Molly Toombs
Federal Boulevard wasn't any place that Molly found herself wandering too often. She wasn't much of a foodie, so she didn't come here frequently to buy ingredients (although it has happened a few times before, when she's decided to tackle a very specific recipe for the hell of it). She's come this way for phở every so often, but that was largely the only reason she's ever found to visit.
Tonight just so happened to be one of those odd evenings, where Molly just happened to be in the neighborhood that probably wasn't the best place for her to be this night. She'd come from doing a favor for one of the few nurses at work that didn't dislike her immediately. His name was Jon, and she was watering his plants and gathering his mail for him while he was gone for Labor Day Weekend on some long-planned camping trip. He had an apartment in the neighborhood, and Federal had a bus stop with a fairly direct line back to her own home.
So, while waiting for the next bus to come, Molly stood half a block up from the bus stop, peering in the window of a closed antiques shop. She was dressed in a pair of high-waisted shorts, with a white tank top worn under an unbuttoned and airy-looking dark tuquoise blouse, whose sleeves were rolled up and button-secured at elbow height. She had sunglasses in her hair, stowed there now that the sun had gone down. It was rounding close to midnight, and the streets had gone relatively quiet even for a Friday night.
The next bus would be the last one. Molly was keeping one ear out for the tell-tale rumble and creak and hiss of the massive vehicle while inspecting a flapper-style gown draped over a table in the window, lost somewhere in her own thoughts in the meantime.
Flood
Flood appreciates the once-his-and-now-the-kine's culture.
The Lasombra would not be caught dead saying it and there might even be a lick or two who got caught finally dead making light of it. But the more than dead man can be caught outside that vaulted old Victorian between acts sucking down a cigarette. It's one of those bastions of civility in a stretch of Federal like this.
They even hire out a valet service, thought it only has one or two sets of hands driving the nicer vehicles of those who ventured out to see the production to the private parking lot, attendants who look like locals and maybe couldn't afford tickets on their meager salary-and-tips, but watch over and attend to the place nonetheless.
And just maybe one or two of those vehicles goes home short some change, a pair of designer sunglasses, or maybe even a digital camera. It has been known to happen. They pay their tax for coming out this far into a neighborhood that isn't theirs. Not that any of them would dare to it to...
No, let's not talk about Flood's car, it's really ridiculous. Almost laughable. But let's just say they wouldn't dare steel from a man who radiates that kind of menace and gets out of that kind of vehicle and makes it much less of a joke. Not the kind of man who, when you open up his glove compartment, you find a German Luger next to a pair of gloves. No, both stay tucked away and the car is parked and fled.
Anyway, his car and that old Victorian and what might happen in the next act all gets forgotten when he spots Molly across the road, turned around in a labyrinth of thoughts during quiet contemplation of a beautiful gown.
The kind of gown that might've been found on a woman who might've been found on the arm of a man who might've been wearing a charcoal suit with windowpane stripes in white and baby blue just like his. There's no refection in the window when he steps up beside her. And if she doesn't hear him coming, long and quiet strides and indeed appearing, behind her until his voice pipes up...
Well, that's entirely a possibility.
"But I've never seen you in a dress like that," like he's picking up a conversation left off at. Not missing a beat. Not skipping a note in that mix of mandolin tones that is his spoke-Italian-first-but-learned-Irish-from-his-mother kind of voice, a voice that might be more easily found on a record in that shop than anywhere else.
[ Dexterity + Stealth ]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 6, 6, 8) ( success x 3 )
Molly Toombs
[Perception 3 + Alertness 3]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 6, 6, 10) ( success x 3 )
Bo
[Per+Alert]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )
Bo
Another day always lead onto another night, and for Bo, that usually mean't another craving for some new and previously untried cuisine of some sort. So tonight, by chance she had been in the Federal District, and by pure delightful chance a new fuzion food wagon had been parked just down the street from that ill fated bus stop. It was just about closing time, as the buses were running down but Bo had managed to snag the last of some unusual concotion filled with noodles and spice and well who knows what else.
She was starting away from the food cart as they shuttered their windows and closed up shop for the night. The woman walking along in her knee high military style boots. She was dressed in a black pleated skirt tonight, thank the Denver weather for that one, the skirt falling to just above the top of her leather boots. Her top was a little more out there the majority of it done out in a dark purple material which seemed to stretch and breath, with two stripes of blue running up from her hips, cinching in at the stomach, and then flaring out once more under her bust..the blue stripes matched the blue extensions that intertwined with her raven black hair, and the sleeves of the top cut away halfway down her bicep.
Her mind is on her food as she wanders in the general direction of Molly and the unseen Flood, a jaunty little tune on her lips as her legs carried her along with a vital spring in her step, her body as energized and alive as ever. But so far she has not seen the others, not spotted the meeting before the antique store...but she would soon.
Molly Toombs
When the words touched her ear from behind her shoulder, Molly startled. Hard. When she was startled she didn't physically jump or dart away. Her knees didn't buckle, her arms didn't go up and swing in immediate self defense. Instead, a tremor ran through her from shoulders to feet and caused her very skin to shiver. Her back went straight, her shoulders tight, and her heart skipped a beat, then hammered wildly in her chest to make up for it.
Adrenaline spiked her blood, and when she sucked a breath of air back she turned her head to look to her right. There she found a tall figure, and her heart jumped again. Then she looked up, and when recognition set in she was not reassured.
She took another deep breath, pressed her hand to the crazed patterns her heart was beating out behind her chestplate, and shifted her expression from scared and worried and surprised to something that was aggravated instead. Her expression was meant to portray immediate calm and a coming together of one's senses, but supernatural senses could probably pick out her quickened pulse and shallow breaths anyways.
"God damnit," she cursed at him and rubbed her chest tenderly, like he'd made her heart ache when he caused it to jump, then crossed her arms across her ribs so she could cradle her own elbows.
"I would ask how you keep doing that, but I get the feeling I already know."
Kali
The Ravnos has been keeping her ears to the street, albeit mostly through her dealers. The little Rroma drug lord is always looking for information; she would have made a good Nosferatu if not for the fact that she is WAY too vain. Because she understands that information is power, and she is always looking for a way to improve her station (or, more specifically, her security).
While a lot can be done through her underworld employees (and private eyes, but enough about that for now), some things have to be done through legwork. If nothing else, she has those dealers that she needs to collect from. And that's what the woman (okay not woman, but still kinda) is doing out on Federal tonight. She has dealers that occasionally peddle up here and she's on her way back from one of those. The woman's thick heels on her docs leave a distinctly non-stealthy thumb on the ground with each step; she's definitely styled out tonight in leather pants that show off the shapely legs and one of her favorite bustiers under a leather jacket. She's got a cigarette burning between her lips as she walks along the street, humming along with some obscure tune or another, occasionally murmuring out the words.
"Screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it, I guess every superhero need his theme music..."
…okay, this is Kali. It's not obscure; it's Kanye West. Because really, why not?
She stops a moment as she sees her favorite (only, but still favorite) ghoul across the street. She puts fingers to mouth and is about to whistle when she notes Flood up ahead of Bo, apparently not having seen the ghoul yet. Kali's eyes widen a bit and instead of whistling, her cell phone comes out and she texts the ghoul.
[b]Look to your left.[/b]
Bo
Her fork dug around into that culinary monstrosity, seeking the next juicy morsel. Anyone who was watching her could tell that Bo was distracted, the happy, thoroughly self indulgent smile that stretched quietly from ear to ear told them that she was lost in foodie heaven.
So it should be no surprise whatsoever when she fails to notice Kali, and only when she gets closer does she notice the bottom half of the two individuals infront of her. It takes a moment for Bo to pause in her movements, the fork stuck into the box of food more firmly so that it might stand of its own accord as she takes in the scene around her. The look on Molly's features tell her many things, from the closed off stance to the mannerisms she wore on her face. It was obvious this was not a meeting she was thrilled with.
So Bo had planned to do something about it, had even started to stride forward with a mind to interfere. Even if she sort of once met Flood. But her movements are interrupted by Kali's text her hand digging about in a secret pocket in her skirt. She dug around briefly, and then pulled it out. The text is quickly scanned and Bo looks left, spotting her compatriot in crime and texting back.
Sup Boss Lady?
The text comes just before she turns preparing to cross the street.
Flood
"He may have, but I think it would have been polite to at least let me know," his reaction to her curse as she tries to calm that thump, thump, thump, thump, in her chest, but it might at well be in her ears. Must be, the way it now drowns out Flood's words. He seems to expect this, or have expected it, like maybe he doesn't want her to fully comprehend his first response.
Matching her for the salt lick tongue lashing with wit.
And the Lasombra speaks a little louder next:
"But as for how, I think it's the opposite problem. You don't no-" like he might be saying 'know' before continuing "-tice," he answers, though his eyes are still on the dress. He's straightened and crossed his arms over his chest as he looks from it to her and back, that same way he had looked her up and down the night before, but more expediently. A perusal. A comparison.
"Or, your problem might be that I noticed - you," a pause before his clarification, and that's when he takes a long step back and away from the woman that Bo must think he's bearing down on for the kill, his attention still focused on the shop. This predation is different. Not its windows anymore. That's not his focus. There's an alleyway around back he seems to be noticing and it looks like there might be an apartment above, but there's a FOR RENT sign and they don't seem connected directly. And that is enough for Flood as he looks at a place filled with artifacts of a bygone age.
"That is a wonderful dress. Let's buy it," never mind the place is closed.
It doesn't keep him from heading toward the door, one of the large metal sliding security gates pulled down in front of it, and looking at the lock, after a final glance at the rest of sparsely populated bus stop.
Not noticing Kali. Not noticing Bo. Not noticing any of them, yet, as he examines it and a sliver of metal comes out of his pocket.
Breaking and entering. And the night so young.
[ Dexterity + Larceny ]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 4, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )
Bertram Kohl
It was cloudy out tonight, warm and just a chance of rain. So Bertram kept the jacket that went with his suit slung over his shoulder but he, honestly, wasn't too concerned about whether or not he'd have to use it.
The look he sported was classy, once it was simply expected of a man to wear a proper suit but these days that requirement shifted into an option and most men opted for something just a tad easier to slip into in the morning. Old habits, however, died very very hard for Bertram and the pants, and vest he wore matched the jacket he had slung over his shoulder. The shirt and tie he wore underneath completed the outfit.
The light rap of his shoes announced his presence when he faded into the darkness only to emerge under the next light in his path. This little dance continued as he whistled softly to himself.
Bertram wasn't a sneaky guy. The shadows weren't exactly his friend. Bertram was the kind of guy who liked to keep his presence hidden from view. It, honestly, made little sense to him to hide away, to sneak, to slither around on his belly like some kind of serpent. Confidence was all a part of who he was!
Molly Toombs
Molly stayed standing right where she was, with her arms crossed under her bust, fingers curled around and up the backs of opposing elbows. Even as Flood adjusted his position to be similar to hers while he played with words -- she doesn't know-tice. He noticed-- her. She stayed put with the same posture when his eyes raked down her front and up her sides, like he was mentally fitting the dress he kept glancing back at to her like a fleshy mannequin.
Yes, even when he said that they should buy it and stepped forward to regard the security gate in front of the big metal door, she still stayed put. Standing in front of that window, fairly unaware of the women texting one another up the street, and thus fair just as ignorant to the presence of one of several dead men whose contact information she had on her dresser, in an uncertain stack that she wasn't sure what to do with. Flood held her attention. He had that effect, especially when he produced (of all fucking things) a lockpick from his pocket and started to twiddle it around in the lock on the security gate.
She shifted a little, weight moving from right leg to left, and glanced briefly toward the street to see if the bus was coming (not yet), then looked back to Flood and the door. Fingers tapped against her elbows.
"Really? Right out here on the street like that?"
Apparently so, Molly dear.
Kali
Kali smiles at the text and—more specifically—at the fact that Bo's crossing the street. From her vantage point she keeps a watch over the ghoul as she moves to join her domitor. The look is not entirely unlike that of a feral tiger looking out among a sea of predators as her cub approaches. She's smiling pleasantly enough but there's an edge to the way she's slightly curled over, a hint of her inhuman nature in the way she moves slightly or her fingers twitch at the keyboard.
U have someone nearby who R not friends. Don't look, just come over. We're not starting a fight, but pays 2 B careful
When Kali starts using shorthand in her texts, it's usually a serious situation. She glances around, eyes passing briefly over Bertram—a quick look, nothing more—and then she looks over at Flood, watching him for a moment and studying his interaction with Molly as good as she can at a distance. She's not silly enough to use Heightened Senses on a city street corner except in absolutely must-use situations. Besides, she's studying body language. Words lie. Body language is harder to cover up.
[[Per+Emp: Is Molly a friend or otherwise of Flood's?]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Flood
"Like I said: I'm going to buy it. But the prospect of getting back here during business hours has certain difficulties," dropping that veiled revelation with a casual shrug. He had promised her he might answer a few questions, hadn't he? And this seems like a freebie.
And revise that. Not breaking; just entering.
The first lock gives with a metallic click of release. He slides up the first gate and starts working on the deadbolt to the actual door next, though he does slip his hand into his pocket and this time precise fingers summon up a different tool to match the one in his other hand. A thinner sliver of metal to fit the next and less hefty layer of security.
"Now, there may be an alarm, so we'll have to be quick," he says we without hesitation, and with an altogether strange muddling of steely professionalism and devilish mischief-making.
"You are going to come inside, aren't you?"
Even as he speaks the entirety of his attention remains on the task at hand and the trouble he seems intent on getting the both of them into. He begins to work on the second lock, his fingers gripping the metal bits lightly, almost like making a fly for fishing he's so delicate about it, until his wrist finally gives a strong turn to see if the deadbolt will finally slide free and give them access.
[ Another Dexterity + Larceny. ]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 6, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )
Bo
Bo pauses only briefly at the curb of the street, making sure no car's are speeding her way with the intention of fusing her legs with the bumper. That would be the last thing she needed tonight. She pauses to read the text, a gentle furrow appearing on her brow as she fights the desire to look around and see who it might be. Instead she just raises her face to look at Kali with a confused, questioning look on her face as she started to cross the road.
Who's the big bad wolt?
This text comes through before being briefly followed by.
Guh...wolf.
She's across the street then, striding up to Kali and smiling up at her favourite person in the undead world only now taking a moment to look around as she leaned in and whispered conspiratorially.
"So whats the sitch boss lady? Something going on we should or should not know about?"
Molly Toombs
Penciled eyebrows climbed up on her freckled face with a muted look of one who was impressed by what they'd seen when the first lock click-popped free and the security gate came open. Flood drew himself closer to the door to work on the deadbolt next, and Molly couldn't help but edge just a little closer, scooting the flat bottoms of her strappy brown sandals on the sidewalk when she leaned to peer around his shoulder and watch what he was doing.
He had her interest, and he might even have caused her dense barrier of sarcasm and caution to ebb away some, but then he used the 'we' word and, without waiting for protest, asked her directly if she would come inside with him. The way it was phrased was structured like a boy convincing his friends that he had the best idea and portraying that he would be downright wounded emotionally if she refused to come play.
As good as he was at picking these locks, she still moved her hands in front of her, fingers splayed in refusal, and shook her head some. She didn't make a lot of noise or any large gestures about it, though. She was already guilty by association, for just standing there with him while he made his way through not just one but two locks. To draw attention to him would be doing herself no favors either.
"Why on earth would I do that? I don't want the thing, and I'm sure as shit not playing dress-up for you either. Come on, let it be."
Kali
[[Per+Aware+Auspex]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 5, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 3 )
Lux
Molly and Flood are in front of a window with one reflection and one flapper-era dress [Great Gatsby, Thank You] which also just so happens to be next to a busstop, and then just over there, right on that corner, there is a Bo who is on the same side of the street as Molly and Flood who are engaging in mischief, or are until they disappear inside, and there is a Kali who isn't walking and has her phone out, or is until Bo joins her, smiling, and then there is a Bertram just gilded by the noir-circle of a street-light burning the midnight oil, and the Victorian playhouse is right over there, and some pho place is right over there, and right over there-there-there is a little 24-hour mart that manages to look both classy and seedy (aged like wine that's turning to vinegar), and over there is Lux.
Over where?
There! There. What, you don't see her?
Love is blindness.
Here, a better picture. Most shops are closed, but not all. The pho places and taco places and Vietnamese places the bike chopshops and the red-painted drycleaners squished next to some neon-lit-up Neo-Tokyan bar beside a falling down fence and an old old old house with hand-painted signs telling you No Parking Please: yeah, most of these places are off-limits. But lo, there is a tiny, tiny alley between two of these buildings, and Lux who - like Bertram - is not really a creature that often sneaks or slithers or sticks to the edges of things -
well she comes pouring out've that alley like a fall of light through shade; easy as a drink of water; easy as a damned breath of air after the heart-clutch fear of drowning. Lux, in ridiculous shoes that are gold and low-heeled but snake up her legs kiss up her ankles to her knees, lace shorts that're cream and set off the even pallor of her skin, a tweed jacket with professorial patches on the elbows and beneath that a thin tshirt that looks in the midnight oil light to be of some indeterminate color and perhaps to have a print on it. Her hair is loose; loose, loose, loose.
By sheerest chance, the alley or narrow path or whatever lets her loose near-ish Kali and Bo, but on the opposite side of the street and between Flood and Molly and Kali and Bo.
So.
[You know: maybe Lux is just so pleased with whatever she was doing that she doesn't notice that people she knows and probably wants to avoid being around at the same time happen to be around yeeeah! Percept + Alert. Because I love rolling this.]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 10) ( success x 1 )
Kali
It's comical, the variance of expressions that is about to make their way in succession across Kali's face. No, really it is...I promise you. Just wait; you'll see.
First off is a furrowing of her brow and a look of honest confusion as she looks at the body language Flood shows toward Molly. Maybe it's not what she expected--okay, clearly it's not what she expected. There's a moment of disbelief akin to the look you probably got on your face when you first saw Miley twerking it and grinding on a 36 year old. If you haven't seen it then bless your lucky stars; the expression screams "I don't even know what I'm looking at."
Then she shakes it off and smiles to Bo as the ghoul comes up to her. The protective look eases to something that's more relaxed, though still bewildered. "I don't know yet. You know that guy over there?" She looks over at Flood and Molly. "He's one of the bad guys. Kinda. He's like a bad guy in Hannibal Lector way. Which isn't that much different then most of the good guys in our world, really. But still, he's a bad guy."
Yeah, THAT made sense.
And comes the look where she stiffens. Kali had certain gifts as a mortal that are long since gone. But they pop up from time to time, like now. And her eyes widen as she gets a sense that something isn't right.
Finally comes an irritated look as she realizes where it is. The irritation is because if she were a little more of a bitch, she'd just let it happen. But she can't, so she puts her fingers to her mouth and whistles loudly then shouts.
"HEY, DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR! TRUST ME!"
She hates that she's not a bitch.
Bertram Kohl
The world is a simple place, especially when you take the time to see it through Bertram's eyes. Life is conflict, a constant struggle for resources, energy, or whatever might make one's life better. So he wasn't exactly the kind of man who was going to pay too much attention to two people seeking to acquire goods by whatever means they deemed necessary. In fact, attempting to stop them when doing so did not directly benefit Bertram was, in every way, against his personal "Code of Ethics" or however one wanted to put it.
So his approach upon the pair was simply one of random happenstance. The man came upon two individuals in the course of his brisk walk. He wasn't immediately present, mind you, he was a short ways away from the pair and slowly closing the distance between them. It wasn't even likely that he realized much, if anything, was happening...
He did, however, notice as a group began to gather up ahead of him. These kinds of things were always important to note. This drew his attention, and with it his focus. Bertram lived a life where walking into a trap was a very real possibility so it behooved him to take notice of such possibilities and let the wheels in his mind go to work, however, that didn't necessitate shifting or altering his course, oh no! You see certain things were important, especially in a new city. Paranoia and cowardice were hardly befitting a man who wished to establish himself in a new city. So he makes his way in their direction, whistling all the while.
Flood
The door swings open because that's what happens when you pick a lock right, as Flood has done, and no amount of screaming seems like it will change that...
Only a brass bell rings out as it bobs in a stately curved swirl of wrought iron nailed to it. Finally wiggling to a vibrating silence and there is no explosion of alarms.
Which doesn't necessarily mean the place isn't rigged to go off, but when Flood looks around the frame of the door and still finds no sign of a security system past that gate, he smiles and nods, pleased with himself.
"We're good," again with that we.
There had been a reason he had looked for lines other than the telephone and electrical ones leading away from the building. But he couldn't be sure until now. As surely as the bolt had slid free from the lock at his finger's command. He tucks away those slivers of metal and looks into the darkness past what the streetlights illuminate.
Hangs his head back and into their illumination.
"Don't be such a wet blanket. If I were trying to get you in the buff it wouldn't be in a place like this. The dress is for a place like that," shaking his head with all those words he seems so sure will be charming, though they are so dated in their very nature. From another time and all the sweeter for its aging. Almost to the point of cloying, some might say.
Oh, if body language could talk - it does - anyone who has noticed Flood at that opened door and Molly near by might wonder if the former is going to disappear inside at any moment. Explore. Indulge his curiosity and his complete lack of discipline when it comes to bridging obstacles between wanting a thing and having it.
He finds a light. Or at least one of them. The rest must be in the back, because the one he flicks on is a low hanging green fixture that only dimly illuminates the trails between piles.
And piles.
And piles.
Of all the things an antique shop has. Bookcases that once held philosophical tomes and law books and medical treatises and who knows what else in great manors they were salvaged from, stuffed with curio and knickknacks and look at that chair? Upholstered in green velvet. What about that lamp? Or that vase as tall as a little person. Dancing dwarfs are painted on it. A piano and a harp and...
Please get the picture.
Because look at all the pictures and paintings and statues.
It's all there and more, even that counter stuffed with costume jewelry and old knives and flasks and buttons and this and that, it's stuffed with this and that too! Did you see that one?
That's what's illuminated through that front window, visible even from the street, and even as Kali screams there is something tempting about it.
Not in a mundane way.
Something that draws the very soul to the place. A promise of nostalgia and memories forgotten and all the good things connected to these places from that one place you use to go, maybe that your grandmother use to take you.
That must be why Flood turns back and spots her. See the twitch? Did you see that twitch in his face? It isn't a full-brown snarl, no, he controls it and even if he hadn't it might have turned into this same amusement and a tinge of bemusement coupled together.
"Trust her, she says," he says under his breath.
Because nothing bad has happened. At least not yet.
How could anything bad happen in a wondrous place like this.
Which must be why he turns to walk inside with a final and encouraging glance at Molly.
Bo
Bo has come to her Domitor's side, and this is where she seems happy to stay. She listens and watches as Kali....explains the situation with Flood and her gaze slide toward the man in the middle of picking the lock. She remembers him vaguely, a figure she had met a month or so ago and who had been as slick and debonaire as the finest snake oil salesman.
She looks back to Kali then and looks dubious. "Seriously? The guy's kinda big on life and by life I mean himself...but he didn't really come off as a fava beans and brains sorta fella." She inquires.
Further conversation isn't really pertinent when suddenly Kali is yelling loud enough to wake everyone in the block, and Bo looks at her with surprise etched across her features. She looked across the street to Molly and Flood and then looks around, seeing who else was attracted to the spot.
Here she spots Lux, and here she offers the woman a quick wave and a hurried, and slowly growing smile. She then turned her gaze back to Kali and said.
"Time to save the day!" At that she starts forward, heading to intercept Molly's entrance to the store, crossing the street yet again.
Lux
So.
Lux sluices a glance -- enshadowed, lashes low (coy, dreamy) -- from the [Sabbat] Lasombra to the [Camarilla] Ravnos. The glance is a sharp one; it contains brilliance; and casually it is she slips her hands into pockets on the interior of her jacket, jacket lined in some dark moth-heart silk, though her body cheats directly toward Kali when she yells, weight lilting onto her back leg.
The line of her shoulders is startled; the exclamation of her spine is too:
"Kali?" - she calls - as Flood opens the door. As Flood disappears inside. And:
"What? Why?"
[Rolling WP is fun!]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 6 )
Molly Toombs
[Willpower]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )
Bertram Kohl
[Willpower... Cuz everyone is!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )
Molly Toombs
When those little picks of metal eased back from their work, the big metal door swung open. Molly jumped a little, the motion a quick jerk of the shoulders that relaxed when she realized the sudden noise she heard was just a bell, and that there were no sirens or blaring horns or lights going off inside. The place didn't seem to have a classic alarm system, or at least not the sort that shops like this tended to have-- loud bright and brilliant alarms scared people away, which was more effective than having a silent alarm go off and praying the police showed up in time to rescue some of your stolen goods.
Flood made a comment, encouraged her to join him by calling her a wet blanket, a rain on his parade. Besides, he'd advised, this wasn't the kind of place to be seduced. They were here procuring a dress that was made for the kind of place where she could be seduced. This comment earned him a low hissing sound of disapprovement. If Molly weren't so uncertain of the line she walked with Flood, still so cautious with him, she probably would have reached out and cuffed the back of his head in retaliation to what she perceived to be an incredibly presumptuous comment, though he might have been intending to deliver it as old-timey and suave.
"Oh, if that's what you--," but then there was a sharp whistle and a loud, clear shout from the other side of the street. Surprised, Molly turned about and looked over to the two-- no, three women that gathered there. All pretty, all in very different ways. A firey red-head, a punky looking girl with black hair and blue extensions, and a gorgeous woman that looked like she belonged in an entirely different city than one so dull as Denver.
"Flood, she said not--...," but he was looking back at her, encouraging her to follow and stepping inside already. She looked back again, and now the woman in the skirt was running toward her, crossing the street on heavy boots and looking like she had some important information to share. Molly looked worried, conflicted, and on the spot.
Inside this antiques shop there was a monster that promised adventure, but danced a razor's edge of mystery when it came to his motivation at the end of the day and where she would find the end of the day herself. Outside were women, unfamiliar and pretty all of them (weird sisters?), one of whom was running to reach her-- to catch her? Stop her? Turn her in? She had no idea.
The antiques shop called to her. The way the soft green light hit the books, how it pulled shadows and called out the dust that swirled in the air-- it made her want to go inside. She was willing to bet that it smelled wonderful and comforting and that the temperature and humidity were just right, and that there were so many more wonders to be found than the pretty dress in the window and that vase over there and those pictures and...
Thump-thump went the boots, and Molly turned and put her back to the entrance of the store to Bo in the face as she came near. The older of the two women frowned, but not in anger or distaste, and instead in curiosity, when Bo stopped and was near enough to say her piece.
"What's your deal?"Asked the woman who was about to participate in breaking and entering.
Kali
Flood ignores her warning and walks inside with Molly behind him. Kali looks like she's about to punch something (though Bo is of course safe), or at least say "fuck it" and leave them to their fate. But Bo starts heading that way…of course, because Kali tried to warn them. It makes complete sense that Bo would, even if Kali didn't know the girl's love of experiences.
Now she REALLY looks like she wants to punch something, and she makes a sound like she's physically holding back a spew of profanity strong enough to strip a building down to the drywall.
She snaps her attention over to Lux. "There's dead shit in there. And not our kind of dead shit…well, kind of but not really. But it's still dead and bloody and still dangerous all the fuckin' same. Wanna come?"
She pulls out her gun as she starts stalking across the street next to Bo.
"I have a fuckin' taste of nasty-ass years-old shit in my mouth now. That stupid fucking cockknocker son of a anal leaking poponar nenorocit pula muist..." It all degenerates into Romany curse words. Now the drywall is showing...
Bo
[WP cause i wanna]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 5) ( fail )
Molly Toombs
Or, well, Molly was curious as to what Bo's deal was until her red-headed counterpart came across the street looking aggrevated and drawing a gun. Molly's eyes hopped from Bo's face to look past her shoulder, to the woman in tight leather pants and a bustier with a gun drawn from god-knows-where in her hand, and then they widened.
She looked at Bo again, quickly, then took a surprisingly quick leap back in through the antiques shop door and reached for the big metal door to shove it closed in the faces of those who were approaching.
"Flood!" She called in a harsh whisper.
Molly Toombs
[Dexterity 3 + Athletics 2: Bitch Got a Piece!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 5, 5, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )
Bo
[Dex+Ath]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 9, 9) ( success x 2 )
Bertram Kohl
Bertram's whistle ended when he found himself recognizing the features of one of the figures up ahead. Curiosity immediately takes hold and he finds himself assessing the situation he was walking into.
Footsteps never miss a beat, he doesn't even slow as he continues on his way towards the group. Eyes moving from Molly to the woman who was crossing the street to speak to Molly, and then, finally, to another woman who was crossing the street with a firearm in her hand.
"Well now... Things are getting interesting this evening aren't they Bertram?" He asks himself as he continues his casual approach. It's about time things got just a little more lively, he had to admit they had been damn boring as of late!
Then he hears Molly call out, and the name hit him instantly. Flood was the name of the one she had mentioned the other day. This certainly drew his attention and Bertram found himself glancing around at the others present as he did his best to assess the situation he was walking into!
Kali
[[Dex+Ath: Trust me, Girly Girl. You want my piece in here.]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )
Bo
Bo was heading across the street at a good clip, the look on her face one that was both worried and excited at the same time, worried for the woman who might be about to put herself in danger, but excited for all the possibilities that were opening up in this night. All the things people..all the things.
She makes it to the sidewalk without being turned into street pizza, and she goes to open her mouth, goes to speak a warning, let her know that when Kali say's not to do something, its generally for the best.
She probably should have told Bo to stay put...but that is something in the past. She makes it to the sidewalk, but before she can get any words out, before she can focus on the woman in danger....her gaze is drawn, dragged infact towards the store.
But then Molly is wigging out, and instead of heeding the warning, she shoots into the store and slams the door. Bo blinks at that and steps up to the door, trying to pull it open. "Girlfriend you gotta get outta there! And while your at it? You really gotta let me IN there! I have gotta see whats up with this place." She says heaving on the door.
"Come on! Stop being a door Nazi!" She says as she pulls on the door, but fails to gain any ground.
Lux
There is a tug. This sharp hook under her collar-bone: like the first time she ever wanted something, or someone, like the first time she ever had something taken away. This hook: it tastes like dirt under her nails, like turpentine and flame. This tug that says c'mere and something in her wants to say of course, of course, and is, indeed, saying it, but Lux is nothing at all if not contrary, if not widdershins to what she should be. The lovely creature's eyes widen at Kali's answer: There's dead shit in there. And not our kind of dead shit. Well, kind of but not really. But it's still dead and bloody and still dangerous all the fuckin' same. Wanna come?
Her pupils are pinpricks, dark as anything. How did Kali know? She wants to know. Lux's answer isn't verbal, partly because Molly is attempting to slam the metal grate shut on the sudden rush of Ravnos and Ravnos-ghoul, partly because some other gentleman is sauntering casually in on the scene, and partly because she's scoping out the place.
[Uh. Hey, antique store. Do you look full of wickedness? Are there creepy things staring down from above like a warning to any blonde -- not that Lux is blonde, but still -- ready to 'rush' the gate? Are there other ways in? Sparkle, sparkle. Perception + Investigation. Because why not?]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 6) ( success x 1 )
Flood
Flood has a cane in his hand when he looks back. Black lacquer on ebony wood that leaves it a thing of darkness. The kind of thing that definitely looks like it belongs in a man like Flood's hand. He has already walked over to that dress and is using the tip of that cane to lift the back of its hem and get a look at the old cloth and steel skeletoned mannequin's nether regions.
And then he hears that hiss. Hears and sees Kali advancing at a clip with a gun in her hand alongside Bo.
Alongside bow. His eyebrows pop up at this development. An interesting revelation. Even more interesting than the gun. But probably not to Molly, who he glances over at him and hisses. Because Kali and Bo have managed to get to that door and she probably knows she won't have time to figure out the foreign lock before they're pressing their way inside.
"Run. Out the back. Now," he says to Flood. It's not so much a suggestion as a command.
An index and thumb pinches the neckline of that dress and the way he yanks it of it is with the force and precision of a man taking a tablecloth from beneath a full dinner setting. He's striding through the paths between the packed walls of things when he throws a fat money clip that lands squarely on the counter.
He had promised to buy the dress. And he'd gotten a cane out of the deal.
[ Running toward the back. Pulling Molly along if he has to. Dexterity + Athletics. ]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (5, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )
Flood
[ Perception + Alertness ]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Molly Toombs
[Run: Dex 3 + Athl 2]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Molly Toombs
[Perception + Alertness]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
Flood
Lux can barely spot it. From the other alleyway on the other side of the building, a lone and very dim light on in the back that looks like it's coming from the adjacent wall only because it's two feet away.
Kali
The Ranvos squeezes in the door and the incredible stream of curses is still ongoing, switching between English, Spanish and Romany at various times. "Shitkicking futai titlicking felching puta..." She falls quiet a moment to check and and make sure Bo's okay, taking a breath. The Ravnos is angry and a little scared...the latter a new look on the vampire's face as far as her ghoul is concerned. Then she looks over and shouts again.
"FLOOD! JESUS FUCKING A LEPER, DUDE, THERE'S FUCKING DEAD THINGS IN HERE THAT AREN'T US!"
Hey, even if she's a Masquerade breach she's gonna be a dead one soon if she isn't made aware.
Lux
Lux can hear Kali shouting, even outside; can see, perhaps, the shadows of those inside flickering among all the things that want-to-lure, that-cast-their-hooks; and Lux can see light [of course she can], so she does cross the street - drifts across it - but enters the other alley, on the other side of that building, special mind to the lone otherman Everyman in a suit out tonight. But once inside the alley, she pulls out her blade, readies it by her thigh and - investigates. Peeks. Soaks in the ambience. Is it an entrance? Is it just a window, to give her another perspective of these alleged dead-but-not-dead-but-dangerous things that would make Kali so wild?
Lux
ooc: not 'of' these alleged, but 'on' these alleged (grin)
Bo
Bo is almost lost in the moment, when the door finally opens as Molly no longer blocks the door she pushes inside, only to stop before the racks of old clothes and other vintage treasures. Bo has a thing for just about anything. But old vintage stylings have never really been her thing. That does not stop her from stepping into an aisle and examining a dress, her hand sliding fondly down the seam of the skirt even as Flood and Molly make a break for it out the back.
It is when Kali screams, not in fear or panic, but in concern and exasperation that Bo snaps out of it and finds herself holding a dress up off the rack, setting it against her own frame.
"Blagh! Yeah..no." She says shoving it back into the rack. "Fushia is definitely not my colour." She turns then, looking over the racks to where Molly and Flood are running, and she looks to Kali...THIS time she waits.
Bo
[Per+alert seein stuff!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
Lux
[Percept + Alert]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
Bo
[Init +5]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (7) ( success x 1 )
Lux
[Initiative +9]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )
Kali
[[Per+Alert]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )
Kali
Init+6
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (8) ( success x 1 )
Flood
[ Init + 7 ]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )
Bertram Kohl
Bertram hears the woman shout out something that causes his brow to quirk just a hint. Dead things that aren't us could mean anything... Zombies, or Ghosts, or Banshees, or Mummies or... Hmm come to think of it Bertram hasn't the slightest clue what it could possibly be other than vampires. Perhaps she meant a different group? Perhaps she meant enemies of... Us?
It was really difficult for Bertram to pinpoint exactly what she was trying to say without asking her, and since he was close enough as it stood. He saw no reason to hold back. So his footsteps pulled him closer to the group and he took the time to prepare himself, just in case [Spending 1 Blood point to increase strength for the scene!].
When his footsteps stopped he gave a smile to Kali and then his attention turned towards the door. "Doors can be quite pesky things can't they?" He asks the woman curiously, as his attention shifts towards the door and he stares at it with a puzzled, even dumbfounded, look upon his face.
"Have you tried turning the knob?" He asks the woman curiously, as he lets his attention return to her, and his smile slowly lifts as he waits politely for a response. "I can check for you, if you'd like." There was no real reason to be especiallly rude, he needed to meet with this Flood himself! So he was actually quite eager to get inside!
Bertram Kohl
[Per+Alertness!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )
Molly Toombs
[Init + 7]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (7) ( success x 1 )
Bertram Kohl
[Init! +Uhm... 6!]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (5) ( fail )
Bertram Kohl
[I guess delete the last line!]
Flood
The dress is going to be ruined. The cane might be splintered. And Molly? She might be bruised and battered by the time they come out the other side of these increasingly confining bookcases and confined paths. But Flood doesn't seem to care. Armoires thrown open and stuffed with clothing and larger statues atop pedestals covered in stone.
They almost manage to get there way through to that dimly lit back door of the place. A back room was better than nothing and hopefully had a way out.
But all is for naught.
It is a straight shot from the front to the back of that building and when he throws open that door and he does indeed shoot them through as the Ravnos and her ghoul enter
Well, that's what Kali must have been shouting about.
Kali and Bo and perhaps even Bertrand who have squeezed through that front door Molly had tried, but failed, to throw shut before Flood had swept her of and away.
Away to this fate, which they can see, which even Lux can see from that window she'd had the presence of mind to creep around the alleyway and spy through.
Their is another light. A lone candle. What it shows is nothing any could have expected in a place like this.
Except of course for Kali. She'd tried to warn them.
It's not the man that's dead.
It's everything else. Everything in that back room. It has all the tinkering and restoration equipment that they might've expected in a place like this. Along with stretching skin in frames like tanning leather. Along with the bone saws and hanging dead bodies, still and slowly being drained of blood onto books and vases and basins, all manner of vessel, on the floor. The lines drawn on the floor, not in chalk, but in bits of burnt finger on the cement. His mouth is moving and moving and he's not whispering, he looks to be shouting.
Except for there is no sound.
He must be talking to himself.
Or someplace else.
The place shudders. The very bookcases to. The door closes and he looks up and smiles.
"You are not the guests that I expected," he says in a thick Eastern European accent. Maybe it's Czech? Or Romanian?
The smile goes away.
It's impossible.
Well, they've probably all learned that many things are possible.
The statue, a nude woman posing with grapes they'd just run past, lunges for Flood. A chair - yes, a wingback - is enlivened like some sickening Fantasia. It goes for Kali. One of the armoires tips forward, its doors snapping forward even as it spits forth clothes and jackets to try and stifle Bertram.
And Lux?
Well, she'd had the good sense to stay outside, but she's at that promised land turned Hell's back door. At its window, with its drawn curtain, and through a sliver she can see the same foul magic this man - this man who seems to breathe, seems to live even as he harnesses and unleashes the power of others' death - conjures forth.
Bo
Theres a creepy dude, theres a creepy dude whos muttering crap, worse, theres a creepy dude whos making the furniture come to life and attack the others. Worst of all? He is insane enough to make a wingback, a wingback of all things come to life and attack Kali.
Bo is fairly certain Kali will be ok on her own, but it won't be long before the whole place is alive...and then they were screwed. Pulling a flip blade knife from that hidden pocket in her skirt Bo dashes into the back...shes not even really thinking about it when she goes to stab the guy. Its about saving Kali, and everyone else. Blood on her hands would be something she thought about afterwards.
[Bo Declare: Close and Stabbity]
[Dex+Melee]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )
Bo
[Damage]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
Kali
Kali hates blood wizards. Really, her opinion of the Tremere is nearly as low as the Sabbat. Fucking wizards and their oogly-boogly magic; usurpers of power that supposedly ate their way into the Camarilla and yet somehow always manage to get more respect than she does no matter what she tries. And Giovanni aren't much better.
Fucking magic. It's just another way for monsters to cheat their way into the power that should be hers. This guy may not be any of those, but he's still something foul and sick and it's not quite them. It's death magic, and it's left the taste of a corpse's taint in her mouth. And by taint, she means that part of the body. And no, she doesn't know what a corpse tastes like there, but she imagines it's about this taste.
It's a fucking chair. Sure, it can stake her, but she has a better idea.
She takes aim at the Necromancer's noggin. (Necromancer's Noggin is the name of my Black Sabbath cover band.) And the gun roars to life.
[[1 BP to Dex. Dex+Firearms, diff 8 for headshot. Spec: Heavy Handguns]]
Dice: 8 d10 TN8 (5, 5, 5, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 5 ) [WP]
Molly Toombs
Her shoulder bumped heavily into the jutting corner of a new bookshelf that they passed as they ran, and her ankle spasmed a moment's worth of white pain when she threatened to rolled it but managed to prevent a sprain anyways, this done in one particular moment where Flood had jerked her forward faster than her feet could manage to keep up.
They made it into the back, but stopped all at once, Molly stumbling into Flood's back to do so. She made an effort to right herself, peel herself away, but was halted when her eyes finally registered what was in the room they now stood within.
Skin was stretched on tanning racks, blood was everywhere, draining into and all over things. What color had worked its way back into her cheeks drained out once more, and she nearly fainted on the spot. Her eyes threatened to roll, to reject the image, but the cold body in front of her, the rush of bodies behind her, and the strange man speaking in the room (what the hell kind of a monster is this--) all forced her to clamp back down on the bit of reality and refocus.
She grasped Flood's suit jacket, kept herself near. He was staring hard at the man, and didn't quite seem to notice soon enough that the statue of the woman was charging them full speed. Molly could have bailed alone, could have pushed herself away from Flood and used that moment as an escape from everything happening.
But, instead, she dragged Flood out of the charging statue's way along with her.
[Dodge, I suppose?]
Kali
[[Damage]]
Dice: 10 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 8 )
Bertram Kohl
Bertram sighs when he catches sight of the strange situation they've gotten themselves into. What, precisely does this gain anyone to begin with? Why were they in here? What did they hope to accomplish? What were they hoping to gain from walking into this strange place? In the end there probably would be no answer. Bertram, however, did decide to follow these strangers into a building not knowing what he might find inside.
So when what he finds inside is this strange dead thing and his menagerie of assault furniture, he shakes his head and sighs to himself. "You did ask for this Bertram..." He says as the Armoire comes at him like a rabid jackal vomiting forth clothing in an attempt at distracting him. Unfortunately for that Armoire... It was only made of wood, and that meant it was easily broken!
[-1 Blood into Potence, I guess Punching the damn Armoire in the... Armoire! Dex+Celerity+Brawl]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 4, 10) ( success x 1 )
Bertram Kohl
[Str (Currently +1 +2 Auto Successes from Potence]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )
Lux
Lux is a creature of passion and calculation; for instance, here are things she is calculating. 1. Whether or not there's anything valuable in the shop, or pretty, or useful, worth stealing now. 2. Whether or not this is something that connects to those Warlocks. 3. What in the fuck what in the fuck what in the fuck! Lux is not inured to the sight of bodies, bleeding out like that; of sinew stretched and skin tautened, of a grotesque abbattoir surrounding some occult center, 4. Oh, if Kali is aiming her gun at the -- mortal? -- creature's head, look at him and all his mess illumined like a Vermeer painting -- and if Lux is standing here, oh! Yes, all right: press to the side right there, but still look inside as certain members of the motley crew get attacked by furnishings. 5. Do not attempt to steal that statue or that armoire.
[No roll necessary yet. *grin* Everybody seems to have their shit well in hand for now.]
Molly Toombs
[Dexterity 3 + Athletics 2]
Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 4, 6, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Flood
[ Statue's attack ]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )
Flood
If that armoire were an inexplicably floating brick filled with coins and Bertram with a brother by the surname of Mario this would make a lot more sense, but it wouldn't be as impressive, the way his hand punches through the back of that still-snapping armoire that swallows him only to emerge with it quieted and still from its back end.
Filling the room with a familiar scent. The rich cherry of its finish is not as natural as it seems upon first inspection - because, let's face it, Bertram is not here to shop. But the reason it is so rich is plain. The scent of dried blood rubbed into the grain.
If that wingback chair were on Pee-Wee Herman's show it probably wouldn't... Oh, yes, closer it's visible there that the upholstery is held fast with human teeth, revealing itself as it claps and bites toward her.
And that statue? Well, the plaster cracks as it moves and lunges at them, and Molly for one gets a familiar scene. The reason it is such an ivory white. Similar to when she'd smelled a bone saw used while assisting a surgeon.
But Kali raises her gun with singular purpose and Bo advances with as much deliberate lethality.
They might have thought this a work of infernalist vampires, those undead amongst them at least, but he falls with the ease of a human and when Flood stands up and brushes himself off...
Well, at least the cane isn't broken and at least the dress isn't torn. He looks to Molly, having really done nothing to contribute to this settling of conflict.
And then he notices...
Touches his cuff...
"You tore off one of my buttons," raising it to inspect the threads before looking up at her.
"Was that really necessary?" Turning to grab his money from the counter, and then up at Kali.
"I think next time I'll trust you," though he's staring at that gun, wondering if it's going to be leveled on him next, cane still in hand, the dress now as much as he has for a shield to ward off the fierce beast that is Ravnos, only taking in Bertram in his periphery.
Kali
Vampires have scoffed at Kali walking around with a gun. They say that it's silly for her to rely on a firearm in the middle of a war between two sects of the undead. Kali always just smiles and is uncharacteristically silent. Let them think she carries a useless toy. She knows the truth...and tonight, so do the others in the room.
Sure, the man was human and alive (emphasis: WAS). But a bullet to the brain fells anything.
She smirks a little bit at Flood when he says he'll trust her next time. "Can you say that into a recording advice for future reference?" The gun hasn't pointed at Flood, but neither has it entirely lowered because at the moment, he's closer to her ghoul than she is. "Oh Sister Switchblade...come on over here, babe."
She's aware of Bertram, of course. She's keeping him in her periphery, but her attention's on Flood.
"We may be on opposite sides, but some shit goes beyond the war, Flood. You and I both know that." She cocks her head to the side, observing him with a curious expression. There's a bit of enigma in her eyes and a touch of a hard edge she doesn't normally show. Her expression...it's not quite human as she lets the monster out just a touch.
"I'm not gonna say you owe me. That wouldn't be fair. Just don't forget this, sweetie. Cool?"
Bo
Bo had moved forward so fast she hadn't even noticed. She'd wielded that blade inelegantly, it not being her normal sort of blade, but she'd managed to sink it into the man none the less....but then the man's head...well his head is cored out by Kali's singular bullet, and such actions never leave those nearby spotless. So the man's head gives way to the bullet, and particulate sprays behind him, and some infront...so Bo, in her bravery gets a face full of gore for her efforts.
That blast of blood and bone and flesh snaps her out of it, snaps her out of that immediate need to protect and save Kali. She looks about then, really getting a moment to examine the stretched skins and dead bodies, the ground bone. She also gets her first upclose and personal look at a dead person, not undead..but dead, with a pulped head no less. This in of itself makes her gorge rise...and when at last she pulls that knife from his body and what colour that might have existed in her face drains away completely.
But she hear's Kali's words, and so she staggers to her feet, and makes her way to Kali, not even being careful when bypassing Molly or Flood, the gore splattered woman isn't in shock...but at this moment, she's certainly close.
"I think I need to go home and burn this outfit...and bleach my skin, yep definitely the best move right now." She asks as she starts to move for the door.
Molly Toombs
There's a succession of loud noises, bangs and cracks and gunshots, and Molly and Flood stumbled away from the statue that came after them. She recognized the material it was crafted from with a sudden horrible dread. But then, all at once, everything was still. The bookshelves that had swayed and trembled were stationary, the furniture that had come to attack had stopped as well.
The man was dead, and all was quiet.
Flood pulled his arm away and commented, simply, on the fact that she'd popped one of the buttons off his jacket when she'd tugged him out of the way. The expression of sheer exasperation on her face collided clumsily with horror, and she held her hands out and open in his direction in a clear 'what the fuck, man?' gesture.
But she said nothing. She wasn't sure she could summon words in this moment if she tried. She looked to the two women in the room, and from them to Bertram, and.... Oh. She stared at the other familiar face here for a few long moments, then dropped her eyes to the floor. She didn't have the calm to keep examining the terrible collection this place had to share.
She would be this way, or something like it, for a time. Quiet, pale, shaken, and just waiting for the opportunity to find a way home since she's definitely missed the bus by now.
Bertram Kohl
Bertram was rather annoyed by the entire thing. The way the thing engulfs him, the way his hand simply punches through the back, the smell of blood in the paint causing him to draw in the scent slowly as he takes the time to smash the thing apart with startling ease, despite his otherwise slender frame.
A sigh pushes past his lips and he glances down at the remnants of his former nemesis, crumbled and splintered before him. "There's not much of a point in making a lesson out of an Armoire now is there?" He asks with a look of annoyance on his face. He wasn't really speaking to anyone in general, but he turns soon enough to look in the direction of Kali, and Bo, and Molly, and Flood...
Quite a collection of interesting people gathered here isn't there? "Bertram..." He notes as his hand moves outwards in the direction of all the others gathered here. "And you've no need to thank me. That Armoire got what was coming to it." He adds in a dry tone that hinted at an attempt at making a joke.
He took the time to straighten his tie and smile to the others present before offering a smile and a nod of his head in Molly's direction when he finally spots the woman. A greeting, though he says nothing more in her direction. Simply a smile and a nod.
Flood
Bertram's name is familiar to Flood. He can probably tell in the way he nods and smiles, having a distant brother on his team, while the whole time he's still staring down Kali and that gun.
Even as Bo slips past, even as Molly is beside him and things are sinking in and all she can manage is a gesticulation.
And finally it's like that smile is also meant for Kali. It's a subtle, but discernible shift, and he nods again. This time that's meant for Kali too.
"Yeah. Grab your 35 mm and I'll put on a Hell of a show," beginning with a joke, but then more serious again. "I'll remember it, doll face," and he looks to Molly, an arm out to usher her forward if she will allow it, finally a glance back up at Bertram as he does so.
"Let's meet at midnight mass," because the other Cainite would know what that means. "I'm getting this one home."
Lux
The creature outside inhales, finely. Outside the air has that certain kind of air-smell that only happens after midnight. Outside a bus trundles to the stop, wheezing, but seeing no one there does not slow down, rattling in its casements, glass scratched-up and pale light contained inside wan as anything. Outside, Lux's slender shoulders are back against the building's façade and she considers a moth wavering toward a lightbulb. The conversation inside: she catches it in scatter-shot pieces -- senses heightened only by adrenaline; by disgust for what is inside. By curiousity. After the inhale, Lux digs in one of her outter pockets with her right hand, fishing out a cigarette, then (dextrous she, preternaturally so) adding to that a lighter. The lighter held between thumb and palm, she hauls out a slim phone as well and scrolls and scrolls to send off a quick text.
There is no noise inside to indicate a sudden attack; no darkness, pressing against the window, blotting out candleflame and flicker-light. But still; Lux stays.
Kali, she brought Everett out of Richthofen. She helped John.
What is neutral, really?
Nothing.
Lux
Text: Still here in case.
Kali
Kali may not be the soft, snarky, funny chick that she usually is at that particular moment, but she's not inobservant either. She can see how Bo is traumatized by what she just saw, what she smells and more. The Ravnos remembers her own experiences with horror for the first time...not horror like you see in a slasher film, but real horror. Ugly death (there are very few non-ugly deaths) and the smell of viscera and it's all not right and never will be again.
But it does. Or maybe it doesn't...maybe you just get used to it, and that's what Kali's done. Either way, she knows what Bo's going through and she gives her ghoul a brief, reassuring smile.
"We're getting you a whole new set. You did good."
Bertram draws a raised brow, but she doesn't look to him until she finally lowers the gun. Once that's done she turns so neither Bertream nor Flood are at her back. She looks to one, then the other. Flood gets a return nod, and a faint smile. It's not trusting, but it's more than any member of the Sabbat has seen from her in a long time.
Finally, she looks over at Betram once more. "Kali. Nice to meet you. Sword or Tower?" It's just that simple. She can assume based on Flood knowing her, but she'd rather not.
Her phone beeps and she slips it out, looking and smiling a bit. She taps to text back as she looks at Bertram for an answer.
Kali
TXT: Thanks. Depends on this guy in the suit.
Bo
"Yeah...sounds good." Bo says this distantly as she moves towards the front of the store, intent on getting outside, getting away from the smell of blood and death and gunpowder. Unless she's stopped she moves to the door and pushes it open, striding outside and stopping just outside. She takes two clunky steps to the right and leans there against the thin strip of brick which separates the door from the window and she crouches down.
The knife is folded and tucked away in her pocket secreted away like some dark, nasty secret. She then puts her head back, laying it against the brick and waits for Kali to come outside.
Bertram Kohl
He nods in response to Flood and his smile grows brightly. "Until then I suppose..." He says to the man and he moves towards the Exit to join Flood as he makes his exit, he was a busy man and he had quite a bit of business to get to himself.
The honest truth of the matter was that the other woman had identified herself as the enemy and he wasn't about to be left alone in the same room with the stranger, not after seeing how well she shoots! So, for the moment, Bertram opted not for cowardice but discretion in leaving himself alone with a woman he knew nothing of. Never allow yourself to be put in a situation where you lack the advantage...
Her question came but shortly after she took the time to respond to a Text, and so with a shrug of his shoulders he answered back. "We'll have that discussion another evening! For now I bid you ladies a pleasant evening! I'm sure we'll meet again soon enough..." He says while dismissing himself out the door, to head down the street and away.
The woman had been of some assistance there was no reason for any bad blood to be generated tonight!
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