He lets the interns handle moving things into the van, mostly due to how hard he needs to think. Regardless of if it's a good person or bad person, a nice jinn or mean one, they were taken from their world while on a contract and dropped into the middle of a deserted city with a setting out of a post-apocalyptic movie.
The door, which looks very normal, hides something that, even for powerful spirits like jinn, would require a huge amount of power to create.
A space past it, as large as a warehouse, with stairs up and down, racks upon racks upon racks of shelving, even rooms past it all. From the noises that have come out, he quickly has gathered they now have a restroom and a place to sleep.
He'll still insist they sleep outside.
Entirely not out of spite, definitely not anything like that.
This jinn - if it even is one - has a reason to bring them, but didn't give them a choice. It's strong enough he wants to be careful, but not so much that he worries about it doing them harm. He'll need to keep an eye out for irregular places and objects.
Outside the whole magical expansion of their vehicle and new outfits and matching world stuff.
He sighs.
He's not meant for this stuff. He chose to be an investigator ages ago, because being an investigator is simple and consistent. It's thrilling and different each time, and he can give himself his own challenges. He was fine where he was!
He also knows how much people wanted him to go elsewhere.
Not VV, they've always been great. The people, the spirits, everyone involved has been kind and imperfect in the human ways. The contracts are stable, the benefits leave no room for need and only for wants and whims that are already impossible to obtain.
But the rivals? The research institutions, the cults, the rogue scientists and the mad ones, the companies that know, the ones that don't, the organizations and the organized crime. They all have taken interest in him at different points. It doesn't help that, for all he's not a spokesperson within the company, he's been in the background a lot. He's the shadow that is there, the person who is present enough to suggest more, instead of the sweet talker who can handle interviews.
The normal person wouldn't even see him. Those sorts aren't the ones that bother him.
"Tussle? You good?"
He glances up, finding Thrasher staring with a blank expression. He seems to be hiding his concern. Maybe that's Tussle's fault for always acting like it's unnecessary.
"A jinn is dangerous, even a nice one. I'll be fine as long as it doesn't try to force anything on us. We're here, sure, but it's providing." There's a difference between being restricted in location and knowledge, and being restricted in purpose. One is annoying.
The other is infuriating.
"Yeah, but, now that we figured out there isn't a fuel tank and we have the door, it's pretty easy-going in terms of travel. You should take a break from thinking so hard." The young man frowns, then adds on, "We found a kitchen, so I'll make some food. Snow can drive during then, get us to somewhere fun or interesting. We'll camp tonight, right?"
"Uh, sure, if you lot want to join, I was planning on that. I prefer camping to hotels anyway. You can cook well?"
"Oh!" Thrasher blushes heavily, the color rising a lot more prominently than it would on most. "I... I was a mechanic for a while, just helping out in a family business, but I kinda always wanted to be a cook somewhere. I was thinking the benefits of VV are good enough I could just take the job and spend the money on some cooking stuff."
"...Sher-my-man, we have a state-of-the-art kitchen at the building. You would only need to ask for the ingredients, and then it's a matter of time."
"Wha- really? What if I asked for hundred-year ginseng or white truffle?"
"If those are supposed to be incredibly expensive, it'd take some time, because chances are they're rare. If they're just rare, again, just a matter of time. As long as you have the patience, they'll get it. And, as you've now learned, you don't exactly have a time limit on your life."
"So is that why people stay?" He asks, then shakes his head with a slightly dazed look and clarifies. "I mean, so long? Why people don't leave when VV has hired them? You just get whatever you want, as long as you're willing to wait?"
"Yeah," Tussle smiles at the kid. "I mean, they make it clear when you ask that if they acquire something, if someone who does have a time limit asked, because those people do exist in the company, those folks get priority. But that also means that they make sure to either put a little aside for you or get you something else that wasn't asked for by someone else. I usually just ask for journals with odd materials."
"So it's just... the whole thing! It's just- just common sense?"
Tussle blinks.
Then purses his lips.
Then breaks and starts laughing, loudly and without any restraint left.
"Yeah, yeah, kid, that's pretty much it. You think I'd stick around if they were fools?"
Thrasher doesn't laugh, but he does smile back. It's too soft for Tussle's liking.
"No, I don't think you would."