Chapter Text
Justin came in early tonight, the tapes should be interesting today. Monday there was a corporate meeting in the building, meaning a bunch of strangers and rare faces will be on the tapes, some new characters for his fantasies. His job is one that most people find tedious, or completely unbearable. He works on the security team at a factory, not as a security guard, but as an agent. Specifically a private CCTV surveillance agent. This means he is constantly monitoring and analyzing video footage from surveillance cameras, along with motion detection sensors to detect and deter criminal activity. When things go wrong with his equipment he is responsible for maintaining and troubleshooting the issues. For the most part he fits the general standards for his job, a strong attention to detail, the ability to remain focused for extended periods of time, working alone, and problem-solving. He is good at those things, but he is terrible at communication, and working in a team. Those two things being something he needs to do when he spots something suspicious on the tapes, in order to report theft and odd behavior to his superiors or the police. He breaks away from his introspections, not wanting to seem strange standing in the main entrance, fiddling with his keys like a mad man.
Justin walks his way through the office portion of the building to the break room where the employee lockers are, making quick work of changing into his uniform and strapping on his work belt. No one else is in the break room, though a grainy old TV mounted to the wall is playing late night cartoon reruns on some public access channel. The sound of an obscure cat related cartoon blares through the room, making Justin unable to hear the footsteps of his boss, Danial, walking up to him from the meeting room connected to the break room.
“Justin, have you turned in last week’s film?” Daniel asks, nearly scaring Justin out of his skin.
The older man snorts at Justin’s scrunched up form, as he turns to him. Justin does not do well in social situations, let alone a surprise one on one with his boss. He turns around slowly, pushing his glasses up from where his startled movement had caused them to slide down his face.
“Yes, I left it in the return drawer… was it not in there?” Justin replies, he has a beanie on in an attempt to stay warm in the lacking heating of his own office, so he adjusts it trying to find something to do with his hands.
Daniel watches all of these actions with amusement.
“Ah, not sure, haven’t checked yet. Thanks for letting me know.” he says, patting the other man on the back, jarring him forward slightly.
Justin exhales on the first back slap and coughs by the final, he is by no means a brawny guy, and Daniel is around six feet of well built “I used to play football” muscle. He could probably knock Justin off his feet if he put a little more force into his good natured rabble rousing. Despite knowing the older man for roughly 6 years, Justin still only hopes his regular man handling is good natured.
“No problem.” He trails off, wondering why Daniel would even ask.
Justin always leaves last week's film in the return drawer, Daniel always grabs it at the beginning of the week, Monday specifically. The fact that the other man has yet to do so also leaves Justin confused, maybe the day shift’s meeting rolled over into his schedule as well? This conversation is off script so he fumbles. Daniel observes his employee floundering a bit more before he sighs lightly, patting the ball of anxiety on the shoulder.
“Alright, I’ll see you later, try not to get too focused and come up to eat at lunch yeah?” he asks, not expecting a reply.
Daniel walks off back towards the offices, leaving a befuddled Justin behind. He eventually gets past the conversation, and leaves to the monitoring room where he can be alone for the whole shift.
His work space is a 30 foot by 40 foot concrete box in a sub basement of the factory's business building, a majority of said space is full of switch boards and decrepit glass screened cathode ray tube TVs. The room is dark when he enters, no one but him and his daytime counterparts use this room, and they always turn the lights off before they leave. Justin flicks on the dim overhead fluorescent light, setting his bag down under the desk in case he needs his phone or water. One by one he turns the TVs back on, the video feeds buzzing to life with little pops of ozone that he breathes in deeply, a profound sense of comfort seeping in through his nose and dispersing through his whole body. The tapes have been recording the whole time, but there is about 30 minutes of down time between his shift and the CCTV agent before him. While keeping an eye on the sensor panel he slides out the tapes one at a time to review the footage from each sector on the tv that is alone to the side of the others, careful to start a new tape for every one he removes before moving on. His anticipation for all the strange faces is fulfilled, the meeting of executives brought at least 20 people in, half of them being completely new, and the others being returning characters. He stares intently at the interactions between the pixelated forms, entertained by their social structures. His favorite pair, an older woman and slightly younger man who tend to sneak off together every time they come back, are chatting together as they prepare to leave. Bumping shoulders and smiling together. A longing for connection blooms in his chest and expresses itself as a low level blush that creeps onto his cheeks. Justin rubs at his face to relieve some of the tingling caused by the flushing skin. He moves through the tapes until he is caught up, all the while keeping an eye on the most interesting individuals. He places the previous day’s film into a labeled case and closes it back up, the mechanical lock snapping into place. For the rest of the night and early morning he watches the usual employees go about their business, though he remembers Daniel’s words and comes out of the room briefly to grab some food. The crowded break room isn’t hospitable for him, so he scurries back to the surveillance room to eat alone. By the time he needs to clock out, his eyes burn, his back aches, and his fingers are stiff from staying hunched in front of the TVs for 8 or so hours. The alarm he has set to let him know to leave hasn’t gone off so he only notices he is over time when his coworker Lya, the first shift surveillance officer, barges into the room. Startling him enough to make him almost fall out of his chair.
“Justin? What are you still doing here? It's eight in the morning my guy.” She says, hanging on to the door frame with her calloused fingers.
Justin grabs onto the arm rests of his chair, staring wide eyed at the woman across the room from him, long enough for her to give him a curious look.
“You okay there buddy?” She questions him, she knows he has a habit of getting too focused, and she is often worried this job isn’t good for him.
He recognizes the expression on her face, and composes himself enough to form a response.
“I’m fine, just lost track of time.” He checks his phone and sees that he never set his alarms, “I think I forgot to set my alarms.” He informs her, smiling to reassure her.
Lya stares at him for a beat, then shakes it off, if he wants to tell her what's going on he will.
“Well, you better get out of here before you get pulled into a meeting or something. We finally got a replacement for Ronald. Real deal hottie, I’m tired of checking out dilfs-” she pauses to look forlorn and huff loudly “I can’t believe I’m even saying this, but really. We needed some fresh eye candy.” She finishes.
Replacement? Justin hasn’t heard about any new hires, he didn’t see anyone out of place. But yes, yes he did! All of the people who came in for the meeting.
“Did they start yesterday?” Justin asks, spinning in his chair to face his friend with interest.
Lya grins, coming further into the room for some privacy. She closes the door behind herself and leans in close to Justin conspiratorially, looking side to side like she needs to look out for eavesdroppers.
“Exactly! Bet you didn’t notice.” She says smugly.
“Well yeah, there were a bunch of new faces on the cams.” He defends himself, she chuckles at him.
“Don’t worry brother, I will help you see the wonders of our new guy.” She declares, dragging Justin in his chair over to the review monitor.
Lya rustles through the tapes and takes one out, slipping it into the VCR with a snap. It's already been rewound, Justin is nothing if not meticulous about his care for the tapes, so all she has to do is fast forward on the video until a figure comes in through the main entrance, bundled up against the cold snowy winds outside. Justin squints at the blob on the glass, causing Lya to shush him before he can comment. The person on the screen stomps slush and ice off their boots, slinging it onto the entry way carpet.
“Did they walk here?” He asks, spinning up theories already on what this character’s story might be.
“I don’t know, hush!” She says playfully.
The coat comes off and Justin gets his first look at the “new guy”, though in very low quality, he can tell he’s attractive. Good bone structure you’d call it. “New guy” is shorter than Justin, based on how far away he is from the camera mounted to the ceiling, with soft muscle and a confident lean to his shoulders. The video pauses as Lya digs her index finger into the pause button, and Justin looks up into wide brown eyes, glossy with manic energy. She gives him a knowing look.
“What?” He asks, self consciously.
Lya rubs her hands together, perfectly conveying her cartoonish villainy to her friend.
“He’s definitely your type, I bet you’re going to spend all night tomorrow watching him. You’ll be so behind I’ll have to do overtime with Teagan again to help you catch up.” she replies, all too gleeful to torture him.
He flushes up to his ears, having had a crush on an employee before that had resulted in him having a backlog of a week's worth of video to review. He tends to get obsessed with certain people on occasion, enough to distract him from his responsibilities.
“I won’t do that again.” He mutters, and a shit eating grin stretches Lya’s face in response.
“You better not!” She teases, ruffling his hat side to side, making his mop of shoulder length brown hair pop out the front and sides, “But alright I’ll leave you alone, get home safe.” She finishes, pushing the office chair towards the door.
Justin gives her evil eyes over his shoulder, but lets it go in favor of getting home before nine am. He hops out of the chair and gives his friend a hug before grabbing his bag and heading back up to the break room to change and get his coat back on. Not wanting to run into anyone on the way out, he takes the stairs to get to the main entrance, rushing down the concrete stairwell with clomping work boots. Once out into the hall he is no longer worried about being forced into a conversation with any of his coworkers, and that is his mistake.