Riding to the rescue.

[The Mouth]

Brothers and Sisters of the cause: I come to tell you a thing.

To the Black Rage, I tell you that I have brought confusion to my foes!

To the Free Pawns! I bring a new brother!

To Gaia's Children! I did it without offering violence.

Not to toot my own horn, as the Yanks say, but I think I did well.

Here is what I did:

I received word from Dr. Longfellow. Yes, that Dr. Longfellow, former Seneschal of the Emerald Domain, Ventrue Primogen, mover and shaker among the Clan of Kings!

He had become disillusioned with the ways of the Camarilla. He had seen past the veil of civility to the dark underbelly of the Camarilla machine and saw that the Elders were going to feed him to that machine...

A Kindred, a man who knew that if he fed the machine a little of his self, his soul, he could maintain his standing, his status.

In a moment of bravery he threw it away.

He walked away from all of it - Why?

Because I had told him of the freedom I had found. The power it has given me. The responsibility to maintain that freedom. To walk among those who had bled to keep their liberty and who knew what that freedom cost.

Richter spoke to him of how we are responsible only to our selves and our Brothers and Sisters. How we make it work among us without petty tyrannies to hold over others. That we form like minded associations for the benefit of our Allies in the Cause.

And he listened. Now, I have preached. If I get a smile, however indulgent and patronizing, then I have a hook set. I speak to the interests of the listener. I show them a new path, a new way. A way that works for young and old.

Dr. Longfellow heard the word.

He heard the Word.

And when he told the others, Elders of the Camarilla, they reacted poorly. They struck him down in their attempt to silence that Word.

Now, this may make your blood boil, the Beast calling you to strike, strike, STRIKE! the Camarilla down. Let me tell you why this is good news.

They reacted that way because if the Word could reach Longfellow...

I could possibly reach them. They who can't walk away from their games, their power plays of decades and centuries. They who fear the moral courage of others. They say to themselves 'I cannot possibly just walk away, to build something different and new. To be more than trying to scrabble for the territory, to be more than petty jealousies. To be Free.'

And in that they struck down Longfellow.

But he did not die the Final Death!

Nay, he did not!

Because, brothers and sisters, he called me.

I sent forth my resources to sow confusion among them. They were but foes of the moment, nothing more than reactionary puppets parroting the roles they had been trained to believe. Do not hate them. Do not be disgusted or angry. Pity them. I do not name them because I believe that one day they will hear the Word and come to know us, to understand us, and meet us as genuine equals.

I will not risk such a thing happening by playing into their vanity and pride. I shall make them nameless and thus blameless for their actions.

Having set my resources to provide a distraction I snuck into the gathering place where they had struck down Longfellow. I gathered his shattered body and then hid him. I knew, brothers and sisters, I knew that they were aware of my coming. I knew they would summon me at some time. That I would attend them and spill all before their Majesty.

So, I let them scheme. To plant seeds in the minds of my distractions, to generate confusion to my foe-of-the-moment, to let them have their pride of supremacy. I was summoned forth, and I came to them, acting the fool.

For this I was shot! I couldn't have planned it better, but I knew they would try to turn the situation against me. So I played dead, waiting for my moment.

When my opposition left I gathered my resources and left, Longfellow and I. I covered the Masquerade. I removed any mention of my tormentors.

I left them be, offered them no violence, and still offered them a strategic withdrawal after a tactical defeat. Did I shame them! No! I merely offered them poor choices until they felt it was not worth their time. Did they get Longfellow! No! I brought him to the Free Pawns and Richter.

Now, Madsen, King of this Domain, and while I know many are not a fan of this, he is still a scary guy who could murder most of us with a word. Would you care to be on the receiving end of the Reaver Luthius? So, I offer my respect.

Madsen decreed that the Elders of the Camarilla had said Longfellow was trouble (Which sounds awesome to me) and that he could not remain in Madsen's Domain. Madsen listened, and with wisdom replied that Dr. Longfellow was no longer answerable to the Camarilla and thus could live where he chose so long as it was not in Madsen's realm.

So, Dr. Longfellow will not be staying with us in Tacoma - But he shall be staying an Anarch!

We have gained an ally, Brothers and Sisters. I have gone forth into the wilderness and like a shepherd with a lost lamb I have guided him forth to us! But he is no lamb. He is a Lion, and the wolves of the Camarilla shall howl in shame when he roars again!

Welcome, Dr. Longfellow. Welcome.

[Wolf]

*slow clap*

[Just Evan]

Bullshit.

Longfellow left the Cam because he was playing the Game of Thrones, spread his plans too thin and got outmaneuvered by clanmate with a grudge and pushed into a situation that escalated on his ass into the realm of Marcellus Wallace style Medieval doom.

Going Anarch was a desperate move to save his skin, not the culmination of a prolonged conversion campaign.

Right now Tacoma is building a rep as where washed out Cammies go when they want to get out of trouble in Seattle, not a solid alternative to the politics and intrigues of an ancient Old Boys Club.

Yes, you done pissed off the local Ventrue. You brought another homeboy to the gang. You even did it by outmaneuvering your foes and succeeding without violence. But you didn't win Longfellow's heart to your cause. If the political seasons change around here substantially enough, I got 10 large says he's back in Seattle looking for his old status and boons in a heartbeat.

Francis, you are my boy and I got your back come hell or high water, but tell it like it is.

[Wit]

Also... I shake my fist at you... from a locked room... -_-

[Styx]

"Right now Tacoma is building a rep as where washed out Cammies go"

I do hope that wasn't meant for me, as I wasn't Camm for long enough to become washed out and only joined under threat of death...

[Just Evan]

Oh, unwind your panties, Ty. I'm not taking a pot shot at you any more than I am at Longfellow. The reality is that you and Longfellow joined the cause amidst shakedowns unrelated to the philosophy of the Movement. You joined the Cam at gunpoint and left as soon as it was possible to do so. Longfellow also came in screaming for sanctuary from maddened men in seats of inscrutable power.

Arguably, of the three of you, Francis was the only one to really embrace the cause. A lot of his fallout seems to have been regarding ethics and loyalty beyond a desire for immediate power-cash-favors. Finding the Anarchs seems like it was a logical conclusion to a career not really suited for the Cam.

All I am really saying is that if the cause is going to flourish, you folks need some conscripts who 'see the light' without the barrel of a massive Ventrue gun pointed at their heads. Otherwise, the local Ivory Tower Gang won't have a reason to take you all that seriously. The appearance is that the ranks are simply swelling with allies of convenience after they burn Cammie bridges. How can the movement start to effect changes among the Cammie Elite if all the elite see are those dispossessed by the current leadership running to a safer, saner banner of support than the Sabbat, but one distant enough to get them out of trouble?

[The Mouth]

The Anarch options are, and always have been: Co-Option, Force, and Political.

I'm aiming for #1 and #3. Fitz, look at Seattle. They are already Co-Opted. I heard rumblings from Longfellow back when he was Seneschal and getting the back chatter for forcing apologies through minor prestation debts. You know what the complaint was then? He was giving them no choice!

You know why he was fired from Seneschal? Other than losing a couple of petty political fights? The reason stated? He wasn't approachable.

I watched him go slowly insane trying to apply Camarilla rules to Seattle and then decide that the Anarchs have been pretty damned consistent. I sold him on that.

Ventrue Gun? EVERY Elder who might want to jump ship is going to face that sort of opposition. Those the Camarilla wants gone will be forced to our side; it's convenient for the Camarilla to do that. Dumb as fuck, but convenient.

Those the Camarilla wants to keep, for any reason, will be persuaded by physical or mystical force; every time they do that we also win a long term goal out of a short term loss; Strategic vs. Tactical.

Fitz, Longfellow, like so many others, had the option to flee. That he didn't and tried to fight his exile, until Madsen made it official, and make it to the Anarchs even after he was in the clear tells me we got a friend in our corner.

Seattle isn't a Camarilla city, it's Vancouver with violence. There are treaties with the lupines, they have more fighters than a war zone and those fighters aren't encouraged to leave after the fight? The politics is, frankly, dumb. I've spent years among the Camarilla, watching, taking notes. And my notes are filled with very little. There was a while where the Primogen council was worth a damn; the same membership for more than two months!

But they have the martial resources to scrape Tacoma off the map... So, we are trying to get their disaffected, the people on the way out. Their exiles and the like. Trust me Fitz, the process is selective, and in our favor.