Year/Job
Auror
thank your father before you, his mother before him. who would I be without them? |
Sol
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Post by Orla Finch on Feb 4, 2024 16:25:59 GMT -8
Orla was a woman consumed by the urge to find the truth. It had driven her for years-- and at the Ministry was no different. She spent more time in the Ministry of Magic than any of the other trainees-- she was constantly at her desk, finishing cases, filing paperwork, doing the menial jobs that trainees were thrown into to get "experience". In Orla's opinion, she couldn't stand any of it. She was working alongside the people that had forsaken her brother-- these Aurors gave up on Caspian and determined his case closed after he never showed up. That anger towards her coworkers coiled around her stomach like a hot iron, burning through her and threatening to catch her on fire. As she looked at the words on the paper, her eyes glazed over; she was exhausted, overworked, and consumed with her obsession. But there was no stopping. She could rest when she found answers.
It was late, and it was the weekend-- hardly anyone inhabited the office, likely off on their own cases or enjoying their off time. Not Orla.
Picking herself up, she glanced around, picking up a file and tucking it under her arm. She needed to find Caspian's case file. She needed to see everything the Ministry had found-- classified or not. Her plan, admittedly, was a bit flawed-- but she doubted anyone would be down there this time of night. Finding her way down to the Department of Magical Law Enforcements records, she glanced around, relishing in the silence. This was perfect. The basement was intimidating and cold, uncaring and a bit scary-- but she had to do what she had to do to find what she needed. Rounding a corner, she let out a shriek at the dark figure of someone across the room from her. "Great Merlin!" She exclaimed, hand clutching over her heart. "You frightened me! I-- I didn't expect anyone would be down here. Do you.. uh.. do you work here?"
Dane Caspar
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Feb 5, 2024 19:48:29 GMT -8
It was never Dane's intention to sleep out of the office when he was moved to the basement. For months, the spite of effectively being demoted powered him forward. He wasn't expected to do much in his new role but sit there with the old files and watch for anybody who might be snooping around, but he planned to make the most of his situation. His project involved converting all files in the department basement into WizNet pages for quicker and easier access of case files. It was incredibly dull work, but the kind of project that, alone, would take Dane the rest of his career to finish.
And that was how he started sleeping out of the office. As much as he hated the work, it was an incredibly useful tool that would revolutionize the Ministry when it was finished. It would be his legacy. How could he not become obsessed with completing it? Romy was coming along after work now too whenever she could to help with the cataloging, which was usually a welcome departure from the monotony of the work, but her presence could get distracting. That was why Dane found himself working even later hours to catch up on time lost.
Is this a full post about Dane cataloging moldy old files? Yup!
Dane had a spot behind his desk where he'd set up a small mattress. This meant that he could work as soon as he woke up, long tireless days that would only end when his eyes grew heavy and collapsed down on his mattress for a few hours of sleep before he could start work again. When Romy came around, he'd shrink the mattress down and lock it up in his desk so that she wouldn't suspect that he was living on serial killer time. Orla, however, caught Dane off guard. He was in the middle of a late evening power nap when he heard her bumping around in the dark. He shot up from the mattress with his wand in hand.
"You frightened me! I-- I didn't expect anyone would be down here. Do you.. uh.. do you work here?"
"You frightened, me!" Dane echoed, rising from the mattress. "Of course I work down here. I'm the only person who's supposed to be be here."
With a wave of his wand, the lights snapped on. He still wasn't used to their soft glow, having grown fond of the old fluorescents when he first moved in down here.
With the lights on, he could see that Orla was just a kid. She wasn't behind him much in years, but in their line of work two or three years made a big difference. Dane could only imagine why she'd be snooping around the basement this late on a weekend.
"What are you doing here anyway?" he asked.
-Orla Finch
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Year/Job
Auror
thank your father before you, his mother before him. who would I be without them? |
Sol
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Post by Orla Finch on Feb 11, 2024 9:32:55 GMT -8
Had the basement of the Ministry always contained such dark and dreary record keepers? Orla imagined a cute little old lady filing away old cases or records, but this guy... Well, he was younger and a lot more tired looking than Orla ever expected. And a thousand times more frightening to come across in the middle of the night. He did look a little familiar... Maybe he was in Caspian's year at Hogwarts? She couldn't remember. But he was running her entire plan to sneak around and steal the files she needed and that just wouldn't do. With hand still pressed to her chest, she let out a small laugh. Great cover. "Yes of course I work here!" Orla said confidently, hands placed on her hips. She looked a the dull suit she wore and back up at the basement ghoul. "Don't I look like I work here?" It was her least favorite part of the job. She missed colorful sweaters and jeans. But this was a small price to pay for the truth.
The sudden light was bright on her eyes. She brought a hand up to shield her eyes and as they adjusted, they flickered between the rough visage of the Basement Ghoul and the mattress. "Do you really work here?" She asked skeptically upon observing the mattress. Was it possible to have squatters in the Ministry of Magic? Who did she need to report that to? Did she need to report it? Merlin, this was getting more complicated than Orla ever wanted. Whatever, it wasn't the biggest of her concerns at the moment.
It seemed that this man did actually work in the basement. That was going to be a fork in her plan. She didn't see anything like that in the employment records... Maybe she needed better updated information? Whatever. She shook her head and straightened up, taking a step forward. "I'm Orla. Orla Finch. I'm an Auror-- That's not really important. I'm currently working on a case and I've come to look for files pertaining to it." She swallowed, but felt confident the lie she was spinning was a believable one. Orla was a fantastic actress, fortunately. "I need any files involving Caspian Finch and his disappearance." She told him confident, waiting expectantly for his answer.
- Dane Caspar
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Feb 13, 2024 22:04:26 GMT -8
“Well, this is it,” Dane’s commanding officer had said when they pushed through the heavy metal doors that sealed the basement off from the rest of the Ministry. As the ancient lights powered on, the records room was bathed in an eerie orange glow.
“What do you want me to do?” Dane asked. In his hands he held a cardboard box stuffed with all of his possessions from his desk upstairs. He didn’t know what was expected of him from this new assignment, but it was definitely long term. The whole thing had moved so quickly: Dane had come into work a promising young Auror, and in a mere afternoon they’d stripped him of all of his cases. All of his work on organized crime, the Falmouth Falcons point-shaving case that had been to this point a highlight of his career…it was all gone, buried or passed on to other Aurors to take over. And Dane had no idea why.
“Just make sure everything’s tidy and nothing goes missing,” his CO said. “It’s a very important assignment. People have played a little fast and loose with the records lately, and we think a new gatekeeper could really set things straight. We need you, Dane Caspar.”
Of course it was all bullshit. As much as Dane’s bosses tried to pass this new gig off as some massively important assignment, he knew that it was some kind of punishment. Maybe it was because he’d made so much noise in pushing the department to pursue organized crime, or maybe it was because they suspected his involvement in his father’s murder. Either way, the promising career of young Dane Caspar ended here.
Of course he tried to make the most of it. The records room had been a mess when Dane first arrived, but over the first few months he reorganized the vast expanse of shelves into a system that made sense. After that, he began pushing the WizNet project to make everything easily accessible.
“Sure, Dane, do what you want,” was the feedback he received, its casual tone all the evidence Dane needed that he really wasn’t expected to do anything down there. But finding a purpose in the basement was what Dane needed to keep going.
Orla was the first time Dane ever encountered someone snooping around the records, and suddenly he found himself in the very situation that the Ministry had pretended to be so worried about. Naturally, Dane was more curious about her reasons for snooping than actually guarding the records. He’d had Romy down here dozens of times, reading through the long history of magic crime at her leisure.
“Do you really work here?”
“Of course I do,” Dane said, squaring his shoulders and straightening his tie. He waved his wand and said something like “reducio”, picking up the now miniature bed and tucking it away in the bottom drawer of his desk. “I’m just really serious about my work,” he coughed.
He knew that it wasn’t a very convincing story, but it was the truth! These records were all Dane had left in the world, why couldn’t he sleep with them?
“I'm Orla. Orla Finch. I'm an Auror-- That's not really important. I'm currently working on a case and I've come to look for files pertaining to it. I need any files involving Caspian Finch and his disappearance.”
“Slow down,” Dane said, crossing his arms. “It’s actually very important. Are you working this case? I’m guessing they wouldn’t put you on a case if you’re related to the victim. So why are we down here?”
-Orla Finch
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Year/Job
Auror
thank your father before you, his mother before him. who would I be without them? |
Sol
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Post by Orla Finch on Feb 14, 2024 7:39:25 GMT -8
Fuck. That was the price of arrogance-- mistakes. Orla had mentioned her last name. What an idiot move. She furrowed her brows, biting the inside of her cheek until she tasted metal. It was likely this weird guy was the only one working down there at the time and she couldn't sneak in any other way. She needed those files. And it wasn't like she didn't work as an Auror. She had every right to files as any other person in that building! As long as they weren't tucked away in the Department of Mysteries, they were free to look at, right? Orla needed to find a way to spin this in her favor and fast, before the file keeper got out his wand and started blasting her as if she were a pesky mouse trying to get into a cupboard.
"I just told you. I'm currently working a case. Not his case." Orla said confidently, taking a step forward. "Caspian Finch should be considered close. At least, that's what someone up top told me... But the case I'm currently working... I think it might pertain to his disappearance. If there are any links between this victim and him, I need to know." She raised her hands, looking as if she had no control over the situation. "I don't want to dig into my dead brother's gory case files as much as the next guy, but the order came from the head Auror on this case." She told him, dropping her hands and tucking them in her pockets. It had already been a long night, but she thought she was going a superb job of saving her ass.
Thankfully, Orla had a few things going for her-- she was young and innocent looking. She wasn't the kind of person people assumed lied to get her way-- and a few years ago, she hadn't been. She remembered the first time she'd lied to a professor and he'd seen through it IMMEDIATELY and she was sent to detention. That's the kind of person Orla Finch was. But the woman she'd become... Well, it was someone she could hardly stare at in the mirror. Even so, in these situations, she hoped it was to her advantage. She wouldn't flirt with anyone, or threaten, but she could spin a convincing lie... but she needed to be careful and start keeping track of the many lies that she was conceiving. "I know you've got an important job to do, but I can bring the case file I'm working on and show you, if you need? I'm just trying to do my job and get home before the sun comes up." She told him with an earnest look on her face.
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Year/Job
Auror In Exile
Break your back to earn your pay, and don't forget to grovel. |
Travis
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Post by Dane Caspar on Feb 26, 2024 20:57:02 GMT -8
What options did Dane have in this situation except to arrest Orla? Certainly he had that authority, right? To be honest, he wasn’t really sure about the chain of command here. Was being buried in the basement a demotion below even entry-level Aurors? He was young still, but he did have a couple of years on Orla. Maybe sniffing out a dirty cop who was snooping around the records room was just the kind of accomplishment he needed to get back into the good graces of the department. When Orla said that she’d gotten the order to go digging by the head Auror, his instinct was to ask her for proof. Certainly there would be documentation. For Orla it would be like a stay of execution, for Dane a little stalling to stretch out this little bit of intrigue on the slowest day in the slowest part of the Ministry.
But then Orla said something that interested him.
“I know you've got an important job to do, but I can bring the case file I'm working on and show you, if you need? I'm just trying to do my job and get home before the sun comes up.”
The truth was that Dane didn’t care at all about these files. If it saved him from working down here, maybe he would have considered turning Orla in, but what were they really going to do? Slap Orla on the wrist for doing too much and send him back on down to the basement. But Orla had offered to share something with Dane that he hadn’t seen in months: an active case file. Was he going to actually get to be a cop again? And hey, he was working backward with the WizNet project which meant that her brother’s case would already be accessible on the ParchPortal. An opportunity to do a bit of actual police work and show off the hard work he and Romy had been doing in the basement to somebody?
“Fine,” Dane sighed. “I’ll grab the case for you, but on one condition: I want to see that casefile. Does that sound like a fair deal to you?”
- Orla Finch
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