<div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/fJ9JoZV.jpg)</div><br/><strong>Name:  Madame Celeste (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=266077.msg13127459#msg13127459)</strong><br/><br/><strong>STAFF</strong><br/><br/><strong>Situation:</strong>Contemplating the Trials of Running a Successful Business<br/><br/><br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Benjamin<br/><br/><strong>Content Warning:</strong><em>None</em><br/><br/><br/><br/><hr/><hr/><br/>The repair gnomes had reported a speedy resolution to their first tasks of the night, having discretely left their bill for services rendered turned upside down on her desk.    Her elegantly tipped fingernails, long and rather sharp … as they always got when she dealt with the gnomes … tapped upon it a few times while she pondered its likely effects upon her mood.<br/><br/>She turned it over, let her gaze travel down the neat, rather cramped penmanship to the crucial bit right at the bottom, and winced.  Perhaps she should have a talk with Benjamin and see if he could get his hands on something that would alleviate the frequency of her business with the annoying, but quite speedily efficient, little craftsmen.  At least they had left off the attempts to peek under her skirts after she had transformed herself into one of the most ferocious of her guises and picked the little fellow up by his suspenders and held him wriggling in her grasp while she cut away the front of his trousers with one knifelike claw.  He had held himself very, very still while she repeated the procedure with his bright longjohns underclothing, and stiller yet when she lifted his family jewels up with the blunted tip of said claw and asked if she needed expand her lesson in manners further.<br/><br/>At least the understanding reached in the aftermath had decreased her bill by about 10% for a while, until they realized she wasn’t quite so unreasonable as her performance might have indicated.  Sometimes it just did not pay to irritate a succubus when she had not indulged for a while … any more than it was polite to assume that she was always ready to indulge.<br/><br/>Perhaps some sort of magical barrier within ten, perhaps twenty, feet of their lovely orc bride for the first five minutes or so of negotiations that would turn all breakables to rubber at the point of impact, or something of the sort.  Though rather than micromanage … another lovely word that she had picked up upon her unconventional travels … the details, she would simply summon Benjamin, tell him of the end result that she wanted, and leave it to him.  To do otherwise would be an insult to his talent, rather like telling any of her brides or grooms how to please their clients.<br/><br/>Variety was the spice of life … which made the Bazaar the perfect place for one such as she.<br/><br/>Her frown melted away, to be replaced by a slow, satisfied smile.  Master MacCobble HAD offered to pay for the full night, and that did include incidentals such as damages.   She would even forgo adding her usual markup to the bill, since she rather liked the young man who had crashed through her table.  He had ambition, and spirit, and such should be rewarded.  Hopefully Snogflog was taking care of some of that in a more hands on manner, but Celeste had learned not to anticipate where she was concerned.<br/><br/>She sighed, and laid the bill back down on her desk.  She would not be too hasty in preparing the craftsman’s bill.  There might well be more charges to add to it before the morning.<br/><br/>She reached behind her, and pulled a tasseled bit of hanging tapestry on the wall to summon one of the many facilitators who worked for her.    Nargib answered the summons, a lovely … if one discounted the network of tight stitching that held her together … flesh golem who had been created by some foolish man who had tired of the work involved in finding his perfect woman and decided to create her instead.  Nargib had taught him that the ‘perfect woman’ all too easily turned into the perfect nightmare when one removed effort and upkeep from the association.  Her French Maid’s dress hid some of his handiwork,  but Celeste had to admit that the man had done good work.  All in all, though, she preferred Nargib’s.  The best creators, after all, were the ones who fully understood what they were creating.<br/><br/>“Have Benjamin come to the office when he is free, please, Dear.  There is no hurry – I am sure he will find me at an opportune moment.”<br/><br/>The two shared a smile, and then Nargib flounced off, giving a shake of her feathered duster, thankfully free of dust, and Celeste sat back down,  perusing the tome she had been reading before the gnome’s interruption, running her fingernail lightly across the inked symbols as she translated.