Chorus actually looked stern for once as they stood up in front of the group. Every month, the generals made sure to schedule a meeting for all of them to attend. Though, Nathym was usually the only attendee from the science department. The meeting was to discuss how everything was going and air out any issues that had come up in the past month.
While the meeting was specifically for the generals, all members, staff, and residents were allowed to schedule a slot to discuss any problems, ideas, or anything else they wanted to say. There was no set time limit to the meeting. It just went until there was nothing further to discuss, so the attendees really needed to make sure that their schedule was clear, just in case.
Chorus said that they had a commercial to present. However, they refused to give any details, saying that the commercial would speak for itself. They’d assumed that the commercial was something for their own organization, and that Chorus was showing it to them for approval, but it turned out that it wasn’t the case.
“Do you need something done that you’re too weak to do? Have the Fiends For Hire rejected your request because they’re too good for it? You need a Fiend who will get the job done, whatever it is. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you need. We’ll get it done. We are Above, because we’re above you.”
The commercial starred a lot of familiar faces, passing off voice over every few sentences. There was The Grudging Guerilla—Lieu Caffold, The Pestilent Plague-Doctor—Alkahest Khemmy, and a third that most of them didn’t recognize. Phon shared that it was The Anger-Issues Athlete—Kalter Berius.
But then at the very end of the commercial, one more familiar face came on the screen. It was none other than Creti Sloemin, who had since somehow earned the epithet ‘The Incomparable Idol’. There was a closeup of her on the screen, looking pathetic as usual. “It would help me so much if you gave us a call.”
That proved her Curse worked through transmission, since almost everyone in the room picked up their phone for a moment before being able to fight the urge enough to set it down. At least the effect appeared to be severely diminished. In person, they would have had virtually no choice.
“So as you can see, we’ve got a competing Fiend group on our hands,” Chorus got to the point of their presentation. “And what’s worse, they’ve put out a commercial before us!”
“Well, you’re our PR person. Why haven’t you put out one before now if you think we need it?” Xard pushed back at them.
“Because we don’t need it,” Chorus grumbled. “We’re overwhelmed with job requests as it is. If we put out a commercial advertising our services, and if we were then unable to deliver on those services, it would only reflect poorly on our organization. My work has been to improve our image, not our clientele.”
“But! Now we have competition, and they’ve dared to put out such a low-rate poorly produced commercial. It drives me insane. I hate it because it’s so bad. Even local ads can do better. But I hate it more because they did it first!”
“I want nothing more than to put out the most well-produced, high-budget commercials the world has ever seen. Then, put them out on every station running non-stop and eating all the ad time so that their zjik-riddled commercial can’t see the light of day. Completely crush them for challenging us! Not to mention that they’re using The Idol’s power to boost their business.”
“On the other hand, I recognize the potential downsides to doing so. As I said, it could hurt our bottom-line and trust in our brand if we oversell. Additionally, if we started doing commercials now, it could seem too reactionary. The last thing we want is having people believe we’re jumping on the bandwagon because we feel threatened by their existence.”
“Plus, if we were to start putting out any content now, it could ruin my plans for our release cadence.”
“And what is that, exactly?” Kada had started to have doubts. “You’ve been filming us for months, and we have yet to see a single clip, let alone the full productions you’ve promised.”
“You’ll just have to trust me on that,” Chorus tried to reassure them. “I’ve been in this business a long time, and I’ve seen so many brands and series live and die. My plan is to wait until we have enough content of different types and genres that we can flood the market. Currently, we have a bit over half the backlog that I’m comfortable with. Once we launch, though, the world will not be able to escape my- err- our grasp. The Fiends For Hire will be a household name with something for everyone.”
“Well, thank you for bringing this group to our attention, Chorus,” Drim had at least that positivity to say about their presentation. “However, I do believe we should refrain from taking any rash action. They have the right to run a business similar to ours and a right to promote it. If we tried to hurt their business, I could only see it reflecting poorly on us.”
“However, while it doesn’t bother me personally, if you want to take action, then you could send a request to not mention our group in any further advertising. If you threaten a cease-and-desist, then they’d have to be pretty foolish not to oblige. At least I hope they have that much business sense.”
“As for the matter of Creti’s Curse… Of course, I can’t condone her usage of it in this case, but I can’t exactly condemn her for it either. She is using what she has at her disposal. Right now, it is fairly innocent, only used to increase interest. However, please do let us know if it turns malicious. Ultimately, their business is none of our business, but if things hit an extreme, we may need to step in.”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“Very well. I will be keeping a close eye on them, but I’ll be back if I see any significant impact on our organization's image or bottom line.”
Mallea ushered them out of the room and then brought in the next person on the schedule.
“What is it, Debbie? If we’re out of sticky notes again, you can just bother Mallea about that anytime,” Phon clearly didn’t expect much from Deborah’s issue.
“Uhh, no, it’s nothing like that,” she tried to keep her composure. “The issue is—well I don’t know that it can be called an issue exactly. But I’ve been going over our budget, and frankly, we just have too much money.”
“I met with Roque, and we spoke to some accountants. There were a few different results, but based on the simulations they ran, this could become a serious issue. Not for us, of course, the only issue would be people trying to extort us for it.”
“The issue lies with the world’s economy. Because of Common Card interest payments, we’re essentially siphoning money from the world at an ever-growing exponential rate. Currently, it’s not enough to disturb things too much, but unless we drastically increase our spending, it could have lasting effects. We’re talking economic deflation on a global scale.”
“That’s not all, since our own money is evenly distributed amongst the banks we’re partnered with, they’re paying ridiculous interest of their own to us since most of our money is just sitting there. Operation costs and employee salaries are barely making a dent, even though they’re better paid than all but the richest of rich.”
“Our biggest spend by a giant margin will be our yearly tax payment. Assuming we don’t apply for any deductions, then Segrevide will become the richest country in the world within just a few years from our taxes alone.”
“While we don’t have their numbers, I suspect we’re close to passing the Central Peace in fluid capital. It would probably be for the best that they don’t ever learn of that fact. If they found out we could just outbid them on anything in the world, it could lead to undue tensions.”
“The point of this is that we need to spend more money. I suggest we start investing it in businesses or development. That would be the quickest way to get money recirculating into the economy.”
“Just how much money are we talking about?” Drim had been pretty far removed from the monetary side of the business at this point, so he really had no clue. Deborah pulled it up on her tablet and held it up for them to see. It was too much of a mouthful to say, and it barely fit on her screen.
“Cosmos” “That can’t be right” *astounded whistle* Their reaction came in many forms, but it was roughly all the same. It was, in fact, too much money.
“Good job bringing this to our attention, Debs,” Phon commended her. “We’ll take it from here. But since you discovered this, go ahead and add another 0 to your salary.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Deborah gave an eager salute and then left the room.
“I guess investing as she suggested would be the soundest option,” Phon had to agree.
“Yes, but I don’t think it’s quite that simple,” Drim wasn’t entirely convinced. “If we just invest in regular things, we’ll be pushing standard investors out of the market. That would just be replacing a problem with another problem. You could argue that we’d improve things in the loan market like we did with Common Cards, but I really just don’t care about it that much and don’t want to spend too much time dealing with regulations again.”
“We should put our money where it’s needed most. Before anything else, I’d like to reserve around 10-20% of that pot for purely charitable donations. The CP does a pretty good job on that front, but I’m sure there’s gaps. We’ll find them, but we can also let our members come to us with any charities they’re passionate about, or hell, let them start some of their own if they’re going to be serious about it. But, we should remain as anonymous as we can in that department.”
“For the rest, I’d like to invest in those who haven’t been able to find financial assistance elsewhere. We have a lot of money to burn, so we can afford to take big risks. Getting a return on our investment isn’t our priority, and it will allow us to choose things that are very unique and unheard of. If we can, let’s use the money to help improve society with new technologies or institutions.”
“Mallea, if you’d please call Roque and—”
“I’m already here!” Roque barged through the door.
“But… you weren’t on the list…” Kada glanced over it again to confirm.
“What can I say? I smelled money in the air,” Roque sold them a smirk.
“Alright, Roque, I’d like you to use your connections to find those who’d be interested in partnering with us for investments,” Drim instructed. “It should be clear that this will be a monetary partnership only. We’re not going to solve all their problems for them, besides merely adding our name, whatever weight that may hold.”
“You got it, boss,” Roque looked far too eager to begin. “I’ll also get to work setting this up as a separate business, so there’s no conflicts or complications.”
“Will that really be necessary? That sounds like a complication in and of itself,” Xard argued.
“Believe in my experience, kid,” Roque bloomed with confidence. “You wanna keep your side hustle well away from your main business. Don’t worry, though. I’ll take care of all the proceedings and paperwork. And I’ll bring you the best start-ups I can find.”
“Whatever,” Drim really didn’t care about the specifics of how it was handled at this point. Having too much money was never a bump in the road he foresaw when coming up with his grand plans, so he wanted it over with as soon as possible. “Get with Chorus and—”
“I never left!” Now Chorus barged into the room. “I smelled content in the air.”
“The two of you work together to get the word out about this,” Drim wasn’t even phased. “Oh, and have Victori provide some assurances. Let her suggest to them that this isn’t a hoax or a scam. We will genuinely hear them out and give their ideas proper consideration.”
“Aye aye, Captain,” Chorus continued to parrot Roque. “Should I also have her dissuade those who are not serious and confident in their ideas? We don’t need to be wasting time with the uncommitted.”
“Yes, thank you,” Drim was ready to move on to everything else on their agenda for the day, but still needed to finalize the last details. “I’m guessing it won’t take you both long to get interested parties, but we still have some other business to attend to. All of us here should also be present there, so have Deborah set another meeting on our calendars a few weeks from now when it’s all arranged.”