baronvoltage

[baronvoltage]

[baronvoltage]

Volkage flashes him a tight smile as he fishes out the glass and the bottle from a hidden compartment of the desk and pours Graves a shot of whiskey. He leaves the bottle within reach of the man when he returns to his desk and his waiting mug of coffee.

“It has been a while. I hope life has treated you well.“

Can I tempt you to a drink? I'm sticking to coffee this time, but I'm sure I have a bottle of whiskey somewhere I could treat a guest to

“Yeah. Sure.” Graves crosses his legs. Some whiskey would do him good right about now.

[baronvoltage]

askdragonbladetalon:

The evident relief from the baron made Talon arch his eyebrows in surprise. What had he thought, that Talon would demand a monthly retainer to not kill someone? Or some ridiculous price up front to not take the contract even if nobody ever tried to hire him to kill whomever the baron wanted protected? He was an assassin, not a businessman! He earned his money by killing people, not by gouging his clients. His fees were high, yes, but that was commensurate to the risk he took and the difficulty involved. It wasn’t arbitrary prices where he charged whatever he thought he could get away with.

The crackling jolt of electricity between the baron’s fingers had Talon cocking his head to a side curiously. “How the fuck do you ever touch electronics or take a bath if that’s always happening?”

Wouldn’t the man be electrocuting himself every time he showered? Or did he just get sponge bathed by his servants and had the metal parts of himself polished?

The offer to join the man for dinner was accepted with a nod and a faintly amused smirk. “If you have a meeting, doesn’t that mean you’ll be discussing other business? Whoever’s waiting for you might not be too happy if you also want to bring an assassin along. In Noxus, it’d be considered an indirect threat.”

Talon would go anyway, though, as long as the baron didn’t rescind the invitation. It was free food! What sort of person could turn down free food? And maybe he could get a doggy bag for Warwick too.

Volkage was slightly taken aback by the question.

“It doesn’t usually happen. I have been fighting earlier today. It will wear off in an hour or two.” Or when went back to HQ and asked the mechanic to recalibrate it, whichever happened first. “Augments are impractical in quite a few ways, but no mechanic worth their money would let you walk out of their workshop with one that was dangerous to you.”

That principle, as Volkage could attest with a bitter grimace if you managed to get him drunk enough to be chatty about the topic, regrettably did not extend to whatever damage they made to you while the augments were installed.

“I expect that you two will get along, considering that I’m paying you not to kill her.” He got the impression, both from Azir and their brief exchange, that Talon wasn’t really a seasoned conversationalist, but that was more of a positive, really. It was refreshing to talk to someone who didn’t make every sentence a verbal trap. “I hope you don’t mind walking, we are rather close.”

How not to hire an assassin

[baronvoltage]

Volkage's shoulders sagged in obvious relief. He heard that the assassin was a reasonable sort, but he didn't quite believe it. Too many bad experiences with the Noxian idea of fairness made him distrustful.

"That's more than fair. Thank you, master assassin. I'd suggest to shake on it, but-" He smiled bitterly and lifted a hand, a small arc of electricity running between the brass components.

"I'm running late from a meeting," the baron said, letting his hand drop to his side again. "A dinner, in fact. Perhaps we could discuss the details there, if you are willing to join me. Knowing my staff, there will be plenty of food to spare."

Inviting an assassin to his home was a bad idea on principle, but they needed to make the agreement official and he didn't want to go into details in an unsecured location.

Besides, he had a hunch that Sofia would like the assassin.

How not to hire an assassin

[baronvoltage]

It wasn’t often that people found their way to the Volkage mansion without invitation. While indeed it was quite obviously a mansion once you were inside, it was hidden away in an industrial district and sported a bland forefront that made it difficult to distinguish it from the surrounding factories and rundown office buildings.

The woman who answered the door was dressed as a butler and was quite handsome if your taste ran towards stern and gaunt.

“We aren’t buying anything.” She glared down at the person who dared to knock, her red eyes hinting at a Noxian ancestry.

starter for @baronvoltage

No. He wasn’t lost. He never got lost, never. It definitely wasn’t a conveniently frequent mistake he made both when he’s drunk and when he’s sober. Definitely..

And no, the fact he was physically and mentally swallowing his pride and knocking on this stranger’s front door to ask for directions was not any proof that these all have been lies very humorously and cleverly written out by a not-so literally inclined mun.

[baronvoltage]

(DWC-THELEES) Mens Luxury Double Breasted Turtleneck Pea Coat

[baronvoltage]

reblog this if you love your muse more than canon loves your muse

[baronvoltage]

How not to hire an assassin

continued from here

@askdragonbladetalon

“…Your apology is accepted.” The use of ‘master assassin’ was enough to soothe Talon’s temper and earn the man a nod.

Too many nobles in Noxus tried to use his personal name as a way to stress that they were above him – one name only, no family, no House – by treating him the same way that they would a servant they were telling to take out the garbage. Talon had had to put up with it at the start, when he was still an unknown, but by now his fame had grown that he could afford to reject clients who were deliberately disrespectful.

This man, whomever he was, had erred out of genuine ignorance rather than because he was playing power games – and if he was a friend of Azir’s, that was also a point in his favor.

“Azir’s a friend, so he’s allowed to call me ‘Talon’. Haven’t seen him in a few weeks though.” Talon’s schedule was an unpredictable thing, revolving around missions and rest, but he made a note to swing by Shurima on his way back and check in with Azir. He could also remind Azir then that the Blade’s Shadow was a title, akin to doctor, and he’d prefer if Azir didn’t give people the impression that they could casually use Talon’s personal name.

However, all of that could wait. Right now, they were talking business and the man’s request was unusual enough that Talon cocked his head to a side.

“Really? You wouldn’t rather just hire me to kill your enemy?” If someone had advance warning, surely having their enemy killed would be cheaper in the long run than having to bribe multiple assassins to not kill someone. Talon was certainly one of the best in the business but he wasn’t the only assassin in Valoran.

Then again, of the others of his caliber, most of them worked only for their cause or country. Zed and  Kayn worked for the Order, Akali worked for the Kinkou, Jhin worked for Ionia, Kat worked for Noxus and the others were serial killers or hunters rather than actual assassins for hire.

Of all of them, Talon was practically the only one who worked for a paycheck rather than principles.

So Talon was his actual name? Volkage filed that away as a curios but currently irrelevant detail.

“No, if this one died, all his cronies and even some of his enemies would be out for my head. Carving a bloody path through Piltover’s old nobility to be left alone isn’t particularly high on my to-do list.” There was of course Camille who needed to be dealt with sooner or later, but Volkage’s first priority was to ensure nobody would take a contract on Sofia.

“The few locals with any skill won’t work for Pilties on principle and the bodyguards can deal with the rest. Few foreign assassins come here unless their own agenda demands it, so if I can pay you off I have all my angles covered and can put most of my worries to rest.”

It wasn’t a particularly complicated plan, but it hinged entirely on the Talon’s cooperation.

[baronvoltage]

Ah. Well, talk about making a bad first impression.

"I apologize if I misspoke, master assassin. I acquired your name from Emperor Azir. He suggested that he might put in a good word for me, but I see that didn't come to be."

He wasn't surprised, but this certainly made things more difficult. "Not exactly. One of my enemies is hoping to hire you. I'd rather that you didn't take that particular mark, if you could be persuaded so."

You are the assassin Talon, correct? Your reputation precedes you.

“…Yes, though most people who only know me as an assassin call me the Blade’s Shadow.” It wasn’t an egregious breach of privacy but it was unexpected enough that Talon arched his eyebrows at the man, wondering where he’d picked up the idea of addressing Talon by his personal name instead of his title.

It was no secret that the Blade’s Shadow was a man named Talon who lived in Noxus and had served the Du Couteaus, but it was generally considered politer to refer to him by his title than his name. The people who called him by his name on a regular basis were only a handful, a group so small that Talon could count them on his fingers.

They were friends, not clients, and thus interacted with Talon rather than the Blade’s Shadow. This man, stranger that he was, was not a friend. Using his first name as an attempt to either forge intimacy or show disrespect was a poor move on his part, though Talon was willing to consider that perhaps he had picked it up from Viktor or someone else whom Talon counted as a friend.

“I take it you have need of my services?”

[baronvoltage]

Doppelgänger [drabble]

Headcanon, the aftermath of Severed Ties.

Never let it be said that Caitlyn, Sheriff of Piltover, wasn’t a patient person. One had to be to hold onto the position for as long as she had. Her patience however was not endless and the current case valiantly and relentlessly tried her limits.

One busted ascender, two beaten up thugs, three dead bodyguards, one traumatized lady of high breeding and multiple eyewitness accounts of a woman with blades for legs. It should have been such an easy case.

If only her eyewitnesses stopped lying for two minutes.

She crossed her arms and gave the three a sharp look, two giant augmented bouncers framing the slight form of Lady Arvino as she tried to dry her tears, with no avail.

“Would someone care to tell me what have really happened here?“

Keep reading

[baronvoltage]

Hey, I’m still under the weather, but I might try to pop in here and do some writing.

I could probably write Azir too, but I’d need to clean up the Kaisa discourse before and just thinking about it gives me a headache so Baron Steampunk it is.

[baronvoltage]

Does anyone else have issues with replies getting stuck in drafts? I have to reblog things again because if I draft them first then they refuse to post properly afterwards.

[baronvoltage]

Volkage can be sexy when he tries.

This started out as a quick sketch and turned into this and I’m not sorry in the least.

[baronvoltage]

If Blitz is friends with Viktor… and Blitz is friends with Ekko… Then ..Viktor and Ekko will HAVE to be friends because who’d want to upset Blitzcrank????

[baronvoltage]

could you like or reblog this if you’re okay with late replies to roleplay threads / asks / etc.?

by late, it means anywhere between 1 day to 1 year. because i know some people prefer writing and replying on the spot, but i’m also sure lots of peeps struggle with that for various reasons, and threads get dropped because their partner has long lost interest or something, which can be very discouraging. so i hope we can all be understanding here!

[baronvoltage]

You know, Volkage’s self image is kind of a wreck. He’s aware that he’s handsome, but knowing isn’t the same as feeling it, if that makes any sense.

He thinks of himself as a cripple and it’s not completely inaccurate. His arms are weapons first, functional limbs second which already makes them inconvenient and unpleasant in a lot of ways even without factoring in the frequent chest pains and the mangled lungs they come with.

As for before he got augmented, he wasn’t in a much better shape. He was legally blind for about two years by the time he finally got the replacement eyes and he was losing his sight for a long time. He had very little feeling in both hands because of chemical burns he suffered when he was younger and he had trouble moving the fingers of his left hand.

He doesn’t regret going through with the augmentations, but he feels like he exchanged one bloody inconvenient disability for another. He doesn’t see himself as healthy or a particularly desirable person to live with and he will forever be amazed that Sofia is willing to put up with him.

[baronvoltage]

Volkage, while generally speaking healthy enough (and goes out of his way to stay healthy) living in Zaun and his augments have a noticeable negative impact on his health.

A lot of the mechanisms related to the arms are internal and as humans aren’t really built to have a whole lot of stuff showed in their chest cavity they had to remove several ribs and quite a big chunk of his lungs to put the internal parts somewhere.

My boy made some stupid decisions when he was younger ‘kay?

It severely affects his stamina mostly. He gets winded easily and he’s often tired.

One way to spot the real Volkage next to the body double is have them climb a flight of stairs and watch which one gets out of breath sooner because most of his doubles have an updated version of the augments that don’t need the removal of internal organs.