#lets go steal a protege

[innytoes]

Ahhhh is so hard to choose but... Ot3 is super married 😁

Surprise, you accidentally picked the one Leverage fanfic in the bunch. This is for my Leverage Longfic Let’s Go Steal A Protégé, aka 'the reason Inny's not allowed to post wips anymore' because it took me a full year between posting ch 24 and 25. BUT I WILL GET IT DONE. ONLY TWO MORE CHAPTERS LEFT.

Have a snippet that hopefully is at least a little funny knowing nothing about Leverage:

“I need you to promise to never tell Hardison about this,” they opened with, which was of course enough to get her attention. “Or Nana. Like, Hardison would kill me but Nana would withhold pie and that’s worse.” “Go ooon,” Breanna said, and they could just picture her flopping on the bed, kicking her feet.

[innytoes]

I do! After my last WIP stalled I decided not to post anymore WIPs and wait until they were finished and post on a set update schedule. For smaller fics that could be daily or every other day, for larger fics it's twice a week or once a week.

My current 35-chapter longfic updates only on Thursday, because if I spent over a year and a half writing it, I'm gonna stretch out the serotonin of posting it for as long as possible too. (And I don't like Thursdays lol, so it's a little pick me up).

I do it both because as a reader I like the 'weekly episodic' feel when people post fics with a spread out update schedule, and because yeah, if I wrote over 100k, I'd like comments on every chapter and not just one at the end. It just makes the whole thing more fun and gives more of a feel of community.

Like, I'm not gonna be mad once it's all up that someone will binge the 35 chapters and just leave one comment, but getting to share a story bit by bit and talking about it with people who comment makes it way more fun. (Insert the whole Fandom as a Community vs Fandom as Consumerism/Content discussion here.)

That said, comments don't really influence the fic. I wrote the story I wanted to. Sometimes I may add a paragraph or sentence here or there is someone has a very funny idea or insightful comment (or is confused about something), but the fic is basically finished before I start posting.

Hi Inex! Is it okay if I mention you in my paper [on ao3 as a collaborative site] as an author that posts chapter by chapter in order to get more engagement from readers and make sure you take comments into account before the whole thing is published?

(Additionally, if there's anyone else who specifically posts chapter by chapter instead of all at once for their own benefit and for engagement purposes, pretty please let me know.)

Sure, you can mention me!

I know astolat also posts chapter-by-chapter when she puts up finished works. If anyone would like to add others in the comments, please do so!

[yannaryartside]

Shapiro’s angle

I don't think this guy is bad news, or a bad guy per se.

I think he is just an opportunist. And I think he is doing this mostly for himself.

I may be wrong, but for me, the most on-the-nose foreshadowing about Shapiro was Luca telling him:

"Are you getting your sticky fingers on everything again?"

This was right before he asked to talk to Sydney (about the partnership) at Ever's funeral. It was definitely a sign.

Now, it could be a warning about his bad intentions; sticky fingers could be related to wanting to trap someone and never let them go. Maybe Syd should have Pete revise that new partnership agreement.

Mostly, I have a hard time thinking Andrea Terry would have a CDC that was actually toxic or damaging; his true colors would have shown at some point, and she would have known. Maybe that's me being optimistic. Maybe he would show his actual colors when he doesn't have to answer to anybody. Luca hasn't seemed to get awful vibes from him, either.

FINGERPRINTS OF LEGACY

But I associate the sticky fingers comment more with Shapiro wanting to get a "fingerprint" on Sydney. The way a fingerprint may alter the presentation of a fine ceramic plate. Is about marking it as yours, it was in your hands.

Shapiro may think that he has gotten as good as he can get on his own merit, he said he would have stayed with Andrea forever if she hadn't closed Ever, which is a remark on his lack of ambition as a cdc. I think he may be a chef who (also, as he said) is tired of the all-day cooking job, but he still wants to get some glory under his name without all the work. Proteges are a good way to do that.

The only thing about Sydney he knows that could indicate her potential (besides her cooking, which he only tested once) is that she works for Carmen. Carmen has been awarded the best in the world, and the fact that he sees something in Sydney may be enough for Shapiro to bet on her (and a huge bet, considering how much freedom he promised her). Now, what kind of mentor would he be? I would like to think he will try to be Andrea and see where it gets him.

He may have seen the bear's kitchen's obvious lack of functionality and seen it as an opportunity to steal Carmy's best asset from him while she is still unknown by the industry. She could become more expensive to get in the future if she gets a name under Carmen. Shapiro has better chances to get her now. He may even say in the future that he was the only one capable of forming her like a chef while Carmy didn't.

So yeah, he is making a bet on an unknown asset with the hope that it will pay off later since Carmys is not looking. We don't know much about his character besides the fact that at Ever, everyone was cool with him.

I DON'T WANT SYDNEY TO FAIL OR GET SCREWED

Besides how much I care for her—I know it sounds obvious—I don't think it would be a good narrative for the show either way.

Because she has survived Carmy, that has been horrible, but in terms of women in the workplace, at least she doesn't have to worry about being exploited (or other horrible things that we know could happen in these spaces) because Carmy cares about her well-being, the same as the rest of the family.

So, if she hypothetically goes with Shapiro because her voice is being drowned under Carmy's madness, and then Shapiro screws her over, and Carmy has to rescue her.

I am sorry, fuck that.

Because what is the lesson on that? Women should stick around toxic behavior, being grateful that at least they are not taken advantage of? Better the devil you know than the one you don't? Sydney is very capable, and you will punish her for believing in herself?

image by @gingergofastboatsmojito

[ringleader-inky]

Lily Orchard is stupid but what else is new?

So recently Lily has made a challenge that is as follows:

(Keep these rules in mind)

And AntGr and CrimsonEnder made a list of 50 of those charcters. Which Lily responded to and hoo boy is it bad.

Now I'm only going to be doing several characters from this list because 1. I don't know some of these characters and 2. I can only handle so much of Lily's stupidity. So with that out of the way let's get this show on the road.

Of course you'd put N here because you didn't understand his story to begin with. N definitely does fall under number 2 because he was raised by Ghetsis. You know... THE LEADER OF TEAM PLASMA! I've said this before, but I'll say it again N essentially grew up in a cult. That's not even mentioning that in black and white 2 they show that some of Team Plasma really did think they were freeing pokemon. You see part of Team Plasma split because some followed N's ideologies and others followed Ghetsis. They have a whole safehouse in Driftveil City where they protect pokemon separated from their trainers. But yeah N's ideology was totally swept under the rug guys.

First of all, Donkey Kong was actually a villain. It was in his very first game where he kidnapped Pauleen. You know.... this one. You were probably around when it came out Lily.:

So technically Donkey Kong is qualified for this list believe it or not.

As for Dedede and Meta Knight their case is quite simple.

In Dedede's case in the game Kirby's Nightmare In Dreamland. Dedede literally breaks the Star Rod that powers the Fountain of Dreams. Which allows the people of dreamland to have dreams, but since the Star Rod no longer powers it there's no dreams. However Dedede did this because he was trying to keep Nightmare from absorbing the Fountain Of Dream's power and taking over the world. Nightmare is cosmic deity that's evil will destroy Dreamland if he got out. So in that instance Dedede does have a point. After all if the Star Rod isn't in the fountain then Nightmare won't come out and kill everyone.

As for Meta Knight's case. Well... just look at fucking Meta Knightmare. The reason why Meta Knight wants to conquer Dreamland is because Dreamland is lazy. While that might not seem like a good point, consider that Dedede is stealing food from the people and how there's some sort of cosmic threat every year or so. You kinda start to see his point a little bit. But if that doesn't work then how about in Squeak Squad where he steals the chest from Kirby and Daroach. The chest had Dark Nebula inside of it and was sealed away. Therefore having someone try and open it would be a big fucking problem.

Last but not least... Edgeworth:

Before we get into why this point is bullshit I'd like to bring up this ask:

I bring this up because it proves that Lily doesn't know what the fuck she's talking about. You see Edgeworth isn't just a state prosecutor. HE'S A CHIEF PROSECUTOR! He's not just some joe shmo. Also really, prosecutor can't be evil? May I call Manfred Von Karma to the stand:

In case you don't know. This man is a prosecutor that had a perfect record. All of his defendants were served the guilty sentence. However the only reason why they were found guilty was because he forged evidence. Meaning Manfred is responsible for putting people innocent in prison. He even went so far as to murder Edgeworth's father. And guess who was his protege?

That's right none other than Miles Edgeworth himself!

Meaning that up till Phoenix had arrived Edgeworth was doing the exact same thing Von Karma did. Granted not forging evidence, but still putting innocent people in jail because of he wanted to keep his reputation and he didn't care for justice. Therefore in the first game Edgeworth was the villain. Whether you like it or not. And because Lily never specified that the villain had to be redeemed or not Edgeworth is viable enough to be on this list. So check fucking mate Lily.

[allzelemonz]

Out: Slade Wilson & FTM Reader

Pronouns: he/him Physical Sex: AFAB Rating: T/Language Warnings: Mentor & protege, Reader is referred to as younger, Slade says trans rights, trans reader, ftm reader, transition process, fluff, Slade being nice for once, Ish is a hormone dealer but only for Slade’s kids and apprentices, themes around menstruation are not specific or graphic, background relationship: Ish/Joey Summary: You ran out of hormones, annoyingly causing your cycle to start up again, but you’re stuck on a mission with Slade. A/N: For those that don't know, '&' means platonic. But you can read it however you want, I was going for adoptive father-son vibes.

Your heart beats a little faster when you notice. Apparently letting yourself run out of hormones wasn’t as good of a call as you thought because now you have to deal with this. If you were at the compound it wouldn’t be a huge deal, Rose has shit you could steal, but out here on a job with Slade there’s not a lot of options. Toilet paper, sure, but that’s not ideal when you have a mission. For a while you just stare at the ground, hoping to will it away. But Slade’s knock on the bathroom door makes you jump.

“Hurry up, kid.”

You steele yourself, swallowing the bundle of nerves down and opening the door. Slade glares down at you, probably already regretting picking you from his pool of apprentices to bring along.

“The hell is wrong with you, kid?”

You clear your throat as your feet shift responsibility for your weight. “I, uh… I need something.”

“Well, out with it.”

You hesitate, trying to figure out how to explain. “I-I’m trans—“

“I know, brat.” He scoffs. “Are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?”

“Bleeding.” Is all you can make your mouth get out.

Slade huffs, walking over to his bag. You watch from the doorframe, half expecting a knife to come at you. Instead he throws the menstrual product your way like a ninja star. You catch it, looking up at him utterly confused.

“I don’t know why you brats think you can’t tell me things.” He grumbles. “You ran out of hormones, didn’t you?”

You nod, a bit too confused by his reaction to this whole thing to speak. You didn’t even think he knew about the situation.

Slade just sighs, pulling out his phone. “That’s not good for you, kid. I’ll call Ish and tell we have another one.”

You stare at him for a moment as he types on his phone. “Another one?”

Slade raises a brow. “You think you’re the only one of my boys like this?” He chuckles, holding his phone up to his ear. “Might be the fifth.”

You watch Slade as he wanders, talking to Ish with the same disdain he always does now. Not that Ish is a bad guy, he’s pretty nice, but that stuff with Joey rubs Slade the wrong way. Still, he has to mind to call him up whenever he needs scientific help.

“He was on them, yeah.” Slade says into the phone. “No, Ish, why would I know that?” He scoffs at whatever Ish says in response. “I’m not the one fucking my nephew… he might as well be your blood, Ish… do you think the fact that you changed more of his diapers than I did makes you look better in this?”

You know this argument will go on for a while, so you slip into the bathroom with your bag and situate yourself, cleaning off the blood and changing things. When you come back out, Slade is listening intently to Ish.

“Five hours until the mark, yeah… Istanbul? What the hell are you doing in… no, I didn’t… fine, yeah, as long as we make the hit, I don’t give a shit… see you then.”

He tosses the phone onto his bed by his bag and looks up at you. “Feeling better?”

You nod. “Why’d you have to talk to Ish?”

“He can get hormones… surgery too, if you ever want that” Slade grumbles. “Lucky I like you, kid. Hate Ish.”

Something about that makes you smile. Slade sucks, no one denies that. But sometimes he doesn’t, sometimes he cares enough to make the brutality of training worthwhile.

[princess-glassred]

IT UNIVERSAL MOVIE MONSTERS AU!!🎟📽🎬🎞

As the title suggests, this is a IT AU based off the universal movie monsters, but it has it's own original plot instead of just being aus for all the movies. Let's go!

Bill 🧛‍♂️🦇🩸

Bill was born in 1476 as a part of the Denbrough family of vampires, and he was raised with all the expectations that came with it. He spent the majority of his childhood living in castle Dracula as his family were once good friends with the count. A couple things that are important to know about vampires in this AU are that they can indeed have kids, the just age suuuuper slowly, and the majority of vampires are not actually evil. They eat mostly animals and stay in their palaces for the most part, but there are indeed vampires who don't care about controlling their thirst and indulge in killing, thus giving vampires their bad reputation. Dracula is more of a hero in this world, taking care of vampires and siring only people who expressly ask to be turned. The most peaceful of vampires were those from the Denbrough line, as they truly just wanted to enjoy their unlives in peace. But alas, tragedy struck the Denbrough's in the 1500's, when their darling youngest son, George Denbrough was visciously killed. He was only seven in vampire years, but he was still hunted down and killed in the middle of the night when he was playing by himself. A very well known vampire hunter discovered George and sent a stake right through his heart, but ended up being killed by Bill's father before he could kill anyone else.

Bill blamed himself for this, and his parents didn't really help his grief at all. The whole Denbrough family was rocked by this loss, and eventually Zach and Sharon decided to hibernate forevermore so they didn't have to experience a unlife without Georgie. Bill declined joining his parents to watch over the castle and study under Dracula as his protege, and after Dracula was vanquished himself Bill basically inherited the whole place. He threw himself into writing to cope with his miserable loneliness and essentially spent the next four hundred years wallowing in grief over it all. When he finally gets chased out of his castle and is forced to get reacquainted with others it brings out a whole other side of his personality. He doesn't want to lose anyone else anytime soon so he becomes a very overprotective leader and friend to the people in his life.

Eddie ⚡🔥

Sonia Kaspbrak always longed for a child, but she never got the chance to have one due to infertility and the tragic death of her husband Frank. She became a bit of a hermit in later years, she was always super smart and used to work as a nurse in a few hospitals before shutting herself off from the outside world. In her isolation she got the idea to create something brilliant that she could love in her husbands place while also being the son she always wanted. She began grave robbing and stealing all the limbs she needed for her project, but most of the parts came from her dead husband. She used her sewing talents to stitch all the pieces together and named him Edward Frankenstein Kaspbrak, with his middle name being a monsterified twist on her husbands name, since that is low key what Eddie is.

Eddie doesn't look much like the universal pictures version of frankenstein, but he does have the bolts, and all his limbs are stitched up and mismatched, and he has heterochromia like in the book. He's fairly intelligent, and he should be, given that she constructed him the most marvelous brain from the most genius dead guys. Even though she knows he is very smart and capable, Sonia is still insanely protective over her baby boy (who's not even a baby, she constructed him to be an adult). He is forbidden from leaving castle Kaspbrak or talking to anyone lest he sets off an angry mob, but this doesn't sit right with Eddie who longs for the friendship and comraderie of his fellow man. Eddie is still much to fragile for the outside world though, he has trouble walking and even just a little exercise can make him lose his limbs. His lungs are also pretty fragile too considering they were the one body part she couldn't find a super fresh pair of in all her grave robbing.

Eddie does eventually get to leave castle Kaspbrak, but not really of his own accord. A violent mob breaks out and they attack Sonia for grave robbing and trying to create monstrosities in her castle. Before Sonia was killed though she tried to satiate her sons desire for a friend by building him a partner, and that... didn't really go as planned either.

Beverly ⚡👰🏻‍♀️

Beverly was created by Sonia with the one and only purpose to be Eddie's bride, but Sonia didn't count on Beverly having a mind of her own. She does liked Eddie- as a friend, and nothing else. She's not keen on being the bride of Kaspbrak, she still wants to explore the world and make something out of the life she's been given. Sonia didn't make her any clothes when she was born so she ended up designing herself a dress completely out of medical bandages, white sheets, and gauze. She has two white streaks in her hair and a variety of scars all across her body. She has the brain of a young woman who died fleeing her abusive husband, and that's most likely where her hesitance for marriage stems from.

Bev flees castle Kaspbrak with Eddie after they are chased out, but they confide in each other as best friends and confidant until they can find others who are like them. They find famous vampire William Denbrough and incorperate him into their group (much to his reluctance). Beverly and Eddie seem to be fine for the most part but they're both longing for true companionship and a family that can understand them. Bev wants someone to love her so dearly, but not someone she was built to be loved by. Maybe she can find someone like that along her journey, but until then all she can do is agonize over why she was built to solely be Eddies decoration.

Richie 🌕🐺

Richie Tozier was actually just a normal guy for his first sixteen years of being alive, until a streak of bad luck ended up getting him turned into the wolfman! Now he's basically an outsider, and not even a particularly cool one either. He used to have it all, an affluent family, a big fancy house, a business he would one day grow up to inherit, but then it was all taken from him with one stupid curse.

It all started when Richie hit pubtery and was just getting into the whole "finding your soulmate" bs and was looking for just about anyone who suited his fancy. He flirted a bit with one of the manors maids and he flirted back, but what Richie hadn't expected was for the maid to fall for him so incredibly hard. He adored Richie, almost obsessively, and that was too bad because Richie quickly lost interest in him and tried to move on from their sort of kind of flirting to an real relationship with... you know, someone he actually liked. Bad move, because as it turns out, out of all of the servant boys he could have betrayed, of all the maids he could have spurned, Richie had to mess with the one with a secret. Richie got the witch.

The witch was so spiteful and angry that Richie wouldn't love him that he not only cursed him to become a wolfman, but also did some black magic fuckery to off Richies entire family too. Then he lead a big mob after the monster, claiming HE was the one who killed the Toziers, and Richie had to hide away in a swamp for the next couple of years. Such a miserable string of events followed by the isolation of living out in a swamp for the remainder of his teen years made him a little crazy. When he's not writhing around in pain from his werewolf curse he's talking to himself in silly voices so he feels less alone and cracking dark jokes to keep him grounded. He has to isolate himself like this or else he'll hurt himself or others, but thankfully Bill and the other monsters find him and are mostly immune to his attacks. Safe to say Richie's fallen from grace, and he fears that the only way he can really be free of this hell is a silver bullet right between the eyes or the power of christ. Either way, he's pretty fucked.

Ben 🐠🌊

Ben is not human, plain and simple. He has a similar build to most humans, he has a few human traits, but for the most part he is basically an oversized fish. He was found at the very bottom of a black lagoon in the amazon rainforrest, and his body has evolved in such a way he could survive perfectly in such conditions. He has webbed finers and feet to help him swim through water, sharp teeth to help in devouring fish he catches, gills AND lungs to let him breath both above water and below, and in addition to all of that he's also pretty overweight to keep himself warm in such icy cold water. He's a miracle of evolution, a pure marvel of science, so obviously he was kidnapped and brought back to the ""civalized"" world to be studied in a lab. He was utterly miserable there, but the losers all pitched in and broke him out of there.

Now he's allowed to walk around as he pleases and stay in a big bathtub most of the time, and the longer he hangs with them the more he learns about how to act more humanoid. Bev even teaches him to talk and write the same one Sonia taught her to talk and write. Ben even named himself Ben because it sounded similar to "Bev". He's pretty in love with her, or as in love as a fishman and a reanimated corpse could be. Will this ship sink or swim? Who can say, but at the very least it's not like Bev has many other options.

Mike 🏜🪲🐪

Mike was discovered buried in a one thousand year in the middle of Egypt. He sporadically woke up once every a hundred years to dig the the tomb he was in and take a look around. There he found a plethora of information in books, scrolls, and artifacts he could research if he was feeling like it. Most of the time tho he just napped wrapped up in guaze for a really long time, and honestly who could blame him? Mike does not remember most of his life before becoming a mummy, but he remembers his father and his mother, and he remembers the animals they raised, and most importantly he remembers how he became a mummy in the first place.

A long time ago one of the worst pharohs egypt ever had was being overthrown in a coup, and as part of that coup they were going to execute his young son and make an example out of him. Mike', deapite being a peasant himself, couldn't stand to let a kid die so he did all he could to help that kid escape to safety. He thought of himself as a protector in that way, but the others disagreed and proceeded to punish mike for sympathizing with the royals by wrapping him in gauze and locking him in a tomb with scarab beattles forever and ever. This curse made him immortal, although he did indeed rot and decay over time (but not enough he was just straight up a corpse, he's just got a bit of that tim burton face goin on ngl).

As a mummy he has a few interesting powers, he can summon small imitations of the plauges of egypt, he can control scarab beatles, and if hes truly pissed off he can suck out your soul (but Mike doesn't really wanna do that). He's an overall pretty sweet guy despite the whole... being a mummy thing, and the losers saved him at the same time they saved Ben. He's got a bit of a romance going on with Bill, since they're both undead and have been alive the longest out of all the losers. Maybe they can go on a romantic date to a mausoleum.

Stan 🧫⚗🔬

Stanley Uris is a man of science first and foremost, ans as a man of science you must do what you can in the pursuit of your goals, no matter the danger you may find yourself in. Stanley has been called many things in his life, a coward, a mad man, a freak, but perhaps those were the exact reasons he liked science anyways. There was always a risk with science, but they were risks you could still forsee and control (most of the time). Stan's house functions as a hide out for the monster losers because, quite frankly, Stan is such a weirdo he doesn't give a shit if monsters hide in his house. Besides, he's been working on something truly special, and pretty soon he won't be too far off from his monster friends.

Stan might love his life, he has a nice job, a nice wife, and a nice house, but there is one part of him he's never been satisfied with and thats his cowardly instincts. He longs to be released from the prison of fear and allowed to flourish as the scientist he is, so he created a potion to purge him of such a vice and split him into two. It was fun at first, thrilling even, but eventually it got so out of control Stan couldn't figure out where he ended and the other person in his body began. His other half proved over and over again that he was more monsterous than any of his monster friends, and unfortunately he keeps coming out more and more frequently. Stan can only hope that his new friends can help ease his burden, but there's only so much they can do to stop the good doctor from turning into his evil other self.

Henry 🕯🗡🪦📿

The Bowers family have been monster hunting as far back as the stone age, so killing monsters has been Henry's god given birthright. Monster hunting doesn't really pay the bills so most Bowers find themselves working lowclass positions as maids, butlers, and servants, but such circumstance just makes them more blood thirsty. Henry is a proud descendant of the man who killed George Denbrough in cold blood and he has been wanting to hunt down Bill just to finish the job. He's very good at what he does, he has ties to the catholic church, a huge stock of weapons, tricks, and schemes to help defeat the monsters, and a team of insiders that will aid him on his journey.

Henry really couldn't give less of a shit how nice these monsters are, all he wants is to make his daddy proud and eliminate anything in his way. He's naturally PISSED when he finds out Sonia Kaspbrak has found a way to create life itself using science, and if he knew what Stan was doing in his lab he'd probably pissed about that too. He will not rest until Bill Denbrough's head is on a pike he can carry around like cotton candy, he wants him dead and he wants him dead NOW.

Connor 🔮🪄

Connor Bowers has a secret, a dirty little secret he cannot tell a soul because if he did he'd be done in quicker than you can say "hocus pocus"; he's a witch. And furthermore, he also happens to be the witch that fell in love with/cursed Richie. He keeps all of that a very tight knit secret though, because if Henry discovered his own cousin had begun practicing the dark arts and creating monsters out of petty spite he'd lose it. He first discovered the power of magic while working as a maid for the Toziers and he became infatuated with Richie. Ofc he rejected his advances and it didn't end well for him, but ehhh. You win some you lose some.

He's still totally obsessed with Richie upon seeing him again all these years later, and Richie is still just as repulsed as before. He tries to strong arm him into loving him, promising if he just agrees to be his he'll reverse his werewolf curse and even make Henry forget he was the werewolf at all, but richie doesn't take his deal. He knows agreeing to that is no better than agreeing to be someones love slave and he'd rather die. Still, Connor ain't giving up. He'd sooner encourage hid cousin to kill all of Richie's friends than give up on him.

Vic 🧭🗺

Vic is much more into the world of researching monsters than killing them. He's an amatuer explorer and uses that to help Henry find more monsters to catch and kill for the ""betterment"" of mankind. He was the archeologist that dug Mike out of his tomb AND he was the explorer that caught Ben in the amazon. He studied them both extensively while he could, but when they were both broken out Henry got very mad at him for not allowing him to just flat out kill his subjects.

He's often using his intellect to try all kids of crazy shit like turning himself invisible or inventing new weapons for Henry, both of which makes people wonder if he's more of a madman or a scientist. Ehhh, Probably just a mad scientist.

Belch 🫁🫀🧠

Belch is an ex igor who helped Sonia Kaspbrak create life, then dipped after he realized it was highkey an abomination againsr god. He has a hunch and was raised in a circus most of his life before Sonia took him in and offered him steady work in exchange for his descretion. He is the only reason Henry even knows Eddie or Bev exists and he's also probably the most genuine ally Henry has on his team. Unfortunately though he is still just an Igor and igors are not really well known for their intelligence.

Patrick 🧬🎩

Patrick is the other half of Dr. Stanely Uris that he tries to hide. Stan had succeeded quite wonderfully in his goal to eradicate his cowardice, because Patrick has no emotions what so ever. He's wanted for the death of ten men, eight women, four children and a whole heap of innocent little animals he killed for funsies. He pretends to be Henry's friend when really he just enjoys being part of all the chaos and trying to kill things. He doesn't let him know he's secretly Stan half of the time, not because he's afraid or anything, but simply cause its more fun this way. Plus he gets to mess with both Stan and Henry by playing both sides here, it's a win win.

Greta 💋🦷🧛🏻‍♀️

Greta is kind or a non descript vampire in this au, although she's based heavily off of Dracula's brides. She is the exact kind of evil vampire that gives the rest of vampire kind a bad name, and the worst part is how effortlessly she blends into the human world. Henry doesn't even know she's a vampire, even though it's pretty damn obvious. Her big plan is to help Henry until he kills Bill and lets her take over his whole position as a countess.

She's vain, cruel, haughty, and just all around unpleasant, and interestingly enough she's the only one who knows Connors witchy secret and isn't telling, just in case he learns about her being a vampire and gets any idea about telling.

She's always dressed up in the finest jewels and dresses due to her wealth, but Henry truly believes she's just a bit eccentric like all women are. He doesn't even know she can turn into a weird freaky bat creature and pick people op out of the air for a quick snack. It certainly doesn't help that she can basically hunt down the losers anywhere through smell alone, and she's been known to be extremely sadistic when playing with her food.

[snakeredbirdbatkatana]

"Do you have a favorite, Jason?"

It's been over twenty four hours Red Hood has broken up an entire prostitution ring, and shot fourteen idiots who don't understand what the word no means.

Finally he got home got out of all his gear was about to eat his left over pasta before his idiotic older brother decided he needed to sit on his couch, and ask very stupid fucking questions at three in the god damn morning.

He would just shoot the stupid bird but he doesn't need big bad bat knocking on his door. Time to play whatever game is going on in his head.

"Big Bird get to the god damn point I'm fucking tired."

He looks straight at Dickhead he looks nervous yet, he's still which is never a good sign Nightwing is only a statue when something horrible happened. He runs quickly through the locations of all idiotic birds and as far as he knows they are all locked up in FortManor under Alfred's tender care.

"I asked if you had a favorite?"

-----

Dick isn't really functioning on all cylinders right now.

It was dangerous to come here not that Little Wing would hurt him, but he feels off like his entire soul is stripped bare for all to see.

He doesn't leave, he doesn't think he can.

-------

"Are you talking about the family big bird? You have got to give me something."

Jason's watching for a hint of where this is going if this is gonna be a sad big brother who needs a hug. Maybe he's gonna have to kill someone.

Or call Bruce.

He doesn't want to but there's something in the air like a bomb is going to explode. He can almost feel the seconds counting down.

"I have a favorite Jason don't you?"

"Maybe I do Dickie what's it to you?"

It can just be that right, big brother not living up the hype something deeper has to affoot he wouldn't show up just to be insecure.

He can practically hear Bruce's voice in his head look deeper.

Analyze.

Dickie worried about favorites it's not a secret that Jason isn't it.

That would be the baby birds Damian or Tim.

Tim is his little protege wearing his colors, stealing his guns. Which reminds him He has to get that back. It's no secret he has a favorite they call themselves team red.

He's not getting anything.

"Alright I bite Baby bird, which you knew?"

-------

He can't think before he can even control himself he has Jason pinned escrima cracking at his neck looking into his brothers eyes he doesn't seem surprised it's almost enough to let go. Yet little wing opens his mouth anyway.

"Let me guess feeling jealous dickie, not the perfect older brother? Alert the news golden boy ain't perfect"

He wants to wipe the smirk off his face he wants to break his teeth in feel his blood coat his fist.

----

Jason wants to be angry standing with a pissed off older brother on top of him yet even as he goaded something bugged him.

He missed something.

What happened tonight he's wracking his brain.

Where was Nightwing, patrolling with Red Robin.

Ok so how did we get from Point A to Point B.

Is it?

He forces his pulse to relax while he pokes the bear.

"It's not Damian is it Wing?"

Nightwing steps back releasing him he looks horrified Jason can't tell if it's from the murderous jealous rage or caring about Tim in his experience they go hand in hand.

"It's not Damian why isn't it Damian?"

Oh in a way he feels guilty but it's almost vindictive in nature.

Damian is a good kid he's the baby has a special spot but for Jason he's nothing not someone he wakes up everyday wanting to check on.

He can't trust the kid to watch his six he would take a bullet for him.

Yet he's not Tim not his Baby brother who had the sweetest tech badassness pouring out of him.

Why is it so surprising that Tim is the favorite.

As he thinks he feels himself getting angry why can't the kid who threw his entire life into it get a bit of fucking recognition. The boy who still looks at Dick like the sun shines out of his ass why can't he be the favorite.

Maybe it's cause he knows Tim loves him even but he wants Dick out of his fucking sight.

"Get out."

"Wait hold on" Dick trips as Jason pushes him out straight to the front door.

"I don't care get out that kid he worth it all and you might be a shitty older brother but I'm not go fuck your self."

As he goes to slam the door he looks the man that he would have died for killed for a man that he has always called his brother and he gets it.

For once he understands why Dickie always guarded the birds why he always looked two seconds away from loosing it.

"Don't bother ever coming back I only have one brother and it sure as shit ain't you and I will do you one. I won't tell any of them about this convo but let's make one thing clear."

Looking straight at Dick.

"Tim is a better man than you will ever be stick with the demon brat I got Red."

He slams the door sinking down to the floor he wants to sob.

Scream instead he goes to the manor tommorow pretends nothing ever happened.

But it's never the same cause he will always be Jason Todd.

Red Robin will always be his Robin.

But he will never be Tim Drake''s.

[imzadi-caskett-huddy]

It Started With a Kiss (7/?)

Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed the story thus far! I’m so glad most of you seem to be enjoying it!

As stated at the conclusion of the last chapter, I am skipping the episode “Slice of Death” because even though I’ve watched it twice within the last week, there is absolutely nothing I can find in that episode to use as a springboard for a chapter. Plus Castle and Beckett are in a good place right now, so I don’t need a filler chapter. But, the good news is that means I am now on “The Dead Pool” which has so many things I can use! This episode is heavy on dialogue from the episode…however, I did try to put my own spin on it. And, of course, I added some scenes!

The episode originally aired on April 11, so that means it’s about 2 weeks after the events of the last chapter.

I still don’t own Castle…

xxxxx

“Alex, so glad you made it,” Castle gave the slightly younger man a smile. “Alex Conrad, meet Detective Beckett. Detective Beckett, Alex Conrad, my protege,” he introduced the two proudly.

Beckett smiled and extended her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Alex took her hand with a charming grin. “It’s a real pleasure, Detective. I have read Heat Wave and Naked Heat so many times, I feel like I know you. The piercing intelligence, the self-assured beauty…”

“Oh, um…thank you. But most of what Castle writes is just…fiction,” she blushed slightly. “So what were you saying about the steroids?”

“Well nothing, really,” Alex started. “I was just looking at the board and I noticed that this swimmer kid, he’s caught between two worlds. Now, if I were writing the story, the steroids would just be a red herring and the real killer would be someone from the old neighborhood. Uh, yeah, but that’s just me. Clearly, I’m new at this.”

Castle gave his protege a sympathetic smile. “Alex, don’t worry. It takes years of experience,” he stated, fully expecting Beckett to laugh off his theory the way she so frequently did some of his own.

“No. No, you’re right. We don’t have any proof that this has anything to do with the steroids. We’ve just been assuming. We do need to look into Zack’s old neighborhood,” Beckett agreed with him.

Castle couldn’t believe it. “Seriously?” Was he...was he building theory with her?

“I was helpful?” Alex asked with a proud smile.

“Yes. Yes, you were,” Beckett smiled.

Castle tried not to let his reaction to Beckett’s praise of Alex show. “Yes, but you probably have lots of questions, so we should get going.” He needed to get Alex out of here and away from Beckett. This was absolutely not the way he’d pictured their meeting going, especially when Beckett had seemed against it earlier.

Alex, however, was still focused on Beckett. “Hey, uh, if it’s not overstepping, just in the interest of keeping it real, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions for the case I’m coming up with for Seriously Dead.”

Castle couldn’t help but clench his jaw. He wanted to state that yes, yes it was very much overstepping as Beckett handed Alex her business card.

“Why don’t you give me a call when the two of you are done,” she suggested.

Alex seemed to pick up on Castle’s vibes and turned to glance at him. “I mean, if it’s okay with you.”

Beckett glanced at him as well, and Castle did his best to clear his face. “Why wouldn’t it be ok?” he answered with a fake smile and chuckle.

“Okay,” Beckett nodded.

“Okay,” Alex grinned, taking a few steps backward with his eyes still on Beckett before finally turning around as he and Castle left.

It was very much not okay.

xxxxx

“It’s so not okay!” Castle insisted as he sat with his mother and daughter in the loft. “After everything I’ve done for him, he goes and tries to steal my muse,” he pouted.

Alexis couldn’t help but giggle. “Muse thievery. What’s the punishment for that? Five to ten in mythology jail?” she teased her dad.

Martha laughed as well, but she quickly noticed Castle was legitimately upset…or maybe worried…about this development, so her teasing and laughter faded.

“Yes. You laugh. Go ahead. Laugh all you want. But now I finally know what Obi-Wan Kenobi felt like when Vader turned on him.”

“No…” Alexis continued to tease, but Martha simply studied her son.

“I should’ve seen this coming. Do you know what they’re calling him down at Black Pawn Publishing?”

“Alex Conrad?” Alexis smirked.

“The next Richard Castle,” he stated.

“Oh,” Martha sympathized. This was a double whammy for him, she realized. This was professional jealousy as well as old-fashioned jealousy over Beckett. Poor kid.

“Yes. I thought it was a compliment, but no. He’s trying to replace me,” he insisted.

“What are you going to do?” Martha asked curiously, trying to get a feel for exactly which type of advice Castle was more in need of hearing.

“I am going onto RichardCastle.net. I am going to remove my glowing review of Dead Serious and replace it with cover art for Heat Rises. That ungrateful little weasel,” he grabbed his laptop, carrying out his actions as he spoke. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to make him feel better.

Alexis rolled her eyes. “Dad, did you ever think that maybe you’re overreacting a teensy bit?” she pointed out. “Did you ever think that maybe he admires you so much that spending time with Beckett is to understand you better?” she arched an eyebrow as she hit him with her logical argument.

Castle just stared at her. “Don’t confuse me with your reasonableness.”

“I’m just saying, maybe he’s not the nefarious muse-snatcher you think he is. Maybe you should give him a chance,” she kissed his cheek and patted his shoulder lovingly before heading upstairs.

Castle sighed and looked at his mother. “Do you think she’s right?”

Martha lightly patted his hand. “It’s not about what I think, kiddo, it’s about what you think,” she told him. “What are you more worried about–that he might be trying to replace you at Black Pawn, or that he might be trying to replace you with Beckett?” she asked. The look she saw in his eyes answered her question. “Richard…” she started.

“It’s just…” he started, rubbing his face. “Beckett and I are in a good place. There’s finally no one else in either of our lives but each other…and just my luck, a younger version of me comes swooping in, trying to steal her away before she’s even mine to lose,” he closed his laptop and rested his hands on top of it.

“And you accuse me of being over dramatic,” Martha shook her head. “Really…Richard…give Katherine a little credit. She is not the type of woman to suggest she shares your feelings and then ask you to wait for her if she’s going to jump into the arms of the first handsome, younger man who comes along,” she told him seriously.

“I know…I know. It’s stupid,” he agreed with a sigh. “I trust her, I do. It’s just…you didn’t see the way he looked at her…like some kind of love-struck puppy,” he breathed deeply. “I trust her. It’s him I don’t trust.”

Martha simply shot him an unbelieving look. “What exactly is it you think is going to happen, Richard?” she asked pointedly.

Castle made a face and clenched his fists slightly. “They were supposed to discuss his case for his book…probably over dinner. Or drinks,” he stated, suddenly not sure which idea bothered him more–the idea that Alex was out to dinner with Beckett, or that Alex was sharing drinks with her.

“And you think his motives are…less than professional?”

“Yes!” he answered quickly.

“And you’re worried that he’s going to trick her, is that it?”

“Yes!” He answered again quickly, but realizing what that answer implied, he immediately shook his head. “No…I don’t…I don’t know.”

Martha gave a soft laugh. “Let me tell you something, kiddo. Women aren’t as easily tricked as you men like to think we are. If Alex Conrad’s motives are more salacious than professional, Katherine is going to know. And there is no doubt in my mind that she can take care of herself, no matter his motives. We learn early on how to deal with men who are far more interested in us than we are in them.”

Castle studied his mother for a moment. “Thank you, Mother. I think.” He was still unsure of exactly what to make of her words.

“Anytime, kiddo.”

xxxxx

Castle managed to feel pretty good about Alex Conrad’s evening with Beckett thanks to his mother the following morning. She was right; Beckett wasn’t the type of woman to ask him to wait for her and then jump right to another man. She’d insinuated that she shared his feelings…told him they were on the same page even. She wouldn’t just change her mind because some up-and-coming writer showed up to shadow her.

“Morning,” he greeted her with a smile, reaching over the basket of muffins to place her cup of coffee on her desk. “Oh…muffins,” he grabbed one.

Beckett returned his smile and grabbed the cup he’d given her. “Yeah, Alex Conrad sent them to me,” she replied, leaning back in her chair slightly and taking a sip of the coffee as she studied his reaction. Surely he wasn’t…jealous?

Castle made a face at the mention of the other writer, immediately dropping the muffin back to the basket. “Alex.” He picked up the card sticking out of the basket. “Thanks for last night,” he read, shoving the card back into the basket and clenching his jaw. “So you two went out last night.”

Beckett arched an eyebrow, slightly amused…because he was jealous. “Yeah. We talked about procedure,” she answered, finally leaning forward to place the coffee back on her desk.

“Oh…so nothing…special,” he commented, studying her for a reaction that would give something, anything away to him about whatever had happened during their evening together.

She shrugged as though it were nothing. “I don’t know…he said he was going to use it all in his next book. He said next time he wants to talk about cases,” she answered simply, focusing on the paperwork on her desk. She was hoping to give him the impression that Alex Conrad didn’t really interest her. Although she found his jealousy slightly amusing, it wasn’t warranted. She’d asked him to wait for her…the last thing she was trying to do was make him jealous.

Castle’s eyes widened. “Next time?”

Beckett looked up from her paperwork to meet his eyes. “Yeah, next time,” she answered, straightening in her chair slightly.

“I thought you weren’t interested in another writer asking you questions,” he pointed out, reminding her of her earlier disapproval of the idea of even having to meet Alex Conrad.

“I thought you wanted me to be nice to him and let him ask me some questions,” she countered, arching an eyebrow.

“I did, but…” he started, only to have Beckett interrupt him.

“This is me being nice and letting him ask me some questions. As a favor to you,” she pointed out.

“Remind me not to ask for any more favors,” he murmured under his breath.

Beckett’s eyes narrowed slightly, trying to discern what exactly he’d said, but Ryan came over with some information on their victim, and her attention was redirected.

xxxxx

“Kate, you ready?” Alex Conrad asked, striding into the bullpen.

Castle made a face. Kate? He was calling her Kate? He flashed back to early October when another man had shown up in the precinct bullpen calling her Kate. The reminder of the first time he met Josh in this same place twisted his stomach, even though Josh was no longer an issue. And who was Alex to call her Kate anyway? He should call her Detective or Beckett…definitely not Kate.

Then he remembered the way she’d giggled…not laughed, but giggled…earlier that afternoon at Conrad’s text. She never giggled at his texts. In fact, he was relatively sure he’d never heard her giggle at all. Laugh, yes…he’d made her laugh plenty. But not giggle. He had to stop this, if for no other reason than his own sanity.

“Yes. Just let me get my purse,” Beckett answered with a friendly smile.

Once she was gone, Castle looked at Conrad. “So…you two are going out again tonight?”

Alex grinned. “What can I say? She’s a wealth of information. You’re lucky to have her.”

That was probably the first thing Alex Conrad had said since he arrived that Castle found he could legitimately agree with. “Yeah. Yeah, I am,” he smiled slightly. But he knew he was lucky to have her for so many other reasons than simply because she was a wealth of information. He hadn’t wanted or needed that from her for a long time. “Too bad about tonight, though.”

“Too bad how?” Alex asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Well, it’s poker night. Lehane and Connelly are in town. I thought you might want to join us, but if you have plans…” he trailed off with a shrug.

“No way. You’re…you’re inviting me to your mystery writer’s poker night?” Alex asked, clearly in

awe.

Castle offered him a smile. “Come on…you’re a mystery writer now, right?”

“Yeah, but those guys are legendary. I mean, those guys…”

Castle chuckled. “Yeah, they are. But if you’re unavailable,” he shrugged again as he began to walk away. He was sure this would get Alex to blow off his evening with Beckett. No way would he turn down this once-in-a-lifetime offer.

Alex thought about it for a moment. “Woah…wait, wait, wait,” he finally decided. When Castle turned around, he gave the older writer a smile. “Just…hang on a second,” he turned to go find Beckett and ask for a raincheck.

Castle smirked smugly. “Oh yeah, they are gonna love you.” This was perfect…so perfect it even surprised himself at how perfect it was. This would kill two birds with one stone–it got him away from Beckett and it would knock the younger man down a few pegs. It felt like sweet revenge to Castle.

xxxxx

“You know, it’s ironic,” Castle started, watching as Beckett worked on taking down the murder board. “The one man Zack thought he could trust, his mentor, turned out to be his killer.”

She paused and raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of mentor, I heard that you guys were pretty hard on Conrad last night.”

“Hard on him?” Castle asked with a chuckle. “No, no. It was just a little friendly hazing.”

Beckett’s eyebrows arched a little higher. “Hazing, huh? To hear him describe it, it sounds like someone was trying to teach him a lesson,” she stated pointedly, wondering if Castle would actually admit it or not.

“What? Why…why would I want to do that?” he asked innocently.

She tugged her lower lip between her teeth for a moment. “Because you didn’t want him to spend time with me,” she finally stated once she realized he wouldn’t admit it himself.

“That is completely…”

Beckett interrupted him, “True.”

Castle thought about it for a moment but finally sighed. “Yes. Fine. It’s true. I’m jealous. There, I

said it,” he started. “I want you all to myself, and to have you spending time with another writer, that upsets me. And if…if that makes me petty, so be it. Guilty as charged.” Though he hoped she would be understanding about it and not be upset with him.

She chewed on her lower lip for a moment before offering him a small smile. “I actually kind of think it’s sweet,” she admitted softly, nudging his shoulder playfully.

“You…you do?” he asked. He hadn’t been expecting that reaction. He was pretty sure she hadn’t thought the jealousy he’d felt toward Josh was very sweet.

“I do,” she nodded. “And that’s why you don’t have to worry about me hanging around with Conrad anymore. From now on, I’m a one writer girl,” she promised, giving him a genuine smile.

Castle couldn’t help the grin that spread across his features at her promise. He felt like literally jumping for joy, and, had he not been in the middle of the precinct with her standing directly in front of him, he probably would have. She was reassuring him, promising him, she was just his; she didn’t want anyone else. His mother had been right, though he wasn’t sure whether or not he’d ever admit that to her.

For now, though, he just needed to tamp down his excitement and play it cool. At least until he was alone and could squee like a fangirl. “I do feel kind of bad. He is my mentee, after all. He really didn’t do anything wrong,” he commented.

“Other than spending time with me, you mean,” she teased him with a smirk. “I wouldn’t feel too bad, Castle.”

Before he could ask what she meant by that, Conrad, Ryan, and Espo walked by Beckett’s desk on their way out, explaining that they were taking the writer to Riker’s for research.

“It was nice to meet you, Alex,” Kate smiled and extended her hand.

Alex took it with a grin. “You too, Detective,” he stated before heading toward the elevator with Ryan.

“So, a dude can be a muse, right? It’s not…weird…or anything?” Espo asked them.

Castle kept a straight face, shaking his head. “No, it’s not weird.”

“No…” Beckett shook her head as well.

“Nah,” Espo agreed, hurrying after Ryan and Conrad.

Once the elevator doors had closed, both Castle and Beckett laughed. “It’s a little weird,” Castle stated.

“Yeah,” she agreed, looking at him with a smile.

He was quiet for a moment. “Thank you,” he told her genuinely.

“Always,” she smiled, her eyes holding his for a moment as she used their word. She went to work boxing up the case files, remaining silent until she placed the lid on the box. “So…you want to grab dinner? I’ll let you ask me questions about procedure and cases,” she offered with a playful smile.

He chuckled at her offer. “How about just dinner?” he suggested. “Remy’s?”

She grinned, getting her things together at her desk. “Remy’s,” she agreed.

Castle grabbed her coat off the back of her chair and helped her into it. “Do you need to take care of the box tonight? I can carry it for you,” he offered.

She shook her head. “No, I’ll get it in the morning,” she told him, leading the way to the elevator. She smiled as she felt his presence quickly beside her, not behind her as he usually was. And when the elevator doors closed, she turned to him. “Was your jealousy purely professional?” she asked him curiously.

“What?” he asked, shaking his head. He hadn’t expected that particular question.

“Conrad. Did you want to teach him a lesson because you thought he was trying to steal your muse, or because you thought he was trying to steal me?”

“I…I, uh…” Castle stumbled over his words, wishing the elevator would move faster. He wasn’t sure what kind of answer he was supposed to give her, and he certainly didn’t want to give the wrong one. If he said he was jealous on more than a professional level, would she assume he didn’t trust her? Or would she think that was sweet too?

Beckett studied him silently, watching his face as he seemingly went over his options. “I asked you to give me time, Castle. That wasn’t so I could go date other guys,” she finally let him off the hook. “I thought I made it clear a couple of weeks ago when I said we were on the same page, that the next guy I dated would be you,” she stated. The elevator doors opened then, and she stepped out heading for the exit, leaving him completely stunned behind her.

He was still staring after her when she reached the exit door. It wasn’t until she turned and shot him a look that he realized he needed to move and get his brain to recover. “You do…I mean…

you did…I trust you…” he fumbled his words as he caught up with her outside the precinct. “It’s just…you guys went out…and then he sent you muffins…and then you giggled at his text messages…and then he called you Kate…” he began trying to explain.

“That’s because my name is Kate,” she laughed softly. “Lots of people call me Kate.”

“Not professionally,” Castle countered seriously.

She stopped walking and placed her hand on his arm. “Hey…it wasn’t like that,” she promised him softly. “Everything was professional, Castle. I made it clear, that’s all it was.”

“Oh…so…so he didn’t try…”

She chuckled. “Oh no, he did.” Seeing his face, she offered him a smile. “He asked if I was single,” she explained, wanting to make sure his overactive imagination didn’t think Alex had tried anything more physical on her.

“And what did you tell him?” he couldn’t help but ask. Because technically, she was single.

“That I was unavailable,” she answered, looping her arm through his and giving him a gentle tug as they resumed their walk towards Remy’s. “Like I said…I’m a one writer girl.”

“Oh…” was all he could manage to get out. She was telling men she wasn’t available…because of him.

She couldn’t help but smile slightly at his reaction. “It’s true,” she shrugged. “But it would be nice if my writer could come up with more than a one-syllable response,” she teased.

He swallowed hard. “Your…your writer?” She’d caught him off guard again.

“Aren’t you?” she arched an eyebrow in his direction as they stopped at a crosswalk.

“Yes!” he answered almost before the words were even out of her mouth. “I mean…yes, I’ll be your writer,” he tried again, sounding more controlled this time. “If that’s what you want.”

“That’s what I want,” she gave him a shy smile as she met his eyes.

“Me too,” he returned her smile. The two were so caught up in each other’s gaze they didn’t realize the crosswalk signal had changed until they felt everyone moving around them.

xxxxx

After their dinner at Remy’s, he’d hailed them a cab to take her back to her apartment. She’d told

him she wasn’t on call that night, so she would just leave her unit at the precinct since she wouldn’t need it until the following day.

“Castle, I’m a cop. I’ve got a gun. I can get myself home without any issues,” she tried to insist as a cab pulled up to the curb.

He opened the door to let her get in first, giving her a smile. “I don’t doubt that, Beckett. However, my mother raised a gentleman, and as such, I cannot in good conscience simply put you in a cab and send you on your way,” he stated, sliding in next to her and giving the driver the cross streets of her apartment building.

She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide the smile. “Well I would hate to disappoint Martha,” she told him.

“Please don’t. I will never hear the end of it,” he said, only halfway joking. “And I do mean never.”

She laughed and swatted his arm playfully. “Stop it. Your mother is amazing.”

“Maybe she should come live with you,” he teased her with a chuckle.

“I have a one-bedroom apartment, Castle,” she laughed.

He sighed. “I guess she stays at the loft.”

She rolled her eyes again, shaking her head. “I’m sure it’s not nearly as bad as you’re making it sound.”

“No…no, it’s not,” he agreed with a smile. “Mother is pretty amazing. Just…don’t ever tell her I told you that.”

She smiled and gently squeezed his arm. “Your secret is safe with me,” she promised.

Traffic wasn’t bad considering the time of night it was, and a few minutes later, the cab was turning the corner in front of her apartment building. Castle handed the driver $20 and got out, offering his hand to Beckett to help her out as well.

“You don’t have to walk me up. Just take this cab and go home.”

He shook his head. “My mother taught me to walk a lady all the way to her door.”

She shook her head and motioned for him to follow her inside her building. Once they stepped off the elevator on her floor, he followed her to her door. She unlocked it and opened it slightly,

turning to face him from the doorway before stepping inside. “I’d ask you in for a glass of wine…or even coffee…but I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she admitted to him softly, her eyes meeting his. She knew if she invited him in, he wouldn’t leave until the next morning…and she wasn’t ready for that yet.

He shook his head slightly and offered her a smile. “It’s okay,” he promised. He wasn’t expecting anything. In fact, beginning with her promise at the precinct that she would be a one writer girl, the evening had been much more than he could have hoped for with her. “Goodnight, Kate,” he said softly after a moment.

Just as he turned to go, she reached out and grabbed the opening of his jacket and tugged him back to her, quickly covering his mouth with hers. The kiss wasn’t deep, and it wasn’t long. She held him close long enough to trace his lips with her tongue, just enough to get a taste of him, give him a taste of her, before pulling away and releasing him. “Goodnight Castle,” she breathed, giving him a last smile before stepping inside her apartment and closing the door behind her.

Castle stood staring at her closed door, completely dazed. She’d kissed him. No alcohol involved, no being committed to another man, no other excuses or obstacles…just her kissing him. He ran his tongue across his lips and smiled at the taste of her. He finally took a step away from her door and headed down the hallway back to the elevator and found himself thinking: Best. Kiss. Ever.

xxxxx

I sincerely hope you liked this one! I know it was heavy on dialogue from the show, but I love the episode, and I wanted to make it my own. I definitely gave you guys some original goods, though!

And I know some of you expressed the hope that I wouldn’t have Castle be jealous of Conrad. I’m sorry, I’m sure I disappointed you. But I wanted to touch on it because it was such an important part of the episode…and it was totally my springboard into the Castle and Beckett stuff.

Next up…LA! That’s gonna be a fun one, as you can all probably imagine which scene I’m definitely including!

As always, I look forward to your comments for those of you who feel so inclined!

[renthebarbarian]

re-animator corpse bride au with dan as victor, meg as victoria, dr. hill as barkis, and herbert as emily

dan is engaged to meg but keeps screwing up his vows during rehearsal for the wedding, dean halsey gets pissed off and tells dan he’d better get his act together if he wants to marry his daughter

dan goes to the morgue to practice his vows (weird place to do that but okay) and sticks the ring on the finger bone of the educational skeleton standing in the corner…suddenly the skeleton grows skin and hair and starts talking back to dan…uh oh

the skeleton puts on his clothes and glasses and says his name is herbert, and that dan said his vows beautifully…before dragging dan into the underworld

dan is horrified to learn that he’s now married to herbert, doomed to help him with his afterlife research for eternity. herbert introduces dan to his mentor and father figure, dr. gruber, who was murdered with herbert by gruber’s other protege who wanted to steal gruber’s work for himself. herbert and gruber explain that their souls can’t rest until they finish their work, most of which they forgot when they died because it was stolen

dan comes around to liking herbert despite how odd he is, but he eventually tricks herbert into letting him go up to the living world. he tries to tell meg and the dean about how he was kidnapped but the dean thinks dan is a lowlife who was just getting cold feet about the wedding. herbert catches dan trying to run out on him and drags him back to the underworld

herbert starts to feel guilty about dragging dan into his business (out of character i know but it has to work for the story) and offers to let dan out of their marriage, but dan feels sympathy for him and swears to stick by herbert and help his and gruber’s souls find peace. unfortunately this means that herbert and dan have to have a real wedding, on the surface, and dan has to die for real

at the wedding, dan finds out that one of his professors, dr. hill, wants meg for himself and has been ladling poison into dean halsey’s ear about dan all this time. herbert and gruber recognize hill as the man who killed them. hill mockingly makes a toast to dan and herbert’s marriage, and unknowingly drinks the poison that was meant for dan. he dies and comes back as a corpse and herbert, gruber, and their dead friends drag him to the underworld where he will be punished for his crimes for eternity. herbert and gruber are able to get back the research hill stole, putting herbert and gruber’s souls at peace. herbert releases dan from their deal and dan is free to marry meg.

[siennablaze219]

@daily-writing-challenge - May 2024 - Day 3 - Shame

FMK

“I am not going to play fuck…”

“Language..” Kyean interrupted Dei.

The warlock carried on, repeating the first just because he had stopped her, “… Fuck, marry, kill, with you concerning types of demons. If you put intention to some it gives it power.”

The Illidari laughed, “It is a game Dei, not one of your contracts. I will start,” he rubbed his chin, “Fuck it, I am married to killing them all.”

Dei dissolved into a fit of giggles, there was something about the ginormous Kaldorei that was just outrageous enough to get her to forget her ‘proper’ raising ever since he showed up after Brendan’s funeral. She was far too serious as a child due to her mentor/guardian’s raising, he was a hard man that had no use for a child but was in need of a protege, she just happened to be six when he took custody of her. No one, to that point had, ever made her feel comfortable enough to let go of all Brendan had instilled in her, and at seventeen she had been still a child.

“Going to bet you would have come up with that answer yourself if you relaxed a little,” Kyean said as he prodded at her ribs with one long, clawed finger. “So tell me about the boyfriend.”

Dei squirmed away because his claw had hit a ticklish spot. The night had been pleasant, they had made pasta together, well Dei made it and Kyean had kept stealing the fresh tomatoes they had bought, then sat in her newly organized front room. She still had three rooms to sort books from on the lower level and three on the upper levels of the house, then it would be in order. It wasn’t until Rurik had come to stay with her that she had really wanted to erode the anchors to how she was raised.

A couple bottles of wine had been added to the dinner, which Dei realized belatedly, that he burned off alcohol at such a fast rate he didn’t even get tipsy and she was pretty drunk, lightweight that she was. “Cheating,” she pointed out at his answer, then she became more serious. “Rurik, that was his name.”

“Probably still is,” he broke in with.

“Rurik *is* his name,” the ebony haired young woman corrected, wanting to throw a pillow at him. “He joined the company in a time when I wasn’t focused all that much on it. I just happened to hear the woman with the Man’ari friend talking about misplacing a jar of soulstones. I am sure you can guess my reaction and that drew me back in, connecting with them once more, to try and prevent them from falling to fel stupidity, if nothing else.”

Kyean turned from where he was reclined on the floor at her feet while she tucked herself up in a corner of the couch, “She what?”

It was so nice having someone else around that understood her stance on demons. Sure a few in the company disliked them and had adopted her safe handling instructions but most were aloof in their interactions, it drove her mad… “Yes, a jar went missing, then it reappeared partially empty.”

“Or partially full,” he offered oh so helpfully.

This time she did swing a pillow at him which caught him in the shoulder, pillows didn’t have auras after all so he couldn’t *see* it coming. This time she didn't even correct herself, “Then she said they changed colors and she was pleased with this. While I was losing it over this cavalier attitude a voice came over the comm. I did not recognize him, he was asking generalized questions. What kind of work did we have coming up? Anything illegal? I guess he already had trouble in his past but nothing really invasive.”

Kyean’s head lifted, “For your first boyfriend you chose a criminal? What the Fel Deiala? It has been five years since Brendan’s death, that seems a bit late to be rebellious. Couldn’t you have dyed your hair or something? Maybe stop wearing corsets?”

“Are you finished?” She asked tartly then continued, “She started asking if he was a reporter or something. I thought his questions smart for just joining the company, things I never asked any when I joined really”

“You didn’t? You? Miss ‘I read the small print in ancient texts on the theory of Azeroth Being round’ for fun’? Miss ‘There is not a mystery out there I don’t want to solve’?”

Dei sat there silent until he said, “Go on.” To which she replied, “I wanted to make sure you were done.” Something she had realized the first few times she drank was that she had a tendency to be more challenging, especially to strong willed men.

“Anyway, she kept challenging him but I didn’t know him so why would I involve myself in their squabbling? A couple days later I went to watch people spar, more to put faces with voices than anything. Me, being me, with all my social graces, ended up just standing there, I observed, until I wasn’t.” The young woman smiled at the memory, “He just said hello and we began talking, next thing you know he is coming by the shop to research an art project.”

“You had an artist in your group?”

“A tattoo artist, though he was a good painter as well.” She replied.

He nodded, “Okay, yeah that tracks. Criminal and tattoo artist, next thing you know you will tell me he was a sailor or something.”

Dei flushed and Kyean laughed, “Annnyyy way… we had a mission and some things going on so it was suggested we team up to keep an eye on one another. The antagonistic woman suggested with a seductive tone that he and her should pair up. He was at the shop when he asked me instead. The mission didn’t go well, in fact it was a bit traumatic, so he came back here with me…”

“And you fucked away the trauma, yeah, been there, done that.”

“Actually no,” she said and drew a breath in through her nose, “he said that he would not take advantage of that and slept in one of the back bedrooms. It wasn’t until another mission went sideways that we ended up sleeping together, even then I had to push the issue.”

Kyean grunted in disbelief but said nothing.

Dei frowned at him, tipping her chin up, “I can decide what I want for myself you know.” Not bothering to wait for another comment, “Well, things happened and instead of a reporter the woman started calling him a spy and ended up making things uncomfortable so he left here in not the best of circumstances, on a night when my new friends were here for dinner. To say the least, this did not endear him to them.”

For once he remained quiet so she continued. “He came back, apologized for leaving stupidly and we started again. This time it was even better than before between us, but this whole spy thing had taken root in some people’s minds, even I had some doubts. The company verified that there was a spy in our midst, personally I think there is more than one, and we certainly had false faces around, somehow it was decided that he was the spy. I was told about this and when I chose to talk to him about it and not just stop seeing him it upset my friends. One threatened him and I did not back her. She decided to wash her hands of the whole thing and told me I would do what I wanted anyway, so why should she bother,” Dei frowned and laid her head against the back of the couch.

“The lack of trust issue rears its head,” he said quietly.

It took more than a moment for her to continue, “He said that he could not stay knowing it would put me in such a position. It was his idea to leave, I tried to talk him out of it but he was looking out for me.” Thanks to the wine tears welled in her eyes again. “He was looking out for me, and yet I did not fight for him.” This time her voice was quiet.

Kyeanadril reached out for her chin making her look at him, “There is no shame in that Dei. He was right, it would have caused undo conflict for you and since I doubt you told him about what you guard, that alone might put you in an even worse quandary.”

“I still feel like I failed him,” Dei did not tell Kyean about the couple of times she had reached out to Rurik and each time he had sounded like she felt, but he still picked up, he could just have stopped answering if he hadn’t cared about her. The last time had actually been the night before.

“Sometimes the harder path is not always the best one. What if you chose him over them and it didn’t work out? What if he really was a spy and using you? I know how people use one another all too well. There are a million what ifs, but what I do know is that you have a job above and beyond all else, the secrets you keep are dangerous and if you are in the midst of conflict it will make you vulnerable.” He then asked the tougher question, “Did you love him?”

The dark haired woman nodded a bit in his grasp, but she was still so conflicted, “I miss him. I haven’t really slept since he left. And I don’t know if I love him or not, I wasn’t given enough time to find out. I think I was starting to though.” The nightmares they discussed tortured her and the only time she had been free of them since the first mission they went on was when Rurik had slept in the house with her, even before he was in her bed. “I don’t like being alone now…”

@siennablaze219

[innytoes]

for Wip Wedneday. I'm all about helping you finish The ot3 are super married. So more of that please.

I just need a chapter and a half for my Leverage fic Let's Go Steal A Protégé, which I never changed the document title of obviously.

Have three sentences of Jamie (aka the OC the Leverage OT3 kidnap-dopted) thinking about the Leverage International Gen Z Only chat:

It was mostly jokes and memes, along with Tea on the more boring updates in the news letters. Some days it was just a little status update, usually a ‘what’s the mood gang’ and a volley of gifs in response. The best times was when one of their jobs was big enough to reach the news, and they got to humble-brag about it.

[blackjackkent]

Followup conversation with Shadowheart, post-All-of-That-Nonsense.

"My parents. I saw them, spoke to them... and let them go. It's... it's more than I can take in just now. Give me a night, to try and get my head together."

OK, so not really a conversation, just a line, but still. Poor Shadowheart. :( Jennifer English does a tremendous job with these moments where Shadowheart's really conflicted or upset; she gets this little catch in her voice that makes me want to pick her (Shadowheart, that is, though maybe Jennifer English too, idk) up and take her somewhere safe where she won't have to make that sound anymore.

Hector feels really terrible about the whole business, and there are a lot of layers as to why.

a) Shadowheart is upset, and Shadowheart is his friend and sorta-kinda-protege(?) and does not deserve all the shit that Shar has put her through. b) Shadowheart has met and lost her parents simultaneously. Hector has never known his and can't decide if that's better or worse, because there was still something oddly compelling about the expression of pride that her father gave her before he died. c) Hector has met Shar in the "flesh", spoken to her directly - the precise manifestation of everything he was trained to fight against. (And meanwhile, his own goddess has never once spoken to him directly.) d) On some level, even though Shadowheart is free of the curse, this feels like Shar has won simply by the amount of pain she has caused Shadowheart. e) According to the dogma Hector was raised with, it should be considered a victory for Selune instead! She has two new martyrs! Shar's curse has been thwarted! But he can take no satisfaction in that because of what it did to his friend in the process.

Let's get the fuck out of here. Quick glance around the room first.

The only thing of major significance in here is the Mirror of Loss at the back of the room, which presumably was the mirror used to steal away Shadowheart's memories repeatedly:

Narrator: A huge, polished disc looms before you. A mirror - one used by the Sharrans to plunder memories from the minds of others.

"This feels familiar to me somehow. I'm sure I've stood before this mirror before... many times, perhaps..."

Interestingly, one of the options here is a Selunite-specific one to pray to the mirror. I'm not sure why anyone, least of all Hector, would think this would do anything positive, but sure, why not:

[SELUNE][RELIGION] Offer a prayer to the mirror.

We get disadvantage on this because Hector is Selunite, apparently, and it's a DC25 check.

LOL. I could try and spend inspiration on this but honestly this makes more sense under the circumstances.

Narrator: Your prayers fade away into the nothingness of the mirror, unacknowledged.

Sad Hector face! D:

OK, I am actually curious what happens if we succeed this, so backing up, casting Enhance Ability on Hector, and savescumming like crazy.

Narrator: You feel a presence, dark and ancient. It approves of your fealty.

OK, that's not the kind of prayer I thought Hector was offering based on the [SELUNITE] tag, lol. RELOAD.

We also have the option here to offer memories to the mirror; @zenjestrr tells me this would give us a +2 to any attribute, even going over the normal cap of 20. But Hector, obviously, is not going to touch that with a ten-foot pole.

I think we're done with this place. Let's GTFO.

[kuriipi]

People who keep claiming that "Jin Guangyao didn't have to do what Jin Guangshan told him! He could leave/kill him/steal all their money/go to LXC/NMJ!"

Really seem to like to forget that:

a. Jin Guangyao new way too much for JGS to just let him go?? The man has killed people for less, and he certainly doesn't hold any love for his bastard children.

b. You do realize the only reason JGY goes in the vault is bcs he is the sect leader in mdzs. Like this is pretty elemental, but the vault is only accessed by the sect leader. If Jin sect could just be robbed they wouldn't be the richest sect...

c.Lan sect was burned to the ground at the time and the Jin were helping them rebuilt. Even if they chose to involve themselves and turn against JGS (LXC and LWJ support alone does not guarantee the Lan Sects support, a we've all seen and it also very much doesn't guarantee ones survival, rip wwx...that first time). What power exactly do you think they had against the pretty much Wen sect vol.2 ?? Like by constanntly calling JGS promiscuous (which he was ok) we keep ignoring the crazy amounts of power he held back then...

d. NMJ. Honestly I can't believe I have to keep saying this but if your friend/sworn brother tries to murder you without even giving you a moment to plead your case (you know as is the legal system, or whatever) you tend to not trust them very much after??? Besides NMJ seemed rather content at the time to ignore JGS entirely and just try to blame everything on JGY. You guys please tell me you at least understand that XY was the Jin sects, aka JGS', ward? protege? idk the word but he was under their protection. JGY had no power to do anything about him, even if he wanted to, if JGS didn't permit it. You'd think as a sect leader NMJ's "righteousness" would puss him to talk to his fellow equal, sect leader JGS instead of constantly trying to kill JGY, but oh well.

e. Do you guys think killing your own father is easy? Just emotionally, cause if you do irl seek help tbh that's not normal. Not considering the logistics of killing a sect leader when you're his direct successor (tbh I think that any other method than the one JGY choose wouldn't have held up but that's another story). Like even if people didn't like JGS they liked JGY as head of Jin sect even less.

[thatstormygeek]

Though this has had paltry returns historically, I can name one Democratic president who did in fact do very important tangible things that seriously helped unions and their workers: Joe Biden. I believe Joe Biden should drop out because he is too old and is going to lose, and I believe he is guilty of a tremendous moral crime in Gaza, but his whole bit about being “the most pro-union president” is true. He ain’t perfect on labor stuff but he’s miles better than his predecessors going back decades. Which is to say that even in the standard rubric of two-party elections that unions face every four years, Biden is the one Democratic president whose record could be used to make a legitimate case that the hundreds of millions of dollars that unions funneled to him actually paid off. Also he is running against a legitimate fascist who not only will oppose all the laws that increase labor power as Republicans always do, but also a guy who crossed a picket line when he was making a TV show and who was kicked out of his own union for being such a piece of shit. I’m not going to rehash here the tedious point by point refutations of the idiotic premise that Republicans under Trump are some sort of “working class party.” You can Google 100 pieces doing that. I will say that if you ever want to know which elected national politicians are pro-union, just look and see if they are endorsing the PRO Act, the big labor law reform bill which would drastically increase union power in this country. Let me tell you that Democrats in Congress ovewhelmingly support it, and no Republicans do. “Not even Josh Hawley and JD Vance and the other guys who wave their hands about being pro working class???” No they do not. This is the simplest way to tell that they are all talk. Any major union leader who fails to understand this has a child’s concept of politics.

In his speech last night, O’Brien said: "The American people aren’t stupid. They know the system is broken. We all know how Washington is run. Working people have no chance of winning this fight. That’s why I’m here today. Because I refuse to keep doing the same things my predecessors did. Today, the Teamster are here to say: We are not beholden to anyone, or any party. We will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition ready to accomplish something real for the American worker." Will you? Will you create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition ready to accomplish something real for the American worker? No you won’t You won’t because the Republican Party is still existentially opposed to the growth of genuine union power and worker power in this country. How do I know? Because they don’t support the PRO Act. How else do I know? Because I have eyes and a brain and I have read the news for the past decade. Making the Republican Party less hostile to the interests of the working class is a nice goal but if you think that this will be the result of electing a fascist who tried the steal the last election and who famously stiffs people who work for him and who is an egomaniac and who has never supported the electoral agenda of unions and who lies constantly and who is running on a racist platform of demonizing immigrants—you are stupid. You are a patsy if you think this. Donald Trump is a billionaire and JD Vance is a scumbag venture capitalist from Yale who is the protege of a billionaire named Peter Thiel. Which one of these guys is going to rein in big business, again? Which one is the working class champion who wants to rein in the power of billionaires, again? Please remind me.

Sean O’Brien also said this: "The Teamsters are doing something correct if the extremes in both parties think I shouldn’t be on this stage. President Trump had the backbone to open the doors to this Republican Convention, and that’s unprecedented. No other nominee in the race would have invited the Teamsters into this arena." This is how shitty newspaper columnists talk. “I got letters from both left and right calling me a moron, therefore I must be correct.” This is the self-help mantra of idiots. Oh, President Trump had the backbone to allow you to help him trick working class voters into electing a president who will usher in an administration that will decimate the political agenda of organized labor? Was he nice enough to do that? And you even got to stand on a big stage and hear yourself talk about it, too? Wow.

[clockbreadcroi]

THE PRECIOUS RUBELLITE ⬧ THE TALE OF PHANTOM RUBY.

𝅄✦ ( SCARLET HEIST AU ) ⬧ featured cookies : ruby rosegear (croissant cookie), roguefort cookie

"Mom? Dad? Where are you?!"

I, Croissant Cookie... well, to be honest, was a lonely kid when I was younger. Which means, ha, I had to live by myself.

Many people told me not to take what I don't own... but of course, I did. Mainly things I needed to keep myself alive. I was getting pretty good at it. Honestly I'm surprised I wasn't arrested at least once.

Though, there was this guy, Phantom Bleu.

They were my idol. I read the news about them in the herald, and wow, were they just like me. However they were even more than just a thief. They were a phantom thief. Unlike me, instead of stealing things like food just to survive, they stole relics. Jewels, especially. Without leaving a trace. Disappearing before the targets knew what hit them.

Rubies, the symbol of strength. These jewels are what inspired me to keep moving... and I even got to see one at a museum, too.

But that time when I did, a heist was in set, and I got to witness their calling card--

Phantom Bleu... they were just as amazing as I thought! So dapper, stealthy as well... mon dieu, their disguise really seemed to perplex me! They had their eye on me! Somehow, just, somehow, Bleu knew I had a keen eye for relics such as these... But for all I know, during this heist, the police were caught onto me! I didn't do anything wrong, was being I too suspicious?!

"Get the girl! She could be part of their plan, too!"

I was scared, I didn't do anything wrong. Surely this was the end of me, I thought! Bon, ben...

Suddenly! Phantom Bleu swept me off my feet, I could not believe my eyes! They faced the police, so brave and confident! "This sweet girl is none of my business! She is merely but an innocent, do not frame her for my own doings."

They were holding me, and I haven't really felt this much safe before despite the fact they were a thief.

"Au revoir, gentlemen!", they exclaimed before taking me to someplace safe. It was the city alleyway, the cops couldn't see where we were.

"Are you hurt?" Bleu asked, worringly.

I didn't... really expect this from them, non. I expected them to be some actual rogue, but they seemed really sweet... so I replied, "I... I have nowhere to go to..."

"Oh mon dieu, not even your parents? You do not even know your way back? You poor thing..." Bleu sweetly said. It was... oddly comforting. My eyes were on that jewel they were holding... the same ruby they were locked on during my visit...

"I will take you for now, petite rubis. Rest assured, you will be safe."

My eyes gleamed in awe... the great Phantom Bleu... I've become their protege... and they were what they are now... my guardian! Was I too old for this? Oui, but... I didn't realize how much I needed this until now! Especially because Phantom Bleu was my idol... but I now then came to know their real name,

Roguefort Cookie. They taught me many things. And as much as they hesitated, they passed on even their own skills to me.

And so, here I am. Phantom Ruby. The next thing galleries around the city were fearing for. I am now Bleu's pupil... and I won't let these cops get my guard down. Not a chance!

Or, at least, that's what I've always dreamed of...

[strykingback]

Location: Balders Island, Off Of the Atlesian Archipelago Time: 7:00 PM Atlesian time Zone. OST: Enemy Base (Warning For Autoplay!)

_____________________________

A timid man was currently approaching the doors of the CEO's office as he gulped a bit holding some files and papers in place from everyone. Feeling his own heart racing as the doors opened.

"Come in." A young but deep and burly voice said with the man walking in timidly as the doors closed behind him. As he tried to keep his composure as he was not expecting himself to be the one delivering the news the CEO of the Solitas Liberation LLC. Yet, he took a deep breath in and exhaled carefully.

"S-Sir. As you may know I have brought the reports you have asked for from the counterhacking team who sadly failed to contain the hacker that managed to steal some important data, plus some of the bills from the ships we have smuggled from the Atlesian Military and modified to our own benefit." He said holding up two of the papers.

"And?" the CEO continued.

"O-O-Oh yes! There is also the fact that after much toiling from the S-S-Science Department that we have finally found a 99.8% chance of bringing back the dead with no other defects shown with Project Immortalis after a two week levy. As for creating immortal soldiers.... its still a fifty percent chance, S-Sir." The Timid man said while a huff was seen with a strong hand putting his cigar on his ashtray for a minute.

"Ahh..... I remember it like it was yesterday... back fifteen years ago. I was merely but an old man at that point. Seeking out his own reasons to start a war.... and yet I wanted to dance upon a pyre of those Brumelian whelps..... witholding all that dust to themselves and much more....." the CEO said leaning back against his chair the back still being faced towards the Timid employee.

"S-Sir?"

"Ahaha.... Then when I simply requested Dr. Democritus a new way of energy little did he know I had him create a weapon.... a weapon that would revolutionize war. Shame the weak crybaby had to off himself... I could have used him for this..... and Jacques Schnee my young protege... he is still as weak as ever from what I heard. Yet, when I came up with Project Immortalis it was originally born out of my own greed..... to create immortal soldiers to slow down the Brumelian march on Atlas.... fuck those Mantlean weaklings." He said picking up his cigar.

"Now when I "died"... heh. Lets just say I still had plenty of supporters who were willing to pick up the slack.. you included. Soon we gained more benefactors and sponsors as we grew. While I was in "incubation." Heh. Its funny ain't it, but then though that damn traitor who used a blizzard against us and used it well against us.... did you find out his name?" The CEO continued.

"U-Uh! Yes sir... his name is Zek Sunna Simo...." The Employee said with the CEO chuckling. "And who is up next for testing of Project Immortalis....." he asked.

"A Mrs. Atya Sunna......Zeks mother... sir."

"Heheheh. She's his mother? Well if she dies we can send her body to him as a way of saying how hard he fucked up.....because now. We're just going to make sure she suffers...." The CEO said.

"Y-Yes Sir.... but aside from this dont you think it is possible that it is p-p-possible that the Atelier Paladins will a-a-attack..?" the Timid employee asked.

"Please no need to call me Sir." The CEO said turning around to be a strong looking man with a smirk on his face as he took a huff of his cigarette.

"Just Nero will do, son."

CLONE OF THE DISGRACED GRAND COUNCIL MAN OF ATLAS, CEO OF THE SOLITAS LIBERATION LLC, NERO BASILLICUS.

"And if those pieces of shit want me... they'll have to get through a lot to get to me...."

EVENT DATE WILL BE REVEALED SHORTLY!