#howitt

Yep.... :D Please don't send help, I'm a hopeless case <3

The body of Grottz Tractorpull lay in repose atop his desk, a sickly grey colour rather than his usual lively green. Steamplate paces the room, thoughts run through his head a mile a minute. How could she do this? What would become of the family now? Does he inform the Baron and gather the guards, or is this all somehow… on the level?

He turns to the door as it creaks open.

The sharp knife drags through the soft supple flesh, juices leaking out of it as the cold metal slides effortlessly. It is sharper than it needs to be, sharper than it has any business being, but that makes her work easier. Pleased with the events of the day, Alibi Tractorpull takes her slices of tomato and lines them end on end across the sandwich she’s made for herself and returns to her now dead husband’s office.

Her eldest son, Steamplate, paces in the office, turning to her when she enters. He isn’t sure how to react. This is his mother, after all. On the other hand, she just murdered his father in front of him. He tenses.

“Steamplate, go join your siblings. I will be along shortly, I need to address the assembled.”

His eye twitches. She can’t presume to be ordering him now, can she? He looks her over, sizing her up. The knife is there. Tucked into her belt. But she is quite calm, eating a- does she have a sandwich?

“Fine. I’ll go find the brats.”

He leaves the office and the door closes behind him. He isn’t sure he trusts her with the body, given that she’s responsible for it, but what can he do? He doesn’t want to knife fight his mother for obvious reasons.

Staxxy is in the vestibule, he can hear her down the stairs, sobbing loudly as if this whole thing isn’t her fault. He decides to approach, as his mother requested, and as he descends the stairs he sees another member of the family has entered the manor.

“Boxcar, let me get your coat, sister.” He approaches her and offers to unfetter her. “Husband and kid not joining us today?”

“No, I thought, given what the courier had to say, that I’d best come alone. Is it true?”

He nods at her as she keeps her sable trimmed jacket rather than handing it over. Always about looking regal, this one. Dress to impress turned up to 11. “Yeah, he’s in the office, laid out on his desk. With her.”

“So she did it?”

“Had help. That one.” He gestures at Staxxy, still curled up on the bench, being hugged by Vrixx in an attempt to comfort her older sister. “She attacked him first.”

“Hm. Odds on that outcome were pretty good, actually.” She shrugs, seemingly expecting something like this. “He called, and the river dealt him a bad hand.”

Steamplate rolls his eyes and moves past, descending the rest of the staircase. “Good seeing you Boxcar. Don’t go too far, she wants to address those gathered.”

He doesn’t bother looking back to see where she’s headed or what sort of reference to dice she’s going to make next. Instead his eyes fixate on the remaining siblings on the ground level.

“Well I hope you’re happy. You came for this, and now he’s dead. You got your wish.”

Vrixx glares at her older brother, Staxxy is absolutely in no shape for this sort of confrontation, but before she can speak up, before she can object, her older sister turns to him.

“Th-this isn’t what I wanted!” She ripples, tears still streaming down her cheeks. Her eyes are a bright red from the crying she’s been doing. “H-he pushed me to it! I’m not a- I’m not a killer!”

“But he’s dead Staxxy. And you had a hand in it. You’re just as bloody as she is.”

“Steamplate! Fuck off! Leave her be!” Vrixx snaps at him. She’s tearful as well, but not nearly to the extent that Staxxy is. She’s never seen her like this before. It’s worrying.

“You aren’t even supposed to be here! He kicked you out!” Steamplate is having none of it from Vrixx. How dare she presume to lecture him, the heir apparent, when she was such a fuck up she got disowned.

“You didn’t- you didn’t even care how he treated your own sister!” Staxxy cries out through sobs, buried in Vrixx’s shirt. “You cannot lecture me on family when you’re clearly only a blind follower! Sycophant!”

Steamplate trembles with anger. He does what he does to continue the family. To safeguard their way of doing things. Now that their father is gone, it falls on him. He reaches into his breast pocket and draws a switchblade-

Then the water lands on him with a loud splash.

“C-calm down S-steamplate.”

The runt’s voice hits him. Howitt’s been holding out, if he’s got this level of control over the elements.He flips open the switchblade and, surprise, it’s a comb, which he now uses to sort out his now wet mess of hair atop his head. “Didn’t see you there.” He decides not to interact with the siblings on this floor after all.

Alibi Tractorpull draws the last remnants of energy from the corpse of her dead husband, faint wisps of green energy float up gently to her fingertips. Long has this day been coming, and now she claims the prize that was due her for two and a half decades. The green energy floats, directed by her fingers, into her open mouth, which is soon occupied by sandwich.

“Time to get this show on the road.”

The door opens, and she emerges, coming face to face with the eldest Tractorpull daughter, whom she ushers down the stairs with a wave of her hands. She doesn’t have time to deal with her analysis of the odds.

“Children! It’s good to see at least one of you could make it on such short notice.” She speaks, her voice booming with purpose. “As you know, Grottz is dead. The how and the why is unimportant. What is important is the unambiguous nature of inheritance.”

Steamplate looks up at her with suspicion, expecting her to grab power. Staxxy ignores her entirely, still sobbing. The room is honestly split.

“As his wife, ownership falls on me. But, we have a good family here. We have people with expertise. As such, the day to day operations of Tractorpull Incindiaries LLC will be headed by… my dear son Steamplate.”

The eldest son of clan Tractorpull looks at her with surprise. He had expected a coup, not to be given more power. This changes things. “I- th-thank you? You won’t regret this mother.”

She nods at him, certain of such. She doesn’t want that role. She doesn’t want that day to day nonsense. She has more pressing matters to attend to. “The direction the family has taken needs correcting. I am calling a truce with the Threespark family. We’ve wasted enough of our resources on a feud that gets us no profits. I know some of you have done good on your old role, and that’s fine, but times change.”

Boxcar smiles, knowing she’s still going to take her Threespark to the cleaners every Thursday at the casino. She’s not too concerned about the company, but she’s glad it doesn’t come down on her to run anything.

“The family trust fund will be divested fully from the business.” Alibi continues, once the running commentary is concluded. “And I’ve decided that I am putting my youngest daughter, Vrixx in charge of running the fiduciary interests of the family.”

This one is a surprise to the room. Steamplate blinks, wondering if she’s crazy not only bringing an exiled daughter back, but handing her the family vault. Boxcar didn’t see that one in the cards. Vrixx almost doesn’t hear her name being spoken.

“Pardon? What was that?”

“I said, you are now in charge of the family trust fund. You obviously are having your place in the family restored, and you will once again be afforded an allowance drawn from the fund.”

On my Boots Netflix TV Show bullshit again.

In honor of trying to keep this fandom from dying after the cancellation announcement here are headcannons for what superpowers the Boots characters would have in a X-Men mutant/superhero/powers exist AU.

DI Marcus McKinnon: Omnilingualism—The ability to communicate with and understand any living beings (including animals).

DI Cary Howitt: Lightning Manipulation—The ability to summon, control, and emit lightning. Is lightning proof.

DI Liam Robert Sullivan: Empath—The ability to feel, understand, and control the emotions of others.

Major Wilkinson: Invisibility/Cloaking/Camouflage.—The ability to turn invisible/turn other objects and individuals invisible across the entire electromagnetic spectrum as well as visually blend into immediate environment.

Rob Maitra: Elasticity/Elastic Body—Superhuman elasticity of the body which allows for a wide range of manipulations and conformations.

Captain Denise Fajardo: Fire Manipulation: The ability to generate, control, and manipulate fire. Is fireproof.

Barbara Cope: llusion Manipulation—The ability to cast visual illusions.

Cameron Cope: Empath—The ability to feel, understand, and control the emotions of others.

Ray McAffey: Technopathy/Technology Manipulation—The ability to innately understand, use, and control technology mentally.

Isaiah Nash: Power Absorption (temporary)/Power Replication—The ability to temporarily copy and use the powers of others.

Nicholas Slovacek: Magnetism Manipulation/Metal Manipulation—The ability to control and feel magnetism and magnetic fields.

Thaddeus “Beau” Sterling Hicks: He changes his answer every time someone asks, so no one knows the real answer except the DIs who can read his file—(It's shapeshifting).

Santos Santos: Intangibility/Phasing—The ability to phase through any object or material.

Eduardo Ochoa: Chlorokinesis/Plant Control—The ability to control, grow, communicate, and manipulate plants.

Cody Bowman: Superstrength—Incredibly strong.

John Bowman: Durability/Invulnerability—Is immune to conventional and most forms of physical and mental attack. Improved immune system.

Joshua Jones: Light Manipulation/Photokinesis—The ability to produce, control, and manipulate light.

Bonus! :)

Staxxy dips her fingers into the water and the darkness swirls around her, drawing up her arm.  “Hellscream was a fool, unable to control this power.” the black inky sha stuff erupts from her lips and settles on her chin. Her voice booms as she starts to rise into the air, propelled by the raw power of fear. Fear for her family, fear for her sister, fear of what her father might do.

“You must be stopped.” her voice booms with dark energy, reverberating through the parties assembled. “before you harm another.”

Steamplate scrambles out of the front door of the house and pulls a switchblade from his pocket, flicking it open and turning to his little brother.

“C'mon runt, we gotta stop her before she kills him!” He pulls the hatchet from his belt and dashes forward, only to find the ground beneath his feet coming loose.

“L-leave her alone!” Howitt cries as he grasps the air with a fist. A fist the ground mimics, grappling Steamplate and stopping him from interfering. Tears flow from the corners of his eyes as he adds, “s-she's right!”

Staxxy's eyes glow a pale white; her hair blackens and flows with the primal energy as she looks to her target. Masses of inky energy flow from her shadow, briefly taking the shape of the second youngest Tractorpull daughter before attaching to Grottz’ limbs, holding him in place. A sharpened black spear forms and levels with his eyes.

“This is for Vrixx!”

“What's for me?!” Vrixx finally arrives in the yard of her family manor for the first time since her father threw her out. “I- I don't want this Staxxy!”

The archmage stops, feeling the black ink rising in her throat. Her eyes well up and she speaks, ichor flowing from her maw, “you aren't real. You can't be real. You were gone!”

“I'm real!” Vrixx runs up and pulls her sister down to earth by the ankle. “I don't know what you saw but i'm real!”

Staxxy's shape ripples as her sister pulls her in close, arms wrapped around her in a hug. The black film retracts from her face, shimmering as she assays her sister for traces of illusion, subterfuge, obfuscation, anything. She’s the real deal.

“You were gone.”

“I’m fine! I’m-” Vrixx’s words are cut off by a boot to the chest as their father breaks free of the inky black grasp and strikes back.

“Not welcome in my house! I thought I kicked you out you whiny little failure!” Grottz strikes back, apparently more offended that Vrixx is back than that Staxxy tried to kill him.

“You leave her ALONE!” Staxxy lashes out, the black seeping back into her extremities. A wave of dark power bursts from her chest, throwing him across the yard and back toward the house. “I don’t CARE if she’s not gone. I cannot let you continue to hurt this family! To foment fear in our hearts! Do you think anyone cares about the vendetta? They fear your wrath! Well now you learn to fear MINE!”

Vrixx rolls on the ground, clutching her chest in pain; Staxxy takes to the air, blackened ichor drips from her maw as she floats, gathering her power for a decisive strike against her father, who by now has climbed to his feet and steadies himself against an incoming strike.

“STOP. FIGHTING. THE. CHILDREN!”

A sharp blade pulls across the throat of Grottz Tractorpull, taking him by surprise. His hands go up to his neck as blood pours from the wound. He turns to see his assailant and comes face to face with his wife. Alibi Tractorpull.

“Y-you!” Grottz manages to choke out between gurgles, thick with blood. “B-been waitin for this?”

The Nobel memorial prize in economics was on Monday awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for “having explained innovation-driven economic growth”. The winners were credited with better quantifying “creative destruction,” a key concept in economics that refers to the process in which beneficial new innovations replace – and thus destroy – older technologies and businesses.