A couple of nights go by and we recover. I've chatted with Andre a bit about the previous night's events; he's nervous about his own fate in this city, but tells me I have nothing to worry about, that I have done nothing wrong. I tell him I support him because it seems the right thing to do. I can always bail out on him later, although I'd hate to do that-I gained new respect for him last night. Never underestimate your elders, I suppose. Andre advised me to leave Calliope alone for the next few days, which sounds like solid advice to me. Nothing to do, nowhere to go… I remember my snippets of code, and settle into the computer room for a night's work.
Cracking along, cracking along, think I've got it, and like a complete and utter idiot I type run. Stupid vampire, stupid vampire, stupid vampire, never run anything if you don't know what the hell it is. Because I sure as fuck don't know what this is-my monitor flatlines as my system crashes, and like dominoes the other networked systems in the room topple over dead as well. Now that's something I can understand, but what happens next is pretty fucking inexplicable: the lights in the room go out, I can hear filaments in bulbs popping as they flare and extinguish, I see that the neighboring buildings are dead when I move to the window and pull the curtains. Damn, streetlights are out too-damn, cars are out, traffic lights are out, as far as the eye can see nothing that runs off any sort of juice is running. This makes absolutely no sense at all. I unplug everything in the room so that there's no chance of the damn thing rebooting if the power comes back, and head for the hallway.
"Electra?" Andre's voice calls out. Shit. Wish to hell I had a reasonable explanation for this, since I'm sure he'll be expecting one. I tell him what happened, and as we walk back to the computer room the power comes back up. In the computer room, somebody must have come in and plugged everything back in-fuck, I keep telling them not to mess with my equipment (forgetting, of course, that it isn't really mine at all, but I can't help being possessive about it). Andre's satisfied that everything is normal again and leaves, but I'm frigging irked by it all. I find Calliope and ask her about my predecessor. His name, apparently, was Boy Meets World. Gag. I hate these damn cutesy hackers; they make us all sound like part of some Disney movie. He disappeared a few months before they scooped me; it was thought that he went to New York. I ask Calliope what sane Camarilla vampire goes to New York, and she says I've answered my own question. Although she actually seems to have liked this Boy Meets World. I realize I'm jealous, get annoyed with myself, and leave. Back in the computer room I sit at the mainframe for a while, mentally beating my head against the ground, until I realize I'm just too damn hungry to think, and take off for the hunt.
Where shall I take my pleasure tonight, hmmm… Let's see what's on the menu at the Kells. I don a "Free Northern Ireland" t-shirt and head out. Doesn't take long before I've got an Irish lad telling me all about life in Belfast, and how the damn brits should go home and mind their own business. He buys me a drink, a pint of Guinness. Yum, don't know how long it's been since I've-my stomach convulses and I run for the bathroom, making it just in time before I puke up a frothy mess of Guinness and blood. What was I thinking… I splash my face with water and look in the mirror; I'm starting to look like hell, my hunger is showing. Better get a move on then, I can hardly think through the hunger and I may royally fuck up if I stay here much longer. I find my lad, whose concern is touching, and suggest we go somewhere quieter. He's a student, BU which figures, so we head for his dorm. Busted at the door-they want id from me and I have none. If I were more together I could bluff my way in, but I can't do it through this haze, and all I can see are the veins in my lad's neck… in desperation I suggest we head back to my place in the Fens. We hop a cab and he tries to feel me up on the ride over. If I feel the warmth of his hands so help me I'll lay into him right here, so I stop him, feigning shyness about the cab driver. At my place, I can hardly work the locks. We tumble in the door, he tries to push me up against the wall and I can't stop myself any longer, I jump his bones, pushing him to the floor. For a second he looks pleasantly surprised, then the surprise turns to horror as he feels my teeth sink in and I'm drinking finally, gulping down his life's warmth, filling myself, such an uncomplicated, burningly clean feeling, this is why I exist, this moment of clarity in another's bloodstream, nothing else has any meaning besides this… and the feeling is fading, gone, as I draw the last drops from his body, withdraw, letting his body drop, and I sit back against against the wall. When the world stops spinning I lick the wound, but damn, I can't just dump this body, all grey and shrunken, not a drop of blood in him. I start to feel panicky; I can't just leave him here, it's too risky, but what can I do with him?
Well, what are family for, if not to bail you out when the going gets rough… I call Brujah Central. Thank god Andre doesn't answer. It's Slick; I tell her what's happened, and she says they'll be right over. My homies arrive with butchering equipment in hand, and we chop up the Irish lad into mincemeat until there's no way anybody's ever IDing this corpse. We keep the teeth and dump the rest in the Charles. Fish food for them giant carp you see once in a while-I'm sure we're not the first to be sprinkling these particular fish flakes on the surface. On the drive back to Brujah Central I take some abuse from the rest of the clan; everybody thinks it's funny. Ha Ha.
I take refuge in the computer room. Look at that: I've got mail. Seems my little trick with the lights has attracted some attention; it's from a crew who say they're responsible for the virus, and want to know how it fell into my hands. Furthermore, they know it's me, Electra the hacker. They want to meet, and suggest one of the VR rooms at Gillians. I'm feeling back to my usual cocky self, so I agree to join them. I leave a message saying where I've gone, though, just in case. At Gillians, they're in a C.S. Lewis-inspired room. Through the wardrobe I go into a VR simulation like nothing I've ever seen before. If this is virtual, then there's no need for the real thing. Although they're all dolled up in more damn cutesy shit, Mad Hatters, little fairies, CareBears, and so forth. If I didn't know they were for real I'd walk out. We talk. They want me to join their crew; this is flattering. Everybody wants a piece of Electra these days. They burst my bubble a little by saying that I'd be a replacement for somebody who disappeared. On a hunch, I ask if it was Boy Meets World, and they say yes, he took off for New York and was never heard from again. Interesting. They speak the usual babble about freedom of information, a new society, the truth will find a way out, blah, blah, blah. I'm sympathetic to it, of course, but now I find that I like having their imperfect, secret-ridden society of kine around to exploit. Can't mention that, though, can I. I say I'll consider their offer, and I think they're a little taken aback that I'm not jumping up and down to join their little club. A couple of things hold me back. One is that this is all just too damn weird, and I wonder just what did happen to old Boy Meets World. The other, well, I never was one for joining crews on a permanent basis, and that's the word I leave them with as I head back out into plain old reality.
I thoughtfully make my way back to the haven. I go find Calliope to ask for whatever other detail she can give me about Boy Meets World-like did he leave any stuff behind? Who was he close to? Who was his sire? She doesn't know much more than what she already told me, but she does think he left some computer shit behind. He wasn't really close to anybody-everybody liked him well enough, but that was as far as it went. She's bored with the subject and starts riding me about needing the Tremere to push me out into the sunlight, calling me a coward. I tell her she's the fucking idiot who got us into the situation, then waste some of my fresh new blood healing my broken jaw. Of course, it seems like I'm an idiot too-I tell her at least I was more use than a fucking cut-in-half corpse, then discretion becomes the better part of valor as I streak out the door just ahead of her fist. Score one for Electra! Better maintain a low profile for the rest of the night, though. I find the box of Boy's "computer shit," diskettes and zip cartridges, and poke through those for the rest of the night. It's all programming in that same code, which doesn't really surprise me at this point. I'm not repeating any stupid mistakes tonight, so I don't run anything, but near as I can tell it's game programming, maybe some more of that intense VR.
I wake up, head on the keyboard and a bunch of gobbledygook on the screen. Honestly, I should tape pillows to the side of my head before I start working. Tonight is the big night, when we all go before the Prince to tell the sordid details of Springfield, and wait on his verdict. I know Andre said I'd have nothing to worry about, but still, I'm nervous. Not just for me personally; I don't want the Brujah looking weak either. The hearing's at the MFA again. The Prince has myself, Eleanor, and Leonardo tell our story in turns. I make Andre sound as good as possible; I hope he appreciates that. The Prince pontificates for a while-get to the point already-then says that he will not take away Andre's and Gwendolyn's rights to be primogen. He also says that boons will be granted-what's this? The Tremere primogen says that because Leonardo's car was there to help us all escape from the church, that we all owe them a boon. I'd argue that one, since I think we bailed him out later, but this doesn't seem the time or place to kick up a fuss. Besides, I work this thing too-to the surprise of many, I step forward and claim boons from the Toreador, one from Eleanor for saving her ass in the ManRay garage, and one from Gwendolyn for riding to her rescue. And I get them-that Eleanor doesn't look pleased, but tough for her. I earned it.
My gloating is short-lived though, because the Tremere are already calling in their boon. The ghoul driving the Tremere car at the Greene Street garage was captured by the Inquisition, and the Tremere want him back. Somehow I don't think it's for sentimental reasons; they're protecting their secrets if you ask me. If Eleanor and I go with Leonardo to find the ghoul, then our boons will be erased, as well as Calliope's-what the fuck? I'm supposed to take the heat for her again? Is this why I was Embraced, so that she'd have someone to fling into danger in her place?
Oh, did I say that out loud? Must have, because the last thing I see before sailing through the air is Calliope looking furious. When I land, she hauls me by the scruff of the neck into a side gallery and demands to know what the fuck this is all about. What is it all about? I lose it and vent it all to her, about how since day one I've felt like some damn pawn, like she's been playing friggin' games with my life, and I don't appreciate it one little bit, from the Sabbat at Axis to the events in Springfield to this, it seems like I'm flung into the fray while she sits back. With an obvious struggle to stay in control, she tells me that the beheading of the Sabbat was my initiation, and that I'd done the best that anyone could do, that I am her child and she wouldn't harm me on purpose, not the way I'm saying. And that if I keep insulting her, especially in front of other people, I'll wish I were back in Springfield with the Sabbat, because they'll seem downright cozy by comparison. I'm a little pacified-I still don't like the way things always seem to happen, but I apologize. Andre comes in with an almost comical look of concern on his face-damn, I guess we scared the hell out of him. I can see Calliope's thinking the same thing, and I can tell she knows I'm thinking the same thing, and I feel much better about us again. Andre wants to know if everything's ok, and I tell him of course it is. Calliope heads out, but Andre holds me back, wanting to know what's really going on, because he's seen us fighting before. I shrug it all off, telling him everything really is ok, that I had some issues but we've worked them out. I don't know if he's satisfied with that, but he lets me go.
I meet Leonardo and Eleanor outside. The Tremere have a tip that the ghoul's in the Inquisition's equivalent of a haven in Salem. We drive up there, pretty much lost in our own thoughts. Hope we don't lose the ghoul driving the car too.
Chapter 8, in which the funhouse isn't much fun