Behind the multi-levelled stone rectangular towers of Macbelious, the smaller Alchohol Pending Tavern stood barely noticable from the above windows of the grey buildings.  In this small quaint little area, hardworking men and women would gather together to sit back, have a drink, relax, and discuss the latest issues, court sentences, and controversial laws.  But there were times when these innocent discussions turned into something much more ugly...

"You ignorant fool!"  The mug of beer slammed against the table.  An angry man in a dark blue suit slowly glared at the grey-suited blonde man in front of him.  "I appeal to the five-hundredth and fifty-fourth amendment!  The twenty-fifth paramount more than made legal the time I violated the McPherson right of transposition, and fully points out the many holes in your horrible argument.  For your impudence, be prepared to be hit with one of my patented countersuits!  I'll bring it up all the way to the fifth degree!"

This caught the attention of several people, who eagerly watched to see how the poor recipient of the attack would counter.

"Don't you understand?!?"  The angitated opponent snapped back, unfazed by the barrage.  "The five-hundredth and fifty-fourth amendment to the twenty-third constitution was made specifically to PROTECT against abuses of clause number two-thousand three-hundred eighty-four of the twenty-fifth paramount!  Or must I refer back to the case of Clerance VS Melenus in the ninth Supreme Court of the Seventh Sector yet again?!?"

Several of the participators cringed while one of the women out back fainted in shock.  The dark-blue suited man was taken aback, caught off guard by the counterattack, but he wasn't about to lose this battle so easily.  Still, he had to be cautious and be ready to parry any more incoming blows, because being hit by another decision from the ninth Supreme Court of the Seventh Sector would be devastating.

"Okay, mack!  That's enough!"  The bartender interrupted the two.  "We have ladies here!  Take it outside if you want to continue debating about the five-hundredth and fifty-fourth amendment!"

The two contenders stared at the bartender then at the shocked audience, and finally nodded in agreement.  One of them stood up and slapped the other with a subpoena paper slip.

"Sir, I shall see you on the court of honor!"  He yelled before angrily leaving the room.

And such was a perfect example of the sad sad culture of the city-state nation, Macbelious.  Alexis Lavencroft sighed as she leaned her head on the shoulder of her favorite boyfriend.  "Johnson, I did not need to see that."

"Ah, Alexis, I'll have to agree."  Johnson responded, before turning his head back down to look at the newspaper he was reading.  "That was most certainly uncalled for."

Alexis stared at him, shook her head with dissappointment at his answer, then leaned on his shoulder again.  "Yea..."

The greatest aspect about the successful lawyer and now aspiring politician, Johnson Minstrol, was also the most annoying aspect about him.  He never payed any attention to anything besides his current task as a lawyer.  At all.  Normally this would peeve other girls off and even for Alexis, it was extremely annoying to say the least, but it also meant that Alexis could basically do anything she wanted to.

"Johnson, buy me a Paradise Ambrosia."  Although she worded it as a command, Alexis said it with a requesting hopeful tone.

The lawyer continued reading an article in the paper which caught his eye, this time not even looking up.  "Now now, my dear Alexis, you know that those Paradise Ambrosias carry with them an extra five percent taxation and also the possibility of a fine not to exceed a level twenty-four when purchased on the odd numbered days of the year at a time in the day such as this.  That, and they always give you a horrible hangover the next morning."

Alexis merely sighed again and leaned against the counter to sulk a bit.  Of course, Johnson, like always, didn't notice at all.  She could have begged and convinced him to find a loophole for her to get a Paradise Ambrosia and probably would have succeeded, but everytime Johnson did something like this, Alexis was even more prone than usual to take a better oppurtunity the moment it knocked.

Alexis leaned on the shoulder of her new companion.  "Buy me a Paradise Ambrosia."

The handsome stranger was a bit caught of guard at first.  But it only took a quick moment after getting the request by the lovely lady for him to yell, "Bartender!  One Paradise Ambrosia!!!"

Still leaning on the shoulder and now holding onto the arm of her new friend, Alexis smiled and closed her eyes.  "You're my hero."
 

***
 

Though he already knew about it before and read the article over three times already, Johnson continued to read the paper.

And now, there are two newcomers on the political scene set to fight against each other.  Libercrat Linda Sairgas will be campaigning against Radican Johnson Minstrol for the one-hundredth and twenty-eighth seat of the Senate.  Although the seat is actually of almost insignificant relevance to the grand scheme of things, the political battle between the Libercrats and the Radicans have always been neck and neck thus once campaign season opens, we expect the fight between these two long-time rivals to be fierce as they will both be heavily backed by their respective parties.

Alas, if only that were to be true.  But the Radican Party this election year secretly decided that they needed to allocate funds elsewhere in hopes of catching the Libercrats by surprise, and thus Johnson was left on his own with the exception of his main campaign contributor.  He could only hope that Linda was dealing with the same problems.  And... where was his main campaign contributor, anyway?

Johnson looked up from the paper and looked around, noticing that Alexis made yet another new friend.  A charismatic gal, that one.  Alexis... she was basically Johnson's reason for existance.  Well, besides his success as a lawyer and now as a politician, which he concentrated on nearly twenty-four seven.  Fortunately, Alexis understood Johnson's goals and was always patient with him despite the fact that he was always working.  It was unlike any other lady Johnson ever met before.  He was kind of sorry that she had to go through this boring wait while he waited for Mercutio to arrive, but at least it looked like she found a way to pass the time.  And was that a Paradise Ambrosia she was drinking?

The senator-hopeful was pondering whether to go there and warn Alexis' friend of the legal repercussions and possibly help him out if anyone tried to use it as a weapon against him, but just then he noticed a man adorned with a blue cap with long sides and a bunch of packs and fancy clothes enter the room.

Mercutio Damerch sat down next to Johnson and shook his head.  "I'm sorry I'm late, Johnson, but it's hard to get around Macbelious without an escort and some thug lawyers decided to take advantage of it.  I had to beat them down with some words from my merchant law handbook and I still ended up having to pay a three dollar fine regardless."

"Hmm.  It might have been a good idea to tell me to come over to you instead."  Johnson replied.  "A common Macbelious lawyer wouldn't even think of taking on a professional legal escort."

"Twas only three dollars."  The merchant gave a shrug.  "It's not important.  What's important is the up-and-coming campaign.  Following your legal guidelines, I managed to fund an advertising campaign and my contacts haven't noticed any action on the enemy front, so your prospects of winning this match look rather good right now."

"Ah, thank you, my good friend."  Johnson responded as he shook Mercutio's hand.  "I wouldn't even have a chance of pulling this off without you.  You made sure that you only chose from the top twenty to the top ten advertising agencies and paid no more than fifty-percent worth of an advertisement for a Furvey Companion like I advised you to, I hope?  The law is a bit more strict there and any other method of advertisement purchase could possibly leave us vulnerable to the Libercrats."

Mercutio nodded.  "I did everything as you said to.  I might not be a professional lawyer, but I've been a merchant of Macbelious for a long time now and I think if I got into a fight with a damn Libercrat, I could easily hold my own.  Oh, and you're welcome, Johnson.  This is merely my thanks for all of the legal consultation you gave me and my business all these years, though I wouldn't mind if you lowered your prices just a bit."

The merchant glanced about the room, then lowered his volume to almost a whisper.  "But... you will try to make more Radican policies into law, I hope?  Specifically, some of my ideas?  I believe that it would really benefit not just my business, but Macbelious trade and economy as a whole if they'd just ease up the restrictions on magic items like my modulation orbs and have a more open trade policy for more nations."

The politician waved his hand.  "Fear not, Mercutio.  I understand your views perfectly and will do my best to pursue them should I win the election.  Though... you have to admit that these aren't entirely selfless reasons that you have for these views, here."

Mercutio stood aghast in shock, though it was obvious that he was just trying to look shocked and wasn't really.  "Why, Johnson!  How could you think such a thing?  Yes, I do stand to make a lot of money off my modulation orb business, but just look at Altierre as a good example.  It's practically a crime how we have an entire market for magic items both to and from just ripe for the taking and Macbelious hasn't seized the opportunity yet!  And how about that one that's nothing but a war-torn wasteland right now?  Don't the Libercrats realize how big the market is for nearly everything from food to weapons is over there?!?  Macbelious needs trade.  Macbelious LIVES on trade.  Why, what what would we do without hefty amounts of trade from the foreign countries?  We wouldn't even have these houses to live in without the stone from Ruel to build them with!  We w..."

Mercutio noticed that people were beginning to stare at him and his volume was beginning to exceed the legal limit for a bar of that size.

He lowered his voice again.  "Well, at any rate, I wish you luck in the election and I'll keep in contact."

As Mercutio left, Johnson chuckled a little.  Although, despite the fact that it was mainly for his aspiration to make lots of money, Mercutio meant well.  Having little skill in both physical, scientific, and magical abilities, the nation of Macbelious relied on trade and their negotiative skills for growth and success.  The ability to make laws which maximized human efficiency without springing up revolt and kept traders assured that they would not be conned or scammed is what turned what was once a town of unskilled 'worthless' refugees into a thriving city of intellectuals.  The rich lobbying merchant may have been a bit too far off to the right side, though.  It was possible to deal with Altierre.  Johnson once visited there with Alexis on a diplomatic scouting mission.  He got into an extremely brutal battle with the police over something as little as a basic beginner's magic book that Alexis brought, but he managed to barely win it with his knowledge of foreign law and kept it from escalating to physical violence, albeit with a rather large fine (at least he avoided jail, though).  Unfortunately, besides hoping to start some true trade with the extremely snobbish magical nation and other non-preferred nations, he even had his sights set on renegade nations, which was somewhat absurd even to the Radican party.  Nations completely lacking law or that knew nothing but physical war and couldn't see beyond their own swords and magical fireballs.

He turned to look at his paper and read a few more things.  Eventually a glass of milk placed next to him by Alexis caught his attention.  "Why Alexis, what's this for?"

Alexis smiled.  "Oh, that nice man over there bought this for you."

Somewhat puzzled, Johnson stared at the glass of milk.  "Erm, well, give him my thanks then.  Oh, and we'll be leaving soon.  I just have a few more things to catch up on over here."

"Feel free to take your time."  Alexis happily responded, before returning to her new friend to continue her conversation.

Yep, an extremely charismatic girl, that one.
 

***
 

"Hehe, that guy is strong enough to be a legal guard for an apparently rich merchant, but he's not manly enough to deal with the legal repercussions and buy his own girl a drink!"  The stranger laughed.  "Why do you hang out with a loser like him?"

"I don't know.  With a man as nice and handsome as you, I might actually have to reconsider my choice for a boyfriend though."  Alexis smiled and gave the man a wink.

The man grinned back.  "Is that an offer?  If there are any strings attached or such, my legal prowess could easily handle it."

"Maybe, maybe not."  Alexis responded.  "But it's too bad.  I can only truly love one who is of my own political party.  I hope you understand, but we both know that friendly relationships with members of opposing parties never last very long."

"Of course.  But what political organization do you belong to, anyway?"

"Why, the Alexis Corp de Lavencroft, of course!"  Alexis proudly said.  She slowly put her arms around the man's neck.  "Alexis Corp could really use a strong powerful man like you."

"Really?  What party is it?"  The man asked, curious at Alexis' odd reply.

"It's independent."

"Third party?"  The surprised stranger replied.  "And make everyone throw their vote away?"

"Oh no, perhaps I should have been more specific."  Alexis stated, a hint of both playfulness and confidence in her voice.  She had an evil grin.  "Alexis Corp is aligned to whichever political party is winning.  Or, more specifically, whichever political party that is winning is aligned with Alexis Corp..."

It took the lawyer a few moments, but when he realized what Alexis meant, he burst out laughing.  "That's hilarious!  You're joking, right?  What do you think the Macbelious political system is?  Altierre's?!?  There isn't THAT much corruption."

"Hey!"  Alexis snapped back.  "It's not that much different from merchants financing the political people who support their views, is it?  Alexis Corp is just... more organized.  Er, at least once I get it off the ground, it will be."

Alexis didn't mention that the fact that Alexis Corp consisted of only two members was also a pretty big problem (one member if you didn't include Johnson, who didn't know that Alexis Corp existed nor did he know that he was a member of it).

Fortunately, Johnson must have noticed the heat turning up and interupted the two.  "Alexis!  I believe we must get going otherwise we'll have to deal with the Achohol Pending curfew law."

Thankful that Johnson was there to bail her out, Alexis quickly ran up to him.  "Why, of course, Johnson.  I'm sorry."

She waved goodbye to the stranger and the two left the bar.  They walked for a few steps in quiet until they were quite a distance from the tavern then Johnson finally spoke up again.  "I hope you didn't mind."

"Of course not."  Alexis grabbed onto Johnson's arm and pulled herself closer to him.  "But, it's so sad.  Most men never seem to understand me."

"Alexis, you don't need to worry about it."  The two continued walking away from the bar as the sun began to set.  "People should just learn to accept you for who you are."

Good old ignorant Johnson.  Alexis smiled, closed her eyes, and hugged him.  "Thank you, Johnson.  That's why you'll always be the only man for me."