The torches blazed to life, crackling slightly when she walked into her office. Everything was exactly as she had left it less than six hours ago. A quick glance at her clock showed that it was ten to five, which meant she would have the office to herself for another two hours. If there was no big scoop that day, of course.

She hung up her coat and walked over to her stiff chair, all the while sending telepathic messages to whomever she chose to be her personal assistant that day (she never could hold on to a proper one for very long) to bring her a big cup of coffee from the Leaky Cauldron. It took less than ten minutes for Getti to be completely submerged in her work, writing letters and making notations on various reports from the Managing Editor.

A couple of hours later, Mona opened the door of Getti's office with her hip, coffees in hand. Despite her apparent lack of human emotion or habit, Mona quite liked Getti. Humanity doesn't do well in publishing anyway. Mona found it efficient and sort of refreshing.

"Getti," was her sole greeting, clipped because it wasn't quite 9 am. She placed the coffee on the desk in front of her and dropped into a seat, surveying her boss.

"Did you sleep at all?"

Getti looked up from the budgetary report as Mona walked in. The parchment was filled with her angry notations for the members of the board to read when she owled it back to them, and she had to admit that the coffee Mona brought every morning was a welcome distraction.

"I'll sleep when I'm old." the nagging voice in her head added "-er" to the end which she promptly ignored. She reached for the steaming mug with an ink stained hand and took a sip, not bothering to take the time to ask Mona how her evening had been or inhale the delicious aroma of the rich brew. That was why she, if not enjoyed, then definitely appreciated working with the other woman: they didn't have to bother with being polite.

"We'll have to send a memo around today regarding the staff meeting that's coming up," she picked up her quill again and continued reading the budget as she addressed her associate, "There are the matters of... staffing that we need to inform them about."

The first bubble of annoyance for the day rose in Mona's belly; she doused it with another sip of coffee. The sips of coffee throughout the mornings were like throwing tiny twigs on a small fire. Every little bit counts. She might develop an ulcer.

She raised a brow. "What's that? That they'll all be replaced if they don't start acting like adults with careers? Would be an HR nightmare, but could be amusing." She took a moment to imagine firing them all in one fell swoop. Oh, dreams.

The quirk of Getti's lips at Mona's statement was almost - almost - a smile, but it was hard to tell with her still making notations on the budget report, "We take our amusement wherever we can find them," she signed the bottom of the report and set the quill back in it's holder before finally looking back up at the Managing Editor, "but yes, that and the fact that we've got some new hires coming in."

She was of course, referring the ruthless headhunting her and Mona had indulged in for the past few months. They'd managed to lure over a few over Ministry officers... all in a bid to have better access to Ministry records.

OII. The newww people. The bubble of annoyance burst and impending misery settled in her gut. Mona didn't know which was worse; delusional holier-than-thou Belle or inexperienced snot-nosed newbies.

"Perhaps I shouldn't replace the cloak stand in my office," she mused aloud. "If it hit some of them in the head when they stepped into my office they'd learn quickly. And I can't be blamed if some of them have poor peripheral vision."

"Maybe we should find a reason to place it outside the entrance," Getti set the mug of coffee down on her coaster before drawing yet another roll of parchment from the Board towards her, "with the budget the board set for us we can't afford any negligence suits."

Now there was a hell she hoped to avoid. As if HR wasn't already breathing down her neck over the working conditions in the dilapidated building. Maybe she should forward all owls from HR to the board from now onwards, "However, it's not too late to add a volenti clause to their contracts."

ooc: volenti is a law thing where people of full age and full intellectual capacity must look after themselves and take responsibility for their actions. How do I know this random, almost useless bit of info? I wanted to be Ally McBeal and did law for 1 term before realizing it wasn't glamorous.

Voices could be heard coming from inside the office which made Tristan wonder wether or not to interrupt. Surely it was better to get this over with than waste a whole day waiting for the boss to be unoccupied. Who knew when that would be.

Making up his mind, he knocked on the door and waited for a response from the other side of the door. Unsure of what to do, he carefully opened the door "Excuse me, hope I'm not interrupting..."

A knock interrupted their pleasant conversation, but what truly put fire in Getti's eyes (and caused the corners of her mouth to tighten almost imperceptibly in a dangerous sign of annoyance) was the fact that her door opened.

Without her express invitation to do so.

She raised her eyes to the young man standing just beyond her treshold, and recognized instantly that this was one of the new recruits she had just been discussing with Mona. Her light grey eyes missed nothing as she took in his entire appearance, a quick assessment left her with the impression that he would simply have to do.

"Hmmm." Was her response to his opener, before she rolled up the letter she'd been reading, "I'll see you in a moment."

As per usual, Getti didn't bother with niceties or responses and turned back to Mona with a slightly raised eyebrow. It couldn't be more obvious that the man was new on staff, the veterans were well aware of the fact that Getti despised being interrupted.

Mona turned toward the newcomer, a wide and genuinely gleeful smile on her face. Ohh what a way to screw up so early. An unofficial but completely necessary part of her job as Managing Editor was keeping Getti from melting the employees with her eyes, or eating them alive with her demeanor. They would all be whimpering little wabbits if it weren't for her. She was there to bridge the gap. A very wide gap.

She drained her coffee cup and rose. "Hullooo," she said, grinning. "How are youuuu." Without waiting for an answer, she gave her empty cup to him. "I'm done with that, can you chuck it for me? There's a dear." She circled an arm around his shoulders and began steering him away from the flames. "Getti's not quite ready to see people yet, not really before we'd had our staff meeting welcoming you new people and all, but I'd be happy to help you." She lead him out of the office, winking cheekily at Getti.

Tristan sighed at his new boss' so called comment. This was a bad start, but there was nothing he could do. She reminded him of the groundskeeper when he attended Hogwarts. Mr Shnieder...The man was like a grumpy blast-ended skrewt.

As he was about to shut the door, another woman stood up and she seemed alot happier than the woman sitting behind the desk.
"Uh, hello" he nodded. Tristan was about to respond when he suddenly had a cup handed to him and was steered out of the office.

This woman, who he had no idea was called, could atleast help him get settled. He hoped.
"Thankyou. My name is Tristan Carwyn..." he said looking around to where he was being led.

Getti watched with growing irritation as Mona expertly manhandled the new staff member. The PR Director had written her (and ambushed her) several times concerning the way she treated the staff, spouting nonsense about Motivation theories and increasing productivity through attracting them like bees to honey. But what she failed to explain time and time again (or rather, failed to make the idiot PR guy understand) was that she wasn't cut out at mollycoddling her staff.

Thank Merlin for Mona. Although, Getti thought with a secret smile to herself (she was alone now, it was fine) as she hooked her reading glasses over her eyes, the passive aggressive Managing Editor was no better than herself. She only made it more obvious how much she enjoyed it.

Right... back to work, she thought and picked up the quill again once her coffee was finished.

Jordan walked up to the door of Getti Forde's office. She was excited to start her first day on the job. She only hoped that people wouldn't underestimate her because of her age. She knocked on the door to be polite and quietly peaked her head inside.

"Good Morning Ms. Forde" She greeted the woman sitting behind her desk with a warm smile.

She did not want to go all the way in. The editor and chief was probably busy at the moment and she didnt want to intrude on the first day. She meerly wanted to introduce herself to her knew boss.

Frustrated now as she'd been re-reading the last paragraph for the third time and it still ceased to make sense to her overworked mind. The day hadn't even begun and already the board of directors was making their incompetence heard through this letter.

Her quill scratched across the parchment in an angry stroke just as the door to her office opened without her express permission. Again.

"Be a dear and do my a favour," Getti said to the bright and perky young thing as she rose from her seat, her bones needed a bit of stretching after the past three hours anyway, "Could you check if someone placed a welcome mat outside my door?"

Jordan waited at the door, she still hadn't come in yet, as Getti spoke to her. There she had done it again. THis was just great she had upset her boss on the first day of her new job. She had to fix this but she would work it out later. She didn't want to make matters worse now.

She looked at the editor and chief. "Oh I'm so sorry Ms. Forde" Jordan said appologetically. She didn't really know what else to say. "I will come back at a better time" SHe told her with a small nod. She really didn't want to get on her boss' bad side on her first day.

"No, you might as well stay now." Getti said, walking around her desk to pick out a book from her shelves. She needed to refer to the legal system... see if it was alright to make employees cry, "Was there a particular reason for barreling into my office? Or have you gotten bored of life already..."

The light eyes took in the girl's appearance, all the way from the blonde hair to the perky shoes. If there was one thing Getti Forde loathed more in the world than patriarchal pushy male executives... it was younger women. Her lips tightened in an expression of displeasure as she flicked through the yellowed pages of the heavy tome she held.

Jordan now felt very out of place in the office. She was just going to come in and introduce herself, but now she felt that her reason was merely silly. But was she supposed to do just say, oh not really just though I would come check out your office. Not that was not good enough.

"Yes Ma'am. I just though I would come intoduce seeing as it is my first day on the job" She told her with a nod of her head. She refrained from smiling, seeing as how she knew that this woman was not liking her too much.

She didnt want to do anything to completely mess up her job here at the prophit. That was not what she was wantign to do, not at all.

Ma'am. The little girl had called her... ma'am. The detestable word caused the slight tightening of Getti's lips to turn into as much of a frown as she would allow herself (too much will cause wrinkles, after all). She walked back to her desk, her fingernail trailing down the block of legal jargon typed in a tiny font, and for a while the only thing that could be heard was the new staff member's breathing, and Getti's heels clicking slowly.

Her eyes never left the book but she went on in a voice that suggested she was curious, but really she wasn't impressed, "And you assumed, incorrectly of course, that I would be interested in knowing who you are."

The book snapped shut in her hands and she turned back to the young girl, an eyebrow raised by a fraction of a centimetre as she waited for her to introduce herself already and let her get on with her day. The staff somehow always made the mistake of coming to introduce themselves on their first day, never to Belle no... cos that woman's insanity was too well known. But they soon learned that it was better to wait to be approached by Getti instead of approaching her directly.

"Oh, umm Jordan Paige" She told ms. Forde. She knew that the woman did not want her here right about now. Jordan really hadn't been trying to upset it, that was just how it had worked out. She really hoped that this woman was not going to make her experience here at the prophit completely terrible.

"Well, I'll get out of your hair now" She said to her new boss. She didn't want to stay in this office any longer than she needed to. "Goodbye" She told her as she turned to walk out of the door. Hopefully the woman wouldn't get upset with her leaving before she had beeng given permission to.

"Good, indeed." Getti said to nobody but herself, as the door was now closed. It wasn't that she had disliked the girl because of any... personality traits she might have shown in the one minute they'd spoken. She just wasn't a people person. And she certainly wasn't a people-who-entered-other-people's-space person.

She had heard several thunks since the staff started arriving, and was pretty sure that Ian Hoshino had made his entrance. The man was a pompous piece of work, but he somehow always managed to come up with the Money Shot and so she didn't have much choice but to keep him around. Another thunk was of course from Mona's office...

A glance at her clock told her she'd wasted two minutes already and with seemingly no emotion whatsoever, she took her seat and drew out yet another letter of complaint from her in tray.

Ana knocked on Getti Forde's office door, waiting for a reply nervously on the other side. She didn't want to risk being yelled at for barging in uninvited.

Giving up all hope of getting any work done today (regardless of the fact that it was only 9 in the morning and she'd already gone through the budget plan), Getti dropped her Quill on the desk and called out, "Come in."

At least this one had waited.

Hearing the voice from within inviting her, Ana hesitantly pushed down on the door handle and let the door swing open. She poked her head inside, doing her best to smile as naturally as she could. Seeing Getti Forde looking at her from across her desk, Ana entered, closing the door behind her.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I just got here. I'm one of the new employees, you see, my name's Anastasia Silvachova, and I wasn't sure what to do with myself..." she trailed off. She hoped she'd be directed to her new place of work and told what to do.

"Hmmm..." was the unimpressed response. She took in the new girl's appearance and managed to keep her grimace to herself, "I know perfectly well who you are," question is, do I care? "As for what you need to do with yourself..."

She picked up her quill again and made some more notations on a bit of parchment as she went on, "I have several suggestions. None of which apply here. If you're expecting me to hold your hand and show you what to do, you're going to be very disappointed."

Waving her away, Getti delivered the dismissal, "Your desk is outside, talk to Mona, she'll give you the grand tour."