Back to Work (open)

"You married a man who reminded you of a man you loved.This isn't surprising or even unnatural. Let me ask you something though. If you don't try to save him, what do you get? A demented, dangerous ghoul you can't kill, yet to let him live damns him to an eternity of torment and a compounded series of stresses for you, your husband and your clan. And by extension this domain."

"Save him and he'll learn to move on. The human mind is a brilliant thing, far greater than any magic. It is reliant, adaptable and often can fix itself given time. The other choice is another five centuries of misery for everyone involved."

She shook her head and grimaced again.

"I know. But as stupid as it sounds? I don't want to risk my marriage. It took me way too long to get here. If he's a threat, Erik and I can stand together and fight it. If he's a slave in love with me, as a blood bond will make him, he's going to do everything he can to make sure I am with him and not Erik."

"He is a man Griselda. And Tremere. If you don't fix him, you will be forced to fight and destroy him, and all that vaunted Tremere propaganda about clan unity goes down the toilet. You can't keep him as a ghoul that much is obvious, but you can't cast him adrift, nor allow him to remain unfixed. Now me, part of me still thinks a bullet to the head is the kindest thing you can do to him, but a far greater part of me says you have to save him. Or the Tremere need to step up and prove they are the advanced clan they purport to be and save him. But you've got two choices. Save him or fight him, and do you really want to start your marriage off by having your husband clean up Tremere problems?"

She was drunk, couldn't handle complex issues in hypothetical, but there is one thing you don't do when in the presence of a drunk Scottish redhead. Don't you dare question her loyalty. To anything. Or anyone.

"Fuck you," she said, seething. "I know he's a man. I know that what was done to him is unforgivable. I also know that Joseph dropped him in my lap because Joseph knows that I can't bear to kill him. And he dropped him here because in the fucking end, I am going to have to. Setting aside your insulting way of saying that I need my husband to clean up a Tremere mess - which, by the way, he couldn't do even if he were so inclined - don't try to tell me how to deal with things you know nothing about."

Victor glanced at his watch. "Five minutes to pissed. I'm slow. I'm going to blame the alcohol. Good. That's exactly what I was looking for. Now let me ask you something. If he drinks my blood instead of yours, is he still Tremere? Because you've already gotten into the problems of him drinking yours. He can have mine while you fix him if that will help the situation. And you are wrong I know a lot about this. Maybe not this particular case, but it's a story writ large across the ages, and told time and time again. The plot is the same, the details change is all."

The Ventrue sipped his drink and smiled. "I was actually starting to get mad at you."

She growled, dangerously close to going full Tremere on him. It wasn't entirely his fault. Some of it was booze. Some of it was being slapped around again. Some of it was just her anger at the situation Joseph had put her in - again.

"Oh, fuck you," she said again. "The Tremere do not drink Ventrue blood and even if we did, you don't know Angelo. He would kill you first. He's as hard-headed as Jamie." And Joseph and herself, but she didn't say those things.

Victor smiled softly and took another sip from his drink.
"Eight overly protective men, and one asshole Ventrue. It's why they sent me to Florida you know. The high class Ventrue had failed, and the really effective people didn't want to come here. So as usual it's 'let's send the bullheaded American and then pretend he doesn't really exist anyway.' "

"I don't envy the task in front of you at all. I truly hope you can succeed. You know, I think I am going to decorate my yacht with Christmas lights this year and surprise Miyu and Audrina with it."

Her mood shifted rapidly.

"How is Audrina? I haven't had time to check on her in a while. Need to make a pizza and bad movie date."

Victor's face relaxed and he looked oddly... happy. Complete even.

"She is doing wonderful. She and Joseph are having a grand old time, she is even calling me papa" He grinned at that. "Can you believe that? I think the poor child is finally getting used to the idea of stability and love again. You should come over some night, take over the home theater for just you two."

She wrinkled her nose.

"Hell no. It's only a sleepover type thing if your parents are gone."

"Ahh... girl stuff. Mmmph. Pink nail polish and popping corn. Meh."

Victor grinned again. "Getting married, have a daughter. Is this what normal feels like? Because I like it. A lot."

She shook her head.

"You will never be normal." And with that, she picked up her bottle and turned to walk directly out of the bar. Because she wanted to go home. She wouldn't drive, but it was fairly obvious to pretty much everyone that she intended to just walk home if necessary.

"Get in the Duesenberg " he muttered "I'll drive you home. Or as close as you trust me. "

She shook her head.

"Nope. Erik said Rachel has to." She didn't want to make Erik mad. He probably wouldn't be, but, drunk.

"Fair. Let's wait for Rachel then. I texted her. You text her this time maybe? No sense in letting you walk home drunk when Angelo is still out there, even though you can take care of yourself."

She wandered back over to the bar where she had tossed her phone - then started trying to text Rachel. Note that she was trying. No one at all said she was succeeding. But at least it was Rachel that was getting the text message and the text was a variation of 'go home now'. And it was a variation because, well, autocorrect and drunk typing generally make for interesting drunk texts.

"You want me to ask Miyu to keep this hush hush? It's gossip but it's also a big problem that doesn't need advertised"

She shrugged one shoulder.

"Why would I care? No Traditions were broken. I didn't do anything wrong, technically and neither did he."

Victor shrugged "Welcome to the world of having a Harpy that isn't into gossip for gossip's sake?"

She smirked.

"She really needs to get over that."

"Probably. Maybe when there are more than a few handfuls people in the domain, it will matter."

She shook her head.

"Doubt it. Even when there are a lot of people here, nobody cares about gossip. Too caught up in their own schemes and plans."

Victor poured himself another drink and slid the bottle down to Griselda in case she was up for more.

"That isn't so unusual. Speaking of which I'm thinking about making a trip to London for my own scheming plans..."

She giggled.

"Have fun. London sucks."

"Oh it's not bad. I was whisked away there post embrace and had my first successes there."