True Colors

[Alex]

Chuck Wilcox stormed into the Elysium, his gruff demeanor, brisk walk, and flared nostrils contrasting against the live performance of Follia wafting gently through the concert hall the Keeper had reserved for the night. Keeper Klein himself walked towards Chuck, ready to chide him for his rude demeanor - to say nothing of his hideous khaki shirt and slacks. But one look from the Brujah silenced him. The bastard childe wasn't worth his time. Chuck was a man with a mission, and it was to find the Sheriff.

Chuck was certain that Victor would be at Elysium tonight. He had too much to brag about to skip. And sure enough he found the hideous creature in the corner chuckling with a group of younger Kindred. Hangers-on and sycophants who saw the Nosferatu was their ladder to the top. Victor was about to continue his story when he spotted Chuck. His wide, misshapen mouth twisted into a sharp-toothed grin. "Charles!" He said. "Good of you to liven up the evening! Although to be honest..." His grin grew wider. "I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again."

"We need to talk," Chuck said abruptly. "In private."

"We need to talk, what?" Victor sneered. "I didn't hear the magic words."

"We need to talk, Sheriff," Chuck spat out.

"You're damn right we do!" Victor cackled as he handed his empty wine glass to one of his goons. "I'll be back in a minute, boys. Sheriff business. Stay beautiful."

Victor took the lead, making his way towards the restrooms and letting Chuck follow. The moment the door closed, Chuck erupted. "What the fuck were you thinking?!" He snarled.

"Why whatever do you mean?" Victor said, holding back a snicker.

"You could have blown me to high hell!" Chuck said in a loud whisper.

"No, I could have blown the Anarchs to high hell," Victor said. "Unless you were collaborating with the enemy - an offense punishable by Final Death - then you weren't in any danger." Victor took a step closer. "So either my Ghoul needs a smacking for his shit aim, or it wasn't you I saw on the camera."

"You fucking idiot!" Chuck spat.

"Watch your mouth, boy," Victor said in reply, baring his fangs.

"No!" Chuck said. "I'm tired of holding my tongue every time you clowns blow it. You could have sent one of your little planes to follow them back to their havens like I wanted and bombed those. Now you fucked everything up!" Victor was silent, looking Chuck straight in the eyes. "What?" Chuck said. "Are you honestly stupid enough to think I'd just warm up to the shitheads who killed my boy?"

"It sure looked like that," Victor said, blinking his oversized eyes.

"And here you're supposed to be fucking smart or something," Chuck said. "Sweet dancing Jesus Christ!"

Victor was silent a moment longer, before uttering two simple words. "Explain, bastard."

Chuck shook his head, pounding his fist into the wall. "The Anarchs are obsessed with the goddamn Sabbat, and I am, too! But I'm not going to break the goddamn rules! Then I thought...why not kill two birds with one stone?" Chuck paused. "I wanted to get them following me around so you or Harry fucking Potter could get a bead on them and take them out! Get them to trust me then wham!"

"And you didn't think to tell anyone about that?" Victor said skeptically.

"They got a fucking Toreador," Chuck said. "Those things can read minds. It's one thing if I have shitty thoughts I have to work through. You can blame those on the Beast. But they moment they heard your ugly voice? The jig would be up. It was deep cover shit and you fucked it up because you can't goddamn help yourself with those fucking toys!"

"So tell them you had nothing to do with it," Victor replied simply.

"Like they're going to trust me!" Chuck said. "They're blaming me for the whole thing! I'm persona-non-fucking-grata with them. I'm lucky they didn't just ash me on the spot." Chuck sighed. "But that does make them easier to avoid. Which means if you can hold your itchy fucking trigger finger I have a plan."

"That's not like you," Victor cut in.

"I want all these fuckers dead," Chuck said. "And I'm willing to put behind me that you tried to blow me the fuck up if you'll help out." Chuck paused. "Dustin is going to go to the fucking Anarchs and tell them he don't wanna be Camarilla no more. Because you tried to blow him the fuck up. He's gonna do this whole sob thing about how the Cam tried to explode him. But he doesn't wanna go without me. So they'll set up to meet me. And when they do, bam! You and your fucking goons pop up and take 'em out."

"And why the fuck would I put my unlife on the line like that?" Victor asked. "Why not just have you not show and bomb the shit out of them?"

"Because they're expecting it now, you cretin," Chuck snarled. "They're gonna have every Gangrel and Famulus they have out combing the skies. Your shitty birds can't be everywhere at once or see every agent at once. The moment they hear one of your robot planes is in the air they'll bug out. And you need to be able to hide in plain sight." Chuck shrugged at that. "Far as I know the only decent fuckers in this Domain at that are you and Klein. You think he can take a raging Tzimisce? I saw that bitch hulk out and it was nuts!" Chuck looked at it. "It's gotta be you. You, me, Dustin, and anyone else you know who can hide or throw a punch."

"You realize, of course," Victor said. "I'm going to need to keep an eye on you until this all goes through." Victor leaned in again. "You and your second-embraced."

"Yeah, yeah," Chuck said. "I got nothing to fucking hide. Bug me or do whatever you want."

Victor smiled. "Maybe I shouldn't smack that Ghoul after all, then," he said. "If he'd have killed you this would have been a total bust." Victor clapped Chuck's back. "I'm not gonna say I'm sorry for doubting you, but I'm glad I was wrong." He opened the bathroom door. "And if this goes through? There might be a promotion in it for you."

"Oh yeah?" Chuck asked.

"Suffice to say some big shit is going down," Victor clarified. "And I'm expecting some vacancies. Between us, of course. For now let's get back to the floor. I swear to Christ you're the only person in this dump worth talking to tonight..."