Description: Once upon a time, world famous (?!) detective Daniel Jack found a confused, injured girl in an alleyway. Like any red-blooded American, he picks her up and takes him back to the apartment. Some things happen, and then he leaves. Unfortunately, Shurui gets the wrong idea... or possibly, the right one.
The apartment complex is eerily quiet. Gedo Street, especially at this hour, should have some level of loud activity. A married couple arguing. Obnoxious loitering. Even some dog snapping and barking at a burglar. Instead, it was as if a dark shadow draped over the entire complex. It was mysterious, except for two crowds. The psionically attuned, and Daniel Jack.
The detective steps out of the dilapidated building, eyes gaunt, shoulders hunched. He just experienced one of the most frightening things in his entire life. The man was investigating a string of murders related to the strangest cause of death he had seen. In following down the rabbit hole, he found a rotten brat of a girl who, having beaten Daniel up before, came to him soaked in blood. Finding her in an alleyway, he, after much inner conflict, he took her in to give some basic treatment, and to ask questions. And as he was assisting her... Vega showed up.
A doll. He took in a freaking doll. And now... he had people to find. People to seek. Something. ANYTHING. He was drunk now, but his senses were a strange balance of numb and focused. Shadaloo, psychics demons, all sort of monsters were leaking all over the place. As he began to scamper down the sidewalk, he just sighed.
This couldn't get any worse.
It could get worse.
Sneakers shuffle up to the un-attended Daniel as yet another face closes in on him, this time unfamiliar, seeming as haggard and tired as he is. "... Who are you, and... you got any idea how much danger you might've put yourself in right there?" The short girl is standing there, face gaunt as she stands underneath the yellow lamplight. Another doll? Thankfully, no. Then again, it's not like the detective could judge by sight alone. Or could he?
It's risky enough presenting herself as is. This man could be in league with that woman. Tracking down the psychic scent of someone in similiar predictiments as Shurui proved to be a mistake as soon as she got closer to recongize Vega's mark on the girl. Not knowing what a 'doll' is when it came to Vega, Shurui could only rely on her last experience with the man himself to fill in enough holes of the overall picture. And that was enough for her to go 'stay the fuck away'. By the time Vega was in the picture, Shurui wasn't. When they disappeared into the man's apartment building, there was no reason to go in, only to move on. For better or worse, she located that same man again, if by chance.
And she has questions.
Oh goodie. Someone shadowing him.
Daniel Jack had something like this in mind. Being a black man escorting a disheavaled 17 year old girl across town into his apartment looked back. It could NOT look good. As such, if there was 'trouble,' the detective figured out a simple plan.
"The name's Daniel Jack, scuzzy." The detective began, stopping short. He doesn't turn around, immediately. He just stands there, hands dug deep in his pockets. His posture slowly rises up, showing himself taller. "And that really depends, miss, on whether or not those nice kids from Gedo get whiff of any low-life trying to give the shank to another scuzzy, dig it?" The man practically seethes that last line. Yeah, he is treating Shurui like a mugger.
Okay, so demanding someone in a dark sidewalk in a bad part of town what they were doing and who they were isn't one of Shurui's greatest ideas. In fact, it'd probably rate down there with the dumbest. All this man has to do is turn around and get a good look at her to realize that any fight could possibly be one-sided.
For one thing, the man has to be around 5'8", proving at least about a head taller than Shurui. And Shurui? She can't be any older than that disheaveled doll Daniel escorted back to his apartment. Younger, even.
So be it. Shurui goes with it, momentum momentairely clearing the buzzing haze from her mind, leaving something close to coherency. "I *am* one of those 'nice kids'." She takes a moment to calm down, her mouth cracking open in a dry chuckle. "....You can say that my SNF days are on hold for now. 'Not here to attack anyone unless they attack me first."
She pauses for a moment, allowing the detective verbal space to think. To decide to run, or turn around. Then, quietly, her voice raspy from fatigue, she speaks. "... Looking for info. That girl- she might've had some answers, but there's a damn good reason I'm not getting close to her. .... You, though. You're not like her. I think." Strangely enough, no questions about what she was doing, or when, or how. No accusations- the girl doesn't even seem to notice the implications that would normally come from such a sight. "I want to know if she said anything to you."
Daniel Jack does not turn around. He just stands there, listening carefully. Okay, a Gedo brat. This was pretty cool, then. She was just wondering why Daniel was bringing in a little girl. And then, the reference to being afraid. To being concerned. The detective defaulted away from identifying her as a doll... and to the victim announced on the news.
The detective just holds there, and glances over his shoulder. Peering from over his glasses, the man slowly looks down at the smaller girl. Yeah. Gedo brat, bless their hearts. "Let me shoot you a question, Tommy." Oh great. He already made up a nickname for her. "Why do YOU care?" The detective was reading the girl. There were many reasons she would care. And one of them would make Daniel VERY interested in her.
Silence. When the man turns to view her, Shurui takes off her own glasses, rose tinted, revealing tired red eyes. "..." It was tempting to correct him, to say her actual name. And yet, to someone she doesn't know and could possibly be with Shadaloo?
Why was she here in the first place? It seemed like such a good idea at the time, realizing the form walking in front of her was none other than the very man she had watched before. Yet now, that theory in practice, she finds herself unable to think clearly. Tell the truth, possibly endanger herself and, by proxy, Hotaru, or throw it all up in the air for one chance at some real information? Sure, he might have not got anything at all, but that little chance he might have gleaned something is like a tempting glass of water after so many days of dry heat.
She speaks. "Her aura's distorted."
The glasses are carefully pocketed, with none of the carelessness that would usually be afforded a casual pair of lenses at this time of night. No, they're something valuable. "... Mine is too. But there's something else about her, unrelated to the first thing, that makes her dangerous. Too dangerous for me to get close to her." Dark eyes stare at a space directly beyond him, not seeming to focus on any one spot upon his frame. "That's all."
Daniel Jack purses his lips, mulling about this piece of meat tossed to him. And then, those eyes. The meat turns sweet. He realizes who this is. Or maybe, what this was. Chuckling to himself, the detective motions to his side. "Follow me. We need to chew fat, you dig it?" Walking along, he just stares forward. Dear lord. He was sooooo drunk. The everclear helped with dealing with Vega, but still.
Daniel just randomly begins speaking as he walks along, assuming that she would follow him anyways. "You are one of those psychic types getting the shank with the clown, aren't you, right? Or just the boy?"
The girl seems nervous, in that thread of silence that follows. The chuckle doesn't seem to relay any sense of comfort; she half expects Vega to unmask himself from the shadows and proclaim that the jig was up. Game over. Bad end. One stupid action that no one'd be able to recover her from. "..." She stands there as Daniel moves ahead, her mind feebly weighing the pros and cons.
And then he mentions the clown. She follows, catching up.
Shurui will make a gamble, just this one time. Him mentioning that clown can't be coincidence. The other part, though... ".... boy?" She blinks. "Some kid's gotten caught by it too? ... All I know about is that clown... thing. Almost beat him. But he got me. Now I'm just in this stupid limbo... Don't know nothin', can't do anything, and don't know if it's gonna get worse."
A pause. "Well, nix that. ... it probably will. Dunno how, though... Damn clown took away my third eye and replaced it with whatever it had... Just limited to my bad eyesight and that sense I get when someone who's like me is nearby..."
Daniel Jack knew about the clown. The very presence of the clown made everything into a complicated spiderweb of mishaps, theories, and danger. See, like Marz and now Shurui, Daniel had fought the clown. But unlike them, he suffered nothing but a sound wake up in the middle of the night. Daniel had experienced the same thing these psychics did, but nothing terrible happened.
This was very important.
"You aren't the only one, Tommy." The detective mumbles, trying hard to walk straight. "Look, I dunno all the details, but from what I can tell, something is trying to jack a bunch of people here, like, psychic people. Just looking for a Rose, an Asamiya, and a Towazu. You know them or something?" Don't know nothing. Daniel had to be careful what he leaked. He needed to give the girl just enough information. Then, something hits him. "And... third eye? How does that work?"
Daniel Jack hiccups, then burps.
If that sight was there, she might have figured out that the man she was asking questions of, in reality, had a few drinks. If she knew all the details? Probably wouldn't have blamed him. Either way, a tipsy man only helps to level the playing field- that is, depending on how sharp his mind is.
"Yeah," she admits. "... But I keep missing the others. That one you were with- managed to track her down, but didn't want to get any closer.... She's trouble." She shrugs, willing the subject to keep going forward. "But what does it want from us? Can't just be to make us miserable. To drive us insane?"
Those names. Shurui stops cold. ".... Two of them. Powerful psychics. They work at the YFCC..." She looks down. "... Wanted to keep them from getting involved, so I avoided them." She was right to warn them, albiet indirectly. "They're psychics. Stronger than most. But why mess with them, when it could barely handle me...?"
Could it have gotten stronger? For now, instead of answering Daniel's question, Shurui asks one of her own. ".... who's the boy you were talkin about just earlier? How's he fit into all this?"
The boy was a mystery, even to Daniel. But he was on his mind. The boy may have been Ryan himself. Or not. Daniel couldn't even read the motives of the creature. All he knew was that it was the likely cause of all these deaths.
At least, according to Vega and Marz.
"The YFCC... I don't suppose Zach is with them too." The detective remembered the Kasane Ate thief all too well. That tingling that he connected with the 'psychics.' Man, were psychics all over the place or something? "From what my sources say, the most likely thing is that this is a blind, emotional revenge thing or something. Between you and me? I think it is Ryan Holmes. Can't prove anything, and I need to dig into a lot more research on him. But there is a lot of weird things going on..."
Suddenly, the detective stops. "I'm getting them involved for a decent reason. Tell me, you damn dame, when was the last time you slept?"
"... Zach... yeah. I remember someone mentioning him recently when I was giving a friend." A pause. "Like attracts like, I guess." She shrugs, her single laugh emptying out as a faint cloud from her lips, seeming to make no real allusion to the coincidence of her words and what's possibly going through Daniel's mind.
Just a coincidence.
The name makes the girl's face go blank. "Ryan who?" And yet, it's something to grasp onto. A name. She doesn't get time to focus on it, however, as Daniel asks another question. She gives the detective a tired, if sly smile. "..... Last night. Sleep drugs." She looks down. "... I'm still tired when I wake up, but it's kept me sane. A friend keeps tabs on me." She's insanely lucky for that.
But her mind goes back to that name. Teeth clench, glinting white against the lights of an oncoming car. She could have given K' a proper goodbye. Said more. Told him she'd be okay. Gone to school. Now... "So who is this guy and where is he so I could give him a piece of my mind...? That son of a bitch cost me..."
Daniel Jack stops cold.
The detective just turns to glare at Shurui, eyes burning wet from behind the glasses. "Last person who took sleeping pills in this case nearly died. Clown tore her to shreds. You really don't know what is going on, so I can't really talk to you without being separate but equal, dig it?" Daniel growls, looking away from the same car. "Holmes. You can read about it in the old news. Might give a whole lot of context."
Suddenly, the detective just belted out a sweep of chuckles. "Gedo Girls. Bless your hearts, nah, let me make this clear. Unless we get an expert on psychics, I don't think this thing will be leaving anytime soon. Hell, we might get a whole string of more killings. Or..."
Daniel Jack gets a strange look on his face. He had a thought. A terrible thought. Marz had to be 'purged' by Vega. And now, this girl mentioned about a mark. What if... no. No. That would be terrible. "... What is your name. I might need to keep tabs on you. In case I dig up something that might fix you up." Daniel Jack sniffs. YFCC. That would be a good place to start, it seems.
The news stops Shurui for a moment, but, as if weighing something in her head, she waits, closing her eyes. "... I guess I look pretty stupid, huh?" Then, she responds. Calmly. "I got no choice."
She slips gloved hands into the pockets of her jeans. "It's sleep, or go insane. One means I might die, the other means I might do something that hurts me, or the people around me. That's why I went to a tall man in a bad neighborhood.... who I just had seen with a girl who could have made my life a lot worse... You could have been in league with that woman the entire time. Could've been a trap. So. Is this all the action of somebody who knows what's going on, or somebody whose back's to a corner?" She opens her eyes, slowly, then continues. "Don't be surprised when I don't have any context. ... The only thing I ever got from that clown was that he didn't want to kill me. And that there was someone else, who reacted similiar to me."
Snow begins to drift down. ".... My name is Shurui Chiang." She lets out a breath. "I'll research the name. That's something solid to go on. .... You've made my life just a little easier."
Daniel Jack just stands there for a second, before turning away from the girl. Great. More attatchment. Daniel Jack figures that he is going to make sure any warmth she felt was shut down for good. He was going to help her, yes. But right now, he needed to keep neutral. For all he knows, she might be teen preggies.
Hissing it out slowly, the detective cracks his neck. "Shurui Chiang. Chin up, Shurui, and don't start weeping on me, you hear? I don't like criers." Adjusting his collar, he prepares for a long walk cross to the YFCC. Hopefully, someone would be there this late. As he walks forward, he begins to leave a parting message. "Remember, Tommy. I work for myself, I get contracted out. Find somewhere safe to sleep, and someone safe to sleep. I know how you Gedo girls are. And finally." Daniel Jack stops, and focuses intently through the snow over his shoulder right at the strange girl who confronted him. "... I am not tall. You are just short, you crazy dame." Turning back around, he states very curtly. "I'm heading to the YFCC."
And with that, he walks forward, heading into the fresh snow of Southtown.
Criers? Shurui's face nearly falls. "... I'm a long way from crying," she says dryly, her sarcasm whipping to the forefront. ".... And what do you mean, 'someone safe to sleep'? You're not making any sense." The girl's look is almost comical, as if imagining the rather innocent idea of a person, in pajamas, using another similiarly dressed person as a mattress.
She accounts it to her mind being tired. "Whatever. Just go." Shurui waves her hand in a loose gesture, somewhere between waving him off and shooing him away. "Tell Rose or Alma what you told me. They'll be able to help you. Also." She turns around. "Tell them I said hi."
And so, she parts in the opposite direction, disappearing into the quiet swirling of gentle snow and salt.
Log created on 22:43:32 01/26/2009 by Daniel, and last modified on 12:39:03 01/29/2009.