(Echelon) Brainwashing Inc.

[Ellis Meadows]

Nox. Underground.

There was Court, and the Commons, and there were the offices of Domain Officials. There was the coat room and the Weapon Bucket. There were also meeting rooms. And tonight, one of them was flagged for use by Ellis Meadows, Consultant to Sheriff Moretti. That was a thing Invictus did, fancy up the real world so you could dress it up as a title and claim it, even if you used it in your own mind. 7/10ths of power was convincing people you had it without exercising it, and 9/10ths of convincing people you had it was convincing yourself that you had it and everyone could see it, and if someone questioned it they were the ones at fault.

The Emperor might have no clothes, but he never stopped being an Emperor.

The door of Meeting Room A was open, and when someone walked down the stairs into Elysium, they would be able to see Ellis sitting in one of the chairs. Dressed in a slim suit, reading a newspaper, humming something tunelessly and waiting for Graham Finley. At his elbow, there was a digital recorder, currently not recording. He doubted that the interview would be a long one. It was a matter of seeing if Graham had the skills needed, filling him in on the situation, and if he was someone who could work with Ellis.

-1 Vitae for Blush of Life

Graham Finley MrGrieves

[Ellis Meadows]

Ellis looked up at Graham, smiling. It was very easy to envision the other man spread out on the table beneath him, trembling, eyes glassy and unfocused as his breath catches on the cusp of something tremendous as Ellis slowly, reverently slides his hand down the other man's naked chest and into the wet gash under his ribs to slowly extract his liver and place it on the bloodstained table next to his kidneys and a pile of still-squirming intestines. The splatter would absolutely ruin his suit, but he could afford new ones.

Consider Ellis Meadows charmed.

"Mr. Finley." Ellis puts away the paper and rises to shake his offered hand. He can't help but count each bone in the man's hand as he does so. Did bones always feel so light and delicate? Like they were hollow bird bones. "Thank you for your promptness. I am fine, thank you. Selling out to the Vampire Illuminati has many material benefits, I've found. How are you? And the Movement? How is the Che Guevara shirt supply these nights? Join me." He gestures to the chair across from him.

"Would you like to banter about the Invictus/Carthain rivalry for a bit, or get down to brass tacks?" Ellis asks with a good-natured glimmer in his eye. He gestures to the recorder at hand. "I will be recording the actual interview for Sheriff Moretti's review afterwards, and she seems to be a fairly down to earth and results based sort, so I would like to spare her the political butt-sniffing that I doubt she would appreciate eating up her time."