21:43 <banana> Maybe Omicron will be a big deal, maybe not. Everybody's vaccinated, they have pandemic fatigue and there are no restrictions. 21:43 <banana> Christmas Eve in Greater Manchester is a big deal. Winter lights, outdoor films, massive cooking classes for pudding and tinsel EVERYWHERE in the streets. 21:44 <banana> To the living dead, it's not that special; Sergio pointed to Willie at some juncture that the straightforward inversion of the Midnight Mass tradition is a Midday mass, prestigious and ostentatious worship by those who have the power to overcome their nature, and in fact this is what the Church does (or will, tomorrow). 21:46 <banana> That's tomorrow, at least for him, but surely they're spending a bit of time together on the eve... where? When? In what fashion? 21:50 <VoxPVoxD> Wouldn't be the first time Willie went to a service with a hangover and a lingering sense everyone else there wanted to murder her. But! That's a question for them to work through together. For now, it's the eve on the eve, which for Willie traditionally means: a long walk in the cold, coming home to hot toddies and exchanging Exactly One Gift, and then just curling up with movies, books, 21:50 <VoxPVoxD> company, or some combination until you fall asleep. 21:51 <VoxPVoxD> But Willie's always in the market for new traditions, if Sergio has thoughts or a desire to collaborate. She's also perfectly happy to share this one with him. Could be her place, could be his. His place makes her gift a little easier. 21:52 <banana> Sergio's up for a cold walk back to his place. He seems to have something on his mind, and is less a creature of comfort and curling than she is - he likes to combine vigorous discussion with vigorous activity, sometimes even to the point of pacing or posing if the setting is otherwise too domestic. 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> That can be fun! Certainly something Willie is keen not to discourage, and the fact that she didn't have to take any lumps at the reservoir invites a certain amount of reciprocal vigor. 21:55 <banana> Bonasera: "...and you ended up with aliens scattered around the city? Incredible. I've had to take the view that there are basically arbitrary things out there, most of which don't matter on a day-by-day basis." 21:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Ah! You've gotten a job in the Foreign Office." 21:57 <banana> Great Jackson St. crosses over the Medlock twice ; its river-facing side is mostly construction sites and the shadow of skyscrapers, which makes it unpopular a site of festivities, but there's plenty to look at and you're fairly near anywhere you might want to go. 21:58 <banana> Sergio: "Perhaps they need someone to capture sketches of dignitaries who can't be photographed. Like a court reporter." 22:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That'd be a job, wouldn't it? Traveling the world with a moleskine sketchbook and diplomatic immunity." 22:05 <banana> Since it's a night out, Willie's boyfriend is dressed well - 40 years out of fashion, but men have all the luck there. He's got a wool-blend jacket and very thin pants, easy to tap-dance in if you don't mind the cold, as well as natty leather shoes that could serve the same purpose. 22:05 <banana> "Sounds like something from another era, but so's the whole department. Willing a multipolar great-power world back into existence.. I wonder whether they can pull it off." 22:05 <banana> As they talk, Willie notices Sergio noticing. 22:05 <banana> You pass an alleyway leading toward Deansgate, surprisingly dank - the whole thing is a narrow green strip between tall buildings, the near part of the grass carpet rotting beneath wheelie bins. Willie doesn't see anyone moving in there. 22:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's hand brushes his arm, to call his attention to her for a questioning look. 22:06 <banana> She sees Sergio react, though - his eyes flicker, corners of his lips flare.. he never actually turns his head, but superheroic or -villainous senses are at play. 22:06 <banana> "Hm?" 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> In a lower voice: "Something amiss?" 22:09 <banana> Sergio makes an exaggerated grimace. "Well... no. I tasted something on the air, rude health.. the exaggerated movement of a drunk. Stumbling around dark places, not thinking about much, hasn't got to the Uber yet." 22:09 <banana> "Vulnerable." 22:10 <banana> You're past the green alley now, moving on as if there was no reason to detour down it, which for Willie there isn't. 22:11 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh, are they in trouble? We can just pop over and help them to the kerb..." Willie looks back as they walk. The reason Sergio's attention was pulled doesn't immediately register. 22:13 <banana> Sergio's stride breaks for a moment, but he recovers, taking her hand that's on his arm. 22:13 <banana> "There won't be in any trouble. I'm not there." He grins, and she can tell it's genuine, a happy rueful thing. 22:19 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's expression conveys - or betrays - brief incomprehension, followed by a mood-dampening realisation. "If I weren't here, would you have..." 22:21 <banana> Sergio looks at her face, then back at the night - lit up in Christmas colours from the nearby shops. "You really can get used to anything. I still have that intellectual understanding of what this is, the reasons it's wrong." He talks with free hand as well as his mouth, making little movements that illustrate the state of mind. 22:22 <VoxPVoxD> "But it becomes..." her mind's pulled back to the night after Inchcape, to the little notebook. "Habit." 22:23 <banana> Sergio: "Assault and deceit, particularly personal at times, that's a serious crime. Doing it every few days is so far beyond the pale that it does feel like.. you're in a different category. Beyond the human criminal, some way beyond the human. At first I had to be driven to it, this superimposed instinct that drives you with maddening need." 22:23 <banana> "Now-" There's a little movement of his shoulders, a suppressed shrug which Willie feels more than sees. 22:24 <VoxPVoxD> "Yeah." 22:24 <VoxPVoxD> "That makes sense." She doesn't pull away, but she has clearly deflated a bit. 22:28 <banana> Sergio: "I don't think it's a good thing, this reversion to the blasé. It's dangerous, for me as well as my former conspecifics. Therefore I keep up that intellectualising, the understanding of what feeding on humanity looks like if you don't feel it as right and routine." 22:30 <banana> "It's there though. That feeling. Not sure what else to say." 22:34 <VoxPVoxD> A lot of emotions well up when this particular plug is dislodged. The top note is appallingly, relief. She's glad that Sergio is thinking about these things. She's glad he didn't do it in front of her. But that's a thin film stretched over a healthy measure of simple guilt. It's a thought she mostly puts out of her mind, but it lingers at the back like the guilt that comes from eating with 22:34 <VoxPVoxD> a vegetarian. 22:35 <VoxPVoxD> She wonders suddenly what Richard's doing for Christmas. She wonders how thin the web of complicity with violence has to be spun before you can't feel it brush your skin. 22:36 <VoxPVoxD> Unconsciously she draws herself closer to him, as if his cold arm can bat the thought away. 22:38 <banana> It can go around her shoulders as they reach Castle Quay. There's a canal which diverts another canal into yet another; it's almost Venetian, and quite touristy compared to the offices and projects they've left behind. Crowds appear to change the mood, and Sergio changes the subject. 22:40 <banana> "There's something else I could use your moral support on. I'd be terribly grateful..." 22:40 <VoxPVoxD> Willie grows more alert, having been drowsed by walking and withness. "Hmm?" 22:43 <banana> Sergio: "You mentioned it earlier- looking for a new job. I'm settled on that now, but I have to shake off the old one." 22:43 <banana> "I'd like to get it out of the way before we leave for Catania..." 22:43 <VoxPVoxD> Now Willie's all the way there. "What do you need?" 22:45 <banana> Sergio: "Well, we're not slaves. I just need to tell Simpson about my decision, and as it so happens the night of the 24th is one time you're guaranteed to find each of the covenant elders alone. The idea of telling him I'm leaving the studio is just a little..." 22:45 <banana> "We could have caught up before tonight. I've been putting it off, love, procrastinating like a champ." 22:46 <VoxPVoxD> Oh, wow. 22:50 <VoxPVoxD> Her hesitation is perhaps-commendably brief. "Well of course. If I may ask, er, where he'll be alone?" 22:50 <VoxPVoxD> Not that she expects Weaste to misbehave, but. There are other people she might expect that from. 22:50 <VoxPVoxD> Who can walk through walls. 22:55 <banana> Sergio: "Butcher's Thorpe. It's a cottage, in-" Something thinks him better of it. He shakes his head for a moment to clear it. "I can't give you the address, but it's a short drive from the city." 22:57 <banana> "Simpson won't object to you, I'm sure. He still thinks you're the prospect who got away." 22:57 <VoxPVoxD> "But not particularly near Inchcape?" 22:57 <banana> "Not particularly." 22:57 <VoxPVoxD> One weird trick with the prospect who got away is to invite them somewhere well outside the city alone, to murder and turn them. 22:58 <VoxPVoxD> But, no. Willie trusts Sergio. Right? 22:58 <VoxPVoxD> Right. "...okay. When do you want to go?" 23:00 <banana> "How long do you need to get ready?" He looks visibly relieved, squeezing her hand before dropping it to wrap both arms around himself in a habit that once warded off the cold. 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> The relief is mirrored back. This is a kind of social interaction Willie's upbringing prepared her for very well. Sergio clearly feeling like he needs her there makes her feel more normal about this. "If what I'm wearing now is appropriate we could go now. Otherwise I'd need to change into something a bit more respectable." She's in one of her ridiculous coffee jumpers underneath woolen 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> outerwear. She's got pearl earrings and a knit cap. 23:07 <banana> Sergio: "You look beautiful. Posh casual, the envy of the scene seen pages." 23:07 <banana> The ride is fast, and quickly becomes dark as they cross ring-roads toward some northern edge of the city. 23:08 <banana> It's confusing, perhaps deliberately so; Sergio's taking more turns than might be strictly necessary. Street signs go past in a blur and and a lot of the lights seem to be out. 23:13 <VoxPVoxD> Willie spent a lot of time wandering around Greater Manchester on Google Maps when she was thinking about taking the reassignment at the beginning of the year. The switchbacks and darkness baffle her for a moment, but a sequence of signs visible under streetlight give her a very specific, deja-vu-y apprehension of where she is. She can picture herself as a throbbing little blue dot, slowly 23:13 <VoxPVoxD> tracking along suburban roads. 23:16 <banana> There's a wooded river-fork between suburbs and farmland, far up the Irwell. It's still the same river, or one arm of the fork is- she must be just about to Farnworth Cemetery. 23:16 <banana> Sergio slows enough that it's possible to talk as he turns onto a tiny little road, well graded, that dives right into the forest. 23:17 <VoxPVoxD> Over the river and through the woods, to vampire's house we go... "This area's pretty." 23:19 <banana> Sergio: "It's a nice ride. The riverlands have a lot of preserved nature, for one reason or another.. I'm not sure why they haven't been absorbed in a network of irrigation." 23:19 <banana> "Just to check in with you- this is the right thing to do, isn't it?" 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> "I think so." The emphasis is on *I* rather than *think*. 23:21 <banana> "Whew! Just wanted to make sure of that. They did save my life, but- you know. All the other bits." He sounds cheerful enough. 23:23 <VoxPVoxD> Willie hugs tight to him. "You're very brave, you know that? I love you." 23:23 <banana> Kirkpatrick - Baron Weaste - is waiting for you out the front of the 'cottage', which is in that style but larger than some villas. He's got three upholstered folding chairs, but he's not sitting in any of them - he's watching the motorbike approach with a glass in one hand, shading his eyes against the headlights. Tonight, the Ventrue is wearing an upturned collar that makes him look even 23:23 <banana> taller than his usual pose of repose-against-throne. 23:23 <VoxPVoxD> Hoo boy. 23:24 <VoxPVoxD> This is the right thing to do, isn't it? 23:24 <banana> There's a little octagonal side-table between the chairs, just big enough for a bottle of brandy and two more glasses. 23:31 <VoxPVoxD> Willie will dismount the motorbike as soon as it's come to a stop. Helmet off, she smooths her hair. She doesn't want to step on Sergio's toes, so she lets him make whatever introduction is necessary. Habit compels her to look the old monster directly in the eye. 23:33 <banana> * * * * * * * * 23:36 <banana> Once they've moved inside, Willie can see that Simpson's 'cottage' isn't all pretension. He hasn't got a lot of modern stuff in here - there are heavy security screens and electrified appliances, but no electronics. He does have more comfortable chairs, bookcases, suspicious locked doors... 23:37 <VoxPVoxD> He does have something of a reputation as The Comparatively Normal One. 23:37 <VoxPVoxD> Well-kept-to, if nothing else. 23:37 <banana> There are trophy plaques on the walls, but no mounted animal heads. One does have a large fish. 23:37 <banana> Sergio: "Good of you to see us at such short notice, Simpson." 23:38 <banana> Kirkpatrick sets the empty bottle among a bunch of its fellows - looks like pretty expensive stuff. Willie's starting to notice more detail, musty coats and half-finished newspapers.. she can see he's a bachelor of long standing. 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> She supposes you'd have to be, to give so many years to the love of something that on some essential level can't really love you back. 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> It's like a priestly vocation. 23:41 <banana> Kirkpatrick: "It's a lonely night. I can't give you until the morning, but a bit of company is welcome." 23:41 <banana> "Lady Wellesley, I will refrain from any jibes about our repeated final meetings if you'll acknowledge my restraint." He smiles, austere amusement. 23:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "This is not a professional meeting, Lord Weaste. One must make allowances, in our circles, for certain social entanglements. But I appreciate the restraint all the same." 23:42 <banana> Sergio prickles a bit, though. "Technically still a jibe." 23:43 <banana> Simpson Kirkpatrick: "Yes, yes.. I'll say no more. How are you both doing?" 23:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Rather well, thank you! I feel good about how the year is ending, and better about the year to come." 23:48 <banana> Simpson: "Hmm, should I envy your youth? They don't blend together yet- the years. Perhaps they never will. There's this Japanese man who came up with a puzzle system for 'training brains', keeping mental plasticity well into old age..." 23:50 <banana> Sergio: "Is that psychosomatic-plaque theory? I've read something about it, not out of the question but it's all very speculative." 23:50 <banana> Simpson: "I don't know what a plaque has to do with it. Perhaps they could present you with one for completing the puzzles." 23:50 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles politely. How very droll. 23:52 <banana> Simpson's taken a high-backed seat beside a completely empty fireplace. Willie and Sergio get their choice of sofas and armchairs, all in quite good nick. 23:52 <banana> Sergio's taken the bull by the horns. "Speaking of islands to the east..." 23:52 <VoxPVoxD> Wasn't there brandy earlier? Whatever, it was probably a prop anyway. 23:53 <VoxPVoxD> It'd be irresponsible to drink here. 23:54 <banana> Weaste does have a drinks cabinet visible, which must be something of an indulgence for him.. unless metabolising becomes easy again for the old ones. Or maybe it has a different purpose; the arrangement of bottles and labels catches Willie's eye. Patterns of colour that seem meaningful. 23:54 <VoxPVoxD> Like the layout of a shelf of books its owner has never read? 23:56 <banana> Sergio: "You know we're going away for a while, and I wanted to catch you before we leave as it makes for a good... notice period." 23:56 <banana> Laid out like a machine, more like. There's a secret in those bottles.. levers and mechanisms triggered if you were to pull the right ones out. Unfortunately, the owner of the cottage might object. 23:57 <banana> Simpson looks craggy-faced. "I can see at least a couple of things wrong with that idea." 23:59 <banana> Sergio's face.. he doesn't look miserable, exactly, but he's not enjoying this, delivering the news. 23:59 <banana> "You'll have to go into more detail, my Lord." 00:00 <VoxPVoxD> Willie puts a hand on Sergio's knee, if they're on a sofa together, or on the arm of his adjacent armchair if not. 00:00 <banana> Simpson: "The first thing is I'm not your employer. Baron Eccles manages Inchcape Productions, as you know." 00:01 <banana> Sergio struggles. "It's a matter of... respect. The oaths- aren't I supposed to do it this way?" 00:02 <banana> Simpson, dryly: "Not quite. You're meant to take instruction and guidance from me, rather than making me into the figure you defy. In fact, you're not meant to defy us at all." 00:02 <banana> The elder looks at Willie, suddenly. 00:03 <banana> "Terminology. Defiance is an archaic concept, if not obsolete.. you've mastered a more modern form of this profession. What's the millennial HR equivalent, my Lady?" 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Well, from the management perspective, it rather depends. An instinct for softness and circumspection might incline you to raise the question of 'culture fit'. An affection for bureaucracy might incline you to proceduralise, to cite violations of process, or evidence of a process undertaken vis-a-vis performance targets, goals, et cetera. Someone more classically inclined - a 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> disciplinarian of the old school - will still have recourse to the simple concept of insubordination." 00:15 <banana> Simpson sounds a little dismissive, but he catches himself as he goes on and his tone turns mollifying. "I'm not going to accuse Mr. Bonasera of 'insubordination' like he was some rating on a warship. The old ways are harsh, but more honest than that- it's about power." 00:16 <banana> Sergio: "I'm getting mixed messages, Simpson. Are you saying you'll.. exercise what power over me exactly? Life and death, you've done that much already, it doesn't escalate." 00:17 <banana> Simpson: "You're a creative. Forcing you to work wouldn't make for good product. I want to know why it is you think you should leave the studio. Or is that all you're leaving?" 00:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Respectfully, sir, you are sailing into war, are you not? Is the mantra of the naval man really so dishonest?" 00:19 <banana> Simpson's attention shifts again, and his face softens a little. "Well, if we're able to talk shop.." 00:19 <banana> * * * * 00:19 <banana> "By now, you know nobody wants a war. But I'll pay the accusation: we're risking it." 00:20 <banana> "Do you contend that Mr. Bonasera is better out of such an affair?" 00:25 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "It's not for me to contend, sir. I am no Svengali; Sergio's unease is his own. What I will say is that I think that unease is understandable, and so is the decision he's taken. I came here to support him in saying as much." 00:28 <banana> Sergio: "Thanks, Willie. I'd go beyond unease, you know? I'm not a soldier.. even you aren't a soldier, Simpson. I don't even want to contribute to the possibility of war." 00:29 <banana> Kirkpatrick: "You think that's anyone's motive?" 00:29 <banana> Sergio: "Of course not, but it's the result." 00:30 <banana> Simpson leans back, and up, now silhouetted against the roaring fire. He steeples his hands, changes it to a chinrest, lowers his head and sighs. 00:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "It's become rather fashionable, in more-mortal political arenas, to frame every war as a regrettable last resort, into which one's hand is forced, and so on. Sometimes that may even be the case. But I think the atmosphere, and the potential for danger, are what is at issue, rather than the degree of personal responsibility that might attend a formal finding of fault." 00:30 <VoxPVoxD> "Consider the current Ukrainian fracas." 00:31 <banana> Simpson: "Your point is taken, but there are a couple of things I have to make clear.." 00:32 <banana> "This does rather count for your side: the message we're trying to sell, that we've been relying on you to sell, is of a society that's well-run. Orderly, not prone to fuckups and disappearances. It can't be built, I think, by kindred who are totally coerced." 00:33 <banana> "That means," to Sergio, "that if you are determined to go, we shouldn't stop you. But the other thing I need to make clear is that our cause depends on very clear lines; you've been helping to draw them. There are sides." 00:34 <banana> "If you depart one, you'll be seen as travelling to the other. Crossing a line. I'm not sure I could mitigate that perception. Do you think I even should?" 00:35 <banana> Sergio ponders this. 00:40 <VoxPVoxD> Whatever he's going to say is coming from his heart. She didn't come all this way to feed him lines. Willie watches her love with a gentle expression. 00:42 <banana> Sergio: "It's not your responsibility, it's mine. I don't know all your plans and history, but I trust your judgement... it's just not my path. I won't say something like, I didn't know what I was signing up for... that's not true. I understood that preserving my life meant a curse, that it meant joining a hierarchy." 00:43 <banana> "I also have two things to say about that... the first is that things have changed. There are sides; there weren't, before. There's this threat, and these power plays for which I am ill-suited. Even if you and Emily mean well within our strange All-Night Society, the results are wrong." 00:44 <banana> * * Simpson agrees that it's possible for him to be wrong, although as it happens he doesn't believe that he is. * * 00:45 <banana> Sergio: "The other thing is selfish: I don't want to do this. I'm not comfortable with it, I'm not good at it-" 00:45 <banana> Simpson interrupts here. "You are good, you know. You push through the discomfort and learn from it.. I've watched you. You're being changed by the work. Malleability was considered a virtue, back in the day." 00:47 <banana> Sergio: "Whose day? Even in the sixties we knew individual liberty was a human right. Churchill and Stalin had it wrong." 00:48 <banana> Simpson: "Whose sixties?" 00:50 <banana> Sergio: "Er- virtuous or not, this is something I've chosen to stop doing, even if that involves.. a price." 00:51 <banana> The atmosphere is gloomy as both men go silent, contemplating the break. 00:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "May I ask you a personal question, Lord Weaste?" 00:52 <banana> With no fire in the empty hearth, it's quite dark in here, and Willie's having to almost squint as she addresses him. Weaste notices it, and reaches out to flick on a lamp. 00:52 <banana> "Yes, might as well." 00:53 <VoxPVoxD> "Do you remember the circumstances of your own Embrace? Did you know, at that time, the character of the world you were being inducted into?" 00:53 <VoxPVoxD> "Do you think it's possible to know from the outside?" 00:55 <banana> Kirkpatrick: "I remember very well. It was a very different world to this one.. the historical change has outpaced, to my mind, any real difference between the living and the dead. We exaggerate our own apartness, and our enemies exaggerate it for their own reasons." 00:56 <banana> "The change in time now is even more rapid, dizzying, and that means Sergio's world-" he nods at the man. "Your world must have altered beyond recognition, entering the night and the new millennium together." 00:56 <banana> Sergio: "I don't agree. It was possible to see the outlines of the coming world, the rights and wrongs- don't you think so, Willie? The past didn't have different truths, just different information. Anything else is- is relativism." 00:57 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I think you're both right. I think right and wrong have not changed so much as we like to tell ourselves, but at the same time, the rules are a great deal more - as Lord Weaste put it, malleable - than we'd similarly care to admit." 00:59 <banana> Lord Weaste: "You certainly won't get everyone to agree on 'em." 00:59 <banana> "Do you know what irks me about you two, the pair of you?" 01:00 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks blissfully ignorant. 01:01 <banana> Sergio: "..can't remember the last time I irked someone.." 01:02 <VoxPVoxD> Aaron hides it well. 01:02 <banana> Simpson: "It's the loss of raw material you represent. In very different ways, you both have great potential. Great potential. I've lived for a long time and I recognise these things in people; you could be strong allies for my cause. Or figures of inspiration and greatness in at least that same millieu." 01:02 <banana> "The one thing in the way of it all is that you simply don't want it." 01:04 <banana> Weaste: "Don't get me wrong, ladies and gents, I don't claim that the cause is universal, or that powers of persuasion can win over everyone I'd need. As you must know, I'm not above deceit, not above force. I simply don't prefer it." 01:04 <banana> "If it was absolutely necessary for me," he points at himself, "to make sure that you," he points at Sergio, "kept working on our side instead of some above-it fantasy you'll find is beyond your blood - I'd do it. But it isn't absolutely necessary." 01:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Why is it, do you think, that we don't prefer it?" 01:05 <banana> Kirkpatrick: "What sane man actually enjoys seeing others hurt?" 01:05 <banana> He's misunderstood her, it seems. 01:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "The man who can convince himself they deserved it." 01:06 <VoxPVoxD> "A sadist, in his way, also abhors relativism." 01:09 <banana> Simpson: "True enough. There are fellows on the other side I'd like to see get some comeuppance, but it's not the point. They certainly had their grievances." 01:10 <banana> Sergio: "That kind of distance you're able to put between yourself and the realities of these events, past and present... it doesn't work for me. Or if it did, I'd be someone else." 01:12 <banana> Simpson has his hands on his knees, abruptly rises, turns to the drinks cabinet. "I won't make you change sooner than is inevitable." 01:12 <VoxPVoxD> He could be, though. Weaste sees that. Willie saw it too, in the alley. At 63 Degrees. 01:13 <banana> Simpson: "A dram, for those not driving and those not processing alcohol?" 01:13 <VoxPVoxD> It'd be impolite to refuse. "You're too kind." 01:17 <banana> There's a wind-up clock above the slowly cooling fireplace, marking the hour. It grows late. This isn't a safe place to be, although Willie's not going to get hurt. They talk idly of now-abandoned film projects and the Christmas events calendar. 01:17 <banana> She has the feeling there's something more Sergio wants to ask or get out, but he hasn't come to that point 01:17 <VoxPVoxD> Willie encourages him, gently. He's rather sensitive, when it comes down to it, which makes it easy to avoid the appearance of henpecking. 01:19 <banana> The taxidermy on the walls leers down at them, antlers and horns and spines. One of the open doors shows off a somewhat primitive bathroom, but Weaste hasn't noticed or doesn't think of it as necessary to hospitality to close. 01:20 <VoxPVoxD> Willie takes the drink and says, "I came here, in part, in lieu of making the trip down to Stratfield Saye for Christmas. Though I did run into my brother Klaus just the other night. As foretold." 01:21 <banana> Weaste: "Klaus, was it? My sympathies, or- perhaps not. I've heard good things." 01:21 <VoxPVoxD> "I was surprised. It's not who I'd have guessed." 01:21 <VoxPVoxD> "I am curious, though, if you have licence to indulge me: how are those determinations made?" 01:22 <VoxPVoxD> "He was hardly the first, and is hardly likely to be the last." 01:22 <banana> Weaste: "* * trade * information * * * * what you want to know * * as necessary *". 01:23 <banana> "The Tradition of Progeny has two major... rites, you might say." 01:24 <banana> Simpson tosses back his drink. "The old way things were done is a personal risk basis. Sire and childer take on the responsibility of the new-born kindred's existence; their crimes become the crimes of the sire and their triumphs his triumphs." 01:26 <banana> "There may be a Wellesley or two out there living the realities of bloodline and tradition; I believe your father's.. great-aunt..? is now a resident of Dublin, in the Hale and Hearty Court." 01:26 <banana> Sergio: "Heck of a name." 01:27 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Is that not problematised by my family's other blood condition?" 01:29 <banana> Simpson: "Doesn't seem to have been an issue. Your blood is, as we discussed earlier, quite unusual." Willie remembers now; they did talk about that. "Probably a delicacy to some, if you'll forgive the expression." 01:30 <banana> Simpson: "There's a new way of doing things that's become more popular. I'm not referring to the half-arsed.. consent documents the Mayor's nitwits use.. that's just a lack of control.. give people the choice, approve who you feel like, it's a god damn disaster." 01:30 <banana> To Sergio: "Forgive my less-competent propaganda." 01:31 <banana> Sergio: "Sincerity is convincing by itself... but that's not the process I went through." 01:31 <banana> Simpson: "You, and your lady's sister, were subject to scientific management." 01:32 <banana> "Principles of resource allocation according to haemoeconomic forecasts. Political alignment. Mr. Klaus Wellesley, I'd judge, was both susceptible and of a common mind with his sponsors. It's bloodless - figuratively - but effective." 01:32 <banana> *brother 01:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I imagine it forestalls rebellion rather well." 01:33 <VoxPVoxD> "That degree of scouting." 01:34 <VoxPVoxD> "Headhunting, in the modern parlance." 01:34 <VoxPVoxD> And the old parlance. 01:34 <banana> Simpson: "If the elders had come up with the idea two hundred years earlier... they might not be in bottles." 01:35 <banana> You get the feeling he's talking about someone else, elder elders now ash and gone. 01:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie remembers the shelves at the Radisson. 01:36 <banana> It's time to go, although Sergio's vacillating. Willie does get the feeling, actually, that he wants to leave, that on some level he doesn't want to bring up what he wants to bring up. 01:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks at Sergio, and sees familiar contortions. She feels guilt, again. Not for Sergio, or for putting him in this position. She has a sudden rush of empathy for every sponsor she was ever assigned. 01:40 <VoxPVoxD> "Come along, Sergio. We should get back before too much longer. Thank you for your understanding, Lord Weaste." 01:42 <banana> Sergio: "Hmm? You're right- I appreciate the understanding. For what it's worth, I hope everyone at Inchcape remains... intact. That phrasing is itself tact." 01:42 <banana> Simpson: "Not very bloody much of it, Bonasera. Go on with you both. Leave an old man to his schemes * 01:42 <banana> * 01:43 <banana> * back is just as Willie remembers it. It's interesting that Sergio doesn't talk at all in this part of the ride, and seems to be taking twists and turns almost on instinct - given who Weaste is, and their relationship, she might guess at some sort of command issues through blood ties or vampire magic, an implanted insistence that he hide the location of Butcher's Thorpe. 01:44 <banana> It didn't take, though, or wasn't enough; although Willie has no immediate reason to go back there, she could; it was friendly tonight, but it wouldn't have to be, if things go wrong, directionally reverse. For now... it's all good here. 01:44 <VoxPVoxD> :) 01:44 <VoxPVoxD> Here's to pleasant memories.