.....

Everything around him had turned black for a second and Derek just stood there after he snapped back to reality. The other woman was already gone and now Amber - that was her name, right? - was the only one there with him and she was apologising.

His face was probably quite red as he kept a serious expression on, trying to pretend nothing had happened. Which was difficult to do because she kept apologising. He gave her a brief head shake and a subtle, almost imperceptible wave.

Just drop it.

"I uh... need to see the... mutants." His bloody face was probably still red, though, and he couldn't bring himself to look at the blue-haired girl. It was kind of like he was talking to the mahogany coffee table. But anyway, did she know where the mutants were? He hoped so, so he could get this thing over with.

Ember saw the little wave and relaxed. She reached into her bag and pulled out her goldfish...from earlier...they were still totally good, and Derek hadn't seen her drop them on the ground--plus the ten second rule, right! She had swiped them back up soooo fast! She popped a few in her mouth.

"Ay--you want one? To make up for me being insane?" she asked softly, holding out the zippy of goldfish for him to take a few if he liked. Maybe he didn't like them, but at least she offered, right?

Mutants?! She gave him the strangest look. "What mutants?" she asked. And he had come all the here for something--apparently it was MUTANTS. He was still quite blushy, and he wasn't even looking at her proper. She felt baaaaad. How to make it UP to him?! She would have to help him with his 'mutants!' Do you want me to take you to the head's office? She is super friendly--but--I can help! I love helping! Derek..." she said his name at the end and would have touched his shoulder in comfort buuuut--seeing as the hug hadn't gone well--she didn't think it was exactly a good idea.

Nothing happened. Nothing. Happened.

"No..... thanks..." Derek mumbled, still not looking at her. That probably just made the situation more awkward. Urgh. He put his hands in his pockets just so... he would do something with his hands. He had no idea how to act still, and this was terrible. He just wanted some flipping drool and then he'd leave! Merlin, why this always had to be so difficult.

'What mutants?' What did she mean by 'what mutants'??? Derek finally looked at her incredulously. How had she not heard of the mutants? Was she new? Blink. She probably was, actually. Oh, great.

Amber offered to take him to the Head's office and the lab technician started to cold sweat a bit, but had to nod his head. Then she offered to help too. What? This girl was so confusing. He blinked again and he felt the Full Body-Bind sensation again as he noticed she was about to touch him again, but luckily she didn't. Oh, thank Merlin.

"I-- Either way, I just... need to collect some samples... from the mutants." Just take him to the bloody mutants, please, oh Merlin.

Ember didn't know how to handle his SILENCE. Ugh. She felt like she had scared him too much. She was still regretting that stupid hug. And she STILL was going to try to get him to like hugs. Even if it took...FOREVER.

She reigned her zippy back towards her and munched on the goldfish. "All right..you need samples?" she asked softly. From mutants apparently. She wondered what KIND of mutants and where these mutants WERE. Here? IN her department? Hm. "And you never answered me--how is that salamander?" she asked, eyebrows raised. She hoped he hadn't kill the guy, like he promised! Just a weeee bit of blood, right?

Better just be a weeee bit of blood...

"I'll take you to Harmony--don't be nervous--she's a very nice lady--" she said with a BEAAAM.

Hadn't he just said that? Yes, he needed samples. Now. So he could leave and go back to the safety of his lab, if that wasn't asking much!!!!! Merlin...

He never answered her about the salamander? When had she even asked that? "Its... fine." Derek told her, glancing at her awkwardly before looking away again. No, he hadn't killed it, just like he promised. Which was a bit annoying, because he knew he wouldn't be able to bring himself to kill it now if he ever needed to. Maybe he'd have to visit the Magical Menagerie again and get himself another salamander and not promise anyone he wouldn't kill that one. And he'd go ahead and buy some plimpies too. Yeah, sounded like a plan.

Good, she'll take him to--- Harmony. The Department Head. Fine, he could deal with that. Kind of. At least he'd be one step closer to getting to the mutants. He nodded once and... waited for her to show the way.

Ember just stare. Such quiet. Though, she should have expected this from him, since the first time they has met he was silent almost the whole time...Ember had confused him with a deaf person O___O HOW EMBARRASSING STILL. And she had SIGNED at him. Ugh. The blush-worthy-ness!

"Well--come on then--she's very friendly so don't be nervous--" and of course, she would have touched him in comfort, because he seemed so socially awkward--but once again, the hug incident. Which is what she was calling it in her head. She just smiled and waved him forward--hmmm!

For some reason Derek thought this girl liked awkward situations. It felt like she was stalling on purpose! Merlin, what did he ever do to deserve this??

But okay, good, she was moving now. His face slowly went back to its normal colour, but he still had the slightest shade of uneasiness hidden in his frown.For a fraction of a second he wished he had an assistant to do this kind of job for him, but then he gave up on the idea altogether because that meant more people for him to interact with. No, thanks.

She's friendly? Well, that probably owuldn't make much of a difference, would it? She was still a person and Derek didn't quite enjoy talking to those. But fine, he needed to see the mutants and that wasn't his Department, so he had to go to their boss first.

Their boss! Why did it have to be their boss?? Wasn't there anyone else below her that could help? But well, whatever, he wasn't sharing that thought with Amber. He'd go along. Hopefully it would be quick.

It had been way too long since their last conversation and Alysson had decided to end this right then and there. It was starting to get ridiculous. It being them not visiting each other at work. Actually HIM not coming to visit her in HER department. Yes. That. That was going to stop now.

So Alysson was HERE. She'd come here.

And now she was in the reception area, looking around for someone to point her in the right direction. Or preferably William himself to come find her out here. Either was alright though. She was waiting though. And she had time.

Well, William was here. He'd survived the Healer station, but honestly he wasn't sure what the point of all that was.... or what exactly they had done to him. He ruffled his own hair as he returned to his work floor and passed by Alysson.

Wait... he stopped himself and turned back around toward her with a curious expression on his face. "Aly?" Was he seeing things or was she actually visiting him at work? Because he'd kind of thought she didn't DO that.

Yes, she WAS in fact here.

"...hi." There was a reason why she usually didn't visit him at work. This was exactly it. Alysson didn't like initiating conversations like this one. Where they both probably had other places to be and didn't REALLY have time for each other. She didn't like these kind of forced conversations.

Thinking about it now, though, she had to admit that it wasn't a very good reason.

She should probably say something. After all SHE was the one who'd come here. "I wanted to see you." That much was probably obvious but to be honest she didn't really know what else to say at the moment.

Ooookay he WASN'T seeing things. That was reassuring.

"Hi," he returned her seemingly forced greeting, after a pause. She wanted to see him. Huh. She wasn't sent here on a mission, with a message from her evil boss? Okay then.

"Do you want to talk over by my desk?" He felt all awkward and in the way here.

This was awkward. Alysson couldn't quite explain why but it was.

His desk was a good idea, though, yes. Because the fact that they were standing out here definitely added to the awkwardness. She ran her hand through her hair absently and nodded. "Yes. I think that would be good." More privacy? More comfort.

Probably neither but definitely better than staying here.

Victoria had come in late, she had swung by the healer to check her arm before entering the building. She hadn't been down in the basement in months and of course the minute she goes down she is met with a starving spitting plant, that now spits sleeping gas. Her son obviously the culprit of this new prank. The boy was amazing at potions, she'd give him that, but this was too much. He could have at least told her he was doing it. So she could have watered the thing or got rid of it sooner.

Waking on the floor of the basement with a gash in your hand was not something she had wanted or expected this morning. So once she had her hand fixed up she was now heading to find someone to deal with that plant. After that was taken care of she was going to be sending a howler to her child and making sure this would never happen again.

A wander around the department and a chance to stretch his legs were in order. Being cooped up in his office was much too tiring and the tree hugger Department Head wanted to see how things were shaping up on this level. The Creatures part were ignored, of course, but his eyes were mainly on his new greenhouse. Key word: new. This would give him the perfect opportunity to have a look at how the plants were--

Oh hello.

Eyebrows furrowed, Bryce surveyed the woman standing there. Was she one of his own? No? Harmony's? He didn't know any of Harmony's employees apart from Ember so if she got a new one, there was no way for him to know. Unless, of course, she was a visitor. Those were always interesting, to say the least.

"Can I help you with something?" If she had questions about creatures, she had bumped into the wrong man.

She was looking around, did she have to ask the receptionist or could she just head towards the enviro part? Victoria's head was spinning with all the work she needed to do, plus the nerves of thinking about running for minister. The last thing she needed was her son using potions on plants without her knowing. If she couldn't control him how was she going to control the ministry.

No she wouldn't think that way. She could control him and she was just letting him express himself and learn and grow. She was proud of the potions he could do and this was just an example of the great things he could do if he used them for the right reasons.

Thoughts broken by seeing someone coming near the desk she gave him a smile. "I truly hope so. How much do you know about plants?" Holding out her good hand, "Victoria Culloden, I'm the Quidditch Division Manager."

She was smiling. So nobody was dying, then? He could resolve whatever was going on and then walk away from this meeting to have a croissant without feeling bad? Because he was starting to get a little peckish but his stomach could wait. Especially when...

... oh?

Oh ho ho! What did he know about plants? The real questipn was: what didn't he know about plants? Bryce drew himself up to his fullest height as he said, "Quite a lot, if I may say so myself. Spent years researching them." This raised more questions: like were his plants okay? His greenhouse? His workers? All held a very high priority in the man's books. "Why do you ask?"

Victoria Culloden. And the Quidditch Division Manager. Pity he didn't know much about the sport. "Pleasure to meet you, Ms Culloden. I take it you meet a lot of famous people in your line of work?" He could pretend to be interested. Sure. "The name's Bryce Howell and I'm the Environmental Regulation and Protection Department Head." Which meant that she had bumped into the right person, indeed.

He knew things about plants, well this might be a first for him. She never knew her son to ever copy someone so she'd soon find out. "Mrs." She was a Mrs. now and very proud of it. Even though it had been just a little over two months she was still very much in the newlywed stage. "I do, I spend a lot of time with Quidditch players, managers, coaches, and owners." Though it really wasn't that big of a deal. They were just normal people, her almost step son was a professional player and he was still just as goofy and sweet as he was when she met him.

Oh and he was the department head, well if she was going to be running for minister it might be good to get to know the department heads, but maybe not on this reason.. ahem. "Yes, well see, my son is a very well creative child." Is that what you would call him? Well it's what she did at least. "It seems that over the Christmas Holiday he was experimenting with potions in my basement and came across a spitting plant. Unfortunately he never mentioned this to me before returning to school." Lifting her hand she showed the bandage. "I went down there this morning to store a few baby items that aren't needed anymore only to wake an hour later with my hand bleeding." Fun times at the Culloden house really.. "I have no clue what he used on it to make it spit a sleeping gas, but I will try to find out. What I need is someone to get the thing out of my house and take care of it. You can have it, nurse it back to health, do whatever you want with it, but with two two year old's I do not wish it to be there any longer." Was she a little over dramatic, possibly, but she had a very rough start to her day.

Mrs, then. Mrs Culloden. "Oh, I beg your pardon. Mrs Culloden," he corrected himself, giving her a short bow of his head, "You're very lucky. My nephew would give away his right arm for an opportunity like that." Bryce didn't understand why but he was going to keep himself tight lipped about that matter as best as he could. Kids were kids.

There were a number of sentences that sounded like the beginning of an interesting story an 'my son is a very well creative child' was one of them. And sure enough, the man wasn't disappointed. He raised an eyebrow at the story, his arms crossed against his chest. "It sounds like that creative side of his is going to lead him into trouble one day." If it hadn't already. Reaching over, Bryce gently took her hand in his and examined the bandage carefully. "To me, the first plant to come to mind is an Enchanting Elm, which is a flesh eating tree that enchants elves into a sleeping trance and make them climb up into the tree's mouth so that the tree can devour them. No witch or wizard has heard its song, however." At this point, he was talking out loud more than he was talking to the woman but, his hazel eyes did glance up to look over at her and give her a searching look. "Did the Healers mention whether it was infected or not? Any bruising? Weird colours?" Truth, please. He had no time for liars.

OOC: I got the Enchanting Elm information from here so all credit to Roudy, Anita and previous Herbology professors :3 *hopes this is okay*

She felt bad the minute she corrected him, "That was rude, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that Ms wasn't nice. I just got married over Christmas so even though it's been a few months ago, I'm still on the excited end to be a Mrs." Well a Mrs. again, but she didn't need to add that. Too many people knew her ex husbands new wife, being a Quidditch manager. So the less people related her to the Maroons the better. There was only one good one and that was her son, most days. "Yes, I do feel very fortunate to have the position that I have. It's a great opportunity. How old is your nephew?" She never minded children coming into her work space and she always had some extra posters or trading cards lying around.

Get him into trouble, "Surely you've never met my son. He loves the challenge of trouble, but he's not a bad kid. Just curious and to brave for his own good." That was her story and she was sticking too it, because the thought of her son wanting to be trouble was not something she could allow. "The Enchanted Elm seems like a lovely guess, but this thing didn't sing. It spit and I'm assuming it wasn't suppose to spit a sleeping potion." She was positive he had placed some sort of potion on it. "You are welcome to my basement to see it and please take it out of there." She wanted nothing to do with it and her son would be hearing about this. "The healer said it looked like an impact cut. I hit it off the corner of the table is my guess. So not infected, bitten, or anything else plants might do." She really didn't have much experience with anything then the mundane types.

Level 4 has always fascinated Zach. With all the weird looking plants and the creatures that come and go. It's like being in his own work place when he was still doing research.

He stepped out of the lift and looked at his watch, hopefully the people he is about to talk to is available at this hour. He looked at the two memo in his hand trying to decide who to talk first. Then he sighed and tried to read between the lines.

He approached the reception's desk and said, "Is Ms. Skylark, available at this time?" he said thinking that based on the memos that he received, Ms Skylark's day looks more tightly scheduled than Mr Howell. Not that he is saying that the other one is not.

"Did someone say Skylark?" Harmony smiled serenely as she meandered towards the man, curious as to what they'd be discussing today. Only once she was stopped right in front of him did she offer her hand for a shake. "Looks like you found me. To what do I owe this pleasure?" She would never refuse a visit from the junior undersecretary but she was a busy woman these days.

Zach reached for the hand of the Department Head and instinctively shook it gently. He smiled at her beautiful face and faced away to clear his throat and said, "I know it is an unfortunate time for everyone, I promise I won't take long." he said still staring at her eyes.

Zach then flashed his pearly whites and spoke. "Can we please speak somewhere private?"

"Not a problem, really." She had made time for his visit so she wasn't at all bothered. Besides, her department could carry on without her immediate attention for the time it took to have a sit down with him. She was confident about that.

"Yes, of course. If you'll just follow me to my office, we can talk there." And after giving him a smile, she turned on her heel and led the way.

Dale's wandering had brought him to Level Four. It wasn't an entirely random decision, in the same way that it wasn't just pointless wandering. The young man was, quite simply, doing as he'd been told. As they'd all been told in that meeting; making casual visits to other departments, seeing what was going down in the other levels. In any case, Dale was enjoying the chance to get a good look around these other placed.

He stood in the reception area now, looking up at the map of the level and peering around to get a good look at the place, looking quite interested in his surroundings. Sure, plants and creatures weren't exactly the kinds of thing he'd center his career around, but it was interesting to think about what sort of stuff might go on in this level.

Still looking up at the map, Dale clicked his tongue absentmindedly as he thought back to his school days, as he tended to do quite often here at the Ministry. Strange.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

Dale's wandering had brought him to Level Four. It wasn't an entirely random decision, in the same way that it wasn't just pointless wandering. The young man was, quite simply, doing as he'd been told. As they'd all been told in that meeting; making casual visits to other departments, seeing what was going down in the other levels. In any case, Dale was enjoying the chance to get a good look around these other placed.

He stood in the reception area now, looking up at the map of the level and peering around to get a good look at the place, looking quite interested in his surroundings. Sure, plants and creatures weren't exactly the kinds of thing he'd center his career around, but it was interesting to think about what sort of stuff might go on in this level.

Still looking up at the map, Dale clicked his tongue absentmindedly as he thought back to his school days, as he tended to do quite often here at the Ministry. Strange.

Ember had gone down to the little cafeteria-ish place for her USUAL snack. Well, not usual in the sense that she got the same thing as usual--usual in that this was her snack time. She had had a LOVELY cinnamon roll, too. Sweet and sticky and everything a cinnamon roll SHOULD BE.

She was singing, as she usually was, when she was in a good mood. She had watched a VERY ancient muggle TV show all last time. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY RIVETING, THOUGH. Talking VEGETABLES(sometimes fruit) with LESSONS to teach young children?! Ember was so glad she had invested in buying the entire show. MAGNIFICENT. The theme song was quiiiiiiiite stuck in her head, though, and as she slipped into her level, she didn't even NOTICE the man at first.

"...If you liike to waaaaaaltz with POTATOES--up and down your prooooooduuuuuce aiiiiisle!!!!!" she finished off the beginning of the song, gripping her bag and moving it to the front of her, clinging to it as she.......get into the song DEEPLY. "VEGGIETAAAAALES! VEGGGIETAAAALES! VEGGIETAAAALES! VEGGIETALEEEES!" and that went on for a good bit until she got to the REALLY good part--

Ahem--

"Broooocooliiiiii! Celeryyyy! Gotta' BEEEEEEE--VEGGIETALES!" she finished STRONG. Not that she was finished the song--but she had taken notice of the man.

One NOT in her department!

"WELCOME, WELCOME!" she bounced cheerfully towards him, swinging her backpack back over her shoulder, approaching with quite a bit of PEP in her STEP. "Level Four! Home to the creepies and the crawlies that we ADORE SO MUCH!" she was turning red she was so EXCITED THAT THERE WAS A VISITOR!!!!!!!

She might explode.