Portsmouth Council corruption and dysfunction

Portsmouth Council corruption and dysfunction define the gap between the Council’s supposed role as a check on the Coterie and its practical failure to act decisively. Duncan describes a body weakened by internal disputes and compromised loyalties; when Ava later seeks its help, its members treat her accusations as unproved and subordinate them to other requests. The Council is not shown simply as absent, but as an institution whose procedures and divided interests leave urgent claims waiting.

Reputation and Intended Role

The possibility of appealing to the Portsmouth Council first arises as an alternative to the Coterie’s apparent reach. Lock asks whether rumors about the Council are true, while Ava is drawn to the prospect of an official group of toughs at her back. A quick trip to Portsmouth seems, to her, as though it might solve her problems. That hope depends on the Council being capable of offering protection beyond the Coterie’s influence.

Duncan counters that expectation without claiming that every Council member is alike. He argues that Venus wants people to believe there is no escape from the Coterie, but that the organization does not own everything: in some areas, Councils exist to protect the weak and keep groups like the Coterie out. The contrast establishes what the Council is meant to do, while also making its local failure consequential. A functioning alternative could limit the Coterie’s dominance; Portsmouth, Duncan warns, is not functioning in that way.

Division and Capture

Duncan characterizes the Portsmouth Council as weak because of “too much infighting and petty squabbles.” In his account, at least half its members are in Venus’s pocket, but the uncertainty is itself part of the problem: he and his companions do not know which half. He suspects that the remainder may answer to someone else. The Council therefore offers no reliably independent bloc on which an outsider can depend.

His conclusion is not merely that individual members may be corrupt. He says they can be trusted only as far as their personal agendas extend, and calls the body hopelessly corrupt. The competing allegiances make collective protection uncertain even before a request is heard. Les adds a geographical qualification: if the group were actually in Portsmouth, on the Council’s own turf, the situation might be different. That possibility does not undo Duncan’s warning; it suggests that the Council’s power, such as it is, depends on local jurisdiction rather than a dependable willingness to intervene elsewhere.

Ava’s Appeal

Ava approaches the Council with an offer: “The Coterie off your doorstep.” She explains what she needs and why, but deliberately keeps her account to the bare bones. The allegations she brings concern kidnapping, murder, and extortion. Her proposed exchange makes the Coterie’s removal the benefit to the Council, but the appeal also exposes the weakness of her position: she is asking strangers to act on claims she cannot substantiate in the room.

A green woman immediately presses the issue of proof, then dismisses the allegations before Ava can establish them. She represents The Inferno as nothing more than a nightclub and casts Ava’s accusations as a personal grievance over a denied raise. In the same exchange, she refers to the claims of money laundering and extortion as fanciful. The response turns a serious accusation into supposed workplace resentment, discounting both the charges and the speaker instead of examining them.

Ava acknowledges that she has no proof to present. She notes that her discarded phone would once have contained the many messages she sent Venus to report that she had completed jobs, although she recognizes those messages would not necessarily have portrayed her favorably. This detail complicates the appeal: the evidence she lacks might also expose her own participation in the Coterie’s work. Her testimony is therefore not presented as an uncomplicated credential, even as the Council’s refusal leaves the allegations untested.

Procedure and Consequences

Alistair rebukes the green woman for interrupting, but does not accept Ava’s account as sufficient grounds for immediate action. He acknowledges that Duncan vouches for the visitors, while insisting that this endorsement has limits and that the Council cannot charge in on their testimony alone. He says the Council will investigate, but that investigation takes time. The decision is framed as a matter of evidence and process rather than a declaration that the Coterie is innocent.

A gaunt Council member adds another procedural obstacle: other people have approached through the proper channels and should receive help first. Ava accepts the explanation without further protest. Alistair then shows the group out, apologizes for the long journey, and invites them to return if they obtain proof, during normal meeting hours. His promise that the Council is there to serve its people sits beside the delays, priorities, and evidentiary threshold that prevent immediate assistance. The Council’s dysfunction thus appears in both Duncan’s account of internal capture and the encounter itself: even when the threat is brought directly to its door, the institution offers investigation later, not protection now.