Asia / Indonesia / Pacific Ocean (The Black Crown Yacht): February 27th, 1993.
Inside of a massive black and gold yacht drifting across the dark waters of the pacific ocean, the music was loud, the liquor was expensive and the people laughing on the upper decks were the kind who smiled with their teeth while hiding knives behind their backs.
Crystal chandeliers glowed overhead. Women in shimmering gowns and men in tailored suits moved through the halls like peacocks and predators, all pretending that the filth beneath the luxury did not exist. Waiters carried silver trays full of champagne, caviar, and things that cost more than a poor man's house while soft jazz bled into the low thump of bass from another room.
If you were to look closely near the rear deck lounge where the air was cooler and the sea looked like black glass, you could see two men seated across from one another at a low polished table.
One of them was oliver samwell.
The other was sean combs otherwise known as puffy.
(Oliver's POV)
Oliver sat stiffly in the velvet chair with one leg crossed over the other, a half full glass of dark liquor in his hand and a look of carefully concealed disgust on his face as he glanced around at the wealthy degenerates filling the yacht.
"This place smells like old money and rotting flesh" Thought oliver while staring at a white haired billionaire laughing too loudly with a girl young enough to be his granddaughter hanging off his arm.
Across from him sean leaned back in his seat in a black tuxedo with the top buttons of his shirt undone slightly, his arm stretched across the back of the couch like he already owned the room and everyone in it.
"You keep looking around like a lost little rich boy. Relax." Said sean with a smirk while swirling the drink in his glass.
Oliver's jaw tightened and he said calmly "I am relaxed. I am simply trying to understand why people with this much money still insist on acting like animals."
Sean chuckled lowly and said "Because money don't change what people are. It just gives them bigger rooms to do ugly shit in."
The lounge was silent for a moment.
At the far end of the room two men stood near the glass doors overlooking the ocean, one with a wide unnatural grin and the other with the relaxed ease of someone who had never once been told no in his life. They were surrounded by security, assistants and people pretending not to stare.
Oliver's fingers tightened around his glass and said "Those bastards really do think they own the world"
Sean followed his gaze and said quietly "They might as well. So talk. We didn't come all the way out here to admire the scenery."
Oliver adjusted his throat and said while leaning forward slightly "Project starfish and the trafficking routes are valuable. More valuable than what they seem to think."
Sean's eyebrow lifted and he said with a dry chuckle "Then stop stalling and tell me your number."
Before oliver could answer, one of the men at the far end turned and began making his way toward them with the other one beside him.
The music suddenly felt quieter.
The air heavier.
The people nearest the lounge started drifting away without being told, as if some invisible instinct warned them not to remain too close.
The first man stopped in front of their table with a smile that did not reach his eyes and said calmly "Gentlemen. I hear there is business to discuss."
Sean immediately stood up with a polished smile and said "Always a pleasure."
Oliver remained seated for one second too long before rising more slowly and said with a calm expression "Likewise."
The second man took a cigar from a waiter's tray and lit it while looking out over the ocean and not at either of them as he asked "So. How much can you offer."
The lounge went silent.
Oliver blinked once and asked carefully "Offer for what exactly."
The man with the smile looked down at him and said without hesitation "For the trafficking ring. For project starfish. For the routes, the names, the labs, the shipments, the silence. All of it."
Sean's face did not move in the slightest but oliver caught the brief shift in his eyes.
Jeffery epstein did not sit down.
Bill gates did not speak.
Neither of them looked like men who had come to negotiate in good faith.
They looked like men measuring meat.
Oliver adjusted his throat and said carefully "That depends on what exactly is included in the acquisition."
Jeffery smiled wider and asked "No. That depends on how much you're worth."
Bill finally glanced at them and said calmly while taking a drink from a crystal glass "If you want power you should know the cost of it before you ask stupid questions."
The room was silent.
Sean smiled smoothly and said "Then perhaps we're better off continuing this discussion when the figures are clearer."
Jeffery's grin did not budge in the slightest and he said "You came to my yacht talking about buying pieces of my empire. If you don't have a number then you're wasting my time."
Oliver felt heat rising in his chest and said with a calm look on his face "We're not wasting your time. We are evaluating whether this arrangement is worth the risk."
Jeffery leaned down slightly, both hands on the back of the chair between them, and said softly "Everything worth having is a risk."
Bill looked at oliver for one long second and said "If you're serious, come back when you have the money to prove it."
Then just like that the two men turned and walked away without waiting for a response.
The silence they left behind felt insulting.
Sean slowly sat back down and let out a long breath through his nose while muttering "Tch. Arrogant bastards."
Oliver sat too, his face calm but his eyes cold as he looked at the untouched drink in front of him and thought "They never intended to bargain. They just wanted to see how desperate we were"
Sean glanced at him and said "Come on. Let's go somewhere private before I decide to break something expensive."
TIMESKIP: A couple minutes later.
Inside one of the private guest suites below deck the music from the party above had dulled into a distant vibration through the walls.
The room was dimly lit, luxurious and quiet, full of cream colored furniture, polished wood and the sort of decor rich people used when they wanted decadence to look tasteful.
Sean shut the door behind them and locked it.
*Click*
Oliver turned halfway toward him and asked with narrowed eyes "What are you doing."
Sean laughed under his breath and suddenly shoved him back against the wall by the shoulder with enough force to make the lamp on the side table shake slightly.
*Boom*
Oliver's eyes widened in irritation and he said sharply "Take your hands off of me."
Sean leaned in close enough for their faces to almost touch and said with a low chuckle "Fresh meat like you better learn real quick not to overplay your hand around men like that. Or around me."
Oliver's face did not change.
Sean smirked and continued "You got too much mouth and not enough weight behind it. All that polished attitude and you still don't know when you're standing in a room full of predators."
The suite was silent.
Oliver stared at him for one long second.
Then suddenly his expression went cold.
He grabbed a fistful of sean's jacket, pulled him in and kissed him hard enough to stun him.
Sean froze.
Oliver used the moment of shock to slide cleanly out of his grip, stepping back with a calm, dangerous look on his face as he wiped the corner of his mouth with his thumb.
"I am not a pussy. And don't you ever try anything funny with me again. Or else." Said oliver flatly.
Sean stared at him with a completely flabbergasted look on his face.
For one second he looked too stunned to speak.
Then anger started rising fast.
"The fuck is wrong with you." Asked sean with his face twisting while he adjusted his jacket roughly.
Oliver said nothing.
Instead he reached into the inside of his tuxedo jacket and pulled out a black and gold card.
Sean's eyes narrowed.
Oliver held it up between two fingers.
On one side was an engraved eye inside a pyramid.
On the back was a tarot style image of a soldier standing beneath a black sun with a sword in one hand and scales in the other.
The room went silent.
Sean stared at the card for a moment and asked lowly "Where the hell did you get that."
Oliver's lip curled slightly and he said with his eye's slanting uglier than his face already was looking "Now you understand why I told you not to underestimate me."
The suite fell into a deeper silence.
The party above still roared.
The ocean still moved outside.
But inside that room, everything had changed.
For the worse of this world.
…
THE END…