Much Needed Vacation
Sara placed her hand on the scanner, and the door to their hotel room slid to the side. She and Hayden were staying at the Aria, one of the finest hotels in the Paradisa District of the Corporation. Lights came on automatically as she entered the suite’s sunroom, which was filled with a beautiful set of furniture. The far wall was made of windows that showed the bright neon wonderland of the Silver Strip, glowing in the darkness. They had driven around the center in the cab toward the hotel. It had been ages since Hayden last time had flown with commercial airplanes, and he quickly remembered why he stopped, the horrible food, the cramped space, the children, oh god the infants and their crying.
Sara, having spent most of the day flying from Veodor didn’t bother to dress up, and wore a simple pair of jeans, a purple hoodie, and tennis shoes. She grinned as she looked out the window, before throwing her bag on a nearby couch and turning back to Hayden. “Quite a view, huh?”
He threw his bag at the end of the bed, going over next to her and looking out. “It certainly has a charm here in the evening.” he said as looked over the view, studying the various buildings and architecture. He wore a dark blue t-shirt and jeans and he was looking forward to changing after that flight.
“Almost makes you forget about how bad the Corporation really is.” She sighed running a hand through her hair and shaking her head. “Sorry, vacation, not supposed to be talking about that type of stuff.”
He chuckled as he turned towards her, smiling, as he placed his hands on her hips, looking into her eyes. “Hard to shut off that mind of yours huh?” He said before kissing her. “Besides, I hear rumours that you are working to change it, so with your brilliant efforts, I am sure the suffering will soon be but a memory.” And if not, then you will probably keep going until you manage to solve it.
“We can hope I suppose, if the powers that be actually let it do any good. Or if I can keep paying for it for that matter. Only a third of a way through the work and already I’ve burned through most of the money I made selling the patent.” She shrugged rubbing a hand absentmindedly on on his arm. “We’ll see, and for now we’ll just have to enjoy our well deserved breaks from work.”
“I'm sure we will.” He said with a playful smirk. “So now with work out of the way, bags off our hands. Shall we go see this wonderful district, and the odd people who no doubt live inside it.”
“Sure.” She nodded, going over to her bag. “Just give me a few minutes to change.” She dug through the bag quickly pulling out a few garments of clothing, a hair curler, and a makeup bag, hurrying into the bathroom. He went over to his own bag, finding a new shirt to wear, instead of the old one, he took a white one that Henry had given him for Tirva, he liked it quite a bit. He also found so cologne and put it on, hopefully not smelling badly as he laid down on the bed, and after five minutes turned on the tv. More news about Athine, a brief report on Rodrigo still being in the hospital, something about rising pollution in the Corporation docks, it was honestly quite boring news for the day. She exited the bathroom about twenty-five minutes after she entered it, dressed in a silver sequin dress that reached to just above her knees and heels and her hair had been curled, hanging down to her shoulders in ringlets.
As she exited the bathroom he looked at her with his lips curled into a smile. “Well you are certainly ready to hit the town.”
“Yep.” She laughed, as she walked over to Hayden. “That being said, I have no clue what there is to do out there, so this will be a bit of an adventure.”
“I wouldn't worry about that, according to the travelling guide they have everything for entertainment.” He said as he stood up. “Everything from clubs, restaurants, opera, movies to the more kinky side of fun.” He said with a laugh.” Well, let's go see this great adventure and see what happens.”
“Sounds pretty much like what I had expected then.” She smiled as she went to the door and placed her hand on the scanner, stepping aside, even as the door slide to open, and motioning for Hayden to go through. “Lead the way.”
“As you wish.” He said as he took her hand in his and went down to the street, catching a cab and they headed towards the city. They eventually reached the center and got out of the cab. Around them were an endless amount of stores. Clothes, shoes, electronics, jewelry, stores dedicated to only sunglasses and others to watches, some to bags and many more with just clothes in general. There were plenty of restaurants around serving all kinds of food, as well as food stands outside where you could buy much of whatever your heart desired. From ice cream, to burgers, to kebabs rolls and back to sweets with homemade chocolate. With the clubs beginning to open up, and some music starting to be played in some of them. “See anything you like?”
“I could eat,” she shrugged, looking around at all the shops herself. “Are you hungry?”
“I am.” he said while looking around at the shops. “I hate airplane food, so something eatable would be lovely, what are you in the mood for? Something fancy, something plain, something exotic?”
“Exotic sounds fun, and I don’t think either of us are dressed for a fancy meal.” She laughed, looking into several stores. Says the one in a proper dress, to the guy in a plain shirt.
As they walked around, Hayden eventually found a place making food from Takamagahara, it wasn't an overly big place, but it was beautiful and cozy inside, and a very expensive price tag on the food, but it smelled nice from inside and the food looked good. “How about here then?” he asked curiously.
“Oh, yes!” Sara said with evident glee as she saw the restaurant. “I haven’t had any good Takamagahara food since I came back to Veodor! And it’s more diversity for you, so win-win.”
They went inside and was lead to a table, the waiter giving them both a menu to look over. “Any recommendations?” He asked Sara after the waiter left. “How about the number 3, I have no clue how to pronounce, but it says it has some of everything.” Surely something must taste decent.
“That seems like a good choice to start. Have you ever had this type of food before?” She looked over her own menu as she asked the question.
“Not that I remember no, but might as well choose that as a place to start then.” He said with a smile as the waiter came over again.
“Would you like to order?” The waiter asked as Hayden looked towards Sara, waiting for her response.
Sara smiled at the waiter. “I’ll have the Gyutan Yawaraka Ni, with a glass of water and a cup of sake please.” She motioned her head to Hayden. “And he’ll have the Sanpuru no moriawase.”
Hayden nodded. “What she said.” With a slight laugh, whatever she said that is. “And with water and sake as well I guess.”
The waiter nodded and went off. “So what did you end up ordering?” Hayden asked.
“Beef tongue stirred in miso, with slices of radish, potato, spinach, and mushrooms.” She laughed, beef tongue Hayden thought to himself, yummy. “Try getting that in Veodor, especially down in Lucena.” She said
He laughed. “Not a common dish for sure.” He said and after a bit the waiter came back with their drinks, followed shortly by the food. Sara got a large plate with the beef tongue on top of the potatoes, mixed with the other ingredients in a brown sauce. For Hayden they came with several smaller plates, not much on each plate, but plenty in total to be full. There where everything from beef, to chicken and fish, to rice and potatoes and a piece of greenish stuff which had to be used to clear one's palate between each dish. Hayden took a chopstick and a bit of beef, tasting it as he began to eat. “Not bad.”
“It all looks very good.” Sara took a bit of her food and sipped her sake, before looking up at Hayden. “Did you hear about the assassination attempts against Prince Rodrigo and his brother a while back?”
“I did.” He said as he drank some sake, cleared his palate and tried the chicken. “Nasty business, I wonder if Althine was really behind it, or Caba had his hand in it. It's well known they hated each other. Or perhaps both took a part in it, they have rather aligned ideas about magic after all” Could make quite the interesting investigation to read about.
“Don’t remind me.” Sara said, wiggling her gloveless fingers unconsciously. “I went to see the prince, a little while after Tirva. He’d hardly had any medical care, because it was his uncle and brother’s decision to make, and they’d have left him there to die to secure their own power.” She grimaced, taking another sip of her drink. “It’s disgusting, how they act.”
“The price of power.” Hayden said drinking a bit of water. “Not really that surprising, it is politics after all.” He said before trying the fish. “I spoke with the king not long ago, I don't believe he had a part in it, but his heir Caba, I don't know, but according to the king then Caba would lose his inheritance when Taker died. Or the king lied, which I find equally likely.” Hayden looked up at her. “Will Rodrigo make it?”
She frowned, letting out a sigh. “He’ll not die from his wounds at least, I was able to work some magic over them, but they had been left untreated for so long, there was only so much I could do.” She paused for a moment to eat some more of her food. “Politics shouldn’t excuse that kind of behavior.” People who are not ready to pay the price, should not seek power in a world which assassinations and general power plays are the norm.
“Politics can excuse most if you just phrase it right.” He spoke in between his bites and he mixed some beef and potatoes. “I take it his wounds were bad then, a shame.” Hayden said, not moved an awful lot as he drank some more sake. “At least you were able to do some good.” Hayden looked quite forward to seeing Rodrigo eventually, considering the damages done to his body, and the rumours that his face was a mess. While Hayden wasn't fond of the man, he had not wished harm upon him either, and he wondered how visible the attack would be, as well as the effect on Rodrigo’s mental state.
“I suppose.” She continued eating. “What about your work? That caffeine replacement your company was working on, how did that go?”
“It's going good.” He said as he was close to finishing his food. “We have finished the drug, and gone through human testing. Severt has furthermore been expanded, almost by 50% in assets across Veodor for us to push the new product out to the street. We just need to make the right mix now and we can begin selling, with any luck it will net us some hundred million in income.” He said as he finished eating and leaned back, looking at her.
“That’s very impressive Hayden.” She sipped her drink again. “At some point I suppose all of Veodor will simply work for Severt and we will so Corporation 2.0, won’t we?” She smiled playfully as she said it.
“You say it like it's a bad thing.” He said while sipping more sake. “It should be quite interesting to see how it develops, if it succeeds then we plan to expand it into other nations quickly, taking use of the new branding.”
“So it comes out at last, our dear Hayden Severt seeks total world domination.” She laughed, finishing the last of her food. “What title will you take?” She rubbed her chin as she pondered the question. “Emperor, or is that perhaps too full of pomp?”
He laughed. “It's not quite enough, I always imagined, the great demi-god, oh glorious, genius Lord Severt. I feel it's more fitting.” He said as his laugh continued. “I will go pay, then lets see some more of the city” He said with an eager tone.
She took his arm and stood up, holding him in place. “This vacation is your gift remember? I’ll pay, you think of something fun for us to go do.” Sara laughed and walked over to pay their server.
As she eventually came back, he stood outside the restaurant waiting for her. “So then, its still a bit too early to go clubbing, and I fear I am too tired tonight for it anyway. So I will leave the choice up to you, we could go browse the stores, look at clothes, watches, sunglasses, dresses and so on. Or we could go to the purple strip, which should be quite interesting.”
Sara nodded along. “Agreed, we can save the clubs for a later time, but what’s the purple strip?”
“A street full of purple lights.” He said with a small chuckle. “Centuries ago the sailors would come here after they docked, they would then visit the lovely ladies at the strip, where they would have their stress relieved. It's pretty much a street with prostitution, sex shops, toys, outfits and all of that, an entire, lengthy street with it, girls showing off parading, hoping to gain customers.”
“You want to spend our Tivra vacation, a holiday to celebrate the apostle’s birth, visiting a street full of whores?” Sara folded her arms across her chest, staring at him incredulously. “Ok,” she laughed, breaking the facade. “This’ll be a good laugh.” Good, I was starting to get afraid for a moment.
“Heh, good.” He said as they started walking there, after some time they turned a corner and entered the street, purple lights all over. There were women standing in windows, with little to no clothes, signs advertising live viewing, several sex shops as well as clothing shops. As they slowly began to walk down the street Hayden began to laugh as he saw it before him, the streets were also crowded with people, with some going up to the doors here and there, to be lead away by one of the women in the windows.
Sara moved half a step closer to Hayden as they walked down the strip. “Is it everything you imagined it would be?” She asked, giving a half naked man a wide berth as he ran past them in the opposite direction.
He took her hand in his as they kept walking. “It isn't a let down, that's for sure.” He said as he smiled at her, he personally enjoyed it, finding the whole district widely amusing. As they walked past the windows, several of the women tapped on the glass, some signaling at Hayden, others at Sara and some at them both. “What about you?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said, looking in the windows of the buildings, “I suppose I just haven’t seen one I like yet. More people than I expected though.”
As they walked around, they passed more and more stores, Hayden eventually looking at a random one. “Shall we go inside and check?” He asked with a grin.
“If you’d like, but if I meet someone in there I get the room tonight.” She laughed, motioning for him to lead the way.
He laughed as they walked inside, it was a somewhat large store, but also fairly empty at the time. The store was split into several parts, some parts had outfits, underwear, lingerie, toys of varying degrees of interest and shape to peak people's interest. Hayden chuckled as they walked. “Quite interesting to have such stores open in the middle of street.” As he looked around. Then again, it was a special street.
“‘Interesting’ is certainly one way to put it.” Sara said, crossing her arms as she looked around, before going over to the outfits and holding a wildly inappropriate take on a nurses outfit in front of herself. “Do you think my patients would like this?” She asked with a chuckle.
“I don't think any would complain.” He said with a grin, walking over to her, picking up a male outfit for a cop. “I should go to all business meetings dressed like this, no one would dare refuse the police.” He looked at her for a moment, before he got a playful grin. “But hey, nothing wrong with looking for fun, I have a feeling you would be looking smoking hot in some of the things here.”
She smiled at let out a sigh. “Yes, but that is the case with anything I wear, it’s my curse really. You could throw me in a burlap sack like the women in Majeed, it would make no difference.” As she spoke she flicked through more of the outfits, giggling to herself at some of them.
“I fear you are right, we might have to test it.” He said with a chuckle as he looked at her going through the outfits. “Finding something that interests you?” He asks curiously.
“Not particularly, but look at this.” She pulled out one of the outfits. “Sexy garbage collector. Who is that for I wonder?” She laughed as she put it back and continued looking around.
“Someone who wants to send a message to their husband.” He said while laughing, and began walking around with her. “What about lingerie instead of an outfit then? If that is more your style when shopping for these things.” He said, stopping and looking, before he went over to her, kissing her neck and speaking in a low voice. “We could also head back to the hotel, it's getting rather late.”
Sara laughed and looked down at the watch that Hayden gave her for Tirva. “So it is. Why don’t you find a taxi and I’ll be right out?”
“Sure.” He said as he left her and the store, going outside, waiting a bit of time before finally getting a cab and waiting for her.
Eventually Sara exited the building and made her way over to the cab, a bag in her hands. She was blushing slightly as she closed the door and leaned forward to the driver. “The Aria Hotel please.”
“Yes ma’am.” He said and began driving. Hayden looked at her with a grin and began to chuckle without uttering a word, simply letting his mind wonder off.
Clothes lay around the bed, Hayden's shirt and jeans, Sara’s black and red lingerie, shoes, socks, all a mess around the bed as Hayden kissed her neck and shoulders, laying in bed with an arm around her, while his other hand ran down the side of her leg. “So, I was thinking that we could go visit some museums tomorrow, see how this Corporation evolved through history.”
Sara nodded, her right hand gently tracing small magical shocks along his arm. Hayden not entirely being able to decide if he liked or not. “That could be fun, but it will be what the Corporation wants its people to think history looks like, not the real thing of course.”
“But isn't that all history? It's always the victor that writes how it went down. We could also go look at some art if you prefer.” He said as his hand went up from her leg, over her hip and took a hold of her hand. “Or is there something you would rather go watch?”
She shook her head, shifting under the silk sheets. “No, I hadn’t meant that the museum was a bad idea, I imagine it will be an enjoyable day. I’m just be difficult again, you’ll have to get used to that.”
He chuckled as he smiled at her, and relaxed “I should be able to get used to this easily enough, and don't worry, we will have fun tomorrow, despite your at times dour look on things.”
