Once Lucas's brain has woken up enough to start processing his surroundings, 427 fills him in on what he missed during his little power nap. Noticing that Jonathan is diligently messing around on his phone to make sure all is in order, he reaches out towards him and curls his fingers a few times in a 'give that to me' motion. Jonathan immediately complies without giving it much thought, with a small sigh he gets back to his excessively complex paperwork.
Lucas pokes about a little on his phone, but mostly just checks Jonathan's number and goes back to his own phone, finally adding him into his contacts and sending him a text message comprised simply of the number 11. He goes back to Jonathan's phone long enough to use the message to add himself, then tosses it back at its rightful owner.
Jonathan catches it at the last moment
[...If you're so eager to see them, you could hurry up with getting all of the paperwork finalized and go take the picture yourself. The more you procrastinate-]As 427 is winding up to lecture Lucas on the benefits of expediency, he is cut off and completely undermined by a single default message notification ping.From dog pix (10:43 AM): Dokkaebi wanted to join in too [Picture Embedded]Without even actually reading the included text, Lucas taps to make the photo full-screen immediately. To Lucas's great delight, the shot features Franz lying down on the floor of Faunahorde, looking straight up at the camera in all of his black, tan, and brown furry glory. His huge tongue is happily lolling out of the side of his mouth and his big ol' ears are perked straight up. Me
[Even if you don't want to account for the unnecessary threat of always having Mikah so close by, I'm sure even with a discount it will be an unnecessary expenditure to rent out an entire floor. If you focus on the orphanage, or at least help support one of the soup kitchens, you'll gain an extra source of GDV with your money.]Lucas poses a counterargument in the form of a high-pitched mental whine, earning a sigh from 427.[Besides, you wouldn't have much reason to spend time at an empty office with just the two of you as the only staff anyway. Also, the two of you should be too busy resolving GDV tasks to spend much time there, even if there was a legitimate reason to be there anyway.]After another, albeit weaker, drawn-out mental whine, Lucas pinches the bridge of
Seeing that Lucas has more or less locked up after the offer, instead of giving any sort of audible response, Jonathan decides to show some spine."We'll, we'll take it. We were just, uh, worried before that it would cost too much for a, um, whole floor. Tha-thank you. Ehehe, you should see Lucas's face." As Jonathan attempts to lock in the bargain, he can't help chuckling when Lucas's blank expression gains a bit of surprise from Jonathan's words rather than from Mark's offer.Rather than being disappointed by the offer being claimed, Miss Calculated simply nods her head a few times, all is as it should be."Ahem, yeah, exactly. Since you're being so... Generous, maybe once we've grown and start actually using a bunch of electricity and have lots of people coming and
While the overall energy of the room makes it feel like someone is going to pull out a bottle of champagne any moment now while Jonathan should start giving an acceptance speech, Lucas suddenly claps twice to get everyone's attention."All right, enough of that. Those bastards don't deserve any more of our time, even for this." As Lucas cuts the celebratory atmosphere short, Jonathan's expression sobers up a bit, but he does nod repeatedly in agreement."Ri-right. It's great that it's done, bu-but it's not like it really changes anything..." As Jonathan backs Lucas up, he sinks into the cushy couch he is seated on, completely undoing the prim and proper upright posture he was temporarily maintaining. Having fallen back into a neutral expression, there are no remaining traces of the bright enthusiasm he had mere moments before
With two down and one to go, Miss Calculated has settled back down into her previous location next to Willy, sighing before continuing further."As you may have guessed when you were filling it out, the paperwork for registering pets as part of the family roster is a bit over-the-top to try to dissuade people from registering each and every last goldfish and hamster they decide to raise. And, since animals aren't even expected to have ID chips, I'm gonna have to double down when proving he isn't already registered to someone else, and if he is, then we then have to go through a whole other set of procedures to change that fact, even if they are deceased." While bemoaning her pending busy work, Miss Calculated taps her index finger on top of the closed folder resting on her lap a few times. Towards the end of her statement, Willy's tail abruptly stops wagging when she mentions being
While Alley Cat and Miss Calculated are both happily laughing together through the phone call, Miss Masher and Miss Chievous are both mostly unresponsive, seeming not only uninterested, but also unsurprised."Well, to answer your question, I have been considering expanding my soup kitchen recently, maybe add a few more other services as well. It just so happens that that big ol' apartment complex next door that the owners wanted to try running an insurance scam through was declared condemned before he got the chance, so he abandoned the project completely. Since he didn't actually have any plans for it once it was gutted, he even said he'd sell it for less than it's worth, since he doesn't want to even bother clearing it up to do something with it. But, with as much fun as I've been having with being altruistic, I'm a bit limited in terms of liquid assets for the time being, which I
Thankfully, before anyone else has a chance to notice, Lucas manages to control his facial expressions. He's already annoyed enough without having to explain why.Once the call has ended and Miss Calculated shares Lakshmi's contact details with Lucas, she can't resist chuckling a bit while thinking it back over."Really, nothing should be a surprise anymore if it involves Lakshmi. Sometimes I can't help but think that they actually have the most powerful and impressive power in the world. On more than one occasion it has proven to be rather far-reaching, if it even has any restrictions at all, and it's all passive to boot. For all we know, everything that happened this morning was just leading up to you becoming a source of funds for them. For example, Something as simple as Mash deciding not to follow me to work today would
"Well... Guess we're off to I4 then... Together..." As Lucas gives his hesitant parting, Willy fetches his three inexact supe likenesses from where they were neatly placed on the shelf under the coffee table, leading the way out of the door that Lucas holds open for those whom are leaving.Miss Calculated has set about gathering her belongings and cleaning everything up, giving a nod of farewell to the doggo and three people on their way out the door.On the other hand, her twin has decided to express solidarity with the rotating blocks she controls, pivoting her own position on the couch. She settles down with her knees resting on top of the backrest, her bent legs hanging freely down the back, her hair stretching to try to touch the fine carpeting of the floor. She merely gives a grunt of acknowledgment to the fact that the