Topic: DCH - Morgan Enterprises

Lilah · Date: 2008-05-07 20:05 EST

A new sign graced the building at the old site in the Marketplace, where the DCH law offices once resided. It read "Morgan Enterprises" and a listing on the glass doors offered varied legal services while specializing in Trade and Acquisitions. There was also a small hanging sign on the door that currently read: "Sorry, we're closed!"

* * * * * *

Over the past months, since the explosion of DCH's office building and the presumed death of the Senior Partners, Lilah had been very busy. With Mortimer in tow, she returned to New York City and began the process of seizing control of DCH's assets. Over the past few months she's been residing at the Los Angles division, having decided to make it the new corporate headquarters of Morgan Enterprises.

Lilah and Mortimer argued endlessly about the Rhy"Din division. Lilah saw no reason to rebuild while Mortimer continued to insist that the experiments being conducted by the Rhy"Din division were important enough for re-investment. Although these experiments had been kept top secret, Mortimer knew enough to tempt Lilah with their potential.

The truth was Mortimer missed Rhy"Din; he missed the ladies the most. In Rhy"Din finding someone to warm his bed had been gloriously easy given his 'special" abilities, gifted by the now departed Senior Partners. He had thought Hollywood was going to rock all ass, but he was wrong. It was as if everyone in that damn city had sold their souls for the same thing he had, but they hadn't forgotten to add the "charming and handsome" addendum to their contracts. So far his foray into the world had not proved nearly as successful and he wanted to go back. Mortimer had no intentions of giving up his fight and Lilah at last began to capitulate after Mortimer's months of manipulations and insistence.

The site of the old offices was razed, the basement filled in and the new two-story building of provincial design had taken its place. However this time expenses were spared. Unlike the Senior Partners, Lilah had no desire to live or work in Rhy"Din. She did not bother to invest in amenities for the Rhy"Din offices, but instead stuck to a more conservative plan. The offices were functional but otherwise sparse. She doubted it would bring in much business anyway, so the focus was put on the "top secret" experiments that the Senior Partners had seemed to be so obsessed with.

Lilah however did not hold the same hope or expectations" as the Senior Partners had for success in these ventures. But she was astute enough to recognize the excellent tax right off the failing Rhy"Din division could become.

And so it was that the new incarnation known as Morgan Enterprises had come to Rhy"Din.

Lilah · Date: 2008-05-07 23:11 EST

Two days before Morgan Enterprises was to open in Rhy"Din the new sign went up.

Lilah and Mortimer arrived only an hour later, via the nasty teleport machine. Lilah was in a foul mood. She hadn't wanted to return, but it was her responsibility to be preset for the grand opening and inspire the poor sods that have been assigned to this division. She hated having her body destroyed and rebuilt by a machine she doesn't understand or trust. A bane of having an office in an alternate dimension than the one she prefers.

"Get the receipts" for me, Mortimer. I'll be in my office." Lilah snapped as she briskly walked off.

Mortimer stared after her then shrugged. He was in a good mood and not even that bitch was going to bring him down! With a spring in his step Mortimer headed off to gather the requested items. The sooner he was done the quicker he could be off to see Phy at Dickies. It took only a few steps before Mortimer became aware that something about the new building was decidedly off.

In Lilah's original building plans, the labs had been slated to go on the second floor, leaving the first floor for the law-oriented side of the business. No basement had been added to the project and yet he was currently staring at a door: a door that used to lead to the nether regions below. With trepidation, Mortimer opened the door. Relief flooded through him seeing the small cubicle of an office beyond, not a dark, dimly light passageway to the basement. He'd nearly panicked over nothing. "Seeing ghost where there ain't none," he kidded with himself silently as he shut the door and went about accomplishing his task. He never did bother looking inside the closet in that office, it never even dawned him.

Lilah had made arrangements to have rooms for herself at the Red Dragon Inn, (the only place in Rhy"Din that could pretend to have clean sheets.) She wasn't in a particular hurry to check in, but neither did she care to hang around in the vast emptiness of their Rhy"Din offices. The employees wouldn't be arriving until noon the following day. This was her first visit back since that fateful night when her destiny had so virtuously changed. Even though the building seemed more like a tomb than a place of business, Lilah felt obliged to inspect it. She felt compelled to check out the work done before paying the contractors.

She decided to begin on the second or top floor.

An eerie feeling came upon her on the stairs. She felt an odd tingling sensation, as if someone were right behind her or very nearby watching her. She paused and looked around. Finding nothing out of the ordinary she continued up the stairs. Pushing open the door leading into what should have been a web of hallways, branching off into enclosed laboratories", Lilah froze in place.

Somehow something had gone very wrong!

Instead of looking anything like the plans she'd approved, the second floor looked exactly as it had before the explosion!

Lilah was incensed! She stared at the overblown opulence of the grand foyer, at the meeting room with the expensive chairs and that outrageously priced wooden table the size of New Guinea. At the three offices that looked like they should be in LA and not some backwater township. Every detail was exactly the same as it had been when the Senior Partners had held the throne. Obviously the contractors had used the wrong floor plans. Lilah scowled and spun on her heels, tromping back downstairs to where her office was meant to be.

She decided as she walked that the grand opening would go off as scheduled. They would simply have to deal with the re-construction of the second floor while still attempting to bring in some pittance of revenue. With no labs, the experiments would just have to be put on a back burner. Lilah considered the entire situation a total loss and as she stepped into what was supposed to be her office she was struggling whether to pull the plug on the entire project or press forward. But another surprise awaited her.

The office she'd designed for her self was lacking all of the details she'd specified; it looked like any other office in any random building anywhere. Well, except for the chair which looked like it had been fished out of the old building after it blew up. Mortimer was there with a stack of papers in his hands. He was staring at her with a goofy smile on his face.

"Sure looks spiffy around here." He said as he offered her the sheaf of receipts.

Lilah thought about flaying his skin off his bones, or boiling him in hot oil, but that wouldn't accomplish anything except to salve her anger for a couple of minutes. "They messed up the entire second floor and just look at my office"! It's a mess! Shoddy work from shoddy contractors is what this is! I want you to get every last single one of them on the phone and have them back here working by Friday."

Lilah didn't take the receipts; she didn't plan to pay anyone for their work until it was done right. She moved past Mortimer and kicked at the nasty chair with a high-heeled foot. "And get this piece of crap out of my office, right now!"

Mortimer was dejected. He would be on the phone for hours which meant he'd be getting to Dickies really late. Phy might already have picked up a guy for the night! He frowned as he dumped the papers on to the plain looking desk and gathered up the brittle, unusable chair. As he pushed it out of the office he gave Lilah a nasty look behind her back. Sometimes, he wished he still worked for the Senior Partners at least then he had a modicum of a life.

Lilah · Date: 2008-05-24 04:45 EST

Lilah checked into her room at the Red Dragon Inn. No one offered to carry up her luggage, no one offered to bother explaining where the room was located. In fact, she'd just been informed somewhat informally by a patron no less that the inn doesn't even offer room service, but that if she cared to cook something she could do it for free in the kitchen. Yes, another reason to detest the backwater township of Rhy"Din.

Room 17 was just what one would expect from a middle-of-nowhere establishment. Rough, rustic and completely devoid of any kind of modern conveniences. Lilah couldn't fathom how people lived this way. She dropped her two suitcases to the floor as she blew stray hair out of her eyes. She was a mess. The whole day had been a terrible disaster. From the offices to this inn, she's had nothing but one disappointment after another. Luckily for her, the room had come with an adjoining bathroom, supposedly private. She went about her unpacking by butting the cases up against the wall and unzipping them. With a hot bath in mind, she grabbed up a change of clothing and headed for the bathroom. However, her thoughts were back at the Rhy"Din offices and the latest challenges that had become apparent.

The delays were going to cost them a small fortune and if there was anything Lilah hated it was losing money. The top secret experiments hadn't resulted with any successes to date, not even a noticeable advancement and Lilah suspected that progress would remain unchanged. The Nexus was a random force and any attempt to control such chaos could come to unexpected and horrific ends. There was no way of knowing or any guarantees. Even should the research teams came up with suggestions it would be iffy to invest in them because the end results would always vary without reason or rationale.

Yet the rumors were rife that the Bloods had cracked the Nexus code and were using it to their advantage somehow.

Lilah hated losing no matter what the cost and hence she was determined to discover the Bloods secret. She didn't think that would happen in a laboratory. Lilah had other plans; more efficient ways to get the information than through billions in R&D. It was the other reason she'd deigned to come to this backwater-hole-in-the-wall town.

Stepping into her private bathroom, Lilah comes to a stop, staring at the bathtub and the other door. She first went to the door and turned the knob to open it. It swung open easy and revealed the guest room beyond.

"So much for private," she thought as she shut the door and locked it from the bathroom side.

Upon investigation, she realized she'd have to heat her own water to have a hot bath. Yet another huge disappointment to add to the myriad of the day's others. But Lilah had some tricks of her own, and heating water was a cake walk compared to everything else. She placed the stopper in the bathtub drain and began pumping in the water. The process was slow, but oddly rhythmic and within a few minutes the tub was full enough for a comfortable soak. She dragged her hand through the water and steam started rising.

At least one obstacle had proven easy to overcome.

She spared a brief thought to Mortimer as she undressed, wondering if he'd gotten a hold of all the contractors yet. Shoving aside the day's nastiness, Lilah slipped into the hot bath, lounging back. Soon enough the tension of the day began flowing away with the warm comforting embrace of the water. If only she had known this would be her last bath...

Lilah · Date: 2008-06-08 20:06 EST

Friday morning; the sun was too bright in the sky, the air chilly yet fragile, the smell of spring just along the edges. Lilah hated the summertime and spring was its herald. She scowled as she waited for her carriage to pick her up. She had no intention of walking from the Red Dragon all the way to the Morgan Enterprise's building, not in the high heels she favored. She contemplated the activities of the day ahead; welcoming the newly arriving employees, overseeing the reconstruction of the upper floors, and of course, dealing with the typical issue of Rhy"Din itself.

Lilah saw no promise in the damned town and would rather write the entire affair off. Too bad she needed the promise of the R&D that the place offered her shareholders. Grimacing over the annoyance, Lilah noticed the carriage heading her way.

The coachman jumped down and unfolded the stairs and Lilah quickly hopped inside. "Get me there fast." She snapped as she slammed the door shut. She'd never been one to pretend nicety, especially with those under her employ. Settling back into the comfort of the leather bound cushions; she crossed her legs and tapped her foot with impatience. She missed the modern conveniences of her time and it showed.

The coachman made short work of the drive, (it wasn't that far to begin with; had she walked she would have been there already in the time it took for the coach to be prepared). Soon, Lilah was clip-clipping her way inside, a smile painted on her lips and a shrewd light in her green eyes. Mortimer was no where to seen, obviously he was running late. She didn't wait for him; she had more important tasks to attend. Lilah headed directly for her office through the too-quiet lower rooms. Obviously the contractors hadn't made it in yet either. The scowl returned and her jaw clenched tightly. She couldn't abide shoddy or bad work and that they weren't here immediately to fix their mistakes only added fuel to the fire.

She stole one of the chairs from a cubicle and pushed it into her office. In no time Lilah was on the phone, making arrangements for the grand opening and the arrival of the employees. She planned on getting to the contractors next. She heard the door chime, announcing the arrival of another, and thought "if it's not Mortimer, I am going to skin him alive!" She needn't have worried as the weaselly little man came strutting into view. Lilah waved him impatiently into her office as she sat the headset of the phone into its cradle.

Mortimer knew the look on Lilah's face and he wasn't looking forward to the next ten minutes of his miserable life. He had news that would no doubt upset the witch even more than she was already. He wondered if he would survive the encounter"!

"Where are the contractors?" Lilah demanded none too friendly.

"Ah?" Mortimer doffed his beaten and aged hat gawking at Lilah.

?"Ah' isn't an answer, Mortimer. Where are they"!"

"They said they did the job the way they were told to." Mortimer said.

"No! They didn't do the job the way they were told to!" Lilah snapped waspishly. "I wanted the upper regions to be the labs, and they aren't! Get them in here; I'll deal with the bastards."

"They ain't gonna come, Mz. Morgan."

"What do you mean they aren't going to come"! I paid them a small fortune; they had better get their asses in gear and in here pronto!"

"Mz. Morgan, they said ya sent them the changes personally. They said ya even tole "em not to come back even if ya raged forty days an' forty nights fer "em to. I can't make "em do what ya tole "em not to."

"I didn't do any such thing! Get each and every one of them on the phone NOW Mortimer!" Lilah screamed, "NOW!"

Mortimer had a bad feeling about all this, but he wasn't going to say anything to Lilah though. Nope, no way! He just nodded and headed out of her office as fast as a jack rabbit being chased by a hungry fox. He knew something was up, but damned if he'd mention it. He was going to let her find out all on her own.