Page 94 of Damian & Jun: Episodes 5-8
Damian blinked again and rubbed his eyes. “Émeric?”
“Low blood sugar?” Émeric raised an eyebrow and went over to the empty desk Alice had been using a few days prior. He unstacked the lunch box trays, leaving a ready-made meal for two on the desk, and waved Damian over. “You know better than to run with Matthew without eating after.”
“I—” There really wasn’t an excuse. He did know better. He’d just felt so clear and focused after exercising that he wanted to empty his heavy roster of tasks and duties so he could spend more time with Jun. They had things to talk about, and he didn’t want to do it over the phone.
“Nothing to say, then?” Émeric waved Damian over with a smile. “There’s only two of us here right now. I can’t let you go off the rails on me.”
Damian flushed and dropped his eyes. He joined Émeric at the impromptu dinner table. “What time is it?”
“Ten. Past, actually.” Émeric offered Damian chopsticks. “I worked late too, but when home was dark and empty, I checked my messages. Matthew was worried you’d do this.”
“He knows me well.”
“He does. The boy is a prize.”
Damian put a bit of meat and rice into his mouth, and his taste buds exploded with pleasure. He really had gone too long and worked out too hard to have not eaten. For at least five minutes, neither he nor Émeric said anything, focused solely on satiating themselves.
Damian paused to drink. “Why were you working late?”
“The church project.” Émeric slid a folder toward Damian. “Considering all the press we’ve collectively had lately, winning key players over has been relatively easy. Collin introduced me to several of his professors, including the one who recommended him to Richard, and they were instrumental in a few areas. And my friend over at the architectural and design college has been an excellent advocate. We still need to get the alderman’s buy-in. So far, her office has not returned my calls. I’m trying not to go top down on her by going through the mayor.”
“I could visit her in person.”
“I think we’re at that point. It’s not so much a resistance thing as an attention one. If we could string together some of the residents in the area to also call in, even better.”
Damian winced. “I’m not sure how much buy-in there will be.”
“That was one of my considerations. We need to try to move the needle on that.”
Damian nodded and opened his appointment app on his phone. “I can visit the alderman tomorrow, at least get an idea of how she works.”
“Usually projects this big take a couple years of planning, but because you said we could go in stages, hands on the ground working by the end of May is looking possible. What we’re working on will depend on the surveys. The architectural school says they can start those in their spring quarter, so not that far away. A professor emeritus offered to come back and teach a special class focused on the project. There are two grants I think the property qualifies for under these conditions. I’m drawing up the paperwork now to apply.”
“What do you need from me next?”
“Finish incorporating the property. Right now, it’s all private under your name. We need to draw up the paperwork to make shares and buy-ins legitimate.”
“So far, that means you, Collin, and myself. Who else have you made offers to?”
“No one, yet. But to raise money, we’ll need to. Splitting the project and offering sections for investment is more likely to create local interest. We’ll need to do the same for entities renting sections of the property.”
“I want to stay local.”
“Except for the dungeon.”
“You’re sure about the dungeon?”
“Collin and Jun are not wrong with their assessment even if it comes more from the novelty factor for both of them. And there are very few locations like it even if we’re looking at the national level. You’re not going to be able to sell membership like that merely locally, not at the prices I would suggest you offer them at. For what you’re imagining, this is going to be a very specialized place people around the world will want access to.”
“And splitting the grounds themselves into multiuse spaces?”
Émeric flipped open the folder and turned several pages over until he found the one he wanted. “This is my preliminary breakdown of the possible legal entities and how they would relate to each other. Of course, I’d like this checked by a legal professional.”
Damian ran his eye down the structure. “You want to partner with the alderman’s office?”
“Only in conjunction with the university. Giving them joint shared space as an ongoing project for the neighborhood is a good way to balance them against each other. One way Collin has been conceptualizing the project is to imagine all the ways the community and the church once intersected and how that could be emulated outside of a religious structure. The site is still central, and the community suffered from its loss.”
Émeric sorted out another sheet of paper, one where Collin had diagrammed out the uses of the church in the community, matching religious language against civil language to parallel the functions.
