Having things fall into place regarding any of her residences was always enough to leave Lex in a perfectly chipper mood. Lynnie just gave her the news that her floo networks were in place and just this morning she'd received word that Anton had gotten her furniture done. The place would be perfectly inhabitable within a few weeks and the fact she was staying at her dad's for a little didn't put a damper on that because whenever she was ready, it would be there waiting for her. She could still use it before then too. Wasn't like there was a rule that said she HAD to go home every night.

Pfft.

All this put the Auror in such a good mood that she didn't even make a face when the lift appeared and she discovered it was full of people who could potentially make her itch.

Such a good day it was. Deserved proper celebration after work and she already knew the sort she had in mind.

Pastry in hand, Gabby made her way towards the lifts.

Naturally she was going to visit Archer. Not only was she itching to spend some more time with him, but she was interested in seeing his work with the cacti. Of course he could tell her all about it at home - and in fact HAD - but she wanted to see for herself and was never turned away. That was one of the perks that came along with being engaged to the Head Botanist.

Seeing how full the lifts were, Gabby made a face. There were too many people inside and they would all be in her personal bubble. She did not DO that. Sighing, she glanced over at the young woman by her side and raised her brow in a way to express how unpleasant the whole situation was.

Maybe she'd be better off waiting for the next one to come by.

Having such a need to hurry back to her own level to get work done while she was on this new enthusiastic high, it never crossed Lex's mind to take the stairs. The lift was here--sure it had a million people in it--they would get off soon enough and absolutely nothing would or could ruin her afternoon. In theory.

Lex glanced over at the woman who'd taken the spot next to her by the lifts. She was the one Lynnie had told her about, the one that was pregnant and right proper chipper about it too. How awful....and somewhat uncomfortable for the young woman when you considered other things. Huh. Look at that, maybe the stairs might not have been such a bad idea afterall.

Catching the look and the raise of the brow, Lex gestured to the open lift before them. "You going in or...?"

They couldn't both just stand there. No doubt each had work to get done.

Was she going in? No, she was bloody well not.

Gabby shook her head and instinctively put her hand on her stomach as she found herself doing a lot lately. "I don't think so. I don't like people up in my personal bubble." Unless said person was Archer but that wasn't relevant at the moment since he was in the greenhouses which was her destination. She would just wait for another lift or take the stairs. "You're more than welcome to grab it if you want." Unless she would rather wait around or take the stairs with her. Didn't matter either way to Gabby since people were free to do what they wanted and it was no concern to her.

Snort. She didn't like people up in her 'personal bubble'? Lex, herself, was never bothered by that sort of thing unless she happened to be in a particularly foul mood. It just didn't seem that serious, 'least of all when she had work she was eager to get back to and could easily save herself certain other discomforts that extended far beyond someone's armpit ending up by her nose.

Actually, yes, that was the preferred torture if she had to choose so she would be taking the--oh for Circe sake.

Lex had only just made to board the lift when the door slammed shut and the thing was off.

....

"Unbelievable." The young woman took a deep breath, willing herself to remember all the good news she'd gotten since morning and the good things that would happen when she left at the end of today. If only calming down was so easy. Hardly willing to be slowed, Lex spun on her heels prepared to head for the stairs. "What's so great about that personal bubble of yours anyway?" You know...because she didn't want anyone in it.

Shrugging, Gabby took a bite of her pastry. If this girl wanted to have an attitude problem that was her business. She was above such things because she was perfect. "I just don't want a bunch of strangers pressed against me." Not exactly a hard concept to grasp, was it?

As the doors closed, she made her way to the stairs. Only a few flights to go and she would be on Level Four. Then she would be at the greenhouses with Archer.

Juniper entered the lift on level four and heaved a sigh of relief as the doors closed. Today had been exhausting. She was pretty visibly exhausted, too, as she had cleaned the greenhouses today so her usually tidy braid was a bit frazzled, and she had some soil on her ear and the back of her neck that she had missed when she washed her face before leaving.

She was so ready to go home and see her two youngest boys. She intended to get some food on the way, too, so she wouldn't have to worry about cooking and cleaning up after dinner. She loved her job, but sometimes days just seemed very long.

Work was over and Gabby wanted to go down to the greenhouses so that she could see her husband. They always left together - obviously - though sometimes he ended up having to stay a while after because he was the Head Botanist. No matter because she never complained about staying around and seeing the plants.

The elevator stopped at the right level, but before she could get out another woman had stepped inside. And now the doors were closed. Siiiigh. The pregnant woman tutted and pushed the button so that the doors would open. That was when she saw the soil on the woman's face and neck. "You know, you have dirt on yourself." Just saying.

Juniper literally jumped. Head swiveling to look at the pregnant woman, she said nothing for a moment. How.... how had Juniper entered the lift without realizing there was someone there already? Sure, she had been pretty distracted with deciding which takeout to get for supper, but... completely missing another human being? Juniper hadn't been that oblivious to another person in years.

"Dirt?" she said in confusion, trying both to process the woman's question and mentally going through her entrance to the lift to understand how she had missed the woman. "Dirt where?" Juniper's free hand went to her cheek and her nose, both common culprits of accumulating dirt, but both of which were clean today.

UGH.

The stupid elevator was MOVING.

Clearly she had pushed the button too late or there was some weird glitch going on. Sometimes magic was just as sucky as electricity. Whatever. Gabby would just have to make her way back to Level Four. Archer would be waiting for her but he never minded doing that. Why would he? They would be heading home soon enough and she couldn't wait for that because she was exhausted. Still wasn't going to tell Alana that she was right about pregnancy doing that to her.

Nodding, she pointed to the woman's ear. "There is also some on your neck." Obviously she wasn't a stranger to soil but she wasn't exactly huge on gardening. Her husband's work WAS fascinating to her, however, even if he was doing stuff with cacti. Not exactly the most interesting plants, but it was cool to see what his team could do with them. "What do you do in the greenhouses?" Did this woman know Archer?

Ahh, the lift was finally moving. It had been stopped at Level Four for quite some time. Juniper watched where the woman pointed and quickly tried to rub the dirt off her ear. "Oh, thank you," she said, not really embarrassed. This happened too often for it to embarrass her anymore. Still, it was nice that the woman cared enough to mention it.

"I'm the caretaker," she explained. "So stocking, keeping plants alive, keeping the greenhouses pleasant, that sort of thing." Did this woman even know anything about greenhouses? She had already been on the lift when Juniper got on, so clearly she didn't work on her level. "What level do you work on?" Yes. This was small talk, and Juniper actually didn't mind.

Alex was rather nervous on her first day at the ministry, she had never been here before.. She knew St.Mungo's like the back of her hand due to her husband working there.. but Here? She smoothed down her light grey pencil skirt, and made sure her light pink heels and shirt looked presentable..

The half veela had gotten a little rumpled in the crush to get to the lifts, and she did not like rumpled. She gave her white blonde hair a pat, making sure that it was still up in it's elegant style before she put on her grey suit jacket..

The rush to get in the ministry had her all confused and disoriented.. Was she even in the right lift? She didn't even know.. The small blonde sighed as her grey eyes peered at the level numbers..

She needed level 3..

Quote:

Originally Posted by FwooperOnYourLeft

Alex was rather nervous on her first day at the ministry, she had never been here before.. She knew St.Mungo's like the back of her hand due to her husband working there.. but Here? She smoothed down her light grey pencil skirt, and made sure her light pink heels and shirt looked presentable..

The half veela had gotten a little rumpled in the crush to get to the lifts, and she did not like rumpled. She gave her white blonde hair a pat, making sure that it was still up in it's elegant style before she put on her grey suit jacket..

The rush to get in the ministry had her all confused and disoriented.. Was she even in the right lift? She didn't even know.. The small blonde sighed as her grey eyes peered at the level numbers..

She needed level 3..

Lynley had gotten to work early, realized she left some NEEDED paperwork at home, and so....had rushed home and now BACK AGAIN. She looked frazzled, her hair was a mess, and she was doing her best flatten everything down so she didn't look completely disheveled. She saw a woman nearby and smiled a little at her, too grumpy to make it look too real but not impolite enough not to acknowledge her...

Though...

"You look lost. It's your eyes, honey. What do you need, eh?" she asked bluntly, not willing to waste time beating around the bush. "You also look new. I've not seen you around before....I'm Lynley Purcell, Transportation head." She held out her hand for the woman to shake in a very businesslike manner.

Alex gave a small glance over at the women next to her, but she was trying not to stare. She had noticed that the other woman looked as frazzled as Alex felt! So she kept her eyes on the numbers in order to give the other girl some time to straighten herself up..

She couldn't help but wonder if it was her first day too..

But then.. Ohhh.. Alex turned her grey eyes towards the woman and gave her a small smile. "I'm trying to find level three, Accidents and Catastophes?" A small head nod and a soft sigh followed Lynley's words. "I am indeed new. Alexandrina Stevens, It's nice to meet you Ms.Purcell." Alex shook the woman's hand with a soft smile.

She was still very new to the job, and getting lost seemed to be her norm. After all her years at Hogwarts with moving staircases and all, she assumed it would be easy to learn her way around. Unfortunately, she found herself lost once again.

On her third ride around, stopping wherever the current occupant was going and pretending she knew exactly what was going on, the last rider got off on level 5. The corridor did not look familiar at all, so she knew it wasn’t her stop. Unsure of what to do next, Ashery simply waited for the lift to take her to her next destination.

Meetings, meetings, and more meetings, punctuated with correspondence that needed to be sent out was what Conley had on his to-do list today. None of the items were anything he was looking forward to. But at least the worst meeting was first.

As there was no direct staircase he could take to the Minister’s office, Conley was being forced to sue the lifts. Tucking a few scrolls of parchment under his arm, he walked up next to a young lady who also appeared to be waiting for a lift. ”Going up?” he asked casually, the deep timber of his voice echoing a little around the room.

Thankful to see someone coming, Ashery stood straight and tried to look like she had it all together. The gentlemen looked important and she hoped she wasn't supposed to know who he was. She'd already made that mistake with another department head. The man before her looked like he was headed to a meeting, with his parchment rolls, so he was probably someone she should know. It was time to put on her polite face.

Then he asked if she was going up. She looked at him for a moment, trying to remember if up meant higher level numbers or lower level numbers. "I" she thought a moment longer "I'm headed back to the Ministers office. I am Ms. January Bones's personal assistant." At lease she was fairly certain that was her title. "Where are you headed?" She hoped it was at least near where she was needing to go.

Perhaps Conley was wrong, but something seemed off about the young lady. Perhaps it was the hesitation before she answered, perhaps it was that she stiffened when he walked up? But whatever was ‘off,’ wasn’t the type of off that alarmed Conley. No he didn’t feel the need to call Security. Instead it was the ‘off’ that indicated that perhaps the young lady was a wee bit overwhelmed. Perhaps she was lost?

A stammered response came when he asked her where she was headed and he figured it was the latter issue. ”Well, Ms. January Bone’s assistant,” Conley repeated warmly in an attempt at breaking the ice. ”I am headed that way as well.” Just then the lift came. With a loud clank and a small boom, the doors opened. ” Care to join me?” he asked motioning toward the lift.

Relief washed over her when he said he was going to the same place she was trying to find. She had been wondering if she would be spending her day riding the lift about the building. “Yes, thank you, I would love to join you.” She smiled at him just as the doors opened, then stepped inside. “Forgive me if I should already know your name, but I’m Ashrey.” She positioned herself towards the back of the lift and waited for her companion to direct them to the Ministers Office.

“Which department do you work for? I’ve only been here about a week, and I’m still learning all that goes on.” She really needed to make a map and note at least one person from each department on it, just incase she lost her way again.

Conley stepped in after the young lady, made sure his scrolls were tucked safely under one arm, then reached up and grabbed hold of a strap hanging down. Last thing he wanted to do was go bum over tea kettle in front of the young lady. ”Conley,” He replied as the lift doors closed. ”International Magical Cooperation,” he added in response to her questions about his name and job. He purposefully didn’t tell her his title as he found it rather hard to get to know people. ”Might want to hold on,” he cautioned as the lift began to move.

The swift movement of the lift always made it hard to communicate, or so Conley thought and he let the brief ride from level five to four pass in silence. A disembodied voice announced “Level Four” and then continued to speak naming the offices available on this level as the doors opened. ”I found this place hard to navigate too,” continued their conversation as he exited the lift. He had only been here a year, and yet still found it hard to get around sometimes. ”Doesn’t help that these lifts only go a few floors or so,” He stepped off to the right heading towards the next set of lifts a few paces down. ”Sometimes I think Daedalus designed it.”

Conley. She’d have to commit that one to memory. Not only was he nice, he seemed to really know his way around. “Well, thank you, Conley, for riding along with me.” Realizing how silly that sounded, she quickly added “So, International Magical Cooperation. That sounds like an interesting department. Do you get to travel much?” Traveling was something she thought she would like to do. She’d never really gone much further than home or Hogwarts.

As she was talking, the lift stopped, and she followed Conley out to the next lift to continue their journey. “No, it doesn’t help at all. Quite annoying really.” She giggled a little bit at his comment and continued into the lift. “What brings you to the Ministers office? Anything exciting? Gossip worthy?” She blushed, wondering if she should have mentioned gossip. She wasn’t exactly into gossip, but she missed the constant chatter of the coffee house.

Conley had to suppress a chuckle as the young girl continued with the small talk. "Your welcome," he pushed the button for the next lift that would take them up the next couple of floors. He thought for a moment about her traveling question. "Well," he said thoughtfully. "It has the potential for travel, but mostly people come here when we need to conduct business." In fact, most of his work consisted of correspondence and paperwork, tracking visas and passports, imports and exports. When it came down to it, if he was honest his job wasn't that exciting. Well, expect for the rare occasion that he got to deal with an international smuggling issue or black market products. "It was, however, a long road to get here. Spent quite some time out of the country before I took this job." He had met his wife in France, and if he was honest he missed that country, but the pain of missing the country was less then the pain of being in the country without Juliette.

He saw his reflection in the lift doors and realized he was frowning. He mentally shook himself and fixed his smile back onto his face. It was only then that he realized the young lady was asking about gossip. Gossip was something he didn't think highly of, but not something he dismissed. Gossip, after all, could be the best way to find out about things. He hoped Ashrey didn't think his frown had been about her question. "I just have some reports to drop off for Ms. Bones," he hoped he would be able to pass them to her and not to the minister. Conley run in with his boss in the Leaky around Christmas has been enough of an interaction for a lifetime. "As for gossip," his eyes twinkled a little. "I recommend bringing your own lunch for a while...lunch and drinks," he added as an after thought. "And to stay away from level 9. I've heard that the employees down there have been acting weird." Pause. "Well, weirder than usual...." After all, most unspeakables were a bit odd to begin with.

She settled into the next lift and waited for Conley to get them going again. No need to ruin a good thing by pretending she knew where she was going. Ashrey listened as he spoke of his job. She was beginning to think it wasn’t quite as exciting as she had first assumed. The International part of his job was a bit deceiving. “Oh, so you haven’t always worked for the Ministry? What did you do before this?” Now she was interested. Quite some time out of the country sounded splendid.

She noticed his frown and wondered if she had said something she shouldn’t have. She had never had the best filter and tended to say things before thanking. However, when he said he was dropping off reports to Ms. Bones, she quickly forgot his frown and instead was elated that not only was he going to the same department she needed to go to, but to the very person she needed to report back to.

“My own food and drink?” That was a strange thing to say. The Ministry had a buffet and other food areas for them to use. Was the food that bad? Or, maybe someone had recently gotten sick from it? Then he continued about level nine, which she could not remember what department was on level nine, but she nodded as if she did. Hogwarts really should have had a class that covered exactly what goes on at the Ministry, which departments are on which level, and how to navigate the building. It would have been far more useful than Divination or even Herbology. “Right, no food or drink and avoid level nine.”

”Well,” he scratched his chin with his free hand. ”After Hogwarts, I worked in the British Ministry for 4 years in Law Enforcement. Then I moved to France and worked my way through the International Magical Trading Standards Body. That was a very educational job. Learned a lot about trade and manufacturing and relics.” He had also med Elodie in France. Elodie... He found his thoughts trailing off in a memory of his deceased wife and he had to force himself to focus on the present. He coughed.

”I followed France up with two years working for the Russian Wizarding seats on the International Confederation of Wizards. Very boring stuff there,” he added as an afterthought. ”Unless you like long pointless meetings, incessant arguing, and taking scrolls of notes,” he shifted the parchments under his arm as if gesturing to them to make his point. ”But I did learn a lot about how different countries work.” Mental translation – how other countries put their particular nation’s agendas first.

”That was followed up by 10 years of tracking down Dark Magic Artifacts. Did a lot of traveling there,” He smiled. He had liked that job. Too bad it had ceased being a challenge. Not to mention that his parents needed him closer to home now.

”But enough about me,” the lift dinged signaling its arrival soon. ” What are your plans Ms.
Assistant to January Bone’s? Do you hope on taking over your boss’s job one day?” Perhaps it was an unfair question. Hadn’t Ashery said she’d only been working in the Ministry for a week?

As she listened to him tell of his work history, she started adding up all of the years in her head. He had to be almost as old as her father. Either that, or he graduated from Hogwarts at a very young age. The former was far more likely. She perked up when he mentioned tracking down dark magic artifacts. That sounded exciting. “Wow, that sounds like it would be a great job. I’d like to learn more about tracking down dark artifacts.” She’d probably need some higher education before landing at job like that.

Then it turned back to her. She had no idea what to say. Her parents continuously bugged her about making future plans. If only they could understand that she would if she had any idea what it was she wanted to do. Ashery wasn’t sure how to plan for future when she didn’t know what kind of future it was she was planning for.

“Oh, I don’t see myself in a job like that. It’s fine being her assistant and all, for now, but to think about spending the rest of my life stuck in this building…” She trailed off and blushed, realizing she probably shouldn't have said that last part out loud. Given his age, he was probably someone that could get her fired. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the job and I hope to learn a lot from it.” She needed to quickly find a way to recover “I just don’t see myself long term in that department.” That sounded much better. “There are so many other departments here that may end up being a better fit for me in the long run.”

It was always her mouth that got her into trouble. She knew that thinking before speaking was a good idea, but it didn’t always happen. “So, what made you decide to take the job you are in now? It doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as the others, well, except for the Russian job.”