Claudia's (17 quai des chartrons)

Nyx nodded to Claudia and smiled slightly before speaking.

..Thank you, I'm sorry but I don't have a gift to thank you properly..

She seemed to genuinely feel bad for not having been thoughtful enough to plan ahead for that eventuality.


Nyx remained silent until Claudia directed her attention back to her. 


As much as I'd like to take credit, I was given permission to make that arrangement before hand because I was speaking to my Primogen before my Introduction. All I did was double check it was still ok.. It was his idea not mine...

"Alright, cheerio, have a good morning."
William presses the hang up button on the phone and puts it back on the table with a soft thud.

Walking up once more to the group, he, flopped down on the couch and rested his arms on the back of the furniture with a sly grin. 
"One down, one to go I guess. So, what happens when the mortal returns unexpected for whichever reason. I presume you 'trained' him."

Nyx chirped in when William spoke on the Kine.

Don't you think educated would be a more appropriate word? He's not a puppy. Umm, but yeah isn't this like a Masquerade violation or something?

Claudia blinks an instant as Fred states it's a favor to be repaid. She seems surprised, especially as Nyx apologizes. She waves off William's worries.
(Claudia) Loïc knows his boundaries as well as basic respect. I told you this apartment was taken with these circumstances in mind, and of course, all rooms have locks. There's no favor to repay, nor any gift to give, it's the Hospitality. Just respect my haven as well as the mortals in this house.

She lets out a slight sigh and then observes Nyx with a little more detail.
(Claudia) Your clan works the closest to mine. Everyone acts, everyone shares the benefits and the losses, except we probably have more.. tension between our members than you. Your presence and your intervention certainly helped negotiations, as without it it's probable Mikael would have.. chosen a more aggressive approach.

When Claudia turns her full attention to Nyx she sits a little straighter in her seat but doesn't move further. She seems more relaxed now Claudia has stated the boundaries for staying and that it isn't an inconvenience.

..Yeah, I think that's an accurate assessment of how our Clans works. 

Perception + Subterfuge >4:

What would be the point in that? He'd be risking a lot with no guarantee he'd get the result he would want.

Claudia chuckles at Duncan's description of Tarcisus' speech, and Duncan grins back.  Yeah, he went on for about fifteen minutes before Gosuin stopped him.  To his credit, a lot of it matched what William found out from Vranken's notes.  I'm pretty sure Gosuin guessed what was up, though.

As Claudia restates her offer of hospitality, and assures them that Loic won't be an issue, Duncan nods in acknowledgment

Thank you nonetheless.  Your hospitality is appreciated.  I will accept, so we can start out together instead of wasting time regrouping tomorrow night.

I'm glad we were able to come to an agreement, before M. Horsman could try an alternate method.  Speaking of whom, it sounds like he's eager to find out whether your second attempt to contact your sire is successful.  So if you need to go try that, we'll just wait here and discuss what we need to do tomorrow.

Eric had been quiet for most of the trip, he had arranged with the taxi company to send one to the place 30 mins before the sunrise and payed little attention to the conversation about seeing the sun once more, the sun had lost it's appeal after the years had passed. Once they arrived at Claudia's Eric looks at Armand
Are you sure you can't come?, who knows what we might find out, it may be interesting.
In truth Eric wants his clanmate to stay because he is more familiar with Claudia than he is, and it would benefit to have him during the discussion, specially such a delicate discussion as this can prove to be.

OoC:

William takes off his glasses and polishes them with his shirt.
"What is there to discus, we're pretty much down to one lead on Lyle, which is Claudia here, and unless you want to Marco Polo around Bordeaux, we've got zero good places to looks for the Nossy, unless Nyx has more information. And no Nosferatu, no second bracelet. Well, outside of the sheriff's place, we could always try traffic cameras."

Nyx turned her gaze to William when he spoke. She sighed slightly but spoke normally to him.

I'm getting the GPS thing double checked but won't know til tomorrow night. As for the cams he wouldn't be on them.

When William says they have no place to look for the missing Nosferatu, Duncan shakes his head.  After Nyx's reply, the Brujah speaks to both of them.

We have one very good place to look for Momo -- the same place we tried to search before.  We just can't do it when a certain someone is there.  If his car is gone, maybe Fred and Nyx can go in and look around.  Or we can call someone and verify he's at the Theatre, or wherever.  The only clues we have are likely to be in that apartment building.  And I think William is right; we need to find out about Momo, one way or another, before the Nosferatu will show us their unmentionables.

As for the cameras, it's not a bad idea.  Not traffic cams; I didn't see any on the surrounding streets.  However, if we get in maybe the building cameras will show something.  We might need a flash drive to transfer data; but if our tech wizard doesn't have one, I do at my haven.  Nyx, you said your ability was kind of a 'mental Photoshop', and you were worried about cameras before.  Does that mean you show up on video?  If so, maybe that's how they saw Momo.

Duncan turns to face Fred, who has withdrawn to a chair a little bit away from the group, and smiles at him encouragingly.
Fred, can you sort of hide yourself from people's attention, like some others of your clan?  If not, that's okay;  I'm just wondering whether you might be able to help us look around for Nyx's clan mate.  Can you do that?  If we see that someone dangerous isn't there?

Perception+Empathy>4:

When Nyx says the word "GPS", Fred looks up like pulled out of a daydream.
Ah, pardon me; I was not paying attention.

When Duncan asks Fred if he can obfuscate, Fred smiles.
I can! I'd be delighted to assist, frightening though the Sheriff can be, I will do what is within my power to help this case.

When Mikael's possible actions are mentioned, Claudia shrugs. She smiles at Duncan for his thanks.
(Claudia) It's just normal, there's no need to thank me. And Mikael... That's just how he is, sometimes even the Tremere don't weight out all the possibilities, Mikael isn't the most diplomatic of us all. I'm sure if we'd play Marco Polo around the city for the Regent we'd become ashes in no time...

Even so, the idea seems to amuse her. She observes the cross in her hand a moment, then nods.
(Claudia) I can't call Mikael until 6 anyway. Ah, wait, that should be 7.. Day light savings is tonight after all. Anyway, this is a fairly short ritual, I'd rather do it just before torpor, if he is indeed in some other country.. No, William, I am sure the Nosferatu are smart enough to avoid cameras, if he'd appear in one we would have heard about it through the news. Wait, the Sheriff ?

Claudia sounds surprised about the Sheriff's name, she half frowns, thinking about the situation, and connecting a few dots. She doesn't seem to like the Malkavian much.
(Claudia) If you need him out of the way for a while, ask Theo, but don't tell him why (this way the Sheriff won't find out and you'll get some extra time). However... You must be very careful as the Sheriff is a good investigator. Eventually he'll notice and find out, and you'll need a solid case and many friends to defend yourselves. If he doesn't plain hunt you down.

The Tremere moves the cross idly in her hand, slowly.
(Claudia) I don't like the turn of events. We must avoid an inter-camarilla war at all costs.

Duncan:

Armand denies Eric's offer with a smile.
(Armand) In a Tremere haven ? Like, an actual true Tremere ? Nope. Griffin gave me some other thing to do, he didn't say I should go, and to be honest I do not have good relations with them. My presence will certainly be suspicious. And I'm sure you will tell me all about it !

OOC Eric:

Nyx smiled at Fred when he spoke before she spoke to him.

We're getting the GPS on Momo's phone double checked. 

She diverted her attention back to Claudia after that to listen about Mikael.


Mmmm. Sounds like he needs an advisor or something if he's gonna go head long into a situation the way you thought he would

Nyx turned her attention back to Duncan listening carefully to what he said.


Um, I hope you have a good reason for picking me and Fred to do this. I'm pretty sure Lambert can see through Obsfucate so it's not like we can hide from him if we get stuck in there.

The Nosferatu interrupted Duncan mid speaking about cameras.

Cameras are a shit idea, we're all taught to avoid them and he went up top a lot so he'd know to avoid them..

When he mentioned her analogy for her skills she smiled as though pleased he had remembered and come to the correct conclusion on his own. 


Cameras, phones, TV recording equipment. Yeah, it works on bending the mind not physically changing what's there. So we are very careful nowadays because it's so easy to get caught on something. I miss the days when mobile phones were non exsistant...

When Claudia brought up the alibi issue she nodded her head in agreement. 


I could get Pierre to say I was on a clean up job with a clan mate but that won't cover anyone else. We'd have to avoid him for ages, I doubt he'd just drop it and if he came in person to ask he'd sniff out a lie...it's not going to be that easy to sort out...

William frowns for a moment, then smiles as he takes out his phone and briefly aims it at Nyx, "Interesting... So that's how it works."

He once again puts it back in his pocket without recording or taking a picture, "Technically, you could walk past the camera without being seen, as long as you delete the footage before anyone rewinds it, there wouldn't be any images of you left and the only traces there'd be would be the lack of footage. It's a long shot, but it's a nice backup plan."

Nyx frowned when William took the picture. 

Please don't do that, if you loose that phone my face will be all over the internet or worse. 

That's a lot of work, far easier to just avoid them.

William raised a brow, "Relax, none were taken, I never take pictures or video's anywhere near kindred or kindred related items or rooms, my sire would have my head."

Jokingly he added, "Besides, it takes from the fun of trying to see your true form when you're distracted."

Nyx nodded slightly at his words, she seemed happier now she knew he hadn't taken a picture of her

I think most Sires would to be fair.

She rolled her eyes when he spoke again.


If you asked nicely I would just show you.

William ponders a moment, "If you'd hug Duncan while doing it, I'd even ask it on my knees. No wait... he's probably uncaring for that.... bloodyhell, where is Estela when you need her."

Armand observes Neve as she goes through for her objects. He nods and smiles at one idea he has.
(Armand) Madame Rosetti, maybe you should talk to Claudia alone first. You both had common acquaintance, through our missing Thomas Durieux.

OOC:

Claudia visibly frowns as well when William pulls his phone and aims. She speaks with great disapproval and shows it with a firm tone.
(Claudia) I won't allow it in my haven.

She sighs about Mikael.
(Claudia) I'll try to reason with my clan. I can't promise anything, but maybe something good can come out of it.. For.. well, sure, Pierre ca make an alibi, but you tend to cover your own kind, and everyone knows it. I'm afraid it's not a very strong protection. For the rest, I don't really know. I tend to use more.. classical conceiling. Obfuscate was more powerful before pictures could be taken, wasn't it ?

As she speaks of classical conceiling, she idly puts her hands on her own wrists, probably unconsciously hiding her scars.

Duncan turns a wry smile toward Claudia when she warns them about making the Sheriff angry.  He responds with sarcasm in his voice.

"Don't accuse the Sheriff of anything without solid proof."  Why didn't we think of that?  Oh wait... we did.  Look, I know we don't want to weaken our defenses here in Bordeaux; and I certainly don't want the Sheriff's job.  But there are a few things going on around Lambert that need to be looked into.  This isn't the first time I've heard of irregularities in his actions.

The Brujah doesn't elaborate.  To Nyx, Duncan replies:  If the Sheriff is not there, I doubt any guards or ghouls he leaves behind can see through yours and Fred's... obfuscate.  Duncan says the word carefully, obviously not used to saying it aloud.  Asking Theo to help draw him out for a while is a good idea; I'll call him in a minute to ask about that.

Also, checking the cameras in that building isn't a shit idea.  Even if they don't show Momo, they might show us something about the Sheriff.  Hell, they might even show that a third party stuffed Momo into a sack and carried him off.  Anything would be helpful at this point.  Of course, once you reach the room where the cameras are monitored, you might have to call William or myself to help access them.  How good are you with computers?

Before Nyx can answer the last question, Duncan turns to William.
You know, we might actually need some kind of external hard drive.  The camera recording might be too big for a flash drive.  What do you think?

Nyx's eyebrow quirked up when he mentioned Estela.

The nutty Torrie? She would probably try and stake me. Pick someone else. 

When Claudia spoke of her clan she couldn't help but smile slightly.

Can't ask for more than that really. But yeah, we look out for our own unless they do something very very stupid. I haven't exactly got a great track record with alibies though...

Nyx frowns slightly when she finishes her thought but quickly moves on. 

When we know we have to go somewhere with cameras we do the same. Most of the time we do that as well but more out of paranoia and caution really. Yeah it was, still is quite handy now though.

Nyx saw Claudia's hand move and subconsciously scratched at her own inner forearm, however, Duncan quickly distracts her once again. 


I'm talking about more if he comes back, he is unpredictable and he's gonna catch on pretty quick that Theo is wasting his time. He's a fruit cake but that doesn't make him stupid. 

Nyx doesn't get a chance to answer his question so she just stayed silent.

William ran his hand through his hair, something he was doing the entire evening, his finger seemed to catch on something, and he undid something muttering something that resembled, "bloody 5 bucks..."

He looked intrigued when Nyx came marching down the corridor rather swiftly after her girl on girl conversation with the Ventrue Harpy, giving a short glance at Fred and then once more turned to Duncan.


"Are we ready? I'd rather not by anywhere near you-know-where when the Sheriff returns... Heck I'd rather avoid it all together but it's our only remaining lead."

Storyteller:

Duncan nods in agreement when William mentions leaving now.

Theo said he needed to talk to the Sheriff about some stuff anyway, so I doubt Lambert will feel the need to leave immediately; but we won't have more than a couple of hours.  Theo will also text me when he leaves, so we shouldn't be caught by surprise.

As they head out of Claudia's haven, Duncan begins to talk a little more openly about their mission.

The apartment Lambert was in looked like the concierge apartment, or building manager, whatever you call it.  I hope the cameras are not controlled from there, as I'd rather not break into his place if we can avoid it.  He may not sniff us out if we don't go into his haven.  I'd think it more likely that the monitors are in some security office, don't you think?

William, do you have some kind of flash memory card?  If not, maybe I can make a quick detour and buy one, since it's early.

One place I'd also like us to check is the basement.  Judging from the ramps in front, he building has at least one floor below ground level.  If Momo is staked, he's probably tucked in some out-of-the-way room where nobody goes.  Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I'm hoping the Sheriff didn't just kill him.  If he did, it's going to be hard to find any traces of Momo, except maybe his phone.  Hmm... you think it might be in the trash?