From Sailor Moon Flash!
| Featuring: | Li-Nian, Trintje, Lucien, Tacey, Dante, Ebba, Eugene, Arcelia, Yu-Huang |
| IC Date: | June 2002 |
| Status: | In Progress |
| Summary: | The Jade Emperor's Chosen meet to discuss current events. It's like herding cats. Really, really crazy cats who can kill you. |
Li-Nian bustled around the table in her sharp pinstriped suit and classy business-pumps, carefully arranging and rearranging the eight naming placards around the oblong boardroom table. She circled the table once, making sure that the cards were all properly displayed, and then again a second time to place neatly laminated folders of the meeting's agenda in front of each chair. The ninth seat, at the head of the table, received not only a folder but also a second leather folio, oiled and expensive and all but reeking class.
She sat in her own named place, the chair at the head's left hand, and drummed her fingernails on the table before leaping to her feet after mere moments of hesitant rest. She played with the lights some, checking the dimmers on the overhead, and rolled back the facing on the boardroom's projection screen. She sat again, judging distance and glare, and then nodded pleasantly to herself before slipping her laptop out of its case to connect to the projection.
Tacey didn't like this one bit. She fretted, tangling her green hair even more with insistent finger-twirling, glaring at the computer screen. If that simpering twit Li-Nian was the standard of her 'comrades,' it'd be a room full of primly proper corporate executives, backstabbing their seperate ways up the food chain. She'd seen enough of that in her mother.
But, if the boss was going to make an appearance, she ought to show. With a sigh, she turned to her computer, navigating the network loopholes she'd designed herself. She located Li-Nian's laptop, and it was a few simple commands that gave her access to Li-Nian's system files. She opened a net-conferencing program.
"Testing," she said matter-of-factly, to catch the woman's attention. She'd activated voice-relay as well, but since there was no web-cam she only heard Li-Nian's giggly digitalized voice. "What security measures have been taken for this meeting?" was her first demand. If she was going to attend this damn thing, she was going to be bloody sure that the only thing she had to worry about was the other people in the conference room.
"Security measures?" Li-Nian stared fixedly at the laptop, tapping her pen against the desk. "I assume so; at least, I haven't changed anything that you set up when you came." Sudden panic flashed in her eyes. "Was I supposed to change something? I left it all the way you had it and I clicked on your shortcut and I swear the -- the thingie, the cable-thingie -- isn't -- there's a password -- and --" She chewed on her bottom lip and the pen's tapping became more insistent. "Shouldn't you be here?" she finally asked, a little too desperately.
Tacey suppressed an irritated sigh. She shouldn't have expected a competent answer from the Chinese woman, but that didn't make it any less annoying to have to explain herself. "The technological security measures are fine," she stressed, a little acidly, but as patiently as she could manage. "Even if you had managed to somehow screw them up, by, say, melting the laptop, I'd be aware of it." Tacey had alarms set on her alarms' alarms. Someone typed in the wrong password and she was aware of it.
"No," she continued, "I'm asking about the physical security." She ignored Li-Nian's comment that she should be there; it was far too obvious a ploy to get her to the conference room. "Who knows we're meeting? Have adequate guards been set? What's to prevent our enemies from traipsing into this?" Tacey warmed to her subject, as possibilities poured into her mind. "Has the conference room been swept for bugs, and if so, by whom? What types of equipment did they use? Have you made sure that no one's put poison in the cups, or somehow slipped something into the air vents? How can you expect me to come to a meeting without knowing what measures have been taken to safeguard our well-being?"
Li-Nian crumpled visibly under Tacey's barrage of questions, each pointed, paranoid line driving her closer and closer to tears. "I -- I -- but this is Daddy's special room, and -- " Tacey's firm sticking point on the question of whether the room had been swept for dangerous intruders caught her off-guard. "No, I didn't, but Daddy and the --" It was obviously frustrating her that she didn't know the right answers to say; the tone of her voice showed that she was so sure she was in the right.
Finally, she lost her composure utterly, and had trouble stammering around shaking, terrified sobs. "Oh, Daddy would never let anything bad happen to us, Zhang Zi, not ever! So it's fine -- and -- and you have to come, I promised Daddy we would all be here, and there's a little placard with your name on it and everything, I ordered them myself, and oh he'll be here soon, don't you have your elevator key?"
The silence on the other end of the conferencing sent her over the edge, and she collapsed, wailing, into her leather executive chair.
Ebba was less than pleased to see the Chinese woman having yet another hysterical fit, especially with no apparent cause. She glanced at her watch. Precisely on time. Therefore, whatever was causing the unflattering distortion of Li-Nian's face was not her fault. It was rather reminiscent of a Dali painting, in fact. The thought did little to ease the irritated static in her mind. There was always the distant chance that she could successfully bring the woman back up to her equally annoying but far more productive high, so the meeting would not last one moment longer than it had to.
Then again, that would require talking to her.
The edges of the boardroom started to blur and prickle at her brain. If she didn't distract herself from that awful hitching and braying, she was going to lose control. She had to find something to fix, but one good thing about this madhouse of a corporate headquarters was that the place was cleaned and organized to near-perfection.
There. Something about the table wasn't right; it seemed off-balance in several places at once.
The name cards were carelessly plunked into place. The nearest one, Huo's, was off the grid by two millimeters. Shang's was one point three in the other direction. An's by four point three one to the left. Xin's by point two eight. Hers by...
Oh, like HELL she was sitting there.
"There now. Is something the matter, my dear?"
Xin, Dr. Clemens, looking calm and calming as always, rested his hand on the top of Li-Nian's lovely head and offered her his handkerchief. He'd seen Ebba frowning at the name placards through the doorway, the dear thing... but this sweet pet needed tending first.
Li-Nian looked up at Dr. Clemens with grateful eyes, carefully dabbing at her face with his handkerchief. "Oh, Uncle Gene, I'm so glad you're here." She sighed in heartbreak, leaning against his hand as if it were the only thing holding her up. Knowing her, it quite possibly was. "Zhang Zi says she won't come, she *hung up* on me even and I don't know why she's so MAD, I did everything the way she said to and Daddy will be here any minute and if she doesn't come he'll be so upset with me because I promised him everyone would come.
She sniffled delicately -- only Li-Nian could make such a thing even remotely attractive -- and was utterly heedless of Ebba's painstaking rearrangement of her carefully placed namecards. "Oh, Uncle Gene, you'll fix it, won't you? I haven't seen Arcelia-oneesan either and Lucien-otoutochan is always late."
However, Li-Nian's words seemed to have power enough as a mumbled "Me disculpe!" and the clang of rattling jewelry filled the air as the first of her concerns swept in through the room's French doorway. Arcelia brushed past the German girl without a word to instead brace her sobbing friend with a hug; breath bated and heartbeat rapid.
"Don't worry. Tell me how I can help you," the Latina whispered into the small woman's ear while giving Gene a glare that could peel paint. For all the Latina knew, the sobbing that had hastened her approach from the hall was entirely this man's fault.
Gene smiled his warm, gentle smile... and behind it he was genuinely amused. He'd had a Latina once. Such lovely, feisty creatures. Quite loyal, generally, if a bit prone to leap without looking. Yes, such entertaining, charming pets his employer had.
Smile in place, he slipped his cell phone from his pocket. "Miss Graham, how pleasant to hear you voice this afternoon." He had one eye on Miss Koch, who had finished with the name cards and had moved on to the folders. "It would be quite wonderful to see your face here as well."
"How did you get this number?" was Tacey's first demand. She'd cut the conference call as soon as she heard Li-Nian collapse into wailing; the Australian knew from experience nothing more was going to be accomplished for quite some time. Or at least, not without her somehow consoling the Chinese woman, which was as good as admitting defeat.
She was not thrilled to hear the Good Doctor's voice on her phone line. She was never particularly thrilled to hear anyone's voice, really, but Eugene was.. She didn't know what Eugene was. The others were annoying, and so was he, but... This train of thought was getting her nowhere.
"Since I can hear Li-Nian still sobbing in the background," Tacey said shortly, turning to face her computer again, tapping a few keys impatiently, "I'd assume you know why I'm not there, Dr. Clemens. And you only want to see me there to get her to stop sniveling, which I'm sure you can work out a way to do on your own." What that way was, Tacey didn't care to imagine. "I've got a lot to do now, so if you'll excuse me..." She didn't quite dare to hang up on him, though. Who knew what he might think of doing if she did that.
Gene chuckled. "Miss Graham, I am disappointed in your deductive acuity. I am the director of Human Resources for this company. I sign your paychecks. How did you think I got your phone number?" He chuckled again, taking silence for a reply. "Miss Li-Nian is being taken care of by Miss Chavez," in fact, Li-Nian was just about in the lap of Arcelia... it was so cute when pets cuddled, "and will calm down momentarily. Still, I am somewhat disappointed in your fortitude as well." He sounded gently amused, like Mr. Cleaver scolding the Beaver for eating his chocolate too fast.
Tacey glowered at her computer screen, turning away from it with the phone tucked under her ear. "You can be disappointed all you want," she rejoined in a moment, "but there's no reason for me to be there, and all the reason in the world to not be there when proper safeguards have been ignored!"
She glanced at the mess spread out around her, and sighed, shaking her head. "I can get much more done here than I can at that meeting, and I will thank you kindly to make my excuses for me," she managed to grind out, recollecting that the doctor liked politeness, and that if she used it, he might be a little less likely to attempt to show up at her door. The attempt might have succeeded a little better if it hadn't been tried through clenched teeth.
Dr. Clemens smiled. It looked like a very nice, comforting smile.
Except for the part where it wasn't.
"Of course, Miss. Graham. You are under no obligation to attend this meeting," he said gently. His lips curved a bit more. "Just as I am under no obligation to continue to sign your paychecks."
There was a full thirty seconds of silence on the other end of the line.
"Fine."
"Excellent. We will see you shortly, Miss Graham," he said to the loud CLICK of the receiver slamming down, and smiled. His employer had excellent taste.
Slowly Li-Nian's hysterical weeping subsided and she stared raptly up at the good doctor with starry eyes. "Uncle Gene fixes everything," she murmured, patting Arcelia's hand. Isn't he just wonderful?" She dabbed at her eyes again, and then caught the clock on the wall. "Daddy will be here any minute, and we'll all be waiting for him and he'll be so proud. That's lovely."
"Uncle Gene does fix everything, chiquita," Arcelia cooed in one long, doubtful breath as her mood, assisted by the bipolar nonetheless, stabilized into something remarkably different as compared to thirty seconds ago.
Her eyes lit up: "Yes he does! It is not surprising at all from what I can see in his soul." She leaned in closer to Li-Nian and spoke very quickly, "He had a muy malo childhood once upon a time in America with seven brothers and sisters and a father who worked seven days a week between the alcohol." She drew a breath. "I saw this once on the television in my room. As the eldest, he was responsible for making everyone happy, including their mother who was suffering from a bad disease."
Arcelia then straightened as a smile extended from ear to ear. "There will be no problems here."
Li-Nian listened to Arcelia's murmurs with wide eyes, her gaze flicking up to Eugene with raptly renewed adoration and back again, nodding somberly and chewing on her bottom lip. So moved by the stirring tale of woe that she allowed a tear to escape as she whispered back about how amazing her Uncle was, and how strong and brave.
"No, no problems at all," she agreed with beaming delight, sharing her fantastic smile with the entire room.
"I'm really really sorry I'm late," Lucien burst out in a breathless rush as he hustled into the boardroom, "but Dante needed something rushed over to the printer's. I tried to remind him about the meeting, and how important it is that we all be on time, but... well..." He flopped down into his place beside Ebba, managing to displace both her folder and his own as he flung out his arms in a calculated gesture of helpless resignation. "You all know how Dante can be."
Ebba paced away from Lucien, wincing internally at the new imbalance of seating triggered by Lucien's flailing. She attempted to distance herself mentally from the rest of the room, pulling into herself in order to drown out the chaos. Her line of sight fell on Dr. Clemens, and the sudden feeling of intimacy as he met her gaze made her stiffen. She turned, but that left her facing Li-Nian and Arcelia. Frustrated, she turned and stuck her nose against the wall, vowing not to budge an inch until the Boss arrived.
Arcelia, on the other hand, sat paused in deep thought as Lucien's wake rolled throughout the room. She turned to Li-Nian as if to ask a question before thinking the better of it. Her gaze became quickly redirected back toward the light elemental: "Just how can Dante be?" Arcelia herself had only met the man a few times, but her tone, matched with a beat between the last two words, reflected that she couldn't decide what type of an answer she wanted.
"I don't like to tattle," Lucien began. He shrank into his chair, flashing wide brown eyes and a shy smile at Arcelia, playing the nervous kid. "But... well... he's just so self-centered, like he thinks all of us are just here to support him and make his life easier. And I don't think he's really dedicated to all of this. I mean, why isn't he here yet?"
"Uncle Gene's" smile now was reminiscent of a mix between Renaissance painting and someone watching several cute, fluffy hamsters fight over a carrot.
"Dante is, as you indicated, a law unto himself," Gene said gently and in the manner of a public service announcement. "It is perhaps a characteristic of Italian men," he said with a fractional tilt of his head to Arcelia. "Our Italian especially. Dante's passions often overwhelm his reason."
Dr. Clemens's smile now resembled someone who had just thrown the quarreling hamsters a chocolate-chip cookie.
Tacey was definitely sulking as she came into the conference room. She'd taken the time before coming down to change into some khakis and a nice shirt, and pull back her hair; after all, if Yu-Huang was coming, she needed to look presentable. She still resented the need to be here.
She found her spot at the table, and immediately turned over the chair, looking for bugs or other devices. She crawled under the table, pulling out a penlight and beginning to scan for anything obviously planted, ignoring the others around the table, though she poked a leg occasionally that was in her way.
Li-Nian left Uncle Gene's side after another kittenlike pat on her head, and carefully counted heads and placards. The natives were getting restless again, and she wrung her hands with nervousness. "We are so close to late, Daddy will be so upset -- we just *can't* send anyone out to fetch him -- and oh goodness, did Trin get left alone with her medicine again? I hope she's all right."
It was not Dante's custom to arrive too early for any function, nor to be directly on time either. The former implied sycophantic eagerness, and the latter slavish bowing to someone else's schedule. Still, at this was a meeting at which Yu-Huang would be present, Dante sauntered in three rather than seven minutes past the appointed time. He smiled at Lucien with grace and condescension, ignoring the sneer that followed him as he walked the room, in search of a chair fit for him. His wandering hands reached to graze any woman he passed, although Tacey only ever so lightly: even the seemingly accidental brush of his fingers on her shoulder caused her to recoil and stare at him in a way that suggested she would be pleased to see him skinned for the offense.
Dante noticed Li-Nan's increasing distress near the head of the table, and he massaged her shoulders, trying to purr soothing words into her ears.
"What is causing you such amounts of troubles, mia bella?"
Li-Nian turned to Dante, her eyes rapidly filling with tears. "Oh, thank you so much," she said, trying not to collapse in sheer relief. Surely now that Dante was here, everything would fall into place - Daddy was depending on her, and Trin wasn't here, and that meant that their quorum wasn't filled as per Daddy's requirements and that meant that everything wasn't perfect for Daddy and oh thank heavens Dante was here. He would help her. He was so kind!
"Trin isn't here," Li-Nian said, and just thinking about her sensitive, artistically-temperamental sister possibly having a little bit of trouble with her medicine, or maybe this time the walls, was enough to let one single tear roll down her cheek.
Just then, Li-Nian's cellphone rang its bright, trilling manufacturer-specific song, and she dabbed at her eyes neatly with a handkerchief seemingly ripped out of nowhere before she flipped it open. "This is Ms. Ying," she chirped almost as brightly as the phone had. "Oh, oh dear," she said, after a pause. "Yes, that's terrible," she continued. Apparently, the other end of the phone had a fascinating tale to tell. "Certainly, I will be there in a moment."
She snapped the phone closed with a sigh and got unsteadily to her feet. "Trin is sick," she said mournfully, as though her heart were breaking. "I'm going down to help her, and we'll be right back. Please take your seats, Daddy will be here any moment."
Casting one long, sad look behind her at the perfectly arranged boardroom table, Li-Nian called the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor, trying not to look too panicked as the doors closed on her particularly ... eccentric ... family.
to be continued
