![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
x-pyromania.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logs'Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.' -Voltaire-
The desk was cluttered with a miscellany of files and folders and other assorted rubbish. John was working on both the desktop and his laptop; finishing up the data entry and research on one end and working on drafting out a proposal on the other. A loud beep signified Hewlett Packard's need for another feed and the pyrokinetic refilled the plastic tray with a stack of A4 papers, allowing the printer to resume its process.
John returned his attention to the desktop's screen. ...and ---- objectives. He took a quick swallow of his drink; MGD -- then replaced it back on the table; the bottle balanced itself precariously on the edge of his desk. ...respond to various kinds of emergencies. Click. Click. Click. ...rehabilitative projects. ...reconstruction operations. ...assist uh repatriation and... ...fuck. Click. Click. Click. ...resettlement where appropriate...
The door opened and Nathan stepped into the office, back from another meeting in the city. He looked tired, unshaven and vaguely disheveled - his tie showed the definite signs of one that had been tied with no handy spouse around to catch him and fix it. He nodded to Juliette, then blinked at the sight of John working on two computers at once - still.
"Have you been out of that chair since I headed out this morning?"
John grunted a response to Nathan's question. ....replaced by forms of assistance enabling refugees to settle themselves in... Click. Click. Click. ...leading to greater freedom of movement and access to... "Just uh...give me one--" --quick second. ...examining all possible alternatives... Well he'd thought about going for lunch earlier but the additional hour he'd given himself had turned into two and then... He flicked his gaze to the time displayed on the lower right hand corner of the screen.
"He's been very productive," Juliette said mildly from her desk. "I brought him coffee and suggested that he might want to take a break. I'm not sure he heard me."
Nathan snorted. John was what, two weeks in? - he thought it was around two weeks, at least - and already he was fitting in entirely too well. "John, finish the paragraph and put it away. At least for long enough to go stretch your legs before you continue," he said, sliding off his jacket as he headed over to his own desk.
After a good five minutes, John leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out under the desk. He raised his eyebrows slightly as he took in Nathan's haggard appearance. "What's up with you?"
Nathan shrugged. "Long meeting. Bureaucrats. Diplomacy wears me out." He'd also kept waking up from dreams last night, not of Medusa or Crystal or Forge drowning in a tidal wave, but the Askani. Again. He didn't know that he wouldn't have preferred the nightmares actually connected to what had happened this week. At least then, he'd have known that it was his mind embroidering on what he knew had happened. He wouldn't be losing himself... Nathan cut the thought off, focused on John again. "Productive in the end, I suppose. I made a couple of valuable contacts among the people who were as bored by the double-talking as I was."
John nodded with a smirk. He reached for the stack of freshly printed pages and started to sort through it; slipping a few of the pages into a clear plastic folder as casual reading material for later. "You know you're a workaholic, right?" He stretched an arm out for his drink then rested his foot up against the edge of the desk as he glanced through the stuff he'd collected. ...warehoused in desperate conditions... "You didn't even take a break after climbing that stupid mountain." Personally, he thought Nathan was going to work himself into a fucking coronary. And he'd only been in the office for what? Two weeks now to have noticed that? ...continue to suffer human rights violations at different stages... "Maybe you should get some rest," he suggested. ...denied access to adequate housing, food... "I mean--" He glanced up. "No offense, but you do look like shit."
"I'll make it an early night tonight," Nathan said, and heard Juliette snort softly from her desk. He gave her a repressive look; she was getting entirely too forward lately. "Got a few things to finish up before I call it a day and go rescue Rachel's babysitter, though..."
John flicked the lid of his Zippo lighter open then whirred the thumb wheel for a spark. "Who's taking care of her?" He hadn't spent any time with Rachel just yet but he figured she was probably a handful; as were all kids of her age. "Someone at the mansion?"
"I pay a rotating staff of babysitters an exorbitant amount of money," Nathan said with a straight face as he started up his computer. "Rotating, because by the time I get back around to them they've recovered from the trauma. Or I just drop her on Charles or one of the other telepaths, if they're amenable and have some time. She tends to behave better for telepaths."
"Guess she takes after you then."
"What, with the behaving better for telepaths, or the trauma she inflicts on the people around her?" Tired or not, Nathan could still manage a more than respectable shark's grin. At her desk, Juliette coughed. "Never mind the fact that you just compared me to a two year-old. Would you like to start going to these meetings, by the way?" The change of subject was abrupt, but his tone didn't alter one bit.
"Wouldn't mind," John replied. "What's on the agenda these days?" He leaned forward and rested his forearm on the table. "Care to share the specifics of what you're working on right now?" He managed a lopsided grin. He couldn't help the curiosity, really. He only had a general idea of what Elpis was doing.
"Range of things, as always. Right now we've got some meetings to talk about this Tanzania project with other interested parties. If the pilot project works, the model's transferrable to other parts of Africa. That's hardly the only spot where you've got a clash between farmers and herders with angry young mutant nomads complicating the situation."
He raised his eyebrows slightly. "Permission to check out the files on this?"
"Check the database under 'Arusha Mediation project'," Nathan said. "It's one of ours rather than Tel Aviv's, so we've got all the necessary information here."
"Thanks." John made a note of that in his To-Do-List for later. "So." He looked up. "Is anyone else hungry? I'm thinking of ordering Chinese."
The desk was cluttered with a miscellany of files and folders and other assorted rubbish. John was working on both the desktop and his laptop; finishing up the data entry and research on one end and working on drafting out a proposal on the other. A loud beep signified Hewlett Packard's need for another feed and the pyrokinetic refilled the plastic tray with a stack of A4 papers, allowing the printer to resume its process.
John returned his attention to the desktop's screen. ...and ---- objectives. He took a quick swallow of his drink; MGD -- then replaced it back on the table; the bottle balanced itself precariously on the edge of his desk. ...respond to various kinds of emergencies. Click. Click. Click. ...rehabilitative projects. ...reconstruction operations. ...assist uh repatriation and... ...fuck. Click. Click. Click. ...resettlement where appropriate...
The door opened and Nathan stepped into the office, back from another meeting in the city. He looked tired, unshaven and vaguely disheveled - his tie showed the definite signs of one that had been tied with no handy spouse around to catch him and fix it. He nodded to Juliette, then blinked at the sight of John working on two computers at once - still.
"Have you been out of that chair since I headed out this morning?"
John grunted a response to Nathan's question. ....replaced by forms of assistance enabling refugees to settle themselves in... Click. Click. Click. ...leading to greater freedom of movement and access to... "Just uh...give me one--" --quick second. ...examining all possible alternatives... Well he'd thought about going for lunch earlier but the additional hour he'd given himself had turned into two and then... He flicked his gaze to the time displayed on the lower right hand corner of the screen.
"He's been very productive," Juliette said mildly from her desk. "I brought him coffee and suggested that he might want to take a break. I'm not sure he heard me."
Nathan snorted. John was what, two weeks in? - he thought it was around two weeks, at least - and already he was fitting in entirely too well. "John, finish the paragraph and put it away. At least for long enough to go stretch your legs before you continue," he said, sliding off his jacket as he headed over to his own desk.
After a good five minutes, John leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out under the desk. He raised his eyebrows slightly as he took in Nathan's haggard appearance. "What's up with you?"
Nathan shrugged. "Long meeting. Bureaucrats. Diplomacy wears me out." He'd also kept waking up from dreams last night, not of Medusa or Crystal or Forge drowning in a tidal wave, but the Askani. Again. He didn't know that he wouldn't have preferred the nightmares actually connected to what had happened this week. At least then, he'd have known that it was his mind embroidering on what he knew had happened. He wouldn't be losing himself... Nathan cut the thought off, focused on John again. "Productive in the end, I suppose. I made a couple of valuable contacts among the people who were as bored by the double-talking as I was."
John nodded with a smirk. He reached for the stack of freshly printed pages and started to sort through it; slipping a few of the pages into a clear plastic folder as casual reading material for later. "You know you're a workaholic, right?" He stretched an arm out for his drink then rested his foot up against the edge of the desk as he glanced through the stuff he'd collected. ...warehoused in desperate conditions... "You didn't even take a break after climbing that stupid mountain." Personally, he thought Nathan was going to work himself into a fucking coronary. And he'd only been in the office for what? Two weeks now to have noticed that? ...continue to suffer human rights violations at different stages... "Maybe you should get some rest," he suggested. ...denied access to adequate housing, food... "I mean--" He glanced up. "No offense, but you do look like shit."
"I'll make it an early night tonight," Nathan said, and heard Juliette snort softly from her desk. He gave her a repressive look; she was getting entirely too forward lately. "Got a few things to finish up before I call it a day and go rescue Rachel's babysitter, though..."
John flicked the lid of his Zippo lighter open then whirred the thumb wheel for a spark. "Who's taking care of her?" He hadn't spent any time with Rachel just yet but he figured she was probably a handful; as were all kids of her age. "Someone at the mansion?"
"I pay a rotating staff of babysitters an exorbitant amount of money," Nathan said with a straight face as he started up his computer. "Rotating, because by the time I get back around to them they've recovered from the trauma. Or I just drop her on Charles or one of the other telepaths, if they're amenable and have some time. She tends to behave better for telepaths."
"Guess she takes after you then."
"What, with the behaving better for telepaths, or the trauma she inflicts on the people around her?" Tired or not, Nathan could still manage a more than respectable shark's grin. At her desk, Juliette coughed. "Never mind the fact that you just compared me to a two year-old. Would you like to start going to these meetings, by the way?" The change of subject was abrupt, but his tone didn't alter one bit.
"Wouldn't mind," John replied. "What's on the agenda these days?" He leaned forward and rested his forearm on the table. "Care to share the specifics of what you're working on right now?" He managed a lopsided grin. He couldn't help the curiosity, really. He only had a general idea of what Elpis was doing.
"Range of things, as always. Right now we've got some meetings to talk about this Tanzania project with other interested parties. If the pilot project works, the model's transferrable to other parts of Africa. That's hardly the only spot where you've got a clash between farmers and herders with angry young mutant nomads complicating the situation."
He raised his eyebrows slightly. "Permission to check out the files on this?"
"Check the database under 'Arusha Mediation project'," Nathan said. "It's one of ours rather than Tel Aviv's, so we've got all the necessary information here."
"Thanks." John made a note of that in his To-Do-List for later. "So." He looked up. "Is anyone else hungry? I'm thinking of ordering Chinese."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}