“Hey, are you busy right now?”
“Yes, but not with anything that can't be interrupted. What's up?”
“I need you to come with me. We need to discuss your latest expense report.”
“Am I being accused of fraud or something?”
[A chuckle is shared between them.]
“No, of course not. It's a lot simpler than that.”
“Have I just made a mistake? You know how I am with those things.”
“…No…it's more complicated than that. Come on, I'll explain on the way down.”
“Well, alright then.”
[A couple of clacks are produced from the keyboard as progress is saved. Shuffling is heard as the chair is evacuäted.]
“So what's this about then?”
“It's a quite odd situation, because we're running into technical problems getting your expense report into our systems because you went to one country, but came back from another.
[They both halt.]
“…Huh? What are you talking about? I didn't cross any borders once my plane landed.”
“You're correct. Let's keep walking.”
[They both keep walking.]
“What happened is that country underwent a coup while you were there.”
“I—h—what? That can't be correct. At the very least, I would have heard about it.”
“It was apparently not a very disruptive coup.”
“How? How do you have a non-disruptive coup? What the ffff—in the world?”
“I dunno. I don't really pay attention to the news because it tends to be really depressing, so I haven't gotta clue how it all worked out. You could probably look it up.”
“I'm definitely going to later. Though since it's current events, who knows how accurate the reporting will be. I'd wait for it all to settle out, but I'm just so curious.”
“I'm not.”
“Fair enough. So what does this mean for the expense report?”
“It means that it can't be entered into the systems for some reason, so you need to redo it yourself because our policies state that it can't be fixed on your behalf. I was given a list of the changes that you're going to need to make, so i can just give you that, the report, and a fresh form for you to fill out.”
“So what makes it not work with the systems?”
“I have no idea. It was explained to me, but it all washed over me, so you'd have to ask the folks who work with the systems.”
“Okay then.”
“So yeah, I guess that's it. Just take these things and follow the instructions and then bring them back here.”
“Alright!”