Fantasy garlic & hemingway

[anderswo]

garlic & hemingway

@ anderswo
@ TheOldSoul ​

 

[anderswo]

Helen had always loved the rain. She adored the pitter-patter on the windows of her small apartment, watching the floating umbrellas on the streets and smelling the moisture in the air. Fighting in the rain of course came with a heightened complexity, but she had gotten used to it over time. If all, it made it easier as fewer people could interfere with her work. Today, however, the rain was rather unfortunate since she was already late on time, and now had to orbit the wet circles that were cratering the asphalt.

Her silvery hair, still wet from the shower, clung in damp strands to her grim face. She hadn't had time to dry it. A translucent umbrella shielded her from the rain as she urgently strode down the alley toward her new office. It was 8 o'clock in the morning, and the city was gradually coming to life with people heading to work.

She was still tired from the night before. She had received word of a demon roaming the south of Oakham shortly before midnight, compelling her to set an ambush. Locating the demon hadn’t been difficult, and she could have neutralized him within minutes. He was still young and inexperienced, allowing his thirst for blood to overshadow his logical thinking. However, even though Helen had carefully scouted the area beforehand, she seemed to have overlooked a group of teenagers secretly drinking booze in the bushes. She had to overwrite each of their memories to avoid arousing suspicion about her work and prevent traumatizing them. When she was finally collapsing into her bed, the sun was already rising and the first birds started to announce the morning.

Helen turned into a smaller side street where she could locate her final destination: her new office for the next weeks. She opened the door and took the stairs up to the office rooms. After ringing the bell, she smoothed out her blazer and adjusted her collar, using the door's glassy reflection. The door opened, and Helen extended her hand.

„Good morning, I’m Helen Monde, the new intern.“

 

[TheOldSoul]

Cerri reached out and gently took the other woman's hand. "Hello. Welcome." She gave a soft smile, knowing that her next sentence might not come as such a comfort because most editors did not answer the door themselves, especially when they needed badged in after their first day. Alas, her secretary was busy on the phone for her and having just made herself some tea and on her way to her office, she opted to help the woman out and answer the door herself. "You must be Helen. Again, welcome. My name is Cerri, I am the editor in chief here. I accepted your application for internship here. I think you'll fit in just fine. I read your samples. Please, come in."

Picking up her steaming tea on the way, her graceful movements gave way to a walk down a broad welcoming room for guests, fit at the end with her secretary's desk--of whom sat gave her a very grateful look for answering the door when we could not, being stuck on the phone with yet more business. Cerri breezed passed her desk with a forgiving look before showing Helen her desk a few paces to the side and just beside, a hallway's length though an actual hallway did not exist--Cerri believe in coexistence in the office, the glass walls forming a sort of hallway only where they started at the very end where her office stood, simply darkened by a muted glass, though the door and main entry remained clear. Her door was almost always open. It only closed for the most important of meetings or business. "Your desk will be here, close to Meredith. She's been my secretary for years and can walk you through any questions you may have on the dynamic of the office. Of course, if you have any concerns or questions she cannot answer, my door is always open." She lead the way to her office, beckoning for the new intern to follow. Large windows greeted them on the other side of the opaque windows that faced the desks beyond, save for the clear door. The early morning sun shown through them. "This is my office. I am usually found here, so any questions or concerns you may have that are not being answered, simply find me here. If I am not here, leave me a note. I am quick to see them on my desk."

Then she went back down the crystal clear hallway, only interrupted briefly by opaque glass. Despite what it looked like, the utmost of protection, supernatural or not, one couldn't say as she'd hired the best architects for the space over a decade ago, the spaces themselves were surprisingly private. Her office could only be heard when it in, despite the glass. The forefront desks that housed Meredith and would soon house Helen a few feet back as her assistant (location could change, of course, but she always started them there) back to her office. If they took the direction to the right in front of the two desks, they'd be welcomed by a wide welcoming room that further led into the glass cubicles that housed her most senior writers, editors, etc. She'd made sure when designing the space that she was the first line of defense--be it for works of writing or otherwise.

"Meredith has your onboarding paperwork. You'll come join me this afternoon after she introduces you to everyone and how things work here. After that, you'll come to me and we'll discuss things further, including your passions of literature. The manuscripts we take, we take pride in for the writers, not for ourselves. I look forward to hearing how you will impact that process." With that, she gave a friendly smile. "She might still be on the phone with a rather tough client, but just wait until she's off. Meredith will see you through what you need. I'll see you this afternoon." With that, she turned away with little less grace than a queen, unbeknownst to her, and gently closed her door for the meeting she had scheduled with an up and coming author.