01:14 <banana> It's not London - not even most cities back in New England were London. But Manchester does have city lights, and fine dining, and entire blocks where you won't get knifed and the chance of seeing someone vomit is very low. 01:15 <Crion> Aster can change that with a thought, of course. But not tonight. Well, hopefully not tonight. 01:21 <banana> Dr. Blackfin has seen worse, but she'd rather not see it again. When Aaron picks Samantha up at the Lowry - exact same hotel he stayed in, which she'd have no reason to know - she's dressed for a whole night out, with a green gown and matching just-in-case umbrella. 01:21 <banana> It is as a point of fact raining. 01:22 <banana> Samantha looks both relaxed and tired, as though working hard until just recently. Her mood seems much as it usually is. "'Sup." 01:22 <Crion> Aster left his lab coat in the lab because he had a much nicer one on a hanger in a cleaner's bag in the backseat of his black Range Rover, and he's combined that with an understated but tasteful tie in a crisp knot. 01:24 <banana> A much nicer coat, or a much nicer labcoat? 01:25 <Crion> It's a proper suit coat matching his trousers. Please. "You look fantastic." He opens the passenger's side door for her. "Just came from work. Much less nice part of town over there, except for the weather, which is everywhere." 01:27 <banana> Samantha takes the compliment with a firm nod. She knows she looks good. "It's island-wide at this point, which is the last thing I have to say about the weather." 01:28 <Crion> Men are expected to notice. He circles back and climbs into the driver's side. "You're in town on work?" 01:28 <banana> "Oh, but to immediately break my own rule - the evening rain was actually quite nice on the way up. The train windows got a kind of sunset haze to them which everyone tried to pretend didn't affect their mood." 01:28 <Crion> Ah. "Everyone seems to act around here like traveling the same distance as Baltimore to New York City is like leaving the country. I suppose in some directions it is." 01:31 <banana> Samantha finds somewhere on the inner door-frame to stash her umbrella. "It's cultural distance, or it used to be... they remember when this place was at war with, say, Leeds. One town over." 01:32 <banana> "We actually teach kids our history, but here it sort of oozes up out of the soil." 01:32 <Crion> Aster: "Must be terrible for the property values." 01:35 <banana> She peers out the window at the property values. "Yes." 01:35 <banana> "History is why I'm up here, but it's the more recent stuff. There was a really horrible set of killings at this beach resort, Blackpool, a long time ago... now we may have a copycat. Nasty petty attacks." 01:36 <Crion> Aster makes a noise in his throat that's mostly sympathy, slightly irritation. Not at her -- just the idea of a copycat. Annoying business. And fundamentally lazy. "Blackpool. Feels like the sort of name you'd expect to have trouble." 01:36 <Crion> "Does it involve drownings?" 01:38 <banana> Samantha tilts her head left and right, then smiles. "I don't need to NDA you, right?" 01:39 <Crion> Aster smiles thinly enough to almost be a grimace. "My exit NDA covers consultations with currently-employed agents, so long as they're reported and I hew to the basic professional standards set down. Even allows me to charge a nominal fee, which I won't." 01:40 <Crion> "This time." 01:42 <banana> Samantha doesn't offer one, then. "It's not selkie stuff this time. The killer in the 60s was just this perv who went after teens on the beach... he had weird habits, telltale markings, letters to the police. The whole deal. Not Special Crimes, though." 01:44 <Crion> The Sixties. Old enough recurrence to flag Special Crimes just to put an eyeball on it at least. In case it actually is the same guy, and he's still spry enough to do the work. 01:45 <banana> "What we've got now... it's happening in Brighton, this Channel town which also technically has a beach, and the sequence of attacks is so far... exact. An exact copy of everything Ansell did, including the bits that were never reported." 01:45 <Crion> He's able to talk and drive now; getting used to this country's strange peculiarities on the road took some time. 01:45 <banana> Samantha: "The thing is, Timothy Alvin Ansell was hanged at Strangeways. One of the last few people executed in England. 01:45 <banana> " 01:46 <banana> "So we've got some kind of insider job, maybe, a cop who studied the records and went weird... or something really weird." 01:46 <Crion> Aster: "Ha. Brighton Beach. One of the last stops on the Brooklyn-bound A train in NYC." 01:48 <Crion> To the business: "Cop or journalist. Especially over here there's a lot of journalist work-product that never makes it into the papers." 01:48 <banana> Samantha: "Hmm... it's this sort of barely-there strip of sand, not very pretty, but better enough than the other bits of coastline in England that they exported the name all over the world. There are Brighton Beaches in Africa, India and Australia." 01:48 <Crion> "What a psychotic country." 01:49 <Crion> Aster: "Was there anything odd surrounding the Strangeways execution?" 01:49 <Crion> Technically he now has contacts up that way...but Samantha can handle herself. 01:50 <banana> How far is the restaurant? Aster gets the sense that Blackfin is weighing up what more to say about the job she's here for, but she does go on: 01:50 <Crion> They've got another seven to ten minutes. Longer if he decides to stall for whatever reason. 01:50 <Crion> Manchester, like everywhere else, can't drive in the rain. 01:51 <banana> "Maybe. I'm going to ask questions around that, and also.. recreating the Ansell killings in 2021 hasn't been easy. Blackpool back in the day had people selling weird snacks, Punch and Judy shows, whatever Panto is, an era caught between rationing and the Beatles. The new guy has been incorporating all of those elements, somehow." 01:52 <Crion> Aster: "Time travel? Co-location across the fourth dimension instead of the usual three." 01:53 <banana> Samantha: "Information so far inside it's outside." 01:53 <Crion> Aster: "Perhaps the dead man literally acts in the Sixties, and it happens now." 01:53 <Crion> "All sorts of fun things we can get up to on the margins, it seems, so long as its bad." 01:53 <banana> "I need to go to Blackpool and get into the mindset the old people there remember, but yeah.. I'll also be checking the prison graves." Probably not personally, not unless there's reason to suspect something. 01:54 <Crion> Aster: "The graves are a good bet. If it is physically focused on his person, there's no reason to think his body in the now would have moved...but there might be residues, side-effects. Clues. But enough work. Here we are." 01:59 <Crion> Tattu Restaurant and Bar is on 3 Hardman Square, which is actually an incredibly 'posh,' as they say, part of the city. Everything about it, from the decor to the dress code to the young models moonlighting as the waitstaff, is painfully expensive. The lighting is exquisite. And Samantha has always liked Chinese. 02:01 <Crion> Indoor trees. Boughs tastefully arranged from the ceiling. Booking would have been a problem, but indoor dining still hasn't fully recovered from COVID. This will put him back several hundred pounds, which he knew going into it. 02:01 <banana> Samantha's a profiler. The best, in a specialised millieu. If she's been sent up here alone, the main thing Scotland Yard will want is a picture of who the historical Tim Ansell really was, so they can look for a ghost or clone or time-traveller in Brighton... but clues never hurt. And she did all sorts of work over the years, back in Philadelphia. 02:01 <banana> Blackfin: "Oh! We've stepped into the new Chinese century!" 02:03 <Crion> Aster: "I suspect it's less spicy than what you'd get in Beijing. Less socialist, too." 02:03 <Crion> He says this in a very 'they balance out' manner. 02:04 <banana> Samantha: "Let's test that one against the evidence." 02:05 <banana> The process of being seated is personalised, pink-hued and discreetly spectacular. Everything has been pre-approved. 02:07 <Crion> Glancing around: "If one of my co-workers were here, she would recognize some of these people." 02:08 <Crion> Aster: "But they would recognize her. Being American in this city has been best of both worlds so far; respect, if not approval, but still near-total anonymity." 02:08 <banana> Samantha: "The Marquess... or possibly the sniper?" 02:09 <Crion> Aster: "The marchioness, I believe it is." 02:10 <Crion> "The sniper is currently engaged in the war of all against all with everyday Mancunians. Simply can't take her anywhere." 02:11 <banana> "Ha ha ha. I do want to remind them sometimes that we made titles of nobility unconstitutional." 02:12 <banana> Samantha: "You're all getting along, though? With each other and the local.. Special Criminals?" 02:13 <Crion> Aster waves his fork. He's always had problems with chopsticks, and you don't cater to high-end English diners by forcing them to eat the food the way they're supposed to. "We simply sublimated them elsewhere. But yes. There is a very odd balance of power up here." 02:13 <Crion> "And it's very startling that the five of us were simply...available, to be brought together, so simply." 02:14 <Crion> "One does wonder about larger plans, and who is pulling strings. Especially if one has worked at VASCU for twenty years." 02:14 <Crion> "But so far, no horrible grand reveals or jump scares." 02:15 <banana> Samantha: "Destiny-induction? Or an active orchestration thing?" 02:15 <Crion> Aster: "The latter, but the latter has never said no to a little bit of the former to help things along." 02:15 <banana> "I looked into the Human Office a bit more, but SCU of the Yard prides itself on having nothing to do with them. Helps them - us - be actually effective, it seems." 02:16 <Crion> Aster: "I am unsurprised, both having met one of their supposedly more effective officers and been told of their loss retention practices." 02:17 <Crion> "Do you know what happens to a supra-competent black book war criminal of the Troubles with dozens of kills to his name when you put him on a steady diet of Facebook and far right podcasts?" 02:17 <banana> Samantha is taking a moment to try several parts of the latest dish while she listens. Satisfyingly complicated. Small portions by the standards of home, which is possibly also good. 02:17 <Crion> After tasting his wine. "The same thing as anyone else." 02:18 <banana> "Better than post-Gladio syndrome. I hope you're not working with a Wortman." 02:18 <Crion> "It's not that I'm not sympathetic to some -- some -- of his complaints. But the man simply will not put down his phone." 02:20 <banana> Samantha: "I've got a bit of sympathy for that after a four hour train ride." 02:20 <banana> "Thank God I don't get carsick anymore." 02:20 <Crion> Aster: "Presumably you weren't constantly reading from yours aloud." 02:20 <banana> "Um, nope." 02:21 <Crion> "There's some little shit over here, like that Shapiro brat but more English, that he's become particularly taken with. Darren something. Grimes." 02:22 <Crion> He shakes his head. "Anyway. What are you thinking for an entree?" 02:22 <banana> Darren Grimes is meaningless. "Ours or theirs?" 02:23 <banana> "Locally speaking, we just had the entree. I'm sure it's on the residency test." 02:24 <Crion> Aster: "Ours. I'm committing to the ugly American bit and refusing to budge on the terminology." 02:24 <Crion> "I see they've side-stepped the issue by labeling things 'small plates' and 'large plates.'" 02:25 <banana> Samantha picks out a main course for the next time someone in a cheongsam sidles imperceptibly up to their table. "We're not the only people in this place who aren't from Greater Manchester." 02:25 <banana> "...do you think you're ever going back?" 02:25 <Crion> Aster orders the Wagyu ribeye, which is probably the most expensive item on the menu. "To where? I'm certainly not spending the rest of my life in Manchester." 02:27 <banana> Samantha: "God no. I'm not even spending a week... I'm here until Sunday." November 3. 02:27 <Crion> Aster, slightly smiling: "Noted." 02:27 <banana> "What I mean, though. Once my ILR comes through... I might apply for naturalization. Naturalisation, with an s." 02:28 <Crion> Aster: "Ah. I see." 02:28 <Crion> "Well, my return to Philadelphia is a...political question." 02:28 <Crion> "One I don't ever anticipate being on the right side of again." 02:29 <Crion> "I can't say I ever see myself as a citizen of Great Britain...but the only place I'd be leaving for has sunny beaches and no extradition treaty." 02:29 <banana> Samantha: "There's that... and all the other political questions. The news is just.. it sounds like everyone went completely insane. For years and years, and getting worse." 02:33 <Crion> Aster: "I did my duty and voted for Biden but...that stupid old man's a fossil, even when he does rightfully get his dander up, and the alternative is what? Sanders? Even if Bernie Sanders, 'independent,' were permitted to take the oath of office and begin healthcare nationalization and whatever else he seems to think he has the power to do, someone would shoot him. Probably someone from 02:33 <Crion> his own security detail." 02:33 <Crion> "There's just no room anymore for someone like Hogan, the Maryland governor. Or what was his name?" 02:33 <Crion> "Kasich." 02:33 <Crion> "John Kasich, from Ohio." 02:35 <banana> Samantha was never much into politics; she didn't even hate Clinton much. But the distance has rendered her glum. "Whoever they get in now has an impossible task." 02:35 <Crion> Aster: "Either way. Much happier to be over here than over there. Especially if the government mages start getting restless." 02:36 <banana> "When we were exiled I was kinda jealous of the people who didn't look too close. Now I just.. hope they're okay." 02:36 <Crion> Aster: "Surely we would have heard something if they weren't." 02:39 <banana> Samantha: "I'm not sure how far outside the circle we are now." 02:39 <banana> "...which is the last thing I have to say about work." 02:39 <banana> "Are you doing anything tomorrow?" 02:40 <Crion> Aster: "You know me. I'm always doing something. But I don't have to be." 02:41 <Crion> She also knows him well enough to know he's done absolutely no cultural or sightseeing stuff in the city outside of work. And not just because it's Manchester. 02:43 <banana> Blackfin: "I'm setting my own schedule up here. There must be something to see in among the defunct coal... factories... which have been levelled up into... market gardens and music festivals. Full of people who say oo ar. I've exhausted my knowledge of 'the Norf'." 02:43 <Crion> Aster: "You're certainly adapting well to being a Londoner. Are you going to start doing the accent?" 02:44 <Crion> He's been here a few years, but he's tried to guard as best he can against any slippage in his accent. Samantha is presumably being intentionally less vigilant on this front. 02:44 <banana> "No." 02:44 <Crion> That gets something akin to an actual smile from him. 02:46 <banana> Samantha: "Any events on? Concerts, parties, lockdowns?" 02:46 <Crion> Aster: "I have a work event on the night of Samhain. Technically a party, but I'm working security. Faerie people. Other than that, I'm truly not the person to ask." 02:47 <Crion> He sighs. "One of our little group is dating one of theirs. It's apparently quite serious." 02:47 <banana> Samantha's eyes get really big for a moment there. 02:48 <Crion> "I'll keep my ears open in case any of them happen to be perpetrating 60-year-old copycat killings." 02:49 <banana> "Samhain is a Celtic thing? Faeries, small and winged or the dimension-hopping kind?" Her hand actually goes to her side for a notebook, but of course it isn't there. 02:49 <Crion> Aster: "The latter. I don't think I'd let slide relations with the former." 02:50 <banana> Samantha: "Gross. Yes indeed." 02:50 <Crion> "Predictably, the ones I've met up here are much more personable and tolerable than the ones we chased due to suspicion of serial murder." 02:53 <banana> That gets a sigh. "Yeah, it's neither SCU nor VASCU orthodoxy but I get that the murderous anythings are going to be worse than the normal ones. It's just... you know what it's been like for us." 02:53 <banana> Samantha: "We know they have organisation, societies and conspiracies of their own - but whenever we get close, well, the serial murders start. Of agents, usually." 02:53 <Crion> Aster: "Yes. Well, you know my feelings on that." 02:53 <Crion> Namely: it's an in-house problem. 02:54 <banana> "And then either we back off or we actually catch somebody and the rest go to ground. No such thing as friendly relations, really. Imagine if we could have a unit that did security for parties." 02:55 <Crion> Aster: "That said, I take exceptional precautions. But my co-workers...clearly, they fraternize to some degree. I suppose we're still technically in the grace period before the retaliations usually begin. But only just." 02:55 <Crion> "How has SCU's casualty rate been?" 02:55 <Crion> He recalls it being much much better than VASCU's, though not pristine. 02:57 <banana> Samantha: "Recently? We lost more people to disease than anything. Not directly, nobody dies of the virus if they're under fifty and vaxxed. But in the last long lockdown some of the vampires went mad." 02:58 <banana> "And there was this one kid, you may have met him.. Webb? The detective who transferred from the main force, with the soul patch?" 02:58 <Crion> Aster shakes his head. He would rhetorically ask how she could tell, but a great part of both of their careers was built on answering that question. 02:59 <Crion> Aster: "I do recall him, yes. High confidence level, is what they call that in the file." 02:59 <Crion> Arrogant little prick. 03:00 <banana> Samantha grimaces. "Webb... died by suicide a few months ago. He left a note in his own file saying he'd betrayed us to space aliens. Unverifiable, but there were some odd incidents in retrospect." 03:01 <Crion> Aster narrows his eyes. "Starchildren." 03:01 <Crion> "I had no fondness for Webb...but I very much doubt that man killed himself." 03:02 <Crion> He shrugs. "But what's one more suspicious suicide on the pile." 03:02 <banana> "Again, unverifiable. He or whoever put his head in the oven made sure we weren't able to examine the brain." 03:02 <Crion> Aster: "Or verify that it was removed. Though surely he hadn't undergone the Process." 03:02 <banana> "The pile sucks, but it is what it is." 03:03 <banana> "Oh, I should clarify... 'us' here is the human race. So watch out for that?" 03:04 <banana> There's a joke in the business: apocalypses never come in on schedule or under budget. 03:04 <Crion> He smiles wryly at that and nods. 03:07 <Crion> He eats a bit more steak, pauses, then: "Do you have any interest coming to the Samhain party?" 03:08 <Crion> "We are apparently permitted to bring a plus one. You might not like how I know that." 03:09 <banana> Big eyes again. "That would really be a first." 03:09 <banana> "Hey, don't look at me as a normie for this question... is it... safe?" 03:09 <banana> "Who are these people really?" 03:10 <Crion> Aster: "We have an invitation to this party, in context, in large part because the colleague who is seeing one of the faeries...defeated one of their hunters." 03:10 <Crion> "In single combat." 03:10 <Crion> "The marchioness is capable of setting the entire building on fire with a thought...but her date is a vampire." 03:11 <Crion> "There are calculations to make along a variety of axes." 03:11 <banana> Agents with less experience or worse judgement might not have said 'people' there, but Samantha's not one of the junior-VALKYRIE types. 03:11 <Crion> "Last week a starchild tried to brain-fry me and I made him squeal and flee." 03:11 <Crion> "This earned me respect." 03:11 <banana> Samantha: "And you and I are graduates of- right." 03:12 <banana> "Hummm." 03:12 <banana> "Seeing the other side when it's breaking only a minimal number of laws. That would be very... interesting." 03:12 <Crion> Aster: "One last thing: It is a masquerade." 03:12 <banana> Samantha: "Oh, I'm in." 03:12 <banana> "Like, Venetian masks?" 03:13 <Crion> Another actual smile. "I can have a mask provided, or you can make one yourself." 03:13 <Crion> "Seems like the sort of diverting project to take the edge off of Manchester qua Manchester." 03:13 <Crion> Aster: "Yes, I think so. But I also don't think the style is restricted." 03:14 <Crion> "But fashion masks, not medical masks." 03:14 <banana> "I'll find something! They have fashion here, right?" She reconsiders. "At least they must have costumes." 03:16 <Crion> Aster: "We'll be in work clothes, but nice. I intend to dress mostly like this but without the tie." 03:17 <banana> Samantha: "I've got jitters Aaron. The dreamland people in masks... hellfire and blood... hunters and black ops. This... I can't miss this. It's a far cry from quasibiologic forensics, right?" 03:19 <Crion> Aster smiles indulgently, but: "Annoyingly so. I've only gotten to test out my lab once so far. The rest has been glitz and graveyards and business development." 03:20 <banana> "I'd guess Samhain falls into the third category, with a little of the first." 03:20 <banana> "I may see things I'd be expected to report." 03:22 <Crion> Aster: "It is what it is. VASCU is well aware that fucking with the ecosystem outside of its remit leads to more trouble than its worth. Just another creep-and-greet for the files." 03:22 <Crion> "If they try to drop a SWAT team on the Winter Hill they're not going to like what happens next." 03:24 <banana> Samantha's finished her meal, and multiple drinks. "Usually the creeps are more like... state senators." 03:24 <banana> "God, what kind of shoes do I wear for this. It's a masked ball... I'm guessing we dance." 03:24 <Crion> Aster: "Oh, we have our share of those here too. Not at that precise intersection of banal, corny, and hideous, though." 03:24 <banana> "That will be nice." 03:25 <Crion> Aster: "...Let me text the marchioness." 03:25 <Crion> He pulls out his phone. On HUNTR: <Willie. Aster. Have a +1 for Samhain as well. She wants to know what kind of shoes to wear. She will handle own mask.> 03:26 <VoxPVoxD> <!!! will you be Dancing. there is Appropriate Space> 03:28 <Crion> Aster: <Will pass this on. Thank you.> 03:28 <Crion> We shall see about the dancing. "There will be a dance floor." 03:29 <Crion> He settles the bill correctly, and with an appropriate tip. Part of embracing the ugly American is being able to tip like one still, and not caring if you get weird looks for giving the staff 30%. 03:29 <VoxPVoxD> Could it be the illustrious Dr. Blackfin...?! 03:31 <banana> Dr. Blackfin isn't going to back out of this thing, but she's experiencing trepidation. Outside agency-report language- she's scared. Even though she's up here to pick through ancient memories and turn over the graves of murders. 03:31 <banana> Maybe she'll talk it out with Aster at some point, or maybe she'll just stay a little scared. It adds zest to the trip, which is already a bit of a watershed. 03:32 <Crion> Either way, they're headed out. Whether to the hotel or to his place...is their decision, and we'll leave them to it.