Come as you were, as you are ¦ Open

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It had been a while since Rían had been brought in on any sort of contract work in either St. Mungos or The Ministry. Not that he hadn't wanted to of course, the money was always great and took some stress off of the jobs that would come in otherwise, but he just hadn't been called on in a while. In saying that, he was glad todays job had been simple enough. An issue in the firewall that the nobody in the permanent IT department had been able to sort out. Rían had found and solved the issue quickly enough, and been paid generously for his time. It was then the department head had said he wanted him to come in next week to discuss consultancy on a larger project that they'd be starting on after Christmas. While he had tentatively agreed to come in and discuss it, but he wouldn't sign anything till he knew what sort of pay they were talking about.

For now, he had decided to wander along to the Ministry canteen and reap the rewards of his meagre hard work. They always had the best pastries, and as a part time employee he could still enjoy the handsome discount his 'special' lanyard provided.

Once he had acquired the goods, he found himself an empty table in the corner of the canteen where he had a decent view of the people coming and going, but where he was out of the way enough he wouldn't draw attention to himself. After he parked himself comfortably he had dragged his overhead earphones out of his bag and got himself ready to drown out the world with a selection of his favourite music, a delicious sugary pastry and a large mug of tea.

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                         Victoire had been at the office since what felt like 4am, though it was probably earlier, and she was exhausted. She’d hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep in what felt like a few millennia, and the amount of caffeine she was about ready to collapse. But it was with the last few ounces of strength that she trudged into the Ministry Canteen. With a heavy sigh, she noticed the young man with his pastry and coffee sitting a good distance away from the entrance. She had seen him around before, very briefly, it’s hard when you’re working in the practically-secret department. But she had seen him walk around after work a few times, and come here. No, it wasn’t stalking. She honestly wished they had a better IT Department, but wouldn’t dare say that out-loud in front of anyone. Least not now.


She watched the man hesitantly for a few moments as he popped in his earbuds, walking over to him as she reached over through her satchel and pulled out her phone, checking the time. She had a few minutes to kill to talk to someone. Wrapping her earbuds around her phone, she smiled softly at him. She’d bought a decaf from the nearby coffee shop, which was inferior to this one, but decent, and she sipped it loudly as she plopped down opposite him.

“Hey. You work here, I assume?” She gestured to his lanyard, assuming that he wouldn’t tout that around here unless he did. Though she could’ve been wrong. “Sorry, I’m just exhausted.” She laid her head down against the table. “Who knew the government worked you to the bone, am I right?”

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Rían O' Donnell had never taken kindly to being interrupted when he was a few songs deep into one of his favourite album and halfway through a cup of tea, even in his early years. It was especially true now in his later life when he had come to realise you had to find joy in the small things in life. Sure the canteen was busy and his corner, isolated table hadn't lasted long. It was lunch time and space was at a premium. When Victoire had taken the seat opposite him he hadn't taken much notice of her, even if he had briefly recognised her face.

It was only when her mouth started moving while trying to catch his eye that he realised she was actually directly addressing him.

"What?" with a frown, he pulled the headphones down to rest around his neck, but left his music blasting. Brows furrowed, he caught the end of what she said, and spotted him looking at his lanyard.

"Oh" with a pause he sipped at his sugary tea and shrugged. "Sort of I guess. I'm a freelancer of sorts. But I do some contract work for them as they need it." Accent strong, his tone was low and probably not the easiest to understand at the best of times. He eyed her warily, wondering if this would be the start of a full blown conversation and if he should turn his music off. Or maybe she would bugger off in a minute and he could just slide them over his ears again like nothing had happened. "I work for myself really, take it easy when I'm in here" with another shrug he pulled some of his pastry off rather savagely, but paused not stuffing it in his mouth just yet in case she was going to directly ask him something again and she'd have to answer it.

@victoire

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Victoire hated interrupting anyone, since he seemed especially busy. But he also seemed like the type to listen to indie rock and drink Earl Grey, so then again, Tori wasn’t totally sure. She did indeed join Earl Grey, though she liked English Breakfast better, but she wasn’t going to judge. Also country was more her style, though she could take some pop-country or classical from time to time. The canteen was crowded, and the only reason she’d picked him up among the crowd was that they somehow happened to be in one of the less crowded areas. She wasn’t totally sure he’d ever heard her when she first sat down, and so was forced to wait in awkward silence for a few seconds.

She almost wanted to laugh when he finally realized she was looking at him, physically talking to him. She wondered if this guy sat around with computers all day, like that detective from that one anime about a magic notebook. She hesitated continuing as he pulled his headphones down, still hearing his headphones. “Freelancer? Ah, damnit. Thought you worked for an actual company.”

Cracking her knuckles, she smiled softly, “Contract work’s always iffy, isn’t it? Heard from a few friends it’s getting harder to find work these days, but it seems you’ve had no problem.” She shrugged, “But to each their own.” She could tell he almost certainly had an some sort of thick East European accent, but could still understand him to a degree, even if she was wrong and it wasn’t Eastern European. She watched him hesitate with his pastry with a small quirk of a smile, “You have skill. I’ll give you that.” She slowly started to get up, knowing that the guy would rather be left alone.

“Mind if I get your name, sir?”