A cabal in peril. Hotel meeting.

[Eulogy]

Mordechai walked into the lobby of the hotel as he had done hundreds of times over the last year. The smiling faces of the staff always made him instantly happier. As if the atmosphere just pumped out positive energy.

He walked quickly to the nearest front desk agent. What was her name? Sally? Cindy? she held the uniform smile he was accustomed to and before her name came to him she said "Ah Mr.Solomon welcome back. Will you be joining us this evening?"

"That I will. I just can't get enough of the place."

"Ok. No problem Mr.Solomon Would you like your usual room?"

"That would be great. Just put it on the card on file thank you."

The agent nodded her acceptance as Mordechai signed his check in statment. The agent handed him a key card packet and offered another pleasant smile.

He said. "One more thing I have a few friends coming to visit and I would like to add them to the room. When they get here please give them a key and ask them to head right in. They are expected."

The agent nodded and quickly inputed Crystal and Guru into the computer with the instructions.

Mordechai made his way up to the room. It was a simple suite room with a front sitting area, little kitchenette. Bathroom and bedroom. There was a table and several confortable chairs and even a descent view of the city. Every thing they would need for a long chat.

[Crystal]

Dang, a hotel? Morde better own this shit, unless they wanted to talk in code the whole time. In retrospect it didn't feel like a good idea to set up a.. play area in his living room in preparation for the weekend. Maybe he should have invited the two Awakened over anyway, see where things lead?

Nope, not sticking the pen in the company ink. Cabal ink. Whatever.

Still, if that's the hand they were dealt with right now, they just had to make it work.
Crystal parked his car and walked the remaining block to the arranged meeting point. Maybe Kaze's departure was making him especially anal, maybe it was his prior run-in with the Guardians. But damn, that got him in a sour mood to start with. Might just as well be a trial by fire if they could iron things like that out without the personified optimism.

The occasion called for an outfit that exuded authority, but not too much. Something sleek, hard edged with a soft core. Something fitting for a Sacramento autumn.
Okay, to be fair he just wanted to wear his new outfit, but justifying the expense (however flimsy that justification might be) made him feel better.

He made his way through the lobby - the staff was friendly and professional! - and tried to think happy thoughts in the elevator. He really shouldn't take his abandonment issues out on Eulogy and Guru.


He knocked before unlocking and entering the room and put on his most disarming smile. "Heya Morde! Huh. Usually the guy waiting in the room is already undressed when I come in, so this is a bit new to me." A bit blue? Maybe, but lewd humor was Crystal's go-to when faking it.
"Anyway, any news from Josh? Is he coming?" The Mastigos even made a point to look around when he used Guru's Sleeper-name. Hopefully Morde would either clarify the absolutely safety of this room or get the point on his own.

Just a little reminder - as long there have been no XP spent on a private Sanctum, scenes are not a safe space.Other players can respect the 'private' prefix and not enter the scene (and to be fair, they'd need a pretty good reason to enter here), but it's neither safe nor above consequences to spill some Supernal beans here.

(Even though I like the attention to detail in the description).

[Guru]

They barely had the framework up when they lost one of, if not the foundational pillar. See if they would stand the test or if everything would collapse in on itself. In typical Guru fashion he had seen the texts, intended to respond to them, got distracted and forgot entirely. Then a new message was sent with a location and time and he suddenly remembered he'd needed to send a message. Seeing as the hour was approaching he figured he'd just head over either way.


Guru was the underdressed on of the trio, walking into the Lobby wearing a pair of purple paisley harem pants and a tie dye shirt of deep blues and purples to go with it. Familiar Satchel slung over his shoulder locked tight since he was without pockets. He Pulled out one of his air pods, smiling as he got his keycard, replacing the airpod as he skipped off to the room.


He was humming to himself, eyes still scanning the hallway, pausing as he got to the door. Feeling out for the life around him, it would have at least know if anything alive was waiting in ambush at least. Not seeing anything he knocked in rhythm to the music in his ears as he inserted the card and swing the door open, popping the headphone out again.


Letting the door close firmly behind him. "Damn, this is some pretty nice digs. Nice view I've only...seen. One. Better..." He slowly trailed off before he turned to Crystal. "That's a good color on you.You had news? "

[Eulogy]

Eulogy nodded an absent greeting as Crystal entered and chuckled at his joke. Since the other mage had announced his presence with a knock Mordechai was already walking toward the mini fridge. "I haven't heard any..." he was saying as another knock thumped out in a strange patter. "Nevermind."

He reached into the fridge and grabed a double handfull of little bottles of assorted alcohol. As he walked toward the table he smiled at Guru. "Hey." he dropped the bottles on the table taking one for himself. He moved to a comfortable looking chair and dropped into it with a thunk.

"So this sucks." he said getting right to the point.

[Crystal]

Everybody came, which was good. Eulogy was already clearing out the minibar, which was even better.
A brief smile flashed over Crystal's face when Guru complimented his outfit, but the Warlock's face turned serious real quick again as he sat down and grabbed one of the bottles himself. "You can say that again." he replied drily, before opening his bottle and emptying it halfway.

Then he addressed the Shaman again. "So, I don't know if you've heard of it, but Steve probably isn't coming back anytime soon. Personal reasons." All of Crystal's social talents couldn't prevent him from sounding a tad bitter. He drank the rest of the small bottle and took another one, which he left closed for now. "So obviously we need to discuss how we're going to proceed in our.. partnership. And if so, we should talk about whether Steve's departure would warrant a.. I don't know, an official announcement at the next club meeting."

He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fuck. I mean, right after we've come to an understanding and finalized it." The Mastigos looked at the small bottle in his hand, considered, and apparently decided against it. Instead he looked Eulogy, then Guru in the eyes. "So, what are you thinking?"

[Guru]

Confusion was the primary look on his face as he walked in, hello's were said and then he could have got whiplash from the sudden shift in mood and tone. He looked between the two, an expression of being entirely lost as he moved to get a couple of the mini-bottles, going for the scotch before it disappeared, and cracking the first one.


As the news was delivered he could understand the bitterness in his tone. Wondering why it seemed like he was the only one in the dark about this. Hadn't they been friends? Hadn't they just all decided to trust each other? "You know, hard to stay good vibes only on this one but I'm going to try. I'm going to assume something extraordinary occurred that prevented him from even texting goodbye to us with a promise of an explanation later." He downed the first mini and cracked a second. It was clear beneath that thin veneer of positivity there was genuine anger.


"I mean as soon as people start asking us where he went they'll get their answer. No need for an announcement. I mean, he might have started the ball rolling but I don't think beyond being down a person anything has changed since we last met. I say we ride it out and see what happens. We can always revisit it later if we find it isn't working."

[Eulogy]

Eulogy finished his own drink as the other two spoke. The pretty much mirrored his own thouhts with their words. Finally he said. "I feel like we are still all on the same page. I don't think Kaze leaving changes much of anything really. The reasons we got together are still valid. So I guess we are three. Makes voting easier. I also agree we shouldn't waste time with an announcement. Let people think what they want."

[Crystal]

Hearing both Guru and Eulogy confirm that they were still in this made Crystal breathe out a sigh of relief. Yeah, he really liked those two but since the whole thing was Kaze's idea he really didn't know how they'd react. "All right. Cool. Yeah." Time to open that bottle too, get that sweet alcohol in his system. "Good points on how to publicly handle this - I'd be mighty surprised if anyone cared anyway." Plus, this wasn't about outside appearance. Okay, this wasn't primarily about outside appearance.

He put the empty bottle down on the table with a bit more force than necessary. "Okay. So, 'the Caretakers' - that's us. Since I've got the both of you here anyway: what are our thoughts on territory? Any of you up for a little scouting soon? Any new ideas or suggestions?" Was it cold to move on so quickly? Ugh, part of him said 'yes', but the older, more established part of him just wanted to get over that mushy shit. For now. "We've been thinking about looking at community centres or something, maybe a neighbourhood? I mean, it's not like there is much competition around."

[Guru]

Well that was a relief but it still didn't stop him from drinking the second mini and grabbing a third, not looking at what he was taking this time except that it was nice and amber. He cracked the top of that one but didn't open it yet, just had it at the ready. Shaking his head as Crystal spoke on territory, "My sentiment on that hasn't changed. I don't have the skill set needed to scout out a Prime location. I think that matters more than anything else, granted we need to look at scaling down our operation with one less person to help with the work, ya know. If we find a community center that fits our criteria, yea, snatch it up. Public works would work too. We can scout it out a neighborhood at a time, maybe give our top 3 and start from there? I'll be able to help with the scouting, you know, eventually."

[Eulogy]

Mordechai listened to the others. Excitement slowly creeping back into him as they discussed the very Ideas he loved in the first place. "A community center is an awesome Idea. I was thinking about starting one for death positivity before I aquired the cemetery. If we focus on that it definitely fits the flavour of our wanting to help. We could work on community out reach and the like."

He thought for a few moments and asked a question "I assume that us using a community center for our purposes wouldn't be all that secret from the wider group? We could always ask someone for help in locating a "Prime" location." he emphasized with finger quotes. "Pheonyx may be amenable to help us if we offer something in exchange,"