SHOT in the Back

High and mighty chefs. Andrea thought, walking over to Karl and wrapping her arms around his waist. "Suuuurrreee we will."

Carlotta felt a little sorry for Caesar (comparing the amount of effort they were both exerting), but not sorry enough to offer to carry more. She did, however, forsake her usual route of twisty-turnies to shake off spies, taking the most direct route to Myrrh's house.

There were quite a few stragglers hanging around the compound as the odd duo walked through. Some police officers looked them over, taking in the massive amount of groceries. One cop looked as if he wanted to approach, but decided not to. Carlotta and Will made it to the inner compound without another problem.

Myrrh's house appeared much smaller than its neighbors since the bottom floor was hidden underground. Surprisingly, though, its size didn't make it look out of place; with fertile, well-cared-for lawns and a small flower garden around the porch, the house looked like the home of a wealthy aristocrat with a taste for simplicity. Carlotta took no care in the well-being of the grass as she trampled her way to the front door. She shifted her share of groceries to one hand and rang the doorbell with the other. Then she took a look at Caesar behind her, wondering if she'd gotten enough groceries and if Karl could make anything with them.

"Nice place." Caesar said when they walked up to the building, having followed 'Lotta without any problems, while there were certainly a lot of groceries, they weren't enough to slow him down much. "Don't see a lot of places with gardens in the part of the city I live in."

"Thanks, but it's not my place," Carlotta replied. "I'm living with a family friend, at the moment. My uncle's trying to...liven the place up, I guess, and when he suggested gardens, well, Myrrh grew some gardens."

She stopped to think about what she was saying. "Uh, when I say he grew gardens, I really meant he hired someone to grow them for him. Myrrh wouldn't know a green thumb if it hit him in the face."

"Huh..." Caesar said, while examining the building, waiting with the girl for someone to answer. In his mind, he began imagining all the tactical advantages, and the ways he could possibly break into it. Not that he was going to, he just did that with all buildings he stared at for longer then ten seconds.

"I'll go get it," Karl said, but stopping when Andrea wrapped her arms around him. Am I the second best choice...? He breifly wondered before tossing the idea out of his head.

"You know I'm not that good at cooking." Andrea mumbled with her pout still in full effect, though she was secretly happy about the family activity.

"I'll get it!" Max anounced, dropping the pot that was in his hands and running to the door.

Andrea let out a small groan. "Our child..."

Maxie called, since he could look out the peephole. "Who's there?"

"It's me, Max," Carlotta yelled through the door. "Open up! I've got the groceries!" She waved the hand with the groceries around, almost thwacking herself in the head. Several items, thankfully boxed or wrapped, fell out on to the ground, but escaped damage.

"Okay!" Max undid the latch and opened the door for the pretty lady... noticing a man near her. He pointed at Cesar.

"Who's that?"

The girl looked up from her crouch as she picked the last of the dropped items.

"I dunno," Carlotta said with a straight face. "He just suddenly started following me home." She stepped into the house, dropping her bags of groceries on the floor and stretching her poor, tired arms.

"I'll just leave these here, and be on my way then." Caesar said, setting the groceries down inside, before turning around to leave.

Max blinked a couple of times, before with a shrug of his shoulders said okay and started to help with bags.

"It was nice talking to you, 'Lotta." Caesar called back as he left the building, a small smile on his face.

"See...you..." Carlotta called, peering after him in a rather puzzled manner. She brushed her feelings of unease aside. If she needed to contact him or whatever, she was sure Uncle or Myrrh would know how.

Carlotta began to help Max carry the groceries deeper into the house, passing Myrrh in the living room (who appeared to be asleep on the couch, but who knew?). Karl and Andrea were having a moment in the kitchen, so Carlotta quickly dropped the bags at her feet and returned for more.

Caesar left the residence, and began making his way out of the De Luca compound, it certainly wasn't his first time there, and quite a few of the people there knew him, so he didn't seem out of place, and barely attracted any attention, except a few greetings from some people he knew.

Warning: the following post if over 4000 words long and is meant more to flesh some things out and lay the ground work for my character subplots than it is to drive the main plot forward, so it's understandable if you want to skip it. That said you might find it interesting, your call. Just FYI: the numbers in brackets indicate there is a footnote at the end of this post to explain certain things in more detail. Also, keep an eye on the OoC thread, got something special going up there some time today/tomorrow that you all might be interested in.


Lila pursed her lips, breathing into the emptied bottle of bear she clutched in her hands, the sound tickling her ears as she stared blankly at the TV. She wasn’t sure what the hell was on anymore; Passions had ended a while back and she hadn’t bothered to change the channel - stuck on autopilot with the world passing her by like it was some far off blur with the volume all but muted.

In the back of her mind, the conversation with Lena just kept repeating itself. When did things come to this…? Had she really become that out of touch with the world she’d once lived in because of her desire to carve a good life for her and Ethan in a legitimate manner? The way the boy acted these days… their relationship moved on from the point where they loved each other like siblings to her feeling like a mother dealing with her rebellious teenage son who she just didn’t know how to talk to.

I guess I am the closest thing he has ever had to a mother in some warped way. In the end though, all that mattered was that she loved him like family. But their little family was slowly imploding in on itself. Why am I the one that’s always left dealing with this shit? She thought with a moan, head rolling back so she was staring at the ceiling.

More and more recently she’d taken to looking back on her life so far and thinking about what she could have had if things had just played out ever so slightly differently – maybe once less stolen car there or maybe trying to break away from it all sooner. She just didn’t know anymore. All she knew that if there was one thing she could change in her life, she knew exactly what she’d change without even so much as thinking about it. Annabel…

Groaning, she hoisted herself up, turning off the TV as she headed for the kitchen, empty bottle in hand. She was only twenty eight for crying out loud! She wasn’t supposed to be thinking about shit like this for years to come… she was still young, still had many years ahead of her. She should be thankful as it was that she wasn’t dead yet and that she was actually on her own two feet with her business had finally blossomed after years of hardship and struggle.

Though some part of her couldn’t help it – every time something good happened in her life something worse was just around the corner. I feel like the universe’s God damn chew toy at times. Least she didn’t have it as bad as Karl(1), she mused with a dry chuckle as dropped the empty beer bottle into the correct recycling box.

As she leaned up to one of the cupboards, pulling out her stash of lollipops, sure to grab herself an orange one, she couldn’t help but wonder if he, Andrea and their son were okay. Damon’s son, she reminded herself, sucking on her lollipop as she hoped up onto the kitchenettes counter. Part of her felt sorry for Karl, she honestly did – it must have been damn hard for him to raise that kid knowing it wasn’t his, but he did it anyway. She respected him for that.

She’d met Max once or twice, though she hadn’t seen him in the last year. Andrea had never told her who the boy’s father was, but she’d have to be a God damn idiot not to work it out for herself given the boy’s eyes. All Karmts children had those bloody red eyes. Ethan being the only ever exception to the rule – having gotten his colouring from their mother from what Siegrain had told her, though the shape made him an unmistakable Karmts. She’d told Andrea that if she ever needed help she’d been willing to pitch in, though she never really expected to be taken up on the matter.

She, like Ethan, would probably only help to serve as a reminder of Damon. And subsequently her betrayal of Karl. She understood that it would have been extremely painful for her, so she left well alone out of respect and partially out of the fact she didn’t want any more reminder of Damon than Andrea did(2). Among other reasons... Ethan was enough as it was, especially these days.

Removing the lollipop from her mouth with a soft pop she actually let her thoughts drift to Damon. Something she rarely let herself do if she could help it: too many painful memories. And the good ones hurt even more, because she couldn’t escape the fact that was all she had left of him: her memories.

There was no denying she’d loved him – but now, looking back she could defiantly say without any measure of doubt that she’d never really been in love with him. Or at least not in the sense she’d tried to deluded herself into thinking she was. They’d both talked about it shortly before his death, she confided in him and talked about a measure of things(3), one being her feelings for him, and over the course of the conversation – and on highly awkward and uncomfortable kiss later they’d both agreed they’d never had lasted a week, and that’s if they were lucky.

In the end, during one of the days she’d spent at his grave just after he died she’d concluded she loved him like a brother, just like she did Ethan, though at the same time their bond ran deeper than that. Of all the Karmts brothers she meet him first, and he would always hold a special place in her heart for giving her a semblance of the family she’d always longed for. It was through Damon taking her to one of his brother’s parties(4) that she met the older Karmts, and soon after she met Ethan and was one of them. They were her boys: her family – her rabble of unruly brothers.

Well, calling Siegrain her brother would be rather disturbing given they’d ended up fouling around together on countless occasions(5), and they’d hung out a lot, not as much as her and Damon at first, but they’d still spent a considerable amount of time together: if she wasn’t with Damon she’d most likely be with Siegrain. She could even say that close to the end before Damon had killed him, that they’re odd relationship had actually become just that, a relationship.

Then not long after, Siegrain completely lost it. High on the chaos and carnage he became increasingly unhinged she started clinging onto Damon again, shaping him in her mind into the man she knew his brother to be – part of her was sure this how she came to the conclusion she had feelings for him, desperate to see him turn out like how Siegrain had been before he completely lost it. She wanted Damon to be the man she’d known his brother as, and part of her was sorry for ever trying to force him to be that – force him to be what he hated most in the world; his brother. She was just so desperate to cling onto someone who made her feel like she wasn’t some gutter trash whore(6).

Though, just before the end Siegrain had moments when he seemed like his old self again. When they were alone he’d revert back to the guy she enjoyed spending time with, the guy she might have been falling for. He’d go back to being a charming young man who made her laugh, who could brighten her day just by showing up with that cocky smirk of his and a whispered witty comment between them, giggling over a private joke. But then Damon had turned on him and everything had gone down the shitter.

The year that followed was the worst of her life, dealing with the bullet wound in her shoulder, trying to set up Cathurnus whilst trying scrounge together the money to pay for a lawyer so she could win legal custody of Ethan – poor kid had been in care for almost a year by the time she’d gotten custody of him and she’d seen him all of three times in that time span. There was also trying to cope with her grief over Siegrain’s death and... Thing’s best not thought about. She reminded herself, recalling that even to this day that Damon was the only person she’d told about the whole thing during the night which they talked like old times.

He’d taken that secret to his grave and she would too if she could help it(7).

“God damn it…” she muttered, making another pop with her lollipop. She always did this; getting caught up in the past. Like Ethan. She couldn’t blame him for trying to hold onto it like he was, because in truth she was no better. She was many things, but she was no hypocrite.

“Got to stay focused, stay in the here and now,” Lila instructed herself, smiling faintly at how she’d managed to improve everything but using de Luca’s pay checks as a springboard for expansion – Hercules had also left her quite a pretty penny in his will. She’d knocked down the old spare bedroom to expand the living area whilst using the garage extension space to include a mini-gym and rebuild the spare bedroom. She even had an on suite bathroom in her room, much to her glee – not that she’d ever admit it.

She even had enough money to hire regular help and send Ethan to college and get him out of the hellhole that was Marisol. But he was more concerned with avenging Damon’s death than anything else. Obsessed was probably a better word. Stubbornness, she recalled, was actually one of three things all of the Karmts brothers shared for certain – the other’s being they were killers and that weren’t exactly bad to look at, either.

Humming, she jumped down from the counter deciding that she might as well try to enjoy the rest of her day off and stop dwelling on the past. Vaulting the back of the couch, she sunk into with a slightly smile, allowing herself to get cosy as she snatched the remote of the table in front of the couch and click the TV back on.

Only for someone to knock on the apartment’s private door.

Oh c’mon! She groused, hauling herself off the couch just as she’d gotten comfy. She swore that if that was like that damn prank call, she’d thought it was Lena or Ethan calling her back at first but however it was hung up almost instantly after she’d answered, somebody was going to get hurt. She swore that much. Her day off had had enough interruptions as it was.

“What?” She demanded, almost ripping the door of its hinges as she tore it open. Only to find a man she didn’t recognise at first, but her eyes were quickly drawn to the tattoo on the right side of his face and when her eyes flicked to meet his, she found bloody red ones looking straight back at her.

Huh… he couldn’t be. But it was him. She couldn’t deny it. He was older than she remembered and he looked weary, his shoulder stiff and his eyes were quick to avoid hers. But he was otherwise the same, his hair still worn in that same style from years ago, if slightly longer and more unkempt, and there was no mistaking tattoo – she was with him when he got it.

She was staring at a dead man, or rather a man she’d though to be dead for nearly a decade. Her jaw hung slack, she couldn’t conjure any words, let alone force them out of her suddenly dry mouth, her lollipop having slipped from her grasp and shattered on the floor at her bare feet. This has to be some sort of weird dream…

“Uh, hi,” was all Siegrain Karmts had to say, lifting a hand to wave give a weak and rigid wave.


“Uh, hi,” he just about kicked himself. Really, Siegrain, you disappear for nine years and that’s all you’ve got…? Aren’t you the right social butterfly you used to be? Out of some weird unconscious habit, he gave a small wave, before quickly retracting and stuffing both into his pockets. He knew she could probably break ever bone in his hand if she wanted to(#).

“I, eh, you look good, Lila,” nought for two, he cursed himself, after all these years was that really the best he had anymore? Apparently so. She did look good, though, he had to admit to himself. The years had been good to her, not that he had expected anything less – but she was no longer that flashy, over the top sultry looking girl she was infamous for being back in the day, it was much more natural and subdued. She seemed to have ditched the leather and tube-tops for more casual skinny jeans and a baggy top short sleeved purple top that hung off her right shoulder with a striped tank beneath.

“You cut your hair, I see,” he added, without much thought, just trying to say something to provoke some sort of response from her. The look defiantly suited her better than the long hair she use to have, anyway(9). But before he could bury his foot any further in his mouth, she punched him in the face.

He staggered back a step or two, clutching his nose. It wasn’t broken thankfully, but he was pretty sure it was bleeding. “Jesus Christ, women, I know I deserved that and all but some sort of response before you punched me in the face would have been nice!” he groaned through his hands, still holding his wounded nose. He should’ve been grateful, he guessed: at least she hadn’t shot him.

And then the door slammed in his face. Okay, should have seen that one coming, he berated himself. Today had not been his day. But almost as soon as the door had slammed shut it flew open again, Lila standing there shocked to see that he too was still in place, like she’d expected him to be gone or something. So he did the only thing he could really think of doing after someone had punched him: he punched back.

“Fuck!” Lila hissed, having almost managed to twist out of the hit and save herself, but he’d managed to catch her. He’d managed to burst her lower lip, he noted, “What the hell is wrong with you!?”

“Sorry to go all schoolyard on you, but you hit me first! And you’re the one with the martial arts training, not me(10)!” He retorted, still clutching his aching nose. He’d never been a bigger believer in the whole ‘don’t hit a girl regardless if she hit you first’ rule – women were just as capable of defending themselves as men were. Sure they were usually smaller and could take fewer hits, but they were also generally faster. If a women hit him he’d hit right back in self-defence, though he’d never actually start a fight with a women.

Refusing to fight back, in his mind was just a big an insult in his mind as it implied he didn’t think the women was capable of defending herself. But if a woman had hit him first it generally meant she either knew what she was doing and could defend herself or was just plain stupid. Thankfully with Lila it was the former.

“It really is you…” Lila said in rather justified shocked, before wiping the blood away from her burst lip. She only seemed able of staring at him with wide eyes through her bangs at this point. Huh, shocked her senseless…

“No, Lillian, I’m the fucking tooth fairy! Who else do you know with a big ass tattoo like this!?” He responded, locked in snarker mode, unable to help himself he pulled his hands away from his face and pointed at his tattoo for emphasis. He saw her scowl at the use of her full name – only he and Damon had ever known that Lila was actually short for Lillian and she got pissed when people called her it(11). Something to do with her mother or something.

All’s fair seeing as she just punched me in the face… he assured himself. “C’mon, Firecracker, I know you’re probably pissed at me– perfectly understandable and all – and you’ve got questions, too, I’m betting and I’ll answer ‘em, I promise. But first can I get a piece of tissue here? I’m bleeding all over your steps.”

Lila’s scowl and shock softened slightly as she looked at his bloody nose. But after a moment both were washed away to be replaced by a small smile, and she took a step forward and actually hugged him. The fuck…? Was the only thing he could think at that moment.

“I thought you were dead, everybody thought you were dead.” She mumbled into his chest: he was a foot taller than her after all(12).

“I, uh, yeah,” he mumbled back, not really sure what to do – this hadn’t been what he expected at all. The Firecracker he remember would probably have screamed at him, gotten mad and outraged over his return from nowhere, probably smacked him a couple more times for good measure(13). This was the furthest he could have possibly gotten to what he expected, well, that’d be an overstating things but it was damn close. “That’s a long story, Firecracker,” he said after a moment’s thought, returning the hug slightly awkwardly as he tried to avoid getting blood all over her.

“You can tell me inside once we get you cleaned up,” Lila said, shaking her head slightly against her chest, he swore he could hear her smile. And despite himself, he let a small smile tug at his own lips.

“Yeah, that sounds fair,”


Five minutes he found himself seated on one of the comfy leather couches Lila had set up in her living-room. A few pieces of tissue stuffed up his nose to stop the bleeding and a bear bottle in one hand. Taking a small sip, he let his eyes wonder around her apartment – the place was nice, the blond mechanic was obviously doing well for herself now that he and Damon were out of the picture and no longer there to drag her down.

But a moment later Lila was back, dropping down onto the recliner adjacent to him, having grabbed a drink of her own and cleaned away the blood from her busted lip. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he coughed slightly, shifting uncomfortably despite the cost leather on which he sat, “wasn’t really thinking, just acted on instinct.”

Lila just gave a throaty chuckled at his explanation, shaking her head. “Yeah, that sounds about right for you,” she said taking a dig at him, and he found himself managing a small smile again. “So, I guess a good place for you to start would be explaining how the hell you survived that fight with Damon – he was so sure he’d killed you, too.”

“Honestly,” he began, thinking back on it all, “not a bloody clue, actually.” Siegrain sighed, realising it was far from the most helpful answer in the world but it was all he had. “One minute I’m in a burning building as it comes down around me and I realise I’ve got a few bullets in me and next I’m in a hospital bed. Doctors said that I was lucky about where I’d be hit, a few more millimetres here or there sort of thing.”

Lila just nodded, before taking another small swig of her beer. She was clearly just going to let him talk and tell her what he thought she needed to know. He was thankful for that, Siegrain honestly didn’t know if he was ready to go over everything in great detail just yet.

“After the doctors explained how lucky I was to be alive, they said the police wanted to talk to me: wanted to know what happened exactly.” The eldest Karmts brother paused to take another drink, thoughts drifting slightly as he remembered what exactly the police had said to him. “They said I was the only survivor they found, any later and there wouldn’t have been any at all according to them. I could tell they wanted to arrest me, pin it all on me just so they could say they got the son of a bitch responsible, but they didn’t have the evidence they needed to do it.

“I’d already given up; doctor’s said they’d tried my emergency contacts – gotten nothing at all, not that I cared at the time. I was completely out of it. I just confessed to a bunch of shit that I had done: anything that I could think of off the top of my head and they could charge me with. Police were all too happy, but the doctors were able to nullify some of it, claiming some of it could be down to PDSD and suicidal urges(14) – so they reached a compromise: they wouldn’t let me commit suicide through the death sentence and they’d sentence me to life in prison without parole instead.

“Didn’t even get a trial (15)– they just locked me and threw away the key.” And that was that; his grand finale – how he’d ended up in jail in the first place. He looked up; having been staring into the bottom of his bottle to find Lila sitting there in silent shock, trying to take in what he’d told her.

“So, you’ve been in jail all this time?” He nodded at her question, watching with interest as she threw back more of her drink. “But why? Why not try and contact someone, let them know you were alive? And exactly how did you even get out if you were never due to a chance at parole?”

“In order: I honestly didn’t want out, prison was the least I deserved after everything I’d done up until that point, was happy to just sit there and rot for it all,” he said, ticking off her question with his thumb, before bringing up another finger as he answered her second question. “And Elena got me out, somehow. Pulled some strings and got her lawyer to lay on a few bribes, I reckon, it’s the only she could have gotten me out. No idea why, though.” He didn’t miss Lila’s scowl at the mention of Elena, the two of them had never quite gotten along, they'd butted heads more than he and Damon did back in the day.

“My money would be on her wanting me to whack the mayor,” he carried on after a moment, trying to gage her reaction, “she tells me he’s the one that killed Damon and even if that’s true this situation just seems too perfect for her. She’s planning something, and whatever it is will probably benefit from killing this Bakura guy.”

“Bakura…” Lila hissed her eyes narrowing as her grip tightened around the neck of her bottle, wringing it as though it was this Bakura’s neck. Well, given that reaction I can now safely assume Elena wasn’t fucking with me and was telling the truth. He still had no idea why Elena was planning or why she might want Bakura dead, as it was obvious that was what she wanted. She’s obviously got some sort of big play planned – why else would she wait ‘til now when she could have gotten me out that easily any time before now to kill Bakura.

He didn’t like it. Being kept in the dark was not a fun place to be, and he intended to find out exactly what Elena wanted from him before he did anything – he would avoid doing anything that might benefit her until he knew he wasn’t going to end up helping her by doing whatever it was she wanted to without realising.

“So now what are you going to do…?” Lila asked, looking him in the eye. He could tell she was hesitant about asking him that question; but her curiosity was probably greater than her desire not to know.

“Dunno, guess we wait and I’ll have a little chat with Ethan. From there–” he gave a faint shrug before taking another sip of his drink, “find out exactly what it is that Elena has planned, maybe ruin said plan and kill Bakura. Then I dunno, figured I might stick around a little and try and find some honest work for once, if you don’t mind having me around that is.”

“I’ll let Ethan make that call,” Lila murmured into the mouth of her bottle before downing what was left of her beer. He honestly wasn’t sure if her apathetic answer was because she really didn’t care about whether he stayed or not, or perhaps she didn’t know if she wanted him around at all – so she’d pawn the choice off onto Ethan so she wouldn’t have to make it in the first place. Guess I wouldn’t be any better if the positions were reversed.

“Where is Ethan, anyway?” The look on Lila’s face said it all. Oh for the love of-! She wasn’t lying about that either, was she…? Today had already been a long day, and it looked like it was about to get a lot longer. “Lila, where is Ethan?” He really needed to go and find that boy so they could have a talk: preferably before his little brother got himself killed


1) This is just more a Lampshade Hanging than anything else, acknowledging Karl's Butt Monkey/Cosmic Plaything status in-universe.

2) I had hoped that Lila and Andrea could have gained a sense of freindship/respect for one another towards the end of/post original SHOT, so I threw that in there but left it rather vague seeing as I haven't talked to Rand about it.

3) It may seem slightly recton-ish, I know, but at the start of Part III Beans and both agreed that we were going to take things in this direction as the whole deal with Lila having feelings for Damon just wasn't contributing anything to the overall story where it should have and just didn't seem worth keeping in the long run. The conversation itself was actually roughly planned and probably would have been Lila and Damon's last solo scene together before the grand finale had things not ground to a spectacular halt and died.

4) This is meant as a callback, as it's stated in the original SHOT that Lila actually knew Damon before she was introduced to either of his brothers and it also throws back to the first post of SitB as the flashback also briefly features her first meeting with Sieg.

5) Was actually Beans idea, not sure if he remembers at this point, for back in the original in that it was Siegrain and not Damon Lila had a thing for, figured I'd bring that into play now that Siegrain ain't a Posthumous Character anymore and there's a chance to explore and expand on that outside of unnecessary flashbacks.

6) All There In the Manual moment - Lila's mother was in fact just that, a prostitute, or rather she became one to try and provide for Lila when she was little, this is what lead to her later drinking problem and Lila's hatred of of her mother and being called a whore/slut/anything along those lines. Granted I'm pretty sure all girls would be offended being called such things, but it's a little more personal in Lila's case.

7) This little secret has already been hinted at, even going back as far as the original SHOT rp and is something I had planned bringing up there, but of course I've been forced to bring the subplot over to this. You'll all find out in time as it does form a large part of Lila's character subplot, I'm just still working out how exactly to bring it out into the open.

#) Hair Trigger Temper and martial arts training = pain if you're not carefully. Luckily for Siegrain this isn't the original SHOT rp were her temper was at it's worse, she she won't be breaking any bones. Note: used the hash-tag here due to the whole eight being a emoticons when used next to a bracket.

9) Got the idea of Lila with long hair in my head a while back, didn't like the idea, didn't think it'd suit her I just slipped in a little joke about it here for fun.

10) Anyone besides Beans that gets this reference just won the internet.

11) This is meant more to be a joke towards RS than anything else, but I figured it worked so I'm retconing in, she would have legally changed her actual name to Lila when she was old enough, but her birth name would have been Lillian Jane Summers, which is meant as a Shout-Out to Buffy, who is the source behind Lila's surname.

12) Canonically, Lila is around five two/three if I recall correctly, so she's quite the short arse next to Siegrain, hell she's probably the shortest adult character in the RP - which was always the intent - another trait she inherited from partial inspiration Buffy.

13) As with number eight, had this been the original SHOT he'd have been right on the moment with that guess.

14) Post-Dramatic-Stress Disorder for those of you who don't know what that means. This little comment by the doctors would have been accurate at the time, given that at the time he had pretty much given up on life, using the death sentences to commit suicide wouldn't be an entirely stupid idea.

15) Trials for the most part are formalities if the defendant pleads guilty, I think, don't quote me, but seeing as how he's confessed to it all already, and hey don't need a jury to convict him, all they'd need is a judge to pass sentence, thus making a trial rather redundant and a waste of time.

Anyone wanna try and top that post?

OOC: Shitaki Mushrooms that's a long ass post. o_O I ain't going to top that for years...

---

Karl just looked at all the groceries that Carlotta had bought and gulped. In his head he was mentally thinking about how much everything would have costed. In his head he was coming up to around four hundred to five hundred dollars, which worried him even more than before.

"Uhm...Carlotta, how much did this all cost...?" he asked aloud.

Max had gotten into a bag that was filled with sweets and was now whining to Andrea about having some.

"About $430," Carlotta answered promptly, setting the last of the bags on the kitchen floor.

At the figure, Myrrh lifted his head from the couch to stare at the heap of groceries. "...where were you expecting to store all that? The fridges aren't that big."

"We eat it, of course," Carlotta said. "Grocery shopping is pretty fun. Some punk kid helped me carry it all, but I'm not sure we made it in time. How long does it take for milk to sour?"

"It depends on the weather and heat... Usually a couple...hours..." Karl said before gaping at the cost. Oh boy...there went that money. He mentally tried to add some things up in his head.

Oblivious to Karl's distress, Carlotta rubbed her neck slowly. "Well, I wasn't gone that long, so it should be fine, unless we leave it sitting there." She fished two gallons of milk after visible effort and walked over to place them inside the fridge. When she opened the door, it became apparent that, while they might have trouble fitting everything into the refrigerators and cupboards, they would still be able to fit a large portion of the groceries somewhere. The fridge was almost barren. The shelves held one measly, half-fillled glass bottle of tomato juice, a few eggs of questionable nature, and some leaves of cabbage.

Carlotta put the milk on a shelf and returned to rummage out other items (juices, cheeses, yogurts, etc) that required refrigeration. "The cupboards should have more stuff in them - cups and silverware, flour, condiments, and such, but we can put the cereal and snacks in there." After some thought, she piped up, "Oh, and some of the groceries should go in the basement too."

"More like have to go in the basement," Myrrh grumbled. "There's not enough room up here." Nevertheless, he pulled himself up to help her (half-heartedly grumbling as he went). Unlike Carlotta, though, he sensed Karl's discomfort. Myrrh sighed, raked a hand through his hair before grabbing some freezer foods, and told the younger man, "Don't worry about paying us. It's on me."

"Nono. I couldn't say that I won't pay back," Karl insisted, more so for his pride's sake. He didn't want to be the type of person to take freebees of over a hundred bucks.

"Don't worry about it," Myrrh repeated smoothly. "We didn't buy this for you; we bought it because we needed some food in this blasted old place. Trust me, that kid's gonna be eating it all anyway." He gestured to Carlotta. "Besides, you'll be needing the money for other things - once you work out the means, of course."

"Nono, I insist on paying you back," Karl said a little more forcefully. He insisted on paying. He had to... It was just more so his pride than anything else. "Seriously.."

"If you insist against seeing reason, do as you will," Myrrh sighed. Not. He had no intention of accepting money from someone not even affiliated with a clan. He was the Fabloue head, for Pete's sake. If word got out that he allowed guests in his household to pay for their own groceries - he'd be a laughingstock. His parents would skin him after he died!

Carlotta had busied herself with sorting out the kitchen, and now that she'd stuffed most of the cabinets, she began to take particular interest on the items she had bought. Some of them she swore she'd never seen before and had no idea how they'd made their way into her cart. But they looked positively delicious.

"I think they're cookies," she observed. Chocolate cookies with white icing between them - like a sandwich...cake...pastry. The casing was blue and proudly announced the brand name. Shrugging, Carlotta opened the box and was dismayed to find the cookies in plastic sleeves. Still she tore through that as well and bit into the Or-e-o. "Not bad," she commented, offering the roll to the others.