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The saga began four days after Cassian was officially initiated into the Gadam Vilzone Family. The psyker-turned-villain had accepted Driver’s request to become the Vilzone’s puppet boss. While Driver was handling matters behind the scenes, Cassian was taking advantage of one of the perks of his new position—a personal gym.
The gym was everything Cassian could have ever wished for. His private training room was the size of a small gymnasium and stocked with state of the art equipment. Truely, the gym was perfect for the intense training Cassian needed to undergo in order to gain the strength to take on Lampas.
Really, the only complaint Cassian had was the broken air conditioning. Gadam was experiencing an autumn heat wave. Driver said he would get around to fixing it and Cassian didn’t see a reason to rush the other villain. The heat was a nuance, but he was more than capable of dealing with it.
“Two hundred four, two hundred five, two hundred six,” Cassian counted with each push-up. He had been training for hours now and his body was drenched with sweat. His shirt and jacket lay discarded on the floor next to the mat. “Two hundred se—”
Cassian paused as an appreciative whistle sounded. He turned towards the noise's origin and spotted the villain leaning against the wall by the gym entrance door.
“Our new boss is such pretty eye candy,” the villain smiled, before blowing a bubble of bubblegum. She was a pink haired young woman in her late teens or early twenties by his guess. Like most villains, her face was decorated with villain marks—in her case, two purple triangles under each eye. Her hair was held back in with twin red bows and she had multiple cans of spray paint secured in a harness at her side.
She was vaguely familiar to Cassian, Driver had introduced them yesterday. He tried to remember her name. Graffiti? Marker? Target? No, Tagger.
Stopping his training, Cassian stood up. “What is it, Tagger?”
Tagger pouted. “Awww, don’t stop the show.”
Deciding to ignore that, Cassian asked again. “Why are you here?”
“ Fine…Driver sent me to tell you there is a meeting in an hour he wants you there for,” Tagger answered with a smile as she sized Cassian up.
“Fine,” Cassian nodded and grabbed his shirt and pulled it back on. “Can you let Driver know I’ll be there?”
“Sure thing, boss,” Tagger chirped, her answer accompanied with a playful salute. “But did you have to put the shirt back on?”
Cassian gave the villain an unamused look.
“Hey,” Tagger grinned, popping another bubblegum bubble. “You’re hot as hell and have abs to kill for. I’m not interested, but damn are you nice to look at.”
Cassian rolled his eyes and was about to head to the showers to clean off; however, Tagger caught his attention with what she said next. Tagger continued on to tell him: “I bet you could make a fortune somewhere like OnlyFans. Who wouldn’t pay to gaze upon someone so perfect.”
“A fortune?” Tagger had Cassian’s full attention. “Explain.”
Tagger tilted her head. “You know OnlyFans, right?”
“Not particularly,” Cassian shook his head. He’d heard the name from his classmates, but his knowledge of the platform was limited to knowing it was a form of social media of some kind.
“Oh sweet innocent child, let Tagger educate you. OnlyFans is a website where creators can be paid directly by fans for access to their content,” Tagger explained with a wicked grin. “Fans pay a monthly subscription fee in order to see the creators' content—photos and videos mostly—and can pay extra for access to bonus content. The platform has found a large NSFW audience, but content doesn’t have to be explicit. Top creators can make millions.”
“Hmmm, I’m listening,” Cassian hummed, eyeing Tagger consideringly. “So what exactly did you have in mind? I’m not interested in posting explicit pictures of myself.”
Tagger leaned forward and whispered to Cassian conspiratorially. “Workout pics—shirtless and not. I bet people would pay a pretty penny for a picture of that. And extra for the shirtless ones, of course. You wouldn’t even have to do anything. You’re already always working out. Set up a few cameras and upload a few pics and the cash comes rolling in.”
Driver was lounging in Heavens Pub—taking a brief break to relax before the afternoon’s meetings began. Lunch had been a steak and now he was finishing it off with his favorite orange fruity drink. The morning had been busy, but Driver had the afternoon off. Crow had taken over patrolling, Redeye was sorting out whatever mess Black Hand, Crush and Double Blade had gotten into, and the kid boss was training in the gym.
A peaceful afternoon.
A peace which was promptly shattered as Cassian kicked in the pub door. “Driver!”
“Yes, kid?” Driver said, swirling his drink in its glass. “What’s up? You need something? The meeting isn’t for another hour.”
“I need to borrow a drone and a camera.”
“Um, why?” Driver asked. “I’m not saying no, but I’m going to need an explanation before I lend you my tech.”
“I’m starting an OnlyFans.”
Driver choked on his drink. “A what ?!”
“An OnlyFans,” Cassian repeated bluntly.
“I heard you the first time,” Driver said, regaining his composure. Whatever he had been expecting from the kid, OnlyFans wasn’t it. “You’re pulling my leg.”
The kid hadn’t even made his debut as the Gadam Vilzone Boss yet.
“Of course not,” Cassian frowned, folding his arms. “Shirtless workout pics for cash. Tagger showed me the site.”
“You know we pay you, right? You don’t have to sell ‘shirtless workout pics’ for money.”
“More cash, more crystals, more power. It’s simple math.”
Of course, Driver shouldn’t be surprised by Cassian’s answer. Selling shirtless workout photos in order to fund a revenge plot. The kid was fixated on becoming stronger for his mysterious revenge quest. Driver shook his head. “Are you doing this as Cassian or as your civilian self?”
“As Cassian,” the young villain answered immediately. “There aren’t any other villains on the site. Tagger said I could corner the villain enthusiastic market. If everything goes well I might do it as a civilian as well, for viewers with a more vanilla taste.”
How was Cassian saying all this with a straight face?
“I see…are villains even allowed on OnlyFans?” Driver could make sure the account couldn’t be taken down, but he was curious.
“There is nothing in the terms of service against it.”
“...”
“So can I have a drone or not?’
“You know what? Sure,” Driver shrugged, he was going to embrace the chaos. He’d give the order to cancel that joke article introducing Cassian. “You can have two. I’ll even help you set up the camera.”
The new boss of the Gadam Vilzone was debuting on OnlyFans.
The lunch bell rang.
Students milled around the classroom as Naeun sat at her desk browsing the internet on her phone. She was watching a cat video when she noticed how several of her female classmates had gathered around a desk in the back of the classroom. The other girls were whispering and giggling among themselves. One of the girls appeared to be showing the rest something on her phone.
Curious, Naeun made her way over to the group. “What’cha guys looking at?”
“You’ve heard how Driver got overthrown recently?”
“Yeah,” Naeun nodded. A side effect of having a psyker in the family was that she was always up to date on the latest villain/psyker news in Gadam. “The Vilzone has been quiet so we don’t know much about the new boss yet, not even what he looks like—just that he’s a villain going by the name Cassian.”
Her brother was beyond annoyed about that last bit. A villain boss taking the name of his idol—Cassian Lee—before the Top Psyker had been dead even a year. Naeun, herself, didn’t see what the fuss was. Villains sometimes took deceased psykers’ names. Big deal.
Two of the girls shared a knowing look, smirking as they turned to face her. “We do now.”
“And he’s really hot.”
Another girl sighed dreamily. “It should be criminal to be that handsome.”
“He is a villain,” one of the first two girls giggled. “He is criminal.”
“Um, guys?” Naeun frowned, looking for clarification. “You’ve lost me.”
A girl held up her phone so Naeun could see it and hit play on a video. “Look here, Cassian has an OnlyFans. Talk about a memorable villain debut.”
And…it was him.
He was the new Vilzone boss?
The villain who had saved her and Minyeong and fought Bloodrain. He was on the screen…shirtless and doing crunches in a gym. She’d known the villain was good looking. She’d been up close enough to see that when he’d helped her treat Minyeong’s injuries, but it had been dark and he’d been wearing a shirt last time.
To say Cassian was hot was a massive understatement. His perfect abs and the villain markings on his face. Instead of being off putting, the markings only added to Cassian’s charm. The dark navy blue surrounding his eyes like eyeshadow only made his blue and gold eyes more striking. The dark triangles on his cheeks just accented the shape of his face, as did the ones on his shoulder blades and shoulders.
Naeun flushed.
“I know,” the girl chuckled knowingly. “He’s username on OnlyFans is CassianGDM. It probably stands for Cassian Gadam.”
“Cassian goddamn, more like,” another girl interjected, grinning. “Man, I’m going to make an account to follow him.”
Blushing, Naeun nodded along. She knew better than to blindly trust a villain—even if he had saved her—but she was a sucker for the hot bad boy and dark knight tropes. Just following him couldn't hurt, right?
“But he’s a villain,” stressed a girl with a conservative reputation. “We shouldn’t be swooning over someone evil.”
“Calm down. It’s not like we want to date him. Merely admiring him safely from afar. How much is he charging to subscribe?”
“Ten dollars for general access and one dollar for everything extra.”
“That’s not bad.”
Uchan was texting with fellow apprentice psyler Jiho when Daewung returned to the car and slid back into the driver’s seat. His mentor was holding a file.
“Sir?”
“I saw Ham Jisun,” Daewung said in an uncharastically serious tone. Uchan immediately straightened and put away his phone. “The new Vilzone boss has made his debut.”
“Cassian?” The name irked Uchan—nothing but a smear on his dead idol’s legacy.
Daewung nodded. “He’s the villain we encountered in the hospital parking garage. The one from the Blaster and Bloodrain incidents. Here’s the file.”
Uchan took the file handed to him and opened it. He scanned over all the information they had on the Vilzone boss thus far. Name? Cassian. Male. Age? Estimated 18-21. Affinity uncertain, but has exhibited abilities indicating a shadow and a fire affinity. Distinguishing characteristics: blue and gold eyes and gauntlet-claws. Skimming over the file, Uchan laid eyes upon a photograph of the villain clipped to the file.
“...Why is he shirtless?”
Despite the gravity of the reveal of the villain boss, Daewung couldn’t help chuckling. “They’re from his OnlyFans.”
“OnlyFans?”
“That’s where he made his debut.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Dead serious. He’s going by the username CassianGDM.”
“That sounds stupid.”
“That’s what I told Ham Jisun,” Daewung agreed. “Cassi-Nova would have been a better name.”
…That was even worse.
“Aren’t there other pictures we can use of him?” Uchan asked. “We should have some from the surveillance from the Blaster incident.”
“Yeah, but the footage isn’t as clear,” Daewung admitted. “It’s not often villains give us photos like this. His OnlyFans pictures are way better quality and we can actually see his face properly. And the intern might have also liked the abs.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“Never said it wasn’t.”
Uchan huffed and pulled his phone back out. He pulled up the villain’s OnlyFans page. His eyes widened at the subscriber count. So many so soon? How long has the account even been live? A day?
“What is wrong with people?”
“Hehehe,” Tagger grinned as she plopped down on the mat next to Cassian, computer in hand. “Day two and you already have over a thousand people paying for you.”
Drones circling him, Cassian smiled and continued doing his pull ups. “Ten thousand dollars a month. Impressive .”
Cassian was very very pleased with how this little venture was turning out. This was by far the easiest money he’d ever made—in either of his lives. Cassian had sold signed pictures when he was a newbie psyker. Lampas paid all their psykers—from the lowest trainee to the highest Top Psyker—decently; however, while his trainee salary had been enough to live comfortably enough on, Cassian had wanted to go on a pricey trip to Australia. That had been fairly easy money, but Cassian had still needed to print, sign, and ship all the photos himself. With OnlyFans, he didn’t even have to do that. Cassian simply trained let the drones photograph and video him.
The magic crystals Cassian was going to be able to buy.
Tagger shrugged and blew a bubblegum bubble. “Eh, closer to six thousand five hundred I’d say. Platform takes a twenty percent cut and I’m getting fifteen which leaves sixty-five to you.”
“You earned that fifteen percent.”
Tagger shot him a wicked grin. “Damn straight.”
Tagger really had earned her portion of the proceeds. The villain was the one actually managing the OnlyFans account as well as the one editing videos and picking the photos. Sure, she ran them by Cassian, but Tagger really was the one running the show behind the scenes.
And she was really really good at it.
Sixty-five hundred was still good money. Chaeha charged fifteen thousand per magic crystal and while Cassian did have his Swiss bank account, his funds weren’t infinite. He also didn’t have a way of replenishing them besides his Vilzone boss salary.
“I’ve been thinking,” Tagger said, speaking up as she typed away on the computer. “We should reduce the amount of your general content where you’re shirtless from thirty to ten percent. We need to give viewers more of an incentive to purchase the bonus stuff—”
Cassian didn’t say anything, instead he just listened to Tagger go on. There was a sophisticated business woman underneath the Vilzone’s resident graffiti artist.
“—and we’re still going to want to keep your jacket off in all of them. Your figure is so much clearer with just the shirt and without the jacket in the way. Plus that way the viewers will only see you in the jacket when you’re acting as boss. The distinction could make people more comfortable and thus more willing to pay up…we need to get you on Twitter and Instagram.”
“What for?”
“Promotion,” Tagger responded. “Reach a wider audience and pull more people into the OnlyFans. I’ll make accounts now. We can unveil them as part of an event or something. A two thousand subscribed special?”
Uchan was walking to class when he was approached by one of his classmates. Not an unusual occurrence in and of itself, but his peer seemed nervous and a bit embarrassed as they approached him.
“Hi, Uchan,” his classmate greeted, shifting nervously. “I was wondering if I could ask you a question?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Well…you work for Lampas, right? So you know all the rules about villains. I know we civilians aren’t supposed to get involved with villains. We’re supposed to avoid them.”
“Yes?” Uchan confirmed, mildly confused where this line of questioning was going.
“So, I was wondering, if say hypothetically I…I mean there’s nothing illegal about subscribing to a villain’s OnlyFans, right? I wouldn’t get in trouble for that, would I?”
“…”
Uchan’s classmate rambled on. “I mean, it’s not illegal to follow a villain’s Twitter account so I think OnlyFans would be fine? But like, money is changing hands since I’d be paying Cas—uh, the villain.”
“…It’s not illegal, just weird.”
“That’s…really great. Thanks, Uchan. You’re the best,” the classmate grinned and scampered off to a bunch of other students. “Guys, it’s legal! Subscribe away!”
Uchan’s classmates were apparently a bunch of shameless freaky villain fuckers.