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Tweak says, "BUBBLES!!!!!"

Lisa Turpin (bookshop_mama) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2014-10-15 21:54:00

Entry tags:

character: lisa turpin, character: theodore nott

RP: Interview
Who: Theo and Lisa
What: An interview
Where: What the Book?
When: Oct 14, 10am (backdated)
Rating: SFW

At quarter to ten, Lisa turned the front of the shop over to Mrs. Kettlering and headed back to her office. A few quick spells later, and things were mostly in order. Well, in order enough to conduct an interview. She vageuely remembered Nott from school, mostly as someone who ran in Blaise's circle. The idea of hiring a potential friend of Blaise worried her, but not enough to turn down much needed help.

She'd told Mrs. Kettlering to send Theo back when he got here, and went over the notes she'd jotted down about job responsibilities, rate of pay, incentives, and anything else she could think of that a potential employee might like to know. She had questions for him as well, of course, but it paid to be prepared.

There was a knock at the door, and she crossed top open it. "Hi, come on in, have a seat. Can I get you a cup of coffee? Mrs. Kettlering makes the best coffee."

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nottfinished
2014-10-18 10:52 am UTC (link)

Theo had dressed in semi-formal robes, nothing over the top but enough to look smart for a maybe-interview, covered in a dark cloak against the October chill. He felt the cold keenly but he had to make sure he didn't let the parts of him that had nerve damage get damaged from the cold without his knowledge, but he was handling that with a gentle warming charm. He'd taken all his potions and medications and he was feeling balanced enough to be able to go for this meeting and see if he was 'What the Book' material.

He was prepared to go in honest and upfront, although his version of who he was was not entirely the truth. The circumstances surrounding the termination of his last place of employment still haunted him in a myriad of ways; the rats killing themselves on his watch had knocked his little confidence in himself to such an extent that he wouldn't have said he could take on responsibility for anything. He wouldn't just sell himself short, he'd shoot himself in the foot.

He knocked on the door and was greeted by a woman who sent him towards the back of the shop, knocking on another door and being greeted by Lisa Turpin - he vaguely recalled seeing her around amidst the other students in his year, possibly in Ravenclaw. He'd hung around with a few of her house from time to time but then those days were hard for him to remember so he could be wrong. Either way, it hardly mattered now.

"Thank you." he said, taking a seat as he'd been asked. "No, thank you." He declined, not really a big coffee drinker. "Thank you for making time to see me."

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bookshop_mama
2014-10-18 02:55 pm UTC (link)

Lisa was dressed far more casually than Theo, but she appreciated the effort he'd put in to look nice for the interview. If she hired him, she made a note to assure him he could dress however he wanted as long as he actually wore clothes. Somehow, she didn't think nude shop clerks would go over well in a family establishment.

"Thanks for owling. I was starting to think I wouldn't find anyone interested," Lisa said, with a small grin. "So, Mr. Nott, why don't you tell me a little about yourself and what you're looking for. The types of hours, that sort of thing. I can't offer you full-time, but I'm sure we can work something out if it suits us both."

Honestly, as long as he could run the till, was moderately knowledgeable about books or willing to learn, she was pretty sure she'd be taking him on, at least on a trial basis.

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nottfinished
2014-10-24 08:27 pm UTC (link)

Theo inclined his head a little in acknowledgement, no thanks needed though as she was really doing him all the favours here. It was polite of her to say so but the holidays were coming up and he had no delusions that anyone with a vacancy would soon have their pick of employees. Lisa was able to put him a little more at ease though and he was able to settle enough to manage to form some kind of a sentence to respond to her questions.

"Well, I'm flexible with my working hours and my working days, including early mornings, late evenings and weekends. I don't have any dependents so I can be available on late notice the majority of the time and I'm very unlikely to need to take any scheduled dates off unexpectedly. I'm happy to do any work, I don't mind anything clerical, data entry, stock taking. I'm very detail oriented and methodical and I'm happy to do repetitive work without finding it boring. I'm equally happy to work at the front with clients or under pressure and I'd be happy with last minute shift changes or work outside of my initial job description."

He shifted a little bit, knowing that full disclosure at this point would save both himself and Ms Turpin a lot of time and effort. "I would have to say though that I don't feel it best that I be put in any position of responsibility, especially not involving animals or edible substances, also that I may be unsuited to working in a public facing environment under consideration of the fact that my father is a convicted Death Eater." He was quiet for a second to allow that to sink in before he added. "I'm also under long-term treatment as an outpatient of the Janus Thickey ward, which may mean I am unavailable at times but I will endeavour to advise you in advance should I require leave." He looked like he was about to be sentenced.

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bookshop_mama
2014-10-29 05:23 pm UTC (link)

Lisa appreciated that Theo was being open about his history, and his time at Janus Thickey. He also looked terrified at having told her, both about his father and about his condition, so she summoned a smile to put him at ease.

"I think we can work around all that. I'll make sure to schedule you during shifts where there's someone else for the cafe, which won't be too difficult. We should have two people on at all times now anyway." There was one other thing that worried her, and it wasn't that his father had been a Death Eater. "How are you around children? They're a big part of our clientele."

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nottfinished
2014-10-31 10:48 pm UTC (link)

Theo hadn't been sure what reception his honesty would have had, but it was rare that the reaction he received tended to be positive. Frostily polite was his usual best and being asked to leave was a close second. He wasn't sure if what he felt at being reassured that Lisa could work with him on those points was relief or something else altogether.

He winced internally at the query about children though, not expecting it after what he'd been told, mostly because he didn't think anyone in their right mind would want him around children; he certainly wouldn't put him around children. "I appreciate your willingness to accomodate me in your place of work Ms Turpin." he said first, because he did - immediately offering to tailor working practices to suit a brand new possible employee was, to this point, unheard of for Theo. "I wouldn't, I don't think-" this was the first time he'd stumbled over an answer in pretty much any interview he'd been to, and there had been some nasty questions asked of him by very cruel men who had just wanted to see the disgraced Nott child squirm. He couldn't look her in the eye for the first time either, his gaze on the desk, his body language uneasy. "-I'm very sorry, I don't really work with children." he managed.

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bookshop_mama
2014-11-05 01:01 am UTC (link)

Lisa wondered at his sudden change in demeanor; she hadn't meant to make him uncomfortable. She wondered what sort of interviews this man had been on before, if one question had hims squirming in his seat. There was a story there, but it wasn't really her place to ask. She'd do a background check on him, as she would anyone who applied to make sure they didn't have a record of violence or anything like that.

"Well, I think we can work around that. I'll need to have two people on at all times fairly soon, so I think we could try something on a trial basis?" She wanted to give this man a chance, for reasons she wasn't entirely certain of. A trial basis would be good for both of them, to make sure it was the right fit all around. "Provided everything checks out, I'd like to start your training this week. Starting salary would be one galleon an hour," Which was, she thought, roughly equivalent to ten dollars in the American Muggle world. Quite generous, but nothing that would break her.

"What do you say?"

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nottfinished
2014-11-08 10:24 pm UTC (link)

It sounded as though, despite his many and varied drawbacks, that Lisa Turpin was still thinking about hiring him; Theo could have been more surprised but he wasn't sure how, until he heard the starting salary which was more than generous.

"That... that sounds perfect, really, everything, the trial basis and everything, although I'd be happy to take a cut in pay until the training and the trial period is over." His guilt latched onto him like a large dog with it's jaws around his shoulder and he couldn't let something like that go without saying something about it, not when he didn't feel as though he deserved even this chance, his self-destructive streak very much in play here.

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bookshop_mama
2014-11-11 12:56 am UTC (link)

She grinned at him. "Wonderful." She rooted around in her desk until she found the proper paperwork the Ministry had provided her with for new hires. "Why don't you get started on filling these out, and when you're done I'll have Mrs. Kettlering give you a run down of daily procedures."

Her desk was rather a mess, so she quickly pushed some papers aside to make room for him to fill out the paperwork. "We'll work out a training schedule for now, and when you're comfortable we'll have a staff meeting and work out actual rotations."

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nottfinished
2014-11-13 11:38 pm UTC (link)

Theo looked shocked that he'd actually been successful at even a trial run at a job here and it took him a moment to gather himself together enough to start filling the paperwork in. He began scritching his information down then stopped and made brief and fleeting eye contact for a second, trying not to look as utterly confused as he felt. "Thank you for giving me a chance." he managed eventually, once he'd gotten over his shock enough that his tongue had loosened to let him speak.

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