lawyer up

[adriannelenker]

You’ll go far.

IN THE LOOP (2009) dir. Armando Iannucci

[notorious-nick]

"and like you said, you like me better shutting up?" he asked while barely fighting off a grin. after all, he hadn't actually uttered the word 'like' once. nick would have to generously read between the lines.

he chuckled into his next drink at atticus' answer. "tragic on both counts, i fear. whatever makes you happy, though."

[atticus-bass]

"i'm not against you shutting up by however means necessary" nick talking was one thing, but nick babbling on would eventually irritate him. nick knew that better than anyone.

"it's not about what makes me happy, it's about what needs to be done. chuck is useless and disinterested, and someone has to hold the responsibility."

[ikickath]

[notorious-nick]

"perhaps you're finally ready to let your hair down? truly throw caution to the wind and loosen that scowl, atticus! we could be having a ball, you and i. very well, though-," he conceded with his hands up- "you keep playing hard to get."

[atticus-bass]

"the day i let my hair down is the day the upper east side crumbles." he seemed to be the only one with sense these days around here, even if the proposition did somewhat sound appealing at times. "i dread to think what kind of ball you're thinking of" atticus rolled his eye, placing his glass on the bar "i'm busy nick, and you have gabriela"

[notorious-nick]

"sounds about right," nick breathed as atticus crouched down beside him, turning his face from left to right. he was speaking too and nick was trying to focus on it, unscrambling the words falling from his lips as best he could. "if i'd known this would get me so much attention from you, i would have- have done it sooner-," he started before coughing, wincing after. fuck me. he could move, he was sure of that. nick twitched his fingers then his toes to be sure. pretty good, right? "i- i'm fine," he said at last, trying to sit himself up a little too soon. groaning in pain, he was suddenly hit with the realisation that gabriela was gone. "wait--- shit, gabriela was... is she here?"

he tried again to sit up but it was too fast, too much. his head was killing him. "6... 6, x-ray, yankee... fuck, something... 7, 8... something. fuck, i can't- i can't remember all of it."

[atticus-bass]

the stress of it all was finally getting to him because he genuinely smiled in relief that nick was still able to talk shit while he checked over the damage on his face "you always know how to get my attention on you in one way or another" atticus tried to get him to stay still and lay down but who was nick to listen to common sense right now? the annoyance returned to him when nick tried to insist he was fine "you're not fine. you're mangled to fuck" he stopped when the dreaded question was dropped. atticus knew it would be asked at some point but he'd hoped he had more time to get nick patched up first "she's not here. she's gone, nick"

once again he tried to keep the other guy at bay and once again he was ignored. "that's good, it's a start. i can get lili and the security teams to narrow it down" he answered, giving nick his approval while he opted to help him slowly sit up. "slow breaths" he reminded him. he needed to get nick out of here. he didn't know if there was any internal damage and he wasn't going to wait around to find out. atticus pulled out his phone and dropped lili a message of parts of the plate nick could remember "you need medical attention. i know this is going to suck for you but i need to move you to get you to zara. you okay for me to pull you up?"

[teslacarbombz]

anyone else feel like theyre on the verge of insanity in an undescribable way

[stuckinapril]

“you should be at the club” Brother I should literally be sent to the seaside for my health

[cosmogenous]

*leaves 'for a smoke' and comes back speckled with blood*

[notorious-nick]

nick's head was pounding. he could feel the chill of the night air on his face and the feel of the road underneath his body. what the hell had happened? while his brain tried to piece together the events that had taken him from his brother's gallery to the middle of the road, he could have sworn he heard another car pulling up. nick's heart started pounding in his chest, panic creeping over him and screaming for him to open his eyes. to run. piece by piece, flash by flash, he remembered the crash and the driver. the hit to the head. and gabriela. where the hell was gabriela?

at the sound of crunching glass, nick tried with all his strength to open his eyes back up and lift his head. he was in no state to fight back but damned if he wouldn't have to try. and then... as if by some unholy miracle, he recognised who was standing above him. "if i'm dead, does this make you an angel?" @atticus-bass

[atticus-bass]

to put it bluntly, atticus was driving like a maniac. car engine roaring as he floored it down the road to reach the two tracking dots that pinpoint gabriela and nick's cars. the scene he arrived to was worse than he expected. it was a disaster. his car headlights illuminating the body on the ground in between two car wrecks. what was more concerning was that the body in the road wasn't moving and he felt the pit in his chest drop at the idea of someone not walking away from this. he could see gabriela's driver in the wreckage of the front seat of her car but there was no sign of her.

atticus didn't waste time, he got out of the car leaving the engine running and made his way over, the glass from shattered windows crunching under his dress shoes to see it was nick. looking down to inspect for injuries he called back to lili to instruct her to call zara bishaya-cooper and to tell her he was calling in a favour. the relief was evidently written on his face when the dumbass on the ground managed to pipe up with one of his lines "i'm more of a speak of the devil and he shall appear kind of vibe" he crouched down and gently took nick's chin in his hand, slowly turning his face from left to right to see how bad the damage was close up "what else hurts? can you move?" he asked, the urgency in his voice to try and coax the other to answer "talk to me nick, you need to keep talking to me"

[notsolovely-lili]

lili wasn't someone who panicked, she never had been. since nick had left though, there had been a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. she should have trusted her gut sooner, that much was clear. she had texted atticus before she'd checked her tracker app, hoping that the worst that would happen was her wasting his time. but that wasn't going to be the case. not tonight.

as the red dots on her phone didn't move, worst case scenarios were running through her head more and more. lili passed her tablet, ear piece and apologies to her number two guy. she was dialing nick again from outside when she saw atticus arrive. as nick's number went to voicemail again, she felt sick to her stomach. "atticus-," she breathed, turning her cell towards him, "something's wrong. both of their cars have stopped here and unless they're really making up... i think we're in trouble. we've gotta go." @atticus-bass

[atticus-bass]

deep in an informal meeting that was taking place in peter vanderbilts office that had gathered a few of the businessmen of the upper east side to shop talk and smoke, the frantic text he received from lili had him shooting up from behind his seat and storming out of the room to go find her.

"lili" he answered, placing a hand on her shoulder to ground her. "did you get a hold of nick? have you tried gabriela?" seeing her like this was a cause for concern for a number of reasons. one, she was never like this, and two, the fact the was like this meant something had seriously gone wrong. atticus looked down at the phone screen handed to him to see the red dots glaring at him like warning signs "shit" they both knew gabriela, she wouldn't have stopped. pulling his car keys from his pocket, he started walking to the vehicle "get in the car, we need to move"

[adrianaramirez]

Adriana understood Atticus. Favors were the way to get ahead around here, anyone could pay for what they wanted around here. But if you wanted something, a connection or favor was always more useful. "Thank you for that free piece of advice. Like I said, I think he's at the place where the price can be named." She always looked out for herself, even with her name and family, she was trying to build something for herself. Not relying on anyone else, especially not her parents. "Always a good way to close a deal. Want to go to the bar?"

[atticus-bass]

her father wouldn't get a choice about the price. atticus would put one on the table and there was no room for discussion. "i don't care where he's at" atticus settled up the bill for his lunch and the drinks they had that the table. he had no doubt that adriana knew how to handle herself and would be successful in whatever she wanted to do "the bar works for me." he agreed and got up from his seat "after you"

[crow-in-snow]

THE THICK OF IT | series 3 ep. 6

[glitterypin]

[lclamercado]

"oh, are you saying i'm the bad influence?" a very telling and teasing smile was clear on her glossy lips as she said it. of course she was the bad influence. to his credit, atticus was mostly work but she felt she could sway him over to play more than anyone else. in fact, she was sure of it (and goddess help whoever tried in her place!).

lola bit her lip again, glancing around the room. this was a prominent party and she should be here, especially to keep up appearances, but this was just too tempting. "fine, you win." her hand had trailed down his chest before eventually returning to her side. "i'll see you in fifteen minutes."

[atticus-bass]

"that's exactly what i'm saying, i'm innocent in all of this" the tip of his nose gently booping hers before he leaned back. very few people could convince him to loosen up, and lola had always been one of them, if not the only person that never failed.

the party wasn't a concern to him. he'd spoken to whoever he deemed important enough to speak to and anyone else that wanted to talk to him could schedule an appointment with his receptionist for another day. "fifteen minutes, lola" he reminded her as he backed away "a second later and the window closes"

[hunky-huntzberger]

"i will," he nodded. william wasn't going to back out of this, he couldn't. something had to be done about slater, permanently. this was william's mess to clean up, his responsibility to shoulder and burden to bear. he should have known it would always end this way. "no, there's no one else. you know more than anyone now in regards to what i'm going to do. unfortunately, slater's presence around my life is no longer a best kept secret." william's jaw twitched at atticus' question about his... the people he cared about. "more than was wise, it turns out. my father will take care of my family, i have no doubt about that. slater has made particular note of isobel, ceren and jessica." juliette and freddie's names sat at the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't bring himself to confess yet. "i have contingencies. the important thing is that slater is taken care of in full."

[atticus-bass]

atticus nodded and took a drink of his wine. whatever it was that william got himself wrapped up in it was serious enough to involve slater and that in itself was a red flag. "you know you'll go down with the ship, right? once this is all out and done with your involvement will be known and there will be repercussions. i can do a lot of things william, but keeping you anonymous throughout all this isn't one of them. i'll keep you out of it as long as i can and your plan can run, but we both know there is a clock ticking on this" speed was of the essence and slater couldn't catch on with what they were doing. it was interesting to hear the names that slater had taken interest in. a specific group of people that happened to be close friends "why those three?" yes, they were rich but he felt there was something else "and may i remind you that transparency was a condition of our collaboration" he needed the full picture to know how much security was to be applied "consider this side taken care of. it's in everyone's interest that he's gone"

[adrianaramirez]

Adriana was sure he father wouldn't be happy, a favor was worth much more than money for most of them. Anyone could be bought. Getting a no-questions-asked favor was something any of them would be happy to have. She added it to her calendar as well. "Best way to get what you want." She understood his mindset. Atticus had a lot on his back, and he needed things to go his way. "I will be there. Thank you. This might get me a bump up in the family trust. Now the shop talk is done, can I buy you a drink as a thank you?"

[atticus-bass]

favours were more valuable than cash in a world where everyone had money, and atticus was smart enough to collect them. "i'm not going to negotiate when people are coming to me for help." he shrugged. business was business and atticus played to win, there was no doubt about that. "make sure you work that into your deal. for all you've done, you could get the benefits from this, not your father." he'd watched adriana over the years and she was far more competent and intelligent than business associates would give her credit for. she was a good person to have on side. "a drink for a deal seems fair."

[notsolovely-lili]

"it sounds like you've had more than your fair share of dealing with nick-and-gabriela." lili could only begin to imagine the details and she was decidedly glad it wasn't her. nick was incredibly charming, that much was true but lili thought he wore his heart on his sleeve more than he'd admit. being with gabriela wasn't something he had to do. he was with her so he agreed to look out for her. either way, lili was tracking them both like a bloodhound.

"i know... it feels like he can't be patient much longer. it's all a show for him and everything up until now was the opening act. there's no chance of him getting his life back, the only option left is to scorch the earth for everyone else," she sighed, emptying her wine glass. she watched atticus over the top of it, washing back his painkillers and she paused. they had a strong working relationship and their combined efforts to protect gabriela had brought them closer. but this was still that, a working relationship. so, she hadn't meant to reach out and brush the top his hand with her fingertips and once she realised she had, she pulled it back. "are you doing okay?"

[atticus-bass]

"unfortunately, i have. everything i've learned about them has been against my will." despite nick and gabriela's dynamic and the plan nick, lili and him had formed, it was clear they were more invested in one other than they admitted. they were each others weak spot. the ethics of their plan was not atticus' priority, gabriela's safety was. she could hate him when this comes to light and he would accept that if it means she was still around to hate him.

"i agree. i think it's going to ramp up and he's going to make some sort of public announcement. he's had no issue being public before, i don't think he'll shy away now. if this is act one, i don't want to wait around to see what act three is" he appreciated that lili was a voice of reason within the madness, it made him feel like he wasn't going insane. as much as their relationship had been professional, he had come to enjoy her as a person. but business would always come before pleasure. he looked to their hands, her fingertips brushing his and said nothing, opting to slowly raise his own fingertips to brush hers when she was pulling her hand away. it was the first time someone had checked in on him in a long while and for the briefest of moments he wasn't sure how to answer. "i'm fine. i have to be or everything falls apart, and no one can afford for that to happen"