The Business' Career Fair

[Ookalf]

Makes sense so far... *Yoko carefully looks over the papers as the cloaked figure lays them out.* I do have one question on the subject of pay. I understand that it will vary between cases, but how significant is the variance? Is there a general range that I can expect if I take this job?

[Whatevr89532]

"Ah, yes." The cloaked being takes out yet another piece of paper, this one with the same figure of $60 displayed at the top and converted into about thirty other currencies including "fractional souls" along the rest of it. "We give a min-imum per-case payment of sixty dol-lars or your pre-ferred equivalent currency per day. Nor-mally a client's charge is split over the work-ers, but if this does not at least cover that minimum we furnish the rest our-selves. More im-portant, high-profile cases, or those whose cli-ent is richer and wil-ling to spend more to mot-ivate results, pay bet-ter."

[Ookalf]

Sixty dollars a day, huh? That's a pretty good deal... All right, I'll take it. Is there anything you need me to sign?

[Whatevr89532]

"There is some stan-dard employee paperwork, and some cli-ents will also request those work-ing their case to sign a confidentiality agreement re-garding it. We do not worry about being 'le-gally' binding as we operate in ma-ny different worlds with dif-ferent standards. Such a contract will just rep-resent a record that you have agreed." The cloaked figure digs out a few pieces of paper with a pretty standard-looking employee contract on it, except that it seems to have been written by someone who wanted the agreement to be easy to understand rather than by a lawyer. The part at the end for signatures has a blank for the "Employer" which appears to have already been filled in by printing out "THE BUSINESS" in a different font there, and an actual blank for "Employee".

[Ookalf]

Hm. Makes sense, as a policy... *Yoko reads over the contract and, assuming everything's in order, signs it before handing it back to the cloaked figure.*

[Whatevr89532]

The figure makes a slight jerking motion as if just remembering something, and moves its limbs as if to push away the contract temporarily. "Oh, yes! You should also be in-formed that your pay for attending pre-liminary training will be six-ty dollars per com-pleted lesson. Each les-son should not take more than a day to com-plete, so this should match the discussed rate. Is this ac-ceptable?"

[Ookalf]

Oh. Well, I suppose I can live with that... *Yoko nods.* I mean, yes, that is acceptable. Is there anything else I should know?

[Whatevr89532]

The cloaked figure's head-area makes a brief sound like a dial-up modem running, before it abruptly cuts off. "A-pologies for the noise. I be-lieve that is all. How soon would you be a-vailable for the training, so that we may sche-dule with an ex-perienced investigator?"

[Ookalf]

Ah, I actually have some more errands to run today, but I'm free for most of tomorrow... Does tomorrow around noon work?

[Whatevr89532]

"Allow me a mo-ment to cross-reference." The cloaked figure is silent for about half a minute. "Ah. It ap-pears Or-phea Turner could use an ex-tra hand." Thirty more seconds or so: "She has a-greed to handle initial trai-ning and assessment, if that is acceptable?"

[Ookalf]

Orphea Turner? The musician? *Yoko can't help but look somewhat surprised by this namedrop, though she soon covers it up.* Sorry, I mean, that does seem acceptable. Where do you want me to meet her?

[Whatevr89532]

The cloaked being 'nods'. "Ce-lebrity status is use-ful for in-vestigation for its own reasons: One will be allowed in-to places others would not be, and others tend to be ea-ger to talk." Then it proceeds to give an address of a particular night club. "It will not be o-pen just yet, come in through the back to meet up."

[Ookalf]

I see... *Yoko makes note of the location.* Well, I'll be sure to be there. And thank you for giving me this opportunity.

[Whatevr89532]

"Of course. We are con-fident this will be prof-itable for both of us," the cloaked figure responds. Although their speech usually lacks much intonation, the way it says the word 'profitable' here seems to stand out just a bit.

((I'll get another thread for this started in a little bit, I think.))

[Ookalf]

(Sounds like a plan.)

I'm sure it will be, too... *Though she's a bit curious about the cloaked figure's change in tone, Yoko leaves without saying much more.*