20:18 <Crion> So. It's time to get up to some shit. 20:22 <VoxPVoxD> It feels so good to have a job where no one he love's life or livelihood is on the line. 20:23 <Crion> That's dark shit. You gotta love yourself. 20:23 <Crion> Anyway, there's a video file waiting for Stewart on a secured FTP when he's ready. 20:24 <VoxPVoxD> Look it's on his to-do list,but you know how it is when higher-priority tickets are always coming in. Stewart pulls the video to the Autumn box. What's he looking at? 20:26 <Crion> A multi-cut. A pretty confusing one, too, in totality. This was made internally from sourced viral video, which was then stitched together -- you've got four quadrants, which black out and return when the feed in question is either interrupted or replaced. They describe an incident on a dance floor at Power Plant Live, one of the more upscale 21+ theme parks in the Baltimore night life 20:26 <Crion> landscape. 20:31 <Crion> So you're looking at some pretty standard white people shit at first; it starts with a couple selfies followed by a bunch of laughing and a...conversation top right with someone who's not there. Seems taller, the way everyone in feed is reacting, and by the phone-holder's laughing you can tell that whatever the vampires have going on that wipes them from a live feed, it doesn't work on the 20:31 <Crion> human eye in real time. Best of both worlds for them, especially in the streaming future. 20:31 <Crion> Context clues indicate a man, laughing and smiling and very interested in a young woman. 20:32 <Crion> Then he hits the dance floor. 20:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart watches intently. The box has Lauren's hack of VLC on it so he can easily pause and move around frame by frame when shit gets weird. 20:33 <Crion> That is a white boy with silver hair pretending to be Michael Jackson. 20:34 <Crion> And he ends it by pointing with both fingers...at the absense. 20:34 <VoxPVoxD> Damn. He's not Michael Jackson but he's good. 20:38 <Crion> There's a laughing exchange of...not quite jokes. A big dude kind of steps to the dancer, but the guy laughs him off -- big guy isn't a vampire, and looks like he was more mad about the dancer taking eyes off him during his own smooth moves than anything else. But the absence and the dancer close to within feet, and while Stewart can only hear the dancer's side of the conversation, it goes 20:38 <Crion> like: "Sorry to blow up your spot." "I've seen you around here before." "Oh, hell yeah." "Because I know what you are." "We should get..." 20:39 <Crion> Only two of the feeds catch this: a great silver sword bubbling up out of thin air like mercury behind where the vampire should be, the blade facing his back and the dancer's chest. 20:39 <Crion> "...Closer." 20:39 <Crion> It impales them both. 20:39 <VoxPVoxD> "Holy shit." 20:41 <Crion> Then, still impaled in the dancer, cuts up in a reverse L, decapitating the vampire. There's a flurry of dust as he laughs and everyone starts to run -- the feeds get choppy here, because everyone just saw a guy get murdered and vanish in front of them -- but the dancer laughs, pulling the sword out with a flourish of blood, and dashing into the crowd-- 20:41 <Crion> There's only a few more seconds, then nothing. 20:41 <Crion> But what Stewart can divine is that, given an analysis of where people WEREN'T, while they were looking at "empty space," there were at least two more vampires on that dance floor. 20:41 <VoxPVoxD> Who, understandably, did not intervene. 20:42 <Crion> Perhaps. But the dancer was also charged towards one when everyone started running away. 20:42 <Crion> *charging 20:42 <Crion> So that's the video. 20:43 <Crion> Lauren, over Stewart's shoulder, with some tea for him: "Wild shit." 20:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart takes the tea gratefully. "Thanks. Yeah that was nuts. You've gotta read it as a deliberate provocation, right? Like he got on the floor intending to do that." 20:44 <Crion> Lauren: "He was hunting. No one dances like that otherwise." 20:44 <Crion> "So I get why everyone's so worried." 20:45 <Crion> "Still. Killing vampires preying on drunk college girls..." 20:46 <VoxPVoxD> "Quite a distinctive-looking guy. If he's been there before, someone must recognize him." 20:54 <Crion> Lauren: "Facial recognition got nothing, but. That tech actually just sucks." 20:54 <Crion> "And maybe it didn't WANT to return anything." 20:54 <Crion> "I'd guess the vampires have more?" 20:56 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Should stop by the Belvedere too, see if the Book has anything on him. I know the task force is meeting at a bar across the street in a couple nights. Have you ever been to 'the Brewer's Art'?" 20:57 <Crion> Lauren: "Yeah! They lean into that monk shit. Try the Resurrection Ale." 20:57 <Crion> "Well. When you're off work." 21:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods, but his attention's drifting back to the video. He watches it again - slowed-down this time. Pausing, rewinding, going painstakingly over the moment of conjury and impalement. It's probably a little weird to observe from over his shoulder, the way he goes back and forth frame by frame creating the impression of the phantom sword sawing into and out of the vampire's body. 21:00 <Crion> It doesn't seem to be stopped by anything. Stewart can tell this isn't some artifact of the vampire behind edited out of the video. It just effortlessly moves through its victim. 21:01 <Crion> Lauren will leave him to it. 21:01 <Crion> Chup will flop down on the keyboard. 21:01 <Crion> He waits for her to get back to the kitchen, of course. 21:02 <VoxPVoxD> Another canny hunter with a masterful sense of timing. 21:02 <Crion> Chup: "mmmrrr." 21:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's a bit comforted by the knowledge that death by a sword so sharp is likely to be painless. When you get stabbed that badly, usually the shock will numb you, and then you're gone before your brain can recalibrate. 21:03 <VoxPVoxD> Not always, though. Sometimes you die screaming. 21:04 <VoxPVoxD> Lot of variables. 21:04 <Crion> Didn't seem to hurt the silver-haired boy. Though the blood did seem to be his? 21:05 <Crion> No blood seems to explode out of nowhere. 21:05 <Crion> It's his. 21:05 <Crion> And he's just laughing. 21:06 <VoxPVoxD> The last few runs through the video, Stewart's smiling along. That kind of enthusiasm is infectious. 21:07 <Crion> He's probably learned all he'll learn from it at this point. Meeting's in a couple hours. 21:09 <Crion> Detour by The Belvedere won't take too long. 21:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's next stop is the Belvedere, which he needs to get to ASAP. The meeting's in a couple hours, but like he said the Belvedere and the meeting-place are so close he wants to be in and out with enough time to have visibly left and returned unseen. The Book is helpful, to a point - it confirms that the boy (The Boy, as the encyclopedia informs him) is known to it, but besides a 'name' 21:13 <VoxPVoxD> and a picture any information is occluded behind a series of middle finger emojis that really do not look like they should be rendering in the Book's mid-90s interface. 21:15 <VoxPVoxD> Then he drives home, and instead of re-entering the building, loiters for a bit in one of the spots Canterbury likes to stand when he's on guard duty. This time of night, the shadows are all but impenetrable. The urge bubbles up to sink into them like a warm bath, and soon Stewart Reader is lost to the world. 21:15 <VoxPVoxD> The bus takes him right back - getting on behind someone, the driver doesn't even glance up when he doesn't pay a fare. 21:19 <Crion> The Brewer's Art. One-story storefront bar with a main dining area with a big bar on the wall across from the door in, then a supplementary dining area to the left of that facing the bar. Between the two on your left heading into the supplementary dining area is a staircase down to the basement, which has a second landing. For those keeping track at home: to reach the basement, you take the 21:19 <Crion> left-hand path three times. 21:19 <VoxPVoxD> No wonder they like it here. 21:20 <Crion> Large basement dining and bar area; bar is in the middle, and is a four-corners island. It's the only well-lit part of the basement. Arched ceilings, low-hanging. Two doors at the back that aren't the restroom. One is the downstairs kitchen; one is something else. Something else has a mook on it most nights; the nights it doesn't, it has a padlock. 21:21 <Crion> Alleyway to the left gives street access to the first-floor kitchen. It's directly above the basement kitchen. 21:21 <Crion> Has higher foot traffic than the main entrance before opening, lower afterwards. 21:24 <Crion> Other that than: Bouncer on the front door, bouncer at the bar, both civilians. Nice waitstaff that's incredibly busy all the time, and aren't paying that much attention. Stock uniform is the stock uniform of all modern places-to-be: black slacks, black shoes, black top. 21:24 <Crion> The mook on the door in the basement is not one of the bouncers. 21:25 <VoxPVoxD> That's also how Stewart is dressed, coincidentally. It can't possibly matter, since anyone who sees him will be able to *see* him. Is the basement doorman mortal? 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> Is he early enough that people have finished arriving, is the question... there's no one he knows in the outer basement area already, is there? 21:30 <Crion> The basement doorman appears to be, yes. 21:30 <Crion> There is not. 21:31 <Crion> The meeting's for midnight, so the normal foot traffic is in full swing. Everyone ignores him, but still subtly moves out of his way. 21:37 <VoxPVoxD> The guard's eyes are going to be on the room rather than the door, so it shouldn't be too hard to just, smoothly walk on by and through the door. It takes Stewart a few minutes to work up the nerve, but then he's just gently pushing the door open and sneaking inside, unless something goes horribly wrong. 21:37 <VoxPVoxD> Just gotta make sure the door doesn't hit him or something. 21:47 <Crion> Stewart gets through without issue. Door closes behind him quite softly. There's a hallway, and a fourth left-hand turn up ahead with light coming from beyond it...and Gaunt Rose standing in the corner of the turn, face lit by her phone, examining something. 21:47 <Crion> She looks up, eyes narrowed...then walks on by. 21:47 <Crion> There's a door to the left before the turn, and another to the right. 21:48 <Crion> ...Someone's in the right-hand room. 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> It's a few seconds after Rose looks up and walks by before Stewart can breathe again. He checks the right-hand room. 21:51 <Crion> Man standing over a woman. She's collapsed and dressed in the black outfit of the Art's staff. He's straightening and wiping off his chin. 21:51 <VoxPVoxD> Tall? 21:51 <Crion> This looks like a storeroom of some sort. 21:52 <Crion> Not the one from the video. Call it 6'1" against 6'3" 21:52 <Crion> . 21:54 <VoxPVoxD> Is she still breathing? 21:58 <Crion> She is, for now. Wounds on her neck have been sealed by the Kiss, and she's been left with enough blood to live, usually, but she's still convulsing...she's got a condition of some kind. 22:02 <VoxPVoxD> Shit. Shit. How long until midnight? 22:03 <Crion> Twenty minutes. If you can get her out, to an ambulance, and back, you'll be fine. 22:04 <Crion> She's unconscious, but cough-retching, and when she's breathing, it's shallow and short. 22:04 <Crion> Maybe something with her lungs? 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks around, and sees a first aid kid hidden behind a dumb standing cardboard display. Bandages, epipen... wait, if she's got an allergic reaction or something this would be perfect! But if she doesn't it might be insanely stupid. Fuck fuck fuck! As soon as he's sure the vampire is out of the room he'll pop the kit open, bind her neck, and follow the instructions on the pen, 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> jamming it into her thigh. 22:13 <Crion> She convulses, coughs...and responds well. She's waking up, but she needs medical attention beyond this... 22:16 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart crouches down to help her to her feet - she's awfully heavy, to his unStulike frame, but he's got the focus and willingness to strain his body to make up for it. Twenty seconds later she's stumbling through the door into the main dining area, which swings open and back enough to reveal... an empty hallway. 22:18 <Crion> She more or less collapses into the arms of the mook, who asks her to say something twice, then starts yelling for help. He hesitates slightly, then visibly says 'fuck it' and hoists her up, heading upstairs. An ambulance is already being called. 22:18 <Crion> Which draws the attention of the vampire. 22:19 <Crion> Tallish, oldish, looks like an aging rocker. Long hair in a ponytail. He checks the storeroom, his eyes widen, and he storms out front. Stewart can hear his questions; they focus first on whether she's alive. 22:19 <Crion> He's relieved to hear she is. When the mook returns, he thanks him. 22:19 <Crion> Then he heads back. 22:19 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart holds his breath. 22:20 <Crion> There's no indication the vampire notices Stewart in the space behind the door. 22:20 <VoxPVoxD> Does he go into the left-hand door or down the hall? 22:21 <Crion> Down the hall, and to the left. 22:21 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart checks the nearer room first. 22:22 <VoxPVoxD> Maybe there's a vantage point in there. 22:22 <Crion> Would you believe there's a vent? 22:22 <Crion> It's not like, a videogame vent. 22:23 <Crion> But it's a listenable one. 22:23 <VoxPVoxD> This is probably a lot smarter than trying to walk directly into the room and hope no one has magic that trumps his. 22:23 <Crion> ...There's also a door, but that's a lot more dangerous. 22:23 <VoxPVoxD> Let's start here. 22:24 <Crion> This is a lounge, by the way. This looks like the VIP area in general, and this is where all the couches are, while the conference room is next door. 22:24 <VoxPVoxD> Empty? 22:24 <Crion> Yep. 22:24 <Crion> There are refreshments on the center table, though. 22:24 <VoxPVoxD> When you say "refreshments", 22:25 <Crion> Normal. 22:25 <Crion> Two drained jack and cokes and a tater tots bowl that's empty. 22:25 <VoxPVoxD> Okay. Stewart's still not going to take any, but at least he doesn't have the smell of virgin blood in his nostrils while he's listening. 22:26 <Crion> His choice here is to listen through the vent or try to keyhole this shit. The good news is the fit on the lounge door isn't great. 22:28 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's going to listen, for now at least. 22:30 <Crion> A MAN'S VOICE, CULTURED: "How is she?" 22:30 <Crion> A MAN'S VOICE, MIDWESTERN: "On her way to the hospital. She'll be fine." 22:30 <Crion> A MAN'S VOICE, AGGRESSIVE: "Yeah?" 22:31 <Crion> GAUNT ROSE: "You guys ever learn not to shit where you eat?" 22:31 <Crion> CULTURED: "They don't shit." 22:31 <Crion> GAUNT ROSE: "No, they don't defecate." 22:32 <Crion> AGGRESSIVE: "Hah." 22:32 <Crion> MIDWESTERN: "She's going to be fine, so we should get started." 22:33 <Crion> The aggressive voice is Cuth. 22:33 <Crion> CUTH: "Sounds fine to me." 22:33 <Crion> "You said you need us for something?" 22:34 <Crion> From this Stewart can divine that Midwestern is the vampire, and Cultured is the willworker, given it's a meeting of the big four. 22:34 <Crion> He hasn't heard either of those latter two voices before. 22:35 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "I'll keep it brief. You've seen the video?" 22:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart's one anxiety was coming in here and hearing a German accent. So far so good. 22:35 <Crion> ROSE: "It's circulated." 22:35 <Crion> MAGE: "Quite the show." 22:35 <Crion> CUTH: "Yup." 22:37 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "I'm not an idiot; I don't expect you to care that we lost three Kindred there. And yes, they were rather brazen. But we can't have this happening on the dance floor at Power Plant Live." 22:37 <Crion> ROSE: "Were they taking the girls off the dance floor before the killed them?" 22:37 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "Yes." 22:37 <Crion> ROSE: "To where." 22:37 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "The facilities." 22:38 <Crion> MAGE: "But they were leaving the bodies there. And making the papers." 22:38 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "No one outside Baltimore cares about that. A couple homicide detectives are fine, we can handle that, we can clamp down on the offenders, handle it inside the Court. None of you are bloodless, so I don't want to hear about it." 22:39 <Crion> ROSE: "Oh yeah, we're killing kids all the time." 22:39 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "Lecture me again in July, Gaunt." 22:40 <Crion> MAGE: "...The point is well made. Not the bit about the body factory in the rear rooms of Power Plant Live; that's obviously stupid. But we can't permit the conspiratorial powers to take notice." 22:41 <Crion> ROSE: "The Freehold's objection is not to what he's done, but him doing it virally." 22:42 <Crion> CUTH: "Seems like a badass. Are we gonna kill him?" 22:42 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "That's on the table." 22:42 <Crion> MAGE: "We're looking into what, precisely, he is. That sword...well, he's quite the specimen." 22:43 <Crion> ROSE: "The Freehold's position is we want him out, not dead. Dead requires a lot more fireworks." 22:43 <Crion> CUTH: "So you don't want me here." 22:43 <Crion> ROSE: "Please, Cuth. You know I always love to see you." 22:43 <Crion> ROSE: "But fuck no." 22:43 <Crion> Cuth laughs heartily. 22:44 <Crion> MAGE: "The Consilium will delve into this. We'll have a report. I presume the Freehold will do so as well, if I know the Lord Sage." 22:44 <Crion> ROSE: "It's on his docket." 22:45 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "He's going to strike again." 22:45 <Crion> CUTH: "Yeah?" 22:47 <Crion> ROSE: "So far he's killed a Frankenstein who suicided against a housing project, then four flex squad cops trying to kill some drug dealers, and now a college kill crew. Is my brief right?" 22:47 <Crion> MAGE: "It is." 22:47 <Crion> ROSE: "So if you all stop fucking killing people, you should be fine, and we can turn our minds to the fallout." 22:48 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "My people cannot, actually stop fucking killing people." 22:48 <VoxPVoxD> Hard not to side with Rose here. 22:48 <Crion> VAMPIRE: "And you have a responsibility under our agreements." 22:48 <Crion> ROSE: "It's always good to see you, Sobriquet. I've got a curfew." 22:49 <Crion> Rose gets up and leaves. 22:49 <Crion> Not through the lounge, into the hall. 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> A person whose sobriquet is Sobriquet? 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> Sure, why not. 22:49 <Crion> MAGE: "...She makes good points." 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart keeps listening. The point is to learn things they *won't* tell her. 22:50 <Crion> SOBRIQUET: "Of course she does. It's easy to judge when all you do is run away from people." 22:50 <Crion> CUTH: "Heh." 22:51 <Crion> CUTH: "So she doesn't want to kill this kid. And hell, I respect his gumption. But I'm guessing that since the Consilium and the Court sent senior members and the Freehold sent a goth scene chick, we're now having the real discussion." 22:52 <Crion> SOBRIQUET: "...We would prefer a final death here. Politically." 22:52 <Crion> CUTH: "But not in front of cameras." 22:52 <Crion> SOBRIQUET: "No." 22:53 <Crion> MAGE: "Gaunt Rose's proposal made sense. Send him a way. Find him a better target." 22:54 <Crion> SOBRIQUET: "Then, Sommelier, you should find one." 22:54 <Crion> SOMMELIER: "All the mess and no cleaning." 22:54 <Crion> SOBRIQUET: "What?" 22:54 <Crion> SOMMELIER: "I enunciated quite well." 22:55 <Crion> SOMMELIER: "If you want to murder this boy, we won't do it in public, and the Consilium will not sign off on it without the Freehold. And if you want him gone, we will support that, but we refuse to do the heavy lifting." 22:56 <Crion> CUTH: "Should note here that the Pack has no desire to get involved. Just, if we do, it'd be fun." 22:57 <Crion> SOBRIQUET: "I feel like the Court has earned a bit more trust than this." 22:57 <Crion> SOMMELIER: "You sent a girl to the hospital before you walked in here." 22:58 <Crion> SOBRIQUET: "...I'll pass tonight along to St. Sebastian and the Prince." 23:00 <Crion> SOBRIQUET: "Goodnight and good luck." 23:00 <Crion> CUTH: "Uh huh." 23:00 <VoxPVoxD> Does everyone get up here or just Sobriquet? 23:00 <Crion> SOMMELIER: "Farewell and good roads." 23:01 <Crion> Everyone gets up, but only Sobriquet leaves, at least immediately. 23:01 <Crion> CUTH: "How you been, man?" 23:01 <Crion> SOMMELIER: "Stuck indoors." 23:03 <Crion> CUTH: "Right. ...I respect the Court, but, like. An abomination, a bunch of cops, and rape-killers. We'll do the fight if we gotta, we need the support. ...Especially if they're listening, right now. But the Pack would like maybe for this kid to just go to Denver and fuck up evil people there." 23:04 <Crion> SOMMELIER: "Noted. And I've made sure they're not." 23:04 <Crion> SOMMELIER: "Good night, Cuthbert." 23:04 <Crion> CUTH: "Night, Som." 23:04 <Crion> None of them return to the lounge. 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> Soon Stewart is creeping out behind them. 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> Or, wait. 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> Maybe he should poke in on the conferenc room first... 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> Eh, there's probably not like briefing books on the table or anything. 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> Let's get out of here. 23:05 <Crion> The room is indeed empty. 23:06 <Crion> Well, except for chairs and tables. 23:06 <VoxPVoxD> Anything strange happen on the way out? 23:08 <Crion> Nope. 23:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart lets the magic slough off him as he steps outside, getting a surprisingly good look at the man who must be Sommelier. What happens next is reflex. 23:13 <Crion> As Stewart comes out of The Brewer's Art, Sommelier sees him and stiffens. Then flags him down. "Young man! Young man." 23:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks briefly shocked but recovers quickly and jogs forward. "Sir?" 23:14 <Crion> "You work here, yes?" 23:15 <Crion> He shakes his head. "Of course you do." 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> So reflexively it doesn't feel like a lie: "Yes, sir." 23:15 <Crion> "There was a waitress, taken out of here, earlier tonight. How is she? Will she live?" 23:16 <VoxPVoxD> Sommelier looks kindlier than Stewart would've guessed. "Oh, Marissa! Yeah, she just had a really nasty allergic reaction to something. She's gonna be okay." 23:17 <Crion> He nods and smiles. "Thank you. Good. I--...Good. Good night." He'll step into his cab. 23:18 <Crion> Sommelier -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHDVZ64cxFs What I really want to know is, do you feel that you... 23:19 <VoxPVoxD> Do you feel that you have more freedom now? 23:19 <VoxPVoxD> Something about that eats at Stewart as he walks home. 23:19 <Crion> As the door closes, Sommelier leans back into his seat and collapses. 23:19 <VoxPVoxD> Collapses in like a tired way, or like a got-knocked-out way? 23:19 <Crion> The former, leading to the latter. A deep and endless sigh. 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> Long night. 23:24 <Crion> There's someone waiting for him after the first turn and the second block after that. She's smoking a Marlboro 100 and texting someone. "Stewart," she says, "Reader." And she puts away the phone. 23:24 <Crion> Gaunt Rose. 23:25 <Crion> She indicates an alley. "Step into our office." 23:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart looks up, startled out of his thoughts. But he goes where she points. 23:26 <Crion> "Don't care if you trust me. Do you trust the Lord Sage?" She's walking up to metal door. 23:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Sure." 23:27 <Crion> She touches the door with all five fingers of her right hand, then raps on it. It becomes a star field, which she opens, and steps through. Before she's gone: "Close it behind you." 23:28 <Crion> This is going somewhere into the Hedge. 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> He does. 23:28 <Crion> Into a Hollow, as it turns out. 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> 'Our' office? Interesting... 23:28 <Crion> A Hollow that is 20 feet by 20 feet, with two bunk beds, a refridgerator, and a closet. And a small table with three chairs. A safe house. 23:30 <VoxPVoxD> Cool. Stewart'd hate to think about what kind of situation makes a Hollow that isn't any of their regular Hollows necessary, so he doesn't. "It's nice to meet you," he says when they're alone. 23:30 <Crion> Rose throws her bag on one of the beds, and sits down in a chair. "We met when you started trying to take my job." 23:31 <Crion> "And you're doing better than I expected." 23:31 <Crion> "That was you with the waitress?" 23:32 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart sits down too. "...yeah." That'd harder to say that you'd maybe think it should be. "She was having some kind of allergic reaction. I don't think Sobriquet realized." 23:33 <Crion> Rose: "Vampires kill people all the time. Sometimes they don't even mean to." 23:33 <Crion> "...Good you were on it." 23:34 <Crion> "Not just because she's still alive. But mainly." 23:35 <Crion> "How much did you overhear?" 23:35 <Crion> "Guessing you used the lounge." 23:35 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah. I got everything from when Sobriquet walked back in to when everybody left." 23:36 <Crion> She takes a drag. "They say anything interesting?" 23:37 <Crion> "After I left." 23:38 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The Court is pushing for an assassination. The Consilium wants a diplomatic solution. Cuth's down to clown if that's what it comes to, but he'd just as soon The Boy shipped off to Denver." 23:38 <VoxPVoxD> "They took the view that the Freehold didn't really care, since they sent someone relatively junior to sit in." 23:39 <Crion> Rose chuckles. "Thaaaaaat's me. The junior girl scout." 23:39 <Crion> "Great." 23:39 <Crion> "How hard did Sobriquet push? Did he demand a decision?" 23:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Not hard. He's taking it back to Lister and the Regent." 23:41 <Crion> Rose: "Could work in our favor; could not. Either way they won't take action before bringing back in front of the Gang of Four." 23:42 <Crion> "Unless Sebastian has truly lost his mind." 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Is that what the task force is called?" 23:42 <Crion> Rose: "But here I am, giving you intel." 23:42 <Crion> Rose: "We're not about to call it Task Force: Beta or something." 23:43 <Crion> "Might as well be named after something as stupid and useless as a congressional committee." 23:44 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Alright. Thanks." 23:45 <Crion> "Uh huh." 23:45 <Crion> "So you're a spy now." 23:46 <Crion> "You spend however the fuck many weeks as a questing superhero and now you just...walk on in." 23:46 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart blinks. "What do you mean?" 23:46 <Crion> She takes a drag. "And you save a life too, so I can't even actually give this speech for real." 23:47 <Crion> "I mean that you're just effortlessly taking my job away from me and as a bonus you're so good at it I get to feel bad for being angry." 23:47 <Crion> "I got to be a patsy tonight. You did the real work." 23:48 <Crion> "Cracked the door to the lounge you know. Saw you in there." 23:48 <Crion> "There was something supernatural around." 23:48 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I missed that completely. If you hadn't been you I'd be fucked." 23:50 <Crion> "If I hadn't been me I wouldn't have seen you." 23:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You could've been someone who wasn't on my side. Like imagine if this was happening in High Summer." 23:52 <Crion> She laughs. "And now you're just pumping me for information." 23:52 <Crion> "Fuck you, Reader." It's at least slightly good natured. 23:53 <Crion> More than a little bit rueful, though. 23:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Listen. I know this might not mean much, given the circumstances, but Santander offered me the apprenticeship a few weeks ago, never mentioned that he already had an apprentice. Then I meet you on the way up to see him and he tells me he'll take us both as far as we can go. So I don't want to-- I'm not here to fuck you over. I really don't want to do that." 23:56 <Crion> Rose, sighing out the smoke: "You already did. And I've gotta be the better person and accept the apology." 23:57 <Crion> "Feels good, man." 23:58 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "How did I? If there can be two Lord Sages, how does my being here hurt you?" 23:59 <Crion> Rose: "You think the Lord Sages will actually allow that? Or do you think that one of us will just get to be Assistant to the Lord Sage as far as the Order is concerned? Because the order is a contract." 23:59 <Crion> "You can't just decide to appoint two." 23:59 <Crion> "Maybe Santander thinks he can, but you've seen that man's office." 00:00 <Crion> "Fantasia." 00:00 <Crion> She stands. "When you leave, the portal collapses. Don't leave anything in here you want. File early if you want to beat my report." 00:01 <Crion> Rose walks out unless she's stopped. 00:02 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart stands when she does. He starts to say something to her back... but thinks better of it. 00:02 <VoxPVoxD> He leaves quietly, after cleaning out the ashtray. 00:03 <Crion> When he exits, he's a block away from his apartment. 00:03 <Crion> Rose is nowhere to be seen, of course. 00:06 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart sighs and heads upstairs. Lauren's probably still awake, right? It can't be later than 1. 00:07 <Crion> Lauren and Chup are both still up. The latter is in a loaf on the kitchen counter, staring at the door. 00:07 <Crion> "Mwwow." 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart croaks "Chuuuuuuuup." like a talking bullfrog. 00:09 <Crion> Chup deigns to stand, in order to be lifted, as he is accustomed to. From the gamer room and her own PC, Lauren: "How'd it go, babe?" 00:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart cradles Chup like a baby. "Okay on balance. One near-death experience, one conspiracy to form a conspiracy to commit murder, one relationship in permanent zugzwang." 00:11 <VoxPVoxD> He rubs Chup's belly. "Everyone's okay." 00:11 <Crion> Lauren: "I know chess shit well enough to know it can't be that bad." 00:11 <Crion> "Rose?" 00:13 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah. She's really convinced I fuck her over just by existing, but she's too ethical to actually get mad at me for it, so she gets mad at me for forcing her to judge herself for getting mad at me for it. And everything I say just pulls the finger trap tighter." 00:14 <Crion> Lauren: "...Yeah. That's Rose." 00:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "You know I was this close to just offering to let her have the job?" 00:14 <Crion> "She wouldn't take it." 00:15 <Crion> "I mean, she would. But. All that stuff would just get worse." 00:15 <Crion> "Santander had an apprentice before her. And he died." 00:15 <VoxPVoxD> "Like I don't give a shit if I'm the Squire Sage or whatever. Let Santander bequeath her his wizard hat without cutting it in half. But... yeah. It's almost disrespectful." 00:16 <VoxPVoxD> "I like the work, not the title. Frankly I don't think I'll ever be able to pull off the title." 00:16 <VoxPVoxD> "You really gotta be like an old wizard or a goth babe to call yourself Lord Sage of the Unknown Reaches and get away with it." 00:16 <Crion> Lauren: "It's the work she likes. She was already doing it for him anyway." 00:18 <VoxPVoxD> "There's so obviously enough work for two people though. Like this city is fucked. Suicide Frankensteins and vampire schemes and the regular fucking cops." 00:19 <Crion> "There is, babe, but you're not listening to me." Lauren turns in the chair as Chup takes the opportunity to flop onto her. "Kingsley actually laughed at Rose, when she asked to take Null's work over. To her face. She changed Courts." 00:19 <VoxPVoxD> "She's not Autumn?" 00:19 <Crion> "She is now." 00:19 <Crion> "She was Winter." 00:19 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh." 00:20 <VoxPVoxD> "Well, respect for getting mad enough at Kingsley to change your whole career." 00:21 <Crion> "She made her decision before that." 00:21 <Crion> "Kingsley learned that laughing didn't work on her." 00:22 <VoxPVoxD> He sinks into his own chair. "What would you do, if you were me?" 00:23 <Crion> Lauren, plopping Chup on her lap: "Make sure that you can both actually be Lord Sages." 00:24 <Crion> "Santander's not a liar and he's not a fool, but promising two titles is a lot." 00:24 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "She made it sound like there's more to it than just, political recognition. Like it's a Contract in itself." 00:24 <Crion> Lauren: "Then she's probably right." 00:25 <Crion> "...And Contracts have Loopholes." 00:26 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So if we can learn and invoke the Loophole..." 00:26 <Crion> Lauren: "Yeah. If the Loophole doesn't incredibly suck." 00:27 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So we gotta hope it's not a Goblin Contract then." 00:28 <Crion> Lauren: "Maybe you should hope it is. You can pay those off pretty easy." 00:28 <Crion> Chup: "rrrrRaow." 00:29 <Crion> Lauren: "Ugh, fine, idiot." 00:29 <Crion> She cradles him again. 00:29 <Crion> He stares at Stewart smugly. 00:29 <Crion> Maintaining eye contact. 00:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart, to the cat: "That's fair." 00:31 <Crion> He rolls over in her arms and just sort of, extends his legs, one hitting her in the chin. Lauren: "Okay, great." 00:31 <Crion> He retracts them and goes into stupid baby mode. 00:32 <Crion> Lauren: "I'm going to placate this idiot then head to bed. ...You're not going to stream this late, right?" 00:34 <VoxPVoxD> "No, I'm just gonna write this up and then I'll join you." Stewart turns around to make his report, leaving nothing out except Marissa's name and his meeting with Rose. The report ends with conjecture on future leads - the possibility that the Court will feel compelled to solve this in-house, overtures made by the Court to the Pack outside the remit of the Task Force, surveillance techniques 00:34 <VoxPVoxD> employed by the Consilium, and of course the dynamite option of attempting to predict where The Boy will strike next. 00:39 <Crion> When he gets to bed, Lauren is already asleep, and Chup is dug in on his pillow. He'll move, but only to Stewart's chest. Then he'll slump over between you two, as Lauren curls into you.