Rain Check

Chaoshin didn’t hate rain. It could be a source of comfort at times. The gentle pitter patter of droplets against the glass of a window, the roof of a house, the pavement of streets, or even the softness of grass and trees could be such a soothing experience. Each of those surfaces offered a unique sound when heard in isolation, like a variety of instruments, each of them beautiful in their own way. Though ultimately they all came together to form an orchestra, playing an entire concert on any given rainy day.

Yes, rain could be a thing of beauty, but that only worked if you didn’t have the constant droning of rain for weeks on end. Too much of a good thing could easily turn into white noise and a source of discomfort at the drop of a hat, and that’s where things stood in the Succubun’s mind. All of this rain was just. Too. Damn. Much!

Not to mention the mushroom plague he’d been forced to deal with in his garden because of the humidity. Thankfully he’d already taken care of most of that, and added some extra drainage measures just in case. Well, just in case and for any future plans of turning part of the garden into an imp paradise, but that couldn’t really be done with this deluge taking place outside.

Chaoshin’s hands were tied. For now at least. For the garden project at least! He still had some other work to do, the kind that paid for this rather lavish lifestyle. Numbers and articles were visible on his computer screen, and yet… he was staring out the window, watching tiny rivulets of raindrops run down the glass which separated him from the outpouring of the clouds outside.

This was… depressing… he wanted for this to be over, needed for this to be over! Needed some dryness and most of all warmth! It was freezing cold! To be perfectly honest, he was surprised that it hadn’t snowed yet! It was clearly cold enough, he could see his own breath sometimes when he was out and about.

Springtime usually brought some higher temperatures, and they had been climbing steadily into pleasant territories before the downpour came to ruin it all. Sigh… this month just wasn’t his month, was it? He honestly couldn’t wait for all of this to be over, but until then he’d have to be patient, there wasn’t any other option.

For now he needed to pour over this data first. He had an appointment later and needed to print out some notes for it. With reluctance he unglued his eyes from the window and went back to his work, he did want that sweet, sweet dosh after all! Mmmhh… yes… money…

-

With his focus back on his work he barely noticed the time fly by until his alarm rang, informing the Succubun that it was time to print and pack, get ready to leave. He’d have to grab the umbrella and walk. Thankfully the client wanted to meet somewhat close by so he wouldn’t have to be out in the cold, wet weather for too long.

Chaoshin stepped out of his home, a well sized umbrella protecting him from the rain storm that… wasn’t a rain storm anymore? Huh… he couldn’t help but take note of the fact that the rain seemed to have let up noticeably. What had felt like a deluge not that long ago was now a much more pleasant shower of sorts. It was almost pleasant to walk out in that moment. Almost. It was still wet and cold after all, but he wouldn’t complain about improved conditions. Less rain was less rain.

Time to get to his client. They wanted some jewelry and watches appraised, as well as some paintings that had been seized from a private collection. They weren’t able to figure out if any of those things were legitimate or not, and none of them had any idea about the artist it might have come from. He couldn’t help but note an urge to chew those buns out for being idiots, but then he remembered that their stupidity paid for his lavish home, so he’d hold his tongue. He did very much prefer the cold hard cash to the satisfaction of yelling at some idiots.

Why were they idiots? Well, because despite the fact that they seized these assets, they had either forgotten or destroyed any relevant documents that could have easily answered a lot of the questions about them. This meant that Chaoshin had been forced to work out a lot the research from scratch! It was a headache and a half, if you asked him. This entire thing could have taken maybe an hour or two, if they had been smart enough to secure any relevant data, but nooooo, he had been forced to spend several days on this project.

Well, at least all of those hours were about to be payed handsomely, so it wasn’t quite as terrible a waste of time. Still, he did prefer easy work whenever possible. And let’s be honest here, who didn’t? He was sure that pretty much any Succubun would prefer easy and quick work to hard and slow. Sloth was a pretty popular sin, after all, no?

Alas, this project had not lent itself to a more slothful approach, but at least the compensation would make up for most of it. And he’d be sure to not schedule anything for a couple days. He deserved a nice, little break after all that hard work. With lots of naps, delicious snacks and playing with the imps, oh yes! He just needed to take care of this job first.

And speaking of which, there he was! This was the place he was meant to be. With all of the thoughts of a mini vacation inside of his head, he had barely noticed his feet taking him the entire way to the right location. Alright then, let’s get to work…

-

Chaoshin spent a couple hours with the client, looking at each and every of the pieces he had been presented. He checked the precious metals, the gemstones, the craftsmanship and anything else that was of relevance. Sometimes he used tools, other times he grabbed his notes for comparison and on a rare occasion he might just go by his gut feeling.

Since he’d been doing this for many years, there was a kind of instinct he had developed for some of the wares he had appraised many times over, and if anybody ever double checked, they would confirm the instinct to have been correct. Practice makes perfect, they say, and from where he was standing, they were correct. Whoever they were. Not that it mattered right now.

He was finally done! Freshly printed and signed documents for the client to put somewhere safe, and copies for him to archive for safe keeping. You know… just in case the client were to lose them in some kind of way. Though most importantly, his payment! All of it had been either handed over or confirmed. A small part of it was in cash, the other part was scheduled to come in as a bank order.

The cash was a special request on Chaoshin’s behalf and very welcome, since payment processing always took a couple days to go through. Truth be told, he just really liked touching the stuff. Carats were so, so pretty! He couldn’t help but hold some of them in his hands and rub them against his cheeks as he walked his way back home. Mmmhh… yes… shinies… dosh… sparklies… the happy gems!

He couldn’t help but wag his tail around with excitement. The reward was very much earned! And it was very distracting as well. So much so that it took him a good while to notice that while he was walking outside, it wasn’t raining. Or rather, it hadn’t been raining at all when he left the building. And he only noticed this because he suddenly felt raindrops hit him out of seemingly nowhere.

The Succubun stopped in his tracks, carats still squished against his cheeks as he looked up at the dark clouds, rain drops hitting his form. With a frustrated sigh he put the carats away safely and attempted to open his umbrella, but there was nothing there to be opened. He didn’t have it with him!

Chaoshin’s body tensed up immediately as he tried to remember where he was, how he got there, where he was headed and where the fuck his umbrella was! He had really lost the plot for a moment there! And now he was paying the price by getting rained on and not remembering where his damn umbrella was! Okay, to be fair, it was only starting to rain, but it was increasing in severity rather quickly! ARGH!

WAIT! He remembered! The umbrella was at the client’s place! He must have forgotten to grab it because it wasn’t raining when he left the building! And he was roughly halfway between his home and the whereabouts of that damned thing meant to keep him dry! FUCK!!!

He turned and began to sprint back to his client’s place as fast as possible. It wouldn’t save him from getting rained on, but it would protect the documents. Probably… Worst case scenario they just make another copy… It was fine… just very, very annoying…

As he ran down the streets, pelted by more and more water droplets, Chaoshin couldn’t help but think about reconsidering his stance on rain. Maybe he did hate the rain. Even if just temporarily. Just for today, just for this moment, he genuinely HATED the rain…