The Fine Print
1) Be forewarned this scene could become very dangerous. If you are averse to character death or permanent psychological or physical damage you may want to sit this one out.
2) There may be content of an adult and graphic nature in the vein of personal and grotesque horror as well as violence. If you have any triggers in particular that may necessitate your withdrawal from the scene please let me know beforehand (via PM or instant messenger) and I will notify you if I think it best you sit this scene out. I will be glad to run a separate storyline for any of your PCs in the system that is more accommodating to what would make play fun for you.
3) All players are expected to post for their character within twenty minutes after a system post. If I mark that a round has moved into a posting order it will be alphabetical or by initiative order depending on circumstances. In this case the first player to post after the system post will have fifteen minutes and all other players after them will have five minutes to post.
4) All players are expected to roll for any relevant Flaws at the beginning of the scene. Vampires will start with 1d10 blood points in their blood pool (plus one blood point per dot in Herd or Generation up to their maximum blood pool). Ghouls have full blood pools unless any were spent IC recently before they got a chance to feed again.
Kali[[Nightmares]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )
Nobody[I'll start off rolling for Mask of 1K, which isn't a flaw, but going without one is kind of a flaw 'cos bro. Manip + Perf.]
Dice: 8 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )
Nobody[How much blood you got, Jack? +1 for Generation. (+1 for Domain, too? Perhaps?]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )
Kali[[Blood Poo + 3 (Generation)l]]
Dice: 1 d10 TN7 (9) ( success x 1 )
Jade[blood pooL! +5? yaaaaaay 8th gen ¬_¬]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( fail )
GraveYou have your reasons for being in East Colfax, this deep and this destitute, this far into the layers of Purgatory. This place where the walls of Hell are so close to being beaten down and all too often a devil manages to slip through the cracks and torment the already tormented.
You have a reason for being here. Of course you do.
Maybe you're lost? Maybe you're not?
Maybe you were seeing that band at that dive bar and now you're thinking of making the walk to the bus stop. You'll survive, right?
Maybe you've been told about a mad Malkavian by the name of Billy Strahan that the Sheriff wants a word with or maybe you want to have a word with him before she has a chance to silence his mad tongue for good. Or maybe you just want Narcisa to owe you a favor. Either way these were his last known whereabouts.
Maybe you're running errands of an illicit nature.
Maybe you live here and you think you're the most dangerous thing on the block. Maybe you live here and are certain you're not
Elucidate. East Colfax is so curious as to why you've wandered into its maw. Let it show you around. Mind the sharp points and bottomless gap.
Molly ToombsReasons for being on this stretch of street were neither here nor there. Molly was keeping cards close to her chest these days, so whatever it was that had summoned her away from her apartment building set comfortably near the downtown district of the city, she hadn't announced it to a soul.
All that mattered was that she was there. Molly Toombs, single woman out on this stretch of road alone, and without any kind of supernatural intimidating aura or exterior of 'don't fuck with me' toughness to keep the evils at bay. Really, all she had to go on was that she was good at looking like she belonged. Case in point, how she was standing on the sidewalk, nearer to the curb than away, not far off from a sign indicating a bus stop. No bench, just room to stand.
She was looking down at her phone, standing with her weight comfortably distributed from feet to hips. Not glancing nervously, not checking every scuffed boot that passed behind her. Just trying to mind her own damn business.
We know how these things go, though. She could try to mind her business all she wanted, it certainly couldn't last for long.
KaliThis is Kali. If it's in East Colfax, she has a reason to be here. After all, this is where she reigns as a drug baron, and so she keeps her ear to the ground in terms of what's going on, makes sure that her area stays chill. Even in these nights where the Sword and Tower are at each other's throats and the sun isn't having the same effect on the Kindred and everything is vaguely portentious and ominous and God motherfucking dammit son of a puta en botas de cuero futu-i pizda ma-tii...
(Yes, we're using that one again. She's been so busy that she hasn't had time to vary up her streams of profanity.)
Anyway, the point is that she's out. And she's heard rumor of this Malkavian wandering around the area. She doesn't like the Sheriff sending people into her territory so she's on the lookout. She's in her usual hooker-biker garb, with a black corset imprinted with lips on it underneath a leather jacket and distinctly short skirt with knee-high boots. You know, the Kali special.
She's keeping her attention focused as she goes looking through her domain for this Kook.
[Per+Invest]]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )
Verna GardnerVerna's not here because she wants to be. Oh, not this street, and not at night. She's here because her car decided to shut down and not start again after stopping at a red light -- which is so very unfair. She keeps regular maintenance according to the schedule and everything! Some idiot mechanic must have missed something, or skipped something, or... something.
And who knows if AAA is even going to have a tow truck available within a decent time at this hour? They, of course, say as much on the phone when she calls. She's managed to get her car off the main stretch, just to the side, and sits within, looking up her particular car trouble symptoms online, hoping it might be something she can just fix.
Just fix. At night. On Colfax. In her nice clothes and demeanor that screams 'easy mark'. Yeah, maybe not. Still, it's something to do while she waits.
NobodyTonight Jack who is Jack of anything but hearts has many plans and he doesn't want to travel far and wide, doesn't want to go by rat-path or by cat-path, doesn't wish to slip beyond the pale, wishes only these things: to find, with luck, a Billy Strahan, with luck, good luck not bad luck, there's too much of bad luck it curdles on the tongue like hunger; to find, with luck, a Kali, a gypsy-hearted, thief-fingered Deception-tongued creature; then later to meet, with luck, with an untrustworthy red-haired nurse who's been embroiled in a cause, the quest, skimming along. So: Jack. He's got his diminutive pigeon-chested gulp-throated scraggle-curled occult nerd Mask on (This Face: lopestery, long, slouching) in preparation except for when he wicks along Unseen, a presence nobody thinks very much about and thank god. He's just a big fucking Nobody, after all, and that
that's why there's a Jack in East Colfax and he doesn't look like much at all.
[Percept (Hidden Things) + Investigation]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 7, 7, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )
Nobody[7 suxx.]
JadeJade has her means of hearing the gossip of the city. In particular, word ripples through the ranks of her networks, rustlng little whispers that flitter to her ear.
A Billy Strahan, hm? Hm. The Setite isn't terribly intresting in being owed a favor by Narcisa Rulfo (that is a lie, lielielie, of course she would, who wouldn't? but ah, Jade's cards, so delicately arranged, would not easily withstand that sort of pressure from one side or the other). So then, curiosity it would seem is what brought this snake to this neighborhood.
She is alone, alas. As much as she would love love love to bring one of her precious underlings with her, this is an investigation, at least to start.
So she is in the area of Colfax, then, a solitary figure in shades of grey, a very young woman in a very dark neighborhood.
[percept (detail oriented) + investigate]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Jade[4 suxx]
Jade[manip + street (specialty not applicable)]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 8, 8, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )
BoClose ranks, bring them in, prepare for the coming storm. Those were Bo's orders, the requirements of her domitor and so Bo had set to work, drawing in the lines of Kali's empire and tightening them down, preparing them for the danger to come. Perhaps that danger was Billy, perhaps it was a mad bomber with plans of utter devastation, or maybe it was simply the same old bad guys with the same old plans. Regardless Bo was out overlook and watching for signs of trouble, perched on the first level of a fire escape that jutted from the edge of alleyway.
It would be fun to imagine herself a princess of the streets, watching over those few individuals she knew were her's, were Kalis as they cleared out, leaving this part of Colfax for safe abodes, more trusted ground. But Bo is still so new to this life, and even more so to the life that lay behind the dusky curtain, and so thought it was fun to imagine, as she so often did she simply stayed alert, leaning on the railing of the fire escape as she considered those moving here and there.
One never did know what you might see on Colfax afterall.
Bo[Per+Alert]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Nobody[Jack rolls: Let the records show I am a Nosferatu with Unseen Presence on.]
GraveGive a lunatic like Billy enough time on his hands and who knows what he'll get into? The lasting effects of the blood moon eclipse give him an overabundance. What's the last rumor that had been going around Elysium?
Billy had been shouting about them all residing in a dark house with broken windows. He'd said it would leave them all buried. It would collapse around them. They'd be drained dry and left to the earth. Left to eternity and he says that part like it's a curse.
It's all a curse!
Billy'd said that the world would sing and shake, the ground would dance, and they would remain hiding under their beds instead of facing the skeletons in their collective closet.
Billy'd said he was hungry. He said he knew a place to go and that's the last time anyone had heard from him before he'd disappeared into Colfax.
Billy has said a lot of things in his time in Denver, but never with this kind of fervor. Fanaticism. Like he was considering a conversion. Taking up a new banner. He'd walked out of Elysium eyes gazing up at the moon and whispering to himself, “I'm coming, I'm coming, I promise, I'm coming.”
Or so word gets around.
It's Jade who gets there first. This isn't her territory and maybe it's that distance from places like this that gives her an ability to see the greater picture. To come at this problem logically.
There had been a place where a harmless Caitiff (Pander?) had lived. Harmless in the way Jade comes off as harmless, so very distant from her Sect that gave her a more respectable name and clan, and this was a place where vampires could come to rent a girl and drink from her. It had sat on a corner and look at the three-story house all desolate on the corner? With it's broken-wood-fenced-in back yard. With it's cracked asphalt driveway all overgrown with weeds. With its windows all broken with jagged glass and boarded up. It looks so dark in there.
It's a place to look. It's as good a place as any, actually better than any others, even if it's abandoned and no longer a watering hole. Billy hadn't seemed that in touch with reality anyway. Maybe he's in there sucking on rats thinking they're hookers.
Bo is there as well. She's watching. This is open territory and after the winter maybe it's worth looking into taking. That woman, Mona, who Bo doesn't know was Pander, but does know from the word on the streets, is gone and it's not her place anymore. It should be someone's place. That would be a good drop house or crack den.
And it's then Bo will notice Kali coming down the street. Kali's proximity is her curse. She knows every inch of her territory and who knows which of the various places fitting the description it might be. She's last there and Bo who happens to be there will notice her and not notice many others except for...
The woman waiting for the bus.
The woman with the broken down car around the corner face buried under the hood.
This is a growing nexus of things that should not or definitely should be here.
All the while an unseen nobody stalks in the shadows. Was there. Already knows, because of his own worldview that may or may not be distorted, where Billy means and where he will be.
JadeA place where you could rent a girl and drink from her, eh? Sounds like a place Jade might have an interest in. Did she know this Pander? It's possible she knew of her, maybe, or that she knows what that broken down house used to be.
There are other people out tonight. Others out looking for the wandering Malkavian. Others not out looking for the wandering Malkavian. Jade doesn't have much interest in a woman waiting for a bus. Woman with a phone? The people with names held inside it will miss her if she goes missing. Woman with the broke down car? Someone would notice the abandoned car, or notice that someone was no longer making payments, or any of a dozen other things Jade doesn't have to think about considering when it comes to her preferred prey. And besides, she's not yet feeling a sting of hunger. She's not yet feeling desperate enough not to care much about who she offers to Set. She's not yet noticing those breathing that oughtn't be noticed.
She is at the house where nobody stalks the shadows ahead of her, and does he see her? Pretty young thing, "exotic" they say because of her non-white features, never caring that she was born in this country. Jade would like to check out the building, is Billy there? Is anybody home?
She looks for a place to slip a look inside, a window to press against, one cast in shadows that she can vanish into them.
[if such a window is available, Jade will activate her cloak of shadows.]
KaliA good, long look in the dark parts of Colfax. That's what had led the Ravnos on a bit of a hunt for the potential place, and she'd come up empty on several spots. Now she's here at this house, looking up at it as she approaches with a cigarette hanging from her lips. It's just the right sort of place, and the Ravnos is a pragmatist, but she also knows (knew before she was Dead) that there are reasons to fear shadowed places like this.
She glances around, surveying the area. That's when she sees Molly, who she recognizes, at the bus stop. She knows the woman, knows that other creatures of the night have taken an interest in her. That makes her presence here...conspicious. Not that Kali is suspicious of her, but the Ravnos also knows that coincidence is often not really coincidence. The Ravnos speak of mayaparisatya, of illusion and truth and paths of fate. And Kali is Phuri Dae, so while she does not subscribe to all of those beliefs, she does have some faith in it. And so she mutters to herself in Romani, then smiles and nods to Molly as she passes her on the street on her way to the house.
And there's Verna, with her broken-down car in just a certain place. That gets Kali's attention too. But she doesn't know that one, just keeps an eye on her as she moves to head closer to the house. She frowns as she sees Bo there in the vicinity as well.
"Okay, this is just getting creepy," she says to herself as she starts walking directly to the house. Bo is given a meaningful look to the woman with the car, one she probably knows well by now. It suggests, Run interference for me?
And then she's walking into the yard, looking for means of entrance into the place.
Nobody[Perc + Streetwise.]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 5, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )
BoKali had said she was busy, that she was not to be distrubed tonight save for a fire burning down the warehouse or the enemy knocking at the gates. She had left Bo to her capable devices, knowing all to well how to run the empire without her domitor for a few hours. These were skills that a youth such as her really shouldn't have. But she does, and they grow stronger by the day.
So seeing Kali here is unexpected, and though Bo might normally wave frantically or whistle a cat call down upon her boss, instead she simply started down, moving to the ladder and quickly dropping down to the ground floor so she could start to approach her target location. That is until Kali see's her, and gives her that look.
She had been keeping an eye on the others, these other curiosities that had found their way into an area they really probably didn't belong in. She had thought about helping the girl with the car, get her outta here as quickly as possible so she didn't become a statistic. She wasn't going to, she had her plan...but then she remembered that not everyone was like her, not everyone knew how to fix a car and well...Kali had said so...so she strides on up to the petulant automobile and rapped on the trunk with a closed fist as she leaned over to look past the hood at Verna.
"Hey there Goldie, need some help gettin outta here before the three bears come on back?" She asked with a warm, friendly smile, the very air around her seeming to thrum with the vitality of her being.
Nobody
He has thoughts about the building, about Billy Strahan's tongue. He has thoughts about madness, too, about those whose blood is laced with it, whose insights are fractured: broken - like those windows. Moon-mad, Malkav, and perhaps Jack considers this a quest to keep another tongue from being culled, being re-fashioned into wood, being yanked dead into ash, slurped dry, dead.
He has to count the edges on one of the windows: one, two, three, skip four, and he has to count the cracks, too, just in case, and he has to count the redheads, one, two, three, that's good, a nice odd number, but wait.
Three redheads. One brunette. That's four. That's no good at all. Count yourself, Jack. Oh, that's fine then, except he's not really a brunette, and...
Molly Toombs is one of them. Bo, Kali. Whatever his expression does, who knows? Nobody. Nobody stays a nobody while Nobody cases the dark house with dark windows he doesn't need to count any longer and Molly well Molly will take care of herself for a moment won't she.
He wants to know what is inside the house. He doesn't want to go into the house. The house is a box and boxes are full of things one doesn't want to unclasp, release: Jack is not mad.
He wants into the yard. He'll go there, too. Crouch, wary of splinters. His fingers twitch like he wants to text someone.
Jade, she's pressing up against a window, Kali, she's treading into the yard, Jack, he's drifting over and around, and he's by blood by bloodknot by chain and canny knack calling his Prince of Cats, his Eyes in the Dark, c'mere Boots, c'mere, and he's staying back.
Verna GardnerSuddenly, there's a strange woman banging on her drunk, and Verna jumps, looks up. The window gets rolled down a crack (because this could be a trick, obviously).
"Oh, hello, I... I've called Triple-A already. Just, they're taking a lot of time."
Verna Gardner[*trunk! Gah!]
Nobody[Wits + Stealth. Specialties: Right Under Your Nose, Right Before Your Eyes.]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 7, 7, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )
GraveEmpty lot to the back, flat brick wall of its four family neighbor adjacent, and three stories facing the street, with it's high (if broken in places) fence, that back yard has the kind of privacy that few outdoor spaces in the city allow. It's a good place to try breaking into the house. As good a place as any excepting the fact that it is already occupied.
Denver is overcast and this evening and that full moon above is hidden by the time these investigators and hunters of madmen get to the back yard. The street light manages to shed a bit of its luminance into the backyard. There is a large flashlight, a box shaped yellow one with a large bulb and lens, sitting in the dirt and shining upon a sight to behold.
Oh, there is Billy. He's not the sight to behold. That's still to come. But there is Billy standing on the back porch, or actually in the process of emerging from the house. Somewhere along his trek Billy managed to claim a rusted shovel and it's gripped in his trembling hands, eyes still cast upward toward where the moon should be if it weren't obscured by the now overcast sky. This obscuring or maybe his arrival as his destination, something seems to shake him from his lunacy and he looks downward to take in the same sight that Kali and Jack come upon.
That flashlight with its lantern glow is shining upon two figures. Kali will recognize both of them on sight. The woman that had cut and withered and turned to ash whole chunks of Baja, her clanmate. The woman with the red carnation who had worn that strange ring She is of dark skin and she is so wafer thin you can almost read through her. Gaunt. Still she stands with an undeniable poise, a skeleton wearing ashy and loose flesh like a hanger and confidence. The other figure is the Trinidadian man whose name has been revealed as George Phelps in the ensuing news broadcast on the hit and run in Federal. He also has a shovel. Unlike Billy, who suddenly looks incensed, this gangly runt rat of a man is hard at work putting it to use.
He is digging into the ground of the yard.
All will here what comes next. Even Verna through her cracked window. Even Molly where she waits for her bus stop.
“Don't you fucking touch her!”
It's Billy. Billy isn't a small vampire. He has a good old boy kind of look to him, blond hair combed in a delightfully proper manner and blue eyed even if they're manic now, built and muscular and it shows in his pain white t-shirt and jeans. When he shouts it's in a Texan accent. Whoever had Embraced this once-a-young-man had no doubt robbed the world of a noble bumpkin. He raises the shovel like it's a baseball bat and takes a step down from the back porch toward the two and the whole the more servile of them is digging.
The woman, the dark woman with her black curls and her red lipstick wearing a trench coat, looks back and forth between Kali and Billy and snarls.
Grave[ ... "All will hear what comes next." ]
Bo"Yeaaah they tend to do that when they think they might get mugged as they fix a flat." Bo comments as she comes to the window and looks in at Verna. She backs up of course, well out of arms reach, both for the woman's sake, but also because just like Verna thought. This COULD be a trap.
"Your call if you wanna wait it out. If not I took a few automotive classes and I might be able to get you running again...maybe, totally your choice." Bo said with a shrug as she she took long clunky strides to the front of the car to look in under the hood, taking a gander at what lay within.
"What the hell got you to come down through Colfax girl? This is not the detour to anywhere worthwhile."
But then theres screaming, a hoarse yell that has Bo looking away from the car for a few moments...she wants to run, wants to take off in the direction of that noise, so much so she actually has to grip the edge of the hood of Verna's car and turn back to look in at the inner works and distract herself with the diagnosis.
"Like I said...bad place for everyone Goldie."
[Per+Crafts]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (5, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Molly ToombsThis woman wasn't abandoned or lost or stuck, not Molly. She looked like she knew what she was doing, didn't look like she needed help. This, perhaps, is why Bo beelines it toward Verna and her car against the curb. Molly had glanced up and noticed the exchange at the car, watched curiously for a moment, then went back to her phone. Verna was inside her car still so Molly didn't see her very well, and Bo she'd only met once and long enough a time ago that she wasn't pulling the face to memory. Maybe she'd recognize it better splashed in blood.
Molly herself, she looked different from when Bo saw her last too. Her hair was shorter, jet black then. Now it was longer and smoothed into a preppy ponytail, dyed red with bangs cut across the forehead. Tonight she dressed in a lovely lace blouse that buttoned up near to the throat, tucked into a gray skirt that hovered a couple inches above the knee. She wore black tights and flat pale gray dress shoes, with a light black jacket on overtop and left unbuttoned. Pearls in her earlobes, no rings on her fingers. She looked neat and well kept, certainly not the kind of person to be jumping fences and breaking into old, tired looking wooden houses that are several building fronts up the sidewalk from her.
Attention had already started to wander from the two women and the broken down car, but the shouting not to 'fucking touch her' pulled it firmly, quickly away. Molly's eyebrows hopped up on her face in mild surprise, then immediately hunkered back down in a frown of reflexive suspicion. She turned to look in the direction of the shout and, still frowning, considered the area that she was pretty sure it had come from.
Molly wasn't a hero, no, but curious she was. Concerned too, yes, to a level. There was a warning in the form of a phone call earlier to be careful, be wary, and all of these things she was. She was just careful and wary and casual-soft in her steps as she glanced up the street briefly, then started along the sidewalk to take herself nearer to the home, ears straining for more sounds.
JadeJade found herself a window full of shade, something she could lean against and look into and peer around and- ah. Voices. Voices from the back, hm. Whatever was (or was not, as the case may be) inside is not nearly so interesting to the serpent as that voice. Those voices. Hm hm, curious.
Quiet, so quiet. Nobody is an invisible shadow thing, and Jade is not an invisible shadow thing. Not once she starts moving along the side of the house, tip toe tip toe, which is at once both easier and more difficult when a body is already elevated by a couple of inches. Just two, Jade's sneaking shoes are sensible.
Anyway, sneak sneak. Toward the backyard from whence the voices came. And if, at the end of that lane there is a nice little patch of darkness? Jade wraps herself in her cloak once more.
[dex+stealth? +WP]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]
KaliKali had wondered what had become of that woman--Setite, if she recalls--who Baja had had the sudden altercation with over a few interesting items. She had hoped the woman had (not to put too fine a point on it) fucked off back to Seattle or wherever it was, realized that getting her hand withered off was enough to know that Denver was not the best place for her. So much for that.
Billy is a Malkavian. That means he's crazy. But Kali never thought he was wrong. She knows things, and she made some sense out of his ramplings. Sadly, not enough to get to him in time, but hey, they're here now. That this woman is here as well with her friend--well, that's just not good news at all.
"Hola, chica. Long time no see." She's going to be making some assumptions here, but they're educated guesses. Crazy gaunt chick who tried to kill her and her clanmate once: Bad and doing bad things. Malkavian who was apparently on the right track: ...well, not good, but they're vampires. Perspective. And so that's when the gun comes out, the heavy pistol from her jacket. She's not aiming yet, but it's out to make the point (and so she doesn't have to pull it when this does, inevitably, turn bloody).
"Let's put our shovels down and step away from the hole. I don't like people who wield shovels as a rule, and whatever is in that hole, I don't want you anywhere near."
NobodySo: Nobody is (hidden [right under your nose]) just inside the yard now, crouched; the language of beasts on his tongue to call his companion and here comes Boots doesn't he rangy tom cat mean tom cat king of tom cats a performance artist the tabbiest of tabbies with his devil-angle face and his devil-rakish ears how many fights more than he's got stripes that cat Boots he comes to Jack just as Billy starts forward and
Jack has never seen this woman with the trenchcoat; never once in his unlife. If there was a picture of the Trinidadian man, perhaps he recalls it, considering what his other eyes told him. Jack: He's eyes when he's not a voice and he's not a voice now
oh but he is. He thinks he knows this story; this moon-dragged, blood-eclipse shadow storything, three redheads and now this, this, he thinks he knows this story; two shovels, one lantern, and now a cat,
now another eye, eye of Kali's gun,
and he's a lick of careful tension and he whispers in Boots' ears once the devil-thing is at his side. Cats aren't real; somewhere there is a Malkavian who knows that. Cats aren't real.
Verna GardnerVerna sighs -- long, dejected. It is a Sigh. Look, she knows this place is bad. "Still, they shouldn't let it get in the way of doing their jobs," Verna says.
"I was just trying to get --" Verna starts, cut off by that yelled invective. She does look past Bo, at the house where the noise came from. Crazy people. Fantastic.
"Okay. Okay, I guess... sure. Take a look if you want," she says, though the woman's already doing so. Now she's going to want to be paid probably. Perhaps a scam? Ugh.
Kali[[*Strikes "Setite, if she recalls" completely from my post and changes "hand withered off" to "hand hacked off" It was a while ago.]]
NobodyOOC: Because I didn't post it, his 'command' is basically readying Boots to go swarm up trenchcoat lady/defend the Malkavian. Will change/be more specific as scene demands/after next post, I imagine.
Grave[ Rojo ]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 4 )
Grave[ Phipps ]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )
Kali[[Per+Alert]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )
GraveThe woman looks from Kali to Billy, and then over from Billy's eyes to the shovel before her gaze moves back to Kali's gun where it's readied at her side, and it's as if she is weighing her options. Her odds. Wondering if this, whatever this is, is worth standing her ground for.
Meanwhile those not paying attention to dangerous and varied flavors of undead and ghouls wielding shovels over some pit being dug, even those paying attention, they may notice a cat that is wandering down the driveway. They won't notice a Jade, a serpent being very quiet as she slithers through the weeds and coils into a new spot, a new vantage point, but they will notice a cat. That cat sits and that cat does what cats do: It stares at an empty space for far too long before sprinting off and it's gone elsewhere.
It's Kali that the woman ends up staring down. The man at her side is twitching and flexing his fingers around the shovel, though it's not yet raised in the same manner as Billy's, and it's Billy he is staring down. Waiting for a word from the mistress at his side.
The woman suddenly stands up straight. She smiles before she speaks back at Kali in perfect English, too perfect and too measured in its cadence, thought out and devoid of contractions.
"I already have a pit to bury you in, heretic," and she doesn't move a step away from that hole. Her own hand goes into her trench coat and it draws out a machete the size of her forearm.
"You are unworthy. You are pestilence and plague becomes you," bearing her teeth now with the curse.
Kali[[Manip (Spec: Silver-Tongued) +Intimidation. WP on this one!]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]
Grave[ Specialty won't count on that one. Four successes. Willpower to resist at minus one difficulty for bearing modifier. ]
Dice: 8 d10 TN5 (1, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )
Kali[[Wits+Awareness]]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Nobody[Ditto.]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Jade[wits+aware!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Verna Gardner[Wits 3 + Awareness 1 = Yes, she has a dot of Awareness...]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )
Molly Toombs[Wits 4 (Cool-Headed Specialty) + Awareness 1]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 6, 8, 8) ( success x 3 )
BoBo was looking anyways and she seems to move a few things around and pull a few rods out of random places before she puts it all back and strides around the side to look into the car window once again. "Well I wish it was easy news for you Goldie, but it looks like the transmission fluid is just about at zero. Sooo unless you wanna turn your whole car into one great big immovable art project. I'd leave it off." She says as she looks back towards the home where the screams had come from.
"Also, lock your doors and don't get out for anyone, especially not people who look like they mean you no harm, those are really the worst." She said with a wink as she turned to head towards the house, even taking several steps in the direction before pausing, considering and then turning half back to look at Verna.
"You...are ok right?"
GraveWith her curse, with her spit condemnation and that bearing of duty and zealotry however twisted that comes with it, comes the tingling of the supernatural that so many of them have come to recognize. That otherness being raised and manifested, even more so than the nightly risings of their dead bodies, and they all know that something is coming from that woman. That she is acting in some decisive way.
[ All who are in the yard, rolled, and got any number of successes on the Awareness roll may roll initiative. She's doing something. ]
Nobody[Jack. Inits!]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (7) ( success x 1 )
Nobody[Er. +6]
Nobody[Boots: +8.]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )
Jade[+5]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )
Kali[[BP to Dex, Init+7]]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )
Grave[ Phipps + 7 ]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )
Grave[ Rojo + 5 ]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )
Verna GardnerVerna sits stock-straight, staring at that house, at the 'crazy people'. Something has her spooked.
Something, like that chill at the back of your neck, that fear in the dark that you try so hard not to pay attention to. It sets her teeth on edge.
"Yes... thank you," Verna says to Bo, obviously distracted. She shakes her head and her eyes shift to Bo's. "I'm fine. It's nothing."
Grave[ Billy +6 ]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )
GraveInitiative: Boots 17, Billy 15, Jack 13, Phipps 9, Rojo 9, Kali 8, Jade 6
We declare in reverse.
Boots defers to Jack.
Billy charges Phipps to hit him with the shovel.
Jack's declare... ]
NobodyJack: Tells Boots to go for the woman's eyes and scratch her up.
Grave[ Phipps parries the shovel. Clash of the Twitches begins.
Rojo: Using a discipline. ]
Kali[[Aiming for a head shot on Rojo.]]
Jade[I know she's at the end but let's go snake eyes (Serpentis: Eyes of the Serpent) on Rojo]
Grave[ Billy hit Phipps ]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 4 )
Grave[ Phipps parry ]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )
Nobody[Jack: Wits + Stealth! Specialties: Right Under Your Nose, Right Before Your Eyes.]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )
Grave[ Damage is lethal for a rusty bladed shovel ]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 3, 4) ( fail )
Grave[ Everyone can now notice Jack hissing and meowing and otherwise talking kitty cat. I'll leave it to Jess to handle the prose flavor of that. ]
Grave[ Oh, wait, no they can't. Specialty applied. ]
Nobody[Boots: Dex + Cel + Brawl + 2 for Rear. +3 to Diff. + Brawl Specialty: Going For the Eyes.]
Dice: 11 d10 TN9 (1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7) ( fail )
Grave[ Rojo ]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )
Kali[[Sta, no Fort]]
Dice: 3 d10 TN8 (8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
Kali[[Dex+FA, diff 8 for head shot. Specialty: Heavy Handguns. WP]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 5, 6, 6, 9, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Kali[[Damage]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )
Grave[ Soak ]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 7) ( success x 1 )
Grave[ Three lethal to Rojo ]
Jade[WP! C'MON JADE WHERE ARE THOSE MAD SUXX YOU HAD EARLIER EHHHH??]
Dice: 5 d10 TN9 (4, 4, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 1 )
GraveA cat pounces from atop the overhang above the porch Billy had descended from and...
Comes up short. Boot, brave Boots, had aimed for the woman's head with his claws outstretched. The cat lands within the pit instead, a few feet deep, with a squealing shriek that sounds like a baby screaming. It comes up limping and scrambling anyway, sprinting in a tight circle before it turns, raises its hackles, and hisses in anger and pain.
The shovels slam against each other and Phipps manages to survive yet unscathed by the giant (in comparison) Malkavian swinging for the fences with that jagged edged shovel.
The woman speaks and the woman wills plague and whatever it does to Kali is not enough to shake her steady aim. The shot comes and it glances off the side of her face, taking off fragments of jawbone, cheek flesh, her ear with the hydroexplosive force of the bullet at is penetrates and clears the side of her skill, vitae soaked hair trailing the pieces of her face that follows it.
And she looks as if she is readying herself for another curse, mouth hanging open, some shrieking banshee wail to rival that of the wounded cat-ghoul. But it's then, from shadows like high grass and weeds, a slender and delicate figure rises and flairs her hood of darkness. Her eyes are black saucers and when the woman, the blood witch, is drawn to her gaze she goes still. Is mesmerized. Is paralyzed by the hypnotizing sight.
Phipps looks ready to keep defending her against an enraged Billy and his shovel. (Or is he defending the pit? The grave he was digging or digging up? It seems shaped like a person. A long slender oval.)
[ Everyone who has not posted may now do so. ]
BoBo looks back, noting Verna's sudden displeasure and on edge stylings. Seeing it brings a frown to her features for a brief moment before she pops a smile and says.
"Seriously...I'd stay in the car Goldie." But then there's a gun shot, and that brings Bo right back around her eyes widening once more, frozen for a moment in uncertainty. Because she knew the rapport of that particular piece, knew it well and she was torn between what she'd been told to do, and what she wanted to do.
The bond wins...this time, and Bo stays near the car watching Verna more then anything, as if ensuring the woman doesn't go towards the sounds.
Molly ToombsThe driveway to her right was cracked and crumbling, with weeds and dandelions doing their best to poke up through the cracks (and their best was a pretty good job, all things considered). Along with the original shout Molly could now hear voices for her proximity-- multiple people in this back yard, women and men alike. They sounded tense. Confrontational. She wondered if she should call the cops, paused a quarter of the way up the driveway as she was.
But then came that feeling. The electric tickle of something charged in the air, brushing soft and cottony over her skin, making her hairs raise up along her arms and the back of her neck. She knew this sensation, had learned to recognize it for her time chasing the otherworldly. It was like the cold humidity that sank onto your bones when ghosts were going to beckon and whisper and bodily throw. Like the gummy sticky sensation of grime that wouldn't rub away that came from the back room of that antiques shop. This was something Beyond Normal. That was for certain.
Unfortunate thing was, this meant it wouldn't be something for the cops.
Soon after that sensation, that disturbance through the air that whispered and tickled of the supernatural, came enough of a ruckus to draw all eyes their way. Whang-whang, clang! The strikes of metal against metal, shovels hitting and parrying. The screaming of a small child or small animal, and then--
Blam!
--a firearm discharged. Molly had startled, jumped, but didn't reel away from the situation-- rather, she darted to the side of the driveway, like she could hug the house wall and use that for shelter (unlikely, but not the final destination). Silent, no words, no cursing out loud or talking to herself. Something-- that itching-tickling caress of the supernatural-- told her to look closer, to see what was going on.
Thankful for her soft-soled shoes, Molly spied the gaps in the fence where planks had broken and gone missing, and slipped forward to see.
[Dexterity 3 + Stealth 1]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )
Bo[Impatience!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (7, 8, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )
Verna GardnerOh no. No no no. Gunshots. Verna ducks behind the dash when she hears that, and goes for her phone again. Goes to call 911, though, ha. This is East Colfax. Any bets the police will actually show?
Ring...
Ring...
She peeks, because Verna's a brave one, and notices Bo sticking by her car. "Go! Get out of here!"
Why on earth, with gunshots echoing in the street, isn't this woman running away? At least Verna has most of a car between herself and... whatever is going on over there. There is a question of why she expects the other to run or at least seek shelter, while she stays in the car. It's something of human nature, isn't it? The car feels safe. It's an enclosed space. It's hers.
Grave[ Tentative initiative: Boots (hurt), Billy (still fighting Phipps), Jack, Phipps (still fighting Billy), Rojo (can't act), Kali, Jade (must maintain eye contact to continue mesmerizing Rojo).
How smart is Boots? ]
Dice: 3 d10 TN8 (2, 6, 7) ( fail )
Nobody[Jack: +6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )
Nobody[Boots: +6 also.]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (8) ( success x 1 )
Grave[ Initiative: Boots, Billy (still fighting Phipps), Jack, Phipps (still fighting Billy), Rojo (can't act unless attacked), Kali, Jade (must maintain eye contact to continue mesmerizing Rojo). ]
Jade[Jade continues to stare deep deep deep into Rojo's eyes O_O ss ss]
Kali[[Run up shouting obscenities in Romani and shoot the woman in the head.]]
Grave[ Roja (because I might as well start correcting myself now) is mesmerized. Will spend a Willpower to act if disturbed. Too busy making sexy eyes at Jade.
Phipps fighting Billy.
Jack declare... ]
Nobody[Jack: Ack, no Boots, stop! + this is a cluttered yard. Maybe there's something nearby I should pick up in case I need to join this fight.
Acquire weapon!]
Grave[ Billy fights Phipps. Boots pounces for BLOOD. ]
Nobody[Boots: Cats do not fail! We are better than everything! Dex + Cel + Brawl + Specialty. -1 for Hurt. +3 Diff Again?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN9 (4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
Nobody[Damage. Strength + Potence + 2 (Eyes) + 4 suxx. (5 suxx on that brawl roll.)]
Dice: 9 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )
Nobody{+1 claws}
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )
Nobody[2 more dice...?]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (2, 5) ( fail )
Grave[ Soak ]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 9) ( success x 1 )
Grave[ Billy swings ]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )
Grave[ Phipps parries. ]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
Nobody[Jack: Ack, no, not if she's not moving, Boots, then be a good kitty.
Wits + Stealth. Right Under Your Nose, Right Before Your Eyes. We will WP this.]
Dice: 8 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 4, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
GraveRoja wipes a handful of her blood, shreds of her face still thick in the sludgelike vitae, from her face and slaps Kali with her hand as she advances.
[ Dexterity + Brawl - 2 for Wounded - 1 for Action + 1 difficulty for shaking off Mesmerize. ]
Dice: 2 d10 TN7 (1, 10) ( success x 1 )
Kali[[Switching to Dodge]]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Kali[[Abort! Switching to split between dodge and shoot. -2 to Dodge, WP]]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 9) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Kali[[Dex (Spec: Heavy Handguns) + FA, point blank = diff 4 + 2 for head shot. 2 dice]]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (4, 10) ( success x 1 )
Kali[[Damage]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )
Grave[ Soak ]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 3) ( fail )
Jade[Look into my eyes, other dude, WP again ugh COME ON YOUC AN DO IT JADE UNF]
Dice: 5 d10 TN9 (1, 5, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Grave[ Roja is in torpor and Phipps is now mesmerized by Jade's beer goggles. We're going cinematic from here on out. Post as you please after my coming system post, including those who weren't able to post due to combat. ]
GraveBoots tears his way up the woman's trench coat, scaling her needle-thin form, and when he lets his weight drop it's with his claws hooked into her eyelids. Maybe the cat does understand what Jade is doing. Maybe it just wants to get in one last letting of blood in as payment for its embarrassing spill into the grave. Who knows what goes on in the mind of a cat named Boots? Maybe nobody.
The woman screams, but retains the presence of mind to grab a handful of her face and vitae, lashing out at Kali (the superior threat) with the scoop of poisoned vitae and Kali has the presence of mind, despite the swirling infirmity striking her undead flesh, to get out of the way and press her gun into the woman's shrieking (hanging open) mouth. She pulls the trigger and blows a hole through her tongue that comes out just to the left of her spinal cord. The woman slumps to the ground in torpor, the puppet strings of her undead nature cut, and lays still.
The sudden appearance of another enemy draws Phipps' attention and with it his eyes. He locks them upon Jade and it is enough for Billy, who had been fighting with such discipline and intensity despite his improvised weapon, to sidestep and take one last swing.
Billy has restraint. Billy is mad. Billy is not stupid. No one will call him stupid after this. There's a certainty of his eyes and in his action as the flat of the shovel clangs soundly off the back of Phipps' head and the man-ghoul is knocked soundly asleep (unconscious).
And those who have come closer to the pit that was being unearthed? The shallow grave? They look down and they see what these fallen and besieged grave robbers were standing their ground for.
In the ground, enshrouded in roots that seem to have grown around her like an earthly veil, is a woman with a broken leg of a chair buried within her chest. She looks to have been there for quite some time, the roots so thick and ancient looking, but the chair leg looks like something off a piece of knockoff Ikea out of a big box retailer. Can't be more than a decade old. Probably much less.
Past the roots, covering her in a manner that seems almost meant to preserve her modesty, are shreds of decomposing black satin and lace. A nighty. Lingerie.
The woman's stomach is fat and though for a moment those who know of the dead and how they decompose may think it's simply distended from those gasses, the shape becomes unmistakable as they look closer.
The woman is pregnant.
Nobody[Intelligence + Occult. +WP because this clearly has to do with all that moon madness. Or no WP, as the case may be.]
Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (2, 3, 5, 5, 8, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Jade[int+occult because maybe??]
Dice: 4 d10 TN8 (1, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 1 )
Nobody[Noddist Lore]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Kali[[Per+Alert to notice snoopage]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 3, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )
Molly ToombsLife as a trauma E.R. nurse working the swing shift meant that Molly has seen all different varieties of mangled and injured, damaged bodies that you could think of. She's seen them come in dead, she's seen them come in alive but too ruined to save, and she's seen them come in looking as though they shouldn't pull through but after jamming tubes down their throats and forcing simple functions to keep working (lungs-- breathe, heart-- beat) they tasted a miracle and lived to walk out of the hospital on their own.
So, when Molly finds that gap in the fence to peek through and witnesses violence and gore-- gore for the bullets that tore away the side of a face first, then burrowed through a mouth and out the back second, she did go pale with horror and flee. She did press her tongue flat to the roof of her mouth and swallow and cast her eyes aside for a moment, though, just long enough that she had to glance back to see when the blond-haired man with the shovel knocked his opponent unconscious.
She didn't know the blond man. She didn't know the dark-haired woman that had done nothing but stare. She knew Kali, that vibrant woman was one of the numbers on business cards she kept tucked away where no one would find or see. She knew her, but didn't know her well enough to be comfortable or confident enough to approach, no matter how curious she was about the hole that the cat had hissed and leaped out of, curious to know what it was that people were seeing when they peeked in and had their individual reactions.
Curious, but not stupid enough to step through the fence and approach.
Jade[percept (detail-oriented? ahaha yeah right) + alert!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )
Molly Toombs[Re-rolling Stealth! Dexterity 3 + Stealth 1]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 10) ( success x 1 )
Grave[ Boots ]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 6, 8) ( success x 3 )
Jade[again!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 4, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
GraveThere is a creaking that breaks the sudden silence that falls after the heat of battle even in such a populated urban environment. It is closer than the backyard or front stoop drinking and laughing that persists despite the gunshots.
It is closer than the occasional car that goes by. It is closer then the voices coming from a certain car around the corner where Bo waits and Verna is locked away (thinks she is safe) from such dangers as occur here where there be dragons.
That creaking of fence wood comes from Molly's direction and draws the attention of Kali and Jade toward it. She is behind the fence, she is obscured, she is only a sound, but she is a suspicious sound in such interesting times.
Boots knows. Boots looks. Boots hisses angrily and looks in that same empty direction at nobody (nothing in particular) and then begins stalking toward Molly, still hissing and making angry violin screeches. Trying to scare her off.
KaliShe's shouting--hell, she's practically screaming--in Romani as she ran up and put the woman down. Anyone who knew the language would probably have turned red with the veracity of her language, but it isn't hard to figure out the general nature of the shouts by violence and borderline shaking hatred in her tone. She's not in danger of frenzy, but she was probably pretty close. The always-composed Ravnos lost control more than most have seen her in this city.
Once the woman is done, there is a moment where Kali very nearly considers ripping her head off. But she holds off...perhaps because she sees what's in the hole. And that takes her attention, the gun still in her hand as her eyes take on a glassy look, her head cocking to the right.
"The fuck?"
But there isn't much time to deal with that, because someone registers on the edge of her perceptions. And her attention snaps back to--
"Oh. Right." That's what she says when she sees Molly. It's sort of a that makes sense tone, but there's also a sudden edge to it. Apprehension.
"You need to go. Right fucking now." she tells the nurse. The words could be interpreted to be meant for the others as well, but she's directing it at the kine. The frailer of those here. The tone actually indicates concern and...a little fear, frankly. "Because I don't feel right."
JadeJade hasn't moved much from where she started. That's the lovely thing about being a snake, the body, the disciplines? So very suited to staying in the dark and shady places. From there she stared down first Rojo, but ah, Kali. Shot the woman down and down the woman went. So Jade turned her attention to the man who was Rojo's counterpart, stared him down, too. Held him place, pinned him with that golden-eyed stare. Depending on her angle, chances are that's all Molly saw of that strange dark-haired female dressed in clothing meant to keep her cloaked in shadow.
For a little bit after the quiet settles, Jade takes a moment to step further from the shadows, step to the edge of that hole in the ground and see - ah. Well that is interesting, isn't it?
And then there is that creak. She does not turn to look, Kali notices, that precious little tabby notices. Jade? She sidles closer to the hole and drops to a crouch, forearms resting on knees, looking, looking.
That's when she tips her chin up, and she looks up up up at that Malkavian with the lovely blond locks and the mad blue eyes. They're all a little mad, aren't they? No, well. Not like the Malkavians are mad.
"Well, honey, what do you think? Is this what's going to bury everything?"
NobodyNobody is around.
Nobody is always around. Nobody does not volunteer that information just yet. Nobody's eyes are first on Kali, as Rojo drops, torpored. Billy, George, Jade: also a glance. Nobody has that splinter of wood, long-stake of a sliver pulled from a fence that nobody saw Nobody take and he does come so close oh so close to that pit and looks down into the dirt at the woman-creature and he gazes.
He gazes even so when Boots distracts him but not completely. He is doing something, Nobody is, but who's going to notice what Nobody does?
Nobody has a phone; Nobody takes the phone out of his pocket. Texting doesn't make a sound, does it? Nobody texts. The miracles of modern technology; maybe somebody, Somebody, actually did set foot on the moon after all, and his doubts of yestereve are wrong, wrong, wrong.
Jade's crouched on that side and Nobody's crouched on this side.
Think think think.
GraveThe Last Daughter of Eve. That is what comes to Jack first. That is claws to the fore of Jack's mind like the siren that announces enemy planes overhead or the unfamiliar creaking at night that raises the hair on the back of one's neck.
Next it is how she is held, how she is cradled in the earth by living roots, subsumed and protected by it. Preserved by it? If she is in torpor, if she is a vampire and has been down there for some time, she should be dry of vitae and shriveled to the point of mummification.
Among the first signs of Gehenna is a moon red with blood. That he had picked from one fragment of a book of not, picked (scavenged) off the body of a dead Sabbat priest while tending the Masquerade what feels like forever ago. The part about Eve and the last daughter of Seth's line, after the death of Abel and exile of Caine, had come elsewhere. Had come over a long conversation with a Brujah in Oregon who owned a book store with an interesting private collection.
More may come, but this is what comes to the fore, and also that...
Only a Caitiff, perhaps a childe of the fourteenth or even fifteenth generation, could possibly carry a child in its womb and have it survive. And should it survive? What kind of monster might it be? What might it mean?
Verna GardnerVerna ducks behind the dash again as she waits to get on the line with the dispatcher, and then she apparently does. At least, she's talking.
"Hello? Hello? Yes, I've just heard gunshots -- close gunshots. And a baby screaming, I'm sure it was a baby," Verna says. She's trying to urge them to do something, apparently. There's a pause.
"Um, yes, it's at East Colfax and Florence."
Well, they did have to know where to go, right? But she sounds quite sad when she says it. Like, sure. They'll send someone right over.
She stays on the line, answering questions for a while after. Lets them know that her car is broken down and she's in the middle of this gun battle, and maybe they get the idea that she's probably not from around Colfax street.
BoThere was a second the gunshot, and that probably more then anything drew Bo to the yard, the simple fact that there was a second, did that mean Kali had succeeded in defending herself? Or had she been overpowered when she fired a second time? She had no desire to wait and longer Kali's command be damned and so she rushed quickly and quietly around the side of the house, looking for a way through.
Its likely here that she runs into the scene, pressing through from the opposite side and either running into Jade, or coming upon the pit rather suddenly.
"Holy hell in a pretty lacy handbasket." She said looking down into the pit.
NobodyText to Kali from Jack.
I'm here.
Molly ToombsShe'd shifted, and that was her mistake. A foot was going numb and she'd shifted her weight, and this caused a creak in a wood plank that was under her feet without her realizing it. She was touching the rickety old fence with one hand, absent in doing so. When she'd moved her weight she'd made noise, and then she went still with the cold water of oh shit trickling down her spine.
Then, a rumbling of a low cat rumble of anger that would turn to a screech. Soon following that, in a gap left by cat sounds and cat breaths, Kali's voice rang from the other side of the fence. Warning her to go, telling her to run, warning that she didn't feel quite right.
Molly wasn't an idiot, she had a pretty good idea of what it meant when a vampire was warning that they didn't feel well. She didn't want to be around to offer up the thing that would make her feel better.
So, all that they would see of Molly is a bit of red hair and pale freckled face, but not all of it, as she peeked around the side of the fence to get one last look at the scene. Another had arrived-- Bo, from another side of the yard apparently. She and the woman dressed in dark clothing were crouched around the pit, very intent on what they saw. The blond man, he was there too, but Kali was a woman with a mean scream and a meaner gun and Molly could only imagine what other mean things lay under the surface.
Though she very much wanted to see, wanted to know, wanted to have that information because whatever this was it was important, the nurse heeded the Drug Lord's advise and made a brisk walk away from the fence, away from the house and the scene.
GraveBilly doesn't look up at Molly. Billy's eyes are wide and they're upon her and he doesn't kneel at the side of the pit, no, and he almost ignores Jade. All her question gets is a whirling glance before his eyes are back upon her. Back upon the woman in the pit and instead of kneeling and gawking like the others he moves with purpose.
Billy does not look. Billy jumps down into the pit with his shovel and raises the shovel high like a sword ready to stab it down, ready to begin hacking at the roots and free her from their prison wrapping around and constricting her if he is not stopped.
KaliIt's like a convergence of terrible events all at once for Kali. Bo running in and coming up to the pit with WHATEVER THE HELL that is down there. The fact that she's really feeling the weakness sapping her now that she's not focused on life and death. A text message, which unfortunately she doesn't have time to look at.
"Jesus Christ!" That's in reaction to Billy. "Bo, keep away, I think there's something wrong with me."
And then she's moving to get in the pit and physically stop Billy. "Billy, Billy, Billy-boy. She's okay, she's not going anywhere. Talk to me and tell me what's going on. It's Kali. ...which yeah, you may not remember me, we haven't exactly talked, but I'm on your side."
Grave[ Oh no, look in the mirror, it's the 5-0. ]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )
BoAll the detail comes swimming into Bo's mind as she kneels there before the pit. There is Jade beside her, that super friendly woman she was supposed to have called, and theres a man laying on the ground. Another is kneeling across the pit staring intently downwards as well.
More importantly theres Kali, and thank all the lords of hell, heaven, and everything inbetween that Kali looks fine. Her fears were for naught and Bo smiles up at Kali even as the woman looks less then pleased. Jack is there as well, but he does not resolve immediately as the man who was kneeling across the pit jumps in and starts to try and free the woman in the earth.
"Sooo digging up corpses eh guys?" It was meant to sound funny, but then Kali speaks of danger, and Bo gets on edge, though she watches as Kali follows the man down into the earth, still poised on the edge of the pit, just incase Kali needed help.
NobodyThink think think think think.
Unless something, some memory-spark, some dredged-up fragment of a dark fable which whispers, no, sh, stop him immediately, the Moon-drunk mad-boy prophet, he doesn't do anything to stop Billy, doesn't send any more texts, just think think think think
and watch, watch, watch, watch.
Nosferatu. You can bet there's usually one around; isn't that what they say?
Grave
Sirens begin wailing and judging by the sound of tires screeching there's a patrol car turning the corner maybe... Three or four blocks away? Incoming. How long until they pinpoint the disturbance to this block, this house, this yard thank to Verna's directions and mention of a possible child in distress? Not long at all.
Kali moves to restrain Billy and Billy sprouts fangs without a moment's hesitation. His hands begin trembling again. He turns on her and raises the shovel again, swinging it at her, not to hit her (yet) but to ward her off from the woman in the pit.
"Back off. Back off. Back of," he repeats with each swing. "We need to get her out of here. We need to get her someplace safe." One of Billy's feet reposition themselves in the pit, and in doing so he steps squarely on one of this thick roots.
The ground trembles as if triggered by the disturbance. The roots tighten, squirming like the thick bodies of enormous snakes, and there is the sound of air being squeezed from the still woman they hold's lungs.
At this Billy seems to forget Kali and again readies himself to hack into the root system.
JadeEverything about this is oh so very wrong. Jade glances up briefly at the appearance of Bo, and she would maybe do something about the errant kine (ghoul?), except that Kali makes it very obvious very quickly that the girl is hers. Hm, that's interesting. Something more interesting is at rest in that hole in the ground, though, and that's what's got Jade's attention.
And gets her to thinking. And remembering. And those lovely dark eyes narrowing.
By then there are two new vampires down in that pit, one digging and the other trying to restrain him. Jade rises from her crouch, drops down into that pit as well.
The better to come around and face that mad stare. The better to tilt her head, searching for those blue-blue eyes with her own dark pools. "Kali, honey, if you could make him look this way?"
And, should his eyes meet hers, she catches him if she can. Catches him and holds him still.
[eyes of the serpent! it's been working so far, c'mon third time!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN9 (2, 3, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Grave[ Willpower ]
Dice: 5 d10 TN4 (3, 4, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )
KaliThe sirens get her attention, and she jerks her head that way. Brown eyes narrow and she scowls. Could things possibly--
NO. Don't you dare think it, because the answer will be Yes.
"Ladies and gentlemen living and dead, we've got to get the fuck out of here. And the cops can't find the Virgin Mary here."
She frowns, considers, swears under her breath. It's a no-win situation, but they won't be able to talk it out if the cops pull her out and the Masquerade is breached. And so she backs away, nodding to Billy. She starts to climb out of the pit, but her limbs aren't responding the way they should, lacking their usual strength.
"Do it," she says to Billy as she struggles to get out. "Do it quickly though. We all have to go right now."
BoThings got weird, the man in the pit obviously didn't want help. He wanted to be left alone to his own devices, to removing the corpse? No that woman just moaned as fucking ROOTS grew bigger and tried to constrict her, so scratch corpse well call her the hole lady. Eitherway he wanted to be left alone.
Things got worse as well, as the screech of sirens can be easily heard, normally one might think they had time, but Bo...Bo knew that they would find Verna and they would ask questions...and they would be lead back here. So Bo leans over into the pit and opened her mouth to speak.
But Kali beat her too it, it was time to get the hell out of here, and Bo...well Bo saw that her boss was having a tough time getting out of the pit, so Bo offered a hand.
"Come on Boss Lady, up and out and then off to anywhere but here." She said with a smile.
GraveBilly swings.
If he had been putting himself, the entirety of his being and his will, into hacking down that runt and weasel of a man before? It is nothing in comparison to this.
The ground trembles and Billy is not afraid of it. The consequences of his actions are not considered because he cannot consider not acting. He plunges the blade so that it cuts through those roots and those roots? They bleed thick blood that so resembles vitae that's the only thing it can be, and the earth trembles again.
Trembles more violently.
Car alarms going off join the sound of nearing sirens.
Billy does not stop. His eyes are red with the vitae that leaves them bloodshot, the veins in his arms pulse with strength that is beyond the natural, and he hacks again. Hacks along one edge and the ground continues to shake and then?
And then she is free. She is free and she sits there naked and caked in dirt and the blood from those roots that are veins? That are what? He does not consider this. He only considers her. He grabs her by her arm and throws her over his shoulder and with what strength he has left he climbs out of the grave ready to...
Ready to go with them?
Billy is ready to go. Billy has her and now Billy will go.
Verna GardnerAhh, sirens. Perhaps her mention of the baby crying did the trick, eh? Surprising, actually, but whatever works. She is sure she heard a baby. It sounded human, at least.
This has got to be the worst night in... well, a really long time!
She peeks up out of a window again, since it's gone relatively quiet. There's no sign of Bo from this limited vantage point, so she sighs in relief. Maybe the woman got away?
The earth begins to quake. It's not literally unheard of for there to be an earthquake in Colorado, but Verna's never felt one this powerful. Enough to set off car alarms nearby. What on earth?
NobodySirens in the dark world with terrorists bombing cars (not terrorists, Sabbat flunkies [probably]), buildings going up in flames spark-spark, lynchings and gang fights and: sirens in the dark, a wail, a cry; one doesn't start ignoring the warning, but one doesn't necessarily think this quiet backyard brawl of a thing is the warning. His eyes widen as the roots begin to bleed, and he might've, might've begun to say something, pour some honey into the madboy's ears and see if it stoppered up whatever influence the Daughter is having on him.
He isn't fast enough, or the intention doesn't shape itself out've the fugue of consideration Nobody At All has found himself in. Billy's got the woman and Billy's ready to go and Nobody is going to stay with Billy, stay at Billy's side, stay so near Billy that Billy has a shadow, oracle-dragged, oracle-dredged.
A gentleman should probably help with the heavy-lifting, but Jack...
He's not wearing his gentleman's face tonight.
Kali"Don't," she says when Bo reaches to help, practically recoiling. "I don't know what's wrong, but I don't feel right. Get the ring off that torpored [here we insert a word that starts with C that Samael is not comfortable with, but damn Kali hates her and we're being true to character language]. I don't think any of the rest of us can touch it. Then you gotta go, I'll catch up with you."
She pumps vitae into her veins [1 BP to Strength], to help her get out of the pit, then moves to scoop up Roja. "Someone's gotta get this other guy. Billy-boy, I'm going with you. Cool?"
JadeBilly avoids her gaze and avoids being ensnared by Jade's gaze, which narrows at him. When the roots begin to break she steps back, and she manages to work her way free of the hole with no small amount of effort. Ugh, this physical shit, it is...well it's for the ghouls. And where are Jade's?
Outside of the hole she digs out her phone. Glances to the man working so hard to get the woman free, but the look doesn't linger. The call she places connects almost immediately. Jade gives the address and hangs up, slipping the phone back into her pocket.
Then she she looks around to the others. She nods, smiling that dimpled smile. "I'll get him, honey, and I'll catch you up."
[-1BP to str, manip + subt (hidden motives) LIES]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 6, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 4 )
Jade[Edit: gives AN address]
Nobody[Are you lying about something, Setite? Perc + Subt.]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 10) ( success x 3 )
Kali[[Per+Subterfuge 'cause why not.]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )
BoKali doesn't want her help...that admittedly hurts a little. Bo recoils in her own with a look of confusion before she turns to follow Kali's orders regardless. She moves over to the body and works the ring off the body, swearing as she tries to get it off the body quickly.
That done she would pocket it, take one last look around to make sure theres nothing else of note and then look to Kali. "You better call, and fuckin soon." She said, the tone of her voice greatly displeased with how this whole thing was being carried off.
But then she was off like a bolt, headed in the direction away from the Sirens, she knew these streets now, it wouldn't be hard to lose the cops in the alleys and side streets of Colfax.
[Per+Alert, just incase theres something else interesting]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )
Bo[Per+Subt cause fun]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Kali[[Stamina]]
Dice: 3 d10 TN10 (1, 8, 9) ( fail )
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