Seren Fawcett (lloergan) wrote in regulation, @ 2008-06-15 03:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | marius macfadden, narrative, seren fawcett |
Who: Seren Fawcett, Marius MacFadden (DoM Director)
What: An invitation
Where: Scamander Park
When: early evening, Saturday, 14th June
Rating: PG
Status: Closed;Complete
The lab was blissfully quiet on the weekends aside from the wailing of some of it’s temporary inhabitants. It made it Seren’s favourite time to be there, though she wasn’t often. This weekend she was putting in hours because if she ended up cut from the department she didn’t want to leave her research hanging. Everyone else around there wouldn’t have the slightest idea what to do with these beings. She suspected much the same was true of most people in the department and other humans so the beings weren’t unique in this sense. Aside from a couple minions there weren’t any other Regulators populating the lower labs today. This was a fact which made the sudden appearance of a young girl, probably not even yet twenty, especially peculiar.
“Se-- Miss-- I mean, Medi--” she cleared her throat. “Ms. Fawcett? There’s a gentleman here to see you.”
Seren looked up from her parchment she was scribbling away on dedicatedly. She half expected that the unknown girl had brought the man down to the lab with her. One point in her favour, she wasn’t that thick. “What gentleman would be looking for me here today?” She thought maybe Madoc was coming to drag her away. She wouldn’t have put it past him.
“Well, I--I’m not sure exactly?” The chubby brunette looked like she wanted to be swallowed by the floor. “He wouldn’t tell me his name, Ms. Fawcett. He said he’d owled you?”
“I haven’t received any owls today.” Seren quirked an eyebrow and looked around in case she’d missed something. It was possible given her lack of lab minions. Though, without lab minions that meant upstairs minions were responsible for that sort of thing. Seren didn’t know this girl, she was likely an upper levels minion. The look the girl received clearly questioned if Seren ought to have received an owl that hadn’t been delivered to her. The young ones were so easily scared of the things downstairs.
“Nothing has come through upstairs. I thought maybe he’d owled previously? On another day? Or sent it to your home?” The thoughts of Pleast don’t stick me in a cage with these things could practically be read across her forehead.
Shrugging slightly, Seren gestured to the torso on the table beside her whose chest was open, ribs and all. “Well, the man without a name may be informed that he can either go away and schedule an actual time to speak with me like a polite person,” unless he had. She searched her memory and came up empty. She didn’t have any appointments today other than dinner at her parents’ house later. “Or he can wait for an indefinite amount of time upstairs in the library under your strict supervision. In either case it would behove him to supply a name, title and reason for disrupting my work.”
“Uh, ye--yes, ma’am.” Spiky Eyed John’s head licked his lips when he noticed the brunette. She squeaked and ran out.
“None of that,” Seren scolded him in Welsh. Out of spite she prodded his heart with her wand. John’s head not being attached just made him slow, not dead. She was being vindictive and making him watch her open his chest and poke about as pay back for eying them all as if they were dinner for the past couple months.
Twenty minutes later a note was sent down with another upstairs minion Seren didn’t know. It read simply:
He says his name is Unspeakable MacFadden and he will wait as long as necessary. I will watch him like you said to.
-Tiffany
A string of curses were instantly muttered in Welsh under Seren’s breath. What were they doing now, stalking her? She made him wait three hours figuring if he was after one of her research subjects he’d have to be very determined to wait that long.When she emerged upstairs she was still in scrubs which had fresh bloodstains on them. The rest of her was clean but it was just an Unspeakable and it wasn’t worth changing for him. The moment she set her eyes on the chubby brunette who she assumed was Tiffany the girl squeaked quietly in surprise. What is she, part mouse? Tiffany looked toward the man who was pretending to not notice her entrance by reading a ghost lifestyle magazine.
“Mister MacFadden,” she started without any preamble, “whichever of my subjects you are here to attempt acquisition of you will not be successful. Our barrister would be happy to come in for me despite the weekend. I’m feeling particularly warm and fuzzy toward everyone in my possession and will not be relinquishing any of them into your hands. You may turn around and go back to the Ministry to complain as you lot always do or you may stay, complain to me and possibly become the first of Pritchard’s men to fall victim to a full transfiguration. The choice is yours.” Her words were precise and clipped, patience completely absent from her tone.
“Ms Fawcett,” he greeted her cordially. He threw in a nod before he stood up. He was taller than her and while she understood the psychology of ensuring oneself was taller than the person they spoke with the four inches did little to make her feel inferior. A person needed far more than mere height to subjugate Seren. “It’s Unspeakable MacFadden--”
His correction was cut off first by the unimpressed expression and then by Seren’s voice. “Mister MacFadden, you may address me by my title or you may not. However, respect given is respect received. If you are not well enough informed of my career to know any of my titles, of which I assure you I hold more than one, then you are not well enough informed to warrant earning your title in address.”
The older man cleared his throat. He obviously wasn’t quite expecting Seren to be as brash as she was. People regarded Unspeakables with a sort of quiet curiosity because of the mystery around them. From a Regulator he’d expected something along the lines of petty and bratty, particularly after the hours of waiting she’d forced him to endure. “Healer Fawcett,” Seren smiled and nodded at him as if he were the troublesome pupil in the class and had finally gotten the simple question correct in the day’s lesson. “I haven’t come to relieve you of any of your work here with the Regulators. In fact, I do not come to discuss your work within this department at all.”
Well, if he didn’t want to steal her work out from under her what could he possibly want from her? “And what, then, have you come to discuss with me, Unspeakable MacFadden?”
“Is there somewhere we may talk privately? Your office, perhaps?”
Seren not only did not have an office but anything that could pass for one was in the lower levels where non-Regulators were not permitted. She chose to lead him outside. Most people didn’t exactly populate the office on the weekend so when they left the building behind it was nothing but the trees to greet them. Seren headed toward a cluster of them, their quiet murmurs relaxing tension she never realised she was carrying. Nature just tended to have that effect on her. It whispered and sung so quietly it could have been the breeze but she knew it wasn’t. She gave a tree a smile that could only be described as affectionate and she reached out to bring her fingertips over the bark. Settling with her back against the same tree she arched an eyebrow at the Unspeakable. “You aren’t after my research or the creatures it’s done on and I imagine if this was about that unfortunate bleating that befalls people of your department after they come here it could have been handled through other channels. This begs the question, once more, why are you here?”
“We would like you to join us,” MacFadden answered. He didn’t explain, didn’t try to persuade her, just made a statement.
Seren stared at him. She blinked. She cocked her head to the side. She stared some more. “Excuse me?” Surely he was kidding and simply had poor delivery, right?
“We would like you to join the Department of Mysteries, Healer Fawcett.” His voice was even, calm, matter-of-fact.
Was this really his recruitment speech? He was really awful at this if it was. “Well, that’s lovely but considering I hex you people when you show up I think I’m going to pass.”
“The Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures and Unexplained Phenomena is going to suffer budget cuts,” he began to explain. “If you are not let go your research will be severely hindered. You will not be able to carry out your work at the high level you currently do. The head of the department has been watching you for years. His interest in you began when you were in school, Healer Fawcett. You would have been approached then had you not gone to Romania for your Healer training. Now that your department will no longer offer you what you likely want we want to extend to you an invitation to join us.”
“Because it’s all tea and scones in Mysteries, yeah?” The word unimpressed didn’t even come close to Seren’s attitude. “First of all, I don’t much fancy signing up for something you can’t even explain to me until I’m already entrenched in it. Furthermore, using the budget cuts and how they will effect the department as leverage is simply tacky. I enjoy my work and unless you can offer me the same work or something I will find even more interesting then you haven’t got a case at all. Since I’m certain you couldn’t tell me that you had that to offer even if you do have it to offer it makes the entire thing a moot point. Beyond that, if my position is not cut due to the budget decrease I have no intentions of going anywhere without Everrett Mac. I may be his supervisor but he is invaluable.”
MacFadden regarded her silently for a moment. “We can offer you greater opportunity to branch out and discover things Regulation will never have the jurisdiction to touch. You’re right, I cannot disclose any information beyond that. Your intellect and training would be useful to us. Our work, if you have a tendency toward curiosity, can offer to a chance to discover things no one else will ever know.”
Her curiosity was piqued, she couldn’t deny that but she’d be damned if she was going to admit it to this random Unspeakable. “Well, that’s a lovely offer. If that’s all you have to say I’d really like getting back to work now.”
From the look on his face Seren got the feeling this was not the last time she’d get a visit from Unspeakable MacFadden. Bloody tooser, she thought darkly while he smiled at her politely. Did they teach smugness as part of Unspeakable training or something? He pulled out a card and held it out to her. She didn’t feel like taking it, truth be told, but Seren took it because it’d likely make him go away more quickly. “If you change your mind or would like to discuss things further. Fold it in half and it will alert me to your wish to meet.” Seren quirked an eyebrow and looked down at the business card. Note to Self: leave in the middle of the largest and least used book I own. He bid her adieu, literally, and Seren scowled at the pretentious language to go along with the annoying man.
“Are you people on serious drugs or something?” The words were muttered to herself but the answering whisper came from the trees telling her they didn’t have that answer for her. Of course they didn’t, they were trees not drug tests. Oi. She was taking off and going to her mum and dad’s on account of sanity retention.