Room 222, Sunday Afternoon

[wwiii]

Things were finally starting to settle down a bit. Sure, everything was maybe still a little raw for the people that he was close to, but at least Warren had managed to find himself something to occupy himself with after a visit to The Boards yesterday had gone better than he'd expected.

It was too cold out for flying, and Warren was quite happy to take it easy today, which apparently involved scribbling out things that he'd have to take into consideration while working out a reasonable budget for DOGS, this season. And then after that, he could look into what it would take to rent out the Zoo on the mainland, so that he could finally get back to Wesley about that.

There were way, way worse ways to spend a Sunday.

[Open! Warning for triggery topics in the thread with Bobby.]

Comments

[wwiii]

Warren was going to very strategically not ask about that. At least for the time being. It seemed like the saner option.

"You know, I'm pretty certain that I've got the bank account that never ends, and even I check more often than that?"

[glacial_queen]

Karla had to laugh a little. "This is the first time I've ever had a bank account, really. Back home, my man of business used to send me quarterly statements about my investments, but my parents always handled that. Then they started going to Hobart and know who knows what state they're in? Until I came here, I'd never really even had money. I would buy on credit, the merchants would bill the estate, the Steward would pay out of the tithes, and that would be that."

[wwiii]

"So, no receipts?" Warren just had to check. With a grin on his face, granted.

Look, aside from the momentarily busted nose that Bobby had given him, the woeful want of receipts from the Boards had kind of been the lowest point of the weekend, for him.

"It's a wonder the world didn't just go on ahead and end, then and there."

[glacial_queen]

"They wrote it down in a book?" Karla tried. "And I always take the receipts I'm given when I deposit my checks from 'Dite's?"

And usually ended up throwing them away, or using them to hold used gum till she could throw it away, or served as scrap paper when she needed something to write on...

"I'm pretty sure the Steward would go and talk to the merchants if he thought a charge looked too high." She was trying to be comforting!

[wwiii]

"And I'm sure he does it with a nervous twitch in one eyelid," Warren laughed, shaking his head. "I think before we worry about teaching you the finer points of filling out a ledger, we're going to have to have a long heart-to-heart about keeping track of where your money is going."

He couldn't say anything about spending it responsibly, because that would be way too pot-to-kettle, but at least he could tell you at the end of the month just how much he'd spend on things like frivolous Zoo rentals and the like.

[glacial_queen]

Karla tried to look penitent, but the smile that kept twitching at the corners of her mouth probably didn't help much with that. "I work better with incentives," she mentioned. Helpfully. "I will probably be much better about keeping receipts if I knew I was going to get something for them."

Like, say, a kiss per receipt she managed to keep? That sounded fair to Karla.

[wwiii]

Hey, Warren couldn't argue with that logic, really!

"What's the going rate for receipts nowadays, do you suppose?"

Aside from the cost of whatever it was you had bought in order to get one in the first place, of course.

[glacial_queen]

"I think a one-to-one pineapple exchange rate is fair," Karla decided. "Perhaps with breakpoints every often to keep me motivated. Ten for room service, twenty-five for crepes, and so on?"

[wwiii]

"That would get you stockpiling them pretty thoroughly, wouldn't it?" Warren laughed and shrugged, because how could he even compete with logic like that. "This doesn't mean that you're going to go out and just buy things in order to get your hands on more receipts, I hope?"

Because that would totally defeat the point.

[glacial_queen]

"Nooo..." Karla said, immediately discarding a plan to go out and do just that. "That would be cheating and I wouldn't do that."

And also, Karla had a bridge to sell you!

[wwiii]

"If you start handing me stacks of receipts for things like one cookie at a time from J,GoB, I'm totally going to be on to you," Warren noted, shaking his head. He couldn't wipe the silly little smile from his lips, so clearly, he didn't mind all that much.

[glacial_queen]

"How many single cookie receipts do you think I could give to you before you catch on?" Karla asked, for the purposes of science, really.

[wwiii]

"Honestly? Probably about four."

Pulling a number out of thin air, here.

"Because I would actually be looking at what's on the receipts. Which is kind of the point of them, and all."

[glacial_queen]

"But look how well I'm keeping track of them!" Karla protested, laughing for the first time since they'd gotten back to Fandom. She stopped for a moment, surprised by the sound, but then giggled again. "I love you," she said fondly, nudging him with her shoulder. "Even if you won't let me cheat."

[wwiii]

"And I love you, too," Warren replied, swaying to the side and then swaying back again to bump his shoulder against hers, lightly. "Even if you are a cheater."

At least, in this situation, there were grounds to argue that she was cheating for a good cause.

[glacial_queen]

Warren was saying no to extra pineapples. Really, the fault lay with him.

"So how'd you convince Genesis to let you be in charge of advertising?" she asked, wrapping her arms around his waist. She was feeling snuggly; odds were good she either end up napping in his lap or curled up around him before the afternoon was over.

[wwiii]

"I wish I knew," Warren replied, laughing softly and quite happy to get snuggly in turn. "I went to check out the audition, and after I explained that I wasn't going to be trying out, I asked if I could be involved in something else. And then I threw a few ideas for advertising at him, and... Hey, a job."

Not that he needed the employment, really. But something to do? Yeah, he could totally get on board with that.

[glacial_queen]

"Oooh, does that mean you'll be wearing a suit to rehearsals?" Karla asked, having a vague notion that businessmen wore suits. "As your girlfriend, I support this notion."

You had a private office, Warren. Think about that.

"But you must have really impressed him," she added. "Since he's not the type to go with something just because someone suggests it."

He'd forgive her if she sounded just the tiniest bit proud of him, right?

[wwiii]

Warren wasn't planning on wearing any suits to rehearsals, but now the temptation was totally there...

Definitely a point to consider.

"He's really not," Warren agreed, maybe a little bit proud of himself, too. "I guess maybe I just managed to sound like I know what I'm talking about. I was so out of my element with actually acting before, I bet he didn't even see it coming."

[glacial_queen]

"Well, that'll teach him to underestimate you," Karla said, tilting her chin a little and sounding smug. Take that Genesis. "Just because you haven't done a lot of acting doesn't mean you're not good at lots of things. Like advertising, and knowing what to do with receipts, and numbers and all that stuff. Oh, and kissing, but he doesn't get to know that," she teased.

She was tempted to point out that he got that job without Genesis knowing who or what the Worthingtons were, but she figured he'd realized that already.

"So, once you get this receipt thing sorted out, what's next?"

[wwiii]

Well, Warren had mentioned that his dad owned a multi-million dollar company, but that totally had nothing to do with anything, right?

"Drawing up an advertising budget," Warren replied, glancing at the numbers that he'd crunched already. "And then maybe trying to work out a budget for the rest of the production. I mean, since I already have the numbers figured out for the rest of it..."

He shrugged. "I don't want to take money away from the props and sets and costumes, if I can help it, just so that we can get a few more posters up. I think I'm going to have to sort out the rest of the finances if I want to make it work out, anyhow."

[glacial_queen]

Pssht, like Genesis would care about what Warren's father did.

"So you're not really just doing advertising," Karla guessed, shrewdly. "That may have been where it started, but not where it ends, I'm betting."

[wwiii]

Warren shrugged and twitched a little smile.

"I might just be getting carried away," he admitted. "I'm covering front of house, and things like that this time around, too. I think mostly I'm just kind of grabbing things as I see them and doing them. Mr. Rhapsodos is the one with the big artistic vision. I kind of just know my way around business."

[glacial_queen]

"You mean, you're doing all the work that lets the Boards stay open so Mr. Rhapsodos can keep focusing on his vision," Karla pointed out with a smile. "That's no small thing. And I don't think it counts as getting carried away if you can juggle all the tasks you've decided to take over."

Which Karla had no doubt he could. Warren had this air of quiet competence when he talked about business and money and saving receipts. It was the same one he got when he was talking about flying, or when Lucivar was talking about fighting: a male fully in his element.

[wwiii]

"Well, it wasn't exactly part of the job description that he tossed at me," Warren laughed. "But he hasn't complained yet, so I suppose my job is whatever I decide my job needs to be?"

He had no idea. But he wasn't exactly complaining, either.

"I should probably try to get in touch with somebody who was associated with the Broadway run," he mused, "to see what sort of budget they were running on. I can't imagine the Boards will even begin to compare to the money that they throw around, not on a small island like this. But it's a starting point."

He could kind of take their numbers, and then... scale them. A lot.