Inside a run down apartment, a young man woke up suddenly, his eyes snapping open into the grey dark of a familiar ceiling. He turned his head toward the clock on the nightstand. 5:30 AM. "Hmm."
He lay there a moment, reminding him where he was or rather, failing to. Then he got out of bed and moved toward the bathroom to get ready. It had been exactly twenty-four hours since he'd woken up in this place with no warning and no explanation, but he didn't let himself dwell on it. Not then, he has a new job awaiting him, and first impressions are important.
He dressed in the uniform the Director had given him after making sure he was ready, he stepped out of his apartment into the place people here called Rin Basement.
By the time his shoes hit the pavement, it was exactly six. The street was quieter than the one from his old life, though he couldn't have said why it felt that way. His mind kept drifting back to yesterday, the clock-faced Director, the flurry of names and faces he'd been introduced to, and one in particular that stuck, a soft-spoken man named Crowley Aleister.
They'd only spoken for a few minutes. And yet something about it had felt oddly familiar, like picking up a conversation with someone he'd known for long rather than starting one with a stranger.
He let out a sigh and shook his head. "What am I saying? I barely know the guy."
Still, if he got the chance, he wouldn't mind running into him again. For now though, work came first.
After walking for a while, he arrived at one of T Corp's facilities, though which one, he couldn't be sure. The Director had told him to meet here, but the building turned out to be a sprawling building with no clear entrance he could find, and he'd spent the last five minutes trying to look like he knew where he was going.
"You're here quite early."
The voice came from right beside him, and the young man flinched hard, stumbling half a step back before he even registered turning toward it. "Huh? Director! Since when…"
He was certain that no one had been standing there a second ago. And yet the Director stood beside him now, with a folder in one hand, flipping through its pages with the calm of a man who had all the time in the world, which, Alex thought distantly, might not be a figure of speech, considering the man had a clock for a head. He still hadn't worked out how the Director was reading it.
After a moment, the Director closed the folder. "So. Alex Anderson, was it?"
Alex straightened. "Y-yes, that's my name. You've read my resume, then?"
"I just finished it." The Director's tone carried something like amusement. "Quite detailed, I'll say. Although it won't be necessary."
As he spoke, the folder in his hand simply ceased to exist, Alex's eye widen in disbelieve, but he didn’t say anything else.
"Come along, I'll show you around." The Director was already turning, walking off without waiting expecting Alex to follow.
"Y-yes, sir." Alex hurried after him, doing his best not to look as unsettled as he felt.
******
inside the information department
The inside of the facility was as what Alex had expected. The place was lit by soft lights that came from above, somehow they were walking in the second flood? Below him seems to be another flood.
"This place," the Director said, gesturing lazily at the corridor ahead, "belongs to the Information Department."
Alex glanced around, rows of doors lined the hallway. "Information department? What kind of information?"
"Well pretty much everything that matters, and plenty that I would consider useless, but hey you never know." The Director's clock hands ticked forward as he walked, unhurried. "Internal affairs, Personnel records. Movements within the Basement. Anything T Corp needs to know about itself, or about the people living down here, you know the gist"
Alex slowed his pace slightly, eyes drifting over the doors. "That sounds… important."
"It is." Then he continued. "The second most dangerous department we have, in fact."
That made Alex nodded as he looked around the place "Second? Wait, so what's the first?"
“Oh? You are about to see it soon enough” He simply kept walking, forcing Alex to jog a couple steps to catch back up, the question left hanging in the air behind them like it had never been asked at all.
Alex decided to try a different angle. "So this department, it's like internal security, then? Making sure nothing… leaks out?"
"Something like that." The Director glanced sideways at him, the ticking of his clockface the only sound between his words. "Let's just say that anyone who works here knows things they shouldn't share.”
Alex swallowed hard. "…Right."
******
They turned down another corridor, this one narrower than the last, the flickering light growing dimmer the further they walked. Alex noticed a single door at the end of the hall, plain and unmarked like all the others, except for the portrait hanging beside it.
He slowed as they passed. The image was of a person, they have tall, slim stature with a discernible steampunk-esque theme to his attire, Their skin seem to made up entirely of metal, likely brass or gold, with elongated arms, the person have a singular hole on the right side of his face with an orange gear-like iris.
They wear a dark trench coat that is lined in gold with a white dress shirt underneath, with a dark tie, they also wear a dark top-hat that has a pipe coming off of its right side, also metallically lined with two gears near the front of his hat.
There was something about the portrait that felt older than it should, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
"And this," the Director said, not stopping, not even glancing at the door, "is the Expedition Department."
Alex blinked, looking between the door and the portrait and then the Director himself. "Expedition… department? Wait, but isn't this just a room?"
"Yes, since there's only one person assigned to it," the Director continued, "Its purpose is exploring the Basement, to see what's down here, what isn't supposed to be down here, that sort of thing."
Alex slowed to a stop in front of the door, something about it pulling at his attention in a way he couldn't quite explain. "So uhm, who was in charge of this department?"
The Director shook his shoulder before answering his question "You don't need to know about this place, it won't ever come up in your work."
“The Basement after all is a dangerous and unpredictable place, it is better if you leave exploring it in the hands of a professional!” The Director explained.
Alex looked at him, then back at the door, then at the portrait one more time."…alright, if you say so”
“Good now, let 's head to the next one.” With that, the Director had already started walking again, as Alex was tailing behind him.
******
The corridor eventually opened up into something far bigger than Alex had expected, a cavernous space that stretched upward into darkness, the walls lined with rows of armored vehicles and weapon racks, the air smelled faintly of oil and metal.
"This is the Military Division," the Director said, spreading a hand toward the sight. "Our primary force, everything from ground troops to logistics runs through here."
Alex's eyes swept over the rows of equipment, then further ahead, past an open gate was something that made him stop in his tracks entirely.
It was water, like an actual body of water, vast and deep, stretching out beneath a ceiling so high it might as well have been sky.
"Wait." Alex blinked hard, as if that might change what he was seeing. "Is that!… is it! Is there a sea down here?"
"Mm. Convenient, isn't it?" The Director didn't slow down, walking straight toward a dock where a massive warship sat waiting, its hull humming faintly with the same strange energy Alex had felt from the door earlier. "Come. I'll show you properly."
Before Alex could ask anything else, he found himself being led up the gangplank and onto the deck, the ship pulling away from the dock only moments later, cutting smoothly across the water.
"You must be wondering why we keep a force this large," the Director said, hands folded neatly behind his back as he gazed out over the water. "The Basement isn't only home to T Corp, after all, other factions would very much like to see us gone or better yet, replaced."
Alex nodded along, gripping the railing a little tighter as the ship rocked beneath him. "R-right, makes sense…"
"Which is why an army, ready at a moment's notice, isn't a luxury. It's for survival!” The Director's tone shifted, something almost wistful creeping into it. "I've fought a great many wars to keep it that way, you know!"
As he listened to the Director 's story, Alex could feel a violent lurch in his stomach at that exact moment, he try to calm himself down, but after sometime, he clapped a hand over his mouth, made it three unsteady steps to the railing, and promptly lost the contents of his stomach into the dark water below.
"-which, in hindsight, was really more of a diplomatic failure than a true military loss, though the casualties would suggest otherwise-" The Director continued, seemingly unaware what was going on behind him.
Alex nodded weakly between heaves, eyes watering, in no state to actually process a single word.
The Director, still gazing proudly out over the water, noticed none of it, continuing his story.
"-and that, Alex, is why victory is never quite as simple as it sounds."
"…Y-yes sir," Alex managed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
******
By the time they stepped back out into the open air of the Basement, Alex's legs had finally stopped shaking, The ship, the sea and the Director's endless war stories, after all that he decided he not gonna process it at all
"Now then," the Director said, "let's discuss your actual work."
He reached into his coat and produced a pocket watch, and held it out to Alex.
Alex took it carefully, turning it over in his hands. It was heavier than it looked. "…A watch?"
"Not just any watch." The Director tapped the glass face with one finger. "It was a special device here at T Corp, it measures two things, your stored time, and the actual time. T Corp holds a great deal of influence over time itself, here in the Basement!"
Alex looks down at the watch, turning it over trying to find out what the watch really does. "Well that is cool, but… what do you mean by measuring my stored time?”
"That timepiece gives you access to your own timeflow and, under the right circumstances, someone else's, this allows you to shift it, to a degree." The Director's tone stayed light, almost casual, as he continued "you can store time away to slow a person down. Release it, and you can speed them up."
Alex looked surprised, as he stared at him. "You're telling me this watch can speed people up or slow them down by controlling time itself?"
The Director nodded, "In simple terms, yes."
“What!” Alex opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "That's…I, I mean, what does that have to do with me being a tax collector?"
"Ah, yes, about that." The Director folded his hands behind his back as they walked. "As a Class 1 employee, you're allotted twenty-four hours of stored time per week, free of charge. You can earn more through missions, which in your case, means fieldwork, collecting time tax."
"Time tax?" Alex repeated slowly.
"Mm. Our product, so to speak, is time. Naturally, some people find ways to abuse it, using illegal methods of manipulating their own timeflow, stealing time that isn't theirs to take, that sort of thing. When that happens, a Tax Collector is sent to collect what's owed." the director explained.
Alex's steps slowed. "So this isn't really… tax collecting. This is-"
"Police work, yes. More or less." The Director said it so plainly "You'll be sent after individuals who've broken the rules regarding time use. Your job is to collect the appropriate amount of time from them, based on the violation."
Alex nodded before asking "And if they don't want to give it up?"
The Director's clockface tilted slightly, hands ticking forward. "Then you collect it anyway, we are doing a business here, not a charity center."
Alex swallowed hard, looking down at the watch in his hand with newfound weight. "…Right, so I collect the time tax and give it back to you?"
"A portion goes to you. The rest goes to T Corp." The Director's voice carried something almost pleasing. "And for stored time, should you ever need something a bit more tangible, it can always be exchanged for money."
Alex turned the watch over one final time, the gears inside ticking faintly beneath the glass, and let out a slow breath.
"…what the hell did I sign up for," he muttered.
The Director chuckled, already walking ahead. "Welcome to T Corp Alex! I hope you will do your job well"
With that said the Director disappeared without a trace, leaving Alex behind puzzled.
******
Alex walked around the basement looking around at the unfamiliar place, he was lost, but he believe he has found a way back, he may reach his home soon enough.
Looking around the place, the player seem quite peaceful and quiet “what a wonderful day today, I hope nothing bad could possibly ruin this day for m-”
“Domain Expansion: Black Souls”
Source: r/Rins_Basement · by /u/Embarrassed_Cicada57