Hey who the hell is this guy? (Open & Closed)

[quizpersona]

Who: A man who isn't going by "Gogol" right now
Where: Aldrip (now with better accuracy!) The Inn, an abandoned house at the edges of town, at a diner.
What: The assorted shenanigans related to a certain local murder clown who has faked his own perma-death to assume a different identity. There will be various toplevels in the comments. This is "closed-ish" because it's not 100% closed but there's a lot of ooc plotting and scheming going on so please come join in on the plotting scheming instead of blitzing in with a "hey you guys that's obviously Gogol" when other people are investigating.

Getting short-lived CR with the nice, helpful, and well-mannered salaryman is 100% open though because frankly that's funny.

Edit: now including a top level for his sentencing failure.

Warnings: Kidnapping, nsfw dialogue, law advice for the dubious, torture (includes finger trauma).

Comments

[bonobos]

[ that had been the goal -- to obfuscate. the tension comes to a head, and suddenly the hammer clatters against the table, pain slinking up his hand. it's strange -- how human nerves work, how every bit of you feels what begins and ends at your fingers.

he fails to suppress a yelp, eyes alight with panic. more agonizing than the pain is the realization that somebody knows -- how did he know? had minato told somebody, put out a notice, sent a message...?

fuck. his blood is freezing over, and he feels it: fear. raw, primal fear. heartbeat in his ears now. think, think. ]

My little brother!

[ he finally admits. a half lie, a half truth. a reality only in his own mind, but a falsehood to everyone else. an attempt at obfuscation, at muddling the situation. ]

He's just a kid, and he's the only family I got. He's not gonna do anything. [ breath shuddering now: ] So just-- leave him the fuck alone.

[invinciblemikey]

(you know? this isn't half bad. it's not the first hard beatdown he has partaken in, although to be fair, most of them have been for the sake of it. manjiro has a whole division that deals with traitors and whatever at home, this is a little below his paygrade. it must mean something that he doesn't even flinch with how that finger is smashed, or the pain that sha-ming sings out.

instead, he comes closer to sit on the floor.)

Bullshit. No one likes a liar. He told a friend of mine, and that friend posted it out of concern.

(he's also uninterested in giving minato's name, if sha-ming pays attention to that.)

[quizpersona]

Ohh I see~

[ Ironically, if it had been left at the information about the brother he might've let the obfuscation lead them to somewhere else. It's because additional details are offered without further prompting that it becomes complicated enough for Nikolai to take a moment to give it all a good think.

A contemplative gaze lifts up at the ceiling. He passively observes the rotting beams and thinks but it only takes a moment before he smiles again. ]

If someone has already put the description out there it's a lot more suspicious to eliminate that person afterwards. This is actually something anyone could infer. It's also common for family to feel so desperate that they go ahead and ask for help without thinking about consequences.

So why—

[ and a laugh escapes him. His gaze slides back down to the both of them without him righting his head back to it's original position—it remains tilted back. ]

Would he really need someone else to post on his behalf?

[bonobos]

[ sha-ming notes it immediately -- and if mikey spares a glance at him, he'll see the relief washing over his features, body visibly relaxing in real time. "i owe you," his eyes speak into the silence. ]

...I didn't know he was gonna do that.

[ he looks down. ]

I didn't think he'd give a shit to start with.

[ a moment passes, drawn out before his mouth parts again. ]

He doesn't have any reason to, so I just...

[invinciblemikey]

('no, you don't' would be the answer, because, well. sha-ming is still tied up in mikey's basement, and it's not like he's lifting a single finger to make that less of a reality as of now.)

You'd be surprised about him.

(minato is... a go-with-the-flow person, laid back, disconnected, but he cares enough about his friends to do what is needed regardless if he fully knows the situation or otherwise. manjiro can hope that his talks with the boy enlightened him somehow, to make choices that align with his soul, rather than what others would need out of him. this would put a target on his back easily - god bless the kid. manjiro'll miss him.)

He told everyone what you've been looking like lately, Nikolai. It's a waste of time and resources and energy to do anything about that. Aren't we looking for the Overcoat? Ask this motherfucker about that.

[quizpersona]

[ Lips pursing, his visible eye narrows at Mikey as the teen manages to out both his first name and also that he's missing something called the Overcoat in a matter of seconds. What the hell? Now the dramatic reveal he was going to do later has less impact. Clearly this guy doesn't have a lot of experience torturing someone who'll get released later. ]

Well then, have you heard anything about that?

[ The expression evens back out to the deranged amusement. The claw of the hammer digs into the second knuckle of Sha-Ming's ring finger but there's not smashing yet. ]

[bonobos]

[ the relief does not fade — ultimately, whatever happens to him is a drop in the pond, an echo in this place at best. if minato was fine, he would accept it.

a brow raises at the reveal of his name — nikolai. he would remember that. sha-ming rocks back into the chair. strangely, he doesn’t seem to be particularly phased by the metal digging into his knuckle, mostly because he’s at ease now. ]

All this for a coat? [ a scoff. ] No idea what you’re talkin’ about, and I mean that. You kidnapped the wrong guy. I couldn’t be less involved in whatever the hell goes on in this city. Real sad for you, isn’t it, Niko?

[invinciblemikey]

(oops. no fucks given about anything currently, sorry gogol... he just prefers to be direct and leave the violence as an added bonus. information first, fun later?)

Do you buy that? He already lied once, caught red-handed.

CW Strangulation

[quizpersona]

Well? Actually, yes. In the first place that was never the reason why I brought him here. Which means—

[ If this was a movie he could've reached over and snapped Sha-Ming's neck... Alas, it takes a comical amount of effort to snap someone's neck with bare hands, actually. With all the time in the world and that thought in mind Nikolai lays that hammer back on the side table.

As Sha-Ming rocks back in the chair Gogol does end up reaching towards him after all, but it's to slip a finger underneath the tie digging into the cheek; where he'd left it to partially gag the guy. Once he has that foothold he yanks it down around his abductee's throat, and adjusts the knot so it fulfills the actual purpose of a tie in laying snug again the neck. Where that hand lands after the completion of that task is on the back of the chair. It brings Nikolai to lean over him slightly after he's nudged that table out of the way with his foot.

Belatedly— ]

...You can die now! Like you asked, riiight?

[ The end of the tie is wrapped once, and then twice around his hand to get a good grip. Aware that this will take approximately 2-3 minutes and that Mikey is in a position where he will have to watch, leave, or stop him— he pulls on the tie until it should cut off Sha-Ming's ability to breathe entirely. ]

cw death

[bonobos]

[ it happens in a snap moment; the tie, traversing down his face, taut around his throat. nikolai pulls back -- sha-ming chokes in response, eyes watering, teeth gnashing against his tongue.

his vision is fading -- his flesh is going cold. how strange. how lonely. darkness pricks at the corners of his eyes, and he sees a glimpse of nikolai's face, gaze fixated on him. there's this keen awareness: that this could be so much worse. that it should have been, that he expected it to be.

there's a part of his mind, in the throes of panic, that wonders if he'll truly come back. in those final seconds, slow like molasses, memories whisk by -- running through the dying weeds of a barren planet, smiling alongside bonobos; small fingers wound around his hand, a blue haired boy trailing behind him; making it to civilization for the first time, roaming asphalt streets, realizing he was an outlier; all of the faceless girlfriends who stepped in and out of the arena of his life; a brunette little girl who hid in thickets of trees, precious to a version of himself that didn't exist to begin with.

in the end, he still doesn't understand what his friends went through. because this man has chosen mercy, and sha-ming has realized. his friends died under the heel of a boot. they died for having wanted to live at all. nikolai did not want to do this. as the life wheezes out of his body, sha-ming can only come to one conclusion: he's always been a selfish bastard, through and through. ]