Lilianne Walker looked over the paperwork on her desk - showing her just how much she would need to pay to keep her place, her business, and her accommodations in this spot in the Bay Area. She sighed as she contemplated just how much needed to be done.
She was a woman who even visibly enjoyed the finer things in life. Her hair was impeccably styled, soft, thick and flowing to the side, bright blond and complimenting a light tan. Her blue eyes were icy and betrayed some element of her darker character. She was decently athletic, and most often wore a black blazer, a white dress shirt, dress pants and high heels. She was a beautiful woman - beauty earned by consistent work done.
It had once been a very artsy locale - a place full of struggling artists and galleries and lofts...and then corporate America came to town. The place looked lovely, and the gentrification that hit was hard, fast, and turned what had once been that lovely little artist's den into a suburb for those who either knew urban wealthy folks or those who just didn't feel like living in a high rise in the big city of San Francisco.
And Lilianne wasn't exactly in a position to complain, either. She WAS in many ways one of those who came to town and brought with her a certain clientele and style of business. Her place was full of tinted, cozy windows, tan carpets, white and brown walls, and all leading to a selection of services that included a very peculiar sauna that proved quite popular. Now, Lilianne was not exactly a typical investor, or a typical businesswoman at all - she was what many in the secretive magic side of the world called a Post-Modern Witch.
She was not the type to cackle and drip ingredients into a grand, ornate cauldron, or conduct rituals in the forest, or do really anything that popular culture said a witch did. After all, the cauldron was so last century and so easily spotted, doing rituals in the forest would ruin her mani / pedi, and the less said about the potential scandal about nude rites to summon a Demon, the better. No, she offered her services much more covertly - the latter day equivalent of the wise women of older times who would give certain dubious assistances to locals.
The sauna was no different.
It could be said she had two clientele.
The first was the people she needed for the supply to the second. The sauna in her business brought in a very heady, pleasant aroma, and filled the room with steam - all of which arose from mystical items she had incorporated into the mechanisms. These items would induce an effect in any other than herself who entered her sauna. She was after all forward-thinking enough to guarantee her own immunity from her works. The effect in question? Age.
Those who entered her sauna would progress in age, about four years every five minutes they stayed inside of her sauna. Now, Lilianne was not a monster. She was also a die hard pragmatist at heart. Those who came in, as oblivious as they were, would not decay with age. Lilianne made sure when she designed the spell that her clients would age like fine wine. The witch saw the necessity in this - as it would decrease chances of the change being seen as negative. And it gave her a certain reputation - an urban legend of a sauna that made you hotter when you went there.
She'd seen her share of people from across various social groups and with varying degrees of desperation and need.
Her last client was a rather obese young man of eighteen attending university up in San Francisco, desperate to try and make himself more attractive such that he could finally find the kind of orgiastic fun he had heard so much of in the movies. Lilianne let him into her sauna, and he came out ten minutes later a thickly muscled, stocky stud at 26. Sure, he hadn't exactly acquired the abs he had so wanted, but everything else on him was enormous, ripped, and capable. Besides, she found his little belly kind of cute. Lilianne sent him back out into the world - though not before getting to enjoy her work done on him first hand. Yeah, he would be very popular with the girls up there in UC.
That was not the only kind of clientele she got, however. She received something in turn whenever she progressed someone up. Their "time", formed into a sort of liquid youth collected underneath the sauna. This liquid youth was another potent method for profit. Hence her secondary clientele - local rich older men who heard of her eminently capable services who would pay top dollar to return to a much more capable, younger year. Always there was a conspicuously never mentioned younger relative "visiting" whenever one of these codgers came to her little spa and wellness center.
Her last of that sort of client was Cameron, a veritable fossil of an oil magnate who claimed to her that once upon a time he had been a very pretty young man, a gorgeous, toned youth - now left a bald, perpetually in pain oligarch bitterly reflecting upon the days when he turned heads just by walking close by. And when she went ahead to give him a massage with the liquid youth, even Lilianne was rather surprised when the age melted off and the moans began. Oh yes, regressing - just like progressing in most cases - felt very, very good.
It turned out, Cameron had been telling the truth. The beautiful, well muscled pretty boy sitting on her massage bed proceeded to give her some business and advertisement tips - and then at her behest fucked her absolutely silly. Cameron was not lying about how popular he was. Last time she'd seen him, the newly young man had been walking down the street, flanked by a girlfriend...and a boyfriend!
Yet now...
Well. It seemed like people were more wary about going to the spa. Either they just had less money now, or they were health conscious for other reasons. That damned plague a couple years ago had ruined everything, and decreased her business drastically. Both her last clients had been a number of months ago, and while they paid decently in the case of her college boy, and exorbitantly in the case of Cameron, the money was starting to become...difficult.
She just had to hope the next few days she could get something together. Make something work. All she needed to do was get the word back out through one really good paying customer. And then things could really get moving. By the time she headed off to bed, tired from all the damned tax work and write offs, she just hoped she wouldn't have to go begging to old clientele. That would be so eminently pathetic, and Lilianne did not DO pathetic.
.....
The next morning, Lilianne headed into work bright and early to wait for any clients. She packed gloves in the case of any older men coming in for a dose of liquid youth - she still had quite a surplus stacked up - and some fresh towels in case she needed to give a towel to a young man or boy coming in. The front door and front desk were managed by Clyde, a Homunculus of hers. Theirs was a very convenient lot. They obeyed her every whim and command by the moment, and they were always charming about it.
"Good morning, ma'am," Clyde said with a big, dumb smile. By the Gods, Clyde was just MADE to be the epitome of No Thoughts, Just Hot. She knew it was considered bad form to use a Homunculus as a sex doll, but she couldn't help it but make him the exact kind of Himbo she enjoyed oh so very much. He had big muscles, a nice tan, well coiffed, curly blond hair, and the only hint of his artificial nature was his slate grey eyes.
"Morning to you too, Clyde," She said, leaning over the desk and kissing him on the cheek, "You're looking well today."
"I exercised my muscles last night! I very much enjoy making use of them!" He said in a way that was...sadly, oh so very much in line with his nature. For all his charm, Clyde was basically a magical machine. A living AI, made of root and spellcraft and lies. Let him talk too much and it was clear that artificial generation had yet to truly make something on a par with a real human being. Still, he had his appeal, and after dealing with so many rich folks over the years...well, it was nice to just have a dumbass who seemed like he knew what he was.
"Very good, Clyde. You know I didn't make you to have you get fat." And with that, Lilianne went ahead into her office.
As much as she thought today was going to be a slow day if anything got done at all, she was rather surprised when the door to the spa and wellness center swung open not long after she walked into her office. And her eyes widened as she heard Clyde say his standard "Welcome to Crafter's Spa and Wellness Center, how can I help you" refrain.
Lilianne went right to one of her windows, overlooking the entrance, eager to see who it was who had come to her spa...