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"High Rolling"Written By: ShenLong Disclaimer: I don't own the Gundam boys, they belong to Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. I just borrow them from time to time and return them a whole lot happier. I have also used inspiration from the Cirque Du Soleil show 'Zumanity' for this fic without permission; also several of the hotels that will feature in this fic are real. No disrespect is intended to the show or the hotels. Written for pleasure not profit. Rating: NC 17 Pairings: 1x2x1, 3x4x3 Warnings: Yaoi, Lemons, limes, angst, sap, OOC, AU, gambling Summary: Duo is a multi millionaire having made his money in computer games and is working himself into the ground. Hilde, his secretary and best friend convinces him to take a vacation – to Las Vegas. Dedication: To Leslie, not only for giving me the plot bunny and breeding said plot bunny by taking me to see the show but for also being a wonderful friend and excellent 'tour guide'. Hope you enjoy what Fred did with the idea, Les! *hugs* Betaed by the ever patient Karina *snugs* Archive: www.gundam-wing-diaries.foreverfandom.net Anyone else please ask.
"High Rolling" August. 2015 ShenLong Chapter 21 “I suppose so,” Duo replied. “Quatre didn't say much on the phone.” “Do you think we will be able to spend any time together tomorrow?” “What time are your performances?” “Three and nine. I will be at the theater for warm up and preparation from two. The first show finishes around five and I'll need to be back again for seven-thirty – eight o'clock for the second show and that should finish around eleven. I'll have a couple of hours between shows and completely done by eleven-thirty,” Heero replied. “I'll know more once I've met with Quatre and I can give you a call so we can arrange to meet up at some stage.” “That would be wonderful.” “Great.” Duo reclined his seat a little, hand entwined with Heero's as the aircraft flew into the night. All too soon the captain announced they were beginning their descent into Vegas, Duo peering out the dark window and picking up on the city lights. It never ceased to amaze him how there was this thriving metropolis smack bang in the middle of the desert. Darkness all around and then suddenly this glow of neon lights appeared. The plane landed safely, the four opting to wait a few moments and let the rest of the passengers disembark before joining onto the end of the line and exiting the aircraft. Luggage carousel was the next stop and with the bags all located it was time to wander through the gates to where the public waited. Heero and Wufei had caught a cab to the airport, Trowa would be waiting for Duo and Hilde. Walking out into the public area, Duo immediately picked up on Trowa, the tall man standing just to the back of the small crowd. Noting Duo's arrival, Trowa weaved his way through the people to the long haired programmer. “Mr. Maxwell, Miss Schbeiker . It's good to see you both again and thank you for coming,” Trowa greeted and shook hands. “Trowa, it's good to see you again too and thank you for picking us up,” Duo replied. Noting the other two men with the couple he'd come to collect, Trowa did recognize Heero from the billboard advertisement and the first time Duo had stayed with them, but he was surprised to see him. “I remember you from before, but I'm afraid I can't recall your name,” he said politely and offered a hand. “Heero, Heero Yuy. I'm part of the cast of the Cirque Du Soleil show, Zumanity and this is my trainer and good friend, Chang Wufei. I'm also Duo's boyfriend.” Heero said with a definitive air and shook the offered hand. “It's a pleasure to meet you again,” Trowa said, shaking Heero's hand before turning to Wufei. “And you too, Mr. Chang.” Releasing the hand an awkward silence fell over the group for a moment before Heero broke it. “I guess we will catch up later,” he said to Duo and stepped closer to his boyfriend. “Ah, yeah, I guess so. I'll call you tomorrow,” Duo replied. “Do you need a lift, Mr. Yuy?” Trowa stated with a small smile. “No, that's okay, Wufei and I will get a cab,” Heero said. “Mr. Yuy, there is more than enough room in the car and I'd be happy to drop you back at your accommodations.” “Are you sure? We don't want to impose or anything,” Heero said, a little unsure. “I assure you, it's no problem. Where are you residing?” “The New York, New York.” “We will be passing right by there on our way to the Bellagio. If you would care to follow me, gentlemen?” Trowa turned and motioned to another man waiting behind him to take the luggage trolley. Duo sidled up alongside Heero as they made their way out of the terminal and took the other man's hand. “It was kind of Trowa to offer you a lift,” he whispered. “Yeah, it is good of him. It also means I get to spend a little more time with you,” Heero replied and snuck in to partake of a quick kiss. The chauffeur took care of their bags, the four men and Hilde taking seats inside the limo and within minutes they were on their way. Pulling into the New York, New York Hotel drop off area, Trowa got out of the limo to assist the chauffeur with the bags and give the two couples a little privacy to say their goodbyes. “I'll call you tomorrow and let you know what's going on and arrange to meet up,” Duo said, whispering the words against Heero's lips. “You'd better,” Heero replied and stole another kiss. “I know exactly where you are and I'll hunt you down if you don't.” Wufei and Hilde were similarly exchanging promises to meet on the following day. “I don't know exactly what my role in these meetings with Duo and Quatre are, but as soon as I do I'll let you know.” “Thank you. I really do hope we can spend some time together during this week,” Wufei stated and partook of a kiss. “Thanks for coming to LA, it was wonderful having you stay,” Duo murmured. “Thank you for having me to stay and taking us out and about. I had a really good time, Duo.” Heero spotted Trowa returning to the car. “I have to go. Call me tomorrow?” “You can count on it.” Duo smiled as he released Heero from his arms and the performer slipped out of the limo, Wufei seconds behind him. “Thank you, Mr. Barton,” Wufei said. “It was very kind of you to give us a lift back. Heero nodded to the tall man. “It was my pleasure, gentlemen, I hope we meet again soon,” Trowa replied. He turned and got back into the limo, the chauffeur shutting the door and climbing behind the wheel. Duo and Hilde waved as the car took them back to the main strip and the Bellagio hotel. * “I have taken the liberty of putting you in the same room as the first time you were here, Mr. Maxwell, Miss Schbeiker. I hope that is alright?” Trowa stood behind the small desk, scanning the key cards before handing them over. “Duo, please, and that's fine,” Duo grinned, taking the offered key card. “Quatre sends his apologies that he's not here to speak with you this evening, but he asked if you would join him for breakfast at nine. He has taken the liberty of reserving the chef's table at the Bellagio Buffet. I will send one of the porters to escort you to the Buffet at eight-fifty.” “That sounds great, thank you, Trowa.” “It's my pleasure, Duo. Oh, I almost forgot, would you care for some dinner at all? I don't know if you've already eaten or not. If you're hungry I can have a table reserved for you in any of the restaurants or send up room service if you'd prefer?” “Nah, that's fine. We did eat before we left and if we're hungry I can always call down for room service. Thanks anyway,” Duo replied. “If there's nothing else I will leave you in peace,” Trowa said with a smile. “Thanks, we will see you tomorrow,” Duo replied and followed the porter to the private elevator. * * * Duo yawned again as he stepped out of his bedroom and into the main area of the suite. He needed some coffee to fully wake him up. He grinned as he noted Hilde standing by the coffee machine, patiently waiting for it to finish brewing. “Morning,” he said and reached for a mug. “Morning, Duo,” Hilde replied. “Sleep okay?” “Yeah, like the dead. Coffee nearly done?” “Almost.” Both were showered and dressed ready for their breakfast meeting with Quatre, just needing that caffeine fix to bring them to full alertness. “What time did Trowa say the porter would be here?” Hilde asked as she pulled the coffee carafe out and poured them both a cup. “Eight-fifty I think,” Duo replied. “Thanks.” He took the offered coffee and sipped greedily at it. A glance at the clock told him they had about ten minutes before the porter would be there to collect them. “Any idea yet what this is all about?” Hilde asked, sitting at the bar top. “Nope, not a clue. All he said over the phone to me was that he had something he needed advice on and I was the person he needed to talk to.” Duo scratched his head. “I have no idea what it is or what help I could be. I'm just a computer game designer, nothing at all to do with business.” There came a knock at the door. “Guess we're going to find out very soon. I think that's the porter,” Hilde said and went to open the door. * “Ah, Duo, Miss Schbeiker,” Quatre stood and greeted as the pair approached. “Thank you so much for coming.” “Quatre, it's our pleasure,” Duo replied and returned the offered handshake, giving a nod to Trowa who was also present. “Thank you for inviting us,” Hilde said with a smile and took her seat. With Hilde seated, the other three men also sat. “I guess you're curious as to why I asked you both to come here?” “The thought had crossed my mind,” Duo chuckled. “Let's all get something to eat first and I can explain as we eat. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm feeling rather hungry.” “That sounds good to me,” Duo said. Despite his curiosity as to what the blonde could possibly want from him, Duo was rather hungry and always thought better on a full stomach. “I hope you don't mind the breakfast buffet? It does have a large selection of foods, or if you prefer, I can have the chefs make something to your liking?” Quatre said as he stood once again. “No, no, the breakfast buffet is fine. Hilde and I ate here before and found it to be most impressive,” Duo replied. “More like you stuffed your face until you couldn't walk,” Hilde muttered under her breath as she stood and turned to walk towards the buffet. “Ouch!” she hissed a moment later. Duo managed to give the woman a poke to the ribs without Quatre or Trowa noticing. “You didn't have any problem gorging yourself either from what I remember,” he whispered at her. “Yeah, well... There's so much food and such a wide variety it's hard not to overindulge,” she shot back. Duo decided to leave it at that and picked up a plate, moving off to peruse the many offerings the buffet held. * Quatre waited until everyone had eaten their fill and were sitting back enjoying coffee or tea before speaking in regards to his reasons for having Duo come to Vegas. “Duo, as I said on the phone, I need your advice on something. It's an idea that I've been tossing around for a few days and whilst the idea sounds good, I don't have the inner knowledge to figure out if it would be viable or not.” Seeing the look of curiosity and confusion deepening on the computer game designer's face, Quatre gave up on trying to order his words into something logical sounding and decided to simply 'go with the flow'. “If you would come with me for a moment please?” The two guests stood up and followed Quatre and Trowa out onto the main gaming floor of the casino. “Duo, take a look around and tell me what you see,” Quatre requested with a wave of his arm around the complex. Not sure if this was a trick question or not and still confused, Duo did as requested. “I see a casino, slot machines, card tables and things like that. I also see people scattered about playing those machines or tables,” he said and returned his attention to Quatre. “I see the same thing, but not a lot of people,” Hilde stated. “Exactly,” Quatre stated. “Yes, there are slots, tables and all the usual things one would find in a casino, but not a lot of people.” “Don't forget it's still early by Vegas standards,” Duo chuckled. “By the evening there will be a lot more people in here playing.” “In one way you are correct, but come the evening, yes, there will be more people in here playing, but nowhere near the number there used to be – and therein lies my problem.” “Eh? I don't quite follow,” Duo said and scratched his neck. “If you're not getting large volumes of people into the casino I can see how it would affect your profits, but I still don't see how that relates to me in any way.” “Have a closer look at the people in here,” Quatre urged. “Most of them are middle aged to older from what I can see,” Hilde said with a frown. “That's right,” Quatre beamed. “Duo, you are right in saying the lack of people is affecting the profits. Also there aren't any younger people coming to the casino's much anymore. I need to find a way to bring the people back, get them in and playing and draw in a lot more of the younger generations.” “I suggest you'd need some sort of marketing campaign then,” Duo responded, still puzzled. “What I need is to come up with a new game for the casino, something that the other casinos don't have and lure the people back here, specifically the younger set.” “Ahh.” The penny finally began to drop for Duo. “Duo, you are an expert when it comes to designing and programming computer games. A casino game isn't all that much different to a computer game. What I've been thinking about is coming up with a new machine along the lines of a computer game. Something that will appeal to the younger generations, something that's more interactive, requires some skill to play as well as chance.” “And you want to know if it would be possible?” Duo stated. “Yes.” Closing his eyes for a moment, Duo thought long and hard, his stomach fluttering in anticipation of a new challenge. Opening his eyes again, he locked them with Quatre's. “Quatre, I'm not completely sure how you would put together something like this, there is a lot involved. Playing levels, graphics, plot line to name a few; but... Considering all of that, I think it would be possible to come up with something along the lines of what you're suggesting.” The smile on the blonde's face was so bright Duo contemplated putting his sunglasses on. “Thank you, Duo.” The blonde turned to Trowa. “See, I told you it could be done,” he stated. Trowa shook his head. “I didn't say it couldn't be done, I just said it would be a nightmare to try and figure out.” “Duo,if you would be so kind as to come to my office, I'd like to discuss this more in depth with you.” “Uh, sure.” Duo wasn't too sure how much help he could be, but he was curious to investigate more of this proposal. “Miss Hilde, if Duo doesn't mind, would I be able to utilize your services as secretary in this? We will need someone to keep notes and I really don't want to involve any more people than absolutely necessary until we can be sure this idea is viable and possible.” Hilde looked at Duo. “I'm fine with that if it's okay with Duo.” “No problem for me. I'm happy for Hilde to do that, actually she can probably be of some help too.” When Hilde's eyebrow raised, Duo clarified his words. “She's played a lot of slots over time as well as computer games and has quite the knack of knowing if something is good or not. I think she will be an asset.” The woman in question began to blush from the praise and promised herself not to tease Duo too much. “Wonderful.” Quatre clapped his hands together. “If you would both follow me, we'll go to my office where we can get more comfortable and discuss this in more detail.” * * * “So that's my basic idea, Duo,” Quatre finished and reached for a glass of water to soothe his parched throat. “I think you have something here, Quatre. It won't be easy to pull together, but I do think that you could make something very interesting and profitable out of this.” Duo had given the idea quite a lot of thought as Quatre explained in further detail what he hoped to accomplish. “I know it won't be easy to pull off and I really have no clue when it comes to computer gaming, but the casino gaming is something I do have a bit of knowledge of. Duo, just off the top of your head, what do you think I would need to pull this off? By that I mean people etcetera.” “Okay, if this is to come together as a casino game I would guess the process would be along similar lines to when we put out a new game. Hilde?” Duo turned to his secretary. “Yes?” she answered. “Can you please take careful notes of what I'm about to suggest? That way we can go back over it later and add or subtract where necessary.” “Of course.” Hilde readied herself. “Now, Quatre, you have to remember this is based on what we use for the gaming production and when it all boils down to it, I'm no businessman, I only think up and design games, the production crew are responsible for a lot of the work.” “I quite understand, Duo and I'm open to any and all suggestions. Besides, I have a little something else I will need to talk to you about afterwards.” Quatre gave a sly grin but didn't elaborate any further. “Right. First up you need to either come up with your own game idea or speak to the copyright owners of a current game and obtain permission to use their game plan.” “I already have an idea there of what I'd prefer to do and I'll fill you in after,” Quatre interrupted. Duo nodded. “Okay. So, the game itself is either invented or the rights bought from the owner. From there you will need a rough outline of how you want the game to work. By that I mean levels, length of play, where you want rewards to come into it, things like that. To do that you need at least a couple of people that are very familiar with that side of things to do the basic design. From there you will need a production team, people that can put the design together in the format you want for the game to work successfully and that means techs, graphics, sound people and that's a team of quite a few individuals. Once the idea is in a format and in production you need to fit it into the casino gaming scheme. You will need designers for that side of it along with your original computer savvy people to work together and produce a viable option. Once the whole process comes together it's time to test it all, work out the flaws and add or subtract from the game to give the final product. If everything goes to plan and you do manage to have a finished, working product you will need your marketing team to put it out there and promote it.” Duo paused to take a drink of water. “That is the basic outline. Of course it's a lot more in depth than that, but at least you have some sort of picture of what would be involved.” Duo looked to the blonde. “What about the tech side? Production etcetera? I will need some form of computer systems I imagine?” Quatre asked. “Yes, you will. There are several good systems out there, but for what you're proposing you would need a special type of system. I can point you in the right direction for that. When it comes to the production side, again you will need several different operating systems in order to bring it all together,” Duo replied. “And you would know what sort of systems I would need for the production side of things?” “I have a pretty good idea, although when you're adding the whole casino game thing into the equation there will need to be some modifications to a basic computer game production system.” “Hmmm, there is quite a lot to be considered.” “Quatre, I'm not trying to put you off or anything, what you're proposing is a good idea and if successful could bring you in a lot of money; and I mean a lot, but...” Duo paused for a moment. “To set up a team to take the ideas all the way through to the finished product will also cost a lot of money.” “I didn't think it would be cheap,” Quatre said slowly as his mind worked, cataloging all the information Duo had given him thus far. “Quatre, I'll tell you something here. I've been fortunate enough to have made a decent amount of money from designing my computer games as you already know. I'm not contracted to any particular company and I've often thought about trying to strike out on my own, put together my own company to produce, market and sell the games; but aside from the fact that I really don't have a good business sense, I still wouldn't have enough money to set up and tide the company over until it started to make money. What I'm trying to say is, you will need a substantial amount to get a company off the ground and carry it until the profits start to come in. I wouldn't want to see you go under because you didn't have all the facts and figures.” “Thank you, Duo. I really do appreciate your honesty here and I certainly wouldn't go into anything until I'd thoroughly done my homework. This is why I asked you here for the week, to advise me on the technical side of things, what I would need and so on.” “I'm happy to advise you based on what I know, but when it comes to the finances side, that's something you'll need to take up with someone else,” Duo grinned. “Don't worry, I fully intend to do just that. Now, if Hilde would be so kind as to let me have her notes from this meeting, I'd like to study them further and do a little more research.” “Of course,” Hilde said and closed her notebook. “I can type up a transcript of the meeting for you and have it to you later today, or, if you want it now I'm afraid you'll have to take the notebook and try to decipher my handwriting.” Quatre laughed. “If you could type up a transcript I would appreciate it and this afternoon would be perfect. I have another meeting to attend shortly but I'll be back this afternoon.” “No problem at all. I'll get onto to it right away and pass them over to Mr. Barton if you wish?” “Thank you, that would be great. You can use the computer terminals in the business center if you wish. I'll have Trowa show you to the center shortly.” “Thanks,” Hilde smiled. “Well, I think that's enough information for me to chew on for today. Thank you for your time today, Duo. If you wouldn't mind, could you do me up a rough list of what sort of equipment I would need in order to put together a production company? Hardware, software, personnel, that sort of thing?” “Sure,” Duo replied. “Great! We will meet again tomorrow at ten in my office and discuss this further if that's convenient?” “Ten's good for me,” Duo replied and began to stand. “Ten is fine for me too. In the meantime I'll get this typed up and have it ready for you this afternoon,” Hilde said as she also stood. “Thank you, both of you.” Quatre also stood and shook hands with Duo, then Hilde much to her surprise. “Trowa will take you back to the lobby. I'll see you tomorrow.” ~ * ~ tbc...
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