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That's a Wrap!

Part 7

For DuskCypher

By Draconicon

Henry was debating whether to call Eli back for another bit of fun when the hamster all but broke down the door to his dressing room with a frenzied machine-gun fire of knocks. The lion opened the door to find Maurice huffing, panting hard through clenched teeth, but rather than admit any sort of curiosity, he merely smiled.

"Finally found a bit of tail for yourself, Maurice?" he asked.

"What?" The simple question threw his partner for a loop, just as he knew it would.

"Well, it's only to be expected. First times and all. Go calm down for a while, and we can talk later. Perhaps I can offer some advice."

"That - you - that's not what happened!"

Henry knew that, but he wanted the hamster off-balance. He was stressed out enough, and he doubted that he would be getting the same sort of pushover Maurice that he was used to after what had just happened. The lion glanced over his shoulder at the papers that were on his dressing-room counter, then sighed.

"I suppose not."

"Did you do what...what Dusk said you did?"

"Oh? Did he talk to you before storming out?"

"He did."

"I'm surprised the diva had anything to say to anyone."

"He's the best star we have."

"No, I'm the best star you have."

And the lion would be willing to die on that hill in front of anyone watching, for all that he had nothing to back that up anymore. The show had been shifted out of his control by the steady degradation of all the little hooks that he'd started with, and the script - while giving him plenty of sex scenes - wasn't giving him the chance to shine that he'd wanted. It was all focused on Charlie.

He snarled as he stepped out of the way, a moment's anger getting in the way before the old pride reasserted itself. By the time that Maurice had stepped inside and Henry had closed the door, the snarl was gone.

"He's not getting anything out of me," Henry said before the hamster could get a word in. "There's nothing to discuss right now."

"Nothing to - Henry, if we lose him, we lose the show."

"We can have other shows," he said with a shrug.

"And how many of them are going to be as good as this one?"

"As long as you have me? All of them."

"That's not what the writer said."

"Then the writer's wrong. Like usual."

"I - look, we need to at least look at our options."

"Do we?" Henry asked, cocking his head to the side. "I'm fairly certain that they're the same ones that we've had every other time that someone's flounced out of the studio like this. Give them a bit of money, sign an NDA with them, and move on."

Though, admittedly, this time things were just a little more complicated than that, though Henry would be loathe to admit that to anyone. Charlie's papers had made it very clear that there was some evidence of a class-action suit that was going to be brought against him, and potentially against the studio. He could probably shift some of that onto Maurice, something about advertising for the studio. Henry had argued this out a number of times; someone working in porn had very little clear authority over what happened to their bodily images these days, and using some that had already been filmed for advertising purposes was easy enough to get away with.

However, with the lawyers that Charlie had already retained...

I think my LA lawyers could take them...

Maybe. That was a big maybe, particularly after all the work that he had already put them through, and the reputation that he was getting in the court system.

And meanwhile, Maurice was still talking.

"Look. Let's at least look at the options. He...he's not going to be unreasonable, I'm sure. And he'll withdraw that complaint if we can make sure that it doesn't happen again."

"Doesn't happen again?" Henry arched an eyebrow. "Where do you think that you get most of your investors, Maurice?"

"I -"

"Do you think that they just magically show up at those investment dinners? Those fundraisers?"

"I...you..."

"They're my connections, but connections have to be fed."

And they required more and more each year. Something new, something different. Sometimes they wanted live flesh, and sometimes they were content with private images, private streams of new actors. One time, he had delivered someone that was barely legal, put them through a drugged gangbang, got them to do all kinds of things for the investors that they'd be hard-pressed to get from anyone outside a brothel in Europe.

That was what he did. He fed the appetites of his connections, and they gave the studio the financial lifeblood that they needed. And he did the rest.

He crossed his arms, looking down at the hamster.

"Don't pretend that your hands are clean here. You know some of what I've been doing."

"I don't want this."

"And you don't have a choice. If you want to open a studio, if you want to keep it running, you have to make deals."

"..."

"And if you don't have me, you know that this place is going to go the way of the dodo in just a few months."

Henry smiled. It was always his ace in the hole when he was 'negotiating' with Maurice about what they would do. If he ever got to the point of being too upset, or too annoyed with the studio, or to the point of not getting what he wanted, then he could take his money and leave. Maurice didn't have any connections to other investors. They all came through Henry. They wouldn't come here, wouldn't touch it.

And he'd done that on purpose. He had molded FDN into a porn studio with the trappings of respectability. Nobody 'respectable' would put their hands on this place. They would want something that didn't have their rep, someone that they could market to families, someone that they could market to wider audiences.

FDN, with all the porn that he'd made it produce, was something that was poison to any other financial source. Maurice was dependent on him, and the hamster damn well knew it.

As the hamster whined, Henry turned to the folder. He flicked it open, looking through the papers. He kept his face stone-still, shaking his head a few times as he looked at the different accusations that would be brought out in court.

Endangerment...

That was the only real charge that had a chance of sticking, but it had a better than even one despite everything. With all the things that he had done with the other stars that had come through the studio, all the things that he had promised his investors, it was entirely possible that an investigation into Charlie would reveal the other things that had been done. Some real criminal acts, there.

I could have gotten away with this on the other coast...

But they weren't in LA. They weren't in Hollywood. They were in New Orleans, and the rules - and the customs - were very different here.

...Hmmph.

But that was if it even went to court. And he had ways to keep that from happening.

"Here's what's going to happen, Maurice."

"You can't just -"

"Ah. I'm talking now."

And he made sure that Maurice was going to listen. He turned and loomed, putting every additional foot that he had on the hamster's height to use. He showed a fang, flexed his hands to show his claws.

The hamster shrunk away. Fear, as ever, was a great motivator.

"You are going to talk to Charlie. You are going to tell him to drop this. And if you don't, then I will leave."

"But...but..."

"I know. I know. It's a tremendous sacrifice on my part," the lion said, pressing a hand to his chest in a bit of melodrama. "But I cannot work under these conditions. Ensure that things stay in my favor, and you continue to benefit. Side with this little shy-dick 'star' of yours, however, and I will see to it that you drown in all the debts that come calling. Not one of your backers will stay with you when I go..."

And that was the truth. And that was his threat.

Maurice looked at him with fish-eyed fear, and Henry knew that his point had been made. He rested a hand on the hamster's back, gently nudging him out of the dressing room and leaving himself alone once more.

That went well...

And better than he had hoped. The less that Maurice questioned him, the better. He was the one with all the connections, all the experience. He could make this place a second Hollywood, if he was allowed. Then he would be able to retire, with all the glories and glamour that he imagined he deserved.

But only if Maurice backed him on this. If this did go to court, if this did end up going somewhere that he had to actually fight, there was a chance that this little criminal action - of endangering a star by inciting this sort of action - could reveal all the other, worse stuff that he had done. And if that happened, not only would he be brought to court, but all those connections of his would disappear like mist in the sun.

Don't do anything stupid, Maurice...we both need to stay strong on this one...

#

Shit, shit, shit, shit...

That was the only word besides the occasional 'fuck' that popped into the hamster's mind as he left the dressing room. Now that he knew what the situation was with the lion, he didn't know how much longer they had as a studio.

He knew for a fact that Henry wasn't bluffing. They had reached this point precisely once before, and the lion had thrown his weight around then, too, showing him just how little stake that the hamster actually had in the studio. Sure, he had plenty of motivation to keep it running, but he had none of the resources. He had already bled himself of all the starting money that he had gotten selling off his old retail stores to get this thing off the ground. All the other money came from investors that Henry brought in, and without them...

Goddammit...god fucking dammit...

They were so close. They had a show that was even better than Game of Bones, they had a star, they had good writers, they had everything that they needed to go all the way. And here was Henry, fucking it all over again. There was no getting around the goddamn lion and his need to meddle.

This isn't LA!

He had lost count of how many times that he'd tried to make the lion understand that. This wasn't Hollywood. This wasn't the land where he could do whatever he wanted and the public would just accept it as the behavior of the stars. This was New Orleans, and while the public didn't have the same sort of power as the stars, it was a hell of a lot more equal here, and the courts were not packed with people that would just accept that sort of bullshit.

They were going to go down hard if they didn't find some way to get Henry under control, but while they were in this situation, Henry was the one that offered them all the different options.

I...I...

Maurice stumbled, and the hamster fell to his knees. He was behind the sets, somewhere in the passageways where all the crew kept moving while they were filming, where they went to set off the special effects. The sheer level of fear running through the hamster finally hit home, and he puked.

The cramps running through his guts, the horrible taste in his mouth, and the crushing feeling of utter helplessness combined to make the following two minutes some of the worst of his life. He groaned as he felt the flood of disgust running out between his lips come to a slow, and then to an end. Wiping his mouth clean, he dragged himself upwards, shakily and slowly, and had to lean against the back of the set to catch his breath and balance.

He wanted to cry, quite honestly. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fucking fair, no matter what way you sliced it.

Making a mental note to get someone to come back and clean that mess up, he stumbled down the little makeshift corridor, wondering what he was going to do. The studio had lawyers - again, provided by Henry - and he knew for a fact that they would be able to keep the fight going for a while. But Henry, for as much as he offered in help to the studio, was such a liability that it would be one of those fights that would be strung out forever, pulled on and on and on. And considering the star power that Charlie had gotten from that first season, the black cat could probably get a HerdFunding campaign going that would end up funding every bit of his legal defense.

In the meantime, they had a season that needed to go ahead, a missing star, and no chance of getting more investors while they were still waiting to pay off the first bunch. They were in an untenable position, and he had no idea how they were going to get out of it.

He felt like he was walking in a haze. Hannah approached, offering him something to drink, and then when he didn't respond, a little pull at his shoulder. He pushed her hand off, just walking along, his thoughts dead. His hopes for the future were dying one by one, and he was just getting ready to attend their mass funeral when -

"Maurice."

He paused, turning to his left. The writer was calling him from another office. The dragon waved his hand, and the hamster sighed.

"What?"

"I have someone on the phone you want to talk to."

"There's nobody that I want to talk to right now."

"I think you'll want this one."

"There's nothing I want."

"Maurice, get your ass over here if you want to keep this studio running."

That was almost the way that Henry would have spoken to him. The only thing different was that there was a hint of exasperation rather than force in it, and it made him realize just how petulant he had become over the last couple of minutes. He was pretty sure that he still had good reason for that, but it was enough to drag him out of it.

He walked into the dragon's office, saw that he had a phone off the hook, and arched an eyebrow.

"Who's on the other end?"

"A couple of Japanese studios," Draconicon said, shutting the door.

"Why would Japan be calling?"

"Because I showed them the tabloids."

"You WHAT?!" And just like that, the malaise was gone. "Nnnnngh! I wanted to keep that hidden! I wanted to keep that from spreading!"

"Trust me. In this case, it's good."

"How the fuck could it be good?!"

"Because it's Japan. And they have something that you want."

"What the hell -"

"Money. And a lot of it."

The hamster was dumbstruck. What the hell could they want after seeing the tabloids? What the hell would they want to pay him for?

He allowed himself to be led to the desk, sat down with the dragon beside him. He even accepted the phone being placed against his head, and the dragon sitting at his side as if they were chief and intern, rather than him being the employer and Drac being the employee. His hand shook as he pressed the phone tighter to his ear.

"Hello...this is Maurice, co-owner of FDN. How can I help you?"

Apparently, he could help quite a bit. It came through in a spilling offer through the group call, filtered through a translator that he could barely hear over the other bits of sound coming through, but the offer itself was clear enough.

They wanted rights to the likenesses of the different actors of the studio for distribution through Japan and a few other locations - none in North America, he found out - and even then only in stills. They wanted to sell body-pillows, 3d printed dildos, and more memorabilia to the hentai lovers, and they were willing to pay bank for it.

"H-how much?" Maurice managed to ask.

In exchanged currency, in the neighborhood of four-hundred million dollars. His eyes just about bugged out of their sockets, his breath dying off. When he didn't answer, they bumped it to five-hundred million.

"I...can make that work," the hamster managed to wheeze out, hoping that it didn't come through as desperate as it sounded.

They were more than happy to hear that, and from the sound of things, he wondered if he could have gotten more than he had from them. It sounded like there was a consortium of different businesses that had pooled their resources together to make sure that they could get at this. Then again, if this was as big a show as it was - and he knew that the Devil May Care had the possibility of overtaking Game of Bones, and that had started out amazing - then they would make all their investment money up and then some just from sales in Japan. Expanding from there to other markets would get them all kinds of resources, too.

And if he sold them the North American rights, with a percentage of all sales coming back to him...

He looked at Draconicon. The black dragon hadn't said a word since the hamster had taken the phone, but the slight smirk on his face told him everything that he needed to know. The writer had taken it upon himself to use a connection of his own to salvage some part of the situation.

Goddammit...

It was a happy goddammit, though, one that made him feel a bit better about the whole thing. He could actually get through this. The studio might actually survive.

Then, an idea struck him. One that would be much easier to work with, if he could actually make it happen. And it would ensure that they were as good as gold for a while.

"Hey. Any chance that any of you are connected to animation studios?"

There was a silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a tentative response from a few members of the group.

"Anyone that works with hentai?"

There was a little bit more interest at that. He imagined that some of them were guessing where this was going, while others were only holding their breath in hopes. Maurice decided to deliver on that.

"What do you say to producing a concurrent animated series of Devil May Care, showing some of the more impossible scenes that we can't actually do with special effects?"

That got all kinds of interest on the other end, and no surprise there. It was something that he imagined would sell amazingly well, and more to the point, it would mean that there was guaranteed voice actor work for his people - meaning that the other studios would have to pay for the work, rather than it draining the coffers of FDN to pay them - and it would give them one more product to sell.

Of course, it would need the writing talents split. He glanced at the dragon, wordlessly asking if he was onboard. Drac tapped his chin for a moment, then nodded.

Perfect.

"Let's hash out some details in the next few weeks. I'll have contracts sent over for the...merchandise...later..."

He hung up with a shaky hand, then collapsed into his chair, wheezing slowly through clenched teeth. Holy shit. Holy. Fucking. Shit.

"Well, that seemed to solve a problem or three," Draconicon said, looking down at his fingers.

"How did you -"

"An educated guess. We want to keep the perverted part off to the side - or at least, you do - and there's no way in Hell that Henry's ever going to allow that to stop. However, if we put it at arm's length, then we have something to work with. Can't stop it with the Devil May Care, but in the future, if you keep some of the Japanese houses under your banner, you can have your clean stuff, and your after-dark stuff. You can build the studio that you want, as long as you cultivate a good relationship with them.

"As for why I sent that to them? You needed money. At least this way, you have a huge influx of cash. If you can show Henry that you don't need him, then you can show other investors that you can stand up for yourself, make your own deals. They have to come to you rather than the other way around."

"..."

"It's just a guess as to what you needed, but I think I guessed right."

The dragon was not just right, he was dead right. Maurice was almost boneless with relief at that moment as he slumped further and further back in the dragon's writing chair, taking the moment to stare up at the ceiling and imagine what the future would be like. For the first time in too long, he felt like he had a chance to have what he wanted.

Henry...

The lion was still going to be a problem, but with a cash infusion of half a billion dollars, that was going to be a hell of a lot less of one. That was nearly enough for a second season right there, perhaps more. It would be the money that was needed to keep them going, to ensure that any further investments didn't need to be so large. It was a bump that he had never considered going for, and probably something that Henry wouldn't like...

But at this point, fuck Henry.

I'm making this right. Maurice smiled slightly to himself. I'm making this right for a change...

With this, he really could shift Henry a bit, and he could piss off the lion without losing everything. He could keep his star, his studio...

"I can't believe it."

"Believe it, Maurice. You got what you wanted."

"...What did you want for this, Drac?" the hamster asked, bringing his head back down. "I'm serious. I can't imagine that you did this out of the goodness of your heart. What do you want for all this? A percentage?"

"No."

"Another person working under you?"

"Nope." The dragon shook his head. "None of that."

"You can't seriously be doing this for free. That's just stupid. You're too smart to do that."

"I am. Which is why it's not for free. It's for something else."

"And that is..."

"My own show. Written by me. Starring the people I choose." The dragon smiled. "And I know it can't happen now...but I'm building up credit for that. I'll wait until FDN is at a good point, but when it is...I'm cashing in that favor. Understand?"

Maurice had a flashback to when Henry had become his business partner. He remembered how that had all started, how the lion had brought in the investors, brought in the cash, brought in the connections, and had demanded all kinds of favors for it. Some of the favors hadn't been cashed in until years later, and the hamster hadn't even known that they were coming. All he knew was that he would perpetually owe Henry so long as the money kept coming in.

Now, he was nearly in the same situation, except that the dragon was telling him flat-out what he wanted. And if the studio did well...well, Maurice saw no reason to deny the dragon what he was asking for. It would come after Devil May Care - he wasn't compromising the writing on that for anything - but eventually...yes, he could see that working out just fine.

"Deal."

"Good." Draconicon nodded. "Now, you might want to get in touch with Charlie. Tell him that this is sorted."

"Oh fuck...oh fuck. Nnnngh, I almost forgot about that."

If he didn't talk to the black cat...if he didn't stop the legal proceedings soon...

"I'll be back later. Thank you. Thank you!"

And with that, the hamster ran off.

Henry, on the other hand, was still in his dressing room, and he was in the middle of a call of his own. The lion leaned back on his chair, tapping his fingers against its fabric arm in a deliberately too-calm movement.

"What do you mean, the settlement isn't enough?" he growled.

"I mean that it isn't enough."

Barely suppressing a growl, Henry looked down at the calculator and the legal paperwork near him. Charlie was suing him hard with the lawsuit, but other than the endangerment charge, there wasn't much there. The damn cat should have been happy with a settlement of a million. That would be more than enough to keep him going, and it would be sufficient to keep him well-paid for the rest of the year.

But something had changed with Charlie. Something big. Something that made him into something of an asshole as far as the lion was concerned.

He got to his feet, pacing back and forth as he scraped his fingers along the dressing room counter. He clicked his teeth together in frustration.

"Charlie. This is a spurious lawsuit, and you know it."

"Not from where I'm standing."

"You're standing in the middle of a pile of porn. You have no right to any of this dignity that you pretend to have."

"That's rich, coming from someone that organized all the porn for himself."

"You will take the settlement and drop this."

"No, I don't think I will."

"You..."

"However, if you really want to keep this from going to court, I can talk to my lawyers and see if I we can deliver a different offer."

"..."

"I'll call you later. See if we can come up with something..."

Click.

If the situation had been less serious, Henry might have given in to the angry impulse to throw the phone across the room. As it stood, he knew better than to lose his private connection. He laid it down, sitting down once more and seething.

The little...

There was no immediate word that captured the sheer reprehensibility of the younger feline. He was more than an upstart asshole, far more than that. The lion had earned his pride, earned his place and his rewards. His indulgences might have been slightly more than he should have done, legally speaking, but it was hardly something that someone should have gotten this worked up over.

He had even done the bigger thing by reaching out and offering a farewell solution. After all, it was only right that he did the bigger thing and allow Charlie the chance to climb down from this with something...

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He would really, really prefer not to see this go to court. After a consultation with his own attorneys, he had found out that there were more grounds to the suit than he really wanted to admit, and there were more worries and risks than he had understood. The judges of New Orleans had seen four sexual harassment cases involving him, and his name had started getting around. Another case going before the courts would start poisoning the regular populace against him, weakening two of the other ongoing cases, things that he could ill-afford to go badly for him.

But still, Charlie should have the common sense to accept that, rather than fighting it. This wasn't the way of things at all.

He stood up, pacing around his dressing room. Things had gone so well for him since partnering with Maurice. He had a pushover for a partner, all the sex toys that he could ask for under him, sugar babies galore, and a studio that allowed him to make whatever movies he wanted to show off his talent and his prowess.

So...

Why was it not working out for him?

Because I am working with incompetent morons...

That was what he had always told himself, but the more that he settled into this new situation, the more that he wondered if he had been wrong for a number of years. He had been the one to push the writer out of his position, and there was no question that Game of Bones went downhill after the dragon was gone. He had been the one to oust a previous star and take their place as the main character of a different show, and that had gone horribly for him, even with all his talent.

And then there was this. A brand new show, something that had already gotten the whole studio massive bonuses, and here he was, trying to bury the star of it so that they could move on with something else.

Is there something wrong with me?

For a brief moment, the lion thought about it seriously, wondering if there was something that he needed to fix about himself to move forward, to allow the studio to do better. It was a serious, genuine, soul-searching moment...

And then it faded. He shook his head, reaching for his phone.

No, Charlie caused this whole mess. End of story.

And there had to be a way of handling this without going back to the settlement plans. There were dozens of ways to handle lawsuits. Maybe his lawyers could dig something up to make Charlie into a laughingstock. Maybe there was something in his past that they could use to push him out of filing the lawsuit at all.

There was always something. If there was one thing that he had learned in Hollywood, it was that everyone had something that they could be pushed on. You just needed to find it. And one way or another, Henry would find Charlie's weak point.

And when he did, he would make that cat pay for this humiliation. One did not challenge him in this arena. He had been a star for too long, and nobody would take his grand plans of retirement from him.

The End

Summary: The lawsuit ripples through the FDN, but that doesn't mean that there's no way out. Drac offers Maurice a solution.

Tags: No Sex, Negotiations, Hamster, Dragon, Lion, Merchandising, Series, Studio, Meta, Blackmail,