Chapter 175: Mature Mystery?

While that film adaptation debate was ongoing in a European country, Alexander never really got wind of it or knew that it was happening.

It might be an interesting speeding up of events but not something that generally concerns him for the moment.

At present, Alexander is doing his little boss duty in the Creed companies and also happens to be dealing with a weird partnering duo.

"What are the two of you doing today anyway?" Alexander asked. Not far from him is Old Sullivan and young Milla being stand-out busybodies on the comic busy floor.

"Of course, it is to visit and see how everything is progressing, Alex." Sullivan answered.

"Sure, I'll believe you..." Alexander didn't really though. "... but why did you have to bring Milla along?"

"Part of my singing curriculum is getting to know my work environment and also..." From recounting her coach's words in verbatim, Milla was inadvertently blushing as she continued. "... also, to st-stay close to what I would consider as my inspiration. Singing is kind of inspirational, my coach says so."

Isn't singing just supposed to be having a trained voice and isn't inspiration is for songwriters? Of course, Alexander wouldn't be saying that critical question out loud. After all, a girl-like Milla could also go for the singer-songwriter route.

It was quite ambitious but feasible. As the proprietor of singer agenda, he had to show support. "As the little boss of the yet-to-be-registered Creed Music, I'll do what I can to help our hired artists such as yourself, Milla."

"Yey! Thank you, little boss Alex." Milla's eyes sparkled and acted cutely professional as well.

Seeing how the duo had quite a weird rappeur that accepts takes professionalism in equal fun and seriousness, old Sullivan could only grimace. Alex's formality and little Milica's practice with dealing with that kind of weirdness were both gratifying and worrying.

The good thing is that the two kids are friends and Alex wouldn't be too cut off from 'normality'. The bad thing is that Milla might be affected by his grandson's quirks.

In a way, Alex has quite a good friend now but it also risks old Sullivan losing another grandkid to early maturity.

"I guess you two are getting along quite fine?" All that Old Sullivan could do is accept the positive while hoping that the negative won't happen.

"I guess we are." Alexander answered but with a look that wanted to ask for more answers. He could still more or less tell these nominal grandfather-grandaughter duo's visit has a lot of other motives involved. "What do you two truly want for this visitation though? It can't just be about progress like you say so."

Seeing that the boy was clearly not beating around the bush, Old Sullivan coughed and said with seriousness. "Alex, can we take a look at the Watchmen outline? Or just the other unpublished paneling arts that your team had already done."

Out of the many possibilities, Alexander was quite surprised by that. "Why do you guys even want to do that? It can't be that you're impatient and just want to get rid of it all with spoilers."

"That's exactly what we're trying to do." Sullivan admitted with shame but hid it well due to his semi-normal poker face. "Your scheduling mentioned that it's going to be restricted to a monthly release like ThunderCats and we just want to know how it all turns out in the end."

Of course, his little entourage Milla was there to help. "Grandpa Sullivan and I just want to know what happens next."

Old Sullivan added with a tag team move. "Watchmen #1 is already good enough but knowing the entire story in one go is even better."

"Whatever you guys say." Alexander didn't really have much reason to refuse. It's just that he never pegged them to use their privilege in this way.

It would seem that being the owner and being the nominal granddaughter would always get you some leverage over others. There was no doubt that Creed fans would be cursing this duo they knew what was happening.

The unfairness of things can be seen from here. The old owner has leverage over all of the company's products while nominal nepotism checks out as well.

"By the way, Alex. Isn't this March date of the year the Creed Comics' anniversary?" Old Sullivan had to do his managerial checks as well to balance out his usage of owner privileges. "Wouldn't the sales of JoJo and Watchmen be high, if we did a one-year anniversary bonanza?"

"DC already did the hyping for us, so an anniversary bash isn't needed." Alexander explained with another surprising miser logic. "Besides, celebrating an anniversary now means that we need to celebrate anniversaries onwards. We're getting rich in cash flow but I doubt that we can keep up with all the company celebrations. If we commemorate Creed Comics now, wouldn't that also mean we have to commemorate the other Creed companies?"

"Whenever I think about it, we'll probably be drowned in party expenditures." Alexander hummed. "Sometimes its best being cursed a miserly little boss than having praised as a generous one.

Old Sullivan could only grimace at that. Celebrating an anniversary wasn't that bad once in a while, how did it become a matter of saving money?

Although his old bones take pride in being a thorough capitalist, his little kin seems to be much more thorough than him and it is extremely concerning.

-----

In any case, the three of them moved to one of those stylish tables in the first-floor cafeteria area with all the foldered Watchmen manuscripts.

Alexander had to be there to oversee everything, correlate their feedback, and warn them on some other things. "I have to remind you guys... especially Milla, that I had CARS rate this comic book with a strict R-rating. Why is a little girl like you interested in these sort of things anyway?"

"Oh, stop being strict with Milla. I'm an old man, so I am a super adult to oversee things, aren't I?" Old Sullivan appease. "Besides, a 10-year-old like you wrote it. Murdering, wars, an always naked blue man, and whatnot, shouldn't be that bad?"

"Just keep in mind that I did warn you." Since they were resolved, then Alexander could only agree. Since this duo would inevitably read this story anyway, it's no trouble if they accept things early on.

His comic-making team looked at him weirdly when they got the outline after all. Now, they were probably used to him knowing all the adult and super-philosophical stuff.

Either way, the duo did read on whatever they could gain from the Creed Comics' Watchmen production compilation.

Of course, Milla was clueless on most of the sensitive stuff and just wanted spoilers like normal while Old Sullivan always glanced in Alex's way. His old bones could only sigh at how his grandson matured way too much.

Did his previous adult film star babysitter plan lead to this situation they are on now? Now that Sullivan thought back on it, didn't all of this mature stuff start out when Alex deduced his old Silicone Valley adult film tycoonism?

It may be too late now but old Creed had to get to the bottom of this maturing mystery.

"Did all of your babysitters share with you about all their experiences that you know about all the sexual stuff and matters about impotence?

"Which previous babysitter of yours introduced you to politics, Reagan and Nixon implications? Isn't she too speculative?"

"Which previous porn babysitter had a son she abused and became your inspiration for Rorschach's backstory?"

Alexander could only shake his head at this questioning bombardment and answer as feasibly reasonable as he can. Good thing that the old babysitters became a scapegoat for his Watchmen's deep, dark, and extremely "adult" storytelling.

Anyways, it was like ripping off a band-aid and the old Creed would have his conceived answers to his "adult" mystery already.