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i_read_whatSo last time, Jack snuck into a nightclub, learned to cheat at blackjack, and met the first (possibly only) significant female character in the book so far.
As a content warning: this section has some pretty straightforward descriptions of a man getting beaten for information.
So we rejoin Jack as he trades his chips for cash. He's invited back tomorrow, he thinks because the dealer figures his beginner's luck will wear off by then. I figure the dealer thinks they can figure out how he's cheating, but I've watched a lot more television than Jack has. Since it's not been invented yet.
Anyway, Jack starts to leave, wondering how far he'll get before Morelli's goons haul him back. He notices that he's being followed by the "walking mountain" we met earlier (he was a bouncer) and another door guard. Two more men block Jack off in front. Jack pretends to try to escape, but they catch him quickly and drape his scarf over his eyes, marching him back into the club. Jack notes that they're trying to shake him up more than hurt him right now.
So Jack is brought to meet Morelli, who gets a pretty substantive description: He was medium sized and dark haired, with a pale olive complexion slightly marred by old acne scars on his cheeks. In his young thirties, he had a set of sweet dark eyes that should have been on a woman. He would have been handsome, but his nose was too pinched and he had what looked like a razor cut for a mouth. His stare was intense and I shifted uneasily.
It really does interest me how short Bobbi's description was in comparison to the male characters that we've met so far. I don't get the sense that Jack is gay, (perhaps bi, given his dynamic with Charles...and it occurs to me that Charles, like Bobbi, has a comparatively vague description), I completely believed his attraction to Bobbi. But we don't really know if Bobbi is short or tall, slim or curvy, or even what color eyes she has. On the plus side, it is nice to see a female character in this kind of noir-style narration not be described in terms of her breasts.
Anyway, this is Slick Morelli. He looks through Jack's wallet, noting Jack being listed as "Gerald's" emergency contact and offers to put him in touch with his brother. Morelli is willing to make a deal: he wants the list.
There's some posturing, since Jack doesn't want to give in too easily, and some light abuse from the Mountain, but Jack eventually gives Morelli the reaction he wants. It gets a bit worse, and Jack starts having a flashback when Morelli pulls out a cigar. Ouch, bad timing.
Fortunately, the Mountain shakes him out of it, and the scene continues. The Mountain plays good cop, urging Jack to tell Morelli what he wants because Morelli won't let him let up otherwise. But things go wrong when Jack, pretending to react to a hit from the Mountain, ends up whanging his head into the edge of Morelli's mahogany desk.
Wood is bad, if you recall, and it dazes Jack a bit. The Mountain, whose name is Gordy, rouses him under Morelli's orders. Then the beatings continue for about a quarter hour before Jack finally pretends to break, (he'd seen it in movies and real life, apparently), starting to sob and plead, giving Morelli what he wants to hear. He gives them the story that "Jack" had passed the list onto "Gerald" and he'd hidden it in a hotel basement, but he'll have to show them where exactly.
They drive to the hotel, where Jack breaks free and runs for it. In the process, one of the gunmen (who Morelli apparently forgot to tell that they needed "Gerald" alive) shoots Jack in the back. When they come to investigate, Jack fakes a last breath and death rattle and then stays still.
Morelli arrives (amusingly Jack's sorry he didn't drag his death scene out to give him a creepy message to worry about) and he ends up beating the gunman (not Gordy) to death with his own gun. Eek. He and Gordy decide to leave Jack's body there, as a victim of a mugging gone wrong.
Jack's not doing too badly: he's out of the Nightcrawler and Morelli thinks he's dead. He does however have a ruined suit and is out his gambling winnings, which at 5800 dollars is a shit ton of money. It's getting close to morning, so he manages to get to a closed drugstore and use their phone to call a cab back to his hotel. After a few mishaps, Jack gets home and manages to just get into his trunk in time.
The sun thing is clearly a real problem, outside of just don't get caught outside, as by the end, Jack can barely move, and his head is ready to explode even from the hint of reflected sunlight in the window. It has after effects the next evening too, as Jack wakes up giddy, disoriented, and unable to see.
Later, he awakes to someone knocking on his trunk lid: Escott, who is very concerned at how bad Jack looks. There's some nice nurturing, as Escott gets him on the bed and starts wetting his forehead with a washcloth. Jack tries to make it easier for Escott's recovering wound, but is still a little out of it.
Escott notes that Jack's eyes are still tracking light, so the blindness is temporary. He and Jack have one of their very entertaining deadpan conversations about the holes in Jack's suit and the goose egg on his head (presumably from the desk). Jack fills him in about everything except Bobbi and Blackjack.
Escott offers to take Jack to the Stockyards, and Jack agrees, figuring he has to get over his sensitivity. At Jack's question, Escott reassures him and us as to his condition: he's had forty-eight hours of rest and his stitches are itching, so they're healing.
There's an entertaining point where Escott suggests getting a dog instead, but Jack is horrified. He likes dogs. Escott backtracks saying it was just a suggestion.
So anyway, Escott gets a first hand view of feeding time. Well, Jack actually asks him not to watch, and he complies because he's a good dude and it's a little different when the reality is right in front of you. Feeding does a boy good, and Jack finds his sight coming back. Though from Escott's reaction, his eyes are apparently something to see.
Jack just thinks Escott doesn't care for cattle. Which is hilarious.
Anyway, Jack's recovering but angry. He notes that he could have left the club at any time, but stuck around in hopes to find a memory. He doesn't bear a grudge against Gordy, which even he finds a little odd, but bases that on the man's complete neutrality.
Jack muses on his vampirism, relating it to a kid he knew in the Army who'd lost a hand and wore a glove later on, pretending it wasn't there. Another kid lost a leg from the knee down, and is now leading a polka troupe. Jack realizes that he needs to look at his vampirism like a health condition and respect its rules. He notes that he's been squeamish because he's been fighting acknowledging the change and that if it were Escott, the man probably wouldn't have even thought about not wanting Jack to see it.
Practicality vs pragmatism again.
Anyway, Jack's focused on Morelli. He wants to go back after him. Escott sometimes reminds me of that joke about another character being 90% of someone's impulse control. But honestly, Escott's, if anything, worse than Jack. He thinks this is a great idea.
They discuss Jack's plan without elaborating on it, but we see soon enough when Escott starts applying stage makeup and fake blood to Jack's clothes.
(There's an interesting moment when Jack mentions taking a bath. Though he doesn't mention any flashbacks, so it must have been a quick one. I wonder when it became common for hotels to have showers...)
Escott regrets not being able to see Morelli's face, because, again, Escott has no business being anyone else's impulse control. He is however a good makeup artist, and Jack, apparently, has the right bone structure for playing ghoul. Escott gives us a little more backstory: in Canada, he'd spent three years being apprentice makeup artist for a Shakespearean company, while doing all kinds of other prop, set, and very minor character roles.
Escott also gives Jack the keys to his car, so he won't be stuck waiting for a cab again. (Especially since, as ghoulish as he looks, he MIGHT have trouble getting a cab driver to stop). Jack thanks him and asks Escott to help him find a car of his own, once he's feeling up to it. Escott, of course, has friends in the business.
So Jack heads back to the Nightcrawler, parking out of sight and creeping inside. He notes that they'd done him a favor transporting him with blindfold the night before, since that's actually quite similar to traveling in mist form. He snoops around offices and bedrooms. He finds Morelli's which has a smaller bedroom attached, which he realizes from decor and scent, must be Bobbis.
Thankfully, he doesn't stick around, though he does hope that Morelli didn't tell her what happened. He snoops around Morelli's office, and goes mist form just as Morelli himself arrives. Apparently he triggered a trip wire during his search. It does provide Jack with some opportunity to fuck with him though.
Morelli leaves one dude to guard the office. Jack puts him to sleep and trips the wire again (it goes off when he moves a painting with a safe beneath.) Morelli immediately returns, but no one can figure out why it went off. He leaves a second guy there, and Jack pulls the trick again.
This time Morelli kicks the two goons out and stays himself, which is what Jack wants of course. He starts fucking with him: making things very cold, and slowly becoming visible. Morelli books it, and Jack straightens up the cards that Morelli had been playing with and fucks with the picture again.
This time he comes back with men and has them search the place. They leave after, and he has Gordy watch the hall. Then Jack materializes again, in the position that he'd been in when left for "dead" on the sidewalk. He bellows for Gordy, who arrives just too late to see him. Now both stay in the room.
Jack puts Gordy to sleep and shuts the hall light off, makes things cold again, and just generally fucks with Morelli some more. Couldn't happen to a nicer dude. At one point he even gets Morelli to shoot at him. Hee.
Jack hangs out long enough to see Morelli open the safe, and gets the numbers. When everyone's gone, Jack gets into the safe. (It takes a bit because he'd gotten the last number wrong), inside, he finds the casino money. Jack is an honest thief and only takes his 5800 from the night before. Jack is tempted to make a final house call on Morelli, or "look in on Bobbi" Jack, NO.
But it's late, and Jack wants to allow time for car trouble or delays, so he goes home.
This was fun. The first part with Morelli was suitably dramatic, even though we know Jack wasn't in any real danger for the most part. The bit with the desk was legitimately alarming. The second part was just fun, like watching the Maitlands mess with the Deitzes in Beetlejuice.
The "look in on Bobbi" bit makes me a bit uneasy. Vampire fiction tends toward a lot of really gross and intrusive tropes. Thus far, Bloodlist has avoided a lot of them, but that bit still made me hesitate. We'll have to see what happens the next time Jack and Bobbi interact to know if my unease is warranted.
As a content warning: this section has some pretty straightforward descriptions of a man getting beaten for information.
So we rejoin Jack as he trades his chips for cash. He's invited back tomorrow, he thinks because the dealer figures his beginner's luck will wear off by then. I figure the dealer thinks they can figure out how he's cheating, but I've watched a lot more television than Jack has. Since it's not been invented yet.
Anyway, Jack starts to leave, wondering how far he'll get before Morelli's goons haul him back. He notices that he's being followed by the "walking mountain" we met earlier (he was a bouncer) and another door guard. Two more men block Jack off in front. Jack pretends to try to escape, but they catch him quickly and drape his scarf over his eyes, marching him back into the club. Jack notes that they're trying to shake him up more than hurt him right now.
So Jack is brought to meet Morelli, who gets a pretty substantive description: He was medium sized and dark haired, with a pale olive complexion slightly marred by old acne scars on his cheeks. In his young thirties, he had a set of sweet dark eyes that should have been on a woman. He would have been handsome, but his nose was too pinched and he had what looked like a razor cut for a mouth. His stare was intense and I shifted uneasily.
It really does interest me how short Bobbi's description was in comparison to the male characters that we've met so far. I don't get the sense that Jack is gay, (perhaps bi, given his dynamic with Charles...and it occurs to me that Charles, like Bobbi, has a comparatively vague description), I completely believed his attraction to Bobbi. But we don't really know if Bobbi is short or tall, slim or curvy, or even what color eyes she has. On the plus side, it is nice to see a female character in this kind of noir-style narration not be described in terms of her breasts.
Anyway, this is Slick Morelli. He looks through Jack's wallet, noting Jack being listed as "Gerald's" emergency contact and offers to put him in touch with his brother. Morelli is willing to make a deal: he wants the list.
There's some posturing, since Jack doesn't want to give in too easily, and some light abuse from the Mountain, but Jack eventually gives Morelli the reaction he wants. It gets a bit worse, and Jack starts having a flashback when Morelli pulls out a cigar. Ouch, bad timing.
Fortunately, the Mountain shakes him out of it, and the scene continues. The Mountain plays good cop, urging Jack to tell Morelli what he wants because Morelli won't let him let up otherwise. But things go wrong when Jack, pretending to react to a hit from the Mountain, ends up whanging his head into the edge of Morelli's mahogany desk.
Wood is bad, if you recall, and it dazes Jack a bit. The Mountain, whose name is Gordy, rouses him under Morelli's orders. Then the beatings continue for about a quarter hour before Jack finally pretends to break, (he'd seen it in movies and real life, apparently), starting to sob and plead, giving Morelli what he wants to hear. He gives them the story that "Jack" had passed the list onto "Gerald" and he'd hidden it in a hotel basement, but he'll have to show them where exactly.
They drive to the hotel, where Jack breaks free and runs for it. In the process, one of the gunmen (who Morelli apparently forgot to tell that they needed "Gerald" alive) shoots Jack in the back. When they come to investigate, Jack fakes a last breath and death rattle and then stays still.
Morelli arrives (amusingly Jack's sorry he didn't drag his death scene out to give him a creepy message to worry about) and he ends up beating the gunman (not Gordy) to death with his own gun. Eek. He and Gordy decide to leave Jack's body there, as a victim of a mugging gone wrong.
Jack's not doing too badly: he's out of the Nightcrawler and Morelli thinks he's dead. He does however have a ruined suit and is out his gambling winnings, which at 5800 dollars is a shit ton of money. It's getting close to morning, so he manages to get to a closed drugstore and use their phone to call a cab back to his hotel. After a few mishaps, Jack gets home and manages to just get into his trunk in time.
The sun thing is clearly a real problem, outside of just don't get caught outside, as by the end, Jack can barely move, and his head is ready to explode even from the hint of reflected sunlight in the window. It has after effects the next evening too, as Jack wakes up giddy, disoriented, and unable to see.
Later, he awakes to someone knocking on his trunk lid: Escott, who is very concerned at how bad Jack looks. There's some nice nurturing, as Escott gets him on the bed and starts wetting his forehead with a washcloth. Jack tries to make it easier for Escott's recovering wound, but is still a little out of it.
Escott notes that Jack's eyes are still tracking light, so the blindness is temporary. He and Jack have one of their very entertaining deadpan conversations about the holes in Jack's suit and the goose egg on his head (presumably from the desk). Jack fills him in about everything except Bobbi and Blackjack.
Escott offers to take Jack to the Stockyards, and Jack agrees, figuring he has to get over his sensitivity. At Jack's question, Escott reassures him and us as to his condition: he's had forty-eight hours of rest and his stitches are itching, so they're healing.
There's an entertaining point where Escott suggests getting a dog instead, but Jack is horrified. He likes dogs. Escott backtracks saying it was just a suggestion.
So anyway, Escott gets a first hand view of feeding time. Well, Jack actually asks him not to watch, and he complies because he's a good dude and it's a little different when the reality is right in front of you. Feeding does a boy good, and Jack finds his sight coming back. Though from Escott's reaction, his eyes are apparently something to see.
Jack just thinks Escott doesn't care for cattle. Which is hilarious.
Anyway, Jack's recovering but angry. He notes that he could have left the club at any time, but stuck around in hopes to find a memory. He doesn't bear a grudge against Gordy, which even he finds a little odd, but bases that on the man's complete neutrality.
Jack muses on his vampirism, relating it to a kid he knew in the Army who'd lost a hand and wore a glove later on, pretending it wasn't there. Another kid lost a leg from the knee down, and is now leading a polka troupe. Jack realizes that he needs to look at his vampirism like a health condition and respect its rules. He notes that he's been squeamish because he's been fighting acknowledging the change and that if it were Escott, the man probably wouldn't have even thought about not wanting Jack to see it.
Practicality vs pragmatism again.
Anyway, Jack's focused on Morelli. He wants to go back after him. Escott sometimes reminds me of that joke about another character being 90% of someone's impulse control. But honestly, Escott's, if anything, worse than Jack. He thinks this is a great idea.
They discuss Jack's plan without elaborating on it, but we see soon enough when Escott starts applying stage makeup and fake blood to Jack's clothes.
(There's an interesting moment when Jack mentions taking a bath. Though he doesn't mention any flashbacks, so it must have been a quick one. I wonder when it became common for hotels to have showers...)
Escott regrets not being able to see Morelli's face, because, again, Escott has no business being anyone else's impulse control. He is however a good makeup artist, and Jack, apparently, has the right bone structure for playing ghoul. Escott gives us a little more backstory: in Canada, he'd spent three years being apprentice makeup artist for a Shakespearean company, while doing all kinds of other prop, set, and very minor character roles.
Escott also gives Jack the keys to his car, so he won't be stuck waiting for a cab again. (Especially since, as ghoulish as he looks, he MIGHT have trouble getting a cab driver to stop). Jack thanks him and asks Escott to help him find a car of his own, once he's feeling up to it. Escott, of course, has friends in the business.
So Jack heads back to the Nightcrawler, parking out of sight and creeping inside. He notes that they'd done him a favor transporting him with blindfold the night before, since that's actually quite similar to traveling in mist form. He snoops around offices and bedrooms. He finds Morelli's which has a smaller bedroom attached, which he realizes from decor and scent, must be Bobbis.
Thankfully, he doesn't stick around, though he does hope that Morelli didn't tell her what happened. He snoops around Morelli's office, and goes mist form just as Morelli himself arrives. Apparently he triggered a trip wire during his search. It does provide Jack with some opportunity to fuck with him though.
Morelli leaves one dude to guard the office. Jack puts him to sleep and trips the wire again (it goes off when he moves a painting with a safe beneath.) Morelli immediately returns, but no one can figure out why it went off. He leaves a second guy there, and Jack pulls the trick again.
This time Morelli kicks the two goons out and stays himself, which is what Jack wants of course. He starts fucking with him: making things very cold, and slowly becoming visible. Morelli books it, and Jack straightens up the cards that Morelli had been playing with and fucks with the picture again.
This time he comes back with men and has them search the place. They leave after, and he has Gordy watch the hall. Then Jack materializes again, in the position that he'd been in when left for "dead" on the sidewalk. He bellows for Gordy, who arrives just too late to see him. Now both stay in the room.
Jack puts Gordy to sleep and shuts the hall light off, makes things cold again, and just generally fucks with Morelli some more. Couldn't happen to a nicer dude. At one point he even gets Morelli to shoot at him. Hee.
Jack hangs out long enough to see Morelli open the safe, and gets the numbers. When everyone's gone, Jack gets into the safe. (It takes a bit because he'd gotten the last number wrong), inside, he finds the casino money. Jack is an honest thief and only takes his 5800 from the night before. Jack is tempted to make a final house call on Morelli, or "look in on Bobbi" Jack, NO.
But it's late, and Jack wants to allow time for car trouble or delays, so he goes home.
This was fun. The first part with Morelli was suitably dramatic, even though we know Jack wasn't in any real danger for the most part. The bit with the desk was legitimately alarming. The second part was just fun, like watching the Maitlands mess with the Deitzes in Beetlejuice.
The "look in on Bobbi" bit makes me a bit uneasy. Vampire fiction tends toward a lot of really gross and intrusive tropes. Thus far, Bloodlist has avoided a lot of them, but that bit still made me hesitate. We'll have to see what happens the next time Jack and Bobbi interact to know if my unease is warranted.