm working with Llewellyn. I really can't give any details right now, I'm sorry
A private message from Niamh came in a second later.
[Niamh]: WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T GIVE DETAILS
Meanwhile in the chat:
[Opal]: OH MY GOD
[Altan]: Bro how long has this been going on???
Damn it.
I mean, I was mentally screaming too!
I hadn't received any training on how to deal with this!
[Altan]: Wait are you actually working FOR him or???
[Opal]: This is so cool!!!! But also terrifying!!!! Are you safe????
[Ciarán]: What's going on?! I was sleeping, someone fill me in??
I typed a quick message asking them to please not tell anyone it was me, and vaguely promising I'd explain things when I got home.
I didn't know if I could trust them, but what choice did I have?
Ugh. What the hell.
Did this fall under the agency's NDA at all? If so, this might be the only time I was happy we had to sign an NDA.
Though that only covered Llewellyn, not me, so probably no help there.
A new private message from Niamh:
[Niamh]: TELL LLEWELLYN TO ANSWER EMMA, she's about to skin me alive.
What. Were these kinds of messages going to become a thing??
Trying to keep it together, I turned my phone screen toward Llewellyn again.
"Looks like Emma tried to call you."
"Yes, I'm ignoring her."
Honestly.
"You better do something about it before Niamh's forced to escalate this and you get a call from the agency Director or something."
Llewellyn let out an annoyed huff and pulled out his phone.
Which was still ringing.
"Emma," he said flatly.
I couldn't hear her exact words, but the volume coming through the phone speaker was impressive. Llewellyn held the device slightly away from his ear.
"Yes, I saw it. I'm not issuing a statement."
Another burst of sound. I caught something about "narrative management", then something I didn't catch, then "—we do need to say something".
Llewellyn pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just... say that the System assigned him. Nothing else."
Something else from the other side, but I couldn't hear what.
"I can and I will. Handle the media response however you see fit, just don't throw him to the sharks. Don't give names or details. If possible, don't confirm anything long term either, just be as vague as you can."
I could detect some discontent on the other side, but maybe not at Llewellyn. A "don't these people have anything better to do???" floated through, before Emma added something else I couldn't quite catch.
"I know," Llewellyn said with a sigh. "Thank you. Let me know if anything goes wrong."
They hung up. Llewellyn checked the time and let out a curse.
"I really need to run," he said. "The System should be able to get you home safely."
"Wait—"
He vanished.
Goddamnit.
The sudden teleportation was starting to get annoying.