DrummingUpBusinessDrumming up BusinessOnce he walks away from the others, Martin thumbs a button on his PDA until an image of his father appears. "Dad?" he says, after concentrating on Random's picture on the screen. The contact comes quickly.Judging from the setup in and around him, Random is sitting at his drumset. One of them, anyway. He grins, picking up one of his drumsticks. Random points it into the air. "Last I heard, you were headed to Corwin's Paris along with a bunch of people. Unless Corwin's done some urban renewal, it looks like you're only about four stories away." "My not so prodigal son." he adds with a grin. "Umm, yeah," Martin says, scratching the back of his head. "That was quite a while ago. Can't remember if Uncle Corwin said something about manifest destiny... nah, probably not. Got a minute to see me?" "Seems like we have much to catch up on; there is little point in delaying the debriefing." Random says, offering a hand for Martin to step through and into one of the rooms in the Royal Suite. Random stops fiddling with the drumset, gestures in the direction of the bar. "Hell, you know your way around here." he says, and then briefly embraces Martin with one arm. "Sit down son, and tell me all about it." After releasing Martin from the embrace he walks over to a lounge and sits down. Martin moves to the bar and raises his eyebrows at the king. The drink he pours himself is a single malt scotch, which, after a moment, becomes a double. Random gives a slight wave of his hand and the tiniest shake of the head. "There's a lot to tell," Martin says. "If I had stayed much longer in Paris, I might not be here to ramble on about it. Did you want the quickie version, or the two-dollar home movie version? I took lots of pictures." "The movie version." Random says decisively after a moment. "As long as its not edited in as a disorientating manner as that movie that we saw in Vegas. The one with the amnesiac assassin." "Show me what you have." Random prompts. "Well, here we are outside of Paris," Martin says, turning his PDA so that it looked for all the world like he was sharing a video on an iPod, "Here's a clockwork guy we ran into..." Random watches carefully, intently throughout the presentation. (later) "I got a couple of brief pieces of this from Dulcinea. She didn't say much, she seemed to have taken a nasty experience and needed to rest. Vi's watching over her in one of the other rooms." "And so I walked the Pattern. But the rest of it, it's pretty much closed off. Now, here's the rocket ship we were on afterward. It decided to crash on us, where we happened to run into Meriel. Have I told you about her?" Random furrows his eyebrows as if in thought. "If you have, its not been recently." He looks at the image. "A Rebman? Way out in shadow?" "Who is she, Martin?" "We grew up together," Martin says. "She's nobility- Meriel's a real prodigy as far as surveillance. Moire kept her cloistered and on a short leash all her life. Imagine how that turned out." "Not well, I would imagine." Random replies. He pauses. "If she were Family...I would be looking at a destabilized Rebma in the very near future." Random says slowly after a moment's thought. "A prodigy at surveillance, though..." Random gets a brief gleam in his eye. "If she were treated right..." There is then a knock at the door. "Yes?" Random calls. The door opens a crack and one of the guards from outside the Royal apartments opens the door and bows her head. "Sire, A Meriel of Rebma is here to see you." "Tell her that I will see her in a few minutes, Asenath." Random says. "Very good Sire." Asenath gives a bow of the head to Random, and a smaller bow in the direction of Martin before closing the door. "I think I need the thumbnail version now, kid." Random says with a grin to Martin. "Right," Martin says, and launches into more of the tale. "...then, I got us too close to Rebma. We ran into a tower of crystal, under the surface of the ocean. Priya brokered some kind of deal with Moire- I don't know all the details, but it looks like Meriel is in Moire's service again, as a semi-free agent. We Trumped here when we had the opportunity." Random frowns. "Damn." "Still, having yourself, this Meriel and Priya together seemed like a very odd coincidence and convergence, especially since the three of you came separately. I will have to get their sides of what is going on. If they will tell me." He rises. "Right. Time to speak to my guest." Random regards his son for a long moment as he walks toward him "Come on. You might want to bug out early and speak to Vi, though. We'll see how Meriel takes the father and son act first, though." He claps him on the shoulder. "Glad you're back, son." "Yeah, me too," Martin says, with an Uncomfortable Awkward Father-Son expression for which all others are but shadows. Random then motions for Martin to follow him into the antechamber of the Royal Apartments... Backlinks |
