Meeting somewhere dark
16226
THREADID
34
POSTS
21 - 30
DISPLAYED
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Eeewww... Man!!! I just came here for the bike... where are you trying to put your hands man? José thinks after he finally moves to a angle that allows him to see the skullish face of that unfriendly monolity staring to the bald Gangrel.
OOC: Silence
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The Regent was perched with legxtraordinary poise along the wall. It was undetermined if Roxie was impatient or irritated at the moment...or both. She removed her zippo from her pocket and began flicking it along her jeans. Open, flick, close in a fast motion while she waited and not giving a rat's ass if it made anyone nervous. With her other hand she took a drag of her cigarette.
Continuing in a subconscious motion, her head flicked a nod to Chris Wooding , motioning him over. "Do you know what this guy's deal is?" Her head ticked in Giovanni's direction.
Is this meeting full of rugrats? She was still holding back rolling her eyes.
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With high tension still in the air, Chris hardly moves. His eyes try to follow every movement, including Roxie's lighter. How fucking not brilliant.
When the Regent directs a question to him, he makes a single shake with his head. 'Not. At all.' Two clear sentences.
'What is your deal?' Chris turns to Francesco, not in a particular unfriendly manner, while also completely ignoring Culler. If the Haunt decides to life underground, let him stay there next time.
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The tension in the room was palpable. James internally sized up the massive Nosferatu and found him to be likely far, far more powerful than he was. The Taifa wasn't about to protect Francesco Giovanni unless Chris Wooding and Roxie Hart decided to do so; he would follow their lead on this one. He suspected, however, that whatever Francesco's fate was was up to him in the intervening conversation.
He made his way over to the wall about a dozen feet from Chris and leaned against it, quietly observing, his Beast twitching in the corner of its cage, cowering in terror. It was rare in James Calloway's life that he had to tell his Beast man up, bitch! just to stay standing still, but there it was. Man up, bitch.
The Beast simply stomped and growled back at him. He suspected it thought him stupid to stay here while Arnold Culler was there. It was probably correct.
He saw the Regent of South Sactown flicking her Zippo. But Roxie's lighter flashing didn't even register on the scale compared to Arnold Culler's big, black Beast Within. He did his best to ignore the legs that seemed to go all the way up to Canada, looking relaxed as he always did leaning against the wall. But he had seen them now, and they had stuck with him. They never stop. It's like she was born without a torso!
Then the Beast growled again. There James was, caught between his own Beast's cowering and the image of Roxie Hart's legs, waiting for Arnold Culler to do whatever it was he had come to do. They did say this city was interesting...
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"Francesco Giovanni."
The words rumbled out slowly, like a storm on the horizon. The sounds were precise, articulated carefully, tasted, and Arnold leaned forward slightly as he committed the face and name to memory.
"I am Arnold Culler."
The time for titles was long gone. Of titles, he'd had his share... and his fill. Now he was... Arnold Culler.
"If you wish to speak with Kindred, you ask the Harpy. Or you put up a Post-It note in Elysia. You do not shake the trees of the entire city and see what falls out. If you do this again, I will find you. I will tear your leg off and beat you into Torpor with it, then I will crucify you using your rib bones for the nails and deliver you to the Royal Archon in the name of the Masquerade."
A lesser man might have asked if Francesco understood. Arnold was certain he'd been heard; if the man did not understand, then he would deserve what he got.
The dark head turned towards Roxie.
"Good evening, Regent Hart."
It was the only pleasantry he gave before stepping away and out into the night.
Francesco would have said a yes, sir. He would have because either he said that or he'd start wimpering in a corner.
He controlled himself because before being able to utter words, the scary, giant kindred disappeared into the night.
Thankfully, too.
When the kindred slipped back into the darkness, Francesco took out the black marker, and erased the red sign outside with a black graffiti of sort.
Time was up. He certainly didn't want to waste more in wait. he then waited for anyone outside to get in, before simply closing the door, not locking it of course, and walked down the corridor towards the room which had the map of Sacramento and of the neighboring cities, he didn't sit on a chair however.
His first words, when he actually, finally, composed himself were:
My deal is as simple as it looks, Mr Wooding: Money, Fame, Respect and Humanity. A coterie which in private has equals inside, with no titles, overbearing need of etiquette nor backstabbing to grab a higher position in the domain, a Family in which every member can feel safe, every member vowing not to bring harm to another family member, or it's underlings. Like the domain's code, but more specific on a kindred person.
A coterie who's final objective, however is to do our humanity a favor. he added then.
We are publicly going to be known as a strict, dictatorial Mafia organization, who's boss is going to be a puppet, a blood vinculized guy to all of the kindreds involved, we will use for this the most horrible scum we are going to find, and having him as the fake Don, we are going to pass off as his Councilors. We are going to take all the decisions in his name, and he'll be happy to let us do so. We will grab from the criminal world their drug rings, and them proceed to cut down the dough they sell, till we crush them. We are going to take on the prostitute rings, and give the woman and men in there a better situation while destroying their abusers. We are going to publicly be known as the most evil and feared organization while in private, we are going to help people out of their misery. with a small smile, Francesco simply concluded...
Basically, we are going to cannibalize the entire criminal system of Sacramento, until nothing remains, and the people are safe again. I ain't saying it's going to be a walk in the park, but the prize is there for whoever is willing to come aboard. If anyone is no longer interested, the door is there, and you may leave at any moment. Instead, if you are still interested, just stay and I'll keep on talking about how we are going to do it.
José becomes very concerned about Francesco. The Italo-american Gangrel had tried to help him once, without success, and José was already being used to his talkative behavior. However, José almost palms his face as Francesco begins to speak about his plan to monopolize all criminal influence of Sacramento, even in front of Roxie, a Regent that surelly has her hands very, very dirty.
Francesco... if you wished a tribulation... I think the Goddess is providing you one, right now...
If after Culler's exit the Brazilian had relaxed a little, now he just become even more tense than before. He pays more attention to Roxie's facial expression than to her legs this time.
José's mouth remains as shut as before.
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There are multiple words to describe what Chris is feeling and thinking right now. The first is to state that he's flabbergasted. 'Okay, now let me get couple of things straight...' The Mekhet has his eyebrows arched and waits until he can get a right story in his head.
'The first part of your story all relies on one of our greatest weaknesses, trust. Why do you call a random group of Kindred, from whom the most you don't even know, to ask them to trust each other?' The only way that is possible is with a total of four kindred at most. 'Say we could realize that, then why would we waste our Requiems to help the mortals of Sacramento? I'm most certainly not the darkest of all Kindred, and even I don't see why I would want to go all batman-like and release the people of their misery.'
This plan was doomed to fail in every possible way. 'Then to my third point, I'm only capable of trusting Kindred who are fully informed on their Kindred condition. It is impossible to give an individual multiple regnants.'
He shortly looks to the others, wanting to know their reaction, then he turns to Francesco again: 'In all honesty, I had expected something darker, more intelligent and a stronger plan for something that hopes to become Mafia.' Which is something Italian anyway.
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James looked thoughtful as the man spoke. He listened carefully to Chris's points and then his face shifted. His right eyebrow raised. His lips pressed tightly together. He looked... skeptical. "Mr. Giovanni, you had a real shot to persuade me here, as considering new ways to improve our Domain's standing is part of the Carthian way. I certainly appreciate your moxie."
"But Mr. Wooding is correct in his points, especially about the Vinculum. And if I understood your plan correctly, that was core to you getting everyone to trust you -- a system of equal control over the product garnering trust among the coterie members. I don't know you, and you don't have a reputation that I can tap into to know that you're suited to lead such an operation. Mr. Wooding, sure, he's the Vala. And Regent Hart's credibility in this Domain is long since established. So tell me, why you?" His face shifts slightly to become more intense.
"And let's get to the very basic principle of the matter: did you consider that there may be those in our Domain, who probably are far more powerful than you are, who want the criminal status quo to remain right as it is? Because I'm pretty sure if you rip up the criminal system, you're going to be pissing off somebody important by cutting off their system of contacts and allies on the street. You can't change over the entire underworld and not damage those networks, most of which are useful to our kind."
He had no doubt that one of those people would be Roxie Hart. He leaned against the wall and pulled out his own cigarette. Jim didn't smoke often, but now seemed as good a time as any; this kid was gonna get himself killed before his Requiem really even started if he wasn't careful. Even odds bet it would be by way of the very humans he was trying to save; Francesco Giovanni did not strike Jim Calloway as a smooth-talkin', bullet-dodgin' sort of Gangrel, and enough bullets could do the job just as well as any claws.
"I dunno, man. I've seen that kind of vim and vigor out of some of my more radical covenant-mates in Vancouver. The problem was, they all got themselves killed because they were mouth first, thought later. I wouldn't invite that kind of decision-making style to a Carthian meeting; you've got a whole bunch of work to do if you want to convince me that I should take that for a coterie leader." James was cautious, especially for a Carthian. He flicked his lighter open and took a deep drag off his cigarette.
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She wasn’t jumping on the bandwagon, it was perfectly clear from the beginning she had the same thoughts as Culler to which she gave the former Invictus Lord and Regent a polite nod as he left.
Man, did he feed from a moron on his way over here?
In a quick motion, the lighter moved from her hand to her jeans lit another cigarette and closed it. Her eyebrow cocked and in a irritated tone she flatly spoke. “Gio, you have got to be shitting me.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes, entirely visible to everyone. “You realize what you’re describing is complete bullshit, right? I don’t think you’ve been in this Domain long enough to actually pass any kind of fucking judgment around here.” The legarama Regent didn’t budge from her perched position, still flicking the lighter open, lit, closed in an automated motion. Faster now that she was pissed off.
Humanity would get a favor if someone ashed this guy.
“This is Sacramento, not New York, L.A., Chicago, Italy or London. The city’s underbelly would catch on that something’s up right quick. And he’s right.” Nodding to Chris while taking another drag. “This does sound like some kind of batman and robin cockamamie load of shit. And one of our fucking laws says not to interfere with the city’s police departments. You also realize there are people around here who have more friends in whatever crime world there is around here. They’ll come after you and not blink an eye.” Roxie pointed to the vacant doorway. “I'm pretty fucking sure Culler’s words were a threat AND a promise.”
Shaking her head and rolling her eyes again. “Your whole plan sounds like an oxymoron with no direction.” Roxie took another drag, and with the smoke in her hand she pointed with two fingers at Chris and Jim. “These two are right in questioning you. Why would anyone want to trust you?” And exhaled in Giovanni’s direction as Roxie's brow cocked awaiting a response.
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