All Kinds of Kinds

@nella | Outfit

Everyone was busy, and Ireland thought that that was a good thing. She knew that Ares not being Minister anymore was better for Nick, and for LJ, and for everyone, and so she thought that it was probably a good thing that things had changed hands, but she thought that anyone could take one look at this place and realize that they were all busier than they had been for the last year. Things weren't slipping through the cracks anymore. She knew that that was a good thing too. They were going to hopefully get everything back to the caliber that it was supposed to be at, and then they could go from there. Ireland wasn't convinced that things weren't going to go the way that they were supposed to go at all now. She was usually just so wrapped up in the Quidditch side of things that she didn't tend to pay that much attention to the rest of the Ministry. She knew that there were about a million other things going on here on any given day. She had seen the memo come across her desk earlier about the Minister appointing a new headmistress for the school that they were creating for the muggleborns. That was the side of the Ministry that the witch tried to avoid. It was just easier to not be a part of it at all. 

She knew that Nick's family was tied up in that side of things. She knew that her boss was one of them. That her uncle had been one of them. But none of those things made Ireland one of them. Was she certain that there were both rights and wrongs on each side of the argument? Yes. Did she think that she was going to be foolish enough to mention any of that at all? Of course not. She knew that she couldn't actually begin to think that she was strong enough to have a voice. Ireland had a different kind of strength in her. And that was something that she was having to learn about herself. She was struggling to find the answers that she was looking for, but she thought that they would find their way to her if she was just patient enough to wait for them. Ireland had perfected the art of patience in the last year. She had been patient, and she had ended up with something that she didn't think could be anything other than the feeling that she was in love in the pit of her stomach. It was just telling him that that was the problem. She knew that she was going to have to try and say it one of these days. She couldn't push it down forever, but something told her that saying it would change everything, and right now, Ireland didn't want to change anything. 

Being happy the way that they were was enough for her. There weren't any labels between them, and that worked for them. At least until she went to say that her boyfriend this, or her boyfriend that, and then she realized that she couldn't exactly say that out loud, because they weren't doing the whole labels thing. It was good, and it didn't change what it was that was going on between them, it just made it difficult to talk about him sometimes. Ireland wasn't big on talking about her relationship with anyone that she wasn't particularly close to anyway, but still. They weren't news anymore, but she was certain that there was always the possibility that rumors could start over the littlest things is someone, namely her, wasn't careful enough with what she did, or said. Ireland didn't think that there were any real drawbacks to this set up though, she liked that they hadn't done labels, but that the level of trust was still there. It was nice knowing that they didn't need that to be important to one another. Because he was important to her. She looked up as the line for coffee moved and she put in her order as she contemplated everything that was going on around them. Reaching for the coffee that the barista set down her hand brushed against someone else's reaching for the same thing and Ireland immediately pulled her hand away, not really knowing if the cup she had been reaching for was hers or not. "I'm sorry!" 

Outfit

Things were a little intense for Nella at the moment. She had married a man, who was power as he was dangerous and she was rather attracted to him. Many people though her crazy but they did not know the advantage both of them (and their families) gained from such a match. They weren’t in love and they weren’t joined at the hip. She was, for lack of a better term, set up to merely be the mother of his children. To be there with him at events, to smile and look pretty. He did not demand that she quit her job, he did not make her stop doing anything that she did and they even shared houses. He shared her bed twice a week and twice a week she went to his home. Leaving them three days where they slept in their own home and did as they pleased.

It was a rather nice arrangement, and if she had to say so herself, she thought that he looked a little pleased when he had come over to find her looking at the remains of her mudblood. He had not been there long and he had offered to take care of it for her. Which had been rather kind. She did have ways to do such a thing herself, bit not ruining one of her favorite dresses had been a plus. So she had sent word that the mudblood had expired and she was placed on the list to possibly receive a new one. Since then she had merely gone back to using the elf that her father had sent to her, which before was only used for laundry and tea, since the ‘butler’ couldn’t make coffee or tea worth a damn.

She had called for a dress to be brought to her, one that her mother loved very much and had groaned when the stubborn thing brought her a different dress than what she wanted, and her hair pins had been hidden too. SHe was going to flog the blasted thing when she got home, she felt like she looked ridiculous, but that was because she never wore her hair. Mainly because it got in her way when she was doing paperwork and in her face, neither did she like. She had gotten in line to get a coffee before going up to her office. After paying she was tucking her hair behind her ear and looking to see if any of her staff had yet arrived when she felt someone’s hand brushed hers.

”Scusami.: Looking at the cup she saw that it had Ireland on it and she smiled before holding it out to the pretty young woman. ”I take it you are Ireland?” A cup was placed down with Ornella on it and she took it before taking a sip.

Ireland knew that things were going to have to work themselves out sooner or later. They were going to level out, and they would get better. Ares not being in charge anymore had been, sudden. And she thought that it was a rather good thing that it had been a simple transition. No one had gotten hurt, and Ireland thought that her Gryffindor might have shown a little bit if Nick's father or his cousin had gotten hurt. She wasn't against the change in regime, not really. She thought that things might get a little easier for Nick like this, and if that was what was best for him, then she wouldn't think poorly of it. But only because no one had gotten hurt. She didn't know what to think about a lot of it, but Ireland was of the opinion that unless it was hurting someone that she cared about, she was just going to stay out of it. It didn't matter who sided on what end of the spectrum. They had things to do. They had a Quidditch league to run, and that was what was important right now. There was a European Cup still going on that needed more attention than who was playing politics in this Ministry right now.

Quidditch was its own little world, and she thought that while there were plenty of hoops to jump through sometimes, she wanted to get good at it. She wanted to succeed in this department at the Ministry, because there were a lot of ways that she could have gone when it came to her life, but she was sure that this was the one that made the most sense. She was sure that there were plenty of people that she had to talk to. Plenty of people that she could make connections with, that stemmed from all over the world. That was the thing about Quidditch. It brought them together from all over the world, with the same set of rules, with the same likes, and dislikes, and everything else that went with it. There were 700 ways to commit a foul in Quidditch, and they knew all of them. They were unanimous all over the world. It was the sport that bound them together, that made them one community of people. That was powerful, and she thought that there was something to show for it. That this Cup, was enough to show for it.

It did keep them busy though. Not just Beckett, and her, but the whole department. They didn't only deal with Quidditch, and they had to take care of other things too. Things that they were going to need to be handled before they could move on to getting ready for the League Cup to start. There was a lot more to Quidditch than just what went on up in the air, and Ireland had to hope that they were doing enough to keep everything that was happening where the public could see it, running smoothly. They didn't have a lot of scandals, thankfully, and the ones that they did have got dealt with quickly, and quietly. There was more trading going on in the off season than anything right now though, and Ireland thought that if they were going to keep everyone's rosters straight, then she thought that they needed them sooner rather than later but getting all of that to them wasn't an easy task. She knew that there were plenty of teams that weren't even close to knowing what they were doing yet. The sooner that they started figuring it out the better though. They had England and Scotland in the World Cup this year, along with everything else. They needed the space to think.

Ireland was pulled out of her thoughts when her hand brushed someone else's, and she nodded to the woman, "Yes." She knew that her name was odd, but it was her name, and she rather liked it after all of these years. "Thank you." Taking the cup that the woman held out Ireland looked at her more closely for a second and then she realized who she was, "You're Lady Kvothe." She ducked her chin just a little bit to the older woman. "I'm sorry, we don't often have a lot of reason to run across one other." She didn't expect that the woman knew her at all. She and Nick had stopped being tabloid worthy months ago, and she didn't think either one of them had made a reappearance in the papers since the takeover. Perhaps a mention of Nick when the Falcons had lost out of the European Cup, but she was rather used to the blending in, and being anyone else again. And she liked that. She held out her hand without the coffee in it, "Ireland Karev."