Joseph chuckled a little, watching the festivities. Here he had jumped down, planning to diffuse the situation, when along came a fool to do it for him. Though it irked him to have revealed himself needlessly, it was like a particularly unprecedented move on your opponent's part... you weren't expecting it, but you just had to deal with the consequences as you played.
As Lestat left, Joseph relaxed slightly. If ever there was a person who would complicate things, it was Lestat. His strange pheromonic ability, coupled with his curious nature, could prove to be problematic in the grand scheme of things. However, Lestat did manage to do one thing right... he opened the alleyway for an invitation to be extended to all the others.
"The werewolf is right..." Joseph said, turning to solely face the little vampire who had cause the whole situation in the first place. After all, if he was right, (and he usually was,) she was the most important piece in the area. "There are much better places for introductions and... yes, if you want, the challenging of duels... than a park. Might I, ever so humbly, extend to you an invitation to my nightclub: 'Wildcats'?"
Joseph reached into his pocket and started to text with his left hand while he gestured with his right. "It is just over that way, several streets down. It is a lovely little place, where you can get food and drink to nourish you whilst enjoying a little entertainment. There, you do not need to worry about this absurd war between the vampires and werewolves. When you go in, the anger, the hate, the desire to kill all slip away from you... or so I'm told by our patrons. There, and possibly only there, you can meet any werewolf in a civil manner."
He turned to Lucas, and smiled his most disarming smile. If any of the werewolves had been there before, they would already know what he was about to say. However, for appearances' sake he should say it anyway. "Of course, my esteemed werewolf colleagues are more than welcome to visit as well. However, I must ask that they use the werewolves' entrance. We wouldn't want any... accidents... to happen right outside the safety of the non-violent atmosphere the club provides."
Turning back to the girl, he extended a hand to her. "Well, my lady, shall we away?"
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Leon Westwind was doing what he normally did before the big show at midnight: downing a bottle of lemon juice. No one quite knows how he managed to stand the sourness or the taste of it, but apparently it calmed him enough for him to go on stage and perform like a professional.
His routine was always the same. Fifty-five minutes before the show, he would drink his lemon juice. Thirty-five minutes before the show, he would get into costume. Fifteen minutes before the show, he would tune his instrument of choice and then get ready to go onto the stage and perform like no other could. It is funny he mused, that I, a werewolf, have a greater following from the young vampires than the young of my own kind.
Leon finished his bottle and looked at the time. Thirty-seven minutes... two minutes until he started the next part of his routine.
Apparently, however, fate had other things in store. Something barged into his room... rather, two somethings. Skyler Sykes and Ivan Cherdenkov. Both of them were panting from exhaustion, (probably from running all the way across the club, down the stairs, and down the hall tho his room,) and holding cell phones, though Leon could tell only the first of these two facts. Thus, he was understandably angry at their intrusion.
"What the devil do you want?" He demanded.
It was Skyler that spoke first. "You're not gonna believe it. The boss just sent a text message saying that we might have a really important guest and that we should change the whole act for the night and actually do the really big show that we usually reserve for top-echelon type people, y'know, the one where you do that one song first then lead into the other song and then... GACK!"
Ivan rubbed the back of his left hand, which he had used to chop the young half-breed right across the neck. "Vhat young mutt is trying to say is that Jo-seff has asked for us to be doing our most impressive performance tonight as he has invited young vampire who vill probably be crucial to his plan."
Leon frowned. "Ah, yes, the plan." Leon knew a small part of the plan. Everyone who worked at Wildcats did. They were each there for a specific reason, after all. Ivan was necessary for the whole club to run smoothly. Without his ability to alter emotions, the club would eventually be attacked by one side of the other for "harboring enemies" or some such junk. Leon himself was there to attract the crowds. It was his ability to perform that kept the young ones coming back time and again. He may have been blind, but he could see that much very clearly. Skyler was... arguing with Ivan... again? Didn't those two ever stop?
"Stupid mutant!"
"Veak-villed puppy!"
"Hideous monster!"
"Half-breed mutt!"
Just as Leon was about to step in, a childish voice drifted down from the stairs right outside the door.
"If you two sillies don't stop yelling at each other, I'll rip your lips off, m'kay?"
As, yes, the last of Wildcats' employees: Anastasia Rooke. She was without a doubt one of the creepiest children you would ever meet. She had the ability to spout off the most gruesome threats in that happy-sounding childish voice as easily as if she were inviting you to lunch. However, she too had an important part to play in Joseph's schemes. With her ability to see the consequences of actions, she could tell you if what you planned to do was a good idea or a bad idea. She, out of all the employees, probably came the closest to getting a hint of what Joseph's true plan was. But even she still had no clue what it was.
Joseph was just secretive like that. He would share a part of his plan those he needed, but never enough to give the person a hint of what the actual plan was. Actually, behind Joseph's back, the employees of Wildcats had come together and tried to figure out the plan. Even knowing four different parts of the plan, the only thing that they could figure out was that the war between vampires and werewolves was going to get a lot worse, that one of them would be involved in the escalation of war, and that Joseph planned to execute whatever his master plan was then. Each of them had a different idea. Ivan, being Ivan, had thought that with all the confusion, he would the opportunity to rescue his werewolf lover from captivity. No one ever said Ivan was fully sane, though. Skyler thought he was planning to let the war get so bad that both sides were sick of it, and then forge an everlasting peace treaty. Youthful optimism, in Leon's opinion. Anastasia believed that he was planning on using the chaos to assassinate one or several of the vampire High Lords and instate himself in their place(s). And Leon personally believed that Joseph was planning to use the escalation of war to take New York, and possibly a large chunk of surrounding area, and carve it into his own personal kingdom.
Leon shook his head. Now was not the time to be dwelling on that. Now as the time for action. "Alright, people," he said, standing up. "We've got less time to prepare, and more to prepare for. Ivan, I want the lights reconfigured to setting seven. Also, I want the audio system re-calibrated for Show #2. Anastasia, I need you to get ready to do vocals for songs two, four, and twelve. I've got to go pull out the second guitar, as Joseph will be joining us on stage for one of the numbers. And Skyler..." What to do with Skyler? He was technically part of the team, though as the bartender there were no orders to give him and no important jobs he had to do. Yet he couldn't leave the little guy out. "Skyler... make sure everyone's ingesting a LOT of alcohol tonight."