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The Firm's Oldest Client

Crushedbyheels

Crushedbyheels

Star
Joined
Oct 10, 2011
Location
Three houses down from Carmen Sandiego
He approached the opulent mansion in his beat up old car and felt decidedly out of place. People expected lawyers to be rich, and they were; but they weren't this early in their careers. Arthur Helmick could still hear his knees creaking under the weight of his student debt. He had a bright future ahead of him, unfortunately that future was not now.

He drove into what the owner probably called a driveway but what he couldn't help but think of as a parking lot and got out. He could still remember looking over the file they had handed them. If the file was to be completely believed, the firm had been on this woman's retainer for multiple centuries. He'd thought it was a family retainer, but the liver spotted old man on the board who had given him the file had said no, the file was right, and he would understand in time.

He was getting the job because he was Lawrence Tyler's protoge, he knew that. This had been old Mr. Tyler's account, and it would be Mr. Tyler here instead of him if Mr. Tyler hadn't died a few weeks ago. Arthur taking over this account had been in Mr. Tyler's WILL.

The account couldn't be four hundred or whatever years old. There had to be an error somewhere. He liked to think he was charitable in his actions, but he couldn't control his darker thoughts, and as he pressed the doorbell he glumly considered the prospect of working constantly with some decrepit fossil.
 
Alisa was sitting on her couch eating some grapes and drinking a glass of centuries old port when she heard the doorbell, she stood up, she had been casually lounging around in some silk pajamas and a silk robe, her platinum thigh length blonde hair was far from perfect at this hour, but it couldnt be that important, she was five foot eleven with grey eyes and soft yet firm features, she walked to the door and opened it, there before her stood a man in a suit carrying a briefcase, she recognized the man immediately as a lawyer from a law firm, she started to close the door, "Sorry, i already have a lawyer, Mr. Tyler, im sure you have heard of him?"
 
He stared stunned for a moment after door opened. Old fossil? This had to be the daughter. Maybe the granddaughter. There was no way the firm's "oldest client" could be the stunningly beautiful woman that was closing the door.

She was closing the door!

"Miss!" he said, desperately putting his foot in to blocke the door. "Miss, Mr. Tyler died! Last month! I'm Arthur Helmick, I worked for him. I've been assigned to your account!
 
Alisa stopped in her tracks, "Tyler...Dead?" she bit her lip and opened the door, "Come inside, how did it happen, that man was very loyal and i took care of him as he took care of me, he was my oldest friend, greatest ally and only confidant, you look to be fresh out of law school." She glanced over his shoulder at the car, "Oh my you are arent you, dont you know about Ford Pintos? Upon rear impact the gas tank may explode, tsk tsk, if you are going to be my lawyer i must have you look the part, dont worry ill fix that, but first you have to prove to me you are capable of actually working for me, i have something id like you to handle, mister." She paused, "Im sorry what was your name again?
 
He stopped short. Things were happening pretty fast.

"Arthur Helmick," he said. "He was an old friend to me too, Ma'am. Took care of me all the way through law school. He actually left instructions in his will that I be put on your case, and I was glad to have his confidence. I'm happy to help with anything you have for me. There was actually something I wanted to discuss with you, some misfiled paperwork. According to the file they gave me you're over four hundred years old."
 
"Now now mister helmick one thing at a time, lets make a deal, you handle this simple yet bothersome item for me, and ill answer all you want to know." She walked over to a table by the door and picked up a folder with a few papers in it, "Here." She handed it to him, "This is what you will need, you see some time ago some family heirlooms fell out of my possession, some coins if you will, dating back to the Elizabethian period, they were very dear to me, and it seems some misdealings along the way have put them in a collectors shop, i have visited there myself and he has refused to give them to me without me paying, i could buy his entire shop if i wanted to, but its the principal you see, just do whatever is necessary to make this man realize he has made a mistake, dont treat him like a common thief, because my reliable sources tell me that he isnt just a coin collector, everything you need is in that folder, nothing less, nothing more."
 
"Uhm, yes ma'am," he said, as she stepped back and closed the door. Well, she was a client, and it WAS his job to deal with these kind of things. He looked through the folder. Well there were authentic proofs of ownership in there; from hundreds of years ago. He was coming to understand his client and her family had a lot of deep connections to their past.

The shop was in a small, dark corner of the city. He opened the door to a strange, musty smell.

"Mr...Vatrius?" he called out. "I'm, ah, I'm here about a legal matter..."

The man who stepped out of the back of the shop was hunched over and wearing a black cloak.

"The tiresome matter of the coins," he said. "Very well, I'll discuss it. Come into my back room and we'll talk."

He followed the man into his back room. It was full of strange things in cases and bottles. Arthur sat down across from the man.

"Sir," he said, "I think you'll find that if this goes to court, the coins will be awarded to my client. Precedent like in the cases of Greek artifacts...."

"This will never go to court," the cloaked man said. "Quiet. The Shae are talking."

Arthur felt the room shiver. He saw Images. His client in a series of historical dresses. A winged creature flew over the city, screeching. And less identifiable things, things half seen in the dark, geonetric shapes with the angles just slightly off in ways that were somehow disturbing. It felt for a horribly second lilt an ice cold tentacle wrapped around his brain. It was done hours or seconds after it began, he couldn't tell. The coins were in his palm.

"How interesting," the man said. He looked...disappointed? "Take the coins. You've withstood what none before you have. Good luck, young man."

He left the shop hurriedly, clutching the coins. He was worried whatever hallucinogen he'd inhaled in there would make driving unsafe, but he made it back to his client's hone fine and presented her with the coins.
 
Alisa took them from his hands, "Come inside, and ill answer any questions you have to ask, but you have to promise me this, your teacher mister tyler, i was his only client, because he knew a few secrets of mine that of which you yourself are going to discover and therefore must cater to me exclusively, dont worry, i wont leave you starving and out in the cold, mister tyler was well taken care of and if it is true that he left my entire case to you then you shall be taken care of very handsomely as well." She lead him to her gigantic living room and sat down on a ten piece sectional leather couch, "Come, sit, ask everything you want to know, but one question at a time, not for my sake, for yours, i dont want to just start blurting out answers and overwhelm you with information."
 
Alisa_Perne said:
Alisa took them from his hands, "Come inside, and ill answer any questions you have to ask, but you have to promise me this, your teacher mister tyler, i was his only client, because he knew a few secrets of mine that of which you yourself are going to discover and therefore must cater to me exclusively, dont worry, i wont leave you starving and out in the cold, mister tyler was well taken care of and if it is true that he left my entire case to you then you shall be taken care of very handsomely as well." She lead him to her gigantic living room and sat down on a ten piece sectional leather couch, "Come, sit, ask everything you want to know, but one question at a time, not for my sake, for yours, i dont want to just start blurting out answers and overwhelm you with information."
Click to expand...

"Well I can appreciate that," he said, sitting down across from her. "Alright, one question at a time then. What exactly are these secrets? Does it have anything to do with the legal fiction that you're several hundred years old?"
 
"That isnt fiction." She simply stated, "Its truth, im not a mortal human being, im the most dangerous predator on the face of this earth." She smiled showing her fangs, "Tell me what I am mister helmick, you know in your brain im not real, that im just one of bram stokers made up fairy tales, but here i sit before you." She licked her fangs, "Say the word, what, am, i?"
 
"What else must i do to prove to you sir that your legal so called error is not an error i am in fact well over four hundred years old and am i vampire, my teeth are real, not fake, i feed on human blood and do not go out at night, although a few myths are false, i rather fancy garlic in my food and i am wearing a cross necklace made of silver, the turning to ash in the sun is though, sadly, i cannot enjoy my life to its fullest because of this, but reguardless, here i am, a living, well rather, dead but still walking vampire, what other questions do you have sir?"
 
He stared at her for a second.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I just can't accept that you're a vampire. What am supposed to say to that, ma'am? I'll be your lawyer, and I'll do my best for you, but how do I tell you to prove it? Do I go find a pedestrian for you to drink from? Do I ask you to turn into a bat? I'm afraid I don't now how to ask you to prove it. Maybe we'd best just move on from here accepting that I think you believe it..."
 
"You know mister tyler had a lot less of a hard time accepting this fact, of course he was older and wiser, maybe when you have been around for a while you will learn to accept this reality, as for moving on, what are you doing tonight, ive been alone for a while, and if im going to be taking care of you, id like to get to know you over dinner, then we can work on the finances on your end and get everything in order for you to ensure you are well off as i will be your only client."
 
"I would be perfectly happy to have dinner," he said with a sigh, relieved they were off the vampire issue. "Here, or will we be going out?" She really was beautiful, he thought. And thinking you were a vampire wasn't all that bad, as long as you didn't go around actually trying to drink out of people. All in all it would be a pleasure to have a real dinner with a beautiful woman for once instead of another reheated hoagie.
 
"Out of course, we will eat at the finest french restaraunt in this city, and drink some of its finest wine, you will have a sampling of the finer life that you have began living as of this moment, and as for your vehicle and all of the rest of your finances i will have that taken care of by my accountant, i dont know if you know anything about what i paid mister tyler but if you knew him long enough he was a very wealthy lawyer for having only one client, wasnt he? Always in a new suit, not a care on his face, a car for every day of the week, if he chose so, all he had to do was keep my secret and take care of any legal matters i asked him to."
 
"I don't know if I'd need all that," he said. "I've always wanted to be...comfortable, I guess. But I'm certainly willing to let you treat me to dinner! I think a car for every day of the week would be a little much for me. But I can certainly keep your secret," it was still a secret even if he believed it was a delusion "and I'll definitely handle your legal matters."
 
"As you wish, but as you can see the sun is still up so dinner cannot be had yet, please ask me anything else you wish to know, im sure youre wondering how someone like i have legal matters, dont worry though its nothing you cannot handle simple things really, and the more complicated stuff will come later on, but for now you will be working little and making alot." She poured them each a glass of wine from the bottle that was on the table next to the couch, "So tell me what made you become a lawyer and how did you inherit mister tylers case?"
 
"Mister Tyler said in his will," he said, "that I should take the case. That the board should give it to me, I mean. I don't know why he picked me, but I'm glad to have had his confidence. I became a lawyer because I was good at it, really. It was one of the options available, and it sounded like something I could use to make a little money and be useful. So it's what I did." he took a sip of wine.
 
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