West of the Portal

by Cuofeng

Two years after the Earth Empire's invasion of the United Republic, the Avatar has organized an International Conclave near the spirit portal crater to forestall future global conflict. Or try to. In fact, Korra and her staff mostly deal with the press and the public, complainers and flubs, and not actually having the legal authority for any of this.

4. 1-4

...

When Min arrived back at the Avatar's headquarters with Aoto she was immediately set to work. For the moment that seemed to involve carrying papers from one office to another. Seeing as she had no idea where anything was located in this building and half the time she just stumbled back into the Political Affairs office admitting defeat, Min thought this was a particularly useless assignment. However, Aoto did never seemed perturbed by these repeated failures. It was almost as if he just wanted her to stay occupied for some reason. After several hours of this, Min was working up the nerve to complain when Aoto handed her a stack of folders to be delivered to Mister Bolin in preparation for a meeting and for once gave her very detailed instructions on how to find him. After this day she was hurting for some small success to demonstrate her own agency, to herself if no one else, so against her better wisdom she took the proffered files and headed back out into the labyrinthine halls.

A few minutes later Min faced a closed door, shuffling the stack of folders around in her arms until she found a hand free to reach for the handle. Inside the room, a long oval table ringed with about eight chairs filled most of the space. The few decorations that ornamented the walls and corners of the room fit an eclectic and disjointed theme which suggested they had all been received as unrelated gifts. Min moved to place the folder down at Bolin's designated place at the table, only to realize that she had no idea where he sat. There was no indication of what seat belonged to which department head, or indeed any hint of assigned seating at all.

"All right, calm down Min," she thought. "You can figure this out. Let's see, the Avatar would sit at the end of the table, and people have been indicating to this direction when they speak of her so her office is probably somewhere out that door. At her right hand would reasonably be the political advisor, that's Aoto, and then on her left...Or wait, would the Avatar want to sit in the middle so she was closest to everyone?"

Min did not have time to work herself deeper into madness since at that moment the sound of footsteps came through the open doors and the frighteningly intense Amishiq entered in side by side in conversation with some man in a White Lotus uniform who Min had not seen before. Min clutched her burden to her chest and backed to the far wall to stay out of their way but other than a brief flick of eyes they did not acknowledge her presence as they grabbed chairs and nonchalantly settled in without breaking their discussion. Well, this was her signal to get out. She could just place the files down in the middle of the table so whoever needed them could reach them and then high-step it back down to her pay-grade. Thinking of that, did this mean she had a job here? Was she just destined to be a permanent unpaid paper carrier, enslaved by her own inability to protest the assumptions of others?

She had just barely made it back to the doorway when she ran into Aoto on his way in. Min quickly backed up to let him into the room, and as she did leaned over to whisper, "I couldn't find Mr. Bolin so I just put them..." She noticed she still held the folders in her hand. "...I am going to just put them down in the center of the conference table and get out of your hair."

Aoto was busy reading some typed message, peering over his glasses at some place where a misaligned key or lever had smudged the characters and had not looked up once, but he still caught Min's arm with the second blind grasp of his hand. "No, no, just sit down for a second and I'll take those off you."

"No, I think I should... The meeting must be about to...oh, if you... sure." Aoto's blind gesturing repeatedly bumping into her arm wore her down and so Min followed his lead, sitting very gingerly down in the most battered and unimportant looking chair with a perched posture that showed she was ready to leap up at any second. But Aoto was showing no sign of moving to relieve her of her burden as he promised, instead concentrating on reading his document and mouthing silent curses and exclamations at whoever the author was. Min belatedly realized that it was possible he had never actually looked at her face and thought she was his assistant Xiaxia or someone else who would actually have permission to be at this meeting. Two more people now entered the room in the form of Bolin and Chao, apparently at the tail end of some conversation.

"...but it turns out they didn't want any of it melted! Man, weirdest museum trip ever," Bolin finished.

The room was looking mighty full now and though Min could breath a thankful prayer that there had yet been no hint of motion from the Avatar's entry door she had to make her move quickly before her luck ran out. Resolved in her choice to flee, Min breathed out a calming breath. That was when Chao shut the door to a resounding click.

Aoto put down his paper target of perusal and removed his glasses, breaking at once into official yet relaxed discussion. "All right people, what have we got today?"

Chao tugged at his embroidered cuffs as soon as he sat down, straightening his ensemble. "Our statement on cronyism in Raiko's administration regarding the awarding of redevelopment contracts is ready to go out. I think you all heard we will be pushing them for a newly revamped blind bidding process. There is some concern of an information leak but it's handled for now. We think The Truth might be trying to scoop us, but the radio does not need to warm up presses to get the word out so I will be going on Shinobi's hour to make sure we get out front and maintain control of the message."

Aoto nodded in approval as he grunted. "If you're sure we're going to beat Verrik to the punch then there should be no problem there. It seems there is some confusion at least with Cabbage Corp regarding our own product orders but that we should be able to straighten out without it mussing the press much. And this new line of attack might buy us time on other issues by distracting Raiko's office from the Avatar's citizenship question."

Now Bolin pitched in, "And we should be in line to get some pretty good press from helping out down in Chin. I actually managed to get in touch with a man at the University who did a fairly detailed hydro-whatgical study down there so I can be pretty confidant in our predictions in terms of flooding damage. Just supplying some trained benders and emergency generators should go a long way and not even be that expensive. And if we can get Korra down there for a few days or a week then all the better!"

Chao spread an accepting palm, "He's right more than he thinks. If we show up down there in a visible way it will most likely force the hand of the other Earth Provinces to pitch in with contributions, and not just the Unionists. The Separatists don't want any major stories of newly independent territories suffering for their isolation."

Amishiq added her view, "The only thing I am worried about is transporting the men and materiel. The bad press the Air Nation is receiving over enforcing their incomes has led to a small but worrying number of instances of people rejecting our use of Avatar Right to press passage. If we're looking to spearhead this aid mission instead of aiding an international effort then we can not count on hitching transportation on another national convoy like last time."

The new man the White Lotus uniform spoke as well "That's also my concern. This kind of small stumbling block with the captains is something that could easily snowball. Relying on the kindness of others to effectively conduct operations is inherently risky."

"Well, Yushin," Aoto said with the air of someone setting up a joke. "Your transportation worries are for now dramatically assuaged. Until we can sort some stuff out about a miscommunication with the Fire Lord we currently have possession of two airships." Whatever reaction he was hoping for he did not get, for Yushin's well-tanned face did not change except for the smallest twitch of one eyebrow.

"And what exactly are we going to do about all that?" Bolin said, "I mean, Asami put in a lot of effort to that ship because we asked her to. I don't think we can just short her on the money."

Chao had his own view to add. "Nor do I think it is wise to publicly turn down the Fire Lord's gift. Public opinion in the islands is already heavily divided on the issue of national contributions to our coffers. If we give their papers two weeks of stories on our ungrateful attitude then our finances will be in even greater trouble."

Amishiq sighed heavily. "Until we figure that out we need to scrounge up some funds for the initial payment to Future Industries. We have a contract, and we need to honor that. Someone needs to make sure that as soon as the paperwork gets sent over we get it back to them right away. Anyway, that vessel has been fitted out to Yusin's Lotus specifications so if we are turning one back it should be the Fire Nation's."

Bolin leaned back in his seat smiling. "Well, at least we caught this before both ships showed up here at the same time." He gave Min a hearty thumbs up. "Good job on that!" Then his smile fell as his brow furrowed and he focused on her. "Wait. Um, why is she sitting here?" Min had to admit this was a good question.

"Who, Chan?"

"No. I mean Lin."

"I thought she was Mei."

"You said she was Yin."

"I have never seen this woman before."

This babble brought on a long brewing explosion. "My name is Min! Min Liu and you people are the most disorganized bunch of jabber-jaws I have ever seen in my life! Honestly! It is surprising you have not accidentally gotten the Avatar to level the entire city! It is Min! It is not that hard of a name!" Min was proud that after this explosion she managed to not smash her face against the desk in embarrassment and frustration. Maybe they would just toss her out on the street. If she timed it right she could land in a roll and it should not hurt that much. At least this long farce would be over.

Amishiq blinked, "Well, she's already ahead of Mengyao. No one would confuse that with obsequiousness."

Bolin picked up on some meaning in that. "Mengyao? Oh hey, yeah. I can see her for that position. She seemed pretty ok with a helter-skelter pace of this place. It might work out."

Chao raised his eyebrow appraisingly. "She's got a pretty face, that might at least buy us a few days before she's out on her bottom. And from what I have seen she has something in her head to back up the moxy."

"And yet with that same face she also got approval from the Miss Sato," Aoto said with slight disbelief, "Which puts us ahead from the start. And we do really need someone there."

Min angrily thumped her hands down on the arms of her chair. "Hey! Either throw me out or let me try and reschedule my interview for the typing pool. You people may be fine with having me follow you around all day for not even a mu, but I came here to secure a fifty yuan per week job and I will not be leaving until I get my chance."

"Typist?" Chao looked genuinely confused. "That is not the job we're talking about."

Min crossed her arms before her, "Like I said, I was promised a fifty per week opportunity. I am not interested in your runner girl position."

Chao smirked. "Fifty? I think we can do better than that. You are going to be the Avatar's personal secretary."

Min was already opening her mouth but all that came out was a small squeak. "Excuse me?"

"The pay is, what, at least twice fifty per week? Although to be truthful I can not guarantee you will collect more than one week. We have been experiencing some high turnover in this slot."

Min desperately struggled to get her voice working again. Something about the air in the room had begun starting making a high-pitched ringing noise that sounded an awful lot like a panic attack. "No, I think there's been some mistake. You see, I was told there was an opening in the typing pool. I have my typing certificate here in my..." She tugged at her purse but could not get her fingers to operate the clasp. "Well, I have it."

The man in the Lotus Uniform, Yushin, turned to Amishiq and said, "I thought you said she was quick on the uptake."

"Excuse me, sir!" Min interjected. "I take up perfectly fine. I was only trying to point out that I have no training in anything that would qualify me for being the Avatar's-"

Aoto shrugged, "What's to qualify? Just don't break when she starts yelling at you. You're already sitting in her chair during the senior staff meeting and that's half the job right there."

Min slowly looked down at the battered and scratched leather pads of her seat and then jumped up like it had been electrified. This resulted in the Avatar's own chair getting flung back just as the meeting room's door was forcefully flung open, resulting in a noisy collision. Xiaxia stood in the doorframe, blinking at the now rather more battered chair that was lying on its side against the carpet and Min who had her hands near her mouth in silent horror. Xiaxia elected to ignore all this and deliver her message to the senior staff.

"There's a spirit in the main foyer. A very large one and one that seems rather agitated. No one has been able to figure out what it wants and it has started using its tentacles to steal every watch it sees. I thought the Avatar might wish to be informed."

Aoto got up. "Of course she should," he sighed. "I'll head over to the conclave wing to keep things running there while she ducks out. Yushin, she's going to want to talk to you when she gets out. Everyone else, um, good meeting I guess? One day we will actually get through one of these."

All the senior staff members hurriedly collected the things they had brought and started filing out. Min found herself once again lost and ignored. "Um, excuse me? I..."

Aoto waved distractedly over his shoulder. "And can someone show her to where her office is going to be?! Thanks, Xiaxia."

In her dazed state Min followed Xiaxia with a vague suspicion that she was going to be led out the front door of the building to mocking laughter at her presumption of actually believing she would be made secretary to the Avatar. Honestly, she might have joined in with them. However, the doors they passed through did not lead to the street, but rather to large high-ceilinged office room holding two desks and what looked like a rather expansive waiting area of very high quality chairs and couches. Yet both those features were secondary trim to the large doors that sat in then middle of the far wall. They were decorated with ten thousand delicate metal strips of different colors forming a massive circle divided by a waving line that wrapped around the seam of the doors. At each corner around the circle sat the ancient symbols of the four bending disciplines. Everything about it said that no matter what your title was, there was only one heraldry that mattered. There were ten thousand years of history and only one Avatar.

Xiaxia spoke briefly and Min found herself looking up to meet eyes with the much taller woman. "All right, you will be working in here, just outside the Avatar's office. Your desk is the clear one over there. We actually thought the Avatar would end up needing two secretaries, but well, as you see we have had enough trouble getting her to accept even one." She noticed the slightly sickened look on Min's face. "But I'm sure you'll do fine!"

Min looked at the assortment of objects covering the unused desk which had apparently been turned into a temporary storage shelf. One thing confused her, it looked like a crumpled mess of thin metal pieces in a very squashed tin box that had been kicked until it was almost spherical. "Er, what is is that?"

Xiaxia cast a glance over from where she was laying things out on Min's new desk. "Hmm? Oh, that. The Avatar has been intending to learn how to type but there have been...difficulties, with the lessons." She saw Min's incomprehension and mimed a crushing motion with her hand. Min looked back at what she now saw as typewriter that had been nearly beaten back to its metallurgical origins and felt the fear rise back into her throat.

Xiaxia was speaking again, "All right, you have the Avatar's master schedule here, and a list of all the telephone exchanges on each line. The Avatar's phone goes straight to your desk and you can connect through any calls. Let's see, we'll have Yuki know that this desk is active again for correspondence and...Ok, I need to go get that from the office." Xiaxia headed off and Min followed behind, taking two steps for each of the other woman's rapid strides. The fact was that Min was several steps behind mentally as well and so had just gotten to the point of processing the phone system when she realized that they had just gone through those metal-bound double doors into the office of the Avatar.

If Min had been given time to imagine, she supposed she would have predicted grand decor similar to the outer room, or perhaps to Miss Sato's executive office. Instead the space was almost spartan; a wide but simple desk scattered with piles of paper in front of a window, a few unadorned chairs, and a bookcase in the corner beside another smaller table that was instead covered with books held open to various passages and illustrations. The other corner of the room seemed even more out of place as it seemed to have been lifted out of a gymnasium with a hanging bag and a large medicine ball that seemed to be deforming the floorboards beneath it.

"Ahh, here we go." Xiaxia said triumphantly as she lifted out a black bound ledger from under a precariously tall stack of paper that wobbled ominously on the Avatar's desk. "This should have the updated contact information for most anyone you will be interfacing with. If she asks for something not covered here, don't worry, just send it down to my office." She walked back through the big double doors. "Now for your first bit of training..."

At that moment a distant noise shuddered through the building. Xiaxia looked out into the distance with prayerful weariness. Min volunteered, "Maybe that was some of the construction?"

"It could be, but it isn't. Um, just stay here for a moment. I need to check in with the others and see what that was about. Just, uh, familiarize yourself with the area and I will be right back!" And with three rapid strides of clicking heals Min was left alone in the outer office.

For a moment she just stood there blinking at various patches of wallpaper. Next, feeling an unfocused desire to be productive she moved over to the desk and sat down in her chair. She was not actually any more productive there but at least she could slip off the shoes which after an entire day of being shuffled around on her feet were beginning to test her fortitude no matter how classy they were. She read the connecting pins on the phone bank, 'Avatar, Exchange, Public, Secure'. Simple enough. Looking under the desk there was a little typewriter tucked away which she got out to set on the desk and then promptly put away again. On the wall behind her there was a strange metal station connected to a pipe. Nearby was a collection of tubes in a wire basket. Fiddling with the metal pipe station led to Min getting a blast of air in the face and the knowledge that she had found the building's pneumatic system.

The phone rang and Min jumped, but eventually she managed to get back into the chair and pick up the receiver. "Hello, office of the Avatar!" she said as she franticly scrabbled for a pen and a pad of paper.

The man on the other end did not seem concerned with her identity. "Ah, she got a new one again. Ok, Legal needs to talk to the Avatar about the new bidding process before the end of the day."

"Er, yes, legal. Could I please get your name?"

The man sighed but complied. "Fang He. Fang as in 'to let go'. Just get back to me soon, tons of revised contracts are already coming in from Cabbage Corp and Future Industries."

"Yes of course I will. It looks like..." Min said as she hurriedly flipped through the pages of the Avatar's schedule. "It looks like she will be free at five twenty today. Although, I was actually in the senior staff meeting when they discussed this bidding issue and they only want to rush the paperwork on the airship order so we can make a hurried down-payment. The rest of the new bidding rules can wait to be implemented."

The man seemed about to say something else but at that moment the phone rang again startling Min incredibly since she was already holding the receiver to her ear. "I will deliver your message to the Avatar as soon as possible, Mister He. I hope you have a nice day!"

From there Min tried to pick up the call on the second line but in the process of disconnecting from the first call she somehow hung up on the second caller as well. Oh dear. That was not the most auspicious start but she supposed that if it was an urgent issue they would call right back. She hoped.

Unfortunately, this seemed to set a tone for the rest of the day. Xiaxia did not return and the calls did not slacken. Every so often there was a loud thunk behind Min's head and she had to retrieve a new mysterious tube addressed to the office of the Avatar from the pneumatic station. Her notepad was rapidly filling up with messages she could not understand that needed to be delivered to a boss who she had yet to see in person.

When the entry door finally opened Min looked up with hope and fear but the entrant was neither Xiaxia nor the Avatar but an older woman of Fire Nation blood with a very tight black bun and glasses hanging on a chain around her neck. She held a tied bundle of letters in her hands and a look of disapproval on her face. Min hurriedly finished the message she was recording as she started talking, "Ah, you must be from the correspondence office, Ms..." she flicked through the department list. "Naoshima?" she hazarded.

This earned her a sniff. "I am of the clerks. I simply saw that no one had been sent to collect the Avatar's correspondence so I added that destination to my trip here."

"Oh, Ms. Ogawa I apologize." Min said finding the correct name on the list as the head of the clerks' office. Then she looked up with a smile at the absurdity of her day. "It's funny, I was actually supposed to have an interview with you this morning for a position in the typing pool. Of course that is before Chao Wang nabbed me on my way into the building and..."

"Mrs."

"Pardon?"

"Mrs. Ogawa, and I have heard of you as well. I understand that in addition to missing scheduled appointments you are the girl who this morning suggested to Mr. Wang that future contract bids be conducted without regard for the name of the company?"

"Oh, yes!" Min said, looking back with fondness to one of her few successes on this day. "I had actually just been musing to myself and Mr. Wang took it for..."

Mrs. Ogawa interrupted once again. "Well, Legal was told to fast track the airship downpayment and since they are now not allowed to look at the name of the company they awarded our patronage to the newly cheaper Cabbage Corp bid instead of Miss Sato's Future Industries. The contract should have just come through the pneumatic."

"What?!" Min said. "Oh no, no, no, no, no! That is not right! I'll find that contract and..." She rooted through the pile of tubes until she found one containing a furled summery contract. "I will fix this!" She wrote in big characters across the front of the first page 'NOT THIS ONE, GET FUTURE INDUSTRY', and on the outside of the tube 'URGENT' next to the corrected destination before she shoved it back into the air pipe. She turned to her visitor, panting slightly. "You haven't by any chance seen Xiaxia? Aoto's assistant?"

Mrs. Ogawa set her burden of letters down on the desk. "No, I have not. Mr. Ishida's secretary is a very busy woman. You should instead worry about getting your own house in order." With one last sweeping look of disapproval she stalked back out of the office.

Min was drowning. Her notes had by now evolved into a new script and language as she struggled to deduce what was important about innumerable issues she could barely understand. There was no clock in here, and Min had unwisely listened to her mother that it was unbecoming for a woman to carry a watch so for all she knew the seasons had turned and turned until Vaatu triumphed and a new epoch began. It was at the point where she had resolved to just keep resting her forehead on the desk that a young man came into the office.

He swiped a cap off his head as he entered, "Hey, is the Avatar in?" He was wearing rougher clothes than the normal workers here, his shirtsleeves were rolled up and on his face was an uneasy grin but Min did not have time for him.

"No, she is not! No one is! If you want to schedule a meeting I have every slot filled up for the next week and I have no idea if I can even do that! Does the Avatar even exist? It could all be a myth propagated to explain away the downfall of Ozai and this Korra is just a media persona! This is seriously what I am thinking about why did they leave me here?"

The young man blinked. "Um," he said unsteadily. "Actually I'm with facilities and just wanted to see if the Avatar could come lend us a hand tying up the airships. She helps us out sometimes with heavy lifting stuff. Says it relaxes her."

Min took a deep breath. "Right. Sorry. As far as I know the Avatar is still dealing with a spirit world issue or the international conclave. I will tell her as soon as she gets into this office."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Ok. We managed to get the Fire Nation ship tied up all right so the other is probably fine but the Future Industries is probably a thousand kilos heavier. Then there is the issue of a three way pull and I am not really confident about our tower taking a those stresses. Never lashed up three at the same time before. I hope it's temporary."

Min said, "Yes, well it looks like it is going to be. Aoto Ishida is trying to do something about the Fire Nation ship and I am just glad we managed to get through to Future Industries after everything that has happened today." She briefly paused. "Lashed up three? What three are you talking about?"

"Oh, the airships? You know, the Steadylight, the Future Industries, and the Cabbage Corp."

Min felt the weight of the world creaking above her. "...There are three?! Three airships?!"

"Yeah, crazy I know, right?"

"But I... Oh peace, did Legal just completely ignore me? How did this happen? I sent the Cabbage contract right back explaining the mistake! I even typed up a clarification message and sent it right down through that blasted magic air pipe. Did the people in the sorting room just toss out everything I wrote?"

As Min made her way towards entering a state of hysteria the man from facilities slowly backed up, correctly intuiting her desire to lash out at whoever got within arm's reach. Min flipped through the directory, trying to find someone who might help her that she had not already called fruitlessly. She was growling to herself when she heard him speak up from across the room.

"Um, Miss?"

"What?"

He was standing behind the disused desk pointing at the wall. Or more precisely pointing at the pneumatic station mounted on it. "It looks like there are some tubes backed up in here." He reached over and with a hiss and a clunk he extracted one to see it immediately replaced by a second. Looking at the labels as he piled them up on the already overcrowded desk, he sheepishly raised his head to meet Min's eyes. "Yeah, these are all from you. I don't think anyone got your messages."

Min stopped and very slowly stood up. She walked across the floor, quiet in her stockings since she had never put her shoes back on. She spoke softly and calmly, there was no reason for this man to look so nervous as she approached him. "You mean to say that all day as I have been trying to fix this problem with the airships all my written messages have just been getting sent four meters across the room? That no one has gotten anything?"

"Well, I heard it was your first day and the system is kind of fiddly to get used to..."

"Fiddly!?" She yelled. "I have been mailing an empty desk that I could hit with a brick! Fiddly system! Why is that even a thing it can DO!?"

The outer door opened with a slam and someone said, "Great, and now there's yelling in here as well."

Min spun, ready to unleash her building outrage at any new target only to meet piercing blue eyes in a dark tanned face. The woman was only a little taller than Min but her muscle must have made her weigh half again as much and in presence she towered high above everyone. She was wearing a blue patterned sleeveless formal outfit whose top two buttons showed sign of being hurriedly undone and a twitch of her calloused hands indicated that she hoped for the rest to quickly follow suit. Somewhere in the back of Min's mind the voice of her mother squeaked about unladylike presentation but it was silenced because you did not even think things like that about the Avatar.

Avatar Korra raised an eyebrow at the woman who had opened her mouth to berate her and then froze. "Hello to you too. Any chance I can get through to my office?" Min hurriedly scrambled out of the way. The man from facilities just gave the Avatar a weak wave. The Avatar was halfway to the metal bound doors when she stopped and turned back to Min. "And who are you?"

Min tried to find some moisture in her mouth. "I am the new secretary, Mrs Avatar mam, sir."

The Avatar groaned, "Great. Aoto does not give up. Or are you one of Tenzin's suggestions? No, wait, sorry, what's your name?"

"Lin! I mean Mei. I mean Min!" She wondered it was possible to die on command.

The Avatar paused to take this in. "All right...Min, if you want to settle on that, I...You aren't wearing shoes."

Min wondered if it was possible to make bystanders die on command. "No mam, I am not. I mean I have them. I own shoes." That was it, she was taking everyone with her.

"All right..." The Avatar turned and pointed at the doors to her office. "Right now I am going to go in there, strip out of these fancy duds, and then fly very far, very fast from this place full of diplomats who will take three days to decide on the type of ink to use while their nation is dissolving around them. It was nice meeting you."

She had actually reached the handle when Min called out. "Avatar! I actually have quite a lot of messages for you and I have not been able to get in contact with anyone from Aoto's office..."

"Look, shoe girl, that can wait, and it is going to wait because I'm heading out right now." With that the heavy double doors were slammed shut, followed shortly after by the sound of a window opening and a rush of rattling wind.

Min just had time to look around the room, utterly lost, when there was another gust of wind and the ornate door swung open just a crack.

The Avatar poked her head back in. "Why are all those airships hovering over my building?"

"Those are yours."

"All right." The Avatar's head retreated. Min started to breath before the tall doors burst open completely. The Avatar strode out. "Then I have a second question. Why do I have SO MANY airships?!"

"It's only three."

"This morning I had zero! That was eleven hours ago. What happened?!"

Min's only shield was the truth. She took a deep breath before beginning. "The Fire Nation delegation's Harmony Restoration anniversary gift came in the form of an airship instead of money, we needed to hurry up and give a downpayment to Future Industries because we are about to to reorganize our procurement process, and the third is a mixup with some paperwork I sent out that occurred in the last few hours and has not yet been corrected, likely sped along by Mister Verrik's aggressive business practices. I have been attempting to contact the appropriate parties but I just learned I have been using the this building's internal mailing system incorrectly."

The Avatar put her palm to her forehead with considerable force. "Great. The last guy wouldn't let me leave the office without wearing the right fancy shoes and now the new secretary managed to spend all our money on useless airships. At least now Aoto won't be able to give me grief about firing this one. We were doing just fine without all these extra people."

Min had had enough. "Avatar mam, meeting you is the most awe inspiring moment of my life but you are being very, very stupid." The Avatar looked at her incredulously and the facilities boy in the corner tried looking up at the ceiling. Min twisted back and forth, gesturing with her arms out to her sides. "This huge building is running on a shoestring staff! Your people can barely manage their normal schedules without the type of sudden interruptions which are absolutely going to pop up. They're holding their meetings in the halls! There isn't even anyone assigned to employee training, which I know because I have been trapped in this room for four hours! You are quite possibly the busiest person in the entire world and you are refusing to accept even a single secretary. That is so stupid!"

At this point in the tirade the outer door clicked open and the familiar voice of Aoto came through. "Well she's going to have to if...What's this?"

"Be quiet Aoto, I'm being fired." Min turned back to the Avatar. "And one more thing! Those airships are not useless. If we could find a way to pay for them we should take all three. Our cash flows are very uncertain so needing to pay for commercial flights at every opportunity is risky, especially with also having to raise money for aid missions. Not to mention the fact that insisting on Avatar Right to secure those passages is incurring protest from all sorts of people who we should be winning goodwill from. The Avatar is supposed to be above nations and businesses, not...bumming rides from them!" Min's outrage finally ran out of steam. Her shoulders sagged.

"All right, you can kick me out now. Sorry, Aoto." But then she pointed back at the Avatar. "But before you run out that window again, Ms Avatar, you are going to help that young man tie up those airships since I suspect he is also severely understaffed like the rest of us and you are endowed with phenomenal cosmic power as well as frankly amazing shoulders. Your revised schedule for the next week is on the desk over there."

Min spun and stalked over to that same bit of furniture that had so shortly been her desk to retrieve her shoes and her purse. Now shod and still not looking up from the carpet at the silent room she headed over to the exit and found it blocked by an unmoving Aoto. She whispered, tired down to her very soul. "Please Aoto, just let me go home."

Behind her the Avatar chuckled, but it was not mocking. There was a warmth, an undercurrent of recognition. "She said 'we'. A lot. Looks like she's already on our side wether we want her or not. All right you can go home Min, but you're going to have to wait until I get back from mooring those airships so you can go through the schedule with me. I'll get someone to go over the pneumatic system with you tomorrow, although in my own personal opinion that device is mostly poorly designed sorcery. Aoto, come with me, we can talk on the way up to the roof." The Avatar stripped off her fancy top to reveal a simple undershirt, carelessly tossing the silk article onto the crumpled typewriter before making her way in quick confidant strides to the door.

Min was frozen in her same position. "Um, what?"

Aoto patted her on the shoulder. "Welcome to the team. I'll see you tomorrow."

And then Min was alone again. But now she was in her office. She wasn't entirely sure how that last encounter had worked out but she supposed she had at least secured a line to a paycheck this week. She sat down at her desk to calm the shaking the adrenaline had left in her veins. And now she actually had nothing to do. Well, she supposed she could sort through the mail. That was a simple enough task and if what she had seen of the Avatar's office was any indication then her boss needed every bit of organization that could be provided. It would be very simple task, the very second letter wasn't even addressed correctly. The poorly scrawled characters addressed it to the office of the Avatar but the name given was Miss Asami Sato. The envelope had a slightly sticky patch on one side which was presumably how this had gotten mixed in with the screened mail.

Min grabbed a letter opener to slide open the top and verify that this was not simply some poor honest farmer who had gotten his names of Republic City notables mixed up. Either way she could make sure it got to its proper destination.

It read, "To Asami Sato..." All right, she had the Miss' personal address right here, she could slip it in a new envelope and send it on its way. At least she knew better now than to try and use the pipes. She could hand it off on her way out of the building. "...You will pay for your sins." Wait, what was that it said?

"...the blood of benders drips off your filthy name...the Avatar will be protected from your corruption...This city will be saved. Prepare to die."

Oh. This might not be simple.

...

(A new, let's call it episode is coming in the near future.)