10679/Motivational Speaking

Motivational Speaking
Date of Scene:	09 January 2020
Location:	Cobble Hill, Old Gotham
Synopsis:	Batman and Lucifer intimidate a crooked cop for information.
Cast of Characters:	Lucifer, Batman

---

Lucifer has posed:
The parking structure isn't dark; there are many lights illuminating the floors of the complex. Three cars were present: two sleek black sedans, and one gray SUV. The SUV has remained a little bit longer as if waiting, the two sedans just leaving, quickly passing out through the booth at the bottom of the structure.

The men inside the two sedans had just finished meeting with the scrawny, battered looking fellow in the SUV. He finishes his cigarette, and starts to climb back in. He then suddenly freezes, spotting a figure amidst some parked cars, and wheels, grabbing for the gun at his side.

"No need for that, really," Lucifer's dulcet, entirely relaxed tone carries through the parking garage level, as he approaches calmly. Lucifer doesn't dress less than immpeccably, and this time is no different.

"Damn well think there is, what the hell?" demands the man, trying to get a better look. Lucifer comes out fearlessly, though, and entirely ignores the gun. "Let's save the topic of hell for a little later. I wanted to chat... and look, we're already partway there," Lucifer says teasingly, with an overly broad grin. Lucifer's expressions tend to be unnecessarily //intense//.

"I think you'd like to chat," Lucifer adds, penetratingly, now in front of the man.

"Yes," agrees the man with the gun, with a weirdly relieved tone.

Batman has posed:
There is little denying that Red Hook takes the majority of Batman's attention these days, and the myriad of smaller disasters that sprung up in its wake. Most of the Blackgate escapees are back behind bars, either in Blackgate or shipped off to other correctional facilities while repairs are rendered to the venerable prison. The Arkhamites have proven more elusive, but there are still other things going on in Gotham's dark heart that need his attention.

It is for this reason that the Batman finds himself in the same such parking structure, although he's less overt about his presence. He had been watching, recording and filing away for later perusal. A body of evidence and clues that would lead him down some grime-soaked thread and to some eventual sin that would need stamping out like an ember in the undergrowth.

The voice is familiar. Not familiar, no - he knows it. The Dark Knight forgets nothing, and even if his memory were less than perfect there is little chance his encounter in that grey space between life and death would be so easily forgotten. He moves within the shadows, new batsuit already worn from the night's business. The eyelets of his cowl recording, listening, waiting.

Lucifer has posed:
"Y--eees, it //is// good to get things off your chest. Particularly such naughty things," Lucifer chuckles, as if there was an entertainment factor to this, or, at the very least, being charmingly pleasant is.

"I couldn't help but notice the money changing hands. Feels good, to hold all that cash, doesn't it?" Lucifer asks leadingly. He gets a smile and a nod for his effort, though the gun is still raised. Lucifer doesn't seem to be concerned at having the barrel close to his chest.

"Is that why you're doing this? That delicious cash, the great things it buys?" Lucifer baits. The man seems confused at first.

"No, they have Hannah," he says abruptly.

Lucifer did not expect that answer, he pulls his head back, setting his hands loosely on his belt. "I see. Less about the corrupt cop excitement, more about Hannah," Lucifer says, his tone pulling back from where it had been set. The man seems to start to shake off whatever Lucifer was doing, disoriented; why did he say that? "It--- at first, but now---"

Batman has posed:
He's listened, he's learned some things. What's left would be excess - dirty secrets or sinister motives that would do nothing more than serve as blackmail material. He cuts them off at the source, making his presence known. Decades of training and experience have made him at home in the darkness, and the shadows seem to part from him only when he is ready for them to do so. There is nothing supernatural about it, but it is a trick done so well that most would just put it down to 'magic'.

The Dark Knight appears from the darkness between the dim lights of the parking garage, stepping free of them like some vampire from a penny dreadful. He doesn't rush, doesn't hurl a weapon nor announce himself in grave and intimidating tones. He walks, purposefully - menacingly - across the concrete towards the pair in their conversation.

His head is canted forward, eyes looking up from beneath a heavy brow. His gloves hands ball into fists at his side, his cape catches a winter wind snaking through the structure yet does nothing more than flutter about him like a shroud.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer was deep in a sigh, and lifted one hand to rub his jaw once; he wasn't turned to easily see Batman immediately. Devil he may or may not be, but immediately observant all the time? No.

It's the corrupt cop with the gun's reaction that makes Lucifer turn his head to look, and Lucifer's expression reads in a curious surprise. The gun got raised automatically, but then lowers just as hastily, holstered with a sort of shaky urgency. The police officer, in his plain clothes, is still rather disoriented, but a Batman appearing is a shock to the system.

"Batman," the confused man says quickly, trying to keep fear from his voice, not that it's necessary.

"...Are you friends?" Lucifer asks, as if that was more interesting than the rest of it, looking from the man to the Bat, as if he found it charming that one group of his pals knew the other. Small world? Lucifer isn't reacting with much of anything: more like a tourist might, an innocent tourist unaware of the real danger and seeing a REAL LIVE mugging for the first time on a city street. Though there's too much sharpness in Lucifer's gaze for that to be entirely accurate.

Batman has posed:
The Batman does not speak at first, allowing himself to cross the distance between himself and the pair before he makes so much as a sound. His footfalls do not echo, the soles of his boots - either by substance or design - leaving him to move almost like a ghost. When he nears the officer, he doesn't stop. The space between them decreases uncomfortably, and he looms over the man. No hand is raised, no physical threat beyond his mere presence and stature. He does not spare Lucifer a look, instead simply continuing with the floor show.

"Sergeant Dietz," the Dark Knight says in the characteristic baritone he has crafted for this persona, "These men - these criminals you gave an oath to protect against - have you in a vice. They squeeze, you do what they say. That's how it works - or worked. You're taking the money now. In the first weeks you put out the feelers. You tried your best to push some other cops in the Fourth Precinct towards Pokrovski. Hoping they might bring him in, ease up the pressure on you. You tread carefully. Covered your tracks so they wouldn't link it to you."

Another step, and now he's close enough to be almost touching the officer.

"But that's changed. You don't chase anymore. You're not digging. You're complacent. Your feathering your nest. Filling your pockets. You're still in the vice, but now it's a comfort. A familiar pressure. Maybe you're not even sure you can live without it."

A pause, his gloved hand raises and rests on the man's shoulder. Not in a sense of camaraderie, but rather to let Deitz feel the weight there.

"But you're in another kind of vice now, Dietz. There's no comfort here. There's only pain - "

His grip tightens almost imperceptibly.

"- and pain - "

It tightens more now, almost painful.

" - and pain - "

Harder now.

" - until you break."

Lucifer has posed:
Dietz makes the stupid move to look to Lucifer to help. There is absolutely zero help there. Lucifer has entirely shifted to purely observational, as if he were watching a movie. If anything, he's supportive of Batman's entire procedure, and does nothing at all other than look on with a bemused expression.

"No but--" The crushing pain.

"I-- I'm all that Hannah has," Dietz says, his shoulder problem starting to make him crumble.

Lucifer gives an opinionated little snort, fishing around in his jacket pocket for something -- ah. A flask. That's appropriate for the situation. "Ooph, using her to defend yourself. If I had empathy, it'd be gone now," Lucifer comments. There's an open-ended approving tone from Lucifer.

"Where's Hannah?" Lucifer comes forward with, though, with a sharp force to his tone, and a full on stare. There's //presence// from Lucifer: a different type from Batman, certainly. Lucifer's is more coaxing, still. And when Lucifer is the GOOD character out of a pair? That's something.

Batman has posed:
There's a brief, millimeter wide crack in the character that Batman has adopted here. Though he had been ignoring Lucifer until now, his head turns fractionally to regard him as he speaks and asks the follow-up question. The presence is something of note, and there's a look of interest on Batman's own face that flickers momentarily through the grimace of cold rage that otherwise paints his features.

He doesn't try to keep Dietz upright, instead letting him crumble while maintaining his hand where it is. The pressure doesn't lessen, and his grip doesn't loosen, locked in place. It's a simple hold, really. No broken bones, and the pain stems more from manipulation of nerves than any real pressure. The pain would vanish in a moment if only he would let go.

But he will not let go.

"Everything you know," he demands, "It's over."

Lucifer has posed:
Dietz isn't up to combat this combination for even a second longer. And he spills his guts rapidly: all of it. Who got him in, who gives the money. Who he met with. Who threatened Hannah, threatened to kidnap her from her school if Dietz didn't continue to come through...

Dietz does care for Hannah, that isn't a falsehood: he did put himself first, though, unaware and stupid: or perhaps just arrogant, not realizing she'd be a part of it.

While Hannah's current exact threat level isn't clear, some of the rest of it is. During the deluge, Lucifer picks at his phone; even a cursory glance will reveal he's chatting with a different police officer, sharing some of the tidbits. He doesn't mask what he is doing at all.

"I'm sending my cop friend to go on over and get Hannah," Lucifer says cheerfully. It wasn't at Dietz, it's at Batman. "You look like you're good here," he adds, with a general waggle of phone at the whole Dietz situation.

Batman has posed:
He has gotten what he needs from the man, ended the corruption in the least violent way. His hand leaves the man's shoulder, and indeed the pain vanishes as quickly as it came. All that aches there now is the memory - there won't even be a bruise.

"Leave," he commands the officer, turning his back on him completely. He fears nothing about what the man might do or try, and he shows it.

His attention comes to Lucifer fully now, and his eyes flicker to the phone he speaks into. Perhaps it is something he might have wanted to do himself, and in his mind, he appears to weigh up the man and his intentions. That quick, ruthless arithmetic would seem to come up in the Devil's favor.

Then, should that Devil look over his shoulder, he will find Batman gone. Vanished with the wind and leaving Dietz alone in his fear and shame. Perhaps the officer will get a visit from the Dark Knight later. Perhaps he'll walk into the precinct tomorrow morning like nothing had happened. But that specter will always hang over his head.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer DID look over his shoulder for Batman, after using his phone. Finding him gone brings a bright grin. Witnessing the disappearance -- or rather, not witnessing it -- is part of the mystique of the show.

It's like going to the magic show, and getting to see the finale, even if you suspect you know it's coming or how it works: it's still part of it.