(IC 2) San Francisco by Night: A Requiem in Fog

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

"I have nothing to add at this time, my lord," Anna replies.

[Daishain]

"There is one other thing, but it should wait for a little more privacy than this stage affords us. It can wait until after the ceremonies conclude sir." Karl nods his head to the new sheriff, "Nova, I look forward to discussing things with you."

If there is nothing else, the Mekhet politely takes his leave and moves off the stage with his coterie.

[Bennosuke]

Aisling acquiesces as well, giving another courtly bow. The Prince excuses the three, who make their way off of the stage.

Not soon after, the lights of the theater dim till there is only the spotlight of warm yellow light haloed around Prince Nicholas D'Agostino, now standing alone before his throne. Karl notes that his performance is similar to the night before; The Prince seeming to hold the attention of the room easily in the palm of his hand, his voice carrying perfectly over the crowd without straining or requiring hardware for amplification. He thanks the city's Kindred for joining him tonight, and for their support for him moving forward. Though he is obviously using the blood to amplify his presence, The Prince is met with eager applause which he basks in like the warm stage lights.

Once the applause has died down, The Prince then humbly announces that he is stepping down from his position as Primogen of the Invictus, and announces that after last night's meeting, a majority vote has elected Lord Ozzy Mandius to rise to fill the position. This announcement is met with similar applause, though those with acute hearing can appreciate the low murmurs hidden under the clapping.

Lastly, The Prince announces that he has elected a new Sheriff, one who he hopes will be more trustworthy and deserving of the title. He proudly states that he was certain to elect a deserving Kindred who was not a member of his own Covenant, in a bid to more evenly distribute power among the city's different sects, and promises to run the city with a less authoritarian hand. When D'Agostino announces that Nova is the new Sheriff, the Carthians practically erupt with applause. Some of the more uncouth members of the Rabble whistle, whoop and holler their approval.

He then adds that Nova has elected Karl, Anna and Aisling as her first three Hounds. This is met with more reserved applause, though Anna notes the enthusiasm coming from The Dragons particularly.

Spoiler: Roll Request

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Go ahead and give me a Resolve + Empathy/Politics to read more particular responses from the crowd, and let me know if there is any individual or group you want to read.

With this finished, The Prince once again thanks the crowd and states that he will remain at Elysium tonight to field any concerns, and better learn the needs of the city's vampire population.

The first person to reach the coterie and congratulate them is the Unaligned Nosferatu Screech, who seems to direct his praise first to Anna. Others come to congratulate the group as well, including a number of the Ordo Dracul, and Alejandro of the Circle.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Spoiler

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Resolve + Politics: (4d10)[4][1][9][5](19)
10 again: (4d10)[5][8][8][3](24)
not sure how many groups / individuals we can pick, so:
Anna wants to see what the Carthians think of their appointment, as well as the Spear, Nova, Victor, Zach and his sire, and Julian, in that order of importance.

"Thank you Screech," Anna said, "how've you been? I didn't see you earlier otherwise I would have said hi."

[Daishain]

Karl lets Anna handle the well wishers, it looks like they were mostly interested in her anyways, and looks to the crowd for any reactions that seem out of place. It was unlikely that Mandius was paying attention to any save his own crowd, but Marat and that brat of his might be up to something, and no doubt there were others to watch for.

Spoiler: OOC

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Resolve+Politics (4d10)[10][3][7][5](25)

[Bennosuke]

Spoiler: @TC

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With one success, I will give you Anna's first target.

As far as Anna can tell, the Carthians are very pleased with this result. Their applause is the loudest in response to Prince D'Agostino's announcement. Perhaps there are one or two Kindred in their circle who don't seem as enthusiastic. But Anna takes a moment to note that even their Primogen, the dark skinned Bobby Hutton, seems very pleased. His full lips spread into a handsome gleaming smile, and he claps fervently.

But by the time Anna has finished assessing the Carthians, the applause has died down.

"Thank you Screech," Anna said, "how've you been? I didn't see you earlier otherwise I would have said hi."

Screech smiles his lipless jack o'lantern smile and says in his unflinchingly grating voice, "Good good. Glad to see you Anna. Congratulations on the new position! I am glad I can say I am friends with, and even helped arm one of the new Hounds; it's going to be great for business. You let me know if you need anything else. I'll be happy to assist you." Screech claps his hands together and give Anna an almost insulting impression of a bow. Ignorant to his ignorance, Screech tries his best to smile warmly at Anna.

**************************************************

Studying the crowd, Karl catches sight of Marat and his childe standing at the periphery of the Invictus crowd. They do their duty in applauding all the new vampires in their new positions, though the act seems to become near painful for the announcement of the new Hounds.

Once the applause has died down and the Prince's speech is finished, the two seem to dive into the circle of Invictus. Perhaps it was just paranoia, but by their body language it seemed like Marat and Zach were back at spreading rumors. There was a furtiveness to the way they leaned in to discuss matters with other Kindred, a meanness in their eyes.

But before Karl could move to listen in or intervene, he is intercepted by the bat-faced Ivanov. The imp smiles at Karl and says, "Congratulations Mr. Bauer. A most exciting new title. You should be very proud of how your esteem is rising. However, I was wondering if I could speak with you for a moment... without your colleagues. First Estate business of course."

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

“I’m a marketing tool now?” Anna asked playfully, “you never miss an opportunity, do you.”

“I guess I’m okay with that, but keep your ears open and let me know if there’s anything the new Sheriff should know about,” she said, “I might have a new request for you soon too, let you know about that in private.”

[Daishain]

Karl glances at the others of his coterie before nodding. "By all means, let us find a moment of privacy and discuss this. I expect to be quite busy shortly, but that hasn't caught up to me quite yet."

[Bennosuke]

“I’m a marketing tool now?” Anna asked playfully, “you never miss an opportunity, do you.”

Anna's statement causes Screech to immediately start blubbering and back pedaling. "Oh no no no," he hisses, his voice cracking at the end of the shrill denial. Then he sees that Anna was joking and chuckles bashfully.

“I guess I’m okay with that, but keep your ears open and let me know if there’s anything the new Sheriff should know about,” she said, “I might have a new request for you soon too, let you know about that in private.”

This seems to bring an eager excitement to Screech's face, and he nods furiously, saying, "Of course. I will do so happily. Keep my ear to the ground and all that."

************************************************** **

Ivanov nods with approval, and follows Karl to a relatively private area of the theater. "So, what news do you have for us regarding MS-13?" he asks flatly, getting straight to the point. By his question, it's clear that he hasn't communicated with the Prince, and is assuming for some good news as part of Karl's update.

[Daishain]

Karl nods, "Given recent events, it should not be too surprising that most efforts there were temporarily put on hold. Before that however, I installed surveillance equipment in the office of one of their major leaders. I now have several days worth of footage to sort through for data when we are done here tonight. I've also made a few contacts that should tell me a lot about the organization."

"My main goal at the moment is to map out the upper leadership and determine who among them would be the most useful for our purposes. Arranging for them to take over should not be difficult."

[Bennosuke]

"Very good," Ivanov says a bit hastily, perhaps even nonplussed, "but we are going to need more, and need it soon." The beady eyed vampire leans closer to Karl, his eyes darting over towards one end of the theater and whispers, "We need to lock them down as a resource before the Carthians do... The rabble were just given a big boost in power tonight, and we need to start taking away possible assets." Ivanov's bony face becomes lined with wrinkles as he gives a shrewd cruel grin.

************************************************

Screech continues to prattle on, even as Anna begins to tune the Haunt loner out. But as he continues on, Anna's phone buzzes, and when she looks she sees that she has missed a phone call from Celestine, which has been followed by a text message that reads "Have you seen Katie??? She has not been returning my phone calls, and it's been almost a week since I last saw her!"

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

“Sorry Screech,” Anna said indicating the text, “let’s catch up later this week when there’s less ears around.”
She turned to walk though the crowd to tap out a quick response.

No. Is her phone receiving the messages? Anna texted back.

They should have just gotten back from the vacation Anna sent them on...

[Daishain]

Karl nods, "I understand, and I will do my best. Please don't couch it in those terms again though. Nova is my new boss after all, significant friction between us would only interfere in my new duties. Better for me to act as if I had no idea the Carthians were interested."

[Bennosuke]

By Anna's count, the family had been back about a week. She gets a reply text almost immediately, "I think so. I was never good with technology." This is followed by, "She snuck out a few nights after we got back, and I just haven't been able to get a hold of her! Can you talk now?"

************************************************** *****

Ivanov raises an eyebrow, an irritated scowl on his face, but he lets it pass. "Just hurry up with it," he says bluntly, before turning and walking away from Karl.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

"I can't talk now but I will try to reach her, give me a minute." Anna typed back.

"Hey, how was the trip, you recovered yet?" Anna typed out and sent to her cousin.

[Bennosuke]

However long Anna is willing to wait, she is unsurprised when no response comes. The little indicator says the text was delivered, but never read.

[Daishain]

Karl sighs internally as he watches Ivanov stalk off. Apparently this one would rather rub things in the Carthians' collective face rather than just quietly achieve dominance. Some people had no sense of priorities...

Not much to be done about that though, the Mekhet returns to the gathering, looking to see where his coterie had gotten off to.

[Thundercracker]

However long Anna is willing to wait, she is unsurprised when no response comes. The little indicator says the text was delivered, but never read.

She didn’t reply to me either. I am working now. do you want me to try and find her? I’m pretty sure I know someone who can run a trace on a cell phone. Anna replied to Celestine.

Anna looked up from her phone and smiled. Stupid teenager doing stupid teenager stuff.

[Bennosuke]

Karl looks over at Anna who is busy studying her phone, now that the crowd of congratulators had slightly dissipated. Aisling on the other hand was chatting cautiously with a few members of The Circle, including Alejandro. She seemed slightly more comfortable with the vampires of her new covenant, though who knew whether that was a good thing!

Anna gets a near immediate reply, 'Yes. Please do what you can. I don't want to sound like an old Auntie, but I am very nervous.'

[Thundercracker]

Anna

Karl, can Gabe run traces on mobile numbers to see where they are? when you get a chance, could you ask him to run a trace on this mobile number, see where it is? Thx” Anna sent to Karl, providing Katie’s number.

[Daishain]

Karl rolls his eyes as he sees the text, then walks over and tells Anna directly rather than texting back, "That's not exactly easy, its illegal unless you're law enforcement and have a warrant, or its your own phone. When we traced that would be assassin, I got around that by stuffing a phone I own on them."

"That's not a no, we could get it done but is this something worth taking that sort of risk over?"

[Thundercracker]

Karl rolls his eyes as he sees the text, then walks over and tells Anna directly rather than texting back, "That's not exactly easy, its illegal unless you're law enforcement and have a warrant, or its your own phone. When we traced that would be assassin, I got around that by stuffing a phone I own on them."

"That's not a no, we could get it done but is this something worth taking that sort of risk over?"

“Not yet,” Anna replied to Karl.

Her lips formed a thin line as agitation rose.

She sent another text to her cousin.

”your mom called me while I was at a work event, text her back to let her know you’re alive before she calls the cops.”

[Bennosuke]

Anna's text remains as "delivered", never transitioning to "read".

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

"I swear if Katie is screwing around I just might kill her...." Anna thought.

She sighed and looked up as if praying to a higher power, or perhaps rolling her eyes.

"Sorry Karl, I think I do need that trace after all," she said, "I'll explain later when we're not surrounded."

[Daishain]

Karl sighs, "All right, I'll let Gabe know. Its likely to take a while to set it up safely. Perhaps in the meantime we can think of a safer alternative."

Spoiler: OOC

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Honestly I have no idea how to go about an illegal cell phone trace, how difficult it would be, or how easy it would be to get caught. Quick google search didn't help.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

With tracking the cell phone out of the question, Anna resorted to more tried and true methods of finding someone. She texted Celestine again.

"We wont' be able to get a trace for some time, maybe never. Did she say she was going to meet anyone? Where does she usually go to hang out, and who does she go with?"

[Bennosuke]

The text from Celestine comes back almost immediately. From the speedy response and the multiple typos, it's clear she is likely typing frantically. "I have no idea. She's been busy at UC Berkeley, and I feel like I just know so much less about her. It felt like she was keeping so many secrets. She would disappear all the time without telling us where she was going!"

[Thundercracker]

The text from Celestine comes back almost immediately. From the speedy response and the multiple typos, it's clear she is likely typing frantically. "I have no idea. She's been busy at UC Berkeley, and I feel like I just know so much less about her. It felt like she was keeping so many secrets. She would disappear all the time without telling us where she was going!"

Anna

"Okay, I will try to find her, and I will stop by your house later tonight." Anna texted back.

Aware she still has a short meeting with the Prince afterwards, she texted Victor.
"I'll let you know when I'm good to go."

She texted Karl.
"Let me know when we're meeting the Prince."

Then she found a quiet corner and put her back to the wall so she could scroll through Katie's social media pages to figure out where she's been hanging out and who she's been with. She suspected it might be that ganger boyfriend of hers... she just might drop by his usual haunts, based on what info the police report had on him...

[Bennosuke]

Anna receives a very effusive series of thank yous in her next text from her Aunt. She take s a few moments to scroll through Katie's Facebook and Instagram accounts. It appears both became sharply inactive just under a week ago, an obvious thing to pick up on based on how heavily the girl seemed to use both services. Ominously, the last post on her Facebook reads, "I can't wait to see my boo tonight. See you soon Jay." Anna remembers back to the dossier Karl had put together on Jay Acevedo, linking him to MS-13, and remembered she still had his cellphone number stored in her smartphone.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Anna considered texting Jay but decided to hold off. She’d stop by his apartment later in the evening to see what she could see...