23:07 <VoxPVoxD> Willie spends the next day with a splitting headache, slightly foggy vision, and a delirious, all-consuming sense of happiness that seems to suffuse the whole ash-grey world of Manchester in winter with life, colour, beauty, meaning. Nothing could put a damper on how indomitable she feels right now. How certain is she of this? 23:07 <VoxPVoxD> Aaron gets a text. <I have some things I'd like to discuss with you. Vampire Business. Would you like to come to mine for dinner?> 23:08 <Crion> It's perhaps fifteen minutes before an answer. <Okay.> 23:08 <Crion> <Certainly.> 23:08 <Crion> <Should I bring wine or liquor?> 23:09 <VoxPVoxD> <wine would be good! something to pair with red meat> 23:10 <Crion> <I will bring a malbec and pick up a cab on the way.> 23:10 <VoxPVoxD> <your sophisticiation does you credit> 23:10 <Crion> <What time?> 23:10 <VoxPVoxD> <8?> 23:10 <Crion> <I will be there.> 23:10 <Crion> He is. With two bottles. 23:11 <Crion> He's in his vampire coat and a black turtleneck this time, instead of a suit. 23:13 <Crion> How's this buzzer situation work? 23:15 <VoxPVoxD> It's a wi-fi intercom that's connected to Willie's phone, so she buzzes him in and then greets him at the door. Aaron's never been in Willie's flat before, has he? 23:15 <Crion> He has not. 23:16 <Crion> "The malbec should be put near, but not quite 'off', heat. Do whatever you want with the cabernet. It's a cabernet." 23:16 <Crion> "And good evening." 23:18 <Crion> Aster: "You've seen Sergio since we last talked." 23:18 <Crion> "Do you need help with the food?" 23:18 <VoxPVoxD> It's a smallish flat, but the building is modern enough that it doesn't feel as dingy or cramped. It's airy, lit well both by the fixtures and the beating heart of St. Peter's Square out the windows. She's decorated it meticulously, with a relentless eye for balance. The main decorations are photographs she's taken of other cities, although there are now a couple of Sergio's art pieces up, 23:18 <VoxPVoxD> including the sexy Yes Minister caricature and a watercolour of mist rising off the Irk. 23:19 <Crion> "...My apologies. I'm still antsy from the farm." 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> The smell in the flat is of meat and mushrooms. Willie's pale, a bit squinty, and positively glowing. "Oh, I won't hear of it. Come in, come in! Make yourself comfortable." 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> "Well, I don't want to impose. Make yourself however you like to be when people tell you to make yourself comfortable." 23:20 <Crion> He snorts, politely. "Comfortable means not just sipping wine while someone else does all the work on the food. I'll at least pop both bottles. Where should I put my coat?" 23:21 <Crion> Presumably they sort this all out, and are in the kitchen shortly. 23:21 <VoxPVoxD> "Hook's by the mirror. If your hands are idle I can make use of them." 23:22 <Crion> Aster: "Needs must, when the devil drives." 23:22 <VoxPVoxD> "Ah, the leash isn't broken. Not yet, anyway. Are you a rare? A medium rare?" 23:23 <VoxPVoxD> She doesn't insult his masculinity by suggesting anything higher. 23:23 <Crion> Aster half-heartedly looks insulted. She can probably already guess that he's a "Medium rare trending rare, if you would." 23:24 <Crion> Is the demon underfoot? 23:25 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga is sprawled over the entire sofa, and lifts his great black head when Aaron looks in his direction. "Finally. Some decent company." 23:25 <Crion> Aster nods once to the demon, then ignores him. 23:27 <Crion> If there are greens to wash before searing, as surely there are, he'll get to that. 23:27 <Crion> Asparagus. Sprouts. The like. 23:27 <VoxPVoxD> "Splendid." That means the meat's done... now. Sizzling, perfect pink slices let their juices and the madeira sauce Willie drizzles over top fall languidly into the bed of condensed, savoury mushrooms below, all of it supported by a raft of crisp, puffy salt-flaked pastry. The centrepiece stands like a country house presiding over hunting grounds of a simply dressed salad of the greens 23:27 <VoxPVoxD> Aaron washes. 23:28 <Crion> Once they've got the places set, the entrees placed with the sides, and the wine poured: "To the cell." 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> "To the House." Clink. 23:29 <VoxPVoxD> "This is a reconstructed deconstructed Beef Wellington." 23:29 <Crion> Fair enough. "Without the carbs." 23:30 <Crion> He tastes the malbec, then the steak. "Mmmm. Fantastic." The malbec again. "So." 23:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "And without the drip. The ingredients of a Wellington are so good, but the dish is always so squishy and disappointing. I will find the perfect configuration." 23:30 <Crion> "What's happened." 23:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie grins. "I took the liberty of preparing an agenda. Action items are Swords, Dragons, Queens, and the night watch." 23:33 <Crion> Aster's eyebrows lift, and he hides whatever smile he might have in return around another mouthful of steak. 23:33 <Crion> When he's politely finished: "Do I get the privilege of choice?" 23:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Naturally! You are a guest in my home." 23:34 <Crion> Aster: "Then take no offense, but my instincts are to have us begin with 'Queens,' and proceed naturally from there." 23:35 <Crion> Malbec is an incredibly dry red; he's taken the liberty of putting water on ice and pouring it at the table as well. 23:36 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Right! I've been a bit out of commission recently, but I read on the meeting you took with Dylan before the invasion. Have you been in touch with Savoy's people?" 23:36 <VoxPVoxD> Willie drinks more water than wine. She's gotten quite good at drinking around a lack of blood in her system. 23:37 <Crion> Aster: "In a fashion. I'm not sure what relation Diana Savoy of the BBC News in Manchester is to Stella, but it is sufficiently of the sort that Brutus Barrigan calls me when I ask Diana for something, and I tell him that I do not like him. More generally speaking, on the matter of the tomb and the little grey men, I have made guarantees to Dylan. Namely, that we will perform an exorcism 23:37 <Crion> on that tomb, with the help of the WASC Gangrel." 23:38 <Crion> "Obviously contingent on the Gangrel. I didn't guarantee those vampires would help." 23:39 <Crion> "Dylan wishes to be Embraced, but he wishes to see his children grow up first." 23:39 <Crion> "So I have accomodated that." 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Not even vampires can guarantee that vampires will help. But that is an old and powerful ghost down near Reading, and any help we can gather is precious." 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> "That's very conscientious of him." 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> "You can count on my support, obviously, and you'd have to beat Bob away with a stick. Shall we try to pitch the whole team on a pro bono job?" 23:40 <Crion> He takes another bite of steak. Delicious. "I have always liked Dylan, from the moment he started talking to us instead of threatening." 23:40 <Crion> "I think it's worth the effort. It might not even end up being pro bono." 23:40 <Crion> "Obviously not something to lead with." 23:41 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Naturally." 23:43 <VoxPVoxD> "Have you ever worked an exorcism before? I trained on it in Milan but I've never had to treat with a ghost so confrontationally in the field." 23:44 <Crion> Aster: "Five times that I can recall. Very different practitioners each time; very different results. Only once did things turn lethal, and that was for someone who had it coming." 23:44 <Crion> "VASCU is...permeated, let's say, with outside consultants." 23:45 <Crion> "Broadly speaking, my takeaway is that regardless of the schema, you need to commit to the bit." 23:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's a vibe I can embrace wholeheartedly." 23:47 <Crion> Aster sips the wine. "Excellent." 23:48 <Crion> "Where do we proceed naturally from here? Further Queens? Dragons? Swords?" 23:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Two items point our attention across the first. The first and simplest is the matter of Eccles's sword." 23:49 <VoxPVoxD> *across the river 23:50 <Crion> Mmm. Swords. "He's made contact, then." 23:51 <VoxPVoxD> Willie nods. "He has. I haven't arranged a venue or brought it before the team. I'd like something coherent to present. Have you had any thoughts?" 23:54 <Crion> Aster: "Well, there are inherent conflicts. We want it public, difficult for him to pull another 'fight me' stunt at, and so on, but that inherently means we can't organize it on this side of the river unless we bring sufficient force to guarantee the act in and of itself. I suspect it's easiest to just leave it somewhere for him, but that's...frail. We want to plant it in the ground, 23:54 <Crion> stand back, and watch him take it -- while he knows, even if he doesn't acknowledge, that he can't just bull rush us with it again." 23:54 <Crion> "Which is complicated in process, if -- maybe even especially if -- it's simple in result." 23:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "We know where he sleeps. We know where he works. We can plant the sword right in their lawn if we wish to. I think we've earned a measure of respect, and I think - politically - we should meet like with like." 23:57 <Crion> Aster: "Fair enough. How creative do you want to get?" 23:59 <VoxPVoxD> "If we make a further effort to humiliate him that respect will curdle into grievance. I don't think many things come more naturally to a man that old than a grudge. And it betrays the weakness of insecurity; magnanimity, short of ingratiation, is a position of dignity and strength." 00:00 <Crion> Aster: "I agree." 00:00 <VoxPVoxD> "What if we meet him on the Blackfriars Bridge?" 00:01 <Crion> Aster: "You want to go down to London?" 00:01 <Crion> "...It would be an opportunity to see Samantha." 00:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks a bit crestfallen now. "I meant the one across the Irwell. Symbolically significant, it's a 260 year old construction, it separates the two ventricles of the Greater Manchester Vitae Industrial Complex." 00:03 <Crion> "Oh for fuck's sake. How many Blackfriars can there possibly--" 00:03 <Crion> "This is what it was like for you with Penn Station first time you came over, wasn't it." 00:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "We should stop in London before or after we go to Reading." 00:04 <VoxPVoxD> "I have friends there I haven't seen in some time either." 00:05 <Crion> Aster wipes his mouth. "I probably should be aware of the formal name of that bridge. But yes, I do miss London. Okay. That sounds like the correct point for a transfer." 00:06 <Crion> "Also much less tolerant to us just planting the thing in the stone." 00:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Splendid. I haven't pressed Sergio for information on the inner workings at Inchcape besides what he feels the need to vent about. I don't want to magnify his exposure." 00:06 <VoxPVoxD> "Which brings me to the Dragons." 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> "I had a long conversation with him about the experiment, and one of the points we came to is that he'd like to take a greater interest in the work I've been doing. I'd like to propose to him that you'd be willing to talk about this and set his expectations, as well as integrate him into the safeguards you want established going forward." 00:08 <Crion> Aster takes a long sip. 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> "Bring him in from the cold." 00:09 <VoxPVoxD> "Do you think that would be agreeable?" 00:09 <Crion> "Mmmm." Hell is cold and blood is-- "Are you subject to his blood?" 00:10 <Crion> "This is a point that requires crystal clarity." 00:13 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "No, I'm not. We discussed that, and I don't intend to reject the prospect out of hand. He is very dear to me, and this is a boundary I want us to agree collaboratively rather than one I impose by force. My strategy is to find other routes to security. I think he can be made to see the virtues of independence and peer-respect. I think I can be worthy of that degree of trust." 00:13 <VoxPVoxD> "And I truly believe those querulous freaks can help us do it." 00:13 <Crion> Aster sighs. "Well. Perhaps so." 00:13 <Crion> "I am to furnish the introduction, then." 00:15 <Crion> He eats some more steak. 00:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Well, you've never got the chance to size him up. You should vet him, obviously." 00:17 <Crion> Aster rolls his eyes. "I need to set up a meet-cute, then. A man-date." 00:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'm happy to set it up, if you like. Do you want to bump into each other at the market? Perhaps cross paths on a moonlit stroll? Maybe you go diving in the canal and he's just there at the bottom, 'ah! just the man I wanted to see!'." 00:19 <VoxPVoxD> She's grinning. "Think of it as an interview if it pleases you. It is one, after all, so it wouldn't even be a trick." 00:20 <Crion> Aster: "Yes, all of that, if how he takes the Talon module is a desired and foremost learning." Aster sighs. "You're correct of course. What does the man like doing, besides art, and..." He waves down the table in his host's general direction. 00:20 <VoxPVoxD> Willie cackles. 00:21 <Crion> Aster merely has more steak. 00:21 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "He likes to ride his motorbike. He's quite the athlete - that is not innuendo - and he also enjoys films. I'm going to see the new James Bond with him at the weekend." 00:22 <Crion> Aster: "Well, there's that. I'm not entirely disinterested in the sad adventures of Daniel Craig, with the French." 00:23 <Crion> Aster: "The context to talk to him about it..." 00:23 <Crion> "Does he play handball?" 00:24 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'm not sure. It's not a terribly complicated sport, is it? You could teach him." 00:25 <VoxPVoxD> "If not, he plays bocce." 00:25 <Crion> Aster: "I'd prefer not to be in a mentor role. Let's just try to figure out what he's already good at, so we're somewhat equal, or at least not doing tutelage. That's what I'm supposed to be selling from Vados." 00:25 <Crion> "Bocce." 00:25 <Crion> "Fuck." 00:26 <VoxPVoxD> "Not a fan of lawn games?" 00:26 <Crion> "I simply didn't know that he's Italian Italian." 00:29 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "He's from here. His family is Sicilian. That's two metaphysical offramps to eject him from Italianhood." 00:29 <Crion> Aster: "I'm just stuck envisioning us arguing over scoring wearing our grandfather's hats and a tub of pomade between us." 00:30 <Crion> "Fine." 00:31 <Crion> "I think it's best we raise this issue with Vados together, on that end. I've secured his attention the next time we visit, at least. Which is to say we're planning that visit around his schedule." 00:31 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's also envisioning that. She seems to enjoy it more than he does. 00:32 <VoxPVoxD> "You mean you and I? That's fine." 00:33 <Crion> Aster: "I should hope so. I've just about run out of times I can pull the 'look at my face. Oh, there's no Beast there, so let me tell you what it means: I'm upset with you' move." 00:33 <Crion> "Which was one time." 00:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Well, I'll just have to earn enough of his respect to be able to be the angry one." 00:34 <Crion> Aster, finishing his steak: "Have you looked over the data from that incident? I've put it on HUNTR. There were implications." 00:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I have. I can amend them: my blood is even more inefficient a source of sustenance." 00:35 <VoxPVoxD> "Another consequence of this untethering." 00:36 <VoxPVoxD> "Having read the report I feel like I can feel it anywhere. Can the blood have a confirmation bias?" 00:36 <Crion> Aster waves his fork. "Notable, but not a productive new line of inquiry. I'm more interested in the RFID spoofing." 00:36 <Crion> "I think it opens legitimate avenues of connection with your gamer friends, and what they've got going on." 00:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's a good thought. There are more lines of inquiry and I've been terribly neglectful of the boys." 00:37 <VoxPVoxD> "Being able to dovetail demon business and vampire business... that's synergy." 00:38 <Crion> Aster: "I don't need to ride along if they'll regretfully mistake me for their disapproving fathers, in Heaven or otherwise. But yes, it's something to press forward on." 00:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "As long as you can restrain the urge to tell them to stop playing video games, I think you'll get along with them as well as anyone does." 00:39 <VoxPVoxD> "I'd be interested to see your take! They're quite outside the experience of demonkind we're trained on in Milan." 00:39 <VoxPVoxD> "Of course... so am I now." 00:39 <Crion> Aster: "You've said they enjoy pizza?" 00:39 <VoxPVoxD> "They do! They're quite happy to eat my cooking." 00:40 <Crion> He nods. "Then I'll use our outing as my cheat day, and be in substantially better spirits." 00:40 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Synergy upon synergy." 00:41 <Crion> Aster has finished his food, and gone through two glasses of wine. 00:41 <Crion> "This has been productive." 00:42 <VoxPVoxD> "Two more points I wanted to touch on. Point the first: I'd like approval to float Sergio visiting me while I'm on night shifts with Reveille. I don't intend to insist or force the issue, but I'd like to take her temperature." 00:42 <Crion> Aster: "You know what she'll say, but so long as he's supervised I don't see the issue. The second?" 00:43 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I saw in your report that you'd stipulated that Bob can't attend any more experiments." 00:43 <VoxPVoxD> "I understand why. I'd like us to reconsider." 00:43 <Crion> Aster: "A judgment made in the context of the circumstances, but one I stand by. In the circumstances." 00:43 <Crion> "Sell me on it." 00:46 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "The circumstances are different now, in four key ways. One: the tensions that the experiment exposed can't blindside me again. I'm aware of them, I'm working on them, I can account for them. Two: the other experimental safeguards you insist upon dramatically decrease the risk of any new lapse causing another degrading incident. Three: I am stronger now, I have changed and grown 00:46 <VoxPVoxD> even since the last experiment and I am changing in a direction away from the kind of lapses of character that caused the last embarrassment." 00:47 <VoxPVoxD> "And finally - and to me this is most important - he didn't do anything wrong. Bob was a model of good behaviour, not just with the vampires but in the uniquely awful position I put him in. What message do we send to him, to our value of him as a teammate and peer, if he does everything right and gets punished anyway?" 00:50 <Crion> Aster: "I decline to answer your last question, in service of mooting it. Bob can attend. But perhaps he shouldn't attend sessions with you." 00:53 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "...perhaps not. My hope is that that will not be an issue in future... but for now that remains a hope. The work continues, and I am very optimistic. But you're right. Maybe this is something you can work out with Bob? I feel like my involvement would be prejudicial." 00:53 <VoxPVoxD> "His comfort level, I mean." 00:54 <Crion> Aster: "Of course. But I'm not talking purely conceptually. You want Sergio to be spending fair, quality time with Vados and his scientists. I, personally, cannot commit to being the ride-along for the both of you." 00:54 <Crion> He sips the wine. "And perhaps spending quality time together would be good for them." 00:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie opens her mouth and closes it. She finishes the last of her food, the last of her wine, expression deeply thoughtful. 00:56 <VoxPVoxD> "That's very smart, and it had not occurred to me." 01:00 <VoxPVoxD> "I can bring that up with them." 01:00 <VoxPVoxD> "That I feel would not be unduly prejudicial. If they can say no to me about anything, it'd be that." 01:01 <Crion> Aster: "Excellent. I'll have my hands full being...whatever this new role is." 01:01 <Crion> "You're turning him, correct?" 01:01 <Crion> "Sergio." 01:02 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I can't claim credit. He's turning himself. Every night he tells me a new awful, dispiritng thing he's noticed. There is still the matter of his bondage, but he is far beyond naive compliance." 01:03 <VoxPVoxD> "And he will go further still." 01:04 <Crion> Aster: "Well. Let's hope we come up with a plan for the matter of his bondage before the Baron forces that issue. I don't need to wake up with that particular face grinning five inches from me just before I die." 01:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "A grin would be most intemperate. You would get a nod of mild satisfaction." 01:04 <VoxPVoxD> "But yes, your meaning is well-taken." 01:05 <Crion> Conversationally: "If he took the time to nod, I'd have already won." 01:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie grins. "This has been productive. And fun as well. You are really very enjoyable company." 01:06 <Crion> Aster: "And you make an excellent steak." 01:06 <Crion> "Dishes, then?" 01:06 <VoxPVoxD> "Let's."