Family.
You could pick your friends, but not your family. Of course, that wasn't strictly true, but he wasn't ready for Childer yet. Even if it felt like he was in a room-full. As he watched the Sanctified slowly burn their aspirations away with the flame of their proselytism, his eyes returned to Ashley Cohen.
For a few moments, he had thought she was doing the Carthian bit he found so annoying: pointing out obvious fallacies, but offering no solutions. Then he had paired her statements with her previous ones, and almost smiled. Pushing Discipline Mastery and then tenure? How un-Carthian. But subtle, and admirable, because of the answer to both.
A shame she isn't around more.
He wasn't going to play the 'Where's Waldo?' game, starring Ashley Cohen, every time a new Ventrue needed to be Acknowledged.
"It's obvious we're not going to come to a unanimous decision by acclamation," he said, shaking his head. The hint of a smile revealed it for what it was; amusement, rather than disgust. John Paul may have abolished the practice, but the Kindred of the world had not.
"The night is growing short. Vote, please."