<div class="floatleft">(https://i.pinimg.com/564x/08/dc/b6/08dcb66af76f79ed5eb8a99d80d99931.jpg)</div><br/><hr/><br/><div align="center"><strong>Date / Time:</strong> Friday 30th, Early Afternoon</div><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Name:</strong><strong>Dimitrius Maranzano</strong>(https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=334101.msg15907266#msg15907266)<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong><strong>Simple business suit without tie, half-unbuttoned shirt and undone jacket</strong>(https://www.elleman.vn/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/26/elle-man-viet-nam-bi-quyet-chinh-phuc-phong-cach-thoi-trang-suit-nam-khong-ca-vat4-475x573.jpg)<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Shady Acres<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Marisa<br/><strong>Warnings:</strong>None<br/><br/><hr/><br/>As was often the case during the lead-up to the summer festival in Yggdrasil, the weather that day was exceptionally good. Well. It was<em>sunny,</em>at the very least, and that brought with it a great deal of summer heat. Whether that was good or not, well, that was a matter of perspective, wasn't it? If you worked outside doing any kind of field-work, you would be grateful for at least a lack of rain to make your job miserable. But if you had any kind of manual labour job, well, the heat would be most unwelcome because it made your job about ten times more unpleasant. If you worked inside, with a nice, Ice-Type-cooled room, you'd barely notice the warmth...and yet, down in Delinquent Town, anybody stuck inside the shanty houses would soon find themselves overheating in the sweltering warmth. The kids would love it, giving them a chance to go and play in the nearby park or splash in the nearby rivers, and he guaranteed that the more reptillian Pokemon living in Yggdrasil would relish the chance to bask in the sunlight for a change. Grass types, too, were probably enjoying the sudden surge of light and heat, especially after the mid-week storms they'd had, but he couldn't imagine Ice or Water types were particularly happy about it. Not everybody was going to feel the same about the weather, after all; it was all dependent on where you stood.<br/><br/>And that was something you had to consider in wider life, too; the same details, the same reality, but possibly two very different - and not incorrect or mutually exclusive - conclusions. Everybody's good luck was somebody's bad luck. Somebody's good day could be somebody else's bad day, and somebody's dream could easily be somebody else's nightmare. That was something you always had to consider, when making judgements about circumstances and people both. Take the festival that was due to start on Monday; it was a huge celebration for the people of Yggdrasil, a celebration of the coming of summer and the start of a new harvest year. It was a celebration of prosperity and wealth and strength and unity, and this year, it was also celebrating the ascension of a brand new King. For the last ten years the throne had sat empty, the Kingdom guided by the Queen Regent and the late king's Brother, Darius. But now? Now was the time they revealed the Chosen Heir of Xerneas, and completed the ritual to bring prosperity to the land. A new ruler, a new cycle...that was something that people in Midtown and Castletown would obviously be excited about.<br/><br/>But Delinquent Town? Why would they be excited? All it was was a change in the people stepping on their throats. It was a new monarch who would ignore them at best and revile them at worst for - supposedly - killing a member of his family. It was an excuse for Yggdrasil to party and celebrate, and rub it in the Mistype's collective faces that they weren't allowed to join in. Nothing had been organised for the residents of Delinquent Town, and if Lady Anna was to be believed, they intended on checkpointing the entrances to control the flow of "undesirables" into the festival. Celebration for one...and a reminder of their oppression for the other. A matter of perspective, as always. And of course, with every reminder of how bad they had it, the potential for trouble grew. Hence his and Lady Anna's plan to try to distract the residents of Delinquent Town with a celebration of their own; they could see this as another changing of the guard, another spoke on the wheel grinding them into the dirt...or they could choose to be optimistic. They could celebrate the new King as a chance at a new start, a chance for their Kingdom to finally accept them.<br/><br/>If they celebrated his ascension and welcomed him, then perhaps it would endear them to him, make him stop and consider what relationship he wanted with them. Perspectives were key to understanding the populace, but even a small shift could send shockwaves through the perceptions and perspectives that people had of<em>you.</em>At the very least, if the residents of Delinquent Town were busy drinking and having fun, then they weren't busy causing riots or getting into fights with the guards at the gates, now were they? The residents saw this as a way to lift their spirits and spit back at the Townies who thought that they could rub their faces in not being allowed to join the festivities, and those in power saw it as a way to stop the unrest and resentment bubbling over somewhere else. A matter of perspective; neither wrong, simply different. And in the center of this warground of perspectives, this clashing of ideals, the eye of the storm that was relations between the slums and the city that had abandoned them years ago? The man forced to juggle the justified resentment of the people he ruled, and the utter overwhelming disadvantage they were at if they actually tried to do anything about it? His mind was heavy with the differing perspectives, and just what they all might lead to.<br/><br/>Dimitrius Maranzano, unofficial "Mayor" of Delinquent Town and de facto ruler of the downtrodden sat in his private office in Shady Acres, the walled estate he had had constructed on the south-western side of Delinquent Town. The placement had been deliberate; as far from the city as possible, so that you could see his manor without having to look at the source of the oppression his people faced, so they would dissassociate him from that center of power. The construction was obviously wealthy and high-class, but also humble and homely; he had a large manor, yes, but it was not ostentatious or garish. The gardens were open to everybody, and he did not claim vast swathes of land around his home as his own. During the day, his doors were open at certain times to those who wished to have an impromptu meeting with him, and his staff were all hand-picked for their ability from the people he guided. Perception and perspective were equally important, and whilst he wanted to make it clear that he was a man of wealth, means and power - which discouraged open opposition and garnered a great deal of automatic respect - it was also important that he remain approachable. That he reminded the people he was there for<em>them,</em>and that he had clawed his way up from the bottom to where he was, so he understood and empathised with their struggles. That he was more than capable of seeing their<em>perspective.</em><br/><br/>Dimitrius's office sat on the first floor, up a flight of stairs from the main entrance to sit in the corner of the elevated south-eastern section of his home. It sat high enough to see over the modest wall that enclosed the compound, and looked out over the lake that he had painstakingly seen to purifying with the help of the local poison and water-type residents, so that everybody could enjoy it. On such a hot day, he could see the far bank littered with Mistype children splashing in the cooling water, overlooked by some of the men he had repurposed to lifeguards for this particular day, which were primarily made up of Sharpedo and Tentacruel but also featured a few Jellicent here and there. The inside of the office was, again, tastefully decorated and yet not garish or gaudy. Instead it relied on high quality darkwood, simple-yet-beautifully crafted furniture and deep, warm colours - like plush reds and deep browns - to give it a more homely, inviting look. The entire south-east wall was in fact a large window through which the lake and Delinquent Town - and Yggdrasil itself, in the distance - could be seen, and the door into the office had been placed in the northern wall directly perpendicular to the view.<br/><br/>Opposite the window was a large bookshelf dominating the western wall, filled to the brim with treatsies, novels, encyclopedias and various stacks of important documents collected into locked binders that often required frequent inspection. Dotted amongst the shelves were various trinkets and display items, from curios he had procured from pawn shops, trophies from important victories, and the occasional portrait of various loved ones he had met through the years. More than a few of them seemed to show a young Purrloin at various stages of her life, usually doing something rather adorable. The center of the room was largely taken up with a small table surrounded by four plush, comfortable chairs, though that was set off slightly to one side, closer to the bookshelf than the window. On the opposite side of the room to the door - perpendicular to the window - sat Dimitrius's large, sturdy looking work-desk at which he currently sat in the large black chair that was backed up against the wall. Two chairs sat on the opposite side of the desk, currently empty but clearly recently sat in.<br/><br/>Though the window gave him an excellent view of his erstwhile Kingdom, Dimitrius was currently unable to enjoy the view, focused as he was on a small stack of paperwork detailing some of the last minute preparations being completed for the Delinquent Festival that was due to begin in only two days time. The heat of the day - and his lack of immediate appointments until at least the evening - had provoked him into loosening his usual formal attire, his tie hanging off of a small rack on one side of his desk rather than his neck. To get some heat regulation going, he had unbuttoned his suit blazer and the top half of the buttons of his shirt to let his skin breathe, revealing his chiselled pectorals and the top of his abs, currently pricked with a thin, slightly gleaming layer of sweat. Being a Grass type, he handled the sun better than most, but the high temperatures combined with the stress of what was on his mind considering the next week's goings-on had kind of overcome that resistance. Besides, forest fires were a thing that happened in heatwaves, so it balanced out. He shut the drawer he had been rifling through - carefully replacing the large pile of thank-you letters he kept in there for motivation on his off days - and set down the ink-and-quill set he had just retreived, placing it over one of the small number of scratch marks from what looked like claws that ran across certain areas of the desk. He placed the well down just in front of the framed portrait of him and an elegant-looking Liepard smiling in the garden (with him wearing a ridiculous-looking party hat, of course) that he had on his desk, unscrewing the lid of the well to dip the quill in to begin the arduous task of signing and dating what felt like a thousand different sheets of paper.<br/><br/>He was perhaps half an hour into the task when he heard movement from outside his office, and sensed a presence pulsing as she made her way to the door such that as she entered, she found him already making eye contact with a broad, welcoming smile.<strong>"Ah, Mari,"</strong>he said warmly,<strong>"Perfect timing."</strong>He gestured for her to enter, eyeing the stack of papers she had in her arms.<strong>"Though perhaps I shall have to retract that statement, considering what you seem to have brought me."</strong>He gave her a genuine chuckle, turning his body to shift the papers on his desk around to make room for her latest payload. As he moved, his jacket pulled tight around his broad shoulders, and the top half of his shirt fell open a little wider.<strong>"Please, come in! I trust the heat isn't bothering you too much?"</strong>He lifted an eyebrow at her outfit - the long, flowing dress certainly looked a little more than stuffy, though he knew better than most how airy those things could be - and dragged his eyes up and down to check her outfit...though the sheer amount of leg her dress revealed was not lost on him.<br/><br/>He continued nonetheless, keeping his gaze respectfully brief...though a small, flirtatious smirk did cross his lips.<strong>"As gorgeous as that dress looks on you, perhaps you might prefer something with a few less layers?"</strong>He teased, eyes twinkling flirtatiously,<strong>"I have a few outfits that could help stave off heatstroke, and would look rather...<em>fetching</em> on you to boot."</strong>The offer was genuine, of course - the heat was rather oppressive - but he couldn't help the flirtatious undercurrent from seeping in. He knew precisely how he sounded, and to a certain degree, he meant it; he could see that Mari was interested in him...she just hadn't plucked up the courage to say as much yet. He very much returned the interest - she was kindhearted, generous, hard-working, dedicated and beautiful, so why wouldn't he adore her? - but he also knew the power he held...so it was important that she not feel pressured. Still, there was nothing saying he couldn't<em>flirt</em>a little, now was there?<br/><br/><strong>"Although, Mari, you really should stop sleeping at your desk. It isn't good for you."</strong>His voice turned a little more stern, and just a touch unimpressed. Not much, but enough to indicate that he was worried. Oh yes, he knew. He could wax lyrical about how the late hour, her delayed appearance at his side, the slight flush to her cheeks and the slight hurriedness of her stride all told him what had happened, but to be honest, it wasn't that deep; he'd walked past her on his way through the house, and had decided to let her wake up on her own.<strong>"If you don't take care of yourself, you <em>will</em> end up burning yourself out, and that is not something I want to see happen. You're important to me, Mari, and your health is just as important - if not more so - than your duties to me. Understood?"</strong>He fixed her with a<em>look,</em>as if to punctuate the point. The words were admonishing, yes, but also...gentle, in a way, flooded with sincere concern and just a little bit of stern bass. He might not be in a relationship with her, but if she wasn't going to take care of herself, he was going to start making sure that she did. The look lingered for a moment before his face relaxed back into his trademark charming, flirty smirk.<br/><br/><strong>"Of course,"</strong>he said consideringly, leaning back in his chair and lounging casually, crossing his hand over his stomach as he tilted his head to one side,<strong>"If you'd rather not sleep in your own bed, I'm certain I could find a more...<em>comfortable</em> place for you to curl up if you wanted. I've been told by my...<em>friends</em>...that I'm very good at that. All you have to do is ask me nicely~"</strong>He gave her a saucy wink - leaving it in no doubt that the "comfortable place" could well be<em>his</em>bed or his lap, if she so desired - and finished with a smile. Honestly, it would be so much simpler if she just admitted that she wanted him; it was obvious to anybody with eyes, and she must be able to see that he reciprocated her desire. But...they needed to do this dance at her pace, not his. Her comfort was of paramount importance. But still, it<em>would</em>be easier; if he was her<em>Daddy,</em>he would have carried her gently to bed, kissed her forehead goodnight and made sure she woke up to a full, proper breakfast. But at this moment...he was her boss, so it wasn't his place. He could flirt, but there were boundaries to observe. Hopefully not for much longer, but still! They were there<em>at that moment,</em>and this was the pace that she chose.<strong>"So what do you have for me today?"</strong>He said, returning to business...though still with that flirty look on his face. He knew she wanted him, but he wasn't going to go any faster than what she was comfortable with; her comfort, her<em>safety</em>was what was important. Period.