Gentrification
Pavannaka I
June 25th YC 120
“You said what?”
“You doing that for dramatic effect? You heard me, I said “maybe" to lending them some of our lads.”
The office the two were in was undeniably the most expensive and lavish room on this world. Clean walls, exotic furniture, and rare collectables that decorated the walls and shelves. One could say it’s theroom a Caldari corporate villian of a Gallente cartoon would be sitting in while burning paper currency to light their cigar,before moving on to explaining his ingenious plan to crush Federal democracy and freedom. It was even complete with a painting of Stelmari that hung above the windows behind his desk. It featured him in a sharp suit, with an Amarrian chalice in one hand overflowing with wine and in the other a giant leg of grilled meat while sitting on the back of a large Fedo. Stelmari wanted a portrait of himself but didn’t want to go the route of commissioning something overtly flattering and more “Eye catching”
In the room was Stelmari, and his younger brother and right hand man, Vaivari. Stelmari was posted up by the windows behind his desk, overlooking the lantern lit alleyways of his ghetto kingdom. Vaivari was sitting down in front of the desk in one of two stylish velvet lined chairs.
“Maybe? Loaning a Capsuleer our people should be out of the question! Isn’t that what this Mryskytuuli Regiment is for?
Stelmari turns around and places his hands up on the head rest of his chair “Oh, that was the first thing I said to them.”
“So why the hell are they coming to us?”
“They’re looking to take matters into their own hands. It appears the Regiment is holding out on anything recover in these raids aside from what the Ohrions specifically ask for beforehand.”
Vaivari leans back in his seat and crosses his arms “What exactly are they looking for?”
Stelmari shrugs “Don’t know…” He takes his arms off the head of his chair and walks around the desk to a small mini bar on the side of the room.
“You don’t know? So they could be looking for a sample of the ■■■■■■■ Kyonoke plague for all you know?”
“I’m not the type to ask questions.” Instead of reaching for a bottle of some expensive liquor, he grabs a glass soda bottle of Starsi off the rack. Bending down, he looks beneath the counter where an assortment of glasses of various sizes are located, he pulls out a tall one with a swirl design to the frame.
“So let me get this straight -" Vaivari stands up from his seat “You’re genuinely considering handing off some of our men to a Capsuleer to go God knows where with them?”
Stelmari twists around “It’s called playing it cool. I didn’t blow them off right away, nor did I sign a deal right away. I retreated, now I study what’s to gain from a deal like this.”
“Enlighten me then, what do you hope gain from this?”
Stelmari raises an eyebrow “Gain?” then a smirk appears as he steps forward “What I hope to gain is the attention of our uh-" he points his finger upwards “-benefactors.”
Vaivari squints and tilts his head, he offers no words, just a baffled look.
“Okay, let me put it like this” Stelmari turns and bends his back as he places his hands down on the surface of his desk “I want to be caught doing this-" Stelmari picks his hands back up and pivots his body towards Vaivari, he sticks his hands up “-albeit naturally. If everything goes smooth then nobody’s the wiser.”
“W-" Vavari stops and stares at Stelmari silently for a additional second “Why?”
Stelmari steps over and slides his arm around Vaivari’s shoulders, he walks him around the desk as he speaks “Because brother…I want you to tell me what you see here.” Stelmari gestures at the view the windows provide.
“Our home, the result of all our work here.”
“Yeah…” Stelmari turns his head towards his brother “Its a shithole ain’t it?” Stelmari was the king of this scrapheap. Yeah, it was home as his brother said, but nobody should have or want to call it home.
“Well, its home…B-But what does this have to with getting caught?”
“Because I want the Zaibatsu to take this place over.”
“But…” Vavari gently gets out from Stelmari’s arm and steps backs “I-Its our home.”
Stelmari tosses his hands up in the air “Oh! Cut the sentimental crap! You know damn well families would sooner raise their kids in Amarrian slave pens then here.” Stelmari shoots his hand down to aim at floor “This is just some hole in the ground we were ditched in and made the best out of it as we could.” Despite how it looks now, it was far more depressing before Stelmari took over and started bringing money in with trade. Even then the money was only enough to keep their heads above water as growth naturally ran its course.
“Right! WE made it!”
Stelmari walks back over to the minibar “Well we’ve hit a rut…”
Vavari just stands there, processing what Stelmari said to him “…You’re not making sense brother. What are you talking about?!”
Stelmaro slams his hands down on the wood counter “It’s quite simple!” He turns back around to him with a sinister grin “I have a plan to have the Zaibatsu take responsibility for this place. To get them started on enforcing their high standards here from building quality, healthcare, jobs, and so forth. But to do that? They need to first acknowledge this place as one of their colonies, right now they don’t officially recognize it, nor do they want to and treat it as a private asset of the Exchange.” Stelmari had become quite envious of the Zaibatsu’s flagship colony of Hoiyori, extravagant, clean and wealthy place to live.
“So what does this have to do with getting caught working behind the Regiment’s back?”
Stelmari turns back around to the drink he was preparing “We need to have the privilege of our own security force revoked.” Stelmari bends down to a small refrigeration unit built into the bar “To do that, we abuse it by using them for matters not related to the security of this colony.” He pulls out a frosty sealed tub of vanilla ice cream with the brand ‘Sweet Lonetrek silk!’ plastered on it, he places it on the counter next to the glass cup and bottle of starsi. “The exchange loses its personal security and then we’re expected to keep our nose clean from that point on…” Back where the glass cups where located, Stelmari looks around for a scoop suitable for ice cream “But then we got a problem, see?” He aims the scoop at Vavari “We can only go to the Regiment for security personnel at that point, we won’t be allowed to contract a third party to do it for us. So we start demanding the Regiment to step in and occupy the place or we walk.”
Vaivari follows him up “Then they’d have to officially call it one of theirs?”
“Exactly! See? You’re a smart kid…” Stelmari turns back around and peels the lid off the tub of ice cream “Once they do that, they gotta start putting into effect their ideal standards. They didn’t want this ugly zit on their public image in the first place afterall.” He begins dropping scoops of ice cream into the glass.
Vavari squints at his brother’s back “…So you’d sell out our troops and the people living here so the Zaibatsu can gentrify the place?”
“Sell our troops out?” Stelmari twists around with a crooked look “The Regiment would be morons not to start absorbing them and stationing them here. They know the location already and have combat training, just now they’ll have a snazzy uniform to wear and far more benefits.” The “troops" in question are an old guard of sorts, before the Stelmari exchange there was the Stelmari Battalion. Just another mercenary outfit trying to earn a handful kredits in New Eden.
“And the people living here? Have you seen the literacy test the Zaibatsu hands out in colonists applications? Half the people here won’t be able to pass it! They’ll be kicked out!”
By now Stelmari already opened and poured the contents of the Starsi bottle into the glass with three scoops of ice cream “Nothing but deadbeats, heretics and the scum of the cluster here.” He reaches over for a thick wide straw in a cup on the counter “There’s plenty of other slums in New Eden for them rot away in.” Stelmari grabs hold of the cold glass and sticks the straw in and quickly takes a sip of the creamy goodness. He then turns around to his brother who is just silent.
“…Brother, why do you want to toss away all our independence like this?”
A chuckle escapes Stelmari “Independence…” He looks down to his drink and gently stirs it with the straw “Such a…” Stelmari lifts his head up but has his eyes darted to the ceiling as he searches his vocabulary. “Romantic concept…” He looks back down at Vaivari and grins. “Tell me brother, have we ever been truly independent?”
Vaivari straightens out his back “We were, before you had us sign on with this Zaibatsu.”
Stelmari sets his glass back down on the counter “That’s where you’re wrong.” He steps forward with his arms out “See, we were always dependent on other parties.” He stops in front of his desk and places both hands down on the surface. “First, the buyers to purchase the minerals and gems we dig up here. Without them we would have no kredits to pay the next party.” Stelmari lifts a hand up and sticks his index finger out, he taps it down on the desk’s surface “The suppliers of food - Because in case you forgot-" Stelmari lifts his arms up to his sides “We can’t grow ■■■■ on this dune world.” his hands fall back down in the desk’s surface. “…Hygiene is so ■■■■■■■ rare here that disease and illness is common, so we’ve had to pay the Serpentis to smuggle medical goods for us…Is that what you call independence, brother? ” Vaivari looks down at the floor and doesn’t respond, Stelmari stares at him in silence before letting out a sigh. “Look at me Vaivari…”
Vaivari picks his head up to look at his brother who steps around the desk, he remains silent as a hand placed on his shoulder.
“I want you to see this for what it is, our chance to get what we deserve!” Stelmari gestures to the windows overlooking the colony “We can do better than this place!”
“It just…Feels like you want to toss everything away…”
“To blunt, brother. Much like you would with any piece of garbage, you’d toss it away.” He looks back at Vaivari “I should take you up to Hoiyori sometime, then you’ll see what can be done to this place.” His signature grin forms on his face once again “Heh, maybe even get you an escort for the evening.”
Vaivari squints at Stelmari “Is prostitution even legal in the Zaibatsu?”
Stelmari snaps the fingers of his free hand “Escorts, Vaivari. Much cleaner and well dressed, only screw you if they want to and that’s their own business.” Stelmari pats Vaivari’s chest “You got your brother’s good looks though! Dinner and the holoreel will have to wait!” Stelmari gently shakes Vaivari as he laughs. However Vaivari remains quiet and solemn. Stelmari’s look is wiped clean off his face “…Get some sleep.” He let’s go of his brother’s shoulder and walks back over to where his cold beverage waited. “We can talk more about this in the morning.”
Vaivari keeps quite and makes his way towards the door of the office. Before walking out, he turns his head towards Stelmari “Brother…”
With his drink back in hand, he looks over to Vaivari
“…Nevermind”