Welcome to Gaia! ::

Nervous was the wrong term for the buzz in Jadarite's head. There was no reason to be nervous. She arrived at her meeting with the General-King promptly, with a glowing recommendation from a top General sent ahead of her and a well-trained, charming Lieutenant at her heels. On top of that, Lepidolite was pleasant. For all of Faustite's comments about how the upper echelons saw the likes of her rank as coat racks, Jadarite hadn't found that to be the case in her experience. She might not have had many chances to speak with her head supervisor, but when she had, he'd never been anything other than supportive of her projects.

As far as she knew, he even watched some of her videos.

No, the buzz running through her was excitement.

This had started as a simple exchange of ideas in her own office, and now they were here. After this, they would be able to start putting feet on the project. They might have resources.

Jadarite was still committed to making Borax squirm a little about the coat rack comment, so she hadn't told him anything else about the one they were going to meet, but she did give him a brief smile before she reached to knock on the door.

“Come in,” Lepidolite called from behind his door, but it opened a few seconds later anyway. His door was made of visibly thick wood, and creaked in a way that implied it was heavy. He opened it with ease.

The lights were on in the office to give a full view of everything immediately. He had great wood furniture that spoke of sophistication and luxury. Practical, of course, but his office said plenty about him. It was extravagant, a symbol of his success. It was impressive, it was comfortable.

It wasn’t unlike his office at Romano’s.

Framed portraits of rare birds. Shelves of expensive looking books. Trophy cases, full of an array of treasures. Magical artifacts. Broken weapons. A few Senshi brooches.

Behind his desk, a massive display of medals hung behind him.

He didn’t need to remind anyone that he was a General King. But, he was clearly proud of it.

The office had a large computer and a television set up, but neither were on right now.

Two plush chairs were set in front of his desk; he’d obviously been expecting them and done his best to make sure they’d be welcome and comfortable. He’d even brought a tray of Axinite’s cookies out for them.

“Have a seat. I’m looking forward to this meeting. I have to say, the bar’s been set pretty high. I’ve been hearing a lot of good things so far. Borax, don’t look so stiff. This isn’t an interrogation. Come get comfortable, I want to hear everything.”

Fascinating.

Borax had glanced to Jadarite to gain her approval on processing to open the door, but then Lepidolite opened it anyway, looking considerably less dour than he was expecting. This was not necessarily the image of a stiff general he'd be led to believe by Faustite, and that impression crumbled even further once he saw the man's office. Nothing about it looked fun, necessarily, but it was giving a much different image than the one he pictured. It felt less like a cold office and more like an office matching up with the vision of something he might have seen in a movie where the villainous force was perhaps not as readily obvious.

It spoke to something in Borax. Something that burned.

He found himself admiring the trappings of Lepidolite's victories as a general-sovereign before he was addressed. The address snapped him right out of admiration, of course, but to be told to relax was an interesting one. Faustite said he should do the opposite. Was it simply how pleased Lepidolite was that had him encouraging relaxation, or was he less familiar with this particular general-sovereign at large?

Nevertheless, he let some of the intentional tension leave his body as he sat, taking on the position he was more used to--intentionally positioning himself so all six-foot-five of him was not dominating the room.

Borax let Jadarite go first, not speaking up until his logical turn. When that moment arrived, though, "I am a director at a bank here, correct. Jadarite approached me about the concept and I immediately saw where this would be a utility for the Negaverse. Having our hands in the flow of money can only be to our benefit. We could offer our own agents products with low or no APR, for example, and get them access to money either to make their civilian lives easier, allowing them to be better agents as they are less focused on things unrelated, or get them that money for projects meant to help the Negaverse as a whole."

Seeing as she had sent him to help pick locations from what he knew of the local industry, he felt it was not stepping out of line to continue.

"According to my research, the community bank that will be presented suits what would work best as a starting point. They have good access to capital, a solid apparatus around what we should offer, and they are not that old, meaning their staff is a little less entrenched and therefore may be more pliable."

At that point, he looked back to Jadarite, and then Lepidolite for any read of his reaction. (He may have also glanced at the cookies, but it may have been out of line for him to take one when his captain had not.)

"We're prepared to put in the time, the effort, and the hard work," Jadarite assured him. Her gaze was sharp, wolfish, but her smile was winning. She was everything an Infiltration officer should be.

She understood that the project was ambitious and that the General-King would want to make sure that they were both prepared and committed. They were.

"I've been studying your infiltration of the Medical Center. We could use similar techniques here. Over time, we could drain the energy of the employees, focusing on the executives. We could make it look like a sickness, and increase the intensity until they are unable to work."

If someone was stubborn about staying on, it wouldn't be suspicious be so suspicious if they ended up dying from their ailment.

"Administrative turnover tends to lead to others in the company turning over as well. We can sweeten the deal for those looking to leave, offering generous severance packages and assigning someone to see if we can help them find other jobs. As they left, we would make sure to replace them with our own personnel. We have agents qualified to work in finance."

She nodded at Borax, but she was sure there were others.

"Teller positions and maintenance jobs would be excellent opportunities for those who come into our ranks seeking employment."

He would have to see the benefits that this would have for the Negaverse when they pulled it off.

"As far as what I need? People, mostly. I can oversee the project with Borax offering advice on the financial technicalities, but we'll need someone to help with the technical aspects. A lot of banking is shifting to the Internet lately. It also might be helpful to have someone to focus on protecting the bank once it's up and running."

Jadarite certainly didn't want to be the one getting her hands dirty with that.

"As far as financial investment, we would need something for those severance packages," she was careful not to say bribes, "for the current employees. Eventually we could look into buying the bank outright, which would give us even more control over the specifics, but that wouldn't have to be an initial priority. As long as we have agents in positions of power, we would be able to start doing things like waiving fees and approving loans for other projects without raising too many questions."

The corner of his lip twitched only once; he wasn’t one to hide his smiles and even if he was amused, it came from a place of pride. Lepidolite had tried out his fair share of projects, and he’d had time to learn how to secure a success and how to pick himself back up again after a failure.

He was going to do his best to make sure they had the resources and preparations needed to succeed. He wanted them to succeed. Wanted the Negaverse to succeed.

It sounded like they’d been doing their research, and given how committed they already seemed to be, it seemed like they were off to a good start.

He accepted Borax’s tablet and began to scroll a bit. He was only skimming but he didn’t want to have them sit there quietly while he actually read it. He got a glimpse–enough to know that there was plenty to work with. “Go ahead and send this to me, I’ll look at it over my next meal and get back to you with some feedback.”

He passed it back and looked to the both of them. “I think we can make sure you’ve got all you need.” Funds and a team to support the idea were easy enough. “I’ve done my time moving money to make it get to the right place. I think this is a good idea. And Destiny City’s got enough going on. You let me know if there’s anyone you’re interested in before you invite them over.”

It might have been easy to say the wrong thing to the wrong person and disrupt the plan, but he was optimistic. “You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you,” he cautioned, but not with any intention to deter them. “I like what I’ve seen so far, so if you get me the rest of your plans, I’ll make them a priority to get through so you can get started. You do your research, find a starting point, and we’ll work out a budget.”

The General King slapped his hands together before him and rubbed them enthusiastically. “You’ve got my support. Let’s make this happen.”

"Will do," replied Borax, with all the confidence in the world. "I look forward to your feedback."

He was confident that it wouldn't need much, but Lepidolite did have insight into the Negaverse that Borax clearly did not. If he could help refine this plan in ways he might not have thought of yet, it would ultimately mean that the plan went better. And if it went better, well, his arguments for more power held more water.

As Lepidolite talked, Borax took his tablet and began the work of forwarding the file. It was pleasing to hear that Lepidolite wanted to make sure they had everything they needed. He liked what he saw.

He wanted to make it happen, and he and Jadarite did too. Borax shot that pleased little smirk right back in her direction.

"Let's make this happen," Borax nodded firmly. "It is good to hear you're with us. We'll make you proud, general-king."