Endless Paperwork (Tracy)

[Midori Hawkins]

Sometimes Midori had a hard time believing that she wasn't the new kid on the recruiting block anymore. They'd had several come and go since she'd started, but even now that she'd been back for over a year since her maternity leave, it felt more like she knew what she was doing. Sure, every recruitment was different, but she felt more prepared for whatever happened to be around the corner.

She still looked over initial incident reports for James when he was short on time, or overloaded. She'd learned to do them when she was pregnant and unable to travel as much, and didn't mind helping him out from time to time. Sadly, that would have been much more interesting than what she was doing now. All trips came with what seemed like more and more paperwork each time, and that was for routine trips. Incident reports only increased that workload. Thankfully, Mii hadn't had to do one of those for a while.

Granted, James had been keeping her on an easier workload since she'd come off of maternity leave. She'd noticed an increase in her trips recently, though none of them had been terribly far away. It just meant that things were returning to normal. Now that Tory was older, she didn't mind it as much. He was just about as bonded to Eli as he was to her, and she knew that Eli liked the company. (Not as much as when everyone was home, but Tory was good company in her absence.)

Midori knew she wasn't the only one in the recruiter bullpen. A mix of them were out on assignment, but a handful remained either waiting for a file to land on their desk, or were doing paperwork from their last trip.

She fell into the latter category. She was nearly done, though, which was nice. It meant she could go pick up Tory from daycare and let him 'help' make dinner as they waited for Eli to finish up. It was a good plan, and it made her work that much harder at finishing her papers. As long as no interruptions happened, she'd be home free in less than an hour.

[Tracy Jade]

Why? Why did something like this have to happen? Tracy had recruited a handful of teenagers now, and this one didn’t seem like it was going to be any different. His mother had always said he had a gift for teens, even though they were difficult most of the time. It had been his mom’s suggestion to apply at Hammel, make something of his life, and after she passed away, well, it seemed like a sign. Since starting at Hammel, he felt like he was making a difference in not only supporting his family, but finding something he was good at. But today, well, every job had bad days, right?

Walking into the office, Tracy had a glum look on his face. This was his first incident, and he felt guilty. It wasn’t like he thought he would be perfect forever here, but there was a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach he just couldn’t shake. Tracy plucked out the appropriate pages from the filing cabinet and sat down at the large oak table in the middle of the room. Plenty of communal space around here. Hammel seemed to thrive on teamwork. Tracy liked taking on the harder cases, but this, this had turned into a disaster.

Pen to his lips, Tracy had a deep furrow between his eyebrows. What the hell? he thought, looking at the boxes to check and the place for comments. How was he supposed to do this exactly? And what did ‘thoughts on why this happened’ mean? He put a hand to his head. As if he had control over how a teenager’s father reacted to the situation.

“I didn’t sign up for this,” he said, more to himself than anyone else around him. Tracy stood up and walked over to the window, needing a break from his own memories for what had happened. No incident report could fix it, and being a trained psychologist, he wanted to do so much more than paperwork.

[Midori Hawkins]

Midori hadn’t technically met Tracy yet, but she knew who he was. She was familiar with the team as a whole, though they really didn’t work together much unless it was time for the mess of paperwork. Unless something had gone terribly wrong, it was usually a bit of a social event, and as long as everyone got everything done and submitted on time, no one seemed to mind much.

She had been at her desk when Tracy had walked in, but she hadn’t paid him much attention. The recruitment office was always full of people coming and going at will. It was more worrying if everyone was actually there at the same time during lulls of manifestations. Hopefully that wouldn’t be the case anytime soon, or some of them might find themselves out of a job.

The shapeshifter signed off on another form and flipped it over to her ‘finished’ pile. Only a few more, and she could escape and pick up her son. The thought made her smile as she filled out the next one. Of course, nothing could go that smoothly. At Tracy’s declaration she finally looked up from her papers and watched him move.

... Hopefully it was just the mass of forms he had to fill out that was bothering him. He was still new to the team, and she could understand that. With that in mind, she pushed her chair back and got up to approach him. “Hi. Um, it’s... Tracy, right?” She really hoped she was right. “I’m Midori. We haven’t really met yet.” She offered a small, tentative smile. “Rough trip, or just too many forms?” Either way, she hoped just talking about it was the answer.

[Tracy Jade]

Dropping the contemplative hand that had been hovering around his mouth, Tracy managed a smile. First impressions weren’t really his thing, but at least someone was expressing concern. “Right, Tracy Jade. I haven’t really been here that long, so don’t worry about it.” There were so many different staff members here at Hammel, it wasn’t just teachers. Tracy was having a hard time remembering everyone, although a few did stick out in his mind – like Ferris.

She had a kind look about her, something akin to understanding. It made him cave. “It’s just one form, but it was a bad trip.” He put a hand on his neck subconsciously, unaware of the pent up stress that would cause him to stay up all night later that day.

“I was a state over,” he began, “and the kid I was trying to find, he looked petrified when he answered the door, and when I tried to explain things to his dad, well...” Tracy’s brow furrowed. “Let’s just say I’m not sure how to get this particular young man here, where it’s safe.” He was really doing his best to stay professional about all this without ranting about useless fathers. It was unwise to mix personal life with your daytime job.

[Midori Hawkins]

Oh good, she had gotten it right after all. Mii managed a relieved little smile up at him. "It's nice to finally meet you, then." She liked the majority of the team, even if she didn't see them all that much. At least they tended to band together following things like difficult recruitments. They had to, really. They'd all go crazy without someone else knowing how it felt to face scared kids and irate parents.

One form, bad trip. That could only mean one thing. Incident report, joy of joys. Poor Tracy. "I'm sorry. That's never fun." Hopefully he had gotten it worked out. Well, if he hadn't, she supposed that that was one of the reasons they had Dr. Campbell as back up. He seemed able to handle any kind of recruitment problem with relative ease. If only she could be that good. Maybe one day.

When Tracy continued, Midori's expression went from slight concern to full blown worry. Sure, it was a shock to non-meta parents to learn of their children's new status, but this... Perhaps James would have to step in after all. "He refused to let him go?" She had questions now. What about the mother? Was the father aware of how potentially dangerous declining training could be? "What sort of power does he have?" Maybe it was best to start there. An untrained biological manipulator was marginally better than an untrained pyrokinetic, but the fact remained that training was needed. "Have you spoken to James about it yet? He might be able to help." More than she could, anyway. She understood how terrible it might feel to have your child pulled away from you, but she also understood the value of training. Still, itdidn't make the idea of Tory ever having to be away from her any more appealing. Good thing she worked at Hammel. If her son turned out to carry the meta gene, at least he would stay close.

[Tracy Jade]

Tracy allowed himself to smile despite the situation. "I haven't met a lot of staff, I'm usually on runs," he explained, not that he had to, only that he wished he could meet more of the staff. It would be nice if there were get togethers he could pop in on once in a while. But it was good to know he wasn't the only recruiter and that help was always offered if one were brave enough to ask for it.

Tracy shook his head, no, it had been anything but fun. Most people were shocked, but the explanation he gave seemed to make sense and offer insight and then shock was replaced by relief. Most parents were glad their children weren't demon possessed or going crazy, and the kids were even happier with the news. There was a reason why Tracy had walked away today in frustration, and that was because there was no getting through to the dad of the teenager he was trying to recruit. He was rusty in his training.

Being bombarded with questions, Tracy furrowed his brow. "Well, he started screaming profanities and telling me where to go and how to get there." Tracy had only stood there in shock as the door was slammed on his face. "The power in question is mind-body separation, mind teleportation," he said, not trying to undermine Midori's knowledge, but simply reiterating what he had read on the file. Shaking his head 'no', Tracy leaned more on his left foot than the right. "I'll show him the report once it's done," he said with a sigh. Maybe talking about it didn't fix the problem, but he did feel better about it. Coping by talking, it was something he did a lot when the circumstances were immoveable.

[Midori Hawkins]

“Yes, that’s the fun part of recruiting. The whole time is almost never here, so it takes forever to meet everyone. Occasionally James throws a get together at his place, when most of us are here. You should come to the next one.” It would be nice to have another friendly face at one of the recruiter parties. Or just another person on the team that she knew on sight. It made things like tandem recruitment trips a lot easier if you knew the other person.

Oh no. The head shaking more or less summed it up for Midori. She’d seen others with that look, and it was rarely, if ever, a good thing. She had been lucky that, while scary, her own recruitment as a teenager had been smooth. Her recruiter had been wonderful, and he had reassured her parents and her brothers about everything. Though her parents had been reluctant to let her go, she’d eventually gone with him and learned to control her power. Poor Tracy. Clearly he hadn’t been so lucky.

Oh goodness. “That’s... charming.” She’d had the good fortune not to be subjected to such a thing, but she was well aware that it was only a matter of time before that changed. She had no idea how she would cope with that, either, beyond calling James for back-up and trying not to shake or anything like that. “Of course it would be something difficult to learn. Why are those always the problem cases?” Why couldn’t the parents be more protective of children with something less potentially harmful? “Well, it’ll be fine, I’m sure. James knows how to deal with parents like that. I promise, it was nothing you did.” She tried to smile brightly and gave Tracy’s arm a light, reassuring pat. “Do you need a hand with it? I had to review some of the reports before I went on maternity leave. It was about all I was good for.”

[Tracy Jade]

If Tracy were a dog, his ears would’ve perked up and his tail would’ve started to wag at the mention of a staff get together. He knew that most work places didn’t have these types of things on a regular basis but damn, he would take what he could get. “I’d really like that. I haven’t been gone from town that long, but man it feels like forever.” Another lifetime ago, but they weren’t here to talk about that.

“Charming, yeah, that’s a good word for it.” Tracy said sarcastically, though he smiled, meaning nothing but banter by the comment. Why? Why did people have to be so ignorant? “I guess I don’t really come off as the trusting type either.” Not everyone liked the tattoos, especially people who were older with children. He wasn’t trying to disfigure himself or look tough, he just liked tattoos.

Nodding and giving Midori a thankful smile, Tracy gestured towards the table. “Well, thanks for letting me vent, but I guess the paperwork isn’t going to do itself, right?” But then she offered to help, and Tracy found himself backtracking towards her. “Really? Because you seemed like you were in a rush to leave.” Yes he had been stuck in his own troubles, but he also took the time to notice those around him.

Leading them back to the table, Tracy sat and began filling out the file. The first few parts were standard: name, students’ name, address, etc. He glanced back to her. “I really appreciate this,” he said, the pen in his hand tapping against the table. “Is there a nice way to sum up a parent telling you to get the hell out of their house and take the devil worship with you?”

[Midori Hawkins]

“It always does. Especially when you have a toddler at home.” At least she always knew that Tory was in good hands with Eli. Her best friend had more or less become who Tory associated with the role of his father. And why wouldn’t he? He was always around. “I’m sure there will be another one soon,” she assured. It had been a while, and over the summer things seemed to slacken a bit with recruitments.

“People need to realize that trusting someone is more than skin deep.” It was something she’d hated about her last job. Her former manager had been rather... outspoken about meta humans in general. It hadn’t been easy to listen to that. “If you work for Hammel, it says a lot about how trustworthy you are.” Sadly, not everyone knew that. Sigh.

“See, that would be a handy power. Auto completion of forms.” Sadly shapeshifting did not lend itself to such a thing. As for her own rush, well... “I’m was going to pick up my son a little early from daycare, but he’ll have fun if I leave him for a few more minutes.” She was fine to help out for a few minutes.

She followed him back to the table and slid into the seat beside him to look it over. “It’s no problem,” she assured. “But there really isn’t a nice way to put it. I’d just... maybe just write out your account of it. Anything he said that you remember clearly, put in quotations. It’ll be an interesting read for James, unfortunately.”

[Tracy Jade]

Tracy smiled, nodding in understanding. “I can’t really speak for toddlers, but I can speak for teenagers.” He laughed then, reminded of his half-sister. She was a real treat, and he often ran into her at Hammel. Like him, she too, had powers. Sarah wasn’t as moody as some of the teenagers he had had to deal with. “Awesome, just let me know. My schedule is completely free.” Well, other than work. But Midori had a toddler – he would keep that in mind.

“Exactly. You took the words right out of my mouth.” Judge first and ask questions later wasn’t his motto. It was something which had prevented him from obtaining a job as a psychologist, but he was here now and that’s what mattered. Tracy shrugged, “This particular guy didn’t seem interested in credentials, and I guess anyone can pretend.” Some parents had trust issues with someone taking their child away. “Needless to say my badge didn’t help anything.” Of course recruiters didn’t have badges, he was just being silly, but the father for this case wasn’t interested in seeing that Tracy was indeed, telling the truth.

“Maybe technology will help us out with that in the future,” he said, not like it didn’t help anyone now. Tracy frowned. He didn’t want to keep her from her family, but she didn’t seem too annoyed and Tracy relaxed into himself once more. He’d find a way to return the favor some time.

Setting to work, Tracy began writing down in its entirety, the story of only hours ago. James would certainly be thrilled to hear everything that was said about Hammel and the people who worked there and the students who attended, and how this teen was definitely ‘not going to some fucking freak school’. Very eloquent indeed. “Does this happen a lot?” Tracy asked absently, writing like mad so he wouldn’t keep her here longer than necessary.

[Midori Hawkins]

Teenagers. Tracy... didn’t look old enough to have a teenager at home, but Midori wasn’t one to pry. Sometimes she didn’t feel old enough to have a two year old at home either. As for the party, she just nodded. “James usually sends an email around to see who might be interested. Just watch for that.” It really would be nice to be together again outside of the bullpen, without things like incident reports to discuss.

The thought of someone pretending made her shudder slightly. It had happened before. She had never known the explicit details, but she knew some information had been stolen from the recruitment office, and that it had been used. The student had since been brought to Hammel, but the damage had been done. “Sometimes it’s not easy. I’ve heard horror stories before. I’ve just never had to deal with any of them firsthand yet.” Maybe it was because she was a woman. Or because she was a mother herself now, and understood the idea of having your child taken away. “Maybe we should petition for badges, something more official looking than ID cards.” She was grinning slightly, hoping Tracy would realize she was joking as much as he was.

“Yes. That would be nice. Maybe we can bribe one of the graduating technopaths to invent something. They’d make thousands.” At least. Maybe a million. It depended on how many lazy people there were in the world when it came to form filling.

As Tracy wrote his report, Midori quickly fired off a text to Tory’s daycare attendant to let her know that she would be a little late. The return text informing her that Tory was having a great time playing with the boats in the water table with a little girl was a relief. If he was happy, she didn’t mind staying a bit longer. “Mn, not a lot. Metas are getting more recognition lately, and some people are reacting well to it.” She gestured to the report. “And obviously some aren’t. I always feel for the kids in those situations, though. I can’t imagine what things would have been like if my parents hadn’t allowed for me to go. Shifting is painful enough with training. I don’t think I could have coped without it.” She glanced up and offered a shy smile. “Well, there’s my power out in the open. I can shift into small mammals. Do you mind if I ask what you can do?” It always came up, and in recruitment the less dangerous powers seemed to go over well with parents. And the kids. What scared kid didn’t want to go somewhere with a woman who could change into a cuddly animal?

[Tracy Jade]

"I hope you never have to," he said earnestly, not because she was a woman, but because it was horrible to deal with. Parents should watch over their kids, yes, but what was that man teaching his son by treating another human being with such hatred? The teen didn't seem very shocked by the behavior, which lead Tracy to believe the hot-temper the dad had was normal to the teen. Tracy laughed. "Oh, but I just got my shiny new card!" He complained, followed by a pout. He refused to let today end on a sour note.

"If they do end up making thousands, I'd like at least ten percent for getting the ball rolling for the invention." Might as well, it wasn't like he was rolling in money anyways. His was a paycheque to paycheque kind of lifestyle.

Tracy was listening as he wrote. Going to Hammel had certainly helped him a lot, it made him feel like less of a freak. "I'm an open book," he said, pausing in his writing. Unfortunately, he couldn't multitask very well. "But yeah, I can mimic any power within about thirty feet, I would've found out what your power was eventually," he said with a shrug. Nothing ventured nothing gained. He set his pen back to paper. "Nearly done..." he said, glad for the company, and glad to have the situation noted and filed. So long as something would be done about it and no meta would be left behind.

[Midori Hawkins]

“Thank you,” she said back with a little smile. Privately, she knew it was inevitable, and she just hoped that she would be prepared when the time came. Still, it was nice to hear. “I hope you never get another one.” It was only fair, after all. As awkward as it could be at times, she was truly glad she was meta. In her mind, it gave them all a little bit of a boost in understanding others and tolerance for differences. Hopefully, away from the hostile environment, the teenager Tracy had tried to recruit would also come around. “Oh fine. Wait until your card is beat up and barely readable. Then we’ll petition.” She grinned at him and prodded the paper in a gentle prompt to finish. Not that she was trying to rush him, but she knew if she got distracted while doing reports the chances of them being finished in a timely manner usually plummeted.

“Right. Of course.” Mii wasn’t rolling in money either, but she had sense enough to save, especially with Tory around. She’d just take full advantage of something like autocomplete forms.

Hammel was a true godsend for a lot of the teenage metas. For Midori, the shock of suddenly shifting into a near-mirror image of her family dog had been fairly intense. Her immediate family didn’t have any meta-humans before her, though they’d all known about them. As soon as the recruiter had shown up, it had helped that what had happened to her was considered ‘normal’. At least by meta standards. Even if her brother liked to tease her for it. As for Tracy’s power, she arched an eyebrow. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you manners? Ask before you mimic.” She was teasing, and she hoped her tone reflected that. “It’s not very exciting. Small mammals might be good for cuddling, but not for the intimidation factor.” If you didn’t count that one time in training that she’d bitten one of her classmates as a dog. In all fairness, it had been to protect her best friend, but still. “How long can you mimic them for?” With seeing new powers as part of her job, she held a vested interest in them in general. “And don’t rush it on my account. Tory’s sitter said he’s having a blast. He might even have a girlfriend.” Because she was ready for that. Not.

[Tracy Jade]

Tracy smirked and successfully suppressed a laugh. "My mom always tried to teach me those. Manners," he shook his head, "didn't sit well in my head I guess." Not that he wasn't perfectly amiable, and while he could help his mimic abilities now, when he had first arrived at Hammel, his power was a mess. It would cling to someone's power and then someone else's, causing massive migraines and panic attacks. Oh yes, those were the 'good' years.

"Everyone always wants exciting powers, but most people who have very powerful ones would switch with you in a heartbeat." They both knew the more dangerous and all encompassing a power was, the harder it was to control. Things often didn't end well in those circumstances. Telekinesis was something Tracy would rather not mime unless totally necessary. "But at least yours will work without needing another meta around," he said, sending her a smile, "lucky for me I'm a good team player."

Tracy laughed lightly. "How old did you say he was again?" Silly little man, already after the ladies. He tapped his pen against the desk a couple times, his eyes lighting up. "Around two to three hours, depending on what the power is and how much of it I'm using." Powers were always fascinating, and for Tracy, mental powers were a strange obsession for him.

[Midori Hawkins]

“Well clearly,” she said with a little grin. “Or else you’d ask before mimicking everyone’s powers.” At least her own power didn’t encroach on anyone. Unless they were offended by small, mostly snuggly mammals. Tory certainly liked it when she transformed, especially into a dog. Watching her and Zero play seemed to make the toddler happy.

“I’m sure. I’ve always been happy with mine, except during my first training sessions.” She hadn’t known pain could reach those levels until she’d been forced to shift back and forth in the early days. “It must have been interesting to train mimicry.” She couldn’t recall working with any students with that. Mostly Willow, who had also been a shifter. And Eli, from time to time, which had been nice.

She shook her head, rolling her eyes slightly. “He’s just over two. God, at this rate he’s going to be just like his father.” That was something she’d rather not have happen. Be like Eli? No problem. It would be preferable. Be like Darryl? .... Yeah, no, she wasn’t going to indulge that train of thought. “That’s a long time to mimic. Is your control the same as whoever you’ve just mimicked?” Hey, this could be handy, should she ever be called out for a power mimic. “Sorry. I know it’s a lot of questions.” Hopefully he wasn’t offended.