Sarah was wandering aimlessly through the Labyrinth, trailing her fingers through the foliage of the closely cropped hedges. She would dearly love to burn off some of her frustration by sparring, but her magic was currently reacting to her mood and she decided that it would be safer to be where people weren’t for the moment.
A crackle of magic arced down her arm to vanish into the hedge and a moment later an incongruous rose bloomed with an audible pop. The soft sound was enough to catch Sarah’s attention and reached out to gently touch the petals, marvelling that it was the same colour as Jareth’s eyes. Leaning over to inhale its fragrance, she coughed in surprise.
“Goblin ale? Really?” Sarah chuckled as she patted the hedge fondly. “The colour is perfect. Thank you.”
There had been a workplace incident and Sarah was wondering if it could have been avoided. A staff member who had been removed from a people management role due to bullying had died when she’d deliberately sprayed perfume in the face of her replacement. Ordinarily, this would have been enough of an escalation of her poor behaviour that Sarah would have dismissed her. However, in this case, what was a minor assault cascaded into catastrophe.
Sarah was uncertain if it was common knowledge in the team that Zeynep was a dragon shifter, because the unexpected olfactory assault triggered a sneeze that was unexpected enough to cause a belch of flame. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the bully hadn’t liberally doused herself in the scent prior to her assault and when the tiny flicker of dragon fire met a cloud of highly flammable, aerosolised perfume there was an explosion.
As a dragon, Zeynep was unharmed. Her clothing was destroyed and the room was a mess, but it was fortunate that no one else was harmed beyond singed hair due to Zeynep shielding them. As for the bully, her actions had resulted in a spectacular self immolation that left little more than a ruined rug.
As the incident was investigated, Sarah was further infuriated that the bully had not only previously been isolating her own team from each other, but had also been manipulating several other team leaders in an attempt to regain her previous position. She didn’t know if they were salvageable as yet, or whether she would need to dismiss those who had fallen under her sway.
The Labyrinth popped another blue rose into bloom and Sarah sighed. “The compromised staffing issues are painful enough, but I still need to formally offer my condolences to the dead woman’s family and I’m not certain how to diplomatically explain that their family member is dead due to being a malicious narcissist.”
Sarah had no sympathy for the dead woman. She’d been given a chance to redeem herself and her own actions had brought about her demise. Whether or not her family were being treated as poorly as her work colleagues was yet to be determined.
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ninetydegrees
Immolation
2025-03-04 07:35 (UTC)Sarah was wandering aimlessly through the Labyrinth, trailing her fingers through the foliage of the closely cropped hedges. She would dearly love to burn off some of her frustration by sparring, but her magic was currently reacting to her mood and she decided that it would be safer to be where people weren’t for the moment.
A crackle of magic arced down her arm to vanish into the hedge and a moment later an incongruous rose bloomed with an audible pop. The soft sound was enough to catch Sarah’s attention and reached out to gently touch the petals, marvelling that it was the same colour as Jareth’s eyes. Leaning over to inhale its fragrance, she coughed in surprise.
“Goblin ale? Really?” Sarah chuckled as she patted the hedge fondly. “The colour is perfect. Thank you.”
There had been a workplace incident and Sarah was wondering if it could have been avoided. A staff member who had been removed from a people management role due to bullying had died when she’d deliberately sprayed perfume in the face of her replacement. Ordinarily, this would have been enough of an escalation of her poor behaviour that Sarah would have dismissed her. However, in this case, what was a minor assault cascaded into catastrophe.
Sarah was uncertain if it was common knowledge in the team that Zeynep was a dragon shifter, because the unexpected olfactory assault triggered a sneeze that was unexpected enough to cause a belch of flame. This wouldn’t have been a problem if the bully hadn’t liberally doused herself in the scent prior to her assault and when the tiny flicker of dragon fire met a cloud of highly flammable, aerosolised perfume there was an explosion.
As a dragon, Zeynep was unharmed. Her clothing was destroyed and the room was a mess, but it was fortunate that no one else was harmed beyond singed hair due to Zeynep shielding them. As for the bully, her actions had resulted in a spectacular self immolation that left little more than a ruined rug.
As the incident was investigated, Sarah was further infuriated that the bully had not only previously been isolating her own team from each other, but had also been manipulating several other team leaders in an attempt to regain her previous position. She didn’t know if they were salvageable as yet, or whether she would need to dismiss those who had fallen under her sway.
The Labyrinth popped another blue rose into bloom and Sarah sighed. “The compromised staffing issues are painful enough, but I still need to formally offer my condolences to the dead woman’s family and I’m not certain how to diplomatically explain that their family member is dead due to being a malicious narcissist.”
Sarah had no sympathy for the dead woman. She’d been given a chance to redeem herself and her own actions had brought about her demise. Whether or not her family were being treated as poorly as her work colleagues was yet to be determined.