"What's my itinerary for the day?" Riven questioned, holding open the glass door to the conference room.
"Other than this, your schedule is mostly clear except for a few minor things that need your attention," Jessica said, walking through the door first.
"Great, so the rest of the week is packed," he said, walking in and sitting down at the head of the table. His posture radiated the majesty of a king as he looked down coldly at the others in the conference room.
"You may begin." He commanded, lightly tapping his finger on the table, his voice colder than the outside air bounced off the walls and windows.
One of the people in the room sprang from his chair. As he hurried to stand at the end of the table, his knee collided with it, producing a muffled thud.
A quiet, "Sorry," flew out of his lips as he bowed quickly before standing straight at the front, his gaze meeting Riven's cold, authoritative gaze. A shiver ran down his spine as he quickly averted his gaze.
Riven let out a huff. 'A newbie, huh?' he thought, looking at the guy's tie.
The tie was black, which seemed disproportionate when compared to the color of his rose-gold badge. And went directly against the dress code of the company.
Everyone, regardless of their status or position within the company, had a specific dress code that varied by job and branch. In this case, employees working in the office were required to adhere to a simple dress code. They were to wear dark suits with a tie matching their branch and badge.
The colors were as follows: Black tie and badge for death, Green tie and badge for health, Pale white tie and badge for food, Red tie and badge for Arms, and finally, Rose-gold or pink tie and badge for Adult entertainment.
As for those who didn't work in any of those branches, they wore a simple blue tie and badge.
It was a simple dress code that allowed for proper management of information flow within and between branches.
And since the newbie made this small but simple mistake, which Jessica most likely noticed already, he would have to give the guy a bit of a hard time, so she wouldn't.
"Name and branch," he interrupted coldly.
"Oh, um," he stumbled, "Jack Wheeler, sir of the Eros division."
"Eros division…" Riven mumbled, tapping his finger on his chair's arm. "So then, tell me, why is your tie black?"
Jack looked down at his tie, his expression dropping as he looked back at Riven, "M-My senior s-said it would be fine if I wore black when I asked where I could locate some rose-gold ties."
Before Riven could reply, Jesscia cut in. "Thank you for informing us on this matter. When this meeting is over, please report to HR to give them the name of this senior and to receive a properly colored tie."
"Yes, Miss Smith."
"You may now begin your presentation," she added.
"Ahem, we at the Eros division have been monitoring our monthly revenue and comparing it to records of other branches, and came to the startling revelation that our revenue seems to be only thirty-five percent of what other branches have been generating."
"That is normal after all," cut in another rep wearing a black badge with large bags under his eyes. "Take into consideration the value you bring to consumers. We at Epitaph bring in a considerable amount ourselves, but only due to the circumstances of the last century."
"He has a point." The only female rep present with a red badge said. "Even we at the Aegis division are relegated to security detail instead of our most lucrative business."
"Yeah, but even then you..." As his presentation unfolded, a lively exchange erupted among the representatives, each passionately discussing their revenue disparities, completely derailing his carefully crafted speech.
Riven raised his hand, and instantly the representatives stopped talking. Only after five breaths had passed did he gently lower it back down, "Continue."
Jack nodded. "We began trying to understand why our revenue had dropped so much compared to when we started operations last year."
"Let me stop you right there," Riven said, tapping his finger on the table. "I already understand what you're going to say next, so let me ask you, do you know why we chose adult entertainment over normal online entertainment?"
He asked, leaning forward, his chin resting on his interlocked fingers.
"Um, all I know is it was to create a safe and secure platform to protect not only the people viewing the content, but also to prevent the misuse of the content for illegal acts."
"While that is correct, you left out a few details. Our platform aims to make it safe not only for consumers and children but also for those who work in the industry. The reason we entered the industry was to change it, not earn money from it." Riven corrected, sitting back.
"I understand, sir." Jack nodded, with a newfound understanding of his department
"Good, now let's get to the point."
"Understood, we at the Eros division believe it would be in our best interest to move into a broader market, targeting all ages. We call it Project Aurora," he said, presenting his main point.
"And what makes you think the public would trust us with their children's entertainment when our logo sits next to the word 'obituary '?" Aegis's rep questioned, her brow raised high.
"I think more of a worry is our name next to an adult advertisement." Verdant core rep remarked, rolling his eyes.
"Well, our branch is about desire, and everyone has desires, not just adults. Even joy can be regarded as a desire under the right conditions." Jack countered, his voice full of conviction.
"Well said," Riven said, nodding with a look of praise. "It seems you have a good understanding of your branch."
"Thank you, sir," Jack said before shaking his head and adding. "But these words are not my own. They belong to the senior who mentored me; she was supposed to be here instead, but is currently under the weather."
"I see…" Riven nodded thoughtfully, his gaze intense. Leaning in closer to Jessica, he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "Does the Eros department still not have a vice head?"
Jessica shook her head after thinking about it, "At this point, no, at least not to my knowledge."
"Good, when this is over, do a background check on this employee. If everything looks good, go ahead and appoint her to the position."
"Sir, are you sure? Won't Lady Astella complain?"
"Nope, in fact, she'll be happy to have a new toy." he wasn't saying this in a demeaning way; that was just how Astella viewed anyone weaker than her, anyone whose desires she could toy with. And her favorite thing to do was to toy with the desires of women more than anything.
But anyway. Turning his attention back to Jack, "Explain how you would go about completing this 'Aurora Project'?"
"Well, for our initial goal, we originally wanted to sign on a famous streamer to represent us. But…"
"But you couldn't find anyone who matched what you wanted," Jessica interjected, writing something down on her clipboard as she had been doing the whole time.
"Ahem, correct. So instead, we wish to begin by finding a new or upcoming streamer or group to represent us as an initial wave, be it Vtubers or any other type of online persona."
"What then? How would this add any benefit and make others interested in our products, and even more so, what products do you have that would work in this plan that aren't adult toys? Riven questioned, pointing out the big gaping hole in his plans.
"We actually thought about this, so." Walking over to where he sat, he grabbed his bag and began to rummage through it until he found an envelope.
Taking it out, he retrieved a few photos from it and began to pass them out. "Here are our plans for a few products we could release, while also on that note, if we chose to go down the online persona route, merch relating to our persona could work."
"Even more, we plan to partner or acquire companies we may need to help or affiliates, much like we did in the adult film industry, be it game studios, music studios, etc." He said, passing out more papers outlining their plans.
"Is that all?" Riven questioned, rising from his chair, he strolled over to the window, his eyes sweeping over the bustling scene below.
"Yes," Jack nodded, returning to his seat.
"Alright, opinions?" he asked, his back still facing them.
"Hmm, this doesn't sound so bad. I think it's worth allowing for its growth potential." Verdant Core's representative said, raising his hand in agreement.
"I see no tactical advantage in this. I abstain." Aegis's representative said, crossing her arms.
"Does it even matter? The living will forget about it at some point anyway. I abstain." Epitaph's representative said jokingly before putting his head down.
"It's worth a shot, it may even help with health studies involving time spent watching online persona and their effect on the mind." Astramed's representative reasoned, pushing his glass up.
"I see…" Turning to face them, he gave out his verdict. "Proceed with development. I'll want reports from every division on how this affects your quarterly projects. If it works, it's a new foundation. If it doesn't—well, we'll consider it another experiment in human optimism."
"Yes, sir," they all said in agreement while looking at him. Though they were waiting for him to leave before they made their own exit.
Nodding Riven walked out of the boardroom, Jessica hot on his heels, sighing lightly as he loosened his tie, they began heading to his office.
Walking closer to him, Jessica passed him a tablet and said, "You've got the school on line two. They want to ask you something relating to their upcoming fall festival."
"Haaa, great," Riven said, walking into his office.
Meanwhile, in a different part of the city, Sera was busy with business of her own.
"So this is the place, huh?" Serena questioned, looking at the rundown cafe.
"Yep," She nodded with a smile.
This was the place she wanted most out of all the places she visited with Riven. It was her first choice and the first place they visited.
"Doesn't seem worth that much for that geezer to take so long to give us a price."
"Yeah," she said with an uneasy smile, her gaze pointing down.
To be honest, with how long it took, she wasn't even sure if it was even worth waiting when even the cafe itself still needed tons of work to be operational. Especially when the other cafes would have taken less time, the only downside was that the locations weren't really desirable.
But none of that really mattered anymore; she had the place she wanted, and two days of cleaning should get the place to a suitable condition for what she needed to fit her vision; anything else could be done after. Plus, she already had everything else she needed.
Furniture matching the design she wanted, the custom equipment that Riven practically forced her to have made, books that she believed would be perfect to include, and finally, all the ingredients she would need for all of October would arrive on the first.
To say she was prepared would be an understatement; in fact, if she missed anything, she would be surprised. But for now, it was time to clean.
Turning to face Serena and Sylvia, she smiled, knowing they would be suffering with her in this grueling work. "Come on, girls. Let's begin this, or it'll never end."
Sylvia walked forward first, in her hands a few buckets, rags, and mops. Sera followed closely behind, leaving Serena standing there, who grumbled a bit about this being something you hire people for before following after.
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I've moved the important parts of the Update chapter here, so I can delete that chapter.
First, Updates will only be posted in batches of three or more
And obviously, this story contract has been rejected, so no worry about paid chapters (Though I might put a PayPal link if you wish to support me).