Cary Dearborn (dearspider) wrote in afreshrpg, @ 2012-07-17 18:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | retired: caradoc dearborn, retired: eloise midgen, time: 1998-07 |
WHO: Caradoc Dearborn and Eloise Midgen
WHEN: The morning after this.
WHAT: Cary's great news? Isn't just great for him.
RATING: G
STATUS: Closed, complete log.
The first thing Cary did when the owl arrived was whoop at the top of his voice, grab Archie, and zoom around the house playing airplane with his little boy. The second thing he’d done was post the entry in his journal asking Eloise to come in early. This was... possibly the best news he’d ever received in his life.
Eloise had honestly been one of his best ideas - the hiring of her, that is - and he knew damn well that without her, he’d still be poking away at those potions. Without her insight at a couple of key points he might never have ended up with the finished products that he did.
It was never a good sign when people wanted to talk, Eloise mused, as she made her way up to the front door - thirty minutes early as agreed. No good ever came from the words, ‘we need to talk’. With her heart trying its best to squeeze up through her throat, Eloise rapped on the front door in the manner of someone who was trying to knock as quietly as possible in case someone heard her. Working with Cary had been a dream so far and she wasn’t ready for it to end - she was having more fun than she’d ever had, even if there was a kid lurking around the house somewhere - so if he was going to fire her, she wanted him to put it off as long as possible.
When the front door opened, Eloise smiled wanly and lifted a hand in a slight wave. “I’m here.” She wanted to ask what was going on, but felt that beating around the bush would probably be best under the circumstances.
Cary ran a hand through his already messy hair and looked at her. “So as you’re aware, we spent a lot of time at the beginning of our time together working on a set of potions. You remember the three? The ones I got from the so called anonymous source?” He waited for her to nod before he continued. “What we came up with... I’m under a contract which requires me to take any new potion I discover or make, to the Ministry. They have what’s called right of first refusal, which basically means they get to decide if they want to buy the recipe before I’m allowed to do anything else with it.”
How the hell was he supposed to tell her the next part? “Well... I got an owl last night, confirming that those three potions together, are worth a rather large lump sum up front, and a considerable amount of money going forward.”
Eloise listened, nodding or shaking her head as needed, but otherwise she simply let him talk. She found it was best to let people run out of steam before she replied, just in case. But now she really didn’t understand what was going on. She understood that they’d bought his potions, but she was confused about why he was bringing this to her. “Oh, that’s good, then?” she didn’t mean to phrase it as a question, it just sort of slipped out.
Did that mean he wasn’t going to keep her on as an intern? She hoped that it didn’t.
“It is good,” he repeated. “It’s very good.” Standing, he grabbed a scrap piece of parchment and scribbled a couple of figures on it, crossing them out a couple of times before handing it to her. “This is what they’re proposing to pay me for the potions,” he said, “and the figure below, is the portion you’re entitled to as co-creator.” He looked at her steadily, waiting to see if she would push for more, or if the proposed figure would sit well enough with her. Either way, she was entitled to the money, but even this was a lot for a kid still at Hogwarts.
“So. I know I said I couldn’t pay you, but now you sort of have to decide if you think this is a fair payment for your summer’s work.”
At first she could only stare at all those lovely little zeroes, the amount was too big to sink in just yet, and then she stared at him. “Are you for real? That’s - that’s a lot of money.” She’d take it of course, she’d be a total idiot not to, but she was waiting for him to say he’d made a mistake on the math and erase a few of the numbers. But if he didn’t? She thought of all the things she would be able to do with it; foremost on the list being a place to live once she’d left school.
“I think it’s definitely fair, especially since you said I was basically slave labour.” Okay, so he’d said it a bit nicer than she had, but that was the gist of it.
Laughing a little, Cary nodded. “Yes, I’m for real. Your input was invaluable, and I made that clear in my meeting. Right from the start I told them that your name was to be kept on the project.”
Which brought him to his next point. “There’s... more,” he went on awkwardly. “With something like this, it’s never just a lump sum payment. The Ministry stands to earn hundreds of thousands, even millions of galleons from these potions, from mass producing them and selling them through Healers all over the UK. They...” He let out a breath. “They’re asking me to sign a contract guaranteeing me a percentage of the revenue from any sales.”
Once more he looked in her eyes. “And I’d like very much for the two of us to go and see a lawyer, and have a contract drawn up where, whatever I make in a month as part of that deal? I’d give a portion of that to you. Your cut of the ongoing profits, as it were.”
There had to be a catch, even if she couldn’t see it. This was the biggest thing that had ever happened to her, bar none, and now she was waiting for the other shoe to drop. “And that’s it? I don’t have to do anything else, you’re just going to hand over a portion of all that money? To me?” She had a very hard time believing that. If it seemed too good to be true, her experience told her that it probably was.
The lawyer thing didn’t fit, though. If this was just a crazy joke they wouldn’t be making it official, but she couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that any of this could be happening. Good things didn’t happen to her. Not often, anyway.
“Well no, that’s not ‘it’,” he joked. “I’d love it if you’d come back and work with me again next summer, though I expect with your name on something like this, every apothecary and medicinal potion company in the UK will be clamoring for your attention. You don’t have to, of course.” He stared at her. Could it be possible that she honestly didn’t believe him? Cary couldn’t quite understand that. The look in her eyes was telling him “hey, it’s a nice fantasy, but I’m waiting for the punchline.”
“Look,” he said softly. “Where I grew up, people give credit where credit is due. We pay, for work well done. If it hadn’t been for you here this summer, I would have taken a lot longer to pull these together, and I might not have pulled them together at all if it hadn’t been for your discovery about what the asphodel was doing to the fermenting process.” Okay yeah, given a little time he would have noticed that too, but in fairness, she had seen it first. “You are part of the reason this is happening at all. You’re a big part of the reason. And in this industry, the kind of work you did comes with being paid for the work, and recognized for your very real contribution to modern medicine.”
He worried that he was laying it on too thick, but it was starting to look like he needed to.
That first part caught her attention. ‘With her name on it’, that was an even bigger deal than the money. In fact, compared to that, the money was a mere footnote. With her name on it, was echoing around in her head now. She was only seventeen and the glory that this would bring? Well, she could do anything, go anywhere; her name would go down in the history books. That brought a smile to her face.
If this was a joke, it was an awfully elaborate one. “I guess since I’m getting money out of it I could find it in my heart to come back next summer,” she finally said. Hysterical laughter was starting to bubble up in her throat, but she tamped it down. There would be plenty of time for dancing later, if this all panned out.
“Well, brilliant!” Cary said brightly. “I’m seeing the Ministry people later this week, so once that contract is signed, I’ll owl my lawyer and have him draw something up for us. You know, I’d have to check, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to be the youngest contributor to medicine in modern history.” He stood up and clapped his hands together. “Now, I think a celebration is in order. Let’s order some take out and then mix something ridiculously frivolous, just for fun.”
It wasn’t until then that a thought occurred to him. “You... you’re old enough to sign contracts, right? I mean, you’re of age? Do I need to get your parents involved?” He’d never asked her about her parents before - she hadn’t brought them up, and he hadn’t asked, thinking it was pretty unnecessary for the task at hand. She showed up every day, so there was clearly no one preventing her from working for him.
She opened her mouth to suggest Thai and something silly - like a potion that would turn your skin blue, because why not? - when all the joy fizzled and went as flat as old champagne. Right, there was that pesky underage thing. The question about her parents made her snort and Cary was treated to the typical teenage eyeroll. “I’m lucky if my dad remembers what century it is, but we’re in luck, I just turned seventeen.”
Right-o. The parents were a touchy subject, but since she was seventeen and therefore of age, he wasn’t going to have to deal with them. He reached out his hand to shake hers. “Thank you, very much. All this focus on you, we’ve completely left out what this money will mean for my and my soon to be expanding family. I owe you a debt of gratitude.”
He whistled for his owl so that he could write the food order and send it off. “So, one final favor. Would you mind very much getting a bit fancied up and coming to the Ministry meeting with me on Friday? There are a couple of senior potioneers there that expressed interest in meeting you. It would be a good chance to make connections, and we could perhaps expedite the process by having our contract drawn up in house. I’m sure you’d like to start shopping as soon as possible!”
It was a pleasant surprise that he wasn’t going to ask about her parents, so many people did, and then they said were sorry for her. Like she wanted to hear that. So the smile returned when she shook his hand, though the thanks made her more than a little bit uncomfortable; Cary was so bloody sincere all the time. “You don’t owe me anything,” she told him, and it was nothing but the truth. “It’s the other way around. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t asked me to intern this summer.”
And since it was all getting a little too touchy-feely for her tastes, she was very relieved when the subject was changed to the Ministry meeting. Eloise didn’t know what getting fancied up meant exactly, but she would try to do it. “I can do that.” After all, it wasn’t like she had anything else planned, and she was okay with anything that would make this go faster. Meeting important senior people she wasn’t so sure about - she didn’t know how to talk to important people - but she would give it a shot. It was all still just a bit surreal at the moment and would take time to sink in.