The Midnight Sun

Akaisen crept his nose towards the straw, before taking the end between his lips and making the slightest sucking motions with his cheeks. He pulled away, eyes elsewhere and his tongue lightly touching his lips. "Hmm," he began, before taking another small drink. "Yes. Suitably disgusting."

He raised his arm, pointing down towards the bag of gold on the floor. "There's your payment."

Skarlet listened to Naoki's proposition and thought it over. "Alright, that sounds like a good idea. Kevin's the guy at the bar right? I could follow him around first I guess. After that, just put me with whoever. Do I go now?"

Kevin notices the fairy flying about, and waves at it. "Hey there, little guy! Or are you a guy? Maybe you're a girl? Do you even have a gender? Anyway, how are you doing?"

Madame Naoki shrugs.
“You’re welcome to sit around in here until my next meeting shows up if you want, but I’m just going to be writing these contracts, and I don’t have much more to say on the topic of your employment right now. Go, see what you can learn, see if you find something you’d like to do, and then we can talk again about formal employment.”

Naoki stands, and stretches her arms above her head, cracking her knuckles.

“You know what I’d really like if you took an interest in? Writing business documents. It’s tedious, tiring work. I hate doing it; gives me cramps.”

She rolls her shoulder around in an effort to relieve the soreness.

“'Doubt you’d like it though. You’ll be able to find Kevin downstairs at the bar, his shift is now. I hope you’ll be able to find something you enjoy doing.”

"Ehehehe, well my writing hand isn't quite working right now so I'll have to pass on that. I'll go find Kevin then." Skarlet left the room and headed downstairs.

She approached the bar where she saw Kevin, "Hey, Kevin? I'm supposed to follow you around today, to figure out what sort of work I'm gonna do."

Calico walks in, bobbing his head up and down like a pigeon. Upon reaching the office, he sits aside and waits.

Maelik giggled a bit as Naoki laughed, he rather liked bringing a smile to someone's face without physically tearing the gash into their faces himself. In fact, he was looking forward to eliciting more grins as he went about his newest career.

"Well I'm fond of cooking as it allows me to vent my creativity in a nonviolent medium, there are so many combinations to delight the palate of both the common man and the refined upper class. But at the same time I'm also equally fond of expressing myself in aforementioned brutal altercations and will gladly expel any riffraff that get a bit too heated, though it will pain me to have to restrain myself from going to far myself! Beyond that I find cleaning, washing, scrubbing and arranging to be highly calming exercises so we can go from there."

From within the desk, Naoki pulls out a small number of partially completed documents and contracts. She spreads them across the desk, and takes the quill to one of them, filling in blank spaces and completing the document.

“That works out perfectly. As you’re well aware, the recent renovations included the kitchen, but we’re a bit short of staff who are able to cook. You’ve come at just the right time.”

Finished with the document, she slides it across the desk and turns it so that Maelik might view it.

“This first paper here is your formal… indoctrination? No, that’s not the right word. Perhaps… acceptance? It’s a formal document stating that the signee has officially joined the Family, and agrees to uphold our rules and ideals. Those rules include such things as helping other family members in need, not acting against the family, and general sorts of things like that. It’s to prevent infighting, mostly.”

Leaving Maelik to read and sign the document, she begins work on the next one.

“I’m going to go ahead and appoint you as ‘Head Chef’. No existing member of staff is qualified for such a position. The crew working the kitchen now are only filling in until we can hire properly qualified individuals, such as yourself. This document here is the one about employment. It says that I, Madame Naoki, employ you, as an employee at the Midnight Sun, and will pay you this sum biweekly, and provide you the benefits listed here, and in addition, you agree to work in a manner that aligns with these basic standards of quality, and understand the above.”

Madame Naoki slides this, second document across the desk to Maelik. Should they be inspected, both documents would be found to be fair and equitable to both parties. The salary is fair, the listed benefits are reasonable, and there isn’t any fine print.

“I think you’ll find nothing disagreeable in those. The first one, about Family acceptance is a new one, actually the first of its kind.. Along with the renovations, I’ve redone a lot of the Family’s inner workings. Sometime in the next few weeks, I’m going to bring everyone up here at some point to sign a copy.”

Naoki rubs her chin as she considers what else has to be done.

“Oh, if you’d rather not join the Family proper, that’s also fine. It’s an opt-in sort of thing. However, if you do decide to, you’ll also be given one of these ‘Cat’s Paws’.”

She points to her amethyst stud earring with one finger.

“It sounds pretty awkward when I say it, doesn't it... Anyway, all Family members wear one of these purple gems somewhere on their body to show their affiliation. In addition to acting as a badge, the gems are enchanted with communication enchantments and are scying foci. Just across the hall is the office of Mr. Resee Cresno. He’s our sort of eye in the sky, if you will. He has the ability to magically see the area around any of these gems, and initiate voice communication with the wearer. It’s very handy, when he’s not doing his potato impression.”

A touch of her earlier frustration creeps into her words as she recalls how very useful Mr. Cresno was during the last crisis.

Hmm, thinks Calico. Cat ears. Must be one of those things. Pretty.

"Oh, I understand that you were recently attacked by demons? The repairs, which I see are still ongoing, would cost a fortune, I imagine. I wish to invest in this seemingly thriving business, help fix it up a bit. Looks like it would make a lovely upper-crust lounge. What do you say?"

He chirps quietly.