Code Zulu Alpha: Nerd in the Apocalypse!

At this moment, I had a bottle of alcohol in front of me and three shot glasses and I waved the two over to sit down when they slowed their stride seeing me like this. Despite their hesitation, I still poured each of us a shot and the moment they sat down, I had us down our glass in one breath.

"Ugh—/ Gck!/ Eugh…"

I chuckled, "Sorry, it gets better with more shots…"

JP shook his head, "No the fuck it doesn't…"

Tennyson nodded, "That's like straight-up kerosene…"

I quickly anchored the conversation back to usual programming, "So, what's up with you two?"

"Hmm?/What?"

"I said, 'sup?"

JP answered first after pushing his shot glass close to where the bottle was, "I recovered okay-ish but I'm still wary if you put something in our drinks. Even if everyone came out mostly unscathed, we never know with you."

I chuckled, "Relax, I just wanted to talk or if you can't handle your shit, you're welcome for a one-on-one without any tricks."

"Pass./I'll pass, sir."

"Good. Tennyson, you still haven't answered my—"

"Ah, right… Same-same, I guess."

I rolled my eyes, "Not much of an answer but yeah, the reason I brought you two together is that I want you both to lead this particular group as a whole. No Black Sheeps, Death Squads, Academias, nothing. While it's true you'd be in clusters when you go out, you should be blending in as a single unit, not scattered groups that somehow banded closely."

JP answered instantly, "I can do that."

"Good," then I turned to Tennyson, "How about you? I'm thinking of letting JP take the Guild Leader position while you're the Vice Guild Leader, think you can do that?"

Tennyson looked confused as he answered, "I'm… I'm not so sure about that arrangement."

"How so?"

"Look, sir… I appreciate the vote of confidence but I barely knew everyone aside from my group and if anything, I've contradicted everyone's choices or found things that people overlooked—"

"Exactly."

"Huh?"

"While JP's busy doing his thing, you'll also be met with hard shit to deal with. It'd be almost like a thankless job because while you're free to agree with everyone else, you're main goal is to find fault or gaps in everyone else's actions or decisions and find steps to prevent those faults or gaps from happening."

JP followed, "Kind of like a person who complains a lot but finds the solution at the same time?"

I nodded, "Just like that," then I turned back to Tennyson, "You're not afraid to voice out your thoughts and that's a good thing and while Brian kind of does the same thing, that's all he does for the most part. While it's also true I haven't seen you work out a solution to our problems, I'd rather have you than that meathead as vice leader."

Tennyson let out a sigh, "I see… Still— Again, I appreciate the vote of confidence but why not Marvin, Seb, or even Lee?"

"You're kind of weird, you know that?"

"H-Huh?"

"You so wanted to get back your post when I appointed Lee as the leader of your group but when I'm appointing you to something bigger, you question everything in front of you. I mean— that's kind of the job I wanted you to do as vice leader but right now, I'm just wondering why you're a little opposed to the job."

Tennyson thought for a bit before he answered, "It's not like I'm opposed but… There has to be a catch."

"A catch?"

"Everything has to, sir. Respectfully."

"I mean you're right, for one, it saves me the trouble of babysitting all you fucks every single day and I hate fucking yes men so I appointed you as the no man. You'd receive a lot of hate going against the current but it's also for everyone's sake."

JP chuckled, "So he's here to point out all the mistakes I'll make? Good luck."

Tennyson squinted his eyes, "What do you mean good luck?"

JP turned to his vice leader, "It means what it means. I only fuck up on a thing once—"

I rolled my eyes, "Mmm-hmm~ If you say so~"

"Haah?!"

"If you count everyone else going above your head as one thing, sure."

"That's—"

"And you weren't even granted the right to correct it—"

"B-But now, I'll make sure that—"

"With Tennyson's help, you'd have no excuses left. Get me?"

"Heh… Of course, sir. No excuses now."

I turned to Tennyson once more, "You okay with your job now? JP seems okay with his."

Tennyson slowly nodded after mulling it over, "I… I'll take the job, sir. But do know I won't be disagreeing for disagreement's sake and I'll give credit where credit is due. However, I'll still try to think of ways of how things might go wrong, maybe handing some of that stuff to Brian, just so we could see away from our vision cones."

I chuckled, "I think you two are perfect for the job."

The two answered at the same time, "What job?"

I instantly rolled my eyes, "What have we been talking about the past few minutes?! It's the Guild Leader and Vice Guild Leader job! I mean— I do have a task for you two but I want to talk to you both a little more before we get to that."

JP shook his head, "You've known me for quite a bit and you've seen my ugly side already, what more do you want to know?"

Tennyson followed, "If you pour me another drink, I'll answer a few questions."

I never smiled so wide as I poured us a shot to toast to, "Just a word of warning though, the last shot we'll have is a little different. While we still have a lot to go before we finish this bottle, see to it that I warn you of that. It's that important, so keep your head clear once we come of that. I won't hear any excuses about getting drunk from this shit."

Tennyson rolled his eyes, "Why? Is it some Yakuza shit—"

I instantly facepalmed, "Way to ruin the surprise, you fuckin' weeb!"

"YOU'RE YAKUZA?!"

"No!"

"Then why—"

"Just sounds cool, ya know?! It's supposed to be this bonding moment where I take you two fucks under my wing officially and you have no fucking chance to get out of it unless you do a very dangerous mission you have a high fucking chance of dying in…"

"Umm…/ Hold up…"

"Hah! The look on your fucking faces! It's kinda like that, actually— but yeah, aren't we doing the same thing already? But look, the number of people I'm taking care of more than doubled ever since my trip to Subic and I want more people I could lean my back on when I need to take a break.

Fuck it, I want people to take charge and take care of their own while I'm indisposed or somewhere else so I wouldn't worry about the people I'm leaving behind where we go on trips, get me?"

JP asked, "Aren't we always with you when—"

"There will be times when I'll send you somewhere else to do shit or times you'd be on your own missions you curated yourselves like Artem. I don't just want people to obey my every command, I want people who could think on their own and do something adjacent to what I'd do given the situation.

You are your own people but you're still under me so do at least 70% of what I'd do given the situation where I'm not present. Do that for me and I'll let you fucks do whatever you want within reason."

Tennyson couldn't believe what he was hearing, "For real?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry Ms. Jackson, I am for fucking real. However, do fuck up incredibly and I'll hold everyone accountable even if one of you did something wrong. You're gonna be a single unit once you walk out those doors, not just a bunch of groups or random individuals. Get me?"

"Yes, sir./ Of course, sir."

In any case, our conversation was going for the most part until we reached half the bottle. We were talking for close to an hour when these two fucks started wobbling at the same time, and it was aking to Quinn seeing me get tipsy after she downed a barrel of ale. I already considered myself a lightweight but these two fucks couldn't hold a shot glass to save their lives.

It was then that the two had the brightest idea to take me up on the 1v1 offer—turning it into a 2v1—and let's just say even if they didn't feel a thing because of how intoxicated they were, they'd definitely feel it tomorrow.

But while we were still subject-adjacent, I had to come over to another group we had taken in from the Subic Bay and it was the junkies we were taking care of in the hospital.

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