undergrounds | [Open] June Catch-All for Shea's Characters!

Straight to business, then, she can summize, from the way the Alpha looks at her. Very well.

"I'm not very familiar with the English government here, so you'll have to pardon my missteps, but- is there any particular reason that we're not allowed representation on the Night Council?" She knew shifters on the whole were, but they were something else entirely. "It strikes me as odd that Islington has representation, especially considering their actions in recent history, and yet we have none." She says it with a smile, carefully worded and not accusatory. An innocent question, almost.

Then, she adds: "No one seems to be able to give me an answer."

Katherine swallows her piece of apple, raising her eyebrows. "It's because the Night Council are cowardly fucks who pander to the rich and powerful. I had a deal with the Witch Rep that might have gotten us a seat but we fucked that one up. Now we've got a vampire for a President. The bloodsuckers have taken over and until we root them out, we won't get anywhere near the Council."

They've been close a couple of times. This time with Samantha on their side and Sylvia getting kicked out, she had thought there might be an opportunity. Needless to say, neither event turned out in their favour.

"Ah." Well, that explains a lot of things, and straight from the horses's mouth. So things were bad, but they'd sided with Samantha. Who seemed to be riding the losing side right now. Or at least, the unpopular one, most everyone else having taken stances opposing her latest.

"I don't suppose anyone's petitioned the new President for a seat?" Why would anyone want to? "Otherwise, from what I can see, the tides are turning against Ms. Okeke."

Katherine snorts and if she'd had a piece of fruit in her mouth she would have choked on it. Good thing she doesn't. "Petition a vampire? Ain't gonna happen. We lost our chance with the witch and the President won't give us one. Maybe things work differently across the pond, but over here the people in power like to keep it and that means keeping us out."

She takes another bite of the apple, her tone seeming final. In Katherine's mind that's the end of it. Not that she won't take the opportunity to improve their standing if she can, but right now she can't see any way of doing that and frankly she's bitter about it. It doesn't help that Laura is sitting here in front of her today asking about petitioning for a seat as if she didn't help to fuck up their chance in the first place.

Laura gives her a sidelong glance. "I know how politics tend to work."

There were other avenues, to get a seat. And she intended to explore them. Other alliances to create that would possibly get them where they wanted to go.

"Perhaps then we should directly appeal to the Night Council, see what their critera for us having a seat would be. That way, we can begin to work on ourselves. Furthermore, we could see about breaking up the shifter and meta-human seat. Why should both be lumped together while we are left at the mercy of everyone else? There are ways we can go about this, that we should be going about this." She keeps her calm, amazingly, though Laura realizes by the time she's done speaking, she's gone and taken off her glasses. Inhaling, she replaces them on her face.

"You know all of this, of course, but I'm thinking out loud."

Katherine listens to all this and remains unimpressed. There's nothing she doesn't already know and in her opinion it betrays a painful naivete on Laura's part. The woman has a decent head on her shoulders. But she can't come swanning in and expect to change years and years of entrenched animosity in one fell swoop.

"All right," she says, and she sits up, leaning forward. She's serious now. "I can see you want to help, so I'll be gentle. I know you were shacking up with some bigshot witch over in the States, but you know jackshit about how things work around here. The top seats on the Night Council are held by two vampires, two witches and a shapeshifter who's a fucking cat. Yasmine doesn't want to halve her support base by splitting her seat, Vrinak hates everything that moves that isn't a witch, Samantha told us to fuck off and the vampires are vampires. You're not a witch any more: people don't like us. They think we're animals, cursed, a danger to society. Don't get ahead of yourself. These people are not nice. You'll get burned."

It's meant to be a warning, but not out of disapproval. These are fundamental things that Laura needs to know if she really is going to throw herself into this.

Some bigshot witch. Laura nearly scoffs at the term, but holds her tongue. There's no need to correct Katherine, not right now, that would be petty. Besides, she's not really in the mood to discus her love life right now.

"So what are we doing to prove them wrong?" Laura suggests, making a small gesture with her hand. "I've been burned by politics before, Katherine, I'm not new to this."

Maybe she isn't, but Katherine is still of the opinion that she has a lot to learn about London politics.

"We need to get stronger. Recruit. If we had a stronger force we could take the vamps down a peg or two and force the Council to listen." She shrugs. "First and foremost we take care of the pack. Right now, that's my first problem."

Right now she's got a divided and unhappy pack. They need to get in shape.

"Pardon me if I'm wrong, but isn't it illegal to create another wolf here without permission?" If it was, it was a really bad idea to try to recruit then; it would only prove the Council correct.

"We should present a united front. Even if our numbers are small, it will make them realize that we can be strong."

"Yeah, it's illegal. That's why we recruit werewolves that already have the curse, we don't turn them. That's how we got you. Strength in unity and strength in numbers. I want both."

Laura was welcomed with open arms not just out of kindness, but because this is part of Katherine's strategy to grow the pack. They can't turn people, fine. But there are other werewolves out there. They can still recruit.

And as for being united, well, that's down to her leadership and the willingness of the pack to fall behind her. She's been struggling with that.

That was good to know.

"Thank you for clarifying," she says with a nod. So recruiting those who were already cursed. Good. That was helpful.

"As for unity- tell me if this is out of line, but has there been a larger discussion with the pack, as to where their beliefs lie?" For example, supporting Samantha was something many wolves disagreed with. If they acted as one, she believed they'd find greater success.

She's down to the apple core now and Katherine shrugs, leaving the core on the arm of her seat. She'll dispose of it later.

"We know where we stand. Fight back against the vampires, strengthen the pack." She narrows her eyes. "If you've got a problem with how I run my pack, I'd rather you say it. Don't pussyfoot around."

Very well, then. Carefully, Laura removes her glasses and looks at Katherine.

"If you knew where the pack stood, Katherine, we wouldn't have been in Richmond."

...Wow.

Katherine gets it. She gets exactly what Laura is implying, Laura who wasn't even here when they made the decisions that led them to Richmond, and her eyes turn cold.

"Say that again." She's on her feet, glaring down at Laura, rage flashing in her eyes. "You think you can do better? Eight weeks in and Miss Fancy Pants Ex-Witch thinks she knows best. Fuck you."

Her voice is deceptively soft, icy even, but her fists are clenched. If Laura takes this too far, if Katherine sees her as a challenger to her status, she won't hesitate to fight.

"No, I'm not saying that I could do better," Laura says, placing her glasses back on her face. Where Katherine was ready for a fight, Laura had no intentions of starting one.

"I know that sometimes it's easy to let our personal preferences color our decisions, and we forget our duty to represent our people." She smiles softly, one hand up, palm out toward Katherine. She means no harm.

Katherine slaps away Laura's hand, incensed. "I have always fought for the good of the pack." Her teeth are clenched; it's practically a hiss. "Don't you dare question my loyalty."

She has never forgotten her duty. Never. It's ingrained in her, as much as her hatred of vampires. Laura questioning that is about the most insulting thing she could possibly say.

Laura's smile is gone, and she's shifted half a step away from Katherine, her head low.

"I"m sorry, Katherine. That was never my intention." She didn't want to make an enemy of Katherine. Best to back up and apologize before things got worse.

She senses the other woman retreat and calms down slightly, staring down at her. "I'm not so sure about that," she replies quietly, "but I'll let it pass. Don't ever question my loyalty again."

It's the one thing guaranteed to rile her.

"It will never happen again, I promise you," Laura says. "I want to help our pack- in any way that I can."

Katherine stares at her for another moment, then finally nods. "We'll see about that."

It almost sounds like a threat but she means it. Laura's intentions seem to be good even if she fucked up by questioning Katherine's authority. Maybe she'll put that energy to good use.

"I will not let you down," she promises. Laura's aware she's in hot water, but at least she's made her position, and her desires clear to their Alpha. "Especially not now that school is out for summer." She had a lot of free time on her hands.

[Open] June Catch-All for Shea's Characters!

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