Tides

Who: Eris and Jakob
Where: One More Round
When: after hours

Oh, how he was excited. Jakob didn't think he'd felt such raw elation since he'd been a child and he'd waited every summer for the festivals in Fontaine Park, for the magician that had performed several years in a row. And just like when he'd been a curly-headed youth, he wanted to dance, to laugh and clap his hands in anticipation, though this was for an entirely different sort of show. Tomorrow, he thought as he drove through the late-night dark of the city, Tomorrow it all falls down. That was the plan, at least; the immaculately laid plan he'd positioned piece by piece, whisper by whisper. He'd lied through his teeth, stolen, even murdered for the sake of this game. And in the end? No one in a position of power who could stop him was going to have the faintest inkling of what was in the works, not until it was done. It would be untraceable to him, too celebrated of a play presented to the city for either syndicate to lash out, if they still could.

Tonight was the final piece, the cherry on top that he had to present to Eris. He had the extra information for her blackmail of the commissioner, and all he needed from her was to name where he'd be sending the corrupted old man for said blackmailing. Pulling up outside of the darkened windows of One More Round, Jakob hopped from his car with a spring in his step, files tucked under his arm as he moved for the door and found it unlocked once again. She had to have some kind of deal with the owner. "Stockard?" he called as he poked his head inside, free hand moving to rest on the grip of his holstered pistol sheerly out of habit.

Eris was sitting on the bartop. It was all closed, the place, though there was music faintly playing. She had on a single light behind the bar, which back-lit her, and no other lights on in the establishment. She had a drink in her hand, and a bottle next to her--though she hadn't actually been drinking. She just wanted to make it look like she had been making herself comfortable. There was also a glass set out for Jakob, which she poured when he called her name. "Over here." she said, trying quite hard to quell the thrill of nerves in her system. God, this could all go so incredibly goddamn badly. And all because her little boyscout was in fact, still a boyscout.

People were usually much easier to deal with. Or they had been. And even now she knew she could have turned everything around on him, used the fact that Jakob was going to be Displeased to get him to go through with it anyhow, but she still didn't want to do that. She didn't want to go there. So she wasn't.

That just didn't make this meeting any easier on her nerves. At least, however, she still had it in her to play it right. To appear just as calm and collected as she ever was. "Come, have a drink."

"Trying to ply me with liquor?" Jakob asked, chuckling in the darkness as he slid around the vacant tables of the Round, keeping his eyes fixed on where Eris sat. "I'm not often a man to celebrate before a victory, but a drink sounds welcome," he went on as he reached the bar, slipping into an open seat and setting his files on the one next to him.

For all of her composure, Jakob simply couldn't hide his so well. It was there in his eyes, a nearly manic gleam, and in the tugging of each corner of his mouth as if he were perpetually battling the urge to smile. "If nothing else, it should help me sleep tonight," he confessed, "I feel like a child on Christmas Eve, you know... and I have the last presents." He reached down to grab the files, holding them up for a moment and giving in to his smile. "With these and the location of where I'll be sending our city's beloved commissioner? We should both have quite the note-worthy day tomorrow."

This was why Eris knew this wasn't going to go well. Even if she was really just sort of altering one thing, this wasn't going to go well. Not with him talking victory already, and practically bouncing in his seat. And here was the part again where Eris vaguely wondered if he'd do something rash here and now, because he could. But at least Brett wasn't there. If he were, it would potentially go even farther sideways. "About tomorrow." Eris started. "There's going to be a minor change in plans." she said, then waited for his response to that.

The spark in his eyes didn't die necessarily, but it changed, that was undeniable. It dimmed, changing from a flame to a smolder as Jakob literally bit his tongue to prevent an initial outburst. "Which change might that be?" he asked, not quite winning against a hint of petulance. He didn't mind showing it, though, because this? This was wrong. He'd gone to such lengths for her pointless request. Sure, it had been a challenge, but he'd risen to it, and now she was telling him that she was changing something? Hadn't he done enough? hadn't he proven himself?

And here we are. No turning back. Fuck. "I've decided that Brett's little exhonoration will happen when I say it gets to happen." she told him, not giving away anything of her mental state in her words, sounding like her old self. She could hear it in her voice, and wondered how she could pull it off when she felt a bit sick to her stomach. "As for things with the commissioner...well. Instead of blackmail, I had in mind something a little more...public." she said, as if she needed to choose her word carefully.

"You..." Jakob trailed quietly, his glass having never made it farther than halfway to his lips, "You decided. You." He laid a hand flat on the files he'd brought, keeping them out of reach as if he expected Eris to snatch at them like a child seeking a favored toy. It wasn't surprising, given how close Jakob felt to a tantrum of his own in that moment. "You come to me with a request, Stockard. A nigh-impossible one, at that. I expose myself to both mafias, to internal affairs, to my own partner who would likely throw me in a cell. But I did as you asked," he said, looking up at her intently, "And now, at the edge of completion, when all we need is a handful of words to finish this matter, you decide to change things?"

He shook his head slightly, giving a soft, nearly silent laugh of disbelief. "This will not stand," Jakob said plainly, shaking his head again, "I have done as you asked to this point, I have proven his innocence. Say as much, and we need never deal with each other again."

"Yes, me. Considering it was my deal in the first place, it was my request, I don't feel I need your permission to edit it accordingly, especially when I feel it needs to be. So don't forget, all of this happened because of my say in the first place." she said. Then she leaned a little closer to him, watching his eyes. She smiled, just a little. "And Jakob, sweetheart, please don't tell me you think I'm stupid enough to have missed how giddy you are over this whole thing. How excited you feel...you just told me, to be precise. So that little list of all your hardships? Means nothing. You had fun setting this up. This was a joy for you. Don't play the poor me card when you've already shown your hand being so up beat."

That smile wormed under his skin, knotting the corner of Jakob's jaw tight as he curled the hand on the files into a fist. He wanted to split those smug lips of hers, send her off the bar and maybe even into the bottles behind it... but Jakob Hollis was only ever violent by necessity, not want. "You gave me a goal," he countered, "I have reached it. Your decision to leave it unclaimed is not my problem, Stockard. Yes, I have enjoyed the trip to this point, but I will not wait idly while you draw it out for your own ends. The task is met. Say it." Those last two words were nearly a demand, and for the life of him he couldn't understand why they were so crucial. But they were. "Say it and do what you will with what I have provided, but I want nothing to do with your changes, your edits."

Eris sat back up and regarded him for a long moment. "First, I want to inform you that the commissioner is still going down. How is yet to be determined, but he will be. If you need to get anything done before that happens, you should probably get on that. It's a courtesy, telling you that your information isn't going to be used to quietly needle the man, but to knock him off of his pedestal." And she didn't say how they were doing that because while she was thinking of leaning more towards the Echo-route, she was letting Brett have the final say, and so far, she still needed to be convinced she was going to walk out of there. No use handing Jakob information he didn't need to have.

His heart sank with the information, real panic tickling the back of Jakob's neck for the first time in years. The things he'd handed over? They were dirt and details gleaned from DiGiovanni and Konovich alike, a sum of facts that could only come from a very small list of sources. Higher-ups in each organization or crucial informants, if they were working together... or him. And they were going to outright topple one of the most prominent figures in the city with it? Jakob's plan had been a simple one at the root; to stir up enough chaos that neither side would be able to support the commissioner if he went to them for help, but if he was simply removed? He and they alike would want blood. And Jakob... he would need a larger distraction to keep eyes off of the shifting balance of power. "Consider me informed," Jakob nearly whispered, the furious turning of mental gears obvious in his eyes as he scrambled to devise new plans.

Jakob was generally chattier than this. So the quiet was disconcerting. Though so was his entire demeanor. But she'd known when she decided to go with Brett's decision on things that it was going to be like this. Unpredictable and difficult, likely dangerous. But that was what he'd wanted, so...that was what he was getting. She'd deal with the consequences. "I'll be adding to it." she told him. "A few other players in the city ranks will be mentioned, not just him. That should make it less...traceable." Not that she imagined the information they had now was that traceable. Jakob would cover his tracks, she was sure. Still, he'd made mention that he exposed himself to both mob families.

That was actually a relief, and a little hint that she'd believed his boasting. The only real exposure beyond the files was tangential at best, and if she was padding the files? Jakob would have complete deniability based solely on the fact that he didn't know everything being turned over. There could be leaks at that high of rank, certainly. She'd been a master of gathering intelligence, and she'd never been found. Perhaps the city would remember Eris Stockard and forget Jakob Hollis precisely when he needed both things to happen. Still, his ego was wounded by the very fact that she was tampering with his work. Plans were forming, indeed, but not all of them focused on saving himself. "Do as you will," he muttered, holding on to the downtrodden turn he'd taken, "This has ceased to be my work. I wish you luck with whatever course you set."

She wasn't going to say it, she wasn't going to release him from his own rules. Wisely so, too. For this affront? If Jakob could, he would topple the city on her, he'd bury Eris and her pet under every stone. He'd dig them up again to laugh in their faces. But he couldn't. "I hope your diversion is worth the trouble," he added as he set his glass down with a sigh, wondering if she would think he meant the plan itself, or Brett Trent.

"I appreciate your contribution." Eris said, still watching him carefully. She un-then-recrossed her legs in the opposite direction of him, sipping at her glass, but that was the first she'd touched the alcohol. Then she set her glass down, the print of her lipstick differentiating it from Jakob's glass. "Don't you think sending the city into it's own little spiral of panic will be worth it?" she posed, letting her hair fall over her shoulder. "Should be entertaining for you."

"I am a playwright, Eris," he said morosely, shaking his head, "Not a patron. The works of others hold precious little entertainment for me, especially when the ending is revealed before the curtain rises." Jakob laughed humorlessly, slipping from his seat to pace a few steps, back and forth. "And from the sound of it, our works were similar in their intent..." Hers would simply hold a higher cost of life to this city, Jakob would see to that personally. "I believe I would do best to avoid the festivities in this case."

Her old self leaking through a bit, something that happend so easily around Jakob, she noticed, surfaced. "Aww.." she said, tone just that light bit mocking. "Are you saying that if you can't win you don't want to play?" she asked. "Or, that you're assuming you know exactly where it all ends?" she continued. "That if it isn't your own personal play, it isn't any fun? You realize that makes no sense, don't you, darling?" she asked. "If everything went according to how you set it up, you'd know the ending already, as you said, before the curtain rises. I would think that would mean you'd be looking forward at least in some capacity to what happens next, considering you don't."

"For me, it is the audience's reaction that matters," Jakob explained, "And I am a poor man to have seated in the rows. I do not expect it to make sense to you." He frowned, thinking on the analogy and how it didn't quite fit him, it was too narrow about his part in things. "Call it a punchline, not an ending," he corrected, and for a just a second? Jakob smiled. "At times, it is solely for my benefit. At times, the punchline is all in the reaction, not the content. I look forward to that, nothing else. Punch fools his wife, the law, and even the devil himself, yes? But for any who see his tale, none are so entertained as Punch himself..."

"So what's really making you unhappy is that you didn't get the joke this time?" Eris asked. "That the punchline isn't exactly what you decided it would be?" she continued. "Perhaps the joke is on you, this time." she suggested. "But then, isn't that how it always goes? Eventually, the tables turn? You can only go so far before the flipback hits, before the tide changes?" She'd learned that, most certainly. And apparently lived to tell the tale...even if some days she wished she hadn't. "The tide is changing, Jakob. Best be aware. Even if you don't want to play anymore."

He shook his head, looking her way with a cold edge in his eyes. "What upsets me is that I was interrupted mid-delivery for a barb that is not my own," he explained evenly, "It is rude to disrupt a show, Eris. Disrespectful, even." Her advice was heard, but not absorbed. Jakob believed himself a part of the tides she spoke of, an adept at shifting with the city, at spying the next opportunity. "I have others to share with this city, of course. You will not enjoy them, but you will be safe from them." He needed to be clear and honest there, if only there. Otherwise, she might try to interfere again. "It is unfortunate, of course, but unavoidable now. Do not read the papers for the next few days," he warned as his mind locked into a course of action. People would pay, but not the ones who had slighted him. Somehow, that idea held entertainment all by itself.

Eris sighed, though it was purely for show, as she took another sip of her drink, leveling her gaze on Jakob. "Your arrogance is showing, dear." she told him. "You're forgetting your place. This? Was never your play. This was my play. You just played a role, you were an important role, most certainly. But you didn't orchestrate. So it's not your place to get offended by disrupting the show...it was my show to disrupt whenever I felt the urge to." She set her glass down once more, and slid off of the bartop, down to the floor, and she walked closer. "If anyone's being disrespectful here, it's you, for imagining yourself so highly in the scheme of things. To have placed yourself at the top, when it was someone else who commissioned you in the first place. When exactly did you forget that?"

"Somewhere between when you asked for my help, and then berated me for giving the matter the time it duly deserved," Jakob retorted evenly, not moving an inch as Eris advanced on him. "You gave me an objective and no specifics on how to achieve it, Stockard. You gave me no timeline, then chided me for the one you imagined into place. And when I had done as you asked, you do this. Warped as they may be, there are rules. And if you break them, I will act any damnable way I please." His brow knotted darkly as Jakob's jaw set, his head shaking a little. "Do not act disappointed, or tell me that I have forgotten my place. I am exactly where I ought to be, and I will finish this however I must, even if it means breaking your toy policeman. You alone can prevent that, the same way you could have resolved our agreement. Words."

"And now who's arbitrarily throwing in imagined restrictions?" Eris asked. "If there are apparently 'rules' that you didn't see fit to tell me about." she told him. "I wouldn't go there if I were you. But I'll humor you. What is it exactly that'll supposedly stop such a thing? If I even believed that you'd honor it?" Which she didn't, but she wanted to hear it.

He sighed again, wondering how she hadn't picked up on what he'd asked for twice already. Jakob only wanted her to admit that he'd done the supposedly impossible, to sate the itch inside him that demanded he prove his brilliance. "Agree that I have done as you requested, in spite of this moment we find ourselves in," he explained, "A simple thing, and one we both know is true. I have. Do that? And I swear to leave you and Trent alone. If our interests happen to overlap in the future? I'll let you know... politely," Jakob promised with a smirk, "And we shall see where we are when that moment occurs."

His hands tucked behind his back, folding together to keep from fidgeting as Jakob studied her. "I spoke only of rules of conduct, Eris. Rules you knew very well, once upon a time. You built your empire on them, yes? I respected you then as I do now, in spite of differing views," he explained sincerely, "I keep my word, and I honor my obligations to the letter. I want no feud with you, it would be a tragic thing..." The same joke twice always is, he thought, resisting the smile that came with his musing.

Eris considered. She didn't answer immediately, watching Jakob's eyes as she did so, as she milled over her options. It felt a little too easy, to her, considering he was right, really. She did know the rules, and she'd gone against them. Even if people did it all the time, really. And they were both the type of people who had habitually vied against them, to see how far they could be bent. In the end, however, she wanted Brett to be safe. That was most important to her, out of everything. It was why she'd set it up in the first place, even if he did have to go crash and burn it, against all bloody reason. "You have done as I requested." she told him. "I have no desire to participate in a feud with you either. Keep your word, and there won't be. You have my word on that."

How strange it was, to be in that moment. No lie could have worked, only truth; truth with all of it's gaps. He would leave her alone, her and Trent. But one of them had to have friends, right? And Trent... he'd been a good cop. Jakob had room to move, that was what mattered. "And you have mine," he agreed, breathing easier as he felt some sense of release at having won the challenge finally, "Take your time in providing what I was promised, too. I'm sure you'll have busy days ahead of you." How strange, indeed, since he'd actually meant what he said. He did have some odd brand of respect for this woman, and a quarrel she knew was coming? It would take a toll on Jakob, no matter his resources or connections. "It is good to have you back, Mistress Stockard," Jakob said with a curl on his lips, using the title she'd held at her peak of power, "This city was growing dull in your absence."

"When you want your payment, find me. I'll make the time." Eris told him. Because she did owe. And she wanted that behind her sooner than later. Not that it would really do anything, she was giving up information on people in the city, little tidbits no one but her was aware of. But they were things Jakob would likely have fun with, regardless. "And thank you. It's nice to be back." Not that she was. She wasn't anywhere near back. She would be soon, at least in some capacity. She'd be back for all appearances and such. But beneath that, she wasn't ever going to be. Even if dealing with Jakob taught her that she could slip back into her old skin more easily than she'd thought.

Whether both of them would hold this truce or not, Jakob knew he had to be ready. Beyond whatever information she had? He'd need more, and about her. The balance of power in the city was bound to lurch when she made her move, and as Eris had said? The tides were changing, Jakob would need to move with them. "I shall be in touch soon, then," he said with a little bow of his head that seemed as close to a parting as he would offer, "My regards to Mr. Trent. And enjoy your day tomorrow... do make sure the commissioner is despondant enough to want to kill himself, I so love the dress uniforms we wear for official funeral processions." He turned to leave the Round behind, the same files that he'd brought tucked back under his arm and a spark that didn't stem from anger growing in his eyes.

"They are rather striking." Eris said, watching him leave. She wasn't sure how that went. But then, it could go any direction, depending. She'd just have to keep on her toes, which she'd known in the first place. The tides were definitely changing. They were all going to have to keep up.