22:58 <banana> The main thing that distinguishes this job from the kind of case Aster used to take is that nobody's dead. 22:58 <banana> They have died, yes, but they are risen. Dylan himself merely drinks the blood of the dead. 22:59 <Crion> Well, perspective, dear narrator. The torc was found in a tomb. Henry I of England is most certainly dead. 22:59 <Crion> Unless he's the registrar of a plucky band of vampire socialists in Manchester. 23:00 <banana> Yeah, well, that would be weird. Let's put it out of our minds. 23:05 <banana> The Freemasons are an avenue of investigation. The Grand Lodge in Westminster is still prominent in whatever remains of the masonic world, but basic research in public sources reveals Manchester hasn't had a guild "in amity" with the English fraternity in decades. There are Lodges in the city, some quite old, some hypothetically still a mason-like club. 23:06 <banana> Does Aster want an introduction from Dylan and his compatriots, or would he prefer to visit the Goulburn Legion Lodge under some other pretenses? 23:07 <Crion> Generally speaking they don't really like to talk, and he's unsure how much they could possibly know to begin with -- many of these secret societies have degenerated in recent years into work-patronage clubs, without any of the pomp or supernatural circumstance from the old days. Still, better to see Dylan in an environment that isn't ghoul-legbreaking -- and maybe see how the torc reacts 23:07 <Crion> to other masons. Yes, let's bring the man along. 23:10 <banana> It's a little awkward. Big moustached man in a leather jacket with several gilded pins he's affixed to it - they weren't there when Aster put his crony on the ground - representing degrees of confraternity. Jeans are of a piece with the ghoul's attire, but the thick silver twisted around his wrist does not set off the outfit well. 23:10 <banana> Dylan: "Okay, uh, Mr. Aster. How much do you know about the.. fellows of the craft?" 23:11 <Crion> Aster: "I'm more familiar with the American orders, which were mistrusted to the point of being rather brutally neutered in the early 1800s and now mainly do commercials on local TV begging young people to join." 23:12 <Crion> Aster will drive over in his work van, given the instruments it has in the back for use in a pinch; Dylan's welcome to a ride. 23:16 <banana> "Huh." Dylan didn't know that, and he probably won't retain it. "The masons were pretty well respected here for a long time, like. Did you know Crowley was one of em? Had a big country house on Edward Street, where the Tesco is now. It wasn't part of the city then." 23:17 <Crion> "Mmmm." Aster has a passing familiarity with Aleister Crowley, yes. Joke of a man. 23:17 <banana> The lodge you're pulling up to is recognisable in style, almost American. There's the ubiquitous red brick, the four greco-roman pillars of the temple entryway and the triangular lintel worked in their designs. 23:19 <banana> Dylan: "It's mostly a social club. The kind of club that lets in bankers and working class, as long as you've got some in, more based on tradition than money. And of course a few of the masters can be found here most nights." 23:19 <banana> "I mean the bosses." He looks flustered. 23:21 <Crion> Aster: "Of course. We're looking for whoever might know the most about the old rituals and ways." He's brought careful photocopies of the pages describing the ritual he used to compel the torc to reveal itself. He wants a Masonic master's thoughts on it. 23:24 <banana> The other clue the hunter's got to that end is the revelation itself: carefully photographed cut-up butcher paper. The temples it depicts are not in the masonic style, though smaller-m masons must have been involved in their construction. None of the aliens seem to quite fit into the sites and rituals in the images - even their art style is off. 23:26 <banana> Goulburn Lodge's main door is very small compared to its facade. One at a time only. Dylan says: "So I can bring you in as a guest. You haven't got anything disqualifying, right? Do you want me to tell folk why we're here, like, or or just help you get an interview with an initiate of the, uh, third degree?" 23:27 <Crion> Aster: "I'm not particularly aware of what might be disqualifying ahead of time, but I can leave my phone and any other recording equipment in the car. As for what you tell them, that's up to you and what you want them to think." 23:29 <banana> "That stuff's okay. You just can't be a royal, or a convicted felon, or a transman. Trans women are okay coz it's like, genetics. And you can't be working for any organisation of journalists or papermongers." 23:30 <Crion> Aster briskly dispenses with any curiosities about the category and simply nods, saying, "I fail to satisfy any of those conditions." 23:31 <Crion> If Willie's meeting them here, she should also be fine. 23:31 <Crion> Well, presuming 'aristocracy' and 'royalty' are meaningfully distinct. 23:31 <Crion> Seems like they are but Aster aspires never to be an expert in that field. 23:32 <banana> Dylan knocks on the door. Naturally, it's a carefully measured sequence of raps and pauses before he lifts the actual knocker once. 23:35 <banana> There's a doorkeeper in an incredibly thick uniform (kind of nice, since the stone entryway is pretty cold) and a ritual to intone. Dylan introduces Aster as "my agent, with whom I have dealings under Mammon, here to make enquiries on my behalf, coz I don't know what to ask:". 23:36 <Crion> This is going to be tedious. 23:46 <banana> Dylan explains all this in a tiny stone antechamber. The doorkeeper, a slight elderly man with enormous brass buttons, doesn't introduce himself, just waits for Aster to demonstrate why he should pass into the outer sanctum. 23:46 <Crion> But the pitch is the pitch: The man here, Dylan, is under a grave and possibly ancient affliction, definitely paraphenomonal, possibly historological, eh, iffy on the christological. I, Aaron Aster, armed with this tome, these arcane sketches, these print outs, and this air of expertise in matters of the ritual arcane, have arrived to consult with the highest grade of thing-knower Dylan's 23:46 <Crion> Masonic lodge has to offer, given the possible intertwining of his affliction with the order. 23:48 <Crion> Here, would you like to examine this ritual taken from the old chapter-book of the Lodge of the District of Columbia? Can you make up or down of it? Aaron Aster can, and using it, he provoked this series of scrivened reliefs to appear in paper. What degree of insight do you have into this? He would like to meet a mind in the middle. 23:49 <banana> It's enough to enter the Lodge. In fact, it's enough to impress the doorman: "Very good, sir. It's been a while since we had real Work being done here between dinners. Allow me to show you both to the smoking room.. or perhaps the archives." 23:49 <Crion> Excellent. 23:51 <banana> Aster quickly finds himself among journeymen masons asking questions - as promised, they vary from double-breasted suits to high-vis, but they're learning from him rather than the other way around. Dylan trails behind, apologising for the disruption; he's buttonholed by a friend, 'Jag', who's asking him what it's all about. 23:55 <Crion> Aster is more than happy to demonstrate expertise. Well. More than willing, anyway; happy doesn't figure into it. When he does get in front of the man he desires to get in front of, however, the pitch will be for a change of venue. 23:59 <banana> The masons' archives are suggestive but insufficient. They require too much interpretation and decoding to be useful without a Master's aid. You're informed that Master Bowen and Master Killarney are only to be found in the evening, but that Master Picker is in the building... resting, after lunch, and he'd be upset if disturbed by a guest, unless... 00:03 <Crion> It might be something about the masons themselves, or something about the work, or just catching Aster on a good day...but he finds himself generally convivial with these fading old relics in a way he very rarely has been with any sort of Englishman since coming over. 00:05 <banana> There are a couple of chatty older project-manager types who're having a grand time talking to him about their experiences in the places they inexplicably worked as expats, foreign Lodges and the things they saw that resemble the drawings. 00:07 <banana> The consensus is that he's definitely going to have to talk to a real Master of the Most Ancient and Honourable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons here. Picker, the guy taking a post-prandial nap, has been around since the old days and would recognise symbols that mere initiates don't. "Master Killarney" was also a mason of very long standing, but the current guy is his son - might or 00:07 <banana> might not be helpful depending on how much dad told him and the family records. 00:08 <banana> Bowen, you're told, is congenial but not the most interested in the occult... 00:08 <banana> A GOOD man to know, though. Political connections. 00:09 <Crion> A swift picture develops. 00:11 <Crion> Aster's seen Killarney's name before. A Doug if memory serves. Victus Indomitus, in provenance if not currently in membership. If he were the latter he'd have to have substantial nerve spending his nights on this side of the river. 00:13 <Crion> Bowen isn't a name he's run into before, but all the indicators point to Wise and Solemn Court. The safer option for him, Aster, but he might not appreciate being asked down to the lab and having someone dating a VI pretty boy hanging about. 00:13 <banana> Project manager: "Yeah, Doug Killarney. You know the guy? I knew you were the right sort, Aster." 00:14 <Crion> "You know how it is. Business travels, but not too far." Aster will excuse himself and quickly call Willie on the phone, ahead of their planned meeting later tonight. 00:15 <banana> He may make use of a withdrawing alcove. Dylan, pacing nervously, has been drawn into a conversation back in the smoking room about the state of the economy. 00:15 <banana> People are looking at him with a combination of confusion and interest as he describes a world where HGV driver shortages are obviated by the placement of all things in their right place, just as the moss grows above the stone but below the willow. 00:17 <VoxPVoxD> Willie answers before the first ring finishes. "Hello!" Chipper, attentive. There's unmistakable office sounds coming through the mic. A man's voice, something muted about surveys. 00:19 <Crion> Aster: "Willie. Aster. About our meeting tonight on the aliens issue. We have three choices of mason master to attend our consult. One is, and I think you'll recognize the name, Doug Killarney of all people. The other is a man Bowen, who appears to be his countervaling force with the expected much better political connections. Then there's a third man, who has just finished up lunch in 00:19 <Crion> the sun, Picker. Wanted to know if you had any specific inclinations." 00:21 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's silent for a moment. There's the sound of a door closing, and the background noise drops substantially. "No particular inclination. I defer to your expertise." 00:22 <VoxPVoxD> Her voice is a tiny bit tight, but you might expect that from getting a hunter call at work. 00:23 <Crion> Hmmm. Aster: "Then I'll likely select Bowen." Maybe not best to be bringing Gardener descendents around so soon anyway. 00:23 <banana> Jag: "Mate, it sounds good, but I don't quite get the details. Who decides all of these right places for the local distribution structures? You can't just have a government committee arrange the whole economy." 00:26 <Crion> He will let Willie get back to her day job forthwith. 00:26 <VoxPVoxD> Freemasons! Fun! 00:27 <banana> Stephen - Steve - Bowen is apparently easy to contact if you just come back after dinnertime. He likes to hold forth with some of the veterans of the Most Ancient and Honourable Fraternity on current and local events - the business guys Aster's been talking to recommend this as an in. 00:27 <banana> Project Manager 1: "How long has old Bowen been here? Longer than I have, for sure." 00:28 <banana> Project Manager 2: "He's holding up well, but it has to be twenty, thirty years at least." 00:28 <Crion> Aster has time and inclination to do that. Dylan will probably appreciate having some hours to himself before having to turn up at Aster Biologics again. 00:38 <Crion> His pitch to Steve Bowen, after arriving and taking the man's measure, begins with enticement; he lays out a couple of Dylan's ideas, some of the more practical and intriguing ones, and does it in a way where they sound less like they're coming from, well, Dylan. When Bowen asks what consultant he's been talking to, Aster will reveal the source, and allow Bowen to be startled by the shift 00:38 <Crion> from preconception to postconception. He then lays out the series of events clinically, focusing less on the occult mysteries behind it and more the organizational pathways that Dylan crosses -- his ghoul gang, the masons, the Wise and Solemn Court writ large, and so on. In closing, he emphasizes the opportunity to be gained from such an item if it could be divorced from its unsuitable host 00:38 <Crion> and put to better (or at least more intriguing) purpose. 00:45 <Crion> Pursuant to Bowen being suitably impressed, they'll set up a meeting time for later in the evening, which Aster will pass on to Willie. 00:45 <Crion> He'll make sure to send Simon home first. 00:46 <banana> Bowen's room at the lodge is stifling, but the lack of atmosphere enhances the atmospherics. Aster's able to lean about, fill it with words, shape the idea-space. The good news is that the old man's intrigued; alarmed by the threat as well as invested in the opportunities it presents. He'll help out without ever thinking about the fact that for Aaron Aster, this is paid work. 00:46 <banana> The bad news is that Stephen Bowen O.B.E., Master Ad Vitam of the Blue Lodge is a vampire; expected, but never desired. He presents as a man in his late fifties or early sixties, which means he could be a real elder. A grey widow's peak adds a sparkle of charisma, and he does the thing with the references. 00:47 <banana> "You had me at divorce, Aaron. This is... a rich vein indeed. Pity the artifact's on some Gangrel boy or it might have better luck at shaping him into the avatar it desires." 00:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's there just a bit early, in scarf, gloves, and earmuffs. 00:47 <Crion> Aster: "Indeed. But if we figure out its mechanisms, there's nothing to say it can't be moved around." 00:49 <Crion> "Ah. We'll be joined by one other investigator tonight. The most important thing to pre-clear with you is that she's a woman. The second is that she has a tangential entanglement with the people across the river. It won't be an issue, but I wanted to do you the service of forewarning." 00:51 <banana> Bowen's already going over his shelves, looking for files and materials he wants to bring over at the mooted meeting time. "Two things to say to that, m'boy. The first is that we're institutionally sexist, not stupid. The second is that I know who you are." 00:51 <Crion> Aster: "Excellent." 00:52 <Crion> Arguably that was only to the first. But only arguably. 00:55 <Crion> With all that settled, the four of them will converge on Aster Biologics after-hours, with the boy sent home and the front lights off. 00:55 <Crion> In the back of house, however, the library cage is unlocked, the scanners are active, and everything's ready for another go-round with the torc. 00:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's on her phone as they come in. Classic millennial. 01:00 <banana> Bowen is full of energy. He talks a lot on the way in, getting to know Dylan in a rather smooth way despite clearly - to Aster - not thinking much of the guy. All of this stops when the older man sights Willie; he bundles up the document case he's got under one arm in order to bow in greeting. "Lady Wellesley. It's an unexpected pleasure to meet you." 01:01 <Crion> Aster will make introductions as necessary, but yes, there they go, at least two members of this party love doing the deed themselves. 01:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles. "Mr. Bowen! So very good to meet you. Do call me Willie." 01:06 <VoxPVoxD> "Good evening... is it Dylan?" 01:06 <Crion> Dylan will likely not be so forthcoming, so Aster will-- ah, she's handling it. 01:07 <banana> There's another guy behind the vampire - who isn't; Willie would know, by now. This is the man Aster mentioned, the tough but embarassed street soldier. "Yes... Willie. Dylan Krebs. I'm the.. I mean I'm no victim, right? More like the crime scene." 01:08 <banana> Bowen: "Don't sell yourself short there - always time to aspire. Now. About these originals - I'd rather see them before anyone pokes the artifact again." 01:08 <Crion> He is something more like the plaintiff. 01:08 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "You are the protagonist." 01:08 <banana> Willie's phone makes a noise in her pocket.. but it's the Huntr notification this time, not an unruly text message. 01:09 <Crion> Aster's already withdrawn the ritual book from the shelf; he'll hand it over to Bowen to examine, a little felt ribbon in there as page market. Meanwhile, he'll bid Dylan to set the torc down on fresh examination paper. 01:10 <banana> Dylan: "Sure. Thanks. Do you think it'd stop if we just melted it down? The thing bends like any silver... to get it on me wrist I had to push a bit, the first time." 01:11 <banana> Dylan Krebs, G.G.G. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZocrHzjjwVU | "What fills a vessel so empty -- how do you keep anything out?" 01:12 <Crion> Aster: "I think it might react violently to that. Especially with regards to your wrists." 01:12 <banana> Bowen: "Amazing. The old Masons were engaged in a real spiritual war, you know. Various agencies and other entities, battling for influence in a world that was becoming global." 01:12 <banana> "May I ask where you obtained the tome?" 01:15 <Crion> Aster: "Let me see it once again?" He has to check a collection tag on the back. "Archive of one Nilsson Perrot, working name 'Harlander,' a particularly violent mage who lived on the Maryland/Pennsylvania state line -- the Mason/Dixon Line -- and drew significant occult power from what had become, in essence, a cargo cult leyline due to its significance in the American Civil War. 01:15 <Crion> White supremacist, Klans member. We believe most of the volumes in his collection were stolen. A certain share of them came into my permanent custody." 01:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie pays some attention to Aaron and Dylan, but every other time she feels Bowen's eyes on her she glances in his direction and makes expressionless eye contact. I see you. 01:16 <Crion> "The Ku Klux Klan and the Masonic orders...share little overlap, needless to say. I doubt he acquired it through upright means." 01:17 <banana> Bowen: "Nasty business. From the point of view of the symbols this thing appeals to, empowering." 01:17 <banana> "That's the main thing I can do for you. Turn signs into symbols." He's poring over the ritual-triggered 'engravings' now. "You've probably noticed the overtly layered meaning here." 01:17 <banana> The next recording's done, and Willie gets the notification... 01:17 <banana> Steve Bowen, O.B.E. | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Iu08kXoh7o | "These are his antennae -- and if you don't like them -- well, he has others." 01:19 <Crion> Aster: "Indeed." 01:20 <Crion> Aster simply ignores Bowen's extracurricular glances. He has work to do. 01:20 <banana> Bowen sets down his document case and opens it with a click - then closes it again, twists the lock a couple of times, opens it the other way. There's a plastic folder inside containing a photocopied code-table. Some sort of semaphore flags - and stylised grey aliens in the other column. 01:21 <banana> "Now. Where do you think was the last temple I saw these things in?" 01:22 <Crion> Aster: "We wouldn't be so lucky as for the answer to be 'Manchester's,' would we?" 01:23 <banana> Bowen: "Not at all. It was a jungle ruin in Siam." 01:23 <Crion> Aster: "That does seem to flatter the little grey men their place in history." 01:24 <banana> "Foreign Office, or I was at the time. It was protomasonic, but... very proto, you understand. Cyclopean. Designs totally unlike these, no connection at all between the underlying religious impulses. Krebs, could you give us a bit more on the atmosphere of your precircumensal crypt?" 01:25 <banana> Dylan: "Atmosphere?" He made it that far through the sentence, at least. 01:25 <banana> Bowen: "How did it make you feel? What were the spiritual aesthetics?" Pronounced 'aestetics'. 01:26 <banana> The ghoul glances at the torc, moving toward it uneasily for a second. He leans on the examination table instead. 01:27 <banana> "Surely you don't want art criticism, Mr. Bowen. The place was just a hole underground.. a fork in two tunnel roads. Those kinda tunnels shouldn't have been on the moors anymore... ground's not that stable, they were too big, full of plants and crap. That's why we couldn't get far." 01:27 <banana> "Falls of rocks covered in moss. Nothing artificial apart from the fact they're tunnels at all. It looked like they went on a long way but weren't navigable." 01:28 <banana> The vampire: "In short- druidic." 01:28 <Crion> Aster: "Hrrm." 01:29 <banana> "So... apart from the similarity of age, what does this have to do with a space-thing sacrifice cult deep in Indochina?" 01:29 <Crion> Aster: "Centrality to local politics." 01:30 <banana> "Yes... a node in what passed for networking of the day. Perhaps that connection was enough for the infection to take root." 01:31 <banana> "I have what you need, Aaron, Willie. But if you accept it, it's going to be your problem!" 01:34 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "In what sense is it a problem, from your perspective?" 01:34 <Crion> Aster nods at Willie's question. 01:35 <banana> Bowen also nods. "I can demonstrate, if you'll provide a dictionary. English-to-something would be best, but a national dictionary will suffice." 01:35 <Crion> Aster has one for each continental language in a different set of books which don't require locking up. 01:35 <Crion> Here, take English/Italian. 01:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie has a pocket Latin dictionary, but she didn't bring it :( 01:36 <banana> Bowen: "Did you know Italian is the only other language you can write on a computer keyboard built for English without adding any special keys? Remarkably stupid things, computers." 01:36 <banana> "Assume your torc, Dylan." 01:38 <banana> Master Steve takes the dictionary and opens it carefully to an arbitrary point. Dylan, with some relief, slides the silver bracelet onto his wrist. He seems a little bewildered by this whole scene. Preferred Aster's bedside manner, perhaps. 01:38 <Crion> An unfortunate spot to be in, but common with vampires. 01:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie finds Master Bowen's demeanour great fun. She'd be enjoying herself if she weren't picturing him having her guts for garters. 01:38 <banana> Bowen takes the printout from the plastic sleeve, holds it over the dictionary... and shakes the paper. "Et voila." 01:39 <banana> Dylan: "Hey. This is warm." 01:39 <banana> The little figures of cartoon aliens in all their grainy photocopied glory... slide down the page and right off it, into the dictionary. 01:40 <banana> "You aren't curs'd, Mr. Krebs. You're twice-curs'd." 01:40 <Crion> Aster: "Cryptographic virus." 01:40 <VoxPVoxD> Oh my. 01:40 <banana> Bowen: "Ours, the lodge's. And it's piggybacking on the other thing, the haunt." 01:41 <banana> What you're looking at half-open on the exam table is an english-to-pictures-of-aliens translation. It seems to have actual structure. 01:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "How accurate is it?" 01:42 <banana> The variety of alien poses and activities is vast compared to the fragments Aster had before or the ones on the printout. You could probably use this to actually decode something, but what? 01:42 <Crion> Aster expects the answer to that question is in the tomb. 01:43 <banana> Bowen: "Probably enough to be useful if you could meet the temple-defacing vandals in question. I've been keeping it in symbol charts of the barest integrity, hopeful that it would actually degrade away in the end." 01:43 <VoxPVoxD> "Why?" 01:44 <banana> "It's volatile. When there's enough meaning, it will jump translations, ultimately going for any kind of spiritual meaning it can find. Bibles, frescoes... the minds of the pious." 01:45 <banana> "And then it overwrites them, with this. My theory: street artists in our species graffiti in tags, their name, making a mark that they were here. These vandals.. I think they actually leave themselves in each graffito." 01:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Semiotic reproduction." 01:45 <Crion> Aster: "Incredible. I wonder what mischief they could have gotten up to in the alleged tomb of Henry I." 01:45 <Crion> Pause. "Not the local one." 01:45 <banana> Dylan: "I'm starting to think that wasn't really the old king's grave." 01:46 <Crion> "You might be on to something." 01:47 <banana> Bowen, to Dylan: "And do you have any more opinions about queens of yore?" 01:47 <banana> Dylan: "Eh. I guess this is a test of the effects.. I mean, we've got a queen now, for all that does the country. A sick old woman whose family was rich." 01:48 <banana> Bowen: "A thoroughly modern perspective." 01:48 <banana> Krebs frowns. 01:49 <banana> Bowen: "He's close to the source of the graffiti. The other thing is entirely drowned out... or so I speculate. I'm not sure how much any of this helps you in practice." 01:50 <Crion> Aster: "Contextualization is always important." 01:50 <Crion> Aster keeps meticulous case files; this will be going in them. 01:50 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I agree with Mr. Aster." 01:51 <banana> Bowen: "And so might the source be. I can leave it with you; I'd be happy to see the back of it. You can use it to... modulate the effects, or inspect them. But you'd want to solve both problems, somehow." 01:51 <banana> "The torc catalyses the graffiti... but it's powerful enough to work on its own, if not carefully caged. If there was a priest in this room he wouldn't just be recommending a republic; he'd want to build a space rocket." 01:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Which a more thorough understanding, achieved with care, might make possible." 01:52 <VoxPVoxD> She's a bit miffed at that. Is this thing saying she's faithless? 01:52 <VoxPVoxD> Maybe it's the Satan thing. 01:52 <banana> Dylan: "To return to the stars, yeah. We do need to make progress. Make humanity into a multi-planet organism." 01:52 <Crion> Aster will be storing this in a laboratory safe, not with the other books. 01:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "What d'you think of Elon Musk, Dylan?" 01:53 <banana> "I think my head hurts. Is it ok if I go further away from the book? That's what's cursing me, right?" 01:54 <banana> "Maybe I could wait over by the door while you work." 01:54 <Crion> Aster: "It's quite interesting. The mages, even the deranged one that I lifted the ritual book off of, they suffer from a form of cosmic-order grand mal solipsis. They don't believe outer space is real, per se. They certainly don't believe in aliens. The inherent conflicts between them and the cryptoviral spacemen...well worth pondering further." 01:54 <Crion> To Dylan: "You can do one better for the evening; take the torc and go home to your family. We'll reconvene in another day or so." 01:54 <banana> Bowen: "Nobody has all the answers, because if they did we'd simply invent some more questions." 01:55 <Crion> We don't want to overstress the victim/crime scene/plaintiff/protagonist. 01:55 <VoxPVoxD> The poor dear. 01:56 <banana> Dylan: "Ok, thanks. I appreciate the work you're all putting into this; I don't mind telling you it's beyond me, but I can see I've stepped in something really... complicated. I'll make dead cert the clan pays for your help." 01:56 <Crion> Aster: "Mr. Bowen, thank you again for your attention this evening. Hopefully we will be able to take this from here without further consultation, but once we have resolved it, I can forward you my case study if you've the interest." 01:57 <banana> Bowen: "As long as it doesn't contain the, ha-ha, alien alphabet I'd be grateful." 01:57 <Crion> Aster cracks a rare smile. "Of course." 01:58 <Crion> Soon everything dangerous is locked up and the guests have left, leaving only the hunter cellmates. 02:01 <banana> The Kindred and the ghoul leave separately. Bowen returns to his lair and his habits - idly tugging the strings of decades' connections - having been lured from the web briefly by novelty and the chance to get rid of a menace. Dylan unlocks his bike and revs it audibly outside, heading down the highway to home - and to thoughts of loss, entitlement, moss, enchantment. 02:02 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "What a fascinating case!" 02:02 <VoxPVoxD> She sounds like she's enthusiastic, engaged - and very brittle. 02:02 <VoxPVoxD> Holding on maybe just a bit too tight to her keen interest. 02:02 <Crion> "Yes," says Aster, leaning against the middle island of the laboratory, contemplating his colleague. "How did you find Bowen?" 02:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I quite enjoyed him! The sort of man if, he were still in the Service, I would seek as a mentor." 02:05 <VoxPVoxD> "But he serves other masters now." 02:06 <VoxPVoxD> "What about you?" 02:07 <Crion> Aster: "Nakedly predatory in a way that seemed completely divorced from his conscious mind's will, and was indeed completely divorced from his conscious mind's purpose for being here. The way he moved, acted, looked; holdover postures. And ones I don't recall seeing from him while chatting in his masonic lodge." 02:08 <Crion> "Perhaps a measure of where he feels comfortable. Perhaps not." 02:08 <Crion> "But yes, quite knowledgeable." 02:08 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "It is quite outside his comfort zone, I imagine." 02:09 <VoxPVoxD> After a beat: "Oh! That reminds me, I had something I wanted to run by you." 02:09 <Crion> Aster: "So. How are things with Willie Wellesley, post--" 02:09 <Crion> "Yes?" 02:12 <VoxPVoxD> Willie opens iMessage and shows him the chat from an unlabeled number. "A few weeks ago, a day or two after my debut at Inchcape, a day or two after I accepted the Gardener case on behalf of Vie, I received some messages of a vaguely threatening and prophetic nature." 02:13 <Crion> Aster's face tightens even before he reads the first of the exchanges. 02:13 <VoxPVoxD> "I didn't think overmuch of it at the time. I get weird texts from random numbers. My face is on Wikipedia; by arse was in the Sun; it happens. The prophecy was not overly specific so it felt more like cold reading than anything of substance. That's why I didn't bring it up." 02:14 <VoxPVoxD> "But earlier today, from the same number..." she scrolls down. Her voice is upbeat, her description neutral and thorough. The way one would make a presentation or speak to a police officer. 02:14 <Crion> Aster: "'4. ME.' All capitals. Less prophecy than statement of intent." 02:15 <Crion> He reads the more recent exchange, stone-faced. 02:15 <VoxPVoxD> "A bit, yes. Or the implication of intent." 02:15 <VoxPVoxD> "Recontextualised by this afternoon's messages and photograph." 02:15 <Crion> "Right. So." 02:16 <VoxPVoxD> "I feel a bit foolish having jumped to an erroneous conclusion. Perhaps his reaction would have been less violent if I'd been more perceptive." 02:16 <Crion> Aster: "I would suggest, first, jettisoning feelings of foolishness or self-reproach. This is now actionable. Quite actionable." 02:16 <Crion> "Do you know who sent it." 02:17 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I believe it was the Baron Agecroft. Lord Fortunato." 02:17 <VoxPVoxD> "Kin to some degree to the Night Mayor." 02:18 <Crion> Aster's lip curls. "The clown." 02:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "In a manner of speaking." 02:19 <VoxPVoxD> "Certainly a clown as per the modern American understanding of clowns, which is to say a well-made-up monster." 02:19 <VoxPVoxD> "I wouldn't want to cast aspersions on all clowns." 02:20 <Crion> He hands the phone back. "If you're asking if you should bring this to the cell at-large, I might hold off for a moment. If you need the cell in an emergency, we'll be on call. I don't think we need to necessarily rile up Badawi or Hughes further, at least not over the week or two, while there are other more immediate steps for you to take." 02:20 <Crion> He pauses. "...You are consulting me for my advice?" 02:21 <Crion> "I realized I just assumed that." 02:24 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yes, I am. I made an agreement before the whole House to consult them on any alarming vampire business I came across as a result of my personal entanglements. So I wanted to check with you first, to determine whether this meets that threshold, and ideally to be able to present them with a framing and action items that will cause only the appropriate amount of alarm." 02:24 <Crion> Aster: "I believe it meets that threshold, yes. There are three things you can do, immediately, to make yourself more safe before we convene as a group." 02:25 <VoxPVoxD> "Mm-hmm?" 02:26 <Crion> "Thing the first: you now have a service dog that has to be with you everywhere you go in public. Get the proper paperwork rushed through; I might be able to help with the City of Manchester's offices specifically through the Court. I don't care if that thing hates having to wear the harness, the demon's a working dog now. 02:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Right." 02:27 <VoxPVoxD> "I thought about bringing him tonight, but I didn't want to set the wrong tone." 02:27 <Crion> "Thing the second: assuming your man Sergio can control his drinking problem, you should spend as much time possible with him, either at his apartment or at your own. I would avoid your farmhouse except in his and the demon's company. The clown has a number of reasons to think twice going after you in either of your city domiciles; not so the slightly-remote farmhouse on the moors." 02:29 <VoxPVoxD> Willie nods. 02:29 <Crion> He grimaces. "Thing the third: report this to Weaste. Document it carefully. Not because you expect Weaste to do anything about it -- he won't -- but because if Fortunato comes across that river, we're going to break his mind, take his legs, stake him to Crime Farm's front lawn and leave him to watch the sun rise. And when the repurcussions of that make themselves known, the VI elders need 02:29 <Crion> to remember that they had every opportunity to keep their own house in order." 02:30 <Crion> Aster: "Decisions made against our House will have permanent consequences." 02:31 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks up abruptly. Contextually, one might assume with alarm, but there's just that brittle focus. 02:31 <VoxPVoxD> "I will do so, if that's your judgment." 02:32 <Crion> Aster: "There's no need to posture or threaten. What I said right now isn't for his consumption. It's a promise to you about how seriously this cell is going to take matters like this." 02:33 <Crion> "And this is precisely as seriously as something like this needs to be taken. Because this is the last thing in many victims' phones at a crime scene." 02:34 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I understand. I will report this to Kirkpatrick in the most neutral of terms. I will endeavor to keep in the company of both Sergio and Kagamenauch as much as possible." 02:34 <VoxPVoxD> "And we can brief the team at the next all-hands." 02:36 <Crion> Aster pauses. "...Good. As good as it can be under the circumstances. Obviously bring Bob in on it as you please; he might have some advice of his own, though I wouldn't start carrying the shotgun around or anything." 02:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I don't want to keep it from him, but I'm glad I have an action plan to share with him which is only contingently violent before I do." 02:37 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm very appreciative." 02:37 <Crion> Aster: "Well, you're welcome. Did you drive over or do you need a ride back?" 02:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I... walked." 02:39 <Crion> Aster: "Well, I'll lock up and then we can get going. Unless you'd prefer not to." 02:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I don't think the two of us are prepared to fend off an elder vampire. I should just walk. Then the cell has lost the fewest possible resources that might be needed in a defence of its honour." 02:45 <Crion> Aster: "No. Absolutely not." His voice is even but firm. "Be scared, be angry, be bitter, be all three at once -- yell, cry, scream -- but if you value my input and my advice, my friendship and my work as a colleague, do not be fatalistic and self-defeating. That is beneath you. That is beneath the advice, care, and concern your friends...even the vampire boyfriend...have given to 02:45 <Crion> you." 02:46 <Crion> "I will not hear this talk any further." He takes out his keys. "I will lock up, and then we will continue to do the smart thing for our mutual continued survival." 02:48 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks down at her phone. Her thumb's idle tapping on the screen has kept it from switching off. She sees the photograph again. "With respect, Aaron, you — they — are wrong. And the advice has been unanimous on this point as well, from the people who aren't hormonally biased." 02:48 <VoxPVoxD> "Including you." 02:50 <VoxPVoxD> "You, Rolf, Agostina - the faeries, the vampires - each of them counting the nights until I die, one way or another." 02:50 <VoxPVoxD> "Where does that talk lead if not here? What is it meant to convey if not this?" 02:50 <VoxPVoxD> "Speaking of prophecy." 02:52 <Crion> Aster: "I see." 02:52 <Crion> "If you wish to walk home alone at night, then, go." 02:54 <Crion> Aster: "But don't ask for my advice again if you only want it to help you keep feeling sorry for yourself." 02:54 <Crion> "That's not the service I provide." 02:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Don't talk to me like I'm Bob. It's not my pity I wish to forestall but yours. Yours and theirs." 02:57 <Crion> Aster: "You're doing excellent work. Now I have to lock up." 02:58 <VoxPVoxD> "What achieves that? What steps do I take to, in the event of my death, keep them all from sighing behind their mugs, and thinking oh, the poor dear, this was bound to happen, and then leaving that memory in the skip?" 02:59 <VoxPVoxD> She does, at least, not stop him from locking up, and will follow him to the door. 03:00 <VoxPVoxD> She sounds outrageously angry, though not precisely at Aaron. If Bob were here, he'd know. 03:00 <Crion> Aster, who sounds as if he's gotten very tired in the last twenty minutes: "It's always bound to happen, is the thing. You hunt monsters for a living. The best you can do is make them remove 'the poor dear.' And you do that by hardening your heart and becoming a professional of singular, angular focus. You remove the rest of your life." 03:01 <VoxPVoxD> "And that's it? Is there no purchase in the vast excluded middle between suicidal ideation and suffocating detachment?" 03:01 <Crion> Aster: "Why should there be?" 03:02 <Crion> Aster: "Put it this way: how do you see the endgame?" 03:03 <VoxPVoxD> "Because it's not right! No one should have to live like that. No one should have to die like that." At the question, she loses a bit of steam. "I-- whose?" 03:03 <Crion> "Mine is running away from all of this. Alone. I tell myself I'll be going with Samantha but I don't think she can stand me for more than a few days straight if we're being honest. I'm going to go to a beach somewhere and lessen in paradise, day by day, until I'm gone." 03:04 <Crion> "That's the dream. That's going out on top. That's victory. And if I focus too much on it I can't stand the thought of it." 03:04 <Crion> "I haven't relaxed for more than twenty-four hours once in forty years." 03:06 <VoxPVoxD> "We must be able to do better than that." 03:06 <Crion> "There's no way to think about final futures or destinies or great happy or sad endings in this business without driving yourself mad. Or into a deal with a vampire to try and keep the ever-consuming now going. The work. The Vigil." 03:06 <Crion> "Or a mage, or a...I don't know how it'd work with a changeling. Vampire's the most common. Not just for you." 03:07 <VoxPVoxD> Willie bristles. Not at Aaron; the brittleness has broken enough to see through that. She bristles at the resonance of what he said. 03:08 <Crion> Aster: "If you've got something to prove, I'm asking you, I'm begging you, prove it to something other than the people you imagine at your funeral. Because those people don't matter at all. Only the people you'll meet tonight do." 03:08 <Crion> He finishes locking up. "That's it. I'm out of speeches." 03:11 <VoxPVoxD> Willie leans her forehead against the cold outer wall of Aster Biologics. She sniffs, hard. She's quite congested all of a sudden. Two deep, shuddering breaths elapse. Then she stands up straight and dabs her eyes with a £600 cashmere scarf. 03:11 <VoxPVoxD> "Right." 03:11 <VoxPVoxD> "You're right, of course." 03:11 <VoxPVoxD> "It's just..." a lot of air goes out of her. 03:11 <VoxPVoxD> "I don't know. I don't know what it is." 03:12 <VoxPVoxD> "...would you mind dropping me off at mine?" 03:12 <Crion> Aster: "Not at all." 03:12 <VoxPVoxD> "I suppose the very least I can do for the people who'd outlive me is make them work for it." 03:12 <Crion> He takes one last look around the shadows of Manchester, lingering on the alleys and the spaces behind lonely trees, and then they're off.