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Pursing her lips before giving Teddy a smile and a sideways glance, Olivia leaned to her right as she crossed her legs over the other. "It's mostly because it takes a lot of balls to stand in front of a panel of people to state your case. Something I don't quite have as much." She shrugged. She wasn't afraid to admit to her flaws and frankly, she was happy with them too. They kept her grounded.
Nodding as Teddy continued to speak, Olivia did understand what it meant to be a lawyer but she wasn't there to become one. At least not one like Teddy, anyway. She didn't think it was necessary to climb up the ranks. It was naive of her to think that way but Olivia wasn't ready to cause a stir. She was, after all, a mere human.
Teddy's question felt like a challenge and Olivia straightened her back as she thought of what to answer. "I guess it would depend on what the case was but I'm still just a junior assistant here." She admitted before chancing a glance at the other woman.
The small smile widened a fraction, as if the other woman's approval was all Olivia wanted. Well, technically, it was. At times, Olivia found herself being more at ease working under people rather than striking it out on her own. Of course, it usually depended on the people she was working under. Lucky for her, her previous employers had been good to her.
She was hoping this one would be as well.
The question was generic but Olivia didn't mind. She liked answering simple, predictable questions because they were that. "I'm honestly quite comfortable with the research portion of this work. I have no designs to become a lawyer right now, if that's what you're asking." She paused, chewing the inside of her cheek as her eyes drew away from Teddy, finding her smile rather distracting. "But I'd be happy to assist any of the practicing attorneys with whatever they need."
Olivia nodded. She supposed after years of having to hide something this big, it usually didn't come as second nature to drop that nugget of information into a conversation. Especially by accident. It took Casey a couple of years before she told Olivia about her nephew's mutation so it made sense that someone who chose this career to keep it under seal. Even if she's surrounded by her own peers.
"I do. Although, like I've said before, I'm not good at talking about myself. And truth be told, your position as my boss makes it even more difficult." Olivia admitted. She supposed if one thing came out of this, her new boss would at least know she was honest.
She took a deep breath as she tried to figure out what else Teddy might want to know. "I'm sure whatever credentials you need are stated in my resume but, is there anything else you would like to know? I'll try not to skimp out on the details." She offered a small, albeit still nervous, smile.
Compelling had to be a new adjective Olivia ever heard describing her. And as she listened to Teddy continue to wax poetic, Olivia grew a little uncomfortable. Although she couldn't really say she wasn't flattered.
The idea that she could be a "vision of change" brought with it an implication that her new boss wanted to use her as the face of the company. Which, in hindsight, sounded improbable due to how new she was in the firm.
"You're not one of them?" Olivia asked after a beat of silence. "I don't mean to pry, you don't have to answer if you don't want to. But the way you talk, you sound like you're not."
Olivia listened as Teddy spoke, catching herself from drifting away from the conversation due to the soothing cadence of the other woman's voice. She slipped her fingers through each other and placed them in her lap, thumbing her skin every now and then to keep them occupied.
By the way she worded the question and the tone that accompanied it, Olivia figured her new boss already knew the answer to that question. It had been one of the issues she faced when she was first interviewed for the job. To be perfectly honest, she was surprised she got hired anyway.
She shook her head briefly and looked at the other woman straight in the eye. "I'm hoping that won't be a problem moving on."
At Teddy's next question, Olivia paused and blinked as she tried to figure out how to best answer it. She was about to divulge into personal territory which wasn't her forte.
"The...the thing that happened in Montana, for instance. Although I believe that Stagford has made strides in the acceptance of mutants, there are still so many parts in just the US itself that seem to think that mutants are less than."
Olivia's mind went straight to Kenny and sighed inaudibly. "I don't want to think that my loved ones could be subject to small minds who think they can get away with it."
Licking her lips, Olivia looked up at Teddy and grimaced. "It sounds mighty personal, I realise that, and it doesn't really go with what we learn about the law but if I can at least help the people closest to me, then I'd think that's something I can live with." She paused before adding, "This firm has been doing wonders when it comes to that."
The reassuring smile did nothing to assuage Olivia's worries but she was grateful for the effort. She tried to feign comfort at least, just so she didn't look like the nervous wreck she actually was. Being twitchy never helped anyone win people over.
She simply nodded in response to Teddy's explanation before giving a smile at the questions that came. Those she could answer well enough. "I've been working here two months next week. I'm really here to implement my degree in criminology to help this community."
Thinking of Kenny and Cam gave her a boost of confidence. "I can't be the only one who feels the mutant community has been sidelined long enough. I want to help as much as I can with whatever resources are at my disposal."
The atmosphere in the room seemed to change the moment the other woman laughed. Although Olivia had to squeeze the chair she was standing behind just to make sure she didn't run her fingers through her hair out of nervous habit. She forced a smile and nodded at the informality of the address.
The woman didn't look at all like a Teddy, Olivia thought to herself. She looked more like a Victoria or some old timey fancy lady name. She just looked so classy.
Olivia pursed her lips and wet them before sliding into the chair, coughing slightly when Teddy pointed out the obvious. Although if she were being honest, daunting didn't even seem to cut it.
Teddy's question was Olivia's worst nightmare. Talking about herself was not something she was very good at. Her fingers shot up and ran through the ends of her hair briefly. She looked at Teddy and gave her a small grin. "I'm not very good at talking about myself, for one."
She gulped inaudibly and took a breath. "Sorry, I usually deal with the paperwork, I'm better at that than talking. Paperwork is uh...logical, I don't have to think sometimes." She paused and grimaced. "That...doesn't sound right does it."
Being called to the new boss' office was a lot like being called to the principal's office. Olivia couldn't gauge from the previous people who have gone in whether it was supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing.
She had just gotten the job as well, they couldn't be downsizing already, could they? She knew she was just an assistant but she knew her way around legal documents just as well as the others already.
Olivia straightened her dark jacket, looking down and smoothing her skirt down before wondering why she was so worried about her appearance when she could very well be evaluated on her performance in the company she had just entered. She took deep breaths to calm herself down before knocking on the door. She waited a beat before opening the door.
Had this been a year ago, Olivia would have just stayed at the door, gawking at the woman at the desk. The first thought that popped into her head was how ridiculously blue her eyes were and how so well put together she was. And those glasses just completed the look and Olivia was glad her legs were still working as she closed the door and walked towards the chair opposite the rather imposing woman.
Olivia didn't know much about the new firm partner other than the fact that she was a transfer from a big law firm in the UK. She knew she should have studied her a lot more but she had been too busy worrying about the stability of her place in this firm.
She took a short breath before clearing her throat. "You wanted to see me, Madam?"
HEIGHT:5’4” HAIR COLOR: Dark brown EYE COLOR: Dark brown
MISC: -
PERSONALITY: Olivia has a very curious and hungry mind. She's willing to go above and beyond to seek knowledge on something she finds fascinating and will be like a dog with a bone. Due to her voracious appetite for seeking knowledge, she hardly had time to make friends growing up apart from her family members, which leaves her slightly socially awkward, missing cues every now and then. And because of that, she's usually quiet and keeps to herself to avoid embarrassment.
She uses sarcasm as a defense mechanism and can be rather blunt when she dislikes something. This isn't to say she isn't a warm person, which she usually is, once her walls are broken down. She can be excitable and rather child-like in her abandon. With the right people that is.
Though she handles criticism quite well, there is always a part of her that would curl up and die inside, which is something she's trying to work on because she believes she has a healthy sense of self. It gives her grief that she can be upset over the smallest things.
SECRET(S): She hasn't fully accepted her sexual orientation because she hasn't had the time to explore it.
♦ THE HISTORY ♦
With a nineteen year age gap between her and her elder sister, Olivia was pretty much doted on by her parents by the time she was born. With Casey off at college, her empty nester parents had decided to give it one last shot and when Olivia was born, they couldn't be happier. For the first two years of her life, Olivia was the center of attention and she flourished.
Then, Casey came home with a baby boy and Olivia was no longer the baby of the family. She remembered kicking up a fuss and not taking to the baby at all but in time, Olivia did warm up to him but Casey and her partner moved to New Orleans and it was back to being the Olivia show once more. But their absence left a longing in Olivia that didn't quite go away as she grew up.
They kept in contact through the years and Olivia found a best friend in Cam through letters and emails. It was through him that she grew fond of procedural cop shows and her imagination ran wild as she saw herself in both the cop role and the lawyer role. She would spend hours by herself making up stories on how she would deal with crimes from both points of view. She would then share her stories with him, no matter how stupid they were, and he seemed to lap it up anyway.
When Kenny was born, Olivia fell in love with her niece straight away. It was hard not to. She was such a bubbly little ball of sunshine and every time Olivia came to visit or the other way around, they would spend hours together reading and playing and listening to music. It was like having another sibling to play with. Olivia and Cam even sneaked her in while they watched their favourite procedurals. They got into so much trouble for that.
Her curiosity for it only grew by the minute and she would find herself poring through any book she could find on crimes and the law. Her correspondence with the Marshall siblings seemed to halt around the time she was thirteen or fourteen. Her initial thought was that they found better friends than her and though the thought saddened her, she supposed it only made sense that they would find other friends. She threw herself into the procedurals and her books until Casey herself wrote to her, telling her what had happened with Cam. It was a bit of a shock to Olivia but she surprisingly got over it faster than she thought.
Finding out that Cam was a mutant opened her eyes to the mutant population in general. She took to learning anything and everything about mutants and found out some very disturbing things surrounding the mutant community, which only served to feed her passion for criminal law. She went to college majoring in criminology with a minor in law and still kept in touch with both Kenny and Cam, asking them to document their lives as a mutant in a small community.
When she found out Kenny had to move to Oregon due to the exposing of mutants, Olivia spoke to Casey about it, expressing her concern. Without much hesitation, Olivia decided to pack up her life in Seattle to move to Oregon with the hope that Kenny would feel a little better being around family again.
♦ THE PLAYER ♦
USERNAME:Queen Heaux Nu AGE GROUP: Coupla years to 30 EXPERIENCE: Too long WHERE DID YOU FIND US? Breadcrumbs
