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ᴡʜᴏ: Boyd Langton, Topher Brink, and Gretel
ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ: Boyd's Penthouse
ᴡʜᴇɴ: Forward dated to July 6th, Evening
ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢs: None
sᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ: Boyd has dinner with his ward and his best man-friend.
ғᴏʀᴍᴀᴛ: Prose unless we get sick of it.

Boyd slowly walked around the his dinning room table, making sure everything was prepared. Not that there was a lot for him to inspect. There were only three places at the table and they were all set close together like a family dinner. Which it was in a way. At least he hoped it would end as such. He still wasn't sure how Topher was going to react to the news that he was Gretel's guardian. He didn't want Topher to think he had tried to replace him while he was gone, even if in part that might be a little bit true.

Only a little bit though. The two of them couldn't be more different. Topher devoted to science, Gretel to magic. One nervous, one calm.

Now that he really thought about it this dinner would either be the smoothest he'd ever hosted, or a complete disaster. He'd just have to wait and see, doing his best to play referee if it turned for the worst. Now where had he put that scotch?

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Topher stopped his fork halfway to his mouth as his brain shut down momentarily. When it finally caught up and processed Boyd's words Topher dropped his fork and let out a weak laugh. "You're such a joker, Boyd-man. I really was believing you for a moment. Some strange kid having a stake in Rossum...funny, but not really."

Gretel was slack jawed with her own disbelief, staring hard at Boyd. "Part of a company? But I don't know anything about that kind of stuff! Just let this guy have it all." She jabbed her thumb at Topher.

"I wouldn't expect you to involve yourself in the day to day running of the company. Topher would be able to handle that. I want to give you part of the company to give you security, financially and legally. If you're member of the board, and a shareholder people won't be able to use the law against you so easily. Because you'll be able to put all of Rossum's legal department into handling it." Boyd's tone was firm. He didn't want to budge on this.

"Topher I know this seems very strange, but it's the best solution for a worst case scenario. You'll be the majority shareholder and I'm sure you'll be able to handle it, but I want to make sure you have some help. In fact I'm making plans to ensure anyone I don't trust won't end up on that board. I've worked too hard, and there's too much that could go wrong to leave it to people like that."

"Okay, we're going on the extreme side of strange to what the hell are you thinking? What we do...I don't care how intelligent she is there are still things the kids, even smart kids, shouldn't be around." Sometimes he was hit with all those moral feelings and having spent so many years ignoring them Topher now had no idea how relate his thoughts to others. He was panicking and thinking about all the many things that could go wrong with this strange kid having a hand in Rossum.

"Why don't you just have her legally declared independent and set her up with a trust fund?"

Gretel glanced between them a bit nervously, frowning deeply. "I wouldn't have to actually do anything? Because Topher's sort of right. Not about the kid thing. Kid's understand things, even bad things, a lot better than some people think." She shot him a disapproving look. "But I don't know if that's my place."

"It's nice of you. Really nice. But you don't have to do things like that for me. I can manage without getting in other people's way." She glanced at Topher again.

Boyd glared at Topher, hard. "We haven't discussed that work Topher and we're not going to. And I'm not just going to give her a trust fund and leave her on her own! I wouldn't do that to you and I'm not going to do it to you. I want you both to have someone you can rely on."

He turned to Gretel. "Running Rossum might not be your place, but it could help you find it maybe. Also you wouldn't be getting in my way. You'd be helping me. You and Topher would be able to make sure no one steals this company."

That glare hurt, but Topher couldn't let things drop. "This is because of the Master thing isn't it?"

Gretel chewed on her lip dropping her gaze from the men to her plate. Being told she would be able to help prevent something was more in the line of things she was comfortable with. But she didn't say so, not when she could see a more heated disagreement brewing in front of her.

"Master thing?" She asked quietly, testing to see if this was a discussion she would be part of or if she would be expected to excuse herself from the conversation.

Topher caught another glare, but there wasn't much Boyd could do now. "No Topher, it's not. That wasn't your fault. I should have been here. He manipulated you and used what you gave him to hurt a lot of people. All I want to do is make sure the tech can't get out again to do something more like that and even I need help to do that. So will you."

Now Boyd turned to Gretel. He didn't want to involve her with this, but she was a bright girl and hopefully she'd understand it. So long as he phrased it correctly that is. "The Master was a man who employed Topher before I arrived. He took some of the technology of our world that Topher had rebuilt and gave it to the Major, who did a lot of damage with it. He also used it himself. Topher was in the dark though and even though I had infiltrated his company as head of security I couldn't prevent it. I was able to destroy what pieces of the technology he had." He'd also used some of it to found Rossum and secure it's funding.

He didn't understand this at all. Boyd was suppose to trust him and now there was this strange girl that had wormed her way into Rossum while he had been gone; it gave Topher a headache.

His plate was pushed away and Topher stood up. "I'm not feeling too good. It's probably better if I go to bed early." That was a rare thing indeed, but if it meant he didn't have to deal with whatever this was then Topher was willing to change routine.

It wasn't a hard thing for her to understand, she'd been in a similar situation before she arrived. Gretel would have said as much, but her attention was focused back on Topher and his sudden desire to leave. She bit back the less than kind remarks she wanted to make about how he was acting. "You're leaving?"

"Topher, don't. Please." This whole dinner was turning into a disaster and while he wanted to yell at Topher for acting a bit childish it wouldn't help anything. "We can talk all of this out."

He doesn't leave, but he's obviously not comfortable staying at the table. This was too much of a change for him to handle. "What's to talk about? Minds are made up. You may as well move her into my room."

Gretel snorts and the sass she had been trying to hold back comes forth. "Geez! My brother acts less like a sulky kid and he just reached double digits," she crosses her arms and resists rolling her eyes. "Besides I'm not moving anywhere."

Edited 2012-08-03 20:56 (UTC)

"Topher! I am not replacing you!" Boyd stood up as he shouted. "And Gretel don't antagonize him. Maybe this situation isn't ideal from either of your points of view and I'm willing to smooth things over where I can, but I am not changing my mind on some things. Gretel needs the protection and the responsibility of Rossum and you Topher, need someone to help you, especially in areas you have no knowledge about. Like magic."

Boyd took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "I have to look at the big picture at the what ifs. It's not pleasant and I wish I didn't have to, but I'm the only one that can. Sometimes it means I have to make decisions you both won't understand at the time. You will both have to trust me though that I am doing it to try and keep you safe."

And that was the really worry, wasn't it? Boyd's seemingly sudden attachment to this strange kid was a bit too much for Topher. Topher who was alone aside from Boyd. Topher who couldn't imagine being left to fend for himself and the company without Boyd. He didn't want the help of some kid; he wanted Boyd to promise not to leave.

Still refusing to sit, he gripped the back of his chair. "You need to reread your sci-fi Boyd because everyone knows magic and tech don't mix." He sighed and moved to sit. "And I do trust you, I don't know if I can trust this -- whatever this is."

She bristled under the reprimand and clenched her jeans in her hands under the table. She glared weakly at Topher from the corner of her eye, keeping her head turned down.

"Trust has to be earned, right?" Gretel replied quietly. "I don't totally like it either, but Mr. Boyd thinks it'll work out. So I'll give it a chance. You could at least try it and see if it's going to be worth it."

Boyd approved of Gretel's attitude, but he didn't let it show on his face. He needed them both to be a bit worried right now if he was to get this back on track. "We don't know that magic and tech won't mix and even if they don't having access to both is important. Especially here where we never know what we might have to deal with."

"Gretel is right though, you don't have a reason to trust each other, not yet. That's why I want you to get to know each and to help each other. So please for me would you try? I'm not expecting miracles just some effort. So sit down and we'll eat and we'll talk about anything, but the business, alright?"

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