the lockdown • tully

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the lockdown • tully Nov 21, 2019 2:47:36 GMT -5

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Post by TYLER AYERS on Nov 21, 2019 2:47:36 GMT -5

This was her nightmare. Maybe not a literal nightmare, because she didn't see any killer robots or yetis around, but it was still a nightmare situation. A nightmare of inconvenience. Being stuck in an enclosed space with one other person who was basically a stranger? She'd rather drown in a vat of liquid cheddar cheese. Tyler didn't even particularly like one on one conversations with people she knew, much less someone she'd barely spoken to since she started working there. She saw Tully around, sure, but they'd only had the barest of interactions beyond the passing pleasantries one has with coworkers. She didn't even know his first name. Tyler was sure Dorian had mentioned it in passing before but everybody called him Tully so often that she didn't retain it and never saw a reason to ask. They never worked together and "Tully" got her through well enough when she needed to refer to him for whatever reason.

Now, though, they were stuck in the storage locker together. They'd been in the locker together, exchanging hellos and the odd remark as they went about their business, when the alarm sounded. Before Tyler could do more than let out a startled, "what the fuck?" the doors slammed shut and would not reopen. She hadn't been there long enough to encounter it before, but it seemed like a standard lockdown protocol. What she didn't know was why. A drill? An attack? Someone being an asshole? Whatever. It was a pain in the ass.

It'd been fifteen minutes, give or take an eternity, since the doors closed and they'd resigned themselves to milling about the locker until they were granted freedom. Whatever the reason for the lockdown, they weren't going to be of any use in there. She wanted to be outside, helping. Being locked down was maddening, but what were they going to do? Tyler gave up on escape first, quickly tiring of yelling and pounding on the door in hopes that someone would hear them. Even if they did, nobody was going to override the lockdown. That was the point. Instead, Tyler found a vaguely comfortable position sitting on the concrete floor, back against the frame of a storage shelf. Other than a few quick back and forths when the doors locked, there hadn't been much talking between the two yet. God, to be trapped with someone you didn't know in a room with no alcohol...the inhumanity.

"You're Dorian's brother, right?" Too many people were related in the MLE department. She couldn't keep it straight and, frankly, didn't bother to learn the intricacies and family trees in a place she didn't know if she'd be staying. Get close to coworkers and leave them immediately? Pass. "The one Rachel hit with a bagel?" She'd heard the story from Dimitri, who was delighted to tell her all about the super covert prank war he was in now. She shifted slightly, fidgeting and giving away her restlessness. "What do you think is happening out there?" They were safe in the locker, but she had family and friends in the Ministry. Not being able to help was worse than having to make conversation.

oh yeah you betcha

Last Edit: Dec 10, 2019 5:25:13 GMT -5 by TYLER AYERS

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the lockdown • tully Dec 11, 2019 13:31:12 GMT -5

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Post by SEBASTIAN TULLY on Dec 11, 2019 13:31:12 GMT -5

The alarm went off. “Ummm….” Sebastian heard the door swing shut and he stood up a little straighter confused. He looked around at the only other person in the room to see they were very far from the door, so at least it wasn’t them who had slammed it on the way out. In fact, she was just as miffed as he was, which made Sebastian feel a little bit better about the whole ordeal already.

To rephrase his colleague’s statement, what was going on, indeed? Tully knew he wasn’t the boss, but often senior leadership was able to know when a drill may happen. If this was a drill, he didn’t know. If it wasn’t, he didn’t know. Either way, he was stuck here and he did not like the idea that someone out there might need him. The ministry was full of capable, strong people, but it was also full of visitors seeking help, and not all of them were fully magical or adult. People brought little children with them all the time, squibs came in… He was concerned about them.

It was enough to make Tully pace, only pausing momentarily when TJ began to knock on the door to try and get someone’s attention. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Best case scenario? It was a drill. Worst case scenario it was not, but there were tons of specially trained and senior leadership in the ministry that could help. Tully knew that the climate of magic and muggle mixing was, you could say, tense. Some people were really for it and others were not, and they existed on both sides. There had already been reactionary measures by some extremist in the world, and he did not want that here.

He leaned against the wall and slid down. He had to sit down because he needed to calm down. Pacing was doing nothing to calm him down, so he began to just focus on breathing. In. Out. In. Out. In Ou-- he turned his attention to the other person in the room as she spoke. Confirming he was, indeed, Dorian’s brother, he gave a nod. Though, the next part made him wrinkle his brows and frown.
“Are you two… friends?” he asked his suspicion on her statement even higher than normal. Sure, the bagel throwing and sticking to his head was known around the office, but it wasn’t usually something that he was identified with as a whole. The Older Tully, Senior Auror, deep dive planning, and slight irrational risk taker in the heat of an adrenaline moment… yes, he’d give her all that, but the “dude who got hit with a bagel when Rachel was bored?” She had to be a friend of Rachel’s or… “Wait, are you two related?” he added seeing potentially some family resemblance. Who else would hold onto such a story and tell it with such colorfulness other than to someone like family?

Tully turned to look at the door when she asked what he thought was happening out there. “Hopefully,” he said his entire facial structure betraying any hope he might actually have: “A drill.” We were hoping for the best case scenario here, Tully always did. “What cases are you working on?” he asked abruptly, because there was one thing Tully could do to put his mind to rest, try to solve something that was solvable. They had all the access to evidence and old case files they could want, perhaps they could be productive.

nudge for changes, love!

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the lockdown • tully Dec 15, 2019 5:02:09 GMT -5

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Post by TYLER AYERS on Dec 15, 2019 5:02:09 GMT -5

She eyed her coworker with interest, watching him as he paced back and forth in the confines of the locker. Tyler could feel the anxiety radiating off of him, which didn't bode well for their situation. If it was a drill, wouldn't the more senior official know? Surely, he wouldn't be so anxious if he knew what was happening. Tyler's hands knotted together absentmindedly, running over each other firmly as an outlet for her own nervous energy. She'd seen a lot of really terrible things and had been in more than her share of truly awful situations during her career. Dreadful, straight up shitty things that made it easy to lose faith in people if you let it. In those instances, though, it had been her ass on the line. If something tragic happened, it would suck for her family, but it wouldn't be her problem. This, though? Whatever it was, it was happening in a place where she had connections. It was happening to innocent people who came into the Ministry for help. It was an unfamiliar feeling to her and she didn't care for it.

Tully gave up on pacing and slid down the wall to sit on the floor, and she watched as he tried to calm himself. She had enough experience with people to know that he might respond better if she pulled his attention away from the problem. He confirmed who he was but, unfortunately, he didn't seem to love being identified as the bagel boy. On top of that, his question about whether or not they were related indicated that he didn't know her last name. As she didn't know his first one, that seemed fair. "I don't know that she has friends," Tyler mused. Rachel wasn't very open, even with them, giving away just enough information about herself to make people think they knew her well when, in actuality, they had no idea. "She's my cousin." It probably wasn't the best idea to give herself away as someone with loyalties to Team Rach. That gal could be divisive as hell and if Tully hated her it was going to be an awkward stay in the locker. "She didn't tell me, though. Her son did," a fond smile played on her lips. Everybody loved Dimitri. "He said you guys have a, and I quote, 'super awesome secret prank war' going on." Tyler glanced at the door, hopeful whatever was behind it wouldn't ruin Dimitri's entire life. He couldn't lose two parents, even if she thought Rachel was actually too stubborn to die.

He answered her question positively, but his face and tone gave him away. Tyler didn't know if he was trying to make her, himself, or both of them feel better, but it felt like grasping at straws. If they openly acknowledged that something could be very wrong beyond that door, it would only drive them crazier. "Right." A drill. Of course it was. Typical of them to find the one place in the Ministry with no cell reception.

Tyler resigned herself to letting the conversation die down, but Tully shifted gears quickly and brought her attention back to him. She took a moment to respond. It was always a tricky question to answer. Tully was privvy to more information than, say, Chandler was, but there were specifics she couldn't tell him about all her cases. She could be vague, though, and some fresh eyes might help. "Just some loose ends from my last post," she paused, considering how much she could appropriately share. "There was this guy in Paris, right before I left, trafficking dangerous magical items to Muggles." He'd been smarter than they thought and she was still frustrated. "He went off the map before we could get to him and I got transferred not too long after that." Tyler shrugged. "I've just been looking into anything that might be a connection here. It's probably a waste of time, but he really pissed me off." Something about Tully made it easy for her to talk more candidly than she regularly would with strangers. How annoying.

oh yeah you betcha

Last Edit: Dec 15, 2019 5:08:53 GMT -5 by TYLER AYERS

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the lockdown • tully Jan 22, 2020 17:14:07 GMT -5

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Post by SEBASTIAN TULLY on Jan 22, 2020 17:14:07 GMT -5

Despite the situation, the quote from Dimitri could even make Sebastian crack a smile, even if the chuckle that followed was full of nerves, because it was only a minor distraction. “If he keeps telling people, it won’t be a secret anymore,” he commented, but the child was 10 and it was definitely not unlike younger children to spill their guts. Ah, a cousin. In law enforcement too… “Is it a requirement as an Ayers you consider being an auror?” he asked surprising even himself at his more sarcastic nature. He was often so calm and collected and would look at all situations, but he was tense - that kind of tense where your jaw was so tight it felt as though you might not ever be able to loosen it, the kind of tense that radiated down your entire shoulders and spine, making you feel compact, constricted, and useless.

The drill, he hoped, felt endless. But, that’s how it felt when you were powerless didn’t it? You were just in a state of endless wonder if you’d be able to do anything at all if you weren’t trapped. He looked at his phone for what must have been the hundredth time still seeing no signal, but still desperate for some hope. He just wanted to make sure Dorian was okay, to see if he had any details on what was happening. And, if he could, to get them the heck out of here so they could help if there was a risk.

The distraction for the case was a bit better than the distraction thinking of Dimitri, who honestly just reminded him of his little brothers. He could not handle if anything happened to Dorian, and he could not imagine how HECTOR TULLY would take the news if there was something happening at the Ministry and well… Tully couldn’t even think about it honestly, it was all too much. Focus. Focus on what TJ was saying - the case, the artifacts, the magic, the muggles.

Tully would be lying if he had gotten everything that TJ had said about the case. “Okay, so another bad guy,” he said trying to pick out any details he could remember while his mind had wandered outside of this room. FOCUS. “When was the last time you saw him on the radar?” Tully wasn’t completely aware of the blackmarket trading world like that, so he was intrigued, but he was also still uncertain this would help either of them. Solve a case, but the whole Ministry explodes? Yeah, that’s how karma would work.

nudge for changes, love!

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the lockdown • tully Jan 29, 2020 18:04:13 GMT -5

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Post by TYLER AYERS on Jan 29, 2020 18:04:13 GMT -5

Her face cracked into a smile to match his, proud that, if only for a second, she could make him laugh when he looked like he needed it. She wasn't necessarily great at comforting people with words, but she could at least try to throw some humor into the situation, and Dimitri was a great tool. Everybody loved him. "It's fine, he only tells people with special security clearance," she grinned before adding, "took me months to get mine approved." Tyler was having fun getting to know Dimitri better. She'd been young and in school when he was born. By the time Rachel moved them home for a few years, Tyler was too preoccupied with her new career to prioritize spending time with the boy. Once she was older and had seen what the world could do to people in an instant, she valued spending time with family more. It was why when her boss gave her the option to transfer to the UK, Tyler dropped her life in Paris. Not that she really had much choice, but it sounded good. Tully asked about her family's propensity for jobs in law enforcement and she smirked, surprised at his sudden sarcasm. She wasn't sure if it was supposed to be humorous or not, but she found it funny. "Nah. We also allow Quidditch."

Their response to the nerves surrounding the situation seemed to manifest differently. She could see that his body and jaw looked tense, appearing to be on the brink of collapsing in on itself. He looked like he was in very premature rigor mortis. Well, maybe not very premature, depending on what was happening outside. In contrast, Tyler's body unconsciously found ways of releasing some of the nervous energy that was building with every moment they were locked inside that room. The fingers on her right hand ran with too much force over her palm, making the same rough upward curve across her skin over and over again, leaving a trail of skin pale from pressure with every stroke. Much longer without a good distraction and she'd inevitably take to repeatedly slamming that same hand into the door of the locker until either the metal or her bones crumbled, in an attempt to bludgeon her way out of the room. She'd watch Tully take out his phone with a glimmer of hope that maybe, somehow, a signal had come through. It never did. Out of pure stubbornness, Tyler took out her own phone just to see if, by some miracle, hers was better. It wasn't. Part of her was almost glad when Rachel's name wasn't across the screen. At the very least, they could remain in their bubble of ignorance. It would be worse, she thought, to know there was a problem and still not be able to help. The odds of getting a text back through and having someone available to free them in an emergency were slim to none.

Tyler prattled on about her case, too thankful for the distraction to notice that Tully might not have been paying total attention. For some reason, his response kind of hit her. Another bad guy. Cripes. Wasn't there always another bad guy? Why the fuck did they bother? Most of their job was being yelled at by people, catching a few actual bad guys, and then turning around to find another asshole thirty seconds later. It was exhausting. Someone once commented that she was, "too young to be that tired and world wary." Tyler laughed it off at the time, shrugging and saying that it was worth it when they helped people, but, shit, maybe they had a point. She loved her job but there were definitely times she wished she grew up wanting to be something else. Her life would have been simpler if she'd stuck to Quidditch like Chandler did. He probably never pulled all nighters protecting bad guys from even worse bad guys or stuck in lockdowns waiting to find out if he had to fistfight terrorists. What a dream. Whew. Kinda went off on a tangent there. Anyway.

"Six months ago he was in Florence," she thought for a moment, making sure her mental math was right before letting out an annoyed sigh. "Probably ruining the Italian countryside by now." Tyler liked Tuscany. She should have stayed there. Could have just beaten that guy to death with a stick of salami and then retired to bathe in the sun like a proper asshole. "Have you ever been? It's nice. Y'know, aside from the magical trafficking."

november 2040
can you tell work is making me tired?

Last Edit: Jan 29, 2020 18:06:16 GMT -5 by TYLER AYERS

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the lockdown • tully Mar 4, 2020 13:21:48 GMT -5 TYLER AYERS likes this

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Post by SEBASTIAN TULLY on Mar 4, 2020 13:21:48 GMT -5

Sebastian gave a single nod as though that was code for anything - what? Dimitri trusts you I trust you now too? Or I see, but I’ll still keep my guard up. You are related to the enemy (and the co-conspirator), but details. Whatever the nod meant, it at least meant he acknowledged Dimitri’s gusto in keeping secrets. At ten years old, Sebastian was the worst secret keeper. As @annabelle - he was pretty sure he wasn’t allowed to keep his sister’s secrets until he was much older and he knew that they could really hurt to tell. At least when they were kids, secrets were things like “I took a cookie from the jar and you can’t tell or I won’t share it with you.” As adults, secrets were much more vulnerable, much more things that you shared with just your sibling or someone close to you. The world didn’t need to know that. Dimitri seemed to already understand that secrets could be a game, but could also be something else, impressive really.

“Ah, yes,” he responded to her quidditch remark. “Chandler, right?” Of course it was Chandler. The feigned question was some resort at what - humbleness? If you followed quidditch at all, and he did, then you knew who Ayers was. He was “the American” novelty who joined the Balleycastle Bats a few years back. He’d been all over the papers, he’d been all some people wanted to talk about for a while. It also probably had been more of a hype because the travel ban in and out of the country was lifted for this individual. Nobody could go visit their families around the world, but a quidditch star could come into the country. The good thing for Sebastian was his family was all here, so he couldn't personally relate to the “scandal” but he could imagine why it angered some people who were denied travel rights to see sick loved ones at the time.

The momentary reflection made him realize just how insane the world had been for a while. Travel bans, a woman the world once respected cursed to do someone’s bidding - that case was still open though so he couldn’t speak to it too much. Muggles were first aware of magic, then blinded of magic, then re-aware of magic. Now, he was in a lockdown (hopefully drill) with a person he didn’t even know.

Sebastian who hadn’t been listening until this point turned sharply towards her about the timeline. “Actually, I was in Florence about six months ago. Why wasn’t this guy on any other radars?” Not that Sebastian would have been there for the purpose of catching a bad person - but he hated that he may have been within the vicinity of this person and not known. What if he had spoken to him? Been friendly to someone who was purposefully endangering muggle lives for a price? Oh that would make his blood boil more than anything else he could do wrong in this world, you know aside from something like murder. “What do you think the odds are I may have interacted with the asshole?” he thought out loud and then shrugged his shoulders as if to wipe the feeling off himself.

No, you can’t think like that. You can’t get in your head on a case - especially not a case that is yours. “If he’s running the Italian countryside, sounds like there is some potential for a workcation there,” he said as a suggestion. Now, to most people this would sound like an invite to the case - “take me with you” kind of thing, but Sebastian just wondered why she wasn’t there working the case. He’d been on plenty of workcation’s before. Where you go under the guise of a vacation only to hopefully cross paths with someone you’ve been tracking or maybe a colleague has been tracking. A situation where you couldn’t be recognized as an Auror - or if you are, that’s your bluff. An Auror on vacation, no suspecting there’s bad business going on beneath your feet. That’s the thing these people didn’t always understand, Auror’s always assumed something could be happening underfoot, sometimes literally and sometimes figuratively. “Why’d you leave before you got him?” he asked. He didn’t know much about TJ Ayers, but he knew this - Ayers didn’t seem to quit, as annoying as it could be, something bigger must have pulled her away.

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the lockdown • tully Mar 28, 2020 16:50:02 GMT -5

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Post by TYLER AYERS on Mar 28, 2020 16:50:02 GMT -5

Dimitri really was the great equalizer. That little shit already seemed to have his fingers in everything. If someone knew one of the Ayers, they probably knew Dimitri, and they definitely liked him better than they liked the adults. Except maybe Chandler. Everybody liked Chandler. If they didn't, TJ would personally slap them until they changed their very wrong opinions. Speaking of which, she watched Tully out of the corner of her eye when he connected Quidditch to Chandler. She didn't suspect him of being one of Chandler's critics after the scandal with his trade, but they were always somewhere. Fortunately, Rachel was as protective of Chandler as TJ was, and the fact that Tully still had intact kneecaps seemed like a good indicator of his loyalties. Or, at least, presence of mind to not saying anything.

"Yeah, that's him," she nodded with her answer. The change in conversation brightened her up a bit, happy to find something else to think about for a moment. Maybe if they could talk about Quidditch it would distract them from the outside world. Every time the conversation ebbed, TJ could feel the heaviness of their situation weigh down on her chest. Any silence that enveloped them brought the lingering thoughts on whatever was beyond the door and the quiet of their phones. She almost preferred the phones stayed quiet. If they didn't vibrate, they didn't bring the risk of bad news. At least they could stick their head in the sand for a little while as long as there was no tragic confirmations popping up on their screens. "Our cousin plays, too, and most of us played in school. You follow Quidditch?" Quidditch loyalty was a hot topic in the Ayers house. Ballycastle vs Falcons...TJ would always throw them both into a volcano as a sacrifice to give the Packers a better season, but American football seemed tragically unappreciated in this hellscape of a country.

Tyler carried on about her case, too wrapped up in residual annoyance over a job left undone to notice that Tully wasn't paying much attention. Most people she talked to, including herself, had the attention span of a pistachio, so it was nothing new. He snapped back into the conversation when she mentioned how long ago it was. "Yeah?" Tyler missed Italy and hearing someone else was there when she was distracted her from the topic. Only momentarily, though. She shrugged at his question. "I don't know. Local problems, I guess? There was a lot going on everywhere else and he didn't matter that much to the higher ups." As with most other jobs, the workers rarely had input on what they did. Tyler could fight for a case all she wanted but if politics were pointing somewhere else, she was just going to spin her wheels. She didn't like it but she understood it. Only so much money to go around. Tully asked about the odds of interaction and she noticed a tone he hadn't spoken with to her before. There was a kind of quiet, angry disgust somewhere beneath the question. "You're probably fine, unless you were posing as a muggle in a tourist area. He kept a low profile once he almost got caught." She considered the fact that if he was in Florence, he was probably there for sightseeing. Maybe he had crossed paths with him. "You coulda met him. Who knows?" Was there an Ayers in the world with some comforting words once in a while? We do wonder.

"A workcation would be great," Tyler let her head lull back and hit the shelving behind her, dreaming of Tuscany's sunshine and the smell of fresh herbs. "You wanna go? I know a great deli. Saw a grown man almost cry there once." She remembered very little of the man other than his language trouble and accent but the rest of the scene was crystal clear in her memory. Calling Chandler from behind a shelf as she watched the stranger fumble through broken Italian phrases and exchange rates with one of the deli's butchers who looked incredibly amused by the English fella's trials. Tully asked why she left and Tyler fell quiet. Any time someone asked about her transfer, Tyler had to navigate an answer carefully. Her brain still muddled work in Europe with Paris and Nina in a fog of jumbled bittersweet bullshit. They were entangled, unable to really think about one without flashes of the other. "He got quiet and my boss asked me to transfer for some other work. Most of my family is here now, so it seemed like the right move."

november 2040
good afternoon. brain gone.