Number of fucks given in this post: 14
Jack and Cassidy continue heading down to Manchester to meet Prince Carter. Jack is driving and is carefully keeping to the speed limit, in a series of cars they steal as they go.
The prince of Manchester’s current court is on Canal Street in the main gay bar area of the town. It’s the top three floors of one of the large buildings that has bars edging onto the canal and looks like it once was some form of industrial place.
Cassidy: Ah, the Toreador must love this place, Jack, eh?
Jack: They’ll feel right at home.
Cassidy looks out for police and other threats as they drive past the building. It’s Friday night so the area is packed with cars and people.
Jack: shit, nowhere to park.
Cassidy: Can you phone into court, see if there’s someone in there that can ditch this for us while we go on up to see them, Jack? And a tradesman’s entrance to bring in the sack’o’shite.
Jack: Sure… if we can find a phonebox…
Cassidy: Oh yeah, phone box.
They manage to find a phone and call in. Prince Carter sends out Duke to meet the two Brujah.
Jack: Hey Duke!
Cassidy: Duke.
Duke: Yo. What’s up?
Cassidy: This car is fairly hot, so think it needs to go somewhere discreet, you know?
Duke: I heard some rumours but they are all crazy.
Jack: The truth is crazier.
Cassidy: Yeah, tell you all about it upstairs.
Jack: Cassidy and I are together and we have a package for delivery.
Duke: You don’t want it back then?
Cassidy: Jack?
Duke: The car dumbass.
Jack: Oh. No, we don’t.
Cassidy: Was asking Jack if she wanted it.
Jack is struggling to maintain her sense of humour in the face of Duke’s deliberate misunderstanding.
Duke provides directions to the back of a building, up the internal fire escape, into one of the ante chambers of the main court. Cassidy carries Magnar’s body, hoisted over his shoulder. They reach a sentry sitting on the fire escape with a couple of dogs.
Jack: Evening.
The dogs sniff around as they enter and give a warning to the guard at Cassidy’s pistols. Apart from that they look longingly at their “package”.
Cassidy gives the dogs a stroke on the head. Jack sneezes.
Cassidy: Do we need to leave these, mate?
The guy says: “Sorry but you got to leave ‘em here, they’ll be waiting for you when you leave”.
Cassidy: That’s cool.
He takes them out, makes them safe and hands them over. The guy puts them into an open backpack which leans against his stool.
Jack sneezes again, “You want my blade, too?”
Guard: Nah, he wouldn’t like that. People are welcome to be armed, as long as it’s a real weapon. None of this unfair no-skill required bull.
Jack: No problem.
She rubs her nose, “Damn dogs.”
Cassidy: M’on Jack, the dogs are lovely.
Jack: Sure they are.
They squeeze past the dogs, Jack as quickly as she can.
Once inside, it takes a while before Carter can see them; he seems to be discussing something with someone you are unfamiliar with but the term snake gets mentioned a few times.
Cassidy kicks back and chills while Jack paces, and eventually the person Carter is talking to leaves. Just Jack, Cassidy, Magnar and Carter in the room.
Carter says: “More trouble?”
Jack snorts.
Cassidy: You could say that.
Jack: Let’s show him what we got.
She glares at the torpored Magnar which she unwraps from the bag then steps quickly away from the body.
Carter: Not what I expected.
Jack: not what I expected either…..
Cassidy: I dare say word has reached you of what happened in Glasgow last night?
Carter: Word no, rumours plenty.
Cassidy: Well, I will gladly add some words to fill out the rumours.
Carter: Enlighten me.
Cassidy: Our currently inactive clan member looked to confront the Prince of Glasgow, due to the Prince’s way of, or not of, handling things.
Jack: … and getting himself in Dark Times. Can’t respect a prince that gets himself caught.
Cassidy: Various things have occurred that he wanted to call him out on. Including allegedly asking Magnar to assassinate a Toreador elder for him.
Carter nods.
Cassidy: So, knowing that he wanted this to happen, Magnar got the clan together and looked to bring in support from some other clans. And obviously have the Brujah around for his back.
Jack: Yeah, the Viscount offered him the option of killing the duchess or dying because he was plotting against the prince with the duchess.
Carter: The duchess was, “his support”?
Jack: No, they bottled on their plan, which was horrendous, and Magnar decided to go on his own. They bottled.
Cassidy: Joke, isn’t it? Being an issue with the Prince, from the very outset I stated that I would not take aggressive action against a Camarilla member. The plan disappeared, so he seemed to make a new one up on the spot that may have meant to bore everyone to torpor.
Jack: I fucking gave him constant advice.
Carter: Right.
Cassidy: He kicks off against the Prince, does some proper damage, and Jack here tries to watch his back.
Carter: OK.
Jack: Watch your back, don’t do anything unless you are sure are.. Most importantly… tie down the people that will stand in and fuck it up. That was my advice.
Cassidy: He moves in with the big players not covered.
Jack: I told him not to do anything that night.
Carter: Right so he jumped the gun?
Cassidy: Big time.
Jack: He spends 5 mins stomping up and down talking a load of shite.
Cassidy: Man, I coulda snored.
Carter: Working himself up, I see.
Jack: Getting everyone tons of time to get out of the firing line and pushing blood into their systems.
Cassidy: By the time it kicks off, there’s a line of Tremere ready and waiting to get nasty.
Jack: Motherfucker. And Antonia standing at the back letting them. Not even getting behind them.
Cassidy: He goes for it, Jack jumps in. He smacks the prince good, puts him out cold.
Jack: I’m trying to hold off the whole court. Keep my weapon in the sheath since I ain’t planning on killin anyone.
Cassidy: Meanwhile, the Tremere start ripping the blood outta Jack.
Jack: Not that I blame them.
Cassidy: One of the Prince’s goons takes his body outta the wall, Magnar is losing all control.
Jack: I’m throwing chairs to push people back. Magnar lost control right from the start. I lose it at the Tremere since I’m almost on empty.
Cassidy: You were closer.
Carter: OK, so I take it, you two being here, and the prince being out cold that things didn’t really get resolved shall we say.
Jack: It all went black for me after I sunk fangs into the Regent.
Cassidy: She’s out cold, I make my move, sweep in, get her away from the Tremere, boot Magnar out the wall so the Russian doesn’t stake him. But I get outside, Magnar is frenzied, Jack’s out cold, I can’t leave a brother stranded when he ain’t got no control. And there’s a pack of Tremere ready to rip him a new one. So I subdue him into this state.
Man, I expected more from him. Cos I’ve put him back where he can reach the Prince. Cammy politics, not for me.
Jack: And I’m thinking this is Brujah shit first cos he fucking betrayed us.
Cassidy: High tail it with the pair of them, see Antonia, who’s waiting in her car. We get clear, and then Antonia tells me that she’d only booked passage for her and this sack of shit on the ground at dawn to America.
Jack mutters swearwords under her breath.
Cassidy: He was kicking this shit off without having the decency to give the same out to Jack.
Carter: What?
Jack: I figured he just went in half cocked and had no plan… but he did have a plan…
Carter: Magnar, staunch supporter of the Camarilla, Hero of Bergen would plan a coup and run away? Seems a little out of character for him, don’t you think?
Jack: The only thing he planned was how to get out of there after the shit hit the fan!
Cassidy: He brought a sister to a gun fight without giving her the same escape plan. Well, Antonia is well clear now.
Carter: You don’t fight unless you plan to win.
Jack: looks like he expected to leave me there to face a pissed off court! That’s what I said to him! He planned to fail.
Cassidy: There was no way he could win that fight.
Jack: I reckon he could’ve…
Cassidy: not against the whole court.
Jack: … with the two new Brujah in down to mark the Scourge and the other deputy, and Antonia to mark the Tremere. He could’ve killed the prince.
Cassidy: The prince was dust if he’d been able to keep his head, but he didn’t. He shot the bolt. He could’ve backed down, gathered the troops and gone for it later.
Jack gets more agitated at the memory of it all and starts pacing.
Carter: Anyway, he attacks the prince; that’s bad You, Jack, are involved also bad. Now what?
Jack: Yeah, I know. Look, I figure I can talk my way back in since I was dragged into a plan that wasn’t mine and I never drew my weapon. It’d be guaranteed if I took Magnar’s stinking corpse with me. But, as I said, this is Brujah business first.
Carter: Did you injure anyone?
Jack: Knocked out a ventrue and sunk fangs into a Tremere. But they attacked me first.
Cassidy: Cos they’d drained her blood so bad.
Jack: Not the ventrue, mind you. I just hit him with a chair on the way by.
Carter: Who do you reckon will call the shots?
Cassidy: Arkady.
Jack: Arkady or the Tremere.
Carter: Will he let you off for torporing one of their kind? And will the Tremere let you live now that they have tasted your blood?
Jack: It wasn’t Arkady’s child and he’s Russian mafia so maybe.
Cassidy: As long as there’s profit to be made?
Jack: I’ve no idea about the Tremere. That’s the main reason I told Magnar not to do it. They’re well in with the prince. And who knows what they’ll do. But they’ll work together doing it.
Carter: They are blood sorcerers for a reason.
Jack: I don’t hold any grudge – they were just protecting their investment. But, I figure by being here with Magnar we’re handing him over to the clan and to the Camarilla. I’d give him to the clan head but this fuckwit was the clanhead.
Cassidy: The boy has to deal with what he’s done, but couldn’t have him straight back to that bunch of posers.
Carter: Fuck this, if we reckon Magnar deserves killed for this, we kill him ourselves and hand them the ashes.
Jack: Fine by me.
Carter: If we reckon he deserves to be let off we let him go. We won’t let them hollow him out and make another fucking marionette like Hume.
Jack: Exactly.
Cassidy: Fuck no. Though I doubt they would do that, they’ll want his head.
Jack: He deserves to die – but for his betrayal of the clan.
Cassidy: Jack, if I’d left her though, that’s what she’d be I’m afraid.
Carter: You agree Cassidy?
Cassidy: Yes, but do we wake him and give him a chance to defend himself?
Jack: I want a piece of him.
Carter: If we reckon he deserves to die, and they reckon he deserves to die, chances are, he deserves to die. There is no point going through all the effort to find someone who can wake him up quick, just to kill him later.
Jack: Don’t have to convince me.
Cassidy: fair enough, just, I gotta ask the question.
Jack: You shouldn’t be involved with this bit, Cassidy. Keeping the Anarchs out of the politics.
Cassidy: chuckles.
Carter: Well then Jack, as prince of this domain I grant you the right of destruction over Magnar, childe of Beren, Hero of Bergen.
Jack: Fuck yeah.
She gets out her machete and pauses to savour the moment. It takes surprisingly little effort to chop his head off and he crumbles to dust very quickly.
Cassidy: What a fucking waste of it all Magnar. Could’ve done so much more. Better to end at the hand of a brother than to one of those wasters though.
Jack has a grim expression. She nods and finally calms and sits down. “I guess we’d better get a message back up north. And a bag for Magnar, here.”
Carter: Be careful with the Tremere.
Jack: I’ll be watching my back.
Carter: They will hate that in essence they have bound themselves to you. Also make sure that you use his death to your advantage. As soon as they know he is dead there is nothing you can gain from them.
Jack: Yeah? they got bloodbonded a bit for that?
Carter: I expect so if they sucked your blood into themselves.
Jack grins. She sits and thinks. “Well, Cassidy… Ritchie has Turpie staked up there and Arkady wants to meet him. Lessee.. with Magnar’s dust I get acceptance back into Glasgow and the Tremere can’t just kill me straight out. Issue one: need to separate Cassidy and the Anarchs from the coup. Issue two: how do I meet with them – public? At the court?.
Carter: What’s your guarantee that they’ll accept you back, rather than simply blood hunt you too?
Jack: No guarantees.
Carter: Two usurpers for the price of one torpored prince, they would have still made a bad deal.
Jack: So.. that means a public meeting so they can’t kill me straight out before I can state our case and get a feel for their reaction. Apart from killing the duchess for them, I have nothing else to offer. And I’m not an assassin.
I can hold off until Ritchie meets with Arkady. Maybe Cassidy can go with him. I can’t go – as tempted as I am – and still say that the Anarchs had nothing to do with it. They can test the waters and find out what the situation is.
Carter leaves then, citing other business to attend to, leaving the two Brujah to discuss their next step.
Cassidy: so, next move, eh?
Jack: yeah
Cassidy: I can go meet up with Ritchie and see Arkady.
Jack: You know.. as much as I’d like to be safe and wait until after Ritchie’s meeting – I have to wonder if I’d be better not waiting until Arkady and everyone have the chance to plan.
Cassidy: Take it head on. How to play that, though? If I’m there to back you up, sours the thing.
Jack: Yeah, you can’t. Not with this.
Cassidy: Fair play.
Jack: At least not where you can be seen.
Cassidy: And that would probably involve lots of Obfuscate.
Jack: Exactly.
Cassidy: Or a rooftop. And non-subtle masquerade breaches to get involved. Which ain’t gonna work.
Jack shakes her head in agreement, “Nope. I could arrange to meet them in the middle of George Square…”
Cassidy: Central station – no Tremere’ll go there hopefully, hahahahahahaha.
Jack: Yeah? What’s up with Central Station?
Cassidy: Some fucked up shit, wait outta my league.
Jack: But it’s okay to go in?
Cassidy: Me and a mate went in there once. He ended up in fucking Australia or something like now.
Jack: Huh?
Cassidy: Naw, it’ll be fine, we were putting our noses in where they didn’t belong.
Jack: Awright.
Cassidy: Anyways; public goooood public elysium gooooood, back alley baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
Jack: When do they shut the station?
Cassidy: Well after dark just now.
Jack: It’ll take 3 hours to get there from here. So I’d get there maybe 10-11ish.
Cassidy: It’s dark at 6.
Jack: Hmmm, tight on the timing. Can meet at 10pm.
Cassidy: George Square on a Friday night should be OK as well, though.
Jack: More exits.
Cassidy: Outside the station under the canopy is always busy too. Taxi rank. Police. Drunk people.
Jack: True.
Cassidy: 24hr shop. Chippie. Plenty of cameras, too, which while not a good thing for me….. works out ok just now.
Jack: Hmmmm. Central station at 10pm, then. I’ll need to make some calls – I reckon Arkady’ll be contactable through the underworld.
Cassidy: Hell yeah.
Jack: Either that or maybe the Scourge.
Cassidy: Ritchie might have a contact too.
Jack: Possibly – but only if it isn’t traceable to him.
Cassidy: Deffo. But then the fact is he was getting in touch with me and I was the one carrying your unconscious body so it makes sense that there’d be some cross over.
Jack: Yeah.
Cassidy: So we can get you an ‘in’. On this one just now, I can’t get you an ‘out’ though.
Jack gives a wry smile, “Yeah, I know.”
Cassidy: You could maybe try some of the other Brujah, but they don’t know you. Man.
Jack: I’m on my own.
Cassidy: There should be more I could do for all you guys.
Jack: But at least I have a fucking plan. You’ve done more than enough.
Cassidy: Never enough. There’s always more to be done.
Jack: Right, let’s get Arkady’s contact details from Ritchie and I’ll send him and the Scourge a message.
Cassidy: Sweet, I’ll also hook up with Ritchie since Arkady’ll want to talk to me no doubt and I can be his second.
Jack: Yep. And you can say that all you did was get us outta there.
Cassidy: Which is true.
Jack: And I’ll confirm that you said you wouldn’t get involved in whatever Magnar did. Which is also true.
Cassidy: And stop him from ripping the prince to bits after I put him back in close.
Jack: You’ve got Turpie as a bargaining chip if you need it… though whether Arkady would want him…
Cassidy: What bargaining can we get from him?
Jack: No idea. I’d be tempted just to drop him in a river.
Cassidy: Could threaten to take the stake out?
Jack laughs.
Cassidy: You behave, Arkady, or he will talk to you!
Jack: That’s cruel and unusual punishment. You know that Prince of Severn’s party?
Cassidy: Aye, what about it?
Jack: Turpie was one of the people involved in the poker game where mortals were the bet. I had an argument about slavery.
Cassidy: Fukkers.
Jack: Exactly. I would’ve lost it but I was standing behind the prince and it was an Elysium. So I left instead.
Cassidy: Not fucking cattle to be passed off from person to person.
Jack: Without a choice.
Cassidy: Twat.
Jack: Yup.
Cassidy: Bloodbond him to a Tremere so he won’t leave them alone.
Jack laughs again.
Cassidy: Anything else to say on the matter?
Jack: No, don’t think so. Just stuff getting contact details and a new phone.
Cassidy: Coolie.
Jack: And a new bike. Unless my old one is still at the stately home.
Cassidy grins, “Hmm…. odds?”
Jack: Low. But maybe no one would think of a bike.