Pi was a silent watcher.
She cared very little for the limelight or expressing her views in a public arena and where possible she eschewed forays into the public crownet. She watched and she listened. She gathered information with intention and attention to detail and filed each scrap she found away for use later.
The current announcement on crownet had given her food for thought. It had also given the whole community indigestion by the looks of things and she sat and digested what she learned slowly. Like a degustation menu served in nine slow courses, savoured to taste each nuance of subtle flavour. She consumed what was being said (and unsaid) as she would a fine meal, each part appreciated as a portion of the whole but taken in bite sized portions. She complied her notes and her ideas like she would that meal; a forkful carefully constructed from the plate; a slow braised port, accompanied with a creamy truffle mash, and just a small helping of the watercress and parmigiano. And in this way she held her tongue, taking a bite, chewing slowly, tasting all parts alone and then together until she held it on her tongue. A burst of spice from the perfectly seasoned pork, complemented with the smooth rich mash.
It could have all gone wrong. Like the perfect forkful of what you believed was the perfect plate of food, there was no dictating how it would come together until you put it that way, then tasted it all in one sublime mouthful. In that single moment you were either transported exactly where the chef willed you to go. And in a perfect world with that perfect forkful you would sit, sometimes with your eyes closed and that moment was clarified by the perfect synergy of flavours. Or, the reverse was true, and you grimaced as the dry meat, over seasoned mash and chewed through the disappointment with an unsatisfied sawing of your jaws.
Pi was compiling her forkful. And on that fork she stacked information; nuggets of data she picked up from what was being said. She had yet to consume it whole, to take in all that it would mean, but it was coming. She had once pronounced herself the Under Secretary and she had once believed (and worked diligently) to support the masquerade exactly as Tytonidae did (with nowhere near the accuracy or talent) but even with that history under her belt she wasn’t entirely sure yet how that bite would taste once she had all she needed.
Logic would not be faulted if it presumed her stance to immediately fall in support of the New Code. Given her history it was not a big leap to expect that conclusion. Time had long past since she believed herself a paragon in this area and hypocrisy didn’t sit well with the French woman. She had conceived of the Office as a plan not to enforce judgment on others of their kind but a means to protect the young of them. The newly turned, and the uneducated. No, she hadn’t immediately jumped for joy at the New Code but neither did she immediately denounce it. Instead she sat back and watched. Waiting, patiently for the information to gather, each night, each nugget until she had what she thought she needed.
The first people she considered was d’Artois. What did they need? Where did they fit in this new world with a Code that would be enforced with arbitrary efficiency? Pi sat at her laptop and typed out the message for d’Artois, posting it on the forum for the rest to see and waited for their response.
The message posted to d’Artois crow
I don't need to cut and paste it here for everyone to read again. Even though I rarely venture out onto Crownet, even I have seen the uproar caused by the clarification of these rules published by Tytonidae.
Rather than bring this to the family to discuss immediately I have been watching that thread and plan to talk to Velveteen personally on the matter. I dislike the inherently tone of anything posted to crownet and would prefer not to take this there. Yet.
After canvasing your thoughts, then talking to Velveteen I will be making a statement on crownet to expand on where d'Artois stands as far as the masquerade and the New Code are concerned.
First however my initial thoughts on the matter;
- I have always been pro-masquerade, in that I believe it is better that we preserve our anonymity from humans. When I was an active part of enforcing that anonymity, my main focus was to create a place new vampires can go to learn. It is why, I built the Training Room (although it sits largely unused currently)
- While d'Artois has never actively hunted any for bounty, we have also never actively opposed those either, not in any real fashion. I will help those in the faimily reduce their bounty, and help them have time to get their bounty down, while trying to educate those new how not to get there.
- At face value, the New Code appears to take that choice away from everyone, however, I do believe that there could be some concessions for circumstances. Which I would like to discuss with Velveteen personally.
Where to from here:
- My first instinct is that this, in large, changes very little for our lineage, or how we operate. We are, in nearly all things, in line with the masquerade and in no real opposition to when it is enforced.
- I would like to make a one time only statement on crownet something along those lines, to make clear to both Tytonidae and the city where we are as far as the code is concerned.
- This does make it abundantly clear, that the topics that were raised in the meeting last week are more important than ever. Sires must make it their priority to educate and protect their newly turned and we absolutely must complete our fort.
I welcome your thoughts on the matter. I hope tonight to talk to Velveteen and a statement of intent posted sooner, rather than later.
And tomorrow there is a meeting called for bloodline heads I'll be attending and I would like to take your ideas, your thoughts with me.
Pi had sat back and watched the city for a while. She hadn’t participated in its politics or its dramas and had no plans to do so now. She had built something for herself and for those who had sired under her and she saw no good reason to shake that up. There was nothing here that was new to her understanding of Tytonidae’s mandate. She saw nothing in that New Code that either surprised her or created any new inclination to involve herself in the city’s machinations.
She didn’t understand why any of it surprised everyone else however. It was as if the document had finally woken the city up. That the act of writing it down and publishing it made it all too real for people. People who were more than willing to ignore it when it was an assumption of what the Tytonidae mandate was and by giving it life through an official document people couldn’t ignore it any longer.
They spoke as if they were surprised and Pi could only assume they had been living under a cloud of self imposed ignorance. This, was nothing new to Pi d’Artois. This, was exactly what Tytonidae had been doing for as long as she could remember. The only difference being they’d finally given it a name.
Her feet were bare, her legs tucked up with her laptop balanced on her legs. Setting that aside she picked up the phone and called the woman who had set the city on fire.
*rings Velveteen*
Velveteen Brandt: Velveteen was still chuckling after having read through her private messages. She wasn't particularly interested in watching the antics on Crownet. She had the people in place there doing their jobs and for the most part, everything was pretty well going just as she had anticipated it would. She leaned back in her chair and shook her head slowly. Why she was still suprised by some people was completely beyond her yet here she was. She had spoken with Eve regarding a meeting of sorts and an invitations list was being compiled. She hadn't quite decided yet if that was going to be a definite but she was open to most possibilities that would help. Her eyes cast sideways to the phone on the table that began to sound and vibrate and she considered not answering for all of....a second.
"Velveteen." Was all she said by way of a greeting, and she kicked her feet up on the table as she waited for the caller to speak.
Pi d’Artois: Pi smiled at the sound of the woman's answer and spoke quickly. "You answer your phone like you think whoever is calling has forgotten your name!" she joked, before continuing. "Bonjour mon ami... or should I say mon amour... since you know. We're lesbians now it seems. How are you holding up under the onslaught?" she asked. There was a definitely hint of teasing in her voice and she was smiling as she spoke. God knows there was enough tension floating around this city to light up the whole of New York and Pi just wasn't in the mood to be all dramatic about what was going on. Sometimes you get to the point (with friendship and with life) that you cut through all the emotional dramatics and just savour the smaller nuances. You know, like joking with a friend about their autocratic way of answering the freaking phone or, better yet, their apparently lesbian relationship she didn't previously know about. "Got time to catch up? I'm lazing around on my couch, if you want? Or if the paparazzi is giving you grief, you can wing me into yours?"
Velveteen Brandt: The woman laughed and shifted her phone away from her ear to take a look at the screen, thinking maybe should have done that prior to answering. "Piiii.....I knew it was you." She quipped and shifted her gaze to the side a little guiltily. "I'm doing just fine... considering only just having found out about our supposed clandestine affair. Don't you think at least one of us should have known about this?" She chuckled quietly and bobbed her head as she considered what she had on. She had planned to have a quiet night in with Micah though he hadn't arrived home yet. "Sure, I got a bit of time, I'd like that. Can you summon me or give me an address? You have far too much real estate woman."
Pi d’Artois: Pi smiled, playing along. She did have a lot of real estate so she couldn't fault Vel there, the other just made her laugh outright. "Must have been all the sex we are having my friend, it has addled our memory." There was a time whe Pi wouldn't have been able to joke about sex, or even find the topic of it anything she could relate to. She could thank Elliot for the fact she had learned something in this area. It hadn't been that long ago when she'd have oggled the phone and been shocked at the idea of such a thing. Now she only laughed, and did so even as she summoned Velveteen into The Den. "Hooooooold on." she instructed down the phone, even as she focused her power. "... and I'll have you here in uno momento."
Pi didn't really think too much on the fact her and Velveteen were so close they could summon one another. Or for the fact that for either of them what that could mean. In a hunt, all Vel would need to do was summon her *** and she was dead meat... and the truth of the matter was, the reverse was true of Pi and the basis and strength of their friendship was, that they just... wouldn't. Swiping her finger across the phone without saying goodbye she cut the call off, assuming that Vel was in a fit state to be summoned and did so, right then and there. She was grinning at the other woman when she appeared on her couch, moving her legs to make room as the other took up residence right beside her. "Well.." she said, by way of greeting. "Lesbian sex huh?"
