Birth of a Tiny, Tiny, Tiny Empire

[Garik Reed]

Antecedent​

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Val Cardin walked along a metal platform, his heavy black boots clomping against it. His new stomping grounds, his new headquarters, his new factory. This building had been given to him by the Red Ravens. Given might have been a strong word, however. They had simply signed a contract in which they paid for the factory, and he essential gave them free products. Honestly, all this was rather boring for Cardin Entrepreneurial Production's original Cardin. He'd rather be off traveling the stars, shooting up canteens, and hitting on pretty twi'leks.​

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He looked down over the factory floor. It was rather small, to be honest. Certainly bigger than he could've hoped for, however. Enough to produce products for the Ravens to keep them happy. Speaking of the Ravens, Val had invited at few of them to tour the factory. Truth be told, it wasn't finished yet. A mixture of droids and workers where putting the final touches on the assembly lines, and his 'executive assistant,' a girl he'd hired purely for the sake of seeming more organized than he really was, was speaking with a few of them, giving out orders. ​

​

Shaking his head, Cardin started heading back for his office. One of the few rooms in the building that wasn't meant to make money. The office overlooked the factory floor, with a large glass window. Inside, the room was a mixture of dark brown and black. A desk, a nice swivel chair for Val, he'd insisted on the swivel feature, and a few chairs, couches, and plants spread about in various places across the room. He sat down in his chair, propping his feet up on the desk. Hopefully the Ravens he'd invited would be here soon.​

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[ [member="Cryax Bane"] | [member="Dakita Calfur"] | Any other Ravens who'd like to join. ]​

 

[Armand Temi]

"Pretty swanky," said Dak, leaning her hip against the door frame of Cardin's office and crossing her arms. "You have your own office and everything. Wow, my office in Club Frenzee is a just refurbished ladies's room." She walked around inspecting the office furniture, trailing her fingers over everything and then admiring the view from both inside the factory and the view of Antecedent outside.

"Oh," she said, reaching into her leather jacket pocket. "I got you an office warming gift." She set a stainless steel flask on his desk. "See it has your initials on it, V.C." She pointed to the flask and then smiled at him unscrewed the cap and took a long swig out of it. Then she made a coughing noise like a cat with a hairball. "Whew that does taste like rocket fuel," she said. "It's jet juice for your office. You know because your office is going to be kind of like your ship. And you're the Captain." Dakita tried to be reassuring but she knew that both her and the Corellian pilot shared the same wanderlust for the stars and being in one place certainly made them antsy.

[member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Val Cardin"] [member="Dakita Calfur"]

Where Dakita had made her entrance in the doorway Patricia now made her own. Wearing a tight red dress and heels the woman sighed almost annoyed and leaned against the door frame. It had been a few months since Patricia had seen Val and her midsection had swollen with the bump of a six or so month pregnant belly. She looked to Val and grinned happily before speaking.

"Don't worry, not yours." She said moving her hands down to wrap around her belly.

She sighed once more at Dakita, she was drinking at a factory where any number of machines could simply snatch her up and kill her in dozens of brutal ways one more brutal than the other. Though she did understand where she was coming from. Patricia herself was born and raised on Zeltros and while she was just a vanilla human it didn't mean she did not indulge in the culture and lifestyle that was twenty four seven party time. But that was before she had her daughter Erika, and was now pregnant with her second. So it was safe to say the party life was now dwindled to an almost pure stop.

"If you do not mind we have a tour of the facilities. I would hate to inform Mister Bane that you are creating an unsafe work environment for Mister Cardin by showing his staircases are unsafe when you fall from them." Patricia meant that in a few different ways, the first was when Dakita's drunk ass legitimately fell from it. And the other was when Patricia tossed her down them with the strength of a pregnant mother bear. Either way it was a good indication that she should stop drinking

 

[Armand Temi]

Dakita turned around at the sound of Patricia's voice. There appeared to be an instant connection between Val and Patricia, one that became more apparent when the petite blonde woman said, "Don't worry, not yours." That's when Dak noticed her belly. Dak backed away a few steps as if pregnancy was contagious. But the meaning was clear. Patrica and Val had spent the night together at some point.

The Zeltron didn't normally get jealous. In fact she was the one who did the heart breaking for the most part. But she had a nagging feeling inside, one that made her feel almost protective of Cardin since the night they had also spent together.

Dak furrowed her brow when Patricia suggested she stop drinking. "Ha!" she blurted. "When do the Ravens ever stop drinking?" Then she took another giant swig from the flask to let Patricia know that she wasn't going to be bullied and especially in front of Cardin. "Want some?" she asked holding out the flask. "Oh right you can't right now!" she laughed.

[member="Val Cardin"] [member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Dakita Calfur"] [member="Val Cardin"]

Patricia was the type of woman who did not take no for an answer, she was the executive assistant of the Red Ravens. She had fought the Sith since the fall of the old original Sith empire, she's been on operations and seen things that would make this little Zeltronian's skin crawl and make her weep for years on end. Patricia could tell her how she's been on all these operations and even pregnant she could slap her ass silly up and down this new factory without fear of getting blood over Mister Cardin's new factory. But she decided to go with the higher road.

"I'm going to say this once, and only once." Patricia said as she still held her pregnant belly.

"This is a workplace. Not a bar. I do not have the time nor do I have the crayons to explain that in ways you can understand. Now here's what's going to happen, you are going to put the flask away, get your work face on and be a good little girl. If you don't I'm going to take that flask and make sure I assign you guard duty to a Hutt lord for the next three months." The woman said in a tone of a disapproving parent to the Zeltronian

"Do I make myself understood?" Patricia flicked her eyes over to Cardin then back to Dakita.

"Oh and for the record queen, they don't have words for how good I made him feel." Patricia said with a little smile of authority. It was good to be the boss

 

[Garik Reed]

[member="Dakita Calfur"] | [member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

Val smiled as Dak walked into his office. And, thank the Force she was carrying alcohol. Secretly, Cardin hated the idea of owning a business, of running it, and all the political kark that came with it. "You're the absolute best." Val picked up the flask, taking a large drink of it before handing it back to the Zeltron. He was just leaning back when a nightmare walked through the door. No, not Patricia, she was beautiful as always. It was the giant hump where her belly should be. Karkkarkkark, Val thought.

"Not yours." Music to his ears. He settled back down in his chair, taking a deep breath. That, that was when things got worse. The Corellian soon realized he had two women he had been with in the same room. It was instantly obvious they both hated eachother. Val's eyes were wide during the entire exchange, and one hand slowly closed a drawer on his desk that was absolutely FILLED with drinks. So far, the two were just verbally attacking each other. That was good. No blood, yet.

Cardin jumped out of his chair at Patricia's last statement. Yes, statement, it was no exaggeration, and it was splayed across his face. "Alright! How about that tour!" Val scuttled past the two women. He knew he was an ant among giants in that room. Even worse, one of them was a mama giant! He clapped his hands as he walked out of his office, gesturing the the factory. It was more for himself than him. No doubt they were still at their cat fight.

Spoiler

Sorry for the slow response.

 

[Armand Temi]

Dakita felt a blush creeping across her face but it was hard to see it under her already pink skin tone. When push came to shove Dak may have had a big mouth, but she did not have the credits to back it up and just the mere mention of being shipped off to work for a Hutt lord made her shudder. In the Dragon Palace Casino break room she had heard rumors of the Raven escapades with Hutts and it as fascinating as it was to listen to, she knew what the disgusting slugs did to the female species. And the males for that matter.

"Fine," she said, sullenly. She put the flask down. "Let's take a tour." Her eyes squinted out some daggers towards Patricia but she skirted around the attractive human just in case the woman decided to get physical. She had heard about those dreaded pregnancy hormones!

While waiting for the tour to begin, Dak tried everything in her power to distract herself from the thoughts of Patricia and Val together. Alcohol normally did that trick but since it was forbidden to her right now she would have to distract herself in other ways. Unfortunately there was no one else to flirt with but Cardin right now. And the Zeltron didn't want to risk angering Patricia anymore than she already had.

[member="Val Cardin"] [member="Patricia Susan Garter"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Val Cardin"] [member="Dakita Calfur"]

Patricia gave both Val and Dak a warm smile now that they could safely venture through the factory without one of them getting sloshed and falling into a compactor or pressurizer, while alcohol was groovy and wonderful it made for complacent and unsafe attitudes and that was something you didn't want to be while traversing a factory that was still partially under construction. So they would make sure they followed the rules of the place and business practices. She had certainly come a long way, from shaking her stuff on Zeltros for credits to funding enterprises, and yes she might consider herself a little lame at times she was protecting her children and that made it okay.

"Hard hats on please, there is still construction going on and if something falls i'd rather not clean your brains off the floor." Patricia said as she walked over to the hard hat rack in the office where a small assortment of the shiny yellow helmets hung.

Grabbing one she placed it on her head and left it unfastened. Looking back over to Dakita she shot her back a glare that was reserved for her daughter when she acted up. It was a motherly scorn that could send vibes back to childhood when your hand was caught in the cookie jar. It was a solem reminder that Patricia could in fact make Dakita watch over a hutt and his spawn, that she could in fact out her body in holds and pinches that would make her hurt in places she didn't know existed. There was a reason why she was Cryax's bodyguard.

"So Mister Cardin if you would please we can get this on the road. I have to take my daughter to her ballet class later and I would prefer to not be late." The little five foot two woman said in a very calm and happy voice.

 

[Armand Temi]

Dak stomped over to the hard hats and put one on her head. Oh great, in addition to the no-hooch rule, Patricia was going to make them all look like super-dorks in their ginormous yellow hats.

"Do you want me to put on safety googles too?" she snorted. "How about a skraggin' face mask?" She grabbed one dramatically and strapped it onto her face. It made a rubber snapping sound.

"And then while we're at it why don't we just encase ourselves in CryoBan and then nothing bad can ever harm us?!?!" She gave a side smile to Val Cardin hoping he was paying attention to her sudden display of rebelliousness.

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"] [member="Val Cardin"]

 

[Miss Blonde]

[member="Dakita Calfur"] [member="Val Cardin"]

[member="Dakita Calfur"]

Patricia looked at Dakita with an unamused look plastered on her face, she really did not want to babysit the Zeltron through this entire trip with her loud and obnoxious mouth. So a thought came to Patricia's mind and a little wolffish grin edged it's way into the corners of her mouth. She put a finger thoughtfully to her chin and tapped a few times.

"You know what Dakita, that's a good look for you. But you are just missing the rest of the outfit." She walked over to a nearby locker and opened it.

Inside there were thick plastic environment suits in case of an emergency meltdown or contamination of the facility. It came with a breathing mask and everything, Patricia gently grabbed it from it's hanger then tossed it onto the floor by Dak's feet. And with a sweet smile now she spoke in a gentle happy tone.

"Dakita you simply must put on the rest of the suit, the orange goes great with your skin. You must work really hard to get it that blotchy. But since I'm such a nice boss I'm going to let you choose, the hardhat, or the suit because I can play stupid little games with you all day Dak. I have a five year old daughter at home and trust me you are nothing compared her. Now decide how you want this trip to go." She said gesturing to the suit at her feet. Patricia was not one to be made a fool of.

 

[Garik Reed]

[member="Patricia Susan Garter"] | [member="Dakita Calfur"]

Val really did not like how this escapade was going so far. He walked over to the racks, and grabbed a hard hat, sliding it onto his head. Like his hair, it sat crooked on his head, not really providing much safety, but there none the less. "Ladies, if you don't mind, I'd really like to get on with the tour..." Val turned around to look back t the factory floor. They were opening in a few days, and he really wanted to make a good impression on the ones giving him all this. Hopefully @Cyrax Bane would come by. Val really hadn't met the man, but wanted to.

He walked over to the railing, resting his hands on it. "C'mon. It'll be fun."