Open House

[Ashley Cohen]

"I personally would exert a subtle influence, though I daresay I haven't heard the Movement claim to be the child of democracy." Ashley couldn't help but smirk. "Carthian controlled domains can exert a myriad of possibilities when it comes to politics. Take your pick from the political playbook and I am sure there is some domain out there following those practices."

"There is Carthian influence to the political structure of Sacramento." Ashley ceded with a soft nod. "Of course you have noticed that this is not the typical setup for First Estate control."

[Hildegarde Bingen]

"Really?" Hildegarde paused to inhale the wine. "I thought having a parliament of Prisci was a method of indirect control. The Unconquered still hold many key positions and this only entrenches that while masking the move as a return to the power of Family and Lineage."

The attitude Hildegarde exuded offered encouragement to continue, not a reprimand.

And just to keep her fellow Lord on her toes: "As for your Movement at large... you claim that each territory you claim is a laboratory for your experiments? How on earth do you measure the results, let alone tally them?"

[Ashley Cohen]

"I don't and besides I laid no claim that each territory under the Movements control is a laboratory." Ashley offered in return. "Like any good experiment; observation is key. There are lessons reflected in the mortal world of what has been successful and what has not been successful."

"Russia spread communism, yet it is no longer communist. Is communism a failure? That does not necessarily discredit the notion of Communism as it is still very effective within China, who is poised to be at the top of the nations of the world with its ability to control the world's markets." Ashley offered a slight shrug.

"We have had our success stories when in power and we have also had our horror stories. Each we can look at in hindsight and figure out the intricacies of what lead to success or failure." Ashley couldn't help but laugh.

"It is rather interesting, but even some of the success stories have been modeled after for other Domains, turned into monumental failures."

"I digress, though...I am not here for political change."

[Hildegarde Bingen]

A frown ruffled Hildegarde's brow. "So you seek to build up a body of precedent. Of what has worked, and where, and under what conditions." She massaged the frown away. "Seems a little inefficient. Does your Movement record these experiments for later analysis?"

Then the eyebrow arched. "Really? If you are not here for political change, what are you here for?"

[Ashley Cohen]

"I digress for a bit of expertise. Your expertise." Ashley offered a smile. "How would you increase efficiency?" Ashley leaned forward, grabbing one of the empty glasses and poured herself a cup of wine. She was also curious as to how Hildegarde would handle the logistics of all the questions she posed.

[Hildegarde Bingen]

"Surely the Covenant as a whole has infrastructure? I sincerely doubt that anyone could mount a global conspiracy but perhaps there could be... regional boards or some such that collate and monitor your social... experiments? Even if the boards meet with only annual regularity - perhaps with representatives from each chapter of the movement - much could be organised, yes? Then all you require are focussed coteries who specialise in analysis - they crunch the data and report back. And perhaps a network of nomadic coteries or allies who can be entrusted to pass the information along."

The Lord stopped, paused, thought.

"I understand that such infrastructure would have been difficult to create in the past. But surely you movement would be well placed to take advantage of the pace of technological change? Telephone and the internet, especially, could be your ally in this. Computers are very good at crunching data, so as long as you have analysts who can craft the right questions, your experiments would yield results."

She drank of her glass.

"Seriously - how else can it be? You can't have a movement dedicated to change, which promulgates social experiments when it gets the chance, without having a means of analysing the results over the long duration - and are we not gifted for such an enterprise? - otherwise the Project stands little chance of success. If all you rely on is word of mouth your movement will be a pointless mass of chaos: a breeding ground for dissent, discontent and who knows what else, masquerading as your brand, and you won't have any means to evaluate your true successes, let alone maintain coherency of vision. Anything less and you'd be simple anarchists with delusions of grandeur."

She shook her head.

"No. My prescription would be that your Movement be organised on a regional level, with a certain degree of specialisation - supporting specific cabals who are supplied by the Covenant, outside of any Domains or territories you control. At a regional level you will have your committee, which oversees the Covenant. Since you profess democratic values, this committee is probably elected from your member base. Specialised cabals support your infrastructure providing analysts, logistics and supply, and monitoring - and as a democratic organisation will have to report back to the regional committee. That will leave your Dominions to conduct their experiments."

She paused.

"No doubt modern computing would help make this much easier than it has in the past. I am certain a structure such as I have described would be very fragile and prone to break down. In such an event, I am certain the information on your experiments could be loaded onto a computer hard drive and stored in a cache, waiting for the time it could be used again."

[Ashley Cohen]

Ashley placed the bottle back on ice and took a sip of wine. The reference to Democracy rekindled a smile upon her lips, as that was potentially the biggest misconception people held about the Movement...it was a Democracy... "Very enlightening. I take it the Ordo Dracul follows that elegant and efficient design?" She felt the wine churn in her stomach for a moment. With a touch of will and a bit of blood, she kept the contents down.

Ashley glanced down to the table for a moment, knowing more came into the logistics. While it seemed fairly straightforward, it did not take into account that each and every one of the damned are ultimately self-serving bastards. While many through the Covenants espoused beliefs, it was more to the tune of safety in numbers then any form of moral high ground.

Still the ideas held merit; Ashley did not need to have a scientific background to agree with the logic that was presented.

[Hildegarde Bingen]

"No. Thats just a model of how I would organise things if I were a Carthian." Hildegarde smiled with pride. "The Order is much more arcane than that."

[Ashley Cohen]

Ashley gave a soft nod to Hildegarde, before a voice broke the candid conversation. Ashley's eyes shifted between the brow and Hildegarde for a moment, before she gave another soft nod of her head. "Please excuse me, it appears we have company."

The tiny lord slowly rose from the sofa, with wine glass in hand to investigate the disturbance. Her eyes dropped to the dock as they fell upon the seemingly harmless man. She cocked her head to the side and held the glass aloft.

"Alcoholics Anonymous? Ashley asked before taking a sip of wine.