sistermagnetic: (Default)
Magne Hikiishi ([personal profile] sistermagnetic) wrote in [community profile] ph_logs2024-08-09 09:02 pm

Velvet, Ambrosia, and Silk

Who: Big Sis Magne & anyone 20+
What:
The official opening of the first proper entrepreneurship in Pumpkin Hollow!
When:
Late July and onward
Where:
the newly built, remodeled, and furnished VAS
Warning(s):
General warning for sexually explicit talk pertaining to the job functions of the business. Underage characters will not be able to enter via an enchantment on all entrances that stops them in their tracks. There are no exceptions. (My younger characters aren't allowed in, so neither are yours.)


Pre-opening Staff Party
Perhaps Magne talked it over with you while construction was underway, perhaps you heard about it through the grapevine, perhaps you were pinged thirdhand while looking for a position after newly arriving in town. Either way, if you were invited to come and see the newly-built, elegant multi-story brothel, a couple of nights before she had scheduled the official opening of the business proper, the Madame of this particular business will be throwing a small party to get her workers, friends, and little family together. It's a celebration of good fortune and tenacity. It's also a tour to let those that would be staying on the premises claim their rooms and start to talk over decorating with her.

The main parlor is pristine, with a bar and a few stools stationed around it, with bottles of liquor arranged behind it on sturdy shelves. Purchases from The Limoncello, and supplemental bottles from Erin Peters' collection. There are a few chairs, a few cushions arranged around a low tea table, poofy armchairs and footrests to go with them, loveseats and a couch. Around the walls are a couple of portraits already, one of the Madame herself, with an enchanted magnolia blossom attached to it softly glowing due to her presence in the building. This, she will explain, is the indicator for who is on staff at any given time, bending to the will of the person in the portrait. If they don't want it known that they're in the building, it won't show. First and foremost, it is to tell patrons who is available on staff. Hers is to let them all know when she is there. It will almost certainly be permanently lit. She will always be there for them.

There is a kitchen off the main parlor, specifically that that had come with the front of house that was originally just a normal two-storey home that Magne had built her business onto. It's not only functional, but now supporting the production of light foods for the gathering, with more supplies due to come in in the next couple of days. She had asked Max Maximum to be there a bit earlier than the rest to help her prepare for it all, knowing that he would want to be part of the hospitality for the event.

Everybody under her employ, regardless of position, would be walked through the rules and the security measures. Nobody would be in danger, so long as this was her business. Not if she could help it.

If Magne spots you on your own when you're in attendance, she will come and say hello. You may be the recipient of a big, squeezy hug and a "Hello darling!". Maybe even a kiss on the cheek. Sorry not sorry about lipstick smudges.

The Grand Opening
The wards are set. The rules are in place. A list of names is available with their own flowers beside them in place of the eventual portraits that will line the walls of the front of house. The curtains are drawn and the lights are soft and a radio plays softly from the shelves behind the bar. Everything is warm and inviting, and Magne? Magne is beaming. Her business is officially open.

"It's really happening," she says to herself, not for the first time since the construction was completed. She stands at the end of the bar, her hands clasped around one another mostly hidden by the wide sleeves of the kimono that she had had designed by committee to fit her, deep red with pink and gold embroidery of flowers and vines, the sash tied at her back. Her hair is pinned up in neat, elegant rolls and her makeup done subtly, and she looks every part the Madame that she decided she would be.

The rules are pretty standard, all things considered: consent can be recalled at any time. Refunds will only be given if all parties are in agreement that such a thing is called for. Abuse of her employees will be stopped by force if need be, and that will be done by Magne herself. This is not something that you want to happen to you. There will be nobody on the premises under twenty years of age, barring extremely specific gatherings to be announced at a later date. There is no "three strikes" in this building; testing your luck is not something that you will walk away from looking particularly pretty.

Welcome to the Velvet, Ambrosia, and Silk. Whatever your pleasure may be, it will be seen to.

(Well, unless you want something from a vampire, in which case you'll be put into contact with Lord Erik Osborne. They have an agreement.)

The Off Hours
When not at work, Magne can often be found upstairs, in her own personal living space constructed with a soundproof layer between her loft-like home and her business. Her furniture from when she had first acquired the house has been moved up and the remodel has been completed to put in a small tamaya. There are small pencil portraits of the people that she loves framed there, and the little, square-ish figure of one stationed just under his portrait looking somewhat out of place there among the fine wooden shelves. She can be found in front of this every now and then, knelt in proper seiza, offering her fallen friends quiet prayers and updates on the way that things have gone.

There is a door buzzer that can get her attention if you want her downstairs, but some people are welcome to simply come up to see her when they want to. Just step around a curtained corner and pull on a braided silk cord to signal your arrival.
spaghettification: (profile)

[personal profile] spaghettification 2024-08-24 05:12 am (UTC)(link)
"And if I bring my violin, to play while you dance?" He smiles, still somewhat uncertain. But the food is a great temptation. Especially if he can convince Max to make the sort of dishes he grew up eating.
maximumcake: (Default)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2024-08-29 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
"I'd love that. I tried to learn to play, myself, but my talents were with other arts." Which is a nice way of saying he kinda sucked at it and gave up. "I'd be honored for you to play for me. Dancing I can do."

spaghettification: (laughter)

[personal profile] spaghettification 2024-08-29 02:52 am (UTC)(link)
"Honored? I'm not that good. My parents would have exploded if I'd tried to become a professional. But it did play into my understanding of the sciences later."
maximumcake: (curious)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2024-08-29 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
"It's not about talent, it's about sharing something as intimate as that with me. That's the honor." Performing one-on-one for someone strikes him as an intimate kind of gesture.

"Sciences? What did you study?"

spaghettification: (universe)

[personal profile] spaghettification 2024-08-29 05:54 pm (UTC)(link)
"Astrophysics! I specialized in gravity and black holes. Spent time on the Horizon Lunar colony and a Lucheng space station. It was good work, mostly."

Until he was discarded.
maximumcake: (curious)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2024-08-30 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
"Whao! That's incredible. You've been to space and everything? That has to be the coolest job ever."
spaghettification: (the thinker)

[personal profile] spaghettification 2024-09-03 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
"For a while, it was. It was everything I dreamed of, as a child."

His smile is sad, though, and he doesn't quite look at Max.
maximumcake: (pic#14146323)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2024-09-06 07:44 pm (UTC)(link)
"What changed?" he asks gently. He'll accept being told it's private but he can't see Siebren looking like that and not ask.
spaghettification: (in his head)

CW: discussion of involuntary institutionalization, corporate coverup, TBI, general Sigma backstory

[personal profile] spaghettification 2024-09-07 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"A failed experiment. A traumatic brain injury, and a cover-up to avoid embarrassing the corporation whose space station I was on. I was stowed in a facility, locked away from the world for years. And when I was, ah, released, it was by a terrorist organization looking to use me as a weapon."
maximumcake: (pic#14146356)

Re: CW: discussion of involuntary institutionalization, corporate coverup, TBI, general Sigma backst

[personal profile] maximumcake 2024-09-08 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
"You got hurt so they imprisoned you for it?" Max's voice climbs several octaves by the time he finishes the question.

"That's evil. I'm so sorry."