Post by Deleted on May 6, 2020 2:30:35 GMT -5
Having only been about a week since the move, Aldwin was still getting everything unpacked. There were still a large number of boxes that needed to be opened, checked, sorted, and possibly put back into storage again. Only time would really tell what was going to remain in his apartment, and what was going to be put in a storage unit down the street. He'd have a lot to sort, through, and was half-tempted to hire someone just to do it for him.
That thought, though, rose an interesting point in his head; he'd spent almost everything that he had on the move out to New York. Aside from a few bucks on his card, the kid was effectively broke. Aldwin sighed. Before he even began to think about spending money, he'd need to most certainly make some, first. But how exactly was he going to go about doing that? Were there any places that were currently hiring in order for him to actually be able to get some funding?
He grabbed his laptop bag, glasses, and car keys. If nothing else, he was going to spend the day looking for jobs. What better way to do that than chill in a coffee place and search through job sites? Surely he'd come across something, no? If nothing else, the fact that he was heading to a coffee joint could've been a possible job in and of itself. It would've been a matter of just submitting an application, and hopefully he'd get whatever jot there he could.
Upon locking his apartment, he made his way downstairs and passed the front desk, leaving the complex for the time being. With the press of his keys, his truck unlocked, and he followed the sound of the noise, completely forgetting where he had parked. He wasn't about to spend a good $300 he didn't have on a parking spot every month, especially when the rent was so damn high as it was. He'd paid off half a year's worth of rent early as to give him some time to find a job, but hopefully he wouldn't need that long to do so.
He sat himself down in the front seat of his pickup, and threw his laptop in the passenger's seat. He wasn't too worried about it; the computer itself had been almost four years old, Aldwin was more than due for an upgrade sometime soon. Though, once again, that came with the issue of needing funds in order to do so. If all went well, hopefully he'd be able to find a job fairly easily online. Smiling at the idea, Aldwin put his keys into the ignition and started the vehicle.
And, he was off. It had only been about, what, five or so in the morning? It couldn't have been too crowded on the road. It was likely right before rush hour would start, so he had the time to actually get on the road before it became a nightmare to get anywhere at all. The ride only took about ten or so minutes to get to the coffee joint not too far from his apartment complex, thankfully. He pulled into a parking spot close to the door, and got out with his bag.
Walking up to the building, he pulled the door open, and walked inside, his bag still being held on his shoulder. He thought about setting it down, but then realized that might've been a bad idea. The chances of getting it stolen, especially this early in the morning, were decently high. That was a problem he wasn't going to tackle if he didn't have to. Instead, he walked up to the front counter, and ordered a latte, using the small bit of funds he had left in order to pay for the drink that'd hopefully keep him wide awake for the next few hours.
After waiting by the counter, and talking to the cute employee behind the counter, he set his things down at a table facing the workers. That way he'd likely not have to worry about the potential criticism of needing to look for a job to begin with. He wasn't about to deal with peoples' shit today if he didn't need to. He just wanted a peaceful day spent on his computer in the city, as the cable guy wasn't able to come out until Thursday, so he was without Wi-Fi for few days.
Setting up the public connection to work with his computer, Aldwin began to search through as many job sites as he could. There really wasn't anything available that he'd been willing to do. He wasn't about to work in fast food if he didn't need to, and he wasn't going to do something like babysitting or walking dogs. He absolutely hated being unemployed, but such was the life of someone who moved across the country on what was effectively a whim.
He sighed, putting his hand to his head and using his elbow as a stand against the table. Whether it was her job to check on the customers, or because she noticed his frustration, the same girl from before was headed toward him after walking behind the counter. He looked up, and a slight smile rose to his face. This prompted a similar smile back from the girl. "You look a little bit bummed," she began, "is everything alright? Is there anything I could possibly help you with?"
"It's quite all right," he had said, deciding to be honest with her, "I'm just struggling to find employment at the moment." A look of confusion rose to her face, likely due to the fact that he was obviously a grown man, and without a job for no real reason. He decided to fill her in more on the situation. "I've just moved here from across the country, so I'm naturally without a job at the moment." With this, the girl's look returned to what it had before. She seemed to understand the point.
"Well," she said, "we're always hiring here, to my knowledge!" Her voice from here was filled with visible excitement, as she seemed to rather enjoy her job. That was certainly a good sign, should he seek employment at some coffee joint. Truth be told it wasn't exactly high on his list. He chuckled at her positive demeanor, and spoke. "Well, I very much appreciate the offer. I'm not sure that this is too much of a place I'd like to work at, though."
The girl seemed to smirk; Aldwin picked up on that immediately. It seemed fairly uncharacteristic for how she had been acting over the last few seconds, and before at the counter. He was caught even more off-guard as she leaned over the table, and seemed to be only a few inches from his face. He could practically hear her breathing if he had wanted to, and felt quite uncomfortable. "Well," she began again, her tone of voice much more... Sultry, than before, "I do have a few other ideas if you're seeking some money... If you're interested."
It wasn't farfetched to assume that a proposition like that had him off-guard for a period of time. He was practically sweating bullets, and he couldn't tell why. Something about this whole situation though; he didn't trust it. He didn't trust it one bit. Either way, though, he very much needed whatever funds he could get, and he wasn't about to work in another customer service position again. "What..." he began, swallowing hard before continuing, "what did you have in mind? I'd very much like to make money where I could."
The girl made a faint giggle that he did NOT trust. She slowly slid her way across and around the table, not changing how close to him she was at any given point. He continued to internally panic, not sure what he would even be able to do in a situation like the one he was in. At this point, she was sitting next to him in the booth, pressing herself close against him. "Mm, I'd like to hear you say that you're positive before I give you any more information."
This whole situation just seemed to grow worse by the minute, didn't it? "I..." he began, stumbling over his words once again, "I'm positive I'd like to hear what you have to offer." The moment he finished, she leaned in, and traced a finger up his chest, pursing her lips at him. "Is that so~?" she asked, as he felt a sharp pain in his inner thigh. She leaned in next to his ear, and began to whisper into his ear, as the area around the pain began to grow cold as it felt like something cold was being.... forced into his leg. "Be a dear and rest that pretty little head of yours," she whispered, as the world around him was slowly starting to fade, "everything will work itself out soon enough~"
Blackness soon overtook him.
Aldwin awoke with a jump, springing upward from the ground he was laying on. His breathing was incredibly ragged, and hard to control. His left thigh had been throbbing to hell and back, and simply hurt without anything needing to happen in order to cause this pain. It didn't matter whether he was moving, whether he was sitting still, it hurt. Aldwin did what he could to bring himself to stand as his eyes adjusted to the dark of the room he had been in.
He felt... lighter than normal. He quickly rummaged through his pockets, and realized that he had nothing but a few pieces of odd-feeling paper in there. No wallet, no phone, no keys, nothing. He'd been robbed blind, quite literally now that he was able to think about it. Normally he'd be angry, but he was far too concerned about his current predicament to really care about being angry. He had absolutely no idea where he was, what happened, or what was going on.
The room he was in was completely black, with next to no light entering the room aside from a small glimmer that was either incredibly small, or a long way away. He squinted through the darkness trying to see what this light was, but to no avail. He couldn't quite tell, and likely wasn't going to be able to without approaching it, either. He slowly began to walk toward it, careful where to step in the darkness, not wanting to head anywhere he shouldn't or misstep while he couldn't see.
No longer than about a minute after he had woken up, the lights in the room flickered on, and he immediately forced his eyes shut, not used to the bright lights. "Fuck," he said under his breath. While his eyes were closed, he heard a thick clack against the hard floor that grew louder and louder by the second, until eventually he had felt a hand on his shoulder. He immediately jumped with a shout, and turned around while entering a "defensive" stance, still not being able to see very well.
Before him stood... that woman he met at the coffee place!? This had to have been her doing! "Where the hell am I!?" he shouted, somewhat aggressively, still not quite used to the light of the room yet. She laughed, and crossed her arms. "Easy there, Tiger," she said, possibly in an attempt to egg him on, "there's no need to stress. You weren't hurt, and you're going to be safe here. You have my word on that." With that, another one of the girl's giggles had been heard.
Forcing his eyes open, he got a better look at the girl he was dealing with. Her appearance had been much, much different than before. Her outfit, instead of being that uniform she wore, had been much more revealing; it was a tight, black, sleeveless dress with a fishnet-like material in the front of it, leaving little to the imagination, while also not revealing too much. On her arms had been black sleeves, made of what he could only assume were some kind of leather. Her upper arms were adorned with small flowers, almost like incredibly thin arm bands had been wrapped around. Atop her head was a rather large sunhat, with similar golden flowers at the top. On the flowers had been a few playing cards.
"I..." he began, at an absolute loss for words, "wow." He hadn't been one to admire people, but something about the way she presented herself had him at a very serious loss for words. He shook his head, a faint rosy red rushing to his cheeks. "So, what was this way of making money that you had in mind, that you felt the only reasonable way of going about getting me to join was through drugging me?" She couldn't help but laugh once more at Aldwin's comments.
"Simple, you're going to assist me with a project I've been looking into." His brow furrowed. A little skeptical, and a whole lot of nervous rose to his face. "What do you mean, what kind of project? I'm not going to be engaging in anything that's illegal, so if that's what it is then you can count me out." She sighed. That alone gave everything away. "Well, like it or not, you're in on this. You agreed, and I went through and took the necessary precautions that were needed in order to assure your... cooperation." With that, the woman pulled out a small remote, and waved it in front of Aldwin's face.
He laughed, and rightfully so. What on earth was she going to do with something like that? This laughing seemed to frustrate her, though, as she pressed a button on the remote, and almost instantly a powerful shock was felt through the Nakabakki's left shoulder, travelling throughout his entire body. He fell to his knees in pain. "That right there," she said, "is a small chip that's now currently resting in your shoulder. It's what's going to assure that you do, in fact, work with me on this. That little shock that you just felt was fairly minute compared to what this little baby is capable of. Call it... a ten out of a hundred."
His eyes widened. That alone was crippling, to say the least. He didn't even want to start to think about what a shock ten times stronger would feel like; he'd die for sure. He gulped, and stood back up through the remnants of pain surging through his body, and the ache in his thigh. "All right, all right," he said, "I'll play your little game. I'm in with whatever you're looking to do. Just... please calm down with the shocking."
"I only did it once," she laughed, "was that too much for you?" He sighed, and nodded. "Yeah, it was a bit outside of my comfort zone. I'd appreciate it if you could-" he was interrupted by a jolt of electricity surging through him once again, this time much less painful and much shorter in duration. He got the message. "I'd prefer if you speak when spoken to. Now, onto the job; I'm looking to start up a small business online. Think of it as looking to make some money by selling items of use to multiple groups."
Aldwin blinked a few times. "So, War Profiteering?" The girl placed a finger to her chin, and thought for a second before nodding. "In a sense, I guess so." She smiled. "Either way, though, I'd like your assistance in creating, advertising, producing, and delivering these items. Think of us as business partners, of sorts." The smile had quickly turned into a smirk of sorts, as her tone turned much more akin to the same sultry one she had used earlier. "Or, perhaps just partners."
He shivered upon hearing the woman's shameless advances. "Slow down for just a second. I still never even caught your name. I'd like to know that at the very least before working alongside anyone." She nodded in response. "Understandably so. The name's Kas; Mara Kas. It's a pleasure to introduce myself to you, Aldwin~" For a quick moment, he freaked out, unsure how she got his name, before realizing that he had none of his identification on him; she likely took that.
He sighed. "Alright, well, time for the question that's been beaten around; how is the pay looking?" After all, he wasn't just going to take up a job like this if the pay wasn't good. It was for sure his first time doing anything illegal, and he knew there was a sort of known stereotype that these kinds of things paid exceedingly well. "Why don't you check your pocket?" She said, as he reached into his pocket, and once again felt for that paper. In total, currently sitting in both of his pockets, was a little over three thousand dollars in cold, hard cash.
His eyes widened. He had the potential to be making THIS much money!? He wasn't stupid, he knew this wasn't the safest like of work, but still. That much money tempted him by an exceeding amount. "Alright, you've got me on board." She smiled. "Excellent! Just so you know, though, I've taken the liberty of destroying all of your personal belongings. If you're going to be doing this right, you can't let yourself get caught."
He wasn't fond of the idea of losing all of his belongings, but at the same time, he understood the intention. "You're also going to be living here with me, from now on. That way I can watch over all of the sales you make, and we can make sure things are going smoothly. Plus, no more worrying about an empty bed if that's something that troubles you~" Once again, he shivered at her advances. It wasn't really something he worried about. He simply nodded, as she stood up and turned away from him. "Here, follow. I'll give you a quick tour, that way you can get familiar with everything as quickly as you can, alright?" He followed closely behind.
Upon finishing the tour, Aldwin stood in genuine awe. For what was supposed to be an apartment, this place was absolutely massive! She had what seemed like everything here! From an entire room dedicated to computer work, to an indoor pool, a miniature theatre, and so much more. The place felt more like a penthouse of sorts. He was excited to be able to live lavishly; like a king, of sorts. He was certainly excited.
"Okay," Mara began, "here's the plan. For now, just let me see what you can do as far as tech goes. Give me a demonstration of sorts; let me see how you'll be an asset to the operations here." His smile went wide. She was kidding, right? This was what he was in schooling for, with a strong background in tech as well! This would be a cakewalk. "You got it," he said, making his way to the computer room. She followed him thereafter, and smirked.
Flicking on the lights, Aldwin sat down in front of the first desktop upon walking inside. He cracked his fingers, and then went straight to work. His goal here was simple; he'd simply take root access of not only Mara's systems, but of the entire apartment complex itself. It wasn't going to be too hard, and he was more than prepared to do so. He was confident in his own skills, even if it would take him just a bit of time in order to actually manage to get all of this done.
After about an hour's worth of work, Aldwin smiled and sat back, his task finished. By the time he was done, he had basically wiped clean every device connected to router within the complex. Nothing was left clean, and he was proud. Mara smirked. "I'm impressed," she said, "that's far better than I would've been able to do, that's certainly sure. I'm not big on tech myself, but it certainly helps to know you know your way around it."
Aldwin smiled, quite enjoying the recognition for his work. "It's nothing," he chuckled, scratching the back of his head, "just a bit of practice here and there and I've managed to learn my way around these devices. Anyone could do it, really, it's just a matter of learning your way around the numbers and languages." Mara nodded. Aldwin sat there, still incredibly content and in a much more positive mood compared to when they started.
With this, Mara pulled a smartphone from her pocket, and passed it to Aldwin. "Welcome aboard, then, Aldie," she said playfully, "it's my pleasure to have you aboard the team. Hopefully you'll enjoy your stay, I very much look forward to working with you~!" Aldwin chuckled again, seeming to not care as much about the advances she made, as they still happened fairly frequently. "Well, I'm glad to be aboard. I guarantee you won't regret any of this."
That thought, though, rose an interesting point in his head; he'd spent almost everything that he had on the move out to New York. Aside from a few bucks on his card, the kid was effectively broke. Aldwin sighed. Before he even began to think about spending money, he'd need to most certainly make some, first. But how exactly was he going to go about doing that? Were there any places that were currently hiring in order for him to actually be able to get some funding?
He grabbed his laptop bag, glasses, and car keys. If nothing else, he was going to spend the day looking for jobs. What better way to do that than chill in a coffee place and search through job sites? Surely he'd come across something, no? If nothing else, the fact that he was heading to a coffee joint could've been a possible job in and of itself. It would've been a matter of just submitting an application, and hopefully he'd get whatever jot there he could.
Upon locking his apartment, he made his way downstairs and passed the front desk, leaving the complex for the time being. With the press of his keys, his truck unlocked, and he followed the sound of the noise, completely forgetting where he had parked. He wasn't about to spend a good $300 he didn't have on a parking spot every month, especially when the rent was so damn high as it was. He'd paid off half a year's worth of rent early as to give him some time to find a job, but hopefully he wouldn't need that long to do so.
He sat himself down in the front seat of his pickup, and threw his laptop in the passenger's seat. He wasn't too worried about it; the computer itself had been almost four years old, Aldwin was more than due for an upgrade sometime soon. Though, once again, that came with the issue of needing funds in order to do so. If all went well, hopefully he'd be able to find a job fairly easily online. Smiling at the idea, Aldwin put his keys into the ignition and started the vehicle.
And, he was off. It had only been about, what, five or so in the morning? It couldn't have been too crowded on the road. It was likely right before rush hour would start, so he had the time to actually get on the road before it became a nightmare to get anywhere at all. The ride only took about ten or so minutes to get to the coffee joint not too far from his apartment complex, thankfully. He pulled into a parking spot close to the door, and got out with his bag.
Walking up to the building, he pulled the door open, and walked inside, his bag still being held on his shoulder. He thought about setting it down, but then realized that might've been a bad idea. The chances of getting it stolen, especially this early in the morning, were decently high. That was a problem he wasn't going to tackle if he didn't have to. Instead, he walked up to the front counter, and ordered a latte, using the small bit of funds he had left in order to pay for the drink that'd hopefully keep him wide awake for the next few hours.
After waiting by the counter, and talking to the cute employee behind the counter, he set his things down at a table facing the workers. That way he'd likely not have to worry about the potential criticism of needing to look for a job to begin with. He wasn't about to deal with peoples' shit today if he didn't need to. He just wanted a peaceful day spent on his computer in the city, as the cable guy wasn't able to come out until Thursday, so he was without Wi-Fi for few days.
Setting up the public connection to work with his computer, Aldwin began to search through as many job sites as he could. There really wasn't anything available that he'd been willing to do. He wasn't about to work in fast food if he didn't need to, and he wasn't going to do something like babysitting or walking dogs. He absolutely hated being unemployed, but such was the life of someone who moved across the country on what was effectively a whim.
He sighed, putting his hand to his head and using his elbow as a stand against the table. Whether it was her job to check on the customers, or because she noticed his frustration, the same girl from before was headed toward him after walking behind the counter. He looked up, and a slight smile rose to his face. This prompted a similar smile back from the girl. "You look a little bit bummed," she began, "is everything alright? Is there anything I could possibly help you with?"
"It's quite all right," he had said, deciding to be honest with her, "I'm just struggling to find employment at the moment." A look of confusion rose to her face, likely due to the fact that he was obviously a grown man, and without a job for no real reason. He decided to fill her in more on the situation. "I've just moved here from across the country, so I'm naturally without a job at the moment." With this, the girl's look returned to what it had before. She seemed to understand the point.
"Well," she said, "we're always hiring here, to my knowledge!" Her voice from here was filled with visible excitement, as she seemed to rather enjoy her job. That was certainly a good sign, should he seek employment at some coffee joint. Truth be told it wasn't exactly high on his list. He chuckled at her positive demeanor, and spoke. "Well, I very much appreciate the offer. I'm not sure that this is too much of a place I'd like to work at, though."
The girl seemed to smirk; Aldwin picked up on that immediately. It seemed fairly uncharacteristic for how she had been acting over the last few seconds, and before at the counter. He was caught even more off-guard as she leaned over the table, and seemed to be only a few inches from his face. He could practically hear her breathing if he had wanted to, and felt quite uncomfortable. "Well," she began again, her tone of voice much more... Sultry, than before, "I do have a few other ideas if you're seeking some money... If you're interested."
It wasn't farfetched to assume that a proposition like that had him off-guard for a period of time. He was practically sweating bullets, and he couldn't tell why. Something about this whole situation though; he didn't trust it. He didn't trust it one bit. Either way, though, he very much needed whatever funds he could get, and he wasn't about to work in another customer service position again. "What..." he began, swallowing hard before continuing, "what did you have in mind? I'd very much like to make money where I could."
The girl made a faint giggle that he did NOT trust. She slowly slid her way across and around the table, not changing how close to him she was at any given point. He continued to internally panic, not sure what he would even be able to do in a situation like the one he was in. At this point, she was sitting next to him in the booth, pressing herself close against him. "Mm, I'd like to hear you say that you're positive before I give you any more information."
This whole situation just seemed to grow worse by the minute, didn't it? "I..." he began, stumbling over his words once again, "I'm positive I'd like to hear what you have to offer." The moment he finished, she leaned in, and traced a finger up his chest, pursing her lips at him. "Is that so~?" she asked, as he felt a sharp pain in his inner thigh. She leaned in next to his ear, and began to whisper into his ear, as the area around the pain began to grow cold as it felt like something cold was being.... forced into his leg. "Be a dear and rest that pretty little head of yours," she whispered, as the world around him was slowly starting to fade, "everything will work itself out soon enough~"
Blackness soon overtook him.
Aldwin awoke with a jump, springing upward from the ground he was laying on. His breathing was incredibly ragged, and hard to control. His left thigh had been throbbing to hell and back, and simply hurt without anything needing to happen in order to cause this pain. It didn't matter whether he was moving, whether he was sitting still, it hurt. Aldwin did what he could to bring himself to stand as his eyes adjusted to the dark of the room he had been in.
He felt... lighter than normal. He quickly rummaged through his pockets, and realized that he had nothing but a few pieces of odd-feeling paper in there. No wallet, no phone, no keys, nothing. He'd been robbed blind, quite literally now that he was able to think about it. Normally he'd be angry, but he was far too concerned about his current predicament to really care about being angry. He had absolutely no idea where he was, what happened, or what was going on.
The room he was in was completely black, with next to no light entering the room aside from a small glimmer that was either incredibly small, or a long way away. He squinted through the darkness trying to see what this light was, but to no avail. He couldn't quite tell, and likely wasn't going to be able to without approaching it, either. He slowly began to walk toward it, careful where to step in the darkness, not wanting to head anywhere he shouldn't or misstep while he couldn't see.
No longer than about a minute after he had woken up, the lights in the room flickered on, and he immediately forced his eyes shut, not used to the bright lights. "Fuck," he said under his breath. While his eyes were closed, he heard a thick clack against the hard floor that grew louder and louder by the second, until eventually he had felt a hand on his shoulder. He immediately jumped with a shout, and turned around while entering a "defensive" stance, still not being able to see very well.
Before him stood... that woman he met at the coffee place!? This had to have been her doing! "Where the hell am I!?" he shouted, somewhat aggressively, still not quite used to the light of the room yet. She laughed, and crossed her arms. "Easy there, Tiger," she said, possibly in an attempt to egg him on, "there's no need to stress. You weren't hurt, and you're going to be safe here. You have my word on that." With that, another one of the girl's giggles had been heard.
Forcing his eyes open, he got a better look at the girl he was dealing with. Her appearance had been much, much different than before. Her outfit, instead of being that uniform she wore, had been much more revealing; it was a tight, black, sleeveless dress with a fishnet-like material in the front of it, leaving little to the imagination, while also not revealing too much. On her arms had been black sleeves, made of what he could only assume were some kind of leather. Her upper arms were adorned with small flowers, almost like incredibly thin arm bands had been wrapped around. Atop her head was a rather large sunhat, with similar golden flowers at the top. On the flowers had been a few playing cards.
"I..." he began, at an absolute loss for words, "wow." He hadn't been one to admire people, but something about the way she presented herself had him at a very serious loss for words. He shook his head, a faint rosy red rushing to his cheeks. "So, what was this way of making money that you had in mind, that you felt the only reasonable way of going about getting me to join was through drugging me?" She couldn't help but laugh once more at Aldwin's comments.
"Simple, you're going to assist me with a project I've been looking into." His brow furrowed. A little skeptical, and a whole lot of nervous rose to his face. "What do you mean, what kind of project? I'm not going to be engaging in anything that's illegal, so if that's what it is then you can count me out." She sighed. That alone gave everything away. "Well, like it or not, you're in on this. You agreed, and I went through and took the necessary precautions that were needed in order to assure your... cooperation." With that, the woman pulled out a small remote, and waved it in front of Aldwin's face.
He laughed, and rightfully so. What on earth was she going to do with something like that? This laughing seemed to frustrate her, though, as she pressed a button on the remote, and almost instantly a powerful shock was felt through the Nakabakki's left shoulder, travelling throughout his entire body. He fell to his knees in pain. "That right there," she said, "is a small chip that's now currently resting in your shoulder. It's what's going to assure that you do, in fact, work with me on this. That little shock that you just felt was fairly minute compared to what this little baby is capable of. Call it... a ten out of a hundred."
His eyes widened. That alone was crippling, to say the least. He didn't even want to start to think about what a shock ten times stronger would feel like; he'd die for sure. He gulped, and stood back up through the remnants of pain surging through his body, and the ache in his thigh. "All right, all right," he said, "I'll play your little game. I'm in with whatever you're looking to do. Just... please calm down with the shocking."
"I only did it once," she laughed, "was that too much for you?" He sighed, and nodded. "Yeah, it was a bit outside of my comfort zone. I'd appreciate it if you could-" he was interrupted by a jolt of electricity surging through him once again, this time much less painful and much shorter in duration. He got the message. "I'd prefer if you speak when spoken to. Now, onto the job; I'm looking to start up a small business online. Think of it as looking to make some money by selling items of use to multiple groups."
Aldwin blinked a few times. "So, War Profiteering?" The girl placed a finger to her chin, and thought for a second before nodding. "In a sense, I guess so." She smiled. "Either way, though, I'd like your assistance in creating, advertising, producing, and delivering these items. Think of us as business partners, of sorts." The smile had quickly turned into a smirk of sorts, as her tone turned much more akin to the same sultry one she had used earlier. "Or, perhaps just partners."
He shivered upon hearing the woman's shameless advances. "Slow down for just a second. I still never even caught your name. I'd like to know that at the very least before working alongside anyone." She nodded in response. "Understandably so. The name's Kas; Mara Kas. It's a pleasure to introduce myself to you, Aldwin~" For a quick moment, he freaked out, unsure how she got his name, before realizing that he had none of his identification on him; she likely took that.
He sighed. "Alright, well, time for the question that's been beaten around; how is the pay looking?" After all, he wasn't just going to take up a job like this if the pay wasn't good. It was for sure his first time doing anything illegal, and he knew there was a sort of known stereotype that these kinds of things paid exceedingly well. "Why don't you check your pocket?" She said, as he reached into his pocket, and once again felt for that paper. In total, currently sitting in both of his pockets, was a little over three thousand dollars in cold, hard cash.
His eyes widened. He had the potential to be making THIS much money!? He wasn't stupid, he knew this wasn't the safest like of work, but still. That much money tempted him by an exceeding amount. "Alright, you've got me on board." She smiled. "Excellent! Just so you know, though, I've taken the liberty of destroying all of your personal belongings. If you're going to be doing this right, you can't let yourself get caught."
He wasn't fond of the idea of losing all of his belongings, but at the same time, he understood the intention. "You're also going to be living here with me, from now on. That way I can watch over all of the sales you make, and we can make sure things are going smoothly. Plus, no more worrying about an empty bed if that's something that troubles you~" Once again, he shivered at her advances. It wasn't really something he worried about. He simply nodded, as she stood up and turned away from him. "Here, follow. I'll give you a quick tour, that way you can get familiar with everything as quickly as you can, alright?" He followed closely behind.
Upon finishing the tour, Aldwin stood in genuine awe. For what was supposed to be an apartment, this place was absolutely massive! She had what seemed like everything here! From an entire room dedicated to computer work, to an indoor pool, a miniature theatre, and so much more. The place felt more like a penthouse of sorts. He was excited to be able to live lavishly; like a king, of sorts. He was certainly excited.
"Okay," Mara began, "here's the plan. For now, just let me see what you can do as far as tech goes. Give me a demonstration of sorts; let me see how you'll be an asset to the operations here." His smile went wide. She was kidding, right? This was what he was in schooling for, with a strong background in tech as well! This would be a cakewalk. "You got it," he said, making his way to the computer room. She followed him thereafter, and smirked.
Flicking on the lights, Aldwin sat down in front of the first desktop upon walking inside. He cracked his fingers, and then went straight to work. His goal here was simple; he'd simply take root access of not only Mara's systems, but of the entire apartment complex itself. It wasn't going to be too hard, and he was more than prepared to do so. He was confident in his own skills, even if it would take him just a bit of time in order to actually manage to get all of this done.
After about an hour's worth of work, Aldwin smiled and sat back, his task finished. By the time he was done, he had basically wiped clean every device connected to router within the complex. Nothing was left clean, and he was proud. Mara smirked. "I'm impressed," she said, "that's far better than I would've been able to do, that's certainly sure. I'm not big on tech myself, but it certainly helps to know you know your way around it."
Aldwin smiled, quite enjoying the recognition for his work. "It's nothing," he chuckled, scratching the back of his head, "just a bit of practice here and there and I've managed to learn my way around these devices. Anyone could do it, really, it's just a matter of learning your way around the numbers and languages." Mara nodded. Aldwin sat there, still incredibly content and in a much more positive mood compared to when they started.
With this, Mara pulled a smartphone from her pocket, and passed it to Aldwin. "Welcome aboard, then, Aldie," she said playfully, "it's my pleasure to have you aboard the team. Hopefully you'll enjoy your stay, I very much look forward to working with you~!" Aldwin chuckled again, seeming to not care as much about the advances she made, as they still happened fairly frequently. "Well, I'm glad to be aboard. I guarantee you won't regret any of this."
