08:10 <VoxPVoxD> Given the aesthetic of the site as a whole, you might be forgiven for thinking that the rhythmic multicoloured flicker of lights across the dim Greybox were LEDs, displays, warning lights, the signals and switches embedded among the wires in the walls. But it's the Christmas tree. Bob and Agostina did the lion's share of the decoration, and as she boxes up the last of the paper files of 08:10 <VoxPVoxD> the Reveille case, with her red Santa hat and her cafe mocha, Willie basks in the glow of their effort. 08:20 <tom> The truck comes to a stop outside the unfinished building and its driver hauls himself out. The dog waiting outside the door can see a look of annoyance cross the man's face as he steps past: "If I give you a treat, will you submit to the santa hat for a selfie?" 08:20 <tom> Bob shakes a little plastic baggie of bone-shaped treats. 08:21 <VoxPVoxD> Kagemenauch lifts his big jowly head to look Bob in the eye. "Three treats." 08:22 <tom> "Four and you wear the fuzzy reindeer antlers too," Bob counters. 08:23 <VoxPVoxD> "Call it five." 08:24 <tom> "The pact is sealed." Bob reaches into his coat and plops the hat and antlers on the demon's head before producing his phone. 08:24 <tom> The dog gets his treats. 08:25 <tom> He's snorting as he goes to hit the buzzer. 08:27 <VoxPVoxD> The big mastiff's are bright and reptilian in the photo Bob took. Willie lets Bob in. 08:31 <tom> The photo goes on Huntr. Bob's grinning for the camera with his thumb over his shoulder at the jowly demon. "Hey Willie," he groans as he unshoulders a bag of bits and bobs at his workstation. 08:32 <tom> "You didn't really strike me as the christmas-y type," he snickers. 08:32 <VoxPVoxD> "Robert," says Willie crisply as she checks her phone to see the new Hunter notification, and snorts. "What? Why?" 08:34 <tom> "Huh," he stops. "I guess I never asked if they celebrate Christmas in Hell." 08:38 <tom> His guns clatter onto his work surface as Bob shakes out his jacket and goes to hang it on the rack. "What'r'ya up to?" 08:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie drinks her coffee as she crosses back to where the last box waits to be lidded and filed. After heaving it into place she sits down. "The Draculas want to know if I can officiate a Black Mass for them on midnight the 25th. I kind of want to get into it, just because I know they'll be terribly disappointed to learn I've never done." 08:39 <VoxPVoxD> "I love Christmas! It's the best time of year, everyone's wearing cozy clothes, eating mincemeat pies, peppermints, turkish delight..." 08:41 <VoxPVoxD> "It feels like it becomes socially acceptable to put the decorations up earlier and earlier every year... I just wish we'd spill it forward into January as well as bleeding it back into November." 08:44 <tom> "The hell they need you for," Bob chuckles. "They gonna make you summon a Krampus?" Then: "Are they gonna make you summon a krampus?" 08:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I think that's the idea!" 08:47 <tom> He goes over to the kitchenette and returns with a jug of water to top off the christmas tree, inspecting the needles while he ruminates. "Fun for the whole family. They aren't gonna like, eat any babies?" 08:47 <VoxPVoxD> "The Draculas or my family?" 08:52 <tom> He ducks behind the tree to check for dead bulbs on the string of lights, helpfully hiding his grimace: "Hopefully there won't be any crossover attendees, haha." 08:52 <tom> "For real though I know these guys love to freak out the normies at their little rituals." 08:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles ruefully. "Maybe so... what about you? Christmas plans?" 08:55 <VoxPVoxD> "I'd ask if you celebrate, but you put the bloody tree up." 08:59 <tom> "Dad always got us a tree every year. Only time I ever saw the guy happy." A sour expression crosses Bob's face, but it passes on: "Oh, nothing much, just gonna chill and... you know, yeah, you know how vacations are. You get back and you need a vacation from the vacation." 09:00 <tom> "Got stuff to work out, uhh, yeah." 09:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "And work on. Speaking of which, do you want to exchange gifts now?" 09:02 <tom> Bob thumps his palm on the wall to pre-empt his own sigh: "Well, shit, if you're gonna be going to Dracula Christmas, shit, why not?" He glances down at the colorfully-wrapped gifts. 09:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie taps quite a big box round the back of the tree. "These are yours." 09:08 <tom> Not to be outdone, Bob pushes forward a pair of gifts with his boot. The first's tag is scrawled over with Bob's sloppiest pensmanship with "From Fortunato >:)". 09:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie opens that one first, obviously. 09:09 <tom> He goes to take up Willie's offered gift, shaking it gently before going to peel the paper off. 09:12 <VoxPVoxD> Bob's box is two boxes stacked one atop the other. The box on top is a case of heirloom seed varieties, for growing herbs, vegetables, and flowers. The significantly larger box on the bottom is a big commercial 3D printer with all the bells and whistles. The card has a pretty watercolour of an English farm in winter, and inside the message is, Willie is your friend. 09:12 <VoxPVoxD> Willie busies herself with her gifts so she's not watching Bob react in real time. 09:13 <tom> Was he drunk when he wrapped this one? There's too much tape, criss-crossing the folds, Willie really has to work at it- ah, there we go. There's a big snarl of folded paper pressed into the tape like a knot, and the whole thing unravels as Willie picks at it, revealing possibly the least-tasteful Christmas gift she's ever received, considering the circumstances: https://i.imgur.com/XVWN5mg.jpg 09:14 <VoxPVoxD> "Pfffftahahahahahahahahaha*snrrt*" 09:14 <tom> "Oh wow," Bob murmurs. 09:14 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh my God you are such a bastard." She's still giggling. 09:15 <tom> Bob whistles as he takes up the packets and flicks them to rattle the seeds like little maracas. "Oh hell yes, we're gonna grow so many dang tomatahs out at the farm." He looks sad suddenly. 09:16 <tom> He catches himself: "This is amazing- you gotta tell me how much you blew on the printer. These don't come cheap." 09:16 <tom> Bob thumps the printer's box approvingly with his palm. 09:17 <tom> He can't help but grin at her laughter. "Phew, was worried there for a hot second," 09:17 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I assumed you've already got a guy for buying large quanities of fertiliser." She notices his expression, but lets Bob blow past it. "Oh, I can't. Telling someone how much you spent on a gift is unforgiveably tacky." 09:17 <tom> "I'm gonna make so much weird shit, you best watch out." 09:18 <tom> Bob's already tapping on his visor to pull up the most embarrassing figurines he can think. No, that's too embarrassing. 09:19 <tom> We'll settle on the Mobile Suit Gundam shit for a test run. Work our way up to the unspeakably horny animu shit. 09:19 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I look forward to seeing whatever tiny fraction of your work you're willing to let me see." 09:21 <VoxPVoxD> "So how long after you found out about the Fortunato thing did you settle on this? Was it immediate? 'Well, that's Christmas sorted'." 09:22 <tom> His hand settles onto the corner of the box and he drums on the laminated carboard with his fingertips. "I'm gonna make Rick Sanchez Funko Pops until Aster beats me to death with a brick." 09:23 <VoxPVoxD> "Who's- oh, Rick and Morty. The pickle man." 09:25 <tom> Bob almost chokes right there: "Wow I feel old." 09:26 <tom> "Damn this shit really just flies by huh." 09:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "So I hear." 09:26 <VoxPVoxD> "One minute, you've just turned 30 and then you blink and 40 years go by." 09:29 <tom> Now it's his turn to look a little rueful, but he perks up fast: "Oh hey, one more gift." This one's tag just says "Willie" on it- the sender isn't listed as a centuries-old murderfucker, at least. 09:29 <tom> Feels light. Something rattles around inside. 09:29 <VoxPVoxD> Any lingering trace of vicarious melancholy is washed away by another present. That's why Christmas is the best holiday. "Oooh." What've we got? 09:31 <tom> A pair of horn-rimmed glasses, right to her specifications- as Willie's fingers pass over the frames, she can feel a pair of tiny buttons depress, and a little light clicks on to cast a HUD over the lenses. 09:32 <VoxPVoxD> !!!! 09:32 <VoxPVoxD> "You did it!" 09:32 <tom> The trackcheck hums awake in the other room. Bob gives her a half-smile. 09:32 <tom> "The batteries aren't really worth a shit, so you'll have to plug it in after each outing, but, yeah." He rubs the back of his neck. 09:33 <VoxPVoxD> "Aaaah!" Willie wraps Bob in a hug. 09:33 <tom> "It takes USB-A so you'll have toohkay we're doing this-" Bob is caught off-guard and kinda stumbles into the embrace, awkwardly. 09:36 <tom> He squeezes her back. 09:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie sighs contentedly before letting go. Wiping away a tear: "This is not how I expected this year to end when it began." 09:40 <tom> Bob fidgets a bit as he pulls away: "Yeah the tripods were a little outta left field." 09:42 <VoxPVoxD> "Or north field, anyway." She starts to tidy up the wrapping paper. "It was nice to see you at the concert." 09:46 <tom> Bob goes over to grab a beer from the little humming refrigerator in the kitchen and returns with one of the comfy little chairs from the conference table to bask in the kitschy light of the tree. "Y-yeah," he coughs. "Badawi really killed it." 09:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Not just her. Her friends, the Nightingales, even the catering." 09:49 <VoxPVoxD> "Our House and the seelie folk putting on the best parties in the city. We could make a habit of it." 09:51 <tom> "Huh, yeah." Realization flashes in his eyes over the drooping frames of his visor: "You know, at some point I just kinda stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know? Then it just started being like... fun?" 09:52 <tom> "Like yeah sure tonight we're dropping thermite on reptilians and the next day we're onto vampire dance party." 09:53 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yeah! That's the way. It feels like every week I'm in mortal peril, or I've caused some disaster, or I'm discovering a new prophecy of doom meant just for me... but once you look past that, I've never had so much fun in my life." 09:54 <tom> Bob settles down into the plush chair and kneads his forehead. "Oh man, did we ever pick up that plant guy at the reservoir?" 09:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I don't know! I know Agostina is bringing the lovebird to Mexico. Maybe 2022 will be the year Quetzlcoatl makes a comeback." 09:55 <tom> "Shit, I'm slipping. We might have to go Muninn like half of Gorton. Can't be having them put that on TikTok." 09:55 <tom> "The what?" 09:56 <VoxPVoxD> "The Tra-Se-Uu, the sexy feather alien. They did actually crash Reveille and Ms. Miracle's chess game... but only for want of anywhere else to go now that all the other aliens've gone." 09:57 <VoxPVoxD> "They were so sad. Agostina took pity." 09:58 <tom> Bob: "I hope it doesn't look like what I'm picturing." 09:59 <VoxPVoxD> Willie opens her mouth, closes it, and then tries to picture what she imagines Bob is picturing. Can you get offended at a thought you're imagining someone else is having? That's like getting mad at something someone did in a dream. "Certainly not." 10:00 <VoxPVoxD> "They look like a feather boa wanted to get into dancing." 10:01 <tom> "....Why Mexico?" 10:02 <tom> Bob is briefly worried for the alien: "They don't look like a piñata do they?" 10:02 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's where Agostina's going for holiday. She's got people there, she invited the alien along." 10:05 <tom> He seems sympathetic: "Man, that sucks though. Imagine getting stuck on Earth after being literally anywhere else in the galaxy." 10:05 <tom> "...Where the fuck Is Zebek?" 10:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Hopefully somewhere that looks like the cover of a paperback science-fiction novel from the 1970s. I think he'd be in his element there." 10:06 <VoxPVoxD> "Hyperclasm is on the case, and whatever the man's temperament you have to acknowledge his skills." 10:07 <tom> "I'm gonna feel so bad if he just got done in like a transporter accident. Motherfucker coming back through the portal like they put him in 144p, all-" Bob twists his face into a tortured expression. 10:08 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Oh, or like Galaxy Quest." 10:08 <VoxPVoxD> "I don't think that's terribly likely." 10:09 <tom> "Haha, yeah-" Bob pales. "Saw that happen to a guy once." 10:10 <tom> "Creepy shit happens in the middle of nowhere." 10:11 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "You know you talk a lot about how often you feel like a mess, but considering the things you've seen you're doing pretty bloody well, I think." 10:13 <VoxPVoxD> Willie picks open a tray of Christmas cookies we brought back from the party as she pours herself more coffee and hot chocolate. 10:13 <tom> "I mean there's really just the two ways, yeah? Aaron's making a lateral move but he can still, uh, you know, like, have a conversation without wigging the fuck out so I think he made the better calls." 10:14 <tom> He makes a helpless 'gimme' gesture with his hands, making no apparent effort to get up or move toward the frosted cookies. 10:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie wraps a couple in a paper serviette and brings it over to him. "If you could punch people in the face with your mind, I bet you'd have more confidence too." 10:20 <tom> "Who says I can't? Just need a wifi signal. Shit, I wonder if Casaubon posts." 10:20 <tom> "...You get a chance to look over the Files?" 10:23 <VoxPVoxD> Willie nods behind a piece of shortbread with one cartoonishly perfect bite mark taken out of it. "A bit, yeah. Fortunato can walk through walls, apparently? That's a really deep commitment to not respecting boundaries." 10:23 <tom> Bob graciously takes up a cookie shaped like a little Santa's elf and promptly bites into it headfirst. Clean kill, merciful. 10:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Is that how you'd want a giant to eat you? Head first, one and done?" 10:26 <tom> Bob, deadly serious: "Depends on how cute she is." 10:28 <tom> "...I mean, yeah, he's a problem I'm still not... I mean... if he's really that fast, how do we do anything?" 10:29 <tom> "It's like, yeah, use fire, sure, but if he gets first move..." Bob snaps a cookie in half between his thumb and forefinger. 10:29 <VoxPVoxD> Willie shakes her head. "I can see it now. You're going to be waist deep in some snake-woman's throat and your last thought before your brain squeezes out your nose will be, 'this isn't even that hot after all'." 10:30 <VoxPVoxD> "Well, he's an idiot, isn't he? We can't pre-empt him, so we just need to make sure he makes the wrong decision." 10:35 <tom> Bob snorts. He'll be fishing little bits of cookie out his nose: "Pff." 10:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's how the Carthians got him. He only got away because they decided to be even stupider and vainer." 10:39 <tom> "Man, imagine hating someone so bad you get stupid enough to pull out the wooden stake." Bob chews on it, along with the little tree-shaped cookie. "...One thing weird about the files," Bob adds, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, "They got nothing on Ruth. Like a complete blank page." 10:40 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's surprising. I bet Councillor Cutsworth has thoughts." 10:41 <tom> Bob: "Who do you think would win in a fight?" 10:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Between Ruth or Cutsworth?" 10:43 <tom> "Yeah. Like I think they'd be evenly matched, since Ruth took a time-out? So it'd be like a drag-out thing." 10:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Honestly, I haven't the foggiest. I think Cutsworth would want it more, but if there's as little of Ruth left as Sergio seems to think maybe it won't matter. Like trying to wrestle a badger." 10:51 <tom> Bob, who really cannot help himself: "If Suzie can get a leg-lock around Ruth I think she's the odds-on favorite." 10:51 <tom> It's starting to dawn on Willie that the two are describing two entirely different fights. 10:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Uh huh. Is there mud involved?" 10:52 <tom> "It's Manchester in December. There's mud fucking everywhere." 10:53 <tom> He slumps back into his chair, pouting. "Look I'm just saying, we gotta think these things out. Could be valuable... strategic." 10:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Do you think the Court in residence and the Court in exile are evenly matched enough that we could swing a war?" 10:56 <tom> "I don't think so, I know so." 10:56 <VoxPVoxD> "How do you know so?" 11:02 <tom> Bob leans forward in his seat until his visor's reflecting a starry constellation of colorful christmas lights. "You just poached one of their star pupils from 'em without even firing a shot." 11:03 <tom> "That's more dangerous to them than anything the losers in the Trade Hall got." 11:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I... don't think they see Sergio as one of their star pupils." 11:03 <VoxPVoxD> "But I appreciate the thought." 11:04 <VoxPVoxD> "They really should appreciate him more. But also, no they shouldn't, they should kick him out immediately." 11:04 <tom> Bob shrugs. "They're just repeating their own mistakes from before if they don't respect new talent." 11:05 <tom> "The whole thing'll just fall out the bottom all over again." 11:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Maybe. But the context is different now. They had decades, centuries to develop the talent that rebelled. Their new class basically came from the freezers at Marks and Spencer and they've only just thawed." 11:07 <VoxPVoxD> "At the same time the Court is not nearly as strong as the Court of old was." 11:07 <VoxPVoxD> "Nobody wants a war. Nobody feels good about the prospect of a war. And yet everyone's sitting around convincing themselves it's inevitable." 11:09 <tom> Bob rubs the stubble on his jaw. "I mean that's good for us... good for everyone else, yeah? If they just wipe each other out... maybe we don't even have to do anything." 11:10 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'm not sure a huge, destabilizing blood war is the best way to deal with the vampire problem. That just seems like begging to find out what the vampire equivalent of Daesh is." 11:12 <tom> Bob: "Oh man, if I can get my hands on some captagon again you'll see me do some work." 11:14 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's definitely a vibe you could bring into the new year. 'Yeah, I tried chilling out and it was naff, so I'm going to spend a million pounds on the dirtiest speed the north of Britain can produce.'" 11:18 <tom> "Look, I'm just saying, if you have the hookup-" he snickers. He checks the time on his visor. "Shit, are you gonna make Kaga sit out there all night?" 11:19 <tom> Bob checks the cameras to see what's become of the little hat and antlers he left with the demon. 11:19 <VoxPVoxD> Gone. No trace. 11:19 <VoxPVoxD> Willie tries her glasses on, and uses them to check the time. "Oh wow." 11:19 <VoxPVoxD> "You're right, I should've been home by now. I got sidetracked. I blame you, obviously." 11:22 <tom> Bob turns back from the cameras and sighs. "Is Sergio going with you to the baby-eating ritual? I'd worry less." 11:22 <tom> He gets up to retrieve his weapons and settle back into his jacket. 11:22 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "We're spending Christmas together, so whatever we do we're doing it together." 11:23 <VoxPVoxD> "It's still up in the air a bit." 11:24 <tom> "Yeah, that's been going around." 11:24 <tom> Bob takes the bag of seeds and pockets it. "If I don't see you again until after... well, Merry Christmas." 11:25 <VoxPVoxD> "You too." 11:25 <tom> Bob gives Kaga a shitty little salute on his way out into the night.