The two members of the Baron's Herd leave after you have Fed. As do the MIB who closes the door behind him.

"What you will see and hear hereafter cannot be shared with anyone else. Not even your clan or your cohort. Is that understood?"

"It is," Asali says.

The Baron waits until Dean agrees too. He then starts playing chess with himself on a magnificent gilded chessboard, large as an end table. And suddenly a bookshelf moves and reveals a series of runes etched into the wall, shaped like a portal.

De La Vega returns the pieces to their starting positions, walks to the portal, bites his thumb, and smears some of the blood on the portal. And when he has done so, the portal starts to shimmer until a portal is revealed.

"After you," the Baron says.

"Be on your toes," Asali says. "We're here to protect the Baron." She then steps through the portal.

Dean does not feel that he has many options, and is hesitant at first to agree to keep a secret from the Clan who had treated him so well. But he follows his Sires lead and is surprised to see the hidden doorway fall open to reveal the markings.

He stiffles any exclamations of wonder, but is reminded of the portal that he first saw in the Jade Dragon, a memory that still returns to him frequently.

He heeds Asali's advice, cracked his neck one way then the other, then gathers his courage and steps through into the unknown.

You are not the first in the room. Two wolfmen tower over you. Another two, who look more like Darth Maul from Star Wars than anything else, are also bigger than you are, two dressed in white robes with hidden faces, and two other human looking people.

De La Vega steps through the portal after you, signs to you to remain in place, while he walks away to join four figures in the distance. As he walks away, the portal closes behind him.

As Dean's eye adjust he takes in the towering forms around him and tries hard to remain outwardly unfazed. Here before him stands all the evidence he needed to understand while so many young Vampires, especially Vampires of his own Clan, perished in their early nights.

Here he was, but a week into his unlife, and being used (as least in his own mind) as muscle. Schimba Vampires had belonged to the special assault group the Prince had assembled, they were the only ones Dean knew of that knew the mastery of shifting their bodies onto weapons that would prove deadly to a werewolf, just as a werewolves claws were deadly to themselves. Then of course here they were on the front lines of negotiation.

It paints a better picture for him in his mind of how his Clan is perceived and employed.

He did not even know what to make of the gigantic horned creatures.

He knew first hand how easily those werewolf claws could punch through even his supernaturally durable flesh however, and so he hoped dearly that everything would go smoothly.

He follows Asali's lead and tries to stay on his toes.

"Welcome to the Shadow Council," Asali whispers. "Werewolves, demons, angels, fae, and us. Over there you have the head of the various factions," she nods to De La Vega and the group of five in the distance. They have these meetings when something happens that affects all of Shadowland."

Dean watches the assembly in mute amazement as Asali speaks. Dean was not from a religious family, but he knew the basics that just about everyone picked up by sheer exposure. There had been a war in Heaven, some of the Angels had risen up in Rebellion against their Creator and had been cast down into the pit.

How much of it was true? How much of it was missing? And were these beings before him older than the human race? Or some newer souls that had "worked" their way into their respective positions? Where then would he as a Vampire go after he was destroyed? A hundred questions, and so few answers.

It seems to him that everything beyond the norms of human experience was some how possible now that he had glimpsed behind the curtain.

He took his place with Asali near the Prince and tried not to stare as he represented his faction.

As the five leaders were meeting in the distance, Asali goes over to the two Fae bodyguards. From their talking, it is obvious that she knows them. Both male and female Fae are very beautiful, but compared to Sparrow, they are merely attractive.

"New guy," the female Fae asks looking at you.

"Yes," Asali responds and if you didn't accompany her to them, she waves you over.

"A big guy," the female Fae continues. "He looks like he has a bit of Wolf in him."

Both werewolves instantly turn towards the Fae with an intimidating and unapproving, deep growl in their throats.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:25, Wed 04 Dec 2019.

Dean follows Asali over and nods to the Fae in turn. "How's it goin" he states more than asks. He's new here, a curiosity for the moment, but he has no delusions about his importance here. He's bottom of the totem pole, but here to do work.

When the werewolves turn on Asali, Dean does his utmost to hold his ground without squaring up for a fight. "Hey, I'll take that as a compliment" he replies to the Fae and as he glances back to her. He was not looking to pick any fights here.

"Cute," the female Fae says and traces a finger down your cheek. "I'm Rose," and with the red color of her hair, it was an apt name. "I wouldn't mind showing you the Seelie Court when you have some time. In the interest of Shadowland cooperation and unity."

"He's going to be quite busy for quite some time," Asali says. "New guy and all that." And she pulls you away from them and towards the angels.

Rose giggles. "It's a wonderful place. Let me know when you want to see it."

"You shouldn't go there," Asali whispers as you walk away. A couple of steps later, she fist bumps the closest angel.


[OOC: An artist's impression of Rose]

Dean smiles in a smitten way at Rose as he is dragged away, and only after a few steps was he able to catch his wits. "Sorry...still getting used to those Far" he says to Asali somewhat knowingly before he find himself in front of an honest to God Angel.

"Sup" is all he manages with a faint jerk of his head, wondering what on Earth he was doing among all these beings of legend.

Both of the angels nodded to you in unison.

"Dean," Kyle says. "We had our eye on you. Too bad you joined the other team."

Asali seems genuinely surprised.


[OOC: Kyle portraied by Kerr Smith]

Dean laughs. It was a real laugh, earnest and clear and not the laugh of a dead thing filled with stolen blood. Some last echo of the young man be had recently been.

"Well, if it helps at all, I didn't really have a choice. I appreciate you telling me though" he nods to them both. "It's a real honor"

What could have been? Had things gone a little more differently? Could he have been counted among God's trusted servants? Helping people to live a more virtuous life? To be a righteous force for good on the world.

But no, he was dead. He would always be dead, until he was cut apart, immolated or reduced to bits of ash on the breeze. No passing in his sleep anymore, just the long, long march towards eternity.

If he lived, and standing this close to those werewolves, it was a pretty big if.

"She's taking good care of me though" he jerked his head towards Asali. There was no point in dwelling on what might have been, it was better to deal with things as they were, and right now Asali was his mentor, his Sire, his lifeline onto a dangerous world he was just beginning to dip his toes into.

"You rarely have any choice with them," Kyle says. "I'm Kyle, by the way."

"That's not generally true," Asali interjects. "Most have a choice."

"You would say so wouldn't you."

"Let's not talk politics shall we."

"Of course."



"Of course. That's her job. And she's very good at her job."

"Talk to you later," Asali says and Kyle responded in kind.

She heads over to the demons and exchanges greetings with both of them.

Dean is less comfortable approaching the Demons. It was as if all the awe he had felt tolds the angels had been reversed. He holds back a bit and nods, watching Asali and how she interacts with them. If he was on "the other team" does this mean that the Demons and themselves shared political goals? It was hard to admit, but the immortal drinkers of blood probably had more in common with the servants of Hell than the Angels of Heaven on the surface of things, as much as that disturbed him.

Both demons greet Dean.

"I'm Abraxas," the left one says.

"And I'm Java," the right one says. "No relation to coffee or the programing language."

"Dean" he introduces himself in turn. "The new guy." Well, one of the new guys, he thinks to himself.

"I didn't realize you guys would be so...huge" he admits as he glanced between them.

"Intimidation," Abraxas says and smiles. His teeth are black. Not unhealthy, naturally black.

"Like us, they come in all sizes," Asali says.

Dean supressess a shudder when the demon smiles, the impression somewhere between the teeth being made of polished obsidian or some sort of wet metal.

But the message was so clear that he felt stupid for having missed it. The werewolves, the Demons, the pretty little Fae. These were not average representatives of their respective factions, they were here to make a point for much the same reasons he had been brought.

We don't just hide in the shadows, it said, we have physical power as well, and our numbers are growing.

Dean tries not to think about all the messed up things a person would need to do in order to not only join the ranks of Hell, but to climb the ladder. That was if they were not originals, former Angels if the story was true. And that would make them ancient beyond reckoning.

Abraxus even sounded like something you would read on a Dead Sea scroll.

"Good to know" Dean replies, then looks to Abraxus. "Kyle seemed to think we were on the same team, you and us. Is there an alliance or something there I haven't heard about?"

Abraxas laughed. A deep horrendous kind of laughter.

"The angels are a little peculiar in how they determine teams," he says. "If you're not with us, you're against us. A different way of looking at it could say that all of us have an alliance as all of us are here."

"While a third way of looking at things could make the question a lot more complex."

"How so?" Dean asks in turn, hoping to develop a deeper understanding of just what he was about to witness.

"That's the question isn't it," Abraxas says. "We have these two simplistic views. We know that neither of them is accurate. Whatever that leaves must be something more complex. Something more personal. It's not black and white. You could call it gray, but I prefer a rainbow of colors."

As the evening continued, Asali moved among the various others who were there, except the werewolves. The werewolves didn't talk to anyone. Demons and angels didn't talk to each other. And the Fae, just like Asali, talked to everyone else other than the werewolves.

Dean tried to soak it all up. There were layers upon layers here, hundreds of not thousands of years of history, and he was just trying to tread water. Very,very deep water.

Be was a grunt, the muscle, a show piece. But the fact that he was here at all was encouraging. When the Prince had needed people, people to represent them, he had called Asali, and by extension himself. This meant that while they were stereotyped as being half feral, they still had a part to play.

Now Dean was wondering how long it would be before he was really expected to perform.

He stuck nearer his Sire, and asked a few questions quietly when he felt it was appropriate.

The meeting took a few hours and the five heads your way.

As they come close enough, both the angel and the demon greet Asali in a friendly manner, calling her Sheriff. The werewolf leader just growls at her. And the Fae leader doesn't acknowledge her at all.

Flames erupt around the demon leader and they and he then fade from view and is gone. The demon guards then start to fade, their body being replaced by numerous dust particles in the shape of their bodies, but as with atoms, it is mostly empty space. The dust particles are then blown to the side as if by a breeze and vanish.

The lead angel turns into spheres of light that travel upward before they disappear and his guards do the same.

The werewolf leader opens a portal in the same manner De La Vega had brought you here and they leave.

And De La Vega has reopened your portal and you are soon back in his office. And the portal is closed behind you.

"Until this Hunter has been dealt with, there is a ceasefire in Shadowland. All operations are put on hold. With one exception. The werewolves claim that the Banshees are rogue and so they are not protected by the ceasefire. They have to be dealt with."

"They have been difficult to find," Asali says. "And recently their attacks have been better armed than ever before."

"They are a pain in the neck and while the Hunter is a problem you are free to deal with them without repercussions. So make it your top priority."

"Yes my Baron. Talking about repercussions, what about the Jade Dragon?"

"The werewolves brought it up and they believe that it is the work of the Hunter. Or so they say. That reminds me, just before you arrived I was informed that the Justicar has been challenged by the Earl of New York."

"That will make a good change. A good leader should have a strong chin. The Justicar has no chin and his Alastor has several. That is a very bad combination."
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:56, Fri 20 Dec 2019.

Dean had become far more used to being confronted with strange and archaic speech, including titles since he had joined the ranks of the living dead. He could not pretend to know what they all meant, but he felt he had at least absorbed a better sense of when it was appropriate to ask for clarification.

Wasting the Prince's time would not be in good taste.

"It was an honor to be included sir." Asali was no bootlick, that was clear as crystal, but Dean was new, and unproven, so he felt the gesture appropriate. The Prince has trusted him and his Sire to the point of bringing them out in front of the other major players, and that meant something.