Hospitality Professionals

"Ambrick, bring me the sauce! Khmatal, where are those pasta?"   "Coming!"   "Here Zim!"  

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"Welcome, honoured guests, I will be your Sunga for tonight."   "I'm sorry, Dentrag, that will not be possible, you know the rule as well as I."   "Honoured Bameimeito." The Maitre d' all but kowtowed.   "What is this rule, Amarat?"   "Alessia, you had too much to drink if you forgot I am your host, by law and custom stronger and more ancient than law, and cannot stop being so unless a greater Kagomine authority than mine comes forward."   "Your honoured mother?"   "Both Mother and Meihomei retired early tonight. I'll be the adult in the room it seems."   "Hiccupppp! Hey Amarat!"   "Yes Flora my love?"   "Watch thissssssssssssssssssssss whew!" She basically jumped into his arms, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that her three New Etruscan Iced Teas had gone to her head. Amarat smoothly helped her down gently onto a stool the attentive Dentrag had provided.   "Flora, darling, please sit still, I must tend to our guests."   "Spoilsport!"   "He's a stick in the mud at parties, tis true!" The certainly even more sloshed, by virtue of double the alcohol intake, but considerably less magical talent at handling it, Annunzia Dell'Auro, opined.   "How many parties have you attended with him, exactly?"   "Oh, twelvish?"   "Ladies!" The restaurant music shifted to 'Stuck with you' by Occult Hunters.   "Oh, that's our song!" Both very drunk women pointed out to Amarat, but, Piersa Ouranos pointed the same out to Dentrag, who was trying desperately to disappear under the floor.   "Oooh, gossip!" Gushed Flora.   "What, me and Dentrag only went on the one date! It just... felt natural when we got to that song..."   "He's a cutie, our Sunga."   "Please, honoured worthies, let me get you inside, we have a meeting room where you will have privacy."   "Good thinking." Yeah, let's not let them see, or be seen by less drunk folk, thought Amarat.   "Can you not grope my boyfriend while he's working?"  

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"Sniffle."   "What's all this, you're drunked, I know why the sniffle is new for you."   "I can't believe it, you're... you're the one that got away..."  Annunzia was crying.   "Chin up!  I walked out of your life when you pulled that 'I forgot to take my anti pregnancy pills, after I told you I hadn't forgotten, so you wouldn't use a prophylactic' stunt.  You're even less attractive drunk, but the problem always was how reliable and trustworthy you were going to be."   "Hmmm...  And Flora makes you happy?"   "Yes, she's trusthworthy, dependable, can't lie to save her life..."   "Isn't she boring, then?"   "I don't need more excitement, not anymore, not least since I'm back to being the Bameimeito."   "Oh, that's stressful?"   "We're at war, I'm next in line to the throne and training to take over in case the enemy gets lucky, of course it's stressful."   "What, you're training to be... Meihomei?  You?"   "Yeah, me.  Mom don't want the job."   "How big of a cow are the Kingmakers having that you're romancing a priestess, and a priest yourself?"   "I didn't ask them, I'd imagine a few mllion patties worth."   "Cute.  You don't care about their enmity then?"   "They hate me for being who I am, I can't stop being a priest, even if I wanted to, so I'm automatically their sworn enemy, it doesn't get any simpler than this!  Oh, and they're messing with this in the middle of a shooting war!  If any of them are in Kagomei, I'd attain them with treason."   "Oh, Kagomei always had some, not as much as Moniq or Rannick, but some."   "Rannick's under their influence."   "No, Rannick's under its Aumhava's influence, but the Kingmakers are the opposing block she has to be seen making moves to appease."   "Good luck to her."   "She's doing a pretty good job, better than Natalia."   "Oh?"  The sisters never sniped at each other, not to an outsider, Amarat knew, he forgot that as the ex-boyfriend of the both of them, they considered him an insider.   "It's a Democracy, it's easy for demagogues to rile the masses, get a powerblock going.  Natalia's got no leg to stand on after being so harsh on you after the Yamagandi liner.  They keep saying she shoulld have done more."   "Like blockading us?"   "They don't use the word, but it wouldn't be out of character."   "And what does Natalia say?"   "That since the treaty came into effect, you've been model treaty members, and cogs in the machine of Arnd, working as a clearinghouse for peace between nations, no one wants to get on your bad side, not as long as you're supplying the only Cormorants."   "Mother's handing the specs to the treaty, when things die down."   "Why?  That'll remove all your leverage..."   "And let us let up, those crews are in meltdown, 25 planes, for the whole world?  It's way too few, and we can't build or train more crews, not that I can see."   "How are you going to do it?"   "Likely controlled export, it's' politically sensitive, and has a limited maximum number of useful copies."   "Who'd have the license?"   "Your hubby's old firm would probably love a piece of the action."   "Marquarry?  But not as much as Fincanto.  They've been in a bad way lately."   "And the Archduchess of Brabant-Reigundy and the Duchess of Ferrare would both get a cut, wouldn't they?"   "No, not for this."   "What about your hubbies?"   "Alessia's government is a shareholder of Marquarry, and you own as much of Fincanto as Natalia's hubby, you're both the largest shareholders, way ahead of anyone else."   "I'm not!"   "Fine, fine, Burrshire is.  Everyone knows it doesn't sneeze without your permission."   "I'm never told specifics, I thought it only owned Sirius."   "You OWN Sirius?"   "Burrshire put in 33% or so, needed a good strong growth profile to replenish my trust fund."   "You probably don't need money at this point, do you?"   "Not sure I ever did, money was something mom and dad took care of, then threw away the keys, mostly."   "But that Burrshire thing, you were 19?"   "Just turned twenty, can't use any of it until I'm 26, since it's my own trust fund that's the shareholder, not me."   "How did you manage that?  I thought trust funds had to be guaranteed funds?"   "Guaranteed by Meihomei herself."   "What?"   "Listen, I must be drunker than I thought if I'm telling you all this, but the short version is that Sirius had goofed in full view of the Elemental circles, the Navy cashed them like a chip, but they can't own civilian firms, so there needs to be a layer of insulation."   "Which Nameihomei provided?"   "Except Nameihomei is a high dignitary of the elemental circles, so she can't just own them for their mistake, too much like 'judge, jury, executioner' there."   "Just how big of an Aumhava does your mom have?"   "North Kagomei."   "All of it?"  Annunzia blanched.   "The bumps of the heart, all of them."   "Oh, so not the north and centre, just the north."   "Yeah, except the population is pretty northerly, Kimaguray, Megamisama, Veneer, Simular, only Byzance is southerly, of the million-plus cities."   "So, ten plus millions?"   "I'd say sixteen, but I didn't check figures.  Whoa, is it me or is the floor heaving?"   Amarat had collapsed.