12:33 <banana> Aster's contact insists: This is necessary. It's tradition. 12:33 <Crion> Aster is doing all of this under protest. 12:33 <Crion> What is the contact's name? 12:33 <Crion> Is it a ghoul or power proper? 12:34 <banana> The Wise and Solemn Court has overthrown many traditions of the Kindred, so they cling all the harder to those they retain. It provides continuity.. confers legitimacy. And you don't change what's working when you live forever. 12:34 <Crion> That's what makes some of the posturing so absurd. 12:35 <Crion> He doesn't tell them that out loud, of course. 12:37 <banana> Aster's contacts with the vampire power-structure have come in through a couple of different routes. At this point, he can contact ghouls or other agents of the bloodsuckers through standard intimidation-conspiracy stuff (notes under the door, messages left from no known number, etc) or through the legitimate auspices of the City Council! 12:37 <banana> The institution of the "Night Mayor" is associated with the city corporation, small business services interchange and even a holdover from medieval guilds. He's only met two actual vampires, who have given him to understand that the Night Mayor is also their vampire Prince. 12:38 <banana> It's Suzie who made contact tonight. They didn't get along well at their first meeting - at least, Aster didn't get along with them. Maybe they liked him for some reason. That or he's got enough potential to be useful that he's been invited - demanded - to take the next step. 12:39 <banana> A formal Introduction to the Court. 12:39 <Crion> Aster's considering taking up smoking. 12:39 <Crion> It's excuse enough to keep a lighter on him. And maybe he can get Bob to turn a vape into a hand grenade. 12:41 <Crion> But fine. He agrees. Sometimes the paperwork is paperwork. Sometimes the paperwork is this. 12:41 <banana> Is there some neutral ground in the city centre - somewhere near St. Peter's Square - where Aaron Aster would be willing to meet a creature of the night? 12:42 <Crion> Well, they don't care about Christ and they don't care about garlic, so both kinds of Roman Catholic church are out. The British don't seem keen on giant bastions of open flame, either. So really all that's on offer is a wide open space and hopefully enough CCTV to give them pause about gutting him, for Masquerade reasons. 12:50 <banana> There's plenty of surveilled space around here. You can meet by one of the half-grown elms that grow out of occasional tree pits, modern exceptions to what is otherwise an expanse of paving stone. Aster's in a little island of quiet - it's 3AM, and the clubs let out earlier, so the city's getting pretty slow. 12:50 <Crion> ...God dammit. 12:51 <Crion> Yeah okay, for the first time since graduate school, Aster's smoking. 12:51 <Crion> Three AM in Manchester waiting on a vampire? 12:51 <Crion> Disgusting, cancerous, but he's lying if it doesn't trigger memories. 12:52 <Crion> Is it cold enough that he's in his overcoat? 12:52 <banana> He sees Suzie Cutsworth approach from the domed edifice of the Central Library. She looks a bit.. in Philadelphia you might have suspected a streetwalker before settling on student. Early 20s, long shaggy hair, heavily made-up, wearing a sweater and flared jeans. Spangled pink shoes go with the makeup but not the top. 12:53 <Crion> Aster lights either his third or his fourth. 12:54 <banana> She's quite flushed, looking healthy as hell. Like someone who's run the 100m at 3 in the morning. 12:54 <banana> "Ey up, dude." 12:55 <Crion> He'll step out into the light and the open. "You look like you've just fucked or killed someone." 12:59 <banana> 'Dude' in a Mancunian accent has to be heard to be believed. It sounds like the way a cheery undertaker would refer to some ceremonial object, and not any kind of Calfornian surfer. 12:59 <banana> Suzie: "Neither of t'ose tonight, Mr. Aster. Was it Aaron you'll by going by, or would ye prefer another name for the Introduction?" 13:00 <Crion> Aster: "Just Aster will do." He's in a black coat, longer than a peacoat but shorter than a trenchcoat. It's fashionable enough for a dowdy old man. 13:00 <Crion> He didn't miss the proper noun. 13:01 <Crion> The 'Introduction.' 13:01 <Crion> The British obsession with honorifics. 13:01 <Crion> No, he doesn't like this at all. 13:03 <banana> Suzie: "So long as you don't take it to be a form of looking-down. Shaw will treat you as well as any of the vitally disadvantaged but she does have a way about her." 13:03 <banana> The young-looking vampire gestures at one edge of the square, where a Radisson hotel inhabits an ancient structure designed for less-modern purposes. "That's t'way we're going, but it's an indirect route." 13:04 <Crion> Such are all roads to Hell. 13:04 <Crion> ...He's been hanging around the Lucifuge girl too much. 13:04 <Crion> "Lead on." 13:04 <Crion> "I'll be three steps back on your left." 13:07 <Crion> It strikes him that anyone that sees the two of them right now absolutely thinks he's in the throes of a monstrous, marriage-annihilating mid-life crisis. 13:07 <banana> Suzie leads the way across the square toward a side street, chattering as much as is feasible given Aster's cautious distance. "Now, t'other night we spoke of science. You can do your own talking at t' Hall, but might you be interested in collaboration? Pooled research, amortised lab-spaces and the like." 13:07 <Crion> In some ways that's correct. 13:08 <Crion> Aster: "Knowledge is power. Power has a market value. So yes." 13:12 <banana> Suzie: "Aye? Then there are those at Court tonight you'd like to meet. Seb will be around for some discussions and Ultim Vados is always looking for updates on the progress of the Scientific Method." You've turned into a lit alleyway, off the square. It would be a classic dark alley if not for the modern and rather harsh white lights that have been placed above each of a series of anonymous 13:12 <banana> back doors and large rubbish bins. 13:13 <banana> Suzie removes a small key from her shoulder-strapped purse and unlocks a door that looks like all the rest. There are stairs inside, ancient brick and vertiginously steep. 13:13 <Crion> Of course there are. This city's old enough to have bowels, not sewers. 13:18 <banana> Manchester's nowhere near the age of London.. but it predates Philadelphia. Aster's seen a tourist-trap of an 'inn' that claimed to be built in 1552. The underground is rubble, mostly; ruins of earlier city-layers and Blitz-era destruction. There is a string of lights through a barely-walkable tunnel, where Suzie turns to walk backwards for a moment while making encouraging hand-motions. Her 13:18 <banana> eyes glow just a little. 13:18 <banana> "Tisn't far. We have a few ways and ways in, but I can't go into all that tonight." 13:19 <Crion> Aster: "On these matters, the less I know the better." 13:21 <banana> "You seem very reasonable Mr. Aster." Suzie's voice echoes as she turns to walk normally beside the hanging wire and sparse bulbs. "Why look up our humble Court at all?" 13:21 <Crion> Aster: "Prudence." 13:22 <Crion> "My lab can tell degenerated vitae from blood with a 24 hour turn around time. I don't want the first meeting between me and the local Court to be in my home." 13:26 <banana> For a few moments you walk in silence. It's hard to tell how far you've come, or in what direction. Suzie: "Shaw will appreciate t' respect. We all do, in our ways." The lit bulbs end (though the wiring does not) at a pair of double doors in the underground brickwork. 13:26 <banana> One of them looks basically stuck in rubble, but the other is well-oiled. Suzie turns the handle without a squeak. 13:26 <Crion> Aster kills the stub of a cigarette and doesn't light another. 13:31 <banana> There's light beyond, not bright but plenty of it. When you both step through the door, it becomes apparent that what were once skylights have been repurposed to hold office-style fluorescent panels. Presumably this took place after the concert hall was buried. 13:31 <banana> The ceiling lights struggle to fill the vast space, leaving shadows throughout its grand and disused structure - but you've stepped out onto an upper level with a good view of the whole place, and for a moment Aster sees it as it once was: https://limits.thomascastiglione.com/media/old-trade-hall.jpg 13:32 <Crion> HHhhhhhhh. 13:32 <Crion> A chill rolls through. Maybe only he can feel it. 13:33 <banana> Half the chairs are still there and look like they have been for a century. The space has been split up a little by aisles, rubble and the reach of the lights. Groups of figures gather in both dark and visible parts, most obviously up on the main stage where there are many. Aster's government-issue senses detect the press of attention on him, though he should just be a shadow up here. 13:34 <banana> Suzie: "Now, what's a good way down t' ground floor..." 13:35 <Crion> What was it that dramatic idiot liked to call the idea of vampire courts back in Philly? The belly of the feast? 13:35 <banana> There have to be dozens of them in this place. Perhaps they aren't all undead. 13:35 <Crion> These creatures do have a sense of the dramatic. 13:36 <Crion> Honestly, the number of them might be a good thing. Suzie hasn't brought enough for the entire class. 13:39 <banana> Suzie isn't hungry. But the looks Aster gets from some of the people he passes on the way down to the stage.. some sniff at the air. Others smile politely as their eyes burn. Along one aisle are desks, set up with ancient furniture and modern laptops, where a few clerical-looking types are taking others' questions. Those ones look better-fed. 13:40 <Crion> Aster takes his due. He's been doing this for two decades. These aren't the first hungry vampires he's been in a room with. Just...the first time they've invited him. And haven't been restrained. 13:41 <banana> Half the people present are wearing old notions of formal dinner dress, and by the time Aster reaches the stage he has another flash of the past as it might have been. https://limits.thomascastiglione.com/media/hall-meeting.jpg 13:42 <Crion> What is that? Is that him? Is that the room? A particularly powerful vampire? What kind of psychic impression...? 13:43 <banana> The scenery is still the same tonight, but the people have changed, if not so much as they might. There are many many fewer, adrift in an ocean of space. Most of them are women. The mood is subdued but purposeful. 13:45 <Crion> So long as none of the other parts of The Shining are asserting themselves. 13:46 <Crion> He doesn't like his chances going after Suzie with an axe anyhow. 13:48 <banana> Suzie: "Look alive." She giggles. 13:49 <Crion> That's worth demonstratively lighting his fifth cigaratte (he counted how many were missing while demonstrating) in front of her. But not leaning in or anything. 13:50 <banana> There's still a row of seats with self-important types paying the attention due their station, still a small crowd of lesser beings hoping to have a say.. and centre-stage at the end of that row is a slightly larger plastic chair, failing to contain the woman who sprawls across it. The Night Mayor of Manchester looks very relaxed, but she sounds worked up, delivering a peroration about the 13:50 <banana> perfidies of someone or other. Aster arrives on the final note of it, where the rant turns formal, vampire leader asking the assembled worthies for advice. 13:51 <banana> Suzie has a hand on Aaron's shoulder now, a silent warning. 13:52 <Crion> What? Is he going to think mean thoughts at her until she-- 13:52 <banana> Others have followed them up the aisle, but he doesn't know any- wait. He knows that guy from TV. A weatherman, and obviously not a vampire given the broadcast hours. 13:52 <Crion> ...Well, he supposes he could. 13:52 <Crion> He'll give the guy a nod. 13:53 <Crion> He feels oddly disconnected from himself. He should be yelling. 13:54 <banana> Deputy (one of the seated dignitaries): "Shaw, we work to your rule. If they're giving us shit on rates now, when we're well on the way to recovery, it would be a great time for a demonstration." 13:55 <banana> Another deputy: "Leese has grown arrogant, like, ironically arrogant." 13:57 <banana> Killer Clive is the other vampire Aster met already. Totally bald but with a full beard any lumberjack could approve. He's come up with the small crowd that's here to witness.. Aster, probably, and gives him a wink before whispering quietly. 13:57 <banana> "Ready to meet the parents, mate? You didn't seem much for democracy the other night, but you've been very discreet." 13:58 <banana> Suzie makes a 'tch' noise, rather like a disgusted cat. 13:58 <Crion> Aster: "I'm a registered Republican. Let's meet the death cult." 13:59 <banana> Clive: "Attitude and half a shilling will get you sixpence." 13:59 <banana> The meeting's come to a halt as everyone notices the new arrivals. 13:59 <Crion> "I don't know what that means." 14:01 <banana> Many look on with interest. There are five chairs on stage in a half-circle around the vampire Prince; three were already filled with the people discussing Leese, what he's done, what to do to him, etc. Clive and Suzie get up (casually vaulting the stage itself, no need for steps) to fill the others. The etiquette of all this is not obvious to Aster. There are people around who look more 14:01 <banana> important than the ones in the seats - better dressed, more self-assured, etc. 14:02 <Crion> In the interest of politeness, he ashes the stub on the cuff of his jacket, then tucks it back into the pack, instead of littering. 14:03 <banana> Well. Nobody looks more confident than the Prince herself, who now turns her black-eyed attention to him. She's dressed casually in working clothes, something you could wear to paint a house, but there are years behind the quiet look. Decades. 14:04 <banana> Some south asian-looking guy Aster doesn't know is now standing next to him. The main's wearing aviators, and his voice holds suppressed laughter. He gestures to you, then up to the stage. "Aaron Aster? Seele Shaw. Night Mayor of Manchester." 14:04 <banana> https://limits.thomascastiglione.com/media/seele.png 14:06 <Crion> He avoids, 'You know who I am,' because he doesn't want to die but the question in her voice is wholly unnecessary. As is: "Mayor." And the bowing of the head. Just expected things. 14:07 <Crion> Oh. His voice. 14:07 <Crion> Well who the fuck else would be down here this time of night? 14:12 <banana> Seele Shaw (who is indeed the woman on stage): "Welcome to England. I'm told you've come here from London, with an origin farther afield." 14:12 <Crion> Aster: "Yes, Mayor." 14:19 <banana> Everything else fades away. The somewhat unassuming figures of the five councillors stand out a little, but all the focus of his attention on is the Night Mayor. She says: "I won't have you elaborate tonight. We all keep secrets." 14:19 <banana> "You'd like to do business in my city, then?" 14:20 <Crion> Aster: "Yes, Mayor." 14:20 <Crion> He's forgotten he even brought cigarettes. 14:25 <banana> Shaw: "There are only two conditions. For the first thing, you'll need to avoid acting against the interests of the Court. If your forensic services or your investigations run up against the Kindred and you're aware of it, come to us before you proceed. Agreed?" 14:26 <Crion> "The Kindred...of Manchester?" 14:27 <banana> Shaw: "Manchester and Salford. If you wish to sell stakes to Londoners, many would applaud." 14:27 <banana> There are reactions to this, verbal and otherwise. Aster doesn't notice any of them. 14:27 <Crion> Aster: "That was the original proposal, Mayor, and I'm happy to agree to it." 14:27 <Crion> "Formally." 14:28 <Crion> Difficult to tell if he should be using Mayor instead of Prince. He was introduced to a mayor. He'll keep with that. 14:29 <Crion> Good lord. High school was so long ago. So was Aliens. 14:31 <banana> Shaw: "You'll meet Henry Registrar shortly. For the second thing, you are not to advance the interests of the so-called Victus Indomitus over others of our kind. You may treat with the remaining members of that group only as a matter of routine, showing no preference. Agreed?" 14:32 <Crion> Aster, with some annoyed incredulity: "Who are the Victus Indomitus?" 14:32 <Crion> A second faction introduced at the signing? 14:33 <banana> Shaw: "Blue-bloods who took Latin in grammar school. They synthesised the name to represent... I have an analogy from American culture:" 14:33 <banana> "They believe that the South will rise again." 14:33 <Crion> Aster: "Fucking Confederate Tories? Agreed." 14:34 <Crion> He can barely tolerate the ones that pretend to be into the trades. And since he's already got his money... 14:34 <banana> "Thank you, Aster." Shaw smiles, and it lights up the room. "Allow me to introduce the Officers of the Court." 14:34 <banana> Belatedly he becomes aware that there are quite a lot of other people here now. 14:34 <Crion> Fuck. 14:35 <banana> Some of them are up on the stage, although not seated with the deputies. The guy in the aviators has rolled up a set of steps and offers it to him, a way up to stand on equal footing. 14:36 <Crion> Aster blinks, looks around, tries to figure out if this is more condescending and patronizing than just staying where he is. 14:38 <Crion> ...Up it is. 14:39 <banana> There are rapid-fire introductions, faces and names he'd normally be good at.. he's sweating, although it's cold down here. Someone in the crowd that pressed at Aster before he was practically forced up onto the stage had warm hands and a pulse. 14:40 <banana> "Sydney Damani, Carthian Constable". The man wearing sunglasses indoors underground at night. 14:40 <banana> "Henry the First, Registrar of Contracts". A huge blond guy. 14:40 <banana> "Stella Savoy, Primogen among Gangrel. Jane Boxer, Primogen of the Nosferatu. Samwise, Primogen of Mekhet." 14:40 <Crion> Right. Great. Fantastic. Nice to meet you. 14:40 <Crion> Clinically speaking, he's been drugged. 14:40 <Crion> That's what they do. 14:41 <Crion> They just don't need the drugs. 14:41 <Crion> But knowing about it doesn't make it work any less. 14:41 <banana> There's a name he remembers in the whirl - "Ultim Vados of the Order of Dracula. Illuminus." 14:42 <Crion> "A man of science," he'll have the presence of mind to reply. Possibly a stupid thing to say. But he has to establish some kind of a beachhead on sobreity. 14:43 <banana> The man of science grins- big teeth, even the normal ones - before he's replaced by a woman priest in a high-church cassock that matches her face. "Minister Magale Carrenya." 14:44 <Crion> He'll greet her too. 14:44 <banana> Eventually it stops, and Shaw makes one last grand gesture at the five seated advisors. "And my deputies. The Carthian Council, elected for a hundred-year term." 14:44 <banana> Suzie: "We usually serve a couple before t' work gets to us." 14:46 <Crion> Aster: "A couple terms? Or a couple years?" 14:47 <banana> Suzie: "Years, dude! I'm less than twice your age." 14:47 <banana> The viking looking guy is waiting for Aster now. When he's ready to get out of here, they'll take him away to sign contracts. 14:48 <Crion> Aster is scared shitless and head whirling...but he's also ornery. So he'll be ready to go thirty minutes after it seems like they're ready to take him outside. 14:49 <Crion> Another cigarette when the air's cleaner. 14:50 <banana> He has time to learn some faces for real, then, and is aware of just how many creatures have memorised his. Shaw got distracted quickly, and he was privy to a brief interesting conversation wherein a deputy gave her some good news about 'the Vault'. ("Everyone's welcome", says the Night Mayor, "but is it too much to hope for Letty? One of the Barrigans?") 14:50 <banana> As far as he can tell, Henry's paperwork is normal, City-registered and legally binding. 14:50 <Crion> He'll commit that to memory, then. 14:51 <Crion> Aster makes sure to review it all the same. Asking for an ashtray first. 14:56 <banana> Henry the First(?): "Another beautiful friendship notarised. I'll show you to the lift, as this can all be a little overwhelming.. the Hall is perhaps not as calm as in better times, wouldn't you know. Here's a card.. the Telegram address is for a group, emergency notifications, and a couple of ids for individuals who've requested contact with you." 14:57 <banana> He skulks pretty well for a guy over six foot. 14:57 <Crion> Aster: "Right. Thanks." 14:58 <banana> "You're be aware that you'll be watched for a while, though it wasn't in the contracts. Er.. I suppose you're free to lay a tort over it." 14:59 <Crion> Aster: "Try not to bump into all the other guys." 14:59 <Crion> "And good luck," he says as the elevator lets him off. 14:59 <banana> Registrar: "Thank you, Mr. Aster. Have a nice night." 15:00 <banana> The lift is one-way. He ends up in the Radisson hotel after all. 15:00 <Crion> He'll stalk out smoking his cigarette, ignoring whoever in the lobby yells at him otherwise. 15:00 <Crion> There are some important ways the city is different than Philadelphia. 15:01 <Crion> Maybe catastrophically so. 15:01 <Crion> Aaron Aster vanishes into the night...but not out of sight of the cameras.