by Red WolfArmed with a list of referrals from Wolf, Spike made the initial contacts with prospective clients.
Days of listening to mindless drones waffle in unintelligible business-speak about weird noises, strange manuscripts and employee disembowelments that they couldn't fit into their PowerPoint presentations was almost enough to make Spike wish that whatever monster was lurking in the background would finish the job. But there were times in life when was best to smile through gritted teeth and swallow the urge to verbally rip a man's head off, especially when you could later direct that pent-up anger into killing something scaly, slimy or lawyer-like.
Spike couldn't believe the lies they told themselves to try and make it all seem a normal occurrence. The ones that actually admitted they had a problem made the list that was passed on to Dawn. Of course, the ones that didn't would warrant a later callback, it paid to never burn bridges.
Dressed in a severe business suit, Dawn met with general managers and corporate executives, people with too-bright smiles who were trying to cope with the knowledge that something beyond their comprehension had taken up residence in the stationery cupboard.
She found the best way of handling the situation was to ensure the client that the problem would be handled swiftly and with a minimum of fuss. Dawn had also discovered that her self-assured presence coupled with Spike's professional phone manner put clients at ease. It made good business sense to insist on cash up front, before self-denial translated to non-payment for services rendered and it wasn't always possible to put the demons back in the photocopier.
The nice thing about having a job that relied on discretion was that, once the unpleasantness of dealing with suits was done with, it gave Spike and Dawn a chance to work as a team. An after-hours service that took care of unnatural problems could charge a premium fee, enough to ensure that their work soon became a profitable venture.
With their sabbatical starting to feel more like putting down roots and marking a mark, they needed to make more permanent plans. London was starting to feel like home.
15 Minute Ficlets — challenge #76: oblivious
Published Babble Horde — 17.10.2004
Published fanfiction.net — 25.10.2004
Published Forever Fandom — 25.10.2004
Published Little Girl Lost — 25.10.2004
Published The Slayer's Fanfic Archive — 01.11.2004
dawn summers | fan fiction | fiction | london | spike
Heh! I wonder how "permanent" it will be. :) A good job, good pay and good coworker(s) do tend to make one hope it lasts a while... :) — via LiveJournal
— posted by Laridian at 28.10.2004 18:51 AEST | 
Demons in the photocopier. Sounds like one we've got at work. I like seeing Spike and Dawn work as a team on stuff like this. Nice. :-) — via LiveJournal
— posted by Anne at 28.10.2004 18:52 AEST |
I figured it couldn't all be large hairy beasties in the basement.
Sorry about the demons in your photocopier, I ejected some from my computer recently and your photocopier is where they may have moved to — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 28.10.2004 18:53 AEST |
Sorry about the demons in your photocopier, I ejected some from my computer recently and your photocopier is where they may have moved to — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 28.10.2004 18:53 AEST |
I have been reading and enjoying so I thought that I would let you know that they are good — via LiveJournal
— posted by Sarah Leathers at 28.10.2004 18:54 AEST |
Thank you! I appreciate you letting me know — via LiveJournal
— posted by Red Wolf at 28.10.2004 18:56 AEST |
I like! They make a good team, that they do — via LiveJournal
— posted by Elizabeth Culmer at 28.10.2004 18:59 AEST |
They do make a good team, but they may need to find somebody to deal with the clients personally before one of both of them strangles somebody — via LiveJournal
— posted by Red Wolf at 28.10.2004 19:00 AEST |
If they won't go back in the photocopier, you can always cram them into the fax machine — via LiveJournal
— posted by tsita at 28.10.2004 19:01 AEST |
Good idea. The computers offer lots of possiblities too, but they have enough bugs that it may take a while to notice the thing eating your data and ordering banana flavoured underwear isn't a standard virus — via LiveJournal
— posted by Red Wolf at 28.10.2004 19:02 AEST |
Or something that the OS does all on its own anyway — via LiveJournal
— posted by tsita at 28.10.2004 19:03 AEST |
Aargh! Don't even mention that. I just spent a week with the bloody CPU running at 100%. Not the print spooler, which appeared to start the problem, not spyware, not a virus.
Ended up getting some registry software that stripped 800 odd instances of crap out of the registry and that fixed it. I hate Windows — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 28.10.2004 19:04 AEST |
Ended up getting some registry software that stripped 800 odd instances of crap out of the registry and that fixed it. I hate Windows — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 28.10.2004 19:04 AEST |
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The vast bulk of the people I have to deal with are so astoundingly stupid I'm surprised they managed to survive to adulthood. How do these people run companies? — via LiveJournal — posted by Red Wolf at 28.10.2004 18:52 AEST |