Friday Banshee
Aug. 7th, 2009 06:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lavandarlizard2Weird week. O.o I know I say that a lot, but seriously, it was a weird week, even for me.
Job applications, interviews, tap-dancing my way around the damn 'customer service' questions... It all leaves marks. =p And adds to the Smacking List. I keep hearing hopeful noises, but they all seem directed at people who have 'professions' as opposed to people who just have jobs. Oh, well. I'm not terribly fussy these days. Job's a job, for 40 hours or 10, it's still income. I do kinda wish I'd started that church way back when; religion always makes money. ^____^
But anyway... More house-and-keeper-hunting for Duo. ^___~
“Teal’s here!” Zuma cried. “In line.”
“Really?” I swiveled around to look and Teal was indeed in the serving line with Dael in her spiffy, grandmother-provided stroller. I waited until he’d collected his tray and turned to the room to wave. He grinned and they headed our way.
“Hi Duo,” he smiled, setting his tray down. He hugged me and I hugged back.
“Hey! I didn’t expect to see you today.”
“I thought it would be nice to spend the holiday at home for once. I see you’ve been busy,” he said archly, pointing at my hair.
I laughed. “Yeah, I finally convinced myself it was time. Heero took me to a salon in town and I didn’t even try to run away.”
“Good. You look great; I’ll bet you feel lighter, too.”
“Sure do.”
“What did you do with the cuttings?”
“Do you need to ask?”
“Ah. Right. Your dragon has them,” he smirked.
“Yep.”
“Hi, Zuma; how you doing?”
“Great, Teal. It’s nice to see you again.”
“So where are the SigOs today?”
“Heero’s off body-guarding Q and Enrique is visiting his Clan.”
“Body-guarding? What’s Wizard Q doing that he needs a body-guard?”
“Trying to get some group of Humans to renew a contract. I guess this bunch is being difficult. They expected to be back tonight, but the Humans insist on making a big deal out of it, so it’ll probably be tomorrow.”
He shrugged. “You know how Humans can get sometimes. Where are they, do you know?”
“Not specifically; someplace in continental Africa.”
“Ah. Lots of upheaval there at the moment.” He took a sip of his coffee and made a face. “Why don’t they just invite Starbucks to put in a kiosk? This stuff is horrible.”
I ignored the coffee comment. “Upheaval? What upheaval? Where?” I know I’ve been distracted, but I usually try to touch base with the Human news once a week.
“You know; the usual political, religious, tribal in-fighting. The only thing now is that they’ve managed to drag in everyone who used to be disinterested bystanders.” He paused to offer Dael a carrot stick; Zuma and I exchanged glances. Factions are always going at each other in the Human world; why would this be different?
Teal waved a forkful of his casserole at us. “Back in the old times, their fighting was small-scale and usually local, but now they have bigger, better, more long-range weapons. Like Europe, once they figured out explosives. They’ll grow out of it eventually, but for the moment, it’s not exactly Disneyland. But this is Q and Heero; they won’t have any problems.” He chewed thoughtfully. “Unless they don’t like monkey brains…”
I wasn’t even going to ask. I made a note to check the international news when I got back to my room. Instead, I changed the subject.
“What are you up to today? Surely not out in the rain?”
Teal snickered. “We took a port from the house. I didn’t feel like cooking and Boss Witch is visiting her grandchildren. Anyway, I have a perfectly good umbrella for myself and the stroller has one built in. You don’t think the proud grandma would forget that, do you?” he grinned.
The first thing that popped into my head was “Mika would.” I didn’t say it, of course. I doubt she cares one whit about either of her grandchildren; at least Dael has another grandmother who does.
Talk about depressing thoughts today! I really needed to lighten up. Zuma helped by asking where Teal was working this week.
He had to bring up a calendar to reply. “Tomorrow is three hours in procurement; two hours Wednesday in crafts; three hours Thursday in payroll and two hours Friday in probation. And next week I have two days at the school because *someone* thought it would be amusing to put a charm on all the fifth years’ term papers and most of them are still hiding somewhere.” He smirked at me. “I’ll be ‘supervising’ the perpetrators in their hunt for them.”
“Well, that sounds like fun. Do you get to use a cattle prod on them?” I asked.
“Or at least a switch?” added Inazuma hopefully.
Teal laughed; he’d heard all about my appearance before the obnoxious class and knew I wasn’t exactly fond of the little darlings.
“No, I just plan to make a great show of sharpening my knives while they work. I’m also going to wear some extreme Banshee drag. I have permission to scare the crap out of them and then make them clean it up.”
“Take pictures?” I suggested hopefully. “Maybe that’ll stop the next bunch of smartasses.”
“Or at least slow them down,” said Inazuma wistfully.
The end of the school year is always a problematic time. The seventh years seem to think they need to do something memorable, to be remembered, and no matter how dire the threats, they always manage some kind of magical practical jokes. Our tower gets a magical lockdown for that week. Anyone coming in has to pass through the detectors. We do have a ringside seat for whatever mayhem is going on in the quad or on the commons. It’s funny sometimes, but probably only because we aren’t involved.
“I was talking with Wizard Malthius in HR last week,” Teal said idly. “He offered me full-time part-time work here. Seems the departments like the idea of a floating admin to help out.” He flashed a rather smug grin. “He was lamenting the quality of some of their interns and new hires.”
I blinked at him. “So… You might be here permanently?” Family! screamed the little kid voice in my head. Suddenly, I could hardly breathe.
“I’m… thinking about it. I told him I’d want time to visit Merry Brook, but he said that was fine. He even suggested I could live at Merry Brook and commute, but that’s a little too far; too many time zones to deal with.”
Dael began babbling and pointing at the windows; one of the Castle cats was meandering through the landscaping, the raindrops curving gently around her, leaving her fur smooth and dry. Dael loves all the cats and they seem to enjoy her.
“That would be great!” I exclaimed. I don’t bring it up much, but I dread Teal going back to his mother’s Clan. I fear that one day he’ll just decide to stay there.
Job applications, interviews, tap-dancing my way around the damn 'customer service' questions... It all leaves marks. =p And adds to the Smacking List. I keep hearing hopeful noises, but they all seem directed at people who have 'professions' as opposed to people who just have jobs. Oh, well. I'm not terribly fussy these days. Job's a job, for 40 hours or 10, it's still income. I do kinda wish I'd started that church way back when; religion always makes money. ^____^
But anyway... More house-and-keeper-hunting for Duo. ^___~
“Teal’s here!” Zuma cried. “In line.”
“Really?” I swiveled around to look and Teal was indeed in the serving line with Dael in her spiffy, grandmother-provided stroller. I waited until he’d collected his tray and turned to the room to wave. He grinned and they headed our way.
“Hi Duo,” he smiled, setting his tray down. He hugged me and I hugged back.
“Hey! I didn’t expect to see you today.”
“I thought it would be nice to spend the holiday at home for once. I see you’ve been busy,” he said archly, pointing at my hair.
I laughed. “Yeah, I finally convinced myself it was time. Heero took me to a salon in town and I didn’t even try to run away.”
“Good. You look great; I’ll bet you feel lighter, too.”
“Sure do.”
“What did you do with the cuttings?”
“Do you need to ask?”
“Ah. Right. Your dragon has them,” he smirked.
“Yep.”
“Hi, Zuma; how you doing?”
“Great, Teal. It’s nice to see you again.”
“So where are the SigOs today?”
“Heero’s off body-guarding Q and Enrique is visiting his Clan.”
“Body-guarding? What’s Wizard Q doing that he needs a body-guard?”
“Trying to get some group of Humans to renew a contract. I guess this bunch is being difficult. They expected to be back tonight, but the Humans insist on making a big deal out of it, so it’ll probably be tomorrow.”
He shrugged. “You know how Humans can get sometimes. Where are they, do you know?”
“Not specifically; someplace in continental Africa.”
“Ah. Lots of upheaval there at the moment.” He took a sip of his coffee and made a face. “Why don’t they just invite Starbucks to put in a kiosk? This stuff is horrible.”
I ignored the coffee comment. “Upheaval? What upheaval? Where?” I know I’ve been distracted, but I usually try to touch base with the Human news once a week.
“You know; the usual political, religious, tribal in-fighting. The only thing now is that they’ve managed to drag in everyone who used to be disinterested bystanders.” He paused to offer Dael a carrot stick; Zuma and I exchanged glances. Factions are always going at each other in the Human world; why would this be different?
Teal waved a forkful of his casserole at us. “Back in the old times, their fighting was small-scale and usually local, but now they have bigger, better, more long-range weapons. Like Europe, once they figured out explosives. They’ll grow out of it eventually, but for the moment, it’s not exactly Disneyland. But this is Q and Heero; they won’t have any problems.” He chewed thoughtfully. “Unless they don’t like monkey brains…”
I wasn’t even going to ask. I made a note to check the international news when I got back to my room. Instead, I changed the subject.
“What are you up to today? Surely not out in the rain?”
Teal snickered. “We took a port from the house. I didn’t feel like cooking and Boss Witch is visiting her grandchildren. Anyway, I have a perfectly good umbrella for myself and the stroller has one built in. You don’t think the proud grandma would forget that, do you?” he grinned.
The first thing that popped into my head was “Mika would.” I didn’t say it, of course. I doubt she cares one whit about either of her grandchildren; at least Dael has another grandmother who does.
Talk about depressing thoughts today! I really needed to lighten up. Zuma helped by asking where Teal was working this week.
He had to bring up a calendar to reply. “Tomorrow is three hours in procurement; two hours Wednesday in crafts; three hours Thursday in payroll and two hours Friday in probation. And next week I have two days at the school because *someone* thought it would be amusing to put a charm on all the fifth years’ term papers and most of them are still hiding somewhere.” He smirked at me. “I’ll be ‘supervising’ the perpetrators in their hunt for them.”
“Well, that sounds like fun. Do you get to use a cattle prod on them?” I asked.
“Or at least a switch?” added Inazuma hopefully.
Teal laughed; he’d heard all about my appearance before the obnoxious class and knew I wasn’t exactly fond of the little darlings.
“No, I just plan to make a great show of sharpening my knives while they work. I’m also going to wear some extreme Banshee drag. I have permission to scare the crap out of them and then make them clean it up.”
“Take pictures?” I suggested hopefully. “Maybe that’ll stop the next bunch of smartasses.”
“Or at least slow them down,” said Inazuma wistfully.
The end of the school year is always a problematic time. The seventh years seem to think they need to do something memorable, to be remembered, and no matter how dire the threats, they always manage some kind of magical practical jokes. Our tower gets a magical lockdown for that week. Anyone coming in has to pass through the detectors. We do have a ringside seat for whatever mayhem is going on in the quad or on the commons. It’s funny sometimes, but probably only because we aren’t involved.
“I was talking with Wizard Malthius in HR last week,” Teal said idly. “He offered me full-time part-time work here. Seems the departments like the idea of a floating admin to help out.” He flashed a rather smug grin. “He was lamenting the quality of some of their interns and new hires.”
I blinked at him. “So… You might be here permanently?” Family! screamed the little kid voice in my head. Suddenly, I could hardly breathe.
“I’m… thinking about it. I told him I’d want time to visit Merry Brook, but he said that was fine. He even suggested I could live at Merry Brook and commute, but that’s a little too far; too many time zones to deal with.”
Dael began babbling and pointing at the windows; one of the Castle cats was meandering through the landscaping, the raindrops curving gently around her, leaving her fur smooth and dry. Dael loves all the cats and they seem to enjoy her.
“That would be great!” I exclaimed. I don’t bring it up much, but I dread Teal going back to his mother’s Clan. I fear that one day he’ll just decide to stay there.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 03:00 pm (UTC)Duo wants a connection; something solid and tangible. ^___^
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Date: 2009-08-08 03:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 02:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 02:57 pm (UTC)Heero's a dragon; they're practically indestructible. ^___^
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Date: 2009-08-08 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 02:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-08 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-14 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-15 02:04 pm (UTC)