Chapter 153: Inglourious Basterds. 2009 CE
Pluto was in his living room in front of TV, watching a movie with his 8 year old son comfortably. They were eating popcorn, with Helios besides him leaning against the sofa.
Inglorious Basterds were playing on the TV, depictions of Nazis were everywhere in the screen.
“You fought Nazis dad?” Helios questioned casually as he ate the popcorn.
“I mean.. kind of?” Pluto answered. “Never fought one directly.”
“Meaning?”
“It’s hard to explain really..”
The movie then shows a truck driving through a forest, and a white man with white tuxedo were brought to the middle of the forest by the nazis.
“Being an actor seems cool.” Helios stated. “It looks like they’re having fun instead of working..”
“You want to be an actor?” Pluto hummed. “I thought you liked painting.”
“Sitting all day’s kind of boring.” Helios shrugged. “Being an actor seems fine.. but I don’t know..”
“Well, you like painting, you like music, you like film, how about being a filmmaker instead?” Pluto suggested casually.
“Filmmaker?” Helios questioned. “Is that fun?”
“I mean, you got the painting part.” said Pluto, pointing at the TV. “Every scene is like a painting come to life, if you treat it like that, I’m sure you’ll be a good filmmaker. Music adds to the element, you can control the emotions of the ones who are watching your movie with that. I don’t know how good you are at writing, but you’re my son, probably decent at it.”
“Hm.. sounds interesting..”
“You can think about that later, you’re still too young, but no harm in thinking about your future from now.” Pluto shrugged.
The scene then quickly turned gory. The man in a white tux used a knife to carve a swastika to the Nazi’s forehead, making him bleeding profusely.
“Alright, close your eyes.” said Pluto, covering Helios’s eyes with his hands.
“It’s just blood dad..”
“Yeah, well, if your mom suddenly comes in, I’m dead, so..”
“Fine..”
The scene quickly finished as Tarantino’s name appeared on the screen, rolling the credits.
“Movies over, you go to bed boy.” said Pluto, taking the popcorn from Helios’s hands.
“Hey dad.. about the warhammer figurines..”
“I’ll buy it after the vacation, assuming you pass the test of course,” said Pluto calmly.
“Wait, a test? What do you mean by a test?” Helios’s eyes widened.
“Of course there’s a test, you’ll have to see later for that.” Pluto answered. “Now chop-chop, go to bed.”
Helios hummed, and jumped off from the sofa, walking towards the stairs to his room. “Good night dad.”
“Good night.” Pluto said, changing the tv to news.
An anchorwoman spoke delivering the news. “Simple farmers and herders from peaceful villages, have been driven from their homes by warlords, emboldened by a newfound power, villagers have been forced to take shelter to whatever place the could find—”
Below the news, crawling messages could be seen as well. It read ‘Stark Industries’ Stocks continued to drop following the press conference of Tony Stark, explaining the shutting down of the weapons manufacturing division of the company.’
Pluto sighed as he saw the news. He took out his phone, and saw that there were many missed calls from Obadiah Stane. Just when he was about to put his phone to his pocket again, the phone rang, and again, it was Obadiah Stane.
Pluto clicked his tongue, but when he was about to hang up, he stopped, and finally, he relented, picking up the call.
“I swear to god Stane, I will put a restraining order on you.” Pluto complained.
“Smith! Why didn’t you go to the Board meeting?!” asked Stane back.
“I never go to board meetings, idiot. To yours, nor to mine.” Pluto answered, mocking Stane. “What do you want now? I told you I’m not going to sell the stock many times now.”
“No, it’s about Tony,” he said. “He is going off the rails. The board is claiming Post Traumatic Stress, they’re filing an injunction.”
“Oh that’s how it is.. You want me to agree with them..” Pluto hummed. “You’re the one who filed it right?”
The phone turned silent for a second. “What do you mean? You know I won’t do that.. It’s Tony.. he’s like my son.”
“Sure, tell yourself that.” Pluto said. “Right, not going to deal with you, I’ll let him deal with you himself, but if you tried anything on me Stane, I’ll put your head on a spike. Don’t bother me any longer.”