[Sodium_noir] a snapshot in the night

[Spikey]

On the roof of the nightclub the friends gathered. Panic and Damien were already there, having taken up what was their traditional positions. The Garou stood up straight, peering out across the city. The boy mage sat on the edge of the roof tossing tiny pebbles from the roof shingle at passing cars or early evening diners. Tink, the Boys Familiar Spirit, pointed at targets for him to aim for and he smiled each time his successes brought cheers and clapping from the diminutive Imp. Unusually the two men didn't speak to one another very much. Damien asked after Christine, Panic told him what he knew. Panic asked about Museum and those connected to it and received the shrug he expected. Anything that needed to be said, needed no words.

While Panic lacked the age of his two co-conspirators, his nature complemented that of the immortal pair. Perhaps his youth balanced the vampire and the Shapeshifter in their unholy Trio, or perhaps his own damnation spoke to something in the other two. Damien had to grudgingly admit that even though he was older than either of his friends, he had learned much from this Demonologist in the decade they had known one another.

Eventually the door opened and the Harlequin stepped out onto the roof to join them, a bottle in each hand. Tonight the suit was black, and it was tight fitting. Rather than the usual zoot suit, the Vampire wore something you'd expect to see Tony Corleoni wearing. At least the neon yellow shirt hinted at the Harlequins usual garish nature. He'd been Undead far too long to even notice the change in temperature as he left the club, such things simply did not entertain him anymore.

"'Sup?" Panic asked as the Ravnos took his place leaning against a spotlight. Damien and the Harlequin looked at one another with amusement.

"Sup?" The Harlequin asked in a mocking tone. "Is that an invitation. To sup, as in to Drink? You not getting enough of that from your string of Vampire coozlettes?"

"Fuck off!" The boy retorted. "Was just a greeting!"

"A Greeting? This is Up town kid, not Dark town. And you're almost as pasty white as I am even with warm blood in your veins." he tutted "'Sup?"

"Do you have to do this every bloody night?" Damien finally interjected with a tired sigh, ending the argument. "We can't ever do anything until you two have had a pissing contest? Its monotonous." Both of them shrugged and nodded at each other. In truth they did need to do it every time. The tradition was a comfort. Following his own queue in the ritual, Damien changed the subject. "The clubs quiet tonight Cousin ... for a Saturday night!"

"Lady M is throwing a party." the Harlequin shrugged, passing a bottle of beer to each of them. "Kinda eats into my clientele. On the other hand, I ain't in the mood anyway."

"Woman troubles?" the boy asks with a glint of malice. 

"Can't we throw him off the edge and find another Mage?"

"Took a long time to train this one, not sure I could be bothered to go through it all again!" The dark skinned man peered out across the city. "We ain't got as much time as we used to have back in the day!"

"Guess we're stuck with this one then .." The Harlequin waited until they had opened their beers before starting in on the serious business. They'd be here a while he figured.

..................

The conversation meanders through several topics, the turf wars down in dark town, the power vacuum at the top of the Camarilla, the Werewolves in the industrial area and on the isle of crabs, the funfair. Eventually they get onto the death of Khan Akril and the Families move into Chinatown.

" ... wait, so Titus runs all of Chinatown now?" Damien interrupted. "I didn't realise he'd gotten a taste for power. There's something wrong when you can't even rely upon a down and dirty face-breaker to stay in his place."

"Titus is a trouble shooter, you know that." the Harlequin says. "A paladin of the Sword, the one they send it to handle things. Guys a regular avatar of the whole mutate and survive philosophy."

"And you think he'll be any better than Khan?" Damien asked.

"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!" The Harlequin watched Panic's cigarette end glow with fascination. "I mean, the guys a friend o mine, but power corrupts. Them Chinese have been doing things their own way for a bloody long time and they'll resist Westerners and round eyes and all that bull and keep doing it their way till Titus stamps 'em down with them big fists of his. Good as Titus is at playing hardball, its gonna be a tough gig even for him. If Santiago put him down in that shit hole ghetto, I figure its to keep him out of the old mans hair." 

"So Titus is being kept busy?" The Boy asks looking up from his game of stone throwing. 

"Either Santiago fears Titus" The Harlequin replies as he bends down and scoops up more stones. "or he trusts him so completely its painful. I really doubt Santiago is a fool ..." He passes the handful of roofing gravel to Panic. The boy lets them slip through his fingers and pile up between his feet. Pointed suede shoes with zips and a buckle. 

"Fair..." Panic thinks for a few moments while lighting a smoke from the butt of the old one and flicking it over the room. "That's a bit of a fucker!"

"I thought he was the well read one?" The Harlequin quips as he gathers some stones for himself and Damien.. "Do you kiss your Whores with that mouth young man?"

"I mean, its a bit of a problem for me." Panic looks at his two friends as they approach the edge of the roof and peer over at the people on the street below. "Coz I have to cause him some trouble down the line a bit. I have to fuck with his organisation. Things would be better for everybody if I didn't, if I helped him out so he could concentrate on fucking over Santiago. But that ain't the way it plays out!"

"No other possibilities?" The vampire throws a test stone high to see how far it reaches.

"Not that I can see!" Answered Panic. He launched a stone into a crowd of well dressed people leaving the club, causing them to look in every direction except up.

"Fuck!" said the Harlequin.Tossing a stone at the same group.

"Indeed!" concluded Damien. Sending one of his handful of small projectiles into the group.
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