Finish accounting for last month's profits? Check! Design a graph of projected profits for this month? Double check! Make a list of all the naughty little gremlins that have debts with the Diamonds Gang — and check said list twice? Check, check, aaand check!
Remus was on a roll since the early hours of the morning, finishing up his duties as treasurer so that he would have the rest of the day for some fun. Remus had already gussied himself up as well — long, flowing hair pulled back into intricate braids, interlaced with golden accessories that gave every bit the impression of a Roman Emperor. Golden makeup had already been applied to his eyes and lips, matching with his golden jewelry. It made Remus feel good to be able to express himself, even if he was still rather eccentric by rich people standards.
But he didn't care what other people thought of him.
The day was young and the night hadn't even begun yet. While Remus already planned to head out to some fancy club later that night for some partying, he didn't quite know what to do with himself in the meantime. Clothes, makeup, and accessories were in place, so all that was left was for the sun to go down behind the walls of Stronghold. Letting out a sigh, Remus pushes himself away from his desk and begins to waltz around the room, light on his feet as he spins and twirls around the room. As he dances, he begins to clean the room, intent on leaving it pristine for his future self. He'd appreciate it later on.
He hums some folksy kind of tune as he dances around the room, not even perturbed when knocking at the door alerts him of someone's presence. He continues to dance and hum away, stopping only when a voice suddenly breaks through his moment of concentration.
"Mr. Wilkenson here to see you?" comes a hesitant voice from the door, and Remus twirls around in place until he's facing the hesitant young man that stands in the doorway, unsure of how to proceed. A gleeful expression lights up Remus's face when the name registers with him — oh, he was being paid a visit by Leander? How wonderful! He was always delighted to see the King of Diamonds. Who wouldn't be? He was rather easy on the eyes after all, and Remus certainly did like pretty things.
"Oh! Well, do show the man in! Don't keep him waiting!" Remus replies with a laugh, shooing the man out the door with his hand. As soon as the young man is gone, the treasurer spins in place, dances across the room — and throws himself atop his desk. It had long since been cleared of work, piled away in some cabinet that would later be ushered up to the Ace herself, little Miss Isabella. Thankfully that meant he didn't have to watch for papers scattering everywhere from the force of his leap. Remus quickly positions himself on the desk so that he's laying sideways along it, one hand used to prop up his head as he smiles gleefully in the direction of the door, waiting for his guest to arrive.
"Thank you kindly," the king regarded with warmth to the nervous young man that had excused himself to inform Remus of his presence. The Queen was situated in one of the Diamonds many associated casinos, the layout of which Leo knew by heart. He was grateful when the man stepped aside, permitting Leo entrance into Remus' office, knowing that there would not be additional company.
He ascended the stairs and hovered by Remus' room. His hand was bunched in a fist, poised to knock just a kiss's length away from the door. Something stilled him momentarily, as he sucked a heavy breath in and braced himself from what was to greet him. In theme with the Jabberwockies, Remus was a wildcard. He was predictable in that he was unpredictable and Leo was not sure what would greet him on the other side. It was as amusing as it was terrifying, not in the acts themselves, but in Remus' unwavering jovialness while they sat adrift in a sea of debauchery and death. Even Leo could not muster the energy to match Remus', the actor he was.
Thinking to himself that he was ready for what was in store, Leo rapped at the door. His knock was firm and polite and coaxed the door back further, signaling to the King that it was not in fact closed.
"I'm coming in," Leo announced, pushing past the door. He found a recumbent Remus, sprawled over the top of a desk that was usually riddled with papers. One arm propping a head garnished in resplendent gold, long flaxen hair tangled in intricate braids pooling over the oak top.
Leo blinked, mouth agape, the words not quite finding their place.
Sense found him, and he afforded a laugh. "You always know how to greet me, Remus," Leo stated, throwing an appreciative nod to the Queen. "I take it that the accounts are balanced?"
A grin accompanies Remus's intense gaze as he waits for the King to announce himself, taking almost childlike delight in the expression on Leander's face as he walks in. Remus always did know how to greet others, that was for sure, and that was no exception for the Diamonds' King. As the man comments on how the Queen always knows how to greet him, Remus offers a laugh as an answer, using a lone finger to twirl his golden locks and show off the new hairstyle he was sporting today.
But even then, Leander is quick to divert the conversation to the matter of business, and Remus just about pouts as he pulls himself into a sitting position on the desk, much more professional as far as Remus went.
"Oh, Leo, you do know how to spoil some good fun!" Remus sighs dramatically, even though the gleeful smile never leaves his face. It wasn't like he was actually upset or anything — he knew better than anyone that when the King and Queen met, it almost always had to do with the gang's business. Seeing as how he was the treasurer, he more often than not met with others in the gang solely for the purpose of money. It didn't mean Remus didn't like to instill a little fun into their meetings in the process, but, well, there was still time for that wasn't there?
"You know me, I'm good at what I do — fast, too," he responds cheekily, before hopping off his desk and rounded it to sit in the chair that was pushed in tight to the desk. From a drawer to his left he produces a stack of paper, and proceeds to dump it on the desk between them.
"All ready for your perusal," he purrs, tenting his fingers in front of him as eyes train themselves to Leander's face. They could get the boring stuff out of the way first, and then handle the more interesting business after wards. That was fine with Remus; he knew when the shut off the fun-loving side of himself just long enough to handle business properly. Still, silent as he waits for the King to make his move, Remus can't help but cast an approving look over Leander. Damn that man knew how to dress sharp, didn't he? Remus always appreciates the view.
His movements were coy and filled with flair and Leo wished he had half the energy as Remus Quiller. Leo watched as he gathered that precarious tower of papers, and the King took it as an invitation to step further into the glamorous office. All the while, he slipped his blaze off his shoulders and folded it neatly over his forearm. As it was not particularly hot or uncomfortable in the office, the action was more to signal the King's comfort with Remus, or at least to portray illusion of it. His eyes did not betray his thoughts, yet he could not keep Remus' dazzling claws out of his mind, metal weapons polished to such a pristine perfection that one could not guess at the mess of blood and flesh that caked it previous. An easy going man in appearance, Leo could not bring himself to relax near some, and Remus was considered one them.
He approached the pile of papers, flashing a thankful smile at Remus, before he glanced over the stack, using the tips of his fingers to flutter through the pages. Though his eyes were careful, the speed at which he riffled through the report was too quick for more than a cursory read of each paper. Though Leo was adept enough at quick calculations necessary for finance, Remi was better and the King did not have much faith in his own read of the numbers. Leo hoped that seeing each column and empty space filled was an adequate enough assessment of its quality.
"That you are," Leo murmured, almost amazed at the speed with which Remi was able to complete such a hefty task, physically embodied in the fat report. Leo's pace slowed around a particular section, the one that detailed the peoples that were indebted to the Diamonds, the amounts paid that month, and the amounts owed. Leo swore he saw the ghost of a bloody fingerprint and dark wine red stains near some letters.
"You even got Mr. Collier to pay off his loan," Leo said with an appreciative snort. He glanced up with a pleased smile. "Impressive."
Then, he ducked down his head to finish off the quick reading. His eyes were trained on the pages, though his mind was concentrated more on the words directed towards Remi. "Don't get me wrong, Remus. You're an absolute wizard when it comes to math and finances. You just don't strike me as the type to want to sit behind a desk all day, filling out paper after paper."
It's boring, watching Leander shuffle through the various different papers, but he's good about it. Keeps his mouth shut and his hands busy, idly twisting his golden locks with a single finger as he continues to peer at the well-dressed man in front of him. Remus's clothes, in comparison, could perhaps be considered a tad too eccentric to be working in such a business-forward place as he was, but that's what the man appreciated about the Jabberwockies. They didn't care who you were, or what you dressed like, so long as you got the job done.
His attention zones back in on Leander once more as the man comments about getting a Mr. Collier to pay his loan, an appreciative smile thrown the Queen's way, which is quickly returned with a grin of his own.
"Oh yes, he was quite easy really," Remus remarks, his free hand stretching out in front of him with fingers splayed so that he can look over his well-manicured nails. "Had to hunt him down like a fox, but once I finally got my claws in him, he squealed like a pig." Remus can't help but cast his gaze back over at the King once again, a cheeky grin on his face. The two of them knew that his 'claws' were anything but metaphorical — they often got the job done quickly, especially with people that initially refuse to pay back their loans. He didn't know why people were always so stubborn. Didn't they realize torture wasn't the better of the two options?
Honestly, some people.
"Turns out he had the funds all along, he was just playing hard to get." Remus snorts at this, before he goes back to looking at his nails once more now that the King is back to being engrossed with the paperwork. He perks up again only once the other man speaks to him again, and a soft smile dawns on Remus's face.
"I don't, you're right, but that's why I get everything done quickly," he laughs in a mirthful tone, tapping a lone finger against his head as if to say: See? Smart. "But sometimes doing the finances leads to a bit of fun all on their own. Oh, like that!" Remus suddenly lunges against the desk and slams a hand on top of the paperwork pile, keeping it on the last page Leander had just flipped to. He quickly grasps the page between two fingers and whisks it off the pile, turning it back around to look at it.
"A Mr. Smith — so original — late on his membership fees again. Tsk tsk, this man never learns. Keeps sneaking back in like I don't see him or something. Say, would you like to have some fun with me, Mr. King?" Remus questions with a right purr in his tone, glancing up with a grin.
Regarding Mr. Collier, Leo laughed along with Remus. He could not keep his eyes from the glimmer of Remus' nails, so shiny and loud and dangerous like the rest of him. A pang clutched at his chest then, which made Leo turned his head back down and become enraptured in the paperwork again.
Damn weakness, that ache in his chest. He tried his best to ignore it, but the names just kept running along the page. He was unable to ignore the bright, bold stamp of "PAID" beside some of them. Mr. Collier had the money. They all had the money. But that was money to eat, habitat, live. To pay other loan sharks and debts, or become sacrificed to indulgence. Perhaps if Leo had grown up in Inner Citadel refinement, then these people's struggles would have felt removed and he could have been free to kill without conscience. But he had not- instead, he fought for every penny he earned and struggled to support a mother who would spit hate and resentment of the upper class through rotted teeth.
The threats, violence and killing became easier with time. Better them than him, right? The thought that they had been the makers of their own destiny, that Leo climbed with hard effort and keen intellect from a station similar to theirs, alleviated the ache.
"Probably a pseudonym," Leo noted when Remus pulled out a paper and briefed its contents thoughtfully. The insinuation of his voice could only mean another hunt, another chance to flex and use those lethal weapons at the tips of his fingers. Leo mirrored the grin, leaned against the desk and crossed his arms. His brow arched in intrigue and the drawl of his voice had changed, as if paperwork had also bored the King to death. "What did you have in mind, Mr. Queen?"
"Really? You don't say," Remus laughs at Leander's off-handed remark that it was probably a pseudonym used by Mr. Smith. Remus knew it was that — in this day and age, did people really have such boring surnames such as Smith? Well, maybe they did, but for someone high classed enough to be able to enter the Inner Citadel, it was a long stretch. Remus had lived his entire life within the inner walls, and he never heard of this man or his family. Chances were it was someone that just didn't want to be found out... Considering his heavy losses, it wouldn't surprise the Jabberwocky Queen if he was some corporate fat cat spending his company's money.
Remus doesn't know what's going on in Leander's mind: all he knew was that the man was a King in one of the gangs, and thus he could only assume the man was as desensitized to violence as the rest of them — namely him and their shared Ace, Isabella. He can still recall her tinkling laugh as she begged him to take her on his next torture mission. Well, sadly she was away handling other business, and Leander was right there...
Seemed a shame the King never got to have some fun, right?
"Weeeellllll~" Remus drawls the word in a coy voice, a finger tracing patterns along the desk's top as he grins at Leander. "I just so happen to have reason to believe our Mr. Smith is here today, gambling away another small fortune that he once again shouldn't be able to considering his membership is currently cancelled. I could blame the bouncers for not checking his ID properly, but!" he enunciates the last word by slamming his hand down. "I think it would be much more fun for the both of us to go confront him together." A cheeky grin.
"What do you say? King and Queen, we'd make a handsome pair," he finishes his offer with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows, a cheeky grin in place on his face now as he patiently waits for the other man's answer. Come to think of it, he never really noticed Leander getting his hands dirty in the past with matters such as this. But that's what Remus was here for, right? To be a lion at his side.
Leo had a complex relationship with blood. In the beginning of his ascent, it was almost a necessity to dirty his fingers. Younger, lower ranked members of the Diamonds were delegated grunt work, and a lot of that was the backroom aspect of white collar crime- silencing the whistleblowers, ironing out debts in proper violent fashion. As one climbed the ranks and displayed their breadth of intellect and cunning, they moved further from the nastier parts of the jobs.
It was surely a statement to who Remus was, and exactly why something about him set Leo uneasy, that he chose to deal with defectors and wrong doers personally. Leo wore an intrigued smile, but even he was perturbed and wondered whether the other could smell the King's trepidation in being so near to those.. claws Remus doned.
"If you promise it won't get too messy," Leo said, brushing the blazer draped over his forearm with tender fingers. "I just got this ironed today."
Such was the pull of gambling. The small yet intoxicating rewards in a sea of failure, righting the many losses incurred on the way, that short and electrifying moment of victory. Was it the validation of it they sought? The thrill, the escape? Leander was so used to being the puppet master, he rarely thought what it would be like to be the one staring at the back of the cards like it were salvation.
Leander made for the door, trying to recall the last time he'd resorted to forms of intimidation over charm. "And if it does get messy- I trust you have a place for us to carry out our methods in secret? A place with ample drink?"
He practically pouts when Leander agrees, but only under the stipulation that it not get too messy. Oh, what a kill-joy! He can't help but stick his tongue out and lazily draw one of the curved claws along the smooth surface of his tongue, a teasing grin in the quirk of his lips as he wraps the tip of his tongue around his claw. To anyone else it might have been interpreted as lewd, but in Remus' mind, he was a tiger, liking his claws clean from his latest conquest.
"Fine, fine," Remus finally draws his claws away and huffs in a sigh, even if the smile on his face doesn't show any sense of disappointment. "I won't get your precious clothes dirty with filthy commoner blood," he drawls in a laugh as he practically dances his way off the top of the desk, landing gracefully on both feet. He grins at the man — having to tilt his head way back due to their height difference.
Mm, Remus could climb him like a tree.
A few casual flicks of his fingers through his hair to comb the messy bits and the Queen is off, following after his King as the man heads for the office doors. Leander speaks again as they leave the office, asking if Remus had a place they could head should their business get a little... Carried away. The man pauses dramatically with a finger against his chin, but can't help the laugh that slips through his lips at the King's last comment. Of course, Remus was familiar with how much Leander liked to drink. It was practically a legend amongst the Diamonds.
Remus personally didn't partake in drinking too much — he liked to keep his wits about him — but didn't fault the man for it either. Especially when their casinos were known to have the finest of the finest being served.
"Of course, you know I do," he answers with a not-so-subtle wink, "but Mr. King, I'm a tall drink of water and you could drink me any day." Another wink, this time much more flirtatious, before Remus dances ahead to take the lead, laughter following him. He knew exactly where to find their Mr. Smith, and he could already feel his adrenaline beginning to pump through his system. Oh what fun they'd have!
Leo followed them, his long-legged gait less exuberant than regal, sure strides that took up space subtly and unapologetically. Though Remy’s amusement was infectious, and Leo, always quick to smile, was laughing along with them - was it genuine joy or something to mask the trepidation he felt for their expectantly gruesome task?
”I usually prefer wine, or a whiskey on the rocks. But, maybe, this little soiree will give me a taste for water.”
Leo had never been shy about flirting with them. He embraced it, even - it made the time go by faster and their quips and teases were never dull. The King of Diamonds was hardly a romantic sort of guy either - the last time soft feelings had blossomed within him, he had been quick to smother them, watch them wither gray and die like the rest of their vast, cold world.
It was hard, to enjoy to flamboyant splendor of their like sect of life, when Leander knew of what laid beyond Stronghold’s walls - the books his mother had kept with her, one of their few meager possessions in his past life, that told of the Old World, the one of blissful security and blindingly quick advancement. They had carved out something of the sort in the Citadel, but back where Leo had lived? Starving, freezing, on the crowded, polluted streets at the very border of the city and the wilds beyond? That was a life that Leo had craved, for his fragile, desiccated young body and for his dying mother, her pupils blown and vacant.
They stepped out into the night. It was cool, blissfully so, relinquishing the discomfort of the day’s warmth. The streets were lit up in brilliant, flashing colors, reflective of that which lined Casino Block. He tried to ignore the narrow stretches of darkness between, that which led into suspect, dingy alleyways, teeming with the unknown.
”So, where’s our evening company?” A familiar, though long-lost adrenaline, was beginning to pulse in Leo. That same heart-pounding excitement of an anticipated fight, of a winning hand in a game of poker. He felt in his fingers, his chest, the very tips of his toes, alighting his veins in ways he had rarely felt sitting behind his resplendent oak desk. He cracked his fingers, a sound indicative of how stiff they had grown from disuse.
Posted 08-09-2021, 03:23 PM
Dances with Wolves
