following is the short story i wrote about the acquisition of Sorelle for the "Serving You, Serving Me" task.
Act IIt started off as nothing but due diligence; like any good head of a company, Calian was looking into the public filing of Veyronis Group. A conglomerate as large as that surely has overextended, has its weak points; maybe some valuable personnel they wouldn’t notice walking out the door or long-forgotten assets left abandoned from an acquisition decades ago. While skimming through the filings, he slowly started finding a curious pattern: like individual pieces of a puzzle, something, or someone, had pulled all these separate assets together and revived Veyronis’ near-defunct entertainment division. Not only revived, but made it thrive. It’s outperforming half of Veyronis’ divisions. Only thing that these public filings connected the pieces of the puzzle was a name mentioned in most of these documents:
Sorelle.
Before he knew it, Calian was deep in that rabbit hole: the nearly gutted entertainment department was brought back from the brink by Sorelle’s plan, so simple it was almost insulting no one at Veyronis had executed it until then. At a grassroot level, clubs create talent you can push to a label. The talent is now pushed by the label, who can endorse products: products sponsor events, which in turn eventually lead people back to the club. It’s a loop that not only keeps money inside Veyronis’ existing assets, but brings it in from the outside. What was trash to Veyronis was treasure to Sorelle: she had turned scrap into a well-oiled machine.
He could remember the Nova Grand Prix faintly from his gambling days - a backwater racing event, a dime a dozen. Not anymore; she had turned it into a spectacle for not only sports fans, but something for socialites to attend for the prestige.
And the mention of Lorell Tarius left him with a scowl; the upbeat pop that was unavoidable at any venue that played music that, regrettably, was awfully catchy. Earworm after earworm. He, too, was her work - the label that signed him had been a signature away from being dismantled.
Calian spun around in his chair as he pondered on that for a minute. It’s not unusual for people to make one or two good calls in their lives - he himself has made many of those - but the fact none of these cases were isolated. Every success fed another one, building towards something only she could see one piece at a time, inside a company of suits that were too stupid to see it. After a few rotations, he turned back to try and research what she was being paid.
It was not nothing. Though, for what she’s done for the company, it made it apparent she was replaceable to Veyronis, despite all the money she had made for them.
What a waste.
He didn’t sit with the thought for long, knowing immediately what to do. He didn’t bother with sending a message or calling: people like her had a legion of assistants to take both of them and respond with pleasantries. If he wanted to know if she was the woman these files claim she is, he would have to see her in a room.
ACT II
Her office had a lock prepared against corporate espionage, a camera feed encrypted against loop overrides and a receptionist who logged each and every visitor by hand as a backup. None of it had been built with Sith in mind, and it shows - it didn’t do a thing to keep Calian away.
Valerie Sorelle walked into her office to find a stranger sat in her chair, with his boots crossing one another on her desk, holding one of her industry awards up towards the light in the ceiling. “ Executive Director Valerie Sorelle!”, Calian exclaimed in a grand manner like an announcer announcing a headliner. He set the award down on her desk with a thud as he turned his visage towards her and rose from the leatheris seat, slow, exaggerated steps as he approached. “ “The Architect”. The woman who made a dying star go supernova, the only reason why anyone even says, or knows, the words “Veyronis Entertainment”. Gotta say, the office undersells you.”
She didn’t move much further from the doorway, following Calian with her gaze. “ There’s a button under that desk that puts four large, cybernetically enhanced men into this room in less than 30 seconds.”
“ BUT you haven’t pressed it!”, Calian stopped, folded an arm over the other, with his right arm rising up to his chin to allow him to lean into his fist. “ Says to me you’re a woman who likes to know who they’re dealing with before calling security. Very sensible! I love a woman who reads the entire contract before signing.”
“ You broke into my office and disabled the cameras to compliment my business sense?”
Calian bobbed his head left and right. "Among other things." He spread his arms, gesturing at the room like a real estate agent at a house showing. "Go on, humor me, what's the read?"
She crossed to her side of the desk at a leisurely pace, and after she reached it, sat there like he wasn't there at all. "Recent money. Not enough of it yet for people like me to know your name. Comfortable with violence, or you'd have brought muscle instead of coming alone. And you clearly enjoy being looked at, which tells me whatever you're about to offer me, you already think it's the best pitch of your life."
“ Close enough.”, he grinned, clearly delighted, then dropped into the seat opposite of her, comfortable like old friends catching up. “ Calian Tarr, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”, he politely introduced himself, accompanied by a little dip of his head.
She folded her arms. “ Say what you came here to say.”
He leaned forward, both elbows planted against his legs. “ You’re wasted here.”, the performance dropping half a register.
“ I run, arguably, the most profitable division in this company.”
“ You BUILT the arguably most profitable division in this company.”, his fingers beginning to tick off her works. “ Tarius. Nova Grand Prix. What’s the third one-”, he paused to snap his fingers, squeezing his eyes shut. “ Project Convergence! That’s the one!”, he then lowered the rest of his fingers. “ Nobody handed you this empire. You built it from things no one else wanted, for a company that still writes you off as someone who just happens to overperform.”
She didn’t immediately retort, just watched and listened, the amusement in her face slowly sharpening into something more wary.
“ And you broke into my office to tell me I deserve better.”
“ Yes and no.”, he bobbed his head left and right once more, the words delivered flat and there was no physical flourish to go with it. “ I can’t match what Veyronis pays you. Don’t have the infrastructure, legal department, yadda yadda. If you’re here for the money, I’ve gravely misjudged you and this is goodbye, and I’ve spent a fine afternoon breaking and entering.”
“ Then why haven’t I hit the button?”
“ ‘cause I’m not selling money.”, now sitting up straight, Calian extended his arms as if to gesture for the entirety of the room they were in. “ I’m selling a company that isn’t finished building yet. There’s a great skeleton: nightclubs, music production, circuit - a broadcasting division that doesn’t exist, but totally should - you could build it from the ground-up the way you envision instead of building it from scraps. The same what you did here. Except no suit is going to get nervous over your risky, good idea and cut your budget in half.”, Calian then lowered his arms, and continued to speak without any flair in his voice. “ Veyronis would’ve cared little if you failed before you saved them. I’m not going to act like I’m not a risk as well, but I just think I’m a better bet.”
Valerie just stared at her in silence for long enough to Calian to start second guessing how close to her hand that button actually was. She reached out, not to press the button, but just to turn the lights on and off to test if he’d flinch. Fortunately, Calian did not.
“ You broke into my office, disabled my security, sat in my chair and gave me a theatre performance where you tell me I’m underpaid and your offer is much worse on paper than what I already have.”
“ You could’ve had your goons come in to intercept me before I sat down if you wanted to.”, he shrugged, the grin from earlier creeping back onto his face. “ Didn’t seem like the moment I should start lying on top of it.”
Her face shifted into something. Not quite a smile, but close enough that he’d remember it.
“ That-”, she paused. “ That has to be the worst pitch I’ve heard in fifteen years, or the only honest one.”