Anneke Visser's breath has always preceded her—literally, visibly, a pale exhalation of frost that marks her passage even in summer, a phenomenon that has simultaneously made her an exceptional negotiator (the physical manifestation of danger is terrifying) and a perpetual social inconvenience. The Frost Veil of Gunwale Court does not make small talk. The small talk develops rime.
Which is precisely why she was unprepared for Human Resources.
Her first encounter occurred when she accepted employment at a modern shipping enterprise—a legitimate concern, fully above-board, which she undertook primarily to access their import manifests and inventory systems. The position was titled "Security Consultant," a designation she found amusing, as her security consulting typically involved threat assessment and occasional throat assessment.
On her first day, she was shepherded into an office by a woman whose smile suggested she had been professionally trained to smile, given an employee handbook the thickness of a medieval bible, and informed that she would be attending "mandatory orientation and sensitivity training."
"Sensitivity," she repeated, her breath crystallizing the water in the woman's coffee cup.
"Yes," the woman said, pretending not to notice. "We have a zero-tolerance policy for workplace harassment, violence, theft, or any behavior that creates a hostile environment."
Anneke considered this announcement. In her previous employment, the crew of any vessel contained exactly three rules: obey the captain, complete the task, and do not discuss anything that happens. The notion that one required an entire department—an entire administrative apparatus—to prevent crews from stabbing each other seemed to suggest that land-folk were both remarkably violent and remarkably dishonest about their violence.
"What happens," she asked, her frost breath conducting a small symphony of crystallization, "if one violates this policy?"
"Progressive discipline," the woman explained. "Documented verbal warning, written warning, final warning, termination."
Anneke has experienced many forms of punishment: keelhauling, marooning, amputation, execution. She has never experienced anything quite so methodical, so thoroughly documented, so utterly dependent on bureaucratic precision. The woman might as well have described a curse: first it whispers warnings, then it writes them down, then it announces them formally, then it erases you from existence.
She attended the sensitivity training, which involved sitting in a conference room while a consultant (hired specifically to teach respect, which Anneke found absurd—respect is not taught, it is demonstrated through one's capacity for violence) presented slides about microaggressions.
When she asked whether calling someone "the Frost Veil" when she preferred her given name constituted a microaggression, the consultant became visibly flustered and added two additional slides to the presentation.
She quit the position after two weeks. The paperwork required three months to process.