Liam looked at Rex and smiled, but the smiled turned to confussion when Rex throw him a yellow hat. "Mr Vindictus, you don't mean to say that we have to put up with the noise whilest we are trying to work." Liam could hardly hear himself think and he hoped that Rex had heard him because he wasn't sure if he had.

"I think he does mean for us to do just that Liam." Mei Lin replied, eyeing the hat that he was holding. It would clash terribly with most of her wardrobe. Oh well she wouldn't be wearing it for long. "Besides redecorating could be fun." she gave a small encouraging smile. "Sir would the division heads have some say in the decoration of the different divisions?" Even though she wouldn't be here long it would be nice to be able to pass that information off to whoever they found to replace her as she would stay until a replacement arrived.

All herod could say was, "Ummmmmmmm....." he was quite confused by a muggle construction hat. He worked with patents and legal documents. He works with his words and not his hands. "I'm sorry. I am very confused! Why have been handed a hard hat?" he said, incredulously. He then felt as though he had gone too far, and treked from his road of politness and quickly corrected, "Sir....." He gulped and continued. "Sorry, but what is going on?" he said very politely.

The noise outside of his office was getting louder as he was bombarded with questions, but none of it bothered Rex. He had grown quite a big head after the success of the Quidditch World Cup. Well, he always had a big ego and did things his way.

CLANK!

All he heard was 'come back later' and frowned. "Why come back later when you're already here?" Rex inquired and saw the shadow of a large oblong object through the frosted glass to the right of his office door. "Ah, the new file cabinet is here. Thought it would arrive in another day or so."

Rex lshot a puzzled look at Liam. Is this guy for real? "Yes. Unfortunately, everyone is going to be inconvenienced during the remodeling of the department."


"Everything's already taken care of. I hired the renowned interior designer, Romeo Firenza Bartolli, for this little project considering he did spruce up this office your standing in. You should see what he did with the Bulgarian Ministry. Unbelievable!"

"Remodeling," Rex replied. "It should only be a small inconvenience for the next two weeks or so."

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

Well obviously he hadn't heard her properly due to this noise. It was maddening. "Because what I have to say I don't want to do in front of all these people and since there are more of them maybe I should go and tell you later." Mei Lin replied, raising her voice so that it would be heard above the noise.

Bartolli? He had hired Bartolli? That was like amazing. She'd seen the Bulgarian Ministry in fact and had to say she was impressed. Too bad that they weren't having input in their own divisions though. "I've seen the Bulgarian Ministry it's definitely impressive. If this is done half as well this department will be the envy of the rest of the ministry." Of that Mei Lin was sure. Too bad that she wouldn't be here to see the end result.

Liam looked at Rex. "Well Mr Vindictus I don't work like this." Liam would not wear a yellow hat no matter what anyone said. "I just don't get how we are expected to work with all this noice going on."

"But why are there all these"..... CLANK.... "well, those clanks. Are we taking a leaf out of the Muggle Department and not using magic? Is muggle constrution necessary?" he said politely. " I don't mean to be a bother but I'm sure 7 ot 8 skilled wizards like ourselves could do the entire remodel in about 2 hours with magic" He said. His suggestions were simply to try to reslove the caos and confusion, but maybe that's why his department head loved it so much.

"Do you, uh, have any assignments for me" he said, remembering the other thing that his division head had told him to check.

CLANK!

"What?" Rex nearly yelled. Then he caught the rest of Mei Lin's sentence. "OH. Then hang around until they leave."

Yeah. If she needs to talk to me, she can just hang around and slam the door shut so no one interrupts whatever she's going to say.

"You wear earplugs," Rex suggested. "And you endure the inconveineces that we're all going to experience."

Wrong question to ask Rex Vindictus. Wrong, wrong, wrong!

And so he frowned with displeasure and folded his arms. "Some things must be done the hard way before the magic can be used, so not another word about it. Now you need to see your division head about any assignments."

"Ok, good day sir!" he said poliyely and slightly humbled. He didn't mean to anger his new department head. This sort of thing just always happened to him. People always interptreted Herod the wrong way. They always thought his gusto and enthusiasm was cockyness and rudness. They always thought hhis punctuality and intellince was snoobyness and him just showing off. He wold definitly try to make a better impression of himself next time, what ever it was he had done.

So with a sigh, Herod hung his head and started to leave.

Heading directly for Rex's office, Alina couldn't fail to notice the congestion both inside and out of it. Was it worth trying to see him now? Or putting up with this longer?

CRASH!

That made Alina's mind up - she couldn't concentrate on work if she didn't know what was happening with this, well, apparent building work and why.

"Rex!" she shouted above the ruckus. "What is going on? And how long is this noise going to keep inconveniencing my work?"

CLANK!

She jumped slightly at quite how loud the sound was. And then she noticed the other two Division Heads. She gave them a knowing smile - guessing they were here for very similar reasons to her.

Alright, if he thought she should just wait she would. Finding a chair Mei Lin set about making herself comfortable, glad that at least two of the people were now gone. Unfortunately there were still a few left...

When another person walked in Mei Lin almost groaned, until she realised that it wasn't just another employee but Alina. Smiling back at the woman tiredly she closed her eyes for a minute, willing away the headache that was building up due to the construction. If this kept up quitting nicely would fly out the window and she'd be screaming her resignation. Well she'd most likely have to do that anyway but if it kept up she'd likely be doing it in front of the underlings.

Liam looked at Rex and shouted back so he could be heard over the noice. "I don't work like this I never have and I'll never will." He straighten his tie. "This should have been done when we weren't here." He looked around well he didn't care now who was there. "How are we supposed to work when we can't even hear what anyone is saying?"

"Liam," Mei Lin hissed at the older man, trying to get him to be quiet. "Wait until everyone is gone before you start anything. They don't need to see the people in charge of them arguing. It will make them lose respect for us. None of us like this but it can be done at a better time." She said, speaking only loud enough to be heard over the noise. It was true though, although it seemed that only the girl that was in Liam's division was left other employees were still in earshot.

"She's right you know," Alina said after making her way over to the other division heads and part lip reading what they were saying. "As much as it's terribly annoying. Why we couldn't have had a teeny weeny bit of warning first..."

CLANG!

She rolled her eyes, eying the people in and around the office. Most were new faces she noted. She shrugged, still slightly annoyed. "I haven't the foggiest how I'm meant to do new employee inductions with this noise, but I'm intending to find out exactly what Rex has in mind."

Liam looked at them. "But this noice is driving me crazy." He looked at them, he knew that they were right but he really couldn't help it. "I'll go on strike if the noice doesn't stop soon." He was really annoyed, why couldn't Rex have told them what was going on.

"Rex how many weeks do we have to put up with this?" He decided to ask.

Darn it! She hoped for a perfect first day at work but the noise was sickening. She was STILL standing at the door, and nearly fainted when a hammering sound filled her ears causing her to cover her ears. "This is a disaster." She muttered to herself and glanced at the employees in the office. Retracting her hands from her ear, Axel's eyes widened at the sight of a guy, sort of speaking his mind - though she agrees with what he said, and her Division Head's attempt to shut him up. "Ma'am', I'll be in our division's office." She tried shouting but failed and slid out the door.

Selena walked down the hallway on Level 7 looking for Department Head Rex Vindictus's Office. She found the door that had his name on it. She was going there as she was told since she was new. She knocked twice and waited for an answer.

Great another knock. And they'd only just been left alone. "Sir since it seems almost impossible to get a private moment to speak to you I'm going to take matters into my own hand alright?" She asked loud enough to be heard. Not waiting for an answer Mei Lin walked to the door and opened it.

Seeing a woman at the door Mei Lin smiled politely and began to speak. The sudden BANG that sounded from something being dropped startled Mei Lin for a slight minute before she turned back to the woman. "I'm sorry but this office is closed for the moment. Please report to your division and if it's urgent come back later." Mei Lin said before conjuring a muggle looking shop sign which had the word closed written in bold. Putting it on the door handle Mei Lin smiled at the woman once again before turning on her heel and shutting the door. Maybe slamming would have been a better word for it.

Walking back over to Rex's desk Mei Lin resumed her previous seat, looking around at her fellow Division Heads. "I would have preferred to have done this in complete private but you're both going to find out sooner or later anyway." Mei Lin said, directing her speech to her fellow heads before turning to Rex. "I am sorry to inform you that I'm resigning from my position here at the Ministry. I intend to stay until you can find an appropriate replacement of course," she hurried to reassure Rex. Figuring that it was better to say it now before she had to shut the door in any more peoples faces.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"ABOUT TWO WEEKS," Rex shouted as the construction noise got louder. "IT REALLY ISN'T THAT BAD."

CLANK!

"WHAT?" he shouted and stared at Mei Lin in disbelief. "WHY? IS IT MONEY? I'M SURE I CAN ARRANGE A PAY RAISE!"

"It's not the money."Mei Lin shouted back just as a lull appeared in the noise. Waiting for a few minutes when the noise didn't resume Mei Lin assumed that the men were taking a lunch break or something. "The pay is fine, and I already have wealth from my family. It's just I got an offer to work as a designer for a company back in Japan. It is better money then this but that isn't why I decided to take it. I've wanted to be a designer for a long time and I fear that if I don't take that chance now I'll regret it later." Mei Lin looked at Rex trying to gauge his reaction. "As I stated before I'm willing to stay until you can find a replacement since I don't need to start at the company for another month." Mei Lin finished just as the noise started up again.

It was over and she'd quit. She felt bad about it though as it would mean extra work for her boss and the Department when there was already so much going on. She couldn't help the timing though. They said they needed a designer now, she'd only been able to get them to wait a month due to the fact that they were a muggle company and believed in giving two weeks notice to former employers as well as the fact that she was living in a different country and would need to settle back into life in Japan. She'd miss the people here though.

"This is so annoying." Liam shouted over the noice. "I can't put up with this." He looked at Mei Lin so she had decided to leave them because she wanted to. "Rex, I think I might lead my whole division on strike since this could be done with magic."

Two weeks? Rex was having a laugh, right? Though...perhaps not. It'd better look amazing when it was done, being this inconvenient. Alina was all for updating the place, but causing this much racket in the process? They couldn't just stop work for two weeks. It would have been far better to do when they were all off over Christmas, really.

And then Mei Lin announced she was leaving. Alina's eyes widened. Though as her fellow Division Head explained, Alina could see she had good reasons. And she'd had the courtesy to think it through with timings and recruitment and all that. Alina smiled at her. "Wow, sounds amazing! I've never been to Japan, but to go there for your dream job, you must be thrilled..." she said, half shouting so that Mei Lin could hear her, but also aware that she was near by and if the banging mometarily stopped (would it? Doubtful) she didn't want to deafen anyone.

And then Liam piped up. A strike? That was drastic. She knew it was VERY annoying (CRASH!) but action like that, whoa! Alina really wasn't the type of person for that kind of action - she'd just battle on through grumpily the best she could. "Is that wise?" Alina mouthed to Liam.

Looking curious for a moment, Alina had a thought. "IF THIS IS HAPPENING FOR TWO WEEKS," she shouted to Rex, as the noise level increased again (surely it couldn't get much louder?), "ARE ALL THE DIVISIONS BEING DONE INDIVIDUALLY TOO? LIKE DO I NEED TO GO PACK UP ALL OUR PAPERWORK AND MODELS SAFELY?"

Smiling over at Alina Mei Lin nodded, her eyes showing her excitement. "It's even better because I'll finally be going home and I'll get to meet my nephew for the first time. He's a month old right now and apparently he's just adorable." Mei Lin confided in the half-shout, her eyes gleaming at the thought of that precious little bundle. She was definitely excited to be going home again. It would be in a different part of Japan then before but it was still the place that she'd held in her heart for these few years abroad. "I'll miss you all though," Mei Lin said honestly, unsure if they would hear her. While she and Alina hadn't interacted much she truly did like the woman and Liam. Liam would always hold a spot in her heart as he was a great friend.

And he was threatening strike? "Liam don't you think that's a bit overboard? To desert everyone when we're in the middle of this mess?" Mei Lin asked loudly, completely missing the hypocricy of her question. Although then again she wasn't being a total hypocrite since she wasn't contemplating leading her whole division on strike...

Ohh good question Alina. "Also what do you want us to tell the employees? Are their any safety measures we should be aware of ?" Mei Lin added in, figuring that she was still a division head for now and she'd act like one until she was gone.

Rex stared at Mei Lin in disbelief. She was SERIOUS and he walked over to her. "Well, good luck with that new job," he said and shook her hand. "Gonna miss your efficiency running the department." But that meant he could get that other guy. Bartlett or Barrett. Something like that.

Rex stepped away from Mei Lin and got in Liam's face. "Are you threatening me and questioning approved Ministry remodeling practices, Mr. Mosier?" he growled.

"YES! All paperwork and models need to be boxed up immediately!" he answered. At least ONE division head was thinking today.

"The big stuff is happening while everyone's at home. All divisions need to get important paperwork placed in boxes and all desks cleaned out before the day ends." Yes, the workers were progressing rather quickly with their task. It would be over before they knew it. A minor inconvenience, yes, but in the end it would be totally worth it.

"Thank-you sir," Mei Lin said, returning the handshake. She'd miss this place too but it was definitely her time to move on. She'd been working here since she was eighteen and had just a few weeks ago considered making this her career. Now that wasn't an option, not with the design job being offered.

"Alright then sir. I'll go tell them to clean out their desks now. Where do you want us to put the paperwork though? If people take it home that may be worse than leaving it here..." Mei Lin asked, knowing that while she was cleaning up her desk with her employees while they would return to the Ministry she would not. She'd tell them today when she announced what needed to be done. Or maybe after they had gotten everything cleaned up.