The Financial News

[Klesta]

For a while, because Yula decided to focus on the journalism side of her activities, the Force-part of her training regimen was much lower than it used to be before there even was a Sith Inquisitor for her to run. She decided that it was not wise to strike at the Sith for the time being: to her she feels that the humiliation is greatest if they do not first expect it. On the one hand, she heard about Mandalore being transformed into a volcanic locale, and the Mandos are unhappy about it all. On the other hand, it was attributed to one of those Mando extremist idiots that still was at large. Hopefully the location of the Mandalore-Rotadaria Bank wasn't overly affected by the disaster... for she was there to meet with a banker called [member="Benedict Rotadaria"] to sign a contract with them, whereby they will offer in exchange of which they will get a free subscription or, perhaps, a free column inch's worth of free publicity if they decide to sell copies of the Sith Inquisitor (all the while knowing that the only known constant in its editorial line was to depict the Sith faction(s) as housing idiots that live only for butchery and explosions even though they may not consistently be pro-Jedi). She arrives at the location indicated, and she enters the premises:

"Mandalore-Rotadaria Bank: what can I do for you?" the receptionist asked Yula.

"I'm Yula Knezevic, from the Sith Inquisitor. I have a business proposal for the bankers"

 

[Benedict Rotadaria]

Benedict was looking out of his office window, speeder traffic picking up. It was high noon, and business just started to pick up. Work came a bit late due to a traffic accident and delays. But he was here now, and it appeared he had a visitor. The receptionist called up to his office. Picking up the phone, he gave his usual response.

"What is it Wanda?"

"Sir, a lady is interested in doing business with you. She says her name is Yula."

"I'll be right down."

He threw on his duster jacket and made his way down to the main lobby. Normally direct business would involve him snitching on thugs and whatnot. This routine always got him into trouble, but something seemed different about her. Benedict reached Yula and extended his hand out to her.

"I'm Benedict Rotadaria. I was told you wanted to do business?"

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

"Yes. I'm Yula; it's about advertising, and also opening a bank account"

[member="Benedict Rotadaria"] approached Yula, as he went to the main lobby. She could feel that Benedict was a little different from the others. Sure she could have tried her hand at opening a bank account at IGR, Aurum-Saccs, the Banking Federation or the IGBC, but she was wary of the first one because Jedi exercise tight surveillance over that bank and the last three were irresponsive. With the Sith Inquisitor, even one column inch can make some inroads among the audience, especially in the Stygian Caldera; it is where most potential clients to Mandalore-Rotadaria will come from. Sure expanding publication frequency to daily would make a dent in their operating funds, because there are overhead expenses (equipment mostly, spent mostly on Alexandria for the time being) and other expenses like ink and other supplies. Possible terms could include higher interest rates (for savings/checking accounts), no maintenance fees and also preferential lending rates.

 

[Benedict Rotadaria]

​"Interesting, I've never been approached about advertising. Tell me more."

[member="Yula Knezevic"] was a beautiful lady he thought, from her brown hair to her gorgeous skin. Benedict also remembered that he needed to keep a more open mind with banking. This meant no relationships on a personal level. It had now occurred to him that she was a Sith. Why are the Sith dealing with a minor bank he wondered. Many bigger banks existed throughout the galaxy, and they chose MRB. Nonetheless, Benedict was ready for her now. He motioned to the stairs.

"Come now, let's discuss this in my office. I assure you, you'll like how we work here."

 

[Klesta]

"The Sith Inquisitor can provide advertising across the galaxy thanks to it being circulated galaxy-wide"

Yula was taken to the office upstairs, where she is being led into the branch manager's office. MRB has the advantage to be much lower-profile than IGBC, Aurum-Saccs or the Banking Federation, even though Mandalorians are completely negligent when it comes to the financial oversight of non-Mando activities. Regulations may not have been that lax on paper, but, since the Mandos are in a flux right now, due to the wave of volcanic eruptions all across the planet, enforcement of financial regulations have taken a backseat to other more critical things such as the reconstruction of Mandalore. Oh and Yula could feel that [member="Benedict Rotadaria"] seems to think of her as gorgeous (but then again, she was a full-blooded Hapan; by Hapan standards, she was nothing extraordinary on that count). Perhaps Benedict had a somewhat dirty, yet open, mind? 3 million credits may be a lot of money to the average person, but it's about how much money it took to operate the Sith Inquisitor for about a week or so.

"With the Sith Inquisitor you can reach well beyond the borders of Mandalorian space. For now, our finances may not be the best, especially since we expanded into a daily publishing frequency, and we also have a HoloNet presence, but we'll still open a bank account for an opening balance of 3 million credits"

 

[Benedict Rotadaria]

"Sounds great, just need to know a few things first."

Benedict was now fully intrigued by this offer. A magazine wants to do business with me? But why? Though it was quite odd for such a high profile company to do business with a low level bank, Benedict was open for it. This deal could raise his own profile a little and perhaps attract more attention to Mandalore. But the downside to this was how much attention. He hated Mandalore, the state of the planet was a mess and management was poor. Benedict cast his feelings aside and pulled out a paper.

"What kind of company the Sith Inquisitor? And I also need basic personal info and and ID. You're my first big customer so I want to make sure it's legit."

Benedict went to say something else, but stopped and handed her the papers. No way she'd go out to dinner with me, I'm not her type!

(P.S. Sorry if the love thing is weird, I'm trying to make a love interest for my character, it's fine if you're not interested. )

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

 

[Klesta]

OOC: The contract will be your contract for tier-up purposes.

IC: "The Sith Inquisitor is a newspaper. While circulated galaxy-wide, the circulation is concentrated around the Stygian Caldera to the East, and the Pacanth Reach to the West"

Yula showed her Commonwealth passport to the banker, which had the basic info and ID requested by [member="Benedict Rotadaria"]. Despite the Sith Inquisitor being headquartered on Ziost, she had no passport from the planet, and she rented an apartment in some student ghetto mostly because she could blend in with the residents without fear. A somewhat upscale one, to be fair, but Ziost isn't exactly a place for a penthouse lover. Perhaps he doesn't know that, as a newspaper, the SI did place significant weight on the coverage of celebrity Force-user gossip (and a few light-siders are regulars on it, and certainly the upper intellectual crust of both sides). Yes, it is true that the current Mandalorian administration is led by an incompetent, and so Cathul would be made to look like a visionary back when she was the Governor of Azure. The very same Cathul that appeared on multiple occasions in the SI. But the question of terms quickly came up.

"The Sith Inquisitor will run up to three column inches of advertisement at a discount, or even for free, depending on what's on the table for our banking services. Which one would seem to make the most sense between the following: preferential interest rates for lending or for savings?"

 

[Benedict Rotadaria]

The Mandalore-Rotadaria Bank
Benedict's Office
Mandalore

Benedict liked the idea of having a magazine as one of his clients. This didn't happen to low level banks like the Mandalore-Rotadaria bank. An offer like this was once in a life time. But he needed more, a better explanation of there goals. He also wanted to make sure that it wasn't a scam to make his business go under. A beeping sound could heard from his wrist, it was his watch. Benedict knew what it meant, lunchtime. He couldn't just have one of the attendants do this task. An offer like this should be accepted by the CEO himself. Then a thought occurred to him, why don't I take her out to lunch and discuss here plans then? It'd be a much less hostile environment and he would feel more comfortable. He looked up to [member="Yula Knezevic"] .

"Hey Ms. Knezevic, it's my lunch break pretty soon and I was wondering if you wanted to go to lunch. We can discuss your whole plan there. You up for it?"

 

[Klesta]

"Ah yes, I would like to"

The main new question being what kind of food [member="Benedict Rotadaria"] would eat. True, she had, at times, been made to feel not welcome in certain areas of the Stygian Caldera (like Thule) or the Pacanth Reach (Panatha in particular) because the main thing they ever ran stories on were stories on how Sith were monsters that always treated sorties as excuses for butchery and explosions. But this was quite different: No, this isn't Alexandria, where the population ignored her Force-sensitivity and some people even seemed to like how she was different from the everyday Sith, whom they perceived as that one space witch that understands strategy. She'd probably go live on Alexandria if, for some reason, she wasn't always on the lookout for opportunities to strike at these Sith and make them pay the cost of their deficient protocol. But where would she be taken for lunch? She had no idea: she knew next to nothing about Mandalore other than its status as the Mandalorian capital, its beskar mines and the volcanic eruptions.

 

[Benedict Rotadaria]

(sorry i've been out, i've been developing another character)

"Right this way"

Benedict lead [member="Yula Knezevic"] down to a quaint little cottage that was serving up brunch for the next few hours. Though this wasn't extravagant, Benedict thought comfort food would help to deal with the stress of making a huge banking deal. He lead Yula to her seat and pulled it out for her.

"For you madam."

Sith Inquisitor, what a wonderful name he thought. His first order of business was to see what the goal for the magazine was, then to get specifics. A Rodian waitress came out to great.

"Welcome to the last open restaurant on Mandalore. Can I start you two of with some drinks?"

"I'll have water."

He looked at Yula.

"And for you ma'am?"

 

[Klesta]

"Water, too"

Her body was a little immature, so she would shy away from anything alcoholic for the time being. But then, [member="Benedict Rotadaria"] knew that he wanted her to tell the banker more about the newspaper. It was lingering in his mind for a while, pretty much since the very moment he learned about the newspaper's existence in the first place. The Sith Order may have accused the SI to plagiarize the Inquisitor, but they falsely accused the Sith Inquisitor of plagiarism because the Inquisitor seemed to be yes-men beholden to the Sith Order, while the Sith Inquisitor always ensured that they covered the major moves of the Sith Order as excuses for butchery and explosions. And editorial columns were often filled with suggestions on how the Sith Order could be closer to actually operating under the doctrine as laid down in the Sith Code, knowing that following the Sith Code is not the sane as treating every sortie as excuses for butchery and explosions.

"You have to understand that, in the world of journalism, the editorial line The Sith Inquisitor is a tabloid that covers the lives of the rich and famous among the dark-sided world. And a few light-siders for good measure. Oh, and one must not forget about current events either: with the Sith Inquisitor being soon published daily, the space granted to current events will increase and so does our cash flow"

 

[Benedict Rotadaria]

[member="Yula Knezevic"]

"Interesting, how long have you been running this tabloid?"

As a neutralist at heart, Benedict had no interest in the magazine. Since it focused mainly on the 'dark side,' other banking customers may assume he's aligned to a certain cause, which he isn't. By keeping neutral stance on the matter business partners from all angles will be interested. Then another thought occurred to him. What if I offer her a discount on interest rates, so long as I can write my own input in the magazine? He considered the ramifications of that. While it would make him subject to the same views as him already doing business with the magazine, he could use a pen name to prevent further 'damage.' Benedict fired off one more question

"Tell you what, I'll lower the interest you have to pay us as long as I can contribute to your magazine. I like the work that you do, I want to be a part of it. Though of course I'll have to use a pen name since some light-siders I work with would discontinue their business with me. They'll think 'I'm a Sith supporter' which I'm not. I'm a neutralist and I don't want to choose sides because you'll always have someone to watch out for. So, what do you think?"

 

[Klesta]

"I didn't run the tabloid for that long, I mean, I bought it from a Sith lord fallen on hard times a few months ago. But I accept that not everyone would want to be associated with a Sith publication and I accept those terms"

That, even though she knew not that many people outside politics, law enforcement, the military and security contractors would actually care to make the difference between Force-denominations, unless one is actually able to use the Force. That said, the previous owner may or may not be Darth Maladon: if it was, she may as well re-use the Darth title if she ever was to be granted one. [member="Benedict Rotadaria"] wasn't able to do so, and in several service industries, like banking, not being able to make the difference between denominations was a godsend, while in others, it could be a liability. It seemed to depend on how closely related to politics or security. And, because its owner is ignored as a Force-user in Commonwealth land, she can somehow sell these tabloids in the northern part of the Pacanth Reach that is traditionaly considered Commonwealth territory. Not only that, but it's the area that sells the most within the Pacanth Reach. At the same time, the menus are being handed out to the duet...