ADwtD Part 2
Directly continued from my last post.
I was leaning this way a little anyway, but the alternative was a very interesting one to play out.
Also, for reference: 'Dragon's Den' is a British TV programme, apparently there's an American version called Shark Tank or something, if you've heard of that instead. Basically, they say "I'm out" a lot.
~~~~~~~~~~
The group stared distantly at the middle of the table, except for Seth, who was surveying them all interestedly, waiting for an answer.
Demi Love was the first to break away, shaking her head and shakily standing up. "No. No, I can't. Trying to bring him down is one thing, but... I can't." She went and leant against the wall, biting her thumbnail anxiously.
Dorian got up to comfort her before addressing the group too. "I can't- I'm not either," he struggled to speak "...Murder... We're out."
Seth shrugged contentedly. "Two out, seven left," he said, observing the rest of them, who resumed gazing at the table, each caught up in their own internal struggles.
Juan glanced at the rest of the undeclared - he would leave his decision until everybody else had made theirs. They were hard to read, but he was fairly certain Zack wanted to back out extremely quickly - were it not for the fact that Sara had yet to do so. Juan just hoped he wouldn't feel compelled to do anything he didn't want to; he didn't think Zack should have been there in the first place.
"Look, I don't actually even know this guy, just what I've been told..." Gina said hesitantly, apparently anticipating some kind of backlash. "I don't think I can. And if I had to, I'd be more motivated to kill this bastard than Rodney Jalowitz," she added, glaring at Seth again.
"'S'okay Gi," Jenna reassured her quietly, while Seth gave her an innocent smile. Gina went and stood against a wall, which had apparently become symbolic of not being with the plan.
"You feel the same, don't you?" Sara suddenly asked Zack, who tried to stutter out that he would go with what she decided, before getting cut off, "You don't have to agree with me, Zack. Individual decisions." He hesitated before nodding and putting his hand on hers, then got up and stood at the side too.
"I can't either," Noelle said certainly after a while's more silence. "I hate him and he's wrong and something should be done, but doing nothing is better than murder. I'm out," she got up with a look of disdain at her ex-husband.
"It's like an extra-intense episode of Dragon's Den, isn't it?" Seth asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. Everyone gave him a look of intense dislike, to which he merely shrugged. "So just Harris, Sara, Lum and- I don't even know who you are," he said to Wally with interest.
"What's it to you?" he responded.
Seth just shrugged again, but Gina came back over to her nephew. "Wally, I don't think you know what you're getting into here. You don't even know the guy."
"He's a corrupt politician deliberately screwing up the system and messing with my extended family. What else do I need to know?" Wally asked her sceptically.
"How bad all the guilt and everything that you get from being complicit in deliberate murder feels?" she insisted. "This isn't an act of minor resistance, it isn't subtle warfare against authority like you had at school; he'll be dead. He has a daughter - one of your cousins. Think about it. What would your parents say?"
Wally fidgeted for a bit before he finally sighed, "Fine! I'm out too," he said despondently, kicking his chair back.
Juan knew Jenna would go next - her wife's pleas to their nephew were hardly going to have passed her by. He was right; she stood up. "Something still has to be done eventually," she muttered before going to join them.
"You've lost more than half, aren't you going to give up?" Dorian asked Seth from the side.
"No," Seth said pleasantly, "most of you were irrelevant anyway. The whole plan is that I kill Rodney. Besides me, all I need is somebody to guarantee that it's going to be worth my while - somebody with the power to sustain my freedom. Somebody who's the chief of police," he added, looking at Juan pointedly. "Yeah, by the way, that makes what you think completely irrelevant, Sara - just thought you should know," he said brightly to his sister.
She glared back at him, but still didn't stand. "Are you in?" she asked Juan instead.
"You hate him the most," Seth added.
Rodney Jalowitz dead. He certainly wouldn't be able to bargain, threaten or fight his way out of that one, Juan thought wryly with a grim feeling of satisfaction at the thought. He'd no longer be a threat to Juan or his family or... anyone else.
But those were the feelings he could have on the unfortunate occasion that Jalowitz fell into a pit of ravenous crocodiles. And he would be able to follow it up by putting Seth behind bars again, where he righteously belonged. The world would be a safer place without Rodney Jalowitz, but he knew that personal liability for it was something he couldn't take without Jalowitz having done something significantly worse. And how on earth could he comfort Liv on losing her father if it was all - or partly - his fault? Not to mention the endless list of problems with the very idea of working with Seth, the man who murdered him, and definitely someone he really shouldn't trust.
It was all, like the crocodiles, a very tempting idea. A fantasy for when he was particularly angry. But, if he was honest with himself, it was never even credible given how things were right then. He wanted to put Rodney Jalowitz behind bars, not in the ground.
"No, I'm out too," he said at length, though he didn't bother to stand up.
Seth did look a little disappointed, but didn't argue and got up off his chair. "That definitely makes your opinion worthless, Sara," he smirked down at his sister. "Unless, you know, you want to kill him yourself - which I would love to see, by the way, so let me know if you're going to try." Sara just glared at him and stood up too.
"So what now?" Juan asked Seth suspiciously.
"What do you mean? You chose to walk away, nothing happens," he blinked, bemused.
"You were sent here to eavesdrop and you've gotten nothing out of it," Juan said, watching him carefully. "Aren't you going to blackmail or threaten us with telling Rodney?"
"You seem to be confused," Seth laughed. "Rodney's the manipulative one - you know, he's the one with the long hair who looks like a girl? I tend to be more straightforward. And you're not even doing anything for me to tell him about. And finally," he said, walking over to the deserted bar and jumping over it, "I'm getting nothing out of this?" He ducked down for a moment and came back up with three unopened bottles of expensive alcohol, two of which he stuffed into his jacket pockets, and the third he opened on the edge of the bar and took a swig before jumping back over. "I can get something out of everything - you just have to know where to find it," he said happily before heading to the door. "If you change your mind, you know where I am!" he called back as he left.
"That man is absolutely insane," Jenna said, shaking her head as they all stared or frowned at the door he'd just left through.
"Still, if that's part of the foundation Jalowitz's power is built upon, maybe it'll crumble on its own soon enough," Sara said thoughtfully.
"He certainly doesn't have much loyalty generally," Dorian observed.
"Mmm," Juan agreed.
It was odd. Theoretically they'd achieved nothing, but... There seemed to be a world of difference between not doing anything because you can't or are afraid, and not doing anything even though you can and you know it would work, but you refuse to because you're above it. He wasn't going to use his apparent ability to kill Rodney Jalowitz, but knowing that he had it and was declining to use it was extremely comforting.
Somehow he felt happier than he had done in some time.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Well?" Rodney asked as Seth stumbled in the door, a mostly-empty bottle of whisky in hand. He'd never heard of anyone equating eavesdropping with getting drunk, but then this was Seth. He supposed he was only lucky that he didn't have a woman with him too. "Who was there?"
"Um..." Seth started, apparently hazy from the alcohol. "My ex-wife, my sister and her husband Landry, Jenna and Gina Lum and some guy I think was related to them - he was pretty young, Kauker and Love. Oh, and Harris, naturally."
Not a surprising list, nor a particularly long one. None of the Rymans, even: apparently Harris was still not telling them about him.
Rodney followed Seth as he collapsed on the sofa. "What did they discuss?"
"Oh, you know, how much they hate you and they wanted to blackmail you, but they couldn't think of anything, and some of them wanted to try and use Liv-"
"And?"
Seth shook his head, "Harris refused to go with that, made up some excuse. They didn't seem happy, but it looks like they gave up on that idea."
That wasn't surprising either. "Anything else?"
"Nope. They ran out of ideas and decided they'd just have to live with you. Congratulations, apparently you're un-f***ing-touchable," Seth said, raising the almost empty bottle to him.
That seemed a little suspicious since Rodney would have expected that fact to annoy Seth, but then perhaps that was why the man was so drunk. He shrugged internally. "Fine, I'm going to bed. And you'd damn well better not get sick on any of my stuff."
Seth gave a lazy half-salute and Rodney went upstairs impatiently. Seth Jayapalan was an irritating idiot, but at least he could be useful sometimes.
____
Seth sat on the sofa in the dark and put the now empty bottle on the floor - he was actually barely drunk; he'd poured some of it out on the street.
Rodney Jalowitz thought he was so f***ing clever, was in complete control and made no mistakes... Seth smiled as he pulled the gun out of his waistband and held it lightly. He briefly considered going ahead with the plan on his own, just to show him... But jail was not something he missed, so he tipped the bullets out into his hand and pocketed them, and put the gun back, before pulling out another bottle - this time of vodka, and starting on that.
It was lame, but he knew that he could wipe that condescending look off the bastard's face any time he wanted, and that would be enough.
He smiled as he took another swig and turned on the TV.
I was leaning this way a little anyway, but the alternative was a very interesting one to play out.
Also, for reference: 'Dragon's Den' is a British TV programme, apparently there's an American version called Shark Tank or something, if you've heard of that instead. Basically, they say "I'm out" a lot.
~~~~~~~~~~
The group stared distantly at the middle of the table, except for Seth, who was surveying them all interestedly, waiting for an answer.
Demi Love was the first to break away, shaking her head and shakily standing up. "No. No, I can't. Trying to bring him down is one thing, but... I can't." She went and leant against the wall, biting her thumbnail anxiously.
Dorian got up to comfort her before addressing the group too. "I can't- I'm not either," he struggled to speak "...Murder... We're out."
Seth shrugged contentedly. "Two out, seven left," he said, observing the rest of them, who resumed gazing at the table, each caught up in their own internal struggles.
Juan glanced at the rest of the undeclared - he would leave his decision until everybody else had made theirs. They were hard to read, but he was fairly certain Zack wanted to back out extremely quickly - were it not for the fact that Sara had yet to do so. Juan just hoped he wouldn't feel compelled to do anything he didn't want to; he didn't think Zack should have been there in the first place.
"Look, I don't actually even know this guy, just what I've been told..." Gina said hesitantly, apparently anticipating some kind of backlash. "I don't think I can. And if I had to, I'd be more motivated to kill this bastard than Rodney Jalowitz," she added, glaring at Seth again.
"'S'okay Gi," Jenna reassured her quietly, while Seth gave her an innocent smile. Gina went and stood against a wall, which had apparently become symbolic of not being with the plan.
"You feel the same, don't you?" Sara suddenly asked Zack, who tried to stutter out that he would go with what she decided, before getting cut off, "You don't have to agree with me, Zack. Individual decisions." He hesitated before nodding and putting his hand on hers, then got up and stood at the side too.
"I can't either," Noelle said certainly after a while's more silence. "I hate him and he's wrong and something should be done, but doing nothing is better than murder. I'm out," she got up with a look of disdain at her ex-husband.
"It's like an extra-intense episode of Dragon's Den, isn't it?" Seth asked with a hint of amusement in his voice. Everyone gave him a look of intense dislike, to which he merely shrugged. "So just Harris, Sara, Lum and- I don't even know who you are," he said to Wally with interest.
"What's it to you?" he responded.
Seth just shrugged again, but Gina came back over to her nephew. "Wally, I don't think you know what you're getting into here. You don't even know the guy."
"He's a corrupt politician deliberately screwing up the system and messing with my extended family. What else do I need to know?" Wally asked her sceptically.
"How bad all the guilt and everything that you get from being complicit in deliberate murder feels?" she insisted. "This isn't an act of minor resistance, it isn't subtle warfare against authority like you had at school; he'll be dead. He has a daughter - one of your cousins. Think about it. What would your parents say?"
Wally fidgeted for a bit before he finally sighed, "Fine! I'm out too," he said despondently, kicking his chair back.
Juan knew Jenna would go next - her wife's pleas to their nephew were hardly going to have passed her by. He was right; she stood up. "Something still has to be done eventually," she muttered before going to join them.
"You've lost more than half, aren't you going to give up?" Dorian asked Seth from the side.
"No," Seth said pleasantly, "most of you were irrelevant anyway. The whole plan is that I kill Rodney. Besides me, all I need is somebody to guarantee that it's going to be worth my while - somebody with the power to sustain my freedom. Somebody who's the chief of police," he added, looking at Juan pointedly. "Yeah, by the way, that makes what you think completely irrelevant, Sara - just thought you should know," he said brightly to his sister.
She glared back at him, but still didn't stand. "Are you in?" she asked Juan instead.
"You hate him the most," Seth added.
Rodney Jalowitz dead. He certainly wouldn't be able to bargain, threaten or fight his way out of that one, Juan thought wryly with a grim feeling of satisfaction at the thought. He'd no longer be a threat to Juan or his family or... anyone else.
But those were the feelings he could have on the unfortunate occasion that Jalowitz fell into a pit of ravenous crocodiles. And he would be able to follow it up by putting Seth behind bars again, where he righteously belonged. The world would be a safer place without Rodney Jalowitz, but he knew that personal liability for it was something he couldn't take without Jalowitz having done something significantly worse. And how on earth could he comfort Liv on losing her father if it was all - or partly - his fault? Not to mention the endless list of problems with the very idea of working with Seth, the man who murdered him, and definitely someone he really shouldn't trust.
It was all, like the crocodiles, a very tempting idea. A fantasy for when he was particularly angry. But, if he was honest with himself, it was never even credible given how things were right then. He wanted to put Rodney Jalowitz behind bars, not in the ground.
"No, I'm out too," he said at length, though he didn't bother to stand up.
Seth did look a little disappointed, but didn't argue and got up off his chair. "That definitely makes your opinion worthless, Sara," he smirked down at his sister. "Unless, you know, you want to kill him yourself - which I would love to see, by the way, so let me know if you're going to try." Sara just glared at him and stood up too.
"So what now?" Juan asked Seth suspiciously.
"What do you mean? You chose to walk away, nothing happens," he blinked, bemused.
"You were sent here to eavesdrop and you've gotten nothing out of it," Juan said, watching him carefully. "Aren't you going to blackmail or threaten us with telling Rodney?"
"You seem to be confused," Seth laughed. "Rodney's the manipulative one - you know, he's the one with the long hair who looks like a girl? I tend to be more straightforward. And you're not even doing anything for me to tell him about. And finally," he said, walking over to the deserted bar and jumping over it, "I'm getting nothing out of this?" He ducked down for a moment and came back up with three unopened bottles of expensive alcohol, two of which he stuffed into his jacket pockets, and the third he opened on the edge of the bar and took a swig before jumping back over. "I can get something out of everything - you just have to know where to find it," he said happily before heading to the door. "If you change your mind, you know where I am!" he called back as he left.
"That man is absolutely insane," Jenna said, shaking her head as they all stared or frowned at the door he'd just left through.
"Still, if that's part of the foundation Jalowitz's power is built upon, maybe it'll crumble on its own soon enough," Sara said thoughtfully.
"He certainly doesn't have much loyalty generally," Dorian observed.
"Mmm," Juan agreed.
It was odd. Theoretically they'd achieved nothing, but... There seemed to be a world of difference between not doing anything because you can't or are afraid, and not doing anything even though you can and you know it would work, but you refuse to because you're above it. He wasn't going to use his apparent ability to kill Rodney Jalowitz, but knowing that he had it and was declining to use it was extremely comforting.
Somehow he felt happier than he had done in some time.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Well?" Rodney asked as Seth stumbled in the door, a mostly-empty bottle of whisky in hand. He'd never heard of anyone equating eavesdropping with getting drunk, but then this was Seth. He supposed he was only lucky that he didn't have a woman with him too. "Who was there?"
"Um..." Seth started, apparently hazy from the alcohol. "My ex-wife, my sister and her husband Landry, Jenna and Gina Lum and some guy I think was related to them - he was pretty young, Kauker and Love. Oh, and Harris, naturally."
Not a surprising list, nor a particularly long one. None of the Rymans, even: apparently Harris was still not telling them about him.
Rodney followed Seth as he collapsed on the sofa. "What did they discuss?"
"Oh, you know, how much they hate you and they wanted to blackmail you, but they couldn't think of anything, and some of them wanted to try and use Liv-"
"And?"
Seth shook his head, "Harris refused to go with that, made up some excuse. They didn't seem happy, but it looks like they gave up on that idea."
That wasn't surprising either. "Anything else?"
"Nope. They ran out of ideas and decided they'd just have to live with you. Congratulations, apparently you're un-f***ing-touchable," Seth said, raising the almost empty bottle to him.
That seemed a little suspicious since Rodney would have expected that fact to annoy Seth, but then perhaps that was why the man was so drunk. He shrugged internally. "Fine, I'm going to bed. And you'd damn well better not get sick on any of my stuff."
Seth gave a lazy half-salute and Rodney went upstairs impatiently. Seth Jayapalan was an irritating idiot, but at least he could be useful sometimes.
____
Seth sat on the sofa in the dark and put the now empty bottle on the floor - he was actually barely drunk; he'd poured some of it out on the street.
Rodney Jalowitz thought he was so f***ing clever, was in complete control and made no mistakes... Seth smiled as he pulled the gun out of his waistband and held it lightly. He briefly considered going ahead with the plan on his own, just to show him... But jail was not something he missed, so he tipped the bullets out into his hand and pocketed them, and put the gun back, before pulling out another bottle - this time of vodka, and starting on that.
It was lame, but he knew that he could wipe that condescending look off the bastard's face any time he wanted, and that would be enough.
He smiled as he took another swig and turned on the TV.