Activity Log, January 4, 2001 It seems the next occasion for the subjects to gather together was at the Battery for Jan's second session of court. I admire their unusual competence in deciding to seize the initiative, and I am certainly grateful to them for providing me an additional opportunity to watch the workings of Kindred society. The hall was again ablaze with light and hung with great tapestries. Truly, it is an impressive effect, as the vivid colors contrast with the rough brick and stone of the building itself. However, when the subjects arrived, the hall was nearly empty. Cliff and Parker found only Alice and Julia present in the great hall. Parker and Alice commiserated about Parker's troubles with his sire. Even I occasionally pity him for his ties to the terror of the woods, Mobea herself. Alice tried to convince him that there were many others who had equally severe problems, but I do not think she succeeded. Perhaps she hints that she is such a person? If the subjects could aid her and gain her favor, it would certainly put them in a good position among the young ones, but I do not see how they could do such a thing without even knowing who her sire is. Cliff spoke with his sire, Julia, and with Elena as well. Julia seemed to have some sort of administrative role, and explained to them that she handles security for the Prince. I have heard that such a position may fall under the auspices of either the Sheriff -- a sort of primitive law enforcer -- or the Prince's seneschal. It would be most interesting to know what her role actually is. She told Cliff that the later one arrived, the more important one was, and that the Prince was generally the last to arrive at the court. She seemed to want to cast it as the Prince impressing his subjects with their relative importance, but I suspect there are far more practical purposes: to allow socializing without his repressive presence, and to make certain that the building is sufficiently secure for his grand entrance. However, I must remember that these are only hypotheses, and in the absence of other evidence I must accept Julia's statements at face value. Nathaniel arrived and extricated Alice from Von Brauer's company; she seemed to be tolerating his raving about some person named Nicola quite patiently but was clearly not enjoying herself. Unfortunately, as she was discussing some minor matters with Nathaniel, Parker and Cliff, Ethan arrived and decided to insult her to her face. The others tried to smooth things over, but Alice stalked off. Having managed to offend the only individual of significance the subjects have managed to befriend, Ethan moved off to speak with Elena about some business matters -- I believe him to be subsidizing a gymnasium that she runs. In his absence, the group discussed why Alice's arm was unhealed, and Cliff volunteered to speak with her alone about it. Clearly he is quite a bit more intelligent than Ethan, as he managed to raise the subject without offending her. He explained to the group that she told him there are powers that can prevent a vampire from healing. I would be most interested to know what those are, and I hope they will investigate this more. At this point, a young woman named Ana Fernandez approached Nathaniel and asked him for a form that he had in his possession. I am not sure what form she was referring to, but he certainly seemed to know what she intended. He handed her a form and she departed with it. (From context, I was able to gather that it was a requisition form for Blackwell Industries, which may have been involved in procuring materiel for the war.) After some small confusion among the group, Nathaniel managed to retrieve the form, but Ana suggested that they listen to her talk radio show at 2 AM that evening. The subjects seemed quite worried about what she was planning to do, but she seemed quite confident that whatever she had planned would work quite well. After a few other minor incidents (Nathaniel speaking with Pitt, Ethan and Christine holding quite a long conference in the corner), a number of the most important Kindred entered. Specifically, Winter, Shrike, Jack, Isabella and Roberto came out of a side door, and moments later, Jan entered and sat on his throne in state. A number of new entrants to the city presented themselves. I have detailed what I know about them in their dossiers, but I list them here. Angel was treated with great respect by the Prince, and was granted a large domain in midtown Manhattan. Antoinette Deltain sparred verbally with Jan; they seemed to know each other previously, and not like each other very much. Antoinette claimed to only be remaining for a few days, and Jan gave her permission to remain for a week. I wonder what brings her to the city, and how she knows the Prince? Juan Enrique Sandoval and Faith Miller, both Nosferatu, received permission to join the other Nosferatu in their feeding grounds. Elizabeth Zuckerman was treated dismissively by Jan, but also received permission to remain. At the end of the formal portion of court, Jan elected to remain on his throne and oversee the dealings of the other Kindred. It did take quite a few minutes for things to warm up, but eventually those present began to talk, despite his presence. A number of vampires approached Jan and spoke to him privately, including Roberto and Anastasia, but I was unable to determine what was said. Unfortunately, I was forced to content myself with overhearing the conversations of my subjects. Nathaniel approached Liz, the new entrant to the city, and suggested that she become involved in a plot against Vassily. She refused loudly to get involved in any Malkavian schemes; it seems that she has been on the wrong end of them in the past, one way or another. Meanwhile, Vassily approached Parker and Cliff and told them not to interfere between him and his childe; Nathaniel intervened to protect his friends, but Pitt was able to distract Vassily from his goal. Pitt certainly seems to have some degree of control over the others of his clan. A most useful trait, that! Nathaniel did manage to give Vassily a crushed beer can, which Vassily seemed to accept and be quite mollified by. The ways of the mad ones do mystify me. Ethan spoke with Roberto, the Giovanni representative. Roberto asked that Ethan and his friends meet with a friend of his on the following evening, as they have some business to discuss. Curious that he takes notice of ones so young; perhaps it is because many of them are children of the great? Ethan also spoke briefly with the new Nosferatu, Faith, and gave her his card. In the meantime, Parker spoke at length with both Molly and Antoinette, while Cliff spoke with his sire, Julia. The subjects left court together, which was quite gratifying. Once safely away from the Battery, they discussed the possibility of obtaining some weaponry, possibly by requisitioning it from Blackwell Industries. I am most curious as to whether such a scheme could possibly succeed. Given sufficient bureaucratic wrangling, perhaps it could, though I do not know if any of them have enough experience to pull it through. To pass the time until 2 AM, when they were to listen to the radio, they stopped by Cliff's apartment for him to research something -- I believe the possible mortal identity of Pitt. Evidently the young one still lives with his mortal roommate, and they had to prevent him from waking up. Unfortunately, Cliff tripped over a coat his roommate had left on the floor and knocked over a chair; the others hid while Cliff calmed his roommate and sent him back to bed. While Cliff consulted his books in the bedroom, the rest of the subjects investigated his kitchen. Nathaniel took several kitchen magnets and a frying pan; I am uncertain why he wanted them, but on Cliff's reappearance, Cliff insisted he return them. While this might ordinarily seem like a minor incident, not even worth recording, its aftermath was most interesting. Back on the street, after the group's taunting Cliff's roommate through his closed door and threatening to kill him if the roommate awoke again, Cliff explained (quite calmly, given the situation, I believe) that they were violating his trust and that he wanted little to do with them. Unfortunately, their first attempts to calm him only made him angrier, since they tried to justify their behavior rather than apologize for it. Quite uncivilized, really. The crux of the argument seemed to be over whether Cliff was willing to accept his vampiric nature. He claimed that he was not like the rest of them, and allowed them to feel his skin and pulse to prove it. As far as I could tell from my own inspection, his skin is indeed quite flushed and perhaps even slightly warm, and the other subjects certainly seemed to find a pulse (which quite surprised them, I can tell you!). I have heard that vampires can force the blood through their own undead veins, but would Cliff do such a thing simply to impress his comrades? Perhaps, perhaps. Interestingly enough, the group managed to provoke Cliff into losing his temper. I was quite interested to see how his rage was directed. At first he made to attack his tormentors, but with what seemed to be an effort of will, he turned his rage on the inanimate objects near him. He caused quite an impressive swath of destruction; he seems to be both fast and extraordinarily strong. I believe the other subjects were impressed with the depth of Cliff's feeling, and even displayed some small amount of compassion for his trial. It seems that Cliff was not chosen deliberately in the way the others were, or so he claimed. I would be most interested to know the story of his making. After Cliff called Julia to help cover up his violent actions, the group repaired to Pitt's to replenish themselves and see who might be around. After discussing some minor matters among themselves and speaking briefly with Pitt, Alice arrived. They told her about the radio show that Ana had been talking about. Alice seemed quite perplexed, but told them she would investigate. Parker offered to join her, but she turned him down and left for what I presume to be the radio station in question. In the meantime, Cliff had left to make a telephone call, I presume to tell his sire the same information. They will certainly receive credit for their thoughtfulness in reporting the incident, though perhaps not as much as if they had done so promptly. Still, it is something, and I must say that it is far more than I expected from them. Shortly after this, the radio show in question began. It seems to be called "Late Night with Ana Fernandez" (descriptive, I suppose, if not creative) and run from 2 AM to 3 AM on Thursday nights. My investigations have turned up some minor scandals that she has raked up in the past, and she generally seems to have excellent but low-level connections in nearly every major arena in New York City. Elizabeth was able to find me a tape of a previous show when Ana raised the issue of police being moved from the outer boroughs into Manhattan. The format of the show seemed to be to take callers who had some personal story to tell, whether as crime victims in the outer boroughs or as people in the police department who were not pleased with this policy, interspersed with her own views expressed quite forcefully and some talk about what she feels are deserving causes. At the end of the show she gave the home phone number of the City Council members directly responsible for the decision and encouraged listeners to contact them with their opinions. Quite amusing, really, and surprisingly well-done for what I assume to be a grass-roots operation. In any case, this show seemed to follow the same basic format, but with the topic of the recent terrorist attacks in the city. (A dangerous topic for her, I would have thought, though possibly it only reinforces the public story.) A number of individuals who lost loved ones in attacks, or lost their jobs, or had further such sob stories called in. It became quite tedious after a while, to tell the truth. Both Parker and Nathaniel called in to the show, but I am unsure what they intended, as they were unable to get through to Ana herself. The significant part of the show came when Ana herself came on and announced that she had information about a company involved in the terrorism: Blackwell Industries. She gave a telephone number and a bit of information about the company and suggested that her listeners call to express themselves. Moments later, she took a number of calls about Blackwell Industries, including one that claimed a FBI agent named Robert Brooks was investigating one of Blackwell Industries' subsidiaries -- Cypress Financials. So Ethan is connected to Oliver Blackwell? Perhaps, perhaps. This is most certainly worth investigating further. Ethan himself seemed quite upset by the prospect. The subjects were also quite surprised that the show was allowed to happen, despite their warnings to both Julia and Alice. Ethan suggested that perhaps one or both of them already knew about the show, especially as Fuertas, the gymnasium run by Julia's other childe, Elena, was one of the 'causes' supported on the show. Both Cliff and Nathaniel seemed to think this was not possible, however. They agreed to think about it overnight and meet the following evening to speak with Roberto Giovanni's contact, and parted. Transcribed and maintained Elizabeth Kent