Tonight, I had an evening of meetings. First, with Viviana, I learned that in order to have a dependable person working for my interests during the day, I have to bind them to me through blood.
Which is...basically what she's done to me... Hmm.
I also learned about Trebius Group. Apparently, Viviana has connections that will allow me to take possession of the house on Hawthorne. Convenient!
I also had to go to Marcus's. We discussed a private matter, before moving on to the events of Birkin. He also mentioned that a werewolf war was brewing. Chloe, his confident friend, had been severely wounded by a werewolf pack (ironically enough, the pack that we were hunting with Valkyrie when Cheiron attacked). Whoops on that, I suppose.
Then, another team meeting was called. Apparently, Cyril and Agnes had had several sorts of adventures, and over the course of a day, no less. First, Cyril activated some kind of artifact, seeing things that mages don't normally see. This activation drew the attention of some sort of mage sect called the Seers of the Throne. It seems that a combination of Cyril, Agnes, and new arrival Max managed to fend off the attacks.
Which is the second part of the three part meeting - Max is a werewolf. For some reason, learning this irritated me to the point where I immediately loaded Thunder with silver bullets before my other meetings. When I arrived at Greenbriar, I could immediately smell the wet dog scent permeating Cyril's office. This did not put me in a good mood, nor did Agnes's continuing oblique persuasions to not let racial tendencies to cause us to not get along.
So we moved on. Now we come to the third part of the meeting, the most entertaining part. Agnes had arranged a "group therapist" to come and help the team work out its issues. The therapist was awakened, she said, and very good at what he did. Nadya complained that we were going to do this when tired. Had I truly been riled, I would have pointed out that I was tired when we went to save Nasilah, then still when we went to save Oliver. And that was fighting, not sitting in a meeting. However, I left it alone so that we could focus on the therapist. Then he arrived.
Dear God, the sweater.
Dr. Gale Robertson was a very engaged man who spoke with a lisp. He and his pug (dressed in a matching sweater) arrived and were immediately the targets of derision. The team managed to arrange themselves so that it, at least to me, appeared to be us against him. We all received name tags with alliterative epithets, for example, I was "Gentlemanly Gavin" or "Genuine Gavin" (and yes, I'm aware of that irony).
We went through several activities, including stating what we thought was the biggest problem facing the team. We also had to give a description of how we see a given team member, easily enough done. Then there was the roleplay, wherein we were paired off with another team member and had to act how we thought that person would act. I was amused by mine, as I was paired with Agnes. Agnes was less than amused, it seemed.
The last activity was by far the most amusing. Each of us had to stand up in the front and speak with Dr. Gale while the rest of the team wrote one good thing and one bad thing about us on a card. Some of the responses were highly amusing. A summary follows: I am dependable, but broody, among other things. Cyril hasn't died yet, but he has an approximate knowledge of many things. Oliver seems very experienced, but we haven't seen him doing much. Nadya is always there when you need her, but she's paranoid and prone to picking fights.
Then we come to Agnes!
Her negatives were as follows: can be reactionary, strange, sometimes overly persistent, doesn't bother looking past the obvious in the heat of the moment, and she is antagonistic. In a definitively ironic turn of events, Agnes reacted badly. She seemed very upset at her negatives, which spurred the rest of us into fits of laughter. Cyril even pointed out that he had an approximate knowledge of psychology and could probably help her out if she wanted. That, and her reaction, just spurred us into further laughter.
All in all, a very productive evening, though it was far from over. (NOTE: After Ultor is incorporated and we have a few board meetings, contact Dr. Gale and retain his services for another session.)
Not long after, I went to speak to Cyril about some things. Max was there, but some of the tension had already bled away. We discussed the former owner of Greenbriar, Jimarcus. He was a mage, focused on Prime magic - the building blocks of magic. He was once associated with the mages that came to help us with Taraton (which included Octavia, one of Marcus's).
We also briefly discussed Max and why he was so close to Cyril. In short, Cyril is bait, because the Seers are after him and Max is after the Seers. Fair enough, I suppose.
Then we moved onto wards, and their various types. We discussed possible wards for the Ultor building, perhaps something to dampen hostile intentions. Then we discussed possible dampening of supernatural...rages, for lack of a better word.
I offered Max the junkyard, after Viviana is gone and I move my things (what little I have). He and I will go visit it, so that he can take a tour of the place. My only caveat is that he not give me any trouble when utilizing the place, so that I can acquire materials I need. He agreed, but said it would be just me. No other vampire would be able to get in without trouble.
Amusing, that.
Max left, and Cyril began to ask me questions about the changes that have occurred to me since my Embrace. He was concerned that I had changed abruptly, simply because he didn't know why. He was very happy that I was handling things so well, though. That led into concerns of Marcus, but I am pleased with his involvement, though cautious, and Cyril has adopted a "watch and wait" stance.
The Soul's Army will be slowly integrated into Ultor. They will remain protecting their families and their homes, but now they'll draw a decent paycheck for it. Most of them will go toward security (as will a handful of MS 13 members, should we be able to draw them in). I informed him of my plan to offer employment to Petrushka as my assistant, though not my full plan. I also informed him of possibly approaching Wallace Wilkins with an invitation to join the Board.
Cyril planned to scale back some of what Persephone did to her. He didn't like the total shift of priorities and ways of thinking, worrying that they might break her mind. I convinced him to leave her be until I spoke with her, but now I begin to reconsider. Having him there will allow him to listen to her, and watch her, and decide how to scale it back if he still chooses to. It will also provide an educated witness, should the need arise.
He discussed concerns about Wallace, mainly the fact that he might not be human. Apparently Wallace could identify what Max was immediately. He made me promise to let him know how my discussions with Mr. Wilkins go.
So now I'm taking some time to seek him out.
No comments:
Post a Comment