Messenger's Report ((attn. Ambrose))

Alexander sat at the desk and reread the report. He checked and rechecked for spelling and grammatical errors and made certain that everything was proper.

The interrogation of Jessica Patterson by Ambrose Townsend and Alexander Westmoreland wouldn't exactly be a best seller but it covered everything that had transpired that night. Alexander had even transcribed the tape and included it, along with everything that he had done with Miss Patterson after the interrogation. Hindsight was a wonderful thing but Jessica Patterson had been business. He felt a twinge of regret as he thought about Amberelle, but pushed it aside.

The findings on Jessica Patterson weren't conclusive in Alexander's eyes. There was no reason to doubt that Jessica had lied under the use of Command. She hadn't been at the Mayoral function, and her company hadn't catered the event.

Jessica had provided several names and the name of the company that had catered the event. Being a banker had its advantage. Alexander had been able to track down the people behind the names through their credit records.

It was disappointing however, that Jessica hadn't reacted in the least to the subtle dropping of the Clan names. And that had led to Alexander having to deprogramme Miss Patterson. Liberal amounts of alcohol, sex and the subtle use of Command should leave her none the wiser. Mr. West couldn't commit to a function due to security concerns, but he had indulged her impressions and feelings towards him. She got a night to remember, and Alexander got to toy further with an interesting human.

All of this had been included in the report. If it was worth doing, it was worth doing thoroughly.

Alexander hole punched and bound the report in a vanilla folder. He put it to one side and returned to his laptop.

Rupert had been kind enough to provide Alexander with details on how to get to Ambrose's quarters - and Ysabel's - in case Ambrose could not be found at the former.

In short order Alexander had made his way through the mansion and stood outside Ambrose's quarters. He gave three short knocks on the door and waited.

Ambrose 17 years ago
The dinning room table was new, smooth, sturdy, oak and Ambrose had his head down over it attempting to write. It wasn’t often that he attempted to compose a song and the effort tended to make him less than agreeable, which was probably one of the reasons Belle wasn’t currently present. It could have been something else, he’d been very focused on the notes in front of him and probably missed anything she’d said as she left.

He’d just been about to reach for his favorite guitar to try and pick out the next part of the melody when there was a knock at the door. The only person he cared to see at this point wouldn’t knock and he seriously debated just ignoring it but finally muttered an extremely foul oath set the guitar down, snatched up his cane and made his way to the door.

Who ever this was had better have a damned fine reason for interrupting him right now or they were going to get the door slammed in their face. His only consolation was it wouldn’t be some church missionaries or a girl scout, living in the mansion had some benefits. Although if it was a missionary he could have invited them for dinner…

Throwing open the door he noted his Limey collogue and nodded a greeting as he walked away.


“Come on in then.”

He was taking this as a bad sign. That they’d screwed something up and he was being told he was unfit. Ambrose had been less than satisfied with the results of the interrogation but hadn’t had any better ideas.
Alex West 17 years ago
Alexander dipped his head. "Good evening to you, Ambrose. I trust I haven't caught you at any inconvinience?"

Alexander suppressed a smile as Ambrose merely shrugged and stared at Alexander as he entered the room and shut the door behind him.

"Nothing serious, Ambrose. But I would appreciate it if you went over this report of our Interrogation of Miss Patterson. If you have any comments, ammendments or feel that some thing else should be included please let me know."

Alexander reached out with the vanilla folder and placed it within Ambrose's reach.
Ambrose 17 years ago
Ambrose ‘hrumphed’ an indifferent greeting. He wasn’t subscribing to this ‘nothing serious’ theory. In his mind, the job was undone at best and half assed at worse and he was proving to be more than a little useless.

“Sit down, make your self a drink… what ever.”

He muttered as he took the file and sat back down in the dinning room chair he’d been working in.

Looking over the file, he scowled deeply. It wasn’t because of anything Alex had or hadn’t done though.


“Damned pitiful interrogation if you ask me. We didn’t learn much at all.”
Alex West 17 years ago
Alexander poured himself a scotch and swirled the glass. He placed his nose over the ridge of the glass tumbler and sniffed. Ambrose wasn't as uncouth as he made himself out to be.

Alexander smiled.

"Granted Miss Patterson did not prove a veritable font of information Ambrose, but we have come into possession of facts that we did not know before."

Alexander took a slight sip of scotch, savouring the strong sourness that trickled down his throat.

"For instance we can be fairly certainly that Miss Patterson and her establishment did not provide the catering for the Mayoral function. And we know now who did. We also have several potential leads that will require following up. It could well turn out that all of the seven had nothing to do with the bombing, or maybe we will 'hit pay dirt' as the expression goes."

Alexander paced back and forth as he considered what had transpired.

"And while we cannot be entirely certain of Miss Patterson's receptiveness or resistance to Command, she did not appear to react to the mentioning of the Clans. That could mean nothing, or it could be significant. We don't know if Miss Patterson is in the thrall of one of us, or is nothing more than what she appears - a normal human. But the mere fact we were sent to interrogate her means there may be something about her, the establishment she works for, or her employers that we have not yet seen or been privy too."

Alexander swirled the glass tumbler and downed the rest of the scotch.

"I took the liberty of spending a few hours in Miss Patterson's boudoir plucking at the strings of her mind, and found little else about her, save that she has a healthy sexual appetite."

"And for better or worse, I will stand by what we did. Let the Elder of the Night decide whether we performed competently or not."

Alexander replaced the glass tumbler on the drinks cabinet.

"And despite our differences of opinion and methodology, I am glad to have been chosen to work with you Ambrose."
Ambrose 17 years ago
Perhaps it was a good thing he’d given up the idea of perusing The Order of the Night. Ambrose liked being sure of what he did and didn’t know, these damned gray areas were irritating. You never knew when a missing fact was ‘significant’ or something you just needed to go beat out of some one. Although, now that Alex mentioned it Ambrose did wonder where Elder Mai had gotten this lead and why she’d wanted them to track it down. For some reason he’d expected to turn up solid usable facts rather than eliminate possibilities. It really was a bad idea to come up with assumptions wasn’t it?

As slightly longer glance was the only acknowledgment Ambrose gave of the other. Funny, since meeting Belle he’d been a good boy. That wasn’t like him, even back in the day. Maybe she was teaching him some sort of manners, or (more likely) no other woman really appealed to him after getting to know her.


“Probably is a good thing you left the nitty gritty of that out of the report.”

Information gathering missions didn’t need to read like a penny dreadful, or what did they call them now… bodice buster. It wasn’t that he was opposed to the tactics, he just preferred professionalism in his reporting.

Now that he hadn’t expected, and Ambrose intently eyed the Englishman looking for some sarcasm or hidden meaning. To put it mildly their styles were different and he would have figured there would have been more of a clash or a lingering resentment, at least on Alexander’s side.


“You’re not all bad yourself.”

He still harbored a belief that the other man was one taco short of a combination plate but it was the sort of slightly crazy that a guy could work with and could even be a good thing.
Alex West 17 years ago
Alexander smiled in gratitude.

"Thank you Ambrose. Take your time reading the report. I'll swing by tommorrow to pick it up and we can discuss anything you feel needs to be included or removed."

Alexander straightened his tie slightly and looked somewhat uncomfortable as he decided to broach a topic with Ambrose, one of only two vampires he knew who was in a relationship with another vampire.

"
I was wondering if I could ask you something, affairs of the heart so to speak. And considering the relationship between you and Miss Yolgrave, your experience would prove insightful regarding my own affairs with..er...Miss DeEspionne."

Alexander half expected Ambrose to laugh at him scornfully or glare at him. But he hoped his irrascible companion wouldn't show him the door.


Ambrose 17 years ago
He nodded, almost curtly and was more than ready to get back to the half finished composition in front of him when Alex stumbled into another topic.

Oh no he didn't just say that. No one used the phrase 'affairs of the heart' in Ambrose's presence and lived to tell about it. There were just some things he did not discuss with any one. Hell he -barley- disused this sort of thing with Belle!

The name he mentioned, however, gave Ambrose pause and he looked up blatantly curious.


"Oh?"Â?

No he wasn't about to volunteer anything but he wasn't shoving Alex out the door or killing the subject. If anything Ambrose wanted to know at least a little more about this.
Alex West 17 years ago
"Oh?" wasn't exactly the response the Alexander was looking for, but on the flipside Ambrose hadn't opened the door and shot him through it with the fancy looking piece he was wont to carry.

Alexander managed a weak smile and folded his hands.

"Miss DeEpsionne...er... Amberelle was introduced to me by our clansmate Dawn Ratana at Cyrus and Fallon's soiree. Well, actually Dawn deliberately arranged the meeting."

Alexander looked at Ambrose, but his companion remained steadfastly close-mouthed.

"Well, I was quite enamoured with Amberelle and apparently she with me. And it has been thus for a short time."

Alexander coughed politely and continued.

"Well the thing that has worried...well intruguied me more than anything, is the sense of elation and joy that comes from..."

Alexander lowered his voice and sounded somewhat uncomfortable as he continued.

"Comes from well... partaking of one another's blood. I've never done that before, and I was wondering if... well.. er... you had any insight on any possible side-effects or dangers."

Alexander looked at his feet for a moment, feeling like a schoolboy in front of the nurse.

"I like her Ambrose. A lot. And I don't want to put her in any harm if I can avoid it."
Ambrose 17 years ago
Hmmm, so the little lady was out playing matchmaker. Ambrose was thankful he’d been taken off the market, as it were, before Dawn had gotten any ideas about him in her head. God knows who she would have tried to set him up with. It might not have been pretty. He didn’t want to think about it.

“I don’t know her all that well but I can understand you liking her.”

At least Alex had the good sense to want to take care of his…date? Lover? Fling? Whatever, that was Alexander’s problem not his, what the hell did he look like ‘Dear Abby’?

He thought about it for a second, and even the thought of biting his lover made his fangs more pronounced, not fully extended but more visible.


“Well neither Belle or I has come out the worse for it yet, but then again its not like either of us is the other’s entrée every day…”

A vague shrug seemed to answer the question, at least for Ambrose.

“As long as the two of you are still eating I don’t see a problem.”
Alex West 17 years ago
Alex smiled.

"Oh believe me. We both eat right for our Blood Type."

He laughed softly and poured himself another scotch.

"
It's an unusual situation I found myself in. There have been... dalliances with humans. But being involved with one of our own is far more exhilirating, exciting. I find myself actually caring for someone other than myself."

Alexander took a sip from the scotch and looked thoughtfully at Ambrose.

"I just hope that things don't come crashing down around my ears."

Alexander sighed.

"It's hard to keep one's composure when you feel for someone."
Ysabel 17 years ago
Ysabel heard voices from inside Ambrose's suite and almost turned around, but at the last minute she recognized the tone and timbre... and the accent. She'd met Alex at Fallon and Cyrus' party, and he'd seemed a decent fellow at the time. Ambrose hadn't had anything terribly bad to say about working with him, either. That, for Ambrose, was almost high praise.

She carefully smoothed her overgown out, making sure it fell properly over the wide hoop skirt beneath. She had just returned from work, and was dressed, as the saying went, to the nines in a beautiful burgundy Elizabethan gown. Now she was glad she hadn't changed; Ambrose was used to seeing her in her everyday attire, but with company, it would be suitable to be in her best.

She raised her hand and rapped gently at the door, certain the keen ears inside would hear.
Ambrose 17 years ago
Bloody hell they’d entered into a completely foreign land, at least foreign to Ambrose, emotional soft and squishy stuff. What was he supposed to say to all this?

At least he happened to agree with Alex. There were defiantly advantages to having one’s other half be a vampire. For starters, there was much less sneaking about, and more commonalities. He was all for it.


“It only comes crashing down if you want it to.”

Fortunately, he was saved from any further answer by a knock at the door. Ambrose wasn’t sure if he was irritated with all this company or if he was grateful for the reprieve. Either way he wasn’t getting up again and just growled at the door.

“Its open come on in.”
Ysabel 17 years ago
Ysabel smiled at the growl behind the door. Judging by the tone and inflection, it was more a "I just answered the door for someone and I'm not getting up again" snap, than a "leave me alone" bark. She was getting used to his many moods, all of which seemed to be expressed in growls.

Opening the door just a bit, she peeked in with a bright smile. "I hope I'm not interrupting. I can come back later."

She didn't really want to come back later; Ysabel had felt somewhat shorted on time with Ambrose lately, and was hoping for at least a few good snuggles... but if he was busy, she would live another few hundred years.

Entering the room all the way she dipped a graceful curtsey to Alex. "Mr. West, how nice to see you again."
Alex West 17 years ago
Alexander placed his right hand on his stomach and bowed slightly. "Miss Yolgrave, as always, a pleasure. And you are most definitely not intruding."

Alexander straightened and smiled.

"In fact Amrose and myself were discussing a mutual acquaintance of yours. Amberelle DeEspionne. I was commenting upon the beneficial nature of being so intimately tied to one of our own kind."


((ooc - sorry if I can remember the track of the conversation))
Ambrose 17 years ago
Now that was worth getting up for, and get up he did; crossing to guiding Belle more fully in to the room. The hoop skirt confounded him for a moment, it was almost as if she was trying to keep him away but he finally decided to just ignore it and grab Belle up any way, although out of respect for her sense of propriety he didn’t dive in for a kiss, as much as he would have liked to.

“Hardly.”

He didn’t let go over her completely. Ambrose always had a bit of a possessive side to him and he felt like making it very clear that Belle was off the market. It didn’t matter that Alex was talking about another woman, this one was his.
Ysabel 17 years ago
Ysabel smiled as Ambrose pulled her close, and she turned to offer him a soft kiss, albeit on his cheek instead of his lips.

Beaming at Alex, she said, "Oh, Amberelle! I've seen her recently myself. She had nothing but good to say about you."

She supposed she shouldn't be so surprised to bump into Alex so shortly after seeing Amby; she had known, after all, that he and Ambrose had been working together recently. His comment made her raise her eyebrows though, and in the interest of conversation she decided to play devil's advocate a bit as she moved toward the living room.

"Isn't any amicable relationship, by definition, a beneficial one... regardless of the parties involved?"

((ooc: Darnit, I don't quite remember the content of the post she had been responding to but I know it was sorta along those lines. Sorry for the wait...))
Alex West 17 years ago
Alexander reflected upon Ysabel's words. It had never occurred to him to that humans could be more than amusing pawns and valuable assets. Then again his sire had made it clear in no uncertain terms who was on top of the food chain.

"My own view, is perhaps somewhat less conciliatory," said Alexander as he looked at Ysabel. "I have found human companionship to be agreeable at times, and sometimes even necessary. But it was the view of my sire, and my own, that I am not - and can never be again - human."

Actually Chao had referred to humans as cattle in clothing, but cattle nonetheless. Alexander believed that even cattle had their uses aside from being a meal.


"Don't get me wrong. Human industry and creativity is a wonderful thing. Something I continue to admire and make use of. I was brought up a Calvinist, and class is something both you and I can intimately relate. As a species we may or may not be humanity's superior, but we certainly aren't humanity's equal. For better or worse we as a species stand to the side. Between the shadow and the flame, if I be so dramatic."

((ooc - Amberelle kept a copy of the thread Ysabel, sending to you now))
Ysabel 17 years ago
Ysabel lifted her head slightly, a small gesture but one of polite pride. "I didn't mean to imply that you or I are in any way human," she said gently. "Naturally, we are not and cannot be. Simply though, that although we are different, there is no reason to think that relationships between our races are never amicable or beneficial."

She knew her views on the topic were often borderline Evenhet in their idealistic sounds, but her stance on the matter wasn't quite so strong. "We are different," she reiterated, "and I believe that we are superior in most ways to humans, regardless of the fact that we came from such stock ourselves. But that seems to lend strength to the argument that because we were once human, we should have an even larger awareness of what the grass looks like from both sides of the fence."

Her points were made in soft tones, her arguments neatly presented. It was part of the game of entertainment... how to hold a conversation, how not to let interest fade. In this case, she found it stimulating. Alex was quite an intelligent man, and she could see how Amby was attracted to him.

"I believe to generalize does any human an injustice," she concluded. "I find it difficult to make a statement that simply says, 'humans as a race are inferior and cannot provide adequate company,' when my experiences have proven that human company, like the company of our own kind, can be equally desirable or repugnant based on the personlities involved."

She folded her hands neatly in her lap, glancing at Ambrose briefly to see if he had anything to add, or if he simply looked surprised at her voicing an opinion... "for once," she could almost hear him say.


((ooc: Ayup, and woohoo! It was just the one response that was missing. ))
Ambrose 17 years ago
Well this was entirely out her his range of experience, it seemed to be a polite argument. Shouldn’t there me shouting involved? Either way he didn’t really care, the point was that Belle was taking an opposite position.

"Don’t look at me. I’m sort of used to having them about. They’re good for the economy and since they tend to die off a lot of them seem to embrace life more than some of us. I’m let’s face it after a few hundred years its possible to get a little stagnate."

Not everyone and as near as he could tell no one in this room but some of his ‘siblings’ were not exactly a barrel of laughs. Hell some of them were down right dull or worse yet had issues with him because he was adaptable.
Even Belle who tended to hang on to the past wasn’t helpless about it, and was still vibrant, charming, and alive… not in the technical sense but in a more important way.
Alex West 17 years ago
Alexander suppressed a smile. Ambrose's response was diplomatic to say the least. Of course Ysabel obviously had a set position regarding humans and vampires. It was very similar to those of the French vampires who had often argued a similar case when Alexander had been tenured in London. Those vampires had come out of Revolution, and were either die-hard humanists or elitest in the extreme.

Alexander nodded at Ambrose before turning back to Ysabel.

"I agree. Generalizations of any sort can be dangerous. History has proven that many times. I really don't see it as a question of whether or not vampires are superior to humans. We are simply different. And because we are different in a number of ways that make us distinct from homo sapiens as a species, we cannot automatically assume that our moral, emotional and intellectual will reflect that of our former status."

"It's also to easy to say 'one should think like a vampire, or think like a human.' We should think and act with the knowledge and experience of both sides of the spectrum - so to speak. But ultimately we are not human and never will be again."

Alexander smiled.

"The Evenhet place humans on a pedestal and seek to emulate their former state of being where-ever possible. The Dissidents are another story. From my experience they tend to revel in their vampiric nature and eschew humanity as a weakness. Two sides of the same coin. And both can be comical, tragic, or abhorent."

"And there I go, generalizing again. I apologize."

Alexander adjusted his cufflinks and awaited Ysabel's response.