Part 2 of the little idea that has been floating around my head, yes I know what paragraphs are, yes I chose to ignore them. I feel like these two lend themselves well to what I wanna go for so here you go- . 1001 words + some art!
-. .. -.-. . - --- -- . . - -.-- --- ..-
He followed the sound of clicking through the long hallways, the noise bouncing around the hallways like how a tennis ball bounced off the walls. It grew louder and louder with every step, every corner turned, until eventually he turned a corner and-
There was a man,
In a much larger room than the other ones he had seen,
Sitting at a desk, typing.
He stood still like a deer in headlights, hoping to go unnoticed but the man looked up.
“Oh! Hello there! You’re early. Warn a guy next time, why dontcha?” The man clasped his hands together and rested them on the desk.
Blinking twice, he looked beside himself, behind himself, until he looped back around to stare at the man.
“Yes, I’m talking to you, come closer or am I gonna have to yell for this whole thing?”
Reluctantly, he walked closer, until he was just a foot away from the desk. The desk itself was full of junk, miscellaneous items, and a placard with the name ‘Bill’ on it.
“O-k, Pinetree, let’s get started-”
“Is that my name?”
Bill’s pupils were slits, like cats.
“Would you rather be called…”He rummaged through the files on his desk, picking up a piece of paper and flicking it straight to examine it, and said: “8128?”
“Well, is that my name?” he insisted
“Look Kid, I don’t know, ok? I try to make my clients feel like something other than just a number in a system- customer service and all that!” Bill exclaimed.
“Oh- uh” He started fidgeting with the pin on his lanyard which was-
A Pinetree-
“Thanks…BIll?”
“That’s my name! Don’t wear it out! Now, as I was saying, first you’ll need to present all the relevant documentation…” Bill looked up at him with a chipper smile and hands outstretched expectantly.
He felt his palms get a little sweaty as he rocked side to side on his feet and looked around the room.
“Right. I mean- I wasn’t informed that- w-what exactly do I need?”
When he made eye-contact with Bill again, he did not expect the intense look of concern that seemed to piece into his soul that not even Bill’s ever-present smile could hide.
“You.” Bill started, slowly reaching over to the phone on his left and starting to drag his finger on the circular dial, “Are not here undocumented, right?”
“NO!” He held his hands out frantically, then started to search through his pockets, inside his shirt, anywhere, “Of course not! I just left my- uh- stuff, righhhht, here!”
He grabbed onto the first thing he felt, not bothering to question what it was, which to his surprise was a small brown passport.
“Oh, god, thank goodness- you really had me going for a second there Pinetree!” Bill snatche dit out of his hands and flipped it open to the first page.
“Wiat- come a little closer I gotta check something.” Bill beconned him over with a wave of his hand and held the book up to his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a picture of a different man, one with messy brown hair and light freckles across his face.
“Is that…?” He asked.
“You! I hope. Out of all the clients I’ve attended to, I’ve never been fooled by an impersonator” Bill boasted while shuffling around some things on his desk, filling stuff out, and typing things onto his computer.
“How many clients have you had?” He asked, feeling awkward just standing there.
“Congrats Pinetree, you’re the first! BIll CIpher, ISO extraordinaire happy to be at your service!” He extended out his hand, offing to shake. He accepted it, trying to meet Bill’s firm grasp.
“I-it’s my pleasure, Bill, I was just wondering…” he trailed off, looking into the smiling eyes of his new- ISO? Which didn’t seem to blink, and the sharp points of his teeth poking out of his smile.
“Well, I was wondering where we are, and maybe, what the date is?”
“Of course! Firstly- we’re at my desk. Secondly- I think I left my calendar somewhere else so sorry, I don’t know the date today, but I’ve got a watch so I can tell you the time if you like!”
“Uh, sure.” His shoulders slouched and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the very helpful information. He leaned over, as Bill extended his arm out, and was met with a watchface without any hands.
“Ya get that?” Bill aksed, keeping his arm out considerately.
Not wanting to feel bad, he just replied “Yeah, thanks.”
“Anytime for my favourite client!” Bill said as he rummaged around the drawer.
He pulled out a square metal stamp and pressed it down on one of the pages of the passportbook, hard, then handed it back to him.
The stamp’s design was a simple square with the words [Level 1] printed neatly in the middle, the stamp itself was placed at the top left corner, perfectly within the margins.
“Nice job.”
“Why thank you! You’ll get only the best here!” Bill seemed to pat himself on the back at the praise, “Well that’s all you’ll need me for for now, you can head on over.” He gestured behind himself at a door with an ‘ƎXI⊥’ sign above it.
“Well- right now?” He felt along the smooth sides of the- his- passport as he glanced at the door.
“I mean, there’s not a whole lot going on here but if you wanna help distract your ISO from work for a little bit I’ve got no complaints!” He chuckled.
“Oh, I didn’t realize. Sorry, I’ll get going now.” He quickly shuffled off past Bill’s desk and towards the door, from behind him he heard Bill call,
“Hey I wasn’t kidding about that offer, my lips will be sealed if yours are! Think about it for next time.”
He turned around to respond, maybe say goodbye, but by the time he looked back, Bill and his desk was already gone.
Been thinking about this for a while and finally got around to writing it. I know basically nothing about the backrooms lore- sorry! So i’m just going to loosely base it off the setting + throw in some dreamcore stuff later down the line (maybe, I’m not very consistent). so to anyone who is interested:
tangentwithtanner
stormborns