Working for the man every night and day (open)

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Karen had just gotten off work, at three in the morning. Sure, she could have left sooner, but she was so wrapped up in what she had been doing that she lost track of the time. You'd think her more wild persona would have been pestering her about hitting the town. As in hitting up some clubs or some actual hitting of baddies she happened to track down. Oddly enough, she was dormant. Maybe she was just as tired.

Karen left the Department of Mysteries and stepped into the elevator, jumping when she saw another person in there and lifting her hands into a classic martial arts stance. She breathed, lowering her hands, "sorry. I didn't know anyone else was here this late. Early. At this time," she said with a short nod. This person looked familiar to her, of course. She'd seen them around the Ministry occasionally... but she didn't get to know people very well being cooped up in her department all the time...

@open!

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Royal was just getting into work, at three in the morning. He knew it was atypical to arrive so early (or to stay so late), but there was just so much to do, and he had clocked out earlier than usual the day before, so he had some lost time he needed to make up for. Royal would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little bit paranoid, being alone in the Ministry at night, but he kept his wand in his hand as he stepped into the elevator. A woman’s voice announced that they were arriving at the floor that contained the Department of Mysteries, and Royal rolled his eyes. Why they needed to stop at every floor when there was literally no one else there was beyond him, but – wait, there was someone else there. “Late for you, early for me.” He suggested when the woman apologized for preparing to attack him and then fumbled with whether it was early or late. It wasn’t worth asking why she was here so late, especially given the Department she was coming from, so Royal figured a greeting would be better. He stuck out his right hand with a smile, glad that his robe sleeves hid the scars there. “Royal Shacklebolt. Junior Assistant to the Minister of Magic.”

@karen
(we need a thread together that isn't pure angst!)

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He said it was early for him, which meant he was just coming into work. She chuckled and nodded, taking her place on the far side of the elevator from him and nodding. He held a hand out to her, greeting her with his name and station. She smiled and reached her right hand out as well to take his and shake it. "Karen Dunstan, Unspeakable. You know," she gestured with her other hand toward the floor she'd just come from. The doors shut and the elevator began to move. "So, Minister Weasley has you coming in before the sunrise, eh? I heard she was a workaholic like myself," she asked slash stated. "I'm supposed to be giving a report to her next week sometime. Maybe you'll be there as well?" her department, time, and the brain room had been challenged to work together to try and solve what the villains may be planning and when. She didn't think it was doing much good, but she did it anyway.

@royal
(hai!)

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Royal looked at the girl’s face, and vowed to commit it to memory. Since he had started in the Ministry practically in the highest heights, he hadn’t had much time to meet anyone other than senior officers. Meeting the regular people – and that wasn’t meant to sound like an insult – was important, even if it was at strange times and under strange circumstances. “No, Victoire doesn’t know that I’m here.” Royal had long since learned not to tell his best friend when he was coming into work, because sometimes she took it as an invitation to work herself, and that was not the goal that he was reaching for. “It depends on what the report is on.” Royal replied. Vic was good at delegating, which meant that not everyone in the Minister’s staff had to be there for everything that was said and done. If it was relevant to one of his current tasks, then he would definitely be there, but otherwise, it was doubtful. “Are you worried about the presentation?” Sometimes people got overly freaked out about presenting to the Minister. Royal couldn’t really relate, since the only Ministers in his lifetime had been his father, a friend of the family, and then his best friend…There wasn’t much room for fear there.

@karen