In the dark throne room of Boss King, terrible things were being put into motion. Vile, disgusting, and totally lacking in rhythm the imps continued to dance for their king.

A bored sigh escaped Boss King's lips after a while then he made a dismissive gesture. "You guys are super boring today."

The imps stopped shaking their collective booties then scampered off merrily. They were dancing for so long that their wiggles were wrung!

"This blows..." breathed Boss King in annoyance. "Liz is broken again. Melisandre won't give me the time of day since she knows I'm me and not the real me. Worse, yet... this stupid think is broken."

Boss King slapped the monitor crystal used to view Scott's torment, but nothing of note happened. He could not see him directly, only through the indirect view of those near him. Worse, he had to crank up the torture volume quite a bit just to get a few disturbing messages into his head.

"Weak. Why isn't this stupid thing working?" groused the man. He slapped the crystal ball a few more times then sighed again. "Fine. Let's change the channel..."

He fished around in the Aether net for a bit and found Shara's frequency. "She's asleep?"

Boss King rubbed his chin lightly, though his hand disappeared into his majestic field of darkness. He watched her peaceful face as she slumbered away atop the roof of that idiot's house. Nearby sat a sexy little fox bitch that he really wouldn't mind torturing for information.

"Damn. Why does that loser always get such hot chicks? He's not rich. He's still fat. Hell, look at how he used to live... Won't even clean his room..." Boss King watched as Ashton leaned back into a stretch that caused her epic feminine attributes to soar skyward in defiance of gravity.

Strangely, a red trickle formed atop the darkness near his nose then slid down. The crystal ball zoomed in a bit, totally on accident of course.

"I want her..." mumbled Boss King.

An imp flew over and began to speak on some matter of business or another. Eventually, he noticed that Boss King was not paying attention. He started to speak again, but caught sight of what his boss was looking at. His little impish eyes widened and his little loincloth poked forward excitedly. "So fluffy..."

On screen Ashton was busy brushing her tail while she seemingly tried to fight back an expression of boredom. Soon she began to sing a Britney Spears song about working toward achieving her dreams. Boss King and the imp sang along when she reached the part where she sang out, "Better work bitch."

A hint of drool trickled from the corner of the imp's mouth as he watched all of the fluffiness live and in full HD quality. Eventually, however, she stopped brushing her tail then leaned forward. Elbows to her knees, and her chin in her hands she stared out over the horizon. The orb panned over to where she was looking at Boss King's insistence and he saw a small flock of chickens strutting around. Several of them seemed to be dancing around each other in a whimsical circle. They were quite intent on their little dance. Quite frankly, their energetic movements put the imps' attempt to shake their respective booties to shame.

"The world seems so fun. Too bad I can't leave here..." muttered Boss King.

"Your nefariousness?" asked the imp now that the fluffiness had disappeared from his life. "The reports?"

"What? Oh yeah... the boring crap big brother makes me deal with..." Boss King sighed loudly once more then waved his hand in annoyance. "Fine. I'll play my part. Bring me the stupid files."

The imp showed him the files and they began to work on the boring aspect of their attempt to build an evil organization, paperwork. It was as tedious as it was necessary.

Once the various bits of paperwork, and the payroll was settled, the imp brought up an interesting question. "So, shall we do as our dark master commands and bring forth the fluffy one?"

"The fluffy one?" Boss King blinked his gleaming yellow eyes.

He soon realized what the imp meant, however. "No. I can't have a pet... big brother would want to play with her, and he plays too rough."

Boss King glanced down at a gore stained series of steps near the throne. "He's always breaking my favorite one as it is..."

"Ah... perhaps something else then?" asked the imp.

"Oh? Like what?" asked Boss King.

The imp fished around inside of his loin cloth, and did so for a bit too long for comedic effect, then brought out a tiny digital camera. "It's water proof and the lens won't get fogged up..."

Boss King snorted at the imp. "I'm not that hard up...."

"Oh..." The imp deflated a bit and sagged in mid-air. "Sorry, your darkness."

"Ah. No... Don't worry about it. It's just that... Well—" began Boss King.

The imp looked up in expectation, and his boss leaned forward to produce a conspiratorial whisper, "

"Don't tell big bro, but I... might have a girlfriend."

The imp's gnarled hands flew to his face and his eyes began to sparkle. "Oooh! That's sort of amazing isn't it?"

"I know, right?" asked Boss King cheerfully. His eyes shifted to the side and he began to fidget in his seat. "I mean, we only just met and she might be kinda sorta into me. She likes the same games I do and stuff... and she likes monsters too! Which is a plus in my book. She doesn't mind about certain parts of me that I can't change, either... even seems excited about that stuff... So..."

"Gosh," said the imp. He flapped his hateful bat wings and flew closer to his boss so that he could put his hand to the dark man's shoulder. "That's really great. I'm so glad for you."

"Thanks!" cried Boss King cheerfully. "I'm really hoping it goes well..."

"I'm sure it will. You're a really cool boss, you know," said the imp.

"You think so?" asked Boss King.

"Sure... You are... uhm... I mean," the imp suddenly grew nervous.

Boss King held up his hand and shook his head. "I so get it. Don't worry about it."

The imp's relief was a powerful thing. It washed over his entire body and all of the tension seemingly drained from him in that moment.

"Uh... well, there is one thing..." said Boss King.

"Glorious one?" asked the imp.

Boss King leaned forward, though his eyes shifted to the side. He brought his fingers up and he slowly began to press the tips of his index fingers together nervously. Strangely, some of the darkness around his face took on an odd red tinge. "Y-you see... she, uh... she's kind of in a band."

"A musician? That's great," said the imp.

"Yeah! I know right?" Boss King clapped his hands together and laughed a little. However, once he stopped laughing he put his hand behind his head and tittered nervously. "Uhm, but you see... I sort of told her that I could play the guitar—"

"So? It's not like you can't just memorize a skill packet?" asked the imp.

"The real way..." continued Boss King.

"Oh... Wow, that takes like a lot of time," said the imp. "Do you know how to play at all?"

Boss King threw back his head and laughed gregariously then thrust his fist forward with great confidence. "Hell no!"

The imp burst out laughing at his boss' antics. They both shared that moment together in mutual mirth before Boss King finally got around to asking an important question.

"I know it's a lot to ask but.... I mean... you play the guitar, right?" asked Boss King.

"I don't have that skill set here... but..." answered the imp, his excitement growing.

"I know. I'm not asking the imp... I'm er..." Boss King took a breath then shook his head. "Sorry, Gregory. I shouldn't be bringing stuff from outside the game into the game. It's a shit thing to do..."

Boss King glanced at the crystal monitor them sighed and shook his head. It really was a shit thing to do. Not that there was much that he could do about it, other than give in and occasional use the tools to alleviate his boredom by perving on people.

The imp flailed his arms around excitedly. He had a hugely bright and ridiculous smile on his face as he tried to force the words coming from his face to obey his desire to speak them. "No! No! I'd be happy to meet up with you alone IRL to teach you some things, Kar—"

The imp stopped mid-sentence, the words dying on his lips. Boss King's eyes had suddenly closed. The darkness that perpetually shrouded his head fell forward. Soon, he began to snore.

Seeing the familiar change, the imp leapt back from his boss like he had been set on fire and tried to acquire a professional appearance. Once Boss King's baleful yellow eyes opened once more the entire atmosphere changed to one that was far more sinister.

Those baleful eyes surveyed the room for a moment then landed on the imp. "Is everything in order?"

"Boss King. Everything is in order. The reports have been filed, and planned objectives are occurring as per the schedule," reported the imp in a crisp tone.

"Good." Boss King waved his hand and the imp flew away like his ass was on fire.

Once he was far enough away for Boss King not to notice or care what was said, a few more imps flew over to see what had happened. They asked why he had been so happy for a moment there and he told them.

They were all super jealous and threatened his life cheerfully. How dare he score points IRL with the cool boss. Of course, once they realized that they would have to wait until the other guy took a nap to see how the story went they were sad. The cool boss was gone, and king asshole had returned to his throne. There could be no joy in the house of darkness for a time.