19:50 <VoxPVoxD> Another day, another incremental step towards one or more piles of 1.4 million dollars. Willie's arranged to meet Mr. Aster at his lab, this afternoon, and she's brought lunch! What kind of sandwiches does Aaron like? 19:52 <Crion> He quite liked the tomato and cheese sandwiches, with the bread slightly toasted. They're tasty, and thin enough on substance that he can have two. 19:52 <Crion> Sitting in reception, again, is the striver child. The college boy Aster hired. What was his name? 19:52 <Crion> It's not on anything. 19:53 <Crion> "Hello again miss!" he doesn't precisely squeak. He corrects to something almost manly. 19:54 <VoxPVoxD> Splendid! Willie's brought several, then, in case someone else is working and hungry. In fact she comes in in shawl and sunglasses with a picnic basket under her arm to see "Simon!" she says. "Good afternoon. Hard at work, I see. D'you fancy a sandwich? I've got plenty." 19:55 <Crion> "Ah! Yes!" He might fancy a bullet to the brain, if the Marchioness suggested it. 19:56 <Crion> "Thank you so much! Mr. Aster's right in the back!" 19:56 <Crion> "Do you need me to take your coat, or--" 19:56 <VoxPVoxD> Lucky for him she's not that kind of aristocrat. "Here you are. Gruyere, Cheddar and tomato. Do enjoy! Thank you very much." 19:56 <VoxPVoxD> She looks around. Is there a coatrack now? 19:56 <Crion> There is! There was before, actually, the Detective Sergeant's overcoat was just upon it. 19:57 <VoxPVoxD> Then she takes her coat off, revealing the white silk blouse, black slacks, and cute belt outfit she wore to Sergio's last night. "You are so very sweet." 19:58 <Crion> !!!!! He hastens to hang up the coat. 20:00 <VoxPVoxD> With Cerberus assauged, Willie marches in for her audience with Hades. "Mr. Aster?" 20:00 <Crion> The path to the back is open to her, but Simon will attempt to walk her to the lab if she doesn't take it. 20:00 <VoxPVoxD> Where is he? What's he up to?" 20:00 <Crion> Wise. 20:00 <Crion> He is at one of his command consoles. He doesn't look up. "Ah. Miss Wellesley. The boy wasn't too forward or annoying, I take it." 20:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "No, Simon was both sweet and professional. He has been duly rewarded with a sandwich." 20:02 <VoxPVoxD> "Busy?" 20:02 <Crion> Aster: "Slightly. Always. You brought sandwiches for Simon?" 20:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I brought sandwiches for everyone. Toasted cheese and tomato. I contemplated soup, but that's a whole extra logistical layer, nevermind an implicit attack on the cleanliness of your laboratory and nice shirts." 20:03 <Crion> Aster: "Oh, that's excellent." 20:03 <Crion> "Mmm." 20:03 <Crion> "Mmmph. Yes." 20:03 <Crion> "Thank you." 20:04 <Crion> "There is some tolerance for white bread crumbs built into white lab coats." 20:04 <VoxPVoxD> "Tomato bisque is another matter entirely," Willie agrees. 20:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie, quietly: "How quiet should we be? I don't want to further distract or implicate your staff." 20:05 <Crion> Aster puts the sandwich down to give her a level look. "So what can I do for you, Miss Wellesley?" 20:05 <Crion> "If we're going to talk work, we'll simply move to the back of the lab." He's already cleaning and preparing to move his work space. 20:06 <Crion> "Sending Simon away would send the wrong message." 20:07 <VoxPVoxD> "Quite. To the back, then." Once they go: "So. As you're aware from the all-hands at the offsite, I've recently made inroads into developing our contacts with various facets of the night-city. And I'm feeling a bit unprepared! This is not the kind of work my training in Milan was geared towards." 20:07 <Crion> Aster: "Purposefully, one assumes." 20:07 <Crion> "Will Milan be checking in?" 20:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Eventually, probably. It's not a huge organisation, and they're a bit put out I moved to Manchester for work instead of staying in SW1, but I'm not on the lam." 20:09 <Crion> Aster: "Same. Good to know about eventualities, however." 20:10 <Crion> He carefully eats a bit more sandwich. 20:10 <VoxPVoxD> "Did vampires come up in your training or work when you were an ordinary police officer?" 20:11 <Crion> That gets a pause. "Yes. Well. I was never a badge and gun Philadelphia Police Department officer. I spent three years in the medical examiner's office, then moved over to criminal forensics for two years." 20:11 <Crion> "Vampires are, arguably, why VASCU scouted me." 20:12 <Crion> "Though I didn't know it at the time." 20:12 <Crion> He sighs. "It was very stupid. Imagine filing report after report on anemia conditions in a three-block space of public housing, not understanding what was going on until years after the problem suddenly...cleared up." 20:13 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "You must have quite an eye for the symptoms, then." 20:13 <Crion> Aster: "I should have caught yours early. But you knew, I suspect, and countered with the correct makeup." 20:14 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "It's not the first time I've had to lean on the blush after a late evening." 20:14 <VoxPVoxD> "I must thank you again for your deportment. I was afraid of a rather more intense reaction." 20:15 <Crion> Aster: "I'll choose to interpret that as a soft evasion rather than admission of a second vampire lover." 20:15 <Crion> Perhaps she should have waited. He waves his hand. 20:15 <Crion> "Like I said. Badawi got across whatever consternation I might have." 20:15 <VoxPVoxD> Willie grins despite herself. "No this is... quite new." 20:15 <VoxPVoxD> "That poor mug." 20:15 <Crion> "Broke her favorite mug doing it, yes." 20:16 <Crion> Aster: "So long as you are cognizant of the stakes and the circumstances, then I am able to continue doing my job. Which now involves watching you with an eagle eye, to note if that cognizance fades." 20:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That is one of the things I'm hoping to learn. How to spot those signs myself, as best I can." 20:18 <Crion> Aster appears to racking vials full of brackish water for testing. 20:18 <Crion> Aster: "I assume he approached you with the Blush." 20:19 <Crion> "And only after you were won did he present himself as a corpse." 20:20 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "He approached me via a chat client in a dating app. Well, no. Technically, I approached him. Bumble - that particular app - requires women to initiate contact in a heterosexual match. But yes, otherwise you're right. We met for dinner, infact. He ate gamely. It wasn't until our third date that he let the illusion lapse." 20:21 <Crion> "Mmmm. On the timeline, this would be after he fed on you, yes?" 20:21 <Crion> Aster: "I don't have to insult your intelligence by going over his presumptive lack of clear photograph on the dating app as a 'sign.'" 20:22 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yes. The first meeting, I think he was excessive or overzealous. He's been far more judicious since." 20:22 <Crion> Aster: "Excellent." 20:22 <VoxPVoxD> "The photograph was what tipped me off, the next morning, though in retrospect there were... signs." 20:23 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm very glad I had the presence of mind to get it." 20:23 <Crion> "Well. Vampires. The key features are correct, the cosmetic aesthetics are not. They don't care about crosses, garlic, running water, the Bible, silver, or the presence of descendants or relics of Muhammad, praise be upon him, unless they do. The only constants are sunlight and fire." 20:24 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "And hunger, yes." 20:24 <Crion> "Yes. Though not feeding will not kill them; it will merely send them into hibernation. Unclear what triggers them waking up again, or what effect this has upon them." 20:25 <Crion> "Very dangerous and aggravating, however." 20:25 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Perhaps we can learn as we pursue the Gardeners." 20:26 <VoxPVoxD> "Their circumstances are consistent with a period of hibernation, recently ended." 20:26 <Crion> Aster: "Perhaps. More interesting, I think, are the social attributes of vampires." 20:27 <Crion> "This may also come into play with the Gardeners. If they have just awoken, they may be feral." 20:27 <Crion> He takes another bite of sandwich. 20:29 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yes. Simpson suggested we might take a look at assault statistics for spikes in activity." 20:29 <Crion> Aster: "Possibly. Not assaults, however. Animal attacks." 20:30 <VoxPVoxD> "What sort of animal does a feral vampire present as?" 20:30 <VoxPVoxD> "What would someone who didn't know think they were looking at?" 20:31 <Crion> Aster: "We once had...here, let me find it." 20:32 <Crion> "The Thin Bear of Fort Washington." 20:32 <Crion> "I should still have the composite picture on this drive of the creature the two survivors -- out of fourteen -- claimed attacked them." 20:32 <Crion> Yes. He clicks, clicks, then turns the monitor. https://i.imgur.com/1tQ5J0K.png 20:33 <Crion> "We never caught this particular paraphenomenal." 20:33 <Crion> "Whatever or whoever it was simply stopped." 20:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie blinks. 20:33 <Crion> "My theory is it was a vampire who finally got 'sober.'" 20:34 <Crion> "I suspect it could present as anything, however. Dog, cat -- arguably it might have to be a predator of some form, but bears are omnivorous, so there's likely some leeway." 20:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "They do have some facility with animals. Or at least, some of them do." 20:35 <Crion> Aster: "Mmmm." 20:36 <Crion> "There are also stories of swarms." 20:36 <Crion> "Bats, insects, so on. Much more apocryphal." 20:37 <Crion> "Then there's the idea of vampires turning into mist or melding with dirt but that's pure Stoker." 20:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Makes you wonder if there's some committee that sits and makes sure every vampire legend is just fake enough not to expose them in a meaningful sense... but still true enough that you could go 'I gave you all the clues'." 20:38 <VoxPVoxD> Yes she did read Sergio's Bumble bio again. 20:38 <Crion> Aster: "My alternate explanation is evolutionary divergence." 20:39 <Crion> "That is, there is probably some vampire, somewhere, who can meld with first, or turn into bees." 20:39 <Crion> "But, annoyingly, not all or most or even a statistically notable sample thereof." 20:39 <Crion> "Well. Perhaps 'annoyingly' is the wrong word." 20:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Confoundingly." 20:39 <Crion> "Yes." 20:40 <Crion> Aster, biting off a crust: "So. Sergio Bonasera is one of the mentally-talented vampires." 20:41 <Crion> "Does this mean that he is terrified of mind-control?" 20:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "...I don't know. But that is not my impression of what he fears." 20:43 <Crion> Aster: "I only ask because if he has such abilities, then the evolutionary or devolved trait theory of vampirism would suggest that the vampire that created him has those same abilities, but stronger." 20:44 <Crion> "Suggesting, perhaps, that whatever he has used on you, he has also been victim to. As part of the social ecosystem." 20:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I believe it. I think it might've pushed him in the opposite direction. Casual use normalises the behaviour. I do not believe he perceives it as the violation that it is." 20:45 <Crion> Aster: "As long as you recognize that optimism for what it is." 20:45 <VoxPVoxD> "But then... I wouldn't, would I?" 20:46 <Crion> He shrugs. 20:46 <VoxPVoxD> Willie turns ruefully to her sandwich. 20:46 <VoxPVoxD> "He hypnotised Bob at Inchcape. I don't know if you've debriefed him yet." 20:48 <Crion> "The social theory of vampirism suggests that, when they are using the Blush and using Bumble for dates and eating mortal food and introducing sexual conquests to their social superiors as actual persons to be proud of and whom stand alone, that they are, indeed, people, and are subject to all the same twists and turns people are. And that generally, this speaks better for them than when 20:48 <Crion> they're hunting you in the trees on the prarie in 1840s Kansas, or what have you." 20:48 <Crion> "Yes, I've spoken with Bob. He attempted to portray that violation as gallant." 20:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Bob has a uniquely impervious ego." 20:49 <VoxPVoxD> It's a big part of his charm, really. 20:49 <Crion> Finishing the sandwich: "I've become quite fond of Bob. He's a good swimmer." 20:49 <Crion> Is there another? 20:50 <VoxPVoxD> A couple more! 20:50 <Crion> Excellent. They're delicious. He should only have one more. 20:50 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I hope you found this out in some circumstance other than, he was hurled bodily into the river." 20:51 <Crion> Aster: "We had to get to the other side. He jumped in after me. I was All-American." 20:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's eyebrows go up a bit. You know, she'd never noticed before, but Aaron is surprisingly jacked, isn't he, beneath those designer shirts. 20:52 <VoxPVoxD> ...anyway. "Did you catch up with the chicken?" 20:53 <Crion> "Oh, it was over knife crime." 20:54 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Oh dear. Did Bob get stabbed?" 20:54 <VoxPVoxD> She seems to take it for granted that Aster didn't. 20:55 <Crion> "There was no violence, thankfully. It was three of Benni's men against an old man and, presumably, his granddaughter. So I pulled rank. ...After swimming across the canal." 20:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Were you terribly far from the bridge?" 20:56 <Crion> Aster: "We were right there. But I was in my running suit, and it would have taken too much time to go around." 20:57 <Crion> "Benni's boys know who we are now." He takes another bite. "We've gotten off topic." 20:57 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Could it perhaps be a case of convergent evolution?" 20:58 <Crion> Aster: "State your hypothesis?" 20:59 <VoxPVoxD> "Vampires, I mean. Perhaps their abilities are so varied because there is not one species but several. From what I know about how they reproduce, it's not as if there's any selection pressure on interbreeding. Perhaps there are just a dozen different blood-drinking creatures from all around the world that have, over time, optimised towards certain behaviours and habits." 20:59 <VoxPVoxD> "Are you familiar with carcinisation?" 21:00 <Crion> Aster: "The tendency of all things to become crabs?" 21:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yes, precisely." 21:01 <Crion> "Hmmm. Yes, sensible. Very sensible. Very interesting." 21:01 <Crion> He takes off and wipes his glasses. "We of course lack any population whatsoever for testing, but then, isn't that always the way." 21:02 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "We may be able to buck that trend, from our unique position within the night-city." 21:02 <VoxPVoxD> "Certainly that's Mr. Roth's hope." 21:03 <Crion> Aster: "That's true. But the thing about a social creature that is also people is that they do not like being studied. It's dehumanizing." 21:03 <Crion> "Which brings us to Roth." 21:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie, who adores being studied, isn't sure she's on board with that as a generalisable principle, but that's neither here nor there. 21:05 <Crion> Oh, it's quite specific. As calling Simon back here to putter around would demonstrate. 21:07 <Crion> "I would like at some point to test the Roth Devices. But I do not sanction the idea of doing it on paraphenomenals we have good relations with. Or that we like." 21:07 <Crion> "This is quite apart from the money. I want to know what those little fuckers do, so that I can learn what Roth is." 21:07 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'm sure we'll find some suitable candidates eventually." 21:07 <VoxPVoxD> "Maybe we should've thrown one at Mr. Roth." 21:08 <VoxPVoxD> "...I've been spending a lot of time with Bob lately. Forgive me." 21:08 <Crion> "He handled them ably enough." 21:08 <Crion> He waves his second sandwich. "I jumped in a sewer river with him." 21:08 <VoxPVoxD> "What a lot of new things we're all learning." 21:08 <Crion> 21:08 <Crion> Aster: "Here's a question." 21:09 <Crion> "How did Sergio react to your blood?" 21:10 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Well... he likes it. Quite a bit. I haven't noticed him becoming more demonic. He doesn't smell of brimstone. He hasn't caught fire." 21:10 <VoxPVoxD> "Here again we have the sample size problem. I don't know what it's like to be bitten when you have normal blood." 21:11 <Crion> Aster: "Mmmm. Yes. And I'm not volunteering as a control." 21:11 <Crion> "There is a vampire I know who might be interested in examining you." 21:11 <VoxPVoxD> "I can say that the bite has a certain narcotic effect. Presumably to mask the pain. And it leaves no traceable wounds." 21:12 <Crion> Aster: "Scientifically. Without salacious undertone." 21:12 <Crion> "One of his adjutants is a Scotswoman I can't say the same for, however." 21:12 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Is this Mr. Vados? 'The Turk', as Vie referred to him?" 21:12 <Crion> Aster blinks. "Yes. The same. Well, that makes this easier." 21:13 <Crion> "His given name is 'Ultim.' If you were unaware of the degree of Vampire we're dealing with." 21:13 <Crion> "But I am cautiously optimistic about our collaboration." 21:13 <VoxPVoxD> "They mentioned that the condition of my blood was an impediment to turning me. One of them rejoined that 'The Turk could change that'. Their leader responded 'she also doesn't want to', and that was the end of it." 21:14 <Crion> Aster: "Well, I am hardly interested in making you a more attractive vampire prospect. Simply from a self-assessed position." 21:14 <Crion> "But Vados is a true scientist, I think. For better and worse." 21:15 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Is he a nerd?" 21:15 <Crion> Aster: "He is a Gülenist. And quite physically imposing. So yes and no, and he possibly works for the CIA." 21:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Ah! Splendid. Hang on, back up a tick... just how Scots is the woman who adjoins him?" 21:16 <VoxPVoxD> "I received a quasi-unprompted prophecy last night, from an unknown number." 21:16 <Crion> "Kilt, beret, full accent." 21:17 <Crion> "Extremely into rats." 21:18 <Crion> "She, and Vados, have a sample of my blood. But no feeding. At least none that I recall. We really need to get on top of some mental control filter." 21:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Maybe we can reproduce or upgrade Bob's reticle." 21:19 <Crion> Aster: "If we're not trying to miniaturize it into contacts, then stuffing as much functionality into it as possible is the way to go." 21:19 <Crion> "But my conception is some sort of deadzone device." 21:20 <Crion> "We walk into the lab, for instance, and it broadcasts a frequency that obviates any extant control or command." 21:20 <Crion> "Or some other place we routinely visit. The Greybox. Etcetera." 21:20 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That would be wonderful. Is it possible? It seems rather Clarkeish." 21:21 <Crion> Aster: "No idea. If VASCU knew, it was off-limits to me. But we have freedom of pursuit and freedom of purse here. We can spend to learn." 21:23 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "R&D is very much your balliwick. If it becomes necessary to pool funds to accelerate, you can count on my support." 21:23 <VoxPVoxD> "Perhaps less so from our more mercenary colleagues." 21:24 <Crion> Aster chuckles. "Have a bit more faith in Badawi." 21:24 <Crion> "Not Rolf, though." 21:24 <Crion> "Have precisely the current amount of faith in that man." 21:24 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Agostina's mug budget is spiralling out of control. We have to be prepared for some belt-tightening." 21:25 <VoxPVoxD> "Possibly around my neck." 21:25 <Crion> Aster: "I was surprised she worried to the extent she did." 21:25 <Crion> "It wasn't simple self-concern. You don't break the Garfield mug on that. You just walk away." 21:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie, a bit flatly: "Her concern was very moving." 21:26 <Crion> "And Sergeant Hughes is just here to talk shit." 21:26 <VoxPVoxD> "Rolf, at least, is simply afraid of vampires and afraid of getting in trouble." 21:26 <VoxPVoxD> "Eminently reasonable, especially graded against the rest of what he's afraid of." 21:26 <Crion> Aster: "If that's true, he's chosen a very strange second act to his life. I think he just likes to complain." 21:27 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Perhaps he's simply grown accustomed to a certain resting state of fear." 21:27 <VoxPVoxD> "That does happen to veterans of the Troubles." 21:27 <Crion> Aster: "I'm not one to look to for empathy there." 21:28 <Crion> "Grew up too close to Boston." 21:28 <Crion> It's a joke, but it's slightly not a joke. 21:28 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Empathy's a big ask for Mr. Hughes, and not one he'd reciprocate. But the forerunner to empathy is understanding, and understanding is, I feel, quite indispensable." 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> "Career soldiery does not produce, as Bob would say, normal brains." 21:29 <Crion> Aster: "There we agree. Do you have any interest in meeting the Wise and Solemn Court?" 21:29 <Crion> "Vados doesn't count, it seems." 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Very much so. But is it wise? I'm certainly not prepared to sign a noncompete, and even if they know nothing of my various affiliations... I get the sense they're going to hate me just on spec." 21:31 <Crion> Aster: "Well, post-pro forma court introduction, my interactions with them have been limited to a jumped up customs official asking for a greasy bribe. So you can hardly hate them less than I do right now." 21:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie, delicately: "Being too quick to dislike people has not proven to be my weakness." 21:32 <Crion> Aster takes another bite of the sandwich. "There's a reason I wasn't part of the interview grab team at VASCU." 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "And I'm coming to realise there was a reason I was not handed more vampire work by Milan." 21:33 <Crion> He is fully chewing and swallowing with his mouth closed before speaking, his player notes, realizing all the emoting of Aster eating has come before dialogue. 21:35 <Crion> Aster, finishing the sandwich: "Well. Thank you for lunch, Willie. I'll speak with Vados, and be in touch." 21:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Very good! Thank you for your time, Mr. Aster." 21:35 <Crion> He returns to his work...and when Willie steps out into the reception area, young Simon is ready with her coat. 21:36 <VoxPVoxD> "How thoughtful! You are a credit to your position, Simon. Have a lovely day." 21:37 <VoxPVoxD> She thinks about letting him help her put it on... but that's too mean. She'll just take it from him and wrap it around herself as she steps into the coming winter. 21:37 <Crion> He chirps something almost entirely legible as a combination of thank you and farewell. 21:38 <Crion> And that's how Aster gets away with giving him only £10 an hour.