Interrogation

[Existentially Odd]

The eyebrows that had been so open a moment before drew down now, in a frown.  Damnit!  He could just about curse out loud at the stupidity he\'d displayed - but then again, he\'d likely prefer to go into details about his night with Gene than about his project with Vomas.

Somehow... his work and the man he worked for were more dear than a lovely connection and possible friendship he\'d made at a pool hall.  At least the project and relationship with Vomas was real and would create something sophisticated and beautiful one day.  He doubted he\'d ever see Gene again.

"I\'m not i-i-in trouble," he assured Jake, looking him in the eye as a hand reflexively reached up and ran through his hair, rearranging it into new arcs and sweeps before it dropped back to his glass.  "I just... ab-bout a week ago, I met a guy a-a-a-at the pool hall.  He got pretty drunk so I drove h-him h-home.  His boyfriend\'s a vampire.  Older.  He was pr-pretty sus-suspicious a-abut me hanging out with his boyfriend f-for a few h-hours.  When he a-asked me to m-meet up with them both again s-sometime, I s-said I was too busy and took off.  I just thought... maybe he\'d come to you, to complain," he shrugged, looking a little sheepish now that he\'d confessed his tale.

Well, most of it, anyway, but his oligarch didn\'t need details, he felt - not when he\'d answered the question accurately enough.

[Black Philip]

"I see," Jake said.

His tone was serious and official sounding. He also did his best to sound kind and concerned. Truthfully, Samuel\'s problem wasn\'t really a problem. If the vampire had come and complained, Jake would have inquired if anything psychical happened. Even then, if all Samuel didn\'t know the human in question belonged to another, Jake probably wouldn\'t have punished him. Ignorance is no excuse for the law, but there is also such a thing as a mistake. Despite his harshness, not even Jake was blind to that simple fact.

"\'I can assure you that nobody has come to complain," Jake said. "Now that I know what happened, I will listen to the vampire\'s grievance, promise to discipline you, and send him on his way. I don\'t even need to tell you he came in if you prefer?"

Jake looked to see how invested Samuel was in this. If he wanted to know, then reason would dictate he cared about the vampire and human in question. Both were things Jake wanted to know.

[Existentially Odd]

Conflicted by the relief of knowing that Orias hadn\'t been in followed swiftly by the worry that Jake even entertained the fact that he might, Samuel gave his oligarch an unhappy look, his lips pressed together and moving thoughtfully from side to side as he contemplated knowing or not knowing.  It was nice of Jake to want to protect him and it made him feel a sense of gratitude and forgiveness (over the embarrassment of earlier) towards him just for hearing it... but... he was fairly certain he needed to know.

"Naw, I\'d r-rather know," he told Jake eventually.  "He might... " Sam\'s gaze slid sideways and landed unseeingly on Jake\'s desk, reticent about confessing any further, but feeling better about doing so, since the other vampire had seemed so ready to defend him.  He swallowed and looked bravely back into the large eyes of his oligarch.  "N-nothing happened between Gene \'n me b-but I c-came onto h-him a l-little.  I-if Orias f-finds ou-ou-out, he m-might be p-pissed, a-and I\'d rather kn-know if I\'ve m-made an e-e-e-enemy," he explained miserably, fiddling with his glass in his lap and blushing some more.

Had he really chosen to speak of this over discussing his project with Vomas? What had he been thinking?

[Black Philip]

Without asking (mostly because he didn\'t need too) Jake grabbed one of his pads and a pen. He wrote down: Orias, vampire, Gene, human. Just in case this vampire did come around, Jake wanted to know Orias was coming before he got to the chambers. Jake didn\'t know this Orias, but he\'d met plenty of vampires who got pissy over another vampire getting to close to their pets. Personally, Jake despised such arrogance.

There were other matters to attend to. After Jake wrote down the names he found a blank file folder on his desk and tucked them away in it. After he\'d put the folder in a place he wouldn\'t forget, he turned his attention back to Samuel.

"I\'ll be sure to tell you if....ugh. Orias comes in," Jake assured. "Before i move on, is there anything else about this matter, or you in general I should know?"

Jake didn\'t want to make any more mistakes. Asking this question covered multiple bases.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel raised his eyebrows in surprise and then they drew down into a frown as he gave the question some thought.  It was a very broad question.  Was Jake meaning that he should confess his sexual orientations?  His bank balance?  His greatest fears and favourite things?  The scope was enormous and left him floundering somewhat.

He\'d never done anything bad enough to warrant a confession, unless coming on to other peoples\' partners, seducing innocents and having some rather wild orgies in his early years (and at his sire\'s direction, not of his own volition) counted?  It was hard to know what Jake wanted from him.

"Uh... n-nothing ab-bout me that I can think of," he answered slowly, as if taking his time to answer might allow something he hadn\'t thought of yet to pop into his head.  Oddly enough, something did occur to him belatedly, due to all the thinking he was doing.

"Oh!  There w-was magic!  A sp-spell of some sort, in Gene\'s m-mind.  I forgot to g-go back and e-examine it but y\'know, it\'s w-weird, b-because Orias h-has no mental p-powers, b-because he had me knock Gene out so we c-could talk, so I dunno\' how the spell got there.  He might think I did it, b-but I didn\'t, I d-didn\'t mess with Gene\'s mind except to s-sweep it for what he w-was thinking about!" he assured Jake, having realised that, if Orias started digging around, he might come across what Samuel had sensed and if he didn\'t know about it, well, it would be a wrong assumption but easy enough for an ignorant vampire to assume that the guy who had mental powers had done something funny to his boyfriend.

That was worth confessing now, to avoid accusations later, he felt, and Sam\'s expression advertised the fact that he was very proud of himself for thinking of it.

[Black Philip]

A spell? I need to contact Conner.

Jake\'s mind was buzzing like the inside of a beehive. Suddenly, this exchange with the human Gene was becoming more interesting by the second. Spell was a very specific word. Jake only knew a handful of people in the city who had control over magic, Conner, Saint Sabrina, the shamans who worked for the Oligarchy. Other than that, magic was an unknown, unlikeable force to Jake.

Samuel had been to vague however. Jake pulled the paper back out of the folder, and got his pen at the ready. Suddenly, this had become an important matter. Vomas\'s little experiment in the library would have to wait...

"Are you sure it was a spell?" Jake asked. "Was it mind control, or some form of vampiric power? Spell is a very specific word."

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel frowned down at the desk slightly to his left, trying to remember what the wall inside Gene\'s mind had felt like.  It dismayed him that he didn\'t really know, that he\'d got distracted by how attractive Gene was and that it hadn\'t been his priority in amongst all their meandering discussion.

"I think... maybe?  It seemed l-like a sp-spell, but I didn\'t look hard.  That\'s how it struck me, though?  I didn\'t e-examine it, sorry," he apologised, looking back at Jake, his expression sheepish.

[Black Philip]

This matter needed more investigation. Jake didn\'t even like the possibility that a human could be under some form of spell, and the oligarchy didn\'t know about it. Jake needed his majordomo and magical expert Conner. It was a simple matter. Jake would send Conner to asses this human.... Gene. If it was nothing, then the matter would be over. However, if Conner found this was some form of unlicensed magic, Jake would want to know who, what and why.

"Samuel, there\'s no need to apologize," Jake assured. "I hope you don\'t mind, but I plan on investigating this further. The possibility of a bewitched human is bad for the Oligarchy. I\'m sure Vomas would agree."

Jake really didn\'t know what Vomas would think of all this. He may not have deemed it worthy of the Oligarchy\'s resources. Luckily, Conner didn\'t work for the Oligarchy. He worked for Jake. Still, Jake would contact his fellow Oligarch and at least ask his opinion. It was a political move if nothing else. Also, Jake knew Samuel would most likely fill better about him pocking around if Vomas said it was alright.

Jake looked at the sheepish vampire before him. There was no way this man was attempting to overthrow him. Jake liked Samuel, although he was afraid Samuel would never really like him. Whatever Samuel was doing in the library wasn\'t so groundbreaking Jake needed to know about it. He would summon Samuel again, when this matter was over. Although he didn\'t need to know, he still wanted to know. He waited for Samuel to say whether or not he minded. It would dictate mostly how honest he was going to be with Vomas.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel\'s expression was nothing short of horrified.  The thought of the man he admired most, the one he had a secret crush on, finding out what he\'d done with Gene... why... it didn\'t even bear thinking on.

"Y-y-you-you d-don\'t ha-ha-ha-have to t-tell h-h-him d-do yo-you?" he asked querulously, barely able to get the words out through the panic choking him.  Without being aware of it, he was exerting an enormous amount of pressure on the stem of his glass, too.

[Black Philip]

Jake could sense the tension all the way across the desk. The mention of informing Vomas seemed to trouble Samuel enormously. Jake could for the life of him figure out why Samuel would care so much. Unless Vomas was worried about his career professionally? Still this was an opening. If Samuel didn\'t want Vomas involved that meant Jake got free rain over the case. Jake liked working alone, and if Vomasdid find out, Jake would simply say Samuel asked for confidentiality.  

"No, he doesn\'t," Jake assured. "Nobody but you, and I, and my team need to know about this."

Jake shot a comforting glance across the table. He\'d become worried Samuel was going to shatter the glass he was currently holding.

[Existentially Odd]

As he relaxed, Samuel gave an awkward nod, glancing down at the glass he was holding.  For something to do, he drained it completely and slid slightly forward in order to place it back on Jake\'s desk.  While in that almost-up position, he looked guilelessly over at his oligarch, expression blank.

"Will that be a-all?" he asked, much more smoothly.  It was funny how his panic seemed to have peaked and he was speaking better than he had so far, simply because there didn\'t seem anything else for him to be stressed about.  It didn\'t feel like it could get any worse, and there was a surreal level of calm that came with that feeling, that left his tongue surprisingly untwisted (for once).  Inside, however, he was still roiling and worried, telling himself he was foolish for worrying about what Vomas would think.

Vomas only knew of his existence because of the project, there was nothing personal there, despite how much Samuel wished there was.  What would he even care?  Yet he still fretted.

[Black Philip]

Jake debated asking Samuel about the project in the library. Jake felt he had Samuel\'s loyalty now. The miscommunication from the beginning had faded away, at least for Jake. However, with all this information, and the amount of investigation that was needed, Jake felt the library project could wait.

"Yes, that\'s all," Jake said warmly.

He rose from his chair and outstretched his hand, waiting for Samuel to take it. If he did, Jake would clasp it tightly, and tell Samuel one more thing he wanted to say.

[Existentially Odd]

Relief lowered Samuel\'s shoulders and he smiled genuinely, rising to meet the oligarch and shake his hand strongly in response.  "Thank you," he said.  "And thank you for the blood."

He released Jake\'s hand, about to turn and leave the office when he was delayed by his companion saying something else.

[Black Philip]

"Just a minute," Jake said softly to a leaving Samuel.

"Samuel, I\'m curious what you\'re doing in the library," Jake said. "We obviously don\'t have time to discuss it now, but if you could come and see me another night, I\'d love to hear about what you\'re researching."

With that Jake sat back down. He hoped that with the favor he\'d done Samuel by agreeing not to say a word to Vomas, Samuel might in turn disclose what he was up to.

He kept eye contact, waiting for a response before returning to the nights work.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel\'s mouth opened but he had nothing to say to that because his disappointment was too bitter, too palpable in that moment.  It closed again, with nothing said.  His eyes likely communicated the feeling of betrayal that he felt - unjustified as it was.  He\'d thought (stupidly) that if he told the oligarch one story, he\'d stop hunting for the other, but it seemed the man was as tenacious as he tried to be charming.  In fact, Samuel recognised the element of quid pro quo at work here, and resented that, too.

It seemed he wouldn\'t be able to win; the best he could do was agree and just hope that \'another night\' either didn\'t come up or that he felt a bit more comfortable about sharing what felt like a private project between he and Vomas by then.  He couldn\'t see it happening, really - especially since Jake\'s phrasing inferred that it would be Samuel\'s choice to return to this office to talk and that would not happen - but he gave Jake a simple nod as his answer, feeling it was committment enough.

With a heart newly in turmoil, he then turned and left the office.