Amadeus Lazarus (sanguinemagic) wrote in nybynightic, @ 2021-03-04 04:29:00 |
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Only that hadn’t worked out so much.
It had been fine to let the SI pick the Anarchs off when the Camarilla had thought it was helping to keep the hunters and SI’s focus on them instead of fully on the Camarilla. Let them thin the herd. What was a few less Anarchs, Now that they knew the SI was using Anarchs against the rest of the Kindred of New York in ways they had never imagined it was time for the Anarchs to bend the knee or accept the consequences.
The Anarchs of New York were not even worth trying to ally with, not with how weak they had become. The liability they had became. It was time for the city to become an Anarch free city before they ended up being the weak link that destroyed them all.
Just one more of Lucian’s messes for them to have to clean up.
Which was why they were paying the Anarchs and their ‘Baron’ a visit. Of course doing so meant visiting one of the less than savory parts of the city. They could have made the Baron come to them but should the Anarchs not agree to their terms—well, it was easier to handle matters here than it would be at the Tower.
Less mess to clean up that way. They had already had to scrub the floors once.
The doors to the roadhouse flew open with a flick of Amadeus’ finger. He entered first with his eyes roaming over the Kindred gathered there, the look he gave daring anyone to move. He almost hoped someone would bolt so that he could show what would happen if they did. When they didn’t, however, he stepped aside so that Micah and the others could enter.
They filled out the space like certain harbingers of death—in a way, that is exactly what they were; come to impose upon them a choice, obedience or destruction. So many had chosen the former for less.
Micah brought up the rear, allowing his small army of men to stand in a neat row flanking him on both sides. Amadeus had suggested that they needed to address their little ‘Anarch problem’, and his new position in the city meant that Micah, necessarily, had to agree to this trip. But it didn’t mean that he liked it any more the first time it had been brought up. Yet more of Lucian’s messes indeed.
Nevertheless, the smile he put on as they finally came face to face with the man he had come here to meet tonight was nothing less than cordial.
“Good evening, Baron. I believe we have some matters to discuss.”
Anyone who thought Amadeus was a lot to take in with his manner of dress had never met the Baron. He had embraced the title and turned it into a name going by Baron Samedi and even dressed the part. One would have thought the Kindred to be Malkavian—or even Tremere—with the way that the Brujah dressed.
Along with the top hat and coat, the man before them had his face painted in the manner of a skeleton and by his hand sat a glass of rum and a cigar. All as if he really was the loa he claimed the name of. His hands were currently occupied shuffling a deck of cards.
"You come in here with your pleasant smile and words and yet bring your brute squad along." His eyes turned to Amadeus on one side of the room and then to Julian in another. "And your lap dogs as well. Seems like not much of a discussion on your mind as other things. But please, have a seat. Let it not be said that Baron Samedi does not offer hospitality."
Micah’s reply was just as bland, with a casual smile across his face, “I assure you, if talk was not on my mind, I would most definitely not be here. It would just be my lap dogs bringing this place down instead.” Quiet words belying the strength and show of force that Micah could potentially bring down on the Anarch stronghold, given who he was now in the city—and all in the room was perfectly aware of that.
But gracefully, Micah accepted the offered seat, settling into it with an arm poised on the siderest, the other folded under his chin.
The Baron watched Micah for a moment before giving a nod. The Anarch had little doubt that whatever it was the new Camarilla Prince wished to discuss that it would not be in their favor. It never was. The Prince may have allowed them in the city but mostly for show.
“Then talk but know that I know you do not look anymore kindly on us than your processor.” His eyes wandered over to Amadeus for a moment. “Just as we know that while this sheriff may not kill us on sight as the one before him, we know that he would not hesitate in doing so if he thought himself justified.”
Amadeus’ response to that was to simply raise an eyebrow because the Baron wasn’t wrong. It’s why they were here after all. And while the Baron was worried about the lap dog in one corner, it was the other he should have worried about as Julian was slipping in and out of several of the minds of the Anarchs present. It wasn’t hard when they were made up mainly of undisciplined Brujah, younger Kindred, and unwanted Caitiff and thin-bloods who didn’t stand a chance against a Malkavian like Julian no matter his own age.
Micah wasn’t offended. The Anarchs were a bunch that had always traditionally existed outside the lines in which they operated. He wasn’t here to force them into submission. He simply wanted a common understanding. Something that would hold for the times they were in. That they could count on without having to worry about watching their backs and waiting on Anarchs to blow any kind of plan they had to fight back against the SI into pieces.
But even though the Baron seemed reasonable now, there was no telling how he would react when push came to shove.
“Then don’t,” Micah suggested, still in that conversational tone. “Don’t give us any reason or justification.” Micah looked straight at the Baron, still wearing his cordial smile. “It doesn’t always have to be the most painful option, Baron.” Because they didn’t need to explicitly state what Micah was here for, all present knew fully well.
“Then what is it you would ask of us? You’ve already weakened us to the point where the SI continues to pick at the corpse of what is left of us while you still stand. Would you like us to lay down and let them finish us off,” the Baron inquired.
Amadeus gave a nod then and the arm he had taken from the wight was brought forward and laid out on the table between the Baron and Micah. “Seems they’re already doing a pretty good job of it as it is. Several of your Anarchs were found to have given into their Beast and gone wight down at the docks.”
The Baron eyed the arm in question for several minutes before his eyes lifted back up to meet Micah’s. “Hardly our own fault. Several have gone missing and I think we all know who is behind it. After all, we lost more than you with the tainted blood. Samedi knows you are not here to offer protection out of the goodness of your heart. Not when you have been content to allow them to do as they pleased with us up until now.”
Micah was not willing to admit that he had been wrong where the Anarchs were concerned. There were priorities. At every point in time leading up to the explosion at the tower, there had been several far more pressing matters worthy of his attention. But it had been an oversight. He could admit that much. Giving the SI ammunition to work with, to pit them against each other and decimate their forces further.
He rested his hand on the chair. “That all stops today.”
The bleeding of their kind as a whole. The way they suffered for a different group’s persecution. All of that was not what Micah was willing to put up with. Regardless of their differences, Kindred were still Kindred. “We are here today to discuss a new deal.” Lucian had never been so generous as to offer an extended olive branch the way Micah was doing now. “Protection for loyalty. I think you would find it most beneficial to agree.”
There was a curious look at that not just from the Baron but several of the other Anarchs as well. “And what—pray tell—does this loyalty cost and to whom do you expect it to be owed? To you? To the Masquerade? Or do you expect the Anarchs to bend the knee to the Camarilla and give up everything we stand for in order for your brand of protection?”
There were murmurs throughout with that last question.
“The kind of protection we had when our Elysuim was raided and several of our own killed? The kind that was the start of the SI figuring out that we live as rats in the cracks of the shadow of the Ivory Tower, making us easy pickings?”
The Baron gestured his hands towards the wight’s arm that lay between them. “Do you think given what the Camarilla has offered us in the past that we could have prevented this?”
Micah was unfazed, where he supposed other men would have generally faltered. "I cannot speak for what has happened in the past." He paused here, allowing the silence to speak of the distance he was drawing between himself and Lucian. "Only the present. And the future."
He stood up, matching the full height of the Baron and then some.
"We know this," he spoke to everyone, his tone brooking no argument. "If we do not band together in this, there may be no future to speak of." He was laying down the brutal truth, forcing them to see the dregs of reality that they were standing in now. "I ask for loyalty. The kind of loyalty that recognises that despite our differences, we are Kindred still, the Second Inquisition does not discriminate. In their eyes, we are all deserving of annihilation."
The Baron was silent for a moment before there came an answer. “The past will stay in the past you say? That we move forward with the future?”
It was the mention of the past that caused Julian to latch onto the thoughts of a handful of the Anarchs and to press deeper, digging out what lay there. What he found there caused his blue eyes to turn as sharp as ice as he looked at the Baron and whispered into his mind ”are you aware of what some of your people have done?”
Julian didn’t speak the question aloud for he didn’t want the Sheriff to hear. The reaction the Tremere was likely to have to what Julian had discovered he feared would not be well received. But it was something he felt that Micah needed to know as he demanded loyalty. Loyalty that may now come at a price. He stepped up behind Micah—not beside him for the Malkavian knew his place at the moment—as a warning that he was about to push into Ventrue's mind and whisper across it.
“Their hands are not so clean. It was not the SI nor the Hunters who were behind the Blue Velvet burning.” Julian knew he didn’t need to say more. That Micah would know now who it was.
Micah liked to enter into a meeting well-informed, prepared with the knowledge that was available to both sides, so to speak. But such was the reality. Pieces of information surfaced as they were available. Not simply when Micah was ready for it.
Only the slightest furrow of his brow was a hint of the message that Julian had pushed into his mind. And it disappeared as quickly as it had formed.
“For now,” Micah was willing to allow. “Past sins will need to be accounted for. But the time for that is not now.” To throw down about the Elysium now was not a wise decision. Not because Micah was afraid of the wrath of a few Anarchs. But because the result was either a decisive annihilation or a split of their forces. “We have all lost a great many things. The goal now is to not lose any more.”
But his demands would be clear, leaving no room for creative interpretation. “No more secrets. You will select a representative amongst yourselves. If no name is submitted, I will assume this role to fall upon yourself.” Meaning the Baron. “All amongst you will answer to this individual. And this individual will answer to me. Failure to do—in any aspect—will mean that you are signalling to me that I should save myself the trouble and forget about the deal. That I should assume the Anarchs are lost to New York completely.” It was code for certain annihilation that all present would recognise.
And hopefully respect.
The Sheriff passed a curious look as Julian stepped back and Micah continued on—especially at the mention of past sins and secrets—but the Malkavian was purposely avoiding sharing any looks with Amadeus for the moment.
Honestly the Tremere was hoping that the Anarchs would not play ball. That the Baron would tell Micah where he could shove his offer. Instead the man actually seemed to be considering what was being offered. But then they had little choice didn’t they. The terms were clear. Other join with them or be wiped out.
It really wasn’t much of a decision to be made. Other the devil you knew or the devil you didn’t.
“Baron Samedi has someone in mind but will need to speak with him first. Once it has been decided I will send him to meet with you so that you can work out the details of your new working relationship.”
It was the best that they could hope for, given the current climate and circumstances. Small victories, tiniest steps in a longer war and battle.
"So be it." It was clear that Micah considered the discussion done.
And with that, Micah departed, leaving behind only the necessary men he needed to finalise the details with the Anarchs.