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PROLOGUE
Char Lohengrin propped his feet up on the president's desk with a sigh of contentment as he dropped the still smoking pistol on the ground and grabbed the untouched glass of scotch on the table, courtesy of the man laying dead on the ground beside him. He sipped gingerly from it, sighing once again as the fire trailed along the back of his throat and brought the promise of relief from the adrenaline still pumping through his veins.
"Ambitious little shite - what? Do you think you can just take everything I've built and walk away with it all? This company is mine - the people are MINE! THEY FOLLOW -ME-!"Â
"No, Mister President, they follow the money... and now I'm the one lining their pockets." He dumped the remainder of the brown fluid on the body of the Garlean-Born Hyur, before setting the glass back atop the table next to the bottle. His eyes wandered to the grandfather clock ticking away in the corner, expecting security to be arriving any moment now.Â
"You couldn't wait, could you? Ten more years and everything would have been yours, hell this and more... But instead you choose to betray my generosity - my love - and take it all yourself... What would she say to this? How would she defend her darling kitten?"
"Mister President! Chairman Lohengrin! We're coming in!" As predicted, the Laughing Armament division kicked their way into the office, and cleared the room per their training - each one eventually settling the muzzle of their firearms on the Miqo'te sitting comfortably in the President's desk, reclining lazily with his tail wafting to and fro. The dark lenses masking their eyes did little to hide the fact they were taking the situation before them in with disbelief.
"I imagine you'll be able to ask her yourself in very short order, won't you?" Chairman Lohengrin pulled back the hammer of the pistol, and after a tense moment of silence, depressed the trigger.
"Gentlemen..." Char moved slowly as he removed his feet from the top of the desk and pulled a drawer open. "As you're no doubt already aware... The President has passed away rather suddenly. I'm not one to dwell on the past, and would much rather move immediately to the matter of his last will and testimony - conveniently located right here." He raised a collection of sealed papers up for the men to see, still looking dubiously among one another, unsure of what to do next.
The President's body didn't flop around, as he expected, but fell in one single fluid motion along the ground, blood spraying along the wall and leaking from his forehead onto the carpet, before pooling around the point of impact. Despite the brief sensation of relief that washed over him, the Chairman was still shaking as he moved to sit in the chair.
"The burden that is the title of President of Laughing Armaments, per this document, is now mine. As such, I am empowered to adjust wages -and- offer considerable bonuses for those I feel deserving of such discretion." He set the papers on the desktop for them to look over, if they so chose. "I don't ask you to think on your positions within the company, so much as I expect you to consider the future this organization has -without- a directly appointed CEO... That is to say, there will almost certainly be a long running series of layoffs, starting with the personnel that allowed the previous President to perish... I on the other hand, understand that some things cannot be helped nor can training prepare any one person for every scenario..."Â
He could already see the headlines, all the wasted ink spent spinning a story of the President's lifetime accomplishments which would be quickly forgotten in the span of mere days. The amount of time and money thrown into buying the press out just to paint this 'man' as a visionary and his death having robbed the world of a revolutionary mind... His adopted son filling his absence and promising to honor his memory... Lies upon lies.
Slowly, the man in the middle lowered his rifle, signalling to the others to do the same. "I'm glad we're on the same page." He propped his feet back up on the desk and smirked, fangs just barely breaking the plane of his lips. "It's the start of a new era... and we've a lot of work to do if we're going to clean his mess up... Starting with Eorzea. Let's make preparations to move the R&D department's Magitek division and close out any outstanding contracts with our Garlemald associates... We're about to join a -very- free market.
"Farewell and Goodnight... 'Father'..."
