Post by Dionysus on Aug 29, 2021 22:34:57 GMT -5
A glass.
A swirl of crimson.
The fog of one’s breath being left on the glass.
The camera panned out to show the upper body of Dionysus, swirling a wine glass in his hand. Beside him was a small wooden table, adorned with a tablecloth and an opened bottle resting in a bucket filled with ice. A lounge chair was also present, simple in design yet dignified in its appearance. Behind Dionysus were glass doors that led to the CEO’s office.
He slowly tilted the glass toward his lips, allowing the crimson liquid to slide into his awaiting mouth. As he did so, Dionysus began to swish the liquid in his mouth, ensuring that the entirety of the cavity was coated with a thin layer of the liquid. “Ahh…” he sighed out after swallowing the liquid, inhaling sharply to maximize the flavor. Dionysus smiled; he had just tasted the very first batch of the Syrah from his winery, and it had been...magnificent. Full body with just a hint of savory flavor that would pair excellently with other meats.
The peace of the moment was interrupted by a light rap on the glass door. Dionysus turned to see his assistant, William, standing outside with a file in front of him. “Oh, yes, come in William,” he invited, waving him in as he took a seat in the easy chair. William entered dutifully, setting the file on the small table with the bucket. As William was looking for another chair, Dionysus gestured toward the bottle. “Feel free to have a glass if you’d like. Its a Syrah; I know how much you enjoy a good red.”
“Appreciated sir,” William replied respectively, taking a seat in a smaller chair he had moved toward the table, “but I really don’t like drinking on the clock. Besides, I have somewhere to be after I'm done for today, so...”
Dionysus eyed him carefully, as if he were unsure what William had said. Soon after he shrugged, replied, “Suit yourself,” and finished his glass, setting it aside on the table. He clasped his hands together while William adjusted in his seat, preparing the documents he had in his lap. “So. What am I signing away today, hmm?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary, sir,” William replied, “Just a few new contracts and the accompanying press releases.” He set the documents on the table once again, handing Dionysus a pen. “Each contract is paired with the release, so flip through to the release page before moving on to the next contract.”
Dionysus sighed. “William, you know that I will always appreciate your level of detail with business matters....but this isn’t the first time I have completed these forms,” he retorted, taking the pen while flashing a now worried William a friendly smile. “Try not to worry too much. I’ll have these finished in no time.”
Two minutes passed as he reviewed the first contract, clicking the end of his pen to reveal the tip. The pen glided across the signature line as he signed the document, then turned over to the press release. Another second of pen scratches later, and the first document set was completed. “See? Simple enough,” Dionysus commented, cracking his knuckles. He set the pair of documents aside, now eyeing the pile in front of him closely. “...Incidentally,” he inquired, “How many new contracts do we have?”
“Twenty, sir.”
“Twenty?! Bloody hell, that’s fantastic,” Dionysus exclaimed, a heavy note of sarcasm crossing his speech. Rolling his eyes, he picked up the pen again. “Well, lets get this over with.” Swishes and scratches became the most dominant noise in the room as Dionysus signed document after document, set after set. He had completed half of them when he set the pen down, shaking a cramp out of his wrist and fingers. William sat patiently, waiting for his boss to finish signing the papers he had worked on dutifully. He would occasionally keep his eye on his watch as Dionysus signed, a gesture Dionysus would take note of. "Have any plans for this weekend, William? You mentioned you had somewhere to be?"
"Well sir," William replied, "I had considered taking some time to travel north."
"Oh? And what's up north?"
"Family, for the most part. My folks owned a cabin about three hours north of here, but gave it over to my cousins when they couldn't take care of it anymore. They usually head up a few times in the summer to go fishing, so I thought I'd tag along this time."
"Well that seems like a fine trip," Dionysus replied, happy for one of his best employees. He looked at his watch, shocked at the time. "Oh hell, I hope I'm not keeping you from getting up there."
"To be honest, sir, traffic is a bitch this time of day, so I honestly don't mind waiting here for you to finish. I can file those away when you're done, and by the time that's finished, I should be alright to get there."
"Good man. Feel free to take a bottle of wine if you want."
"Actually sir...my cousins are beer drinkers."
"..."
"..."
"Well, no one is perfect, right?"
As Dionysus finished another set of documents, he paused, holding the document up to eye level. He stared at it deeply, as if he were looking for a typo or some secret to uncover. “...Do you ever wonder, William, whether any of our projects will become a success before we even start them?”
“Sir?”
“Don’t mind my passing thought,” Dionysus inquired, “But it has always been something I’ve wondered about. We put all this time and effort to offer marketing deals to our prospective clients, we sign dozens of documents on the specifics of each agreement, then sink thousands of dollars into our teams to churn out the projects that will inevitably sink or swim on their own. We’ve done pretty well so far; only seven percent of our projects failed to meet expectations, but that’s also the market working against people. Wouldn’t it be great to know in advanced if a project is worth signing on and creating a budget worth spending on?”
Dionysus pulled the Syrah out of the bucket, pouring himself another glass, while William sat rigid, contemplating the deep philosophical question. “I suppose it would be worth it,” he finally answered.
“Wouldn't it, though?!” Dionysus replied. “For example, say if you had a chance to travel to a time in your life where you know it set your course, right? And you know now what you didn’t know then; your lived experiences, lottery numbers, all of that. You go back with all of this information, and you’d do...what, exactly?”
“Well if it were me…” William paused, thinking once again. “I would probably have asked for a raise,” he finished with a smirk.
Dionysus laughed, setting the bottle back in the bucket. “Ahh, William,” he choked out, still laughing, “you know how to get me with a good one now and again.” He soon calmed down as he took a drink out of the nearly full glass, appreciating the more subtle notes in the wine. “It could do a considerable amount for your life, no? You would be able to know someone well enough to go even beyond anticipating what they will do or need; you would already have that knowledge. You could improve your friendships, know the weaknesses of your enemies, try another option that didn’t work out the first time before and maybe, juuuust maybe, you end up in a better spot than you were before. Richer in friends, richer in pocket, and richer in soul, right?”
William nodded, agreeing with his boss both out of obligation and also truly believing what he was saying. Dionysus frowned, though, setting the glass on the table. “At the same time, though...wouldn’t that be...boring?"
“What do you mean?”
“I mean the romance of life, of course!” Dionysus exclaimed, going back to the pile of documents in front of him, signing quickly. “Isn't half the fun of living the thrill of the unknown? It would just be boring knowing I could decide my fate based on what I know is going to happen. It would be devastating knowing a gift I had picked for someone was something they hated, but accepted graciously to hide the truth. Variety is the spice of life, after all, and tragedy is just as important as triumph. Knowing what could happen and altering that to fit your own wants and desires...it just feels...wrong, you know?”
“And furthermore,” Dionysus continued, cutting off William before he could reply, “Lets say, for sake of argument, I went into a fight with another person and ended up losing. If I go back now and change the result of that fight, maybe blocked when I was supposed to have blocked, that would completely and irrevocably alter the course of time. It would create a host of problems you hadn’t anticipated, would it not? What if that loss resulted in the success I have become today?"
"...I'm afraid you lost me, sir."
"Hmm...how to best explain..." Dionysus pondered, paying enough attention to the contracts in front of him just to get his signature on the page. "Think about it like the time you received my offer to come work here. While you did accept the position, you could have changed your course and decided not to take the job. But this choice doesn't just affect you. Indeed, it affects every person you've met here as well. My life could be very different from what it is now had you not accepted. The custodial staff wouldn't get to know their favorite administrative assistant. And then there's the consideration of the multitudes of people who you could potentially meet, growing out exponentially in a spider's web of timelines, all branching outward like a tree clinging to life and needing to know which to prune and which to-"
Dionysus stopped his ramblings, taking a deep breath as he did so. Taking the opportunity, William pointed out, "While true, sir, wouldn't you be unaware of any of those changes? I mean, after all, at that point we wouldn't know each other. We could consider the implications of altering time to change our destinies, but in the end-"
"In the end, this is where we exist, yes," Dionysus concluded, William nodding in agreement. "It is nice to know that we can complete each other's sentences on topics like this." With a deft click of his pen, he set the final contract and release aside. "And look at that; in no time at all, the paperwork is complete." As William gathered up the stacks of forms, Dionysus picked up his glass once more. He swirled the liquid around, looking through the glass as the light illuminated the wine. "It is perfectly alright to reminisce about the past, and use that lived experience to help you with your decisions. However, much like this wine and where it will take me...well, I prefer to let it surprise me. Que Syrah Syrah," he finished, raising his glass in a mock toast, then drawing the glass to his lips. He stopped just short, a look of realization crossing his face. "...That's not a bad name for this wine, isn't it William?"
"It might be, " William noted, having already stood up and moving toward the door. "If there will be nothing else, sir, I'll get these filed and be on my way."
"Very good; say hello to the fish for me."
With that, William left the parlor room, shutting the door behind him. Dionysus had been left alone, looking once more at the wine glass...
Losing himself to the current he had created...
The swirls of red liquid...
...
...
...
*click*
Surprised, Dionysus turned around to see William standing in the doorway, having opened the door a crack. "Forgive me, but I just need to ask."
Dionysus nodded. "Well, go on then."
"This...question about knowing what will happen...this wouldn't be...no, nevermind, I really must-"
"No no, go ahead and ask. You know you can confide in me."
"This...wouldn't happen to do with you competing against a duo known as The Time Travelers...would it?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...So, you knew."
"I...It wasn't difficult to find out, sir," William responded, embarrassed. "After all, I keep your datebook. I saw the entry. Call Andre to discuss strategy against The Time Travelers."
Dionysus sighed in disbelief. While his other job as a wrestler was not much of a secret, he did take careful note to not let many people knew what he did outside of the office. "This is the last time I trust you with my personal datebook," Dionysus spoke coldly.
William swallowed hard, but continued, "Actually sir, I watched you on Twitch. I had a friend introduce me to the site and figured I would check it out, and suddenly I see my boss's face come up on a preview. I thought it was strange, but then when I saw the name Andre and Time Travelers, I put two and two together." He looked down, staring at his own feet. "I won't tell anyone else about this, but you can trust me with the information."
Dionysus stared at the now nervous William, who likely was ready to be chewed out by the boss, in a classic fashion. Instead, Dionysus coughed, stood up, and walked over to the parlor door, placing a hand on William's shoulder. William looked up, seeing a gentle smile on his boss's face. "Now now, none of that. No harm done. I just like to keep my privacy as much as possible, yeah? Only a matter of time until someone like you would discover what I was doing." Dionysus removed his hand, holding onto the parlor door. "Now then, I take it traffic is probably better for you now? Wouldn't want to keep you from your cousins, after all."
"Oh shit, you're right! I'll be off as soon as these are filed, and-"
"Bah, I'll take care of that. You go enjoy your weekend. See you on Monday."
"Th-thank you, sir!" replied William excitedly, as he quickly left Dionysus's office.
Dionysus chuckled to himself, looking at the young man who was his assistant. Ahh, to have that kind of energy again. Time marches on, I suppose. Dionysus walked back to his chair, retrieving his phone as he did so. He had missed several calls from Andre. Oops. Best not keep him waiting. He dialed the number, waiting two rings until he heard the line click over. "Andre, my favorite chef, how are you doing? Is that loss from last week still hitting you hard? I know I'd-"
"ITS
FUCKING
RAAAAAAW!!!"
Dionysus had quickly pulled the phone away as an exacerbated Andre unleashed his anguish over the phone. He slowly drew it back, listening to Andre's slightly heavier breathing. "Now now, Andre, these things happen. They may have had their moment to shine last time, but now I know we can get them for sure. Lets plan their menu of defeat, shall we?"