Hi hi! time for this week's update. thank's you guys for being so chill about the slow down in posts XD it's genuinely appreciated. I might be able to get two chapters out this week though with some luck.
Song Suggestion: Square Grouper by Floyd Wonder
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Also, things get slightly spicy partway through. If you wanna skip I try to make it pretty obvious when it's a good time to skip by all means once you notice that go ahead skip to the next '*'*'*'*'
Charlotte sat at her desk while clicking at a mechanical pencil. She stared at her screen while waiting for a download bar to slowly crawl across the screen.
"Come on... hurry up" she muttered before tapping the pencil against her desk to put the lead back into place so she could continue clicking the button. Making a copy of the key shared drives folders was taking longer than she would have liked but she was going to need it for her plan. It took a few minutes but she eventually heard a chime from the computer.
[Download Successful]
Charlotte smiles as she disconnects the external hard drive and tucks that away into her purse. Step one, done. Now to just do some digging around once she got home. With that thought, she stood up and packed up her laptop as well. The drive home was rather uneventful since Karl had opted to stay home. On the way she stopped at a restaurant to pick up food for the two to eat. Once the car was safely parked in the driveway she got out and took the plastic bag that held their food with her over to the shed. The sound of metal scraping against metal could be heard with muttered grumbles and complaints.
"Hey, I'm back," Charlotte says as she walks into the shed to find Heisenberg working on some sort of robotic contraption.
"Already?" he asks and looks over at the digital clock. "huh... thought it was still noon."
"Lost track of time working again?" Charlotte asks with a note of amusement in her tone.
he gives a short laugh "seems so."
"Well, in case you forgot what day it is too, tomorrow's Friday, you have to go with for paperwork," Charlotte says which causes his smile to pretty instantly disappear.
"Fucking hell how much paperwork can one process have?" He asks annoyed. "didn't it used to be you just walk off a boat sign your name in a book and you're done?"
"Not quite," She says as she shakes her head and moves to take a seat in the open chair so she could put down the bag of food and offer a styrofoam box to Heisenberg. "Looks like you're feeling a bit better."
"Not much but, yeah a little." he agrees as he moved to put the floating screws and screwdriver down while he walks over to accept the box and moves to sit in his work chair.
"How long do you think it will be until you can manage an EMP blast like what you did back at the junkyard," Charlotte asks curiously as she takes out her own box and offers him a plastic-wrapped set of silverware.
"God everything is plastic around here," He grumbles as he accepts the package as well. "Same scale as the junkyard?"
Charlotte nods as she opens her box. "yeah it's going to need to be a decent size blast."
"Not even close," He admits with clear frustration as he opens his box as well and digs in. "Why?"
"I think I finally got a plan," she admits with a smile.
"took you long enough," He says as a smirk crosses his face.
"Hey, this is different than the village. Obnoxiously enough there is a lot more red tape I have to deal with here," Charlotte admits as she eats. "But, If we pull this off we'll be golden... thing is it's a juggling game with that darn green card." She adds with a slight frown.
"Okay so assuming that's done and out of the way in the next. what. 4 months?" he replies which causes charlotte to laugh.
"let's go with 6 assuming we manage to absolutely sprint through the process thanks to having help from a legal department,"
he rolls his eyes at that. "assuming that's out of the way. what's the plan."
Charlotte smirks a bit as she puts down her food so she could get up and walks over to his desk to find some spare paper and a pencil. "There's a server room on the 3rd floor of the building," she explains as she makes a crude drawing of the office building and puts an arrow pointing part of the way up the building. "You just have to be near it and create the blast while we're certain that father dearest is in a meeting and away from his office. Give the fire alarm a little zap as well to clear out the building." she says. "my office is close to his, I'll hide for a bit, wait for everyone to clear out before going up to his and dig around for information." She explains "The spreadsheets have been way too clean, there has to be something that I'm missing. If a clue exists it's in his office. I can't get in there though."
"Not without him or the secretary knowing," Heisenberg says as he looks over the doodle.
"Exactly, so faulty electrical work short circuits the fire alarm and gives me time to look around while everyone is none the wiser. With the server room out I'm 90% sure that will fry the security system too since it saves to a system in there for likely obvious reasons. They don't want anyone getting to it to tamper with it." Charlotte explains. "And as an added bonus, frying the server would destroy the shared drives so that means all the deal documents for the last. heaven knows how long would be gone and needed to be remade. Remaking that many documents in a short period of time? that's bound to make problems. and if there is anyone trying to start trouble that's when they'll get cocky and try to slip in some laundering."
He nods a bit "so baiting the water in case the search in the office comes up empty."
"Yep," Charlotte says with a laugh as she takes out the hard drive. "And I can just. conveniently supply the backup of the main shared drives to prove it. Granted it's not the full drive. I mean. We have a server room for a reason but I targeted the most likely areas to be messed with, historical financial reports and the like."
Karl nods before taking a few bites "So basically the hold up is the EMP blast and the green card... so. me."
"Well, it wouldn't exactly work without you so," Charlotte points out in return as she pretty quickly picked up on his frustration.
He rolls his eyes a bit at that before moving to try and pick up the screwdriver again and moves it around which required a decent amount of focus. "It's been months I've barely made any progress. I'm not sure I'm going to be making much more progress than this." It sucked to admit but he was able to lift literal tons before and now he could barely manage a pound or two of weight.
"Well," Charlotte says as she moves to lean against the wall. "What if we try a bit of training."
"Look, sweetheart, as much as it's a time and a half for you to mess around I wouldn't exactly call that training," he says with a smirk.
"Not that," she replies while shaking her head. "Genuine training. I was thinking about it before. most gyms and such offer machines that have resistance workouts. so. what you need is a resistance workout."
"Alright, I'll bite. What's the plan?" He asks with some level of curiousity. It seemed logical enough. His abilities were linked to organs and that's kinda a muscle.
Hearing that causes her to smile. "Would you like to go to the beach?" Charlotte asks sweetly. "Saltwater conducts electricity. very effectively. So that's definitely going to make it harder for you to control where it's going. Vwa-Lah, resistance work out,"
"Hate to break it to you but that sounds like a dumbass idea, Water plus electricity is bad remember?" Heisenberg points out as he moves to cross his leg so he can rest a hand on his ankle and lean forward slightly.
"You're not exactly in a position to be Zeus all mighty and throw around full bolts of electricity, at best you're a nine-volt battery at the moment so I doubt you'll do too much damage." She says with a slight snicker as she sees his expression drop.
"Nine volt," he says offended. um ouch.
"and your notes compared your extra organs to a sea critter anyways. So it seems safe enough to say that just walking into the water won't electrify the entire population of beach-goers." Charlotte offers in return as she waves that off. "if your feet feel numb then get out of the water."
"And if you're wrong?" he points out.
"whoopsy?" She says with a shrug. "I mean we need to try something, and considering you can take a shower, I don't think you're going to electrify anyone."
Heisenberg frowns slightly but, she had a point. sitting around feeling sorry for himself wasn't going to fix the problem. "so when do we head out."
"I was thinking we could head out after work tomorrow, make a weekend of it," Charlotte suggests and again he nods.
"Always was curious what the ocean really looked like," he admits since he'd never seen a beach before.
oh dear. "well, try not to get your hopes up. they're probably a fair bit different from what they used to look like..." She says in return. Pollution certainly did a number on the water and let's be honest the New York/Jersey beaches were never stellar, crystal clear pools with white sand in the first place.
'*'*'*'*'
Friday came and went quickly thanks to the prospects of heading to the beach. Charlotte was a bit apprehensive about going to a public beach but the alternative was, even less enticing. Besides, if you wandered far enough usually you can find a place that is secluded and away from watching eyes. 4 Hours of traffic later and they eventually got off the highway and into a beachside town. 9 at night but what could you do. at least they could get an early start in the morning.
Heisenberg chuckles a bit as they pull into a hotel parking lot. "Well, this is a bit nostalgic."
Charlotte smiles "Luckily this one is nicer than what we were staying at before," She says amused.
"What was wrong with our usual room," He asks as he rolls his eyes.
"Nothing, nothing. it just smelled like stale air fresheners and mothballs." Charlotte retorted.
"you picked it," he points out.
"It was cheap, and we needed cheap." She says as she turns off the car and gets out.
"Okay, so don't complain. you got what you paid for," He replies as he follows her lead to get out of the car.
"Such a pain in the ass," Charlotte says as she nudges him.
"mhmm" he replies as he puts an arm around her as they walk into the front office of the notably well-kept hotel.
"Hi, welcome to the Oceanside vista," says the lady at the front desk. "Checking in?"
"making a reservation if you have any rooms available," Charlotte requests.
the woman nods "okay, one bed or two," the woman asks before looking between the two. She was not going to guess. that was a losing game every time when it came to age gaps.
"One is fine," Heisenberg chimes in, speaking English. he'd gotten considerably more fluent now that he was in a 'trial by fire' situation where he kinda had to know the language.
"Okay, and how long will you be staying?" the woman replies and clicks at her keyboard.
"2 nights," Charlotte replies this time, and the woman nods.
"Alright, well We have an ocean-view queen suite available for $419 a night, not including taxes. Also, that does include a light breakfast and beach access," The woman explains.
"That's fine," Charlotte agrees and hands over her card which the woman accepts.
"One second," the woman says as she swipes the card and clicks a few more buttons. "there we go, you can have this back." She says and offers the card back before taking two key cards and putting them into a pamphlet. "and here are your room keys, the wifi code is in the pamphlet. Have a great stay."
"Thanks," Charlotte replies. the two walk up to the room with their small weekend bags and open the door to find a decent-looking room. a Small kitchen was off to the left of the main door with a living/dining room taking the rest of the space with a door to the right that led to a private bedroom that was connected to a bathroom as well.
"What the shit this isn't a hotel, this is an apartment," Heisenberg says as he looks around a bit. large wall-size windows opened to a small balcony that overlooked the ocean in the distance. He walked out to take a look and he couldn't really see much because of how dark it was. It smelled. kinda gross honestly but what could he expect.
"don't get too cozy we need to run out again after this to get you a swimsuit," Charlotte says While waiting by the door with her purse.
"oy vey," he replies a bit annoyed. "Fine." how hard could that be. He followed her back out of the room, down to the lobby and out to the street to walk past lines of various over-priced shops.
"here we go, this one should do," she says as they walk into a building that was was labeled as "Swim shop" by a bright neon sign. Charlotte leads the way past isles of nick knacks to a few circular racks holding what looked like nylon and mesh fabric boxers.
"And bingo," she says before gesturing to the rack. "Go ahead and pick one that fits your comfort level. It looks like there are changing rooms over there if you want to try them on first."
Heisenberg walks over and looks through them before taking one off the rack and stares at it a bit confused. "What the shit is this? Where's the other half?" he asks a bit concerned.
"What other half?" She asks in return.
Karl stares as he tries to figure out if she's pulling his leg or not. "People just walk around without a shirt?" he'd heard that there was a new trend with swimsuits but this wasn't what he remembered them looking like. the ones he remembered had belts still to keep them on.
"The men usually do, you can wear a t-shirt with it if you want though," Charlotte offers with a shrug. "it's pretty uncomfortable though since cotton absorbs water and that fabric is water wicking.
He grumbles a bit at this as he looks over the sizes and grabs one at random, a black pair with green and blue decals along the side, before making his way over to the changing room. as he heads over he pauses and looks over to a shelf. "Oh, Hey." He says a bit surprised as he pauses. "These look a bit more like what I remember," he says as he picks up a speedo. "Now where are the belts."
"And you were saying where's the other half!" Charlotte says while trying not to laugh. "No. Nope. Absolutely not, put that back. We do not need everyone knowing your business."
"Rude," He replies with a slight frown but does end up putting it back.
"I'm just trying to help. trust me you will be much more comfortable in those," Charlotte says as she gestures to the swim trunks. "It's still technically a public beach but by all means, if you're feeling particularly confident about walking around like that in front of strangers, go ahead."
"Whatever, I'll take your word for it," he says and goes on his way to the changing room. The less he stood out the better.
It took a few tries but he eventually found a swimsuit that he was able to comfortably wear. The two went back to the hotel to rest after that and the next morning the two got dressed for the beach. Heisenberg dawned his new swim trucks and looked over to see Charlotte wearing jean shorts over a yellow bikini with Sandals and a few accessories which included his compass which contently hung from its chain to rested against her chest.
"Where's your swimsuit?" He asks confused, not that he minded the view but um. what?
"This is my swimsuit," She replied amused.
"Oooh, it's a nudist beach... Now I get it," he says sarcastically.
"Karl," She says with a partially amused smile.
"What. I'm just saying that you'd probably be covering more if you walked out in your underwear," He says while holding up his hands.
"Worried?" She asks with a taunting chuckle.
"No," He replies back shortly.
"Okay, then let's go," Charlotte replies still amused by this. The poor guy really was out of his element. She could explain things to him all she wanted but the only way he was going to learn was to experience the modern world at this point.
The two made their way out to the beach and found it was already littered with towels and umbrellas as beachgoers waded in the water. Sure enough, Charlotte was right, most men were dressed the same as him and the women were dressed about the same way as her. There was a bit more variety there but it was a parade of mostly naked wet bodies. He swallowed the lump in his throat. He was starting to understand why these trunks were more popular.
"Well this is great," Charlotte says with a tired sigh, "And here I thought if we got up a bit early we'd have an easier time finding a place out of view..." she admits with a slight frown.
"So now what?" he asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe I can find something," she says while adjusting her beach bag that made a soft metallic clink as the parts she brought with her for training shifted around. "Are you alright waiting here?"
"I'll behave," he says with a shrug.
"Okay, I'll be right back," Charlotte says and walks off. He watches as she leaves before looking around at the sea of attractive men and women. granted not everyone was a 10 out of 10 but still. Not a bad view, but one that got boring after 10 minutes of standing around doing nothing.
"Hey," says a woman as she walks over.
"hm?" He looks over a bit confused as she offers him a small folded piece of paper which he accepts.
"If you're here on your own, call me some time," the woman says with a wink before walking away to rejoin her friend who were laughing and motioning for her to hurry back.
"What the hell?" he looks over the paper to find a series of numbers written on it before looking back to the group of giggling women who were still staring at him. Okay... He holds up the paper a bit and gives them a nod before pocketing it and going back to waiting. The group goes on their way and strangely enough about 5 minutes later the same thing happened. then again. Eventually, Charlotte made her way back over with a frustrated expression.
"Well, that was a bust... I can't find anything," Charlotte says after finally making her way back.
"worth a try I suppose," he says before digging out the small collection of notes from his pocket. "Is it normal for people to just hand out paper with numbers on it?"
Charlotte stares a bit surprised before laughing while holding her face. "I left you alone for 30 minutes how did you get that many phone numbers?"
"They just walked up and gave them to me," he answers honestly before putting them back into his pocket.
She shakes her head while she continued to laugh. She supposed she should take it as a compliment that she had good taste but still. "Well, those are from people who most likely want you to call them for a one-night stand."
it took him a second before he starts openly laughing. "No shit?"
Her laughter dulled to a mild chuckle, "Oh gosh, I can already see your ego-inflating," Charlotte comments as he moves to put an arm around her waist.
"maybe a bit," he admits before giving her a peck.
She rolls her eyes at that but was still smiling. "So, we have two options at this point, just relax and have some vacation time or I can try calling in a favor to get us access to a private beach."
"That's an option?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.
"I know people," she says with a shrug. "It's something I was hoping to avoid but at this point, training is more important."
"Fair enough. it's worth a try then," he says with a nod. He'd rather have more of his power back than a day in dirty saltwater anyways.
"Alright," she says and digs her phone out of her bag before clicking around. she puts it to her ear and waits. come on... pick up.
"Hey, Jessy how are you? I know. long time no see. So. Huge favor. Can I borrow your beach house for the weekend?" Charlotte says to the phone and waits. "Oh. Yeah no totally. That's a great idea... yep. See you guys there." she says while forcing a smile. "Okay, Bye."
Charlotte hangs up and gives a tired sigh. "Okay if we leave now we'll have the beach to ourselves for a few hours." She says as she puts the phone away.
"Who was that?" he asks curiously as they walk back to the hotel to make their way to the parking lot.
"How to explain this..." She says as they walk. "So, my father wanted to make sure I still had some 'social interactions' while I was privately tutored." she starts off. "so he 'curated' a selection of people the same age as me that I was allowed to interact with. Other Heirs and such." Charlotte explains. "Some of them were in similar positions to me where they were being raised to take over a family legacy while others were coat tail riders. Most of them were people that dad helped get started and he wanted to keep an eye on that investment." She says with a tired sigh. "So yeah. Birthday parties were. Interesting. lots of business chatter while parents pretended that they were doing their job and taking care of their kids."
"So that was one of them that happens to have a beach house in the area," He says to clarify.
"Yep... and she just decided to invite the whole crew to 'catch up'," She says a bit defeated. They weren't her favorite people to talk to since they all felt fake as plastic, but growing up it was better than nothing.
"Well, suppose we at least get the beach for a bit. I'm sure I can think of an excuse for us to leave if it gets to be too much," He offers as they approach the car and get in.
"That's true you have a few new friends that are interested in seeing you. hope you remember which one is which," She replies while rolling her eyes as he digs through her bag to get one of the Cigars he packed and lights it in his usual manner.
"No, now darlin', wouldn't want you getting too jealous," He says amused as he tapped his Cigar on the papers causing them to smolder a bit before releasing them out the window. "Wouldn't want you to call off the engagement after all," he says jokingly.
He could be such a card. "You know just how to butter me up sweetheart," she replies with a slight smirk as she pulls out of the parking spot so they could get on their way.
"Hold on now, that's my word," he says with mock offense.
"You can't share?" she asks amused.
"Never been good at that," He says with a bit of a smirk while staring at her from the corner of his eyes. Definitely not interested in sharing.
The flirtatious remarks continued as they drove a few miles out of town to a private drive that lead to a spacious home on the beach. Charlotte parked her car off to the side and shut down the car before getting out.
"so we just. walk in?" He asks a bit confused by this.
"yeah I just have to use the access code," Charlotte replies as she leads the way over to a good 10-foot tall gate with a pin pad.
111111
access granted
Charlotte rolled her eyes at that and waits for the gates to open before making her way to the beach with Heisenberg. "Well, let's get to work, we got two maybe three hours if we're lucky."
"Alright," he says as he walks out to the ocean and cautiously takes a few steps into the water. so far so good. Charlotte laid out the various-sized pieces of scrap metal. screws, screwdrivers hammers, and the like. nothing too large since he could barely handle these when he wasn't fighting an external force pulling his energy in other directions.
"Try something small for now," she coaches while moving to set up a towel so she could take a seat a fair distance away.
Heisenberg nods and reaches out his hand and tries to pick up some of the screws, only for sparks to crackle and jolt towards the water instead. "Shit god damn bull shit funking hell," the expletives poured out causing charlotte to wince.
"you know maybe just stand next to the water, not in the water," She says while trying not to laugh. Okay. maybe he was right. he was fine in water as long as he wasn't actively using his abilities. got it.
"You fucking think?" He says as he gets out of the water and tries again. Once more thin sparks of energy arc towards the water in reaction to his attempts. While he does this Charlotte works on putting some lotion on to keep herself from burning. "what in the hell are you doing?"
"trying not to burn and turn into a lobster," she replies rolling her eyes. "Here do you want some?" she motions for him to join her.
"couldn't have offered that sooner?" he asks as he walks over and takes a seat. She takes his hand and puts some of the sunblock in his hand.
"put that on your face chest and leg, if you need more or need help getting your back let me know." she replies and goes back to making sure she was protected from the sun's rays.
Heisenberg returns to his training after this feeling a bit better under the heat of the sun. it took a while but he eventually was able to pick up a few of the screws as the small metal bobs sparked while floating in the air.
"Look at you," Charlotte says with a smile, "think you can move it around a bit?"
"One step at a time damn it," he says while focusing and eventually dropping it. It was frustrating how draining this way. It was just a single screw, it shouldn't be this difficult!
Charlotte's expression became more sympathetic as she noticed how frustrated he was getting. "Maybe now is a good time to take a break." She suggests before checking the time on her phone.
Saturday, July 10th, 4:32 PM
"They're going to be here so-"She started but stopped as another voice was heard over her own.
"CHARLOTTE! HEY GURL!" Says a loud woman from the entryway with two men behind her.
Resist the urge to run, she thought as she moved to get up and dust herself off. "Hey!" Charlotte replies while waving. she stopped and looked to Heisenberg. "Ready?"
"do I have a choice?" he asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Probably not, it should only be an hour or two then we can leave." She says with a shrug as the others walk over to join her and place their towels as well.
"Sooo, Who is this?" The woman asks while eyeing Heisenberg. "and how do you know him?"
"Jessy, This is Karl," Charlotte says gesturing from one to the other. "Karl this is Jessy, Calvin, and Reggie," She says introducing everyone. Jessy seemed like a pretty classic valley girl, Calvin looked like he had more muscle than brain cells but a sweet smile, while Reggie seemed like the classic poindexter.
"We're engaged," he says speaking English for now as he figured the ruse would work well enough for his own gain as he glanced at the other two guys. he didn't plan on sharing in the slightest.
"Oh my god he has an accent," She says unabashedly enamored. "Can you say my name?"
"My name" Heisenberg replies with a neutral expression.
"You are sooo funny," she says in a flirtatious tone with a laugh.
"So what's your deal man?" Calvin asks while offering a hand for Karl to shake.
"My deal?" he asks confused and ignores the offered hand which was retracted shortly after.
"Yeah like, what company does your family own," Jessy says curiously. "Mine owns a fashion line. Obviously, I'm sure." She says before messing with her hair.
Heisenberg looks to Charlotte who shrugs to signal 'say what you want'. "I inherited a decent section of land in Romania as a Lord." he offers, hoping that's enough to get them to leave him alone.
"Wooow so you're like royalty or something?" Jessy asks.
"that's not even close..." Reggie says with a tired sigh. how did he get stuck with these people?
"Anyways, how have you guys been?" Charlotte asks before moving to take a seat and the others follow suit. Calvin puts a Cooler down in the middle of the group and opens it to show a selection of cans and bottles.
"Busy," Reggie says with a slight frown. he clearly was here out of obligation.
"Doing good," Calvin says with a nod. "I think I'm finally getting the hang of this whole, managing a company thing." he adds with a laugh. "took me long enough right?"
Jessica laughs "Yeah you guys enjoy that I'll be over here NOT doing that," she says shaking her head. "I mean look at where it got Veronica."
"yeah," Calvin says with a wince.
Suppose it was a bit odd she wasn't here too. Didn't she usually take her vacation time around now? "wait what happened?"
"that's right you went off the radar before that. She died." Jessica says before moving to take a drink from the cooler.
"WHAT?" Charlotte asks shocked.
"Yeah no. office fire. They said it was a gas leak but the records say she was getting into some kinda narcotic," Jessy says in a gossiping tone with little to no reverence for the dead.
"God I thought she was smarter than that," Charlotte admits.
"apparently not," Reggie says shaking his head.
"Well shit. that's unfortunate" Charlotte says with a slight frown.
"Yeah. now her family is like. poor and shit. they had to sell off the company to pay off the legal fees," Jessy adds as if that's the worst of it.
"Well, sorta inevitable I guess. Record labels are a bit of a collapsing industry anyways with the rise in independent producers. kinda just a matter of time if she wasn't adjusting her business model." Charlotte says with a shrug before taking a hard seltzer from the cooler.
"Big talk from the chick whose family's claim to fame is just throwing money at dumbasses and hoping it works," Reggie says while sipping at his beer.
she made a mocking laughing expression at Reggie. "yeah well guess that makes you a dumbass since your family's money came from mine's pockets so shove it Reggie."
"Meow~ Catfight," Jessy says with a laugh. "Okay but for real talk, it's been forever since we all got together, we should go out. You know, pour one out for the fallen sorta thing and welcome Karl here to the Rich Bitch Club."
Oh lord no, and stop calling the group that, "I dunno," Charlotte says with a wince as the offer seemed to catch Karl's attention.
"Come on, it will be fun. I heard there's this beachside club that just opened up with a tiki bar theme, we could probably get a cabana if we call ahead," Calvin says agreeing with a smile. "The others couldn't make it on such short notice and it's no fun partying in such a small group."
"Sure," Karl says with a smile, if she wasn't going to let him see what a modern dance hall looked like he'd take advantage of the offer wholeheartedly.
"Really?" she asks slightly annoyed and he shrugs.
"How bad could it be?" he asks in Romanian.
"Fine, remember that you asked for this," She says shaking her head. she'd wash her hands of this and the culture shock it was going to cause. with that, she swaps back to English. "Okay, we're in."
Jessy clapped happily before getting up to walk off and make the call.
'*'*'*'*'
each person drove their own vehicle to the address that Jessy provided. Charlotte and Karl had to stop at the hotel on the way so Karl could change but eventually they made their way over and found parking down the road before regrouping. "Alright! let's get this party started~" Jessy cheers and Calvin hypes her up a bit giving a few howls and hollers. the group walks past a long line to the front door where a bouncer was guarding the entrance.
"Hiya~ we have a reservation under Jessy Michaels," Jessy says and the bouncer moves to check his clipboard. he eventually looks over to the other standing by the door and nods. the second bouncer opens the door and lets the group in as a thumping baseline vibrated through the air with the strumming of a guitar.
Glasses look like Lennon. I'm a star, they call me Ringo. Pause, continue. I'm ballin' like Mace Windu. Hotter than chili peppers. What I got, you put it in you.
Again with this Lennon guy? Trumpets joined the base and clinking cowbell as Karl looked out over a sea of closely packed bodies rubbing against each other as blinding colorful beams of light moved around the dark interior of the building. Culture shock was one way of putting it, but just general confusion and sensory overload were also accurate descriptions. He looked over to Charlotte with a concerned expression of 'I might have fucked up'. Whatever that was, it was not dancing.
"Woohoo!" Jessy says as she Grabs Karl who grabs Charlotte and the others follow behind as she leads them over to a cabana like table with soft plush seats "TEQUILA AND MARGARITAS TO CABANA 3~ AND KEEP'EM COMING~" She shouts to a waitress who somehow managed to understand over the noise and walked away.
Talking to Charlotte required that he practically press his mouth against her ear. "I thought we were going to a dance hall."
She made a wincing expression of 'Hate to say I told you so but', then moved to do the same so she could talk to him in return. "This is a modern dance hall, I tried to warn you."
"Since when have dance halls been this kinda Kinky shit," He replies with a slight frown while trying to suppress his now growing amusement with the place. It was so ridiculous and over the top that it was funny at this point now that the shock was wearing off. the music was awful but Charlotte's past words came to mind.
It serves its purpose.
He didn't understand it then but yeah, suppose it did. gave these horny people a beat to move to and got their heart rates up. He knew dancing had always been a mating ritual of sorts but he didn't think the modern world would take that so literally.
"Relax you don't have to go out there," Charlotte replies before giving him a peck on the cheek. "You can just stay here and enjoy a few drinks."
"Hell no," he says with a slight smirk. "If you're going out there so am I, I told you. I'm not good at sharing."
"Your funeral," She says with a chuckle.
"Already died once, what's there to lose," he points out in return which causes Charlotte to swat at his arm.
Eventually, the drinks started arriving, and just as Jessy requested anytime a glass was emptied a new one showed up to replace it.
"Come on let's dance~" a now sufficiently drunk Jessy says while pulling on Reggie's arm.
"Pass," he replies unmoved as he stays put.
"You're no fun, come on guys," she says as she tries pulling at Charlotte instead. that worked a bit better as Charlotte, Karl and Calvin joined Jessy out on the crowded dance floor.
Heisenberg watched a bit confused as the 3 seemed to start wiggling around to the rhythm of the music while holding their arms in the air. This was still so foreign to him he couldn't help but laugh. This is what people called dancing, lord help the future generations. The art of subtly had been lost apparently.
Charlotte shook her head before moving close to him so she could talk into his ear. "Just try and match my movement okay," she says before staying close and continuing to dance.
Heisenberg did as instructed with a confident smirk. He could feel himself growing warmer from their close exchange. Was that because of the building or the alcohol?
"OW OW~ Yas zaddy~" Jessy cheers as the two dance. before dancing around a bit to find her own partner and Calvin does the same.
"What did she say?" Heisenberg asks confused as the music drowned out most of it.
"No idea," Charlotte admits. "probably just saying she wanted another drink.
"She had like 5," He points out.
"She can handle it," Charlotte confirms before shaking her head. The girl was insane and had a liver made of steel as far as Charlotte was concerned. "Calvin is her half-brother so he usually keeps an eye on her anyways."
"If you say so," he says still trying to process that a place like this existed. he couldn't tell how many songs had played, they all sounded the same to him, and there didn't seem to be a pause between anything. but as time passed, his hands enjoyed holding her mostly bare torso close to him and with their lingered contact he found himself getting more and more wound up. He smiled as he remembered the compass resting against her chest. not that anyone else here would recognize that it was his but he doubted anyone would question who she was herewith. There was definitely something about such a public display that was an ego trip and a half.
a kiss to her neck and a bite to his lip cause the growing hunger to spike.
"You wanna get out of here?" Charlotte asks with a smirk and he nods. With that, the two head back to the hotel to continue their fun in private.
'*'*'*'*'
Charlotte Yawns as she walks around the office. What a long weekend, she thought as she collects up her daily allotment of reports from the various departments for approval. One arm held the collection of folders while the other held a mug of cheap office coffee. She was going to need it if she was going to make it through all of these with an ounce of sanity.
As she makes her way back to her office she notices a large figure sitting at her desk waiting for her. She took a breath and walked over to her office closing the door behind her. "What do you want Duke? I got you your funding."
"Cant an old friend just stop by to say hello?" He asks with a smile.
"Normally yes, but when you show up there's always a catch," Charlotte says with a neutral expression. "what is it."
"Always to the point," he says "A bit of small talk never hurt. Tell me, How is Lord Heisenberg doing? Has he recovered well?"
"Well and healthy," she replies as walks over to stand on the same side of the desk as him. Sitting at her desk like that was a power play. One that didn't go unnoticed and one she didn't appreciate in the slightest.
"I see, and his powers?" Duke asks curiously.
Charlotte stares at Duke unamused. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I had reason enough to believe they're not what they used to be," He says as he fishes through his pocket and takes out a piece of metal that had Crystal attached to it.
"You kept a piece?" Charlotte asks annoyed.
"Naturally, It was not in my best interest for you to have a fully functional lord before I was able to guarantee my own access to the same resource. Let alone the strongest of the four, and besides, a fair replacement was offered in return, I gave you a piece of Moreau after all." He explains while giving a slight roll of his hand. "You should know by now, nothing in this world is free."
"I didn't agree to that," she says with a sneer.
"Well, I didn't have to give you the piece of Moreau either, you accepted it though so I kept the piece of Heisenberg in return," he says with a shrug, "but I am if nothing else a fair man. Frankly, you benefited more than I did from this. In the end, you still got Heisenberg back. I merely wanted insurance and I gave the same in return. Insurance that would align with your eventual interests to protect lord Moreau from any of my future work with these shards. he's unusable without that last shard thanks to how fragile his control over his Cadou was."
"You never said there was a cost for what you gave me," She said with a frown. This goddam asshole.
"Well if you're unhappy with this arrangement I'd be willing to trade," Duke says with a smile. "Give back the pearl I gave you out of the spirit of fairness and I'll give you the final piece of Heisenberg which will restore his powers." He offers before clarifying, "Give up your claim to Moreau and I'll give up my claim to Heisenberg."
"Fuck off," Charlotte says annoyed by this situation... It was getting old that he always managed to have her pinned at every turn. She was tired of being a pawn. "I'm not letting you hurt either of them."
"Then the deal was mutually beneficial," he says with a smile. "Though if you do change your mind, feel free to give me a call," He offers as he places a business card on the desk before disappearing in a flurry of owl feathers that disintegrated and disappeared. she walked over to her desk to pick up the card.
Ripe this card and I'll appear.
-Duke
Haha~ you thought this would be a silly chapter, didn't you? Nope. Duke's back at the last minute and dropped a drama bomb. What shall they do? Keep the Moreau shard and have to abandon's charlottes plan or make the trade to get Karl's powers back. Fun fact, Attraction is a chess term for a type of decoy involving the sacrifice of a minor or major piece on a square next to the enemy king, forcing the king to abandon the defense of another square.
Review Responses:
nadillaandlaprasthefireandice - Yep, I'm going with the theory that duke can teleport and that's how he was always where Ethan needed him. Charlotte is definitely going to be a bit more of a focal point now that her and Karl's relationship is more established. Hopefully it will still be engaging enough to continue reading lol.
Black Moons Daughter - true true, actions speak louder than words -nods- Duke is a sneaky Lil dumpling ain't he lmao X'D this is gonna be fun hahaha. I'm probably giving him way too much credit but I always saw him as a very conniving character in Village. he was up to something and knew he was 10 steps ahead so that's kinda how I'm planning on portraying him X'D the fake engagement is definitely going to be fun and they will absolutely joke around about it to the end of time.
Charadrius - aw thank you~ 3 glad you enjoyed the mini-factory =v= it was fun to write. Agreed it's fun to see charlotte develop and become more confident now that she's back in her element.
DamnationOfTheDead - lol it's not a bad thing at all. there's a lot of moving parts with this story. glad that you like how the Chris situation was handled though U