West to Central

[Black Philip]

Benny moved to Jake's side when Brael said war, claws out and ready to strike. His face remained calm. He didn't really think he'd need to use them, but he wasn't going to let some nobody threaten his boss during a peaceful negotiation. He looked at Brael, hissing as he spoke.

"Now, now pretty boy. Don't come here and threaten us with war."

Jake held a hand up and motioned Benny back. "Benny please behave, this demon is our guest." Benny held his defensive stance, but lowered his claws begrudgingly.

Jake didn't respond to Brael directly. It was Zeus's opinion that mattered, and all his subordinate had done was potentially derail all the progress they'd made. He found the creature unnerving, but after Lazarus, his recent brush up with Zoheret, and his battle with Luke, it would take a lot more than a threat of violence from a nobody to intimidate him.

"War would be a mistake," he said cautiously, "I'm not threatening you. I'm negotiating. If you prefer violence know my people will not strike first. Let's see how sympathetic the rest of the city is when the violence comes from both directions. I may have my shortcomings but I do know how to play public relations. Right now you have an image of me as an invader. If you kill me and my people, how are you any better than the gangs I cleaned up?"

His bravado began to fade, and that wicked grin turned into something bordering on regretful. He had more to say though, and kept going before Brael had a chance to interrupt.

"As to the deep wrong, I admit I cost lives. I admit there may have been better alternatives. However, I do resent this all being put on me. I don't know why you were gone when the Oligarchy fell, but your district was a mess and had you stayed or appointed a representative all of this could've been avoided. I made the best of a bad situation. I'll take my lumps, but please take yours as well. I'm only putting forward my change to condition four as I honestly think it helps everyone. If your pride is more important than peace than that's your choice."

He smoked, looking only slightly bothered. War was not something he wanted, but he refused to be dictated to by someone who could've saved lives and didn't. Brael was a movie critic, obviously someone unwilling to do the hard work. Hopefully Zeus would see reason. He'd seemed peaceful up to this point, but perhaps that was all a ruse. Perhaps he was just trying to force the Anarchs into conflict.

[Trillian]

Once again Brael's hackles were up by the way Jake was addressing Zeus and refusing to offer a gesture of goodwill. All he'd done was wrongdoing after wrongdoing, daring to say he resented being told he'd violated the lives of innocents alongside those who'd done harm.

"Scum," Brael seethed. "You question Chtahzus'aak's honour? One of your kind brought down the Oligarchy! One of your kind put an entire race of demons in jeopardy. Because of your actions the west is unsettled and rebellious, crying for blood! You invaded our home to deliver your letter. You bring a weapon to a negotiation. You insult a man much greater, more intelligent, more powerful and with more followers, than you. And you dare to say because he does nothing that he wears blame like you?"

Brael rippled and he started around the table to rip the two bloodsuckers apart - his temper in full blaze. Only Chtahzus'aak's direct order could hold him back.

[The Cedar Witch]

"That's enough, Brael."  For now.  Brael's words stirred a sense of pride within him.  It allowed him to keep a cool, level head, as if Brael had acted as an outlet for Zeus' own flare of anger and thirst for justice.

Chtahzus'aak stood and pulled the coin from his pocket.  The metal glinted in the florescent light as he skillfully twirled it across and between his knuckles. 

"The West was never yours."  He leveled a firm gaze across the table.  "You take the actions of a few blocks and paint the whole District that color.  As if I took the Brazilian quarter as justification to sweep through Central."  He looked down to the coin as he shuffled it back and fourth.

"As we speak I have your people in my district surrounded.  Recall them immediately or they will be compelled to leave.  Make no mistake--my goal is still peace.  Keep in mind that you have a campaign to run."  He wasn't a monster, there would be no bloodshed.  Well, charring anyway.  The fire demons have been all too eager but they were only on standby.  For now shadows tailed the plainclothes forces, having routed them out well prior to this meeting.  Far too obvious.

"My terms still stand as is.  I'll be expecting an email containing your statement to review posthaste."  He looked up and smiled pleasantly, moving away from the chair.  "You still have my email address, I presume?  You should know that you could have always reached me there."  The tone dripped with implications.  This mess could have been entirely avoided if McCloud had even bothered to contact him before making a move.

"Am I understood?"  He barked the command intensely, as superior to officer, demanding compliance with the threat of reprimanding.  The coin in his hand stopped, poised as if to flip into the air or tuck back into his palm.  The demon stood firm.  Ready.

[Black Philip]

Benny got claws ready again, and even Jake moved his hand to remove his sword from it's stalk. Benny moved directly in front of his employer. "Last warning or I'll be spending tomorrow washing your blood off the walls."

This was followed by a string of curses in Russian. Benny wasn't terribly powerful since he was young, but he hated a self righteous blow hard like this guy. He wasn't sure what this guy's power was, a but a claw across the throat normally did the trick no matter what species they were.

When Zeus called off his attack dog, Jake removed his hand from the sword, but this time he didn't simmer Benny down. The false equivalency between the small amounts of crime in the Brazilian Quarter, which saw plenty of Anarch patrols, and the turmoils that had gripped the west was laughable. This sense of righteous anger coming from both of them was laughable. Well fuck them. If the city was to erupt in war it would be them who threw the first punch. If the west was to be taken from him it would be on the demons to explain to others how they took it back.

"I do question his honor you xenophobe," Jake said coldly to Brael. "There are plenty of vampires in the west and all you've done is show me you see us as one in the same. All you've done is damage peaceful negotiations because of your pride. So get off his dick for a moment, okay?"

He turned to Zeus. "You're a hypocrite. If you were so easily reachable then that tells me you let the west fall on purpose. If you were so accessible then why didn't you lead? You say I focus too much on one element, I say you ignore it because it doesn't fit your narrative. You say you represent victims? I'll have a list of all the families those gangs ruined in your little email. Pay them reparations you ugly fuck."

He ashed the cigarette. His armor was up. Any chance of reaching him was gone. Much like he saw Ben Samson, Jake dug in when he felt threatened and bravado or not he was afraid. "You have such a deep sense of ownership of the west, like it's your homeland, but that's not true is it? None of us own any of this. It's all temporary. Keep throwing out words like yours and mine Zu Zu. It seems to help you sleep. No deal, and blame your little helper there."

He got up and turned to leave. "If you attack my people, I'll spread the video to every camera in every district. Every super in town will see how Zeus negotiates. When you're ready to talk for real instead of trying to intimidate and guilt me, make an appointment like everyone else. Get out of my house."

[Trillian]

Brael stopped and returned to his place behind Chtahzus'aak, his jaw working. As the negotiations continued to fall apart, he felt a deep sense of shame and regret. He shouldn't have said anything, Chtahzus'aak had everything under control. Now it had spun away from them. He didn't want war but had believed the vampire across from him didn't, either, and would back down and offer the correct reply, not an antagonistic one.

The way Jake McCloud spoke, it was as though demon gangs had roamed throughout the district in its entirety, outing themselves to human beings, creating havoc and violence. With every single being owning a cellphone with a camera, where was the video evidence of this? No, it was just his word. And he was prepared to defend that lie to the death. Brael was astonished by this. Chtahzus'aak must have known, which was why he was letting the vampire piddle all over his leg, like a pup that knew no better.

And Brael had ruined it, had forced the pup to bare its teeth. The threat was empty. Taking back a territory rightfully theirs would win them frowns at most, but no consequences. The thing about pushing back an invading army... people tended to get on side with those who'd been wronged. Brael puffed out his chest. They had been wronged. And McCloud would wear the consequences.

[The Cedar Witch]

Does anyone ever tell you that you talk too much?  He wanted to say.

Intimidate?  Funny accusations coming from the one who needlessly flicked on the lights and came into the room armed.  McCloud’s reasoning was sloppy and see-through, obvious projections of an insecure petulant child.  Intimidate, guilt, pride, xenophobe.  All projections.

Chtahzus’aak wanted so desperately to rile him up so he would make a costly mistake.

Let the West fall on purpose?  No.  To intervene at that moment would’ve been a more direct path to war than this, and at the time he had wanted to avoid that.  The only families affected by the rival gangs were their own--and those disputes had been since settled.  The remainder of his pathetic speech was tuned out.  Leave him to his delusional assumptions.

But Zu Zu?  Childish.

“I will give you twenty-four hours to make your final decision with a cool head.”  Let no one say that Zeus was not a fair demon. 

With a quick flick, the coin in his hand sailed into the air and the pressurized florescent bulbs overhead exploded in shattered glass.  Now spent, the coin dropped to the floor and disintegrated to ash.  Chtahzus’aak dropped the human facade, towering over the vampires.  He turned his horned head toward the Brat, flexing his wings as he moved and scattering the coin’s ashes into the air.

“Deviate from my terms at your own peril.  Be it known that you have tested my patience for the last time, McCloud.”  Before anyone could get another word in, the massive demon melted into the shadows and raced back to the West with Brael at his side.

[Black Philip]

Jake drew his sword, assuming he'd find out if it's magic cut shadows or not. His face showed his fear, but also a willingness to defend himself. However, just as quick they were gone. Benny ran to get Maria. They needed an anti shadow demon barrier quickly. This was what he'd wanted to avoid, more violence. Yet, here they were. This was no negotiation. Nothing had happened in good faith. Zeus was as fake as fake could be, and he'd let Jake think he was quiet and reasonable all so he could threaten him later. Brael had been a stage puppet, told to interject to start escalating the situation.

It was revolting Zues took no responsibility for his people's suffering, and despite all his claims that Jake had taken the west from him, it was well established the west had no leader. If Zues was an established DL, Jake would've never moved in. It had been the leaderless status of the west that had invited him. Now Zeus claimed he was there all along, only an email away. What horse shit. He'd been gone. His xenophobic friend thought him some savior, but where were his good deeds? All Jake had seen was a bully who'd let something fall to shit, but got mad someone else cleaned it up. Now, even when Jake was offering it to him with no fight, giving in to his ridiculous and pointless demands, he refused to be flexible on a single item. The moralizing he was using to run his little operation was also an insult to the people who'd died. Holding up corpses he didn't even know and claiming they were his people was a cheap move. Jake knew who most of the Anarchs in the city were, and was always around to meet new ones.

He had no idea what to do next. Would Zeus attack the Anarchs in the west if they were there tomorrow night? Did he risk sending them. His pride said yes, but love for his people said no. Maybe if Luke was there to protect them? No. Why should he be at risk? Jake didn't even want the west. He'd gone in to do what he wanted to do, but since there weren't many Anarchs in the city they didn't really need to expand. He'd come to the conclusion that the west should be ruled by a demon, but it couldn't possibly be Zeus. Would he go to the Sacrament next? His demon hordes would be even a match for the great family. It was clear he hated vampires. And what of Sabrina? She was only one person, a very powerful person, but one just the same. There would be no war for the west. He'd write Zeus before sunup to tell him that he was going to cave. His duty was to protect the Anarchs, and while they were always down for a fight, they were a tiny faction among vampires, and demons already outnumbered every other species. He couldn't win, and so for his people's sake he'd have to lose.

He was failing his people. He knew it. Ben was outwitting him, and now Zues had threatened him and he was giving in. His list of allies was nonexistent. Only the Anarchs supported him in this city. Nobody else would come to his aid. He had problems in the north too, and now the North-West. He began to panic. He needed help, or the Anarchs might lose everything they'd fought so hard to gain. From the moment they'd all arrived the city had looked down on them, hated them and tried to run them out of town. Instead, they'd endured, flourished even. To think that all held in the balance because of one decision he'd made. He should've let the demons all kill each other and all the other people in the west. Well, no good deed goes unpunished.