The Weapon, ch 4/? Kept!verse

[ladyjanelly]

 So much thanks to trishabooms  for playing cheerleader for this fic.

Oh, and any concrit/commentary, whatever for this fic you might have, I'd love to hear it.

Karl.  Matt.  Kept!verse.

Comments

[lomer]

Ooo... This is good.

[ladyjanelly]

Thanks. :) It's like--your stereotypical reasons for revenge, but it gets my plot moving in the right direction...

[rednihilist]

Well, color me gobsmacked. That is one beautiful back story, hon. Matt ain't no Hamlet either, thank God. I love your characterization, subtle though it is, of Kirill/Karl. There's something there. He's not a doll, and I get that. . . heaviness, for lack of a better word, when I read. He's already three-dimensional and we know next to nothing about him really. How do you do that? *iz in awe*

The whales of the world might not be able to tell a shark from a goldfish, but the minnows sure as hell notice the difference.

Holy shit, I think that's the best line ever. Seriously, that. . . good Lord, your mind is awesome!!!

[ladyjanelly]

Hee! I was replying to your last comment and letting you know this is up and here you are. :)

Karl is a lot of fun to write. He's a dangerous pet on a looong leash.

It sounds silly but I do a lot of posing while I write. My husband watched me the other day and he's like---"You'll sit for a long time and stare at nothing and then like lift your hand and think about it and then type furiously for three lines." I didn't really realize.

Glad you liked the goldfish line. Homeless people are terrified of my husband. He's your average looking chubby-ish dude. 5'8, 210 lbs, looks like he's balding a little. He's got like 18 years of martial arts background and if you know, it shows in how he moves. Vulnerable people notice threats a hell of a lot more than those who think they're in power.

[embroiderama]

Oh wow! I like getting some answers, and the answers are chilling.

[ladyjanelly]

Matt has some issues. It's so much easier to show his than Karl's.

[twelve_pastels]

*wibbles*

Okay, yeah, I'm feeling sorry for Matt at this point. This fic is also reminding me why I had bad dreams for three straight nights when I started reading fics in this 'verse.

I'd love to know what Karl's thinking at this point - the spoiled rich boy who bought him to, ostensibly, take out a business opponent, is nothing more than a frightened child, bereft of kin and kindness, trying to strike out at the source of his nightmares before anything else can happen. Mmm.

And of course Karl doesn't give a shit, but if he did, he'd kinda feel sorry for this guy. Except he doesn't, of course, because Karl doesn't do sorry. He never quite learned how, and never had the luxury to indulge it.

:D

[ladyjanelly]

Thanks. :) I just needed Matt to have some legitimate direction. This is one of my first attempts at being plotty.

Yeah, Karl doesn't do sorry. But he does do obedient. If Matt was like "Yeah, he stole my lunch money in 3rd grade," Karl would be just as happy to kill on Matt's order.

In some ways he's complex but in most, he's just what he was sold as.

[anonymous]

Except... I'm not quite feeling the level of sympathy I should be here, because somehow I suspect Karl's backstory is going to be worse? Which is unfair of me, because it *is* a tragic story and revenge for sister/parents is a fine motivation, and I really like Matt's secret desire to have someone watch over him again.

I also don't know enough about corporate espionage to know how Matt was able to funnel funds towards Karl's purchase without someone knowing of it. Has he been keeping eyes on his own financial advisors to see if Uncle's been putting folks in place, etc., and if so - does he out them or just minimize the amount of damage they can do? Or was sister easier to influence because she didn't know who to suspect?

Oh, and I agree that the sharks/whales/minnows analogy is awesome!

[1orelei]

Bah - that was me. Clearly I shouldn't post when I'm sleepy; it not only makes me overly harsh but also apparently renders me unobservant!

I'm having a little issue with this diabolical uncle thing, only I'm incapable of figuring out/articulating what my problem is. So I'm going to asks some questions (which you don't need to answer) with the intent that maybe you'll be clever enough to parse through my confusion and determine where I've gone off track.

Okay, despite the icon (which looks older, IMO) you've described (and now blatantly told me) I'm dealing with a mid 20-ish individual. (Young enough to still be distracted by the theatrical presentation and his attraction to Karl, but disciplined enough to analyze both and know he ought to resist. Able to plot a slow, cautious revenge - committing his business and network to the cause - but still internally hesitant and second guessing himself.) It's all a fantastic and engaging portrait, except... why has he been left alive long enough to come this far

[ladyjanelly]

I hope by the end I can satisfy you and the other readers. It's good to know your concerns, and I will look for points where the information might show up in a natural sort of way in the fic. Without going into the uncle's POV, I'm not sure where or how I could put it in but I'll try. This is by far the most plot-centered fic I've tried.

You're on the money with the time-line. Mat's mid-twenties now. Karl about a year younger than him.

because somehow I suspect Karl's backstory is going to be worse?
Go ahead and sympathize with Matt. What was done to Karl was insidious. What he knows of what was done to him is less traumatic...and again I'm struggling to get it into the narrative. Sort of like Jensen's past in the homeless!verse.