Participants:
Scene Title | Breaking And Entreating |
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Synopsis | Cardinal's arrested, Nalani's secret may be out, alternatively called "anything you say" |
Date | March 9, 2009 |
Nalani's Condominium
Consuela is out. Her day off on Mondays, or half day at least. Which leaves a quiet apartment save for a siamese cat that balefully glances at Cardinal when he's present, but otherwise stays absent. Nalani's key jiggles in the door at five, announcing the return of the magazine mogul back to her own home. They land on a side table with some clinking, her coat with a fwump before the clack of her heels start to wend through the apartment all the way into the back. Drop some stuff off in the office, then back out to the kitchen.
Monday nights usually have no plans. Stay at home for the socialite. The front part of the apartment is decorated with furniture that's for show, meant for sitting politely on or entertaining with. tasteful elegance, obviously expensive. It's her bedroom, the personal living room and her office beyond that while it still says "expensive" it looks like most of the time is spent there and lived in. The office busy, the TV large but not garishly so. The kitchen is immense, enough counter space for a catering crew, fridge stocked with all sorts of things both organic and not. One bedroom contains men's clothes in the closet, though there's obviously no man who's living here, her own is done in hues of creams and blues, and what you'd expect for a closet. The woman herself is quiet as she moves through the apartment, though occasionally she whispers to herself in Arabic, a hopping sound as the stiletto's are taken off on her way to the kitchen.
As she slips through her apartment, the fact that something is… off will probably be noticed. There's a plate in the sink, that wasn't there when she left. There's a faint light from her 'personal' living room as well, flickering and shifting, colours that could only be coming from the television. It's the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, perhaps, with Nalani cast in the role of the bears. Somebody's been eating her food, and may even be in the living room right now…
Consuela doesn't leave her plate out. Ever. The cellphone in Nalani's purse is plucked up a call down to the front desk is whispered as the water's turned on for a moment to cover her sound. Call the cops, she's sure there's someone who's been in her condo, if not still present. Nalani disconnects, a second number dialed, but no talking into the phone, leaving it turned on, and carried in her hand as she makes her way to the living room. No high heels this time.
The water's turned on, a whispered rush of sound from the kitchen. Cardinal smiles from where he's relaxing on the couch, feet kicked up onto that ever-so-expensive coffee table. The thief's head tilts back a bit to look towards the ceiling, and he calls out rather casually, "Welcome home, Butterfly."
Holy fuck, Noman. Nalani comes around from the kitchen to the sitting room, searching for the familiar looking man still holding the phone in her hand. "Noman What are you doing here?"
"I'm watching television," Cardinal replies without missing a beat, bringing the remote in his hand up to click the screen off as he admits, swirling to black, "Although without sound, I'm having to make up the dialogue—actually, I think it's improving the quality that way." The remote's tossed over to land on the table, and he looks over to her with a slight twitch of his lips, "Saw your article. Interesting stuff."
"How'd you get in my home Noman. In fact, what the bloody hell is your real name?" Nalani looks unhappy, beyond unhappy. Her lips pressed thin. "Is it? What did you take from me?"
"Relax, relax… have a seat," Cardinal's arms stretch out above his head, folding there as he leans back, "Only thing I've helped myself to was some lunch from the fridge, honestly. If I was robbing you, I would've been gone long before you got home." A smile curves lazily to his lips, "As for how, well, that's what I do, Butterfly. Richard Cardinal, cat burglar, at your service. If the cops come rampaging up the stairs in five minutes I'll be gone just's fast, I'm afraid, so hopefully you haven't called them yet."
"No, I think you'll stay Richard Cardinal. I think you'll really want to stay" Nalani's will is near choking on those words, thought here's no auditory change. "//no tricks or anything. Why'd you come here Mr. Cardinal. I'm really curious why" The Arabic woman doesn't move from her spot across the room, though she watches him much like a cat watching a bird, waiting.
"Why?" Cardinal's feet slide down from the table, landing upon the floor and bracing there as he pushes himself up smoothly to his feet, a chuckle exhaled from his lips as he approaches her, a single brow lifting, "I wanted to ask you why you wrote that letter, honestly, Butterfly." He stops before her, just past arm's reach, a roguish smile faintly crooking to his lips as he meets her gaze, "I'm curious. Since you got much've it from me."
"Why did I write the letter? Because I can, because it's something that needs to be looked into. Because for all that I'm an overbearing controlling bitch to some, I have a thing for causes and charity's. You really need to sit down and watch a little TV. Maybe there's a football game on that would entertain you. Go sit Cardinal"
Elisabeth has arrived.
"A football game? Good joke, there…" A low chuckle spills from his lips without too much humor in it as the thief turns away from her on his heel, his head shaking in a slow sway from side to side.Hhe steps along back over towards the couch once more, one arm lifting to one side to brush his fingers through the air dismissively, "…charities and causes? Feeling guilty about this lovely penthouse of yours, Butterfly? A letter to the editor isn't going t'do shit."
"Letter from the editor Cardinal. It does, when you have public clout. Maybe it'll tip the scales a little enough. Maybe not, but I can't single handedly fix the island problems. You broke into my home Cardinal. How'd you break into my home. You should sit. You should stay sitting"
Thomas has arrived.
"I've broken into a lot of peoples' homes, Butterfly. I got in the same way I ever do… there isn't a security system in the world that can stop me," Cardinal observes, although curiously it doesn't sound like boasting. Maybe he's just that arrogant. The burglar drops down to sit on the couch's edge, his head tilting to regard the woman steadily for a few moments before he asks, softer, "Actually, though, there was something else I wanted to ask you. While we're on the subject of you being such an altruist."
"Go ahead and ask me. Though you still didn't answer me on how you physically broke into my house" She's not going to press her luck. The phone's still held in her hand, and even though Cardinal had made his way to her and then back to the couch, she'd stayed where she was between her kitchen and the fancy sitting room.
You were at a shoot in the city, last month," Cardinal observes casually, still resistant to the idea of revealing his secrets to her, it seems, "One've your interns manifested after you spent about fifteen minutes screaming at her about what a worthless human being she was. She still have a job?"
"She does. I don't fire people just because they happen to have found out they are evolved. Your a little late though, Miranda Dobson seems to have disappeared. Or so the authorities have relayed to me…" Wait a minute. Nalani's brown eye scan over Cardinal. "How much did you sell my Escalade for and the other stuff from the trailer?"
Dispatch told Elisabeth she'd meet a partner when she got on-scene. Thomas Keown, qualified for this kind of run far beyond Liz's own experiences — but he's new, and they don't want to send either alone. She met up with him briefly in the lobby to introduce herself, and offered a faint smile. "Liz Harrison. I'm gonna give you point on this, Mister SWAT-trained guy … Been a while since I went about busting in doors. Careful, though … the lady who called it in is a ball-busting bitch," she warns mildly. Nalani made quite an impression on Elisabeth the last time.
By the time they reach the door, she's got her weapon drawn — because Nalani said she was in the process of being robbed! — and she waits for Thomas to take the lead with a nod that she's ready when he is.
Thomas does not bother drawing a gun. This could be because his face has been on national newspapers and televisions recently. Almost everyone on the planet that has heard the story about the NYPD's recent Evolved 'acquisition', and what he can do. Or this could be because if he does use that power, he might melt the gun.
Or, as Thomas fulls the front tip of his fedora down and tightens the trench coat around his figure… It could just be that Thomas has a 'bad-ass' complex that would only be sullied by entering a room with a weapon already drawn rather than getting to do so once in full view of the 'villain'.
His voice low, he raises his left hand, gloved in SWAT-issued black with nice little carbon-knuckles under fiber-mesh sown into them. That raised hand counts off backwards from five while the other hovers over the doorknob. At two, he grips the door-handle. At one, he turns it. Thomas closes his fist and pulls it down as he pushs the door open and steps in, with head up, eyes searching for immediate threats or hostages.
The sound of this reaches no ears. In fact, the two Officers and their actions, make no sound at all. It is as if they are in a silent movie inserted into an audible world. …neat trick.
Ah, women's intuition. Give it long enough and they'll figure things out. A private smile curves Cardinal's lips as she asks that, roguish, though it doesn't touch eyes reddened and bloodshot in the dim lighting of the living room. "Enough to save a man's life, which is more than you'd probably ever do with it. See, I've seen how you deal with people, Butterfly, and I'm not buying this charity shit. It might sell magazines, but I'm not buying it. You don't give a shit about anyone but yourself."
Cardinal would be surprised how much she gives a shit, beyond herself. But it's a carefully cultivated image. Meant to deter those who don't really need help and won't jump through hoops, for those who actually will do it. "So you broke into the trailers and stole my vehicle? WHy am I not surprised. You should keep sitting there Richard Cardinal. You shouldn't move from that spot" More of her personal will following on the back of the words, compulsion and the most she's ever laid down with it. Her hand tightens around the phone, anger on her face. "You put my relations with a designer in a tight spot. Where is the clothing and jewelry that you stole"
When the two cops hear the occupants talking, Elisabeth looks in confusion at Thomas. The woman's chatting up her thief? W.T.F?? But she keeps her weapon out and pointed down until they both have a clear line of fire — and nowhere for their thief to go, or so both she and Thomas assume. Downstairs security is securing the stairwells and the elevators. Being as there appear to be no hostages and the Ball-busting Bitch appears to be in charge, Liz says from doorway into the room — where she and Thomas now stand — "NYPD, Ms. Hollingwood. Step back from the suspect, please? We'll take him from here."
Wait a second here. There's something wrong; it's a realization that's starting to stir behind the criminal's eyes as the woman keeps repeating her demand to keep him seated. She's putting a lot of emphasis on it, and for some reason he's listening to her. A glitter of dark suspicion as Cardinal leans forward, one hand on his knee. There's something funny going on here. Is she… Just as he's about to speak, the cops step around the corner and into the open, and his head snaps up to regard them in surprise. "Shit," he hisses out under his breath, the tendons in his neck tensing a bit, fingers curling against his knee. He doesn't leap up or roll out of the way, though, hard gaze snapping back to Nalani. "Good evening, officers."
Thomas moves himself into position as Elisabeth moves and is standing just far enough out of sight to step in and be seen the moment that Elisabeth speaks. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can not afford one, the state of New York will provide you with a public defender." The officer takes a step forward and suddenly his body is of stone and fire. Officer Thomas' voice sounds deep, tinged with inherent violence, and righteousness. Thomas points at the man on the couch and growls, "Do you understand these rights?"
Nalani looks over to the officers as they enter into her place and come into sight. At Elisabeth's demands, the Arabic woman steps back towards her kitchen, a narrowed glance at Cardinal. Break into her home. Wrong fucking thing to do. "I suggest that you play nice with the police Richard Cardinal, go with them without trouble" Still the silent will imposed on him, oblivious to everyone else, except cardinal who's maybe caught on now. The last sentence makes the dark haired Glamazon a little light headed and a brush to the underside of her nose shows the start of a nosebleed. Headache is to come later, she knows that, but at least hopefully the guy will be in custody. She turns her back then, take a seat at the island in her kitchen, out of sight of both, though the compulsion that travels on her words still remain for now.
It's deja vu all over again. A flicker of memory stirs brief panic inside of the man seated there upon the couch, the lizard hind-brain thrashing desperately to force him to find an escape route, the hell of Riker's Island welling up unbidden from the depths of his memory. The subliminal command crashes into another one in his thoughts, and with that conflict - and an idea of his own - Cardinal manages to keep his calm, the entire struggle visible only by a dark flash in his eyes and the tension of the man's muscles. "I've heard it all before, buddy," he replies roughly to the officer's words, both hands raising up wrists together from where he's seated. Then he smiles, watching Nalani turn away. "See you soon, Butterfly."
Thomas pulls his SWAT-issue backpack down and from it comes an interesting looking contraption. It's metal bars, cuffs, and chains. It unfolds to just be a pair of cuffs on a steel bar, attached to an entirely too short to be comfortable chain down to a similar pair of leg-cuffs on another steel bar. Thomas' voice remains dark and foreboding. "You are being taken into protective custody." He signals for Elisabeth to place the cuffs and chains on the man being arrested. "Then downtown to be booked and processed. If you resist, I will further restrain you. It may hurt." He stands where he is, and though not looking to the woman in the room, he asks of her, "Are there any other threats to yours, or our, security at this time, Ma'am?"
Nalani shakes her head to Thomas. "Just him, that I know of" Paper towel is grabbed, brought to her nose as she takes a seat at the island in her kitchen. "Best to check the rest of the house"
"So what'm I being charged with, by the way? Trespassing? She's never asked me to leave," Cardinal asks, his tone as dry as ash as he lets himself be restrained without resistance — he's all too aware of how much that hurts, bruises and scars leaving memories that can survive the years. "You saw her calmly talking to me, so it's not as if I was threatening her. No weapons on me, either. I'm just curious what the charges are, given that you're putting all these chains on my unarmed self — or've they taken that right away from the citizenry recently? I don't read the news much, the fascist dictator we've got in the White House could've passed some new amendments when I wasn't paying attention."
"You were in my locked home, uninvited. You confessed that you were involved with the theft on the photo shoot" Nalani's plaster encased wrist holds up her phone. "I have a homeland security agent who has heard it all Cardinal. I will be pressing charges."
Thomas raises a hand towards Nalani. "Ma'am, please wait until the detainee has been escorted off of the premises to discuss this matter." Directly at Cardinal now he offers, as the last of the chains are being secured, "You are charged primarily with breaking and entering, as was communicated to us by Miss Hollingwood's security company. Other charges may be added as information comes to the attention of the District Attorney's office. That is for them to decide. Be reminded that until you are released from my custody, I will be taking notes accurately detailing your words and actions for the Court." He gestures for Elisabeth to bring Cardinal along. Thomas doesn't move himself however, until the other Officer and Cardinal are past him.
"Oh, I bet that you could get someone to say whatever you wanted them to, Butterfly…" Cardinal's wrists lift slightly, giving the chains a clatter where they connect to the bar, those bloodshot eyes regarding her with a dangerous glint to match the thin smile, "…won't Homeland Security be interested in that?" Then he's led out towards the door, clomping as best he can in the restraints, asking conversationally, "So what's with Officer Stiffneck here, anyway? They forget to issue him a personality?"
Thomas remains in his magma form until they get to the door, which just the need to fit through causes him to revert to his human body. "It is waiting for me in my locker. Back at the station." Is his only reply, stiff and growly as ever.
Nalani ignores the barbs. Ignores the bait. Cause to rise to them would give validation to his not so subtle a stab. Just puts the phone to her ear, murmuring quietly in Arabic into it.
"Awesome," Cardinal's voice drifts back as they head out the door, "So, hey, when all this is over, you should pick it up and we can go for drinks sometime. I know this great bar, the girls are hot, let me tell… well, shit, probably not hot enough for you. Hm. Maybe this one girl…"
March 9th: Beacon |
March 9th: Congratulations, It Turned Red |