Endless Devotion (DC/Cultist Simulator/Book of Hours)

"Well done. You managed to find the most boring group of doctors in the world. That is impressive, Alexandria."

"I wasn't aware that 'being interesting' was on the job description for medical professors, sir," Alexandra deadpans from the other side of the conference table. You just hum and keep looking through the folder of the new hires, trying to find any standout.

You fail.

"I know, I know. But really, where did you even find some of these people?" You whistle as you turn the page and read the 'family and hobbies' section. "45 years old and living alone with seven cats? That's just sad. Who would put it in a curriculum?"

"They didn't put it in a curriculum, sir, as it is not relevant to their work history," Alexandra says with a tone drier than the Saharah, doggedly staring a few inches above your right shoulder. Super professional, you go girl. "It is the mandatory background investigations and spectrum divinations every employee must subject themselves to. Which you would know if you had read our hiring manual, sir."

You magnanimously ignore the barb, rolling your eyes when you see another man whose hobby is 'watching TV and eating'. "Well, that explains it. And really, that's your job, Alexandra. The divinations are made to avoid scandals and the like, right? Just to be sure?"

Alexandra nods. "Accidentally hiring a sexual predator would be... problematic, let alone tasteless. As of now, our reputation is nil. A scandal would very easily doom this entire enterprise. And of course, the investigation is also meant to see that they are not plants put forward by our competitors, as unlikely as it could be."

You shrug at that. Oh, this one paints miniatures on his days off. Neat. "Not that unlikely. Also, you will probably never get them if the Equilis become really interested in putting a spy forward. They cannot offer the world to their spies, but a vastly prolonged lifespan is on the table for them, and few people won't take the bait." You grimace at that. Escaping death and Winter like that is just distasteful.

"It's still better to do our groundwork, sir," Alexandra adds, and yeah, you can't say anything about that. You shake your head as your eyes rove over another middle-aged divorcee looking for an easy, calm job in the boonies.

"Still, really, my compliments. Boring, barely competent, noncommittal, and essentially invisible. As sad as this is, it is exactly what we need to fill up the holes in our staff. Whatcha think, Johan?"

You glance at the corner of the conference room, where the old wolf is smoking a cigar and slowly reading through what must be situation reports from the whole Schwartz family. Since that conversation of yours, the old man has become more present in the college's day-to-day operations, especially the many meetings you are forced to have with the various Schwarz department heads. He is usually silent, rarely muttering more than a handful of words an hour unless asked for, but you don't mind it. You still don't know if it is a show of support from the family, a reminder of your promise, or just his way of judging your worth - knowing the Schwarzs it is all three of them plus a couple more you have no idea about.

Still, he keeps you on your toes and is an experienced voice of reason. You don't mind.

Johan doesn't slow down one bit or even raise your head when you call for him. "They will do adequately, and not one bit better," Johan drawls at you. Firm and to the point, that's Johan for you.

You nod at that. "Yeah, what I thought. If we want the NUHL to make a name for itself they won't be enough, but at least I am no longer forced to spend half of my day grading the idiots' essays. That's progress at least." You smile at your public - all two of them - as you put down Alexandra's report. "Now that we have done the boring part, it's time for my new hires. Or at least the three possible hires. These three, I assure you, are nothing if not interesting."

You smirk as Alexandra does her best not to roll her eyes and Johan gamely ignores you. They will see, they will see. You flourish your hand and summon to your hand six color-coded manila envelopes. You toss them in the air and subtly bend the wind to make them reach Alexandra and Johan's hands. You bow to your audience, a wide grin on your face.

"You are showing your inner Benevento, boy," Johan chuckles from his corner. Your smile dies a quick and most violent death at those words. You have to close your eyes and try to purge those words from your memory.

"Johan, please never say anything like that ever again. I am nothing like those clowns, okay?" You plead to the old man.

He just scoffs. "I call it like I see it, boy." Johan stops momentarily his... review? You still don't know what he does during these little meetings. Still, you perk up as he grabs your red envelope. "So, let's see what we have here. Who have you got, boy?"

You shake your head and momentarily forget those cruel, cruel words. "Well, as I was saying... we have three options in front of us. The three of them are luminaries and, let's say it, geniuses in their fields, and hiring them will bring a fair bit of the spotlight to our fair campus. That said, we have the funds to hire at most two of them, and that would spread us worryingly thin. I recommend choosing only a single one of them."

You flourish your hand again, summoning a copy of the three folders in front of you. The three manila envelopes are identical to one another were it not for the color: one red, one yellow, one blue.

"I have already met them in person, and can say that they have everything that we could possibly want: they are able to teach our students how to excel, can spearhead edge-cutting medical research, and, most importantly, are a perfect fit for our esoteric lores. And yes, Alexandra, I know I said that everyone can learn the Lores," you quickly intercept when Alexandra starts to seem confused, "but those three are perfect for the kind of medical Lores the NUHL is focusing on right now."

"So, starting from least to most... challenging," you say as you grab the red envelope in front of you, "we have a misunderstood and marginalized genius. The mind from which the theory of the Rejuvenat Gel was born, I present to you, Dr. Zed Bla-"

"No," Alexandra rudely interrupts you.

"No, we are NOT hiring Dr. Zed," Alexandra says mercilessly as she pushes the red envelope to the side, hands already moving to the yellow one. "Next!"

"Now, now, wait just a second, okay?" You yank the yellow envelope from her hands with a simple telekinetic pull. "Let's at least talk about it, yes? Dr. Blancos might not be the most reputable -"

"In his long career, he has worked for five hospitals which were then shut down for fraud and medical malpractice lawsuits, sir. Five."

"I mean, yeah, when said like that it doesn't sound good, but he has never been incriminated -"

"That's because he was smart enough to jump boat once the deed was done, sir. He's the black sheep of the medical community," Alexandra says with gritted teeth. She grabs the red folder back and starts to violently leaf through it. "He got his medical license at the University of Tijuana," "Well, I don't see the problem with -" "who oh so conveniently had a fire in its administrative offices just a month after his alleged degree, making it effectively impossible to check his license's validity." Alexandra turns to you, waving the page as if it was damning evidence. Which in her mind, could very well be, thinking about it.

"...which means that no one can prove he is not a real doctor, no?"

Alexandra slams the page down. You wince at the sound.

"Three different investigations for links with the Mexican cartels." "Alleged links, they never proved anything -" "Corpse thefts went up by 3.000.000% during his tenure at the Fyrestone Memorial Hospital." "It could have been a coincidence, it -" "And most damning of all, his motto is, by his own words, good enough. A surgeon with good enough as a motto," Alexandra ends with a disgusted tone of voice, eyes fixed on you.

"Can you explain to me, sir, exactly why we would want someone like Dr. Zed Blancos in our College? Because I do not see it. Sir."

You glance at Johan looking for help, but the man is just calmly reading through the folder, face blank. You turn back to Alexandra and wince a bit at her expression.

"First of all? He's cheap," you tell an incredibly unimpressed Alexandra. "Compared to the other two options, we won't need to burn the Equili reparations just to get him to work for us. We just need to give him a place where to work, a good salary for his time, and clear his debts with the Mexican cartels. For someone like Zed? That's cheap."

"Of course, he has cartel debts. And his reputation?"

"Could hurt us, yes, but right now we need every single scrap of notoriety we can get, and Zed is nothing if not notorious in the right circles. One could call him infamous. And what I said before still counts. He is still an amazing surgeon and will be a boon for our students, and his research into regenerative gels is nothing short of revolutionary."

"Hmm. Interesting. The next?"

Johan's words interrupt the staring contest between you and Alexandra. You blink away the discomfort and open the yellow envelope.

"This one should be much less controversial. Dr. Angela Ziegler, the rising star of Swiss Pharmaceutical companies. Young, smart, and with big dreams, Dr. Ziegler's dream is to create a universal cure. To achieve that she has turned to nanomachines, making her more of a medical engineer than a pure medic."

"Much better than Dr. Zed. A good, solid medic with a great reputation and a solid lead in a new medical field," Alexandra says with a small smile. "I was starting to get some doubts, but this is a much better choice than Blancos. Right now she is the medical world's darling. Hiring her would be quite a coup, I would say."

"Hmm. Yes. And how exactly, boy, have you managed to convince Angela Ziegler to work and teach in a little, no-name University in the woods?" Johan turns a knowing eye on you.

"I must say I am myself quite interested in how exactly you managed this, sir."

You wince at that, remembering exactly what you told her during your in-person meeting last month. "Yeah... I might have promised her a nanobiotechnology laboratory with the latest advancements in the field. You know, to advance here research exactly how she wants, with almost no oversight from on-high. The usual things, really."





"Anyway, the last option would be-"

"Sir, we do not have a nanobiotechnology lab," Alexandra says slowly as if talking to a child.

"I know, Alexandra. I just thought that we could, well, build one, no?"

"...and how much would that cost, sir?"

You silently turn your dossier to its last page.

"... that is not a small sum, sir."

You sigh, feeling a small phantom pain at the sight of the ludicrous number. "I know. There is a reason I said that Dr. Blancos's main selling point was being cheap."

"But still... the upkeep alone would eat the entirety of the second year's tuition. It would be a massive investment given our institute's youth."

You nod at that, putting down the yellow manila envelope and picking up the blue one. "I know. Still, this is what I managed to get, and I still think it would be worth it for Dr. Ziegler's assistance. And this brings us to our next and final candidate, and what I think is the most impressive of our three candidates: Ruan Mei, the prodigal heir of the Ruan family."

You turn expectantly to Alexandra, only to find yourself disappointed when you only see a blank face. At least you get your gratification when you hear Johan's long whistle.

"You managed to get the Ruan heir, boy? How? I thought she got offed by the commies," Johan says with a wolfish, hungry grin on his face.

"That's the fun part. I was not the one who found her. She found me," you answer him with a shared ravenous grin. Just the thought of stealing the Ruan's entire libraries from the willing hand of their heir - oh, nothing would taste sweeter. "The girl heard on the grapevines of someone developing a new surgical branch of magic and contacted me for a collaboration. Once she heard about the NUHL's existence, well, let's just say that she was completely on board."

"I am sorry to interrupt, sir, but I find myself lost," Alexandra says with no small amount of confusion. "Through all my research, I have found no trace of any Ruan Mei in the medical world, and I have done extensive research when we were building the NUHL. Who exactly are we talking about?"

"We are not talking about a simple doctor, girl. We are talking about the Ruan Family of China. They were once peers of the Five, well, the Six before their fall from grace," Johan says as he devours the blue dossier.

"I would honestly say they were not a true Family. Being destroyed by their nation disqualifies them by default. Still, it's not weird you have not heard about them, Alexandra. They are almost extinct. I think they cannot have more than one or two hundred members. They are a non-entity right now," you explain to Alexandra.

"I was under the impression that China was a dangerous place for mages and such," she says as she turns to Johan.

Johan nods at that. "Our family has never touched foreign politics, so it wasn't necessary for you to know about every single lost family out there. But yes, the Communist Party is aware of the existence of magic and of the Families, and is not happy about our existence one bit."

You snort at that. That's an understatement. "More like pure hate. They have been hunting the Ruan family since their inception, and still haven't found all their members, even if they have managed to push them to the brink of extinction. The Party has... problems with forces in their country that they cannot control, and so gave the Ruan family an ultimatum: bow down or die. And the rest is history."

"And so ended the oldest Family in the known world," Johan added. "A shame, it was. Still, they had been in sharp decline since the fall of the Qing dynasty. Got too used to having the ear of the Emperor. Once the Communist Party got into power, well, that was the last straw for them, and they lost their status as a Great Family, leaving only the Five."

"What the old man is not saying is that the Ruan's specialty was medicine," you continue the explanation. "All those legends of Chinese emperors seeking immortality are mostly retellings of the Ruan family trying to heal the various dynasties of old age, and usually succeeding catastrophically. No, no, don't ask, it's a whole story. The important part is that the heir of a medicine-focused family is now up for grabs. That's not something one can just leave lying around."

"Hmm. Still, where is the catch, boy? If it were that simple, you would have already made an unbreakable vow with her and got her locked up here," Johan says as he closes the blue dossier, looking you straight in the eyes. "What's the problem this time?"

You laugh bitterly as you shake your head. "You got it wrong, old man. I wish there were only a single problem.

You raise a finger. "First, China. By harboring a Ruan, we automatically become their enemy. By harboring the Ruan heir, we automatically become one of their priorities. That is, of course, when - and it is when and not if - they discover where she is. So, yeah. let's expect a few black ops operations or economic meddling from the East if we accept Ruan Mei's offer. "

You raise your second finger. "Second, the Ruans. As Johan just said, the whole world believed that Ruan Mei died at the hands of China. That includes, interestingly enough, the Ruan family. And the moment the Ruans discover that their darling little heir has been a runaway all along, they will try to use every scrap of influence they still have to get her back."

You raise your third finger, smiling wrily at the clusterfuck that taking in that girl would bring upon you. "Third, Ruan Mei herself. That woman is what can only be described as a prodigy - one not content to follow a dying clan into oblivion. From the little I managed to get out of her when we talked, the woman has also no shred of loyalty or respect for anyone aside from herself. Which, I do not need to say, is a fucking problem."

"Still, as I said before, recruiting her would be a massive boon for the NUHL and the Weisswalds at large. We only need to make her decide that remaining at NUHL is in her best interest, and that means NUHL becoming a center of medical learning unparalleled in the whole world. Which, again, is easier said than done."

"So!" You say as you get up from your chair and clap your hands, eyes bouncing between an attentive Alexandra and a pensive Johan.

"We have a very cheap, but probably criminal Dr. Zed. A completely respectable Dr. Ziegler who will bleed us dry to fund her research. And Ruan Mei: a probable sociopath who brings with her thousands of years of magical research, and the grudge of one superpower and one waning Family."

"What do you all think?"

Who Will You Hire?

Vote only by plan. You have a budget of 3 Funds.

[ ] Dr. Zed Blancos (Teaching 6, Material 6)


[ ] Costs 1 Funds
[+] Rejuvenat: Regenerative Gel Research
[+] Bonesaw: Bonus to Surgery Education
[+] Infamous: Bonus to Notoriety

[-] Infamous: Suspicion from the Dull World
[-] Close Enough: Possibility of Medical Malpractice Events
[-] Old Habits Die Hard: Possibility of Less than Legal Events


[ ] Dr. Angela Ziegler (Teaching 8, Material 4)


[ ] Costs 3 Funds
[+] Caduceus: Medical Nanites Research
[+] Renowned Genius: Bonus to Education
[+] Rising Star: Great Bonus to Notoriety

[-] Caduceus: Costs 1 Upkeep


[ ] Ruan Mei (Teaching 4, Arcane 8)


[ ] Costs 0 Funds
[+] Thousands Years Library: Can Teach A New Skill
[+] Where We Started: Origin of Life Research
[+] Spiral Studies: Bonus to Biology Education

[-] Self-Absorbed: Unpredictable. Will leave unless satisfied
[-] Prodigal Daughter: Suspicion from Ruan Family. Will not dissipate if Ruan Mei leaves.
[-] Red Grasp: Suspicion from China. Will not dissipate if Ruan Mei leaves.

------
AN: You can choose up to two Professors. Choose as you wish, but only in plan format.

Next turn you will have a new class entering the school, so your Resources will become 3 - which will be upset by choosing Mercy, if you so wish.