15:53 <banana> It's some time past alcohol o'clock in the evening and Willie's found herself on the sidelines of the party, danced out for now and on the wrong side from the buffet. Somehow it's come about that she's chatting to both Sergio and Bob. 15:54 <VoxPVoxD> :D 15:55 <VoxPVoxD> She's got a Campari spritz, her boyfriend, the best friend she's made since she moved, and she looks a-ma-zing at a magical wonderland party. This is so, so lovely. 15:56 <tom> The man in the now-hyperreal wolf mask is gesturing with his beer. "-Look, I had no idea her costume would actually- I mean, does that make me weird, now that she's literally little red riding hood? I didn't get any warning, okay, don't put that on me dog-" 15:56 <banana> As the two men eye each other, considering (Willie may presume) various questions of masculinity, she sees something unexpected from the corner of her eye. Someone. 15:57 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Oh my god you're mad. It's cute! It's very cute and everyone thinks do. Do relax. It's a-- party..." 15:57 <VoxPVoxD> ...? 15:57 <banana> Why is there such a young kid here, sitting uncomfortably on a tree stump just out of the main shadow of the yew? Is that one of the Nightingales? Willie's pretty sure it's the young teen who had a knife. 15:58 <VoxPVoxD> ?! 15:59 <banana> Sergio: "It's got to depend on your gobble-up narrative. All of these people seem to put great stock in stories - didn't your Mari use the phrase earlier?" 16:00 <banana> "So, when a change-ling volunteers for a part in an actual fairytale, they know what they're on about." 16:00 <tom> "Sure." The wolfman hesitates, puts another beer up to the little hole between his fangs. "I don't actually remember after... however many beers it's been." 16:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's not paying attention to the men anymore. She stretches, arching her back and neck and seeming to wobble in her confectioned finery, and then she says: "Gentlemen, I'm going to stretch my legs for a bit. Excuse me, would you?" 16:01 <tom> He raises the bottle. "Cheers." 16:03 <banana> Willie notices that the kid's better dressed than he was in the cemetery - or that could be a consequence of the glamour cast upon him, like everyone here. He doesn't look like any kind of myth or beast, and the only odd thing apart from his presence is that he's got an old-school briefcase by his stump, the kind City workers used to carry under 16:03 <banana> their bowler hats and umbrellas. 16:03 <banana> Sergio: "See you in a moment, sweetheart." 16:03 <VoxPVoxD> She takes Sergio's hand with her as she gets up, letting go at full extension like a dog shaking off a leash. The intention is not to beeline for the child(?(?!)) but to approach him from an oblique enough angle that it doesn't seem like a direct attack. 16:04 <banana> To Bob: "Three for me, but it's social. They don't, well, do anything unless I force it." 16:06 <tom> "Yeah. The techs said that was one of the tells, like excuse me, time to go hork it up in the bathroom later. Honestly man, that sucks so bad." 16:07 <tom> Not the best conversation topic, honestly: "Hey though, we've all got allergies now. It's chill." 16:07 <tom> "...She apologized yet for taking you on a ruse cruise at Inchcape?" 16:09 <tom> The wolf is steadying himself on the back of one of the folding chairs to keep the wobbling down. 16:11 <VoxPVoxD> Of course, no amount of delicacy is going to ease the mind of someone primed for fear, so how does he react as the strawberry woman with cream-coloured skin drifts into his field of view? 16:13 <banana> Sergio Bonasera is not enormous, but he's a solid-looking guy compared to Bob; their faces, however, are similarly mobile. An onlooker (Willie, recently) would note a constant stream of expressions and twitches. This time, it's Sergio's eyebrows that move, going up and down a couple of times before settling on up. 16:13 <banana> "D'you think Willie's got something to apologise for there?" 16:15 <tom> He relaxes, and his shoulders fall in kind of a shrug. "Oh I thought the whole thing was hi-larious. Took your lumps like a champ. Not even mad about the mind control. She just wanted to flip the script, I think. Like, oh, that's cute, you're gonna introduce me to the midnight society? Haha." 16:16 <banana> The Hattersley teen does react; he bares his teeth. It's a rather primitive look, which gives way to embarassment, and then he looks down at the ground. Doesn't seem to think Willie is here to talk to him. 16:16 <tom> "Well the script-flipping isn't gonna stop anytime soon. S'why I wanted to have a chat." 16:16 <VoxPVoxD> Surprise surprise: "Good evening. I believe we've met." 16:18 <banana> Sergio contemplates Bob. "Sure. Let's find somewhere to sit down and talk scripts. The barrels over there? Are you a barrel man?" 16:18 <tom> "I can do barrels." 16:19 <tom> "We're still in the line of sight so you'll need to pull off the Suzie Special if you really wanna murder me before anyone notices though." 16:19 <tom> That's a joke, yeah? Yeah. We'll go with that. 16:21 <tom> He doesn't sit down, but instead supports himself with his outstretched arms on the rim of the barrel, leaning over with that snarling wolf grin. 16:21 <banana> The upturned barrels Sergio's noted are south of the 'dance floor', nearer the Threshhold of the hill which you crossed when arriving. He doesn't sit either, content with Bob looking less likely to fall over. "Is Suzie one of your guns, Goreman?" 16:22 <tom> "Nah she's from the other end of the cold cuddles club. I think they're called the Carthians." 16:22 <banana> The teen to which Willie has so politely introduced herself is a ginger, with little wisps of chin and cheek hair in the same yellow-red colour. He stops scratching them and jerks his head up abruptly, eyes rolling for a moment. "Um. Evening, miss." 16:23 <banana> "...ah. You're the rich bin- you're Kingfisher's benefactor." 16:25 <tom> "But yeah." He doesn't elaborate. Instead he sets his beer down. "So yeah. Instead of what you're thinking, I'm not gonna do the, frankly, weird and kind-of-fucked up surrogate dad," He gestures aggressively, with faked outrage: "Don't you drink my baby-girl's blood you demon from heyull-whatever-the-fuck bullshit." 16:26 <tom> "Dude's gotta eat. Makes more sense than ninety percent of the weird shit your bosses are doing." 16:28 <banana> Sergio: "Do go on." 16:29 <tom> "Well, it's like," He rubs his wolf-jowls. "I want you to know, that I know, that you know, that I know, that you know- that we're cool." 16:29 <tom> "So I've been thinking hard. And I came up with a number. Twelve to fourteen." 16:30 <tom> "That's the number of uh, you know, confirmed Hemophage kills I've had a direct hand in." 16:30 <banana> Now he'll sit. Just a little perplexed. 16:30 <banana> "Are you sure this isn't a dadly threat, Bob?" 16:31 <tom> "I am done with that life." 16:31 <tom> "No I mean, I think, we can uh, understand each other, you know-" 16:31 <tom> "That is the game." 16:31 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles. "Yes, that's right. And you're a member of the Nightingale Society." She offers him his hand. "Willie." 16:32 <tom> "Shit this not comin' out right at all." 16:32 <tom> "I mean you've been on that night-life for a few years, yeah?" 16:32 <tom> "I bet you've already seen some wild shit." 16:32 <VoxPVoxD> *offers him her hand 16:35 <tom> "...Look if it makes you feel better, that number is a lot lower than the normal-ass human beings I splashed." 16:35 <tom> "Nope, no that's worse." 16:36 <tom> "I mean, okay, now I got it:" 16:36 <tom> "You don't have to worry about me lookin' at you like you're a killer, oh nooo, it's so terrible." He waves his hands. 16:38 <tom> "We're all doin' horrible shit just to get by." 16:38 <VoxPVoxD> Not me. 16:40 <banana> Sergio watches Bob more than listens to him, taking it in. Eventually he holds up a hand- "Yes, yes. We'll agree on horrible- well. Let me think for a moment how to put this." 16:41 <tom> The wolf wobbles. 16:42 <banana> Bonasera: "As it happens, I've never killed anyone. I'm aware that most of us don't manage to sustain that position, that the immortality I've accepted comes with so many costs that it does tend to set you apart from the normal human reaction to violence." 16:43 <tom> The wolf seems shocked, and after a moment leans in with that big black snout like he's trying to smell falsehood. "Dude, respect. Honestly, that cannot be easy to do when you're poking around in someone's carotid." 16:43 <banana> "May I be frank? The drive to feed is also an instinct to prey. We have discarded petty irritability for something that can easily be... worse than hangry." 16:44 <banana> Sergio: "I appreciate your empathy. It does leave me wondering what fucked-up course thesenights' armies put you through to instill it." 16:45 <tom> Thesenights. So cool: "I guess I just mean, you best be ready to do it if it's between that and her." 16:46 <tom> "She's fresh outta boot camp, basically. And she's straight up not having a good time with some of the low points." 16:46 <banana> Teen: "Bertie. Why is um... are you here with an offering?" He squints at Willie, trying to figure out what she is. 16:47 <VoxPVoxD> "I was invited. I'm working. Technically." She gestures at the briefcase. "Are you?" 16:48 <tom> "...I'm guessing Weaste didn't mention the whole uh, infinitely recursive mom vampire thing." 16:48 <tom> "Or if he did, you didn't mention it, 'cus she took that one real hard." 16:48 <banana> Bertie: "Sort of." How friendly. 16:49 <banana> Sergio: "I don't know what level of inurement you're suggesting- now you've lost me entirely. I'm happy to blame the demon drink, however." 16:50 <banana> "Who is this recursive mum?" 16:50 <tom> "Oh man, I wish." 16:50 <tom> "You met a, sorry, really vampy vamp named Agatha?" 16:50 <VoxPVoxD> Willie will sit if he's sitting, and stand if he isn't. "May I enquire?" 16:52 <banana> Bertie is sitting on the stump of a much smaller yew than the frankly unrealistic one which overshadows the Samhain celebration. It's not like Willie can pull up another tree, but there are plenty of folding chairs around. "I'm just here to follow tradition, like. Because me brother isn't around to do it and nobody else cares." 16:53 <tom> He picks up the beer bottle, thinks better of it, sets it down: "They were running some kind of social experiment I guess. They turned the mom, waited for her kid to mature, then turned her after she'd had a kid, uh, like, for like five generations in a row." 16:53 <banana> Sergio: "Name's familiar. One of the old guard, I think." 16:53 <tom> "Does that still sound fucked to you? It does to me." 16:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "But you care. Enough to come here from Hattersley and stand at the periphery of this grand old party alone. You're not of the Hill, I take it?" 16:55 <banana> Sergio: "It sounds like a decadent aristo thing, alright. My understanding is that sort of thing led to an actual revolution. I don't recognise the particulars of the story - are you sure you have it right?" 16:57 <tom> "Agatha was pretty clear that the end result had her granddaughter and mother dying trying to slash each other's throats out." 16:58 <tom> "Not a fun situation." 16:58 <tom> "Willie took it hard." 16:58 <tom> "She's unblooded- sorry- like you. Still new to this, still has hope." 16:59 <banana> Sergio: "Are you saying you don't?" 17:00 <tom> That gets him some derisive laughter. 17:00 <tom> "I am far and away the biggest monster at this party." 17:02 <banana> Bertie: "I'm not a fairy. I'm a- I mean, I'm not but-" He glares at Willie, somewhat unfairly. 17:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'm a demon, on my father's side." 17:03 <banana> "There was an old promise. My family, King Underhill. We made a deal, an' it doesn't matter anymore, but I'm still here." 17:04 <banana> Bertie: "Can you grow horns and a tail?" 17:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I've never tried." 17:04 <banana> Sergio looks around theatrically, then back at Bob. 17:05 <banana> "There are at least two other vampires here, each much older than I am. I recognise one of them due to his reputation for human sacrifice." 17:05 <tom> "That explains Letty's deal, then." 17:06 <banana> "I myself have gone through an ethical process of accepting that if I have a right to exist, then so does the scar-faced pagan. Is that more or less monstrous?" 17:06 <tom> "I basically go strictly by high score, sir." 17:06 <tom> "He would have to be sacrificing a lot of people to match the U.S. Army." 17:07 <banana> Bertie: "I've tried to grow claws and fur. Tried really hard, like, when I was just a kid, and still believed in the family stories. Didn't work." 17:07 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I understand the King Under the Hill is a venerable role in the night-North. I would also feel compelled to honour a promise made with such a figure. What sort of stories did your family teach you?" 17:08 <tom> "Anyway, what I mean is- what I'm tryin' to say, we all fucked off from that life. She just smartened up decades before the rest of us." 17:09 <tom> "She's looking for proof she made the right call, in you dude." 17:10 <tom> "Next week I'm gonna be blasting Revenants with a flamethrower, odds are equal, and that's a coinflip no matter how you stack it. But you're literally immortal. So you stick it out, you hear?" 17:11 <tom> "...Or maybe not. Maybe everything's fine, and normal, and we get paid simple as." A wry smile: "What do you think the odds of that happening are?" 17:22 <banana> Sergio: "That's a DOOM enemy, right? Honestly, mate, your life sucks. I don't mean to be rude." 17:23 <banana> "Hopefully the home stuff is going well. Seems like a nice time. But your job is something that.. nobody should be in?" He shrugs in frustration. "I know this is hypocrisy. I accepted the laced chalice which necessitates such work, as have others with very few scruples." 17:24 <tom> "Hell yeah. BFG Division was my go-to workout track after they put me on Tactical." 17:24 <tom> "It has its upsides," He gestures around the gathering. 17:25 <banana> Sergio: "The aesthetics are frequently inspiring. I'm worried by the effect on your resilience. You may not be selfish enough for this work, Bob." 17:26 <banana> "I do understand what you're saying, and it will be my pleasure to stick by Willie Wellesley, but she also needs you as a friend. Stop assuming that will be temporary." 17:26 <tom> "Speaking of aesthetics, did you think a straw on her dress was just too much? Because at a certain point the irony wraps back around and it's just funny." 17:28 <banana> Bertie: "Private stories, lady. Wolf-stories, dead old tales." 17:28 <banana> He hesitates, not totally incurious. "What's a demon family like, then?" 17:28 <tom> "Yeah that's the one thing mortals are known for, not being temporary." 17:28 <banana> Sergio: "It was my least favourite part." 17:28 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Secretive. Every story I've ever been told was told to me by a stranger." 17:30 <VoxPVoxD> "I had to leave home for a time to get more from my blood than nightmares would give me." 17:30 <tom> "My least favorite part is all the insanely sad women I'm bumping into every night." 17:31 <banana> Bertie: "Demon summer camp? Go on then." He doesn't necessarily believe her, she can tell. But he's out of place, and kind-of knows Willie, she helped them, she's pretty... 17:36 <tom> Bob tips his beer to Sergio. "I have to go find my spider.... after I find some water." 17:37 <VoxPVoxD> "They picked me up out of university. It was set up to look like a research sabbatical in Milan. In a sense it was; in a different, truer sense it's a shadowy league of Satan's spawn who dedicate themselves to trying to use their..." Gifts? Curses? "...power to help people. To protect them. It's not our job, according to the laws of nature... but it's got to be *somebody's*, in a world 17:37 <VoxPVoxD> that has too many dangers and too few protectors." 17:37 <VoxPVoxD> "Do you know the Wolf-Mourners?" 17:37 <banana> Sergio: "Alright, Bob. I'm not much for advice, just... be aware you're making choices, ok?" 17:40 <tom> "Yeah man. That's why it hurts so fuckin' bad." 17:40 <tom> He offers the man a lazy salute and goes off to find some water and maybe a coffee. 17:41 <banana> Bertie mutters "Satan's spawn, yeah" because that bit sounds cool. When she gets to the end, he stiffens right up. 17:41 <banana> Obviously lying: "......Nah." 17:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "My colleagues and I did some work for them at the last blood moon. Spirits were bleeding in from another world, and the border had to be guarded. This was once the role of what people in my profession call werewolves, the old rangers of the border-marches." 17:46 <VoxPVoxD> "But now it falls to others to pick up that old work. The people who still care." 17:46 <banana> Bertie: "Fucksake lady, if you knew what we was why didn't you just say?" 17:46 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I didn't want to be presumptuous, about your nature or your privacy." 17:47 <VoxPVoxD> "I apologise if I offended you." 17:48 <banana> "That's.. ok," he grumbles. "Guess you were being nice actually." 17:48 <banana> "It's all just so weird. Everyone here is a fucking weirdo and I'm supposed to fit in, like. But not anymore. So I don't. And it's weird." 17:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie nods. "Yeah. It seems to me that the main thing that connects you to the people here is that you care." 17:54 <banana> Bertie: "I know it's real, the shadow-world, because..." he gestures with the hand that isn't holding the briefcase. You're looking at it. 17:54 <VoxPVoxD> "So much of it is so terribly beautiful." 17:56 <VoxPVoxD> "May I tell you a secret. One you can convey to your fellow Nightingales or not at your discretion?" 17:56 <banana> "So it really is important, the ranging we used to do. There's this whole other dimension that people don't have to know about becoz it doesn't reach out to kill them. And these fairies... though they're all weird and half of them are dickheads... they keep that world sealed away too. So I do want to... I guess I do care, I want them to succeed. to 17:56 <banana> keep on." 17:56 <banana> Bertie: "As long as it's not the kind that eats your brain from the inside out." 17:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "The reason we were out at Gorton that night is because the vampires told us that if we didn't move you, then they would." 18:00 <VoxPVoxD> "I came off as trying so hard because I wanted very badly to keep anyone from getting any closer to that part of the world than they had to." 18:00 <VoxPVoxD> "There ought to be a line. I believe that, firmly. As you do. I aspire to be on it." 18:01 <banana> It may be the first time Willie's actually heard someone say "Bleeding 'eck." 18:01 <VoxPVoxD> Her smile is small, and so is her nod of acknowledgment. 18:02 <banana> Bertie: "Vampires, Chri- cripes. Lucky break for us that some of your weird gang can sing." 18:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Agostina was so good, wasn't she?" 18:03 <banana> "Um... I don't know from demons, but the thing you're doing, it seems... good. To do." 18:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I know very little from werewolves... but what you're doing seems good too." 18:04 <banana> "Yeah, fanks." 18:05 <banana> Willie's caught sight of Sergio, Bobless, by the edge of the crowd. He's frowning, though not particularly at her. 18:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie sidles up to him. "You look pensive, darling." 18:07 <banana> Sergio: "Sorry, it's the brain." 18:08 <banana> He takes her hand, and will move slowly toward the dance floor if she's rested enough for a go-round. "Do you often find yourself pensive after a conversation with Bob Goreman?" 18:08 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "...from time to time." 18:08 <VoxPVoxD> "Dare I ask?" 18:08 <VoxPVoxD> She's happy to dance. 18:10 <banana> "I think..." Sergio is thinking, visibly. He's expressive, but it's usually more controlled, a deliberate charm; you dance between a pair of semi-nude sows on their porky hind legs toward a being like a Chinese dragon wrapped around a maypole and control doesn't seem to matter much. 18:10 <banana> Sergio: "He would make an extraordinarily bad vampire." 18:12 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I think, from the perspective of a vampire, you're quite right." 18:12 <VoxPVoxD> She sounds concerned, now. "Is he alright?" 18:12 <VoxPVoxD> "Are you?" 18:13 <banana> Sergio: "Not really and yes, respectively. He needs to talk to his spider-girl, and I'd better ask Simpson about this family experiment. Sounds like one of the worse ideas from the bad old days.. although it's possible Bob seized the stick from the wrong end." 18:15 <VoxPVoxD> "Family... he told you about Agatha." 18:15 <VoxPVoxD> Now Willie looks pensive. 18:16 <VoxPVoxD> Have you ever seen a strawberry look pensive? It's adorable. 18:18 <banana> Sergio: "I don't know the story there - someone introduced her as 'childe of the late genius Bradford'. It sounds like something really horrid went on in the end. Are you doing ok, Willie? With the underside of all this magic glitz?" 18:21 <VoxPVoxD> The memory rises like a stone in her throat and she swallows it back down. That's getting easier. "I... found her story quite affecting. But it's fine. The same thing happens when I'm doing casework at DCS. Things catch you off guard, they strike a chord, whatever." 18:23 <VoxPVoxD> "He really is a terribly sweet man. I wish he'd take better care of himself." 18:28 <banana> Sergio: "Bob wants me to take care of you. Because he thinks he'll get himself killed at some point." 18:28 <banana> "The reality is you'd survive both of us, but why should you have to? I told him not to be temporary. He's not in a place to listen right now." 18:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smiles, grateful that the tempo is slow enough that she can caress Sergio's face. She almost wants to cry. But she doesn't. She doesn't want them both to think of her as a crybaby. One of them is bad enough. "How did you get to be so wise?" 18:35 <banana> Sergio: "I don't think I'm wise, just centered. I had a good life, and then another chance." 18:35 <banana> "...I want to draw everyone here. It feels like a dream that won't last until morning." 18:36 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "This Hill is a haven for people whose world left them behind before they ever re-entered it... but they sustain the illusion with such marvellous grace." 18:37 <VoxPVoxD> "If you don't see yourself as wise, may I share a piece of wisdom I've come upon in recent nights?" 18:37 <banana> Sergio: "I don't see why not." 18:39 <VoxPVoxD> "It can be bloody, frightening, heartbreaking, hypnotic, almost overwhelming... but I've come to find that the hardest part of falling in love with a vampire is that I'm painfully aware of just how few hours are in a night." 18:41 <banana> "Oh Willie." He'll have a go at dipping her, and kiss her either way. "Thanks for filling so many of mine with dreams."