Scarlet Geiger's Story

"Creep?" Justice asked, seemingly offended by the young woman's words. "Maybe a little." He admitted before being pushed along by Charlie, "Go home, Justice." She ordered, waiting until the drunkard had put some distance between himself and the quartet before turning to address the group.

"Gentleman's club? There's nothing gentlemanly about any of those places." Charlotte told Roger, "The name's Charlotte, by the way. Most people call me Charlie." She added, formally introducing herself to the group. Like Miller she found her glance on the strange girl muttering to herself.

She figured it was drugs or the usual weird that plagued Terra. Both had found a home in Van Leugen.

"You're tourists, so I suggest The Sinners' Circle. It's right up the street." Charlie told the trio, pointing down at the club in question. It's sign was a circle and cross lit up in red with the added bonus of flames behind both. It stood out as much as Charlie felt she did.

"It's debauch enough to fit in perfectly with Van Leugen, yet classy enough to not scare newcomers away. And attract a few local politicians for, uh, private parties."

Sex and drugs. Charlotte couldn't have been more obvious about what went on at those private parties if she tried.

"You'll like it." She assured them, pointing down at the establishment in question.

Behind her the bouncer waved off Flynn, "There's a church a few blocks away. They don't turn people away. We do." He said.

Stymied she stops muttering the sustaining chant. She is still unused to the standoffishness of actual humans rather than Figments. The back of her shirt turns brown as husk degrades. She understood churches as sacred sites but little else having talked to only one other human. Holy men lived at churches and that wasn't what she needed right now. Bleeders and their blood supplies wouldn't help and she wasn't hurt quite that way.

Flynn grumbled at first, ♪*RrRrRr* Fine I'll leave, Far and Deep, but I don't need to buy blood from holy men.♪

She eyed him once before turning to stand under a street light thin wisps of blue evaporating from her back. The muttering continued then closing those gaps in the fragile incomplete husk. Well practiced she could ponder things while not distracted at least. She wondered with stores that seem closed half the time and the rest private where they got food at all. Flynn didn't like the idea of sneaking inside so her Thane was the next resort. Chuffing at twinges of pain in her stomach Flynn pulled the 'cloth' on her wrist off with a thumb. In her hand it reformed for a moment a faint illusory question mark above its head.

She kept her commands to the Thane short since the husk felt loose,♪Tell me where water is.♪

The bonded hairworm flattened to her palm so it could show volume. Thin black threads tethered in midair as subunits described what the psionic worm perceived. Flynn's face tensed in dismay unable to describe what the containers would look like. A vast network of tubes and constellations of dots inside nearby buildings was what she got.

Scarlet smirked. "Private parties huh? Sounds fair. We'll check it out. Thanks Charlotte!" Scarlet turned to proceed towards the nightclub with her buddies. Miller waved a sign of thanks while Roger just mumbled under his breath. Scarlet did add more with a wave of thanks. "Perhaps you should go to? Or do you have a fancy place to be?"

Flynn moved off down the street looking for a body of water in the movement of her hairworm's awareness. She couldn't discard the husk right now without somewhere safe to sleep.

"If you call eating a pizza in my apartment watching movies a fancy place..." Charlotte said. She thought to herself a moment, weighing the pros and cons of spending a night out for once. It was always work for her, she didn't mind it but it seemed to take control of her life more and more with each day.

"Screw it." Charlie said, jogging a bit to catch up to Scarlet and her friends. "I can be fancy another time."

Scarlet smirked. "Sounds good then! Clubbing beats movies anyways." Her friends would simply share a laugh as the group finally approached The Sinner's Circle.

Standing before the location, Scarlet crossed her arms. "So, this is the place? Huh, it looks pretty good. Miller! Roger! We're going to make sure we enjoy ourselves, okay? If Charlie says this place is good, then she must be right, since she's a local."

Scarlet and her friends would enter the place to see what awaited them within.

The group was immediately greeted by a dark room only lit by a single red light. The dancefloor was crowded by people taking in the sounds of downtempo electronic music. The kind of music that wouldn't be out of place in a 90s vampire film.

Which made sense, the nightclub was owned by local blood drinkers and mobsters Vadim Romanov and Daniel Cicero. They were much more affable than one would expect if you had only heard about them.

That became extremely evident when Cicero himself approached the group, "Charlie, my dear. What brings you and your friends to my establishment?" He asked. Cicero was playing both the host and the mobster. The private detective never showed up unless there was trouble.

"Showing these new friends the local scene." Charlie answered, "Scarlet, Roger, Miller, meet Danny Cicero. He's one of the owners of this place."

Scarlet held a confident smile and had an equally confident stance as she crossed her arms. "Nice to meet you Mr. Cicero." Roger and Miller likewise greeted him in their own ways. The trio were quite unique in their own ways, though Scarlet was the shortest of the trio by a small amount.

Scarlet continued. "We don't know too much, so Charlie here decided to be a tour guide. I'd say she points out decent places though. This place isn't all that bad."

"I agree. There aren't many places you'll find better than this one." Cicero said with confidence. He had every right to be, he had some very wealthy clientele that were more than willing to give Cicero and his partner that wealth.

"For a second I thought Charlotte was here to yell at my patrons about some case she's working on. But, if you're all just here to have fun, please, have that fun on me." The vampire said, bowing courteously to the quartet. "I didn't think you liked ham." Charlie joked.

Cicero seemed ready to retort until his phone began ringing, he dug it out of his pocket and gave it a quick glance. "I have to take this. Talk to Adrian at the bar, he knows the deal." The man told Charlie and her new friends before he walked away, disappearing into the crowd of people grinding on the dance floor.

It was the kind of dancing that eventually led to babies.

"This seems like a whiskey kind of night."

The trip to Neu Leumen had been to steer Halo clear of his 'friends' that just dragged him right back into the drugs that he had detoxed from, that Maria had worked hard to get him out of the system to get them out of his system and to help get him back on his feet. She had helped him find a job and set up an apartment before she had to go right back to work again. There wasn't really rest for a Wing City cop, especially one incredibly close to getting bumped up to detective.

And now he had gone and proved exactly how far down the hole he had fallen again and she had no doubt that once more her brother was neck deep in whatever drugs he could get her hands on. He hadn't called her in two weeks, and she had gotten the email earlier today about a late rent payment on his apartment. A call to his work revealed he hadn't been there in about a week, and was certainly fired.

Great. Well, her investigations led her here, at some point. There had been indications on his credit card that he was here at least. Maria had helped herself to much of her brother's information. A lifetime of knowing him well meant she knew his three main passwords, and knew all of his password retrieval question answers.

So here she was at Sinner's Circle, dressed in a tight purple bandage dress, looking more like she was here for clubbing, than looking for answers. Nothing about her said cop now. She had borrowed a friends five inch heels to manage the right walk for this, but regardless, she approached the bar. Bartenders were, after all, the people who knew their way around. She'd have to order something to seem normal, but that was easily done. At least this time undercover she wouldn't end up buck naked in front of Randin Fucking Kaye. That case had been a disaster from start to finish and it was all Kaye's fault, dragging her on it when she had been a rookie.

Scarlet huffed. "Well then, I don't typically drink, but this one time, sure. Let's go speak to Adrian guys." She told her two friends who nodded and went with her to the bar counter.

Once there, Roger could not help but subtly leer at Maria with a detailed eye. Whilst he did so, Scarlet attempted to speak to Adrian. "Hey, so, you know the deal according to your boss. Mind sharing?" She asked the man Cicero had recommended.

Miller, in the meantime, would ask Charlie another question. "So, there are other owners?"

Adrian turned to Scarlet, his unusually luxurious hair bouncing with his movements. The bartender raised a curious eyebrow at Scarlet, his eyes subtly moving from her face down to her body and back up again. Everyone tried to get free drinks. Not everyone was worthy of free drinks. He was trying to see if Scarlet and her friends were worthy. If they had the proper blessing.

"Okay." He said, breaking his short silence and acknowledging the with of his new patrons. "Whatever you, or your friends, want I will get for you. Take your time. Call on me when you need me." He continued, gesturing to the shelves behind the bar. There was more than enough alcohol to go around.

"Looking at her is making me wonder if I should have went home and changed first. I think I'm overdressed." Charlie mused about Maria, bringing her attention to Miller just seconds later. "There's another owner." She answered for him.

"Vadim Romanov. I think they have silent partners too. Their silence makes it hard to know for sure."

Maria smiled to the bartender, ignoring Roger's leer with practiced ease for the moment. "Excuse me? A rum and coke please." She said, and then glanced to Roger, deigning to look at him now. "Keep looking. I don't mind. But if you try and touch, you might lose a hand, hun." She wasn't big on being groped. It had happened more than enough already, but given she didn't want anybody grabbing the gun at the small of her back, not matter what a tiny pea shooter it was, she didn't exactly want to welcome it.

The woman didn't go unarmed. She smiled flirtatiously at the bartender. "I did have a question though. I'm supposed to meet someone here. Blond, skinny as a rake, part hispanic, part chinese and around your height. Goes by Halo, though sure as sin, he doesn't have one. Have you seen him lately? I'd hate to be stood up." Not that her brother knew he was going to meet her here. But he was, if he showed tonight. His card had showed he had been there a few times, at least. Given that they were siblings though, the part hispanic and part chinese description suited her. Maria looked a little more hispanic than asian. Halo had always looked asian than hispanic, and the blond was dyed, not natural. He had been doing it since they were teenagers.

Roger had a smile. "Well then, I'll take you on that offer." He was keen to let his gaze linger.

Scarlet watched with measured interest as Adrian looked her over, and smirked when he seemed satisfied. She turned to Miller. "There you go. You wanted to drink, so go ahead! I'll get to the more interesting part. I'm curious to see who's choosing the music around here." Scarlet would enter the dance floor and cautiously look around to see where the disc jockey (if any) was located, sliding past the dancers not entirely being measured in their style of dance. She was also silently hoping she could avoid getting touched too much, and that her glasses would stay, since she'd be blind without them.

Miller would order the strongest alcohol there was, not caring too much about what was going down. "Silent partners? So there could be more, huh? Sounds...complicated. At least they're running this place right. Patrons are always a good sign."

The bartender shook his head at Maria, "Sorry, can't say I remember him. Adrian might. He works the most, really good with faces." He said, waving Adrian over and pointing him towards Maria. The bartender leaned in to Adrian, informing him of who exactly Maria was looking for without screaming over the club's noise.

Adrian nodded, "I've seen him once or twice. Could be anywhere in this town. A lot of places for young people to go and party." Adrian told Maria. "Sorry. Charlie there can probably help you. It's what she does for a living." He said, gesturing to the woman at the bar.

Charlie herself slammed down a shot of whiskey, eyes searching the nightclub for the now missing Scarlet. She didn't notice her walk away, it would have been nice to keep track of her. She was a tourist, after all.

"Thinking about investing in one of these clubs or a casino?" Charlie asked Miller, "My sister wants to open up one of her own here. Not sure she should. It's kind of a shithole. A very clean shithole that makes you believe it isn't actually a shithole." She continued.

Back near the entrance was the DJ, probably not far from Scarlet at this point. Not that she would actually have a chance to make a request. One of the club's bouncers came reeling back into the dancers before hitting the floor, seven suited Asian men casually stepped over his body.

They were clearly not there to dance. They weren't even dressed for it. One of them approached the DJ, yelling something at him that was barely audible. The DJ pointed up at a glass window above the dancefloor, the Asian gangster nodded before slamming a fist into the DJ's face.

With a twist of the knobs on the turntable the volume of the music went up much higher. One wouldn't be able to hear the next person next to them. That seemed to be the point.

The Asian men began their journey to find the stairs up to the room above, walking through the clubgoers like they weren't there.

"Ah hell." Maria dropped the act and ran a hand through her hair, then pulled a picture out of her wallet, and scribbled her number at the back. "I was hoping he'd be here tonight. Listen, if you see him, could you give me a call? I'm his sister, and I'm trying to get his fool ass clean of drugs. Again." She smiled and shook her head.

"And it'd be a bit embarrassing to ask a PI for help. The department would never let me hear the end of it if I did." And she got enough guff from the boy's club that she didn't want more. "We're from Wing City. I hoped him coming here meant he wouldn't be able to find a dealer for a few weeks at least." That was clearly not the case. The cop tucked her hair behind her ear and looked down at her dress in distaste. "Damn. bought this dress for nothing then." At least it looked nice. She paused and glanced to Roger. "Other than to be ogled in. Nice to know I'm still hot out of uniform."

It was always reassuring to know that to be sure. the woman rubbed her ears and from in the direction of the DJ and noticed what could only be trouble brewing. shouting at this point, she turned to Adrien. "I think some Trouble just started! You should send someone upstairs!"

Scarlet stopped making her way to the DJ when the men walked in, and did her best to blend in with the dance crowd who didn't seem too fazed, finding a young boy around her age (or at least as close as she could get to the early twenties) to pretend to dance with. She wasn't too keen on the type of dancing, since it did give certain signals she wasn't keen on giving, and she needed none of the problems that came with it. She did however activate the small video recorder on her glasses as she positioned herself in a way to face the suited men while dancing, allowing her to secretly record them.

--

Roger chuckled and spoke to Maria. "We should send you, hottie. Those men I'm sure would do swimmingly with a sweet thing like you. They might even listen to you if the price is right."

He was a sleaze as always.

--

Miller shrugged. "Sure, I could invest. I'd be okay with it. It's her choice of where to set up." He idly chewed his lip, even when the trouble began, not giving it any real attention.

"Trouble? Upstairs? What?" Adrian asked, barely able to hear Maria over the blaring music. "Someone go see what's up with the music!" He shouted at one of the bartenders, his blue eyes finding the suited men now making their way up a staircase. Now it made sense.

"Fuck." Adrian cursed inaudibly, climbing over the bar. "What's going on?" Charlie asked, looking around. "There's always something in this city. Did anyone see where Scarlet went?" The detective asked loudly, boosting herself up a bit on a stool to look above the crowd.

Knowing where everyone was made things much easier.

"Oh don't tell me I sent my baby brother out to Wing City 2.0." With significantly less bombing. She groaned and shook her head. Well, at least the orphanage that had been evacuated here would be right at home. Sh glanced around and then sighed. "Do you guys need help?" Despite how tight the dress was, she had been able to hide a peashooter in it, though the damned thing was driving her to distraction given it's...location. "I'm off duty, but it wouldn't be the first bar or club fight I've dealt with off duty." When she was feeling daring or suicidal, she hung out in Gambit's.

The place had calmed down a lot, but bar fights were still a thing, if on a smaller scale. "And you." She turned to Roger. "Looking doesn't include comments, boyo. Keep your insinuations to yourself before I ask for a water especially to pour over your head."

Scarlet blended in nicely, trying to keep up her active surveillance, figuring Charlie would want the info. The boy she was dancing with was starting to get a little pushy, but she bit her lip and kept at it. She was going to make damn sure she got the info, even if she wasn't comfortable at all. She didn't hear Charlie over the loud music.

--

Roger smirked, but remained silent as he ogled Maria, intent on seeing how the whole scene played out.

--

Miller stood as well. "Oh? Scarlet can handle herself pretty well. Though this place is pretty rough. I think she went out onto the dance floor. She's got a bit of a liking for music, so she may also have wanted to find the DJ."