Mid-week at Aphrodite’s Palace was never a busy time. Sometimes Skyla wondered why they even bothered to be open when the only ones who visited were the regulars. There were no stag-do's, no horny frat boys with money to burn, nothing. A big fat of nothing, especially if you were unlucky not to have a regular. Despite having plenty of adoring regulars who happily spent all their wages on her, none of them were here tonight, leaving Skyla very bored and very frustrated that she'd turned up to her shift today.

Sipping away on a cocktail, she lounged in one of the booths, watching one of the dancers do her (very unenthusiastic) thing up on stage. Not that Sky blamed her. The club was absolutely dead. Beyond dead. It was as if a pack of rabid wolves and tigers had decided to attack the club and only show mercy upon the staff. There were no customers at all. Not even any of the regulars were in yet.

Skyla sighed. She really hoped that business would pick up tonight. She really did not want to work if this quietness continued. If it did, she would definitely pull a sickie. Complain of a pulled muscle or something. She'd feel bad lying to Juliet like that of course, but she'd rather laze about at home, gaming and watching movies rather being than bored out of her mind here, half-dressed and waiting for random strangers to come and make her night. She wondered what that cute paramedic was up to, the one that she'd met so many months ago now. Probably busy as usual. He hadn't come back to the club since that morning when Sky had had breakfast with him. Which was a shame, since the dancer had actually rather enjoyed chatting with him.

Pushing these thoughts out of her mind, she looked around the club. Dancers milled around the bar, colourful drinks in hand as they tried to alleviate their boredom. The few security guards that were on shift tonight sauntered around, their faces a mask of professional boredom. Skyla almost groaned. This was going to be a long night. She just hoped that she could meet someone interesting tonight so the time could fly by faster. Come out, come out wherever you are interesting people!

The last bars of the song played, and Skyla stood up, sauntering over to the stage just as the previous dancer got off. With no one to act sexy for, she figured that she could get a good work-out in while she was at it. When she tried to impress the punters and get more tips, the trick was to go slow and move oh-so-sensually. Minimal spins, minimal tricks, maximum grinding and other such sexy moves. But that got boring, very quickly. So she was going to spice things up and have some fun while she was at it.
TAGGED``: mac :3
OUTFIT``: yet to be decided, but rest assured, it'll be something elegantly sexy
NOTES``: dance routine. topic is set way back when Sky first moved to America.
LYRICS``: brick by boring brick by paramore
CREDIT``: made by TAYLYNOSAURUS REX! of caution 2.0. with a zillion and one edits by CALYPSO

labor day parade, rest in peace bob marley
statue of liberty, long live the world trade
long live the king, yo, i'm from the empire state
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cross-jurisdiction was always an absolute pain to deal with, but this case had called for it and there was no avoiding it. They could let the DA handle with that much, at least. What Mac was down from New York for was the case - to solve it, find who did what and let the rest be handled by the part of the system that he was not. His job was the case, not jurisdictions. To date, he could never understand why detectives or officers on cases bickered about it so much sometimes. The job was the job. Couldn't they just focus on that?

Lucky for him that the Miami team wasn't so finicky about as some. For that, he was grateful. In the past, he'd had some experience working with this team from down south, so that also helped everyone put differences about who was from where and who could do what aside. In Mac's mind, the job had always been the job. Life was way too short to get so picky about something that really wasn't theirs to worry about. That would become more clear as they reached the end of the case.

In any case, Mac was looking for this case to be closed as quickly and efficiently as possible. It wasn't that he didn't want to the job right; he'd had the team tied up in knots with all their casework and that was part of the reason he came down alone. The other half really had to do with politics and the Department and a personal request, the first two items of that list being things Mac really didn't care to dwell over because he'd only get himself worked up over how big of a pain in his butt they were and how they pressed his duties and the duties of his team more than he'd ever like to admit. That was another story for a different time.

For now, their casework had finally got them a lead, and Mac was out to follow through on it so he could later meet back up with the Miami team back at their lab and contact his own team back up north if needed. Of course, this was no New York City, but he was familiar enough with the club scene that he wasn't all that surprised when this lead had turned up and had him walking into a place called Aphrodite's Palace. It was mid-week and the first thing Mac could notice with ease was how dead the place was. Reasonable considering the point in the week. Mentally reminding himself of the person he was hear to speak of, he briefly searched the few faces that were there: mainly all staff - the security workers, who looked mildly bored out of their skulls under a mask of professional duty that he was all too familiar with, and the various girls that also staffed a place such as this.

The particular young woman he was supposed to talk to was named Skyla Hawkins, but they'd had to dig a little deeper for the name she would go by here. (Usually when he went to places like these security, staff and patrons alike looked at him terribly confused and like he was strange if he used an actual name. Stage names seemed to be the thing in this world... Completely beyond him, but... The job was the job.) Briefly stopping one of the security guards and explaining he was on police business, his attention was directed to the young woman currently on the stage. Personally, from the facial expression that crossed the man's face when he explained he needed to ask a few questions regarding a police investigation, Mac would've said that the little chat must've been the highlight of the man's shift, if not day so far.

There was also the protocol of places like this that he'd have to wait for her to finish up, and Mac gave the man a brief nod as thanks for his assistance before briefly scanning over the club again, half-focused on the routine of the young woman and the other half of his focus dedicated to trying to pick up on anything useful from his surroundings. Even the littlest things could help an investigation, and with so much experience already on his shoulders, he was not beyond knowing that and taking good heed of it no matter what kind of case he was working on.

Finding nothing of major interest at the moment, he turned his gaze back to the young woman's performance, letting her finish up before he finally approached her from the patient position he'd taken up after speaking with the security guard. "Skyla Hawkins, correct?" he asked when he approached her. Not one to waste time, he got right down to the introduction and an explanation of why he was asking, "I'm Detective Mac Taylor with NYPD; I'd like to ask you a few questions pertaining to a joint investigation I'm working with Miami PD if you have the time." Sure, 'if you have the time' almost always meant 'I don't care if you have time; we're talking now' in this business, but it really wasn't a question here for the simple fact that it seemed almost painfully obvious that everyone here at the club had an extreme excess of time on there hands and him asking a few questions based on the investigation was probably more of a way to actually spend time for anyone he could've talked to in the club at this point. One thing was sure - these people were having a long, long day. He just hoped he wouldn't have to make it any longer and actually threaten a ride back to the station on anyone. There was no need for something as tough as that based on the facts he had at that exact moment.

tagged ☛ skyla hawkins
outfit ☛ this, and he's also obvs carrying 'cause he's on duty and he's got his badge. :3
credits ☛ template by mckenzie; lyrics from "empire state of mind" by jay z & alicia keys
notes ☛ you know i can't resist letting him have a little nypd pride. x3 and obvs, this is far back enough that he was still under a new york badge. :3 i'll also say sorry for the length. i got a little carried away. xD
word count ☛ 984