Orchid Espere (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
petal_storm) wrote2023-03-24 06:59 am
petal_storm) wrote2023-03-24 06:59 am
Entry tags:
I'd weep but there's no tears left
Who: Markux, Magnus, Jendiss, some poor schmucks.
When: Many, many years after college.
What: Sometimes it just takes the right lever...
"It's very simple Magnus, you know my thoughts on you, on your career, and anything you are here to ask is quite simply no." Markux didn't bother glancing up as the shadow fell across his plate in the quiet little cafe.
"Welcome," Markux smiled; his makeup was perfect, he'd checked it a thousand times in the mirror before dinner. This dinner. Business dinners, how...droll. "You all begged me to host this evening so here we are," he sighed, tracing a finger down Attani's face gently. Such lovely skin for such a dark soul, sad that. He took what small pleasures he could though.
"Not your spa?" Bettrixis pouted. The man really should practice that expression in a mirror, he'd understand how awful it was then.
Markux tutted, shaking a finger, "I try not to mix business and pleasure...much." Cajole. Tempt. Even fish lipped drug developers. As intended that got a laugh, push the right buttons, lead the assumptions so gently, so casually...
"I'm aware, Markux, well aware. I'm not here to ask a single thing. I want to discuss a dream though..." Magnus smiled, seating himself across from the elegant man of his current attention.
...his man was as ever neat and well turned out. He had to be to be seen in public as Markux's aide; he was also the only person trusted to serve a meal to this group. They all had reason for paranoia after all, high powers CEO's, tiny gods in this world of floating disks and zones. And like all tiny gods, there were thousands clamoring to see them fall.
Not Markux though, no, he was one of the greater gods, not a mere CEO but a true business power. No one was certain just how much of their small world he owned, but it meant there was one meeting a year where the others could relax, knowing the host was safe.
"Drinks," Markux waved a hand negligently at the bar as they entered the electronic and spy proofed room; but as cliched as it sounded, well, that was no reason to sacrifice comfort at all. "Comforts." There were candy dishes set out and he took a lazy handful of pills from one, tossing them back with champagne. He didn't use at the spa, no, never, but they made the rest of the world...bearable.
This...bearable.
"I'm not your dream therapist, Magnus. I believe I've lost my appetite, I'll be going now." Markux rose, eyes scanning the cafe and not liking how...oddly empty it was now.
"You always play so straight laced, Markux," Ambrose laughed, "it's always nice to see you're human."
"Am I?" Markux mused, giving the man a smile and touching the tacky coat he was wearing, "not tonight, tonight I'm your angel of fashion, do please let me dress you, I can't possibly discuss business when you're in banana plaid..."
"Gods no, no one wants to see what's under that!" Attani winced, pretending to shield her face, the comment making Ambrose flush and unfortunate shade against the terrible fabric.
"The faint of heart are always welcome to turn away," Markux dismissed easily. Getting someone, anyone, naked at 'business' events tended to bring down barriers really, and these people needed to be, well...
"You'll stay." Magnus waved a hand, a cold, dark little bodyguard of a man stepping forward. "As I was saying, a dream," he mused. "A perfect, elegant little creature. I want to make her."
Things were moving right along really, four people, relaxed and laughing, and all he had to do was ask about that odd little rumor he'd heard about dear little Bett. Had he really been dallying with Attani's children? Really, industrial espionage was so...uncouth. But if it was company the man was seeking there were far better venues...
"Make?" Markux froze, staring. "No. You've finally lost any semblance of sanity if you think I'll listen to your dreams of creating a pet."
Attani adored her two children, barely twenty the pair of them, a rare, human emotion in the deadly little insect that woman was. And she defended them viciously, Bettrinix only had to guffaw and talk about how sad they'd been even together, as a lay he hadn't really wanted to boast...
...it never was wise to anger a biomedical CEO. She came with more poison knowledge in that little skull than any Geneva Convention had dreamed of.
He was horrified, how not? But poor little Ambrose had been waiting for a leg up on that woman since she'd sneered at his body...
"Oh, you'll listen," he smiled, tugging Markux's wrist gently. "How did you put it all those years ago? Hmmm, I'm a person with a terrible gift. I see the cracks. The weaknesses in others and know just how to use them...but that's a bit brute force for this task. See I need certain...technologies and patents to go to open market. That's where you come in."
"That's straight up murder, Attani," Ambrose smiled, looking at the man still leaking foamy blood from his mouth on the table. "Now, really, how am I, a good, honest citizen suppose to ignore that?"
"We have to call the peacekeepers," Markux breathed, eyes wide, but glancing ever so slightly at their fourth attendee. A cold man that one, no teasing, just watching as the others played, and yet...
"No calls can get out of here," Witten noted simply, "and we've a meal to finish. I'm sure we can come to equitable terms..."
"Terms," Ambrose smirked, "I'm cheap Attani, just you on your knees for half an hour and not a peep from me."
"...what?" Markux blinked, flesh crawling from Magnus's touch. "You can't force that."
Attani sneered at Ambrose and returned to eating her meal, "nothing there worth kneeling for," she pointed out.
"Why you fucking bitch..." the man snarled, lunging across the table to pull her faca down harshly against the plate.
"Now see here!" Witten snapped, standing to grab the man's shoulders, "we can't act like back alley drug dealers he-" He'd been trying to help, honestly. Witten was a cold creature, but he was obsessed with being civil. He had wanted to separate them and discuss business trades to cover murder, but a flailing hand covered in lethal nails found his side instead of Ambrose's.
"I never said anything about force, Markux. You have such a beautiful mind really, where I plow through things you dance. You nudge, you say just the right thing to the right people...and if say, they die under suspicious, or criminal circumstances, their companies...go open market." he smiled, stroking a thumb along Markux's wrist, "you are going to make them dance that tune for me. Because you, my beautiful angel, are broken. I just had to find the one that broke you." And he was so good at using the cracks in broken things.
"Look what you did you psycho bitch!" Ambrose yelled, slamming her face again, and again, against the plate, then the marble beneath. "You just had to do one little thing...one fucking thing for me but no." Such an unpleasant man really...
...and not incredibly smart. He forgot that people had two hands, and in this case, a set of nails not already buried in someone else. He had adrenal mods though, everyone knew that, the harder his body was fighting the stronger he got. He put Attani's face a foot into the marble table, or rather his fist that far and the terrible paste of her skull lightly sandwiched between, before his heart gave out entirely.
He froze. Of course he froze, how could he not? He knew what was coming with a sick certainty, just Magnus's bodyguard lifting a datapad briefly, but it stabbed him harshly despite that. Jendiss. Jendiss in a cell. He hadn't seen the man in decades and still he could identify the curve of that jaw, even blindfolded and gagged harshly.
Markux...sank to the floor, trying to breathe, waving at his man, "go. Peacekeepers...get a signal..." gods he couldn't breathe.
The man who'd withdrawn to the door the moment violence started nodded, "I was already keying the door open, but the time delays..." he noted blandly.
"Of course." And it had all happened so fast. Two years of careful research and learning what to do, two years of weekly updates on Jendiss's life as a captive...
...and over in under half an hour. It was a security measure of this kind of office to have the doors seal for at least an hour for such meetings. For safety.
Of course...they hadn't even guessed they'd be locked in with the monster they should be afraid of. How could they?
"Really, so...tragic, Markux. Someone hurts you badly enough to make you my plaything and you would still become the terrible thing angels always were...to see him free," Magnus did not understand, at all, but he did enjoy the effect. "My word of course. Once done our work is concluded, he gets put back exactly where we found him, quite a bit richer for his suffering, it's only fair, and I'll never touch him again." He dabbed his lips with a napkin, smiling.
Hysterics were a wonderful tool really, and it helped he really was using them to cover the panic attacks that were coming in waves between the self loathing and inability to breathe. The Peacekeepers interviewed him and his man several times, and he was actually hospitalized for several weeks between interviews, his heart, apparently, having developed a weakness...
...but that was only fitting wasn't it?
They'd never blame him of course, all his work, all his time, was legitimate. Even the meetings with the company heads had been working toward negotiating better tech and contracts for medical services not...
...anything nefarious.
He didn't even have the heart to bid when the criminal trials concluded and the companies went public.
"It's been a lovely lunch, my man here has the appropriate data for you and will be your new...aide. He's skilled, treat him exactly as you would an upper crust butler," Magnus smiled. "And I assure you he is well capable of procuring anything you need for any...appetites you may still have from college."
There was a truly lovely flower arrangement sent to his hospital suite on his last day. Orchids, and a card with an encrypted video file showing Jendiss's chains unlocked and the door left open for him to leave.
When: Many, many years after college.
What: Sometimes it just takes the right lever...
"It's very simple Magnus, you know my thoughts on you, on your career, and anything you are here to ask is quite simply no." Markux didn't bother glancing up as the shadow fell across his plate in the quiet little cafe.
"Welcome," Markux smiled; his makeup was perfect, he'd checked it a thousand times in the mirror before dinner. This dinner. Business dinners, how...droll. "You all begged me to host this evening so here we are," he sighed, tracing a finger down Attani's face gently. Such lovely skin for such a dark soul, sad that. He took what small pleasures he could though.
"Not your spa?" Bettrixis pouted. The man really should practice that expression in a mirror, he'd understand how awful it was then.
Markux tutted, shaking a finger, "I try not to mix business and pleasure...much." Cajole. Tempt. Even fish lipped drug developers. As intended that got a laugh, push the right buttons, lead the assumptions so gently, so casually...
"I'm aware, Markux, well aware. I'm not here to ask a single thing. I want to discuss a dream though..." Magnus smiled, seating himself across from the elegant man of his current attention.
...his man was as ever neat and well turned out. He had to be to be seen in public as Markux's aide; he was also the only person trusted to serve a meal to this group. They all had reason for paranoia after all, high powers CEO's, tiny gods in this world of floating disks and zones. And like all tiny gods, there were thousands clamoring to see them fall.
Not Markux though, no, he was one of the greater gods, not a mere CEO but a true business power. No one was certain just how much of their small world he owned, but it meant there was one meeting a year where the others could relax, knowing the host was safe.
"Drinks," Markux waved a hand negligently at the bar as they entered the electronic and spy proofed room; but as cliched as it sounded, well, that was no reason to sacrifice comfort at all. "Comforts." There were candy dishes set out and he took a lazy handful of pills from one, tossing them back with champagne. He didn't use at the spa, no, never, but they made the rest of the world...bearable.
This...bearable.
"I'm not your dream therapist, Magnus. I believe I've lost my appetite, I'll be going now." Markux rose, eyes scanning the cafe and not liking how...oddly empty it was now.
"You always play so straight laced, Markux," Ambrose laughed, "it's always nice to see you're human."
"Am I?" Markux mused, giving the man a smile and touching the tacky coat he was wearing, "not tonight, tonight I'm your angel of fashion, do please let me dress you, I can't possibly discuss business when you're in banana plaid..."
"Gods no, no one wants to see what's under that!" Attani winced, pretending to shield her face, the comment making Ambrose flush and unfortunate shade against the terrible fabric.
"The faint of heart are always welcome to turn away," Markux dismissed easily. Getting someone, anyone, naked at 'business' events tended to bring down barriers really, and these people needed to be, well...
"You'll stay." Magnus waved a hand, a cold, dark little bodyguard of a man stepping forward. "As I was saying, a dream," he mused. "A perfect, elegant little creature. I want to make her."
Things were moving right along really, four people, relaxed and laughing, and all he had to do was ask about that odd little rumor he'd heard about dear little Bett. Had he really been dallying with Attani's children? Really, industrial espionage was so...uncouth. But if it was company the man was seeking there were far better venues...
"Make?" Markux froze, staring. "No. You've finally lost any semblance of sanity if you think I'll listen to your dreams of creating a pet."
Attani adored her two children, barely twenty the pair of them, a rare, human emotion in the deadly little insect that woman was. And she defended them viciously, Bettrinix only had to guffaw and talk about how sad they'd been even together, as a lay he hadn't really wanted to boast...
...it never was wise to anger a biomedical CEO. She came with more poison knowledge in that little skull than any Geneva Convention had dreamed of.
He was horrified, how not? But poor little Ambrose had been waiting for a leg up on that woman since she'd sneered at his body...
"Oh, you'll listen," he smiled, tugging Markux's wrist gently. "How did you put it all those years ago? Hmmm, I'm a person with a terrible gift. I see the cracks. The weaknesses in others and know just how to use them...but that's a bit brute force for this task. See I need certain...technologies and patents to go to open market. That's where you come in."
"That's straight up murder, Attani," Ambrose smiled, looking at the man still leaking foamy blood from his mouth on the table. "Now, really, how am I, a good, honest citizen suppose to ignore that?"
"We have to call the peacekeepers," Markux breathed, eyes wide, but glancing ever so slightly at their fourth attendee. A cold man that one, no teasing, just watching as the others played, and yet...
"No calls can get out of here," Witten noted simply, "and we've a meal to finish. I'm sure we can come to equitable terms..."
"Terms," Ambrose smirked, "I'm cheap Attani, just you on your knees for half an hour and not a peep from me."
"...what?" Markux blinked, flesh crawling from Magnus's touch. "You can't force that."
Attani sneered at Ambrose and returned to eating her meal, "nothing there worth kneeling for," she pointed out.
"Why you fucking bitch..." the man snarled, lunging across the table to pull her faca down harshly against the plate.
"Now see here!" Witten snapped, standing to grab the man's shoulders, "we can't act like back alley drug dealers he-" He'd been trying to help, honestly. Witten was a cold creature, but he was obsessed with being civil. He had wanted to separate them and discuss business trades to cover murder, but a flailing hand covered in lethal nails found his side instead of Ambrose's.
"I never said anything about force, Markux. You have such a beautiful mind really, where I plow through things you dance. You nudge, you say just the right thing to the right people...and if say, they die under suspicious, or criminal circumstances, their companies...go open market." he smiled, stroking a thumb along Markux's wrist, "you are going to make them dance that tune for me. Because you, my beautiful angel, are broken. I just had to find the one that broke you." And he was so good at using the cracks in broken things.
"Look what you did you psycho bitch!" Ambrose yelled, slamming her face again, and again, against the plate, then the marble beneath. "You just had to do one little thing...one fucking thing for me but no." Such an unpleasant man really...
...and not incredibly smart. He forgot that people had two hands, and in this case, a set of nails not already buried in someone else. He had adrenal mods though, everyone knew that, the harder his body was fighting the stronger he got. He put Attani's face a foot into the marble table, or rather his fist that far and the terrible paste of her skull lightly sandwiched between, before his heart gave out entirely.
He froze. Of course he froze, how could he not? He knew what was coming with a sick certainty, just Magnus's bodyguard lifting a datapad briefly, but it stabbed him harshly despite that. Jendiss. Jendiss in a cell. He hadn't seen the man in decades and still he could identify the curve of that jaw, even blindfolded and gagged harshly.
Markux...sank to the floor, trying to breathe, waving at his man, "go. Peacekeepers...get a signal..." gods he couldn't breathe.
The man who'd withdrawn to the door the moment violence started nodded, "I was already keying the door open, but the time delays..." he noted blandly.
"Of course." And it had all happened so fast. Two years of careful research and learning what to do, two years of weekly updates on Jendiss's life as a captive...
...and over in under half an hour. It was a security measure of this kind of office to have the doors seal for at least an hour for such meetings. For safety.
Of course...they hadn't even guessed they'd be locked in with the monster they should be afraid of. How could they?
"Really, so...tragic, Markux. Someone hurts you badly enough to make you my plaything and you would still become the terrible thing angels always were...to see him free," Magnus did not understand, at all, but he did enjoy the effect. "My word of course. Once done our work is concluded, he gets put back exactly where we found him, quite a bit richer for his suffering, it's only fair, and I'll never touch him again." He dabbed his lips with a napkin, smiling.
Hysterics were a wonderful tool really, and it helped he really was using them to cover the panic attacks that were coming in waves between the self loathing and inability to breathe. The Peacekeepers interviewed him and his man several times, and he was actually hospitalized for several weeks between interviews, his heart, apparently, having developed a weakness...
...but that was only fitting wasn't it?
They'd never blame him of course, all his work, all his time, was legitimate. Even the meetings with the company heads had been working toward negotiating better tech and contracts for medical services not...
...anything nefarious.
He didn't even have the heart to bid when the criminal trials concluded and the companies went public.
"It's been a lovely lunch, my man here has the appropriate data for you and will be your new...aide. He's skilled, treat him exactly as you would an upper crust butler," Magnus smiled. "And I assure you he is well capable of procuring anything you need for any...appetites you may still have from college."
There was a truly lovely flower arrangement sent to his hospital suite on his last day. Orchids, and a card with an encrypted video file showing Jendiss's chains unlocked and the door left open for him to leave.