(1906) A Bruja and... Company?

[Mable Wood]

"Mad Cap, I get it. I really do. If I didn't get it then I would have ejected you right off. Instead, I gave you space and cool down time. Perhaps I should have sensed you were closer to boiling over sooner. It's hard to predict the thresh hold for others and frenzy. Heck, it's difficult to predict what might push ourselves over. All I am saying is I have a job to do and am giving my expectations. And as I told the Herald, I need to be as neutral as possible."

"I'd like to add. That you were in a type of physical danger if you were about to frenzy. Even if it disturbed people's peace, yelling to me was probably a good idea."

"Are we good? If you want to discuss it further we can do so later privately." Mable glanced at Ellis. "I'll leave you guys to your conversation."

[Madcap]

Madcap offered the Keeper a smile.

"I'm glad we have an accord," he offers, "Perhaps it is best to ensure the Prince knows I was close to frenzy? I don't want the Herald's interpretation of the events to taint the truth. If you would inform Her Majesty of the reality that her Herald nearly drove me to frenzy, I would happily pay you a Trivial boon. Between us, I doubt his account will be objective. As a neutral party, you have the power to relay the truth in a way I can't."

He let the offer sit. It would allow Mable to show her neutrality while also showing Madcap wasn't above abiding by the long set tradition of Prestation. Madcap believed Alessandra wouldn't listen to him, even if his complaints were objectively sound and reasonable. Their history had been too conflicting. Mable, however, was in a position to share what had happened when Jack would likely try and twist the scenario to his benefit.

"She has the authority to ensure the Herald learns from this, lest he cause a different result with someone else down the line," Madcap said, his voice wasn't threatening however. He spoke plainly. After all, a different result had been only one failure in willpower away already. Luckily for Jack, the Bruja's will was strong enough to resist the urge to tear him apart.

"And we were never bad, Keeper," he said, "I'm damn glad we could clear this up."

That said, he wouldn't keep the Keeper. She had a court to get to and Madcap wasn't going to prevent her from doing her duty.

[Mable Wood]

Mable closed her eyes for a second. Was this offer for a trivial any different than Jack's offer of a minor? She ran it through her mind. It was different in one way, Madcap was offering it as a payment to send a message to someone else. Jack had tried to sway her to do her job his way. A slow breath in and out.

"I can't accept a boon of any sort when I am doing my job in court. It does not look proper. It can be misconstrued as a bribe. I will say I will relate the facts as I know them to be to the Prince."

"I also am glad we could clear things up."

"Thank you, Mr. meadows for your patience."

Unless stopped Mable will leave and rejoin the general court.

[Madcap]

"Fair enough, Keeper," he said, "I apologize. Didn't mean to offend if that's the case. Your word is enough."

With that, he let Mable rejoin the court without further blocking her.

After a few moments, Madcap would turn to Ellis.

"Alright, so Ellis it is. Thanks for the tip," he said plainly, smirking as he recalled Ellis' previous words. "So what brings you to my seat, eh? Just looking to air out your frustrations with a certain Lord?"

[Ellis Meadows]

"Ta, Keeper." Ellis waves goodbye to Mable with a smile. He didn't want to get between the two, since they seemed fully capable of hashing out their problems like adults.

"Less air out my frustrations and more check in with you. Run an idea past you, ask some questions, and answer some if you had any for me." Ellis says. "I don't like leaving jobs half-finished, and the Herald seems the type who won't let this matter drop, even after the Keeper says it's over. Last month we had an... let's say encounter? An encounter that makes me fairly confident that he can't let matters lie when someone in charge tells him to drop a matter. And I think he's consumed with jealousy that the Keeper was named Keeper while he wasn't. I expect that he'll go running to Her Majesty at some point with a complaint and try to make trouble even after the Keeper declared it finished, possibly to try and unseat her and take her spot because he thinks he'd be better able to keep order." Ellis snorts at the idea, if the example set at April's Court with the clan he was Whip of, the first Court he oversaw as Keeper would end in fire and Anarchy as the Nox burned down. "Now, I've already informed the Keeper that if she needs me to report to anyone the details of what I observed, that I would be more than happy to, and the same offer is on the table for you, if you need it. Buuuutttttt..."

He leans in, not so much to whisper, but because it seemed a good time to lean in for the sake of appearances.

"There is another option, if he tries to escalate it after the matter has already been closed. You could ask the Gangrel and Venture Prisci for help in mediation, if that's the kind of thing you're interested in. It's probably the wise choice, considering the fact that I don't think he'll be able to keep from arguing the matter incessantly. But if you take the argument out of his hands and put it in the Prisci's hands? That means he'll have to sit there and answer questions instead of attempting to lead the conversation himself." The sparkle in Ellis's eyes suggested that he thought such a move would aggravate Jacque to no end. The boy sure did like to hear himself talk.

Nothing wrong with that, of course, Ellis liked to hear himself talk too. But when someone liked to talk, the fastest way to get them to mess up was to take that kind of control away from them. "It's something you might consider speaking with the Gangrel Priscus about, at least."

"I am curious though, If he had accepted my advice and offered you two minors after the first meeting tonight, to make this problem go away, would you have accepted?"

[Madcap]

Madcap listened as the suave Daeva spoke.

"I agree. We've already seen tonight that he's willing to ignore the words of his peers if they don't align with his," Madcap said, agreeing with Ellis' statement of Jack's persistence. Lina and Mable both offered advice. Both were ignored because they did not serve Jack's narrative in a positive way. Instead, the Herald left, knowing he couldn't win. Not tonight anyway.

At Ellis' suggestion of a mediation headed by Priscii, Madcap smirked. The idea of Jack being forced to a more restrictive format was an amusing image.

"If it comes to it I have every confidence in my Family's head to help say my piece," he said, offering Prosper an off-hand compliment, "I'll look into it, Ellis. Jack ain't gonna catch me with my pants down."

Then came a nod.

"Yep. I would have taken it," he offered, "If you recall, I suggested Prestation in our conversation when he kept on yapping. The Herald failed to understand why I did and decided instead to worsen the situation by offering a fucking six pack to resolve our dispute. Despite what he thinks, I actually know the worth of Prestation and how it can be used. There wasn't a chance in hell that I was gonna let it slide for booze. That said, two minor boons would have satisfied me and the issue would have gone away."

Then a pause.

"But now you got me curious," he said, "What are you aiming to gain by advising me? I ain't exactly a favorite of the Prince."

[Ellis Meadows]

Ellis smiles. And then he tells him.

For everyone other than Madcap, it requires 3+ successes on a perception roll to hear

"What is she going to do? Banish me for refusing to suck the Herald's cock and handhold him, while being nice to the vampire who he failed to provoke into frenzy?" Ellis asks, his face outwardly pleasant with his voice contained to their immediate booth. "I'm not his Sire, and this is Court. You need to take out the plastic fangs and drop your real ones. And, before you clutch your pearls and go into vapors because I said cock," Ellis rolls his eyes, crying about being called a weasel and gnat indeed, "The Madame Seneschal said Fuck not five minutes into my first meeting with her in April and not a single person batted an eye."

"I've broken no laws. I haven't disrupted Court, unlike the Herald. I don't have a court title, so I'm not obligated to reach out and help deal with these kinds of issues. I expect my Court nights to be fun little conversations where we can posture and satisfy that urge to be mean at each other about what we're wearing while we show off and impress each other with how smooth we are at being mean." He shakes his head, still appearing reasonable to an outside observer. "If Her Majesty takes objection to that and disregards the efforts I've taken to be a good and productive citizen, then she will do so regardless of who I speak with or advise.

"I think the Herald is a joke in poor taste, Madcap." Ellis shakes his head. "He was the Whip of the clan that was in constant disarray at April's court, he was challenged by a member of his family that he had offended, and he gets rewarded for doing a terrible job by being named Herald? I do not know what skills he has that recommended him to the office, but dealing with Kindred in a formal setting is manifestly not one of them."

"I obviously cannot simply walk up to Her Majesty and say 'this man is a political liability to your Praxis', because she will dismiss the advice out of hand due to the fact that I've only met her once at a bar. I'm not even three months into living here, I don't have any particular insight into her motives that I haven't been able to piece together through observation and I'm not her Blood. She has no reason to trust me and every reason to suspect that I am trying to get one over on her for my own nefarious reasons, so I have to prove to her through his actions that what is best for her Domain is to put the Herald in some other position where he doesn't misuse her authority like a three year old who's playing with daddy's glock that he left out and loaded."

Whisper Whisper! Anyone other than Madcap needs to get 3 or more successes on a (Wits + Composure) roll to hear what is spoilered

  2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2019-06-14 02:16:54		Ellis Meadows rolls 7 to sotto voce Man + Sub (10 Again)		2, 5, 3, 3, 7, 5, 10, 10, 4		2 successes

[Mable Wood]

Mable hears every blessed word. A little smile crosses her lips.

  5 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2019-06-14 19:52:15		Mable Wood rolls 6 to Tries to hear Ellis (10 Again)		10, 9, 8, 6, 10, 3, 9, 2		5 successes

[Madcap]

Dear ST Steven : As you can note I messed up TWICE on the dice roller by calculating the wrong values. I apologize and the posted roll is one with the correct values in place. It will not happen again! My bad.

failure

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2019-06-14 23:43:59		Madcap rolls 2 to Keep it Silent (Man+Sub) (10 Again)		7, 5		failure

Madcap allows himself to laugh at the mention of plastic fangs, the continued barrage of Ellis' whispers clearly amusing him though only the Daeva and those who pierced Ellis' efforts to remain quiet could truly know why. Nonetheless, whether due to the high of his recent victory or due to the natural low rumble of his voice, the Bruja's response was plainly heard, though he did not know it.

"Ain't ever been one for pearl-clutching myself," he says, "but, yeah, he seemed a bit quick on the gun. I can't say for sure, but I think he's got a bone to pick. Frankly, I do too, but he doesn't want to play by the rules."

"Neither did I, not really anyway," he offered as Ellis further reinforced his case in his near-silent words, "He baited me. I disrupted the Court only when the Beast rose, which happened after his insulting attempt at resolution. Then I sought the peace he denied me when he chose to stay after I told him to get the fuck away."

"On that, well, we can agree, Ellis, though I think you know that by now. You seem a smart enough sort," Madcap continued, following Ellis' comment on the Herald's performance and less-than-enviable traits, "However, what can we do? Don't got the clout to move the gears, if you get my meaning."

"Hope you're not hoping for some wisdom from her from me. We may have the same Blood, but the Prince made it clear she doesn't care for the Family," the Bruja said, a hint of disappointment on his voice. He almost seemed sad, though the tone also belied a sense of frustration, "That said, I hope your efforts get some traction. Maybe then the Court can mend, but it won't while he shoots blindly."

It is as he concludes his thoughts that the Bruja notes the burning ears of his Priscus and thus grants Garrett Prosper a nod.

[Ellis Meadows]

"You know how ignorant smart people can get. I think he's just insecure and in denial about some things, so he's lashing out." Ellis shrugs. "Sucks to be him, I guess. We've all got enough on our plates dealing with our own Curses to worry too much about hurting his fee fees."

Maybe that's what it was? The Prince felt established enough and secure enough that she felt she could take on a charity case as some kind of morality pet? Jacque came off to Ellis as a Rapunzel, someone Embraced by a controlling sire and locked away from the world to focus on more refined things than mere survival. It was a thing in some parts of L.A., having a pet musician or best friend, sometimes the Sire wanted to 'reward' them with a very carefully controlled taste of freedom and Ellis had paid off more than one Boon giving them that while feeding them horror stories about how difficult it was outside so they would stay nice and locked up. Jacque might have escaped something like that, and attached himself to one of the established Kindred here to recapture that.

"It looks like the Prince wants sunday-school volume in court and the Keeper has to enforce that." Ellis gestures, in an attempt to encompass the nature of their fucked up nocturnal neo-feudal society. "Sure it blows, but the Keeper seems pretty fair about it. Both sides messed up, the initiator stomped out of court in a huff and now we're having a pleasant conversation that's probably making the Herald's ears burn. If life was fair, none of us would be blood drinking immortal monsters plagued by our worst impulses now, would we?"

"As for moving gears?" Ellis asks, his face not reacting to the news that the Prince has fallen out with her Clan. That was interesting, and it put an entirely different spin on how her Voice came into court and immediately picked a fight with the Clan Whip, and then got up in the Keeper's face about it while ignoring the Gangrel Priscus. Sure, a slap in three faces at once like that might have been an accident because Jacque was incapable of thinking about how others saw him beyond the most basic level, but... no Kindred could really take that kind of thing on faith now, could they? "It takes time and effort, both of which I'm willing to put forward. I certainly don't expect to solve my problems with a single conversation over beers, after all." He smirks.

"So what's your story, Madcap?"