Conversation with Einar 6-24-12

Raoul is on time as close as someone who relies on the sky instead of a electrical watch can be.  The first thing Einar might notice is the cats.  As he walks up Raoul is literally surrounded by cats.  All of them feral and vicious if at all provoked.  They hiss and scratch, shit and piss, mate and kill any little animal that comes their way.  At the center is Raoul who is seemingly more feral than last Einar saw him and even more dirty and hunched over.   In some aspects he continues to look like a homeless kid who lives in the woods but even in the dark it's clear he's less human than before and his cats are a reflection of that.

"Hello Sheriff.  Is there trouble in the city?"

"Yes, but not of type you would think."  Einar responds.  "I have a question.   What do you think of Vlad?   Not to tattle on you, or hold against you.  Your honest opinion."

Raoul looks at Einar intensely for a moment and then looks away.

"On the day I met him he burned my hand off at the wrist.  The second day he punched me in the face in public for no particular reason.  Since then he's never missed an opportunity to humiliate or degrade me.  He shot an unconscious helpless toddler out of my arms because he could.  He's a coward, a mad dog and no sort of Prince at all and never will be any Prince of mine."

He met Einar's eyes again.

"I absolutely despise him and while I believe you won't tell, I don't care if you do."   

Einar flinches a little when the child is brought up.

"Would you believe Chicago was not always like this?   That when I came here it was an unthinkable thing for a Kindred to kill another?   That a Maiden ruled?"






For a moment Einar paused as if forming even words was difficult.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I was not always like this?"

Raoul considered that for a moment.

"The strongest memory I have of you is also the first.  It was when you beat that magician to death.  The act was so ferocious and he had done nothing to you in the least.  Perhaps that meant nothing to you but it was a turning point for me.  It taught me such brutality was possible.  That we truly could be so callous against another thinking, dreaming creature so like ourselves."

He looks at Einar and there is no accusation in his eyes.  He's only stating facts.

"If you tell me you were different once I believe you.  As I was also different once."

Raoul looked around as if the area held more than dying grass, an empty parking lot, dark buildings and so many cats.

"If you tell me Chicago was different I'd like to believe that as well.  Perhaps then it could heal itself and go back.  The way we can't."

Einar shrugs, not showing the least amount of regret.  "More dangerous, I think, is that instead of being a tool, violence was a source of pleasure."

"It is not a matter of going back, it is of going forward.   To become more.  Morally better, if you prefer."

Then he trails off and smirks.

"What would you think if I told you that you were not the only one who thought Vlad...that Vlad and I were out of control?   Not Randall or the Nosferatu, but people who you would expect to support Vlad?    Who feel that the only way forward starts there?  What if I told you that I agreed?"

As Einar describes violence as a source of pleasure Raoul involuntarily curls his fingers and licks his lips. 

Then he also shrugs.  "I've talked to many of us in the city who believe Vlad is dangerous and unstable.  Still all of them seem content with it provided they get to keep their little human comforts.  The complacency horrifies me as much as anything else."

"As far as you ... His hand holds the killing stick and you yourself are the stick.  At least one of them.  But you've always been decent to me and I appreciate that."

"Do you truly feel incapable of controlling yourself?  That the only way Chicago can move forward is without you?"    

Einar definitely looks pained at Raoul's words.

"I do not know.   I know only that just as the complacent avoid their tribulation by ignoring Vlad's excesses so too do I by indulging in them."

"It may not be my choice, in any event.    Either I can grow and learn, or I can learn through loss.   But to stand idly by and perpetuate the status quo is worse than either."

Then suddenly, as if snapping out of a trance, Einar looks pointedly at Raoul. 

"Have you spoken to your sire about this?"     

Raoul tilts his head in response to the other Gangrel's musings.  "It is.  I agree but you're the only one who has said so out loud up to this point.  Chicago is not my home but if it was I wouldn't stand there and let a madman tear it down."

Raoul nods slowly to the last question.  "Yes, from the start.  He has no love for Vlad or Evengii at all.  Yet he claims to not care enough to get involved."

Einar agitation begins to show through.  "I am young.  Younger than you by far, and therefore impatient.   Would it surprise you if I told you that Shane and Parker agreed with me?"

Raoul smirked.  "Oh what's in it for Parker?  Are you going to make him the next Prince?"

"I joke, that was a joke."

"Shane?  I don't know him that well but I don't think anyone does.  Yet as I've seen and even pointed out on the internet boards that his blatant disrespect for Vlad is obvious.  So there's that."

Then Raoul shook his head.  "But him the same as everyone else balances on the edge of a knife in that court.  There must have been a tipping point."

"You should know you don't have to convince me to help put Vlad out of power.  But you want more than that, don't you."

Einar is suddenly defensive.

"Perhaps I just wanted a different perspective?  Perhaps I merely wanted to talk."

"I cannot do anything without first polling the rest of the Circle.   I.....I am fairly certain that I was...am working up the courage to talk to Papa Sallow." 

Raoul sighed and looked down at his feet for a moment and then back up.

"I thought perhaps you had a plan.  Listen everyone knows what you know.  It's not news and I don't care about Shane's thoughts on the matter.  What you need to convince people of is why they should risk their Requiems to make it happen.  My Father dislikes him and has tried to kill him before.  But since Vlad isn't directly threatening him he's content to stay in the woods.  You need to revive that vengeance in him and everyone.  What is the cities tipping point?"

"I'll go with you.  If I'm with you he'll at least hear you out."

Einar is pacing now, clearly agitated.

"I am trying to recruit you into our conspiracy.  You can not have a plan until you have a conspiracy."

Einar looks at Raoul,  his eyes solidly red, the Beast directly behind them.

"I do not need your sire to fight my battles for me.   True, I need to speak to him, but only out of loyalty to the Circle.  I need to hear from him that he does not care.  That he will not support Vlad, or perhaps more honestly that he will not support Lin Wu Kwan.    I know he will not act directly, just as my sire will not act directly.   But you can, if you are willing."

Raoul felt his own Beast stand up the hairs on the back of his neck at the approaching challenge.  In response he tightened his jaw and dug his heels into the ground.

"I don't have the powers you have.  I don't know Cruac because I never tried to learn.  Yet I am capable of far more than many would believe.  I'll join with you but not because I have a burning desire to save the city.  I'll do it because he would be the ultimate prey at least within my reach.  I'll do it because I want to see the look in his eye when I stand over him.  I'll do it because at least it gives me a purpose, a noble goal."

"Or perhaps that's just nonsense and I don't know what I'm talking about."

He leaned back the sign and looked at the agitated monster calmly.

"I prefer action over inaction and I get caught up.  Truthfully I don't know if it's the best idea or not.  Whose to say whomever fills his gap will not be even worse.  If he's a true danger to the city itself or the traditions he needs to be taken down.  There just needs to be a solid argument for it.

But just doing it in a wild flurry of machismo won't serve us well in the end."

Einar watches the outburst intently, his emotions suddenly hidden.  

"It is an admirable sentiment.    I fear though that I lack any argument beyond: "look at what he lets me do" which you will understand is less than credible."

Einar shrugs

"Either way, while likely we will not kill him it seems inevitable that we will challenge him and either depose him or ourselves be destroyed."

"What I would ask now is patience.   Behave normally for now while we organize, and when we have a plan we will strike."

"Of course I won't tell anyone ... but the longer we wait the more innocents will die.  If that's indeed what we are protecting."

With that Raoul nodded his farewell and motioned at the cats.  A few of them took the time to hiss at Einar as they all turned to go.

Then Raoul stopped and turned away.  "Keep me in the loop ... in the Circle."  Slight smile.  "I'm not sure joining the Dragons was the best move on my part.  I thought being surrounded by scholars would make me one myself.  It really doesn't work that way, does it." 

Then he shrugs as he turns around and walks away