Busy Boy in Batsville [Eve]

[Bruce "Batman" Wayne]

Sometimes, making an appearance was all it took to take the assumptions off of your back; when you spent a lot of time away, then you would have to make sure to come back. When you did, you didn't do it with a lot of noise - you did it as cool, calm and collected as possible, and let the press know, so they'd make the noise for you. That was the trick - it wasn't about the sound coming out of one man's mouth that drew a crowd, it was the crowd making the noise for him.

That made a lot of sense, then, when Bruce had only just resurfaced within Gotham - two cups of $20 coffee in hand, an armani suit, only the best in Italian loafers - that the press were already there, waiting for him at the base of his company. His family's company. They had a lot of questions, which seemed to blast on as soon as the limo doors opened - first security rushing their way out, dispersing the crowd to force a space, and then his personal assistant on the scene, ready to take care of the rabble that were squaking for a comment.

"Mister Wayne, where have you been?! Do you support the direction your company is taking? Who's in charge when you're gone? What's next for Wayne Enterprises? Are you concerned about Stark International? Will Wayne Enterprises do their own Expo?"

Yep. A lot of questions. None of which Gotham's favourite son had any intention of answering himself - instead, he climbed from the car, and strut through, cool as a cucumber and well enough dressed royalty could sweep in, and he'd look perfect for the occassion. Bruce Wayne was most certainly home.

"As Bruce Wayne's personal assistant, I would like to inform you that Mister Wayne has no comments to make at this time - any inquiries you may have about the company's business can be addressed to..."

This girl was good; she knew what she was doing, she was professional, she didn't lose her calm and she knew all the loopholes and directories. And she was pretty. Definitely a good move on his part - if it did anything, it kept to the notion that, yes, Bruce Wayne was a very good business man. And yes, Bruce Wayne liked pretty girls.

That was why he had two cups of coffee - upstairs he knew that there was a pretty woman who had plenty to say to him, plenty of questions of her own; he could hide behind professional assistants who had learned every line, phone number and contacts, as well as the handbook on press management when it came to media attention. He couldn't do that when it came to Eve, though - she could see right through him, and since she was both the lady in charge when he was gone, and set up most of his meetings, he couldn't bullshit on through.

He already payed her a lot of money, too, so coffee seemed a reasonable peace offering.

As his foot hit the top marble step, Wayne turned to the rabbling crowd - he had his people bring them here, he couldn't leave them with nothing, even if he didn't particularly like them, he knew as well as anyone that it was bad business not to feed them at least one line. He had to keep them sweet - give them just enough that the trip was worth while, an opportunity for a nice photo or two, and something they could quote him on.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, let me assure you that Wayne Enterprises is always in good, capable hands whenever I'm not here. I'm in constant loop, and the people keeping an eye on things know what it is they do. As an ever growing, ever expanding, and ever present company, I can assure you that we plan to do nothing but provide the quality products and service that is expected of us. Thank you."

And that would be quite enough - now, he was clearing out while the coffee was still hot, and the press was still interested. What did he mean by that? Was Stark a threat to him? Were they in business? These were all things the press didn't need to know right now, they just wanted to know. Now they were fish trying to nab a worm hanging just out of reach. When Bruce was ready, he'd yank in the hook and cast them into the boat. It just wasn't time for dinner yet.

From there, it was a short lift ride up to the top floor, where no doubt one of two things would happen - Eve would be standing, tapping her foot, ready to tear his balls off and glue them on backwards for - once again - disappearing on short notice. Or, alternatively, she would be running around stressing over the minor details, paper flying everywhere, in desperate need of a drink and a comfy chair. And then she'd rip his balls off and glue them on backwards.

Some things, you just couldn't avoid.

[/blockquote]

[Eve Amherst]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://oi42.tinypic.com/34fkzk9.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 2px solid #000; width: 500px; height: 490x; padding: 0px;, bTable] She had been tapping her pen on the edge of the desk and daydreaming for the most part. Not much different from normal, it was the middle of the week and her mind was elsewhere right now, having floated of into the great beyond halfway through reading the report on her desk. It was dry, just numbers and statistics and an occasional pie chart here or there with more numbers and statistics. Eve should have been paying some actual attention, it was important stuff after all, the latest notes on how they were doing in drawing power out of the latest engines the Wayne Industries subsidiary had been working on. It was a damn good system, the fact that all the conglomerates could inter help each other with building and testing saved them tons of money, smart and efficient. She loved it. But it was a nice day and the office was feeling particularly stuffy so Eve couldn't seem to muster up the same joy for good paperwork the way she normally would. Still day dreaming about being anywhere but at work, the woman nearly jumped out of her skin and literally almost fell out of her chair when her secretary knocked on her door. Eve was ready to chew the poor woman off for the sudden fright, but the woman spoke first, telling her that Bruce Wayne himself had finally decided to make an appearance. This was actually good enough to get her to tiptoe up to the large windows in her office and give a tentative peak out onto the street. She hated being by the large windows, always did have a massive fear of heights, but Eve was at the perfect spot to look down and see the man in question making his way up to the building, reporters and paparazzi making something of a miniature circus of the sidewalk just to get a picture of the man. It was about goddamn time he crawled out of from under whatever rock he had been hiding in, the woman loved her job, but she needed a day off. Swiftly she stepped away from the windows, out of her office and positioned herself in front of the lift doors, arms crossed and a rather dangerous look on her face. Oh that man, that pretty face of his wasn't going to get him out of a good old fashioned ass chewing today. Did he even know what was going on? She had been compiling and sending updates and he had better have done his homework because he was going to get his balls ripped off and tossed down the elevator chute if she had been doing that extra work for him to not give it a glance though. What the hell was this man doing all the time anyway? Just thinking about it was getting the scowl to deepen and by the time the doors open Evie was just about to the point of tapping her toe in annoyance, "Mr. Wayne, lovely of you to finally show up," Grey eyes narrowed on the man in a way that would make most men shrivel, "You've been gettin' my reports right?" Because if you didn't you were losing your balls today Mr. Wayne, be very careful. [style=padding: 0px 15px; font-size: smaller;] Words: 545 Music: Nothin o.o Outfit: Click! Notes: Your balls are on the line 8| [/style]

[Bruce "Batman" Wayne]

And there she was, as if like clockwork. In honesty, he found it assuring that she would always be there, ready to tear his manhood off and put it through the shredder before him whenever he returned from one of his "excursions", not that he ever told her where he went. It was what kept him certain she was the woman for the job - the business was working just as well as it had been when he disappeared, if not more so, and she never failed to turn over detailed paperwork explaining every tiny, little, itty, bitty, gritty detail on the subject at hand.

He might have offered her a raise for the hard work put in, but with the amount she earned, the percentage would have to be at least a solid 50% increase to actually catch her eye. So instead he settled with her favourite - and some particularly expensive - coffee, a warm and friendly smile, assurance that, yes, he did actually know what was going on, and then a few days to relax at home while he took control. Nothing took a hard worker's attention like some extra, paid days off that wouldn't count towards the personal vacation take.

"Miss Amherst - right where I always expect to see you whenever I get back to the office. Coffee, vanilla latte with extra chocolate - Belgian and homemade, by the way - in a grande sized cup. Yes, I did, every last one of them; has anyone told you how genius that plan is, by the way? I especially like the way it calls off the existing system and then expands the abilities, very cost effective, and it speeds up our entire process. Plus, with linking to our database, it's perfect. You've done a good job."

And then, just like that, he was leading her to his office - which, by the way things seemed when turning on the lights, had been kept spotless and in pristine condition. The staff were doing remarkably well; a tight ship going on, and he certainly liked it. So with that, Bruce took his seat - of course only after letting Eve in first, and closing the door behind her - behind the solid, maple piece. It shone beautifully, polished and waxed regularly just for that sparkle only good, fine wood could ever present. But now was business, and it was a good idea he let her speak first.

"So, I trust everything has been well in my absence? No difficulties, I hope, I tried to leave you with as many complete records and finished reports as I could to keep you informed. Sorry for not messaging back much but, you know me."

[/blockquote]

[Eve Amherst]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://oi42.tinypic.com/34fkzk9.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 2px solid #000; width: 500px; height: 490x; padding: 0px;, bTable] "Well one of has to show their pretty face in this office," Eve said, giving him a look that said she wasn't particularly amused with his presence at the moment. Though she was glad he was there, because, well, he had to show up every now and then at the very least. Some of the underlings were beginning to think the man had fallen into a hole and died, there was even a hilarious little rumor going around that Eve had murdered the billionaire, had his body disposed of by the mob and was taking over his position as official CEO now that she had gotten him out of the way. "What did you say latte? Oh you beautiful man," the brunette took the cup from her boss so fast if he had been wearing a ring she probably would have had to have handed it back because it would have come along for the ride. Sweet sweet caffeine, she was at a loss with out it, taking a sip she just about purred, prepared to melt into the floor with joy. Holding a hand up Eve needed him to be quiet for a moment, "Just gimme a sec there boss man, I need to enjoy this," Another sip and a pleased sound left her, heaven in a cup, hand her this coffee and you could get away with murder as far as she was concerned. "Course I have, I'm sure I didn't just get hired for the great legs Mr. Wayne," The woman was a genius and she damn well knew it, not particularly humble about it either though she at least didn't go around screaming it at the top of her lungs. But even she had to pat herself on the back, it was a damn good idea, and it made sure that he was kept up to date on the going ons in his company, since it was his company, she was just the one making sure that it all stayed in working order when he wasn't there. And Eve was honestly perfectly fine with that, being trusted by Bruce Wayne himself with a good deal of company happenings was pretty prestigious in itself. Following him into his office Eve moved pretty much on auto pilot at the moment, too busy indulging in what she considered to be the perfect cup of coffee as she found a plush, leather upholstered seat to get comfortable in. Crossing her legs she finally tore her attention back to her boss, "Trust me, I know, but the stuff you left did help out quite a bit" She gave him a pointed look, "Nothing aside from the occasional shenanigan that one would expect from a giant conglomerate, there was a small issue with miscommunication between the Industries and Shipping branches over a shipment of new heavy mining equipment that was being sent over to Africa, but I sorted that out quickly," "While you're here though, I wanted to talk to you about a company that popped up on my radar that peaked my interest," Which really wasn't an easy thing to do, the woman worked for Wayne Industries, you had to be doing something pretty damn interesting to get her to want to look further into it, "Advanced Idea Mechanics, or AIM for short, apparently they're working on some sort of bio-organic nanotechnology, here, hold on a second," A few quick strides and she was out the door, coming back a moment later with her laptop she brought up a few files she had been putting together on the company and even the man in charge, Aldrich Killian, handing it off to Bruce, "I've been doing a little homework," She said, leaning over his shoulder to look at the screen herself. [style=padding: 0px 15px; font-size: smaller;] Words: 639 Music: Nothin o.o Outfit: Click! Notes: Tie ins! [/style]

[Bruce "Batman" Wayne]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i.imgur.com/nxsBbWD.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 2px solid #000; width: 500px; height: 490x; padding: 0px;, bTable] Bruce couldn't help but smirk a little to himself; Eve was unarguably one of - if not the - toughest women in his employ, and she had most other staff entirely bewildered, except for maybe Lucius, but he was an entirely different side of the company. Not that he didn't have as important a role as Eve did, a good thing for Wayne that the pair of them didn't ever fight about where they stood. Still, he knew Eve's buttons, and her joys, which once again saved his saavy ass from the oblivion of the Amherst boot. Maybe that was his super power, being able to claw himself tooth and nail out of pretty much any hole he might have been dropped into, and do it with such elegance and ease, even his greatest enemy couldn't hate him at the end. Bruce Wayne was, and forever would be, a charming bastard. But, the time for charm and chit chat was more or less over - at least for the time being. Comfy in his leather chair, Bruce brought a hand up, resting chin between finger and thumb - the index brushing up over his lip, tucking away just under his nose. "Bio-organic nano tech? I thought we were a few years out of reach of that yet? Didn't the lab boys come back with a report saying that it was possible, but we needed the right resources to even think about making it viable?" Whoever this Aldrich Killian was, Bruce had to give him credit where credit was due - he was beating him in the technology market, at least as far as Bruce was concerned. Anyone who was doing something his boys couldn't was certainly someone worth getting to know - and if there was anyone worth knowing, then they had Bruce Wayne's phone number. Tapping his lip, he looked over the profile presented to him, as well as the pages on the company. AIM. This was definitely something Bruce wanted to chase up. "Do we have any numbers or contacts with him together? If we don't, I want him called - the sooner we can have him on the line, working out a meeting, the sooner we can work this out. If he's got this technology cracked, then you can be sure Wayne tech wants it." His eyes finally pried from the page - his mind now working like clockwork, imagining possibilities and mentally drafting business proposals. This was more than just worth his time, this was going to be extremely important. They weren't up against just anyone, either - this was a doctor, a man who became highly successful out of a product Tony Stark didn't want to buy into. This was 1999 anymore, though, funding wasn't Killian's issue. But, mass production, perhaps? Bruce owned a huge portion of the shipment market, and he had most ins for international shipping. If Killian was producing anything biological, he'd need the right paperwork to get it through, say Europe, or Asia, with little to no trouble by region. "We need to do business with this guy while things are still early. I want us to have some connection before this guy's even in his prime, Eve." [style=padding: 0px 15px; font-size: smaller;] Words: 545 Music: The Ramones are in the background... Outfit: Aw yeah. Notes: Just casually stealin' yer table...Love ya Dev? 8D [/style]