Coffee Is For Closers [closed, with coffee]

[etherthief]

The HR director is a thin man with a long lined face and small, delicate glasses. Quite attractive, for an older bureaucrat, but this is hardly the time. Iman contents herself for watching him idly as he reviews her paperwork.

"What makes you want to work for ROMAC?" he asks after a moment, looking up at her with a sort of dull yet penetrating expression that contributes to her conviction that this one is off limits. He's nice, likable, and sort of creepy. But that's okay. It's not like he'll be her supervisor.

"Well, I held off making a decision for a while," she says in the smooth, casual tone she uses for job interviews. "I wanted to see all my options, you know. But it turns out there just aren't that many, as I'm sure you know. Don't get me wrong, I love the city, but not being able to leave it, that's kind of a dealbreaker for a lot of the job options. But what would I be doing for them, anyway? IT consultation? When there's something as huge and fascinating as the Rift out there?" She clears her throat, squares her shoulders and looks him in the eye. "Mr. Fring, I have been working in the field of dimensional physics - exactly the kind of work involved with studying this kind of spatial-temporal anomoly - for just about my entire life. This Rift is the discovery of a lifetime. If ROMAC's scientific department is investigating the whys and hows of this thing, then I want to be involved, in whatever capacity, every step of the journey from here on out. And let me assure you: you guys want me on your team."

She smiles. This is more aggressively self-aggrandizing that she usually likes to be (at least out loud) but that's what'll get you in with these sorts of places. Gus eyes her thoughtfully and then resumes glancing over her paperwork, which she filled out in greater detail than was strictly necessary. Credentials are hard to prove in this sort of situation, but given that they're all in the same boat, she's hoping her enthusiasm will be enough.

"You seem to have an impressive background," he says after a moment, "so I hope you won't feel offended if I tell you that you'll have to be part of a training program first."

She waves a hand, relaxing her posture. "I would never have expected any different," she says.

"It isn't just an orientation. This is a highly secure department you're applying into. You'll have to be screened, thoroughly."

"Naturally."

"Entry positions are generally only lab technicians and assistants," he says. "You'd have to be with us for some time before securing a full research position."

"Of course." Iman doesn't care about any of that. She just wants in. She wants the keycard and the door codes and the beautiful, wonderful laboratory access. She can handle the rest on her own. She doesn't need, or even want, a cushy research job with this faction. She has the Doctor for the real work. This is basically going to be an insider position. And she's going to rock it.

"All right," he says pleasantly. "Well, everything seems to be in order. Let me just go and check with the training department when the next session begins. Help yourself to water or coffee, whatever you like - I'll come and find you."

Iman nods, stands with him and shakes his head. "Thank you so much for this opportunity, Mr. Fring," she says with a broad smile.

"Thank you," he replies, still with that extremely corporate smile, and then he departs.

Iman stretches out a little and proceeds at a comfortable pace to the watercooler/refreshment area to pour herself some coffee.

Comments

[omnomnom_feels]

Rashad is not paying particular attention to the people around him as he walks back to his cubicle, leafing through a stack of forms he can already tell have not been filled out entirely correctly. He does not understand what is so difficult about reading the instructions, but it seems it is a common malady amongst these mortals. It will be impossible to create complete profiles for every one of the new registrants whose papers he holds without insisting on clarification.

The addition of a mildly familiar chord to the background hum of the emotions of the people around him catches his attention, though, and he looks up as he's passing the refreshment station to see Sara, of all people, standing right out in the open where anyone could see her. He halts in his tracks and stares, then looks around to see if anyone else has noticed she is there.

[etherthief]

Well look who the fuck it is. She grins broadly and gives Rashad a pleasant little wave.

"Hi buddy," she says. "Enjoying your return to visibility? Ended up working like a toggle switch, how convenient. Except I got rained on when I was indoors. Ruined some perfectly good nachos."

She sips her coffee, still smiling at him. She's enjoying his startlement.

"Surprised to see me, huh," she says. She gestures around. "What can I say? Our little day trip was a nice exercise in self-discovery. Sure, there were questions raised, but still. I can't say no to some good resources." She nods at his stack of papers. "How goes the data management?"

[omnomnom_feels]

"It goes poorly," he replies, addressing the question first because he takes it to be genuine. "Very few of you seem to understand how to provide the correct information. You made it clear you did not approve of this organization, and then you broke things. I do not think your feelings are very likely to have changed since I last saw you."

Straight to the point and sans discretion. At least he hasn't used the word 'spying,' right? "I can be seen now," he reminds her thoughtfully, recalling his excuse reason for not raising the alarm when he first met her in the basement. "And be heard."

[etherthief]

She chuckles at his - well, she can't call it irritation, exactly, he remains curiously tepid and implacable at all times - his adorable love of organization. What an absolute square.

"Don't worry about me," she says, flapping a hand. She's not too concerned about anyone overhearing this - does anyone really take this guy seriously? "I'm here to help now. They're gonna start training me to work downstairs. Isn't that great?" She thinks it's great.

[omnomnom_feels]

No. They do not. It would anger him, but of course it does not.

"That is unwise of them," he notes. "Have you found a purpose yet, or are you still only trying to learn for the sake of knowing things?"

He says that almost like it's not a legitimate end in and of itself. He wonders if he will be able to do anything about it should she turn out to have less than honest intentions, and he finds somewhat unexpectedly that he does not object very strongly to the idea of her undermining ROMAC's operations now that he knows more about them himself. As long, of course, as she doesn't prevent him from making things orderly up here at the tip of the iceberg. "If you destroy this place, do not expect my help," he decides.

[etherthief]

Iman lets out a full laugh at that. She's kind of flattered by the presumption that she could destroy this place by herself. Gosh, this guy is great, in a terrible kind of way. As she's recovering, she catches sight of Gus heading back to his office with another cranky looking guy in tow. He gives her a look and a 'hold on' gesture and she waves him off. She can keep tormenting Rashad for hours, no worries about her.

"I don't think you need to worry about that," she says to Rashad. "I'm just here to see what I can learn, and you know, how I can help and stuff." She grins at him, then realizes she should probably tell him her real name now. "Oh by the way, my name's not Sara. It's Iman." She holds out her hand. "Iman Asadi."

[omnomnom_feels]

"So you are a liar as well," says Rashad as he shakes her hand. The corners of his mouth quirk up in a way that suggests it's a joke...or would if the timing wasn't just a little uncomfortably delayed. "I am still Rashad." And that ongoing lie right there is why he shouldn't throw stones. "I came here to help as well, but you may have noticed how far that has gotten me."

[etherthief]

"I'm cautious," she corrects, raising an eyebrow at him. Rude. "I didn't know anything about you when we met. Giving out my real name could have been dangerous."

Anyway, whatever. Rashad's weird. Maybe he was just trying to joke, and failing incredibly hard.

"And hey, don't be down on yourself," she says, managing both to sound both encouraging and indifferent. "Data entry is helpful, probably. Whatever skills you have to offer, right?"

It's just that her skills are more extensive and more exciting.

[omnomnom_feels]

Extensive, maybe. Exciting, definitely if it's to be defined by how much those skills excite their owner, though the whole lighting on fire and smiting demons thing would be impressive to the right crowd. Reliable data entry, of course, is a very extensive skill, and though not particularly exciting Rashad might rank it above certain things Iman can do.

"All contributions are meaningful," agrees Rashad, "If they are given to the correct cause." Which is the real issue their little foray raised. He can right the wrongs of ROMAC's wayward filing system, but if the larger organization does not fulfill the mission he believed it to be fulfilling, his work here is less worthy of him.

[etherthief]

Iman's eyebrow raises even further. "Just what is your idea of the 'correct cause', Rashad?" she asks. She takes a slow sip of subpar office coffee. "That seems to be an important detail for you." She didn't miss how on the ball he was about the correct way of doing things when they met before, which made him seem boring and weird. But she still senses he isn't just a rule-abiding do-gooder. There's something very odd about him and he plays it even closer to the chest than she does.

[omnomnom_feels]

"The one which will bring the most peace to this world," replies Rashad as though the answer is as self-evident as it is vague and ultimately insubstantial. The truth is that he does not know to what cause he should give himself. He hasn't known that since he disagreed with his brothers and was cast down, and the job of choosing a cause and directing his own actions has suited him poorly. He has his own ideas of what 'peace' means, of course, and it's not simply the absence of strife.

He shakes his head. "I had my illusions about the work done here, and now they are dispelled. All the data in the world is only as good as the purpose to which it is put."

[etherthief]

Iman stares at him, not immediately sure if he's bullshitting her or not. This sounds so grandiose and also over-simplified that she can't quite take it seriously, and yet he's stone-faced as usual.

"Yeah, that's," she says awkwardly, "that'll get ya." She sips her coffee even more slowly. "I mean, good luck with finding that and everything. I'm more of a take-things-into-my-own-hands type of person, if you know what I mean." She doubts it.

[omnomnom_feels]

"I do know." At least he thinks he knows -- at any rate, he definitely disapproves. Rushing about doing whatever one pleases with the idea in the moment that it will somehow improve things -- such people may believe they are serving good, but entropy does not care whether one's will is good or evil.

He offers her a smile, again too little and too late to give what he's already said the air of a joke. "We are all searching for our way, are we not?"

[thread will continue below]

[etherthief]

Oookay, Mr. Creepy! Iman smiles a smile that doesn't reach her eyes and raises her coffee cup. It kind of grates that he's simultaneously so disapproving of what they learned together and of her methods. What, does he think the perfect solution is going to come prepackaged and bite him on his perky little ass?

"Sure are," she says. Oh good, there's Fring with his new person in tow. Just before this got weird(er).

"Oh look," she says drolly, "it's our boss."