[ti]solo[/ti]Ready Player One

Gloaming light paints warm colours upon a modern office, a glass wall's glorious view of the twilight going unseen. His gaze has remained fixed on monitors for hours now, golden eyes meticulously browsing through data as much as they meticulously watch the faces of those he has been on videocalls with. Days like this one come often for him, despite what many may think his life to be. There's always an issue to deal with. Always a reason for him to be present in a meeting with employees all over the world. Always a new project to add to his endless list. It's how he likes to live.

Four smartphones sit on the desk, perfectly lined up, and until eight PM on the dot, only one of them is allowed to ring. It had rang ceaselessly. But then, just like that, silence comes: the meetings end, the smartphone stops ringing, and when he looks at the time on one of the screens, it marks 20:01.

He sighs deeply, stretching his arms up before taking off those stylish reading glasses he always wears when working. It's only after spending twelve seconds pinching the bridge of his nose that he takes a moment to look through the grand window he had installed right here in this office for the sole purpose of having a perfect view, and it's at that moment — right when he finds himself thinking that the sky looks beautiful — that his silence is interrupted.

Eight PM on the dot is also when the door to the office is programmed to open, allowing the cats that so often wait right outside to come barging in with their loud and demanding meowing. It's only one of them this time, and with his tail held up, he walks towards his owner with quick steps and jumps onto his lap.

"Midas." King Midas. One of Mars' two two-and-a-half year old Abyssinian cats, almost identical in appearance to his brother El Dorado. Midas is the more confident of the two, with Dorado being far more skittish around strangers (hence their names), and so when the former jumps on his lap, Mars isn't at all surprised. He smiles faintly for the first time in hours, in fact, scratching behind one of the cat's ears. "Hmm... I guess I do have a few things I wanted to check out."

Truly, he had planned on leaving the office, but it feels wrong to make the cat on his lap move when it had just arrived. And so, it's while petting a purring Midas that Mars returns his attention to the screens, twenty minutes passing before he sees the latest announcement on the UNOVR website:

BIG SUBCLASS PATCH

His tongue clicks, golden eyes taking in every single word of the announcement and then rereading it all again just to be certain. Truly, he could be annoyed about the nerf or even about the fact that this means having to change his immediate plans for Tuesday and also having to spend a considerable amount of Bytes, he could wonder if fate has it out for him because he had just equipped Armorer and Black Belt on Tuesday all too recently, but instead Mars smirks.

It's a new challenge to conquer, a change that opens quite a few possibilities, and in true Mars fashion, he responds to it with resolute dedication:

"Looks like we'll be staying here for a few more hours, Midas. I need to run some calculations." Type advantages, coverage, best types to choose that would also suit Tuesday's combat and aesthetic preferences, subclasses to focus on mastering in the future, Move Mod to aim for...

The list goes on and on and on, and it stats with this:

"Alexa, open our Pokémon Type Advantage Calculator."

Yes, he had worked on that on his free time.

By the next time Tuesday logs in, she'll have detailed notes on exactly what she plans to do.

She'll be ready.

Update to Tuesday's Journals coming soon...