20:16 <banana> It's not a weekend night, so the clubs aren't so busy. Manchester's nightlife is still a little shaken up by the recent attacks - there's extra security, extra GMP cops on the streets, which in turn keeps some people away who'd otherwise be out. 20:16 <Crion> Aster just wears a white v-neck undershirt under his charcoal grey suit. Some nights demand casual. 20:16 <Crion> Especially when you've been disrespected. 20:17 <Crion> The undershirt is crisp, though. 20:17 <banana> It's true that one of the attacks was an essentially unrepeatable and possibly faux- alien invasion, and the other may have been a rather cruel false flag... but they don't know that, and they wouldn't be better off if they did. 20:18 <banana> Since there's not much of a line for Konnections, Aster's dressing-down (relatively speaking) goes unremarked. And anyway, he knows a managing partner. 20:18 <banana> Is he expecting to be met and escorted in? 20:19 <Crion> Yes. 20:21 <banana> He gets the medium VIP treatment, which is to say that the guy waiting to tell the bouncer "he's with us" is probably a vampire, but not a rich vampire. Has Aster ever met Craig Dunlop? He's a young looking guy, boy-band kind of appearance, but dressed in a fake cassock. Just ostentatiously-enough a costume to avoid ecclesiastical prosecution. 20:22 <Crion> He hasn't. He knows the type. Fake priests are big in Philly. 20:24 <Crion> "Dunlop," Aster says by way of greeting. "Father Dunlop." 20:25 <banana> "Craig, please. I'm actually so happy you remember me!" The vampire smiles like a teen heartthrob. There's certainly room for conversation, but both of them know this guy's been sent to fetch-and-carry, so you're already heading into the club. 20:25 <Crion> Aster will follow. He's not here to talk to 'Craig.' 20:28 <banana> The man he is here to talk to is up in the VIP lounge - there's a foggy corner filled with the vapour of dry ice, where an improbably green leather sofa wraps around two walls. A group of women were approaching it, loudly, with cocktails, but they've just been waved away; Aster sees Ultim Vados and Henry the (formerly) First. 20:28 <banana> Craig Dunlop: "There we go. Did you lose my note? Burn it? Want another to pass on to your friends?" 20:29 <Crion> He turns fully to Dunlop: "It would be best for you to give it to me again, here and now, when I'm not subject to your Prince's Majesty." 20:29 <Crion> "It's only fair." 20:30 <Crion> "To you, that is." 20:30 <Crion> Previously, you didn't rate. 20:31 <banana> Craig: "Ohhh, of course. Seele enchants us all." 20:31 <banana> "Well!" He fishes in his robe and hands Aster an actual business card, albeit one that's printed on a red background and half-covered with a photograph of a shirtless man. 20:32 <banana> "Father Craig, yes, of the Church of the Cave and Spear... I specialise in absolutions and blood-for-sex trades. No shame? Then you've got game. Enjoy your meeting." 20:32 <Crion> Aster is nearly inclined to bare his own teeth at Craig Dunlop. 20:32 <Crion> Instead: "I think I will. Thank you, Father." 20:33 <Crion> Youth pastor pervert piece of shit rape king motherfucker. 20:33 <banana> Not the vibes the Sanctified Kindred was hoping for, but you don't need a high hit rate when you've got hustle. He'll depart at a normal walking pace. 20:34 <Crion> Aster straightens his blazer as he approaches. He'll greet Henry I, the host, first. 20:35 <Crion> "Thank you for your forbearance in accomodating this, Registrar. We're still working on the other thing. Flying grey men from the sky and all." 20:36 <banana> Ultim and Henry (Vados and... Normandy? He's got to have a surname now, computer forms are too inflexible) are talking quietly. Something about a belt and a road. They break off to shake hands with Aaron in turn. 20:36 <Crion> "When we have the time and the health, it will be settled." 20:36 <Crion> Aster's shake is firm. 20:36 <banana> Henry: "Good to hear. I'm honestly happy to leave it in your hands... we have enough history around here already, don't you think?" 20:37 <Crion> Aster: "And it just keeps happening. Dreadful." 20:38 <banana> Illuminus Vados: "So we've known since at least 2002." 20:38 <banana> Henry: "Do you gentlemen need anything, or have a preference on the dance floor's volume?" 20:39 <Crion> Aster shakes Vados's hand just as firmly, but doesn't start talking yet. 20:39 <Crion> To Henry: "As long as we can hear ourselves talk, I don't care how many times Sandstorm is played." 20:40 <Crion> "But thank you for the consideration." 20:40 <Crion> His eyes haven't left Vados since the handshake. 20:41 <banana> Vados grins a little through his large beard and also doesn't say anything. There's an an air of anticipation. 20:41 <banana> Henry bows a little, hands you a table marker if you want to order anything, and leaves - "to take the temperature". 20:42 <Crion> Aster is happy to deliver. 20:43 <Crion> He leans forward. He at most enunciates with the sides of his mouth, showing his teeth; nothing reaches his eyes. "It's difficult to tell with humans some times, because you can't read the Beast in them. Because humans don't have the Beast. That alien parasite is not something that mortal humans are privy or private to. So I want to make it clear that right now I am extremely angry." 20:45 <banana> The man from the Order of Dracula doesn't lean away, but he takes his hands out of his coat to hold them up in a pacifying gesture. He clearly expected something like this. 20:46 <banana> "Mr. Aster, that is evident. You must thinking something like: Why should I put up with this approach, with these tricks and traps?" 20:46 <banana> *must be 20:47 <Crion> Aster: "No. I know why I put up with it. Tangible, buildable results. I put up with it because we make something together that we analyze together and that we then synthesize together." 20:47 <banana> Vados: "Well, that is a coincidence." 20:48 <Crion> "What did Paranewton learn when she sent the Beast into Wilhelmina Wellesley? What actionable research data was gained?" 20:49 <banana> "My subordinates' unprofessional approaches, which can be hammered into a scientific framework only through others' great labour... I put up with it because it works. So let's take a look at the data, then return to the topic of whether it should have been gathered." 20:49 <banana> Vados opens his greatcoat and removes a manilla folder as well as a USB key, setting the latter on the sofa beside Aster. "Digital copy." 20:50 <Crion> Aster pockets the key and gestures to the folder. His face hasn't softened. 20:51 <Crion> He is not about to tell Vados of the pain Bob and Willie suffered as a result of the experiment because he does not believe in presenting weakness as motive. If Vados wants to comment on it, he can. 20:57 <banana> Vados opens the folder, looks around irritatedly for a table, then bestirs himself to drag a leather sitting-cushion across in order to improvise one. "We have two categories of data here. Conventional measurement by Master Sarhos and the metareproducible conclusions of Master Paranewton." 20:57 <Crion> Aster: "The first is absolutely useless without the second, so let's begin with the juice." 20:59 <banana> Vados: "Without digressing too far into this.. lake of juice, our Order has a major category of techniques which can be taught, but not en masse - they require intensive personal tutoring. So the more 'spiritualist' ideas here are verifiable, but only by a small number of people in a time consuming fashion. But it all points to the same conclusion: Ms. Wellesley is leashed, and our work 20:59 <banana> is weakening the links in that chain." 21:01 <Crion> Aster: "A vampire is leashed to the Beast. A VASCU operative is leashed to Philadelphia. A mage is leashed to his ego. It was understood, prima facie, that Wellesley was leashed to Satan, or a sufficiently generalized bloodline sample. Does this metadata analysis posit a more specific leash?" 21:05 <banana> Vados waits for him to finish: "Yes, Aster, I'll give you the abstract of the abstract. Willie is not possessed by Satan. Our current hypothesis is that she is an expression of Satan, one which is restricted in its effect on the world by external... agency." He hesitates over the last word. 21:05 <Crion> Wow. All this effort just to learn that Willie wasn't possessed by Satan. What a fucking market return on investm-- 21:05 <Crion> Aster calms himself. 21:06 <banana> "The purpose of the week's experiment as it was initially... and inadequately... explained to me was this: to validate or replace the 'Dark Passenger' hypothesis. We have done this. You prefer the spiritualist perspective first?" 21:06 <Crion> Aster: "Yes." 21:09 <banana> Vados: "You hit on something earlier. The question of whether the Beast is in any way human... that's a topic of hot debate. Paranewton studies it, invariably to our detriment. Whatever the thing is, it finds purchase in humanity, and Paranewton reports that the thing's foothold in Willie Wellesley is decreasing. Emplaced, it required considerable sustenance; released, it came almost by 21:09 <banana> choice." 21:10 <banana> "Humanity, in the sense that vampirism can compromise it, has a customary hold over her soul which is being shaken loose." 21:11 <banana> The papers he hands Aster are handwritten, although there are drawn graphs - rating of required effort, experiential costs, subjective backlash et cetera. 21:11 <Crion> Aster: "Whether the Beast hates its host is entirely separate from its efficaciousness upon them. I don't trust its instincts. The separate issue of humanity -- is this being judged, in the metadata, against the actions of the Beast entire or do we have a seperate indicator of arbitration?" 21:11 <Crion> Aster: "Ah." 21:11 <Crion> He will examine these. 21:12 <banana> Vados: "Master Paranewton's unfortunate clique can be measured in their faintings, and we have done this. It took more of their hunger to press hers into Willie than is usually necessary; more than twice as much." 21:12 <Crion> So no. We are doing an evidence of the absence measure for 'humanity' here. Well. Perhaps evidence of the presence. 21:13 <Crion> That's fine. It's not as if you can simply inject blue dye into the soul. 21:14 <banana> Ultim Vados studies Aster for a moment. The latter gets the sense that the former is more concerned with presenting this data than mollifying him per se, but he's trying to gague the mood for both those things. "Shall we turn to the chemical and electromagnetics?" 21:14 <Crion> Aster: "Half as much blood yield in, I believe the term of art is Vitae. More than twice as much effort to force the Beast in." 21:14 <Crion> Aster: "Of course." 21:14 <Crion> Having demonstrated his displeasure, Aster is no longer interested in hiding it but also not particularly interested in peacocking it about. 21:15 <banana> Most of the documents deal with these objective measurements, in two sets of tables and formulae. 21:15 <Crion> A deal was made; a deal is being honored. There's a reason he continues to forward all his notes on that haunted tomb in the fields of England. 21:16 <banana> Vados: "Some of our instruments didn't measure anything useful. We have results from the postquaternary emissions spectrum and from skin-level spectroscopy... incidentally, Sari would appreciate the opportunity for a new DNA swab. Wants to see if it's changed." 21:17 <Crion> Aster: "That will depend on whether I can sell this relationship as one that's worth continuing." 21:17 <Crion> Aster: "So far, I am seeing good indicators." 21:18 <banana> Vados raises his eyebrows.. after the second line. "Our emissions... indicator is a measurement of radio signals, basically, but radio outside the four compressed and typically-observable dimensions." 21:19 <banana> "We've known since the initial tests that Willie's blood is radio-reflective along different spectra to the standard response curve of normal human blood, or human blood in a vampire body. Vitae, parenthetically, is not extraquarternally sensitive." 21:19 <Crion> Aster: "Yes, I recall this from the initial survey. The readings that indicated an RFID profile." 21:20 <banana> Vados: "That's right! What we see on Tuesday night.. a further spectrum shift, occurring as the experiment was conducted." 21:21 <Crion> Aster: "Responsiveness. Physical and meta-responsiveness." 21:21 <banana> "To put it simply," he indicates a particular chart with an attached drawing of a tesseract, "we were able to identify at least one active and one passive signal from the shift in response. Willie's receiving.. information, control, maybe something like a radar ping.. unfortunately it's not coming through space and time, so we can't say where, if that word is even applicable." 21:22 <banana> "Furthermore!" Vados is excited now. "And this truly has implications worth pondering." 21:22 <Crion> Aster: "I suspect you've never been able to -- or needed to -- track the Beast like this. The Beast is local." 21:23 <Crion> He ponders the tesseract for a moment. 21:23 <banana> Vados: "...yes. Yes, I was entirely wrong to suppose that something like a Beast lurked in our colleague's blood. Indeed, there is a suppression.. signal. Energy. Pervading everything." 21:23 <banana> "While Willie was driven by hunger, its effect on her became... less necessary, perhaps entirely so. It failed to find purchase, creating something of an energy drop... a radar void." 21:23 <Crion> 'Colleague's' blood? Well there's something. 21:25 <banana> "The thing is, this particular field also pervades all physical particles in the universe, as far as we can tell. It just-" He looks around, out over the padded rails fo the mezzanine at the dance floor where young people press together in ecstacy. 21:25 <banana> "Hits difference." 21:25 <banana> *different 21:29 <Crion> Aster taps the folder twice. "RFID where it shouldn't be. A bastardization, in concept, of the idea of injecting mortals with chips and trackers...but found organically in the blood, as a Satanic descendant concept. Orders transmitted through these psuedo-radio operants into the blood, then conveyed through it as a series of demands into the body." 21:29 <Crion> "Strange physics and medicals, but not coded as magic -- coded as physics and medicals." 21:29 <banana> Vados: "'Coded' is a rather anthropomorphic term." 21:30 <Crion> Aster: "Yes. Intentionally so." 21:30 <Crion> "Infrastructure." 21:31 <Crion> Aster: "I have more investigation to do. I know where to start. I, of course, will file a report. It will be anthropological." 21:31 <banana> Vados: "There's a pattern here, I can see that much, but you might be imputing it with something I... can't. The pieces, if you put them together, conflict with secrets i know to be true." 21:32 <Crion> Aster: "'The secret world is always butting elbows.'" 21:32 <Crion> "My mentor said that to me more than a few times, when I asked questions that were a bit to perspicacious." 21:33 <Crion> "He died under mysterious circumstances. Age 53." 21:33 <banana> Vados: "How old are you, Mr. Aster?" 21:33 <Crion> *bit too 21:33 <Crion> Aster grins: "Forty-five. I aim to beat his record." 21:33 <Crion> It's intentionally unclear in which direction he means. 21:34 <banana> Vados: "Mm. Well, the skin-sampling results are very simple to interpret, if a little silly." 21:34 <Crion> Aster: "Show me." 21:36 <banana> He shows you. "While Ms. Wellesley was infused with unnatural hunger - this effect ended as soon as the Beast was called back - her body's needs apparently began to change in minute ways. Chemical composition, flesh digesting itself... nothing on the macro level or medically harmful. She began to 'consume', in the sense that you consume Vitamin D and I do not, magnesium and fixed carbon. 21:36 <banana> Fuels and catalysts." 21:36 <banana> "Not at all what happens to the flesh of starving Kindred." 21:37 <Crion> Aster: "The Beast treats us differently. Good to know, in an academic sense." 21:37 <Crion> He's not being dismissive. 21:38 <banana> Vados sits back, closing the file unless Aster's got more to look at (right now, rather than later on a computer). 21:39 <banana> "I'd like to know what you feel about the price of this data." 21:39 <banana> Vados: "I'd like to know what Ms. Wellesley feels- but she's not here." 21:40 <Crion> Aster: "Acceptable. Barely in the bounds of acceptable, and worth a re-evaluation of our protocols. But I do not feel the data is tainted. However, I think that's mainly lucky happenstance." 21:40 <banana> Vados: "It's an interesting data point in and of itself." 21:40 <Crion> "The man we brought with us to the last session will not be returning, for his own health but, more importantly, for Wellesley's." 21:41 <Crion> "And Wellesley will not be returning without sufficient guarantee that you will be present for and exercising supervision over any further tests." 21:41 <Crion> "That is my condition." 21:41 <Crion> "If you are not present, we will walk out." 21:42 <banana> Vados: "Well. I suppose I do know exactly what went wrong." 21:43 <banana> "The only cost to fulfilling your condition is my time. I don't have much of it, in a sense, and all the time in the world in another... I respect that you aren't negotiating per se." 21:44 <Crion> Aster: "While I am aware that explaining the nature of these experiments to Wellesley ahead of time may ruin results, things would have gone quite differently if I was made aware that Paranewton was putting the Beast into a mortal woman and just seeing what would happen. I want to know the parameters of the experiments before they happen. They can be explained on site -- but I cannot be 21:44 <Crion> caught in a situation like your Master engendered again." 21:44 <Crion> Aster: "No. Not particularly." 21:44 <banana> Vados: "I don't think disclosure would have changed the results much here. Let me qualify that:" 21:44 <banana> "We rely overmuch on savants. Paranewton studies her own hunger, and has developed extraordinary abilities, which she can teach to an extent. However, we've found that any use of that ability, of anything derived from her study.. causes pain, to her and to others. This appears to be... the nature of the beast." 21:45 <banana> "Nothing it touches turns to gold." 21:45 <Crion> Aster: "I wasn't concerned about the data-level results." 21:45 <banana> Vados: "That's not what I meant, either." 21:46 <banana> "I'll fulfil your first condition. This is a cost-benefit judgement, you should be aware - the experiments are worthwhile, maintaining good relations is worthwhile. So I will dedicate part of my nights to the task, and maintain supervision." 21:47 <Crion> Aster: "Understood. Wellesley enjoys them, outside of this speedbump; adjusting to your schedule won't be an issue." 21:48 <banana> "Alright, we'll liase on availability, or Casauabon will let you know at times I'm occupied." 21:48 <banana> *Casaubon 21:49 <banana> He looks out at the dance floor again. They're playing "Who the Fuck is Alice". 21:49 <Crion> Aster nods. "That sounds sufficient. I will let you know if my inquiries down the other branch of this bear fruit." 21:49 <Crion> "The usual way. E-mails and attachments." 21:51 <banana> Ultim: "This sounds good." 21:51 <banana> "I haven't been to one of these places since leaving Istanbul. It's not so different." 21:51 <Crion> Aster: "The world doesn't change so much from place to place. They'd love for you think otherwise." 21:52 <banana> The Turkish vampire presses the buzzer to summon a waiter or Henry. "Perhaps I'll leave these papers for our host to incinerate and take a turn on the floor." 21:53 <Crion> Aster has a lighter, but the offering would be impolite. "I wish you well. Maybe I'll stay for a drink."