(2010) Timing is everything, or is it?

[Horatio Quilz]

Horatio is on the verge of making introductions but without the Invictus baggage when he is interrupted by Lady Notary Hazelton in a most grand standing way. Horatio smiles at Lady Hazelton and bears her interruption as he makes the appropriate respects and nods and bows to the newly arrived. He centers himself again against the beast. "Yes, some believe that we should forego doing things in order and be hasty but I digress that is a topic for private matters..."Horatio finishes the sentence in his head, when I ask if the Lady Notary Hazelton would like to take over acknowledging newcomers of my clan or not.
"Moving on, we'll skip introduction of the most important members since that was done already.
Have you or are you going to commit amaranth?"
Horatio pulls out a journal from his pocket and then waits to hear what she has to say next before moving on.

1 success

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-10-09 19:56:24	Horatio Quilz rolls 2 to Wits+Empathy to spot a lie -1 for unskilled (10 Again)	10, 6, 1	1 success

[Maeve]

Maeve raises her eyebrow, What the hell is Amaranth? She racks her brain for a long time before saying, "Wait... you mean diablerie? No. Definitely not. I do not partake in the forbidden snack. No thank you." And she absolutely means it. For some reason, and maybe it is the meeting these other kindred for the first time, that question really bothers her. She relaxes the temptation for battle. Whoa. Calm yourself there, missy.

[Jennifer Hazelton]

Studying Horatio for his state of mind

2 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2020-10-10 21:30:19	Jennifer Hazelton rolls 6 to Wits + Empathy (Horatio's expression) (10 Again)	9, 7, 3, 3, 9, 1	2 successes

"Priscus Quilz, ignoring the arrivals of her Grace, the Archon Twist, and Seneschal Hart will not endeavor you to any one."

Jennifer's voice dips to a grave tone as she stares steadfast at Horatio. Horatio was continuing the acknowledgement, yet Jennifer wasn't done yet.
Jennifer had not seen a bow or curtsy to the Prince from Maeve. Nor did Maeve acknowledge the other Court officers. Jennifer made it clear who she laid the blame. Horatio was a Priscus now, which means that others would look to him on how to behave. She would not abide the new Mekhet thinking that this was appropriate behavior when the Prince and her Court Officials arrive. Acknowledgment was important, but lack of respect for tradition led to so many problems.

Worse, he was trying to behave like giving proper respect was some annoyance to his role as Priscus. Jennifer could believe that he was annoyed with Jennifer herself for helping his Family know who deserved proper respect. The Beast began to coil within her ribcage, snarling its' displeasure. Jennifer took several moments of silence to soothe it, using her indignation and a bit of awe to fuel her words. The words were delivered in a slow and measured cadence to ensure that she was heard clearly through her Curse. Her voice was strong and at conversational volume.


"It's best to inform Madame Maeve - and future arrivals - which Kindred deserve prompt respect the moment they arrive. I believe you have met and spoken to Seneschal Hart at length. "


Jennifer's concern was that someone might take offense at Maeve's behavior and try to call her up on it, which could be difficult for Maeve. Jennifer herself had acknowledged the arrival of Prince, Seneschal and Archon promptly. Horatio, however, had continued a conversation with Maeve. As he had not indicated who to speak to, Maeve had then continued the conversation. Jennifer reigned in some of her indignation to see how Horatio responds. Jennifer does not point out specifics to see if Horatio would correct the mistake. She was a bit curious if he knew.


"I am not placing this blame upon you, Maeve." Jennifer says to Maeve, in conversation.

[Horatio Quilz]

Horatio pinches the bridge of his nose like he is about to get a headache if possible.
"Lady Notary Hazelton, is my respects made to the officials of this court beneath your notice or are you intentionally trying to make a problem from nothing? I am simply following the examples before me. Is this a formal court that I was not informed of? Are you the herald for it? If you are done hijacking this acknowledgement, may I continue with it please? Anything more should be discussed in private as is proper.
I am sure Maeve can see who I am bowing to and who I am not, and if she is still ignorant of it then the introductions during her acknowledgement, which is still ongoing, will clarify things for her."

Horatio focuses on Maeve and smiles. "Yes, the forbidden snack is a no no here, to the death in fact. Most places are that serious about it." Horatio opens up the journal he has and hands it to Maeve. "​I have compiled the laws of the domain and the laws of Elysium here for you. When you are done with that, I shall show you and go over with the Who's Who with you." Horatio clears his throat before hitting on the points of the laws that are always reinforced on new people.

"Domain specific laws; The Three Traditions will be kept in full, do not violate another's Haven, if a Blood Hunt is called, you will be expected to join in. None are allowed to inflict Final Death upon another, only the Prince can grant that privilege. Treason is of course, frowned upon. You attendance is expected in all formally announced courts, and you are not allowed to feed on emergency personal.
If there is some sort of issue, please take it to your Clan Priscus, me for now, or another Court Official to see if they can deal with whatever it is, before the issue is brought to Her Majesty's attention." He looks to see if she is following so far before continuing. "Elysium specific laws; Obviously no weapons are allowed. You are also not allowed to use your Disciplines. The exceptions is the Mask of Tranquility, and the Aspect of the Predator. Be polite and use common sense and avoid the 'my' word when dealing with the Prince or others of the Invictus. Any questions so far? If not I shall move on to placing faces with names on the Who's Who list on the next pages of the journal and also placed on a notice board in court."

State of mind

Horatio is angry, feeling snubbed and insulted

[Jennifer Hazelton]

Jennifer ignored the theatrics.

"I am pointing out the simple fact that you lack respect, Mr. Quilz. You did not bother to bow to the Seneschal. Or the Archon. You continued the conversation with Maeve. This led to the person you are acknowledging to continue to ignore them. You have a lot to learn, it seems."

Yet folks already knew that.

Jennifer gave Maeve a wry smile and walked away from the Mekhet. Hopefully Maeve wouldn't catch anything from Horatio's many issues. She continues to stride confidently away.

[Maeve]

Maeve watches the interaction between Lady Hazelton and her priscus with a sense of inner amusement, though she does her best to not make that the most apparent. It's not like they seemed to actually be focusing on her in the first place really. Can't decide if it's the sexual tension or vampire politics, but this is hella amusing.

"Oh, uh, right. Bowing and all that jazz, heh," she looks around again to the people she thinks she saw Horatio bow to and kind of makes a little bow in their general direction.And yet we all know that the whole bowing is some nonsense to make people feel more important than they are. We are all dust in the end. ...Careful, probably some mind readers here. Elysium or no, people tend to just make sure they don't get caught.

She takes the books from Horatio with a grateful nod, "Thanks. I'll check em' out. Obviously I like living... so no slurpy slurp. Y'all probably don't taste all that good anyway," she says with a joking laugh. Wait, am I allowed to joke about that? Sire would have given a big slap to the head for that one and then the Ventrue would have laughed, so honestly... fuck if I know.

"Er, sorry," she says to Lady Hazelton before she walks off, "Nice to meet you again." ish. Gees.

She turns back to Horatio, "So... right, rules of Elysium. All cool there. I'm not completely new." She says softly as she begins flipping through the journal and quickly skimming through all the things. It all looks pretty standard, at least. Nothing too weird. She nods in understanding, "Okay, thus far no questions. Let me in on the deets about the peeps."

[Horatio Quilz]

Horatio decides that Lady Notary Hazelton has to be gaslighting him, didn't give the proper respects? Preposterous! He did and he knew full well he did, yet it's as if he didn't and it was infuriating, and insulting. He bows to Lady Notary Hazelton before she leaves and watches her recede a second before returning back to Maeve. And.... Back to the neonate behavior it is I see, well we can work on this,... at least she tried.

Despite not only me but others at court bowing to the same people she is not a 'monkey see monkey do' type of learner. Horatio turns the pages of the journal over to the Who's Who.
"I know it is archaic but imagine yourself transported in time and you are greeting dukes, duchesses and royals at a ball. Full bows to those highest and so on. First on the list is Prince Alessandra Antinor, also Priscus of the Gangrel." He points with his head or elbow or arm in a polite way. "Next are the officials, Archon Twist, Priscus of Daeva, we have Seneschal Alice Hart, and you met Lady Notary Jennifer Hazelton Priscus of the Nosferatu, Jacque the Priscus of Ventrue is currently not here." Horatio waits for this to sink in and for her to correct her measures of respects. "If you want to know about covenant associations, I will leave that to the sheet to inform you, please read it." Horatio moves to the final part of this.

"Now, do you Maeve swear loyalty to Prince Alessandra Antinor, and to the the officers of her Court, and to abide by the Prince's laws as set forth by her hand?"

[Alessandra]

With purpose in her stride, she walks over.

And no, she does not stop a respectable distance away. She doesn’t have to, and she was not in the best of moods at this point. And it was one of those times where giving into her Beast to peel the flesh of the weaker whelps was very tempting.

“Mr Quilz,” she begins, “This is not the first time you’ve managed to fuck up my name.” no pleasantries, “If there is some confusion on what it is, then make an appointment and we’ll get it straightened out. But one more time, and I will have your tongue.” Dark eyes squarely on him, “One more thing, it is not archaic to show the basic respect to those above you. Mock my Elysia and the Laws once more and it will be your last.” And she walks back to her conversation. Not caring enough to hear what he had to say. She was done with it.

Ale returns to her conversation with Jennifer.

[Maeve]

Maeve continues to nod and does as Horatio says, bowing the 'correct' way. Gees, I am such a fuck up, getting this dude in trouble. That's totally gonna bite me in the ass later. "Okay... good on the names, I think. My memory is pretty good. Most of the time." She says continuing to nod as he shows her the paper on covenant associations. This is a lot. I'll probably spend half of the evening reading this shit.

When the Prince walks over, she stands rather at attention and has to try very hard not to have her mouth become agape as the Prince proceeds to rip her priscus an absolute new one. As soon as she has moved on and Maeve can actually put forth some breath, "I, Maeve of clan Mekhet, childe of Daerius Mendez, do swear loyalty to Prince Alessandra...," she assumes it is the last name that got messed up and she kind of looks around for someone to say the name so she doesn't royally fuck it up. She gazes down at the paperwork and eventually finds the Prince's name... Antinori. Simple Italian sounding right? Maybe. Okay "...Antinori, and to the the officers of her Court, and to abide by the Prince's laws as set forth by her hand." she says the last part rather quick, as if it might come back to bite her later. Honestly, with what she has seen so far, perhaps it will.

[Horatio Quilz]

Horatio is even more confused as more things are happening that seem to be focused on him yet he knows he didn't deserve any of it.
He bows to the Prince again and waits for her to leave before continuing.
"Yes, of course."
"Maeve, you are acknowledged. Please behave yourself. If you need me call me." He exchanges the journal for his card with his number on it.
Horatio excuses himself and heads out.
He makes his goodbyes, bows to the right people, the Prince and leaves court.

Still confused on this, I looked back at my posts and what I can see is arbitrary at best. And the name was a innocent easily done typo that has been done by others before. So, I am going to step back from court scenes for a bit, unless it's the mandated one then I'll have him show.