20:00 <banana> It's not a lab yet, but nor is it merely an empty office building; dour from the outside, the space is alive with entrepeneurial possibility. 20:00 <banana> Aster's commercial property is east of the Manchester CBD, located between a Wing Yip Superstore and the Royal Mail. There's parking, unusually hefty utilities hookups and sufficient legal distance from schools or residences. 20:01 <banana> A confused mailman who made it in the alley entrance and through the unfinished lobby would see... 20:01 <Crion> The location with regards to the Mail is good. He chose it partially for that. 20:03 <Crion> A main room that was previously two rooms -- he had the walls knocked out since there were no important load-bearing beams or struts -- and has now had a great center island installed for all sorts of laboratory work. The plumbers have been in; the men who handle the gas lines are next week. Electricians have already given the okay. So there are washing stations and standing refridgerators, 20:03 <Crion> along with the walk-in in the back, but none of the burners have been put in. 20:04 <Crion> Along the walls there will be equipment and computers; right now, there is a lone man in a lab coat and glasses, grimacing in the light of a laptop (he doesn't keep the fluorescents on much of the time). 20:04 <Crion> The wayward mailman will likely not see the developing examination room and, ah, morgue developing off to the right. There's a large, closed door. 20:06 <banana> This initial burst of activity has been worthwhile. It's a foundation, physically and metaphorically, and the necessary licenses are coming through without a problem. Aster's energies have been expended to a useful end, but for the next couple of days there's not much he can do. 20:06 <banana> He could relax, if he had time for that. He could contact friends and family in order to gratuitously endanger them. He could make contact, more lucratively, with potential clients and suppliers.. and then there's that lead to follow up for the cell. 20:06 <banana> It may occur to Aaron Aster to kill two bats with one stone. 20:08 <Crion> He could call Samantha. ... It can rest another week. 20:09 <Crion> The first call that goes out on the new office phone, some squarish surplus thing from the nineties with blinking departmental stubs and programmable memory buttons, is to...what was that ridiculous name? 20:15 <Crion> Ultim Vamos? 20:15 <Crion> Vados. 20:16 <banana> Well, Aster was Introduced to most of the Officers of the Wise and Solemn Court. He's actually met the carthian constable, Damani, who Sourjack believes is looking to contract out some law enforcement work... but he doesn't have a direct way to contact that particular vampire, and 'I heard you want to pay assassins' isn't a safe approach. 20:16 <banana> Vados grinned without fangs, gave out his number and talked about Science. It's worth a try. 20:18 <Crion> He checks the clock. He's been in here moving things around for hours. What time is it? 20:18 <Crion> Is it sufficiently vampire time? 20:19 <banana> The phone goes through to an answering service at first. Press 1 for pickups and dropoffs, 2 to leave a message (for whom? doesn't say), or 3 to be put through to a direct line. There is also the option of 9 to hear these options again. 20:19 <banana> Still twilight outside.. is it worth trying the direct line now rather than waiting? 20:19 <Crion> He'll hang up, take a walk around the neighborhood, then come back and try the direct line. 20:20 <Crion> Being 'seen' as a regular person going in and out of his new business is important. 20:20 <Crion> Fewer calls to the constables after-hours. 20:28 <banana> There's a crackle on the other end of the line, ongoing. The poor quality goes with the panic in an unknown voice: 20:28 <banana> "You've reached, uh, this is Apprentice Casaub- ouch. It's Casaubon. H..i...?" 20:29 <Crion> "This is Aaron Aster. This number was..." He stares at the wall a very brief moment. "Divulged. To me." 20:30 <banana> Casaubon: "Oh. A joke of the Master's. You want.. anybody else to be honest. I can walk you into the Room?" 20:30 <banana> "I mean, I'll carry the phone." 20:30 <Crion> Aster: "I don't know. Can you?" 20:31 <Crion> He's still polite. 20:31 <Crion> Perhaps he can't. Aster doesn't know vampire socialization. 20:31 <banana> There's a clattering noise, but also footsteps. It seems he can. "I'm sorry, they're only a couple of minutes away. The big cheeses. Uh." 20:32 <banana> "Uhh, fuck. I should test you, right." 20:32 <Crion> "Mmmm." 20:33 <banana> Casaubon: "Right, sorry, okay. When the owls screech, and Kindred shut their ears.. who listens?" 20:36 <Crion> Aster, mildly annoyed: "The night." 20:37 <banana> Casaubon: "N...o..? That's a good answer I guess, but I was looking for The was and the never-were, joined in-. Um" 20:37 <banana> "Who are you? 20:39 <banana> There's an enormous creaking noise in the background, like a vast waterwheel or a wooden drawbridge. 20:39 <Crion> Aster: "I gave you my name, Apprentice Casaubon. Tell Ultim Vados I made an inquiry, please." 20:40 <Crion> He'll hang up if the lily wilts any further here. 20:40 <banana> Casaubon: "Sorry. Just a sec." He mutes you, so the weird wooden noises cease abruptly. 20:40 <Crion> Not even hold music. The art is being lost. 20:42 <banana> It's almost a minute before a new voice takes over, the one Aster was actually hoping to hear in the first place. Vados sounds deeply amused. "Mr. Aster. Aster of the pre-dawn realm, doing science not of the night but avoiding the light of publication and peers inquiry." 20:42 <banana> "When can we meet?" 20:44 <Crion> "I'm free..." Aster checks a watch he's not wearing, by instinct. Fine. "Now." 20:45 <banana> Vados: "Near the city?" 20:46 <Crion> Aster: "I'm either near or in, yes." 20:50 <banana> Vados: "I can't travel far from my work tonight. Please bring yourself to John Dalton Street off Albert Square, where you'll find a series of clinics and facilities - this town's attempt at the Harley Street brand. In half an hour, I'll come up to the lobby of Malmin Bloodwork- yes. I know. The name is an unfortunate coincidence, unaffiliated." 20:50 <Crion> Aster, already mapping the route on Google: "...I'll be there." 20:51 <Crion> He does not believe it's a coincidence in the slightest, let alone an unfortunate one. 20:51 <Crion> Some things you just have to hand to them. 20:52 <Crion> How crisp a walk is this going to be? 20:52 <Crion> Does he have to call whatever they call a cab over here? Hopefully still a cab. 20:53 <banana> It's less than a kilometre, actually. Aster's in.. Ancoats, or possibly New Islington, and everything west of here is densely packed. 20:53 <banana> American cars couldn't fit down some of the older streets. 20:54 <Crion> Then he'll switch the lab coat for the black coat Vados last saw him in, and takes the cigarettes and lighter from where he put them in the receptionist desk before he steps out into the gathering night. 20:55 <banana> Ultim Vados is a tall guy (vampire) with a big beard - not easy to miss. He strides through a shiny-sterile lobby as Aster enters it, offering handshakes and excuses. "When we moved in this was a dentist, Mr. Aster. The dentist is still here. They specialise in gum diseases, the diagnostic processes are lucrative, the lucrative process is brought in-house. So it goes." 20:56 <Crion> If one of the handshakes is for Aster, he'll return it briskly. "I can only hypothesize at the areas of overlap with your own study." 20:59 <Crion> "Do you have a title I should use, sir?" It's not a deferential 'sir,' but a near-peer deployment. If not the most British linguistic affectation he's ever uttered, it's certainly the most New England. 20:59 <banana> Vados, intense: "Yes. We are interested in the blood. You would be as well, but it's not the only topic in the realm of biology." He's leading you into an in-clinic cafteria; this whole place is closed, a 9 to 5 building at 5 past 9, but doors open to the man from the Order of Dracula and when he claps his hands the lights and coffee machine come to life. 21:00 <banana> "If you come to join our Order you would call me Illuminus. It's not necessary. I received doctorates from a university I no longer recognise, an institution that now cowers before a dictator. Pah." 21:01 <banana> Would Aster like a chair? Decent coffee? Microwaved pastries? 21:02 <Crion> Aster: "Do you know the name of the defendant in the American court case which fully standardized the use of DNA typing in modern criminal prosecution? It was on appeal. It allowed the man to escape capital punishment. It was 'Bloodsworth.' In a way my entire profession revolves around the substance, if increasingly only narratively." 21:03 <Crion> He accepts the first two. Passes on the pastries. 21:03 <banana> Vados: "That is amusing, and I won't deny its applications. Testing, comparison, activation and sustenance." 21:04 <banana> "It's your profession that interests me, of course. You aren't a research scientist, I think. But you study the forensics and autopsy of the supernatural? And you admit to it?" 21:05 <Crion> Aster: "That is correct. Both the study and the admission. Generally the latter remains a polite unmentionable, but less so recently." 21:06 <Crion> "I should inform you that my call had a secondary purpose, related to your...greater social circle." 21:06 <Crion> "And an agreement I made there." 21:07 <Crion> "The Constable will want to talk to me at his convenience." 21:07 <banana> Vados drinks something out of a coffee cup. "I'd love to focus on the study, but- isn't your life constantly in danger, doing this in this way?" 21:07 <banana> "..ah." 21:07 <banana> "Look here, Aster. I'm not a go-between." 21:08 <Crion> Aster: "You're the man who gave me a phone number. I'm the man who swore a mortal oath." 21:08 <Crion> He shrugs. "Sometimes the world's unpleasant." 21:09 <banana> The big man snarls at you, fangs out. They're very long. It wasn't coffee. "It can be." 21:11 <Crion> Aster leans back. "My apologies. I thought to be polite, mentioning it at the beginning. Would you have wanted me to spring this on you at the end?" 21:12 <Crion> "I would have just left a message with the Apprentice, if I weren't interested in being here for the primary reason of being here." 21:13 <banana> Vados calms down quickly. "You're operating on incomplete information, which isn't helpful for those of a technical bent. I know this. Let me fill you in on the niceties, and we can return to the Constable's business or ours." 21:15 <banana> Vados: "'Illuminus' is not a title you need to use, but it has meaning. The Kindred of this city have made five great Covenants, who together form a Court. They are familiar to any scholar of society..." 21:15 <banana> "There is the church. The state. The opposition, loyal or otherwise. There are barbarians and there are scholars." 21:16 <Crion> Aster nods. "I think I can identify the outlines. In Manchester, the state and the opposition do not culturally line up with, well. The rest of merry old England." 21:17 <Crion> "Or rather they do, but flipped." 21:17 <banana> Vados: "That's right, but politicians are only two of the five arms of power. I am the master of this city's small fellowship of intellectuals.. the only scholars, our blood tells us, who matter. As an academic matter I know that not to be the case. A thing put in my head when I died tells me not to tolerate disrespect from.. et cetera." 21:18 <Crion> Aster nods again, as if that is the most reasonable thing in the world. 21:18 <Crion> It's very good they put him through the trade hall initiation. 21:18 <Crion> And that he has been doing this -- well, things adjacent to this -- for two decades. 21:19 <banana> The doctor smiles with an ordinary number of teeth. 21:20 <banana> "I have made some time. Would you rather discuss our common interests in biotechnology, or deal with this matter of.. law enforcement?" 21:22 <Crion> Aster: "The former. My agreement with your fair, ah, Mayor was that I inform the Court about work involving the...Kindred, if I have the word right? Your apprentice used it earlier, and I've seen it in texts...and I've wasted enough of your evening satisfying that. If they wish to make it easier for me to contact them in the future, I am certain they will do so." 21:24 <banana> Vados: "To which I'll happily attest. Then.. are you planning to take work involving the extramundane deceased? Living paranaturals?" 21:26 <Crion> Aster: "Absolutely. I doubt we'll be detaining living, thinking creatures; there are ramifications I'd rather avoid. But paraphenomenal subjects were the general rotational roster of my work in Philadelphia. No two ever the same." 21:28 <banana> Vados: "Quite an opportunity. You're coming at this from an external perspective and advertising, non qua sine qua, to the possessors of such traits and those who simply take an interest. Which is everyone who's heard of the night but not learned to fear it." 21:29 <Crion> Aster: "Not a healthy shingle to set out, by the actuarial tables. But a particularly lucrative one." 21:31 <banana> Vados: "I'm only interested in money insofar as it greases the wheels of Science... which it does well. Advice. There's a programme run by the City Council here, the day version, giving tax breaks to anything you can define as a startup. Biology is biotechnology, arguably." 21:32 <banana> "There's an open application period, three months of each year for awards in the next financial quarter.. or an existing member entity can nominate you for the approved contractors' list." 21:33 <Crion> Aster: "You know, of course, there's an entire subset of living, paraphenomenal creatures who also subsist on human blood, but metabolize it in ways and through biological processes that don't involve your special biology. We had one in Philadelphia -- the 'manbat' of Conshohocken -- that VASCU took...well, not alive. But our examination was of a fresh specimen." 21:34 <banana> Vados: "Specimens are exactly what interest me! Or at least... samples." 21:34 <Crion> "Those are the sort of cases in which I took especial interest, before coming here." His eyes light up behind his glasses. "Now that does sound interesting, this program." 21:34 <banana> "That's the trade I'm proposing, although there are other more creative ways we could collaborate." 21:36 <Crion> Aster: "There are. The points at which we diverge might be interesting to note, as well. I seek a wide and functional body of knowledge, fit for professional use. That is somewhat different from what I perceive, I think, to be an extremely dedicated and focused academic study of particular points, which simply casts a wide evidenciary net." 21:39 <Crion> Aster: "And to that end, I think I have the facilities to give you what you need. Up to and including biopsies, assuming willing and anonymitized subjects." 21:40 <Crion> "Certainly more...sessile tissue will be more easily accomodated." 21:40 <banana> Vados: "Bu dogru. We may learn different things from the same subjects, expanding the sum of knowledge under the sky." 21:40 <banana> "On that note, to digress... your Conshohon- your man-bat. Was it... shadowed?" 21:43 <Crion> Aster: "I'm unfamiliar with the term in the precise context. If you mean could it assume the folkloric 'mist form' or otherwise plasmatize or insubstantiate, no, leading to its mortal end." 21:45 <banana> "Your colleagues were fortunate." Vados reaches into his coat and retrieves a tablet and stylus, then begins to take notes. "An informal agreement? Your operating name and tax file number, review account credentials and sample collection arrangements for my order..." 21:46 <Crion> Aster: "Indeed..." 21:46 <Crion> Presumably the particulars are shortly taken care of. 21:47 <banana> There are a few minutes of good-natured negotiation and another cold handshake. Vados' time isn't up, though- he clearly appreciated Aster's polite, immediate climbdown on the politics thing. 21:48 <banana> "Allow me to thank you for providing my apprentice a lesson. There shouldn't be a need to repeat it.. the menu is very simple, incomplete; instead of three, you press six." 21:50 <Crion> Aster nods. "My use of it will be sparing, but judicious." 21:51 <Crion> He sighs. "I will be hiring my own person for the phones soon myself." 21:54 <banana> Vados: "May you be more fortunate. Casaubon is brilliant - a semiotician, a graph thinker - but painfully terrified of what he has become. He will be of no use to Dracula if his madness takes the form of anxiety." 21:54 <banana> A pause. "This is another incipient misunderstanding. Figure of speech - Dracula, the impaler, the legend is not today alive or connected with my Order." 21:54 <Crion> Aster doesn't really 21:54 <Crion> have 21:54 <Crion> a response for that. So he just smiles, and nods. "Of course." 21:56 <banana> Ultim Vados: "I wonder. There's one more area we might collaborate. Allow me to bring in a co-worker?" 21:57 <Crion> Aster: "Provisionally, certainly." 21:57 <banana> Like the rest of this place, the cafeteria looks clean. But it's an old building. 21:58 <banana> The Illuminus claps his hands together again, which doesn't turn the lights back off; instead, there's a little bit of noise behind the counter before a rodent emerges from beneath it. It scuttles rapidly across the empty room, avoiding Aster in a wide arc before running frantically up Ultim's leg. 21:59 <banana> He frowns and plucks it off, holding the rat up by the scruff of its neck. "[incomprehensible chittering noises]" 21:59 <Crion> He starts slightly at the rat's appearance, but remains neutral through...all this. 21:59 <banana> Rat: "[squeak, wrinkle, etc]" 21:59 <banana> Vados: "[rapid nose movements, a burst of squealing]" 22:00 <banana> He drops the rat, which rushes away unharmed. 22:02 <banana> "Carol has an unusual talent for assays. She's achieved.. skills rooted in the mysteries which we study, and her work could impact yours quite directly. Perhaps a commercial edge." 22:04 <Crion> Aster: "Possibly so, in time." The most neutral answer he could give. 22:04 <Crion> He's still trying to determine if she was the rat, or...? He's pretty sure she wasn't the rat. 22:05 <banana> Vados laughs. "I should clarify that Carol is not the rat! She is a Scotswoman." 22:05 <Crion> Aster: "It would be a hell of a way to handle a business partner." 22:07 <banana> "Carol will be on her way from the Room... do you have any experience in operationalised noumenonology?" 22:07 <banana> "If so, I assume not in the medium of Vitae." 22:13 <Crion> Aster, assuming the big man means what he thinks he means: "Not much. Our equipment was made to create observations under laboratory conditions...which were quite rare." 22:14 <Crion> Aster: "We didn't do much surveying, specifically." 22:15 <banana> Vados: "To operationalise the noumenon is to take advantage of observations which.. arise in the field. Facts that are in evidence without hypothesis of what they are in evidence." 22:15 <Crion> Aster: "The cart that's trained to pull the horse." 22:16 <banana> There are hurried footsteps outside. Shoes on the tile of the cold shut clinic. 22:19 <banana> Vados claps his hands again, holding them just so. The door opens, and you're forced to agree that a Scot has entered the room. She has leather shoes, a tartan scarf and a beanie with St. Andrew's Cross repeated all around the rim. 22:19 <banana> The woman's gaze sweeps across Aster... 22:27 <banana> Her face is a little slack as she concentrates but those eyes. They seem to glow yellow as she sees.. secrets. Aaron's secrets. The Wintergreen Process doesn't do a damn thing about it. 22:28 <banana> Vados has already got up to pour some coffee, or whatever. 22:28 <Crion> ... 22:29 <banana> He's back with a second mug as Carol walks less hastily across the room. "Hey, good evening. You're the guy from the Met? Or formerly?" 22:30 <Crion> Aster: "I was on liaison to the Special Considerations Unit at Scotland Yard previously, yes. I am now in the private sector." 22:31 <Crion> "Hello." Unnerving. 22:32 <banana> Vados: "Mr. Aster is now a friend of the Court. He'll shortly be providing lab services to investigations, blood hunts and other machinations which border the Manchster Underground. Forensics and autopsies will feature." 22:33 <banana> Carol Sebastian: "I begin to understand why your horrid little creature scared me up here, Master." 22:33 <banana> She says it like this: "Ah begin tae unnerstan-" 22:33 <Crion> Aster can go over the basics if she needs, but he gets the feeling she either already knows or will simply pluck the information from him accordingly. 22:34 <Crion> He does have a slight weakness for Scot and Irish accents. English, especially north English, never did much for him. 22:34 <Crion> He does have a slight weakness for Scot and Irish accents. English, especially north English, never did much for him. 22:34 <banana> ..Carol's smiling at him, actually, and looks kind of interested. Are her nostrils flaring? Oh. 22:35 <Crion> Not on the first date, though. "There's still a few things we need shipped in before we're operational. But soon." 22:36 <banana> Vados: "I have to apologise again for the cliche. To demonstrate Miss Sebastian's specialty, please, a drop of your blood.. not for consumption. On the table is fine. Malmin pay for the cleaning, which is the least they can do." 22:38 <Crion> Aster keeps a knife on him...not expressly for this purpose. But after a dip in alcohol, he'll provide the drop of blood. 22:41 <banana> Meanwhile, Carol turns away discreetly and raises a little finger to her mouth. It comes back with a drop seeping to the surface; she reaches out delicately and joins the two in the middle of the little round cafeteria table. Ultim Vados winces and manages to avoid apologising once again. 22:41 <banana> The joined droplets quiver, merge and roil. Abruptly, the surface tension breaks, and the tiny pool becomes a tiny splatter - forming miraculously or otherwise into the photographically accurate image of a face. Aaron's face. 22:41 <banana> Carol: "Interpretive genetics, Mr. Aster. As you were in life." 22:41 <Crion> Unnerving. Where else is this going...? 22:44 <banana> It's unclear what the Order of Dracula would charge for this unusual service. A salary, perhaps.