(To Hunt) At the Nox

[Yumyumcrow]

Eli and Hennink exchanged a long glance - a glance reserved for coterie members or team players with a long association. Hulking Eli moved first, following William's lead. He did not spare words for anyone else.

Hennink rose to follow. "May as well hear the dude out. You guys seem to think his views hold water. And for the record, we're only here to pay off some boons the Movement has with..." He turned to Stax with a smile, "Mr. Stax. He came to us. And, you know, when your bosses say do something. You do."

Stax watched as his erstwhile associates disappeared into an adjoining room.

"You are making a mistake, you realise that. That man is but a common poacher. He was seen in the vicinity of a couple of Kindred who have since disappeared. It is... an ongoing problem in my Domain, you see. When my Primogen suggest that something be done, we listen. We take action. I uncovered this poacher and - yes - using my own contacts, set out to bring him in. What Courtly officer would not do the same? It is unfortunate that we were unable to apprehend the... miscreant... until now. He has proven to be resourceful and I don't doubt that he is spinning a fine tale for your associates and mine right now."

  

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-12-16 16:05:29		Stax to Face up! rolls 7 to Manipulation + Subterfuge (10 Again)		6, 9, 6, 7, 6, 6, 10, 8		3 successes

He paused, composing himself before moving back into the light.

"You think that perhaps I should have let my own Reeve and his deputies know? Perhaps. But it was my lead. I used my associations. I used my boons - connections that I had made. To get things done. Our Reeve was focussed on another matter and looking in the wrong direction. Would you not have done the same in situation?"

He allowed himself a smirk.

"If you do not believe my integrity, why not check my credentials with the Unconquered. Or with the Marquis of Haight-Ashbury. Or our Court."

Meanwhile, in another room. Carson Forde stands in a corner, hunched.

"OK. So I'm here. What do you know that I don't? What the fuck is happening? You going to get Stax of my back or what?"

His eyes and posture exploded when William, Eli and Hennink enter. In the tug of war between Man and Beast, Forde almost lost it then and there.

[Emma French]

  3 successes to detect Stax BS

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-12-16 19:07:53		Emma French rolls 6 to Detect Lies (10 Again, WillPower)		6, 9, 3, 6, 7, 10, 10, 5		3 successes

Emma stares at Stax for a second. He kinda makes sense. The man was a poacher of sorts, and Stax probably did use his own contacts and boons to get the assistance he needed. But he also lied before about how Forde got in this condition. It all was confusing the shit out of her. She would deal with the part of this that she could work out Then go from there. Man she wanted to punch that smirk off his fucking face!!

"I am sure your credentials will check out. And I am sure you used your own resources and boons. And I am sure Mr. Forde is telling his side of things. But the domain Reeve and Deputies need to know what is happening. If they don't know then they can't help keep the domain safe. By going off on your own you could have caused extra issues for the domain and put needless risk for those in it. A poacher needs to be caught but also needs to be known about. What concerns me is how did he become what he is? To me, this feels more like you wanted to cover something up. And, by not letting your Reeve and deputies know what is happening you put my domain at risk." Emma kept her eyes on this man because she was sure he was a slippery dude.

"Now how should we proceed? Shall we sit down and discuss things in a civilized manner? I would like to have my Reeve call your Reeve so we can get things straightened out. How does that sound to you?" Emma's voice was calm and confident. However, her eyes were slightly darker now that she was keeping herself in check. And her claws were tingling at her finger tips just itching to rake his face.

[Hugh Everwood]

Once they were away from the others, Jesse let the fledgling huddle away in a corner if it made him feel better.

Before he could be go and give any reply, William brought the two muscles-for-hire with him. Jesse didn't try none to hide his annoyance as he sighed, then looked up at the ceiling like asking for some patience.

"Well ain't that nice," Jesse said over his shoulder at the others, then looked back at Carson, snapping his fingers to get his attention back. "Before we're going to get hearing that story again. As for what I know and you ain't – a lot. Don't worry, sounds like it ain't your fault." At least not this part; there were other things that were.

Ignorance don't protect from no punishment.

"You're Kindred — or as you might call it, a vampire. Ain't that swell, fella? Don't got to worry none about getting old and wrinkly as model. Going to have to worry about getting a new job, we don't photograph all too well." Understatement — and a pity in Jesse's case. "Before you go and say I'm crazy, remember that you killed your girlfriend and drank her blood. Sounds vampire enough, hm? Happens to all of us at some point. Sort of. Well, not if you actually get told what you are now."

Jesse waited for a moment to let him digest it, then tapped his head.

"The scratching? It's the Beast. We all got it, it's primal. Making us predators — and predators don't like to share none, so it trashes and scratches and wants to fight or run. Depends how strong your blood is. Me? I can go and hide it from others. They—" he motioned to the Carthians, "—can't."

He waited again, nodding. "Now you can go and call me crazy. Go on. I know it's on the tip of your tongue. Let's go and get it out of the way."

[Bea]

Well. She'd liked her 'take a seat on the floor idea', but whatever. It wasn't her show.

More's the pity.

Instead, she simply followed along, and let the others have their say first. Well, to an extent. She couldn't help but snort when Jesse made his claim about just what she could and could not do.

"You can assume whatever you want, Jesse boy," Bea replied, leaning back against a wall. "However, I will give y'all one piece of info for free. I can spot lies better a priest on a Sunday, saw don't even think about lying, Forde. Don't even think about exaggerating."

[Yumyumcrow]

"What a capital suggestion," Stax smiled. The Invictus Kindred moved purposefully to one of the couches where he placed himself deliberately at ease. "Please, go right ahead Deputy. I promise I will not move from this Elysium. Till morning, of course. I would not dream of burdening you with my presence for the day-sleep."

  

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2016-12-20 01:53:25		Stax to Face up! rolls 7 to Manipulation + Subterfuge (10 Again)		6, 10, 9, 3, 3, 8, 10, 9, 7		5 successes

Posed and apparently content, he waited.

In the adjoining room, Forde grimaces.

"What? Crazy? Yeah, this is crazy. All this is crazy! I don't know what shit you are trying to pull! I... I..." The words burst like a viscous bubble, a part formed rant as Forde railed against the impossible. Except he stopped, shock and horror mixing freely on his open face. "Only... I did it! I did it!"

After a pause he began again, much quieter. "I did it. I killed her. I killed him... that vagrant kinda guy with the red face... All he did was offer me space to crash..."

"So you remember that, huh? Now that was a pretty mess..." Eli intoned with steely seriousness.

Hennink shushed him. "Stax?" The Carthian inquired shrewdly.

"I am a model, guys. You sure you haven't seen me? I did those leather jacket ads earlier this year? And the celebrity aftershave? Come on, I knew I had to let the beard grow a bit but.... yeah... ok. Whatever. Stax contacted me, direct. Not through my agent - but yeah, I'm having issues with that guy. He says I'm getting past it. Like what does he know, right? I had to bulk up a bit for those ads but you know, I crash dieted and worked out and got sorted." He smiled, despite the company.

"Oh yeah. Stax. Right. He contacted me direct. Now I kinda knew him. Not a lot. Like, by reputation, yeah? He's been around for a while and has been buying up old clubs big, if you know what I mean. Anyway, he claimed he had a big gig planned and he needed dancers. And he'd heard of me and checked out some of my work. He wanted to meet. I admit I was kinda interested - he's got some big clubs now... And if I could snag a gig or a semi perm position, you know, I could tell that agent to go shove it, you know?"

"So I go and meet. He suggested his place. Keep it on the down low. I'm like, whatever. I done casting couch and I figure the old perv wants it. Whatever. Yeah... Didn't expect him to be like, my age. His condo - hey I bet it wasn't his condo! - was plush neat, man! Anyway it kinda went as expected. A lot quicker than I expected. He moved fast, yeah. Anyway and then he was, like, gnawing on my neck. And I blacked out. Came too feeling fucking sick and he's making up some shit about a bad mix of alcohol and party poppers - something like that. Says I should stay put till my head clears. Then he's gone, says he will back the next night and he has got a lot of stuff to show me..."

"Only he didn't show. Head cleared up by the stomach was like, in knots. I... I know what that is now, sort of. I smashed down the door and went home. Took meds. Ate and drank everything in the house. Scared the shit out of my girlfriend. Things got real tense when Stax showed up. My girl was there and she and Stax went at it. I got her away and we went to ground - I got friends, see. I was in bad shape by my girl, like, knew something was up. She said she had an uncle who knew about this weird crap. So we made to drive to Sacramento. Good thing we did 'cause these guys showed up with Stax..."

"He's right," Eli intoned with a nod. "We first tracked him to some anarchist friends. You got some strands friends for a pin up guy, guy. You were already running when we got there. We caught up again in Vacaville; we had to clean up your shit there too."

[Emma French]

Emma sat on the couch and sent a quick text to her Reeve, Ale. She certainly wasn't going to make the mistake Stax made. Stax had her so confused, she really didn't know what was what now. So she decided to change tactics. "We were going to discuss how your domain works. I don't understand how a council works along with a Prince. Can you explain it to me?" Emma gave him a smile of encouragement.

[Hugh Everwood]

Another snort left him at Bea's comment. "Ain't assuming nothing, just sounds it. Don't mean it's that way," he said to her, then focused back at the fledgling.

Jesse looked very pleased about how Carson went to call him crazy, doing exactly what he knew he would. Seriously, if roles were reversed he would have done the same. Did, in fact, when his Sire went to tell him what he turned him into.

Difference was, he had a sire to even tell him.

Why Stax went to the trouble to sire the fledgling and then leave him in the dark was a different matter.

Whole story sounded strange: Stax leaving Carson without explanation, the girlfriend that had an uncle who knew about 'these things', girl and guy even escaping Stax to begin with.

"That guy you mentioned having a 'cure' for what you are — and to get that out of the way, there ain't one for what we are — that her uncle?" Good thing he still got the stuff he pocketed from the woman. "What went on between Stax and your girl? Considering he's hunting you, find it just strange you could slip out and away with her, him not trying to stop you or something."

Then he looked over to the two Carthians, making a thoughtful noise. "How many did he actually go and kill?" Back to Carson. "Makes me wonder just what kind of disease you thought you had that drinking blood made you feel better."