((Back Dated to around April 2023))

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Honestly this meeting should have happened weeks ago but well… life happens. Shannon mentally shrugged and made her way up toward Alex's front door, knocking politely once she got there, glad that the weather meant she could dress in her more summery, flowy, flirty clothes. Not that Alex would care but the looks of men she passed on the street were enough for her. For now.

They could have had this meeting at her place but his was so much nicer. Especially since her old apartment was long gone, rented to someone else. Her current place was… a place. She was working hard to get back to her old affluence and more so but it was taking time. The years away didn’t help since she lost quite a few of her old contacts and now had to forge new ones. Lucky her time away did actually afford her the chance to grow in her writing and branch out to cover new things which meant she was able to take more gigs. And there were more freelance websites which meant more coverage for her.

She still wanted more though. Lots and lots more.

With luck this meeting with Alex today would be a large step towards her goal of opulence and power. Money. Money made the world go round. Those with the money had all the damn power.

Well not everyone.

Shannon absently studied her nails, painted bright red to match her newly dyed hair tips, and smiled. It felt nice to finally, finally, have more power in her hands. It was about damn time. Next step, General.

And a pet youma. Mustn't forget that little toy.


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Alexandre had been waiting for Shannon to turn up, she’d told him she was coming over for a meeting this afternoon, she hadn’t mentioned what she wanted to meet about though he was certain he knew. That little list of hers, which wasn’t really all that little, filled with ideas she had for gathering energy or making money. He’d gone over the list she’d given him, why wouldn’t he? The list held promise, a good deal of it, but it would all take time and work to figure out the ideas and how best to propose them to higher ups. Not only did they need to work on proposing the ideas but they needed to work out the ideas further.

When he heard the knock on his door he went to answer it, stepping back to let her inside, he motioned her into the living room. “Shoes off and have a seat.” The carpet was clean, just vacuumed the day before, and he liked to keep a clean home. He put a lot of work into the place, it wasn’t not easy keeping it so nice, and he didn’t like to give himself more work.

“I presume you’re here to discuss the ideas you presented to me?” Alexandre questioned as he motioned her to a chair, or the couch. “I’ll get you a drink?” He offered, trailing off unsure what she might want to drink. He trusted she'd shut, and lock, the front door so he was already heading back inside and towards the kitchen. "I admit a lot of the ideas are good but they’ll take work. Some are going to take a team as well.” He knew she could do the work, she was a determined sort of person, but she lacked a team - he had a team. He didn’t have the biggest team but he still had a team.

“I want to help.”


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Shannon knew the general rules of Alex’s house so she didn’t blink when he asked for shoes off. After walking through the city she would want people to take their shoes off too. Her strappy spring wedges were easy to slip off and place neatly by the door. She nearly giggled at the look of very feminine shoes nestled among the obviously male collection of footwear. It was rather incongruent and it just tickled her funny bone. With the shoes dealt with, door closed, and locked she practically sashayed into the living room, adoring the way her dress fluttered and flowed around her. It was a new little thing. A boho type dress that was all light and colorful cloth that accentuated her coloring and figure perfectly. Not that Alex would care. Shame.

“Tea if you have it, water if you don’t,” Shannon stated as she settled into her chair in the living room, arranging her dress around her legs and sitting properly like a lady. Even if she wanted to lounge, tuck her feet up and just drape over the chair like it was settee. “I’ve honestly had a few more ideas pop into my head since I’ve passed over that flash drive but they are nowhere near as fleshed out as those ones.” That little piece of plastic and electronics she passed over when she returned, a sort of ‘sorry I was gone so long here’s a present’ kind of thing, held quite a bit of data. Stuff she had spent literal years on.

“Most of them have at least ‘open source’ data compiled and sorted. The zoning info and all that. It still needs to go through one of our lawyers to make sure that the little s**t isn’t forgotten but outside of turning it from ‘paper’ to brick and mortar it should be good to go.” She had spent so long on it. So much time to compile everything. All that was needed now was the capital, and the personnel.

Alex could help with both, to a certain extent. Sadly the team wasn’t quite large enough to do the more personnel intensive ideas, nor was Alex’s wallet big enough.

“Is there a particular plan that you think we could get up and going with the assets we have right now?”


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“I have plenty of tea options, I grow tea plants in my greenhouse.” Looking over his shoulder as he answered her. “Any particular type you like. I might have it or similar.” He didn’t drink tea, it wasn’t his thing, but that didn’t mean he didn’t keep tea in his house. He always had loose leaf tea options, most of them grown and blended by himself, as well as a proper tea set because certain family members preferred it when they visited on occasion.

“I saw, you had a lot of data to go through. Some of it I don’t even fully understand, I’m not the most familiar with zoning rules and the like. But I was impressed by how much work you put into the plans. You didn’t just toss out ideas and not give information on how to actualize those ideas.” Which he most certainly appreciated, and not because it was less work for himself, he liked the extra work because it told him she’d put in the time and effort. It told him what needed to be done, in order, and how to go about it all. There was nothing left to guess really.

Getting himself some juice he waited to see what sort of tea she wanted, he did have plenty of options available in his kitchen. He was well stocked to handle guests.


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“Iced if you have it, earl gray if you don’t” Shannon wasn’t much of a tea snob and really only knew that there was a difference between Black and Green tea, and that there was one other but the name typically escaped her. Tea was tea, it either tasted good to her or it didn’t. She honestly liked wine better but there was no way she was going to even get close to buzzed for this meeting. Too much was riding on it to be inebriated at all.

She shrugged, “Had to do something to prove that I didn’t skip out on my duties somehow. Besides if the bigger plans actually play out the way I hope they will, then it's worth all that time.” If she could just be a silent partner in a few of them then money would never be a problem for her ever again. Just about the only thing she didn’t add to that little plastic stick was a lot of current viable real estate that could be rapidly used. It was sold too fast for her to do that. There were a few bigger ones that she noted, a couple that are used as examples to try to find, but overall most of them were just generalities. Best locations, estimated costs, etc. There was only so much she could do with the internet when she was halfway across the world. Now that she was back in the city? If they were willing to pay for her time she was willing to do the legwork. As long as she got a piece of the rewards.

“Out of those that I presented to you, did any really spark your fancy? I’ve thought of a few others since then but can’t say that I’ve put anywhere near as much work into them as I did those.”


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“I can do iced tea.” Shrugging a bit as he went about doing just that. “I’ll also get you some earl gray.” Since he had both in the kitchen. As he worked he loaded up a silver tray for the tea, some milk, and other accompaniments to be set out. Finishing everything, finishing it with a pitcher of iced juice for himself, he headed out into the living room with the tray. Setting it down he took his own seat, and glass, and leaned back in the chair to get comfortable.

“I can, and do, appreciate that.” He’d wondered when she’d return and had assumed she’d not have anything to show for it aside from her civilian job and whatever moves she’d made there. To see her list, and how well researched it was, was a surprise to him. He’d been pleased to know she hadn’t altogether shirked her duties.

“I like the Air BnB one…I think that could be viable. The best part being that people wouldn’t be there for too long, not long enough to notice anything, they also are likely to leave here after a few days and not look back. It wouldn’t be a bad one, the no strings attached sort of thing.” He was pleased with a lot of her ideas, many had merit and could be worked out. Some would, of course, need more support than he and his team could provide but he wanted to start small. They could work up to bigger things once the smaller ones proved fruitful.


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“That one was a rather inspired idea of mine. I honestly thought of the hotel first, followed by the motel, but it was when I ended up in a rented apartment building that used half of it’s units as Airbnb’s that I knew I hit a gold mine. Easily scalable, fairly good money returns, and god knows how easy it would be to set up for draining.” Shannon practically glowed as she started in on the benefits of that particular scheme, gracefully picking up her iced tea and sipping it. The concept was still out of her price range, damn near everything was out of her price range. But it was still pretty feasible for Alex to start up somehow, with her assistance of course. “There are some things we would have to keep in mind for that one. Mostly location and costs. Things like zoning ordinances and building restrictions. I’m not sure how, or if it's possible, to connect energy crystals to a central generation point, which would make things easier. But if it's not then removable ones are good as well. It just means that the cleaning crew would have to be Negaverse run and owned rather than contracted out.” She had put in a lot of thought into her plans. The hotel idea was actually her first plan. The one to start it all as it were.

“Once that really takes off then I would suggest going with either the hotel or the motel, motel gives you better chances of additional assets,” She added. Implying that it would be easier to just have people disappear from a motel then a hotel. “Especially if we use one that is just off of one of the major highway ramps. The seeder part of town makes it even easier. People disappear all the time in this city after all.” She shrugged and enjoyed her tea, mentally contemplating switching the cold liquid out for the cup of rapidly cooling earl gray. It would be a good change of pace but the little wisp of steam made her stick to her current beverage. That cup was still too warm for her to mess with right then.

“Several of the plans are fairly scalable but they don’t quite generate as much energy as the Hotel/Motel/Airbnb one.” A non-committal sound was produced along with a shrug as she enjoyed her drink. “There are a few that are heavy drainers but aren't much for money… and they are risky. They are much more work for possibly greater rewards.” That was a big thing for her. She did her best to note ideas and suggestions to keep their involvement at a minimum but there was always a risk that ‘the other team’ could find out. At which point the game was lost and all the time and money sunk into the venture would go down the drain. “If only there was some kind of insurance that could be done so if those freaking goodie-two-shoe Senshi show up we don’t end up bust. It's not an insurance scam if we aren't the ones burning down the building after all.”


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“It would be easier to manage than a hotel or a motel. Those are big, pricey, and harder to keep under the radar and would likely be found out far sooner than something simple like an Air BnB would.” Not to mention it would be cheaper to do an Air BnB somewhere in the city. In order to attract people they should get someplace in a key location, with a lot of things around for vacationing people to do. It wouldn’t be too hard to narrow that list down and figure out good places. The issue would be securing a place, at least for him to do on his own. It might be something to bring the Negaverse into, as well as collection of energy as she suggested. “An air bnb could generate a good amount of money, enough to allow for another plan to be put into action as well. A hotel would be hard, too easy to figure out I think. The motel, as you suggested the location for it, might be easier and safer.” But he still felt some sense of unease about it. Large scale things always seemed to be found out and go belly up.

Taking a drink from his full glass he set it down onto the tray, the glass clinking against the sterling silver tray. Leaning back into his leather chair comfortably, he tilted his head a bit. “That wouldn’t be a bad idea actually…an insurance company of our own; or rather one owned by the Negaverse. I’m sure we could make it work and perhaps expand it, so it seems legit, to other businesses in the city and maybe even home insurance. Why not offer protection to the home owners of this city?” It really wasn’t a bad idea if he thought about it. Though it also seemed highly illegal if they turned it into what ran through his mind. But it wouldn’t be too hard to cover up either.

“Ohhh, I do like the idea.”


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“But that's just it! If we actually follow my plan of sporadic and minor draining for the hotel and motel models then it shouldn’t be detected.” Shannon tapped the table with her nail, trying to emphasize her plan. “Yes it lowers the energy gathering ‘profits’ but it should also limit the detectability. It can’t be every room, every day, every guest. That will be detected but if it's more targeted then it should fly under the radar of those goodie-two shoes. Like come on! Who would think twice about being ‘jet lagged’ or after a long day out in the city seeing the sites they just conk out for the night? It's perfect!” She sat back and crossed her arms, actually not realizing that the move did put her on display some. Shannon was way too into her plans. Plans that she had spent years on. However there were also points she couldn’t factor in, like how exactly to set up devices for gathering energy. “But,” she conceded with a slight shrug, “I get your point. The bigger the scale the harder it is to control and the easier it would be to spot. It's just such a damn good idea,” She pouted some, before finishing off her iced tea and actually turning her devious mind towards Alex’s train of thought.

The idea of an insurance company was a throw away idea. One she just tossed out there as a ‘what if’. It wasn’t anything she had even tried to turn her hand to, unlike many of the others in her book of ideas. “Owned through a shell of a shell company honestly. Most people go with companies that they recognize so is it possible to do something like a franchise? We would need the name. Besides if you do the insurance ‘scam’ then you need to make sure it's not just our companies using it,” She picked up the now cooler earl gray tea and sipped it before continuing. “I would suggest it actually only having a few of our stores connected to it so it's not a marker of being ours if one gets found out.”


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“I like the idea, don’t get me wrong, of something large scale. We’ve done hospitals and we have a school we recruit from. We’ve done large scale, and still are, however I’d wanna start small first. A hotel or a motel is also expensive to maintain so I’d like smaller things which can bring in the money in order to handle the bigger things. While I’m sure we can get the capital from the organization I’d have put in some of our own, to show that we can, rather than having it all paid for by others.” He didn’t like that idea very much, of someone else paying for it all. He wanted some independence in things. “So the Air BnB first, as well as some other small ventures, and we’ll work our way up.” Though it seemed the idea of an insurance plan really had Shannon’s attention now, it also appealed to him as well.

“Of course, I do wonder how prices are for people and companies in this city. All things considered I venture to guess insurance for a home or a business isn’t cheap. We could come up with something…maybe founded by people from this city in order to support the people who live here. Some sort of cliché sort of feel good idea like that. But no, you are right in that only a few of the other ventures should use the company themselves, and not at first either. Let others join first, ones owned by civilians, so it doesn’t seem odd either. It’s a good idea and might do well in a city like this.” It could turn a good profit perhaps. It wasn’t anything he had a clue about, he might have to ask other people about it, but that wasn’t something he couldn’t do.


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“Fine,” She huffed and made a face, “besides if we have to actually get the finances from the organization that means the cuts of the cash prophets would be that much smaller. The Airbnb is a good plan but I would like to do some digging on the rules and regulations before implementing that one.” There were so many things that needed to at least be looked at, the least of which was actual location, before anything could be done with that idea. “But what about the sleep scam idea?” Honestly this is when having printed, or at least written, ideas to point to or pull out would be nice but there were too many chances of it getting stolen while she was traveling. The flash drive was much more secure. “It is one of the smaller plans, fairly scalable, and could be repeated elsewhere in the country if it does well here. It should also be a bigger draw for energy and less work overall then the dog walking, cleaning service, or running an Uber or Lyft type ride.” Although she did think that that last one wouldn’t be a bad idea to pass off to other officers. A real ‘work for yourself’ kind of deal for getting energy. She personally didn’t want to do it, mostly because she didn’t have a car and had no urge to be a damn cab but if done right, Shannon could see it raking in quite a bit in the quota department.

If the sleep therapist scam didn’t strike Alex’s fancy she had dozens of ideas on that little piece of plastic and tech. “A whole ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ feel eh?” Shannon lifted up her tea cup in a cheers type fashion, finding it super ironic all things considered. “Just need to make sure to follow the actual federal rules and regs because I know we run the world but I would rather not have to deal with the feds. They have no fashion sense and no sense of humor.” Thought there was that one time… that night had ended quite pleasantly for her.


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“I’m not looking to make money from this, not really, and anything we gain will likely wind up going to the Negaverse anyway. It’s how they run other things as well as helping agents who need it.” Like those who changed sides and lost everything in the process. Those few who left order were worth it; they had proved themselves. “We can both look into the Air BnB regulations and rules, I’d like to be versed in them myself.” He didn’t want to step into something, too deep, and then realized they’d made some mistake. He was certain they could make it work though, they’d just need a home to use.

“The sleep one could work and perhaps we should put that ideas as well as the Uber, or Lyft, ideas forward first in the hopes they are both picked up by the higher ups as worthy of the support they can provide.” Such as cars, a building to work from, and whatever else both options needed, he couldn’t remember everything on the flash drive as far as information went but he knew there would be a lot needed for both of the ideas and he wouldn’t be able to provide most of it.

“Ahh, and here I was thinking of it as a sort of Mafia protection ring.” He stated with something of a pout at Shannon. “I suppose I can play the legal route and we could bring the idea forward as well. We can follow laws and regs even if nothing would happen to us.” Since the Negaverse had its hands in every cookie jar, and they could get away with anything.


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Shannon’s eyes narrowed in displeasure but she held her tongue and hid the rest of her facial features behind the cup of tea. The idea of giving up any of her profits to the higher-ups really put her hackles up. She was the one who came up with the plan. She was the one who did all the leg work for it. She was the one who was going to set it up. It was her idea damn it! She should get compensated for it. All of her money making schemes should at least generate a finders fee type deposit into her bank account but if Alex was to be believed that was not likely to happen. Logically she understood but the tiny sum she currently saw every time she checked her balance meant that she wasn’t happy.

But there were always ways around that little… hiccup. She just couldn’t get caught with her hand in the till. It would take finesse and serious caution but she would get her pay day for all her work. At least for any plan she personally implemented, unlike the ones that she wanted no real connection to like the car ones or the pet one. So rather than voice her displeasure at her lack of financial incentive she shrugged and stated, “As long as I hit my quotas and get the shiny gold star in my record proving I came up with it… Whatever floats their boat.” She would get her money. One way or another.

“Really any cab like service would work, the car would just have to be rigged to subtly drain the passengers at the driver’s discretion. Those ideas need a bit of finessing on the technical side of things. I don’t really know enough about how to engineer what is needed.” She finished off her tea and put the cup down next to the empty glass before inquiring about something she had been wondering about for a while now. “Do we have an engineering department? Who makes the coms and tweaks the equipment for large scale draining anyway? Most of the plans on the flash drive are severely lacking in that department so that needs work before anything can go live.” So much she didn’t know about sadly. So much she didn’t care about… except when it benefited her.

Shannon rolled her eyes at the pout, “Don Beni… sounds so cheesy. Besides if you stick to the ‘right’ side of the law then they will back us if things go sideways. Maybe even get to snag a ‘bailout’ if we decide to ditch the whole thing, like we are a 2008 bank getting our butts saved by the taxpayer. Best of both worlds really. Make money… ‘lose’ said money… legally get paid for ‘losing’ the money.” She hummed and got a rather evil smirk on her face, “yes. Yes, that might be the best option if we can pull it off. Just need to see if we could ‘legally’ do it that is. However we define legal in this case that is.” She had ideas. Many, many ideas.

Maybe asking for a finder’s fee wasn’t such a stretch after all.


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“Oh, I’m sure you’ll hit your quota.” Shifting in his seat the ashen blond knew she would want to make money from this, money for herself and not just the Negaverse, but anyone else who helped and called this a job would get paid and so would she. She just wouldn’t make as much as she would want to, which was a shame, but credit would certainly go to her. “They wouldn’t deny you the acknowledgments of coming up with the ideas, especially if they work.” Which he was fairly certain they would, he didn’t see why they wouldn’t. The problem was maintaining something…that was always hard. It always seemed things got figured out in time by order and then ruined.

“The mauvians are the tech department and come up with the communications we have and other things, it would seem that they are a tech savvy race.” Since they weren’t from Earth, not originally, they just happen to have a few serving chaos while order had more. “You can talk to a mauvian, or a few, and see if they can’t help. Perhaps gather several of them in one place so the needs can be posed to them all and they can work it out together.” In one place so it would be a whole lot easier. It was a good thing they had a few of those cats on their side, they needed them.

“Don Beni, I don’t like that either. Though perhaps it’s cause you shortened my name?” Shrugging a bit, as he doubted that was why. He really didn’t think the title of don fit him at all, it was too big a pair of shoes for him to fill. “We’ll work over that idea slowly, I want to focus on your ideas first. Then we’ll work on something which teeters on legal and illegal... a protection ring of sorts.” Because that would take even more time to work out the details for.


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Shannon just contemplated for a moment before sighing. She knew he was right, there wasn’t anything she could do on a large scale that wouldn’t require higherup assistance. Besides if she was able to present her ideas in the best of lights she could still get a decent kickback, it is definitely worth trying that. “I know, I know. Between that and consulting the cats I guess it would be best to get the ball rolling. The sooner we are in business the better, besides, outside of the technical stuff it's all pretty much ready to go. Just need the capital and the hands and we should be up and running in no time at all.”

She shrugged as well, mirroring Alex’s own motion, and shook her head, “Yeah. And Don Benitoite is just too much of a mouth full. Ah well. We can definitely still work on the idea, it has lots of merit to it.” Shannon definitely wasn’t going to give up on the idea, there was just too much too it. But the bigger the scheme the larger the pitfalls, that's why she wanted to start with the Sleep Therapist first. It’s fairly straightforward and simple. It shouldn’t raise any suspicions.

Her first big move in the city since becoming an officer… She couldn’t wait!