[ OPEN ]

[knightscode]

Westminster -- CLOSED TO FAOLAN


Lancelot is getting somewhat used to Night Council work, little by little. He's getting used to travelling to Westminster, checking in, reading reports and generally investigating things that are not quite mundane.

He's also getting used to Faolan. Faolan is a strange sort of person, varying on days between a surly sort of grumpiness and casual friendliness. Lancelot can't quite work out what to make of the man, and he suspects Faolan can't quite work out what to make of him in turn. So much as he insists that he is not used to things or feels he doesn't belong, Lancelot... well, Lancelot isn't exactly in a much better position. He's still learning, but he's learning quickly. He's already been promoted, after all, much to his own surprise. No, Faolan... Faolan is withdrawn, and perhaps the reality of it is that he's a hunter. Hunters are not, exactly, people who work in groups. Perhaps he just needs a little coaxing?

So it is that Lancelot arrives early, waiting outside for Faolan with two cups of coffee from a place up the road and two pastries. Something to help him wake up and perhaps bribe him into conversation.


b) Police & Guardian work -- OPEN

Adjusting to life as both a Community Support Officer and a Night Council Guardian has been easy enough in one aspect: both roles are investigative, and both roles are about upholding the law and protecting people.

So it is that on some days he can be found out and about Richmond and the surrounding areas, neatly dressed in his police uniform and fielding questions from tourists and generally lost people. It's especially busy at the moment with the rugby world cup, and they have a lot of drunks to carefully handle and crowd control to do, but Lancelot doesn't mind it. He's polite and easy going, but he's more than able to handle himself when necessary.

Of course, on the days he isn't there -- or even late at night after work -- Lancelot has his other job to think of. Dressed down into tidy, smart clothing in place of his uniform he heads out back and forth from Westminster investigating Night Council business. From the smallest lead to the biggest problem he does his best to keep on top of things. Moving on troublemakers, carefully dissuading people being too open with their magic or looking into bigger crimes. Lancelot has a good sense for danger, and he's both quick on his feet and strong. Much to the annoyance of people he's looking to apprehend.

c) Crime Scene -- OPEN

Lancelot has made it before the police, for which he's glad. It gives him time to find out what he needs and get away again, cover up as much evidence of non-human action as he can.

Which may prove difficult.

As he crouches down and studies the body the pallor of it finally sinks in. About as pale as you can get, and aside from the damage produced by the fight something else nags at him until he carefully reaches out and pushes aside her hair.

She's been bitten.

The question then is if she's already been turned, or if she's just been drained. Lancelot belatedly realises he's not sure if there's any way you can tell at this point. Vampires are dead, so he can't check for a heartbeat. Is there another test for vampirism?

He supposes he'll have to add it to his list of things to read up on.

d) Off Duty Coffee Shop-- OPEN

When Lancelot isn't running between jobs he still has another responsibility, of course. Lily. His white Samoyed is slowly getting more and more confident around people, and so he does his best to make sure he always has time to take her out and about to meet new people. The parks around London, the high streets in various places and along the river -- she's a very well travelled dog in that respect.

He's sitting outside despite the cloudy weather, eyeing the sky warily as he sips his coffee and Lily laps some water from a bowl. She looks up sharply as someone walks near and flicks her ears, trying to decide if she needs to alert Lancelot before he looks up and around himself.

"Don't worry, she won't bite. She's probably more afraid of you."

Comments

[knightscode]

"And how do you know what circles I run in?"

After all, Lancelot has never explicitly admitted he's Daybreak. He tilts his head curiously at her, sips his coffee thoughtfully.

"The law is somewhat above circles, though. It's illegal to kill someone like yourself regardless of coven, for example. Illegal for anyone to be turned by a were without permission. The laws are meant to protect people, not to punish."

[stauncherhearted]

She gives him a plain look. "You're a cop, and I run with the criminals." Almost immediately, her face falls and she places a hand out towards him. "I meant social circles. Not Circles." Though those, she figured, were also vastly different. She tended to assume that all supernatural beings were Daybreak, until proven otherwise. Not that she had anything against individual members of Daybreak.

She'd only wanted peace and safety.

"I know," she said. "Thank goodness for that. Only good thing that came from Barnet." She'd been there, trying to save the dying, regardless of their coven.

[knightscode]

"You're assuming quite a bit about my social circles," Lancelot quips, and he jerks an eyebrow at her in amusement -- hands rubbing around his coffee cup idly. "I knew what you meant, but I think you'd equally be a little surprised about some of the trouble I've been in. What do you know about me?"

He tilts his head, curious, then offers her a tiny smile since he already knows the answer. She knows very little, she's never asked after all.

"You know I have a dog, that I know enough about less mundane things to recognise the terms you use, and that by day I work for the metropolitan police. I suppose I should be flattered that you assume I'm entirely innocent of getting in any trouble, but... you'd be wrong."

[stauncherhearted]

"Well, uhm-" She swallows, going for her coffee as she rolls her shoulders. He was right, she knew next to nothing about him, and he knew far, far too much about her.

And that was unacceptable. She was supposed to be hardly known, a shadow amidst all the other players in their worlds. But here was a cop that did know too much about her. Her hand on Lily stilled as she looked at him carefully.

But the hand only stilled for a moment. "People like me don't make a habit of being cops."

[knightscode]

Lancelot studies her a moment intensely, considering her. Considering her sudden caution and how to approach this. He could continue to keep things to himself, with the risk that she thinks him hiding it all purposefully, or he could tell her and risk that she flees and never speaks to him again.

He tilts his head, spreads one hand flat on the handle between them -- palm down, carefully drawing her attention.

"I can tell you if you want to know," he says finally, "to keep things fair between us. Things aren't a secret for me on purpose, you simply didn't ask before. That, and there's a degree of plausible deniability you'd lose."

Lancelot flies a wry smile at that. She's already guessed he isn't her faction, after all. If he was then he'd have had no reason not to tell her, and she might have seen him day to day. The question is how to tell her without causing her to accuse him of something underhand.

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy draws her lower lip up in a pout as she looks at his hand carefully.

"Now it sounds surreptitious." Because with the idea of her losing plausible deniability, didn't that mean something sinister was going on? she pursed her lips, looking at him carefully. Was she over-reading this entire situation?

"Well what else is there? You're a cop, you've got a dog, don't like giving out verbal warnings to pretty girls trying to make a few pounds. Can't imagine anything worth hiding from that, even if you don't mean to be."

[knightscode]

He takes a breath, lets it out slowly and offers a slight wince and tilt of his head. Yes and no... She's obviously missed his slight hint about supernatural policing. He supposes he'll have to out with it. So Lancelot sips a bit of his coffee, puts on his best poker face.

"Well, there is the fact that I'm a Guardian for the Night Council. I told you supernatural things are my jurisdiction too, after all. Although before you panic, try and remember you haven't told me anything illegal you've done and I have offered to help you. Twice, actually."

Lancelot jerks an eyebrow, slightly amused, and internally braces himself as he sips his coffee again.

[stauncherhearted]

"No, just that I'm a whore." She exhaled over thin-lips. "Don't think that's legal." She needed to learn to shut up at key moments, rather than allow herself a few cutting remarks instead.

"Night Council Guardian." Wonderful. "I figured you just happened to investigate supernatural crimes." And now she was sitting in front of him. Great.

At least she hadn't said a damn thing about Shadow Coven.

[knightscode]

Lancelot wrinkles his nose and decides to just... leave that. It's awkwardly technical and the law is a little stupid, and besides all that Nancy doesn't really care. He knows that. She's just getting a word in.

"I do investigate them! Just... officially? Rather than unofficially."

He shrugs helplessly, rests his mug on the table.

"I take my job seriously, but... to me it's no different than being a community officer for the police. The community is just different. I've no doubt plenty of people think Guardians frightening, perhaps sometimes they are, but I'd rather people trust me enough to report a crime than run from me and leave me to find their body later."

[stauncherhearted]

"Oh." Well. She pressed her lips together, frowning into her coffee.

"That's. Good to know." Awkward. "And, uhm, thank you, Lance." She tried, taking a sip of her coffee. "I appreciate it. And knowing it." She didn't trust him. She hadn't from the get-go. But there had to have been a time he could have told her that before.

[knightscode]

He lets out a weak huff of laughter at that, lowers his eyes in something like resignation. He can tell she isn't happy about it, but... there's little he can do about that.

"Perhaps one day you'll trust me," he says ruefully, and lifts his coffee to take another sip. "Until then I'm happy to pay the penance by buying you drinks I suppose. You can ask me things, if you like. If it'd help."

[stauncherhearted]

"I'm not sure what I'd ask." she takes a slow sip of her coffee, emptying the cup. "but I'll accept penance." that was different then charity, for the record. "they pay you well on the council?"

she starts to pet Lily again with abandon.

[knightscode]

Lily, oblivious to any tension or problems, thrashes her tail happily at the attention and pushes her face happily into Nancy's lap. Factions don't matter when you are a dog. Attention is welcome, no matter who it is from! Nancy is very good at paying attention to her.

"Well enough," he supplies, "although sometimes I feel as if I should ask for more danger money when things go wrong." He offers a faint shrug, lips quirk in amusement. "It's on top of my other job too, which can make hours a little challenging... but, if it keeps people safe it's worth it. That's all I want."

[stauncherhearted]

"You should." She could even raise her glass to that, even though it was now very unfortunately empty. "Things've been bad lately, we've all seen it." And she did want him to keep safe, he was a good guy. He'd been nothing but kind to her. Sure, it would have been better if it came up before that he was a Guardian, but now, she realized, there was someone in her corner with the Night Council, just like there was with the police, higher-up than Lance by far. And it was always good to have friends in high places.

"How often, tell the truth, do they over-lap?"

[knightscode]

He settles a little more, leaning onto the table as he considers her question and sliding his coffee closer.

"More often than I realised before, but not as much as you might think. Part of the job of a guardian is to... make sure things do not overlap. To keep the... public safe and in the dark. Keep your average office worker from stumbling on a person mauled by a were or drained by a vampire. Which means we need to get there first, tidy up. Which... is difficult, and..." He hesitates, wrinkles his nose. "Perhaps a little dishonest sometimes. The point is to keep people safe, though. Keep people from falling into things they can't handle. Statute of Secrecy and all that."

[stauncherhearted]

Nancy allows herself to settle further back into her seat, to really look at Lance.

"So you're watching out for all of us. On a base level." She's skeptic, but that's nothing personal. She's wary of most law-enforcement types. Came with the territory, as it were.

[knightscode]

"I'd like to think so. Unless someone is actively trying to kill me, I suppose, then I wouldn't be very enthusiastic about trying to help them. Guardians are supposed to put their work above all else. Above loyalty to any faction. So... really, we're not supposed to have any sort of bias. The Night Council is meant to treat everyone equally, after all."

Even if it is headed by Sylvia Redbright at the moment. In his heart, Lancelot might doubt that it is truly as neutral as it claims to be -- especially considering her activities. Yet it cannot truly act heavily on a bias without being called out. At least, he hopes it can't.

[stauncherhearted]

"Right." Her lips are set in a fine line as she says it, frowning intently. "I'm sure Redbright is the most neutral of all, right?"

Fuck her. She'd spoken with her, once, while incredibly drunk. She seemed so sweet and benevolent, but she was worse than any Midnight witch that Nancy had ever come across. She claimed to care. But if she really cared-

No. There was no if. She didn't get an if anymore, not after what she pulled with Abigail.

[knightscode]

He can sense the bitterness in her words, and Lancelot tilts his head a little. A sort of partial acceptance of her unspoken point.

"The Night Council is the sum of all its members. One person does not pass laws, they all work together. That is why it is a council, not a dictatorship." He sips his drink thoughtfully, considering Nancy. "You don't like her," he surmises finally.

[stauncherhearted]

"Of course." She doesn't believe him. "But the Mother of Witches has made herself a figurehead." Please. As far as she was concerned, it was all Sylvia.

She blinks her green eyes at him. "What gave me away?" It was one of those things, like her feelings on Fagin, that were incredibly hard to mask.

[knightscode]

He shrugs a little, drops his eyes to his drink for a moment.

"I suppose it's easy for me. I did not... grow up among these factions, I've barely been aware of them be aware of them half a year. I'm not a witch, and I've never had... well, a bad experience with her I suppose. I do not doubt there are plenty that have. Nobody in power ever gets by without making mistakes, big and small both."

[stauncherhearted]

"no, they don't. but they should be more careful. She says she cares. But she doesn't, Lance. she's a spiteful old hag who is terrified that maybe her rule is slipping. Mother of witches-" Nancy laughs bitterly. "-she's as much family to me as Fagin is."

no, her family was, at this point, mostly Juliet.

"and I wouldn't count her actions as mistakes when they're clearly calculated."

[knightscode]

Lancelot sighs a little, fidgets with his drink as he thinks -- fingers rubbing up and down the side of it. It isn't good, such sharp divide as this. Yet surely -- surely there is a way to heal things?

"What would you have her do?" he prompts, and frowns up at Nancy, curious. "What would... help, would make you trust her more? What would you have her change?"

[stauncherhearted]

"It doesn't matter." More so, she didn't want to tell him. "She wouldn't listen to a girl like me anyway. I'm nothing to her. And that's the way I'd like to keep it, thank you very much."

If she, as Nancy, more than as Emma (as she had introduced herself), was on Sylvia's radar, she'd rather keep it as small a blip as possible.

[knightscode]

"She wouldn't have to know it was from you," Lancelot offers, but he knows it probably won't make a difference. Nancy has no particular reason to trust that what he says is true, and he has no real way of proving that. He studies her a moment longer, tightens his finger around his cup and lifts it finally to take a sip.

"What did she do?" it's quiet, hesitant but genuine. "To make you so angry at her."

There must be something, he thinks, in particular. Maybe he's wrong. Maybe it's just everything. But normally -- normally this sort of thing has something at it's core. Something specific that is the real driving force behind it while everything else just builds.