Marie-Ange and Clea (backdated to February)

[xp_tarot]

At the end of Clea's first week, she does the usual mail run, gets some pointers, and learns about some of the quirks of X-Force.



Clea handed the mail carrier the last of the mail for the week before receiving a large pile in return, including some packages that had arrived. The office was slowly getting organized, even if it was still chaos. She organized the letters into piles and started to make her rounds of delivering them.

Coming to Marie-Ange's desk, "Here you go." She placed the small pile in the woman's bin. "I believe you have a package as well."

"From the regular mail, or the pre-screened?" Marie-Ange poked the pile with a pencil, and made a face. "Did Wade already give you training on how to handle unscreened mail if he is out and unable to do tests for explosives or anthrax?" The list of "Things We Need to Teach Clea" was running several pages long and she hadn't looked at the clipboard lately.

"They are at my desk and they didn't explode...yet. But I haven't had that lesson yet. Should I take these back and wait for it? Or can we train Cata to smell for explosives?" This was a conversation she never thought she be having in a million years.

Marie-Ange's eyebrows went up sharply. The magic cat. From... space. Or.. time, or another dimension. Right. "We should train the cat to be a detection cat. In the meantime, ah, I hate to undo all your nice work, but we do have a problem with bigots sending us anthrax, so if it is not from someone on your list, it has to be rescreened." Well, not technically always bigots, and not yet anthrax, but they did a security screening on mail for a reason. "But we can dump them in Wade's lock box, if they have not blown up already, it is unlikely they will after being moved around."

"How often does these arses send you anthrax?" Clea nodded, "It isn't a problem. Still learning the ropes. And I rather learn to do it right than not and everyone suffers. Where is Wade's lock box?"

"It is in the panic room. The empty office with the fake palm tree? Is a safety room. Wade does our mail collection typically, so he would be the person to ask about how often it is suspect." It was often enough that Wade had replaced his security box once with a sturdier model. Marie-Ange poked the pile again with her pen. It was probably safe, but she dumped the whole stack into a larger envelope just in case. "Once he is done, then you can collect it and distribute."

"Got it. Assuming that I don't die right now from handling mail, then we can say it is safe right?" Once the stack was in a larger envelope, Clea made a gesture with her hands to cause a bubble to form around the envelope and it floated. "I'll take this right there. So you usually don't get your mail until end of the day. Interesting."

"Or whenever Wade is done, or if we know the courier." Marie-Ange explained. "Necessity of the business, and many of us are paranoid and have personal enemies."

"Interesting. And what about those packages? They were delivered by the UPS man. I even had to sign for them."

"Same, put them in the plastic bin and text Wade, or whomever he has designated as his deputy when he is out, and they will check it first." Marie-Ange explained. "It is really only once or twice a year we get anything even a little suspicious, but better safe than quite exploded, yes?"

Clea raised an eyebrow slightly but shrugged, if they wanted to be extra cautious or paranoid then she wasn't going to stop them. "Alright. I'll do that." She had the bubble float behind her as began to walk out the room. "Oh, and your lunch is here."

Marie-Ange laughed a little. "You are delightful and if anyone tells you we also have a process to make sure our carry-in food is not poisoned, they are lying. Wade does not get to taste-test everyone's lunch before we get to eat it." Really she was not sure if Wade had ever tried it. "Or Jubilee, for that matter." The little firecracker thief probably had though.

"It just means they want to eat other people's food? I'll also make a mental note to notify you first when the food arrives. Like now. You are the first."

"Jubilee has a casual relationship with property rights. It is a side-effect of her main role here." Marie-Ange debated for a moment being coy, but it was probably better if Clea had no illusions, and she had already covered the "Once in a while someone tries to kill us in the office." part of this job. "Wade does it to be funny. Jubilee does it because she is a thief, possibly a capital-T thief, although that is a complicated subject best explained by Amanda. Ask her about Tante Mattie."

"Tante Mattie?" Clea lifted an eyebrow. "I swear this job is getting more interesting by the second. I'll ask her when she has a moment. Is there any other surprises I should know about our lovely co-workers? For research of course."

"Oh, most of them I will let you discover on your own. We would be poor spies if we handed out our secrets just so, yes?" Marie-Ange said, with a wink. "Once you are settled in most everyone should take a day or so with you to make sure you understand more about X-Force and some of the basic skills you will have to learn." She paused. "Although it will be refreshing not to have to teach you how to properly file papers or answer the phone or call in lunch orders. Our last two reception desk workers were... not.. always ideal in that role."

"Ooh, a spy test. I like it." Clea smiled at Marie-Ange. "It is basic knowledge for filing - just got to learn the system. I am a people-person." Clea hesitated for just a moment. "Is that why I found some questionable liquids in the bottom of the receptionist drawer?"

Oh, the turpentine flask. She had forgotten that was still there. "Ah, yes. Receptionist-the-last had the habit of spiking her morning tea with my paint solvents. You very much do not want to eat any snack in that desk." Marie-Ange explained. "Cammie used to eat packing peanuts with powder sink cleaner on them. But she kept the elevator wee man away."

"She purposely eat stuff that can kill a person? Was this her powers or something?" Clea asked with a raised eyebrow. At least it wasn't explosive mixture she found.

"Yes, that was exactly her power." Marie-Ange pointed at Clea in a "Just so." manner. "Neither Artie nor Cammie were terrible, just not always suited to some of the receptionist tasks."

Clea nodded, "That is an interesting power." The girl then flashed a smile. "So I guess a stash of candies in a drawer won't be frowned upon then..."

Marie-Ange smiled, opened her desk drawer and waved a hand at the pill bottles just inside. And the foil-wrapped chocolate bars. "Candies, pain killers, wine, Wanda has at least one bottle of whiskey, Doug keeps a handful of caffeine pills and Xanax in a locked box. Kevin has an entire bottle shop in his. No one will even blink at candy. "

"Good. I have some Maltesers and few boxes of Double Deckers that my mum sent me last month. I would love to store them here - too tempting to eat them all at once if I keep them in my room."

"Lock your desk, we have thieves here. Jubilee has no respect for anyone's snack drawer. Or just restock with the company amazon account." Marie-Ange said, shrugging. "Locking your desk cannot actually stop any of us, but it will send the message that you would like stolen snacks replaced."

After a few seconds of silence, it looked like a lightbulb went off in Clea's mind. "What if it was a magical lock? I would be heartbroken if my last Maltersers were taken from me."

"Just leave a post-it note. We're criminals, but we are respectful ones. Or expense your desk treats and put some in a jar. It will seem delightfully retro and then you can just order them without having to spend your own money." Marie-Ange said, with a sly smile. "If you keep a jar of candy on your desk, it might convince Kevin to stop asking us to give you a raise for every less inch of skirt you wear."

"That is a good idea. I may have to take your idea about the jar." Clea couldn't help but to laugh, "I will wear a skirt a proper length, no shorter." The teen nodded.

"If you want to wear a belt as a skirt, feel free. Just do not do it because Kevin wants you to." Marie-Ange replied, laughing. "Or, do, but at least negotiate a very very good raise instead of a small one."

Clea thought about it, "I wouldn't mind going shopping for new clothes. But can you really wear a belt as a skirt?"

Comments

[xp_echo]

This was so fun. Loved the log folks