Those Who Remain
21th of November 2006 A.D
Planes are cool, you like planes which is why you had halfway formulated a complex plan about landing it in the desert, cutting off the wings and burring it for later use before considering that 'later use' might not be worth it. You can get metal alloys in other places and there are better places to find design sketches for engineers of the City of Journeys to look over, chiefly in the files of companies that make planes. "I hate being responsible," you mutter under your breath.
Broken Seeker's newly grown batlike ears twitch towards you. "Then why trouble yourself with the fates of mortals? They crawl upon the earth like maggots and like maggots they blindly devour it. If some should die more will be born."
Right he's a monster, you had... well not forgotten, more put it out of mind for a moment. "I meant the
plane, not the people, we are going to have to send it at the ocean after I get everyone out. Can you take a less creepy shape while I talk to people?"
As genuine as the waryness you had seen in him a moment ago there is no denying that the naagloshii does find what you are doing at the moment funny. "Best to reap souls with terror or temptation, mingling the two is like sweet and sour flavoring," he chuckles even as he shirks to about the size of a large fruit bat, natural seeming except for the eyes merging into a cyclopean visage.
"Not a fan of Chinese Food?" you ask matching his tone. "Sweet and sour souse goes great with chicken."
"I have not tried... Chinese in a while."
Instead of the shock or disgust he's obviously fishing for you roll your eyes. "You've had too many vampires. Next thing you know you'll be telling me you don't drink
wine."
At that he chuckles, the sound startlingly deep coming from a three foot long bat.
"Don't you ever get bored of that? Trying to hurt people I mean?"
"Not should I dwell upon this earth for a thousand times a thousand years. There is but one righteous path, narrow and steep, but there are as many ways to transgress as there are stars in the night sky."
"Are there really?" you toss back idly as you start looking for wallets scattered among the remains of torn flesh suits, laptops that had been spared "Around the sun turn objects uncounted, astronomers discover more day by day and yet look though their works, trace the path of each and every body and you will find that, in simplest terms all of them are orbiting the sun. By it they are defined."
"So it's better to tumble into it, to become another speck in its blind and hollow radiance?" the Skinwalker snarls performativly unimpressed.
To that you offer an expansive shrug. "Either way it is probably best to stop staring into it, you will go blind."
"Blind you are already sister," he insists with the surety born of an age of ruin and detestation, but that he would even treat the words so seriously is a victory of its own, or so you like to tell yourself.
It takes about an hour to get all the stuff you want to take with you together, time enough for your prisoners to pull together their flesh-masks back together and fetch a change of clothes from their luggage. They are
very eager to be helpful. The backpack full of hundred dollar bills is appreciated, the one filled with cocaine less so.
With one more weary look at Broken Seeker, perched atop the cabin door in bat shape you turn to the newly awoken and the very, very weary. "I will not lie to you everyone, this plane is going into the ocean, we have to leave another way or we will be traced. The Red King will not be impressed by those who have taken a chance to surrender and he will have little mercy for for the former servants of his daughter. We must leave another way, through the spirit world."
There is a rustle of unease. Most of these people do not know what the spirit world is much less the implications of the Ways but the vampires are more savvy.
"Winter is near," one of the vampires, Don Ricardo says, carefully not meeting your eyes. "They will not take well to our trespass."
"I know little of magic, but if we fly across the border la dona's kin would not chase us far," the woman Arianna had been about to eat, Sophia, says with the courage of one who has nothing left to loose. "There is much money on board, if you could spare a little we can make due.."
Several of the vampires have to catch themselves not to silence her, perhaps even to strike her.
"I wish I could," you sigh. "The Red King will thirst for vengeance against those who slew his daughter, he will thirst for answers, he will hunt any who possess them and he will tear them from you. More than that though, others will try to do the job for him to earn his favor, even those who were rivals of Arianna Ortega. After all they do not want to end up like she did. Does anyone here think they would hesitate to use torture and worse if there is even a chance of getting a scrap more information?"
As inspiring speeches go it is as blunt as hammer to the face and for many of the humans present it is just as painful, just as shocking, but none of them can truly deny it
"Please seniora I have family in Puerto Triunfo. I have to get back to them!" an older man says, nervously wiping his hands off on the wall beside him. He had been one of the most efficient at looking among the remains of the dead. He had even provided the passwords to some of the laptops, not that you need them.
That opens the flood-gates, about a third of the people here are from 'the families' hereditary blood serfs of the Red Court who know no other life than service to the vampires' whims, their loyalty twice assured by kin made hostage at birth. It hurts to see how desperate they are and it hurts more to point out that in returning to their families they would only put them in more danger, but in the end there is no denying it, not with the vampire prisoners backing up your words, bemused as they might be as to why you care what the 'bloodbags' think.
The two Infected, both personal assistants of dead vampires fall somewhere in the middle between the resignation to imprisonment and worry. They too have families, but as part of the process that selects for new blood they have been isolated from them, groomed effectively to join the ranks of the the blessed. As far as you can tell both Emanuel and Alexandra sincerely believe that Arianna was at least a semi-divine, which makes the fact that you killed her a mark of your own divinity, only strengthened when their own unnatural hunger guttered out as soon as they had proclaimed their fealty. That they will live up to those vows is not in doubt, but of the kind of services they have rendered in the past you have no need and hope you never shall.
What arrangements do you make for the vampires, the infected and the mortals in the Fivefold Court?
[] [VAMPIRES] Imprison
Keep them locked up, you will deal with them later
[] [VAMPIRES] Study
No doubt there are many organizations who would like to have a look at the denizens of the Worlds Beyond. You are not sure if these are the ambassadors you would choose for that, but then again an outside perspective is always useful
[] [VAMPIRES] Write in
[] [INFECTED] Imprison
While they may not be as guilty as their masters, they are still the knowing servants, worshipers of murderers and slavers
[] [INFECTED] Interrogate
They do not know as much as the vampires they are also a lot more likely to offer honest answers
[] [INFECTED] Free
Let them have their second chance in the Fivefold Courts, if Broken Seeker is worth the attempt they surely are worth their freedom
[] [INFECTED] Write in
[] [HUMANS] Free
Let them go where they will, they deserve as much freedom as you can give them
[] [HUMANS] Limited Access
Only pass them though a very limited portion of your world, give them a quick health check up so you can send back those any who still want to leave with as little information about the other side as you can
[] [HUMANS] Write in
OOC: Hopefully we can get though handing the aftermath in just one update so we can get back to Chicago for the rest of the month. 
