Chapter 68 - Offers

[...If you're so eager to see them, you could hurry up with getting all of the paperwork finalized and go take the picture yourself. The more you procrastinate-]

As 427 is winding up to lecture Lucas on the benefits of expediency, he is cut off and completely undermined by a single default message notification ping.

From dog pix (10:43 AM): Dokkaebi wanted to join in too [Picture Embedded]

Without even actually reading the included text, Lucas taps to make the photo full-screen immediately. To Lucas's great delight, the shot features Franz lying down on the floor of Faunahorde, looking straight up at the camera in all of his black, tan, and brown furry glory. His huge tongue is happily lolling out of the side of his mouth and his big ol' ears are perked straight up. Merrily perched directly on his head in-between said upward pointed ears is Sylph doing her best to look as tall as possible, the top of her vibrant turquoise blue head barely taller than the tips of his ears. The guest star appearance is an additional Scarlet-Chested Parakeet balanced on the center of Franz's snoot, nearly spherical in shape as he puffs up his scarlet chest with fluffy feathery pride.

Lucas's squeal of delight is enough to wake up Miss Masher once again, as well as cause Miss Chievous to slip up and lose her current round of the legally distinct various-shaped falling block clearing game.

Miss Calculated and Jonathan both flinch, but otherwise show no other outward reaction. At least Jonathan was able to recover his round in the game, but a straight piece definitely got wasted in the middle of the screen.

Willy wakes up just enough to give Lucas a stink-eye, and then he rolls over towards Miss Masher's half of the couch to fall back asleep.

[...Once again I must ask, why are you like this?]

'But. They're. So. Cute.'

Even though she was sound asleep when it happened, some subconscious part of Miss Masher's brain was able to identify just what kind of noise it was that woke her up, piquing her curiosity.

"Wha... Huh? What happened?" After a large vertical stretch and a yawn large enough to form tears at the corners of her eyes, Miss Masher rubs at her face a bit as she manages some degree of a question, vaguely directed towards the center of the room.

Quick to share the freshly acquired treasured collection of pixels, Lucas gets a loud 'D'aww' in response when he proudly shows off the requested image.

Due to their familiarity with their younger sister, both Miss Calculated and Miss Chievous immediately have their attention drawn over in pursuit of cute animals.

Jonathan is still keenly focused on beating his high score, so he pays no mind.

Deciding to share the wealth, Lucas goes to save the photo before offering to distribute it to all in attendance, however, after tapping and holding to bring up the options menu, the system default ringtone starts sounding out. Not having enough time for his brain to process the incoming call, his thumb directly lands on the answer call button as soon as it appears where the 'save to device' option previously was in the popup menu.

Freezing in place for a full second before recognizing that he's now in an open call, he sheepishly brings the phone up to his ear and offers a timid greeting in an equally awkward tone.

'Er... Oops?'

[As I'm sure you didn't have a chance to see the caller ID; as you may have guessed, it is Mind Flare.]

"...Well that was fast. It was an accident, wasn't it?" As the familiar voice answers, there's brief laughter from more than one person on the other end of the line. While Mark had been the one speaking, Lucas would be willing to bet, correctly, that the other laughing voice belonged to Mikah.

"Er... Well... Yeah. Uh, anyway, hi Mark, what's up?" As Lucas makes a decent enough recovery, the laughter through the phone eases down into a few lingering chuckles.

The three ladies in attendance don't give any particular reaction to the spoken name. Miss Masher turns her attention downward, beginning to gently pet Willy while being careful not to disturb his doggy dreams, and the two elder sisters return to their previous actions, all trying to give some vague semblance of privacy for his call.

Jonathan, however, reacts to the casually spoken supervillain's given name. Curiously raising his brows, he flicks his vision over to look at Lucas for a moment to check that there isn't anything beyond residual awkwardness in his expression. He gives an inquisitive 'hmm?' but still sustains his brick-breaking binge.

"Heh, hello, Lucas. I figured it would be easier to call than typing everything out, ah, I have you on speaker by the way. So, Mikah had asked why I suddenly had interest in the paperwork for the first time in, ahem, a while. Ah, right, do you want to include Jonathan as well, so you don't have to repeat all of this?" Before he gets into full swing, Mark pauses a moment to offer a suggestion supportive of Lucas's laziness. Or rather, to be efficient, not that that matters to Lucas.

Lucas taps the speakerphone button without even hesitating, completely disregarding the other people in the room.

[Don't forget that you're not alone.]

'They'd still hear my half of the conversation anyway. Besides, if I was outside I wouldn't be alone either, and besides, if Chi wanted to she could sneak after us and just tell the others what she heard.'

[...I suppose. You're still being uncomfortably trusting with them, even still.]

'Eh, what's the worst that could happen?'

[...Why would you ever openly jinx yourself like that?]

"Good idea, gotcha on speaker too. We're not alone, but it should be fine?" As Lucas turns his statement into a question, he looks around and the only response he gets is a shrug from Miss Calculated.

Jonathan and the two at the other end of the call exchange a round of simple greetings, Jonathan's eyes and rapidly dancing fingers never leaving his phone.

"Anyway, as I was saying. After explaining why I was checking the numbers after ignoring them for so long, Mikah had pointed out that if I was willing to recruit you, I certainly should be willing to rent some room out to you. We have a floor that is essentially wasted space, we mostly just store old junk promo materials there since it's too much effort to suitably break them down to throw them out without anyone doing something weird with them. I figure that is far less of a problem for you to solve, so if you could smash them up and help clear it out we could rent the floor to you at a discount. Besides, if you have trouble paying, I wouldn't mind a subsidiary with a few physical attribute supes in it, and we could always use more models, they rarely last long." As Mark trails off into laughter with a disturbingly sinister undertone, Mikah also snorts out his own laugh as well.

By the time Mark had finished saying the first sentence, Miss Calculated had stopped what she was doing entirely and started openly staring at Lucas's phone, wide-eyed.

As the statement 'doing something weird with them' was made, Miss Chievous also turns her attention over towards the phone, with a devious and calculated smile.

When the destruction of property was implied, Miss Masher's attention was drawn over as well, though with a grin of hopeful anticipation rather than her sister's clear surprise or troublesome thoughtfulness.

Jonathan shudders with the implications behind becoming a subsidiary organization, and Lucas is lost in thought, contemplating the major selling point.

'If we are based across the street from Faunahorde, we could basically go play with animals WHENEVER WE WANT!'

[LUCAS NO!]

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Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0

Lucas total deaths: 10

Lucas current GDV: 8.91

Lucas's fame level: 2.5* (Mostly just local)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Jonathan kills this chapter: 0

Jonathan total kills: 5

Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 1.96

Jonathan's fame level: 1.75* (Just local)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Supervillain social circle size: 6

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Little character theater:

Jonathan, still maintaining a rather impressive score: Almost there...

Willy, now sound asleep on his back with his legs pointed upward, partially leaning against Miss Masher: Bark, whine, bark.

Lucas, now growing even more excited with the prospects: And that spa too! Whenever we want!

427, frustrated beyond words: [And Mikah around you at all times! Even if the double-height ceilings prove sufficient to stop Mikah from reaching you on the Z-axis, he'd be just a minute away from you at any given moment!]

Author, grinning: Hi Mikah. Good job setting up that red flag for yourself Lucas, you didn't even have to wait all that long for it to pay off either.

Mr. Quacks, ready to begin his career as a model: Quack!