Augmented Aspects: Interlude XXXII (Cassidy) (Patreon)

Interlude XXXII

(Cassidy)

“Cassidy Delilah Ellis,” Cassidy’s mother, Lena, began, in the authoritative way that only a mother could pose. Her tone and demeaner instantly causing tension to form in the underground healing parlor that everyone had collectively begun calling The House. As in, if you are in dire straights and you need help, of any kind, you go to The House.

You need healing, go to The House. You need to a place to stay, go to The House. Need a place to go to once you’ve hit rock bottom, you go to The House. It was a sanctuary. Honestly, after Cassidy, this was the best thing that Lena had ever accomplished in her life. This was why she was so protective over anything involving The House. This was her second child, a legacy that would hopefully live on well after she passed away, not that she had any plans on dying anything soon. Not with her daughter alive and pulling miracles. That was why she was so angered right now. Money had been missing, and worse, all signs showed that it was Cassidy who took the money.

On the one hand, it was all Cassidy’s money, for Cassidy had earned it all on her own. Lena had said that the money would be Cassidy’s after she left this realm, which was why she was so frustrated now about finding over half of the liquid assets gone. This wasn’t a relatively small number either, close to eighty thousand credits all gone. That was hundreds of healings, meals, and most importantly donations given by the community. Yet, Cassidy had stolen the money, not just from her, but from everyone coming to seek shelter and trying to find hope.

Lena had thought that they were on the same page, she thought that Cassidy knew the importance of what they were doing, what they were building. This was why taking away so much money, nearly all of their liquid assets was crippling for a small business like theirs. Yes, they could possibly get it back, if they worked twice as hard, but money at the start was the most important.

“Hello mother, it’s Cruise” Cassidy replied, no sign of tension in her voice as she replied. No sign of ingrained fear that a daughter should have for their mother. Instead, all she got was the calm reprimand of someone who had seemingly tried to tell others a truth that they stubbornly refused to accept.

“What?” Was all Lena managed to reply with.

“My last name is now Cruise, just like Memaw,” Cassidy replied, pausing for a moment, to let that sink in. Lena for her part just paused and stared, and truly wondered just how far astray she had gone, if her own daughter was willing to talk to her like this.

“What did you say?” Lena asked.

“I said, I have changed my last name that of Cruise, to be like Memaw.”

“And just how did you do this?”

“Simple, down here at the House we can do wonderful things, but we can’t do it under our own names. No one is going to respect an Ellis, and connect us to our ancestor. But Cruise, even now it has a certain gravitas to it, that can’t be denied.” The more she spoke, the more it was clear that Cassidy had the basis for either delusion or borderline narcissism forming.

“You created a fake name to be more widely accepted?” Lena found herself asking. Then, before Lena had any real chance to think further about just how unhinged her daughter had become, as if she had started to believe some of the cult like fanaticism that had started to follow her and her abilities. That’s when Cassidy revealed yet another layer to her powers, as her eyes began to glow with an ethereal blue sheen that caused a slight chill to run down Lena’s spine.

“I’ve done more than that, I’ve used this new identity to set up generational wealth,” Cassidy stated, her glowing eyes showing no hint of wavering in their conviction. Looking into those deep glowing blue pools of energy filled with light, Lena could understand why everyone spoke so reverently about her Cassidy. Why everyone was becoming so protective of her and what she meant for the community. Still, hearing her speak, Lena had to ask.

“You know what happened to the missing funds?” Lena barked.

“I do, I invested it,” Cassidy spoke.

“Invested?” Lena asked, her heart beginning to beat slightly as she wondered exactly what was happening.

“Yes, I placed a series of wagers on Memaw, of her winning first place in Regionals, then a separate bet for her to win in each Planetary Positioning match after that,” Cassidy commented. With that, she made a few taps on her arm band, where an electronic display came up, showing that Cassidy was using her personal interface, but not showing what she was interfacing with. Then after a few quick taps, Cassidy made one grand swipe of her hand and sent money directly to her mother.

A distinct chaching sound echoed from Lena’s own interface. This was the interface used for The House. Immediately upon opening the transaction window, Lena was shocked to see the figure before her.

Transaction received from CassidyCruise10201: 125,000,000 credits.

Payable to The House LLC.

Seeing the payment message, Lena’s heart froze for a moment as she realized exactly what she was seeing.

“You earned a hundred and twenty-five million credits, how?”

“By betting on a sure thing,” Cassidy responded.

“You gambled? You know that is like throwing away money, right?” Lena hissed, angered that her daughter could do such a stupid thing. Then pausing for a second, she realized, “wait, how could you do this, you are a minor?”

“I am, but Cassidy Cruise is not,” Cassidy responded, her voice calm and level throughout, as if discussing the weather, versus fraud on a national scale. While Lena had seen Cassidy go to Cassidy Cruise, especially for some of her handles, Lena just thought it was a passing phase. Never did she expect her daughter to take the name seriously.

“You know with this much money, people will investigate,” Lena hissed.

“I know, but I have already transferred these funds through multiple relay accounts before ultimately donating them here.” Cassidy responded, then held up her hands to gesture to the Non-profit that they had set up.

“It’s still fraud, wire fraud, likely tax evasion,” Lena protested.

“Oh I know, I don’t think we will get the full payment for our other wagers, even after they win,” Cassidy commented.

“Wait, there are other wagers?” Lena asked.

“Of course, I had to place some losing bets of a few thousand each to make the account seem legitimate. That way when I bet Seventy-five thousand on Memaw to win everything, it didn’t get flagged immediately. And when I first made the bets, it was before Memaw even had a mechanoid suit, making her ability to win even regionals abysmally low. Which is why each round got us five thousand to one odds,” Cassidy responded, laying out her plan.

Hearing her speak, it was clear that she had been planning this for a while.

“Just how much do you have left in bets still placed?” Lena found herself asking, trying to accept the fact that their non-profit LLC just got a huge windfall that would change their lives forever. That said, this seemed to be something that was not a one-off, but rather one of many bets, at least the way Cassidy was now describing everything.

“I have an additional twenty-five thousand on each round. All at the same five thousand to one odds. I thought it would raise red flags if we bet it all on the first round.” Cassidy explained, and the more she spoke, the more Lena found her rage lessening if slightly.

“You believed in Memaw that much?”

“Of course, I believe in Memaw, but that isn’t why I bet.”

“Wait, why did you bet then?”

“Because I knew the old adage, that The House always wins.”

***(Borris Redgrave)

Borris could only stare in horror at the figures before him. Gulping slightly, he felt the intense grip of something grabbing and squeezing his throat tight, a mental noose caused by his own gambling results.

In an attempt to prove himself, he broke away from the family model, dropping his great grandmother and her brand, and especially dropping his tyrant of a mother from any endorsements. Yet, despite everything his mother and great grandmother were still thriving, still prospering. While he had seen the family fortune slowly erode, one bad investment at a time. Then in a desperate gamble, he resorted to placing wagers. Wagers not against the family, but on opponents that would eventually face the family.

It only took a few moments for Borris to begin making massive wagers for the surefire bets of the Regional Planetary Qualifiers. Placing not an insubstantial amount on Nebula’s Gundgnam Style Force to easily win the Regional Qualifiers. Even at a deficit that would pay fractions on the credit, he chose that as a surefire bet. A surefire bet that lost almost instantly. From there, he doubled down, trying to bet and win back at least his initial investment, but those too came with losses. As every major surefire bet took a hit in some way, shape, or form, that ultimately impacted his wagers, making it so the more he chased, the more he lost.

Now, all Borris could do was stare in horror as the only true bet, the one that he had secretly expected to win but had avoided at all costs was the one involving his Great Grandmother.

Borris watched as the stock ticker for his company continued to drop, as news of his failed projects and direction began trickling through the news agencies from corporate rivals. Normally such articles wouldn’t last more than a day with the fast-paced news cycles, but this time the articles seemed to stick.

Articles like: Redgrave Betrayal Unfolded. Family Coo Ending At Own Bad Investments, and more all kept perpetuating the horrific handling of Borris and the remaining Redgrave board members for the family business that seemed to be dying a slow miserable death by a thousand cuts. A thousand cuts that all cost expensive Band-Aids to fix, treat, and somehow still managed to cause infections.

This was not the end, but barring any major changes, the Redgrave empire, once an unstoppable commercial conglomerate built on advertising through their highly marketable Great Grandmother would soon end. That was when Borris decided that if the Redgrave Empire would fall, he would make sure to take out his annoying Great Grandmother with him. That was when he went full nuclear.

Picking up his communicator, Borris made a quick tap to Allen, his one retainer still on permanent staffing.

Ding. Ding. Ding. The communications connection chimed out multiple times. Watching the time tick by, Borris realized just how far he had fallen, when there was a time when one of three people would have jumped to answer his calls. Now it seemed that no one wanted to answer. Just before he was about to hang up, and somewhat groggy Allen answered.

“Hello?” Allen asked.

“Pull all funding from the Afterlife Initiative,” Borris declared.

“We already have—”

“Not just from the Biprism server, but all servers. We are ending our investments with the entire venture.”

“Are you sure? We don’t have much of a business model outside of that space,” Allen protested.

“Kill it, we are now and forever done with the Afterlife Initiative,” Borris repeated himself something he rarely had to do in the past as everyone automatically jumped to fulfill his commands.

“On it,” Allen replied, though there seemed to be a hint of animosity in his response.

With that settled, Borris stared at the tickers and realized he now had to figure out what to do with the rest of his life, now that he would no longer support the Afterlife Initiative. In his mind, the future was clear. There would be a way forward, and it would not involve the Afterlife Initiative, his Great Grandmother, or Biprism in any way shape or form. For that was all in the past.

As for now, Borris had his sights set solely on the future.