In Flux

Lux

This happens -- when? May 30th. Night of the 29th becoming the 30th? Dates are difficult. Flood's cell lights up with a call from a particular Rose who very particularly wants to speak to him (the particulars of the matter being of particular importance to her.)

Flood

Flood looks to his phone and answers the call.

He begins with her name, "Viol," and continues with a question, "how are you?" He doesn't sound surprised to be hearing from her, but it doesn't sound expected either. It just is.

There's nothing in the way of ambient noise on his end of the line. He sounds to be in a relatively quiet place, as wrapped up in its peaceful comfort as someone of his bearing can be. That's to say he sounds pleased with the interjection of a ring from her.

 

Lux

There is silence from the other end. No deep breath, scraped into lungs that don't need it to enliven the creature on the other end before she says a thing, no tap, tap of fingernail against the shell of her phone. No music and no dull roar and clamor as if a bar or a club or some party, her usual haunts. Let's go on, speak of haunting.

"Haunted, alas; but can you guess by what, Daniel, darling?" Brief pause; helpfully, "That's a line."

Her voice is quizzical; her tone, an invitation to conspiracy. Lux as usual. She sounds like she's going to invite him out for a bite.

Flood

"I can," a beat. "Yes," a moment where he is considering how to present his guess, his grasp into darkness, but darkness is something he knows something of. Just as Viol is. Just as this call is. Or so he can guess, and he does at her prompting.

"Inevitability. It's such an ugly word. A concept that fills me with such trembling rage. Would you not think we had escaped it at the hour of our deaths? Gained something for what we gave up or was taken from us? And here we are at its whim again. And it's almost whimsical about how it beats us with circumstance," and he sounds almost finished on his little diatribe. It does not sound like he is being too woeful. Again, he sounds enlivened that it has brought him to this point.

"Am I still your darling? Or are we on a precipice where that word will not longer apply? I wonder because I care," he says like it's a rare thing, him caring. "You do know that, don't you?"

There are questions lost in questions by the time he falls silent and which she chooses to give dignity with answers in her drawing (and quartering?) voice will tell him which she values most.

Lux

Lux preserves her silence except for a brief glint of noise (a blood-drop needle-prick on foam -- the voice wants to move but is restrained) when he brings up that word (inevitability). Her silence is attentive and studious and complete. Lasts longer than his questions. Pause between his last and her response.

"You know, I think I'd like to tell you what I believe. I don't really believe in inevitability. I guess that's what fatal flaws are for, huh? But I just don't. I don't believe in giving up to the whim of big ol' concepts like 'inevitability' and 'fate' but I guess I am spoilt. I believe circumstance is just a room and, you know, make it into what you want, make it into an animal and crack it open, get at the meat -- that's where the thing's at. The meat. The heart. Circumstance. Well, fine, here we are."

Here we are. Pause. Lux laughs. The radiance is sublimated -- quickened. Dark thread; to relieve tension, let the bad blood flow.

"I don't believe if you throw a body off a cliff it turns into anything else on the way down. Bob's still Bob all smashed on the rocks. Do you really care?" Beat.

"What do you want from him?"

Flood

Lux had taken a time to answer and he had not pressed. Had not checked the pulse to see if the line was still alive between these two dead allowing them to speaking with one another.

“Would you care to know what I have always enjoyed and valued in you? Even in our briefest passes by? Even with our differences, whether they are wide of breadth or small in scope?” He waits for an answer. To find out if she cares to know. And he will show her how much he cares with the answer. That is what he intimates.

Lux

"Sure. I'm partial to lists, but I trust you."

Flood

“Yes. Trust,” and he grasps hold onto that word like it was what he was looking for all along or what he already had and hoped to show.

“I do not expect flattery to fix this and I do not expect you to take this as a flattery,” he says first. A preface to what will come.

“You have never interrupted me. You have always spoken with me, instead of at me, and as an aside I hope you see the same in the part I've played, pardon the digression,” and he is ready to get back to his point.

“You have always let me speak, trusting I will come in my own way to something worthwhile of your time, something worth listening to. Perhaps it is my vanity and arrogance, or perhaps it is that you understand those qualities in me,” he wonders and then ceases wondering with the firmness of his next words.

“I was not aware,” he says. She has made it unnecessary to elaborate on what he was unaware of. “I was protecting what is mine and doing what was expected of me at the revelation. In that order,” firmer still.

“Now the movement has begun. I have begun something. Will you trust me to take what I am now aware of into account when I make what I will of this room, this circumstance, I have found myself in?” He falls silent after this question.

Lux

"But what exactly are you now aware of? What is it you're telling me you'll take into account?"

Flood

"If I am still your darling, he is your dear Ist, is he not?" Flood has remained cool and even now as he plays with words he still manages to seem invested in how she reacts to them.

"And I hope you will take into account there was a time when someone came to me," a pause for her to conjure the remembrance. "Came, albeit with less preparation and arguably worse reasoning than I came, and because he was your dear and darling, salt of your waned light, I did not make an animal out of the circumstance. I did not crack it open to get at the sweet organs," his words undulating in their tempo like his tongue is a winding serpent.

"And you thanked me. If that is not enough, and it may well not be, ask a thing of me," he says. "I will tell you if I can do it and if I will do it," a stray clarification, but a necessary one.

Lux

"He is also my teacher," Lux interjects. Emphasizes. Her interest. Darling. Dear Ist. They may both (all) be true. Lux doesn't care about Sect-lines except insofar as they're bastions of tyranny and stasis. They'll make unlife a Hell. Lux doesn't care about Sect-lines: except insofar as she can stay out of their scribbled brawls.

But of course that's impossible. They're everywhere. Here they are. Flood conjures up salt of her waned light and he can't see her appreciative smile (if there is an appreciative smile. But why wouldn't there be? Lux appreciates eloquence she can sink her teeth into. Appreciates poetry). He can hear her silence and perhaps the silence takes on an added weight -- the sort've thing that's all glass-caught and full of air-bubbles, flaws and fractures and meant to hold something down and be forgotten until a wind comes blowing.

Ask a thing of him. He'll tell her.

"I -- " brief pause. This isn't a pause because she wants to weigh her words. Lux is an impulsive creature as often as not. "I hope a lot of things, Daniel, darling. Wish 'em, too, just like that song about the star. Can I really ask a thing of you? I'm going to appreciate the Hell out of your candor even if I don't like what you say."

"I want him back. I want to be in a room with you both. I want to see him. Or, and, I want to know what you will make of him. What do you see yourself taking from this whole mess? Ideally."

Flood

"You made him aware of what could happen to him here, but your words were tight and few until then," Flood says, noting her conservation of words and their conservativeness. Now the gates seem open. Will Flood storm the castle?

"Your lips sound tight as if they are wrapped around sharp teeth in your mouth, and I wonder if they are for me, those fangs," he continues.

"Have we ever shared more? Have we ever held more common ground? When Bernard fell I felt something, and I don't know what it was, but I knew it came from the loss of someone who loved Denver as I do and as I think you do," he says next.

"You hate the tower and still work to reform it, just as the sword is a sword I can wield without getting cut," sounding certain. "Do you hate me as you hate my sword? It wants blood. It does not have to be yours, but it has to be someone's. Ideals wont put it in a scabbard and bury it like the war is over," and again silence reigns from his side of the line. It's pregnant, though, and he breaks it open to get at the meat.

He breaks it to truly answer.

“There is a reason this is a phone call and a reason it was last time we spoke. If I were in a room with you wouldn't you try to wrap me around your finger? But let me find out if that is a possibility. Give me the freedom to do so unagressed. The hounds have his scent like a morsel and want it badly. I want out of him what you want out of him. If it is possible would you allow him to be ours?” It is barely an answer, but it is all he can give.

Lux

He knows Lux well. She isn't transparent and so many don't see her as she really is, but that's because what is luminous in her distracts them; what is bright, dazzles; isn't it? Because she is such a thing, and she can be so subtle when she wants to be. He knows Lux well; better now that he's gone through some of her correspondence, and if there haven't been many new insights, surely some confirmations. Lux is intractable and rebellious and thoughtful and dangerous. And idealistic.

"Why do you dismiss the possibility that I might help you in this, instead of hinder, instead of aggress? If you want from him what I want. Would you believe me if I promised?"

"You're right. Ideals won't put the bloody sword in a scabbard and bury it, but couldn't they? They're what gives a mind its fire; aren't they? What gives an instrument its strings; they're what sharpens the mind, aren't they? What would your hounds rather have? A bloody sword or an open gate?"

Pause. "Do you mean to say, you'd convert him."

Flood

"Maybe we three could convert one another. What a grand plot it would be to change things. To change the world and the night starting right here in Denver, this place we love, with an outsider, an insider, and an inside outsider,"  he ventures in his answer.

He reaches. He leaps so far and holds out his hands to catch the edge of whatever ground is on the other side of that precipice.

It may be too far. Maybe he will be like Bob dashed on rocks below.

"A room. No, not a room, a cage. An arena. I saw something in myself. I saw a beast and it was ugly. I cannot bring myself to hate it. It has been locked in this arena, a gladiatorial stadium, and left to starve. Pitted against this foe and that enemy.What else would it become? But what if?" Here Flood sounds so very dangerous, because he is saying things like he can accomplish them. Lighting ideals afire and incendiary.

"What if we could tear down the room of our circumstance and see what it looks like outside?" It is quite an idea.

Flood

[ Manipulation + Leadership. Specialty is Cult of Personality, and goddamn if this isn't some subversive propaganda. Blowing a WP. ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 1, 7, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 5 ) [WP]

Flood

[ Six successes. Flood, you really know how to do it when it counts. ]

Lux

The following silence is finite. The phone is a wonderful medium for having a discussion free of the temptation of Discipline(s), but it is not a wonderful medium for reading the effect of one's words on the person one is conversing with and it is not a wonderful medium for seeing whether cold clay has caught fire and turned itself into something starry. 

But Lux, isn't she always starry. Isn't that the way of her?

"You are beautiful," Lux tells Flood, when she breaks that silence, the words measured and distant; as if it were a thing she'd forgot. Her voice returns to something more intimate, fall of silk across steel of shadow across silk but now that silk has this lingering warmth. 

She could linger on that thought too, couldn't she?

But she doesn't; or she doesn't for very long.

Speaking of leaps. "So I can see him; and help you both." 

Flood

"Will you still promise?" What is that word worth? What is her word worth? Flood seems to want to hear it, regardless of what it means. "We can start this compact with that," he continues. "That and our pillar."

Lux

"The pillar belongs to itself," Lux says, quick and sharp and something quickening her tone, enlivening it just so, because she is a passionate thing. The intractable rose, fallen too far from the tower environs she's supposed to thrive in.

"But I will still promise. I do still promise."

Flood

"I will let you know when," and he says it with a flourish that shows he is finishing this parlay.

Lux

"I will wait, breathless from anticipation rather than circumstance." A joke, sort of. Pause. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Flood

It is his turn to laugh. "No. He was as tough as I imagined, but I've learned to get out of a the way when a pillar falls. Good night, Viol. I look forward to enjoying your company," and he hangs up with that.

Lux

[roll credits!]

Devil's in the Details

Lux

This is a visitation for deep in the evening, beyond evening into night beyond night edging toward morning. There are hours when it is easy to presume on the time of one's living, one's day-chained associates and there are hours when one might reasonably expect them to be asleep.

This is a visitation and it happens toward the end of May. Lux comes by for Nate and he has no window for her to tap on, no window for her to knock on or throw pebbles at or scratch at until he comes to the glass and opens it for her. He has a door, but inside he also has a sister Lux most fervently does not wish to meet - a blond creature who is better than a watch-dog.

Lux's fist hovering over the door, the knuckles sharp, delicate; the shadow it spins amidst all the others, also sharp, also delicate -- and see how it smears into other darknesses. She doesn't knock or ring the doorbell after all. She turns sharply and throws herself into that big wicker chair on his front porch, taking out her phone and texting instead.

Hi! I'm here. Let me in.

Like he was expecting her.

Nathan

If she had knocked on the door it would have dragged his sister out of sleep. That girl sleeps like a corpse but this is an unfamiliar place and it's small and sounds carry. Lux cannot hear the phone vibrate on the kitchen counter where it spends the night but maybe she can feel the vibrations as they ripples through the house's frame several seconds after she sends the text.

Nathan is not asleep. She can see a shadow pass the living room curtains as he gets up and goes into the kitchen to see who just texted him.

And then he walks through the house thump thump thump and pauses to confirm that it is in fact Lux and not someone who has stolen Lux's phone. She can see a shadow dusk the blurry glass inlays on the door as he peers.

Oh. Okay.

The locks disengage.

Lux

Lux does not unseat herself when the locks disengage, but she leans back in the chair, relaxing (no) against the wicker. Lux listens to the flex of the thing, the creak as it gives that most wouldn't hear, the nuance of it. Lux listens to the sound of Nathan breathing in the cold night air, notices some animal thing fleeing her presence across the street, a lick of shadow among other shadows. Let me in she'd said. But you aren't supposed to invite vampires into your home. A second passes and another. There is a car, idling in the street. Her ride tonight. Then she does rise, goes to meet Nate at his door, to smile at him just so - the corner of her mouth a suggestion of sharpness, the curve of it a suggestion of sweetness.

"Hi," she says, her voice pitched low. "You're up late. When do you do your sleeping?"

Nathan

"Uhh..."

Heh. Maybe he was at his girlfriend's today and spent half the afternoon asleep after she tired him out. That's not the sort of thing you tell other people when they mention your sleeping habits.

Stood here with the inner door rested against his heel and the screen door propped open with his forearm he doesn't look like he intends to hang out all night. He's wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt. No shoes or socks. Watch is off. He's in for the night.

Still not sure if he's supposed to hug her when he greets her so he just stands there enjoying the sweetness in her otherwise invisible smile.

"Soon. I was actually just about to go to bed. What's up?"

Lux

"D'you remember when you were trying to track down Flood?"

- as if he would forget. Her gaze is both direct and steady, the color of her eyes a gloaming bit of tarnish - dark while the porchlight casts her features in shadow but illumines the curve of her cheek, of her throat, because the sweep of her hair is falling over one shoulder and not the other, in danger of falling heavy over one eye.

Nathan

Snort.

"I try not to."

That must explain how he was able to track down Flood's grand-whatever the hell he was without much hesitation. Either that or he's joking. Nathan cants the screen door wider and steps back to give her room.

"Come inside. The neighbors'll talk."

Lux

"They're all asleep," Lux says, lingering. If he insists, perhaps she'll step over the threshold. His answer causes a real smile to animate her face -- something sharp, a bright glint of humor.

"...And shucks, Nathan. I like to hear that. If this were a test, you just passed, flying colors."

See: she lets gravity do its work, drop her shoulder against the doorframe so that if he does insist and she does step over the threshold, she's going to slide forward with her shoulder still touching: a graceful fall. Her head's aslant; her hair's jealous of eyes on her throat and her jaw. She has to drag it back but she's not doing that yet.

"But it isn't a test. I want to know about that old man and where you found him."

Nathan

They're all asleep. She's lingering.

If he stands here with the door open all night bugs are going to get in and he doesn't trust his sister not to come up behind him anyway so Nathan drags the inner door shut behind him and steps out onto the porch.

The screen door sighs closed. It's chilly out here and Nathan is not as hardy as he used to be. He shivers when his bare feet touch the porch and he tucks his hands into the pockets of his shorts.

"Alright." She doesn't have to tell him twice. "His name's Niccolo Daniel Roma uh... Junior, I think. There was a Niccolo Daniel Roma Senior and then a Niccolo Antonio. I was down at the union hall asking around one day and they dropped his name, said he works for Flood and he's up at Florentine Gardens if I want to go talk to him."

Clearly he did. He went.

"Florentine Gardens is a nursing home, an upscale one. They've got a concierge and everything. He lived up on the eighth floor when I went to talk to him, I don't know if he's still there."

Lux

"Was he very mean?"

Nathan

Snort. He glances away brief because he's remembering but Nathan knows better than to avoid eye contact when he's being interrogated. That means you're guilty. Any time he looked away from his mother she knew he was lying.

That's how he learned eye contact is a thing vampires use. He hadn't known that when he walked into the old man's apartment at the nursing home. Flood wanted to know how he'd known that. Misunderstandings are hilarious sometimes.

When he looks back:

"He wasn't gonna let me in at first, tried to get rid of me until I told him I was looking for Flood. Told me to sit down and wanted to know why I was looking for Flood. I, uh, you know, was there about Kragen asking Molly to be a medic for his little terrorist operation, so I told him that. He offered to make coffee while we waited for Flood to show up, I asked if I could go out and smoke, he took a hand cannon out of the drawer in the kitchen and aimed it at me and told me to sit my ass back down."

Maybe that was a bit mean.

Lux

"Sounds like quite a guy," Lux says, voice gone all silk and slow, all smoke and immanence. She raises her eyebrows, too. But there's a dark thread of laughter underneath - surprised, but there it is; go figure. "Quite a night, too. I realized I never got the details of that story."

[Manipulation + Subterfuge. I'm so impulsive. We are not a liar.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 6, 6, 7) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Nathan

[perc + subt: shut up you did too]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 5, 10, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Nathan

[oh shit his subterfuge is 3 ANOTHER]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )

Nathan

This far gone from his near-death experience Nathan can only laugh about it because he hasn't spoken to Molly since then and Kragen was in custody for a minute before he blew himself up. Because Laurel and Amber aren't texting him anymore telling him to be careful and he never told Carole or his father about it.

All he had told his father was that he needed new friends. That if he told him the truth he would think he was crazy. He seems less crazy now that he's not drinking as much.

But Lux never got the details of that story.

"Yeah, it's almost like Kragen blew up a building next night. So weird..."

Nathan

[Uh, how about THE next night. Nathan you are not Russian.]

Lux

Lux watches Nathan's face as he speaks. Occasionally, he reminds her of dead people. He often reminds her of the living. But he's his own person, too, and whatever it is he means to her, really means to her,

"Some of us," she says, wry, "were more focused on that than others were as I recall." Lux pushes away from the door frame now, reaches out to touch Nathan's shoulder; slide her fingers along the bone, slide her fingers down. It's not a hug, but it takes the place of one.

She turns her head to look over her own shoulder at the car, idling. Then she looks back at Nathan, says, with a smile that isn't a suggestion -- it's just a sudden slash: "You're really cute, you know. Call me on Friday if you're free."

Nathan

Her wryness is met with a mostly-suppressed self-amused smirk. It really wasn't funny. So focused on it that he decided to ignore Lux's concern for him. Even then after he'd seen so much he couldn't grasp why going to Flood instead of her was upsetting to him. Why they were even friends in the first place.

It doesn't matter anymore. He likes her. He won't ever do anything like that again.

A hand on the shoulder is easier to tolerate than a hug. It doesn't restrain the recipient and it doesn't trigger unwanted thoughts and Lux can feel a dormant strength in his arm one wouldn't think him to possess from looking at him. In shorts and a t-shirt it's easier to see the bulk of his muscles. The man must have good genes because he sure as hell doesn't go to the gym.

Not much to the front lawn. A gate and a sidewalk and he can answer her without raising his voice much even when she addresses him from the curb.

Flattery will get you nowhere Lux. It will only succeed in startling Nathan. He is startled. It's rare anyone tells him he's cute and then tells him to call her right after. It's enough to catch a body off his guard but not this body.

"Will do," he says. Lifts a hand to wave. "Night, Lux."

Lux

[and we wrap!]

Gary Miller, Ghoul P. I.

Not technically a scene. A bunch of e-mails, re: investigation into István's disappearance, including rolls and roll-result posts. Uh, some stuff was talked about over IMs.

Why am I explaining this? This is all for my own reference + scene-bridge.

1.

István & René are impossible to get ahold of: [start game]

Note: At any point Gary has the Influence (Police) to try and initiate a homicide, murder, kidnapping or missing persons investigation, but he'll have to decide if it's going to be into the disappearance of Istvan, Rene, or both.

Sounds like a job for Gary Miller, Ghoul P.I.! [Theme Song.] http://youtu.be/zKJV8VjyKeQ He's on the case. He'll meet up with Lux to do an initial What's Up Doc investigation of the warehouse. If for some reason they can't access it one or the other will try to use influence (if Gary's larceny fails) to open all doors. Do I remember reading aright that the warehouse is technically University property?

Lux notices that Istvan isn't returning her calls on the 27th and that he is most definitely missing by the 28th when Rene doesn't answer either. When Gary heads over he notices that the warehouse is pretty thoroughly cracked open and covered in police tape. Influence (Police) roll if he's trying to get legal access through the police department. Dexterity + Stealth if he's going in on his lonesome without permission.

While he's going to be able to get in easier this is reflective of the fact the recent events may have drawn more attention to the area than before. Local businesses and residents may be on the lookout for suspicious activity. In the case of a botch on either roll Gary may find himself implicated in the investigation (just as a warning because he will realize that is a serious possibility).

If he does get in let's go with three Perception + Investigation rolls (one for each floor of the warehouse) to see what he notices.

To find out exactly why the place is covered in police tape options are another Influence (Police) or Contacts roll (difficulty 7) from Gary.

Things they'll be looking for in particular include [a] ash or its leavings or anything to indicate that here was a dessicated crumbled-away 150-year-old warlock (or other vampire) corpse -- though I don't think she'll believe István is dead-dead until she gets a vision about it. Auspex is new and exciting. [b] Vex (if this is after finding out abot police crawling over the place questions which occur to one is: Did the police find something unusual? Are they just incompetent? Aurora Warehouses are officially not good places to hide staked bodies) [c] thaumaturgical texts or goods on the other Tremere that might've been left behind. I know there's nothing and never was but Lux doesn't. It's not like she poked around when István took her there 'coz she was being a Good Guest. [d] whether the security was damaged beforehand or not or turned off or say spraypainted black by professionals a la 


Speaking of Auspex let's also do an Auspex roll at difficulty 9 (since this doesn't directly effect her) to see if Lux gets any premonitions or epiphanies regarding what's going on. You can't botch this roll. As for security I'm going to assume that since Istvan didn't have any dots invested in the Domain (Security) background and seemed to intend that the place be private and tucked away that there were no security cameras in the immediate area.

You said Gary'll find out pretty easily about Verna's police call. He'll obviously want to be all up on that particular pie (the pie being what the police did and found and getting all 'dem records staying informed etc), but of course he'll also be doing his own thing. If you need specifics, I'll mostly leave it to you because -- as I think I mentioned when I scraped Lux's hack-job sheet together -- the kind of contacts and influence that Gary's got isn't something I personally know a lot about or really enough to properly BS from a player perspective. 

This will not be necessary if he does the first Influence (Police) roll. If he's also or instead using his contacts let's go with a Contacts roll (difficulty 7).

Then there's René. Did René fail to show up for his next shift yet? Has the warehouse kerfluffle had any effect on whether or not René is Officially Missing? Is there potential police interest in René's whereabouts? Whether there is or not there is obviously Gary interest in René's whereabouts, so he's going to want to do his thing and try to talk to people at the hospital. Obtain security footage if possible, maybe of the parking lot or front of the hospital as well. Did René take his own car when he left? If so, where's the car now? Was anybody else seen to be driving it? Can we find out who? 

By Wednesday Rene still isn't reachable through his cell phone or at the hospital operator. If he's done an Influence (Police) roll it may answer some of his questions regarding asking around about Rene.  If Gary is going to ask around the hospital after Rene he should do a Social + Investigation roll. What he gets on this will especially depend on successes. Getting security footage is going to be very difficult without exerting his Influence (Police). As for some of the questions about the car it's going to be Perception + Investigation.

He'll want to obtain phone records for both René and Stephen Andrássy, doing whatever he needs to do to obtain them. How he'd go about this I would guess depends on any police findings he's aware of. Do either of the phones have GPS? He'll be on that too. Gary's obviously assuming that there's a connection between the disappearances and he wants to make sure none of the fall-out is going to fall towards his Lady Regnant. 

Let's see how the other rolls go and find out from Jamie if either of them are using burners.

Unless it's very clear that the place was besieged by something supernatural Gary will be directed to start looking into the whereabouts and movements of Laurel Hensley, Vampire Hunter (?), but it won't be the main emphasis of his investigation by any means, rather just: this is an avenue that shouldn't be ignored but until further information turns up we do not think it is etcetera etcetera. If this is how it goes Lux will try to confirm the Laurel Vampire Hunter hypothesis by talking to Amber. I just want to emphasize again that this is (probably) not going to be the main focus.

Let's see. What else? This isn't very organized, for which I apologize. My brain's kind of all over the place. Okay. That's all Gary. Gary's all you. Go Gary Go. Back to Lux specifically.

Lux is going to get Molly's # and try to contact her re: René. Lux knows that Molly's warned René to warn István about Laurel before. Lux also knows that Molly was present when István staked Vex. Her angle with Molly is one-part 'okay, she might have perspective' and one-part 'is she involved?' Lux does not know Molly and Nathan have been 'not speaking' like a pair of highschoolers. Haha. 

Depending on what's up, Lux is also going to get in touch with Kali and/or Summer. If Summer, all, 'Dude, this guy was going to be a big help to our Sect. I want to find out what happened to him. Wanna help?' If Kali, well - again, it just kind of depends on what information the first night's poking around at the warehouse gets. She's going to think about letting the Tremere know their Ancilla has been snatched (if nothing else, it'll be a nice continuance of her Hey, Hey, I Have A Crush On You, Malcolm, I'm Totally Tremere Friendly' play), but that's not going to happen immediately.

Let me know if she eventually goes to the Tremere about his disappearance.

IF they do go into the warehouse and look around or IF Lux sees photographs of the warehouse's interior post-crime then Lux is going to see Amber's murals. I'd say considering their art-based relationship she'd recognize Amber's style without a roll, but I'm down for rolling if you'd like. IF she does see the murals, she's going to put together the Lasombra Ghoul + Camarilla Tremere Haven = Lasombra + Tremere = Sabbat + Camarilla = Oh. Then she's going to want to talk to Flood and she'll make overtures. How? I don't know yet. Depends on what all she finds.

Is she going to the warehouse with Gary or later? I'd still say that an Intelligence + Crafts roll would work, but again you may also want to throw out a Dexterity + Stealth.

2.

Errantry

[Influence (Police) + Manipulation. Diff: 6. Does Persuasive Specialty count?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

Errantry

[If it does, that's 7 suxx.]

Errantry

[Perception + Investigation. Floor 1. We'll WP this.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Errantry

[Perception + Investigation. Floor 2.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )

Errantry

[Perception + Investigation. 3.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Errantry

[Lux's straight Auspex roll. Omens? Diff: 9.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN9 (8, 9) ( success x 1 )

Errantry

[Hospital time. Manipulation + Investigation. Persuasive maybe counts since he's trying to get people to tell him things? Enchanting Voice maybe applicable here too since he's asking around and talking to people?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )

Errantry

[w/ Enchanting Voice that's 4 suxx. w/ Specialty that's 4 suxx. w/ Enchanting Voice and Specialty that's 5 suxx.]

Errantry

[If Lux needs stealth for accompanying Gary all legally, Dex + Cel + Stealth.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 6, 7, 10, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

Errantry

[If she doesn't need stealth, can those be for this roll instead? Hah. This roll: Intelligence + Crafts.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Errantry

[Did I miss another Influence (Police) + Manipulation roll necessary somewhere in all of that? I feel like I did but I can't find where, so have this just in case.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7) ( success x 5 )

Howl-Witnessing

[Damn Lux. That is a lot of rolls. Witnessed!]

Errantry

[Wait. Forgot one. Re: questions about the car. Perception + Investigation.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 8, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Howl-Witnessing

[Double-witnessed!]

3.

If Gary is even a step behind it still means he is three steps ahead of anyone else on this trail, sniffing their way up this alley, looking for a walking corpse and for its ghoulish servant. And he's gaining ground fast. Gary spins some kind of story, the kind of story friends believe without asking many questions, because Gary had friends in low places, but some of them are in high places now.

Gary gets access to the scene and his first sweep is alone. Gary loves working with Lux, thrills at being in he presence, but maybe his domitor knows he works best on his own. A lone wolf. Or maybe he knows and is willing to sacrifice the indulgence of her graces to do her bidding with such efficiency.

Gary reports back that the place has been heavily disturbed. The door is battered down and he things it was with inhuman strength or by supernatural forces, but he really can't tell. It has since been boarded up with some great care, so someone still gives a shit about the place. A crawlspace up to the attic seems like it was picked for valuables, with places where it looks like things were tucked away and gathering dust now vacant, though the filing cabinets and libraries weren't really touched. The perpetrator or perpetrators were after specific goods of a clandestine nature.

There is blood on the front door frame. No, not living blood. Vitae.

And it's in the basement too. A spray like a blade wound, but not enough to make him think someone was decapitated. Yes, Gary has seen decapitations.

And someone wanted to make a point down there. The place was trashed. Expensive equipment smashed. Hard drives were taken from the computers, but Gary says it looked like that happened after the fact, a fact later confirmed by the police reports he digs up.

Digs isn't really the word. Gary does a thorough excavation of the investigation. A Detective Fuller, with the major crimes unit, is on the robbery case and also looking into the possibly linked disappearances of Doctors Rene Jacobs and Stephan Andrassy.

They have pulled phone records, but the only records they have are for phone numbers registered to Dr. Jacobs and given to coworkers, or that of his pages on the night in question, or given to Verna for Dr. Andrassy and Dr. Jacobs, and are these the same numbers? Some vampires keep many phones, and Gary will no doubt need Lux's help sifting through these for notable combinations of digits.

[ I am leaving this open ended because you need to talk to Jamie about what the police got from Verna and the hospital staff when it comes to phone numbers and from there find out which Lux recognizes from her own communications with Istvan and Rene. Note: Flood didn't use his regular phone for any of the calls, but he did call Rene on his cellphone, so the number for the burner he used will show up as a call made during suspicious hours, and it will also show up on the hospital call records, along with a text message from the number sent stating: "Istvan would like to speak with you. Please call at your earliest possible convenience." Let me know if this is information the police would have after you check with Jamie. As for GPS both Rene and Istvan's phones were ditched, as was the burner, considering ghoulnapping and warlocknapping was happening. ]

They have asked questions. Dr. Jacobs left work early the night in question. He told his supervisor he had a prior engagement and needed to leave early. He would have been disciplined, except he never came in for any of his other shifts that week. Hasn't since.

Dr. Andrassy is harder to investigate. How can someone who never wanted to be found in the first place be found after his disappearance?

Gary asks his own questions, because Gary isn't the type to trust this kind of work to rookies. He is the one who finds out Rene's car had been sitting in the parking lot, abandoned, but there had been a doctor's parking sticker on it so it wasn't towed until the police came looking for him. It's gone, but he knows it was searched by the police, in the course of the investigation.

Gary also finds out that Dr. Jacobs had a visitor earlier in the night, a friend from school, but had stayed for most of the rest of his shift. The visitor was a tall, dark haired man in a suit, but hadn't made much of an impression on anyone. Dr. Jacobs had received a few calls later, but had asked for them to be held. He'd left under the circumstances described to other investigators: Prior plans. Had  to duck out early. The supervisor had not been pleased, neither had the nurses or other doctors left dealing with a busy holiday night shift. No one remember seeing him leaving with anyone in particular.

The police department had spent longer than normal running tests on the blood samples from the warehouse. Two different sources. They'd kept coming back funny. They were only able to get results from the one in the basement, and Gary may suggest it's because the one near the frame was exposed to sunlight. Gary is one of the sharper tools in Lux's shed. The samples from the basement comes back as... Highly oxygenated, low in plasma, thickened somehow... Preserved, but thickened like preserves. They had asked investigators if someone at the lab might have been working on hematology.

And that's when Gary gets to talking with a certain security guard. He gets a funny feeling when he's asking him about the night in question and presses further in that enchanting voice of his. Notices his verbal magic slapping up against something firmer and more ingrained, but tries still to burrow through it. The guard doesn't really remember anything, but maybe he'd walked over to check on Dr. Jacobs once while on his rounds? He'd looks so busy all night. The doctors are always so busy.

Lux hears this all, reported back, in the echo chamber of time. It is like she has heard it before. It is like she will hear it again. Istvan has been taken. Somewhere deep down inside, though, she knows he is still... No, not alive. Only that he still is. And when she returns with Gary to the scene of the crime, to see first hand the fruit of her very private detective's labors, she will see those murals and instantly recognize them at Amber's work.

4.

Beautiful. Okay. Let's see. Questions which occur to me.

1. The blood in the lab and the blood on the doorframe. Once Lux goes w/ Gary on the second visit: would she be able to tell by scent (with Heightened Senses and *cough* familiarty) whether any of it belongs to István?

2. Looks like the phone stuff is information the police would have. According to Jamie, István had a burner, but René "has a legit contract with a provider" and a paper trail. They didn't have multiple phones and for the past three months they've only had the two numbers. Re: René's phone records. They'll be trying to pinpoint times. The last time István contacted (or István's phone was used to contact) René. When René decided to hold his calls at the hospital (or is that a matter of course for him). When the last attempted call to René's phone or at the hospital was made, how long before he left work early, etc.

3. Re: GPS. But is it possible to find out generally where they were ditched? Because if they were ditched, somebody had to ditch them, and if somebody ditched them, maybe a CLUE. (grin) No stone unturned, wot wot.

4. Let's revisit the possibility of obtaining security camera footage of the parking lot, front & back of the hospital around the time René punched out. If it is possible, the answers to the following questions are what's looked for: [a] Was he alone? [b] What car did he get into? [c] What direction was he last seen heading? If this is possible and there is a glimpse of René getting into either Flood's car or Alain's van, do we have a clear enough shot to get the license plate, either partial or full?

Hmm-mm-mm. And that has me wrung-out of thoroughness at this juncture in time, hah.

Okay. Lux wants Flood. Now. But she's not going to call him the night she goes to the warehouse (which was -- the 29th? 30th?). She'll try him the night after that. Is he taking calls from his favourite Toreador who isn't an Antitribu? (Lux: That better be me. And I am far better than Alain.) What else she does and what other Kindred she contacts (if any) is going to be dependent on that.

She's still got Gary trying to uncover more information (as above), because if she can find out anything about the movements of whoever actually did the taking (ghouls, Flood's pack, some other Sabbat pack who got the information from Flood via Amber somehow? But applying occam's razor here) she wants to know.

Along that vein, she is going to be contacting Nate right away about that old man ("Flood's grandfather or something") he found and where said old man was and what his name was etcetera etcetera.

She's also going to give Gary instructions regarding Amber, but I suspect this is something I need to talk to Niko about, just because we're going to need to figure out when Lux and Amber hadplans to meet up next.

Annnd … Yup. I can't think of anything else at this point in time. May do a moodposty ding at some point.

Love!
Jess

5.

1) For all blood related rolls you're asking about it will be Perception + Alertness. Has Lux come in contact with Istvan's blood before? If so the difficulty is 6, if not it's going to be 8. Do we agree that's fair? That's with the difficulty adjustment for Heightened Senses. At difficulty 6 she'll be able to sniff and tell it's different blood upstairs versus downstairs, even if she fails to identify upstairs' as blood she knows.

2) Calls. Lots of questions. Well... I mean, you know when most of the calls were, but to review:

Rene made a call to Istvan right after Flood left (around midnight) which is when he's reported to have had a visitor;

Rene asked the operator to hold all calls after the visitor left and he made that call;

Rene received a burner call through the hospital operator that he was paged with much later;

a burner call was placed to Rene's phone ten minutes after the page and went unanswered;

and then fifteen seconds later a text message was sent to the same burner phone that said, "Istvan would like to speak with you. Please call immediately," maybe fifteen to thirty minutes before he left.

Note: Gary and Lux don't know that Rene didn't have a burner and they haven't checked Istvan's records to see if he received calls from Rene after that text message was sent or if he called the number from another line.

3) GPS is a tricky thing. If it wasn't set to do so it won't be exact. I don't think it's likely either Rene or Istvan had their phones continuously tracking their exact locations, do you? There are cell phone towers that could identify the area in which the phone was ditched, down to the general neighborhood, though. Right? Is that how this stuff works? I think it is. Istvan's phone was ditched as soon as Flood realized it was locked, which was on the drive back west into the city from downtown Denver, and before even leaving the western reaches of East Denver. Flood crushed it to Hell in his bare hand out of frustration and dossed it down a drain pipe. Rene's phone was tossed once he got into the vehicle they left the hospital in.

4) Flood's comings and goings from the hospital that busy evening... Well, the Lincoln Navigator that Flood has been driving around is a rental acquired through his Influence (Transportation). Sometimes it's a Cadillac, sometimes it's an Infiniti, but he'll usually hop in whatever luxury SUV they've got available, and the tapping of Influence (Transportation) isn't actually for the vehicle (he has more than enough Resources to grease palms). It's to make sure it can't be traced back to him. That's what he took the first trip to St. Luke's, but he certainly didn't use the visitor parking lot. Even when he went to Istvan's I established IC that Flood parked a block or two away. I think that should be enough to show it's his modus operandi when it comes to Shit May Go Down. After clearing the warehouse with his pack it would've been impossible for Kate to move a body on a motorcyle, so he gave he the SUV. That means the second time he went with Alain in the Mystery Machine. Again, Flood wasn't going to hop out right in front of the lobby or coax Rene into a van in front of cameras. Since we never did any rolls for Alain I'm going to say that means Flood went in solo, especially after the Toreador antitribu's dismal showing keeping his shit together at the warehouse. That's probably why Flood gave him a Rene chewtoy. To help get his frustration out so he stops nibbling on his ductus.

That leads us into to the lightning round...

Security footage revisited: As it's a missing persons case there's a chance the tapes have already been pulled, and Gary has access to the details of the investigation, so I think he'd be able to get a copy of the tapes. That's a lot of tape. And if that night the ER was as busy as we are assuming it was...

Well, Gary and Lux will be looking for someone that doesn't show up on security tapes. They know he had a visitor, though only at an approximate time. Once again that visitor doesn't show up on camera and is it harder looking for something that isn't there? Is it easier?

Do they see Rene walking out of the ER and going up to his office, ostensibly alone, around midnight? Yes.

Do they see him walking out around the time he said he was leaving, after phone records show he received unanswered calls and a suspicious text? Yes. They just see him leaving along, of his own accord, and walking out of view. No one remember seeing a Stealthy Flood pillow talking him off on a romantic getaway.

What does it all mean? I think at this point it depends on what they make of it. Lux seems to have her ideas.

The old man? Is still an old man. He is just being old elsewhere. Nate knows things, right? Just not when he shouldn't advertise knowing them.

But there is a Toreador who wants to see a Lasombra about a horse. I think Lux already has her ideas. I know Flood would never dodge her calls. It looks like that is the direction in which we're headed.

6.

For the records,

Tithe
[Hey. Who's blood is *this*? Perception + Alertness.]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
and so it is done. 

Mourners of Enoch Do the Warehouse Rock (And René Has Bad Luck)

Flood

[ Vinculi #1 ]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )

Flood

[ Vinculi #2 ]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( fail )

affliction

[So still holding at 8 (Kate) and 7 (Alain) for Flood, I believe.]

Flood

Istvan's trip to the trunk of the Lincoln Navigator, borne forth on shadow, gives Flood time to center himself. Drinking deeply of the Tremere, so much so that vampries of lesser lineages would've been left as dry without the debts of the fight he put up, leaves him with a begrudging respect for the body. Istvan Jakob had proven himself a sturdy opponent. Even as he contemplates the thaumaturge, though, it causes him to consider his situation.

A warehouse behind him, door blasted from its hinges by the battering of the Abyss itself knocking, and what might still be inside? A nest of warlocks, usurpers of Caine's blessings with no true tie to the First Sire? The Lasombra gains some comfort from the cloak of shadow that clings to him, ebbing away and then confined into the SUV before its tires spin, squeal, catch, carry him off and away.

How much had Rene, a ghoul so enamored he would take the surname of his dimitor as his own, truly know about this warehouse? He would have to test firsthand what he had communicated under the duress of Flood's will.

A drained and staked prisoner of war, perhaps only the first of the night, is stashed away in the wine cellar of a certain steak house. On his way back, communiques sent out along their established channels, the ductus gathers up the Mourners of Enoch, meeting them a block away to return and take their first steps into Tremere's haven.

These are even Flood's. He'd prized Istvan like a pearl from a shucked oyster from the still-gaping portal, its front door, hesitant to step within.

Flood joins Kate and Alain, armed himself with a stiletto blade in one hand and wooden pointed stake in the other. They are the two he can trust to aid him in continuing the siege he has begun and must now finish.

[ Arms of the Abyss. ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 3, 3, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 1 )

affliction

They didn't arrive together, Katherine and Alain. They rarely do, being uneasy allies if left too long alone together or left too long to their own devices. The chains that bind do bind them fast, hold them close and near, yet still.

They do not often arrive together and it is Katherine who arrives first, stalwart on a heavy-duty motorcycle. It's something one expects an old gnarled man with dark shades where his eyes should be mimicking skulls to ride, somebody with a pot belly, somebody fetishized in that terrible Lana del Rey music video, not somebody like Kate.

She does not wear a helmet. She does not smile. She slides smoothly from her machine and says, thumbs hooking evenly on the pockets of her leather jacket, stance rooted firmly on the ground, a warrior's stance. Her serenity is not perturbed, but there is a certain haunting avidness to her gaze tonight - a predatory, considering sharpness, lingering around the eyes fixed on her ductus.

Alain arrives in a van. It is exactly the van you were warned never to go near by responsible adults, exactly the van that could maybe have once been an ice cream van, but never was, never was, no, never, never was, and he is looking exultant tonight, eyes heavy-lidded and languid but everything else just ready to go.

He has brought Kate's broadsword. You're welcome, Kate. He tosses it at her and she catches it. They'll be a strange trio walking down the block, but it's late at night and a secluded area and anyway it's still a holiday weekend and people are strange. People are always strange.

And there are monsters in the night. Look the other way.

--

"Why did you begin without us?" Kate says.

There is the warehouse; doesn't it look haunted? Doesn't it look like just the kind of place you don't want to go? Desolate. Gutted. What might the Tremere have concocted for them inside?

"How much should we destroy?" Alain muses.

Flood

"I wanted to test myself," is Flood's immediate answer. It comes without much conviction. He had survived and he had not kept it a secret.

"The usurper I wanted answered. At least one hundred and fifty years dead," and so is how the more modest of the Sabbat gloat. "He was my burden, not ours and not the Sabbat's, though whatever we get out of him and this will be spoils for us all. If there are more, though, it's glory in Caine's eyes for us all, as well," and so is how they share.

Flood note's Alain's musing. To him the Toreador antitribu's eyes look like sparks, kindling, stoked and refusing to be arrested by even the darkness Flood calls up out of the Abyss.

"Everything that has no use," his next answer. Maybe he is eager to move on from the subject Kate dwells upon and to the matter at hand?

"But I know vampires are staked within. If they are Sabbat, they must be rescued from whatever experiments he was working on them," and if they aren't? They might still be of 'use'.

[ Manipulation (Specialty: Cult of Personality) + Leadership: Flood wanted to test himself and didn't want to burden the pack with his own enemies. Now, let's do this for Caine! ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 4, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Flood

[ Kate? Do you love me? Perception + Subterfuge. Specialty is Hidden Motives. ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

Flood

[ Alain? How about you? Perception + Subterfuge. Specialty is Hidden Motives. ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7) ( success x 4 )

affliction

[Kate doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve. Reflexive Manip + Subt.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Flood

[ Again, Kate. ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 6, 7, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

affliction

[Yes, Flood?]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 3, 4, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

affliction

[Alain isn't reflexively hiding anything right now. He is however giving Flood the eye. Is that the whole story, bro? Perception + Subterfuge.]

Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Flood

[ Manipulation + Subterfuge. I mean what I say. ]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )

Flood

Flood looks upon the warehouse with a cautious curiosity that might indicate, especially to an observer like Alain, that he had been here to test himself. That he had wondered if he could face down a Tremere, and indeed the Lasombra had felt his undead body almost come alive again at the anticipation of the challenge. At encountering a new foe. At facing off against an enemy.

Why, though? Had it only been his curiosity, or wasn't there something else working there that perhaps even Flood wasn't fully conscious of. He notes this had been his burden, this the usurper he had been after, and yes the Sect had very specific tenets on protecting it from the single Cainite's rivalries. But a Tremere? In what interpretation was that not of the Sect's interests? No, Flood may not be trying to obscure it to cover his own ass, or he would've never been so honest about the nature of the threat and called them here.

No, again. Instead it had been something he holds dear. Dear and perhaps greedily, but dear nonetheless. Something he needed to protect. An interest? A territory? A speck of influence? A person?

In any case it must be something that inspires passion in his undead heart, and leave it to a Toreador antitribu to mine that from the dark entity Flood wears as his personage amongst the Sabbat.

affliction

Flood fixes those clover-green poison-green eyes of his on the Mourners of [Abel] Enoch, intent on sifting out if he can by instinct and observation just how closely chained his packmates are to him by the blood they share in the cup knicked free by the blade that Alain made.

Kate looks at Flood as Flood looks at Alain. The name Tremere means nothing to her except caution, except rousting the Sect-traitors and Ventrue-lapdogs from this city. But so she came. Loyal by blood and by virtue of her principles.

Alain is more loosely moored to Flood, the (blood) ties that bind knotted one-handed by a child who hasn't quite got the hang of tying their shoes -- it holds; there is a care, but the care could be worn thin. The blood motivates him less tonight than does a desire, an itch, for something new to do, something new to lead into the darkness, something interesting.

The Priest looks Flood over as Flood speechifies like Flood is want to do, his mouth (which some have described as meat - well, it is a meaty mouth, even dead retains some rawness, fine-shaped slabs, plush) quirking.

And so into the warehouse the Mourners do go, one for sorrow two for mirth three for a wedding of caution and catastrophe.

Dark. Darker. Darkest.

Flood

[ Perception + Alertness ]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )

Flood

[ Perception + Awareness ]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 1, 10) ( success x 1 )

affliction

[Kate's Perception + Alert]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 3, 4, 10) ( success x 1 )

affliction

[Alain's -3 diff for Heightened Senses ON.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN3 (5, 5, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 5 )

affliction

[Kate's Awareness]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 7) ( success x 1 )

affliction

[Alain has none.]

affliction

[Kate sneaks.]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (6, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

affliction

[Damn, Kate.]

affliction

[Alain sneaks.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5) ( fail )

affliction

[The root of their rivalry, revealed.]

Flood

[ Oh? Are we sneaking now? Shut up, Flood. 1 BP to Dexterity. 1 BP to activate Shadow Play.

Flood is at 12 BPs. Dexterity + Stealth. ]

Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 4 )

affliction

The door has been blown in bashed-in wrenched open by shadow-dark but there is still something about its knob that uncanny tickling that says something afoot.

They go inside. The dark isn't claustrophobic for a Lasombra but there is claustraphobia here. Through the door is a short hall and then a service elevator, no car, the cage empty, just lattice-work of metal, suggestion of more shadows but nothing lying within them. Alain tries the buttons and nothing is summoned up, no sounds except -- oh but Alain can hear every sound. Every, every sound, every stirring in the warehouse belly beast machine every movement of foundations settling of pests not roosting because here be the real predators here be some Things that shouldn't stalk but they do stalk and of course they should they have the power and they have the blood.

There is another door, this one without that uncanny sense (to Flood and Kate) of something wrong, a door with windows that leads into another hall and stairs that lead up and stairs that lead down. Katherine (holding that sword one-handed, stronger than she looks, Valkyric creature) eases through her eyes sharp.

Alain says, "No thing unstaked here," his voice like a cold wind on an already cold day, something cutting, biting, and he's poking his head in the service elevator, yes? Come out of the cage. As he withdraws, a chain going from his nose to his ear catches snags pulls and a movement of his hand sends some disconnected nut or bolt plummeting loudly downward crack echo crack POP echo and then maybe there is a car down below, something that was rusted into immobility, because it clanks and hits whatever's on the lower level with a groan and a BOOM.

The boom echoes. Kate in the door to the hall looking at Alain with -- no. Not fury, but a steady kind of arrogance and a whip-lash of irritation (hunger).

Alain's wincing, wincing, wincing, shaking his head (jingle jangle jingle jangle) and cursing unquietly now, with a sharp - "Shut the fuck up," for the Ventrue.

The hall and the stairs and the service elevator and the ground floor. An empty area that looks as if it was recently cleared for experimentation. A series of file cabinets and drawers. Shelving, things waiting on the shelves. A couple of chairs (the break room?) and a Subway wrapper (from one of the kine, no doubt).

Flood notices nothing moving, nor any secret trap doors, nor any interesting little hideaways, though Alain does once they get going, finds something on the shelves that he deems interesting enough to set aside by the ruined door. Do they split up?

They do what Flood says. Kate wants to find the staked vampires.

Flood

"Take your own advice," is Flood's answer when Alain bites his own teeth to sharper points, and at his own packmate, but is that something surprising? And is it surprising Flood is the one to sit in judgement upon it?

"All as one," and this if Flood in the moment. Concise and yet expressive.

Elegant as the stiletto in his hand ready to flay and the stake in his hand ready to do what its name says it can. See it? Like the one in Istvan's chest its wood is rubbed with a varnish that compliments the cedar, like it would seek out vitae to compliment its red core.

If they were to care and look at his garb it's unruffled by the encounter earlier in the night. The same cobalt, forester green, navy Glen plaid. Brogue brown leather dress shoes. Hardly attire for battle.

Alain has found something. Claimed it for them near the door. Flood guides them up to the next door. The one that emanates a foreboding aura. Sets the darkness to strong arm it, wrap about it, cocoon it in its strength and try to pry it free.

[ Arm of Darkness: Strength ]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 5, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

affliction

The lock on this one is flimsy; it doesn't take a great deal of strength to prise open, push inward, and Flood's arm is just enough to send the stiff lock scraping across paint and wood and the door swinging open to let them onto the stairs. Up or down.

Down they find another hall. This one is so dark that Kate finds the light switch and flips it on. Her eyes are not sharpened by anything like Mar's fire and she does not have the gift of auguries to help her somewhat get a sense of space. Alain blinks as the light floods his pupils, but he seems glad enough for the light too, dim fluorescents. Did Amber do a painting on one of the walls of the warehouse? If she did, this is where that mural resides.

A door which leads to a unisex bathroom (for the kine).

And a door with a key-code which leads to what must be the laboratory. This door is reinforced. This door wants to keep people out. This door is angry, but there's no sense of the uncanny a-tingle a-tangle.

Flood

"Where would they be lying in wait?" Flood thinks strategically, and aloud now, in whispers ground to quiet bone dust against his prominent protruding Adam's apple.

"Down, they are trapped, and if they are up, they could bring this building down on us and leave us trapped," he says first.

"Up, and they have the high ground, but we're not cowards," he says next, decisive as ever.

Flood leads them up. Takes the lead, the length of congealed and undulating darkness wrapping serpentine around him, ready to lash out and off and anything that may try to harm its master.

Flood

[ Perception + Alertness ]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )

Flood

[ Perception + Awareness ]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

affliction

[Kate: Perception + Technology (Security).]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

affliction

[How well are hidden things going to be hidden? Intelligence (Creative) + Larceny (Nope). +1 diff for the nope. I'm going to do this roll twice for two things/groups of things.]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

affliction

[3.]

affliction

[And again.]

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (2, 5, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )

affliction

[2.]

affliction

[Come on, Toreador. Be perceptive.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN3 (2, 3, 5, 6, 9) ( success x 4 )

affliction

[Ventrue, gonna let the Toreador beat you?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

affliction

[Kate-is-Aware?]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

affliction

Up they go until they're as high as it seems they might go, a tiled corridor this time, rooms off each and into each of these rooms (no doors cry at Flood and tell him blood sorcery is here, usurper's artfulness is here; no thresholds and no objects), but at least one of these rooms has a number of file cabinets and boxes of books nad papers. If they don't stop and go through this one now, they will want to return after and pick through more carefully. The file cabinets are all locked. Brute strength or a more dextrous hand will be required to get at whatever meat's hidden within -- if there is any meat, if it's not just a pleasing shell.

At the end of this corridor with many (small) rooms, some of which don't even have doors, there is a handle tucked into a panel in the ceiling. Flood doesn't see it but both Alain and Kate does. Kate points it out. Alain is listening. He has a switchblade (it's an instrument of pain) and he has a stake (to pin the little pretties down).

No staked vampires in any of those other rooms. What's this? What's this? A hidden compartment in a wall? No; it's just a ruse. Nothing there. A blind.

There's a handle tucked into a panel in the ceiling, and it's child's play for the abyssal arm, the clotting of a darkness that is darker than dark, that is no mere shadow, the stuff of night itself -- oh, it's easier than child's play for Flood's shadow arm to slip through and YANK down. Ladder-stairs unfold, unhinge like an accordion, and up they go into the highest point of the eyrie, slowly, slowly, and this is where what is hidden will be hidden, isn't it?

Up. And: A musty and treacherous part of the building. Easy to misstep on the beams and put one's foot through unstable flooring covering the insulation and providing a means of wandering around. Not much up here but boxes and the impressions of furniture draped over with drop cloth.

Until you look (if you are not Flood, that is. His looking does nothing.

Except -- this. Flood is getting a very strong hunch. His instincts tell him, spell out for him, grab him by the cold hand insinuate against his unmoving heart coil through his muscles in order to direct him that, here, here, here is where the dead bodies are buried. Or at least a body. Vampire).

Alain finds a box that looks particularly interesting, if only because of the way it was hidden amidst the rest -- and Kate cautiously, stepping carefully, edges toward the direction in the least safe part of the attic, the floor creaking, cre-e-e-eaking, wanting to be rot and decay, moves in a direction that Flood's own sixth sense is telling him might be where the It is.

[Kate's Dex + Ath to not misstep.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (5, 7, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )

Flood

The floor whines and Flood is not one for whiners, no, he is unforgiving and overbearing and bearing down upon it may make it finally give up. Katherine is smaller, though no less dead-weighted, and Alain also wants to go. The Ventrue antitribu, though, seems so lithe. Her footfalls are steady. She is a skeleton warrior with a purpose in this closet where the skeletons of a Tremere are buried.

Flood leaves Alain to what curiosities he will pick out, what pretty things he wants to claim as his or their trophies, and instead encourages Kate.

"The floor may give once you've claimed our prize, but I feel it... It's there, waiting to be claimed," he says.

"The floor won't hold us both, not with a staked corpse to move, though," letting her know why he waits. Why he leaves this tasks in her hands. His tone is confident of her ability.

And Flood is not static. As Alain looks, so does he, about and around for other things worth noticing why Katherine is left to claim the thing.

Flood

[ Perception + Investigation ]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )

affliction

[You know, in case there's any other group of Interesting Things, I'ma roll one more Things Are Hidden???]

Dice: 4 d10 TN7 (2, 5, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )

affliction

"I expected more mystical sigils," Alain remarks, looking with distaste at a book of philosophy upon which is written what looks to him like gobbledygook.

There is a chair. There is a desk. There is a whole little room-that-will-one-night (or would-maybe-one-night) be a study, or passes for one now, hidden amongst the boxes, like a fort (creative!) or just the way the demands of the attic's mouldy musty floorboards and support beams dictated furniture go and here are some of the journals and personal letters that Flood's going to find tonight, if not all. And maybe some are locked away further, but probably not: though the Tremere love secrecy, this is this Tremere's haven and it is an arrogant Tremere.

The thing is hidden -- passingly well, creatively disguised, but Katherine finds it anyway. It; it was a him once. Katherine is never one for squandering movement but she is completely still as she regards it.

Lifts it. Comes carefully, carefully back across to safe ground.

affliction

[Dex + Ath + 1 diff cause you're encumbered now, Kate, don't twist your ankle or do anything that'd break stuff.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 4, 6, 7) ( success x 1 )

Flood

Flood takes these personal letters, these books, bundling them up the blanket Katherine had found Enoch's new burden beneath. He throws the makeshift sack over his shoulder, as a hobo might, especially once the stake is slid through the knot and grasped in his fingers in a new purpose.

Flood tosses his head, now silent, ascending from the attic. Through the second floor. There are filing cabinets and more, yes, but if there is actual (dangerous) game below it must be dealt with first.

And so downward again. Flood sets down the bundle near the base of the stairs to the second floor, helping Katherine set down their once-prisoner-now-rescued-and-recaptured. Again he readies himself for a fight. Another door to be battered down. And this one? Looks like it will not go down nearly as easy as either of the others.

He points to his right, a spot on the ground, for Katherine to set herself there and ready herself to storm the gate once it's opened. Alain to his left. And then...

This time when shadows converge to clash against it Flood's shoulder joins them, slamming soundly, hopefully doing less to crush his own bones and more to crack it open.

[ 2 BP to Strength for Flood. He's at 10 BPs. Rolling to break down the door. ]

Dice: 8 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Flood

[ Arm of Darkness: Strength ]

Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 1 )

Flood

[ Flood: Strength. Next turn. ]

Dice: 8 d10 TN8 (3, 3, 5, 6, 9, 9, 9, 9) ( success x 4 )

affliction

.

Flood

[ Arm of Darkness: Strength. Next turn. ]

Dice: 6 d10 TN8 (1, 2, 4, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 1 )

affliction

The corpse is juiceless and has been a resident-guest honored of István Jákob for long enough that there is nothing fresh about it. This is not the moment of death; this is craven, this is carved, this is the beginning of starveling mummification and dessiation, this is juicelessness and bloodlessness, and you'd never suspect that the gruesome trophy housed a sentience which could still be waked, not when Kate and Flood set it carefully down, not when Alain treads on its fingers. Accidentally, perhaps, or just carelessly, callously.

Kate is waiting, the broadsword handled two-handedly now, her cool features implaccable, that Madonna-lovely serenity more frightening than many other things might be. How easily she took position, drew herself up, Flood's right hand is a sword. Alain is ready with the stake, ready to zip in ahead of the class with Flood's darkness behind him roiling, a cloud of smoke, of --

But the basement door holds. This basement door holds fast against Flood and his darkness.

Try again. Kate and Alain -- they are each disciplined, in their way, and they are each (this is the most important thing) predators, apex. They wait. What might come at them? What might be lurking? What might the coven within have been chanting, all this while; what blood magick might stain the air, ready to wring them free of blood or (un)life?

Another slam and the door busts open, shoulder and darkness and nothing's as secure as it wants to be, nothing's ever secure when the Sword of Caine is lofted, blood-hungry, blood-gluttonous, and inside

oh inside the basement it is pitch. No ambient light. The kind of darkness you can almost feel (oh, but Flood knows what that darkness really is, the kind you can pet and stroke and feel, the kind you call up from within--and this is not the Abyss. But this kind of dark: this feels like the kind of dark that never knew the light.

Flood

[ Perception + Awareness ]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )

affliction

He feels it again. Near, near. Something strange, not something strange like a Vex, but something else strange, uncanny, a tickle in the back of his mind. This is a warlock's den, after all.

Flood

Nothing comes out, at least not immediately, at Flood and his compatriots. His pack? Do they storm forward? Perhaps they had expected crackling lightning or burning torrents of balefire. At the very least the flickering of candle light or ritual. Flood had not expected to find darkness turned back at him, used against the Lasombra, and he's stunned for a moment.

Just a moment, though. He holds out his arms, stake in one hand and stiletto in the other, to stop Alain or Katherine should either of them move into the darkness.

The arm whips back and forth, malevolent and sentient as a black cat's tail, dutiful and alone in its attempts to ward off anything that might make a sudden gambit to defend the open door.

"Wait," and his stake joins the blade in his off hand, the other reaching into his pocket for (not a lighter, nor a torch) his mobile phone. A click, swipe, tap and its LED flash is alive. He kneels, placing it onto the floor back end up. Stands and places his stake the dominant grip it deserves, and then sends the little wisp of bright blue-white light skittering with a kick across the floor to illuminate...

Whatever there is its feeble light can reveal.

affliction

[Does Alain start to move? Self Control.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (4, 9) ( success x 1 )

affliction

Look at how the light distorts (naturally) against table legs. Look at how it skids against a floor designed for sterility, for soaking up spills and slips, for support, for foundation. This is the foundation of the Tremere's haven. Truthfully: isn't - or wasn't it - as much a haven from the demands of his position within the Tower as from the sunlight? Because this is where the Tremere's heart lies. Here the pale light washing out of Flood's phone reveals a lab. Labtables. Equipment. All so carefully installed by research assistants, all so carefully placed into position. A place where someone might discover a way to remove the carbon atoms from the surface of a diamond using silica and water, to do experiments using vibrations and who knows what the fuck else.

Physicists, probably. This is a great room for physicists.

The Mourners of Enoch, by that scant light from the phone (which skitters skitters stops against the main lab table), it is still forbidding. What there is to see is limned in that faint light but otherwise still so dark.

There seems to be no figures, hooded, waiting. The Tremere are not known for having Obfuscation.

Flood

Flood knows nothing of these things. The tuning fork his mind wields to make sense of the world around him is not attuned to the vibrations of atoms or the states of matter-is-energy as scientists know it. These hemispheres understand it in social constructs, break it open with the subtle picks and hammers of allegory, sift through what remains with natural philosophy. Even the finer things of art are fodder for his verbal flourishes.

Once it magnified the light of day to warmth through a beating heart. Not anymore. The beast broke that glass like William Golding's most pitiful protagonist's spectacles.

This place. Let's return to this place. Flood will have time for contemplation later. But what is there to meditate on here? It is less a strange and foreign temple to Flood than a pit for sacrifices to Ahrimane would be to one of the lab coat wearing research assistants that inhabit it in the day.

Flood respects learning. Sadly, he respects his packmates more.

"Do what you will," and it isn't giving leave, he wasn't one to reign Alain in, but he knows what he wants. In any case the warehouse truly seems empty. Flood steps forward, gaze drifting, seeking out a light switch, still ready for some shadow to come alive that isn't his own. Some guardian to manifest and come for his heart's blood.

affliction

"How clear should we make it to Them that we were here?"

-- Alain. Ready to carve into things, carve obscenities throughout his destruction, while Katherine lowers her sword and sweeps a glance around. Curious; it is not what she expected and so there is wondering.

And still readiness, taut as a string.

The light switch isn't difficult to find. People are supposed to work here, after all. The light comes on (with warning, one hopes, for poor Alain; it is very bright and well-lit here. An entirely different world from up above).

affliction

ooc: plus extra emphasis on 'we'

Flood

Did Flood think to warn Alain? Maybe not. It would not have been intentional. The sun doesn't set with any sense of its own purpose. It pushes the things around it and sends them spinning in its light. The light goes on. Is Alain ready for it?

Flood turns around to retrieve his phone and tuck it away inside his jacket.

"Those who know who we are should know, those who don't shouldn't," and so is the Sabbat's much more tenuous grasp on something like a masquerade, something more like a horror house, something that gladly plays on the terrors of humans and the monsters Cainites can become without inviting the world and all its eyes upon them.

Flood is not one for looting or wanton destruction. He looks to Katherine, and then looks about once more.

"There was something. Something with his stench on it. Help me find it," and he walks slowly toward what Alain will surely begin turning into a scrap heap.

[ Perception + Awareness. One more time. This will bring Flood down to 3 WP. ]

Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

affliction

[How ya doin' there, Alain? Looks like this is a willpower roll not to get all disorientated.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 5, 5) ( fail )

affliction

[Does Alain frenzy? Self Control. Diff 8.]

Dice: 2 d10 TN8 (1, 3) ( fail )

Flood

[ Flood's Initiative: 1d10 + 8 ]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (7) ( success x 1 )

Flood

[ 15 ]

affliction

[Kate +6.]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )

affliction

[Alain. +8]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )

affliction

Order:

Flood.

Kate.

Alain.

Alain:

The lights come on; they're so bright. They're so bright they're so bright that it's the sunlight come conjured drinking into his mind drinking of his mind pulling up that mood-tug grab-yank fear as the fire makes a net of his mind again crawls out like fireants up and down his face and Alain gives himself utterly over to the Beast, becomes his own Beast, becomes not unthinking but instinctual who brought the light and who is he least attached to he just wants to rend things maybe blood will make it leave blood mist to shield him from the

His thoughts are harried, confused. He

-1 BP to Celerity.

1. Slash Flood w/ switch-blade.

Celerity. Slash Flood again.

Kate:

Katherine -- of course she didn't lose control, as the Toreador did, is not riding a frenzy; of course not. But Katherine, her cold ice-water eyes (the only thing colder: ice-water heart, sculptured stone, glaciers) turn quickly on Alain as he leaps into motion, Beast-wearing-Alain-clothing and Alain-and-the-Beast are not so different anyway, and she'd lowered her sword.

"You -- "

Now, though

-1 BP to Dex.

1. Cut 'im off at the knees, soldier! She wants to swing that broadsword low and through Alain's legs and let that teach the speedy bastard a lesson. That won't hurt him, right?

Flood

Flood had turned away to leave Alain to make mischief, but it's the sudden blur of movement, unaccompanied by sparks and grinding metal, and the impending knowing that he's coming upon him that sets him to action.

The tendril of darkness that had been so eager to protect Flood and to a lesser extent his packmates is put to other work. As Alain turns against them it turns on him, snaking toward his legs before surging up and around to hold him fast.

Flood does the same. Flood turns and grabs for Alain, one hand meant for the wrist, the wrist of the, the hand sporting a blade meant for him. He wishes to hold him still through this fit. It is forgiving only because this is not the place to turn against one another.

It is forgiving in this moment, but may not stay that way for long once proximity gets the better of him.

[ Arm of Darkness: Hold Alain.

Flood: Hold Alain.

If successful I'm rolling self-control for Flood not to frenzy and bite him. ]

Flood

[ Arm of Darkness (Hold): Strength ]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7) ( success x 1 )

Flood

[ Flood (Hold): Strength + Brawl ]

Dice: 10 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )

Flood

[ Self-control to not chomp at him next turn? ]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (6, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )

Flood

[ Because I posted an incomplete version instead of my final one ]

Flood had turned away to leave Alain to make mischief. It's the sudden blur of movement, unaccompanied by sparks and grinding metal, and the impending glimpse of the Toreador antitribu coming upon him that sets him to action.

The tendril of darkness that had been so eager to protect Flood and to a lesser extent his packmates is put to other work. As Alain turns against them it turns on him, snaking toward his legs before surging up and around to hold him fast.

Flood does the same. Flood turns and grabs for Alain, one hand meant for the wrist, the wrist of the hand, the hand sporting a blade, the blade meant for him. He wishes to hold him still through this fit. Flood's other reaches to grip like a vice around his throat. He doesn't need to breathe. He just doesn't need to think gnashing those fangs at Flood is his next pest option.

It is forgiving only because this is not the place to turn against one another. It is forgiving in this moment, but may not stay that way for long if (once?) proximity of Beast to Beast gets the better of him.

[ Declare and rolls above. ]

affliction

[Kate with a sa-wing! Dex + Melee + 2 attack attack.]

Dice: 9 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )

affliction

[How ya feelin', Alain? Strength + 2 (Sword) + 1.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 6, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )

affliction

[Alain would like to soak. Ow.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 6) ( success x 1 )

affliction

[Er, one more to that.]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (10) ( success x 1 )

affliction

[Alain: reflexive struggle. -1. St+Brawl.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 5, 10) ( success x 1 )

affliction

[And one more time. Let me go Flood, I just wanna slash you..]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 4, 4, 8) ( success x 1 )

affliction

CELERITY BONUS ROUND.

The shadow-tendril viscous Abyssal slick-snake sinuousity darkness come to life given purpose -- just loses its grasp. But still:

Lemme go, Flood! Again!

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 5, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )

Flood

[ Arm v Alain ]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Flood

[ Flood v Alain ]

Dice: 10 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9) ( success x 5 )

Flood

[ Flood v Alain ]

Dice: 10 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 5, 6, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 4 )

Flood

[ Arm v Alain (still need his reflexive for this) ]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6) ( success x 1 )

affliction

[Again we struggle: wee!]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 4 )

affliction

This is how it happens:

Quickly.

The blonde priest bears down switch-blade glittering as a-dazzled by the lab's flood of brightness as the priest himself is and before it can do more than begin its comet's descent toward Flood -- the Lasombra's cold hand on the Toreador's cold wrist. Fast. Strong. Imperturbable. Hold. The Lastombra's cold shadow-pet, his tenebrous whip, slithering around the legs of and up Alain, but no, no, not keeping --

And just after, as the shadow falls loose pushed free drifting like a lasso settling this disturbing and unnatural thing in such a bright room and how soundless it is, Katherine's sword swinging low and biting deep, deep, slicing through flesh and muscle and bone and cloth and Alain's flesh and muscle and bone tries to re-knit to re-group to desperate-cling and just barely, just barely, Alain's left calf and below are hanging by a gruesome thread or three, vitae spilled and sweet.

Katherine draws back her sword. Alain is still in a frenzy, but now, but now, its fangs falling out, his pupils pinpricked points. Wrist held, but he's a stake in the other hand and he wants to lash out with it at whatever caused him the most pain --

The sword. Or is it the light? He's disorientated even with the Beast a cunning moon in his eyes and seconds pass with him snapping at the lightbulb with his teeth.

Flood

The river of frozen over darkness now snaking across the floor, and though it is still a force beneath its hardened surface it does go still. It is ready, but it does not move. It is still. Flood's hands are strong on Alain, on his wrist and his neck, and he has his stake, but...

Flood releases him. Slowly fingers uncurl all at once. Flood backs away swiftly, as swiftly as he feet will carry him, and his arm reaches out to flick off that light. All the while his eyes are on Kate, holding them still, lips pressed. They urge stillness to mimic their own, all he can do in his silence to not disturb Alain before he can get to that switch.

Flood

The river of frozen over darkness now snaking across the floor, and though it is still a force beneath its hardened surface it does go still. It is ready, but it does not move. It is still. Flood's hands are strong on Alain, on his wrist and his neck, and he has his stake, but...

Flood releases him. Slowly fingers uncurl all at once. Flood backs away swiftly, as swiftly as he feet will carry him, and his arm reaches out to flick off that light. All the while his eyes are on Kate, holding them still, lips pressed. They urge stillness to mimic their own, all he can do in his silence to not disturb Alain before he can get to that switch.

affliction

There are strings of saliva from tooth to tooth, fang to incisor, and the sound they make -- this low, savage, guttural snarl --

and this savage expression is what the light blinks out on for Alain. A dark curtain, shh, Night is here.

Kate's eyes meet Flood's. Her smile is faint, a tender suggestion except for that it has so much of frost, of calm, and can tenderness be this kind of implaccable calm? And she is still. The sword does not swing again. Her focus begins to slide graceful from Flood to Alain

and this expression is what the lights blink out on for Kate. Silence. Silence from Kate. Silence from Flood.

Silence from Alain? That animal snarl. That bestial sound -- it is not accompanied by wet whuffs, gurgling breathing, panting: it's a deliberate threat, and then something sharp, movement, smack, crunch, smack, smack, what fucking is it? Why isn't he stopping, why can't he gain control of himself, why's he riding it into -- and then --

and then more silence. Quiet. The light's gone and the Beast slinks off.

No regulation of breathing to indicate Alain's calm again. Nothing.

But he must be.

How dark it is here in the scientist-warlock's den.

affliction

That uncanny thing Flood picked up when they opened the door to darkness: Where is it? Where is it? Where oh where is it? Look to the side.

Another door. Barely noticeable. In the hall, just by where they've dumped Vex. A closet? That's the ticket.

Flood

This room has been meant for Alain and Flood seems fine with leaving it an asylum for the lunacy a true lunatic had left him. Kate, perhaps, and even Alain will hear Flood's footsteps as goes to pick up his cell phone. His finger presses on the LED, snuffing it out beneath, and palms it away once he has submerged the room in more darkness.

Next they will hear those fine brogue shoes lightly tapping their way toward the door. He does not reach out for Kate. He can hardly imagine why she wouldn't follow. And why speak up? Eventually Alain will snap out of it.

And if not?

They can drag him out later.

Once out of the room and once joined by the Ventrue antitribu Flood's hands...

Well, they don't touch a thing, but they do hover a light lover's breath over the surface of the door he has come to. "It's here," he says. And again Flood's minion, slinking and slithering from where it laid down submissively at his behest, comes to crack open door number...

Are we on three? Flood hasn't been counting and hasn't watched a game show in decades. The allusion would be lost on him.

[ Arm: Strength ]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )

affliction

The door gives. The door gives without much fanfare. Kate does keep pace with Flood, or not pace, but she stalks after pausing once at Vex and the blanket of goodies to wipe her blade on the blanket.

The door gives without much of a sound, not even a whimper. It wasn't locked; there was no need for it to be. And in here, István sleeps during the day. It's a small room, but his place of rest is not so obvious that anyone opening the door would immediately spy him. He an intelligent creature, István Jákob, and no doubt this little slumber-hole, this little hermit's cave, an anchorite's oubliette, never meant to be opened by day -- only meant ever to be opened by night -- well no doubt it suits him.

Utilitarian. There is not much to take from it.

Sounds from the lab continue; a crash, metal rent, shrieking. But Alain has learned his lesson and his senses are dampened now.

Flood

And if they are back, his senses, they will hear:

"If you're ready to rejoin us, we are off to the doctor," clear and growing clearer as Flood returns to the stairway, leaving Katherine to tote Vex as he gathers up his bag of useless bones, scribbling and folded sheaves, an incomplete map of an unlife he hopes to navigate from a primary source at a later date.

Flood goes up and above, up and out, a hand holding Katherine at bay within, "Let me pull up the car," in case of eyes not seen earlier. He goes through the parking lot, down the block, and toward the SUV, pulling it up for her to dump Vex into.

They will regroup, won't they? They will probably fight over what car to take where, which to leave, Flood no longer so sure about tasking Alain with accompanying him to the hospital... But if the Toreador insists on coming, Flood will relent.

affliction

[Let's do some rolls to damage that lab, just for an idea of carnage. Strength and brawl. He'll spend blood to heal his hurtz first.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 6, 6, 6, 8) ( success x 4 )

affliction

[Now trash this thing, over there.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

affliction

[I'm just going to assume the damage is suitable. Things were trashed.]

affliction

[René. 10 - Manipulation (3). Diff 7. Manip + Influence.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (2, 2, 4, 6, 8) ( success x 1 )

Flood

[ Flood. Dominate (Mesmerize): Manipulation + Leadership. Specialty is Cult of Personality. Take me to your leader. Or, like, Rene Jacobs. ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )

Flood

[ 3 BP to Dexterity. He's at 7 BPs. Dexterity is at 7 for three turns. This must be how vampires appear behind you. Dexterity + Stealth. ]

Dice: 9 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )

affliction

[René: What? Christ. -1 for Auspex.]

Dice: 5 d10 TN5 (1, 2, 4, 4, 8) ( success x 1 )

Flood

[ Flood. Dominate (Mesmerize). Still a specialty. Target is still the security guard. "Shhh, just one last thing before you go off to do your rounds..." ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (2, 2, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 5 )

Flood

[ Wits + Alertness may void that roll. ]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 4, 9) ( success x 1 )

Flood

[ Flood. Dominate (Forgetful Mind). Target is the security guard. "You never saw me. The switchboard operator called the front desk, asking to see if Mr. Jakobs was still not taking calls, but doesn't he look busy? And he looks fine. No, you decided to leave him be, and it'll slip your mind she even called by the the time you're heading home. Maybe you'll remember later tonight, but he did say to hold his calls, didn't he?" ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )

affliction

[René: Eh? Senses tingling? Chills? Do I notice things?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN5 (1, 1, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )

Flood

[ Flood. Sneak. WP. ]

Dice: 9 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 8, 8) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Flood

[ Flood. Dominate (Mesmerize). Specialty is Cult of Personality. Target is Rene. "Rene, won't you come with me? I've got such a marvelous night planned for us. Tell you supervisor you've got plans and have to leave early. Don't you take no for an answer." ]

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 2, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 4 )

affliction

[Rene lies to his supervisor.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 7, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 4 )

affliction

[His supervisor is like: 'Plans'? You're working, what are these 'plans'? Are they urgent? Are you lying to me?]

Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 7, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )

affliction

[And Rene gets in trouble, but off they go!]