[Ariyah – Lady Washington – The Stores – BoL – Fame 2 – A]
The Asian woman swirled the wine in her glass as she watched Yuri mentally chew on her words. That was good; he wasn’t dismissing her suggestion right off the bat.
“Hey, I’m sure not all your decisions were made through fear. And you don’t have to go scrutinising your history; that stuff’s long gone. As you said, you like dealing with the present. So just take each present decision as they come and spend a little time thinking ‘what if’ as opposed to reacting as you usually would.”
Ariyah shifted her weight, propping one arm on the armrest and resting her chin on the back of her knuckles, “Take last night, for instance, you went to the Toreador meetup. That must have been nerve-racking, to get all dressed up and socialise, but you did it anyway.”
A slight commotion in her peripheral vision caused Ariyah to turn her head. She watched as a scholarly looking man approached a messily attired one. A few words were exchanged, Ariyah caught the words “Thinbloods” and “brands”, before the Thinblood was manhandled and led out the room.
It really did seem Cross was tightening everybody’s act tonight. Considering the rumours she’d heard about Kindred running rampant in Chinatown, she guessed it was about time.