Description: Sonia goes to visit Daniel Jack in the Sunshine City Hilton, intent to seduce him off of the path he's currently on and prevent him from stepping on Johann's toes. It ends... however... more as exchange of semi-useful information, banter, and... 'fun'.
Bitter Spirits.
That was hanging heavily in Daniel's heart, as he sulks back from the hospital. The detective had painful sores running through his soul, open wounds from the knife that drove so deep into his back. Zach's words of encouragement and strange psychic power did little to heal the scars that were carved out of the sleuth. Daniel Jack wasn't used to the feeling of being torn up inside, not since he found out the fate of Marz... or lack thereof. This was a new experience for him, though.
Set up by his own client.
It was two days since he ran into the revelations that everything he had done was nothing more than a wild goose chase to an international scale. People he used, friends he might have betrayed. All was to find out about a gang of imaginary watch thieves. Everything almost came together, according to plan. Except in the end, it was worth a dime and a prayer. Daniel Jack was a rube, a goon. A plaything for some gangleader. The sleuth didn't know what was worse. Being used?
Or being stupid enough to be tricked.
Working through the Sunshine City Hitlon, Daniel Jack draws out his card to the room. The 3 star hotel was within the detective's means, especially when operating in Sunshine City. Swiping the card in the slot, his mind was still a storm. He was thinking too much. Swinging the door open to the hotel room, he enters, staring a million miles. All he wanted was to curl up with a bottle of good whiskey, and shut out the world. Shut out the hopes, the dreams, the sorrow, the pain. Shut out the whole of the world, and stare in the abyss.
Taking shots as he descends the bleak stairway to hell.
The Sunshine City Hilton. Though it was a modest enough place for most people, decent and not terribly shabby by the standards of most... it was like visiting the slums for Sonia Romanenko. Any hotel room the woman ever bought was nothing less than five star with all of the amenities one would ever need and many that you didn't. That's why, as she made her way into his hotel room earlier... with the aid of the manager no less... she found herself a tad disgusted. She'd never visit a place like this without good reason, but she did in fact have a good reason.
She had told the manager that she was his girlfriend, and that she was returning from an extended period away. She had told the manager that she was going to surpise him, and it wasn't far from the truth. There may have even been subtle suggestions that she planned to have him ravage her until the sun rose the next morning. In such a sexually excited state, whou could blame that fat man - who'd probably not had a woman in years if ever - for playing right into her hands. After entering the room, and closing the door behind her, she had promptly made herself at home... right on his bed.
She's was wearing a deliciously tight, black, polyester and spandex tube dress with the cleavage cut out in front for tonight. It's so tight you could follow every naunce of her curvaceous body. The skirt on that thing's so short its almost illegal and the swell of her breasts can easily be seen beneath taut strings that barely keep her lightly-tanned girls from exploding from her top. Layered over the top of that dress, though obscuring nothing, would be a fine leather jacket that looks as though it were barely worn. She's gently moving, ever so subtly, her bare feet against one another... and /very/ slowly rubbing her silkenly soft and smooth thighs together as well. She's draped her shapely body across the, by contrast, cheaply made and decorated bed of the hotel room with her left hand supporting her head as her right toys idly with an intricate platinum necklace.
If he were perceptive, he might catch those dressy black heels lying by the left of the doorside nearest the bathroom. That would be his first warning something was amiss. The second? ... "Good evening, Daniel Jack. It's been a while... you look tired..." She practically purrs this in typically deep, rich, tones. Her hand comes away from that necklace of hers and she lightly strokes that cheap bedspread with a well-manicured hand... "Why don't you come in and relax..."
Another break in?
Another dame.
How Sonia got in was, at least, the least destructive entrance Daniel Jack has recieved. But when the detective's eyes cast across the bed to the fine form placed within it, his eyes soften. Long ago, he had always entertained the thought of an old-fashioned seduction. And frankly, after a bad week, this kind of surprise would be well-appreciated. Eyes casting across the form of the supple beauty that wormed her way in it, Daniel Jack seems almost involutarily loosening his tie as he approaches the bed.
Until he sees the face on that form.
You could hear the expression on the sleuth's face shatter on the ground as he realizes WHO it was that was paying him a visit. Raw, hot anger surges over him, his cheek below his eye quivering in rage. He knew that face. He would never forget that face, never forget it again. If it wasn't for the fact he needed a partner to put a dent on her, he would have jumped her right then and there. Instead, he holds his ground. Eyes burning. Jaw tense. And finally, he strikes.
"Yeah, it sure has been a while since you tried to kill me, you god damned skank."
Daniel's entire presence was oozing venom. Every word was spat out with caustic acid, hissing and burning as he directed the raw poison straight for the woman who wasted so much of the man. "I'd love to relax, sweetheart, but I'm not really a dog person." He snaps, before sticking a hand in his suit jacket. Reaching into his pocket, he draws out the phone, before tucking it away. "Oh, wait. God dammit." He seethes. "I know this god damn game."
Daniel Jack had played it too many times before.
Tossing his hat on the table, he grimaces. "Get off the bed." He growls nastily as he heads to the counter, exposing his back to the woman. Drawing out a bottle of Jack Daniels, he continues to hurl his seething, hot words at the seductress that had blessed him with her presence. "Don't get me wrong. I means a whole lot to me that you would put so much work in this. Yes, you look like the finest piece of steak I've very well god damned seen. But no. I'm not in the mood. Nothing ever comes cheap, nothing ever comes easy." Slamming down the bottle on the table, he begins clicking the shots, in a line. NOt even pouring yet, he just stares at the woman, before he unleashes the quesition.
"What the fuck do you want, you god damned dame."
For all of the venom, and all of the hate, spewing from the detective who'd just entered the room, went straight for the counter, and started to drink... the practiced seductress doesn't bat an eyelash. She's still wearing that ear-to-ear smile, eyes now filled with amusement, that she'd been wearing when he walked in. As he calls her a skank, however, the hand that was so gingerly stroking the bedspread comes to rest on her hip. She isn't moving from the bed, though, despite being practically commanded to.
"I never intended to kill you." She replies, honestly. "You weren't even supposed to be there. It isn't my fault you forced me to defend myself." The russian woman sighs softly, her smile breaking... though it's more a look of disappointment she adopts than anything. "You got yourself involved in a dangerous game, and you knew the risks you were taking."
The fingers of her left hand, still supporting her head, toy with a platinum earring dangling from her ear... "What you didn't know was the manner of game you'd gotten yourself involved in." Her violet eyes move to try and meet with his, provided he's looking at her... if not she's definitely eyeing him when he does turn back toward her. "You do not know Vyle as well as you think you do. He is a dangerous person with ill intentions, and he is wanted by an even more dangerous person than himself." She watches when he throws back a shot, and he's bound to, with an amused smile creeping back into her beautiful features. "...I sent you on that wild goose chase because I wanted to keep you out of harm's way. I wanted to send you as far away from the dangerous path you've chosen as possible... but yet you still persisted. Pushing your nose into places it didn't belong... what was I to do then? I had to eliminate Vyle and you were insistent on assailing me."
Daniel Jack wasn't believing any of this for a second.
Vega. Juri. Marz. All the likes that had crashed in with the detective. The moment he gets a real-straight out seductress, Daniel Jack couldn't just take it. Watching her toy with herself. Maybe all it took was for Daniel to lay with her. The detective was in trouble already though. Dames like that were sent over to sweeten the detective back to whatever whims their bosses wanted... or to eliminate them. Frankly, Daniel was keen on keeping Sonia convinced on keeping himself alive.
But the man had to keep his self-respect.
"Cut the crap." Daniel Jack scowls as he pours himself a shot. "Keeping me safe? You could have kept me safe by not telling me a god damned thing about the gang. You could have kept me safe by keeping me in Southtown. You are a pretty liar, sweetheart, but a dame like you gotta know when you got a real lemon. I know you've been playing me like a lark, and I know you are in cahoots with the Black Dragon Gang. Pushing my nose in... That's the god damn job you paid me for! I don't know what kind of game you are playing..."
But then, she mentions Vyle.
A lot.
"Get off on Vyle." Daniel bursts, snapping down the shotglass. Pouring himself another shot, he continues, anger rolling off his shoulders. "He just plays a bad guy. What do you think you are telling me he is dangerous? The man dresses up as a Mexican Clown, for crying out loud." Downing another shot, he finally passes the eye over the woman again. Thrusting the shotglass gently in her direction, the detective bleats. "And why are you still on that bed."
"Still think you can woo me beside you?"
For all of the venom, and hatred coming from the mouth of the detective standing across from her, jabbing shot glasses in her direction and insisting she's lying about Vyle... she maintains that controlled, laid-back, calm. She's like a deeply entrenched, reinforced, steel bunker in the face of a tornado. Whilst he's shouting, tossing back shots, and slamming glasses so hard they might shatter, she just keeps right on toying with that earring... the hand she'd placed on her hip earlier smoothing over the fabric of her dress ever so slowly.
She's all smiles, even now. "You were safe, on the path I intended for you to walk... but I hadn't anticipated just how much you'd deviate from my intentions."
As he mentions the bed for the second time, however, she reluctantly sits up... feet settling on the floor. She assumes a seated position at the edge of the bed, her arms behind her as she leans on them with her fingers splayed upon that cheap bedpsread. Her leather jacket falls, somewhat, exposing her smooth shoulders to the open air... "Black Dragon Gang..." She chuckles softly. "Do you really believe that? Even moreso, do you really believe that I would purposefully lead you to a gang that I work for, Daniel Jack?" She lets that sink in for a moment before continuing... "You are right. I did play you. I play a lot of people... it's my job. But I assure you I did not intend for things to turn out as they did."
She then purposefully shrugs off that jacket, completely, letting it fall to the bed and then giving it a toss onto the bedspread almost defiantly. Making it clear she does not intend to leave soon. "...And you weren't supposed to be there. That, again, was not my fault." She goes back to leaning on her arms, thrusting her supple chest into the air as she does so... feet kicking ever so slightly just above the floor as she watches him down even more alchohol. What a lovely thing, she thought to herself... his intoxicating himself in her presence only makes her job that much easier. "Vyle is not who you believe he is. He looks and acts the fool but it is just that, an act." She then makes a purposeful allusion to a past event, which she'd watched in on during the earliest parts of her assignment to watch him... "Do you really believe those thugs who attacked you two on that night on Gedo Street just happenedd to be there? How fortunate that Vyle was there to aid you... or was it?" Her smilen widens slowly... yes, she was going there. She wasn't going to outright accuse Vyle of working for Shadaloo to Daniel.... that just wasn't her style. No, she'd let the liquored up gears in Daniel's head turn on their own. "If you believe I am here to kill you, you are mistaken. You are not worth my employer's time. I am merely here to try and convince you not to throw away your life by meddling in things you should not." She then lifts a dainty hand from the bed and proceeds to slowly run it over her side... fingers smoothing over her breasts as her hand smooths over her ribcage all the way down to her hip. She then stands up, gliding across the floor toward the intoxicated man and grins... red lips parting and exposing her immaculate teeth as she whispers this last phrase... "I can provide all the incentives you'll ever need."
Everything about her was reading the truth.
And that meant nothing could be real about her. Daniel Jack was studying her like a book, eyes burning. But her movements were cracking that stony exterior. Every seductive turn made Daniel flinch, making him shake the presence from his mind. Sonia was haunting him, pulling at him. The liquor was only fueling it, but the honey in her words was closely encasing him. But when she finally closes in on the man, she offers everything to him.
To which, Daniel responds with an open palm.
"Talk is cheap, sweetheart, and I rather my dames not be the same way." The detective manages to rebuff it, shaking off the spell. This time, however, he seems to be shaking away a heady wine. Was it the liquor he was shooting? Or was it the seduction. "Even if Vyle is rolling with Shadaloo, all the better for me!" The detective downs another shot. "You don't think I have connections with Shadaloo?" The sleuth loudly sighs, and slumps back in his chair. Slowly, he begins to take off his suit jacket, dropping it on the ground beside him.
"And frankly, sweetheart, I know what you are here for."
THe detective takes a clean hankerchief from his undercoat pocket, and dabs it on his forehead. "What is this all for. I get my neck deep in what, for what. You know what the worst part of all this? I don't know a damn thing why you would do anything. Maybe you are with that cult army Amy is rolling around with? I don't even know where I should keep my nose from sticking into. And hell, you know I made such a damn deal about it, I can't just pretend to forget...."
The detective seems to lose his head for a moment, lurching as Sonia approaches him.
Swiftly, he taps down a shot glass across the table. The sound seems to snap him too. Women were dangerous for the detective. It was rare for one to realize this weakness. Kicking the chair across from him back a bit, to let someone slip in, his expression softens. "Look, I'm asking you again. I don't even have your name. I don't care if your boss wants to use you as a piece of meat. Take a seat. Have a drink. At least let me pretend you are a damn human being, rather than some teenage wet dream. I always wondered when a god damned seductress would come up my alley, instead of a god damn thug. And you know what? I'd be in bed with you 5 minutes ago with the hanky panky, if I knew what the hell this is all on about. Come on, sweetheart. Share a drink with me, and at least answer a few of the questions. Enough to know where I'm not supposed to be looking. I mean, I won't even ask the employer's name."
"I just want to have a pleasent evening without distractions, okay?"
As that open palm is thrust toward her, Sonia does heed him releuctantly. She doesn't leave, however, lingering just outside his territory. She sidles up next to the table then, smoothing her hand over the cheap wooden surface as he speaks. She's listening to everything he says, including the very interesting tid bit about Shadaloo, and watching as he slumps over in his chair... dabbing a kerchief at his brow area.
She steps back, however, as he lurches forward... crossing her arms beneath her breasts, which only serves to make them that much more prominent. Still standing there opposite him beside the table, listening quietly for a break in his somewhat protracted speech. That smile never waivers though, even when he suggests he knows what she was here for. "It's not as though I am trying to hide my purpose." She'd offered him this much truth so far for the sole purpose of making it easier for him to play into that. It's not as though it had been risky, either... Daniel already knew she were dangerous.
As the chair is kicked out beside her, and the invitation to sit and chat is extended, she seems to contemplate it for a good while.
Then, she finally deigns to sit across from him... content to humor him a bit. As she slides back into the chair, she turns her legs at an angle and crosses her ankles daintly... smoothing her skirt with her hands as she finishes. As he mentions that he wished to talk to her as a human being, not as though she were a piece of meat, she smiles again... this one a bit more of an amused smile. "I assure you Daniel Jack, though I work for my employer with a certain enthusiasm... he does not own me." This is an honest expression of ehr true character. "Nor do I do many of the things that I do stricttly because I am told. In fact, I have a great deal of freedom with my methods." This, too, was true. Johann rarely told her how to do her job, if anything... to a certain extent she told him how to do his. It isn't said, but it is implied, then... that she chose this method of her own accord.
At the offer of a drink, however, fer smile falters a bit. She eyes the bottle of Jack, as if considering. Honestly, she rarely drank such low grade alchohol but.. "Very well then, I will have a drink with you."
Whilst he busies himself with that, her hands tug firmly on her top... adjusting it... due to the discomfort it presented. She had picked out a smaller thna her usual size dress just for this, but that chest of hers wasn't enjoying. Finally, she reaches up toward the strings across her cleavage and proceeds to loosen them... letting the chest area loose a bit. "Fine then. I will humor you with questions..." ... and then she leans back into the chair again, hands folding neatly in her lap. "...Some of them anyway. ... To begin with, I still have business with Vyle. The issue being this: he is recruiting in places he shouldn't. I have already attempted tonm dissuade him peacefully but that failed. I take it you know the aftermath of that incident..."
And when she accepts his offer, Daniel Jack's exterior finally fully softens.
"So you are saying Vyle is a Shadaloo ground guy." The detective begins, pouring a shot each between them. As she.. loosens her own form, Daniel swallows hard. Keep it together man. Everything was getting warmer. His eye hangs on her adjustments, the detective's will beginning to truly wane. But his resolve holds strong. Shrugging, he continues. "Eh. I still can't believe it. So I won't. But." The detective adds, raising a finger up. "It CAN make sense. Vyle did seem standoffish before. But after I ran into that officer.... he seemed a little too eager. If he is Shadaloo, and running a ground game against your people..."
"Well, then it is a still a matter of your people."
Daniel Jack takes a shot. "If Vyle is running interference, I'll stay out of Shadaloo business. I can promise your people that, if what you are saying is true. I can dig it. You are working for your people. And I don't want to be busting up clowns for Shadaloo to fill in. But that doesn't mean a whole lot to me. I want to know what YOU guys are running. Are you with Abobo? A mysterious outside player? And what's with all this kidnapping business?" The detective raises a glass to the woman.
"Cheers."
Finished making the adjustments to her cleavage area, and letting her hands fall into her lap, Sonia waits patiently for him to finish pouring her drink. Her heavily-lidded violet eyes lock with his across the way again, her lips are pursed just slightly as she continues to give him an amused smile though - its a restrained one for the moment. Her highly anaylytical mind did catch his growing nervousness with her strong sensuality, and she was enjoying it. She /always/ enjoyed it when men paid attention to her, no matter who they were. "Believe what you will then, it's none of my business what you choose to believe. My only concern is with what you do." She subtly reminds him of her purpose. "...And as long as you do not interfere with our business, I have no reason to kill you." Though she says this, a threatening tone never even remotely enters her voice. It's a statement of facts, both of them knew exactly what her job was now so why bother with subtleties when the truth will do?
As he continues to talk, she lifts the shot glass near by and tosses it back... her beautiful features momentarily become marred by a slightly look of distaste there afterwards. But it passes quickly, and she sets the shot glass aside on the table. "..Mm.." She had forgotten how utterly nasty that shit tasted.
Now for the other questions. How to go about them... she wonders privately. Then... after a moment of silence passes she formulates an explanation. "I do not work with Abobo." This was partially true, after all, Abobo was so far beneath her he might as well be the mud on her shoes. He was thick as mud anyway. "Simple violence and mayhem is so far beneath who I work for as to be an insult." Again, truth. Johann's goals were so much more... divine. Divinely evil... but divine. "I cannot tell you the who, and I cannot tell you the why. I can tell you though the gangs running through the streets of Outer Sunshine have nothing to do with my me or my purpose." This part, however, is lie. But she'd not be showing it in the slightest. "...and my purpose is to deal with those who would tread on my employer's feet. ... And I can assure you, you do not wish to step on my employer's feet. If you believe crossing Shadaloo is dangerous to one's health... you haven't an inkling what my employer is capable of."
Back to the question of how to avoid stepping on Johann's feet... "...As to how to avoid getting yourself killed. It is simple, do not interfere with my business with Vyle and do not engage with Aoi Himezaki or anything she is involved with. She has already dug a grave too deep to escape from, and trying to aid her will only see you falling in." And of the kidnappings... she smiles broadly. "I do not know a thing about them." She may, actually, but she wasn't too involved with those goings on and she certainly isn't going to comment on it.
"Now I have a question for you..." Stands up again, slowly, tugging at the strings on her cleavage area again... loosening it a bit more. "Do you really enjoy asking these questions? Why do you chase after shadows with such fervor and risk damning yourself to an even worse life... or death?" Agian, no threats, just curiousity. "...And also, might I use your shower? ... You're welcome to join me if it pleases you." She's clearly not interested in discussing this much further, if he continued to pursue Johann... despite these efforts then perhaps he deserved death for his stupidity. It was her concern no longer.
"But your business is my business."
The detective growls a bit as she takes her drink. "Not a whiskey girl?" Whether it was a guess, or an observation, was a mystery. Maybe Daniel Jack just expected everything to be a lie from a woman, even when she was 'opening' up. But as she speaks, it is clear that Daniel Jack that his fears were true. A cult was building under the surface. A cult that Sonia represented... and was independent of the gangs, at least. But why was Vyle moving into that territory? Why was there territory? Daniel rumbles to himself. The liquor finally drove into the heart of his mind. He was getting reckless. Unfocused. And yet, he was listening carefully to the woman.
And she knew about him and Zaki.
Stewing in his mind, the detective was losing awareness of his surroundings. But he was all too aware of his own mind, his own thoughts. Her words were like a song to him, lulling him and hypotizing his senses. He was falling into the hole. And yet, he finishes his shot. He was in with the devil now, as enticing as it was. "Avoid Vyle, and Avoid Zaki...." He mutters solemnly
The long glimpse of cleavage drags him back into the real world.
Focusing again, he swallows hard as the question breaks through. Why does he do it. Why does he follow down these paths to nothing. Every single investigation he has done was either a milk run... or an utter failure. The closest thing to a success was the Black Dragon Gang.... which was worthless. Why does he always chase after the truth, after the mystery. Heavy questions to the end. And through the clouds, a beam of truth breaks through.
"Because that is my life."
"Chasing shadows, standing for nothing, fighting for false hopes." Daniel rattles off bleakly. "I don't do it because I'll win. I do it because it is what I do. It is always the right thing to do, and I'll do it alone if I have to. I've been gundowned, tossed in a dumpster for dead. I've stared down the barrel of death, and risen from the ashes. But for what." The detective sighs forlornly, rising up. "I think I will be joining you, miss." The detective begins, getting his balance as he stands up.
"I might as well get something out of being a hero of lost causes."
As he mulls over her what she had just told him, the russian vixen just observes his drunken reactions and musings. He was an odd man, this Daniel Jack, to her. So obsessed with mysteries that had no rewards for him and held only tragedy. It was probably stupidity, she was wont to think. But even stupidity had its limits... no human being chases empty promises for no reason. She didn't think she'd ever understand people like him... and it was exhausting to try.
As he finally responds to her questions, however, her smile doesn't falter despite the fact that she felt something akin to disgust. What a pitiful existence to be damned to, no less damn oneself to. She expected this response... however... it sounded a lot like the one Johnny Jones gave her. "...I see." Slowly those strings are coming undone, even as she stands right infront of him... she wasn't waiting too terribly long for his response regarding the shower. She figured it was a given at this point. "I cannot understand that. It defies logic..." But perhaps applying logic to people like Daniel was also a lost cause.
After a moment, the dress is loosened enough that it simply falls off into the floor in a crumpled heap around her feet. The revelation that follows... is that this woman does not wear undergarments. At all. She is now fully exposed... this tanned, shapely, leggy russian fox in the middle of his bedroom.
As he stands to join her, she simply lifts her feet and proceeds toward the washroom. "You might as well." She certainly wasn't going to sleep with a man who smelled of dried sweat and alchohol. Why was she still sleeping with him...? Well, she'd come this far... might as well enjoy herself a bit. Even if it was with one of the dumbest, down and out, detectives this side of the world. "I'll heat the water..." Because she could totally do that with her body.
"Logic..."
Daniel Jack steadily begins to undress, the haze of the liquor twisting his vision, corroding it. And yet, he could sense the beautiful. The beastal, primal urges, the lusty side of Daniel consumes him. Women. The detective rarely dated, and when he did, it almost always ended in trouble. Daniel Jack was a modern working man, no time for women, no time for fun. Fun. Something that would never be having with a traitorous woman, a dangerous woman. were he sober. But that was why he was drinking. When Sober, Daniel would rather die than let himself be seduced in. And Sonia would have obliged. But to never be understood.... That drove under his skin. And finally, as he removes his shirt, he speaks slowly, softly.
"You follow someone elses dream, and call it your own.You follow out of faith, out of love, out of passion, out of a certainness of righteousness. Like Amy. It's never about any of that, though. In the end, it is power. But that's the thing. I don't see power as clinging to the powerful. To be a cog in someone elses machine, a proud parasite. Power... comes from within. That's why I take the lonely path, the path of the losers, the endless uphill climb.
"To be even stronger."
"To know what other people don't know, to stand where no one else will stand. To walk into the mouth of madness itself. Tyrants tremble and fall, heroes pass in time, ideals twist and warp and corrupt. Nothing lasts, nothing stands.... except for you. You will always be there for yourself, and as long as you need to be. That's why I choose my own path, and trust myself, even when it is the damned fool thing to do."
"Because who else can you trust, when you can't trust yourself?"
Sonia reveals a secret not unknown to Daniel, the lack of underpants. But such analyzing is gone now. Daniel Jack was fully over to the dark side, taken over by the devil's drink. As she stands in the nude... Daniel Jack breaks from the depression, for only a moment. That winning smile boils forth, that presence surfacing. The depressed, drunken Daniel fades away, a lively, vigorous man taking its place. Fully undressed, he walks to the edge of the washroom, looking into the depths within, ready to cross over into the evening of sin. He speaks, the last words he remembers saying for the night as he looks within. "Get the water on, sweetheart. I'll shut up about business. The time for talking shop is down."
"As I understand, you had more pressing issues for me to settle, sweetheart."
- FADE TO BLACK -
Log created on 17:45:20 07/24/2012 by Sonia, and last modified on 03:59:05 07/25/2012.