Wondering if Tao has any corvid DNA in there because seriously.

There's that 'love is biochemically indistinguishable from OCD' thing, and Frankenstein is very prone to being obsessive about things. Even if he wasn't an enhanced human, given his unusual personality, level of trauma and neurotype his relationship with Raizel should really not be used to guess at how humans in general are wired in the fic. (Also he worries). I also have headcanons re. what the Noblesse is and what it means that Raizel's soul is a soul weapon – that's why I have Frankenstein say that he really has no baseline on true contracts, the two of them are too strange to be any kind of barometer for what's normal.

Mind working double-time as Frankenstein poured Raizel's tea, Tao put a smile on his face. Standing there in the lab he kept himself from fidgeting, trying not to feel vulnerable and exposed.

Not exposed-exposed, he was still wearing his uniform, hadn't even had a chance to take the armband off, but he'd almost rather be naked in a tube than here alone, without Takeo and M-21.

He'd noticed that Frankenstein never called them down one at a time; it was a good idea, so they didn't feel singled-out, so they felt like they had back-up and weren't so scared. Trying to get over that fear of labs was why Tao talked Takeo and M-21 into helping bring down the picnic table with the umbrella that first time, showing up early for their check-up so they could be in the lab without a scientist looking them over.

This wasn't the first time that Tao had been in Frankenstein's lab without either Takeo or M-21, of course. When Frankenstein gave them all that data on their enhancements, Tao had started trying to read it all before planning getting to Lukedonia instead. One look at that data was all it took for Tao to know there was no way he was copying that onto the setup in his room. Sure, that was his rig, but any security was only as strong as the weakest link, so you didn't go adding unnecessary links into your chain.

M-21 and Takeo weren't that interested, even though they should have been. Sure, it made sense: none of them liked the idea of data about their bodies and experiments on them, but this was data for them, so they could survive without being chained to a scientist! They'd kept him company for a bit, but they all had things to do. Tao especially: he had to buy a pillow, and more ramen, and sneak into Takeo's room to repack Takeo's gun case…

They'd also set up shifts to make sure they didn't go too long without someone checking up on Muzaka – thankfully Rael could do it most of the time when they were at school - and they were busy so it wasn't rare for someone to come down here alone.

Well, being alone in a lab wasn't scary, it was an opportunity to maybe hack in and find out what they were planning to do to you. It was being stuck there with scientists and no backup that didn't end well. But even if Tao swung by the lab and found Frankenstein in here reading up on the Union data, it wasn't really scary because Tao was the one who decided to go by the lab, and Tao who decided when he'd leave, without much more than an absent nod from Frankenstein.

So if he wasn't anxious then, then why was he anxious now? It wasn't like Frankenstein was a regular scientist, and Raizel was here! Tao had to be reading too much into this. It wasn't like Frankenstein had asked Tao specifically to join him in the lab instead of all three of them because he wanted to get Tao alone, it was probably because Takeo and Rael had an appointment with the KSA and M-21 went with them because he didn't trust the KSA. Tao would have gone too, to get a look at the KSA's new comm center and what the procedures were for planning purposes, but he had a project he was working on…

But Frankenstein had known about that scheduled visit, and he was the one who'd idly given Tao the idea for his project yesterday, when he knew how Tao would get on that immediately.

Tao's eyes widened when he realized his suspicions might be correct. This really might be a set-up to get him down here by himself without the others worrying when they were left out.

Was Frankenstein taking longer than usual to be sure that Raizel was comfortable with his seat and the new cookie recipe before turning to Tao? From a Union scientist, that'd be another bad sign, that he wanted Tao to squirm, but this was Boss so he was probably giving Tao a chance to compose himself and get a handle on the situation.

Once Frankenstein had put the teapot back on the little cart, he turned to Tao.

"So, going to tell me the reason you called us here today?" Tao asked disingenuously.

"Normally I'd have this type of conversation on the balcony," Boss said, "but apparently there's a secret involved that isn't ours." He glanced at his master, then at the elevator doors. "Miss Seira should be joining us soon. Would you like a cookie while we wait?"

Giving him something to take his mind off worrying about what was up? Tao's survival instincts screamed at him that the cookies smelled different today, but this was that recipe Seira'd been working on – she used Regis as a taste-tester, her trials of new recipes weren't as elaborate as Frankenstein's – and it couldn't be drugged. Not if Frankenstein had served it to Raizel. Oh sure, Frankenstein knew more about Tao's drug resistances than Tao did, so it'd probably be easy for him to figure out something that would hit Tao and not Raizel, but he wouldn't offer cookies meant to poison someone else as a gift to his master. Letting him know that Miss Seira was coming was good too, since there was no way she'd put up with scientist stuff!

When Seira came down, he saw her smile when she noticed that he had a plate of her cookies and was eating them with evident enjoyment. Tao smiled back. "So! Now that everyone's here, what's this all about?"

Seira and Frankenstein both looked at Raizel. That made Tao blink. He thought this was something Frankenstein came up with and Raizel was here as supervision… No, moral support. But Frankenstein had set up this meeting without even asking what this was about?

Sure, if it was something Raizel wanted. Boss would know it couldn't be anything bad.

Raizel put down his teacup on the picnic table. "You wished for the power to protect your comrades," he said, looking directly at Tao.

Tao nodded. "Yes, Sir. Power that doesn't sacrifice anyone but myself." He looked at Rai hopefully.

Those red eyes were sad for a moment, and Tao wanted to rush to apologize for doing that to him, but he couldn't quite regret it, not really, not if it kept everyone safe. That was half the problem: he was worried about what he might do, in the name of keeping everyone safe. But the sadness vanished as Raizel said, "That should not be necessary." Now he turned to Seira. "I asked for your assistance in this matter yesterday."

Yesterday? Yesterday was when Seira came home with Shinwoo after those two had been going off alone for weeks, and Tao really had to admire Seira for it! He wasn't going to spy on date stuff, and everyone had tried to ignore that Seira and Shinwoo had their heads together in corners all the time because no one wanted to mention it in front of Rael and set him off.

Something as big and exciting as a new contract, one like Boss' contract, and Raizel still remembered to talk to Seira about Tao?

Seira glanced at Tao and Frankenstein, then let out a little sigh. "You wished to speak to Cetus?"

Wait, Tao knew that sigh. Was this the 'secret that's not ours' Frankenstein mentioned?

From the way Frankenstein's eyebrows had just risen, it didn't look like he'd known about it.

Raizel nodded regally. "Is it possible to bring Tao with me?"

Seira blinked, then realized. "Because of his modifications? I do not think they would make a difference." When the Noblesse responded by looking in Tao's direction, Seira did the same. "It is always dangerous for a human soul to leave their body," she said after a moment.

Tao tilted his head. Human souls leaving their bodies? So Boss was going to give him part of Dark Spear finally?

Seira continued, "The Loyard have never sent humans to visit the sleeping lightly. Their souls were often torn apart by grief, wounded enough that they were in more danger of dying if they stayed than if they made the journey. Tao will not fall apart, and he has comrades to return to."

Raizel nodded his thanks and turned to Frankenstein. "Would Tao be able to bear the weight of Cetus?"

Tao held up his hands for a time out. "What's Cetus?" Couldn't be the constellation. But constellations were often named for stuff from mythology and nobles were mythology and, "Is it a soul weapon?"

"The soul weapon of the Kravei Clan," Frankenstein said, not in lecture mode but slow and thoughtful. "It was absorbed into Dark Spear along with Roctis. A human hosting a noble soul weapon?" Interesting theoretical problem, sure, but this wasn't just theory, from the look of concern on his face as he examined Tao. "Not if it struggles. I've been shoring up your ability to defend your soul against attacks from inside your mental barriers in case I couldn't come up with anything better than Dark Spear, but the souls of clan leaders are an entirely different matter. I could weaken them first, but if they're lucid enough to notice it would enrage them. If they don't notice it might even be worse; clan leader souls bleeding uncontrolled power into a human's mind…" He shuddered slightly, turning back to Master. "Even I couldn't keep Tao from becoming a mutant under those circumstances."

"I hope to have their assistance," Raizel told him. "He is not their child; sadly the weapon would be incomplete without the bond of love."

"Yes, an awakening is out of the question," Frankenstein agreed with a grimace. "But Dark Spear wouldn't give him access to that either."

Yeah, it would be nice if Tao didn't have to rely on Raizel if he ever needed an awakening again. That was not fun.

"Tao may not even be able to summon it," Boss went on. "Dark Spear summons itself – the invocation is a trigger phrase for releasing the shields that keep it from manifesting," he explained to Tao and Seira.

Seira nodded as though that made perfect sense. Seeing Tao's questioning look, she explained that, "It is an effort to summon a soul weapon. Especially without an Awakening, there is a limit on how long even someone like Sir Gejutel can keep Regasus from returning to a deeper slumber. Yet Dark Spear emerges when Frankenstein is distracted, not when he is focused."

"If Tao needs them, Cetus will hear him and come to his aid," Raizel said, utterly certain. "The soul weapons are born of a parent's wish to help their child, even if they must drag themselves from eternal sleep."

"He's not a pureblood, a member of Clan Kravei, or even a noble, Master." Frankenstein looked thoughtful. "I suppose I could try to modify his aura to give off the right signal, if I can get samples…"

"Tao is a human," Raizel said, picking up his teacup from the table and taking a sip.

"Master, if the soul weapons could be summoned by any child, they'd be constantly manifesting all over the entire planet."

Much to Frankenstein's evident surprise, Raizel nodded… but then his eyes went dark and he looked down at his teacup. "Not all over the entire planet. The contractor of a clan leader could summon a soul weapon and survive, if the clan leader could help them keep control over that power. A human child close enough to a clan leader for their soul's cries to reach the soul weapon…"

"Would not end well," Frankenstein said, wincing. "But it can't be possible for noble children to do that, or… something would have ended very differently."

"The soul weapons can only hear purebloods of the direct line," Raizel agreed.

"That means that in at least one respect, humans evolved to be better at summoning noble power than nobles are," Frankenstein realized. "And I thought I was letting my opinion of human potential and noble training warp my perception of a limited data pool. But summoning noble power and controlling it are completely different mechanisms, and the second would have lagged behind the first. The first time it happened was one of the last straws before the nobles were ordered to Lukedonia, wasn't it?"

"A way was found to prevent it, but the fact it happened at all was… one of the reasons for certain events." Raizel gazed down at his tea for a moment. Tao didn't like that look. His eyes seemed unfocused, like he wasn't really here, and he looked so sad. "I can restore a clan soul weapon's permission to hear a human, but only if Shinwoo can survive calling on the energies of Death Scythe."

Frankenstein winced. "Master… can I please have at least enough time to get a baseline on Shinwoo's true contract before anyone discusses modifications with him?" Boss asked his Master. "You know Shinwoo: we can't let him jump into something because he feels obligated to protect his friends."

Raizel just looked at him.

Frankenstein pinched the bridge of his nose. "The Loyard soul weapon… he may not have that time. Can we discuss this later?" He smiled for Miss Seira. "As long as he stays out of deadly danger there shouldn't be an issue, and right now we need to focus on Tao."

Seira did not look amused.

"…Yes, ensuring a patient's survival takes priority over further enhancement," Frankenstein admitted sadly. "Jamming Shinwoo's aura is the quickest stopgap. I can put together something to do that tonight, if I can borrow one of the charm bracelets, Master?"

Rai nodded and unclasped the bracelet on his left hand, setting it neatly on the picnic table.

"I was planning to bring Shinwoo and Miss Seira to the island tomorrow, so Shinwoo could get some idea of his own strength and get down at least the basics of concealing it," Frankenstein said. "If he might end up flooded with uncontrolled clan-leader-level energies, he may need to remain there longer than planned." Otherwise he might slip up and damage the school! "If I'm going to extract Cetus from Dark Spear, I'd better do it there – that lab is expendable. If Tao wants to try to go through with this…" He trailed off, giving time for Tao to nod rapidly. "I don't know how the Previous Lord managed to keep Ragnarok manifested in your Sanctuary for so long, so we would have a limited window before Cetus needs either settle in Tao or go back to Dark Spear."

"The coffin," Raizel said.

"…Oh," Frankenstein said, sounding a little disgusted with himself, as though that should have been obvious. He rolled his eyes. "It was your Sanctuary, so of course it was designed to help keep soul weapons physically manifested. And here I thought the Previous Lord had done something impressive."

"Oooh?" Tao asked. If there was a limit on how long even nobles could keep soul weapons out, and he was a human trying to use one, then if there was some way he could use it for longer he wanted to know about it.

"Sir Gejutel said that Sir Cadis Etrama di Raizel's blood and noble soul are his soul weapon," Miss Siera said. Tao couldn't be sure, but he thought she was paling as she looked at Raizel.

If nobles were their souls, then, "You're a soul weapon?" Tao asked Rai. Wait a minute! Jaw dropping, he turned to Frankenstein. "You have two soul weapons? That's just cheating!" He should have tried to make a joke about that, about how Boss was just unfair, but he was unfair on Tao's side and that was just awesome.

"Why thank you," Boss said, smirking. "I worked hard to be this OP. All that tea didn't make itself."

Raizel sighed.

"No, that's even better!" Tao said. "You got a soul weapon," he swallowed, "by making tea, and…" By being nice to someone, he realized, going silent. And wasn't that how Frankenstein had gotten Dark Spear, because he rescued them from the Union and couldn't just let them fall apart and be all the way dead?

Now Boss, he could have tried to get Cetus for himself, but he wasn't just willing to share a little bit of Dark Spear's power with Tao, he was willing to go along with his Master's plan and just hand over the power of a god to some random Union modified human who nearly got Ikhan killed, and…

He heard Raizel set his tea on the table. Boss' Master started to get up, but before he did Tao felt a hand on his head and looked up to see Seira patting him, the way she did Regis sometimes when he did something cute. But Tao didn't think he'd acted like a little unicorn in shining armor lately… Oh, he realized, taking the handkerchief she was holding out to him. She was trying to make him feel better.

There was water in his eyes.

"Master, I take it that you're going to insist on giving away a second soul weapon?" Frankenstein asked when Tao had taken Seira's request to help Regis taste-test more cookies as an excuse to run away from too many feelings.

Master didn't dignify that with a response.

"Thank you, Master," was all Frankenstein could say, bowing his head.

Raizel looked surprised for a moment, tried to hide it, and then gave up in the face of Frankenstein's smile.

"Yes, Master, I did eventually find out that the Previous Lord left you Ragnarok to restore your lifespan." No need to mention it was because of Gejutel. "Giving up the time Cetus could give you for the sake of that child…" Tao wouldn't have waited tamely for Frankenstein to get around to finding an alternative much longer, not when he was a tactician and knew that any silence from the Union meant they were busy gearing up.

"You were nearly forced to inflict Dark Spear on that child because of my selfish request," Raizel said, turning away from praise he felt was undeserved.

"Your request for me to grant Tao's wish, so he didn't have to watch his comrades die," Frankenstein reminded him. He closed his eyes, bowing his head before Raizel again, feeling the warmth rise in his chest. He wasn't going to cry, not like Tao, because he was used to this. He'd found water in the desert and now he was used to that balm, could truly believe that it was real.

He'd thought that he would be forced to let that child be tortured because he couldn't find a way to let Tao survive and keep his loved ones without Dark Spear, and it was his Master who found another way?

"Humans love so much and so easily," Raizel said. He'd said something like that before, but this time it wasn't just Raizel's humility, wasn't the Noblesse insisting that Frankenstein was the praiseworthy one.

It sounded like a quote.

Frankenstein's blood ran cold. Nobles were empaths.

If someone tried to use them, abuse their trust and power, they would know, but real, genuine love?

Humans loved each other because it was one of the cardinal virtues: one of the greatest sources of power in existence.

Nobles would choose to give up their lives, surrender their souls and go into eternal sleep for the sake of their children. Because they loved those children.

He knew from his attempts to fight the criminals that humans could be irrational when it came to nobles: Oh, humans could be slavishly devoted to other humans, could trust other humans beyond all reason, but too many people grew fixated on nobles they'd barely met, who hadn't even bothered to mind control them, for it to be a coincidence.

At the time, he'd thought that trait was humanity's weakness, something of benefit to the criminals, but with the revelation about how human psychic communications functioned? Had humans evolved to feel that love simply so nobles would return it? So nobles would give humans contracts. So nobles would come to the assistance of humans, because helping the people you loved was just what you did.

Humans made nobles love them, and then those humans died. Lukedonia's demographics…

"We were a virus, weren't we?" he said quietly. "Getting inside your heads," when a noble's mind was their blood and soul. "Stripping you of resources to make more of ourselves. Evolving too quickly for your defenses to cope." And then his eyes widened again, because Raizel, because the Noblesse, was the defender of the nobles.

And Frankenstein had found Raizel, and now Raizel loved him. Raizel would sacrifice his life for humans.

He… was what he was the reason Raizel was dying?

Raizel frowned, and anger flashed on his face, there and gone. Was he… no, he wasn't angry at Frankenstein. At his Bonded's self-hatred? "Humans are not responsible for the weakness of nobles. A noble who cannot maintain their integrity will eventually need to enter eternal sleep." One way or another. "You could never shorten our lives. Here, in this place … each day is a millennium."

Counting years… the older nobles had no idea how old they were because counting years was a human invention. For Raizel, in that manor, ten years was no time at all before Frankenstein came. For every day since to be filled with more joy, more wonder, more happiness, then the millennia without him?

"It is the Noblesse's duty to protect nobles from ourselves, not humanity's… And yet you have always taken that duty upon yourselves. You have always helped the nobles." Raizel smiled. "The first time I met humans, I concealed my aura so that a noble criminal would not be able to detect me, yet a human child sent me to safety and then went back to help another. With the little power she had, this human was able to save me from a noble. Imagine… No. I do not have to imagine what humans will do once they possess the strength of nobles. I have met you."

Frankenstein laughed despairingly. "I know you've attended history class, Master."

"Humans do not have a monopoly on wars, Frankenstein. You are not the only species that has attempted genocide. Those who say that humans are crueler to each other than nobles and werewolves lie. Of the species that nobles can contract, you are the most peaceful. Of the species on this world, you are the most caring." Raizel sighed. "I should not need to tell you that humans are not inferior to nobles." His expression gentled. "Perhaps it is because you expect so much of yourselves, because you work so hard not to harm others that you only see your failures." He paused. "Frankenstein… You have imagined what it would mean for humanity when you finally come into your potential. Save for the Lords, you are the most intelligent being I have ever sensed. Perhaps you can understand what the Lords saw when they looked at humanity."

The Lords were responsible for the future of the nobles. What could possibly be so important about humanity that it was worth exposing nobles to the risk of extinction? That it was worth the confinement to Lukedonia, the previous generation of clan leaders going into eternal sleep so that a younger generation would be dealing with the advancing human world…

No, he was thinking too narrowly.

The Previous Lord would not have abandoned his daughter to a future certain to contain wars unless it was better than the alternative. Why would a parent take that risk?

Why did a loving parent take any risk? In the hope of making things better for their children. Because the prize was worth the risk of leaving that child orphaned, or because they didn't have a choice, they needed to put food on the table or that child would die.

Historically the only significant threat to noble lifespans was loss of integrity and the ensuing madness or loss of will to live and eternal sleep.

He shook his head. "Master, I fail to see how humans can help nobles remain awake." When they presented nobles with so many temptations that could damage their integrity. "We're not wired for immortality ourselves: how can we help you remain yourselves over millions of years?" Then again, they weren't wired for immortality now, but nobles would have noticed that humans evolved so very quickly, and Frankenstein was still… functionally sane after a thousand years.

"Easily," his Master said simply, frowning and looking at the charm bracelet on the table. "It is because of you that I had the will to make a sanctuary after inflicting even more pain upon my friend. I did not wish to live for my own sake or the sake of my duty, but I could not die when you were waiting for me to return to your side."

He bowed his head, heart aching with grief. "Master…" He wished that Raizel could forgive himself for his duty, understand that his life was precious… but Frankenstein himself knew that Raizel considered Frankenstein's life far more precious than Frankenstein did.

"I can survive without ramyeon, but it makes me happy and I do not wish to go without it." Enough his once-passive Master was willing to insist on something for himself. "I am not a human; food does not benefit me, not even ramyeon. You benefit me. My friends, the children… You made me wish to live, Frankenstein, when before my existence was little different from eternal sleep. The window was enough to make me decide to remain awake, but no more than enough. Humans are precious existences," he said, as he had said before. "You turn the loss of innocence into compassion. You turn death into a way for other lives to survive. You love so much, and so easily. You even love your enemies."

In Raizel's eyes, the species that Frankenstein wished to protect? They were a species that survived though cooperation, that considered love the greatest of all powers. A species that tried so hard to save others, even though they could only keep themselves alive a hundred years if they were lucky.

'But we hurt you,' he wanted to wail. 'We act upon your minds, invade your very souls and take them for our own for the sake of power.' Human need… Was he using Raizel? Was he the reason Raizel was using himself up?

Yet that was why so many poisons could be used as medicines: A chemical that couldn't affect a system of the body couldn't help it, either. Something without the power to harm couldn't possess the power to heal.

He'd said it himself, hadn't he? Explaining the Noblesse to the children. Before modern times, before the enhancement technology created by a human, there were no threats to the nobles but themselves. Nothing with the power to harm or help them if they lost the war with their inner demons but the Noblesse and the Lords, two beings burdened by the knowledge that they were the ones responsible for an entire race.

Then humans gathered around nobles, and suddenly, nobles had language. They had problems that couldn't be solved with raw power, and that gave them reasons to learn problem-solving skills. Humans had uplifted the noble species how far in a single generation? Far enough that the Previous Lord could consider a world where the Lord and Noblesse's sacrifices (of selfhood, of life) were no longer necessary, because the nobles had learned to shape their own futures, preserve their own honor.

Frankenstein hoped they'd have therapists soon: if she was a human, he would have started Seira on learning how to still think rationally while experiencing strong emotions already, since that was an important life skill. However, human minds didn't repress anything without good reason and he wasn't going to second-guess Seira's coping mechanisms when she was keeping herself stable, functional and happy.

Speaking of coping mechanisms, it was tempting to blame himself for the fact that Master was dying, Frankenstein knew. Because if he was the reason Master was dying, then he could simply stop harming his Master and Raizel would live. If he wasn't responsible for Raizel's fate, then what if he had no power to affect Raizel's fate at all? It wasn't the power to harm Raizel he wanted; it was the power to heal him. "Humans caused a crisis for the nobles, but in every crisis is both danger and opportunity. As the Lords, it would have been their duty to seize that opportunity to benefit the nobles. Without noble protectors humans would have to find a way to protect ourselves. We," I, "refused to be helpless victims. And if we could gain the power to help ourselves, then we could gain the power to help you." Or so he hoped, that his determination, that human ingenuity could save Raizel

"An enhanced human… Not someone who saw themselves as different from humanity, but someone trying to bring out human potential," a glimpse at what humans might become, "came to Lukedonia as an enemy of the nobles, but then." Frankenstein swallowed. "I found you, Master. And you are worthy. Infinitely worthy. If all the nobles were like you, then…" Then humanity would deserve extinction if they were fool enough to let this species vanish from the earth. "We evolved leaning on you; if we become strong enough that you can now lean on us?" An arch was more stable than a pillar…

Just how much had the Lords been manipulating the history of this world… Or no, not manipulating, because a system that required constant intervention was not a stable system, and certainly not going to last millions of years. The ideal would be to set up a self-sustaining system, one where people would do their own things and look after their own interests, and then sit back and let it come to you.

"He was expecting me," he said numbly. "That's why he was always so damn far ahead. He knew that humans used knowledge and tools, meaning that someone would eventually figure out how to exponentially increase our capabilities." He balked at saying he'd reached so far despite the danger to himself out of love for humanity (how terribly cliché). It was still true that, "It's the Union's utter selfishness and desire to sabotage everyone else that makes it so incompetent." Frankenstein's dream, the one that gave him his motivation was the desire to save humans from being helpless victims. To help people, no matter that they were ordinary or 'inferior.' And so, even though he'd thought nobles weren't… people he liked, when they were still people?

Raizel shook his head. "You were more than he could have hoped for."

Frankenstein's eyes narrowed. "'Take care of my little Raizel for me,'" he paraphrased, though not by much. "When he wanted to make you the next Lord. If humans can be good for nobles, he would have wanted one of us for whoever was stuck with his job. Preferably as early as possible, to advise them on humanity, and help make preparations for formal recontact with humanity…"

His noble sighed, so yes, Frankenstein was right, and if the Father of Human Enhancement hadn't ended up in Raizel's home on his own, the Previous Lord would have made it happen. Was Raizel really the only reason the princess was ordered to visit the Noblesse's manor so often? "I wished that Lord had someone who would give him reason to live for himself instead of the nobles. I should have been hopeful when you went to see him, instead of worried. You both were very wise," Master said, glancing at Frankenstein to see his reaction. Raizel knew little but a window: what did he have to speak with Frankenstein about?

"You thought I'd leave you for that, that…" That aaargh! Wait a minute. "He wanted to annoy me," Frankenstein realized. "So I would want to surpass him instead of becoming intimidated by him. If I realized how little he valued his immortal life it would have annoyed me." That was why he would have tried to do something about it, not to help a noble.

"Yes," Raizel said, perhaps a little relieved, "but mostly the Previous Lord was simply a very difficult person." Master paused, realizing that, "He also was one of the type that does not listen." He sighed fondly into his tea.

"Smarter than everyone around him, and he knew it too," Frankenstein agreed quickly, glad he could reassure Raizel that no, he certainly wouldn't prefer to be contracted to the Previous Lord, even if he could have used the Previous Lord's powers without burning up his soul. "Always thinking he knew best, trying to arrange everyone's lives…" Folding his arms, he shook his head. "I don't know how you put up with someone that irritating for so long. I'm glad you didn't end up going to live with him: I can't imagine my poor Master forced to live with someone like that. I'm sure he spent centuries setting up elaborate plans for what you'd do there, all calculated to make you change your mind about being the Noblesse and live a normal life instead."

What? Why was Raizel looking increasingly bothered? Did he think that Frankenstein was worried that Master thought the Previous Lord would have taken better care of Raizel? Well, he wouldn't have let Muzaka hang around so much, but Frankenstein hadn't wanted to separate Master from his only friend! "I know that you wouldn't be happy with someone trying to manipulate you for your own good, even if it was to make you happy and save your life. Treating you as though you didn't know your own mind and weren't competent to make your own decisions? You wouldn't have anything to do with that type of person if you weren't obligated to put up with him because of the positions you were in."

He shut up when Master put down his teacup and stood, coming over to pat him on the shoulder. "Do not worry, Frankenstein," Master told him seriously. "I like the difficult type, and I do not care you are the type that does not listen when I say that I do not wish to sleep in the coffin. It is an honor that you wish to be at my side, not something I must put up with."

Wait.

What?

Frankenstein replayed the last few sentences of that conversation in his mind. "Ah… Ha," he laughed awkwardly as Master's concerned eyes searched his. "Ahem." Subject change, subject change…

He heard the hum of panels retracting behind him. A hiss of depressurizing steam filled the air as Master's cell phone went off.

Frankenstein suppressed a sigh of relief as the scent pulled Master towards the fresh cookies.

Saved by the snacktime alarm.

I spent like a day trying to prune these A/Ns, but I give up. Some people have said they like my ANs, so yeah, hope you like -

Then there's Frankenstein feeling compelled to rebel against absolutely everything vs. the Previous Lord up and deciding to wreck the system… On the other hand, Raizel has no idea why Frankenstein puts up with him and how he screwed everything up and his selfish insistence on dying as though that can make up for it. Even though Frankenstein is really beyond difficult Raizel still thinks he just got lucky and doesn't deserve Frankenstein.

Yep, humans are the least violent mammals – humans attack humans a lot less often than dogs attack dogs, etc. A lot of people go 'but wars!' to this, but sadly we're not the only mammal that does wars. The werewolves' justification that 'humans attack other humans so it's okay for us to attack them' is pure bullshit and also projecting, because werewolves attacked other werewolves constantly. Canonically this is why Muzaka couldn't have any werewolf friends, only nobles and humans, because a werewolf could not be trusted not to attack him the instant his back was turned. After revealing that yeah, she too has been deceiving Muzaka for centuries if not millennia, Garda wonders why Muzaka likes the species that isn't constantly backstabbing him more than he likes werewolves. Gee, wonder why?

Which suggests an AU where Frankenstein was living in one of the regions taken over and oppressed by the werewolves instead of a region with a vampire plague…

Unlike werewolves, nobles don't seem to have chronic backstabbing disorder when Lagus Tradio isn't involved, but before the Previous Lord did his thing, nobles normally didn't help each other. Nobles would help kids and humans, yes, but an adult noble who needed help was SOL. There is a very big difference between empathy and compassion (eg. autistic people are often low on empathy, very high on compassion – they don't mirror your emotions, but if you're hurt they care a lot that you're hurt) and it seems pretty clear that compassion is a learned thing for nobles, not an inherent trait. A lot of nobles helping early humans may have been pure empathy – 'your pain is causing me to feel pain, so stop being in pain goddammit it's annoying me' instead of 'a person is in pain, that is terrible, how do I help?'

…And that would explain why a lot of nobles went 'I didn't do it for you' to humans going 'You're such a wonderful nice person let me thank you!' because they didn't do it because the humans were suffering, they did it to ease their own pain.

However, when they were nice to humans the humans were happy, which would have made the nobles happy. Since Good Feels Good? The co-evolution of humans and nobles didn't just make nobles smarter as our upgraded intelligence rubbed off on them, it made them better people as we evolved to help each other out more.

The Noblesse had to worry about whether or not nobles were selfish, and humans made nobles more compassionate. The Lords had to worry about the long-term good of the nobles, and what's the one thing every species can use? Less stupid. I'd say it's pretty clear that the clan leaders who thought the Noblesse and Lords liked humans better than nobles were a hundred percent right. We are the best thing ever.

However, 'there are always criminals' – and humans may be the nicest sapient species on the planet but we're also the deadliest, since we might start shit much less often than everybody else but once shit was started, our fragility meant we couldn't afford to fuck around (see the end of Frankenstein vs. Gradeus). The Previous Lord basically admitted that once humans no longer needed to be protected (Just As Planned), the nobles are the ones who are going to need help (while the werewolves may be SOL, having annoyed both him and humanity too many times).

Humans wiping out nobles isn't likely to happy – they're too shiny and as truly single parents letting the gene pool get too small is a non-issue – but big cats are also shiny things that can kill us and I'm eyeing the illegal pet trade – not to mention that the human slave trade still exists. 'I want one' is a pretty common reaction to Raizel, and the nobles are already losing people to Union and werewolf kidnappers. Big cats are in danger of extinction in the wild because they need big ranges and kill our herd animals, while nobles require less upkeep than houseplants.