13:40 <banana> Bonasera: "...then we can meet after work. If you're letting out early, would you like to come by here rather than the other way around?" 13:42 <VoxPVoxD> Wellesley: "To Inchcape? Oh, that's... that's quite a long way... perhaps somewhere more... equidisdant?" 13:47 <banana> Hmm. "You mean somewhere more equable? Less equivocal?" 13:51 <VoxPVoxD> There's a slightly-too-long pause. Perhaps Sergio's wordplay is too sophisticated. He can hear her breathe deeply before speaking. "I will meet you anywhere you like, darling. I'd feel more comfortable meeting somewhere else, is all. It's easier to talk about in person." Hastily added: "If we're leaving right away anyway it's probably fine..." 13:54 <banana> ...he's not fooled, is he? He might not know everything, but he says: "Peel Park, then, behind the museum? Good dog runs, and it's closer to your office." 13:54 <banana> -------- 13:55 <banana> Work ends early on Remembrance Day... or it does at PCS workplaces. The sun's just setting when Willie reaches the park, which is by the Irwell. (It bends, a lot. Half the city is by the Irwell.) 13:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's got her poppy pinned to a red tracksuit, with Kaga's harness wrapped around her hand. 13:56 <VoxPVoxD> There's a poppy on Kaga's collar as well. 13:56 <banana> There's a closed-in garage out the back of Salford Museum, covered to protect one of those new electric chargers. Sergio appears in the door momentarily, motorcycle helmet under one arm - he doesn't immediately burst into flames, but waves to Willie for a moment before stepping somewhat hastily back inside. 13:59 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's footsteps quicken towards him when he pops into and out of view. 14:03 <banana> She enters the small garage with the last rays of the sun. Sergio's beaming in a corner away from the door, under an electric light strip, arms open (the helmet having been stowed). "Hello, sweet and shining Willie. The covenant's manor is too dark a place for now, right? I'll remember." 14:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie beams right back at him, but when the smile fades it leaves a slightly guilty expression behind. "It's so good to see you. How are you doing?" 14:06 <banana> Sergio: "Thinking a lot. Riding this thing is actually kind of meditative, since you have to accept the chance of sudden death every time you leave a driveway." 14:07 <banana> "I'm good, I'm just trying to put a little more intention into my life." 14:11 <VoxPVoxD> Ah fuck. He might not know, but he understands. He understands perfectly. "And that means knowing the danger is out there, but not letting it make your world any smaller." 14:14 <banana> "That's a good way to put it. Change is coming, like always." The doorway is almost entirely entirely dark now; Sergio looks at the bejowled hound that stands silently in its shadow. 14:14 <banana> This guy doesn't seem as stupid about Willie as all the others... 14:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie follows his gaze. "Ah! Yes. This is... my... familiar." The word hangs awkwardly in the air for a moment. "His name is Kaga. Say hello, Kaga." 14:17 <VoxPVoxD> The dog looks at Sergio with his yellow eyes before he gives a gravelly 'ruff!' and says "Bonasera, Mr. Goodevening." 14:17 <banana> Sergio leaves his motorcycle in the corner and strides toward the- ah. 14:18 <banana> "Buonasera. Willie, you are a sun-witch." 14:19 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Is that good?" 14:22 <banana> The man inspects the dog before reaching out to pat its flanks. "I can't see you as moon-aspected somehow..." 14:26 <VoxPVoxD> "He's quite a lively conversationalist, when he wants to be. Not an especially friendly one, but--" The huge dog leans into Sergio's patting hands, a curiously catlike gesture for a mastiff. "The night waits for us," says the demon. "Are you a religious man, My Sergio?" 14:31 <banana> Sergio: "Let's not keep the night waiting. There's a perfectly good river walk out here." 14:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's eager to get moving. 14:33 <banana> He straightens, talks to Willie rather than the 'dog'. "I've always found the occult side of things confusing, but that doesn't mean it's unimportant. What kind of capabilities does a familiar grant you?" 14:33 <banana> The park's lightly populated - it's not yet 5PM - but there's a team mowing part of its grass over to the west, and a few kids who've played with football even past the fading of the light. 14:37 <VoxPVoxD> As they go(?): "Safety. Kaga protects me and mine from harm, and faithfully so. More practical than a shotgun, and more sociable than pepper spray. And it's just nice to have some company on remote days, fewer and further-between though they may be now — they've started luring people back in office." 14:41 <banana> Sergio laughs as you walk. Briskly? He's still got the habit of exercise, although it's starting to feel a bit silly. "Slightly more sociable than pepper spray, anyway. Is there a sting to its verbal traps?" 14:41 <banana> "What I mean, can you come to any real harm from engaging with it?" 14:45 <banana> *mean is 14:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "He can't steal your soul or anything. Anything he says can only hurt as badly as words do." 14:45 <VoxPVoxD> Ruff! 14:46 <VoxPVoxD> How bad can words hurt, really? 14:51 <banana> Sergio: "Perhaps that's a price worth paying. Ah, I'm too tired to fence with the thing, but it's good to have protection. Have you come across any interesting new monsters?" 14:54 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yes! Many new mysteries, and... a few old friends. There's the grieving Abbess, seeking revenge on a shifted paradigm; there's the rightwise King, born anew and newly-blessed with every turn of the centuries; the would-be heroine who offers no quarter to her own destiny..." 14:55 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh, oh, and: your sketch was received very warmly by the team!" 14:56 <VoxPVoxD> Just lay in all the cool shit. Soften the ground for the bad parts. 14:59 <banana> Sergio: "Living myths... naturally, I'd like to hear about the last part. Are they feeling any less leery about your relationships?" 15:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie doesn't flinch. "I would say, rather, that they have redoubled their commitment to supporting me, so long as I spare some thought to their concerns. Kaga is a concession to that. So is avoiding Inchcape, where practical." 15:08 <banana> Sergio looks out over the water. "I wonder what it means that nobody's suggested I avoid you. The bocce set even asked whether I still had the possbility of a new player." 15:09 <banana> "Kind of hate having to think like this. Not your fault, of course." 15:11 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I don't like it either. But, I think, for now at least, the cost of making these concessions is lower than the costs of foregoing them. Bocce still sounds lovely. I mentioned it in passing to the team. Bob expressed interest and so did, surprisingly, Aaron. So maybe more than one new player! I'll keep you posted, perhaps add you to a group text?" 15:14 <VoxPVoxD> "I think they'd be happy to meet you, and I'm certain they would find you reassuring, given all the other family business." 15:17 <banana> Sergio: "Now that sounds interesting. The American guys- sorry, dudes- might have quite a different reaction to an Italian game." 15:17 <banana> How's Kaga getting along - pacing ahead, behind, running around in the green spaces? 15:22 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga is doing a passably energetic dog act: alternately straining against his leash by running faster than Willie walks and doubling back to ruff and caper for her attention. He makes occasional and awfully-humanish eye contact with Sergio but he's mainly distracting Willie. "Aaron might be old enough to be a fellow rather than a dude. But yeah, I'm curious." 15:23 <VoxPVoxD> "I should warn you, I'm not the most gracious competitor. I can get quite emotional." 15:23 <VoxPVoxD> What was it Papa said? 'Little Minnie McEnroe'. 15:24 <banana> Sergio: "There can be a lot of emotion in lobbing a bocce ball. It's like golf - the more you squint and sweat, the better the arc." 15:25 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles. "I look forward to finding out." 15:25 <VoxPVoxD> "How's work?" 15:30 <banana> Hmm. "Hmm." 15:30 <banana> Sergio kicks at the grass a little. It's been cut recently, so there's no real effect. 15:32 <banana> "The work itself is fine. Social media videos, you know - usually just branding. But it's become very much like political advertising." 15:34 <banana> "We're selling the costs of the Night Mayor's regime... 'inexperience, greed, your loved ones locked up in a vault and vindictive children running the show'. I wonder how effective it is, and how true." 15:36 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I wonder what percentage of the electorate is too young to remember the eighties. Eventually the old rallying cries lose their power, however right they may have been at the time. People just forget. They are born never knowing. The world moves on, you know?" 15:36 <VoxPVoxD> "Do they ever ask you to articulate a positive vision? Or is it all negative?" 15:39 <banana> Sergio: "I don't remember the 80s. Nor do half the others at Inchcape. Turns out they all fell for the same thing." 15:41 <banana> "There are positive messages - stability. Cooperation with foreign Courts, who apparently hate us. Many fewer rules." 15:41 <banana> "I'm surprised we haven't got a bus about Turks and the NHS." The distaste is becoming evident in his expression. 15:44 <VoxPVoxD> "'We send 35,000 litres of blood to Brussels...'" Willie banishes the thought. "My perspective is skewed, obviously. The Court taxed me tens of thousands of pounds, which Vie hasn't done. But the Night-Mayor's never physically assaulted me, or sent me text messages fantasising about doing so." 15:45 <VoxPVoxD> "If I had a vote, I'd be casting it for the Monster Raving Loonies." 15:47 <banana> Sergio catches the dog's eye, holds up a rock, then tosses it - out into the river. 15:47 <banana> "Willie." 15:47 <banana> "What the hell have they been saying to you? Or doing?" 15:47 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga's eyes follow the rock... but that's all. 15:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks out at the river, then up at Sergio... then she takes out her phone. She shows him the messages from Fortunato, then tells him about Agatha and Carl and the fire in Medlock. 15:51 <VoxPVoxD> It sounds very considered. She's clearly put a lot of thought into how to present this, and is careful about her wording. She's not as blunt as Bob or Aaron would be. 15:52 <banana> Sergio wants to interrupt - ask questions or bluster, maybe. Willie can see him holding it back, but he lets her go at her own pace. 15:53 <VoxPVoxD> When she's done, she leans against him. The dog sits at her feet, one ear cocked, looking up at Sergio. 15:56 <banana> Finally, he says: "What can we do about this? It's no solution, for you to go everywhere with a devil dog. Carl didn't care." 15:56 <banana> "The elders work as a team. They want to manipulate you into being an ally or an enemy, no damn respect for disentanglement. Treating me as if everything is normal is either more manipulation or Simpson casting a dissenting vote." 16:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "The team has taken the collective decision that-- it doesn't matter. It's a fake position, a palliative. Pure pretence. There are no neutrals in a prizefight. But I made a commitment to them, until they realise they have to make up their minds. They'd rather not have to deal with any of this. They resent having to quite deeply." 16:02 <VoxPVoxD> "I don't know what to do either. While I work it out - while we work it out - I'm just... doing what I'm told, basically." 16:03 <VoxPVoxD> "Which, as Fortunato observed, is quite impossible." 16:05 <banana> Sergio: "Okay, well, I- I don't want to just stand by and watch this choice being forced on you, or, you know, participate in it. I mean, I won't do that... which is probably why they're not asking. God." 16:05 <banana> "I wonder whether they care at all about your co-workers." 16:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "They care about Bob, probably, insofar as they see the two of us as a unit. They care about Aaron now, I'm sure." 16:07 <VoxPVoxD> "But I'm clearly the most easily-accessible and so the largest receptacle for their boredom. I was born, in this respect, on quite a low-hanging branch." 16:08 <banana> "Boredom." 16:08 <banana> Sergio: "Yeah, that must be part of it. A thousand years with nothing to do but see how much you can Win." 16:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Boredom, security, phenomenal patience... you need all these things to scheme so much, even if your schemes are productive." 16:11 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm amazed they haven't gone madder than they already have." 16:12 <VoxPVoxD> She looks up at him. "What would you do?" 16:13 <banana> Sergio: "Sometimes- on a night to night basis it seems fine. The covenant is a community within a community - the web of blood would horrify some people but they don't want everyone in it. I've heard about the old dictatorship, it's not a secret, and so I can see that the bare handful who survived it are genuinely changed by the experience. But why should anyone else be under an obligation 16:13 <banana> to redeem Franco?" 16:13 <banana> "All this propaganda is smoothing the way for... what? A demand for normalisation? Running as candidates? There's no chance of that.. and Emily won't wait until 2085." 16:15 <banana> He throws up his hands. "It feels like we're treated pretty well and kept pretty safe but it can't be in service of anything other than, eventually, horror. And the way they treat you has to be a preview." 16:15 <banana> "Like they can do whatever they want and it won't matter because in the end they always win. And so far, they do." 16:15 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "And yet here we are." 16:16 <VoxPVoxD> "It feels like the world is getting smaller, despite our best efforts." 16:17 <banana> Sergio: "No, hang on. You beat Carl at Medlock. They don't always win. That's the propaganda." 16:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "We fought Carl to a draw at Medlock. And from their perspective, fighting is still a win of a kind. We may not be prey in their eyes but we're certainly no less entangled." 16:19 <VoxPVoxD> "It's their pastime. It is their place of business. It may be, in some sense, their passion. They can do this all night long." 16:19 <banana> Sergio: "Ha ha." 16:20 <banana> "What sort of pathetic passion is-" airquotes- "'making sure people can't ignore you'?" 16:20 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "The kind you cultivate over centuries in the dark." 16:20 <VoxPVoxD> "And they've gotten very good at it. Can we ignore them?" 16:21 <VoxPVoxD> "...can I? I don't know. But the thought of backing away, of backing down... ooh. I don't like it. It makes me... I don't like it." 16:24 <banana> Sergio: "Yeah, well, it is actually an option, isn't it?" 16:24 <VoxPVoxD> "What do you mean?" 16:25 <banana> "No matter how much of a bastard Fortunato is or how much power Emily has, they can't really do anything if we went as far away as.. Birmingham, say. Some unthinkably long distance like that." 16:25 <banana> "But then they'd win. And everyone else in this little cesspit would have to put up with it." 16:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "...yeah." 16:28 <VoxPVoxD> "It's just so pointlessly ugly." 16:29 <VoxPVoxD> "All that grace... all that power... and so little imagination." 16:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Everything soft or grand or precious in them just... scoured away, by centuries." 16:31 <banana> Sergio: "That's the main thing I've been thinking about, of course. How long you can go on without becoming a one-man gerontocracy." 16:31 <VoxPVoxD> "You know, you're not alone, there." 16:32 <VoxPVoxD> "There are people in the night-city who make it their night's work to resist stagnation. I've been working with them through Aaron. I've learned a great deal." 16:33 <banana> "What's their theory? Mine is that the key is simply to become more accepting of an end over time, not less. Like normal living people do." 16:34 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I don't think they have just *one*. It seems quite idiosyncratic. They're scientists, you know. They'll try anything they can test and repeat." 16:34 <VoxPVoxD> "But I'm hardly an expert. I'm just a very intriguing lab rat." 16:39 <banana> Sergio frowns - the one Willie's learned means he's trying to put the pieces together. His face doesn't have lines for it, since it's not something he used to do much in the sunlight... 16:39 <banana> "Ahh. The other side of the bus." 16:40 <banana> "We would seriously be putting 'turkish immigrants' in the propaganda if anyone was actually worried about jobs instead of feeding." 16:40 <banana> Sergio: "For a moment there, I thought you were going to ask me to join the Carthian movement." 16:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "The Carthians? They're such unsound government! Haven't you seen the videos?" 16:42 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm sorry, that's not a very good joke, is it?" 16:42 <VoxPVoxD> "I don't want to get you in any trouble. I don't want to cause you any pain." 16:42 <VoxPVoxD> Here I am anyway. 16:46 <banana> Sergio: "No, no, no. I've had quite enough lonely security. Don't let anyone tell you you can't cause trouble, not even yourself." 16:46 <VoxPVoxD> Dryly: "Nobody seems to believe me when I tell them that, anyway. Not even myself." 16:48 <VoxPVoxD> "I want to spend more time with you. It makes the rest of this more bearable, and it's the one concession to vampire business even the team won't seethe about." 16:48 <VoxPVoxD> "Just... maybe not *at* Inchcape. For a while." 16:54 <banana> Sergio: "No. Most of what goes on there is surprisingly wholesome, but that doesn't matter. There's... what does Simpson call it? An unresolved contradiction." 16:54 <banana> He takes Willie's hand. They've walked a long way from the garage, but that just means they get to walk back. It's not like Kaga can tire. 16:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie squeezes it. Why can't everything be as lovely and sensemaking as this? 16:56 <VoxPVoxD> Why can't anything?