Hollywood: Head-Hunting System

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works. If you recognize it from somewhere else, surprise, it isn't mine.

_______________________

Recap of the previous chapter –

Mark gives out his final instructions and then leaves with Evelyn for the meeting with uncle Steve to finalize the paperwork for Eidolon Entertainment's establishment.

He hatches a scheme to make Evelyn the head of CAA, then using her to raise his influence and power in Hollywood.

.

..

_________________________

..

.

~ Howard Stark's POV ~

..

.

Date: April 15th, same day.

.

Location: In his studio apartment.

.

Time: 06:47 pm

..

.

He was in a dilemma, at least this one was about a good thing, unlike the other horrible one that was plaguing his mind. He had narrowed down his choices between two from that list of wonders that Mark had given him.

But still, choosing between them was even harder than choosing whether he should have sex with his girlfriend's best friend or remain faithful to the love of his life.

Well it's not like it's only his fault if it ever happens, he knows he is an easily seduced pervert who jumps on almost any opportunity to bone a beautiful woman.

But his girlfriend's best friend was trying hard to seduce him. Now he loves his girlfriend/fiance, but old habits die hard.

"Ah, fuck it, let's just toss a coin." He said out loud, but continued in his mind. 'If it's head, then I will choose halo and tell the truth that her best friend has been trying to seduce him. If it's tails, then I will choose Mass Effect and cheat on her with her best friend.'

He flipped the coin and caught in his palm. But he didn't look at the coin, as he had already gotten his answer.

The whole time the coin was in the air, all his mind could think of was - please be heads, please be heads, please be heads, just chanting constantly, hoping for heads.

It already told him what he truly wanted from the bottom of his heart. So he stopped procrastinating and went to his wife to tell her about the truth.

"Lily, listen, there is something I have been wanting to tell you for some time now." Howard said in a solemn tone, feeling sad that he will have to break his wife's trust in her friend. But he knew she deserved to know the truth.

He takes a deep breath and lets it all out. How it all started, how she started sending him texts, trying to invite him out to dinner and recently becoming even more bold to ask him to spend the night over at her place.

She had some tears in her eyes, but she wasn't sad like he had expected, instead she looked a little happy and relieved, yet there was guilt and shame reflecting in her eyes.

She said, "I am sorry for doing this to you, honey. But you know your "past", we are thinking about marriage now. So I really couldn't take a chance, I wanted to test if you had really changed your ways. So I…"

"You sent Lily to try and seduce me to see if I would cheat on you?" Howard completed her sentence in a disbelieving tone.

Lily cried a little and hugged Howard, "I am sorry honey, I know what I did was wrong, but please don't leave me." She begged, crying as she tightened her arms around him, afraid that he would leave her.

Unknown to her, Howard wasn't really angry, well he was a little but not at her. He just felt sad and pathetic, sad that he couldn't make her feel safe and confident that he wouldn't cheat on her.

He knew his long history of break-ups due to him cheating on his exes with their friends or just random strangers. But this time he really had changed, and he could only do that because of his love for Lily, he felt she was worth giving up all the women in the world for.

At that moment, he swore to try his best to show his love and loyalty to the love of his life. So she would never feel insecure enough to stoop to such lows.

He knew she also had some self-esteem issues from her past ex-boyfriend emotionally manipulating her. But he knew together they could overcome all their problems.

He hugged her back and whispered assurances in her ear, trying to soothe and calm her.

"It's gonna be alright baby, I am right here, and I am not going anywhere, I promise you." He said with all the love he could muster in his voice, and kissed the top of her head.

He whispered many "I love you" and many words of affirmation that he knew would make her feel better.

..

.

_________________________

.

..

~ Benjamin Parker's POV ~

..

.

Date: April 15th, same day.

.

Location: In his studio apartment.

.

Time: 09:47 pm

He had just put his 8-year-old to sleep, his son was a huge Ben 10 fan. He couldn't believe that his father was now working for the writer of his favorite series.

But when his father gave him a signed autograph, he knew his dream have come true. He begged his father to take him to meet Mr. Mark someday.

Ben, after finally putting his child to sleep, went to lay down with his wife, May. She was his rock, she had always supported his career as an aspiring writer, even though he never really had much to show for it.

But now with him joining the Immortal Writers Association, he knows his life is going to change. He couldn't help but go back to his conversation with Mark after the meeting.

.

..

~ Flashback Ben's POV ~

..

.

"Ben, come on in." Mark said, waving to him to take a seat.

Having already changed into a suit for the meeting with Uncle Steve. He had decided to have a small conversation with Ben before he left.

He expressed his gratitude, "thanks for staying behind even after the meeting ended."

"Mark, my home is close by, so I don't mind staying behind late. So what is this meeting about?" Ben asked, frankly, understanding a bit of Mark's character from his previous conversations with him.

He had found the young man to be a straightforward and frank man, who likes to speak his mind and not hide his thoughts behind flowery words.

That didn't mean though that his new boss had a lack of cunning or intellect. After all the plans he had drawn up to create an entire Shadowy Assassin Underworld-esque film franchise just showed well he could plan and how much foresight he had.

"Well I wanted to let you know that you might be more preoccupied with scripts than the books unfortunately, at least for the short term. As I have some script ideas, I want to be written and registered as soon as possible." Mark answered with a grimace.

"I know it's not the best option for you, but it's only a temporary arrangement, I promise. It's just that I really need your talent and skills, if I want to complete these scripts on time."

"My talent?" Ben asked, befuddled, he didn't really think of himself as the talented one of the bunch.

"Yeah, your genius in storytelling, lore crafting and character development is unmatched. The only place where I think you are currently lacking is creative insight and dialogue writing, but mostly it's your creativity." Mark intoned with absolute confidence.

"You can give life to my storyline and transform them into epics, but you lack the creativity to come up with ideas of your own. That's the major problem that's holding you back from becoming a great writer, Ben."

"Your dialogues feel stiff and out of place and context sometimes. It's definitely something that can be improved, I hope you will work on it. And who knows, the next time you come with a good idea, come discuss it with me." Mark said with an encouraging smile.

He continued trying to give Ben an incentive to improve, "We can work on it together to improve upon it and if it meets my standards I will even help you publish it through my contacts with my recommendation to boost your sales and reach."

.

..

~ Flashback Ends ~

..

.

Ben couldn't help but feel grateful for this opportunity in life, he wouldn't let it go to waste.

He would put in his heart and soul, into writing the best version of John Wick that could have ever been made and show Mark that he was absolutely right to trust him with the task.

He hugged his beautiful wife to his chest, feeling a sense of confidence and content in himself for finally turning his life around, and went into a blissful sleep.

..

.

_________________________

.

..

~ Tony Kushner's POV ~

..

.

Date: April 15th, same day.

.

Location: In a restaurant.

.

Time: 07:57 pm.

He had finished his dinner and was leisurely tasting some wine recommended by the waiter. He couldn't stop himself from thinking about the incredible meeting he was part of just a few hours back.

Furthermore, he couldn't believe that what happened today was real. He thought that he would have to toil about in Broadway in New York writing plays for some years to finally get recognition through an award or happenstance and then slowly make his way into Hollywood.

Instead, he gets a call from Mr. Spencer's agent, one Ms. Evelyn Thorne, and his life's trajectory just did a complete 180.

He is now slated to become a member of the Immortal Writers Association and finally join the big leagues of Hollywood. But that surprisingly isn't even the highlight of his day.

The best thing to happen today to him was reading the draft for the Vinland Saga. It is one of the best storylines he has ever read, he couldn't help but think of how it would fit in a theater play, or a TV show or even a movie series.

The title, Vinland Saga, evokes associations to Vinland as described in two Norse sagas. Vinland Saga, however, begins in Dane-controlled England at the start of the 11th century, and features the Danish invaders of England, commonly known as Vikings.

The story combines a dramatization of King Cnut the Great's historical rise to power with a revenge plot centered on the historical explorer Thorfinn, the son of a murdered ex-warrior who serves under a group of mercenaries responsible for the deed.

It follows through the journey of Thorfinn and shows his character development and changes through the different story arcs, going from a downtrodden, depressed child who had lost his father to a young teenager holding a grudge to one day kill his father's killer.

The story is unique in the sense that Thorfinn doesn't feel like a larger than life character. But someone who is real and relatable, so the viewers can connect with Thorfinn, feel invested in his journey so that they feel a joyous glee when he succeeds and even feel sad when he fails.

Such an ordinary protagonist yet with such an extraordinary life, it's really something which he hasn't seen before. As many writers in their hubris just want to show how special their protagonist is, Vinland Saga just fills you with emotions and makes you feel vested in the journey of its flawed yet real characters.

.

..

_________________________

..

.

~ Melissa's POV ~

.

Date: April 15th, same day.

.

Location: In her shared room.

.

Time: 05:56 pm.

..

.

She didn't know what Mark was thinking, hiding this masterpiece of a storyline from her. He will definitely be getting a piece of her mind when she gets to talk with him alone.

For now though, she needs to focus on her Runeterra project, she can chew him out later.

Mark had tasked her with writing the lore of the spiritual realm of Runeterra. To show briefly how Runeterra was actually formed by the "World Runes". It had two moons orbiting the planet, one in its physical realm, the other orbited around it in the spiritual realm.

As the world of Runeterra was forged, along with it came two separate realms.

The physical realm which would house the material manifestation of Runeterra, along with all the elemental magic and eventually all the mortal races that would inhabit it.

The spirit realm, which she was tasked with mainly developing as Mark took the responsibility of the physical realm.

The spiritual realm is a spiritual parallel existence of the physical plane of Runeterra where time and space are obscured. It is the source of all spiritual magic in Runeterra.

During the early years of Runeterra's existence, some of the earliest forms of life would begin to appear within the spirit realm.

These being the various forms of Primordial Spirits, the Primordials are godlike entities who govern over concepts such as life and death.

There exist Primordial demons, a race of spirits that have no inherent form, but who malign and manipulate their victims to sate their own desires for suffering and carnage.

Lastly the Primordial Yordles who would establish the primitive Bandel City around the Bandelwood tree and begin constructing a gateway system that would connect the spiritual realm to the physical realm through an intricate system of portals.

It was her task to form the world of the ancient yordles, and she decided to feature three of the bravest yet cutest of them all. Something to hook the female and young readers to the series. Her choice of legends were - Lulu, Tristanna and Poppy.

All three with different ideologies, but with a good heart and an instinct to help one another. These three would serve as a base to expand the stories of the yordles, to show them on adventures in the physical realm of Runeterra.

.

..

.

.

{Author's Note: The POV's aren't really something I am good at but I think I am improving slowly at. I will try to cut down on the words per chapter, as I have been getting some complaints on the long chaps. It's not something I can promise but I will certainly try my best.

Once again, thanks for reading my work. I am entirely motivated by interaction, suggestions and feedback. Please leave a comment or review about what you liked or disliked about my book.

If you like my work please throw a power stone my way so my book can climb the rankings. I hope you all have a beautiful day

Update schedule for this book: 1 chapter every 2 days.}