"Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of reality." Edgar Allen Poe
"Pleased to meet you, Trikoff...and apologies for my reaction to your appearance. I shall endeavor to do better." Michael says, seeing the creature as a potential ally, or potentially a useful tool at worst.
Michael thinks to himself while waiting, Gargoyles...fascinating...
"Understood, and thank you for your hospitality, Regent Weston." Michael says. "Is there anything you require of me in the interim between now and when I am to be introduced?"
"Just so I do not immediately make a fool of myself or invoke your wrath, Regent, the dominated pagans are effectively a herd for the Chanty?" Michael asks, trying not to screw things up too badly on his first night in the Twin Cities.
"Regent, am I to have quarters here in the Chantry, or am I to find my own haven?"
You may stay here or you may find your own quarters. We have the following members of Tremere and our guardian Gargoyle. I am Primogen and regent. We also have Lady Thorn Moon, who has access here but stays in the Riverwood Grove at the University of Minnesota. Then we have Robert Ackley, our Chantry librarian. He stays here. We have an advisor to the Prince named Rivard who came from Europe with the Prince as a member of her coterie and also stays here. I have my own domain at St Thomas college not far from here. Lastly we have Ms. Alexandra Eckstein who is of Rochester MN and stays there with the Duke and Harpy but is welcome here for the Princess Elysium on Fort Smelling. I will be presenting you there in two days. You are welcome to stay here or travel to Alary's, the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, the Guthrie Theatre, or the Como Conservatory. Those four are the Elysiums. Do not go anywhere else until after you are presented. The Duchess and Keeper of Elysium and chief Harpy Janice Jones holds court at Como.
His thoughts stop drifting when the door opens. He has a wistful look at the man, no Kindred, when he enters, What I would not give to have my wardrobe back. The clothes of an Anarch are what he is dressed in at the moment.
Kent long ago reconciled that he's not particularly attractive, his charm and wit are what won him over with the Ladies, well the ones he wasn't paying anyway.
Kent stands and returns Douglas' strong grip as best he can,"Thank you for the welcome Primogen McNeely. I apologize for my attire. It was a fast exit from Gary and I have been handling an... ah... non-conventional task for my Sire the past few years.
Sovereign stated that there would be an opportunity here for me in the Twin Cities. I am here to answer the knock at the door".
. Great start!
Intelligence DC 7 -
"Understood." Michael says plainly. "I believe I shall stay here, at least for a while and certainly until after my presentation."
"Will Traikoff be showing me to my quarters, or should I simply go to an empty room? Afterwards, I think I will pay that herd a visit and then retire for the evening, unless of course there is something you require of me, Regent."
Charisma+Etiquette to ensure proper inflection on my voice in that request.
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"Heh. A pool cue huh? Ya in high school I think I was voted Most Likely To Impale Himself On A Pool Cue. I'm glad I could finally live up to all those important expectations."
Mal sits up and rubs his face. 'Y'know, when he told me I'd be a vampire I did not...think it would be like this. Would I go back? Well, no, but still.'
"Heh, ya, sorry about that. I, ah, I tend to let me tongue talk and let my body cash the checks later. But dude! Did you -see- her? I mean with mmmm, and the oooo, and oh mymy! I mean, how could I not?!?
Okay, ya, you're right I should...I probs shoulda kept it a bit lower key. I'm just...I'm still just getting used to all this, alright? I'll make things right. I'll make it up to Janice. I'll bring her flowers, I'll make nice talk...maybe I'll kill someone she doesn't like. Wait, that would be wrong. Nevermind.
But, do you think that princess would go out with me?" he asks wit ha wry smile.
"Anyway, what should I do until then? How many good bars are there around here? I was told that I could still drink booze and I'd like to see how that goes...on this side of the fence. I promise not to kill...too many people." He laughs at his little joke.
"Grew accustomed to a certain standard of livin' back in me old digs." Vinny eyes Aaron craftily. "But I'm sure you knew I'm a bit flush when you hauled me out of storage. Ah well back to the sewers for a time I suppose. Still if you want me doin' stuff for the Princess, I've found it pays not to smell of muk."
"Primog.." She begins, confused at first, but then snaps her fingers. "Right. You're the family head here. Well... you're certainly no Johnny Torrio. Hell, you ain't even measure up to my father. But I suppose you'll do. Especially since you can see me. Not many folks can."
She frowns at the mention of speaking to the Princess, as though she needed to ask permission to be here. A higher power - god, fate, the universe, whatever it was - already saw to it, and that was all the permission she needed. Who was this Princess to question that? And Dalton - he was already bending over for another family? He might be even weaker than she thought. "I am not in the habit of paying fealty, especially in death. Even if she does have the gall to call herself a Princess."
She takes a second to settle down, and sighs breathlessly. "Alright, look, Don Malina or whatever you want to be called - I've got things to do, and the last thing I need right now is to be a target. If I go talk to this Princess, do I have your assurance that she'll stay out of my way?"
Michael contemplates the question briefly before ultimately answering, "I believe an upstairs suite would be preferred. Thank you, Traikoff."
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'Well this guy's a real barrel of laughs. I bet he gets invited to all the best shindigs. Now why does my mouth taste like drek?'
"Yeah, omae, I get it. Play nice. I been told that. Kinda boring, tho. Fella' once told me 'you don't cross the line, how you know where the line is? Even a mansion is a prison you never leave the foyer'.
Or was it 'fourier'? Idunno.
So Janice even like flowers? She an' Miss Hotty-too-hotty are two different problems. Burning one bridge at a time, boss. Come on, gimme a line. If you wanted Janice to like you, how you unwind her knot?
The butt of this all is...I'm not even here for them...but you know that.
Lord Borak the Despoiler ain't the kind of guy that likes to screw up."
"Thank you again, Traikoff." he says to the Gargoyle.
After settling in and putting away his few possessions that he had brought with him from Milwaukee, Michael will wander about the Chantry, trying to get a better idea of his new, at least for now, home.
Following his trip around the Chantry, Michael calls out for Traikoff again. Upon the Gargoyle's arrival, Michael asks, "You had mentioned a crypt before, Traikoff, are there labs down there beyond potential quarters, and would you mind showing me around a bit?"
"You know just so I do not enter anywhere I shouldn't." he adds with a smile.
Following the tour, Michael retires to his chambers, assuming the Regent doesn't require anything of him for the time being.
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"Excellent!" Mal said standing up, ignoring the man's sass and concentrating on the tid bits of good advice that were escaping him, if only by accident. The man saw only obstacles and problems. Those kinds of people bored Malcom. If all one did was worry all day about how awful things could be, then no one would do anything at all! That, and he seemed to think that these ye high and mighty people had nothing to do but hold a grudge. It his experience busy people were too busy to overthink such things. A little respect and some nice cheap words in the current did much to erase the past.
"Alright, but for me to know what the Conservatory doesn't have, first I have to know what it does have, affirmative?
If you could point me to the Conservatory, that might be a good place to start, yeah?"
'This Janice was a flower-lover and a Buddhist? Huh. Well that Budda-ing thing ain't gonna happen so I guess I should get to finding a flower of rarest rarity. Always did love an adventure.'
"Also, I'm hungry. Where can a guy get something to eat around here?"
He hadn't had the most experience giving people "The Kiss". But what he had done, seemed to go well. His newfound powers of See No Mal, Hear No Mal seemed to help.
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Mal takes the Hudson map and gives it an obligatory look before stuffing it into a pocket.
"Nice. Last question. Probably. My mouth tastes like sewer drainage. And not in the good way. I'm pretty sure someone spiked me a mickey last night. Also, I don't remember drek, which would makes sense. Would you, with all your police-ing experience, have any insight on that? Or, on the other hand, would you happen to know what I drank last night? Was it a person or an animal or a...blood bag? I dunno. I suspect that what...who...ever it was, may have been the reason that I was so -especially- knackered."
He pauses a moment in ulfish thought. "A trifle for thirty one sips, eh? So do two trifles get me sixty two? Also, why do I owe a debt to the Princess if I pay for drinks? And what nature does this debt take?
I am, after all, suppose to keep a low profile. And you know what the first step to digging yourself out of a hole is?
Stop digging.
But, yeah, cash for cabs should not be a problem."
That said, he checks his wallet to make sure that his memory was all he lost last night.
[spoiler=GM Ring of Gold]"Coulda fooled me bossman. I got enough blood in me to not need ta' hunt until the 4th, and I'm not particularly keen on eatin' rats, so I'll just hang low until then. Ciao!"