Work Text:
Early December 2017
Sitting at one of the tables that were further away from the general bustle, Nadia grimaced as she took a sip of her coffee, the acrid taste making her question whether the machine at her place was broken or she fucked up the process of making it. Taking another sip to ensure that it was gross enough to not feel bad about getting rid of it, she placed her cup on the table and continued reading over the files that were assigned to her.
Some were more straightforward, a few test procedures and their results, while others were more complicated, one being a theory of the correlation of some Altered Items to their respective Altered World Events.
This was a typical lunch break for Nadia, a Junior Researcher at the Federal Bureau of Control, a place where sense is nonsense, where what is might not be, and where she has been working every day for the past 2 weeks.
When she first received the direct message about the job offer on her forum account, she thought it was a scam and nearly deleted it, but being a newly graduated Bachelor’s degree holder in today's economy would make anybody a little desperate to find a job. It didn't help that unless you were planning to get a doctorate, Applied Mathematics isn't going to help much in making enough money to earn a living. To be fair, her scholarship covered most of the school fees, but wanting to do anything after required more than what it would offer.
Before stepping into the Oldest House, she imagined the position was going to be a typical office job in a typical office environment, and it was, kind of. Other than the building shifts every once in a while, the mundane-looking objects having properties closer to magic than science being kept in a different part of the same building and the armed guards walking around the place, it was mostly a regular office with regular office employees.
A few minutes later, a familiar face walked up to her table. "Is this seat taken?" A baritone voice asked Nadia. She looked up from her files to the source of said voice and gestured to the attached bench opposite her, which was followed by the man sliding into the aforementioned seat. They both glanced at each other, sitting in a brief moment of silence before the man spoke up.
"So, how've you been?" He asked, resting his elbows on the table.
"Eh, not so bad," Nadia said while still reading a file. "I was expecting to do something like spreadsheets, which I kind of am, but not for things like, you know, the probability of an AWE happening if someone doesn't knock on a door 3 times," Nadia replied, putting down the file she was holding. "Are you even meant to be here? Didn't you have something to attend to?"
"It was nothing; someone forgot to do decon procedure after testing. Not sure why they had to call us in for it; if those scientists were as smart as they claim to be they could have handled it themselves," the man said, lifting his elbows to cross his arms over his chest.
"What were they doing?" Nadia asked, her curiosity piquing at the mention of tests, ignoring the jab at her colleagues.
He shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't really care. It's above my pay grade to ask these type of questions anyway."
"Could you at least describe it?" she enquired, trying to hide her disappointment at his reply.
"Even if I could, I didn't even manage to get anywhere close to the chamber. By the time I got there, everything was already wrapped up, so no luck there. Sorry."
She sighed, the previously hidden disappointment making itself known. "It's alright, I guess, although you should really give more of a shit about your job, Colton; it's not like this place hires random people off the street."
"Not everyone here actually really wants to be here like you do," Colton retorted, "I only took this job because they have health insurance, and I need the cash. Other than that, I could not care less about the shit that happens here." He sighed, turning around to get out of his seat. "Anyway, I'm going to get some food before lunch ends. Want anything?"
Nadia chuckled a little, "Unless they have anything halal, no thanks. I can grab something myself after I'm done with these files, but thanks again for the offer."
"Alright, I'll leave you alone. Good luck with those files, though." Colton did a small two-finger salute before getting something to eat.
After he left, Nadia continued working on her files, scanning through them for any discrepancies, trying to learn more about what she might do in the near future, since currently she was stuck with reading the reports and watching experiments from a distance.
When she finished reading the last of her documents, she packed her stuff up, dumped out her coffee in the nearby trash can, and went back to her desk in Accounting, wondering when it would be her turn to do something great.