Fandom All in a day's work (Illusionna, Matamoja)

[Araellion]

Levi the red panda started his work day much the same way he usually did. By zipping around the main meeting room of his establishment, watering the potted plants, dusting surfaces that were more than clean enough, and generally tidying up the place.

After all, this room wasn't exclusively used by his employees. The high class clients expected the best, and he was determined to provide just that. This place was his pride and joy after all, and he didn't trust anyone else to take care of the place the way he did.

Sadly, he couldn't be everywhere at once. That was the only reason he had to hire outsiders to clean the club area.

But for now, there was peace. Levi made it a point to get here early. Just so he could have some quiet time to think and sort out the rest of the day. Besides, if he left home early he was practically guaranteed to get here on time, no matter what happened. It was sadly not unusual for him to run into trouble on the way to work.

Shaking his thoughts away, he jumped up on one of the couches and looked out at the room. Ah yes, everything in perfect order and harmony. Levi gave in to a moment of indulgence and sank down into the soft pillows as he considered his next move.

While he delegated most of the paperwork to Adulpha, Levi still had some things to do before opening. Mostly simple things though. Checking up on the music and routines, touching up on costumes, and reading emails.

Whipping out his phone, he did just that. There was only one interesting email. Apparently a potential special customer would come by. Just to see the merchandise. A smile slowly spread across his face, and he made a mental note to make sure everything was perfect today.

The time in the upper corner of his phone reminded him that his employees would be here soon. Jumping off of the couch, he fluffed the now flattened pillows and went into his office. Not bothering to close the door behind him, Levi went straight to the full length mirror leaning against the wall. His dark grey suit had gotten a tad rumpled in his hurry, so he smoothed it down. Wouldn't do to look like a slob, especially in front of the workers.

With his appearance back up to his usual standards, Levi jumped up on his chair and from there up on his desk. It was just more convenient if he was only trying to quickly find something. He collected and skimmed through the schedules. A decent bit of variety today. Surely the prospective client would find something that appealed to their tastes.

Sadly, the email had been vague. No mention of what exactly they were looking for, or even when they would come by. Didn't even have the common decency of listing what species they were. But that was fine. No problem at all. Levi would deal with it like he always did. Hell, he would look past almost anything if the pay was good enough.

His sensitive hearing picked up noises from the meeting room. Sounds like someone was trying to be sneaky, and failing spectacularly at it. Levi made his way back out with a firm grasp of the schedules.

Evelyn the snow leopard was lounging on the smaller couch, ancient phone in one hand and absentmindedly fiddling with her muzzle with the other. The metal cage enclosing her snout had been non-negotiable if she wanted to work here. Levi had said that it was purely to create an image of danger and excitement, but a small part of him was grateful for the extra protection.

Thankfully, she hadn't put up a fight. After all, she didn't have many other options. Evelyn couldn't work or live in normal society, and he was the only one willing to take in a dangerous criminal. Apparently even establishments in the black market didn't want anyone with a criminal record consisting of 'predatory incidents'. No wonder she liked being here early as well. At least here she was under his protection.

Levi leaned against the wall, waiting for the rest of today's lot to come wandering in. He didn't have to wait long before Gabriel the merino sheep showed up.

Both Levi and Evelyn winced as the doors were slammed open to reveal the sheep, who looked as ridiculous as always. Today he had dyed parts of his wool pink and the rest yellow. Frankly, Levi thought he looked ridiculous. The only reason he allowed it was because it was popular with the costumers.

"Yo! Please tell me there's something fun going on today. Didn't do all this work for nothing," Gabriel said over his shoulder to Levi as he pushed Evelyn's legs to make room for himself. There was a perfectly wide and empty sofa available, so the maniac had probably only done it to prove a point.

Levi wanted to point out that Gabriel had different colored wool every day, but just gave him a bright smile instead. No need to waste his energy on pointless squabbles. "I'm sure the customers will appreciate your hard work." From how proud the sheep looked, Levi figured it was safe to assume he had entirely missed the sarcasm coating his statement.

"Right, only two more to go..." Levi had muttered it under his breath, but he didn't doubt for a second that the leopard's sensitive hearing had picked it up.

 

[Illusionna]

“If it’s Abigail, she’s going to be late,” Evelyn sang. Gabriel chuckled and leaned into the snow leopard.

“No drinks for you tonight,” a low voice came from the back as a tall gray wolf female closed an office door behind her. She wore a suit similar to Levi’s, and smiled at him brightly when the red panda looked up, her back teeth showing slightly with the width of her grin. Then it disappeared as she turned back to duo sitting on the couch. “Not until you pay up for your last work night, Gabriel.”

The sheep shrugged and sighed.

“And it isn’t Abigail, so you don’t get to see a smack down tonight,” Adulpha gave Evelyn a motherly scowl. She turned back to Levi, the same motherly look on her face, only now the scowl gone. “Calm down, Levi,” she scolded, stalking over to him. Her walk was rarely just that, a walk, her legs always spread themselves too wide, her shoulders and hips rolled too much, her heels clicking on the tiled floor was the only thing that made her movements not a predatory action. “Your collar is all mussed in the back.”

Levi reached behind his neck, but she gently swatted his hands away and smoothed the fabric out, straightening his fur as she did. The red panda took a deep breath in, but before he speak, the door opened again.

“The weather is going to suck tonight,” an iguana came in, her scales a deep green, turning pink at her face and her muzzle and the spines on the back of her neck and head. “Hey, bossman, boss lady.” She looked at Gabriel and raised an eyebrow, shaking her head. “You look like candy corn.”

“Some people like candy corn, Rosy,” the sheep replied.

“Yeah,” Rosy rolled her eyes and plopped herself down on the larger couch across from where Evelyn and Gabriel lounged. She sat cocked on one hip, her thick tail sticking out the other side. Rosy was Levi and Aldupha’s longest held employee, ‘rescued’ by them years ago. She’d seen beasts come and go, for many different reasons, but she’d stayed, a mainstay of the establishment and despite her quiet and straight forward demeanor, she had several regular clients. The red dress she wore fit her tightly, showing off her green scales in just the right way with the contrasting colors

“You think so?” Adulpha asked, glancing at Levi while patting him on the shoulder.

“Sometime after midnight,” Rosy predicted. “It’s going to be ugly.”

“What’s going to be ugly?” The door opened again and a coypu entered, closing the door immediately behind him. He pressed his back against it, as if holding the black market at bay, his rodent tail swaying slightly behind him. His tight pants and shiny button shirt almost shook with his labored breathing.

“The weather,” Rosy replied. “Did you run here, Ollie?”

The small herbivore pushed himself off of the door, shaking his head quickly. “No,” he answered. “No.” He walked slowly to the large couch, crawling onto it and sitting demurely with his hands in his lap next to Rosy. “I didn’t run here.”

 

[Araellion]

"Right. If we can all focus, that would be great." The past few minutes had thrown him for a loop, and Levi was quite eager to get back on track. Idle chit-chat was nice, but it's not what they are here to do.

He waited a bit for them all to calm down. Evelyn was already as calm as she'd ever be, which is to say not calm at all. Even in her casual position it was easy to see how tense she was. Her ears were on a constant swivel and her eyes darted this way and that to keep track of every movement.

Gabriel looked like he was tempted to stir up trouble, but not willing to risk the consequences. He knew he was well liked by the clients. And Levi both really wanted to auction him off to the highest bidder and wanted to keep him around to earn them more money. For now, Gabriel was safe from being fired, and he knew it.

"But we are focused, boss," Gabriel threw Levi a casual grin, apparently having decided to have some fun after all. "Discussing the weather is a very important thing to do." The comment earned him a huff of laughter from Evelyn, which seemed to make Gabriel more bold. "Am I right? Rosy? Ollie?" He stretched out both his arms towards the other sofa, hoping to get some high-fives.

Levi, on the other hand, was pointedly ignoring everything happening in front of him and barreled on. "You can discuss that all you want later." If he didn't end up strangling someone before the day was up, that is. "I want you all on your best behaviour. I know that's a lot to ask for..." Levi paused to send all of them a disapproving glare. This was not how he had wanted to start the day off. "...but I do have a surprise if you do your best."

Evelyn looked more startled than happy about that, which was expected. That cat was so skittish sometimes, it was a wonder she managed to get to work half the time. But then, she knew how intimidating she was and used that to her advantage.

 

[Illusionna]

Rosy pointedly ignored Gabriel, as usual. Ollie timidly raised his hand and clapped Gabriel's outstretched one before twisting in the couch to gave Levi. "A surprise?"

Rosy gave him a soft, almost pitying look, though the coypu didn't see it. The little guy actually sounded pleased. "We do our best, bossman," Rosy assured, hey deep voice confident, glancing at Aldupha, who have her a small shrug. "Even cotton candy, there."

Adulpha leaned down to the red panda. "What's up, fussypants?" she asked. Normally she only called him that in private or when she was feeling particularly protective. Only one of their employees had ever made a comment about the nickname. That employee was no longer working, for anyone.

 

[Araellion]

"Ooh, cotton candy. Now there's an idea! I'm sure I have more pink and blue dye..." Gabriel leaned against Evelyn, completely absorbed in his own world. Despite everything, he enjoyed his work and was always looking for ways to spruce things up. Evelyn looked like she was debating kicking him off the couch, but refrained.

Levi's smile twitched at the nickname. Yes, he was used to it, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He knew there was no use in complaining though. Levi had learnt to pick his battles and this was not the hill he wanted to die on. He could see Evelyn's amused look which made his mood even worse. Ollie's and Rosy's seeming excitement was the only good thing about this conversation.

"We have a potential client coming by to see you all perform." Not a lie, but not the entire truth. More of a carefully worded truth. Levi turned to Adulpha, looking up at her and pushing away the urge to climb up on something to be on eye level. "The email I got about it was vague. Did you have any more information?"

 

[Illusionna]

"Is that what you're all upset about?" Adulpha crooned, shaking her head. Her long fur shook slightly with the movement, her tail wagging a little behind her. " Not much more than you." She turned to the group on the couch. "A high profile client is coming to observe the lot of you," she announced. "Make Levi proud." There was no room for reproach in her voice. She looked each of the four beasts on the couch in turn. "Do what you do best, to the best of your ability tonight, for each and every customer." She cocked her hip out, crossing her arms over her chest. "You won't know who this client is." She glanced at Levi with raised eyebrows, signalling to him that her email was the same as his--she didn't know what species the client was either.

"We don't know who the high profile client is?" Rosy asked, her spikes rising slightly in agitation. "That's a little unfair, don't you think?"

"Uh, we can handle it," Ollie said quickly kicking off his shoes and standing on the couch, turning so he was fully facing Adulpha and Levi. "Rosy, you'll rock it, you always do."

Rosy gave the rodent an irritated glance. "That's not the point."