Business Venture [Lourdes]

[Mayhem]

Dante: -The thrall had assessed the environment before he let his master into the home. He knew the place still shook Jayd up. Without so much as a word, he prepared things. Getting glasses of blood set up for the two. Of course, the one for the lady would be a wine glass. As for his childish master, it would be a solid-colored cup with a crazy straw so the humanistic vampire could treat it like Tomato Juice.-

Lourdes collected her four slim files and tucked them into her baby blue tote bag. Each folder had a color matched perfectly to the business: navy blue for Arctic Diamonds, pink for Pins and Needles, royal blue for Royals, and yellow for Elderflower. She hardly ever left her home, so she spent a great deal of time putting herself together and selecting all the right business outlooks and finance reports. Some could have said that she had an almost obsessive way with handling herself and her businesses. With her bag completed, Lour slipped on her black heels, smoothed out her skirt, and teleported right out of her Sanctuary apartment to the entrance of Larch Court. Business was her life. She existed to work. Although she'd already agreed to sponsor Jayden's endeavour, the two of them had yet to sit down and sign papers. Lour wanted a business partnership. When she reached the Larch Court home, number 29, she knocked on the door and waited for entry. Her wraith, Atlas, remained closeby. Silent. Observant. "You won't say anything. This is for security. You know that," Lour whispered to her wraith.

Mayhem Of course Jayd being Jayd, would be dressed casually. Tinkering with a robot for his first business to keep himself calm and so he wouldn't be looking at the toys left scattered off in the corner, or the teddy-bear left on the couch on the opposite end of himself. When the door was knocked, he didn't even look up, "Dante! Door!"

Dante: -The thrall didn't even hesitate to go get the door. He would rather himself, than his antisocial master to make the first impressions for each meeting. He went to the door and opened it. Staring down at the woman with a cold, calm, analytical gaze. It was only a heartbeat after opening the door that he spoke.- My apologies for the wait. Please come this way. I've prepared a glass of blood for you; and, I do hope you will forgive my Master's inappropriate attire. You look quite lovely this evening; and, I do thank you for your professionalism. -He lead her over to the lone chair that sat near where Jayd was, smacking his Master on the head without even looking at him.- Look up and greet her properly, will you?

Lourdes blinked a few times, her eyes fixed on the closed door. She heard the yell for 'Dante,' and then soon after, the door opened. She didn't expect Dante to be the one to answer the door, not when he was the one handling everything else. The voice, she guessed, must have belonged to Jayden, her actual business partner. Lour smiled lightly and removed her arm from the straps of her tote bag. "Thank you," she spoke quickly, still surprised at his stiff mannerisms. He led the way inside, and she followed, her heels clicking on the floor. "I hope I wasn't interrupting. I'm only fashionably late for social occasions, not business occasions." She winced when Dante delivered a smack to Jayden's head, but she remained standing. She wasn't going to sit unless Jayden at least acknowledged her, not after she'd gone through so much trouble to be polite and dress appropriately. "It's nice to finally meet you, Jayden. I'm Lourdes." Lour didn't know whether to shake his hand or not, so she just stood there...

Mayhem sat the tool and the robot he was tinkering with, on the table and stood, promptly, having been smacked. He wiped the residue from the robot off his hands and onto his jeans. Finally, he held out a hand and gave her his crooked, puppy-dog grin, "Nice to meet you! If Dante'd told me you were so cute, I would have made him introduce me sooner! Oh, sorry about the, umh, mess. I don't come here often."

Lourdes took his hand and gave a firm shake. "It's nice to meet you too," she added, trying to ignore his charm. Flattery got people everywhere. Half of her employees knew they had to charm her to get raises and bonuses. When he complimented her, she just grinned at him. Fangless. "You don't come here often? But don't you live here? It's a nice place." Lour stopped looking around the interior of the house when she noticed the toys. Toys meant children. Unless--no, Jayden didn't seem like he would stoop to that level, considering the toys were for young children. Instead of saying anything else, she cleared her throat. "It doesn't matter." She released his hand and moved to take a seat in the chair, where she deposited her tote bag next to her feet.

Dante -Looked between the two and snatched up the doritoes his master had been munching on to take them back to the kitchen.- May I get you anything else, Miss Lourdes?

Lourdes turned her attention to Dante and shook her head, "No, thank you." For a second, she thought about requesting he leave the Doritos, but she stopped herself. She couldn't eat anyway.

Mayhem on the other hand, sat back down and picked back up the item he was tinkering with. Though, now he began to look up at the woman and gave her a more half-hearted grin, "Crazy story, this place isn't my favorite to be. But you're here for business not horror stories. So how about it? Oh, by the way. We're really grateful for your support on this. And Dante was really interested in the over-all idea. It looked pretty neat to me to, when I was going over the reports he gave."

Dante -Nodded his head and retreated to the kitchen, to put the chips away. Bringing back with him, instead, files for the business meeting.-

OOC Note: Despite the separate color for the name, Dante is just a thrall. There are only two players involved.

[Lourdes]

Lourdes found herself lost in thought. Having seen Dante move about, she began wondering if she could also streamline her days and nights by planning everything in advance. When Jayd spoke, she jerked her head in his direction and flashed him an apologetic smile. "Yes, let's save the horror stories for another time," she joked. Reaching down, she tugged the file folders from her bag and rested them atop her lap. "I like to invest in different projects. I left the city for almost a year to grow my brand and teach scarification at a school in Europe," she replied. "That's another business. We're here to talk about what I can do for you, and what you need or want from me. I'm contributing to your venture because it would benefit my business, Arctic Diamonds, to have a venue where I can display my ice sculptures. In addition, you'd have access to freezer units and storage buildings, if you ever needed them. Sculptures can be large or small, for business or casual." Instead of continuing, she handed him the navy folder assigned to Arctic Diamonds.

Mayhem took the file and opened it in front of him, but he didn't spare it much of a look. Simply, he rubbed the bridge of his nose and gave his crooked, puppy grin again. "Sorry for being nosey, but Dante already pulled up all the information for me to look over on Arctic Diamonds. We like to be thorough in our business." Which was true. Jayd would forget the world to work, work, work, if not for his lineage and for Dante making sure he gets out to eat.

Lourdes tucked her other folders away, grinning. "That's great. You can keep that copy, if you want. I added today's updates and it altered the planned trajectory for the quarter. I brought the others," she stopped and motioned to her tote bag, "because the deposits I've been making have been based on more than Arctic Diamonds. Weekly or bi-weekly deposits are based on all my earnings." Lour felt she had to share the details, even though she didn't have to share the rest of the folders. "I'd like to hear from you. Tell me how your plans are going, or if there's anything more I can do for you."

Mayhem nodded to her words. Before he even had his hand held out, Dante was already holding out the laptop, he'd dug from the computer bag that was sitting next to Jayd beside the couch. Jayd took it with a nod of thanks and the thrall stood behind him, behind the couch without a word. Jayd flipped the electronic open and tapped away at the keyboard while Dante held out a file to her. Jayd then turned the screen to her, showing several tabs. A blueprint, a 3D model, Measurements, and to scale, the plans (including visual representation) on the water-lines and power-lines and such. "In the folder you'll find our status on working toward getting the preferred location, back up locations should the preferred not work out. Price ranges. Building costs. The status of how far in we've got to making a deal with the contractors of choice. The status of our negotiations with the town over building permits, our agreements on the waterlines, powerlines, determined possible stores and/or food chains, a list of preferable decorators. How we're doing on staying with in the law. Etc, etc."

Lourdes accepted the file with a nod. She flipped through, just to see the number of pages, and then paid attention to the computer screen. "Perfect. I'm enjoying this partnership already. No one else seems to appreciate attention to detail," she chuckled. As she stared at the blueprint, she eyed the dimensions on the building. "If you need any assistance with water or power, I have a tab with the city, and I'd be more than happy to share the discount rate. This is," she stopped, just nodding at the screen. "You must be excited about this. It's a good idea. It's a good location." When she looked away from the screen, she turned her attention to the file, where she began reading through a few of the pages. "You seem like someone to narrow in on one thing and do it very well. How did you manage to broaden your view? I didn't mean for that to sound so rude," Lour smiled apologetically.

Mayhem To be honest, you're right. Most of my business now have something, even small, to do with things I focus in on. My first business has to do with something I enjoy doing. I could tinker with robots all day, if Dante would allow me. -He yanked up the little Gizmo sitting beside him and sat it on the floor. The little animatronic looked around until it looked up and saw the lady. Instantly, he was cooing and waddling toward the woman with the gears in his legs making a very tiny wirring sound.- As for my second business, women are really great. They're beautiful and wonderful; and, I wanted to make a place that would help them feel they are beautiful, by aiding them to look good in styles of their own choices. From clothes, to hair, to make up and accessories. I wanted a place to thank women for bringing so much into this world. -He rubbed the back of his neck, a little awkward tick of his.- Lastly, the cars have to do with my liking of tinkering. And, I got made fun of a bit for the female oriented shop, so I wanted something masculine. Plus, mechanics is a profitable business, so it seemed like a good route. As for this new venture I'm attempting. When I was five, I moved here, and I grew up here. It always seemed so strange that we're in Canada and we don't have a Ski Resort to bring in tourism and economical boosts to the city. So I thought, as a challenge, I would try for a larger scale business goal to occupy and enhance my skills.

Lourdes didn't want to reach out for the animatronic device, so she just watched. One brow arched, she watched the little thing move in her direction, all the while nodding at Jayd's words. "I like your businesses. I think that if this goes well--and I'm sure that it will--I'd like to consider working with you on more projects. It was this one though, the resort, that caught my eye. I like the snow. I think it's profitable to deal in what we're given." Her attention went back to the file, but she slowly closed it up. "Do you mind?" Lourdes motioned from the file to her tote bag. "I still have a few more papers I'll email by tomorrow morning, eight o'clock. It's everything we've already discussed, but in written form. I thought we could both sign it, so we aren't operating on verbal agreements and exchanges of basic paperwork. Consider it a master contract." Was she sounding too boring? Lourdes knew she was drab, at times.

Mayhem Not at all; they're copies that Dante had made up for you, originally, anyways. And agreed, I'll have Dante bring them to me right away. Written form agreements are more desireable as they are proof of what was agreed upon whereas words can change from person to person. It's not good for business to use verbal agreements only.

Lourdes leaned forward and took the wine glass from the table. "Fantastic." And she'd mentally checked off every box on the list of things to do.