#Corelo belongs to Lard!

[cloudbattrolls]

Starfall

Chimer Latrai | Civitrecce | A Few Nights Prior

Across the sea in another world, a deal was struck. A demon saved a man from a deadly poisoning at the behest of his kismesis. As payment, it took away the creative potential of his business; the business that had kept the man alive, else the empire would have culled him after the lifelong injuries he had sustained.

No highblood was supposed to live as such a frail embarrassment, decreed imperial law. Not unless they were useful enough to spare.

So long, of course, as that usefulness didn’t run out.

—

Chimer Latrai floated in her personal pool, mulling over both the next meme she wanted to post on her blog and the best way to advance the current architectural debates about invasive data collection.

There was seriously no point to sensors that could place a troll’s hue within a caste or so; expensive and time wasting, and for what? To better target them for advertisements and to try to expose any hemoanons for profit?

She’d argued that if sensors of that level were necessary, they should only be placed around high security areas. There was no reason to let every random business that could afford it exploit them.

That obviously didn’t solve the problem of those high security areas selling the information anyway, but that was another issue entirely. One thing at a time.

Back to the meme. Which was related to the other topic at hand.

‘What if you wanted to mind your own business, but the corner store said you NEED to buy this garbage drink brand?’

Could use some refinement, but she’d pass the idea on to one of the trolls who ran her blog. Her memecrafters, as she liked to call them, did great things with her basic ideas.

Too bad she couldn’t swear in them, but she had to keep the thing appropriate even for wrigglers. It was better for her overall image, plus it was more professional anyway.

Corelo would appreciate that; not that she’d even told him about her blog. Funny kid. She liked him a lot, even if he was technically a gang boss or whatever. It was hard to resent him for whatever no doubt messed up stuff he got up to when he wasn’t working for her when he was just a cute little guy with a bow tie.

“Miss Latrai, please report to the acquisitions office. Miss Latrai, an urgent matter requires your presence in acquisitions.”

She blinked at the intercom announcement. Huh? She wasn’t expecting...well, nothing for it.

The fuchsia quickly swam to the edge and got up, dripping on the polished steps as she turned on her hot-air dryers. They made a low noise as they blasted her, blowing her hair around and rippling her fins. She quickly changed into a more suitable outfit, not completely dry but not wanting to keep her staff waiting.

One short elevator trip later, the doors opened with a ding and she stepped into the acquisitions floor.

“What’s u - oh, wow, you look stressed.” She said, as the teal who’d summoned her hurried up, glasses askew and face sweaty. The woman looked like the very definition of the word harried.

“Miss Latrai, it’s - I don’t know how to explain it, I’ve never seen anything like this before - “

“Take a sec, uh...Hyraal?” She said, trying to remember the woman’s name. “I’m sure whatever it is isn’t world-ending. Like the last few things almost have been. Right?”

“Harryl.” She was corrected, absentmindedly, as she was led to the main display screen.

“Sorry, my bad.” Chimer replied with an apologetic smile, but her employee wasn’t even looking at her.

Chimer’s smile died as she realized why, to be replaced with an expression of deep confusion. Her fins fluttered as she looked the information on the display screen up and down, sure her eyes must be playing tricks on her. The rectangle of liquid crystal was several feet tall and wide, with data laid out in the finest resolution available.

“This is a prank, right.” She said, looking at the nearest technician, a yellowblood with an undercut. He shook his head.

“No, ma’am, it’s quite real. You received ownership of Starsight tonight half an hour ago, and as far as we can tell, it’s completely legitimate. All the proper documents are in order, but we haven’t been able to reach the owner - uh, former owner - for comment. Mr. Abnale seems to have gone AWOL.”

Chimer blinked. “Which one is he again? That sounds familiar.”

“Jameth Abnale. Cobalt, eleven and a half sweeps, placed as the business head after the old owner was culled for embezzling funds from fleet, totally remade it and raised its profits by a significant margin. He’s uh...well, he’s actually fair game for any imperial hunters now, because he was legally declared unfit after some injuries he had when he was young. He was granted a cull exemption, but it was tied to his position, so...” The technician trailed off awkwardly.

Chimer sighed. “So whoever did this wants him dead. I don’t know how they pulled it off so seamlessly or why, but I can’t think of another reason. Convoluted-ass way to do it, but that’s where we are, unnecessary schemes and plots central. My real question is, why me? Do they have it out for me too? Plus, I’ve never been involved with him. I remember who he is now, seen him a few times, but we’ve barely talked.”

The fuchsia shook her head. None of this made any sense, but hell, she supposed that fit in with the rest of her life. At least this wasn’t a supernatural mystery, she’d be standing in the corner staring at a wall if that bullshit reared its head again.

She looked at Harryl, who’d managed to calm down a bit.

“Okay. I want investigations on this, obviously, and we need to put out a statement about it. The corps are gonna be on me like vultures to a dead cholerbear, but we can at least do damage control until we have a plan.”

Harryl scribbled down notes, clearly already thinking about said damage control. She was in acquisitions, but nervousness aside Chimer knew she had a keen eye for both property management and news presentation.

The technician bit his lip.

“There’s one more thing, ma’am…we don’t seem to be able to try and transfer the documents of ownership. The option won’t even come up, and trying to modify it to do so just…doesn’t work.”

Chimer stared blankly.

“Wow, don’t like that. That is both weird and vaguely upsetting. Hey, here’s a business! Not one you wanted or that aligns with your morals whatsofuckingever, but a business regardless. Keep working on that, maybe you’ll find something. Get a technopath if need be.”

The yellow nodded.

Harryl looked up, frowning.

“Yeah me too, girl.” Deadpanned Chimer. “Welp. This’ll be fun.”

Her phone vibrated, and she looked at it.

“Oh hey, guess who’s here. I swear he can sense whenever anything happens like spider-troll does.”

This was probably out of the anon’s wheelhouse, but he usually cheered her up with his overly serious demeanor. He was just too fun to joke at. She could use that right now, even aside from his pretty sick mathematic and planning skills.

Both Harryl and the technician looked confused.

“Who, ma’am?” They said almost in sync.

“My favorite pasta boy, Corelo.”