Pov: Malena
Waking up to the sound of infants crying in the middle of the night is normal for me, it's just one of the many things you get used to when working at an orphanage. So you could imagine my surprise when I woke up to the sound of crying that was much louder than it had any right to be. At first I thought one of our own that was crying, but when I opened the door to the nursery they were all sound asleep. At first she was confused, but then she remembered that every once in a while someone decides to drop their baby off at the front door late at night. She figured that, no, she knew that someone probably left another baby at their doorstep.
Storming up to the front door at the end of the hall, she mutters to herself, "I swear by the Devil there better not be another infant!" She cracks the door open and peeks her head out, being careful not to bump her horns against the door frame; then curses to herself the moment she looked down, "God dammit, they couldn't have done this in the morning?"
Resting on the concrete porch was a small box with a fluffy, ash grey fox wrapped in a sky blue blanket. Without wasting a moment she scooped up the box, fox in tow, and brought them inside. She didn't notice it then, but they hadn't made a single sound after she opened the door. Her mind was too preoccupied with the fact that she would not only have to make sure they were healthy, but she would also have to fill out a mountain of paperwork, again. After a moment of frustration, she resigns to her fate and heads back upstairs, "All right, let's get you a bath first..."
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***The next day***
After a long night of work, Malena still had a sizeable amount paperwork to fill out. So for the last four hours she has been cooped up in a small office cubicle, filling out form after form as fast as she could so that hopefully, she could get some rest. By the time she got to the last page, the sun was already filtering through the cracks in the blinds.
He behaved better than I expected, but I still didn't get another chance to sleep. From feeding them to setting up another crib, I was the only one awake; so it was up to me to make sure that little dust ball had everything they needed.
Putting the last of the paperwork away she mumbles to herself, "I hope you won't be as much trouble as your grand entrance suggests..."
As it turns out, a cardboard box doesn't provide much information on who, or more importantly, what, that kid is. This has made filling out the identification paperwork much more difficult than it needed to be. I still can't believe I had to put 'Foxhound? Hellfox?' In the 'other' slot for his race. At least now that the paperwork is finished, I can finally leave the labyrinth of office cubicles I've been trapped in.
Before she could escape her personal hell, a smug face peers into the cubicle she is in, "So, how was the chaos last night?"
Malena gives him a stern look, he didn't have to deal with all the chores she had to deal with last night and was probably hiding in his cubicle, "Just because you are the only one willing to do paperwork, doesn't make you immune from changing diapers. Remember that."
He throws his hands up half-heartedly, coffee mug in one hand while chuckling, "Ooh I'm so scared~" Leaning back on the chair he rolled in on, he continues, "But seriously, how many kids do we have now? I heard you mumbling to yourself the entire time you've been here about, 'Fuckers bitching out and leaving their children out in the elements'." He takes a sip out of his mug.
Malena relents and leans back in her chair too, she sighs while putting her hands on her face, "Theo, you have no idea. On one hand the kid behaved well, but on the other hand, he was almost too quiet."
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She takes a moment to think as one thought stuck out in her mind. She turns to Theo and asks, "Were you asleep at your desk again? I doubt it since the light was on, but you've done it before so..."
Theo replies with a smug look on his face, "Nope, all I did was use a bit of magic to block all of your complaining. Now I won't be distracted from my work every five minutes." He jokes.
Malena blinks in confusion for a second, "You used a silencing spell? How? I thought that was for 4th Level mages."
Realizing that his lips slipped, Theo's smug attitude falters a little. The look on his face was replaced with one that's a little more serious. Silently, he raises his hand between them with his palm facing up. a second later, an intracate hexagonal pattern appears right above his hand. Another moment later, the hexagon dissapears with a purple flash. When the light hits all edges of the room, all sound coming from outside and through the walls dissapear in an instant. "Don't go announcing it, but I reached the next Level." He says.
Malena, still staring at the wall behind Theo where the light dissapeared replied, "You really did make it to Level 4." She looks back at him and can't help but let her curiosity show, "When did this happen? I thought the mana density here was too low so you hit a bottleneck." She asks.
Theo nods his head in agreement, "I was for a while but the level of mana here wasn't to the point I wouldn't make any progress, it was just really slow. A few nights ago I finally broke through, thankfully, but I know the next Level won't be any easier." He pauses and the look on his face sours, "If I progress at all..."
Malena gets up from her chair and stretches before heading towards the door, "Well, that explains how you could focus with all of my complaining. It does suck that the density here isn't that high but at least you made it to Level 4, so congratulations."
Still staring into his mug, Theo kicks his feet out and rolls his chair back towards his desk; away from Malena, "Thanks, I guess, is there any coffee left?"
With one foot out the door, she turns back to look at him, "No, you drank the whole pot." And walks out the office before he can reply.
All alone, Theo looks into his empty mug once again, "Dammit..."
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Pov: Theo
As the door closes behind Malena, I take a moment to think. Malena has always been an oddity in this place. No one knows where she came from, nor do we know how she came to this place. I've even looked through her employment records, there's nothing. It's too suspicious.
Setting his mug on his desk, he gets out of his chair and walkes over to Malena's cubicle. Despite her mysterious background she was always good with kids, so I guess it's not really a problem. It's just that she's mediocre at best when it comes to anything else.
Theo picks up the stack of paperwork that she had finished and sits in her chair, ready to fix any mistake she had made. He didn't even get past the first page when noticed something odd. Picking up the top page from the stack, he looks closer, "Did that kid really come with nothing? Not even a note saying: 'This is my name'?" He sighs and almost sets that page aside, but not before seeing what Malena put for his race right underneath it. He can feel his frustration starting to build as he asks himself, "Seriously? Foxhound? Just what in Hell did she find at our doorstep?"
After reworking multiple pages, he set the stack of paperwork back on Malena's desk and turns his attention to the first paper he had set aside. Moving the page in front of him he starts thinking of names, but even after 15 minutes of thinking and crumpling post-it notes he can't come up with anything. Despite Theo's enless patience for paperwork, he had none for things like this. Setting the page on top of the stack, he leaves the cubicle just the way he found it, "Fuck it, I'll let Malena deal with that."
With nothing left to do, he Leaves the office to make more coffee.