[Citadel] Niche Markets

The apartment kept changing. Pieces of actual furniture had been arriving over the last few weeks (no more shipping crates), and Kayana's posters and photographs had been wrangled onto a single wall and put in some kind of order, and there were three pairs of shoes by the door instead of two.

It felt more home, though.

Kayana was 'sitting' upside down on the couch, surrounded by OSDs. She flopped her head back when she heard someone come. "Evening, husband-or-boyfriend. Soup's in the kitchen."

"Hey," a sing-song voice came near, "hope you're having a wonderful day." Itzen flopped himself, right side up, besides Kay.

"I love it when you call me that," he says with a smile before shifting around and joining Kay sitting upside down in the couch. "Hadas is having a nap, did you know he called me his boyfriend? I think he's not comfortable saying it in public yet, but progress."

He took one of the datapads from the pile, "So what are you working on?"

"Ahh, it is the boyfriend. Yeah, I know. It's all the night services he's been doing." She picked up one of the OSD's, slotting it into her reader. "Have to say it sounds better than 'that guy who lives in my apartment and bangs my wife'.

She sighed. "I don't know if it's anything yet. I ran into my ex last week...the psychopathic spy? And it was like, well, there's the object lesson of exactly how I don't want to end up, so I might as well figure out what I actually want to do? I want to work for the drell."

"This is like, brochures from all the martial arts dojos on the Citadel. I'm trying to figure out how many students you'd need to break even." She made a face, handing him the reader as she righted herself. "Though I do not think I could fleece my people this badly."

"True, also that sounds like he's standing outside the room while we're having fun, or something equally passive." He said with a grin, it was true, in the beginning Hadas had been reserved, but his horizon had been broadening over time.

"anyway, what you want to do is have a workable estimation first, figure out how many students you might have and how much they might want to pay. That gives you a rogue idea of the budget you can have and you fill in that budget, once you've done that you have a solid base to make a better estimation of the number of students and the price and so on. You shouldn't try to do it in one go because the one influences the other, you need to iterate."

"Haaa. Just that. Haaaa" She folded her legs under herself, leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "You know, I think I like having you around for distinctly more sappy reasons. Having more loved ones rather than less."

"The kids I teach through the temple...I barely charge them anything." She exhaled through her teeth, tapping herself. "And I am a terrible businessman, I can't imagine turning them away. I want...mmth. Warm. Dry. All kinds of drell would feel welcome. Except the dicks. I'd turn them out." She flopped her head on his shoulder. "I'd need like, at least two other teachers so I don't have to give up working for Krios Memorial. Someone with more experience..."

Itzen returned her kiss with one of his own, "Thanks, I'm very tempted now to turn this in a make-out session but let's concentrate on this first." He smiled as he used his supine body to twist and turn so he was standing on his before her and then flop back into the other couch.

"okay if you want to hire two more teachers and not charge too much you should broaden your audience, not just drell but maybe include other races, it would not increase workload that much, groups would just get larger and you just need a few more faces, no big deal. You'll want to get an accountant if you're hireling people, it'll save you from doing a ton of paperwork. The law isn't hard to follow or anything, but the filing is time intensive, shoving it off to a professional seems best. I could get you in contact with my accountant. Maybe you should also think about finding some people to invest in this? I don't think banks will want to loan you the money you need to start."

"You've never taught a martial arts class. Turians-aside from the pointy, their weight distribution is completely different. Humans have no bones over their windpipe. I don't know what to be afraid of with Salarians." She made a bit of a face. "One or two in a class is okay, if they get that it isn't for them. But ugh. Who needs another multispecies gym? Aren't there enough generic, corporate affairs on this station?"

"Send me your accountant first. When it's like, baked I can show investors. I know like, every drell on the citadel." She threw her arms up over her face, grinning a little. "You know what's nice about having a plan and two dudes relying on me? I can't run off or spend all my money on a hopeless custody fight or...whatever. Would love to. Just can't."

"Sure, Lixathanithos Feriacktirain. That's with 'c' 'k' block 3981, level 25, hallway C2, full door number is 253218, its 9th door on the right when you come out of the lift, next to bulkhead Z928jj-8938-u8-nrtx-0892, Zakera ward, you can't miss it, his communication number 1206 8290 3817 3929 4471 4791. He's a turian."

He pulled his legs up and wrapped his arms around his knees, holding them in place.

"I don't think they worry about you starting a custody fight but or with who you live, but they might get annoying with questions about your commitment. I know you're going to put your 100% in it but with you still doing the Krios thing on the side... Investment folk like to be sure that the people they give money too are fully committed to a project, like, if I fail I risk losing everything kind of commitment."

"They're asses like that."

"Awesome." There was, of course, no need to write anything down.

"I'm never going to stop being an activist...annnnd it's going to be months, if not years, before I can quit the proverbial day job. But if it's not the worst idea ever...just wait, and I'll have something real to show you."

"He's actually kind of cute, in the typical pointy turian kind of way," Itzen mused, "of course you won't but you can be an activist without it being a job, fulltime or otherwise and I will be there all the way."

"I've got a question, have you ever heard about the Helping Hand Charity? I have never mentioned them to you but you might have heard of them elsewhere."

"Mm. I'm not sure what it is, but Turians don't turn my head at all. Even the allegedly gorgeous ones. I think I am basically same-species oriented."

She closed her eyes, running through her memories. "My rule is I never donate to anything I first heard of on CDN. The entire board is full of cunning people with agendas."

"I wasn't trying to set you up, just saying that I kinda find him cute," Itzen chuckled, "I doubt that site can give you good advice for charities."

"Helping hand is a non-profit that helps disabled people get into contact with sex workers. A lot of people don't want to acknowledge that people with disabilities have sexual needs, or that those needs need to be addressed beyond a quick rub-out session while surfing the extranet."

He straightened out, "so what the helping hand does is get those who need it get in contact with certified professionals without involving the all the messy stuff that are often associated with getting hooker, like going to the more seedier places on the Citadel, risk getting in contact with drugs or violence, and so on. We generally worked for at a steep discount too."

"So I'm thinking, maybe I could still do some administrative work for them, on the one hand I know the people there and they could use a hand, on the other I'm afraid that I might get sucked back into… well spreading my legs, which I want to avoid at all costs." He leaned forward, "to be clear, it's not that I don't trust them, it's that I don't trust myself to not revert back to old habits."

"I'm sure he is. I'm just not all that flexible. In fact, I think I'm getting less flexible. I want drell boys with pretty throats." She grinned.

Kayana curled up on her side, watching him as she listened. "If you don't want to risk it, don't risk it. Meet new kinds of people. What's the worst case scenario? That it takes you a little longer to find a job?"

"That's okay."

"No, that's not it, the worst case is that I don't find a job and I end up going back to prostitution."

He shrugs, "anyway, there's more pleasant things to talk about, isn't there? Like boys with pretty throats." he sat back, just a little bit, to show off his own blue throat.

She frowned. "You do not get to drop that on me and then change the subject."

"I mean it. It's not like I have a big family to spend my money on. You are not going to get frustrated if it takes a couple months. I will...I don't know what I'll do. You wouldn't like it."

"I'm not talking about a few months Kay, geez, with the money I saved I could manage to live decently for at least a year and a half, and that's including having to pay for my own apartment, not sharing it with you two."

He crossed his arms, "you wanted the worst case scenario and I'm giving it to you. I've been around long enough to know that it happens."

"The real worst case scenario is more Reapers, and I didn't feel the need to bring that up." She muttered, crossing her own arms. Then she looked back and forth at the two of them and laughed, unfolding.

"Give me permission to drag you home, then. You know I'm strong enough too, even if I don't get help from the resident biotic. But I wouldn't do it without your permission, because you're a big boy."

"I know you're doing stuff for the right reason but..." he gave a crooked smile, "why, oh why, do you need to turn everything into a scene, can't you like lock me up instead or something?"

"Only if you give me permission!" She poked him in the side. "Because I like things loud. I make a big production out of everything."

"Besides. Where would I put you? The laundry room? This apartment isn't that big..."

"Well if you would drag me to the bedroom you've got my permission." he smiled, "seriously though, I would really love it if you prevent me from going off the deep end, I've seen people crash before because they didn't have friends or family to catch them when they stumbled. It's not pretty."

He leaned towards her, his hand brushing against her cheek.