Friday, January 10, 2014

Chapter 69: Plans Gone Wrong


"Still nothing," Julian sighs after checking every news feed, every bit of industry gossip and corporate conspiracy site for even the smallest hint of a shake up at MorcuCorp, only to find, once again, not so much as a whisper of trouble. Something had gone wrong in his plan somewhere, but, what? Had Fergus not gotten the message? Was Tourmaline so incompetent that she couldn't find him despite the clues he'd left for Fergus?

"It's been a whole week we've been holed up here in the mountains," Jilly complains, "Maybe I should just call Fergus..."


"You can't call Fergus," Julian say emphatically, "If MorcuCorp doesn't know where we are, calling Fergus will bring them down on us."

"Well, that might be better than just waiting here, not knowing," Jilly says, obviously frustrated by their long period of inaction, "You don't have to worry about MorcuCorp. If they tried to take you back, they'd have to through me."


"That's actually what I'm afraid of, Jilly," Julian says, smiling a little at her self-confidence and eagerness for a fight even as he raises a hand to his forehead in dismay at the thought of her throwing herself against MorcuCorp's assassins, "MorcuCorp is ruthless. If Fergus hasn't taken them down, they will come after us. We'll never be safe anywhere."

"Then there's no point staying here like sitting ducks, right?" Jilly reasons, "If we aren't safe anywhere, we should keep moving and make ourselves a harder target."


Julian sits beside her on the edge of the bed, wrapping his arm around her waist. "Life on the run won't be as exciting you think," he says gently.

"We'll do what have to, to be free," Jilly says, giving his shoulder a comforting squeeze, "I won't let them take you."

Julian leans close to her, brushing his lips against her neck. She's reckless, over-confident and tends to see herself as the heroine of some action movie playing in her head. But it's not all her fantasy, she's got the skills to back up her bravado, and their situation is dire enough that he might need to use them. It's a bit of a turn on, he has to admit to himself; like Geoffrey, he has a strong attraction to dangerous blondes. But Geoffrey, in all his engineering of the Brannon line descending from Pearl's son Farrell, never anticipated the role Elliot's line would play in their lives. He couldn't have designed a more perfect woman for himself, and yet here she is, the true love who broke his curse.


"You aren't wearing my ring," he observes in a whisper, pulling away from her.

"I thought it would be weird, since it was a fake engagement," Jilly answers.

"Jillyan, you know how I feel about you. There was never anything fake about it," Julian answers, and then sighs, heavy with a new resolve. He can't, he won't, drag her down with him, even if it means he has to lose her. "I would give anything to spend my whole life with you, but..."

"If you're about to say that I'd be better off without you and that you're going to turn yourself in to MorcuCorp so I can escape...I will knock you out and chain you up," Jilly cuts him off.

"This is serious, Jill," Julian insists.

"And so am I," she answers, "I'm not going to let you just walk off and pretend things would be better that way. If we have to live on the run, that's fine. But I am going to be with you, Julian. Whatever it takes. We are in this together."

"I couldn't live with myself knowing I was putting you in danger," Julian protests.

"Stop that," Jilly says, "This is decided. No discussion. You aren't going anywhere." She frowns at him sternly, "Now, we need to make plans for our next move..."


This time it's Julian who interrupts her, silencing her with a deep, passionate kiss. "We aren't going anywhere today," he whispers, "Except back into bed."


Their attention focused on each other, they don't notice the door open until Tourmaline, gun pointed at them, orders them to get off the bed.


"Fergus, what the fuck?" Jilly asks her cousin, standing as commanded, putting herself in front of Julian even as he tries to move her behind him.

"I got your message," Fergus says, looking at Julian.

"I meant for you take MorcuCorp down, not to become one of them," Julian answers, his glance moving from Fergus to his former agent and back again, "You can't seriously trust her."

"I'm not the traitor here, Geoffrey," Tourmaline answers, "I'm the one sticking to the plan. You engineered Pearl to be the catalyst, to awaken the latent power the Brannons carried in their genes. You lured Pearl's son to seek out his ancestors, so he'd encounter Reinier Landgraab's daughter, betting on them producing children. You did all this to create an heir you'd never be able produce naturally, a super-Landgraab with powers your family has never possessed. And now that all your planning has come fruition, you want to use him to destroy us. But he's smarter than that, Geoffrey, smarter than you. MorcuCorp will be better, and stronger, under his leadership."


"So, you're the boss of MorcuCorp now," Jilly says to her cousin, "Why is she pointing a gun at us?"

"Jilly, move away from him," Fergus answers, "You don't know who he really is."


Jilly pulls out of Julian's arms, stepping deliberately between him and the gun pointed in their direction. "I know exactly who he is," she says defiantly to her cousin, "And I know who you are. This isn't you, Fergus. So call your bitch off and let us go."


"It's not that simple, Jill," Fergus says, "He knows way too much to just let him walk away."

"So you're going to murder him?" Jilly shouts, "I won't let you!"

Jilly takes a step forward; beside him, Fergus senses Tourmaline tensing, her fingers tightening around the trigger, ready to shoot.


It's not a vision, really, not like his mother's Sight, though her ability, latent inside him, might play role in the new talent he's unlocked in himself. But unlike his mother's gift, Fergus' sight is based on physics and mathematics, his mind making rapid calculations that let him see the immanent consequences that would result from the current course of events. 

Real time slows around him as he peers ahead into the minutes that follow this one, watches as Jilly presses forward, angry, threatening. Tourmaline will then shoot her gun, killing her instantly. Fergus watches his cousin fall into a widening pool of blood.


And Tourmaline will shoot Julian as well, but not before he falls in grief over Jilly's dying body, not even trying to defend himself or escape his own death, overwhelmed by his loss.

This surprises Fergus. When he learned who Julian really was, any grain of trust he might have nurtured for his cousin's lover was destroyed. But his sight undeniable in its truth. Whether he's Julian or Geoffrey, he loves Jilly enough to die for her. And that's all the leverage Fergus needs over his former adversary, turning a potential threat into an asset to valuable to waste.


"Stand down, Tourmaline," Fergus orders, returning to the present to stop the future he glimpsed from ever happening.

"Sir?" Tourmaline questions him, but complies, pulling her weapon away automatically at his command.

"We're all family here," Fergus says, "I'm sure we can work out a suitable arrangement, without resorting to violence."


Jilly relaxes her stance, but folds her arm across her chest as she asks, "What sort of 'arrangement'?"

"You, both of you, will work for me," Fergus answers.

24 comments:

  1. Interesting... I'm not sure I'm liking this new Fergus, he's very cold and calculating

    I'm glad Julian is true and he does love Jilly, but I'm worried where this is heading and what plans Fergus has

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    1. Fergus is a lot more detached. And I think he's having a harder time relating to the present, with his mind opened to the past and future the way it. I'll try to get more into what's going with Fergus ahead.
      Julian is real, though, so that's good. =)

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  2. I so knew Fergus was going to turn evil!!! Now the only question is if this is all Fergus or if the ghost of evil ancestor past has a hand in this. Hm, questions questions. I hope we get to see what Fergus actually did while Jilly and Julian were hiding away, that might shed some light on Fergus' sudden change.

    We get to see Fergus' baby soon right? I bet it's cute. <3

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    1. Fergus has been eating the dark side's cookies, lol. He's definitely all Fergus, though, he's not possessed in any way. But he did decide to take Reinier Landgraab as an example and inner mentor of sorts, so their is that influence on his thinking.

      Fergus' baby still hasn't been born. I know, that's hard to believe, but I haven't even been able to play my actual legacy hardly at all since Tasha got pregnant, because the story has required being in so many different sets. But I'm very happy that soon the legacy will be back to normal gameplay again and much less set scenes. And I will show Fergus' baby once he has one, lol.

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    1. I think that's one of Aeon's poses, but I used so many, I can't really remember.

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  4. Fergus! *Tsktsktsk! No gun play with your cousins! That's how people get hurt, dearie. *finger wagging. We have bombs for when we play with our relatives, remember?

    Or bombshells perhaps. Gaaaaawwwwww-leee! Fergus! That's just not nice. At least it looks like he's managed to gain a firm control over the FemBot Army though. So that's for sure something. Though I want to know what he thinks he's learned from Ice Queen Tourmaline of the FemBots that he wasn't able to pick up on before leaving to marry his sweetheart.

    And YAYAYAYAYAY!!! for the curse being broken by Jilly! That makes me happy! It also gives me hope for Julian winning over Geoffrey. Go Julian!

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    1. The message Julian sent to Fergus via the fake article gave him access to all of MorcuCorp. So it wasn't so much Tourmaline telling him anything as it was Fergus deciding to take over and explaining to her Geoffrey's original plan for him. Se had already been planning a coup against Geoffrey, and she's totally devoted to MorcuCorp. So when Fergus proposed to take over, she chose to follow him.

      The curse is broken, and JUlian has for the most part won. Geoffrey is still part of him, but Julian is driving.

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  5. They've created a monster.

    (Fembots still makes me giggle.)

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    1. Sadly, It's me who created this monster, and I've lost control of it.

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  6. Oh shit. Oh man. WHAT?!

    WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ONNN?!?!?!?!

    I just don't know... Why is Fergus all evil badass? What did that message say to turn him? Why is Tourmaline on his side rather than taking him for genetic analysis? How did they find Jilly and... Julian? I'm assuming he's all Julian for real now. He would die for Jilly so he totally is.

    GAAAAHHH! The suspense!!! D:

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    1. The message just gave Fergus complete access to MorcuCorp. Everything. Julian assumed Fergus would shut it down, but what Julian and Geoffrey didn't know was that Fergus had been talking to grandpappy Reinier, who named him the true Landgraab sciion. That coupled with learning that Geoffrey was actually trying to create a super-Landgraab with his genetic manipulation kind of went to his head.

      Tourmaline is on his side because, for one, she's all about MorcuCprp, and sees that Fergus will be a better leader than Geoffrey. There's also the fact that genetically, she's related to him. Since she's a clone of Pearl, who was Farrell's mother, and a key part of the Brannon genetic legacy.

      Julian is %97 JUlian. LOL, okay I made that number up. But, yeah, he's definitely Julian, with just a touch of Geoffrey. And that bit of Geoffrey is mostly dormant.

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  7. Wow! Well, I am glad that I wasn't wrong about Julian but instead of taking down MorcuCorp looks like Fergus has just taken Geoffrey's place. The vision really did come true and I have a feeling Fergus is not going to turn the company into something his parents would be proud of. I am thankful that he stepped in before Jilly was hurt it shows that he does care deeply for his family still but this is only the beginning and who knows what Fergus will turn into as time goes on. I wonder how Tasha will feel about all of this, to me she doesn't seem like the type that would be supportive of his choice to head MorcCorp but I suppose Fergus surprised me so she might too!

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    1. You were very right about Julian and Geoffrey. I loved your analysis of Geoffrey lst chapter, that was so very spot on.
      Fergus does really still love and care about his family, and he doesn't want to see Jilly hurt. But, yes, time will tell how Fergus' character develops now that he's taken over MorcuCorp.
      Fitting Tasha into the story has been a real challenge. She's only in Fergus' life because story progression put her there. As a character, she's not going to be thrilled about Fergus' decision, not at all. But I want to let story progression handle their relationship, and so far they get only the happy kind of pop up notices.
      Going forward Im going to be concentrating more on Jilly and Julian and have less chapters of Fergus, though of course he will still appear in the story. But I will try to get to Tasha once more at least and deal with her feelings about all this and her rationale for sticking with Fergus despite her concerns.

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  8. Uhhh...what?? Fergus, is that you in there buddy? Wow what a interesting turn of events. I'm so glad that was just a vision and Jilly really didn't die. D:
    What a twist, at first I had to squint my eyes at Julian. Now my eyes are squinting at Fergus. My eyes hurt! XD

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    1. So much squinting, lol.
      Fergus is going through some changes, but he is still in there. As much as I want to focus on Jilly going forward, I am going to have to give Fergus some time in the story to clear up a lot of the confusion I created, lol.

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  9. !!!

    Fergus! Haven't seen him for a while, and now this! I wonder what Tasha thinks of this, or if she knows.

    Aw, Julian wants her to wear the ring.

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    1. I've been trying to focus more on Jilly as the heir and less on Fergus, but I will not completely drop him. I will eventually get to him and Tasha and deal with some of these huge changes in their lives.
      LOL, you are the only one to mention Julian's comment about the ring. He knew the engagement was fake, but he does want it o be real.

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  10. haha, I knew Fergus was going to take over MorcuCorp---it should be interesting to see what he does with it now that he's the one in control. I'm glad that he put a stop to possible future where Jilly dies, cause that sure would have been inconvenient. You would have had ghost heirs for sure, lol :P

    Also, I think Tourmaline is correct. "MorcuCorp will be better, and stronger, under his leadership." It just might not be the way she envisions either, lol

    I now have the song, "We are Family" in my head! =)

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    1. Fergus taking over MorcuCorp was the one thing I planned from the start that I actually stuck with. Iola's vision came true. =)
      LOL, yeah, you can't really kill off your heir, unless you plan to resurrect the ghost. That scene was really about just showing that Fergus has been honing some new skills. MorcuCorp might very well be better and stronger under his leadership.
      Ha, Sister Sledge, I haven't thought of that song in ages. But I was just thinking of how Fergus was related in some way to everyone in the room...he's a Brannon and a Landgraab descendant, and Tourmaline is a clone of his great-grandmother Pearl.

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  11. Oh wow, you snuck another update in when I wasn't looking. Came here tonight to read your latest, and realized I hadn't even seen this one.

    Oh that's so sweet that he wants her to wear the ring <3 I can't blame him for worrying about her, either. It's worrying that their plan doesn't seem to have taken off yet like they'd hoped, but going out and waving the red flag isn't the best idea yet either.

    Geez Fergus... well, I guess there's no need for waving the red flag now. He seems ...intimidating and cunning :-/ Jilly and Julien, working for ...MorcuCorp? D:

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    1. Yeah, the engagement was staged so Julian could get a coded message to Fergus through a newsfeed article, but the feelings he has for Jilly are real. But he is worried for her, especially when his plans didn't seem to be panning out the way he thought.
      Fergus has hardened up a bit once he decided he would take over MorcuCorp instead of continuing to run from it. And now that he has, he's not going to let Julian or Jilly run off on him...

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  12. Son of a....

    I'm such a dope! I didn't even see this coming! D: Fergus, noooooo....

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  13. Oh wow. I see Fergus not trusting Julian. I can see that. MercuCorp under Fergus' control might be better than under another's control. Thank goodness for his calculating vision. He has some common sense in there.

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