Who: Jesse Wyrzykowski and Felix Weissman What: Just a friendly chat about past, present, future When: Thursday, March 21, 2019 Where: Herbology office Warnings: None, this is Jesse, he's not going to rough anyone up
He had tried the straightforward approach of showing up unannounced in Herbology for a casual chat, but since it seemed like Felix actually did his job, he'd evaded him twice. So not wanting to waste time moseying down there again, Jesse had decided to instead employ the most tried and truest alternate methods of cornering a potentially slippery guy: namely, underling spies.
When he finally heard that his man had come home and looked to be settling in for a while, he jumped up and walked with casual purpose down to the office, nodding his thanks to Donisha the Informant as he entered.
"Knock knock," he said mildly, rapping his knuckles lightly against the Deputy Herbologist's door. "Mind if I come in a minute? Made yourself at home, I see."
Felix looked up from the long roll of parchment he was searching to see a vaguely familiar face in the doorway, but it took him a beat to remember who the man was: the head of HR. Merlin, it had been a long couple of weeks. He waved the older man in, leaning over to remove some papers from the extra chair in the room. "Come in! Sit! I can't quite decide if I've made myself at home, or if it's somehow the reverse."
He'd cleaned out some of the decor and replaced it with a few of his own treasured plants, and obviously catching up—and keeping up—on the paperwork had been more arduous than expected, but otherwise the place looked much like it had when he'd arrived. Which was to say it looked entirely different, but it was still an office, right? "What can I do for you? It was...Jesse, right? W-something I can't pronounce? I should have made a cheat sheet for everyone I've met these last two weeks."
"Wyrzykowski," he said, taking the seat and waving a dismissive hand. "But no one remembers it the first time. Polish names'll do that." Jesse had lost count of the ways people mispronounced or misspelled his name over the years; there'd been a lot of years and a lot of opportunities to get it wrong. "There's a few of us around the reserve, though, so you'll figure it out eventually. Ended up a family thing somehow. Not sure how, never planned it that way, but you know how things can happen. If you don't make plans, plans happen to you anyway."
"Ah yes, that was it. Never got around to learning Polish, though I'm pretty sure I've got one or two in my family somewhere along the lines." Felix rolled the name around on his tongue a couple of times until the pronunciation came out satisfactorily. "Now that you mention it, I did see it on one of my...yes, this." He reached for one of the papers and scanned halfway down, tapping the paper when he saw it. Natalia Wyrzykowski. Properly-requisitioned plants for one of the habitats she maintained, which meant he adored her right now. "That sounds like my life. Only with a bit less family, and probably a bit more things happening."
"Things happen when you least expect it. Family too. Least in my experience," Jesse said. "I came here more than forty years ago, first one in the family. And now…" He shrugged. "Well, we won't be overrunning the Proudfeet anytime soon, but we outnumber the Brightstars. And the reserve's become kind of a gathering place for us. I've even got a niece here on a fellowship, my sister's girl. From Scotland." He stuck his hands in his pockets and gave Felix a bland smile. "Into dragons."
"Your niece. Of course." Felix had been so surprised to learn that Finn was here that his capacity for being shocked has already been exceeded. Not that this sort of luck was, in itself, surprising. "I'm fairly certain it's not normal to move halfway across the world to the most remote spot one can generally find, and yet still find people you know. And yet here I am." He spread his hands as if to say, What can you do?
"Small world," Jesse agreed, pleased to see Felix handling it so well. He wasn't naive enough to think that couldn't change, but calm was always the best way to start. "Must've been a surprise. Funny thing is if you'd come later in the year you might've missed her. Fellowship's up in a few months, and not sure of her plans after. Probably still up in the air. Things tend to be at that age. She could be here awhile still."
He nodded at Felix, and said, "We're hoping you'll be with us a while, too."
Surprise was putting it mildly. "If the Dragons-That-Be aren't clambering at the end to keep her indefinitely, then they're mad. She's brilliant with that stuff." He didn't have to make an effort to be friendly about it, because every word was true. "The long-neglected paperwork hasn't scared me off yet." He waved at the desk next to him. "Which...."
Felix leaned forward, resting his elbow on his knee and his chin on his fist, regarding Jesse for a moment before speaking again. "I've noticed some odd things. In these inventory reports, that is. It may be nothing, once I get them all sorted, but on the off chance that it appears to be something...would that be your bailiwick?" He would take it to the department head, except that obviously the former deputy had been working unchecked for years, so he wasn't sure whether that was the most sensible thing or not. Especially if it ended up being his own paranoia and half-arsed organization abilities.
Bailiwick was one of those words he would never have known without this job, and even so, it gave him pause for a minute. "Might be," Jesse said slowly, and frowned, pulling his hands out of his pockets and folding his arms instead. "Might be more a Kimiko thing, if it's money related. What sorts of things? Stuff going missing? I'm guessing we don't have extra of anything." Extra was rarely a problem.
"Mmhm, CFO," Felix murmured with a bit of a nod, considering. There weren't many people who scared him. A handful of blokes from South America rated a presence on that list...and he was pretty sure Kimiko Proudfoot could earn a spot with a snap of her fingers. He looked up at Jesse again, straightening and holding his arms out in a half-shrug, half-helpless gesture. "Might not be a thing at all. It's more...perhaps misplaced things? Could be it's been left in such a horrific mess that I simply haven't found all the bits. But it feels off?" The last came out as a question, because he was still doubting himself.
"Look, there's just no reason that these" —he grabbed one of the pages and jabbed at one of the line items— "should ever have been requisitioned by an enclosure in B-3. I've been here for not even three weeks, and I can tell you that." He sighed, and a little of the fire that bad herbology always stoked went out of him. "But, like I said, could be that it's all mixed up, and I'll find the original form and that it's been written in the wrong logbook...."
"Or could be that someone's ordering stuff for themselves with reserve money. Or someone's just stupid and doesn't know how to do their job. Either way you'll need to finish going through it all to be sure. That about right?" Jesse asked, watching Felix closely.
"I'd say that sums things up rather succinctly," Felix said with a wry smile. "I'd like to say I'm halfway done, but that's probably being a bit optimistic, even for me." Well, he was decent enough at pretending to be an optimistic when the situation merited. "Things have been more than a little hectic this week."
So far, the Head had been handling all communications with medical related to the recent creature death, but he could already sense that it was going to be rolling down to him soon. And here he'd thought that would happen less with his fancy new title. Shame on him.
"Well, once you get through it all let us know what you've come up with. And don't be afraid to use the office assistants, that's what they're for. In the name and everything." Jesse slapped his knees and stood. It was good to know something could be a problem but no point worrying about it much before you had all the info. "Some jobs need delegation so if you don't already know how, now's the time to learn."
"It's been a learning process, I'll give it that," Felix said with a chuckle, shedding the somberness that his topic had brought on. He always did better work when he wasn't a moody twit. "I'll let you know if anything comes of it all. I'll be happy to get un-buried and get back into the greenhouses. I think I'm going to turn brown and wither away if I don't."
"I'm sure they'll be glad to have you back there," Jesse said. "You came highly recommended for your skill with plants, so don't go thinking we just hired you to do paperwork." He headed for the door, ready to let Felix get back to it, but just before leaving he paused and said, "Oh, you've heard of the potluck yet? Signup's in the break room, it's Monday lunch so make sure you hit that if you haven't already."
Felix perked up at that. "So long as I can find someone with far better cooking skills than mine who can make something for purchase, you can definitely count me in." He gave the older wizard a little half-salute. "Nice chatting with you, Jesse Wyrzykowski." He grinned, pleased at how well it rolled off his tongue this time. "Pretty sure I won't forget that again."
With a short laugh that turned more toward a sigh as he regarded his desk, Felix lifted the next bit of parchment and started reading.