Melissa quickly nodded. "Glad to be of help, Esme. Okay we'll first concentrate on collecting samples from here. I'll go start now.". She lifted her hand to her head in a mock salute before belatedly realizing that she was holding the petri dishes in them. One of them hit her on the side of the head and she almost dropped all of them in the process.

She quickly grabbed them before they fell to the floor and in the process almost dropped the tweezers and droppers that she was holding in her other hand. Juggling to hold onto everything in both hands she took a quick look around to see whether anyone had witnessed her circus act. She hoped no one had.

Walking over to the nearest table, she gently placed the Petri dishes on it. Now at least she had one hand was free. She peered down at the table to see whether there was food scraps or drink spillage on it. But she didn't see any. She decided to walk over to the bar counter. That would most likely be the place where she would find liquid samples. Using her hand to gently slide the Petri dishes back into her free one, she walked over to the counter and placed them on it before she started examining it.

She leaned down, her nose almost touching the counter as she scanned for evidence and then she saw it. A small patch of liquid substance on the counter. She quickly picked up a Petri dish and removed the lid. Then she placed a dropper into the liquid and gently squeezed the bulb end of it and released it, allowing the suction to suck the liquid up into the dropper. She slowly transferred the liquid into the Petri dish by placing the end of the dropper over the dish and slowly squeezed the liquid into it.

Placing the dropper aside, she picked up the lid and placed it carefully over the dish, making sure that it was securely fastened. Digging in her pocket, she found a pen and began to write on the label. What is it: Liquid substance. Unknown origin. Where it was found: Bar Counter. State it was found in: Not Frozen. Was she missing anything out? Melissa wondered whether she was supposed to identify what the liquid substance was.

Should she sniff or taste it? No that would be insane...or was it? Maybe that was what Esme had meant about her being a brave soul. She was expected to test each sample. 'No she wouldn't expect us to do that...or does she?,'Melissa thought to herself. While she was debating whether she was brave soul or not, Melissa picked up the dropper she had earlier discarded and looked at it.

An idea popped into her head. If she was able to identify it just from its color, maybe she wouldn't have to taste or sniff it. She studied the little droplets inside the dropper. It was brown in color. Melissa decided that the only liquid that was that color was coffee.... unless they served Coke in this place. Melissa turned back to counter from where she had found the liquid. She touched the stains left behind on the counter to see whether it had a sticky residue. If it was Coke, the syrup in it would be sticky. If it was coffee, it wouldn't leave a sticky residue.

The stain wasn't sticky. Melissa returned to the petri-dish containing her sample and cancelled out the word unknown to coffee. Now onto finding the next sample.

The Juicer that made the juice.

Clasping a notebook and a quill in his hand, Zach entered the Juice Bar which is starting to be packed with people. He looked around to see what can he do and who he knows was here.

He scribbled some notes and looked around again. Maybe he should find the one in charge of the operation.

And that would be someone from the Law Enforcements... Now... Who do I know from the department.

Zach looked around for people he can ask.

As soon as Amoroso told him to go to the food court, Konrad hurried over there and stopped in his tracks to find lots and lots of people working around the juice bar, although he had no idea what was happening. Sure, it had something to do with the big problem around the Ministry, but he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

But... ah, there was Zacharias. At least there was someone that looked familiar. "Hello," he nodded as he approached the Junior Undersecretary. "Is there anything I can help with?" Well, Amoroso sent him, but gave him no instructions. And where was he? Flying around the Ministry?

... maybe he should just leave. Make himself invisible or something.

Why was she here? Why was she not drinking the cocoa that Scherfig had offered her at her desk? Tori hadn't even been told what to do.

When she finally arrived at the food court, dragging her feet along and almost falling asleep, she just stood there, unimpressed. With a quick nod of adknowledgement to the receptionist, who was talking to the Junior Undersecretary, she surveyed her surroundings. There were a lot of people here. Probably the whole Ministry, actually.

Seeing nothing else she could do, Victoria walked over towards the two men. "Hello," she said with a small smile. "Can I help in any way, Sir?"

Or could she just leave and go back to bed and take some aspirin or medicine or whatever? Or even just go back to her desk and drink nice cocoa? Unless Scherfig had poisoned it. Grr. Not what she needed.

Esme glanced over as Dacs approached her. Walk through of the cafeteria...got it. "Sure thing." She stated, letting her know that she had gotten the message loud and clear. They shouldn't have any problems, but you never know what one could run into, especially when zombies were running amok....

Blinking rapidly a few times as Melissa gave her a quick salute, and then proceeded to juggle the petri dishes and other supplies around, Esme took a step back, hiding the smile that threatened. At least she had been successful in not dropping/contaminating anything.

Turning her head so as not to embarrass the woman, Esme set to sweeping the area, trying to figure out where to start. She supposed the counter was the area to begin, and Melissa seemed to have the same idea.

For a few moments, she watched the woman collect the evidence of a liquid on the counter, and then label it. Not bad at all.

Setting a petri dish on the counter, Esme walked around to the backside, walking all the way to one end. Here she would begin.

Upon placing her bag in a safe spot, she ensured that her gloves were on properly. Plenty of work to be done here...lots of food samples sitting back here.

Zach looked as he was approached by one of the employees of the Minister's Office and then, yet again, by another.

"Hello, Konrad. I hope everything is well?" he said addressing the first person whom he knew when he got back. The guy seems pretty reliable for Zach. Konrad was asking him what to do when another person walked towards them and said hello.

"And hello to you too." Zach said. "I believe we have never met yet. My name is Zacharias McMillan" he said extending his hands towards the lady. He wasn't sure if that's a right move to do considering they are trying to figure out some disease that is roaming around.

"Well," he said addressing both of them. "We need to find the one in charge, and I think I found her." he said as he whipped out his wand and uttered, Expecto Patronum, a silvery eagle appeared before them and flew around the room towards the Main Buffet.

Melissa was glad to see that Esme had joined her at the counter, and was now working the other end of the counter. Not wanting to get in her way, she made her way to where the Juicer person would have been making the drinks. "What do they call the person who makes the drinks....bartender?...but that was usually when they work at bars. Oh well the drink person for now.' Melissa thought to herself.

Looking around for the Juice Blender, she noticed that there were fruits, fruits and more fruits, not to mention the coffee machine, the tea bags and everything else that was required to make the drinks. "Samples, samples, lots of samples" Melissa thought to herself. "But where to start? Okay let's just take a sample from the drinks first and then work our way up...or rather down the fruit chain."

Making sure that her gloves were still intact, she placed the petridishes on the counter and walked over to the coffee machine. She removed the lid off one dish and then opened the top of the coffee machine. Using a dropper she reached in and took a sample from the contents inside the machine and dropped it into the dish. Replacing the lid onto the dish, she proceeded to write on the label. What is it: Coffee. Where was it taken from: coffee machine. State it was found in: Definitely hot and not frozen.

Now that she had that sample, she closed the top of coffee machine and moved on to the other hot liquid machines and collected samples from each of them. Cappuccino, Snakeweed Tea, Nettle Tea and the Latte. Once she was done labeling each dish, she placed them aside. She realized that she was slowly running out of Petri dishes but decided that she would ask Esme for more later.

She spotted a container filled with sealed tea bags of various flavors. Picking she picked one of each flavor and placed them all in a plastic baggy. Then she realized something.

"Okay, if there's unused tea bags here, where would the drink person have thrown the used ones? The trash bin!!" Melissa thought it out. Looking around, she found the trash bin under the counter. Using her foot to kick it out nearer to her, she looked around for something she could place the contents of the bin into. She spotted some paper towels and quickly laid down on the floor next to the bin.

Kicking the bin over with her foot, the bin tipped over and it's contents spilled out on to the floor covered with paper towels. She looked around hoping no one would reprimand her for making the juice bar dirtier now. Picking up a sealed drinking straw, Melissa unwrapped it and pulling out the straw, she used it to separate the contents of the bin. "Samples, samples, lots of samples." Melissa thought to herself.

Not a long while after he reached the juice bar, Konrad noticed that Ms Hollister arrived, too. Throwing a quick look at her, he smiled, before turning to Zacharias. Well, before being interrupted by Amoroso, he figured she was far from having a good day, so he almost expected her to ignore the Senior Undersecretary. He would've tried that if he were her. Hehe.

At Zacharias' question, he only nodded silently because... uhm, what was there to say? Of course things were not alright, for him and around the Ministry. He still remained quiet when he said something about finding the one in charge, and then watched as he sent a patronus across the food court. What was there to doooo, though? He'll probably just have to stick around and wait for instructions, huh?

Zach paid no attention to the enthusiasm, well, the lack thereof, coming from his colleagues. He focused on the Patronus and the answer he had received from it.

He nodded and said, "Alright, the person in charge is Ms. Antoni Dacosta and she is in the Main Buffet area. and she wanted us to be there to help." he said looking at the two.

He was turning to lead the way and turned back to the two, "Alright then, let's go" he said with a smile and an enthusiasm that he hoped that would rub off to these bunch.

While waiting, Konrad watched the eagle patronus with a small smile on his face, thinking about the tattoo on his shoulder. If he hadn't had Klaus, or if he hadn't been so fond of cats and felines in general, his patronus would have probably been an eagle, too. Hehe.

But Zacharias got an answer from the main buffet, apparently, from Ms Dacosta. Was it so wrong that he had no idea who the woman was? "Okay," he said, following the man. Something told him that he should have found something better to do on his way from level one to the food court (it was a long way, after all; could've easily gotten lost), but there was no way back now. Pffft.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awarlesta Black

Manolo shifted back and forth on his heels. He starting to anxious as more and more people showed up.

He walked up to his boss, "Ready, miss." He positioned himself next to a bloodhound, petting it slightly.

As soon as the other employees started branching off to begin the investigation, Ella turned to Manolo and Hershey and the two bloodhounds. "Alright, folks," she began in her slightly faded Spanish accent with a deep breath. "Manolo, I know you haven't had a lot of training yet," due to their bloodhound leader being out for so long, "but the dogs are intelligent, and they can pretty much let them do their own thing."

"Hershey," she said, turning to the young woman, "You don't have any experience with the bloodhounds, but you can follow us or help with the others in testing the food. It's up to you."

With that being said... "Ready, boys?" Ella asked the two bloodhounds. Their ears perked up and Ella took off the leash of the one by her side, signaling to Manolo to do the same. Ella whistled at them twice and followed the two dogs as their noses trailed around the ground and began sniffing everything out.

The patronus jaguar appeared near the juice bar and bounded over to Esme and when it opened it's mouth, Dacs voice came out,"Esme, we need to push this and get the samples to the lab to be tested. So, quicken your pace and head straight to the dessert bar. Send the juice samples off, before you head to the dessert bar. I'll be over shortly to see the progress." it said before lowering it's head and dissolving in a mist.






OOC: If you haven't joined in yet, we invite you to. Grab some gloves and collect juice samples.

Well Dacosta certainly didn't waste any time. The familiar patronus appeared before her in no time flat as she had noticed the movement of the form from the corner of her eye. Well, that certainly wasn't a problem.

She whistled loudly to get the attention of those milling about the area. "If anyone doesn't have a job yet, come on over here! We have plenty of samples to collect. Don't be shy!"

With a grin to herself, she lowered her head to collect the sample she had been working on before the appearance of the Patronus. Dark...She leaned forward slightly and sniffed. Chocolate. Milkshake...or hot chocolate. But the froth around the edges made her think milkshake.

Sucking up the sample into the dropper, she transferred it to the small glass vial she held, and labeled it appropriately.

Next....

Manolo nodded in confirmation as Miss Ella explained what they were going to do.

Following his boss's actions, Manolo took off the leash of his bloodhound and followed after the sniffing dogs, hoping to find the cause of all this troublesome madness.

Well, that should about do it....she removed her gloves, which were spotted by the substances that she had collected, and walked over to Melissa who was diligently at work behind the counter. Too bad there weren't many volunteers. She supposed that a majority were searching for those infected....apparently thought that was a more important job than collecting potential evidence. However, Esme knew that there was nothing better than putting two and two together and obtaining the evidence that supported one's theory.

Pulling on a fresh set of gloves, Esme walked up to a spot a few feet away from Melissa, not wanting to startle her. "Almost finished up here? I'm going to get these samples up to the lab and then come back down to start on the dessert bar. You can either come with or head over there yourself and wait until I return." She offered. "Up to you."

After collecting her samples, Melissa collected the contents of the garbage bin together with the napkins and threw them back into the bin. She looked up from labeling her last sample on the petri dish, when she heard Esme speak to her."I'm about done here. I'll just clean up and head over there. Uh...Oh wait I have these samples that I collected. Can I give them to you?" Melissa asked belatedly wondering whether Esme was going to be able to hold all of them. "I can come with you and help carry the samples if you want?" she then offered.

Esme smiled and nodded once, and then again as Melissa offered to go with her and carry the samples. She could probably carry them herself, but it may be better to do so with a partner. Who knew what they would come across, and if they came across an infected person, well....two people were better than one. Usually.

She shifted her bag to her other shoulder and nodded at the samples. "You can definitely come with. We will drop these off at the lab and then come back down to start sampling the dessert bar. Should be plenty of samples there as well." She surveyed the woman's work quickly, pleased to see a variety of samples. "Good job."

Turning, she began to wind her way through the tables. walking slowly until Melissa could catch up.

Manolo followed behind the dogs. They sniffed away at every object, brilliantly doing their job.

They moved on to another part of the juice bar. Suddenly, one of the dogs pulled away from the group of others. It seemed to have noticed something.

Manolo noticed that one of the dogs was astray, he spotted it and immediately knew the dog was on to something. He turned to call his boss, "Errr...Miss Ella!! Over here!!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awarlesta Black

Manolo followed behind the dogs. They sniffed away at every object, brilliantly doing their job.

They moved on to another part of the juice bar. Suddenly, one of the dogs pulled away from the group of others. It seemed to have noticed something.

Manolo noticed that one of the dogs was astray, he spotted it and immediately knew the dog was on to something. He turned to call his boss, "Errr...Miss Ella!! Over here!!"

As the dogs continued sniffing, Ella was becoming doubtful about her assistance in the investigation. But her doubt only lasted so long. Hearing Manolo call her name, Ella turned around to see his bloodhound going crazy over one of the decorative plants against a wall by the juice bar. With a whistle, Ella and her dog quickly walked over to the plant and her own bloodhound gave out a few barks at the plant.

"Hey, we got something over here!" Ella called out to anyone. "Do we have anyone from Environment here?" She looked around... but didn't see anyone she recognized from the level. Ooookay. "Dacs?" Was she still here? Or anyone, really. She didn't know anything about plants. Where was Rafael when you needed him?

"Good work, Manolo," she said off to the side. First real investigation and he found something!

Manolo straightened up in pride, a big smile tugging at his lips. "Thanks, Miss Ella."

He looked down at the bloodhounds and smiled, petting them. He knelt down to their level. "Good job, guys!" He cooed.

Penny was busy taking extremely detailed notes of the investigation, with her signature handwriting that could easily be mistaken for typed font. So much was going on around her that she hardly heard what was going on. It took a while for her to reread her notes to figure out the latest comment.

She looked over at the plant that was sniffed out, and took a deep breath. She should be able to help, her only job before this was with plants. Of course she chose this instant to be shy. Penny preferred being outside the action, helping with details and things rather than actually doing things. But she truly did want to help. After a moment's consideration, she spoke up.

"Well, I may be able to help. I do know quite a lot about plants." Penny said. No one had likely noticed her standing there before, so she spoke quietly. She didn't want to surprise anyone. She walked over to the plant, stroking the bloodhound's back. She loved animals. "Of course, I'm not in Environment, so..." she trailed off, wondering if they would even want her help. Not sure of what they even wanted to know, Penny gave a small smile and waited for anything she could help or answer. Did they want the plant identified? Or the likelihood that it could be causing the problems?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awarlesta Black

Manolo straightened up in pride, a big smile tugging at his lips. "Thanks, Miss Ella."

He looked down at the bloodhounds and smiled, petting them. He knelt down to their level. "Good job, guys!" He cooed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ashfig

Penny was busy taking extremely detailed notes of the investigation, with her signature handwriting that could easily be mistaken for typed font. So much was going on around her that she hardly heard what was going on. It took a while for her to reread her notes to figure out the latest comment.

She looked over at the plant that was sniffed out, and took a deep breath. She should be able to help, her only job before this was with plants. Of course she chose this instant to be shy. Penny preferred being outside the action, helping with details and things rather than actually doing things. But she truly did want to help. After a moment's consideration, she spoke up.

"Well, I may be able to help. I do know quite a lot about plants." Penny said. No one had likely noticed her standing there before, so she spoke quietly. She didn't want to surprise anyone. She walked over to the plant, stroking the bloodhound's back. She loved animals. "Of course, I'm not in Environment, so..." she trailed off, wondering if they would even want her help. Not sure of what they even wanted to know, Penny gave a small smile and waited for anything she could help or answer. Did they want the plant identified? Or the likelihood that it could be causing the problems?

Well, apparently there weren't any employees from Environment here. That was a bummer. But Ella suddenly noticed one of her own employees she hadn't noticed before show up and offer her help. "Oh, actually..." Ella glanced at the plants for a moment and thought about it. "I think I better send these to Mr. Belemonte. It might be best if we leave this up to the experts, but I definitely appreciate your help, Penny." She didn't want anyone else getting infected around here.

Sliding her face mask down, Ella then stepped out into the open to talk to everyone in the area. She raised her voice for all to hear. "Attention all employees! ..... Thank you all for your incredible help during this investigation. It seems that these plants are causing quite the disturbance to the Bloodhounds, so I will take them up to Environment and have them work with them to figure out the problem." Ella took another look around the cafeteria. It didn't seem like anyone else was finding anything suspicious with the food, so she continued. "It seems as though we are done here, so feel free to pack up and clear out. Please continue to report odd behavior to the MLE or any Department Head. Thank you."

Ella slipped her mask back on and went to the dogs and her employees. "Manolo, if you could take the two dogs back to the level, that would be great. Penny, you could help him with that. And I will take these plants back up to Rafael. Sound good?" Hopefully, because she was ready to go. Ella handed over her bloodhound's leash to Manolo and carefully gathered the plants with her wand and prepared to take them up to level four. Rafael was in for a treat. Heh.

Natasha had once again signed up to be a certified ministry tour guide for the new employees that had started working earlier in the week. With her previous tours in memory she decided to start in the food court rather than the atrium. The atrium she reasoned they had already seen and gotten a little familiar with since they had naturally ventured through there every time they left or arrived at the ministry.

Heading in to the food court Tasha steered her steps towards the juice bar. Bying herself a glass of cold lemonade she waited for the new employees to arrive. Hopefully the two men were easy to talk to and knew what they wanted out of the tour.

Appearing down in the food court, he knew well enough how to get there at least. He'd recalled passing it each time he'd entered the ministry. So walking in he headed for the juice bar where he knew that he was to meet Natasha. Seeing a woman there, he gave her a smile and a slight bow "Are you Natasha?" he asked with a hopeful smile.

It was debatable whether the attack of nerves Howard Constantine had suffered this morning had been a curse or a blessing in disguise. Although unable to sleep last night, and his stomach in knots this morning, a calming draught had taken the edge off. He had dropped his daughter off with his mother and then left for his first day of work at the Ministry feeling much more positive and relaxed about the day ahead.

The cracks still showed though. A man who was clearly uncomfortable in his own skin, with his hands buried deep in his trouser pockets, shoulders hunched as usual, seemingly trying to make himself look smaller than his quiteconsiderablyaboveaverageheight, made his way towards the juice bar where he was to meet with another ministry worker for a guided tour of his new workplace.

He sidled towards a woman and a man, hoping they could point him in the right direction.

“Excuse me.” He cleared his throat nervously. “..I was wondering if you could tell me where I could find Natasha Warrington?”