Shadows and Secrets

The Rutian team shows up with Teresa in tow. Shein and Arren stay on the Raptor for now, letting two others go down in their place. Lisa and Lucian.

The comment from the Rheans get the attention of all of them. Even Lucas and the twirling girl. There's silence for a moment before the guy in the hockey mask speaks. "No wonder they're.... pissed off." It's a scratchy voice and sounds just wrong, almost like there's no lips to help form the words.

Esteban looks toward the speaker. "Let's not go there right now, Dread." He turns his attention toward the Rheans. "If they're aware of how to embrace... convert others then someone taught them. It's not something that you just know how to do. This may not stop until they have a certain population. How many were there at last count?"

Lucas stays silent for now, watching and listening.

"Around 60 or so."

"We're not sure how many are on Burninandom. We can't get an accurate count, and the local agencies are all to terrorized to think straight," Teresa says.

Esteban rubs the back of his neck, apparently lost in thought.

Lucian, who has been a bit baffled by how much Esteban looks like Shein, finally speaks up. "There are about thirty on Dreva, but they did try and get into the Citadel."

Esteban stares at Lucian for a moment, then raises a brow. "Really?" He shakes his head. "I know the Tremere have been interested in Arren, and the Ventrue are, of course, going to be interested in Shein." He glances toward one of the young men in the room.

The one he looked at just shakes his head and raises both hands. "Don't look at me. I said we were interested. I did not give anyone permission to try for him. In fact, I've said he's hands off."

John snorts softly. "Like they listen to you, David. You know and I know that some of them don't give a rats ass what you say."

David glares at John. "Like you can control your Ventrue. Esteban does a hell of a lot better and he's younger and raised by a Malkavian."

"Gentlemen, please." The asian girl just facepalms. She ignores John's flinching at David's comment. "This is going to get us nowhere. There is a problem, but the question lies in whether or not these vampires broke our laws."

There's silence in the room for a moment before Lucas turns his attention away from the twirling girl. "They didn't. Not our laws, therefore we can't exactly name them anathema and hunt them down ourselves. Well, not unless a grievance is made through proper channels." He looks directly toward the visitors to the meeting that was already going on.

The asian girl looks at Lucas oddly, then nods. "Right. The family members can petition to us for direct intervention."

John frowns. "There's no such...."

"John!" Lucas snaps his attention toward John. "This is why you can't grasp the concept of how poorly you're running things. Sometimes you have to.... well... bend the rules a little. They've got a problem. We can help. We just need to have a reason to help. So, family members, or the affected government. I mean, I'm pretty sure the people behind this didn't exactly come in through regular channels. Chances are, they're not going to be caught by their authorities."

"There's probably some background I'm missing here," Teresa says. "Because on a scale of 1 to comprehension, I score about a 3 right now. So there are vampire nations, and there are some rogue vampires who have managed not to break any of your laws or something. That's what I got."

Dmitri nods in agreement to what Teresa said. He adds, "In any case, we're none too keen about having them appear on our planet. If they stuck to themselves and didn't start converting others, we wouldn't have problems. They're practically going to face extermination there if they don't cut it out. This sort of thing is why the Psions, the Kroloteans, and the Dominators are banned from coming to our planet."

Esteban looks to Teresa. "What it means is that whoever did this decided to set up housekeeping somewhere else. They're not in our jurisdiction anymore. Now, if you want to follow Lucas's advice, we can definitely hunt them down for you. We're not exactly thrilled that this happened since it gives us a bad name, but right now our hands are tied. They didn't break our laws." He looks at Dmitri. "I'm not going to ask you to trust me on this, but this is not something we had knowledge of or approve of. We did not send anyone to do this. It's reasons such as this that keeps us from advancing further than we have technologically. If we were to spread out in the galaxy, we would be on every planet and we'd have to start hiding ourselves again."

Lucas chimes in. "The masquerade. It's our primary law. We don't follow it here because they know about us. Were we to go outside our planet, we would be hiding who we are. The ones you got are either idiots or they're too comfortable with life here."

The asian girl looks at Teresa for a moment. "Most people who don't know our laws are confused by it. You're not alone. Most of the mortals here on Esoteric don't really understand why we let certain vampires run around the way we do. It all comes down to the fact that they haven't broken our laws. Vampires here may only be tried by our laws."

Lucas tilts his head slightly. "I wonder if they've officially claimed their domain yet. If not, they might still be accountable to us."

Lucian and Lisa both look completely lost with all of this.

"I understand that there are going to be some guys who'd want to get out." After Lucas' last statement, he says, "Well, if they did, I'd be willing to set aside some land for them to settle on and recognize them, provided they don't run around trying to convert people. We have one vampire who lives on Rhea, and she's accepted among us. She gets her blood in glass bottles." He pauses and adds, "Of course, it helps that she's a bit of an oddity in that she's able to survive in daylight."

Teresa eyes Dmitri. "Uh, yeah, they haven't declared anything. They aren't going to be allowed to stay."

Lucian nods to Teresa. "Until they tried to get into the Citadel, they would have been just fine on Dreva."

Lucas shakes his head to Teresa. "Getting them to leave means you have to find all of them and either kill them or force them out. Not easy." He looks toward Dmitri. "It's part of our nature to do what we do. Drinking bottled blood is like asking us to drink from animals."

Dread growls at Lucas.

"Hey, not that there's anything wrong with that. We've all done it before with the exception of the Ventrue." Lucas raises his hands, clearly keeping Dread under some kind of control that way. "We don't have to kill in order to feed. Common misconception really. Converting others isn't as easy as it seems. It's damned near impossible for a new vampire to do it. Takes a level of control they don't usually have."

The guy that looks like he just got out of bed frowns at Lucas. "I did."

Lucas shakes his head. "No, Josh, you didn't. You managed to do it because I was there to jerk you away at the right time. You damned near attacked me before you realised why I did what I did."

"Right. So...um, can I have the bottom line? What should we do?" Teresa grins innocently.

"Because I'm kind of at a breaking point here. Those guys are being hunted across the planet and unless I find a way to settle them without hassle or get them to leave, well, it's not going to be pretty."

Lucas looks at Dmitri. "Stop hunting them and they'll calm down and mind their own business. We don't like rising above a certain number because it starts to threaten the mortal population." He looks at Teresa. "I've already told you how we can get involved in this. As to what you should do? Well, I hear sunlight works pretty damned well if you really can't stand them. Otherwise, stop hunting them and they'll calm down."

Esteban looks at Teresa for a moment, then toward Dmitri, then back to Teresa. "You've actually created the problem by hunting them. If you were to do this here, you'd find the same reaction from all of us, but on a much more deadly scale. You're dealing with vampires who can't do much, if anything at all. Even though they're stronger and can take more damage than a mortal, they're probably still thinking like one. They haven't had a chance to lose their emotional reactions and gain any kind of real power." As if to demonstrate, something happens in the room that causes all the vampires to react differently to him. Where they didn't pay much attention to him before, they're completely focused on him now. The reaction should extend to mortals as well. Even Lucas is focused on him, though there seems to be a bit of pride in his smile.

(OOC: If you want specifics: http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Presence_%28Vampire:_The_Masquerade%29 (you guys got hit with Majesty) Esteban would appear to be the only authority figure in the room and the other vamps would appear to be recognising that. To argue with him would take a lot of willpower right now. He'll drop it in the next post. There's really no 'saving throw' in V:tM for getting hit with Majesty, but we went with Willpower and a difficulty of 10 (10 sided die). If you have a valid reason why it wouldn't affect you, let me know.)

(OOC: Well, Burninites do have a weird mind thing going on because of the whole Slaaneesh thing, but I'll assume Teresa is affected. Please also make the same assumption; I wasn't quite sure what to make her reaction to being affected.)

After Lucas's comment, Teresa makes a pensive face and thinks about the consequences of that.

After Esteban speaks, she is drawn out of her pensive state to look at him. She can't explain it. She wasn't listening to him before; she was more concerned with what Lucas had to say, but she's listening now.

(OOC: Coogan probably wouldn't, on the grounds that he's absolutely insane and doesn't recognize anybody as an authority figure. Seriously, if you put him in front of the Rutian gods, he burst out laughing at their outfits or something. He is a brilliant scientist, nonetheless, albeit also a mass murderer. Dmitri has a habit of hiring supervillains for his dirty work. )

Dmitri was about to run off in the middle of Esteban's talk to grab some chicken from the ship when he suddenly feels a great urge to pay attention to him. He listens intently and then replies, "OK, then that's what I'll do. Grant them a nice chunk of land and let them live there. May I get my chicken now?" If he's allowed to, he'll be gone and back before you can blink.

Esteban just looks at the two of them for a moment. He finally focuses on Dmitri. "Why ask me?" He smiles faintly. "The point here is that they can't do stuff like I just did. I didn't do anything that would hurt you or cause any lasting damage. I just made you pay attention to me. I can do that on a large scale too. Like, with whole armies if need be. What you're dealing with can't do stuff like that. Not yet anyway. However, there's someone else here, older and more powerful. While you could pick off the little ones, the older ones are going to cause a problem. You won't find them. Not unless they want to be found." He drops what he was doing at this point. Now that he's had his say, he'll deal with the fallout. It's obvious when it happens as the vampires all go back to what they were doing. It's a little creepy really.

Lucas blinks a couple times, then looks toward the mortal group. "He's right." It's his only addition to the little speech.

(OOC: Lucas is batshit insane and is still affected by it. Heh. Doesn't matter if they don't recognise authority. Majesty still works on the Brujah which don't accept any authority. Brainiac wouldn't be affected. That mathematical equation wouldn't be affected. Things like that.)

"Is there a way we could solicit the vampires to talk to us? Convince them to leave? I've been informed by a higher authority that we won't be bringing any more vampires to Burnination to deal with the ones already there despite the good word I put in for certain ones," Teresa says.

"Oh, just thought it'd be rude to run off in the middle of you talking." He's gone and back before anybody blinks. "Chicken?"

(OOC: In that case, ok, Coogan would be.)

The asian girl shrugs. "It's possible, if you stop hunting them."

Esteban and Lucas both shake their heads though. Lucas explains. "You've already hunted them. They're not going to want to talk for a long time. I'm sorry this happened. I really am. We had no knowledge of it. The majority of us are not like the ones you guys got."

Lucian and Lisa both look at each other like 'yeah, right'. Lucian's datapad chimes and he pulls it out to read something on it. "Shein's been listening in. He's willing to allow you to try and make contact with the ones on Dreva to find out what they want."

The asian girl raises a brow. "We already told you what they want there. Shein and Arren. What's unclear is what they want from the others. It'd help if we had more information, but we're not expecting you to hand it over."

Lucian just stares at the girl for a moment. "Well, they're not getting either of them. They're not willing to discuss things with us either."

Esteban shrugs. "Lucas told you how to get us involved. Until that happens, we really can't do much of anything. As hard as it may seem to understand it, we're the good guys here. They're the bad guys. We just can't go hunting until we have a reason to."

Teresa frowns. "So there would be no offense taken, or bad blood, if I told you that our response is going to be sending our mutual friends to hell?"

He nods and continues eating his chicken.

Lucas shrugs. "Depends on who they are. If you're talking about the young ones, no. I have no reason to care about what happens to them. The older ones behind this, I might know. If I knew who they were, I'd tell you how to deal with them."

The others remain silent. They all seem to agree with what Lucas has said though.

Teresa nods, and will go back with Shein to make her recommendation to Jenova and Thorgood.

"Well, I'll turn that suggestion into an order in my area, then, and spread it to the others."

The vampires don't give a farewell. In fact, they seem to ignore the mortals now. As well as each other. Some meeting.

Lucian and Lisa head back with Teresa.

Shein looks toward Lucian and Lisa. "Assessment?"

Lucian shakes his head. "They seem to be telling the truth. They don't know who's behind this."

Lisa nods in agreement. "I think it's a good idea to ask them to look into the situation on Dreva and find those responsible."

Shein nods, then looks at Teresa. "What's your take on all this?"