Profession

Butting heads

I had a box of personal things that I deposited on my new desk, and I looked around at the office I'd be occupying. It was small, not one of the nicest ones, but on the other hand, Valkyrie was in the process of buying out leases from office space or simply not renewing them. The retail businesses on the bottom three floors would stay, but every department of Valkyrie was expanding, and the principals wanted the business under one roof. I was down on the fourth floor with the rest of MM, but Aunt Dagny had assured me that a better office would open up soon and that MM as a whole would be getting better offices as they gained more space. It was ok, though. It's not like anything in the Valkyrie Building was crappy. My office had nice wood floors, Uncle Tony's first iteration of SmartBoard on the walls, and at least I had a small window; it had a panel of stained glass, like all the windows in the building, so there was a bit of extra grace there. It opened, too. I'd plonked a spider plant in a nice ceramic vase on the windowsill when I'd taken my first look around. The office came with furniture, not awesome, but it would do until I found something I liked better. Charity had sent one of the IT techs around with new computers and to transfer files off the MM computers, so we were all hooked in. Since we were transitioning in, we were still a discrete group and had our own office suite with a small conference room. My team was favorably inclined; we'd had a full-firm meeting our first day in so everybody could be introduced and get their keys, access, and move their stuff, then virtually everybody else went back to our job sites. I slapped two hangars on the SmartBoard and arranged two of my favorite photos, neither of them taken by me: the one where my boat just won our gold medal, and one showing me with Cyrus II at the opening of the Persepolis complex.

For my desk, I had two long, low picture frames that were placed on the back edge, showing images I'd taken of my sister's family, Jon, Uncle Tony,  and a couple of my prize-winners--one showing Sevastopol as I escaped by sea, very dramatic but not too personal, one of the images I'd taken during my first shoot with Diana, and one of the temple at Themyscira. I adjusted the computer just so, and started unpacking the rest of the box into the desk, thinking with pleasure about the family party we'd had to celebrate Iris's excellent showing in the Olympics.

"Knock, knock, Buttercup." I looked up, smiling, to see Grandma in the doorway. The smile grew to a grin at the sight of a Barnraising mocha in her hand. She came in, looking around, and gave me the cup and a kiss on the cheek. "It's so plain in here, but maybe you want to wait until we get space for you later on, when your team is fully incorporated." She'd understood that I hadn't wanted to leave MM until we had finished up the last of our independent contracts and were working on Valkyrie/MM business. When that occurred, my MM people would be integrated into departments in Valkyrie; the name plates on their doors would have a second line of text: Mutatus Mutandis of Valkyrie: Adventures in Architecture. Mine would too; it was a big part of the reason why I'd signed on, so that my work would still stand on its own.

"Well, most of all, I want to get things I really like, rather than things just to fill space," I explained. "Deri's on me to go out and pick a rug and some visitors chairs. I'm doing that this weekend. The bonus is that I can always put them back if I find things I like better later." She nodded, and we talked about my schedule. I had one more trip back to Sevastopol to check on the hospital and attend a groundbreaking ceremony for Uncle Tony's projects; for once, it was my name rather than his that opened more doors in that city. That was the last of MM-only projects, and we'd be transitioning into joint projects as they arose, like the Templar's facility on Corsica. Beyond that, neither Valkyrie or MM had a line on a new project, but I'd been given the directive by the Valkyrie principals to start looking for something. My people were excited at the increase in work we could look forward to.

"That is the best part," Grandma said. "When you have a great team, you can be sure that things will get done without needing to be on top of every single tiny detail. It's important that you still have time to do your photography work." We talked a little more, and she reminded me of some meetings coming up and that she was available to me at all times if I had questions or just needed to talk.