[DIMC] A dream is a soft place to land [Nyima]

‘Well, thank you for your time, Mr Omokha. I will follow up within the next two weeks.’ Jonathan set down us wand, having held it like a microphone just a moment ago, using it to converse with the young Nigerian wizard through a translation charm.

It was three weeks into his promotion, and Jonathan had yet to find a secretary to assist him. His department thought this was still an elaborate joke, playing along by following his case assignments, but giving not much help besides that. But even jokes had limits, and no one wanted to follow through by playing Jon’s secretary. Even when Jon asked if they had friends or relatives seeking employment, many of them nodded and agreed to pass it along, but his employment listing still went unanswered.

Amos, the Interim Head after Chambers’s disappearance and the department lead during the W9 Conference a few weeks prior, made no effort to dispel the idea that this was a joke. He obediently took his cases like everyone else, but masked little effort in his sarcastic contempt for Jonathan. He had been in a foul mood ever since his return from Ibadan. The reports gave hints of some difficulties during various negotiations, but not much insight in the goings on of those days. Rumours did seep into the the floors that his father tore Amos a new one during the Conference. But seeing as Amos wasn’t demoted or formally reprimanded—mostly because Jonathan didn’t know it was his job now to do so—people assumed Amos was still the acting department head, and perhaps Jonathan’s supposed promotion was Jon Sr’s version of punishing the elder wizard until the Senior Undersecretary grew tired of humiliating him.

It also didn’t help that, because Jonathan’s promotion was quite rushed, Personnel wasn’t caught up with the updates. When Jonathan came in to give the news, it took them five whole minutes before they could stop laughing and read Shacklebolt’s memo. Believing even the Minister was joining in this joke, they humoured Jonathan and updated their records, but accidentally mixed his file with that of @Kendrick Silverman, and for over a week, each man was receiving each other’s departmental messages.

The DIMC had a whale of a time when they saw Silverman listed as their new Department Head. Even when Jonathan had Personnel rectify the issue, most of his department colleagues saw it as simply taking the joke a step further. And in between all all this, Amos was still treated as the de facto leader of the floor, which the still-smarting wizard didn’t feel the need to correct. Sure, he forwarded necessary memos to Jonathan for his signature, but the younger Emerson found himself excluded from several important conversations that should have been addressed to him.

Jonathan wasn’t the reprimanding type, and he was still trying to get a handle on his new role. Needless to say, the start of his tenure was exceedingly, yet unnecessarily, difficult. His father vehemently refused to assist, despite that all this could be fixed with a single sentence from him. But Jon Sr also seemed to have kept a foul mood since his return from Ibadan, and looked at his son with great annoyance each time they crossed paths at work. Shacklebolt, perhaps as a holdover from his Auror days, didn’t seem to concern himself with the mundane of paperwork, and after signing off on the release of Purcell, appeared to seclude himself even more from the daily operations of his Ministry.

Without much support from his superiors, Jonathan felt like a fish out of water, struggling to breathe. He needed to get a handle on his role. Luckily, his contacts abroad didn’t find the idea of his promotion so incredulous. Just as his first meeting with some of foreign officials concluded, one of them noted Jonathan’s particularly haggard appearance. The conversation led to one of diplomats suggesting to put an employment notice to other Ministries. It was a small, but much-appreciated gesture, and Jonathan found that he was finally fielding a pool of applicants. Many seemed well-qualified, perhaps even overqualified, but at least it meant Jonathan was guaranteed to have at least one good worker on his side.

The only drawback, and hopefully it was a minor one, was the language barrier. Translation charms were commonly employed by his Department, but his assistant would need to also need to coordinate with officials from other departments, many of whom weren’t proficient in casting it. It also meant that their wands would be constantly engaged, which wouldn’t be allowed in some of the more sensitive meetings he was required to attend. Luckily, the Department of Magical Equipment Control had an approved set of runic accessories that could be worn, so really, Jonathan’s main concern was hiring the best match for him.

As he ushered Mr Omokha from his office, Jonathan smiled at next applicant sitting just outside of his door. She would be the last one for this morning’s rounds. ‘Lga Nyima Pemba,’ Jonathan announced, casting the translation charm again and smiling at the young Tibetan woman in the queue. ‘Would you come in, please?’

Jonathan led her to the sofa in the center of his office, rather than at his desk. He sat at the other end, flashing a kind smile as he opened up her applicant file and the attached CV.

‘Ms Lga, Nyima?’ he began, trying to ascertain whether she’d prefer the Ministry’s common usage of surnames, clan name in her case Jonathan supposed, or her given name, considering her position would involve a close working relationship with him.

‘Thank you for coming all this way. Your transcripts from Mahoutokoro are quite impressive, though perhaps indicative of a desire to work more like a hawk than a dove.’ Jonathan didn’t mind that people were honest about their expectations. Some wanted the position because of the financial benefits; others for the opportunity to travel; and some simply wanted a change of pace. He didn’t see it as a problem. Many positions were used as stepping stones for something greater, and Jonathan would be satisfied with a short-term hire as long he had the most capable worker on his side for his transition as Department Head.

‘What experiences do you hope to gain working with the British DIMC?’ Jonathan’s grey eyes twinkled in the catchlight as his expression shifted, his smile becoming more quizzical as he asked, ‘And against those expectations, how might you carry yourself when reality falls short of them?’

Nyima on paper seemed like a bright star, ready to shine in many directions. Jonathan wondered, as he did with all the others he interviewed, which of them were the least likely to burn out their lights.

@Nyima

It had been two months since her rejection from the Amachibu, and Nyima had been struggling. Her mother and fathers had offered to let her stay on the farm until she found a place of her own, so she had gracefully accepted, but everybody in the family knew that she was restless and upset. And Nyima didn't often get "upset." She had always been the calm, nurturing, understanding type. Which, to be honest, was also why her mother didn't understand her interest in joining a Ministry security force. To be fair, her request to join the Ministry's police intelligence squadron had been a dream that even she she hadn't realised was so important until they told her he was too inexperienced. They told her she could start with an internship merely copying and filing records, and that was not sufficient for the barrier adept. She needed to be doing something active, even if it was still in an office. Her talents would be wasted on simple duplication and bookkeeping.

It appeared the Japanese Ministry didn't hold anything against her for declining the internship, however, and they kept her in mind for other things. A few weeks later an official Apparated up to their terrace on the mountainside and let Nyima know that the British Ministry was looking to other Ministries for an assistant in their Department of International Magical Cooperation. A secretarial job, to be sure, but with more variety and more responsibility than the clerical position which was still all Japan's Ministry could offer her. By this point Nyima's pride had subsided a bit and she realised that she ought to at least try to take what was available to her. And besides, she could probably prove herself more impressively over international borders than within the region that promoted the very subjects she had excelled in. So she thanked the representative and said she would be honoured to interview for the British position.

Now here she sat a mere week later, the youngest and last of five or six interviewees about to speak the Department Head himself, Emerson-shi. She had worn a crème-coloured dress robe with a crimson scarf - red being a lucky colour, and she figured she needed all the luck she could get - yet while she looked both professional and well-groomed, she wondered at the other interviewees. Only one other had been female, and she a much older wizened looking woman from India. The rest had beenimmaculately-kept, masculine-presenting, business-savvy males. But perhaps they could not handle being in a subservient, secretarial position under this Department Head. The thought comforted her, and she kept her hands placidly folded in her lap during her wait.

Eventually the door to the office opened and a haughty looking African man strolled by and out into the hallway that led to the elevator, before Emerson-shihimself came out and looked at Nyima with a congenial smile. She was pleasantly surprised and impressed to find that Emerson-shiwas speaking not English or even Mandarin, but Lhasa Tibetan - until she realised that the way he was holding his wand probably indicated that he was using an on-the-fly Translation Charm. Still, it was a good sign that the Head of International Magical Cooperation knew how to effectively cast such a thing. She bowed and replied, "Tujay chay," and followed him into his office, where she was seated on a comfortable couch instead of a chair by his desk. The office was quite elegant by Western standards, not a big shock since he was a Department Head, and she felt quite comfortable and relaxed for it being a big government job interview.

With some understandable confusion, Emerson-shi began by calling her by two names - her still awkward, familial one, and her singular one. Europeans (and even most Asians) were unfamiliar with the Tibetan custom of only truly using one name, or of identifying one's family by their ancestral clan and their same-gender parent's name. He butchered the clan name but that was also expected; though short, it was a difficult combination for speakers of languages that didn't make regular use of glottals. Nyima smiled with a bowed head and said quietly but confidently (in Tibetan), "Whichever you prefer, Emerson-shi. When I am working with you, you will need to choose which name is most comfortable for you to call me by. I will adapt."

The interview-proper began as Nyima predicted, with Emerson-shigoing over her transcripts from Mahoutokoro. It would have included all seven of her NEWTs: her expertise of Barrier Work with a Sōdaina grade (the equivalent of the British Outstanding), three others with a Sugureta/Exceeds Expectations, and three more with a Yoi/Acceptable. She thought at least three of these would be especially suitable to secretarial work; Makimono taught a level of magical writing which would give her an advantage in correspondence, and Purification and Chakra Control could help to maintain a calm neutral atmosphere during heated international negotiations. However, that was ultimately for Emerson-shi to decide. And instead of expanding on her studies or asking about specific classes, he commented that it was clear she wanted to "work like an eagle instead of a pigeon." Something must have been lost in the translation; magic didn't always seem to get regional colloquialisms. He must have meant that she wanted active work instead of sitting around, which was true.... but at this point she'd take what she could get.

A curious pair of questions were then posed to Nyima. What experiences did she desire to gain, and -- her estimation of Emerson-shi rose at this one -- when those desires failed to materialise, how would she comport herself?

"As to the second question, shi," she answered, "I have already been exposed to the death of a dream. I do not know what is in your personnel file, but it may detail that I had initially approached the Japanese Ministry of Magic in the hopes of becoming a kekkaishi (barrier master), and was turned down due to my inexperience. Although it still disappoints me to this day, I view it as a lesson and as a personal growth, that I have much further to go before I am truly qualified for that sort of work. In the meantime, I am qualified for other tasks and should pursue those while I continue to educate myself further in the paths I desire."

She met Emerson-shi's gaze directly and returned to the first question. "I understand that this is, officially, a secretarial job. However I believe that you will find I am able to offer more than mere paperwork and appointment keeping. It is my hope that, as you become familiar with my personal skill set and my personality, and I with yours, you will find that I can assist you in the other spheres your department influences. My proficiencies in barrier work, in maintaining an environment, even in self-defence and combat magic, can be valuable assets to the British Ministry and to your department, and obviously my hands-on and immersive familiarity with Eastern cultures will benefit the department greatly in present and future dealings with those Ministries."