November 27, 1800. 1: 22 a.m.
front hall
It had been four nights since the escape from Geneva. Sharma and Seldes had gone back to the city, while the others made to go about ither training or studying. And they had kept that up remarkably wel...for the first couple nights. Now Carleigh was clamoring about getting the house fixed up again, so quite a few members of the group had gone back to their pre-Geneva jobs. For the time being, anyway.
"I've been thinking." Sugar said as she snapped part of the banister back into place.
"Really?" Cathy laughed, driving another bolt into the banister.
"Oh, shut up." Sugar said with no real malice. "I mean, I was thinking about the location of this place. The council was supposed to be able to track the Society, right?"
"Yeah..."
"So why put us around the corner from a Society stronghold?"
"So...you're thinking this whole thing was doomed from day one?"
"Yeah." Sugar said darkly.
"But why?"
"Why what?" Carid asked, carrying another pile of wood to the foot of the stairs.
Sugar told her.
"I'm with the Brujah...." Carid crossed her arms. "Why would they set us up? I mean, who are we to eliminate? Is anyone here that important to their clan?"
"I don't know..." Sugar shook her head. Come to think of it, she didn't know much about any of the others. WAS there someone among them important enough that someone was going to these lengths to get rid of her or him? Micheala's sire had come over a thousand miles on foot to check on her safety....maybe it was her. But Mika didn't seem like someone important. And maybe a thousand miles wasn't as problematic if you were a Gangrel.
The three of them stood there pondering the question in silence until a knock on the front door got their attention.
They collectively froze in place.
"Who the hell is that?!" Cathy whispered.
"Quiet!" Carid hissed harshly.
"Why are we freaking out?' Cathy asked straightening up. "It's probably just--" she was cut off as Sugar clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Shut up!" Sugar hissed in the Brujah's ear. "If it was one of us they would have just walked in!"
Carid's hand closed around a peice of wood that had been serated to a point for some reason. It wasn't her problem how the wood was cut, she just brought it in here. But still, this was lucky. She took an almost silent step forward.
The knock sounded on the door again. Carid asked herself if she was being too paranoid. Then she remembered another one of her sire's famous platitudes: Paranoia is the key to survival. It made sense, especially with the Society of Leopold breathing down their necks. They may have been back to their old tasks, but that didn't mean there was any release of the tension that gripped every one of them.
"HELLOOOOOOO!!!!!!" A voice Carid didn't recognize screamed from the other side of the oaken door. The Tzimisce looked over her shoulder at Sugar. The Ravnos looked as confused as she felt. A member of the Society would hardly scream a greeting. Come to think of it, a mamber of the Society probably wouldn't knock, either.
Carid suddenly felt quite stupid.
She crossed the foyer to the door. Might as well bite. But she held onto the makeshift stake, just in case.
She slowly opened the door. Before her stood a young-looking girl with long blonde hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, blue eyes, and a manaical grin.
"Hi." the girl said, grinning even wider.
"Hello...." Carid eyed her cautiously.
"Is this where I'm supposed to be?" the girl asked, still grinning.
"I...don't think so."
The girl seemed confused. "This looks like where I'm supposed to be..." she looked around in every possible direction. "Or is there another big house in the mountains where I was supposed to go?" she looked at Carid as if the answer was written on the Tzimisce's face.
Carid gave her an odd look. Who the hell was this girl? "Maybe you better come in..." she stepped aside and allowed the girl to enter.
Sugar and Cathy rose to meet them as the two entered the foyer.
"Who are you?" Cathy asked, getting right to the point.
The girl grinned again...or still. "I'm Josephine. I'm a Malkavian. You can call me D."
The three stared at her.
"What did you just say your name was?" Sugar finally asked.
"Josephine. But you can call me D."
"D?"
"Yep."
"What does 'D' have to do with 'Josephine'?"
"Nothing."
"Then why?"
"Why what?"
"Why do you call yourself D if your name is Josephine?"
"Why not?"
Sugar sat down on the steps, looking dazed. "I'm getting a headache..." she moaned.
"You're not the only one...." Carid muttered. "So...D...why are you here?"
D (whose name was actually Josephine) turned to face her. "Because this is where I'm supposed to be....right?"
"Well, then..." Carid rubbed her temples. "Who told you you were supposed to be here?"
D stood there for a minute, considering. Finally, after much diliberation... "I think...it was the faeries. Or maybe it was those....other guys. The old ones. But I really think it was the faeries..."
Carid ignored the comments on faeries. "Your elders sent you here?!"
"I really think it was the faeries....."
Carid turned to Sugar and Cathy, a look of urgency in her face. "As much as I HATE to sound like Carleigh...I think we need to get everyone in here."
A few moments later, then entire group plus Ana was assembled in the front hall (Sugar would absolutely NOT allow everyone to meet in the sitting room again).
"Do you bring news from the elders?" Carleigh asked D right off the bat. "Have they any instructions for us?"
"I thought we weren't relying on them anymore!" Sobek protested.
"That remains to be seen!" Carleigh glared at him.
"Oh, SURE!" Courtney spat. "We'll be fine on our own, we can trust no one but each other, then the minute you get the idea that you're gonna be able to to get the oh-so-wonderful privledge of taking orders from your precious elders again, it all goes flying out the window!"
"No kidding!" Cathy agreed angrily. "Maybe you're ready to lie down and be the doormat of every elder in sight, Ventrue, but you've got no right to make that choice for the rest of us!"
"The council is DEAD, Carleigh!" Maria spoke gravely. "It makes no difference what the other elders have to say; we can't trust them! Or her!" she pointed to D.
"Hey!" Michaela shouted over the chaos. "Will you all just shut up and stop jumping to conclusions?! We don't even know what she has to say yet!"
"That's right." Amy assented. "For all we know, she could be a sign that the elders still support us."
"That wasn't exactly what I meant..."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!"
D's scream echoed through the foyer and shocked everyone into stunned silence.
"Will you all stop talking about me like I'm not even HERE?!" she wailed. "It's really not NICE!"
"Um.....we're sorry....."
"Well, you should be."
"Hi!" Alectz suddenly spoke up. "I'm a Malkavian!"
"I'm a Malkavian too!" D cried happily. The two of them ran at each other and hugged like best friends reunited after several centuries.
"Do you two know each other?" Carleigh asked, observing the rather weird yet touching scene.
"Nope!" Alectz grinned.
"But we're Malkavians!" D grinned as well.
"Well...then..." the Ventrue looked quite confused.
"Anyway, D." Amy was careful to directly address the new arrival. "What did the elders tell you when they sent you here?"
"I still think the faeries sent me here, actually....."
"Then what did the faeries tell you?" Amy was flexible.
"They said to come here and join a bunch of people who aren't Malkavians. "But there's a Malkavian here after all!" she hugged Alectz again.
The rest of the assembled exchanged a Look.
"What does this mean?" Ben wondered.
"Do the Malkavians still support us?" Carleigh asked no one in particular.
"Did they forget about Alectz?" Mei suggested. "So they sent another representative?"
"I feel so loved...." Alectz sniffled.
"Maybe they were trying to send us extra support?"
"Maybe they ARE offering their support..."
"Maybe they just don't know what's going ON." Courtney rolled her eyes. "That's been known to happen too."
"HAH!" D burst out, pointing an accusing finger at the Lasombra. "That's what they WANT you to think! WE know what's going on! YOU'RE the one running around chasing your non-existant tail! IF THE BRICK WALL CHASES YOU, WILL NOT YOU RUN AWAY!!!!!!????"
Courtney took a step backwards.
"Um....I think the important thing right now is to figure out what we do now." Maria suggested. "Should we send her back?"
"There aren't supposed to be two of any clan here..." Sobek reminded them all.
"But if we send her back...." Ben began. "She might tell someone we're here. Still alive."
"Alive?"
"Oh, you know what I mean!"
"And if we keep her, they'll know SOMEONE is up here." Maria pointed out.
"Hey, if they forgot about Alectz..." Amy shrugged. "These are Malkavians we're talking about."
D turned to Alectz. "Now they're talking about both of us as if we're not here."
"They do that sometimes..."
"But if they do forget, then what?" Carleigh asked. "Are we just going to keep getting a new Malkavian every few weeks? We'll be overrun with kooks!"
"I doubt it." Amy shook her head. "The Malkavians are part of the Camarilla. The justicars will find out they sent a second person. They won't allow it to happen again."
"But is there a chance they'll come looking for D?"
"Like they came looking for the rest of us, you mean?" Carid sneered.
"So are we keeping her?"
"Where do we put her?"
"You people are very rude...." D muttered.
"There's some extra space in the basement..." Amy suggested. "But it's right next to my workshop."
"What about the attic?" Mei suggested.
"There's no curtains up there." Carid reminded her.
"So let's put some up!"
"Where are we supposed to get the material, kiddo?!" the Tzimisce demanded. "We can't go back to Geneva!"
"I'm not a kid!"
"Right...."
"D?" Michaela turned to the Malkavian. "Do you want to stay? You can go back, but if you do you can't tell anyone you've seen us."
"Why not?"
"To make a long story short, the council that set this up was murdered, we think our clans have turned against us, but we're fighting the Society of Leopold anyway and right now they've got a major stronghold in Geneva and they know we're here."
"In other words, you're getting yourself involved in a hell of a mess." Carid summarized. "If you think you're up for it, we need all the help we can get."
"Okay!" D grinned cheerfully. "I'll do it, but only if you guys promise not to talk about me when I'm standing right here."
"All right, all right...." Carleigh sighed. "We won't do that."
"Do you mind sleeping in the basement?" Ben asked, unable to imagine living down there. The three nights before they had obtained new curtains had been pure torture for him.
"You have to stay out of my workshop." Amy said before D could answer. "There's a lot of very delicate equipment in there."
"I like basements."
"Stay out my workshop."
"Fine!"
"Can we assume this is settled?" Carleigh held up a hand.
"Don't you think we should vote on this or something?" Mei suggested.
The Ventrue sighed in exasperation. "Alright, fine, we'll vote. Everyone for D joining the team?" she looked around. "Alectz, Mei, Michaela, Ben, Maria, Amy, Cathy, Carid, Sugar, and myself." she ennumerated. "Against? Courtney and Sobek. Why?"
"We don't know who she is. We don't know where she came from." Sobek answered for both of them.
"And just how many of us know who all the rest of us are and where we all came from?" Carid demanded. "For all we know, Ana over there is a Nosferatu elder in disguise spying on us and planning on trapping us all." the ghoul looked shocked and a bit disturbed. "I don't know where YOU came from, Sobek. Maybe we should kick you off the team."
"Okay, okay, you've made your point!" Courtney glared at the Tzimisce. "By the way, did the ghoul vote?"
"I don't think so...." Carleigh glanced at Ana.
"Good."
"But what about Seldes and Sharma!" Ben suddenly exclaimed. "They're not here. Shouldn't they vote? Moreover, shouldn't they at least know what we're doing?!"
"Unless you want to take the message down to Geneva yourself, Torrie, I don't think that's gonna happen." Sobek sneered.
"Well, call this a guess in the dark, but I have a feeling Seldes would be for and Sharma would be against." Sugar smirked.
"That's still the majority in favor." Carleigh said resolutely. "So it's settled."
"Yay! I'm in!" D jumped up and down happily. "Are there rats in the basement?!" she asked excitedly.
"My kind of Cainite..." Mika smiled.