Sebastian Shaw rarely showed intense emotions on his face regardless of what he was feeling, except in the confines of his own privacy. That was one advantage he would never give to anyone, and yet there were just some people who didn't care.
He scowled heavily, be it because of Selene's presence in his private lounge or because of the new development—it didn't matter. What mattered was that he was annoyed enough to show it, not that Selene cared, at least not in the way she leisurely lounged on his exquisite furniture while sipping slowly on a glass of his expensive wine, the bottle standing proudly on the small table at her side.
"Are you certain?" He asked before he could stop himself, scowling even heavily as the question sat between him and Selene.
"This is the third time you're asking me that," Selene spoke without turning to look at him. "If you don't have anything better to ask me, then don't ask."
He ground his teeth hard. Maybe it shouldn't have come to him as a surprise that Jessica Jones had something to prevent against anything along the lines of mind control. It was strong enough to rebuff any type of mental psychosis Selene tried using on her. Not even her enthrallment worked since it was also a type of mind control.
"What do we do now since your methods ended up fruitless?" He asked the irritatingly carefree woman.
She had the effrontery to raise a brow at him as if she was a clueless party to what was at stake. "And you're asking me, why?"
"We're in this together, or have you forgotten?" He glared at her. She held the glare for a couple of seconds before she shrugged and sat upright.
"You were going to torture her," she stated languidly, "Why haven't you?"
"Torture works best when the person wishes they rather not be tortured. If we torture her, which is an hurdle of its own, and it fails to produce the answers we want then we thoroughly fail to get anything else out of her." Her enhanced physiology made it a challenge of its own to physically torture her. It was an unfeasible endeavor.
She hadn't so much as twitched when he threatened torture. The only thing that got a reaction out of her was Selene trying to dig into her head, and even at that it was slight hesitance and suspicion at best, not full blown panic. That and a silent promise of murder.
"You said she had a sister. Why not her?" Selene asked and his expression visibly soured. "Hoh? That's a nice face you're making. What happened?"
"She somehow knew she was in danger before my men even got to her apartment. She disappeared before they had the chance to grab her." Repeating to her what his men said to him only pissed him off more. Remembering the casual dismissal Jessica Jones had when he threatened her sister made him want to rip that immature mask of confidence off her face.
"She's a mutant?"
"Or something she bought off the Merchant." He said with an undertone of potent distaste as he poured himself a drink and downed it in one.
The presence of the Merchant at this particular incident was quickly becoming more than a prickly thorn because now all it would take was someone pulling another vanishing act to render all of his preparations useless.
"And from the lovely expression on your face, you're not having much luck tracking her down." She poked at that particular sore spot with a chuckle. "Who knows, maybe she's gone running to the Merchant? Have someone watching that area and you might be able to nab her."
He poured himself another drink and was suddenly awash with calm. "That presents a risk we don't want to be the first to ascertain. Our Merchant is a business man, and a business man will no doubt be furious if their customers are being attacked in the vicinity of their business."
The fact that none of the earlier groups had dared boycott the shop for their gain was reason enough. And if they were right that there was indeed something going on between Jones and the Merchant, then tipping him off was the last thing they wanted to do.
And that was why he hadn't gone to the shop ever since his plans for Jones took root in his mind. He couldn't take that chance inside the shop.
"And if the sister goes to the Merchant?" Selene asked.
"She lacks the financial support to purchase anything that would help in Jones' rescue. And if the Merchant tries to intervene, a highly unwanted outcome, we can then ascertain the nature of his neutrality. He can't claim to be fair in his trade inside his little shop and be partial outside of it – that wouldn't sit right with his customers now, would it?"
If the Merchant really acted, as dreadful as that would be, and others were to find out, regardless of whether he was right to do so or not, the fact that his neutrality was conditional would not sit right with anyone. That irrational fear of the possibility of them being the next to he would attack, again regardless of right or wrong, would escalate into something that would ultimately ruin the Merchant's chance at a stable market. That escalation was his backup plan.
Selene got up and sashayed towards him but he easily ignored any sexual stimulus her overflowing sensuality threatened to provoke. He gave her an unimpressed look when she took his glass, sipped it, and handed it back.
"And what plans do you have for Jones in the meantime?" She whispered softly in his ears.
He put down the glass and poured himself a new drink, in a new glass. "Patience is a virtue, Selene. We'll see how virtuous our little prisoner can be before she starts to crack."
In the meantime he'll find other – better – ways to break her. Psychology was one such interesting subject.
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She cursed under her breath as she appeared in some alleyway after managing to escape whoever those goons were. Even before they showed up, she was already blaming Jess.
When Jess had first given her those two items, a tiny piece of paper and a key, she had thought her sister had started losing, which in her defense, was a regular occurrence with her sister.
The first, the tiny piece of paper, which she kept inside the locket she recently started wearing – another one of Jess' weird gifts of recent – according to her sister, was a failed(or was it unrefined?) vivre card that starts crinkling at the slightest instance of danger.
[—Poor Quality Vivre Card (One Piece): A practical life radar for the high seas as well as a slip of peace of mind for allies and loved ones, as well as those at home. A very poor quality compared to the standard production that crinkles at the slightest hint of danger – even at a stubbed toe, or a small cold, or even runny nose, needlessly worrying everyone else.
*Rainy nights, broke days, high tides, sea kings, pirates, Navy, or the usual Grandline randomness? Expect someone at home to continuously have a heart attack because of this overreacting dud.]
So when the whole alien squabble started, she started checking the thing every five minutes like any (ab)normal sister would. The first thirty minutes only had a faint crinkle at the edge which meant that Jess was practically fine, but then the whole thing suddenly crumpled.
What did that mean? Was she dead? Was she dying? Was she in grave danger?
She grabbed the key, her escape token and a ring that was apparently emergency insurance according to Jess, and was halfway down the block after trying and failing numerous times to reach her sister when she noticed the all black truck speeding towards her.
The moment the truck stopped and costumed goons jumped down, she instantly grabbed the key and closed her eyes screaming only to be whipped across the head by sudden vertigo. She made the mistake of opening her eyes when the entire world suddenly turned into a roller-coaster of colors and sounds and, then here she was. Some alleyway somewhere.
"Jess' backup plan." She hissed, once again reminded of her sister's contingency plan if anything were to happen to her. Did those guys kidnap her? Jess was strong, yes, like really really strong. That did not mean that she couldn't be kidnapped or hurt even.
"Now where's this Junk 'N Stuff place?" If the Portkey key(was that it) brought her here then that meant that the pawnshop her sister talked about must be real close.
There it was, right across the alley. She doubted there was another Junk 'N Stuff in New York, moreso one that would conveniently be right across the alley she teleported into.
If anything, the name was quite catchy, she idly thought as she rushed inside. Her sister was in danger. She opened the locket and her heart deflated slightly in relief when she saw the crumpling had eased up.
Quickly she had to find Isaac—there!
"Ma'am, take a slow breath. You're quite safe—"
"Jessica is in danger!" She ignored whatever he was trying to say, even ignoring the other man in front of Isaac, and practically shouted in his face as she rushed to the counter.
Wow. She felt strangely calm after shouting. How therapeutic.
"Jessica?" He frowned slightly and tilted his head. "You are…"
"I'm her sister, Trish."
"Oh right. A pleasure, ma'am. She was quite vocal about you."
"Right right, yes, thank you." She nodded impatiently, fumbling with the locket as she held it out to him. "See. She's in trouble!"
He had a slightly embarrassed and conflicted look on his face as he looked at the crumpled piece of paper.
He turned to the other man wearing a black suit – a really expensive one, she noted – who she'd ignored in her panicked haste.
"I'm sorry, sir. Can you excuse me for a brief moment?"
The other man looked at her, hair glossy and slicked back, dashing and almost familiar, and smiled. "Of course. She seems to be in a hurry."
She gave him a nod of thanks which he returned before taking a polite step back. Now she was the one berating herself for being rude to the nice handsome man and trying to remember why he looked familiar. Probably at an event. Isaac's voice broke her thoughts before she could dwell on them any longer.
"Miss—"
"Trish," she corrected habitually, like she always did when meeting someone for a favor.
Heh, he had a polite tick, she mentally smirked when she saw him pause for a beat. "Trish, while I understand your panic, I have to tell you that even though the vivre card is wrinkled, she's barely in any trouble. The edges of the page would have started burning if her life was really in danger."
"Huh?"
Isaac looked slightly ashamed. "It's an extremely poor quality vivre card. I tried to tell her that but she insisted on buying this one, for some bizarre reason. If anything, rather than danger, it shows how inconvenienced she is. Mildly so, I'd say."
"She was kidnapped! How is that mild?!" she slammed her hand down on the counter in frustration. She didn't care whether or not Jessica was 'mildly inconvenienced', what she cared about was getting her sister un-kidnapped.
She reached into her pants pocket and fished out the 'emergency insurance'. A ring. Jessica's emergency insurance was a plain ring – she didn't question it, just like she didn't question half the things her sister got up to. Maybe she should start now. Now meaning after she got the idiot back, obviously.
"Here," she pushed it into his hands. "She said she had a tab. 'Emergency Insurance'. Give me something that'll get her out of wherever she is."
Was that how it worked? He was like a blackmarket tech/magic plug, right?
He looked at the ring and made a grabbing motion and suddenly a stack of cash was in his hands.
"This is enough," he said, handing her back the ring as she blinked repeatedly in silent shock. He opened one of the many lockers behind him and to her great confusion, brought out a scroll.
"This is a Reverse Summoning Scroll." He put the scroll down and sighed softly. "Normally, it needs a blood pact between the user and the target beforehand to work but we can use the vivre card in Jessica's stead since it's basically the token of her lifeforce."
"Blood pact?" She involuntarily took a step back as black magic was suddenly introduced.
Isaac nodded. "It's more a contract of agreement than anything sinister. She'll know the moment she's being entered into a pact and it's up to her to either accept it or decline it. Same with attempting to summon her – it won't work until she accepts the summoning."
"She was kidnapped," she stated in a dry tone as she deadpanned at him. "You think she will say no to being rescued?"
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Patreøn*com/1stDepth
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