Edmund Ferris Galahad's Story

Amara saw the two dark images in the alleyway, her cold brown eyes squinting to try and get a better image of them. Her now clean hands shoved into her pocket, one hand wrapping around the knife. She knew of this district. You can never be too careful. Who knows, someone was bound to get killed if they weren't observant of their surroundings.

The figures got closer as her stride became more proud, her cold brown eyes flickered from one man to the other. "Boys..." She said with a smirk before walking off. Amara turned off into the lit side walk and made her way into an apartment building. Her heat pounded, her night had turned out to be pretty fun. Sliding into the opening elevator she gave the maid who had came out a wink and watched the door closed.

Ding went the elevator and walked out Amara, grinning from ear to ear. Her apartment six door down the east hall. She unlocked it and slid it. "Eddie!" She called out, but no one answered.

"Wait. Was that who I think it was?" Gunnar asked, "The woman?" Sidney asked, looking in the direction Amara had gone. "Old flame, Gunnar? Doesn't look like your type." Sidney joked, "The Diva Devika. That was her." Gunnar said with certainty, the others around him expressed doubt.

Why would The Diva be on Van Leugen in some dirty alleyway?

"I read in the news that she was going to be here for that festival. Let's rob her blind!" A Scatterran suggested, "No, you idiot. We can't rob The Diva. We could find out where she lives though. Sell that info to the paparazzi." Gunnar said, "We'd make more doing that than robbing her anyways."

Sidney rolled his eyes, "While you do that, make sure you're at the deal. It's tonight at the MasterRail. Don't be late." He told Gunnar, giving him a polite nod before leaving the alley.

Gunnar followed behind, though he turned in the direction he had saw the woman go. He had a few hours before the meeting. He could ask around and see where she went. He wanted that money.

The Scatterran Lords needed that money. They had a war to fund

"Eddie..." She called out once more while taking her coat off and walking around the apartment, but he wasn't there. She ran her hands through her hair. She wanted to talk to him about tonight. Wanted him to get the high she was on. Now what was she suppose to do? Amara tried calling his cell, but it went straight to voicemail. "The fuck could you be?" She hissed at her cell.

She slipped out her heels and walked to the window. Sliding the curtain to the side she watched as homeless people, shady people, and just people who looked lost pass her building. There was a familiar face searching around the building, her face got closer to the glass. "What the hell are you doing?" She whispered to him, knowing full well he couldn't hear her. She let the curtain fall and made her to the bedroom, stripping out if her dress, and sliding into a simple shirt and jeans. If he was following her it would only be courteous to meet him in the lobby.

Forgetting her shoes she grabbed her keys, sliding her knife into the back of her pants, and headed to the lobby.

"You see which way that lady went? Came out of the alley?" Gunnar asked a man, clearly a waiter at one of the nearby restaurants on his break. "Yeah, she went in there." He said, blowing cigarette smoke into the air.

"Thanks, I'll be sure to leave you a tip later. Right now, I have to find that woman." Gunnar told the man before jogging towards the apartment building.

He did his best to not look like a gang member as he walked inside, but it clearly wasn't working. The receptionist in the lobby eyed Gunnar closely. This wasn't your average crappy apartment, people who meant something tended to live in places like this.

From Gunnar came the most awkward wave towards the receptionist. If that didn't prompt her to call the police nothing would.

Edmund walked into the building, his expression darker than usual. June was in her normal place, watching over the lobby. She looked bored, with a hint of worry. He took this as an open door, "What got your pretty face in a bunch, hun?" He asked while smirking ever so slightly.

"This man came in, he looked like one of those people you don't mess with. The ones who hang out in the dark alley waiting to snatch a person and kill'em. Anyway," She said while waving a dismissive hand in front of her face, "Amara is with him in the meeting room. I don't know what is going on and they have been in there for a while. If he had done something to her... I wouldn't know. You know there is an exit at the end of that hall. When I thought they should have been done I crept up to the door, but you know the room is made to be sound proof so I heard nothing. My stomach has been in knots, Mr. Galahad." June took a deep breathe, her cheeks a slight pink.

Edmund chuckled, "Well I see you have had a busy night, don't worry. I am sure she is doing fine. If it makes you feel any better I will go and crash their little party." He patted her head and pushed off of the counter before heading towards the meeting room.

What is she doing with a sketchy man by herself? She knows the risk of going in alone. Shit... I knew I should have come home sooner. I heard there was a murder that went down, did she do it? Ugh, Amara! He thought.

Edmund gripped the door handle before gently swinging the door open. He looked at the man, sizing him before shifting his eyes to Amara. "Sorry if I got you at a bad time. June was worrying." He said calmly.

Her lips twitched into a smirk, "Good." She was about to watch him go when Edmund came through the door. "My friend was just about to leave. Give June a nice tip, Edmund. So nice of her to care about me. She is such a doll. " Amara said. She was slightly furious that he just walked in. She knew that he knew that she must have been talking to someone since June had talked to him. He could have fucked whatever was going on up. Mentally sighing, she slid from behind the table and made her way to him. "You should go give her that tip now. Okay?" Her words came out a little strained, she still had things to do before bed.

Getting up she made her way back to her apartment while Edmund made his way back to June. She ticked off the things to do as each floor ticked off. Strolling into her apartment, she started a fire, making sure it was hot enough before throwing her bloody clothes in. "I wonder if I should change... maybe after I meet this fellow." She said to herself as she stretched on the couch and watch the fire wrap around her evidence.

---

Edmund strolled back into the lobby with a smile. "She is doing okay, meeting is done. She wanted me to give you this." He said while sliding a hundred across the counter.

June gasped and smiled politely, "I can't. That is too much."

"Please, she is very grateful that you can so much about her well being. It would really make her happy if you took the money." Edmund said warmly. In end she took it, sliding it off into her pocket. Edmund gave a small nod before going to the elevator and up to the apartment himself. He knew Amara had cross that line tonight.

Standing outside of the apartment was a hulking man, his tall body covered by a black trench coat. He almost seemed to be waiting for Edmund to see him, or maybe he was waiting until he could lay his own eyes on the man.

The man's dark eyes darted from Edmund to the door, the sounds of Amara inside catching his attention.

"Shall we?" He asked Edmund in his thick Austran accent. It had a Coalite twinge to it. He wasn't from the Hegemony. "I want to see what the the Diva has to offer."

A dark limousine rolled up in front of the even. It was clean spotless. A older male got out of the driver's side and opened the door all the way to the back. Reaching out a hand, another hand can be seen reaching out of the vehicle. Out stepped Devika in an emerald green, deep V neck dress. Her dark auburn hair up in a high bun with loose strands on each side. Behind her out came Edmund, her long lover, in a matching outfit. They both looked up at the building.

"Are you going to be on your best behavior, Ama?" Edmund said in a stern fatherly voice.

Devika side glared at him, "I thought I told you not to use my name outside of our home? These people don't need to address me by anything other than Devika. As for my behavior," she turned around, fixing his tie, and smiling up at him. "I promise to do my best. I did say coming here would be my gift to you, since you have become so... giving."" She mocked him some what for turning over a good leaf and trying to be a good guy. A part of her hated it with a passion, but she needed him and she was willing to do whatever it took to keep him.

"Good, I would hate for this to end in a disaster when all of this is for children... and to make the child look good, but either way it helps kids and I am all for that." He smiled, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. Devika smiled and grabbed his hand. She wasn't a very touchy kind of gal, but she was in the mood. Opening the door she saw a few people, the child who was running for mayor, and some robot. The girl was busy talking to them so she dragged Edmund over to the corner of the room.

"Looks like she is busy, good. Wouldn't know what to say to her anyway." She whispered into Edmund's arm as she observed the room.

The professor nodded always polite and smiling, when asked about the prosthetics he chuckled. “no i didn’t design them, that would be a co-worker of mine who operates in the medical wing, i could given the time design my own version but, my talent lays in the creation of robotics” he motions to Alpha, whom stood by one of the walls out the way.


“Alpha is but one of two hundred operational stabilized A.I” Jacob said quite proudly, he glanced over towards the buffet set out and shook his head, smiling and chuckling lightly to himself. “damn, i forgot to go to my favourite diner, to pick up a coffee.”

The middle aged man took note of those entering, the singer and then the Aschen business man, his glasses activating and giving him a HUD with details, in the corner of his vision a monitor of how the A.I, Alpha, was doing.

“if you’d excuse me i’ll take up that offer of food and drink” Jacob would say, switching off his Hud and holding out his hand once more to shake with Nadya and Olga before turning on his heel and approaching the buffet table to preview the selection of finger foods. Stopping by a server to donate $150,000 out from his own pocket, the only reasoning he had so much, is well life before he joined the project.

Clive walked in, head down, and hands in his pocket. If I don't make eye contact with them I should be good. He had overheard in the city that the charity would have free food. Clive hadn't eaten in a couple days and was desperate for food. He tried getting some of the odd jobs that he usually took, but no one had needed him and he was too proud to go back to the orphanage. He didn't need the kids making fun of him for not being able to live out on his own.

The smell of the food made his stomach grumble as he moved around the adults, head still down. He just wanted to eat what he could before stuffing his pockets and leave. He didn't want to talk to anyone.

---

---

Edmund was entertaining Devika to the best of his abilities when she looked away from him to nod to a robotic looking man. He had no idea who he was and had never seen her talking to him. Maybe he was just looking around and he caught her eye. Either way he took that time to look around the room. A couple of new people had entered. One was an older man who he had never saw and the second was a young boy who never looked up. The older man started to talk to Nadya, while the young boy went straight to the food.

"Would you like something to eat, dear?" He asked Devika.

"Hm?" She looked at him, "Oh, no not right now, thanks." She said before keeping her eyes on the crowd, yet never on the boy. Edmond nodded before leaving her in their corner and heading over to the boy stuffing his face with food.

"Is the food good?" Edmund smiled down at him. The boy stiffened before putting his head down more and eating slower. He didn't answer him. "Ah, not much of a talker? Or just the food that good?" Edmund laughed and filled a small plate of food. "Are you one of the orphans?"

The boy looked up at him from the corner of his eyes. "I don't live at that stupid orphanage or with any stupid adults that ain't my real folks." He said, his voice low and annoyed.

"Well if you need anything kid I am here all night and take this," Edmund handed him a card with his name, phone number, and address. "I am looking to adopt a kid tonight." With that he left the kid to his own devices.

Mr. Hagan quietly took in his surroundings, there didn't seem to be anyone really worth talking too, an entertainer, someone who appeared to be some kind of scientist, and a few other people that the businessman deemed to be clearly beneath him.

Leaning against his cane, he eyed the guests, everyone here tried their best, but no one was really even close to someone like Mr. Hagan.

But Aschen Politics couldn't resist, even for a place like this simple Charity ball.

Another infusion of cubits came, but this time it was from a well dressed man that had just entered, a young slender woman beside him, with short cropped black hair, striking blue eyes, and a form fitting silk dress.

The woman however, wasn't organic, a carefully crafted body made from a strange dynamic proton lattice, carefully concealed to look almost human.

Immediately she looked around, letting her mind wander as she pinged the various electronic signals, attempting to exchange information, as well as carry out threat assessments.

Graystone immediately found Hagan, and the two briefly greeted each-other in Anquietas. Friendly handshakes among rivals, while Aiyanna quietly moved to the periphery of the room, watching the guests intently.

The server would thank Jacob graciously as he donated and Nadya smiled as he left. Okay, that meant…and the second Aschen donation was murmured to her, and Nadya bit her bottom lip. She would have to thank them, wouldn’t she? This was going to suck on so many levels. So many.

Clive would stick out among the children there. Most wore their Sunday best and all were clean and tidy, all well fed. None would be making fun of Clive though. Most were hoping one of the well to do guests might be willing to adopt them, get them out of the system.

Olga had watched all of this, and went over to speak to Edmund. The elderly woman smiled at him. “You seem to be a good man. Thank you for coming to my granddaughter’s party.” She greeted, please. “You like children?”

Not happy but knowing her job, Nadya pasted on her sweetest smile and went to greet her Aschen guests. She was not happy but she could fake it and do so well. She just had to be nice, had to be sweet. They were helping out the orphans too, even if some of the orphans were the result of- No. She would be polite and nice.

Rahal kept an eye on the Aiyanna unit and idly bolstered the magical defenses of the room. Now any attempt at telepathy would result in a storm cloud of glitter over the telepath, coating them rather liberally in the herpes of the crafting world.

He loved having security jobs like this. It was a great way to be entertained.

Jacob couldn’t help but shake the feeling that the synthetic human was there to show if not try and put his creation to shame, either way that was the kind of thing to expect from the aschen, or he was told to expect, from a few of his co-workers back aboard the station.

He snacked freely enjoying the varied array of cuisine available to all, taking a glass of drink from a server, he watched the two aschen and listened briefly to their chatter, being fluent in the languages of the aschen empire.

Jacob’s attention soon fell onto the number of children and younger generations were gathered at the event, he sighed gently and took a seat “all these young people, and no family to call their own” he couldn’t safely give one of these children a family especially with how closely he works on his project, let alone the station being light years away.

As for Alpha, he continued to silently monitor the signals only stopping when he realised he had been pinged, the robot’s head turned as, the physical form reactivated, the head following the synthetic robot across the hall from himself, he’d cut himself off from the Project network and then begin erecting electronic warfare defences, all this in microseconds, though, he’d not give a response, Alpha’s head rotated towards Jacob who was glaring across from his seat at the robot. The defences stayed up however and the combat unit went back to idling, monitoring the frequency and signals.

A sleak black car made it's wa down the street. Dark tinted windows made sure that no one could see inside, but outside of this the car was more or less unassuming. Cedric watched three different screens as his car pulled up to the event. He had been busy, very busy, and still was. He was always busy in the early stages like this, when the infastructure was still being completed. Valentine Inc had already made a sweeping range of acquisitions, gobbled up small companies and firms in its expansion into the multiverse. Cedric put the final touches on a number of contracts as the car came to a stop. "Time to put on  good face."

He opened the door and slid out of the spacious back seat of the car, standing and buttoning his coat as he stepped toward the building. "Your hat sir." the driver, who had made his way quickly around to the back of the car and retrieved the black fadora from it's place on the back seat, held it out for Cedric. "Thank you Max, I'll call you when I'm ready." Cedric took the hat and placed it casually on his head before entering the building.

He could feel the magical security as soon as he entered, noting the old mage in the loby. He nodded towards the man as he entered, perhaps this party would have better luck than his last in the multiverse. The thought reminded him that he needed to made an appointment with David Malechite, he made a mental note to do so soon.

The attendies were varied, mostly well off folks looking to make grand gestures of philanthropy, though there were orphans there as well. "Theatrical, effective." Cedric said to himself. He wasn't really sure who the candidate was, a young girl, strange as it seemed. The thought of buying the future mayor of Wing City had not been ignored, Cedric had found mayors to be good business if one knew how to buy and sell them and what to get out of them in return. Oh certainly you didn't walk up to a candidate and offer them a deal, you bought candidates in much more subtle ways. However Cedric had yet to decide which candidate would be of the most use to him, so this would more or less be a philanthropic endeavor.

He kept an eye out for the hostess, regardless of other intentions, it was good manners to introduce himself.

A man in a light beard and brown hair made a light jog up toward the building where the gala was held a long light grey canister held by handle in one hand. Bristol's black formal wear sported a blue shirt at least until he crossed some new boundary that made his body itch for a moment. He looked down at the gemlike eye sported on his watch and raised an eyebrow. Then a probing gloved finger dragged across a shining sandy surface leading him to realize his shirt had turned a glinting white. Was that glitter?

The Ductu knew exactly what was on his mind as deeply buried as she was to mimic thinner clothing, ((You told me not to resist - to conform. I'm conforming. There's a larger pattern shaping reality so I can't well fight it without breaking the ward, now can I? You should see your hair. White suits you.))

He looked up while grabbing a false lock of hair that was the Ductu wrapped around his locks and scalp to protect the head. Given the amount of high powered moguls there would be at this Gala she rather insisted. It paid to pay attention to one's security detail he reasoned at the time. He momentarily reconsidered and could feel the Ductu's amusement. Now his hair and shirt looked like something gem festooned. Bristol just sighed as that was enough staring this place likely had enough hair-gazing as it was. A vault for a particularly large cognizance array that served as a aetheric battery was getting heavier the closer he got to the door. Still, haul away ho, there was politicking to do.

While he smiled at the door holding the container with ease the Ductu exerted a great deal of force through Bristol's body just to keep it off the ground. Security once satisfied with his identity was content with his declaration of exotic hard currency. The whole place felt like the vault was pulling through sap. While the potential was there it wasn't being conducted so much as stored. He looked at one of the servers considering to give the donation to them.

The Ductu interceded as shining blue marble in his 'watch' that told time while it pointed the 12th hour wherever Ductu looked, ((Hm. I don't think it's not safe for these servants to carry the vault, Bristol. You could think of it dear that if I had them the air pressure in here would make my ears pop. The pressure against this kind of flow is giving the mana battery a great deal of inertia.))

No, they'd have to figure it out. There were rules to follow in this sort of place a thought to which the Ductu demurred but accepted. The canister had to be left at the door. He placed the stone vault with ornate ferroplasm chain handle down beside a servant with security. The top of the ornate psistone casing came to just past Bristol's knees and just about as thick likely settled the air by no longer trying to move through it. It was etched for both stability of purpose and access to the learned.

He offered to a servant by way of quiet explanation and a credit chit, "Ah, good sir. Bristol Stacks with a donation from interested parties for the young lady's cause as well as my own donation. A hundred thousand."

Bristol while private about his finances was not certainly not poor. Especially since this new arrangement ensuring full independence.

He clasped his hands with a conciliatory smile, "I'm afraid the benefactors have, ah, a modified understanding of liquid assets. You will need to talk to a mage to quantify exactly but I'm told it's at least several thousand circles worth of casting at a low emission rate. I should hope they find the vault both useful and exceedingly stable."

Edmund too a sip of his drink as Devika looked around. An old adorable woman came up to him, “You seem to be a good man. Thank you for coming to my granddaughter’s party. You like children?” Devika turned to him and her.

Edmund done a small bow, "You are welcome, hope some good things come out of tonight, thank you for having us. As for liking children, I always enjoyed their company. Tonight I am looking forward to adopting one. Actually have an eye on one kid, now if only he was willing to be adopted." He chuckled.

"I had no idea we were adopting tonight." She said to the two of them, but actually directed it to him.

"Well, at first I wasn't sure, but then I saw the kids and I couldn't help but want to. I think he would make a great addition to the family." He smiled, knowing full well Devika might kill him after.

"If you think so, dear, so be it. Was it the boy you were talking to?" She asked and he nodded. "Adorable little one he is. I am sorry, we didn't get your name. This is Edmund and I am Devika, it is nice to meet you. Your granddaughter is adorable and has a very sweet heart." She said with a small bow.