Clearing the Way
10th of October 2006 A.D.
There are, you find over the next few days, limitations to even the powers you have been bequeathed when it comes to renovations, for one you only have two hands and even running full tilt fast enough to make the wind whistle in the ear, you can only move them so fast. But that's OK you think, you have friends...
"Subjects," Usum points out, with the weary sigh of someone turning over in their sleep to get some obvious correction out of the way.
Whichever, point is the Jade Dogs provide plenty of hands to do manual labor with, but that just leads to another problem. When you had been working alone you could work with just a cart full of supplies and whatever you could scavenge down below, metal can be reformed, plastic can be recycled, even concrete can be ground down and reused. However now that you are working with regular people, most of whom do not have much experience in the restoring a subway station, you are going to need a lot more
stuff to do it with. Paints, plural, varnish, glue, mortar, the list goes on and on.
"Yeah we are going to need an actual entrance all our own to get all this stuff down there," you conclude setting aside Clippy as her screen goes dark
"When I swore on to a dark power able to leash the Hunger 'contractor for a pile of boulders' is not what I had in mind," Isabela grumbles. She is the only one wearing overalls out of the two of you
"Lucky you we have far more exciting things to today, real-estate." You go on to explain Chicago Synthetics, the diamond trade and how you make your money, though you keep Thomas out of it, just in case she might have a change of heart about her loyalties. "We are going to buy some land on the old Southworks plot, there is a way down into Undertown there that's been cleared up recently."
The process is painless and discrete, the 'Margret Carver' look gets put to more serious work and if the people you are actually buying the land from thing you are some rich kid with a hobby once it becomes clear you are too young to hold power of attorney.
Not of course that you buy all the land. Blue Waters LLC holds vast swaths of what can now only be described as post industrial wasteland which they hold for potential resale and tax purposes more arcane than actual magic according to Clippy, but the point is no one will know or care about the trap door behind the rusting hulks of industrial material. All you have to do is make sure the lock you install is as sturdy in function as it is decrepit in form.
"You know that guy would totally have gone down a few thousand dollars," Isabela whispers as she empties the bowl of mints on the desk before leaving. "What? If he didn't want me to take them he shouldn't have left them out!"
You raise an eyebrow even as you give the slightly harried looking secretary a smile, enough to be remembered fondly, not so much as to be remembered
well. "One I don't care about the money enough to haggle and two I could have gotten you more mints."
"What would have been the fun in that?" she laughs, wicked and free leaving you feeling a
little envious but mostly worried.
"Is that what you want to do with your life, hunt mints?" you ask seemingly idly, though that could not be farther from the truth. Even though she has never killed anyone Isabela is by far the most dangerous of the vampires sworn to you, she has options if she ever gets bored, her great uncle at least is really fond of her, as much as an age steeped in death and treachery allows you imagine.
She stops dead as an ambulance passes by on the street, its wailing siren compressed then expanded no nothingness. "We are parasites you know, not just in how we feed, but in how our arts work. Even now, even with whatever you did it doesn't change the fundamentals. We would go mad pretending to be humans, as though the wolf set horns upon her head and tried to join a herd of goats."
"Mhm..." you hum. "A wolf's and animal you know, living in the woods with no thought past their next meal. Not the best comparison for someone who can walk, talk make tools all the stuff that goes into making this." Sweeping your left hand over the visage of Chicago in the fall from the street food cart to the pair of office workers animately talking about last night's football game to the elderly lady wearing enough flowers to keep a greenhouse in business for a week. "Seems better than the forest don't you think? Whether one is wolf or goat."
"They call it an urban jungle," she shoots back, weakly.
"Well then 'they' have very basic taste in metaphor," you shrug. "Come on let's get all this stuff down below..."
***
13th of October 2006 A.D.
Much to your relief Isabela gets along well with most of the rest of the Jade Dogs, not to say she fits in, from the soles of her sneakers to the tip of her head shrouded under a grey hoodie it's clear she does not need a home in undertown, but she is willing to chat people up, her easy charm like a brisk morning rain. Might not go very deep but it is refreshing.
To be honest you had been worried how the other vampires would take her presence, but they seem if anything most eager for her company. It is almost painful to see how happy they are to meet someone who has never had a need to feed, someone who had the good fortune to not kill. It's a little hard to tell but you suspect it even makes Isabela herself uncomfortable at times, one would hope with how lightly she had taken the prospect of killing. By contrast Bones and Lockjaw are more standoffish, but nothing you would call a real problem. They just have a lot more experience with how White Court Vampires work.
So it might be a bit surprising hear her awkward cough behind you as you're reconnecting the pipes in the bathroom, but you put that down to the fact that you are scraping off and atomizing decades old feces. Not a lot of ways not to be awkward about it.
"So... er.. hypothetically what's the process for joining up for other vampires like me, I don't just mean White Court, but someone who still has connections up top, holds down a job the whole nine yards, just doesn't want to be bothered with whatever bullshit Madrigal Raith has cooked up. Not people who owe him
Favors or anything..." You can hear the capitalization in the words. =
"Is this about someone in particular?" you ask intrigued, and truth be told happy to have an excuse to stop at least for the moment
"Yes, but they asked me to get a general feel for the conditions and bring it back to them before bringing it back to them." She pauses thoughtfully. "I'll tell on them if you want to, but I must advise that the loss of my own perceived trustworthiness among my peers will be worth more than the information itself."
Under what terms would you accept other White Court Vampires
[] Those who are willing to live without harming the mortals they feed upon and who will pledge to do enough services to maintain Mercy in Servitude
[] Those who are willing to take up your cause, even against the designs of the White Court, if they will pledge to you then their loialty shall be yours alone
[] Write in
OOC: I figured that it made sense to have Isabela meet the rest of your minions and also help along so as to maintain the charm. 
