The Royal Houses (Jason and Souviens)

[Jason Kharo]

The Year Is 4159

The United Solar Coalition, acting on behalf of the Earth Population, begun colonization of the galaxy in the Year 2104. Two thousand years later, they are rulers of the galaxy, having exterminated any alien life that did not agree with their principles or would cause problems in the future.

Humanity were the true rulers of the Milky Way.

Now the true rulers of the Galaxy waged a secret war against their peers in a bid to ascent to control all of the trade going through the galaxy. These true rulers were known as the Royal, or Noble Houses. Some spanned back hundreds, if not thousands of years. Their vaults were limitless and they possessed almost infinite coffers of Credits on which they spend on spies, assassins and internal subterfuge.

Such was the case when it came to the Royal House Narakin, whom sent a highly experienced and well equipped spy to gain intimate confidence with the heir to one of the most powerful houses in the Galaxy. Such Houses were economical strong points. Controlling star shipping lanes, manufacturing planets and everything down to Crop production. House Narakin was one of these, it was up at the top, contending for the ruling position. It was hoped that this Spy would help it achieve such a lofty spot.

 

[Jason Kharo]

Slipping from a boarding crate effortlessly, a shadow moved from place to place, hidden out of view from the Dock Workers who continued to unload food packages and various other useful supplies. None of them noticed the shadow which moved of its own accord. It moved onto the back of a grav-truck, slinking into one of the empty barrels on board and simply biding its time. Eventually, the vehicle came to a silent stop. Before the drivers had emerged from the cabin, the shadow had moved out of the barrel and into the nearby cover of a bush. It was already night time and the appointed hour was nearly coming up. It would have to be quick.

The noises of a celebration could be heard very close by, as the lights could be seen just as easily as the smell of perfume and such already hung in the air. Yes, definitely the correct gathering. Moving behind a towering statue of granite and marble, depicting some great entrepreneur of this Royal House's legacy, the shadow disappeared. What reappeared was a man.

Dressed in the finest black tuxedo, along with dress shoes of course, Alkais Charmosian, Primaris Political Advisor to the local Noble House, stepped towards the security checkpoint. With a simple flash of a ident card, saying he 'truly' was a high ranking member of the House, he gained access to the Estate of the Family. Within this building was some of the most important figures in the Galaxy, including the one he was to be Primaris Advisor too, following her rise to full heir-ship and taking her own shares in the House fortunes.

Alkais Charmosian was in his mid twenties, but already he had an incredibly successful career behind him. Graduating from the Universitariate of the Saturine Consorts two years early had given him a quick rise into the world of secret politics and intrigue. He was one of the best at what he did, of that, there was no doubt. Alkais was a handsome young man, six foot tall with a lean, yet not overly muscled physique, accompanied by a gentle, yet powerful face, that simply shouted of a pure bred individual. Dark brown hair, cut short but styled to one side at the front, topped his head. He entered the 'party' and immediately was given a drink of high grade alcohol. Taking a sip of his drink, he sought out the female he would be accompanying for the foreseeable future. He quickly located her. She really wasn't hard to miss. A beauty. "Madame." He said, giving a formal bow and planting a soft kiss on her hand before standing back up straight. "I am Alkais Charmosian, Primaris Political Advisor and assistant to yourself. Appointed on your Father's behalf to help guide you through the trials you will soon be facing. I will be accompanying yourself where ever you may go, to offer advice and to report back to your father." He explained in a well spoken, yet rehearsed tone. "As of now, I am at your service, Madame." Alkais finished finally, giving another slight bow to end the greeting.  

[Yeshaya Silver]

Leandra Zevran Maudelian--who preferred to be called Sev, for no discernible reason--did not like parties like this. She took an annoyed sip of Earth-styled liquor, swilling the substance around in her glass and glowering at no one in particular.

It wasn't that she felt neglected at these parties. Quite to the contrary, in fact. She hated noise, and she hated how many people gathered at these things, and she hated being pressed in by so many bodies at once. The whole affair was enough to make her want to retreat back to her room and scrub her skin twice over.

It didn't help that generations of careful breeding had left her both attractive and wealthy. As the next heiress to the Maudelian fortune, plenty of men and women approached her, hoping against hope for some favorable attentions from one of the surliest potential matches in the Milky Way. But she was not entertained by the thought of attending to a scum-sucking, fortune-greedy half-life. Half of them just wanted to sleep with her, anyway, and what--she was supposed to take their word for it, that they didn't have the genetic mutations or diseases that had claimed half of the original Earth Population? No, thank you. She would be a frigid b***h over here, on her lonesome. The only person she was waiting for would be here soon, with any luck, and then she would not have to listen to this rabble.

And oh, here he finally was. Sev lifted her dark green eyes, the careful waves of her brown hair pinned back into a bun, rosebud lips pursed. Alkais Charmosian was supposed to be an adviser to her. What purpose this served, she could not tell, only that her father had insisted on it. She had graduated from a wonderful school herself, with excellent marks--although it was not particularly 'genius' level, she would content herself with knowing she had performed well.

She waved a hand as he began his speech. "Spare me the theatrics and get me out of here. I hate crowds and I hate parties. I know who you are, and that's as good an excuse as any to leave." Sure, he seemed nice enough, but she had no interest in listening to his credentials. She could discover them with a thought, but she sincerely had only an interest in leaving. Sev brushed past well-wishers, the equally rich, others vying for her attention, and ignored them all, intent only on the door.

Heading towards the docking bay, she opened her hovercraft with the wave of a hand, indicating the second seat for him. "I was waiting for you. I can't stand those stupid events."  

[Jason Kharo]

Alkais, as opposed to his client's feelings, seemed to relish parties of all kinds, from simply ones to get blathered, or high, upper class balls. He was, in the most simple terms, a social and political animal. The advisor knew and understood all the various groups of people who attended parties, from those you had to get on the good side of, to those who could be ignored. It was quite obvious that Madame Maudelian either didn't know about such happenings, or she was simply ignoring everyone. He guessed it was moreso the latter. She could not be blamed however, this gathering was full of posturing idiots and power hungry Heirs, hoping to gain a reputation and foothold into the already well established hierarchy of the Trade Houses. Silly, silly people.

Finding that Leandra was nothing like her psychological profile described her, which said, quote. "Leandra simply relishes the environment of a party, engaging every one that she could in a conversation while charming and using her guile to boost her own levels of confidence at the same time."
Complete bullshit.

Alkais could already tell she had enough confidence to simply brush off just about every single person that came up to her. This fact also removed the first section of her profile description. She was showing via extremely obvious body language that she did not want to be here, and her reply did more than confirm such a fact. Thinking honestly to himself, psychological analysis' were rarely ever correct. It should be expected that his client would not be as he expected, or else he would have not been assigned to assist her.

"As you will, Madame. They are not for all people." Charmosian replied softly, nodding at her somewhat demanding sentence. Following to the side of her, he took the names and details of those who tried to start a conversation with her, but she simply walked past. Only those who were powerful enough to care about. He offered a quick apology to those who seemed irritated at her actions, before quickly getting into the luxurious hovercraft next to her. "My most sincere apologies if I delayed you. I arrived ten minutes earlier than was expected." He said, lowering his head slightly in way of apologising to the Heiress. "As for the night, there is two other high end social events that we have been invited to and are expected to attend. Shall I reply with something has come up?" He assumed that she would not want to attend any more such parties after her dreadful experience in the Langsheevish Manor.  

[Yeshaya Silver]

"Call me Sev," She replied shortly, sliding into the seat of her craft. Leaning back and sighing deeply, she folded her arms behind her head and relaxed for a second, muscles untensing. Carefully bred though they were, nothing could stop her from feeling terribly overrun in social situations. It was just a little tick that she couldn't quite help. The feelings of people pressing in on her from all sides was more than she could stand, and it made her mind swim. It was dreadfully hard to form a coherent or polite response when all you were aware of was the sensation of yet another person pushing in behind you.

Flexing her fingers, she settled her eyes on Alkais once more, appraising him more coolly this time. "I know you arrived ten minutes sooner. You didn't delay me, you freed me. I was just about to scream. Go ahead and say that something has come up--it's alright if you make it sound unforgivingly girly, like I had a small fit of nerves, or something. Rich, well-to-do guys seem to get off on that." She snorted, her way of letting him know she wasn't serious.

Shutting the lid to the hovercar, she pressed a button and leaned back, taking a glass of good wine from her auto-pilot refrigerator and offering the other one to him with a wave of a hand. Sipping it politely, Sev stared at the expanse of space as they immediately ejected out of the Manor, past the Space-Elevator that anchored it there, and jetted off towards Mars. The Maudelian Estate--estate, what an antiquated word--hung off the edge of the old space station on the Ice Cap Coast, a glittering beauty of Old-Earth style.

"I'm usually more presentable than that. I don't like crowds," She explained tersely. "They make me feel dirty. Not the people, mind you, just the sheer numbers and noise." No point in blaming a tick on everyone else. It was just her.  

[Jason Kharo]

"Of course. A nasty Calvarian Spider gave you a shock as you woke up and you are far too frightened to leave your room." He said, as if it was a fact, instead of something completely fabricated. He was starting to get a measure of how Sev ticked. It was clear she knew not to offend every one she came by, or else she would have just said to ignore the invites. When she snorted to let it on it was a joke, Alkais smiled slightly. She didn't seem that type of humour person, but it was something he could happily work with.

He took the glass with a polite thank you, he followed her gaze into the blackness of space. It wasn't quiet at all, not like it had used to be before the space colonization. Now, Earth and Mars were surrounded by huge space ports, bustling cargo haulers and even the odd Battleship. At any one time, around one hundred space ships were trying to get anchor above the Home-World. Taking a sip of his wine, Charmosian looked across the enormous piece of architecture that the Maudelian's owned. It was rightfully one of the most beautiful estates in the entire galaxy. It was a massive building, attached to an old, but still well maintained space station. It was just one of their immense houses.

"That is interesting. I was lead to believe all High-Born Nobles were taught to bask in the spot light of parties and crowds." He replied, taking another sip and relaxing back in his comfy seat. "I must confess, I cannot stand being along with a person who I feel awkward around. Big crowds and such I can happily deal with." The advisor explained, placing his near finished drink back on the side, which the auto-pilot collected up. "I will keep that in mind when booking appointments and parties to attend. Despite your preferences, some may be inevitable, however I may be able to fill your spot, unless those who invited you, wanted you." He said while smiling to her, leaning forward as they came close to the enormous estate. "But I believe you will not want to meet with those who simply want you."  

[Yeshaya Silver]

Sev half-smiled at the excuse, sipping more of her wine. What an awful reason not to leave the room. Calvarian spiders were freakish, of course, but how very sensitive did you have to be to not leave your room because of one spider? "Here's to hoping that no one has ever meant that excuse genuinely before. I wouldn't be able to stop myself from laughing."

"As far as social events go, I could stand talking to one person I hardly knew infinitely more than just being around twenty. There's too much noise and too many people involved. Ugh." She frowned, downed the rest of her drink, and set it in the cupholder. The autopilot sucked it up and a faint whirring could be heard as it began the decline into their docking bay. "If people just want me, generally, they're looking to schmooze. I hate schmoozing. There's more to people than money and title, and anyone who is just interested in both of those has no business being around me. I'll end up telling them off, and then there will be a scandal, and everyone is unhappy." It had happened before. In fact, now that she thought about it, this was probably exactly the reason Alkais was here.

Settling her eyes on him, she sighed, then reached up and pulled the green contacts from her eyes, revealing pale silver ones instead. Placing the contacts in a container, the pilot stored them. Finally they were in the Manor. Sev slid out of the car and set her feet on the ground, heading towards the door, scanning her eyes in the biometric scanner. The contacts were a preventative measure--anyone interested in stealing her identity had to go through those first, and very few were permitted into this manor.

She set foot into the marble hall, a swimming pool running the length of it. Not bothering to change, she dove in gracefully, emerging a few feet away, shaking the water from her hair.  

[Jason Kharo]

[Sorry I've been away, my birthday in real life. smile ]

"Like you said, something unforgiving girly." He replied with a sly grin, downing the rest of the wine in a quick knock back, putting it back down next to her own glass. Feeling the vehicle stark to dip into the premium class docking port, he leaned forward slightly to listen to her personal experiences. Alkais had already read about the relationship problems that Sev had come through in her personal file, collated by her father and his net work of internal spies.

Watching her remove her contacts, Alkais stepped out of the vehicle, already opening the door for the Mistress. "Such is one of the primary reasons I am here, as you will surely have picked up upon. Your father doesn't not trust you, but is aware that there is people in this galaxy that can be entirely deceptive." He warned, catching a glance at her now different eyes. They made her look much more beautiful. After she had her eyes scanned, Charmosian's biometrics were scanned and after a second pause, the doors opened into the Entrance Hall, which was opened up by a huge swimming pool that ran to the far end.

Although he knew he shouldn't, the advisor couldn't help but admire Sev as she dived into the pool perfectly, surfacing a metre or two away. "Is that something you always do, Madame?" Alkais asked her, walking to the pool edge closest to her, kneeling down to get to a closer level to his client. "Would you like me to fetch anything for you?" He queried inquisitively, tilting his head slightly as he smiled warmly at her, offering a hand to help pull her out of the pool. In truth, he would have loved to dive in with her himself, as swimming was always one of his favourite past times. Maybe before she awoke tomorrow, he could manage a small swim.  

[Yeshaya Silver]

(Gratz, lol)

Sev raised her eyebrows, scooting back from the ledge and further into the water, hair drifting lazily around her. "Fetch? Are you a servant, suddenly? No, I don't need anything. Besides, you don't know where anything here is yet, do you?" She had never cared much for sending other people to do things for her, or fetch things. Unless she couldn't do it herself, or something urgent was happening, she preferred to do things herself. Diving under the surface again, she pulled her hair back and resurfaced, the hair arranged across her back, before pulling herself from the pool.

"It's not a habit, but I often do that. My parents don't care much for it, so I try not to do that around them." Grabbing a towel from a handy nearby rack, she pulled it over her shoulders and wrung out her hair a bit, before wrapping it around herself, leaning over to roll up her pant legs. At least that would help a bit. Sev grabbed a second and tossed it onto the floor, wiping up the droplets that had escaped the pool from her diving in and getting out.

"I'm going to change. Have you eaten? I don't know if you had a chance from the shuttle ride to eat anything, or..." Sev thought about it, realizing she hadn't eaten. "Novarthian Calous sound good?" The dish was one of her favorites, not entirely removed from pasta and loaded up with vegetables and cheeses from a fringe world.  

[Jason Kharo]

"Advisor and assistant, that 'unfortunate' title which means a little ibt of everything." He replied, smiling at her a little then chuckling as she mentioned not knowing where everything was. "Of course I do Madame, I have had several tours and tests on the layout of the manor itself and the surrounding area." Alkais said smartly, offering her a hand out, but she had already pulled herself from the cool, refreshing waters. He noticed how her clothes clung to her body, and tore his eyes away from the sight as he listened to her.

Charmosian nodded as she mentioned her parents while drying herself off. "I believe swimming is one of the best sports available, something I took part in heavily when I was younger. Nowadays, there is less time available to us all." He said, smiling wryly, picking up the wet towel she had used to mop up the water on the floor and throwing it onto the warming rack to dry out. "Ah yes, your mother and father won't be here for the next four days. They have left you to act in their stead for the meantime. Your brother however, will be back on the third day, providing the Warp routes have calmed down." The advisor informed her then chose to reply to her question about food.

"I had a slight snack before I arrived, but that was a while ago." He said, before actually feeling the hunger in his stomach as a sudden lurch. "Calous sounds perfect, just enough to fill the void, as it were."  

[Yeshaya Silver]

Parents out of town? Sev stared at him for a minute and then sighed deeply. Of course they were. She should have figured that. Ruffling her hair once more and tossing the towel across the warming rack, she felt the thoughts of everything else slip from her mind, punching the request for Calous into a computer next to the staircase. Hopefully it would be done by the time she returned. Holding up a finger to indicate she would return soon, Sev went about changing. Heading to the stairs, she took them two at a time and went up to her room.

Once inside, she stripped down, pulling the pants and formal shirt from her body and sliding on a tank top, a very dated piece from the 2000s. Zipping the pants tightly onto her body, around the calves and thighs, she ignored the rest of her wardrobe. The grey leather pants and black tanktop would do. She wasn't going out anywhere, and it was hardly special company she was entertaining. Taking a moment to stare into the mirror, Sev parted her hair lightly, frowning. The brown hair dye was running out, and the ashy grey that naturally colored her was coming back. Fantastic. Time to redye it, then, once she had the time or the will to.

She bounded back down the stairs, pulling her hair back into a very low bun at the nape of the neck with a couple twists. "I suppose you already know where the kitchen is, then, mister Test-taker. But we'll be eating in there. There's no point in eating in the fancy dining room and having to waste energy." Rich though she was, Sev was hardly spoiled. The virtues of cleaning things herself and asking politely, as well a the ridiculous affluence of her position was not lost on her. It was as her father had said when she was young--"You're not rich, I'm rich, and you're going to have to work, too." Sure, she was heiress, but that meant nothing if she didn't understand what she was inheriting.

Taking a few steps down and into a spotless, white and chrome kitchen, she gave a wave to the servant, a woman whom they had hired from a fringe world. She hadn't been world famous, but she was a good lady and needed a job, and her father was sort of a bleeding heart. So it was alright. "Hello, Miss."

"Hello there, Leandra. Calous for two?"

"Please and thank you. Go take a rest or a break. I can handle cleaning this up. I haven't done anything else productive today."

With a smile and nod, she scurried from the room, headed toward some back area. Sev took a seat at the island counter on a grav-chair and bit into the Calous, leaning back.