nectar for the trickster

who: eris and jakob
where: abandoned building
when: around 8pmish

Eris had contacted Jakob earlier in the day to request that they meet up like they had the first time she’d contacted him--in an abandoned place that had been raided by the police earlier, and therefore no one was around, and nothing was set up going to happen to interrupt them. She'd gotten there early, had a box with her for his request for the files, and she'd bought the best bottle of scotch she could find. She'd brought some candles, and the glasses, the inside of his being coated with the poison she'd purchased before. It wasn't visible, the liquid had been clear, and so she wouldn't have to risk slipping it in. She could just pour a drink, and hand him the glass, end of story.

She had the candles lit as she waited, sitting on a desk inside the old office attached to a warehouse that had been raided. It was chilly in there, but that was alright. She didn't mind.

It was probably going to be one of his last nights like this, Jakob realized. Tie loose, sleeves rolled, and a much finer coat than his own slung over one shoulder, he didn’t think he’d have many more dressed-down nights in his future. At least not ones out in public.

He’d left dinner with the mayor almost an hour ago, as drunk from the rush of the day as he was from the liquor he’d been served, and had actually taken a taxi down to this neighborhood. Tomorrow, he’d be easy to recognize with his picture and speech in the Echo, but tonight? He was still just one more citizen. It had all timed out too nicely.

Of course, he was already bemoaning the fact that the commissioner didn’t carry a service weapon as he skulked off of the sidewalk and into the empty door frame of the building he’d been directed to. How fitting would it be for him to meet some pauper’s death at a mugger’s hands? how ironic? “Stockard?” he called from just inside the building, peering in the direction of the faint candlelight Eris had arranged.

"Good evening, Commissioner Hollis." She called, voice light, almost amused but not quite. She appeared in the doorframe, and she leaned one shoulder against it. "I see you're taking it easy tonight." she noted, a smile on her lips. "I was wondering if you were even going to make it--I'm sure you had a lot of people lining up to kiss the ring, as it were."

He had an easy grin at the sight of Eris, an unmistakable sheen of pride and satisfaction in his eyes. She had to see how far he’d come; she had to appreciate it like so few might. “Our fellow citizens are pinning greats hopes on me, yes,” Jakob confirmed, shrugging dismissively. “I aim to please, of course, but my first day was spent signing commendations and speaking with city officials. I’m fairly sure we have connivers on the city payroll who would shame you and I equally.”

She gave a light little laugh. "I'm certain." she agreed. "Come in, have a drink with me. I wanted to congratulate you myself. But I thought perhaps it would not suit your public image to be seen with the likes of me." she told him. It was just in his best interest--really. Walking back into the office, she sat on the end of the desk, crossing her legs demurely as she did so.

“After your miraculous return and the reinvention of yourself?” Jakob asked rhetorically, scoffing as he followed Eris. “My dear, you are far from the biggest liability I might encounter.” in the public eye, at least. But both of them knew that neither syndicate would like seeing their informant and their former rival consorting. Thus, the gutted space they were meeting in. “I thought you might take comfort in knowing, too, that I intend to keep our previous agreement. No meddling in your affairs on my behalf, which I believe now means the whole of the police force,” he added, grinning wider, “A drink is definitely in order, given that we both have reason to celebrate.”

"That's quite generous of you." Eris told him, pouring the glasses she'd brought. One was quite clearly a woman's glass, a crystal wine glass, the other a scotch tumbler. She poured him his, then held it out to him. "It's appreciated." she told him, holding eye contact to feign sincerity well. She also held the eye contact because after he started drinking, it would only be a matter of time til the light in them died. Til he expired, never to keep his promises or break them. He'd no longer be. And it would be for an offense he'd contributed to so long ago. But in her book, it didn't matter. She didn't have a statute of limitations on ruining Brett's life. Hollis wasn't answering to the law. He wasn't answering to the universe. He was answering to her. And she said he didn't get to continue on because of it.

Jakob laughed dryly as he took the glass, pacing a little as he swirled the contents and breathed them in appreciatively. For all of his knowledge and airs, he’d never bothered to really become an afficianado for fine liquors or wines, meaning the slightly acrid scent in the glass went entirely unnoticed. “It is prudent, not generous,” he said, hesitating before drinking. “Konovich and DiGiovanni are sloppy, hamhanded fools who employ psychopaths and petty thieves. They will be very distracting to toy with and take apart, but you... you know a good measure of me,” Jakob admitted, smirking and taking his first sip. “I want no conflict with any foe who knows me.”

"So it's self preservation. I understand." Eris said. "If I were in your position, I'd do the same. And, I wish no quarrel with you either. It's bad for business." she said, shrugging one shoulder lightly as she took a drink from her own glass. "But I still wanted to congratulate you." she added. "You've come quite a long ways, after all." And it was about to be over. He was already dead, he just didn't know it yet.

“Patrolman to commissioner in a decade and a half,” Jakob agreed, almost sneering over the edge of his glass before taking another drink. “You know, my first commanding officers liked to tell me I’d be doing desk work by this point in my career? In some sense, i suppose they were right.” They being the late Captain Hardy, that is, the man who Jakob had gone through to bury Brett Trent’s career and case. “I suppose we’ve both come a great distance, haven’t we?” he waxed thoughtfully, drinking again and absently patting himself down for a cigar the mayor had given him. “And yet, for all of it, there’s so far to go. You with your newest endeavor, me with the department at my fingertips...” Jakob trailed, abandoning the cigar hunt as he reached to tug his tie looser, feeling somewhat hoarse or choked.

She smiled as she watched him adjust his tie. She put her foot against the chair that was in front of the desk and pushed it out towards him. "Sit down." she invited. "You look a little tired. I'm sure you've had an extraordinarily long day." she added. She took another drink of her scotch, and set the glass down next to her. "I'm sure things'll be very interesting from here on out. I look forward to seeing how it plays out." she told him.

Maybe the day had taken more of a toll than he’d thought, as Eris suggested. It certainly felt like it was all catching up at once, from the tightness in his chest and throat to the light tingle that ran up his arm as Jakob grabbed the back of the chair. “I’m afraid you won’t get to see it all,” he warned consolingly, “A great magician protects his secrets dearly, after all. That is one of the only lessons of my childhood I still hold dear.” He had another ghost of a smile before Jakob drank again, hoping the scotch would open up his airway as he settled into the offered chair..

Keeping her eyes on him, she let him speak, smiling as he did so. "I don't need to know all the secrets." she said. "There's only one that I request you tell me. After all, it's quite the trick you pulled, my sweet." she continued, voice a light little purr. "You see, I went through the files again after you requested them. And I found some interesting details." her smile widened. "You were the one who took him down, weren't you?" she said, though it wasn't truly a question. "Mr. Trent, that is. It was you who buried him. You must indulge me."

What had been a feeling of drunkenness shifted then, albeit slowly. Jakob started to smile at the question, a sloppy and proud expression that he couldn’t stifle with his intoxication, but before he could speak a word on it? It clicked upstairs, what she’d just asked of him. She knew. Someone had told her, except no one else knew. She’d found some scrap of evidence, but none existed. It didn’t matter how Eris knew, it just mattered that she did. “I do not kick other peoples’ pets, Stockard,” Jakob slurred at her, his tongue feeling bloated in his mouth, “Not even curs like Trent.”

"Of course you do." Eris said, tutting with her tongue. "And besides, he wasn't my pet then, was he? I'm talking about ancient history, you know--the history you just smiled at." she said. "You buried him. You were the one who made sure that all that silly paperwork about his undercover operation got lost at the station." she said. "Set him up for the murder of his captain."

It wasn’t his intellect or detective’s expertise that told Jakob to put the glass down, it was indignation over being caught. Even ten years after the fact, he hated to know that someone else could figure out one of his games. Setting the tumbler on the desk, Jakob rose with a stagger, holding onto the chair to steady himself as he smirked at Eris. “I was bored, and he was useful,” he admitted at long last, “But mostly I was bored. He did well, though, seeing him so many years later made me glad I hadn’t simply told the O’Malleys the truth about him.”

And for just a moment? He got to start gloating, eyes lighting up with ego that vanished even faster than it arrived as Jakob suddenly arched forward. He could feel his gullet rise up, taste bile and... blood? For all his best efforts, Jakob couldn’t seem to take one full breath, staying curled forward with a tight grip on the chair to keep himself standing. “We... we had a deal, Stockard,” he spat out, suddenly thinking that the list of what might be wrong with him was very short indeed.

Bored. She really thought she would have been less offended, since she'd half expected the answer in the first place, but it still struck her. Bored. They really were alike. Or, they used to be. Not so much anymore. But back in the day she'd certainly set things in motion due to being without proper entertainment. She smiled at him, watching his eyes, then watching as things kicked in faster. "Oh, we did." she agreed. "It's off." she finished that sentiment.

"You know, Jakob." she started, tone light, but there was a razor edge beneath it. "I really want you to know that what I've done to you, it isn't good business. It isn't because you're in my way, even." she continued. "In fact, there's nothing that I'm actually going to gain from your death. Which makes it fairly pointless, of course." she said, knowing that would piss him off. that it would rub salt in the wounds.

"It's for him. You see, you went and ruined Brett's life. I take offense to that. That's why you're dying. That's why right now, your life is burning out." she gave a light little laugh. "You didn't even make it a second day into your shiny new job." She sighed. "My, that's not going to look good, is it." she said, mock-regretful. "You brought this on yourself. Why, exactly? Oh! Because you were bored."

No one tricked him, no one. He’d flirted with Maya Walker, kissed the ring of Don DiGiovanni himself, commanded fear from the Lotus and respect from Konovich, and none of them dared to try and double-cross him. Which meant that for the first time in a long time? Jakob knew how it felt to be on the receiving end of the punchline. It felt like dying.

“Whore!” he spat out abruptly, lurching around and starting to heft the chair up as if he could throw it at Eris. He might’ve made it, too, if there was any strength left in his arms. As it was, he got the chair up enough that it fell in a clatter, landing on its’ side as Jakob staggered away from it and came down on one knee. “You... you can’t, we had a deal!” Jakob spat over his shoulder, oblivious of the spatters of blood he’d flecked his lips with as he tried to take a step back towards the street. He didn’t even get back to standing, and the exertion was clouding his eyes with spots as he struggled to breathe.

She watched him try to throw his rage at her, and she didn't move. She didn't flinch at the name, or anything he said. She just smiled at him, a little, cold, cruel twist of her lips. "I can." she said, voice losing any warmth. "I did." She got down from the desk, and took the two steps over to him, placing a heel at the back of his shoulder to push him over, make him tumble onto his back. Then she looked down at him, head tilted to the side, hair falling in soft waves over her shoulders, around her features. "You know the really funny part of this?" she asked him rhetorically, as she knelt down next to him. "You never saw it coming. And, considering some of the things you've gotten away with over the years...really, it's just the one thing. Just ruining one man, who the rest of the city doesn't remember or care about anyway. I really hope you like the trick here. I know I'm amused." she told him, even if there wasn't any amusement in her eyes, nor her tone. She reached out to pat his cheek. "Smile, sweetheart. That look makes me think you don't appreciate the joke."

He could still hear her, could see what he knew to be Eris’ form among the haze of his vision and the tremors that shook it along with the rest of his body. But there was nothing left in Jakob that could force out words any longer. His eyes bulged in the sockets, hands clawing tight against unforgiving floor beneath them as if he could drag himself to the street. Jakob knew better.

And strangely, he remembered his childhood. He’d been eleven when he figured out the Amazing Palmieri’s tricks, when he’d learned just how many of them came not from the magician himself, but from the woman who called herself the assistant. She was layer after layer of plans and preparation, never giving a shred of reason to think that she could be so prepared, and without her the magician would have been a poor one indeed. I learned the wrong lessons, that day, Jakob thought as his jaw locked tight, teeth chattering in what might’ve been an attempt to speak? But only came out as a slow, final breath before his eyes went glassy and unfocused.

Eris watched. She kept her eyes locked to his as he died, and watched that dull look settle in as he was no longer present to give them life. She stayed a long moment, making sure that he wasn't breathing, though really, she knew a corpse when she saw one. Then she stood, took his glass and poured the rest of it out the window. From there, she packed up her things, and left, thinking it was going to be a bit before he was found. She'd have time to disappear--which was exactly what she planned to do.

Brett Trent was avenged. Her work here was done.