Come With Me Now

[Hira Mitsae]

Tyrel Towers​

Etti IV​

Corporate Sector​

~~~~​

Divestment and the return to a slightly less hectic life. It was a dream that few people on his level really shared, most of them were perfectly happy to mingle in the circles of corporate dominance and fast-paced investment deals, and truth to be told Darell Irani wasn’t any different from that. He loved the game, loved to buy and sell, loved to gain new operations and strengthen his grip around the Galaxy.

But sometimes there comes a time that divestment was necessary, sometimes there comes a time when you lose focus on what is truly important in life, and these days Ty’rel Holdings was becoming far too big for him to handle, far too big for anyone to handle, really. It had grown beyond his or even Ovmar’s expectations and it was showing.

A far-sighted gaze would see the problems the conglomerate would probably reach sometime later, but as it stood? It was still a monument and testament to his and Ovmar’s vision, a company that had existed for many a year and was currently one of the biggest companies in the Galaxy.

Arceneau Trade Company, Titan Industries, Ty’rel Holdings.

The Big Three, some had come to call them. Silk Holdings and Akure were still huge and sprawling, but their activity had only seen a downsize, whilst those in the former category had kept up the growing pace.

No matter, it was time for a change. Irani was not a man to keep himself tied up in one venture for a long time and this was an opportunity.

So he tapped a button and send for [member="Leena Mai"]. She was slowly growing into becoming more than a simple PA for him, an apprentice, confidante, yes one could say that Leena was one of the few people that Darell could trust these days.

Capable too, when her eyes aren’t magnetically glued to that datapad of hers.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Speaking of.

[Lorenz just proposed!! I said yes!!!!1]

[AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!]

The datapad never stops, the datapad is eternal. Despite the great news from one of her best friends Leena couldn't help but note a slight sense of bitterness. Not that she wanted somebody to propose to her, or to settle down and begin the nuclear family lifestyle but it just…

...felt like life was passing her by.

That felt unfair to say. [member="Darell Irani"] had given her more than just life. In fact, quite the opposite he had given her experiences that were nigh impossible outside the mind of the average. She had done things, things that were ripped straight out of an action adventure holoflick! Was she ungrateful? Possibly. However that couldn’t deny that she had a touch of conflict about it.

[CONGRATULATIONS! At work atm! But drinks tonight, girls!]

When was the last time that Leena had seen her friends? Or had a drink with them even? Weeks? Months? It felt like the normality was leaving her life, that she was missing all the normal events that occur to women in their twenties. It was, a little sad if anything.

[YES YES YES! DRINKS!]

Heels clicked along the floor as Leena frowned at the datapad screen, trying to think of some kind of response to her friend’s good news.

[Congrats, gurl! I’m really happy for you. I can’t make it to drinks tonight, but catch up soon!]

The frown remained as she sent the message. For a moment the woman simply stood outside the office of her employer, trying to regain a spot of composure. Dragging her personal life into work wasn’t how Leena Mai operated. Well, besides the aforementioned datapad abuse, of course.. Breathe in. Breathe out.

The door opened.

“My Lord?”

 

[Hira Mitsae]

‘Come in.’ the Sith Lord annex businessman replied calmly, while staring at the screen of his computer, he was entirely unaware of her current mental outlook on life, the universe and everything. Simply because he had (relatively speaking) more important things on his mind, such as the dissolvement and sale of his huge and sprawling conglomerate, while maximizing the profit-margins on the sale.

The point of the sale was not as simple as ‘Never having to work again.’, such a thing would have been far too simply for a man as Irani. Instead there were other pressing concerns, such as… ‘I will need money for my next investment opportunity.’ A few thoughts were bubbling up his mind, some of which ran back to Arkania.

There was an opportunity there, yet… yet… there were a lot of opportunities in the world. Arkania could be interesting, but it could also be another dead-stop. Just another wall that he would hit in a few years, perhaps it was time to look farther?

Annoyance.

Darell looked up and caught the sight of the infamous datapad, a raised eyebrow and then a sigh.

‘Did Lorentz finally propose?’

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Hard at work, as per usual.

Leena couldn’t possibly fathom the weight that stood upon Darell Irani’s shoulders, there were just far too many responsibilities and frankly, never enough hours in the day to take care of them all. Of course, that’s why personal assistants existed.

When they weren’t engaged in idle gossip that is...

Her Lord had a terrible tendency to sneak up on her like that, going from the unassuming to the ambush so quickly that it put some freighters to shame.

Eyes widened somewhat, words lost in her mouth for a moment, like Basic spaghettios.

“Uh,” was the first noise that came out, the datapad being clutched tightly in two hands and then slowly lowered down to her thighs, the screen facing away from Inari (not that it would help), “yes, he did. Finally.”

I don’t want to talk about it.

Oh dear. The woman practically reeked of a certain kind of tragic bitterness about the situation, what with the aforementioned civilian life passing her by. Come on, Leena, get your big girl pantaloons on, you’re at work and the goings-on in your life are far superior.

Finally some semblance of composure was regained, and those expressive blue eyes lost that prior element of surprise, the datapad still remained down however.

“What do you need, my Lord?”

 

[Hira Mitsae]

Another pair of blue eyes calmly studied his PA, measuring, judging? (never), in general she would get the sense she was being sized up right through towards her soul. In the end though the Irani decided to speak some words to elevate- well, no. It would probably only cause more headaches for the poor woman, but that was the consequence of working with Irani.

That was the consequence of working for a Sith Lord.

Even your mind wasn’t a safe harbor, and an efficient businessman like Irani? He wouldn’t allow simple distractions or even emotional troubles hinder his progression within the corporate world. They would need to resolve that before they could go any further.

As simple as that.

‘Leena.’ he simply said, using her first name for the first time in… well, it was a long time, perhaps relative ages. ‘A few months back I asked you if you were happy with your job, if you were satisfied working for me.’

A raised eyebrow.

‘You answered me in a positive capacity. Did this change for you?’

Don’t lie.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

She could feel the scrutiny, like, actually feel it scalding her like hot bloody stimcaf, an ironic turn of events, really. Although his gaze was much preferable to actual boiling liquid. Y’know, third degree burns and whatnot.

Naturally Leena had to avert her gaze, not one to go into a staredown with a Sith Lord, or really anybody. She was hardly an intimidating figure now, was she?

When Lord Irani started speaking the personal assistant knew that he knew, and that frown that she had opted to hide returned to her features very swiftly, eyes still avoiding any form of contact while the man spoke. Had it been so obvious?

The question almost hurt.

There was a sigh and for a moment Leena’s mouth didn’t naught but hang open uselessly. Come on, brain! Engage! Work! WORDS!

“No,” came the slow half-wounded response, “I love this job, My Lord...but...”

Of course there was a but (hehe, butt).

“...I feel,” the words were coming out so awkwardly, so slowly that Darell likely knew what she was going to say before she’d even said it, “...like...I’m...missing things,” Leena continued, trying to word things in the least offensive way possible, “...like, back home things, you know?”

 

[Hira Mitsae]

It was almost painful to watch her try and process words into a quasi-understandable medium, but eventually they got there. Not that Irani really had any need for words, her mind was like a book for him, well… perhaps not a book and more a digitized datapad device. She seemed to like those type of things.

‘And you find these… people…’ he did not seem to have a high opinion on Lorentz & Co, but perhaps that was the entire point of being him.

‘Interesting?’

Darell couldn’t really wrap his mind around it. Who really cared if Betzy had gotten totally wasted the night before and fecked her married neighbor after getting home? Who really needed to know that Trudy had been able to shove an entire hamburger XXL into her mouth and then shove it down her thro- well, actually that one held implications.

Implications a lustful Sith Lord wouldn’t mind knowing, but the point stayed the same.

‘You care about their average lives and average existence?’

Perhaps she hadn’t yet totally realized who she was working for, perhaps she had, but never really thought about it until now. But it was becoming increasingly more clear that Irani, Carach did not care or interest himself in the lives of the commons.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

Harsh.

These people.

Her best friends, or maybe former best friends. As time went on their group chat got quieter and quieter, only big announcements or half-hearted outreaching to try, once more time, to get Leena to leave the office, come home and go for some drinks.

Still, these people.

Leena Mai was aware that out of the crowd of ordinary citizens she had been plucked out and thrust into a new existence, an elevated existence even. Life wasn’t normal anymore, she was living this world out that people could only watch, read and dream about. So much more than just drinks with the girls, nine to five, I mean the things she had done already. Fething cannibal suicide cults! I mean, come on!

However, this whole time she had been trying to cling onto those remnants, trying to convince herself that she was still one of the girls when in fact, with every day in Lord Irani’s employ she drifted further and further away from that status.

Still, there was a but(t).

“...they’re my friends?” Leena offered rather weakly, unconsciously making the statement a question with that inflection at the end of her response.

 

[Hira Mitsae]

‘Are they?’ the Irani would counter her weak offering with a solid question of his own, there was no hesitation in his voice, no signs of any confusion or second thoughts. He knew exactly what he was talking about and his confidence radiated throughout the room and settled itself onto the poor Leena Mai.

That was the entire problem with working for someone like Lord Darell Irani, he did not need the Force to be a convincing presence. His voice, his posture, even the subtlest wave of the hand all added together towards a chorus, an artwork of articulatory brilliance.

The Voice of the Dark Lord used his charisma first, before even considering any other options. That was his true power and a thing that few even realized- until it was too late.

Not every Sith Lord needed to use the Force to get what he wanted.

‘Are they not holding you back? Trying to pull you into their world? Get you to drink, drug and otherwise spend your time in a meaningless faction? Is that what friends do? Ruin their chances at success and happiness?’

His voice, articulate and dignified dancing around the room and her head, before finally settling into her ear, showing her the truth. His truth.

 

[Beatrice Govan]

She bit her lip, as the immediate question hit back like a hard slap.

Leena was a light-hearted kind of woman, not one for a lot of confidence, or for a particularly thick skin either. So inevitably when it came down to a debate (if it could even be called that, HINT: it couldn’t) between the pair she was always going to crumble.

He had a point.

It was a brutal point, but that didn’t dull it any.

Holding her back sounded harsh, maybe a word like distraction would have hit home a little softer but Darell Irani hadn’t come in to be soft (no, you perve). I mean, they had been friends since school, through work and well, was it wrong for her to still want to be a part of that? Did success and happiness really come at the sacrifice of friends?

She was sure that the girls weren’t intentionally holding it back, but the way that he framed his words made it seem…

No. Couldn’t be.

“I’m scared…”

More words fumbled out slowly, awkwardly, pathetically.

“...that I’m going to miss out on...so much more...than that…”

What? Love? Kids? A dog? A four bedroom apartment in the upper levels of Coruscant? Maybe all of those things, maybe none of those things.

Already he had disarmed her in that respect. Mai had considered herself almost sure that she wanted some of those common civilian liberties but after two minutes with Irani she found herself steeped in doubt.

What did she want?

 

[Hira Mitsae]

In his own Sithy way he was legitimately trying to help the woman out, this wasn’t some smooth manipulation, some way to divert and cut her off from her friends. He genuinely liked Leena and was hoping he could make her understand what was necessary for true happiness and success. It wasn’t meaningless drunk calls at 01:00 or drunk screw parties that ended in tears. (and he had been through the later one a lot, so she would be able to trust him on that one)

‘Leena.’ Irani calmly stated, and then repeated those words. The same words he had used once already and would ring tingles up and down her spine in recognition. Key phrase that made the entire point moot and solved all the problems.

‘Have I ever lied to you?’

And the debate was over, before it could even start.

Darell stood up from his chair, walked around the table and ended in front of her, resting there with just the slightest raise of the infamous eyebrow.

‘I will always make sure you are taken care of, do you understand me?’

In the meanwhile Irani’s agents were carefully placing calls, researching the market possibilities and cetera. Clear off the bat was the fact that Ty’rel Holdings would be sold at a premium price, dissolved into assets and taken care off piece by piece.

The subsidiaries would be detached, Mon Calamari Hypernautics and Bright Star’s shares would be sold to Starchaser who was already the undercurrent leader of both those organizations. Eridium Industrial was currently headed by Venessia, nothing would change there. Excelsior and Saiba… there would be a need for some reorganization efforts.

Locations and factories, facilities that would need to be sold off too. Most of which came back to keeping things nice and clean. Irani wouldn’t mind, building up new facilities wasn’t a big problem and could be done rather simply these days.

Darell met her eyes. ‘Do you trust me, Leena?’

 

[Beatrice Govan]

There it was again.

Not Miss Mai, but Leena. Impersonal, making it seem for a moment like they were friends not just a case of employer and employee. Already when the next question was poised her brow was furrowed in a certain uncertainty. She almost wanted to say:
That’s not fair.

He hadn’t ever lied to her, nor had he ever lead her astray or done anything to hurt her. Darell Irani was true to his word, I mean, he had kept her safe in the face of cannibals, once you’ve done that you’ve done everything in terms of trust exercises, y’know?

Stood right in front of her, Leena looked up, meeting her Lord’s gaze and this time finding herself unable to tear away and look at the floor again.

Do you trust me?

“Yes.”

Easy, no hesitation there. It was never a question of that, never a question of not being able to trust him. She’d take his hand in an instant, right onto that magic carpet that was totally outside waiting for them. A whole new world, some might say.

A new fantastic point of view?

“I do.”

 

[Hira Mitsae]

And that was that, she had just signed the final deal with the devil. Not that she knew that, and even Irani didn’t think of it in that way, but that was the entire deal, no? The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

His large hand settled itself on her shoulder, comforting, warm, huge and he gently patted her. It seemed that Darell Irani finally managed to realize just how strong he was, because this time he didn’t dig her two feet under because of a simple pat.

‘Then trust me when I say that they are not your friends.’ Harsh truth, a settle back towards reality and the facts they were discussing yet again.

‘Trust me when I say that you will be better off not getting distracted by their constant pop-ups.’

A sigh.

‘Trust me, when I say that this job and me personally can do you a lot of good. But only if you really go for it. If you want to be successful.’

He kept on talking, softly convincing her of his point, while his agents kept working on the issues the businessman had presented them. Most of which boiled down to the reassembly of assets into a new entity, Excelsior Aerospace was useless in its current capacity. Not enough products to justify a whole separate entity, but enough to make it a waste to simply throw it away.

Suggestion was send to merge it with the Saiba Group, form it into a new MegaCorp. Just the thing Darell didn’t really want to do, but some things needed to be done regardless of what you yourself wanted, no?

With Mon Cal/Bright Star sold to Starchaser, Saiba Group and Excelsior merged, Eridium run by Venessia, that left only the Holding Company itself. Which was already gaining traction under the few agents that were in the know, yeah by the end of the day it would be sold for an excellent price.

Irani’s voice faded back into existence, almost as if both of them had been gone just for a little second.

‘Don’t you agree?’

 

[Beatrice Govan]

It was hard to argue the point, nigh impossible, really.

He had never done a single thing that was detrimental to her, never seemed to do anything that otherwise hurt her. Why would he? Irani was a man with his mind on his business and his business on his mind, and with such heavy going tasks at hand it was only natural that he wanted an assistant with her mind fully on these matters.

Distractions are just that. Distractions.

It just sounded so callous.

Leena Mai never thought that she could be successful, she always saw herself as a bit of a loafer, head in the clouds with what, an eye for fine art? Nice in theory, but practically useless otherwise.

Now she stood at crossroads. Keep going down the path of distractions? Never really amounting to anything, just a part of the crowd, the tiny cogs that kept the mundane machine of the galaxy turning? Or take his path, stand out from the common and seek success, strive for just an iota of something special.

The datapad rumbled in her hands. One would think in that moment the woman would have opted to ignore it but in that moment of decision she lifted the device and looked.

[That’d be great Leena! We’d all love to actually see you!!]

Blue eyes flitted between Darell and the screen for but a moment, and then she made her decision. It wasn’t easy, but, life had a funny way of ambushing you with difficult choices.

[Leena Mai has left the conversation.]

Heart slightly heavy, the personal assistant switched the datapad off completely and returned, what was this time, her full focus to Irani.

“I do.”