mm_j (mm_j) wrote in morningstar_mnr, @ 2010-05-12 17:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | jude, vision |
Jude and Vision; Brecker Headquarters; Wednesday
There was a new world just outside of this office door, the door that now had 'Jude Marcus' etched into a sleek, marble plaque. This was his life. His world. His job. It didn't matter that he didn't remember where he'd been, or it seemed that sixty years had passed without him knowing. There were cars. Lights. Half-naked women on something he knew to be a billboard outside of his office. He had knowledge of the last sixty years, he just didn't remember how he gained it. He knew the face in the mirror looking back at him was his, though he didn't quite understand how it was still young and handsome. He didn't have to.
His father had told him this was his life and he came with all the knowledge required to run it. He trusted his father.
He adjusted the collar of the sleek Armani suit jacket he was wearing, and turned back to face his father with a smile. "What should we do first?"
"I've always been a fan of chocolate pudding, myself," Vision said, waving a hand toward the pots of it set on the desk. "What say we settle ourselves in with a spoon, son?"
Jude nodded with a smile and moved to sit down opposite his father. "Lots to be done," he said as he after swallowing his first bite.
Vision helped himself to a thick spoonful of pudding and swallowed it with a grin, savoring the flavor. "Always is."
Jude leaned back in his chair, feet moving to the desk to cross at the ankles as he swirled his spoon in the pudding. "Anything I should know? Anyone I should pay attention to?"
Vision shrugged. "Fucked if I should know. That pretty little blonde in accounting, the one with the apples for tits...you might pay attention to her. You mean on the job, right?"
Vision grinned and ate more pudding, then moved to the window to look out at the view. It was stellar, as befit the head of such a corporation. "Maybe Jenkins down in Research and Development. Word has it he's been paying off his credit card by selling our secrets to the competition. I trust you'll take care of it."
Jude smiled slowly. "I'll handle that one personally," he said softly, eyes dark with possibilities. "Whether he's done it or not, we can't have one of our employees at the source of such a rumor, wouldn't you agree?"
"I like you, kid," Vision said with a point of the spoon toward him. "Like the way you think. Tell me what you think about this upcoming stockholders meeting."
"They're proving themselves useful for the time being," he said with an elegant shrug and dragged his spoon along the side of the bowl. "That old son of a bitch Rogers doesn't know when to keep his fucking mouth shut. I find that extremely annoying."
Vision flicked fingertips toward empty air. "Sew his lips together."
Jude laughed. "I might," he said, and considered it for a moment. "And what about this Morningstar Manor? Who there?"
Vision slid his tongue along his teeth, slowly, savoring the flavor of chocolate. "Abrams is head of security and will be your man if you need anything done. Elspeth Vale...well, she might take to you if you smile at her just so." He laughed. "Be nice to her, son, she's your sister after all, though she hasn't had the fortune to know it. As for any of the others, I'd say they'll be whatever you make of them."
"My sister," he said, sorting through the memories that his father had given him. "Elspeth," he said, committing the name to memory. "I'll keep an eye out for her, although apparently I'll have to talk to her sooner or later. Poor woman. How tragic she doesn't know who and what you are, father."
Not that Jude was questioning him. He knew better than that.
Vision shrugged, dark eyes going darker for a few minutes. "Not everyone's as strong as you, Jude. But tell me, when do you plan to move in?"
Not that there would be any plan that Vision didn't approve or oversee, of course, even if it didn't seem so. But never let it be said he didn't support what some like to call "free will."
Jude slid his hand into his pocket to pull out an iPhone, tapped a few things, then glanced at his father. "I was thinking tomorrow," he said finally. "Unless you think that would be too soon." He put his phone back in his pocket and waited for his father's word.
"Tomorrow'll be fine, son. I've already put the paperwork through. You're approved, don't you feel so damned proud?" Vision laughed.
Jude laughed too. "Very proud," he agreed. "Lots of lovely ladies about, too. That will be - interesting." He smiled at his father. "And it will be nice to be closer to you, father. As always."
Vision reached out a hand, like a caress, though he didn't touch the younger man. "You've done well for me over the years, Jude, but now is the time I hope to see you truly shine as my son."
Jude's eyes closed and his head dipped a bit in reverence, then met his father's gaze squarely. "Of course. I live to make you proud." To further demonstrate, he leaned forward to hit the page button on the phone on his desk and asked his secretary to page up Jenkins, the man Vision believed to be selling secrets to the competition. "The girls are hungry," he said with a little smirk at Vision. "Might as well start as I mean to continue."
Just then, Jenkins appeared, flanked by Jude's two 'girls.' Both flawlessly beautiful blonde copies of each other, they had been a recent gift from his father. The women were demons acting as Jude's personal guard and posing as his personal assistants. They were barely civilized, but could take care of business without making too much of a mess, so Jude didn't worry about their other more unseemly traits. They usually lived off of cats and other small animals, but the prospect of a human meal would definitely make them happy. It would be a good reward for serving him so well, Jude decided.
"Jenkins," he said, all smiles as he walked around the desk, removing his suit jacket as he did so. The man smiled nervously, all big eyes and sweaty palms as he looked back and forth between Vision and Jude, then moved to take a seat.
"Oh, no need to sit," Jude said conversationally as he picked up a large, sterling silver letter opener off of his desk. "This will only take a moment. I hear rumor that you've been selling secrets to the competition. Is that true? And before you lie, think long and hard about where I got my information and who you'd be calling a liar by denying the claim." He leaned against his desk, arms crossed over his chest as he waited for an answer.
Jenkins shifted, eyes wide as he started to stutter, then finally succumbed to tears. There was some wailing about a kid's college education and some gambling, but Jude didn't listen or care.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to terminate you, Mr. Jenkins," Jude said gravely, uncrossing his arms from his chest and still holding the letter opener loosely in his hand.
"Sir," Jenkins started, crying in earnest as he moved to grab at Jude. Jude's lip curled. If there was one thing he hated worse than a grown man crying like a pussy, it was being touched without invitation. He gripped the letter opener in his hand and brought it down in a swing, the slightly dull blade catching in the corner of the man's throat and dragging quickly across and through the flesh and veins of his neck after a little extra force. He'd have to start keeping something sharper at his desk.
There was a loud gurgle and then the scent of blood as Jenkins grabbed at his throat, eyes panicked, and Jude moved out of the way. Behind Jenkins, his girls were morphing, turning their beautiful faces and bodies into their true, demonic form, made ravenous by the scent of fresh blood. "Mind the suit," he reminded them, flicking at an imaginary fleck of blood on his sleeve as he moved back behind his desk to pick up his bowl of pudding and smile at Vision.
"Should I show you the latest movie while I've got you here?" he asked after licking his spoon and over the sound of a gurgling scream and the repetitive wetness of flesh and muscle being ripped from bone. "It's a movie about a swan princess. Won't that be lovely? The production of a swan ride in the park is already underway."