Welcome to Gaia! ::

She had a meeting. A big meeting. A meeting with a General King. This was a meeting that could quite literally break her but she was determined to make it a success. Strengite tightened her hold on the surprisingly large accordion file folder. She had printed out all of her plans, particularly the larger and more ornate ones, collated them, organized them from least to most profitable, and even made sure to have a digital copy of her work on an extra thumb drive if it was desired. She had everything ready. Absolutely everything! Nothing could go wrong! Not on her big day!

Nothing except getting lost in the warren of halls and offices that were part of the castle that is!

How she had ended up there she had no clue. Strengite had just been taking a walk to calm herself, working through her presentation mentally, when she had looked up and realized she had no clue where exactly she was. “Damn, damn, damn.” Her muttered curses echoed in the empty space, as did her rapidly progressing heel clicks as she did her best to retrace her path.

She continued to mentally curse as she rapidly tried to find a familiar location, finally coming to a hallway she recognized. Finally, much later than she had intended, and a bit more out of breath than a walk should have warranted, Strengite knocked on the door to Lepidolite’s office. She wasn’t late… barely.

Everything was going to be fine! She absolutely deserved this meeting! It would go great!

It had to…

“Sir,” Strengite entered the office, silver eyes easily taking in the richly appointed space. “Apologies. I got a bit delayed on my way here,” she easily explained with a smile and a slight shrug. Now this man had taste. Nothing ostentatious, but still, the office was luxuriously appointed. It practically made her salivate and her eyes go green in envy. To hide any inkling of greed she might have outwardly shown the woman settled into the offered chair, demurely tucking her feet beneath the chair and smoothing her dress over her knees. There would be no blatant displays of skin with him… her first read on the General King didn’t give her that vibe. Besides it was always best to go subtle first before beating a male over the head with tits and a**. It was always possible to go that route but damn near impossible to go back.

“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me sir,” polite flattery was easy for her. “I know you were briefed on the purpose of the meeting but I’m hoping that I can provide further details and even surprise you with a few of my ideas.” Strengite wasn’t actually sure what the General King had been briefed on when it came to her plans and plots. She just knew that she had scored a meeting with him and she had better not ******** it up. “Oh, I hope it doesn’t take that long Sir but I do appreciate the courtesy. I’m sure you have much better things to do with your time like paperwork or spending time with friends and family.” So the probing wasn’t all that subtle but the response would let her know if the man sitting in front of her was a real hard a** or if he wouldn’t mind a bit of a more laid back kind of meeting. Was he cold as ice or looking for a cold beer?

That and he wasn’t exactly ugly… he had power obviously, likely had the money to go with it too if the personal touches in the office were anything to go by. Just the kind of man she liked. As long as he wasn’t attached, or into men, she might just try her hand at flirting with him. The meeting was too important to do more than light flirting but that would only be after she got a feeling if he wouldn’t toss her out over it.

Strengite would not ruin her chances by crossing some arbitrary line with him. No way, no how. Not if she wanted an office like this one day.

Beer. Definitely Beer.

Strengite mentally tallied the information she supposed about the General King and figured the man would be more interested in a cold beer than just brushing her off coldly. With a more friendly smile she laid out an array of folders, ranging in color from green to blue to red. “I can happily explain any of these but why don’t we start with ones that spark your interest first.” This way she could present the ones he liked while the others are still offered but maybe not necessarily chosen. Besides, one could learn quite a bit by the choices others make.

“These,” She indicated the green side of the row, “Are mostly wide ranging but small scale plans. A cleaning service, dog walking, Uber, Airbnb,” Each one was indicated with a manicured nail. There were a good dozen of those. From there she moved on to the blue folders. “These are bigger scales and much more involved both money and personnel wise.” Again she pointed out various ones that ranged in topic from hotels to movie theaters to stadiums and even more adult entertainment. The blue folders outnumbered the green by just a few, the smaller group was definitely the red folders. “Now these are likely fantastic energy collections, possibly money as well depending on how they are set up. But,” She held up a cautionary finger, “they are a bit on the a-moral side of things. At least so far as typical civilian thought processes.” This category contained ideas that ranged from public works to more ‘for profit’ public sector infrastructure. Nothing illegal per se, hell several would be considered boons to the local community, but add in energy draining and some of the more 'holier than thou’ officers would get their undies in a twist

Personally Strengite didn’t give a crap what harm could be done to the poor and downtrodden. As long as she got her cut of either the glory or the money, preferably both, she was A-Okay with just about anything. But she wasn’t naïve. She knew that there were people who believed in the rhetoric of ‘helping the little guy’. She also had no clue which way the General King leaned on that debate. Hence the red of the folders. A very visible sign that screamed ‘caution’.

“Which plan would you like me to explain in more detail? I also have all of these on a flash drive for your later perusal as desired.” Strengite placed a small little flash drive on the table with the folders before sitting back and waiting to see what the man would do.

“Most of them were compiled by myself, with the assistance of various subject matter experts.” Strengite was both pleased by just how easy it was to get rather detailed information from academics. It was almost like they were eager to show off. It was sad but made her life so much easier. “The later ones, and some of the more crystal related details, I did receive assistance from General Benitoite. He was actually the one who helped me get a meeting with you sir.” He was also a good guy to bounce ideas off of, and he was normally more than happy to pick up the check whenever she wrangled a ‘work dinner’ with him. “Between the knowledge I received, and that which General Benitoite was able to provide, the majority of each folder contains not only the plan but laws and zoning that could impact the indicated plan. For the ones that contain cars it has various points of interest such as popular car models, statistics for which type get pulled over and for what, and zones in the city that are more likely to be good ‘hunting’ locations. The building based ones have not only the zoning laws but OSHA and possible tax forms and regulations. There are also real estate selections and areas of interest. I’ve done my best to keep them up to date but some buildings have since been purchased. I’ve done my best to cover each point of contention, necessary legal paperwork, and draining engineering schematic that I could think of. Each plan should be self contained and outside of actually implementing them, they should be good for a final check prior to being used.” It had taken literal years to put some of those plans together. A lot of time and research on her part. “There are a few that still have some things lacking but those are newer plans that have not been fleshed out quite as much as the others. Such as the MLM. That mostly depends on what is decided to use for selling and how exactly we can incorporate crystals into it.”

But none of this really answered the General King’s question. He wanted to know what she thought she could pull off… what her track record was like. This was the real part of the meeting. The real ‘job interview’ as it were. “Well, I can’t say as I am exactly ‘experienced’ per say. I was one of the volunteers who traveled with General Labyrinthite overseas several years ago. It was actually at this time that this plan came to mind,” She indicated one of the more substantial green folders labeled ‘Hotel’. “But since this plan requires more manpower and capital than anything I could put together I settled on a smaller plan. With assistance I was the primary for a recent operation. The ‘sleep therapy’ plan sir?” She prompted, hoping the title would help indicate what she was talking about.”

“Sadly the plan worked a little too well and those meddling bas-” Strengite coughed and corrected her phrasing, “Those terrorists ended up burning down the storefront. It wasn’t a complete loss but it is still quite frustrating.” That was putting it mildly. The captain was still beyond furious from the outcome of that fiasco. “It was more a proof of concept and as such it did perform beautifully. I believe that it could easily be implemented in cities where opposition isn’t as active as in Destiny City.” It was a shame really. She had been hoping to franchise out and get a cut that way. Now it was completely out of her hands. The only return she got from it was a note in her file. Bah… What she wanted was money. And power. But mostly money.

She stared at the folders and after a moment of contemplation she pointed out three. “Out of all of these I believe these three are the best ones for return on money, energy, and possibly even starseeds.” One was a red folder labeled ‘for profit prison’, one a blue folder labeled ‘motel’, and the last was a green one labeled ‘Airbnb’. “These two,” Strengite indicated the red and blue folders, “Require quite a large sum of cash and staff but few actually look into what happens here,” she pointed to the red folder. “And if this plan is implemented on the ‘bad’ side of town,” this time it was the blue folder being pointed at, “preferably on the outskirts, then no one will really care if a few guests go missing. People go missing all the time in this city, what are a few more.” It also didn’t hurt that the cheep, seedy motel she was mentally picturing was a place where transients and others just ebb and flow. Just like in every major city. It was those ‘invisibles’ that she figured would be the main tenants in such a place. A real, ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ business.

“As for this one,” The green folder. “This one would be easiest to run for myself or other small groups. It would require some upfront capital for the purchase of locations but once that is done it is mostly all about keeping the draining under control and out of the spotlight. After all, who even is surprised when you knock out for the night after a long fun filled day in a major city?” The biggest hiccup Strengite could imagine for this particular plan was calibrating the crystals to either drain slowly over a period of time or to come up with some way to limit the impact so it only occurs at night. Leaving the guests perfectly fine during the day. “The various apparatus can be retrieved and replaced during the unit cleaning between customers. The costs can be kept down by having the officers who are running their particular location act as the cleaning crew. Or,” She held up a finger and with a smile pointed out another green folder marked ‘cleaners’, “If this one is implemented as well this group could not only clean up the locations of this operation, but they could also place their own crystals in other client locations.” That one just required regular clients so there was regular access too and retrieval of the used crystals.

Strengite could only shrug slightly. He had a point, she should have an entire cadre of gofers to keep her little projects up to date. Sadly she hadn’t yet found anyone to ‘mentor’ or been assigned to anyone. Not that she had been a Captain for very long… just for a year? Wow it has been a bit since she was granted her current station. She really did need to get going on putting together her own team, aka minions, and bother Beni for the secret of getting one’s own youma. “It’s hard to delegate when each one feels like one of my children.” Not that there was any way in hell she wanted actual kids. “At least not until they reach this point when I feel that they are good to present to you, Sir.” A little flattery couldn’t hurt.

“While I am aware of our budgetary limitations I also know that several of these could be passed off to other branches where their budget is less strained than ours.” So many of the other cities that they controlled were quieter and didn’t have such a large rebel faction as Destiny City. “I also have also added a small addendum to that particular plan that basically boils down to contracting our services out to the company that owns and runs a particular prison. This way we don’t have to handle the start up costs but still reap the benefits. It just requires us to be in complete control. All aspects from the admin team, health care, and prison guards themselves would have to be agents or connected in some way since we wouldn’t be able to build in the draining points. The agents would have to be actively draining. Hence why this one is best out of this city. Too many… problems… occur here.” Too many butt bows. Nosy little shits. “As for the cleaners and the Airbnb’s, those really are ones that could scale pretty well. Start off with a small team of cleaners or only one Airbnb as a proof of concept before growing them with the earned capital. Airbnb is just a pain because of city ordinances. So many buildings are starting to put in rules about short term rentals.” Hence why she had really focused on the more ‘own the building’ centric ideas.

Her professional smile got a bit wider, and took on just a hint of smugness, when the General King turned his attention to the motel. “Ah yes, but that is actually the point of that particular plan. At best it’s made to break even or thereabouts in regards to money. It is really made for energy and starseed collection since no one really cares if a junkie dies. In fact, they expect it. And if they disappear?” She shrugged nonchalantly. “As for the police, I figure a few bribes or placing a few of our people in that particular part of town should keep that issue limited. But I will concede that it isn’t something I particularly would be very good at running.” Strengite leaned forward and tapped on one of the thicker blue folders. “This one for a Hotel is actually where this whole adventure started. It is ultimately a compilation of some of the smaller, green folders all in one. This one just came first. But since it requires more personnel and money then I could put together it is a blue folder kind of plan.” She had been in that hotel room years ago when it occurred to her that a hotel really was the perfect draining point. It just needed careful management in order not to be caught.

“I am more than happy to assist with any of these plans.” As long as she got a cut of the rewards… either money or glory. Strengite at least wanted a kudo for the plans she had spent so long on. “I’ve not really had too much time to flesh out a plan for a Bed and Breakfast but I’m sure it would be very doable. Just scale down the hotel model or adjust the Airbnb plan until it fits for what you are looking for. Do we,” The royal we, as in ‘we the negaverse’, “Have any properties already that could be used or should I look into what is available?”

“Oh my yes, I do understand completely.” He was balking a bit at the bigger ideas, and even a few of the scaleable ones that had quite a few moving parts. Valid, very valid, as far as Strengite was concerned. “I honestly figured those would be best to pass over to other teams or branches that have a more, stable populus.” She knew very well that her skill set was not made for the large plans. Hell, considering the group she had to work with, even some of the smaller plans were not good ideas. “Our city definitely has a more volatile collection of headaches.”

The woman nodded and added, ‘among a few other things’ when he mentioned her job. She did work with Wither at his day job when he needed the help or she needed the cash influx. “Yes and no. My last large project didn’t end well since those ‘headaches’ caught on before the business could really take off.” Strengite was still salty over her Sleep Therapy plan quite literally going up in smoke. “It was my first attempt as a Captain and as a viable store we had just gotten out of the red, give or take, before its success brought undue attention.” Eh, they were just shy of breaking even but it sounded better that way. “I took what I learned from that incident and revamped many of my plans with those lesions in an attempt to make them better.” And much less likely to be detected.

Well, that was a shame. Starseeding really was one of the high risk, high rewards part of hunting. It wasn’t something she did very often, only when the asswipes deserved it, but still. “Understandable,” Not her style but completely understandable. “I am definitely more than willing to adjust my thinking if that's what it takes to get the mission done.” Especially if she was actually financially compensated. “That does sound great sir. If the building is historic, even better… it might be less likely to be targeted because of its age. I would be happy to help in any way, either for the charity event or for the BnB.”

Strengite pulled out her notebook, “No point in leaving money on the table after all,” and clicked her pen, poised to take notes. This General King really did seem like a man after her own heart. “Now, about this charity event…” The meeting might not be going the way she originally thought but it definitely wasn’t disappointing!