Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Digimon Tamers
Title: Form Efforts
Characters: Yamaki
Word Count: 500||Status: One-shot
Genre: Humor||Rated: G
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, A62: third person POV; Digimon Flash Bingo, #974: prompt: The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy.
Summary: How many forms does it take to change a light bulb? When it comes to HYPNOS, the answer is "too many".
In his years of government work, Yamaki hadn't ever expected to have such trouble over filling out a simple requisition order. Signing those papers wasn't the highlight of his week, but it was part of his job, whether he liked it or not. So he signed what needed signing, and then tended to forget about it until he needed to sign for something else.
Usually whatever he needed he got without a lot of effort. They were, after all, doing their best to protect the world from an alien invasion, even if Digimon were aliens from another dimension and not another planet. Semantics, that's all that was.
But today he looked down at the returned form, and then up at his assistant, who looked more than a little nervous about the whole situation.
"We were denied?"
"Yes, sir." The assistant nodded and fidgeted. "It seems when the form was filled out, someone didn't put down a reason for the request in the proper areas and thanks to some of the new regulations, that means the process can't go through."
Yamaki closed his eyes and let out a single beleaguered breath. "Get it fixed and I'll sign it again." Why did this have to happen to him? They didn't need many of those, but they needed enough so that getting them was paramount.
He ignored the assistant's quick departure from his office and closed his eyes, trying not to think, or indeed do anything at all. It would be so much more relaxing to just not exist for a few more minutes, until he needed to go back to work.
He didn't pay attention to the clock. He did look up when his assistant returned and set down more paperwork in front of him.
"This has to be signed before we can get a replacement form for the other one."
Yamaki closed his eyes. Opened them. Looked at his assistant, who gave off the impression of wishing they could spontaneously shapechange into a lava lamp. "Why?"
He knew the answer before it came. "New regulations."
Yamaki signed the new form. He signed the form that came after that, explaining why the first replacement was needed in the first place. Then he signed the form to get what they needed - again - as well.
By the time he'd finished signing forms, he was more than ready to take on any Wild Ones that dared to cross over to Earth. Either that or go to their world and take up living in a cave. At least he wouldn't have to sign forms there.
"Sir? They're the wrong kind."
Yamaki's teeth ground against one another. "How do you get the wrong kind of light bulb?"
"I don't know, sir, but I've got the forms you'll need to sign to send someone out for another batch right here. We can probably use these somewhere else, so it's not a total waste."
Yamaki didn't care. He just headed for the hardware store himself this time.
The End
Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.
