[b] [i] NOW PLAYING AS: Lyon [/i] [/b]

[i] In an office building in downtown Dia… [/i]

“Man, this blows.”

Lyon sits at a computer desk, propping his head up with his hand. His dark green eyes boredly watch the computer screen in front of him, waiting for something…[i]anything[/i]…to happen. 

When he applied for this royal IT internship, he figured he'd be doing things like making sure the palace had near perfect Wi-Fi or filtering citizen complaints through email. Hell, he figured he’d at least help somebody download an app on their phone. 

Instead he's tasked with watching the hundreds of profiles that were submitted everyday for Odessa Dates. Whenever he found a profile that had at least a 75 percent compatibility rate with profile number 85918, he's to flag it for somebody way above his paygrade to look at. 

Lyon had no idea who 85918 was, but he cursed them for sticking him in this boring job.

*comment spells heir if you take the number of the letter in the alphabet it corresponds to

*page_break

He's seen many profiles get close to 50 and 60 percent and many others get near 70. A select few had gotten near 75. Only a handful reached the threshold he was told to look for. 

In fact, the last profile he flagged was well over two weeks ago. The high compatibility profiles were so few and far between, he set up a notification sound through the sorting program that would alert him when a profile number's compatibility rate was abnormally high. 

Light work for somebody who graduated top of his class. 

No matter how much he asks, his supervisor refuses to tell him any more details about the nature of his job. All that did was add to his frustration about the job and make him question if it was even all worth it. 

Lyon groans, causing his nearby deskmate to pop his head up to look at him from behind his own cubicle.

“What’s up Lyon? You’re not having a good time?” His deskmate teases.

A pointed look from the boy only causes him to become more amused.

“Alright, so this royal internship ended up being overseeing a dating website ran by the Crown. So what?”

He shrugs, deciding to at least have some sort of proper posture while talking to one of his closest friends. He moves his rolling chair back a bit and props his feet up on his desk, glancing at his computer screen briefly before looking at him. 

“Well, Bryce, I just thought I’d be doing something more exciting than focusing on the love lives of the Odessan people,” Lyon says. 

Bryce breaks eye contact with him to glance around the office.

*page_break

It was located a few blocks from the palace, at the top floor of an office building that was home to many of the other royal initiatives that the Crown backed.

There were dozens of groups all around the office that were dedicated to various parts of the website. Some were in charge of marketing and social media. Others were in charge of making sure that the registration process went smoothly, or were up all hours of the day and night to answer user questions as members of the support team. 

“Hey, at least you have somebody to look out for. All I’m doing is watching analytics and monitoring online website usage,” Bryce says, looking back down at Lyon. “It’s not cybersecurity or anything, but it’s better than nothing, isn’t it?”

He nods because yeah, this was way better than being stuck in his hometown farming all summer. The Crown pays for his living in Dia and gives him quite a nice allowance, though he sends most of it back home.

“It’s just a bit weird that the Crown cares about love all of a sudden. The Love Festival is a while away and the birthday of the $!{royal_title} is nowhere in sight,” Lyon says. “So what gives?”

Bryce shrugs and sinks back down into his chair, beginning to click and tap around on his own computer. Suddenly, Lyon notices a string of emails sent by Bryce. 

“Check out the articles I just sent you. Probably the Crown giving in to media pressure again,” Bryce says.

“Hmm, if you say so…,” Lyon says, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to read some of the articles listed.

*page_break
*goto_scene chapter1_articlechoice