[07:50am] Quaker: -
[07:50am] Quaker: -
[07:50am] Quaker: -
[07:50am] Quaker: -
[07:50am] Quaker: -
[07:51am] Quaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXMfF1-d8MU
[07:51am] Quaker: When’s the last time you traveled by train?
[07:51am] Crion|: When Cav lived in New York.
[07:51am] Crion|: Well.
[07:51am] Crion|: 'Lived.'
[07:52am] banana: When KJ moved to San Francisco, she took BART until her first paycheck cleared.
[07:55am] Quaker: Then they probably had a more efficient and less expensive experience than Amtrak, which is the only line servicing the route down to San Diego’s Old Town, where they’ll meet people from the Embassy. At least their tickets were free.
[07:56am] Crion|: Even east coast Amtrak's a better experience than west coast Amtrak.
[07:56am] Crion|: Cav will choose a seat in the quiet car and spend most of the ride texting Kay and the office.
[07:57am] Crion|: Nix that. He'll be bringing the Bry/ians down with him.
[07:58am] Crion|: He's annoyed that it's a work trip. Cav really would have preferred to be coming down here with her instead.
[07:58am] Quaker: At the San Juan Capistrano station, the late hour has cleared out most visitors to the old city’s historic downtown. The last tourists are headed home as you get there, pulling jackets on as the temperature dips below 65. The station itself is little more than a low brick structure and more brick arches next to a long platform of pink cobblestone. Palm trees line the little lane, and the train, starting with the massive block of an engine, is idling under the boughs of a massive pepper tree.
[07:58am] Quaker: Who sees them off? At least it’s much more romantic a setting than being dropped off at an airport terminal.
[07:59am] banana: You get what you pay for. KJ wrinkled her nose at the complementary ticket, but it's better than driving through enemy territory..
[08:00am] Crion|: Cav will have already said his farewells to Kay (she's keeping a night schedule at the moment, but he's still trying to keep a wall between his work and their relationship).
[08:00am] Crion|: (Everyone stays healthier that way.)
[08:01am] banana: She arrives at the station with one gofer, a colourless young woman in a tracksuit who's juggling a briefcase, KJ's suitcase, and her smaller own.
[08:01am] Quaker: The Ambassador’s office has reassured them that it’s perfectly safe. No one on either side has ever attacked a train. Some things are more useful as neutral ground.
[08:02am] Crion|: Cav glances at the woman with a raised eyebrow before turning to KJ. Rush and Buchanon are probably standing off a bit, talking amongst themselves or on the phone. If either of those two has significant others or family they want to bring, Cav will have bought tickets through the office for them.
[08:02am] banana: "Zelda, this is the Baron of Laguna Beach, Shepherd of Crook and Cross, protector-emeritus of the Orange Territory that was. Cav, Zelda Essos."
[08:02am] Crion|: It's not a vacation for Cav, but there's no reason it shouldn't be for them.
[08:03am] Quaker: Neither do. Also, the only email they’ve gotten from the actual Ambassador and not her staff has assured them that they can treat it as a vacation in all but name. In fact, there were a lot of smiley emojis put in her letter to emphasize this.
[08:04am] banana: Zelda says nothing but makes the correct degree of bow. The Baron of Laguna Etcetera might catch an unguarded appraising look - at his mouth. Everything about her screams 'blood addict'.
[08:04am] Crion|: Cav smiles. "Good evening, Zelda." To KJ: "Good evening, Baron Anaheim. You've met my retainers, Bryan Rush and Brian Buchanon."
[08:04am] Crion|: At the very least they crossed paths in the aftermath of the incident at Cav's office.
[08:05am] banana: KJ: "Yeah, good to work with you more visibly. Did all those smileys render properly for you?"
[08:05am] banana: (That second sentence was to Cav, though really she never looked at the staff properly anyway.)
[08:07am] Crion|: Cav: "I keep my fonts up to date."
[08:07am] banana: KJ: "It's not so bad to be taking a night train to the border. That's the sort of thing they option for a screenplay."
[08:07am] tom joined the chat room.
[08:07am] Crion|: Cav: "I'm not sure the degree to which I trust that this is a vacation for us, but here we are."
[08:09am] banana: KJ: "It's one of those things. We're leaving responsibilities behind, which is the same as shirking them." KJ thinks of the email sitting behind a screensaver in her secure room, unsent. She watches the platform for the coming train.
[08:10am] Crion|: Cav: "Oh, we don't leave anything behind. Not anymore. That's not the kind of job this is."
[08:10am] Crion|: He sighs. "Hopefully the neighborhood won't explode while we're out."
[08:11am] banana: KJ: "Do you know anything fun to do in San Diego?"
[08:12am] banana: The ghoul Essos fades into the foreground. While she's standing still it's hard to pick her out from the potted plants that line the inner wall of the old station.
[08:12am] Crion|: Cav: "I always wanted to catch a baseball game at PetCo Park, but I think that possibility's been rather firmly removed from the list of options."
[08:12am] Quaker: As the three barons’ staffs mingle, waiting for the conductor to call all aboard, KJ sees someone through the window of a nearby cafe, sitting on a bench inside, waiting. Presbyter Vincent technically administers this territory for the Church, but her offices aren’t in San Juan Capistrano. Is she waiting for someone? Or taking a train? Either way, she’s taken pains to not be seen on the platform.
[08:12am] Crion|: Cav: "San Diego's not really a nightlife city."
[08:13am] Crion|: "From my understanding, at least."
[08:14am] banana: KJ: "For a couple of weeks, it will be. If you're as good as I am." Or if Wilson is, but that seems unlikely.
[08:15am] Quaker: “All aboard!” They can hear the sudden whuff of the engines cycling up, and their few fellow passengers start lining up and stepping in. As they do, every ghoul’s phone buzzes with an email notification.
[08:15am] banana: She doesn't draw any attention to the priest, but makes sure to stand somewhere where Clara Vincent can see her - deliberately enough that a watcher watching themselves watched will be aware of the watched's watch. It's arguably a form of respect.
[08:16am] Quaker: Clarabelle waves when she sees KJ seeing her.
[08:16am] Quaker: Rush and Buchanan both dutifully forward it to Cav; it’s from the Seneschal.
[08:17am] Crion|: Cav follows KJ's eye line back to the Presbyter, and when she waves, Cav will nod in her direction and smile. To KJ, without looking away from Vincent: "Ah. The church will be joining us after all."
[08:17am] Quaker: RE: Travel
[08:17am] banana: Oh, it's the really friendly one. Might as well smile back and hope nobody mentioned that she's never got around to going to the Carmelite church despite all the invitations.
[08:17am] Crion|: Cav glances at his phone.
[08:18am] banana: Zelda Essos doesn't need to forward anything to KJ - everything that hits her ghouls' inboxes is bounced to her own as a matter of course. Both women read it looking for things of quite different relevance.
[08:19am] Quaker: To All Staffs: The Prince has left the city to attend to some urgent trade business abroad. This is not a license for any change in behavior or non-observance of established law. Any opportunists will be dealt with harshly. A formal message will be drafted shortly. The Prince is expected to return shortly. - Rosa Isaacs, Seneschal
[08:20am] Crion|: ...?
[08:20am] Crion|: Left the city? Abroad?
[08:20am] Quaker: Clarabelle doesn’t join them, actually. Looks like she’s waiting for another train.
[08:21am] Crion|: Cav grimaces and resists the urge to shake his head. In New York no one would have known about something like this until after the Prince had returned. But then, the climate in New York is much different than it is in Los Angeles.
[08:21am] Crion|: For instance, his last update on New York politics was Holymount's psuedo-sad notification that the other senior partners had been murdered while travelling.
[08:22am] Quaker: With their belongings secured, the train blows its whistle and pulls out of the station. Within a few minutes, they’re clear of San Juan Capistrano and on the coastal track, the ocean on their right and the pitch-black foothills to their left.
[08:22am] banana: KJ doesn't comment directly. "Have they got us sharing cabins? I'm in.. how do you read this thing.."
[08:23am] banana: "Seat BOF1. Or that might be the ticket number, and the seat number is something else. TBM?"
[08:24am] Quaker: There’s hardly anyone else on the train with them at this time of night. The barons can sit pretty much wherever they like, once the conductors make their initial passes.
[08:24am] Crion|: The Amtrak that Cav is used to has general, self-selected seating with a quiet car in the front. But it depends if their benefactors have sprung for first class or not.
[08:25am] Quaker: They have not. The quiet car is off-limits to coach passengers, sadly. There’s a website where they can use the Amtrak app to upgrade on the spot, but if you try to go on their website to download it, their servers appear to be down.
[08:25am] Crion|: Annoying.
[08:25am] Crion|: Talking it is, then.
[08:26am] banana: Look, KJ wasn't sure whether to expect the bus-like BART style squalor or the freaking, orient express here? Anyway. An empty train is a much safer place to say: "'Abroad' could totally mean San Diego. Or this could be a distraction from that."
[08:26am] Quaker: The train softly trundles down the coast track. They can see the San Clemente Pier now, the track running just behind the public beach.
[08:27am] Quaker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGpsKIDd4kg&t=230s
[08:27am] Crion|: Cav: "I'm predisposed to worry about leaving the city empty like this."
[08:28am] Crion|: Not because of foreign invaders, mind. But because it's doubtful the secret police will be joining them on this excursion.
[08:28am] Crion|: Just more room for Burne and/or Bren to operate without supervision.
[08:29am] banana: KJ: "It'll be fine. I've had a general sense of events spiralling out of control for a while - since meeting you, actually - and at some point fatalism sets in."
[08:31am] Quaker: The two massive, concrete domes of the San Onofre nuclear station appear out of the darkness, silhouetted against the water. They’ll be out of home territory in a few minutes’ time.
[08:31am] Crion|: Cav: "That sounds like...the opposite of fine."
[08:31am] Crion|: He glances out the window at San Onofre. Ah, memories.
[08:31am] banana: KJ: "I mean, fine in the sense that you can't do anything about it. Here's how to deal with interesting times like these:"
[08:32am] banana: "You set aside your long term plans - whatever you're trying to do with Laguna Beach, your soul thing(?), etc. Make sure that you trust yourself to deal with situations as they come! Stay fit, which is easy in our case, and watch the area juust around you."
[08:33am] banana: "Then just.. ride it. This should actually be a surfing analogy, but I've never learned."
[08:33am] Crion|: Cav: "Yeah, well. You might have noticed that the 'area just around me' has gotten significantly more important than I think either of us are comfortable with recently."
[08:34am] banana: KJ: "Didn't you go through a special training program to be the center of attention?"
[08:34am] Crion|: Cav: "I've been surfing for quite awhile. Fun thing to note about it: you tend to fall off the board a lot."
[08:34am] Crion|: He grimaces. "Yes. And I've still not had cause to use it."
[08:35am] banana: KJ leans back and squints.
[08:35am] banana: "This is when you aren't trying?"
[08:36am] Crion|: "Pretty scary, huh?"
[08:38am] banana: Kind of. But let's not feed Cavanaugh's ego anymore. "Then this vacation is like, super good. OK. What do you like to do for fun in another city when there are literally no stakes?"
[08:38am] Quaker: They’ve passed the last lights of Orange County. The hills and the ocean are both lightless out here.
[08:38am] banana: "The only plans I've got are like.. drink blood, minigolf, visit the aquarium without a war on."
[08:38am] banana: "It might be nice to see Tijuana."
[08:39am] Crion|: Cav: "Hah. Stakes."
[08:39am] Crion|: Cav: "I'm gonna do some night surfing."
[08:39am] Crion|: "One of the benefits of being able to see in the dark."
[08:40am] Crion|: "Wonder if this 'princess' of Baron Modjeska's got property on the beachfront?"
[08:40am] banana: "Oh, wow. Are the waves different at night?" The knowledge that they've got no reception for a while keeps KJ from getting her phone out. It should be an opportunity to relax.
[08:41am] Crion|: Cav: "You know, honestly, I'm not sure. I didn't pick it up until I came out here."
[08:42am] Crion|: "Can't say it should matter too much day or night, though. It's all based on the tides."
[08:42am] banana: KJ: "Right, no surf on the Least Coast. How much time did you have to put into it?"
[08:42am] Crion|: Cav: "I put aside three nights a week, less any other...social obligations I have that overlap with it."
[08:42am] banana: Because while it WOULD be fun to pick up a board, about 110% of KJ's hours are spoken for generally.
[08:43am] banana: "Oh."
[08:43am] Crion|: "I've had less time than usual recently."
[08:43am] Crion|: "But we're somewhat out of season as it is." It's what, late April?
[08:43am] Quaker: The doors to the car open for the snack trolley making the rounds.
[08:43am] Quaker: Let’s say it’s early summer by this point.
[08:44am] banana: "Good job keeping track! Most of the Counts don't anymore." Fuck it, KJ gets her phone out. She's not ignoring Cav or anything, but it feels so.. uncomfortable to not be multitasking.
[08:45am] banana: "'Hold my avocado'? Come the fuck on."
[08:45am] Crion|: Cav will treat himself to something from the snack cart. He is always Blushing now, and after all, this is supposed to be vacation.
[08:45am] Quaker: What’s she even doing on her phone? There’s no reception out here.
[08:46am] Quaker: Their blueberry muffins are, surprisingly, extremely good.
[08:46am] banana: Scrolling through what's loaded on her timelines, switching apps, flipping past those, switching back, refreshing in the hope of reception, scrolling up again,
[08:47am] Crion|: "What's this about avocado?"
[08:47am] Crion|: He's nursed a very mild avocado addiction since regularly eating became a thing for him again.
[08:47am] banana: Eventually, Bubble Witch Saga. "Time Magazine. Millenials. We've ruined everything again."
[08:48am] Crion|: "Well, fair enough."
[08:49am] banana: "I think they say 'millennials' like some sneering elder says 'neonates', you know? Beings whose very vital essence is puny, yet innately threatening."
[08:50am] Crion|: The muffins ARE good. "If the analogy holds, they also can't stop talking about them while insisting they don't matter in the slightest."
[08:51am] Quaker: Eventually, the lights appear again as they pass through Oceanside, then Carlsbad. At least they didn’t see any werewolves.
[08:52am] Crion|: If we'd reached the point where werewolves were running up on Amtrak cars, even in the dead of night, even with vampires in them, that would be cause for...significant concern.
[08:52am] banana: KJ: "That is extremely correct. Four years of it was bad enough, I feel for the people who stay shitty for fifty."
[08:52am] banana: "World's oldest millennials. Returning to torpor every generation to de-age from a conservative uncle into a fun uncle into a nerd uncle."
[08:53am] Quaker: Well, it’s like a safari. You might see some wild animals in the distance.
[08:54am] Crion|: Cav resists the urge to talk politics. As a New Yorker involved with tacky rich people and finance, he's had more than enough of the current Republican frontrunner for three lifetimes.
[08:56am] banana: "Hey, how and why are you modifying your own soul?"
[08:57am] Crion|: Cav: "The 'how' is a trade secret."
[08:58am] Crion|: Cav: "The 'why'...well, you'd understand better if you'd met me sooner."
[08:58am] banana: KJ: "I'm more interested in the other one. Is it like.. a self-esteem thing?"
[08:58am] Crion|: "Hah."
[08:58am] Crion|: "No. It's not a self-esteem thing."
[08:58am] banana: "Honestly, you seem like an okay dude. I'm not just saying that."
[08:58am] banana: KJ: "We've got a lot of Types in L.A. and the main type is 'bad'."
[08:59am] Crion|: Cav: "I've spent most of the last three years angry enough to kill people."
[09:00am] Crion|: "I've gotten into a number of fights -- above and beyond the fights people like us normally get into -- and those fights had consequences."
[09:01am] banana: KJ's quiet for a moment. "That is some weight to carry. Are you making yourself forget, let go?"
[09:02am] Crion|: Cav: "Forget? No. Let go? Well, we'll see."
[09:03am] banana: KJ's pulled up one of the oldest images on her phone. She holds it out to Cav- "Check this out."
[09:03am] Crion|: "Anyway, the last time I underwent the sort of...elective therapy...this path requires, I met what I believe is a personification of my anger, which I belive threatened to kill me."
[09:04am] Crion|: He'll take the phone if it's handed to him.
[09:06am] banana: http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-633.gif It's some sort of diagram with a lot of arcane terms about the spirit. A weird mix of egyptian and hebrew stuff.
[09:07am] mattbaby joined the chat room.
[09:07am] banana: KJ: "This sounds familiar to something a cult indoctrinated me with once. The reification of your alternate self, projecting a soul-image which can in turn affect the world."
[09:07am] banana: "Or in your case.. be affected by the world?"
[09:08am] Quaker: They’ve just passed Encinitas. Have either of them been this south before?
[09:08am] banana: She's placed the cult's own teachings in that image, of course, to show Cavanaugh again his successes at whatever this mystical thing is, to make him want to talk.. the iPhone has an aura of mystery and an aura of exaltation.
[09:08am] Crion|: Cav glances at it, phone in hand, and for a brief moment his mind goes back to the night he first figured out the theory behind autodidacticism. With a lot of help, of course, but that was the first time he'd ever had a real breakthrough in his own research.
[09:08am] banana: Which isn't just Apple marketing.
[09:09am] Crion|: "Wow. Yeah." Cav grins as he looks down at it, somewhere far away for an instant, before handing the phone back.
[09:09am] Crion|: Depends whether or not they're further south than that office building Cav helped storm during the war.
[09:10am] banana: KJ: "The motion between Cheybi and Chayah was meant to be the 'higher self walking in the world', the thing that was you and could improve you. Did you get to defeat your anger peacefully?
[09:14am] Crion|: Cav: "Yes and no. I did what I had to do before it had a chance to stop me, and then it quoted poetry at me and ran off."
[09:16am] Quaker: The lights are growing brighter. They must be passing through the suburbs north of the city proper.
[09:17am] banana: KJ: "That's fascinating. 'The vehicle of the higher soul will prove itself by compelling the baser self to retreat' - Blavatsky by way of the Latitude. If there was even a kernel of truth in those teachings, it sounds like you were in the opposite position- casting yourself as the super-ego, the being in control of yourselves. What did that take?"
[09:17am] banana: Strange light as the conversation becomes stranger.
[09:18am] Crion|: Cav: "Like I said. Trade secrets."
[09:18am] Crion|: Cav: "...wasn't what I expected, though."
[09:21am] banana: KJ: "Well, the Shepherds can hardly have prepared you for what you found here." That's not quite a wild guess - she's read the Shepherd communications and they are boring as fuck. Movements of blood and herds in the language of finance - 'human resources' needing no actual transliteration. 'Chrysalis' is something native to this city.
[09:22am] Crion|: Cav: "The Shepherds prepared me for a politics that is...significantly different than the kind Los Angeles deals in."
[09:22am] Crion|: "In that politics, being angry all the time is both a successful tactic and an unavoidable outcome."
[09:23am] banana: KJ: "How can you even tell what kind we deal in here? There's so much under the surface. I'm only beginning to see it now, after I thought i'd played the game well enough to win a ticket in."
[09:24am] banana: It's a damn shame that he's not actually stupid.
[09:26am] Quaker: If they look to their right, they can see the land suddenly give way to a huge series of bays and inlets, and in the distance, the lights of SeaWorld.
[09:27am] Crion|: Cav: "LA politics are no less dangerous, but they are less vicious."
[09:27am] Crion|: "Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing."
[09:28am] Crion|: "Seems like there's a lot of violent urges that get sublimated." He learned that word recently, too.
[09:28am] Crion|: "So then you get people in plate armor jumping out of helicopters, and so on."
[09:28am] banana: "Uh." Oh, wait, he's not talking about her. "Well, that's not very deep sublimation is it?"
[09:29am] Crion|: "Depends on how violent you really are."
[09:29am] Crion|: "And how violent you really wish you could be."
[09:29am] Crion|: He sighs. "I'm just glad the Wilderness Commission didn't shoot up my office. Insane pricks."
[09:30am] banana: SeaWorld.. this time without bombs, KJ hopes. "Well, maybe more of the Invictus should be undergoing elective therapy."
[09:31am] Crion|: Cav's pretty sure she won't pass that insult along to Count Ma. Much more sure than he would've been back east.
[09:31am] Crion|: He smiles slightly. "What, and take away the one thing that makes me stand out from my co-workers?"
[09:32am] banana: You can count on KJ Valentine to not give out information, any day of the week.
[09:32am] banana: Night.
[09:32am] Crion|: Cav glances out the window. "SeaWorld."
[09:33am] Crion|: "Why do I remember SeaWorld? Did something happen there?"
[09:33am] banana: Yeah! "I wish they still had orcas. But I'm still going."
[09:33am] banana: "Something.. well, yes."
[09:34am] Crion|: "Let me know when you go. Maybe I'll join you, if they haven't lied to us about this being a vacation and I'm not tied down with work."
[09:37am] banana: "Sure. Got to get that nightlife started somewhere." And we do need to find out whether this is real work.
[09:38am] Quaker: Well, they’ll see what it is in any case in a moment. The engineer announces their next stop, San Diego’s Old Town Station, coming up in a few minutes. Prepare to disembark!
[09:39am] Crion|: Cav stands and grabs his carry-on. That was a fun little jaunt.
[09:39am] Quaker: What have they heard about San Diego’s court, anyway?
[09:39am] Crion|: They're not fans of being thrown out of office buildings.
[09:39am] Crion|: That's Cav's main impression.
[09:40am] banana: The Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum are unified under a banner of tradition. They have strong ties to the south. They were the ones who 'settled' L.A. originally.
[09:40am] banana: KJ doesn't know whether to expect people who speak mostly Spanish or refuse it entirely. That's the main reason she brought Essos, as a translator.
[09:41am] Crion|: He's also vaguely aware that the San Diego court are the people who facilitated the church hunters who came up into LA from Mexico last year.
[09:41am] Crion|: Which eventually kicked off the war, if he recalls correctly.
[09:47am] Quaker: The train slows to a halt. Through the windows, they can see that they’ve stopped next to a squat beige building with a brown roof. OLD TOWN TRANSIT CENTER, reads the sign. A bit beyond, there’s more buildings, with a warm glow of light distinct from the concrete and parking lots around them. They can see bits of spanish tile and glimpses of adobe.
[09:51am] banana: That's kind of pretty. KJ and her ghoul head to the door. They take a a leisurely (ha) pace, since there's no crowd to shove past.. Amtrak ended up a lot more comfortable than she expected.
[09:52am] Quaker: The ride here must have relaxed Cav more than he realized. He doesn’t realize there’s a crowd of about two dozen people standing on the platform outside until he’s waiting behind KJ in the aisle. They seem to be waiting for them, specifically. They can tell, because no other passengers except the barons and their staff are disembarking here.
[09:52am] Crion|: Uh.
[09:53am] Crion|: That's a...large delegation.
[09:53am] Crion|: He makes sure to link back up with Rush and Buchanon.
[09:53am] banana: Are there any familiar faces here, because there's like eight of us total
[09:54am] Quaker: Buchanan is on his phone. Rush is trying to look down at the platform through the windows.
[09:54am] Crion|: Cav realizes that he's never seen either KJ or Wilson fight before.
[09:54am] Crion|: Hopefully that won't change on this platform.
[09:55am] Quaker: Sure! KJ sees Abigail Gannon, who she’s met at parties before. She’s, uh, dressed differently than her usual fashionable club attire.
[09:57am] Quaker: Anyway, time to get off, if they’re getting off.
[09:58am] Crion|: Cav will take the lead.
[09:58am] Crion|: If people are going to throw hands, he should be in the front anyway.
[10:00am] banana: Oh, will he?
[10:01am] banana: KJ's going to share that spotlight even if it takes Celerity. Apparently nobody knows what they're dealing with here.
[10:01am] Quaker: As they step down, the two dozen people stiffen, prepare, and-
[10:01am] Quaker: Someone’s arm falls in a signal.
[10:01am] Quaker: Suddenly, the platform explodes in noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w4BH7Ix_NI
[10:01am] Crion|: Oh god.
[10:02am] banana:
[10:03am] Quaker: People hurry forward to put specially embroidered sombreros on the barons as the huge mariachi band plays enthusiastically for them. Sparklers have been placed at a tasteful (very far away) distance to try to add non-stressfully to the occasion. Someone hands a bouquet of flowers to KJ.
[10:03am] Crion|: His impulse to roll his eyes at KJ scampering and shouldering up next to him is immediately replaced with a flash of startlement, then slight embarrassment.
[10:03am] Crion|: Briefly and nonsensically, he worries if this is some kind of Masquerade violation.
[10:05am] banana: Baron Valentine nods to the mariachi, takes the flowers and sticks the brightest in her suit pocket. She's gladhanding and blowing kisses like they've got a red carpet, which perhaps they literally do
[10:06am] Quaker: They can both see Ambassador Gannon shoo away a courtier holding a pair of white porcelain masks on a satin pillow. “Not here,” she says, exasperated.
[10:07am] Crion|: None of this shows on his face, which breaks out in an easy smile as he moves forward to meet and greet the San Diego delegation. If the vampires here are speaking Spanish, he will too.
[10:09am] banana: "Lo siento mucho, pero mi español es malo. We're very happy to be wherever we are."
[10:09am] Crion|: Cav: "Ambassador Gannon."
[10:10am] Quaker: Then, she turns back to them, smiling. The last time KJ saw her, she was ready to club. Now, she’s dressed in a long black skirt, with a white and blue rebozo wrapped around her shoulders, a huge blue flower in her hair. “Welcome, Barons! So good to see you. I hope your travels weren’t too stressful.” Her deep southern accent feels a bit out of place here, but her friendly demeanor goes a long way to explain why she was picked for the position.
[10:11am] Quaker: There isn’t a San Diego delegation, actually. As they get their bearings, they realize it’s just the ambassador and a few assistants.
[10:12am] banana: "It was peaceful as all get-out, Ambassador! We're relaxed enough to assume any diplomatic duty you care to name. Cares left behind in the big city."
[10:13am] Quaker: And the paid mariachis, who plays gamely on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKEm19lMjuQ
[10:13am] Crion|: Well. Interesting.
[10:13am] Crion|: To the ambassador: "The train was nice. Relaxing."
[10:15am] Quaker: Abby waves KJ off. “Oh, no, don’t worry about all that yet. I’ll make sure you’re settled in at the table before I put anything on your plate. Where are you all staying?”
[10:16am] Crion|: Cav will have booked a nice but not extravagant set of rooms at one of the best hotels in the city. Three in total, one for him and each of his ghouls.
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[10:16am] Crion|: Oh right, nevermind.
[10:16am] Crion|: They already made arrangements.
[10:16am] banana: KJ: "Casa Figueroa de Solano y Medina."
[10:17am] Crion|: Still, Buchanon has the hotel reservations ready to file if things get weird.
[10:17am] banana: To Cav: "You were hoping for a beachfront, right?"
[10:17am] Crion|: Cav: "That I was."
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[10:18am] Quaker: Abby’s smile remains on through effort. “Oh, you’re staying with the Princess La Jolla after all? Well. Okay.” Somehow, colorful serapes have been put on the arrivals’ shoulders in the meantime.
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[10:18am] Crion|: Cav notes the effort.
[10:19am] Crion|: Fantastic.
[10:19am] banana: KJ: "It's hard to turn down hospitality like that. How's the city been, Abby?"
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[10:20am] Crion|: "Is there anything we should be aware of on that front?"
[10:20am] Quaker: The Ambassador shakes her head. “No, nevermind, I’m just being a party pooper. Better you three safe and sound with the Princess than me having to worry about you all the time. Anyway…”
[10:20am] banana: Oh come on, that's not how you- whatever.
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[10:21am] Quaker: “Oh, it’s wonderful! You know, KJ, you would hate it in the long-term, but I’ve fallen in love. Feels like a small town, with all the big city amenities. Just don’t tell them I said that,” she says, winking.
[10:22am] Quaker: “On which front, Baron?”
[10:22am] banana: "The amenities have great pitch," KJ notes.
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[10:28am] Crion|: Hard to tell precisely what the ambassador's problem with the princess is. 'Good' news is that usually when someone is uneasy but polite about a landed elder he hasn't met, the matter clears itself up very quickly, because the elder walks around in full plate mail or advocates for burning the forests down to drive the witches into the sea.
[10:28am] Quaker: “Work for a pittance, too. Well, look, I don’t want to do much to weigh you down with my responsibilities. You’re here for a vacation, aren’t you? Here’s all I need you to do. Once you’re all settled in and you’ve spent a night or two relaxing, come see me and I’ll get you up to speed. The signing gala isn’t for another three days, anyway.”
[10:32am] banana: KJ: "We're here as your resources, Abby. We'll be holidaying as long as you don't need us- but if you do, don't hesitate. Please!"
[10:34am] Quaker: “Just a few recommendations before you go, though. Please, please stick together while you’re out. Things are better than they were, feelings-wise. But they’re not totally peachy keen on us, you know? Especially - and KJ, you know I don’t mean this about you and yours, or yours, Baron, obviously - especially when you’re being a royal asshole. Which…” She huffs. “Some people are just not suited for diplomatic work. I’ve had to send some people home. How they got down here, I can’t imagine.”
[10:34am] Crion|: Cav: "I concur. I can't spend the entire time surfing."
[10:34am] Quaker: “Just don’t jump down any rabbit holes, is all I’m asking.”
[10:35am] Crion|: Cav: "Ah, being a royal asshole. The Invictus prerogative. I'll aspire to the former, not the latter."
[10:35am] banana: KJ: "Same. We'll politely defer to local interests and make friends if we even make waves."
[10:35am] banana: "Can I ask you one thing, though? As the Ambassador to San Diego."
[10:35am] Quaker: “Thank you, Baron. I know the Prince has picked a better batch this time around. Now, the, um…” She looks around. Where has Wilson gotten to? “Hm? What’s that, KJ?”
[10:37am] banana: "Well, the Court chose to send Barons who - between us - accounted for at least fifteen dead on the other side. Are you sure it's all good for now?"
[10:38am] Crion|: Cav isn't quite sure how...public his activities during the war are, even now, to the ambassador.
[10:39am] Crion|: "Yes, it's my hope not to run into someone I recognize on the street," is all he'll say on that front unprompted.
[10:39am] banana: KJ's watching for his reaction as well as Abby's, of course. But it's a real question too.
[10:41am] Quaker: Abby waves a hand. “Oh, that. No, don’t worry about it. Honestly, it’s the whole San Diego thing, you know. You’re doing them a favor, really, dying in glorious battle, you know. They won’t say it, but some of these elders like portraits of dead children more than the living thing. As long as you did it wearing armor, face to face, I can’t imagine they’ll try anything. Now, they might give you a nasty look or two. But all’s fair in love and war, etcetera…”
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[10:41am] Crion|: Haha. Yeah. Wearing armor.
[10:42am] Crion|: Well, it was face-to-face at least.
[10:42am] Crion|: Claw-to-face.
[10:42am] banana: Great! Wilson should be fine, then. "It's nice to have all that behind us. What's the best way to get around the city tonight?"
[10:45am] Quaker: Abby: “Now, I was in San Francisco at the time, so I guess the principle only goes so far - oh, well, I’m sure the Princess has a spare driver for you. If you want to stretch your legs on your own, we’ve got our own exclusive cab contract. I’ll send you the number. Service all hours, anywhere in the county. Tip well, though. They drive faster that way. The trolleys are cute little things, but it’s only around downtown. Plus, you know what a pain in the ass sticking to a schedule is, especially when you just want to relax.”
[10:47am] Crion|: Cav: "Indeed." He still hasn't installed Uber, mainly out of petulance -- it feels like a full third of the e-mails on the Shepherds listserv are various complaints about NYC cabs, and pining for Uber to replace them permanently -- and is glad he still doesn't have to even without his Lexus.
[10:47am] Quaker: True to Abby’s prediction, they can see a fully-uniformed chaffeur, brass buttons running down the front of his jacket, waiting at a respectful distance for them.
[10:48am] banana: Let's grab a spare serape for him.
[10:51am] Quaker: Abby: “Now. The last thing I need to talk to you about.”
[10:51am] Quaker: She definitely looks uncomfortable.
[10:51am] Crion|: Here it comes.
[10:51am] banana: KJ: "Oh, I knew it was going to get real at some point. Go ahead."
[10:52am] Quaker: “I don’t see Baron Frost around. He’s in your party, though?”
[10:54am] Quaker: She looks around for him. “But besides that…how many other Nosferatu are with you?”
[10:55am] Crion|: "It's just the Baron Hollywood, I believe. But they come and go. You know how Obfuscate can be."
[10:58am] Quaker: Abby shakes her head. “Damn local customs. Funny thing about our little social circle. You get so used to complaining about how Marquis Figueroa is, or how stuffy all our sires can be, and you forget that they’re the ones with enough foresight to leave places like this and try new things.” She waves her aide forward. He comes, bringing a suitcase.
[10:59am] Quaker: “Now, understand, I think it’s a barbaric custom. But you may want to observe them for your own safety and comfort.” The aide opens the suitcase. Inside, are the two white, featureless, porcelain masks, on a red silk pillow.
[10:59am] Quaker: NEXT WEEK: La Jolla