Cocktail conversation (Lucan/Motoki)

[Furuhata Motoki]

Motoki waited as Lucan ordered his drink, then stepped up to the bartender. Normally, Motoki stuck to beer when he was drinking at home or out and about at bars, but at more formal affairs he usually had a cocktail. "Maker's and Coke, Onegai," Motoki asked the man, then graciously accepted his drink. He turned back to Lucan, walking a few paces away from the bar as he answered the man's questions.

"Sometimes we have formal engagements with our clients, sometimes the firm will hold a party. When I do have to attend I usually find them stuffy and boring. I have high hopes for this party," he said, lifting his glass slightly and giving Lucan a wink, as though making a joke of his glass of alcohol, "Because Usagi would never throw a dull one."

[Furuhata Motoki]

Motoki sipped his drink as Lucan spoke. He tended to drink hard liquor slower than beer, and given the strength of his drink, that was slower than usual for him.

Motoki nodded, and forced a small laugh at Lucan's open bar comment. He'd been the entertainment at open bars before, although as long as Reika attended the party with him, his alcohol consumption was moderate to low. Plenty of his co-workers, especially the single ones, had far outdone Motoki at end-of-cocktail-party comedy routines. The office had more than their fair share of blackmail photos tucked away in hidden corners, ready to be used if ever necessary. Most of Motoki's co-workers would likely never consider such a use of the photos, but they all enjoyed joking about them. "At the very least, one complains about the prices.

"Corporate Retreats? We're far too busy to take the time for fun and games. We're expected to work as a team when needed, but for the most part you handle your clients' business with your small team of three to four people, so teamwork isn't much of an issue. I've got about ten clients that are mine and my three other partners have near the same. Together as a team we'll work on all forty, but the final decisions rest with whomever is respresenting the client."

Motoki took another sip of his drink. "I'd think your guys would need team work far more than we would."

[Furuhata Motoki]

Motoki shook his head, "I'm not high profile enough yet to be considered a partner. The top guys who have been there for years have that honor and the rest of us are just lowly employees. I'll probably pull a couple of the good lawyers with me in a few more years and start our own firm once we've all really beefed up our clientele. That's the more common way to become a partner."

Somehow he'd missed the question on Usagi, caught up in the moment of talking about work. Law, strangely, excited Motoki and he knew he could prattle on for hours on the subject while boring his friends to death with the details. "Usagi and her friends were regulars in the arcade I worked in while growing up. Oddly, I met her and Mamoru separately, but I suppose the phrase 'it's a small world' applies even in Tokyo."

Motoki finished off the cocktail as Lucan spoke about how he trained his team. "I suppose you give real meaning to 'hands on training.'" He snickered, even though the joke wasn't all that funny, then held up his glass. "Time for a refill. You need another one?"

[Furuhata Motoki]

Motoki moved toward the bar as Lucan spoke. The trip was short, they hadn't moved very far after getting their first round. Motoki set his glass on the bar top and requested a refill, before turning back to speak with Lucan. "Clients are free to choose whatever firm they wish and can change at the drop of a hat. Since they work more with their individual attorney, who is really representing the firm, if that person leaves and the client liked their service, they'll often switch firms to maintain the same attorney. Which makes sense. It's the person, and not the firm, who has the knowledge of what has been done in the past years."

As the topic drifted back to the girls, the small world, and traveling, Motoki glanced back to the bar to see if his drink was ready. As expected - the service at the palace was exceptional - his drink was rested near the edge of the bar, fresh in a clean glass. He picked it up and took a sip, before continuing the conversation.

"I suppose you could call it destiny. They'd have made for a pretty poor team if they'd been spread around the globe. All that fighting evil they did might not have ended in Earth's favor if they'd had to go alone.

"As for me and traveling, not all that often. Most of my work can be done virtually, although the occasional face-to-face meeting, especially for new clients or important meetings between my clients and someone else's can require some travel if the company is located outside of Tokyo. I don't mind traveling, especially if I get a chance to go over seas, but it's not the normal. Most of my work is emailed or faxed over by the company and I help ensure the paperwork is in order for whatever agreement they're trying to sign."

[Furuhata Motoki]

"They do try to keep the good ones around. Not every attorney is the right material to be a partner anyway, so those may stay. But the firm isn't going to make every great attorney a partner, so those who have what it takes strike out on their own. Everyone's got a different sense of how they want to run their business I suppose." Motoki shrugged and took another sip of his drink. He was too young yet to consider starting his own firm, but one day he planned to. Motoki glanced to buffet where Lucan had indicated. He was on his second drink and could probably use some food in the stomach before tackling a third. He nodded his head and the two made their way over to the plates. Motoki picked one up, holding it out as the servers placed choice selections onto his plate.

"Well," Motoki replied, "Some force may have had a hand in their location. Did you ever think to ask Usagi about her history as a senshi and why her and how she managed to also become Queen of the Earth? There is more to her than the ditsy fun-loving math-hating girl she was in junior high. She's changed a lot since then. If you'd known her when she'd come into the Crown and play video games and drink milk shakes, you'd never have thought her capable of running the entire world. She couldn't even get to school on time."

Plate full, Motoki found an small out of the way table and set down his dish. "I've been to Europe and America. A few of our clients have joint ventures in those areas and while they have lawyers from those countries as well, they want to ensure they are following Japanese law as well, even for businesses not located here. There are tax rules and patent laws that apply internationally."

[Furuhata Motoki]

Motoki sampled the fare on his plate, trying a bite of vegetables, another of chicken, and a third of a strange sort of Indian dish. Makoto had outdone herself with the variety of selections from around the world, although Motoki favored those with a Japanese flare more than the international cuisine. There was something about one's home food that always tasted best. He made a mental note to tell Makoto later - if he ever had the chance to catch up with the girls - that her food was excellent.

"If I'd had to have picked between them all, Ami seemed far more competent at that age, even if she lacked the outgoing personality." Motoki shrugged and took another bite of his food, "Just goes to show you can't just a queen by her math scores." Even during her immature years, however, Usagi as Sailor Moon had grown far more mature than Motoki would have expected. He wondered if sometimes her civilian personality hadn't overcompensated for the maturity she needed to fight evil at such a young age.

"I've never been to The UK, but I'd like to someday. Maybe just for pleasure though. With the job responsibilities, you don't have the time to really enjoy the culture and see the sites. So if you're from London, what brought you all the way to Japan? I mean, yeah protect the queen, but whatever possessed you to make such a shift in your career?"

[Furuhata Motoki]

“Sounds like you know far more about the subject than I do,” Motoki responded, a little overwhelmed with Lucan breadth of knowledge. The man seemed to know the right response to everything and Motoki wondered if anything fazed him. Probably not, Motoki thought to himself as Lucan continued on, given his experience. “Transitional leadership as in referring her changing the government? I’m really not all that up on my leadership styles.” Instead, Motoki went back to eating while Lucan spoke about his job experiences. So much travel, so much royalty.

His food finished, Motoki stood, “Well Lucan. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you, but I think I need to take a trip to the restroom.” And maybe hit up the bar again, he thought. He had also spied a few of his work friends at the other end of the room and though he’d spend some time visiting with them as well. Always important to keep up the ties, and showing off that he too was at the ceremonial ball would ensure his place with his coworkers was kept intact. In truth, he was surprised to see some of them, but his firm was considered the top firm in the country for all things legal – criminal, patent, family, and civil law. About the only area they refused to work was in ‘ambulance chasing’, but if a client came to them with a true lawsuit they would represent in that area as well.