Things You See in a Newsroom (Russell)

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia was pulling her heels back onto her feet as she put the finishing touches on her forecast. It was easy as far as precipitation, but as far as temperature it was difficult. She had relatively low certainty and after talking about it with her team she’d come to a fairly confident number that would convey that it was going to be very hot, but not make people too upset if it didn’t get as outrageously hot as she was thinking. Idalia herself could see weather events, but she couldn’t see temperature. Ida smiled as she finished up the last few slides standing and leaning over her computer to make sure that the updated version went through. “I’m coming, I’m coming,” Ida said when someone called for her. She rushed from her office to the news room and was immediately descended upon by the makeup people who made sure she looked perfectly polished. She annoyed them by running a hand through her hair to adjust it from what they deemed was ‘perfect’. She didn’t get into this job to be the ‘sexy meteorologist’.

She glanced toward the guests in the news room interested when she caught a familiar face. She narrowed her eyes and rummaged her mind for a name. She knew she recognized him and it was going to kill her if she didn’t remember from where. Oh! Dogs! She’d met him with Cecil and that other fellow… Daniel? David? Damian? Yes, Damian that was it! Okay, now what was this guy’s name? It started with an ‘R’, of that she was pretty sure. “Russell?” She hazarded looking at him and giving a smile. She waved slightly just in case that wasn’t his name and then she worried he wouldn’t recognize her. It was perhaps a strange worry, considering she did the local weather and everything, but it wasn’t like everyone knew who she was. She wanted to go way ‘hello’ but someone tapped her arm and she had to get to work. “Alright, we’re going to pass things over to Chief Meteorologist Idalia Tsavaris. Good afternoon Idalia, I hear you’ve got good news for us this upcoming weekend?” The Anchor said passing the torch and Ida caught it with grace. “Good afternoon, Chris, we are indeed looking at a surge of warm weather coming up…”

“… and with that air mass moving in we are going to have a beautiful weekend.” Idalia finished and gave a dashing smile for the camera. The camera man gave her a thumbs up and handed over her water bottle. “Thanks Bruce, you’re the best,” Idalia patted him on the shoulder and gave him a smile. He had been here not too much longer than she had and they’d both been the new guys and she loved working with him. She stepped off the set in front of the green screen and stretched out. She was wearing a cool silvery skirt with a white blouse to avoid getting boiled by the summer heat. Idalia took a long drink from her water bottle and set her eyes scanning for Russell, she hoped that she didn’t miss him.

[Russell Sands]

It wasn’t very often that Russell gave interviews, especially on TV, but his business successes meant that he was being turned to gradually more and more often to offer advice on how to survive during the market crashes that had been happening worldwide over the past few years. Nine times out of ten when he was asked to give an interview or write something he would accept graciously, glad of the challenge and the opportunity to help, and would quite often end up donating his fee to charity. In truth he didn’t really need the money and he had always been one to try to help others when he could; the interviews allowed him to help both financially and via giving advice. To him it was a win-win.

Of course, it also helped that he adored being pampered. Russell was his usual charming, gently flirty self with the young lady that did his makeup touch-ups and fussed with his hair, sitting still to let her work and chatting idly with her about her new kitten. It was grey and called Tiger, apparently. Eventually though he had to bid her goodbye and go and be pretty for the camera instead, which he believed he rather was in a soft grey tie-less suit with the top button of his shirt open. The interview was fairly standard but still rather enjoyable; a few questions about how businesses are faring in the current economic state and how both they and shoppers can work together so they both win. It was over within twenty minutes and Russell was steered back towards the guest area while he waited for the relevant paperwork to be sorted before he went back to the office. Just as he was settling down into one of the chairs a vaguely familiar voice caught his attention, and he turned to see the weather lady and his fellow dog-walker. He offered her a bright smile, said “hello” and went to stand to greet her, but she was quickly whooshed away and so Russell relaxed back into the chair instead, picking up a paper off the nearby table and flicking through to the entertainment section.

Eventually the relevant documents arrived and Russell signed his fee for the interview over to a local hospice. It wasn’t much really, but it would still help. He had just pocketed his pen and was getting ready to head out when he saw Idalia again, looking much less rushed than she had earlier. “Hello again, Idalia. It’s been a while. How are things with you? Is Ike well?”

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia was all business once she was out in front of her screen. Those forecasters who had shot their reels before her for years and years had left faint scuff marks on the ground and Idalia’s heels she was sure would in time also wear away the painted ground. No matter how much she would have liked to do this barefoot, it was, she had found relatively easy to tell the kinds of shoes one was wearing based on their stance. Besides Idalia found a certain kind of power came with wearing heels. Not only did it give her enough inches to look eye to eye with most men but there was something about the snap of heels on the ground that she found so commanding. She always had, even as a child. When she heard that sound something told her a strong woman was about and she hoped she emulated that when she walked and stood on set. And if that didn’t work her sharp tongue made up more than well enough.

Ida’s smile widened when Russell did indeed turn and smile. Good she’d remembered correctly. She wished she had time to chat, she really hated calling out and having to run but they weren’t exactly working with a flexible schedule. She was a professional and she had no problems focusing on the task at hand. This was what she lived for. However as soon as the camera was off, Ida gave a sigh of relief and took her offered water and sought out Russell to see if he was still around. She caught sight of him and a bright smile broke onto her face. She was glad he hadn’t escaped on her. She tossed her mane of dark hair over her shoulder and turned to greet him. “Russell,” She replied with a warm smile, “How—” Well he beat her to the punch and she hid her smile behind her hand and let him continue.

“It has. I’m doing well, how are you?” She returned politely. “He’s being his usual self,” she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. “How are your girls?” She returned with an inquisitive look, Mitten and Nessie, if she recalled correctly again. Taking another sip of her water she wondered if he was very busy today and moreover what brought him to the newsroom. This was indeed a pleasant surprise though. “What brings you over here?” She asked curiosity getting the best of her. Maybe it was rude but it wasn’t very often that someone she recognized appeared that she wasn’t expecting.

[Russell Sands]

Russell had never been the sort to be shy in front of a camera, and the interview went well and he found himself actually enjoying the experience. It wasn't every day that he got to give an interview like that and it was a good experience, and it of course helped that he knew the money was going to a cause that needed it a lot more than he did. It also helped that it got him out of the office for a while. As much as he loved his job, he appreciated occasionally being able to go to new places and do new things that weren't business appraisals and endless meetings.

That day at the park without her heels on Idalia had been a little taller than Russell. With them she towered over him but it did not bother or intimidate him in any way. He was used to people being taller than him; his brothers hadn't nicknamed him Runty for ironic reasons, though they tended to only use that nickname when they were in a position where Russell couldn't get to them to slap them. Idalia's warm smile was met by his own. "I would say it's a surprise to see you here, but that would be a lie. It is good to see you again, though."

Russell hadn't expected to run into Idalia today, but he was glad he had. He'd enjoyed her company on the little dog walking trip. Hopefully there would be another one soon enough; it had done the girls good to romp around with other dogs for a while. "I'm good, thanks. Busy, but good. The girls are great, as are the boys." Not too many people knew that Russell owned a small pack since he only tended to walk them two or three at once, unless he was short on time and had to take them all out at the same time. "Oh, I just had a quick interview with Tony. How businesses are faring in this economic climate, how businesses and customers can work together to make everything better for everyone, that kinda thing." Russell smiled easily and gave a soft chuckle. "All very boring, really." It was fascinating to him, but Russell was very well aware that not everyone would agree with him on that one. "Do you maybe want to grab a coffee or something before you have to go back in there?"

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia must not have noticed that she was taller than Russell but being in heels definitely put it into perspective, she didn’t consider herself extremely tall, maybe on the taller side of the bell curve but not by very much. She hoped he didn’t think she was looming or otherwise intimidated, but then again, Ida would not have been at all upset if he were intimidated by her, in fact she would have thought it would have spoken volumes more about Russell than about her. Some men simply couldn’t handle a strong woman. She really liked Russell too and she hadn’t gotten the impression that he was at all intimidated by her when they’d first met. His smile banished all thoughts and was a little bit disarming and Ida felt herself relax with her friend.

“Good to see you, too,” Ida replied with a smile, questions burning behind her teeth. “You should have told me you were coming.” The forecaster paused and raised a finger, recalling that she hadn’t actually given him her card or contact information. “Remind me to get you my card before you leave.” Idalia nodded along casually glancing up at the wall where the main clock was to make sure she wasn’t going to be short on time for a meeting or anything. The reel she’d just done was going to run on repeat for the next hour or so while she revised and edited her forecast to update it with new information. She smiled and nodded along her full attention coming back to Russell as he spoke. She was pleased to hear he was doing well and that his dogs were doing well, but the addition of ‘boys’ gave her pause. “Oh? Boys? I’m sorry, I thought it was just um… Mitten and Nessie?” She was now questioning if she had the right dogs, she sincerely hoped she hadn’t gotten them mixed up.

“Ah,” Idalia uttered simply in understanding a small smile on her face. She loved Tony, he was an interesting guy. They had flirted here and again, but Tony was in economics and so everything was business and profit and Idalia couldn’t stand it. Needless to say, it hadn’t gotten very far, but Idalia still considered him a good friend, and he was very knowledgeable. “Oh, well good, I hope it all went well, Tony really knows his stuff… oh um, I’m sure you do too,” she quickly added. “I’m sure it’s not,” Ida protested, “You’ll have to tell me about it.” Now Idalia did look directly at the clock. She clicked her tongue considering, technically she had lunch coming up soon, but she also hardly ever took lunch, except on special occasions. Without a word she allowed herself to unhinge from the present and closed her eyes, only to open them an hour later looking at the sky, gentle overhead and smooth. She blinked and was back in the present. “I should be good a little while, if you’ll just… you know what, follow me real quick.” She said and started away before he had a moment to protest and only spared a glance back to see if he was following.

[Russell Sands]

Russell always made it a point to speak well to people; he had been brought up to have good manners and naturally held a fair amount of charm. He disliked people who spoke down to others, or treated them with anything other than polite respect. Of course, being quite so friendly and bright was always made so much easier when one was speaking to someone with as much class, dignity and natural likeability as Idalia.

He smiled brightly, nodding as Idalia told him to remind her to give him her card. “I shall do. It’ll remind me to give you mine as well. If I can find them, anyway.” Russell’s pockets often gave him some difficulties, but for some reason his business card holder seemed to be the biggest repeat offender for getting lost deep down at the bottom of the pit that his pockets created. He often considered putting it on a string tied to the button, so at least he could just use that to pull it out when needed. But then of course he got home, forgot to do that, then ended up scrabbling around in the interdimensional space again next time he needed to hand out a card. Unprofessional, perhaps, but he supposed that it added a quirk of character. “Mitten and Nessie, that’s right. There’s also Stat and Outlast, the boys, and puppy Tia.” He gave a small shrug of his shoulders and chuckled. “I didn’t take them all out that day; I figured two tanks would be intimidating enough.”

There was also the cat, but Russell rarely talked about him. Half the time he pretended the cat didn’t exist, but that illusion was so often ended when one of the dogs started yelping in pain or fear yet again. Russell was prepared to swear that Nico was actually a demon in cat form. “Yeah, it went pretty well. Tony seems like a good guy.” He gave a soft laugh at her gentle protesting about it not being boring. “Perhaps I might, if you can spare the time.” Russell waited patiently while she did… whatever it was she was doing when she closed her eyes, but there was a definite look of curiosity across his features when she glanced back at him as he followed her wherever she was heading, easily keeping pace. “Lead the way.”

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Ida laughed easily and nodded her head. She had seen more than a few people fumble with business cards. She was always envious that a man could just reach into his pocket and pull out a card. Idalia’s small collection always seemed to find its way to the very bottom of her purse. She did have a special wallet like card holder which she kept other’s cards in, for the purpose of making sure people knew that she wasn’t just going to take their card and never look at it again. Even if she never actually made the initiation to contact someone who had given her their card, she had it and usually made a note or two to remind herself of their conversation, therefore when she went to a conference when she went home she could recall that this person was a person to ask about a certain theory.

Nodding, those were the two she remembered and her brows steadily rose as he started listing more. She mouthed a ‘wow’ and shared in his small chuckle. “I can imagine, I bet you have your hands more than full!” Five dogs! That was insanity! Idalia could barely handle her one. “Are they as big as Nessie and Mitten?” She asked curious about his menagerie. She wondered how he did it, he must have about seven sets of eyes that he hid away. She smiled at the thought of the myth of Argus Panoptes over the heifer-nymph Io. She shook her head, banishing the passing thought and focusing again on what he was saying. It was probably a good thing he didn’t bring all of them, not only would he have been responsible for all of them but there had been so many other dogs it would have been well impossible to keep control of all of them.

“He is, he is,” Idalia agreed with a smile, they might not agree but he was a good guy, and with her confirmation that things were not going to go to hell if she took her lunch break a little early. She deserved a lunch break for once the way she saw it, she was so busy most of the time that she found that she was eating a quick lunch in the office discussing weather or at her desk trying to figure out why some code or another wasn’t working. “That would be nice,” she said, realizing she hadn’t actually answered him before she went into her trance. She led him out of the hall where the green screen and anchors were stationed. “I’ve just gotta grab my stuff and let my coworkers know I’ll be gone for a bit,” She said as she led him down the hall and up a flight of stairs. She let him through the Watchfloor, which consisted of mostly computer monitors and was about a frigid as the arctic. More than one person was bundled up.

At the front of the room several large screens were projecting current radar and satellite images as well as warnings put out by the Storm Prediction Center and the National Weather Service. She touched a man’s shoulder as she passed. “Hey, I’m going to take lunch for a bit, call me if anything happens.”

“Right on, Ida,” he gave her a look when he saw her companion and she swatted at him. He chuckled and turned back to his monitor. She rolled her eyes and walked into the office with an open door, a small plaque by the door read: ‘Chief Meteorologist’ with a sliding plate under it: ‘Dr. Idalia Tsavaris’. Inside her desk was covered with hand done analysis and papers, hand written notes on codes or side projects were scrawled and scattered haphazardly around her own computer. Her degrees hung on the wall behind her. On another shelf was a small collection of pictures. One consisting of a huge group of people, the entirety of her family it seemed, one of her adorable Ike, and an older picture of a group of ten girls, among them Idalia, who was no more than eighteen at the time. Books filled the case on wall, it would have been a cramped space if it weren’t for the large windows that lined the outside wall. Idalia grabbed her purse from under her desk and started back toward the door before lifting a finger and making an ‘Ah-ha!’ noise. She reached into her drawer and plucked a card out of her pile and held it out.

[Russell Sands]

There were many things that Russell would be very happy to talk about all day, but the main one was his dogs. He was exceptionally proud of his little pack and their achievements, and he often had to remind himself in conversations that not everyone else loved them quite as much as he did. As such, over the years he had learned how to limit his chatter about them a bit, but... well, Idalia had asked first. “Yeah; between the five of them they keep me busy. It was worse when I had all the puppies too, but I do admit, I miss them. A few of their owners keep in touch still, though.”

Russell gave a small nod as she asked about the boys. “Yeah, they're a bit bigger, actually. Outlast is  tallest, but Stat is chunkiest. He's a like a bull in dog form. Tia is Stat and Nessie's pup, and she's growing insanely quickly. I've got a few pictures of them all on my phone, if you want to see later?”

As Idalia came out of her trance-like thing, whatever the heck it was, he smiled and nodded as she said she'd have to grab her stuff first. “No problem; take however long you need. I'm in no rush to get back.” That was part of the joy of owning his own business, especially one that didn't have a fixed schedule that he had to always adhere too. As long as he had no meetings to attend he could take an hour out and it wouldn't matter, and his dogs were more than okay being left in the house for a while, even if the furniture might not be. Puppy teeth seemed capable of chewing through absolutely everything.

Following Idalia through the building, Russell's eyes kept glancing around with curious interest. He had (obviously) never been through these sections before and he had a quiet fascination for how things looked behind the scenes. Blue eyes flicked over the screens and pictures on the walls, taking it in as much as he could as they flitted past, and when they got to her office Russell halted at the doorway. He had better manners than to just wander into someone's office without their permission, and it always bugged him when people did it to him. Russell was looking at the pictures on the shelf when she made her wordless announcement of discovery, looking over to see her retrieving one of her cards from the drawer and holding it out.

That was the permission Russell needed to head in, and he did so and took the offered card with a polite smile. “Thanks.” It took him a moment rummaging deep in his pocket to find the little silver card holder, and he tucked Idalia's card neatly into the holding slot in the lid before sliding out one of his own and passing it to her with a quiet laugh. “You're lucky. It normally takes me the best part of a day to find that.” After she took the card he pocketed his card holder again. “Do you have anywhere in particular in mind that you'd like to go? You undoubtedly know this area a lot better than I do.”

[Idalia Tsavaris]

They definitely shared a love of dogs, but on Idalia’s end Ike was quite enough of a handful on his own. She shook her head a little, still completely shocked that he had five dogs. That was quite impressive. “All the puppies?” She asked curiously, she knew someone who was looking for a dog, she wasn’t sure if Derek would want a puppy but she was definitely curious. Nothing was happier than a pack of puppies. “Oh, but I bet it was wonderful,” she mused imagining piles of puppies and snuggling with dozens of adorable little creatures. She got lost in her own imagination and realized he was speaking again and shook herself back into attention.

Ida laughed as she imagined that, “He’d probably give even Ike a run for his money,” she commented. Great Danes were more like trains on stilts. They were huge but they were more lanky than anything else. Ike was pretty thick though, by no means a skinny thing, but he wasn’t quite as muscled as some other big dogs were. “Oh really?” She asked in fascination, that was absolutely wonderful. She wondered if he was some sort of breeder on the side. “Absolutely!” She cried like an excited child before she could stop herself. She realized that when she clapped her hands and smiled excitedly at him. She turned around as she walked to compose herself and pretend that hadn’t happened.

She nodded and glanced over her shoulder at him as she went toward her office. She was taking a brisk walk not wanting to keep him, nor did she want to waste any of her time, she really wasn’t comfortable leaving during the work day for extended periods of time, today she would make the exception for a friend. He was a fellow dog lover and that lit him well in her eyes and she had to admit to herself that he wasn’t bad on the eyes. She shook the thought away slightly, but her friend’s comment had her blushing despite her efforts not to. She smiled to herself when her backward glance caught him looking around. Not everyone got to see this side of a new station, he was lucky.

Idalia barely took notice of his manners until he stepped into the room belatedly. She wasn’t a very picky person, actually she liked having an open door. Unless she had her door closed she welcomed company and people. Granted there were times when she would prefer to be left alone, but then she mostly closed her door and people took the message. It would not have bothered her in the least if he just strolled on in, in fact it surprised her when he didn’t. Mostly people who were new or unfamiliar with Idalia knocked on the door before she welcomed them, but the people who she’d been working with for years now just strolled right in and took a seat. So long as they weren’t interrupting her work or had something work related to talk about she didn’t take offense.

She smiled in return as she took his card. She laughed and placed the card on her keyboard so that she would remember it, if he got onto her desk if would get lost in her mess of papers. “Thank you,” she said in return. She slung her bag over her shoulder and the large tote like bag hung against her hip. “Uh,” she put a hand to her forehead as she thought for a moment. “There is a nice café a few blocks down, there is a cute little coffee shop across the street,” she offered as she stepped back toward the door. “What is it that you do, Russell?” She asked curious about his career and how it had brought him to the news station. She closed the door behind them and locked it before motioning for him to walk with her. “Is there any in particular you were looking to try, there is this good Greek place, if you’re feeling lunch, a woman from my church owns it.” Call it stereotypical but yes, there were Greeks that owned kafenia.

[Russell Sands]

By now Russell was pretty used to people reacting that way when they discovered he had five dogs. Especially since they were five rather huge dogs; it would likely have been less of a shock if they were all Chihuahua’s or some other small, pointless breed. He gave a small nod and smile when she asked about his mention of puppies. “Yeah, I had a litter of seven born early this year. It was amazing, if tiring. Hard to think sometimes that such massive mutts come from such tiny balls of fur.”

Russell gave a soft laugh. “I’d be interesting to see those two play fighting; I bet it’d be a real close call. Thankfully Stat’s pretty mellow; he’s a big teddy bear and gets on with mostly everyone and everything, as long as they aren’t being a threat.” The hulking male had spooked the pants off several baits at Schutzhund trials before now with his off-ON attitude. He had a habit of lying so still and calm, seeming aware of what was going on but completely relaxed and mellow. Even during gunfire tests and with people running around waving sticks he didn’t bat an eyelid and just lay perfectly quietly and serenely. But as soon as they got too close or Russ gave the word, he’d leap up like there was a bomb under him and hit like a train, immovable jaws latching down until he was called out. He always scored incredibly well in the protection tests for that, and Russell never felt safer out walking than when he had his guardian marshmallow with him.

Russell was quickly learning that it was very easy to like Idalia, and at her incredibly endearing (and rather cute, he had to admit) squee over the prospect of getting to see puppy pictures Russell chuckled softly and gave her a warm smile. “Gladly.” He easily kept pace with her as she walked briskly through the building, the California boy taking in as much as he could of what was going on around them and waited patiently at the door.

It was not at all that Russell didn’t like company or conversation; in fact, the exact opposite was true. He was very much a socialite and thrived on being around others, but when he was in his office he had to focus completely on what he was doing otherwise he got too distracted by everything else. If someone interrupted him mid-flow of reviewing a business assessment to talk about their weekend, there was a very high chance the rest of the afternoon would then be spent planning his next weekend break in the mountains. He was never rude when interrupted, but he did tend to prefer to have a chance to prioritise things before getting involved in other distractions in case his attention got too scattered. This had evolved over time into him respecting other people's offices in the same way.

As Idalia motioned for him to walk with her Russell gave a small nod and did so, falling into step easily at her side. “I'm an investor. I put money, resources and time into fledgling companies so they get a chance to fly, in return for a share in the business.” He chuckled softly. “I warned you it's kinda boring, really. Well, not to me, but to everyone else. Nowhere near as exciting as somewhere like this.” Idalia spoke about a Greek place, and Russell nodded enthusiastically. “Sounds great; it's not often I get to have decent Greek food that isn't from one chain store or another.”

[Idalia Tsavaris]

It was a wonder that he had enough space to move about, Ida thought, but then she was still thinking that he lived in an apartment, it was a fairly uninformed guess based off the fact that she herself still lived in one. She just couldn’t find the benefit of buying a house, though maybe a townhouse or something so Ike might have a little bit of a yard would be nice. Her mother blamed it on her financial status. While Idalia was making fairly good money her graduation present to herself had been a deep financial dig. Well, she certainly got plenty of use out of her Pegasus. The single row boat was a source of immense peace when it seemed like the world was spinning too fast.

“Seven?” She repeated breathlessly. Wow, that was impressive. “Oh, Russell, I require pictures.” She smiled broadly, how sweet. She didn’t know how he did it but the idea of someone having so many dogs and raising puppies, well, it was hard to find someone better than that. Ida laughed and shook her head. She didn’t really like the idea of Ike play fighting with any other dog, but she had to admit it would be interesting. “I don’t know, Ike is more of the taunt and run type,” she giggled imagining Ike batting at a small tank. “Oh good. I know it’s hard for people to not be afraid of big dogs I’ve found. I mean Ike is about the biggest pansy on the planet but walking down the street you’d think I was walking with my personal guard.” That wasn’t to say that Ike wouldn’t hurt someone if they tried to hurt her. She’d never been in that position so she didn’t know but Ike had shown more sense to her mood than she expected.

As much as she tried to hide it, her smiled grew as she was promised puppy pictures. Really Ida, she scolded herself, you’re a grown woman. Retrospectively she realized she should have offered him a tour, maybe another time when they weren’t on a time crunch. She wasn’t sure how keen he was on coming back but at the end of her shift she would be more than happy to show him around and explain things to him. She wondered how he had handled all of the puppies again. That was a lot of puppies. It must have been hard to give them up, Ida knew she would have wanted to keep the pile of puppies to herself, problem being that they would grow up and grow up big and well seven large dogs along with the original five made for a great deal of cramped space.

Idalia, and most of the people in the office for that matter, had been to graduate school or some form of atmospheric undergraduate program. Maybe it was part of the field but it was very collaborative and there was a great deal of understanding one’s own work pace and understanding of other’s work habits. Often times labs were several people and in graduate school she’d been one of eight people in an office and while it got distracting they also knew very well how to take themselves back to their work, maybe it was the field or maybe it was just Idalia, everyone was different. Even on her watchfloor she knew there were people who worked best without being bothered, there were those who, like Russell would talk all day about their weekends if they weren’t careful.

Watching him with interest as she walked she nodded slightly. She’d never thought that that was a thing that people did, she couldn’t help but wonder if he came from money to be able to put money into new companies. Ida laughed realizing she was giving him a blank stare, which he translated into boredom, oops. “Oh no, I’m sorry I’m just… I never thought about that. I guess I don’t really understand how that all works,” she admitted, “But I’ll tell you what exciting isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. I am constantly running out of time.” Twenty four hours simply wasn’t enough time. Idalia smiled and said, “Great! It’s really good, she does an amazing job.” She led him down the stairs a different way and out onto the street. Her heels clicked smartly on the pavement but she wasn’t as sturdy as she would like to be on the uneven ground. “It’s only a block or so that way.” She gestured randomly. “So do you normally work within the businesses you help or do you have several going on at the same time?” She asked curious about his work.

[Russell Sands]

Russell’s smile was bright and easy, and he gave an enthusiastic nod of his head. “Puppy pictures shall definitely be seen, as soon as we’re sat down so you can actually see them. I’ll admit, I get a bit camera-happy with them. Tia especially; she’s such a little bundle of love and happiness.” Russell hadn’t actually intended to keep any of the puppies from the litter, but in the end he hadn’t been able to part with Tia. Out of all of them she was the one he had bonded with the most, and he did not at all regret the decision to keep her. She was maturing into a fine young dog, and he had high hopes she would achieve the same greatness as her parents.

“Honestly? If I saw you and Ike walking down the street, I wouldn’t mess with you either. That’s one of the good things about big dogs; they’re such an effective deterrent against idiots.” When Elizabeth had been around she had always gone for walks around town with one of the dogs, especially if she’d had to go out at night or if she was carrying something obviously valuable. Nothing said ‘back off, dickhead’ quite as well as 125lbs of barking muscle.

There had of course been times when Russell had considered working with dogs full time. If he didn’t have all the businesses under his net he would actually have time in the day to train them up to a higher standard and compete them far more often than he currently could. That in turn would add a small fortune to the price of each of the pups that he produced. However, he wasn’t sure any more if he could cope without the pressures and dramas and excitement of having so many enterprises running, and he was too afraid of the possibility that he could end up becoming just another commercial breeder. If he kept his pack small he could maintain the standards and quality, without the risk of starting to see them as dollar signs and not as individual companions.

Idalia’s blank stare as he spoke about what he actually did for a living was met with a laugh and a small shake of his head. “Don’t worry about it; sometimes even I’m not a hundred percent sure what I’m doing. I imagine it can get incredibly chaotic here, but at least you can’t ever really get bored when it’s like that.” Unlike when he had to complete endless amounts of paperwork. Russell followed her down the stairs and out onto the street, stepping easily beside her and idly scanning around at the world as they passed by. “I always have a few going at once, but I always do what I can to get them up and running. Sometimes I’ll assist with recruiting new staff, developing product lines, that kinda thing, but it’s mainly my finances and advice that they need. Especially when it’s a new graduate or youngster that’s setting it up.” He looked up at Idalia as they walked. “What about you? Did you always want to be a meteorologist?”

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia shook her head, indicating that she didn’t mind. Really she could look at puppy pictures all day if she had the time. One of her friends had casually commented that for every picture on Facebook that their friends had of their significant other, Idalia had an equal number of pictures of her dog. It had been a humorous statement but not altogether an exaggeration. It wasn’t Idalia’s fault that boys never really seemed to stick around. “Aren’t all dogs?” She replied with an arched brow. She’d never seen a creature so optimistic as a dog. Ike, the ever hopeful, always sat nicely watching her with those puppy eyes even though she never shared her dinner. Well, almost never…

With a laugh she waved a hand. “I mean I suppose but you’ve met Ike, he could no more hurt someone than I could fly.” She supposed it didn’t matter, all Ike had to do was look intimidating and people would stay away from her. She gestured and nodded in agreement then. “Well, I’m glad for that, I’m not exactly someone who can keep regular hours. I’m just glad it hasn’t seemed to be hard on Ike.” It was hard to have shifting schedules and schedules that could change at a moment’s notice. Ike never seemed to mind so long as they got to spend time together and he got his walks day after day. Now that he was better behaved Idalia was considering seeing if her boss would allow her to let the dog hang out in the office with her.

Idalia didn’t understand it and Idalia didn’t like it when she didn’t understand something. It was something that honestly drove her mad. Like computers, sure she could program pretty well but it wasn’t without having someone very painstakingly walking her through the steps. She could branch off from there. She still remembered learning programming in college and how much hair pulling and swearing there had been in her office. Ida laughed, it was always comforting to know that for some reason. It was like what she did when new interns came, she liked to make sure that they knew that she had problems and there were things she struggled with too. If not then it was all too likely that someone would give up, thinking that there was no way they were cut out for a job like this. Partially Idalia wished forecasting jobs were more like apprenticeships. College was an absolute necessity but forecasting took practice more than anything else.

“So long as you’re doing something,” Idalia supplied, “I’m sure you’re one of the best.” She beamed at him and laughed, giving him a weary look. “No it is certainly never boring. I tell you the day goes too fast. I start the day with a list. I’m going to make my forecast, make my images, make my presentation, record it. Then I’m going to update it, read a few papers, see if I can do a little work on a project and then the next thing I know I have to update my forecast again and next thing I know after this I should have left the station an hour ago and I still haven’t read any papers.” She laughed holding her fingers up to count off the things she tried to do and the things she failed to get done. “So are you like a consultant then? I can imagine it must be hard to help a small company rise in the midst of all of these other super companies around.” She looked around, she liked this area, it wasn’t so much a lot of big chains but a lot of ‘mom and pop’ stores.

Idalia took her time answering that question. Her eyes turned up to the sky and she tilted her head to the side. “Hmmm, yes and no. When I would younger I wanted to be a journalist. You know, travel the world and write stories of the places I’d been. Meteorology, for a lot of people, myself included, is a sort of calling.” She smiled, if one didn’t absolutely love the atmosphere then there was no way they were going to force themselves through all of the math and physics. “I was always fascinated by the sky, and when I got my power it just hit me. I had to know why things worked the way they did.” She turned to Russel and giggled realizing she was drifting away in awareness. The profession was hard and it gave Idalia a great deal of stress but she loved it. “What about you? What did you want to be when you grew up?”

[Russell Sands]

Russell could not disagree with her statement, and he nodded in agreement. “They are. Even Stat, giant drooling monster that he is, looks so pitifully adorable when he wants something. He’s always dreaming, and so often he ends up barking and waking himself up. It’s kinda hard to take him seriously once you’ve seen him spook himself awake.” Russell laughed softly, glad that there was someone he could so openly talk about his dogs with without sounding like a boring lunatic. “I bet Ike still has cute puppy moments.”

He laughed softly at her next statement about Ike. “He doesn’t need to hurt anyone to be intimidating. A dog the size of a small pony charging at someone is scary, especially if they don’t know that all he wanted to do was be their friend and maybe try to steal a treat.” Russell could understand her next comment though, and he gave a small sympathetic smile. “Yeah, it’s hard when you work so much. You want to spend so much time with them, but you just can’t find the hours in the day.”

At the mention of her saying he was probably one of the best, Russell let out a quiet laugh of surprise but his smile was brightened as he gave a shrug of his shoulders. “Not even close, but that’s very kind of you to say, thanks.” As Idalia was listing off the things she had to get done in the day Russell listened intently, gaze travelling from her face to the path ahead and back again. “Wow, I certainly don’t envy you that schedule. I wont be complaining next time I have nothing to do but paperwork.” A lie, of course. He would always complain about paperwork.

“For the businesses under my wing I do consult, yeah. It’s just as important for me as it is for them that they do well, so whatever they need, I provide to the best of my ability.” After all, a failing business was not just no profit for the owners, it was no money for him either. Idalia’s casual mention of having a power took him a little by surprise, but it also made sense. Maybe that was what happened when she went into a little trance-type thing earlier. He made a mental note to ask her about it later, if the conversation migrated that way. Idalia’s laugh was lovely, and it caused another smile to grace Russell’s face. “I’m glad you got to do something you obviously love so much. When she asked about what he wanted to do Russell gave a small shrug. “This, really. When I was a kid I always used to get in trouble for trying to sell things I shouldn’t – my toys, my brother’s toys, my brother.” He laughed softly. “I always wanted something business based… though my mom does enjoy telling the story that when I was really young, I desperately wanted to be an aeroplane.”

[Idalia Tsavaris]

Idalia laughed before she could stop herself and ended up blurting out a giggle and covering her mouth to keep the sound from coming out as a blast. “Aw, that is too precious!” She could just picture it. A huge intimidating beast scaring itself into wakefulness and looking around for reassurance. She’d seen Ike do that more than once. Russell’s laugh warmed her heart, it wasn’t often a fellow dog lover could talk about their dogs without people getting bored. “Oh yes,” she agreed with a nod thinking of the last time Ike had had a puppy moment. He’d curled up on the couch and forgotten how big he was. He ended up sliding, rather slowly, as Idalia watched. She expected him to catch himself but instead he found himself comfortably sandwiched between the couch and coffee table looking at her with his dopey grin. “He still forgets he’s huge sometimes,” she said, “It’s rather uncomfortable when he tries to crawl into your lap.”

“True,” Ida had to agree, if it wasn’t her dog, she didn’t care if it was nice or not if something like Ike came running at her she’d have a heart attack. Ike did have a pretty intimidating bark when he wanted to, and people usually took him at his work, though his bark was far worse than his bite. She smiled, it was nice of someone to understand. Cecil did as well, he helped out a hell of a lot with Ike. She was really finding her favorite people were definitely the people she’d met through the fact that they had a mutual love of dogs. “I keep meaning to ask if I can bring him into work, I mean he would be really excited but he’d calm down eventually. It would be nice to have him around here.”

Ida blinked in surprise at his laugh and looked at him her smile mimicking his soon after. She waved a hand dismissively. “Such humility,” she teased. At least he loved what he did. She found that people who didn’t enjoy what they did weren’t only mediocre at their job but they definitely were very unpleasant to be around. Sure Idalia could go on and on with complains and rants about her job, but at her core she loved it. Even though she forgot that fact sometimes. “Eh,” she shrugged, “It’s not so bad, sometimes I just wish I had more time.” Now he got a startled laugh out of her. “Ugh, now that is something we can agree on. There is a never a reason not to complain about paper work!”

She listened intently, wanting to understand. For her the whole business thing was a fairly abstract beast. “So are you more in tune with the stock market or do you help with stuff like advertising?” She asked her hunger for knowledge starting to show. Ida’s expression softened and her eyes unconsciously drifted skyward. “Yeah,” she simply agreed. She loved and hated the atmosphere but it was the mystery she couldn’t unravel and it was the mystery she was most starved to know. She looked back at Russell as he started speaking again. She giggled softly and could imagine that would be a nightmare for a parent. “Do you just have one brother?” She asked curiously. She couldn’t hold back a guffaw as he surprised and treated her to that little sliver of his personal past. “How precious!” She cried holding her hands to her lips to suppress her giggles. “Well, you know what they say, dream big!”

The little restaurant came into view, a bright blue awning in a sea of muted reds and browns. “Ah, here we are,” she said happily and took a few steps forward to open the door for him. Now Ida wasn’t really thinking about how it probably looked, she appreciated gentlemanliness, but damned if she wouldn’t prove she could open a door. She knew there was no victory in this, really she just thought it would be a nice gesture. She hoped he wouldn’t think she was odd. A young woman greeted them and after a promise from the girl to give her mother Ida’s love she showed them to a table.