An easy victory after many hard-won struggles made for a restful morning. Liam awoke refreshed, and once he was dressed, he heard a conversation coming from an adjacent room. It was Pockets and Petty. Far off on the other side of the compound, he heard the roar of the forge firing up. Hasan was eager to get to work.

Liam rose and dressed himself unhurriedly. It had been easy to forget his worries over the long course of the day, but now that he'd awoken he could feel them waiting impatiently just beyond the threshold of his door. It was a vain hope perhaps but the longer he forestalled leaving his room, the longer it seemed as though he could keep them at bay. Pulling his shirt over his head he stepped out into the open, awaiting their return. He smiled when he say Pockets and Petty.

"How are you feeling today?" he asked.

"Like I haven't moved in ten years," Petty said, craning her neck. "Getting up to speed on the current state of affairs. Is it true that the Americans elected that shithead from The Apprentice or is Pockets fucking with me?"

"Oh yeah, that actually happened," Liam replied. "He's awful. Just wildly incompetent and generally repugnant."

"And the people he's surrounded himself with aren't much better."

"Just the kinda guy you want with his finger on the button during a worldwide plague," Petty said. "Which... Jesus, that's a whole thing, isn't it?"

"Honestly, I think it's set the perfect stage for our arrival," Pockets said. "They announce that vampires are real on the news next week, I don't think people can get much more alarmed."

"They're gonna make memes about us, and then that'll be that," Petty said with a shrug. "Interesting times, in the Chinese curse sense of things."