Garionhood/Stephiroth

Stephanie Young arose the exact nano-second her 4:30 AM alarm, which played one of many musical numbers she regularly enjoyed, played. She let the song of choice play out.

"One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel The Devil walking next to me..."

Eventually, she shut off the alarm. She exhaled a sigh, one of relief. The song reminded her of more halcyon times, one with a guy named Garland Windsor. His departure from her life had been something she found arduous to reconcile, but reconcile she did. On her end, she had a job to do as a member of a politician's campaign for the role of Senator of Republic Island, and his name was Xavier D'Arque. What mitigated the myriad circumstances involved was the fact she left Garland a parting gift, in the form of a Point Card. She claimed it had magical properties: when enough points from expenditures were assimilated, the energy could be unleashed to deal damage to an adversary.

Not wanting to dwell much on the logical ramifications of giving a lost love a Legendary item, Stephanie adjusted herself and got ready for work. It would take a lot more to make her feel right as rain, but she found everything easier to manage with a different musical number playing in the background. While silence did not equate harmony, she did find something soft and orchestral to go with her daily routine.

After getting into normal secretary attire, Stephanie went to her kitchen to brew some coffee. She carefully mixed it with a can of Bartleby Classic, and proceeded to drink the ensuing fusion of coffee and liquor. It had not been enough liquor to get even buzzed with, but the price of D'Arque's ambition weighed on her mental health. Furthermore, she needed the liquid courage to fully match wits with his other subordinates. She could make it until Karaoke Night tonight, where she could vent her frustrations using various songs the bar had access to.

She gave herself the count of ten, and then headed out. She had only recently acquainted herself with the town of Xavier D'Arque's origins: Towningdale. She previously lived in San Cristobal, where her tenure as intern began. She climbed the social ladder of politics within Republic Island's government, itself not an easy task.

As she walked to a nearby park in Downtowningdale, Stephanie saw and recognized an elderly orc sitting on a park bench. He had been accompanied by two wolf spirits, who took immediate notice of the human's presence.

"Ah, Miss Young." The orc turned his head to speak cordially to Stephanie. Though blind, the orc's red eyes correctly locked onto the person he addressed, "Heading to work so early?"

Stephanie nodded nervously, "Y-yeah." Truth be told, she was always fonder of cats than dogs. Nonetheless, the orc's spirit wolves gazed at her with the friendliest faces possible. "I kind of need to make sure details are in order. My boss has a big speech coming up, and... That necessitates being there to ensure he doesn't embarrass himself."

The orc chuckled heartily, "I understand." However, his laugh had been so powerful his throat recoiled, and he coughed in turn.

Stephanie asked with concern, "...Do you need me to call for help, Fenris'ar Winterfang?"

Fenris'ar shook his head, as he lowered the volume of his coughs, "No, Stephanie. As a matter of fact, I am more worried for your health than you are for mine."

Stephanie raised a brow, "What?"

"Your mind seems taxed. Burdened, even." The orc spoke matter-of-factly, as if he read Stephanie like an open book.

She replied earnestly, "Once D'Arque is Senator, then I'll have a position within his Cabinet and then I can relax. For now, however, my work is not over."

Fenris'ar Winterfang stood still, and took some time to parse the words which escaped Stephanie's lips, and the way she spoke them. He then cracked a wise smile. "Your journey might take some interesting turns in the interim. This much I can affirm for you."

Fenris'ar gently got up from the bench and the spirit wolves on his sides followed suit. One wolf carefully directed its master to an unknown direction, while the other ran off and practically scouted ahead.

This left Stephanie an opportunity to walk a few blocks away from the park, to a specific building where the D'Arque Senatorial Campaign held office. Downtowningdale had, in the past few months which Stephanie resided here, become a home away from home. While it was not the part of Towningdale where her boss had been born and raised in, she knew he also valued Downtowningdale highly. Else, it would not have become a staging point for the man's campaign in the provincial state of Republic Island. When Xavier first returned to Republic Island after many years of gallivanting around the Mainland United States, he immediately investigated Downtowningdale, found it to his liking, and bought an entire office building within the dead centre of it. Stephanie also recalled the D'Arque Theatre being just outside of the Downtowningdale region, in Old Rowan Oak. However, she chalked this up to information Xavier willingly imparted onto her when she was first hired by him: The D'Arques had virtually all of Republic Island within their grasp in "the olden days." This was further corroborated by both a pamphlet she received at the Towntowningdale National Airport which mentioned the D'Arques' ancestral home in the region of Spook Cliff north of Downtowningdale, and by independent investigation of the D'Arque Estate done at Downtowningdale's Library two weeks ago.

Before Stephanie could recollect much more, she was alerted to the sound of her cellphone. She picked it up, recognized the identity of the person calling her, and name-dropped them upon patching it through.

"Mr. D'Arque?"

She heard his baritone voice on the other end, "Ah, Penelope. I knew you'd come through."

Stephanie tried hard to not correct her boss, as it led to coaching on the flippancy by which she responded to some of Xavier's mannerisms, "Is something amiss?"

The man's response made it patently clear to her he was hung over, "U-ugh, is it me, or are college students getting younger?"

Stephanie flinched at the question, as she stepped into the office building's lobby. She had borne witness to her boss' proclivities, and tried to steer him towards not having them be a liability. She started to feel her curriculum vitae would be stained, which would make the experience of working within Republic Island's Democratic Party not worth the hassle she underwent down south.

After a small breath, she replied, "I suppose so." Her answer sounded unsure, but she knew there was some verisimilitude to Xavier's question in the form of people Stephanie knew. As she ascended up the stairs to her office on the eighth floor, she began wondering, "Are you fit to sit through a meeting with Mayor Meier in three hours, sir?" She added the "Sir" on instinct, to keep a level of formality to her queries. While it wasn't strictly necessary, and she had been outright told as much, she still wanted to attempt to be as professional as she could while doing her job.

Stephanie heard the sound of kitchen appliances, and hissing in the background while she awaited a response. Xavier still sounded groggy as he answered, "I think, I think I'll be fine. I haven't broken my 'nineteen and under' rule, and I have a hangover remedy I can make."

Internally, Stephanie was screaming at herself for working for a total nonce with a number of other psychological issues which led to increasing acts of depravity. However, the rest of her Senatorial Campaign had long persuaded her this would work out in the end for her career in politics, and they would still make a difference even if they had to sometimes work around Xavier D'Arque himself.

"Good. I will be at Mayor Meier's, once I get your speech printed and faxed." Stephanie spoke more confidently, having taken the time to write the speech. It would be highly arrogant and unbecoming of her to say she did it all by herself, but she still wrote roughly eighty-percent of it, and still double-checked her colleagues' contributions. All the same, she bore no ill will towards said colleagues. In fact, she greeted them warmly while en route to her office, having made it to the eighth floor, and finally reached it and the desk within.

As she began booting up her computer, Xavier reminded her of one final task, "Speaking of all this shit, call my wife and kids. I need them to appear alongside me for the Announcement Ceremony. I just remembered why I was going to see that old codger..." His voice trailed off, but he then hung up so she could efficiently fulfill his immediate request. Stephanie set her phone aside; while she would be calling his wife and kids as soon as possible, she needed to make sure the speech script was printed or printing first. As soon as she logged in with her credentials, she clicked on Microsoft Word and began setting up two copies to be printed of the script. She needed more than one, in the event of D'Arque losing the speech within the time period before the Announcement Ceremony to could begin. While the setup for the event was being handled by other coworkers, Stephanie intended to take charge of the more administrative parts of the setup, so things would not go awry.

Once she confirmed the speech script copies were to be printed not far from her computer's reach, she began dialing the number of Xavier D'Arque's wife.

Not much time elapsed before Stephanie heard one of Xavier's children answer the phone instead. The child's voice could be heard somewhat timidly, "H-hello?"

Stephanie spoke patiently and calmly, "Hey, Zed. Can I speak to Will D'Arque?"

The child, known as Zed, replied firmly, "Mommy's on the couch. She..." There was the anticipated hesitation, just moments after. "She... isn't feeling well."

Stephanie felt bad, but kept the meetup attempt going, "Maybe your sister Yvette, then?"

Some muffling could be heard in the background. Stephanie waited, though she knew she needed the Announcement Ceremony meetup to be done and over with.

After a few seconds, the other much older child, Yvette, spoke with more agitation in her voice, "Mom's gone on another crying-herself-to-sleep spree. Who's this?"

"It's Stephanie," the secretary responded, "Xavier D'Arque needs you guys at the Announcement Ceremony for photographs. Can you-?"

Yvette replied coldly and defiantly, "Sure, but we don't do it for him." She then hung up on Stephanie, leaving her to feel increasingly awkward about the entire exchange. To her credit, the family gave their begrudging word, and they did not even need to be there for much more than photographs. Of course, the phone conversations always resulted in vocalized resentment against her for assisting Xavier D'Arque with his political campaign. She forgot how long it had been since Will D'Arque had an alcohol problem almost rivaling her husband's.