Ryan couldn't believe he was the first one into the room, and by the looks of it, no one had touch this room in about 40 years it was a mess and he knew he would have to clean it up before he got on with some work. He was also wondering where everyone else was normally he was the last one into work but today it seemed like he was the first which meant that he would have to clean up right.

Ryan took out his wand and started to do the cleaning charm, he had hoped that he could just leave it in this mess and work like this, it would totally be interesting but well he thought the boss might want a word with him so he decided that he would actually clean the place and hope that someone would come and give him a hand if they weren't busy.

It had been a little while since she had checked in with her Patents people since her focus had been with Quidditch and Gobstones as of late, not to mention the extra work due to the lockout, but she couldn't very well neglect that division of the department, even if they weren't as directly related to sports. Mariel wanted to make sure not only were they doing alright given their current location, but that they were able to be productive as well. But by the looks of things, perhaps she should have looked in on them sooner.

Mariel lingered in the doorway of the maintenance room, the area she had designated for the Ludicrous Patents division and frowned a bit as she assessed the scene. "Smith," she nodded to her employee, the only other person in the room. Looked like he was cleaning - or something - but it didn't appear that any other cleaning had been done the entire time they'd been there. Either that or her Patents people were really messy workers. "Have you all bee working like this the whole time?" What did she know, perhaps they found this environment productive. Not something she could handle getting much work done in though.

Ryan had been working when suddenly he heard her voice, this was not good at all. "Hi boss." Ryan smiled, "Yeah we have." Ryan was now going to have to come up with some excuse as to why the place was in such a mess. "Well you see with all the stuff we get that needs testing some of them make a lot of mess so to save time we just get on with work." Ryan thought he had come up with the best excuse possible given the circumstance. "Like I remember not long ago we got some brooms that made a whole lot of mess in the laboratory." Ryan looked around the room before continuing. "How are you today anyway?"

Green eyes continued to wander over the untidy sight, falling back on Ryan as he spoke. This was their preferred environment of work? Mariel raised an eyebrow as she listened to the man speak. "Well.. that does sound somewhat efficient," she said with slow but remotely approving nod. Not that she thought the mess was exactly conducive for getting work done, but as long as they were getting it done and properly, the state of the environment was much left up to them. "Though I'd be afraid of something getting lost in this, uh.. condition." She looked around the room aagin before looking back to Ryan. "Everything going alright otherwise?"

She graced him with a small smile at the question. "I'm doing alright, thank you for asking." She certainly didn't need to go into her personal life, but she thought it nice for him to ask. "Busy as always, of course," she added with a chuckle, knowing that the workload had been extra lately but she actually welcomed it given certain circumstances. "I trust that you are doing well also?"