Dinner and a ShowRULES (Full credit to Kai via Damon as always):
1. There is no post order, but please only post once for each post I make unless I say otherwise.
2. Please try to be timely on posts: in other words, 10 minutes or less to post and if there is combat (which is likely, more on that shortly), declare/roll in 2 minutes or less. I will give a polite warning if we start getting too late with these.
3. You are free to multi-task, so long as you can abide by the above strictures.
4. This scene may will end up with combat taking place and as such, there is risk to your PCs. The potential risk is physical, psychological, mental AND spiritual. (Which I like to call the Holy Quartet.) If you decide you want to bow out based on that I am completely fine.
5. Please PM or IM me with anything you want to be off-limits; phobias, triggers, themes, etc. Also PM with any relevant Merits or Flaws (Nightmares, Phobias, etc.) or any active magical effects (wards, Life enhancement, et. al) your Mage has going on your person. If you need to roll those, or Nightmares or the like, do so now. If none of these apply, no need to PM me with “None”
7. Please keep track of your own health, Quintessence, WP, etc.
8. If someone wants to make an IM Chat, I would appreciate it. I have spotty luck when I try.
9. We are at the Black Orchid, a nightclub in downtown Denver. Description post incoming!
Kalen Holliday[How awake are we?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (2, 2, 4, 6, 8, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )
Elijah[did we survive last night?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (2, 4, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )
Dinner and a ShowThe Black Orchid isn't what you might call a "pure dance club." There's dancing, to be sure; the back half of the establishment is a separate room with a dance floor, with purple neon and black lights providing the sort of trippy illumination that is sure to send dancers into a frenzy, epileptics into convulsions and acid trippers into moments of insanity or enlightenment.
But it's not all about the house music being played and the bodies twisting and writhing to the beat--a beat not as effective as certain DJs, but solid none the less. The nightclub contains a bar area in the front for people who are just trying to find a chill night out. While it doesn't cater to the goth community, there can often be at least a small contingent of the darksiders found in a corner; maybe it's the name. Ravers, college kids, hangers-on...really, you can find any sort of nightclub person here under the low light and energetic atmosphere.
Sunday night is, perhaps to people's surprise, rather busy. It's one last chance for the crowd to get their weekend partying out before heading back to their day jobs, classes or whatever they have going on for the rest of the week. The woman behind the bar, an attractive girl in her late twenties with a wide blonde streak through her dark hair, is being kept busy but seems to be handling her work with the practiced ease of someone who's been doing this for years.
AliciaThe thing about a city big as Denver is she can go out several times a week and not hit the same place twice. One night she might be in a club that only plays modern dance remixes and the next she might wind up in a dive bar where all anyone there wants to do is quaff down pitchers of beer and shoot pool. Half the time she doesn't recognize anyone out and half the time she does.
Tonight she's hoping she doesn't recognize anyone but you wouldn't be able to tell from looking at her what she does and doesn't want. She has an of-age bracelet around her wrist and nothing in her hands. Maybe she's had her beer and her shot already. Hard to dance with a full drink in one's hand.
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (6, 9) ( success x 2 )
ElijahElijah Poirot hasn't gotten drunk in the better part of a week. That was an entire week of being sober. An entire week of being sober and present and very, very aware of the fact that he made some less-than-stellar choices. As such, he'd found himself seeking other means of self-medication transcendent behavior. At some point, the behaviors went from medicative to meditative. Right now, all he wanted to do was just be, to move and feel as things came and went and passed through.
There was a club- the Black Orchid. It's not a pure dance club, but it's good enough for him. It was alive and busy on a Sunday, so why not invite people? So out went a text:
Come dance, it's Sunday @ Black Orchid. The music's decent!
He didn't expect anyone to text back, but he could revel in the anonymity of crowds and the feeling of a collective heartbeat.
Kalen HollidayKalen likes music. And, to a point, he likes crowds of people and dancing and music. Of course, last time he went out to a club for dancing it was great until he was being pulled into another reality. And he'd had a date. But hey, as disasters go showing up to a club without a date is probably a lesser disaster than getting sucked into some nightmare reality. And, even in Denver, how likely is getting sucked into another alternate reality? It isn't even the grand opening.
So Kalen is at the line where people sometimes flow across in waves of dancers into the relative stillness of the front area, leaning back on the wall, half-finished drink with a bunch of fruit speared on a brightly colored plastic skewer embedded in crushed ice. He's scanning the crowd, watching how people drift and ebb and flow. Now they are in lines at the bar, now the front is full, now the people have spilled into the dance floor. Magnetism. Gravity. Tides.
But, at least for now, he's more interested in watching than joining.
[Watch crowd - Perception plus awareness or alertness (it's the same number of dice so I'm rolling without an answer)]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 6, 7, 9, 9) ( success x 4 )
AlexanderIt’s the weekend and, like so many others, Alexander is here to escape. Just for a little while. Escape from the day-to-day – walking the beat, the traffic, the city, bills... Escape from the supernatural. It’s a chance to forget about everything and just let go.
He’s not running on any of the illicit substances that others in the club might have snuck in or taken before they arrived, but he has worked through a couple of beers. He’s not drunk by any stretch of the imagination, but he has had enough to just start to relax a little.
So he’s in the back of the club already, lost somewhere in the dance floor and lost somewhere in the beat. For those who might come across him, he’ll be in loose, black combat trousers and a black t-shirt with UV-reactive strips tracing out wings.
Why here? Why not?
[And per/aware - he's not completely lost]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )
GraceGrace isn't here because she wants to be. Grace is here because other people are here, and not because the workaholic and professional crowd-hater decided it would be a fun diversion.
She only ever does this sort of thing when asked. And then, they had better be cool people who ask. It's a good thing she knows a large number of cool people, or else she might stay at the office planning and preparing forever.
Tonight it's Elijah who asks, and since her side project at the moment is developing a monitoring system that he could put on all of his devices to tell if some asshole is trying to directly access his shit? Well. Okay. Going to a club to make sure Elijah's not being watched fits in with that whole sort of idea, doesn't it?
So she arrives at the Black Orchid wearing jeans and a black t-shirt that has a mountain printed on the front in white, framed in geometric abstracts. Over that is her light gray jacket, unzipped.
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 4, 4, 8) ( success x 1 )
Grace[Oh yeah, and that was Awareness like everyone else]
Elijah[per+aware, because that seems like a good idea]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Dinner and a ShowJust about everyone has their sixth sense in play, which causes them all to ping off each other of course. The chaos of Alicia scrambles against Elijah's tumult. Kalen's storm envelopes those feelings (being doubly strong) and a chill settles over the whole thing thanks to Alexander. As Grace arrives, she slices right into place with her shifting, sharp edge. Maybe it's fate that they all seem to fit together on this night, like pieces of a puzzle.
Of course, that puzzle comes with its own jagged edges as of late, so maybe it's a recipe for turning lead to gold, or perhaps its the Lament Configuration ready to open a door to a place you never want to go.
But the mages in the nightclub aren't all that they sense. Amidst each of their individual references, there is the pure energy of the crowd. Emotional resonance is as much a thing as magical resonance, though it doesn't usually register with that something special that sends the sensation down your back, draws the attention of that Awakened part of you. This somehow seems just a bit stronger than you might expect. It's a good feeling though. Invigorating. Joyful. even.
AliciaAnd her senses are as open as they're going to get so she could feel if someone in the crowd were not what they appeared on the outside. So far as she can tell anyone with pale skin or dead eyes just doesn't get out much or is on something. That isn't anything she can tell from looking at a person. From following the hunch her gut gives her.
When she feels her ex-best friend out there in the crowd somewhere she ignores him. She ignores also the storminess of his mentor and the knife-like movement of the woman she walked out on a week ago. Feels something frozen and ignores that too.
Alicia is not in the center of the dance floor. She's off to one side in a pocket by herself. Anyone who has tried to dance with her over the course of the last several songs she's flitted away from. Only as that joyousness comes over the room does she lift her eyes from the inward oneness with the music and everything that comes over a person when they're dancing.
That's all she gets though and even if it catches her attention she thinks nothing more of it. She twirls around and dances further away from the concentration of resonances she can feel on the other side of the room.
ElijahHe's oblivious, aware that Alicia is here but unaware that he is an ex- anything, though that would no doubt change in a matter of moments. Though, no matter what he wanted to do, Elijah had something larger on his mind.
There was a hitch in his movement. A pause. The young man took a second, licked his lips and cleared his throat as though he expected something to wash a taste out of his mouth. There was a way to go about that, and with little fanfare the young man made his way to the bar to order a drink. His focus wasn't on getting a drink, but rather trying to tap into the feeling of things breaking down around him- a feat that would prove damned near impossible without that sympathetic connection to whatever it was that he needed to feel
[Entropy 1: Sensing entropy, +3 diff because he literally can't put a finger on what he needs.]
Dice: 1 d10 TN7 (8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
AlexanderSo the DJ may not be the greatest in the city, but the tracks merge together reasonably smoothly and there’s no dead air from the sound system. Perhaps they’re not able to pull the crowd along on an emotional trip, but maybe there’s something extra in the room tonight. Not something that exactly stands out as Awakened to Alexander, but its effect is still felt.
Alex, too, feels the resonances of others moving around the room. Some he knows well, others he’s at least acquainted with. One he’s completely unfamiliar with. And? They can carry on doing whatever they’re here to do. There’s no End of the World, no mind-screwing situations with spirits and plant/zombie things and... No, none of that. They’re just here to have a good time too, and that’s exactly what he intends to keep on doing.
So unless one of those familiar sources of resonance happens to bump into him, they can damned well do their own thing and leave him alone. Just for tonight.
Because tonight? Is joyous.
Kalen HollidayKalen shifts from stillness to movement with all the warning of a lightning strike. He finishes the last of his drink, for all that the traces of syrup and sugar fail to drown out the sense of grit and the taste of death on his tongue. He drops off the glass and winds his way through the crowd to Alexander.
Not with the kind of purposeful long stride that says they have a problem. No, that is not a thing you telegraph to a crowded nightclub. He gets close to Alexander and then with a playful smile he leans into Alexander, his lips practically brushing his earlobe, tone all breathy and warm. It's a sharp enough contrast to the actual words. "Find out if anything has happened here recently, would you? Your resources here are likely better than mine. I'm going to go check the thing I can check."
Alexander has only a few seconds to respond before Kalen is pulling away to head for the bathrooms.
GraceOh, it is happening again. It's a crapshoot as far as these sorts of things go isn't it? Either all these resonances that she can put a face to are going to have a nice night out and nothing happens, or they're being drawn here for a reason. This universe may never have spoken to her directly, but sometimes it makes its will known in bizarre ways.
Go here. Do the thing. Go on, do it.
In any case, Grace walks in and immediately her eyes peel off of the ceiling and onto the crowd to look for Elijah, and where would an Elijah be? Oh yes, bar. That makes so much sense.
She walks up, taking a beeline straight through the crowd which does not seem to exist to her, and says, "Hi. I got your text."
Dinner and a ShowAlicia, sweet Alicia, dances with abandon away from her fellow Awakened. That just so happens to bring her closer to the bathrooms, off to the left side of the dance floor, and also happens to be the way that Kalen is headed. It's going to be a bit of a trek for the Hermetic though; he has to maneuver around the side of the dance floor, or go directly through and either of those is going to take some time, especially as he takes a few moments to enlist Alexander's aid.
Elijah makes his way to the bar and works his magic, spiking his Resonance as he does so. That's right about when Grace goes up to find him and say hello. The bartender looks over in her direction and gives a little nod. She's good at making sure anyone coming up gets a chance to spend their money.
"Hey, what can I get you?"
Meanwhile, back to our young Orphan by the bathrooms. As she twirls in that direction, she finds herself bumping up against someone who is just making his way along the edge of the dance floor. The collision is not so hard as to knock either of them sprawling, and when she turns to see who she has come up against she finds a man in his late twenties. He's attractive, to be sure, in that put together-yet-rebellious sort of way. Longish hair, just enough to brush the tops of his shoulders. He clearly has some Asian blood to him, a defined jawline and a quick smile over brown eyes. He's dressed just a little out of sync with the rest of the crowd in a hoodie over a button-down red shirt and jeans.
Instinctively, he reaches out to steady her with warm hands. "Hey, sorry. You okay?"
Elijah"Can I get a coke?"
There was something wrong. There had to be something wrong because Elijah wasn't getting completely shithoused at that juncture, even though he did have the band that said he was more than allowed to do so. A nice, believable lie. He turned his attention to Grace and he stepped in. Smiled because there was a familiar face; the smile didn't reach his eyes. There was tension in his breathing. Elijah stepped in and spoke quietly.
"Something's going on on the bathroom, or something already happened there, I don't know, but something… it feels like the flow of the world's break down has gone to shit… wanna go check it out with me?"
See, look, he's using the buddy system.
Alicia"Oh, shit."
If you're going to stagger around like a baby giraffe you have to accept that at some point you're going to run into another person on the dance floor. Or the edge of the dance floor near the bathrooms. Or in the actual bathroom. Alicia is not a graceful creature. Maybe she was once but spending four years cramped up in a car or inside with the one overriding instruction being stay away from the windows doesn't do much for one's dexterity.
Anyway: she bumps into someone. It happens to be an attractive male specimen in an age range near enough to hers that it would not be creepy if she were actually old enough to drink but Alicia is not actually old enough to drink so they shouldn't be serving her alcohol sorry Alexander bartenders and bouncers don't tend to argue with official-looking pieces of plastic.
Instinctively she jumps back from him before he can get a good grip on her.
"My bad." Laugh it off. That's a good idea. "Yeah, I'm good. Excuse me."
She appears to want to go back the way she came.
GraceThe flow of the world's break down has gone to shit? In the bathroom? "Odd place for that. Whatever it is."
She looks around trying to locate bathrooms, finds them across the dance floor. Somebody's talking to her, and she figures out after a few seconds that it's the bartender.
"Oh, nothing, I just have to um... go to the restroom."
Yes. And she's taking Elijah with her. Whatever miss 'tender thinks of that isn't really her concern at the moment.
AlexanderChance rolls its die and suddenly it’s no longer the music that’s sweeping Alexander up. It’s a storm and, for a few seconds, he’s in its eye. The other dancers carry on oblivious, joyous, alive. Alexander freezes for a few moments as Kalen whispers to him, leaving him out of sync with the music. Dissonant. Different. He doesn’t say anything, just watches as Kalen turns and drifts away through the chaos.
He stands there watching him work his way through the crowd, thinking. Thinking about how easy it would be to turn around, keep dancing, forget about everything. Honestly? It’s very, very tempting.
But he’d agreed to work with Kalen and Alyssa, to fight the nasties that the more mundane parts of the city don’t know about and, even if they did, wouldn’t often be able to do an awful lot about. He hasn’t felt anything off, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t.
So he works his way towards the side of the dance floor, completely out of sync with everyone else. He gets elbowed a couple of times and almost covered in someone’s drink before he gets there. But he is there, and there is a mirror and... He closes his eyes and takes a breath. He doesn’t want to do this, but... He looks.
[Spirit sight. Diff 4.]
Dice: 1 d10 TN4 (3) ( success x 1 ) [WP]
Kalen HollidayKalen slips into the crowd, and then through it as best he can. There are tricks, but whatever he can taste that is dark beneath all the joy...perhaps it would be better to wait. The others are here. Alexander knows there is trouble. Grace...Grace knows how to get the hell away from trouble. Alicia, too, probably. Elijah...well, this is why we pray to Saint Jude.
So he winds through the crowd toward the bathrooms and listens for screams. Fire alarms.
But real danger...real danger doesn't always make a sound. Sometimes it is silent as cobras. As being slowly buried in snow. The lingering echoes of Resonance here...it may be that whatever he senses has already taken its prize and gone. A pound of flesh. A soul. He does not know.
He does intend to find out.
Dinner and a ShowAlexander shifts his attention across the Gauntlet, his eyes overlaying the close spirit world across material reality. He doesn't see anything much different at first...at first. But once his eyes adjust, he can see a sense of something spread over the area. It's not entirely unlike looking at a sepulcher; while the disembodied dead aren't everywhere, he does see a couple here and there. All clubgoers, all young men and women...pale and gaunt like they had the life literally drained from them. And here they remain, haunting the spot where they likely died.
Dinner and a ShowElijah and Grace make a beeline to the bathrooms, which is where Kalen has just managed to enter. The Hermetic slips inside and he doesn't see anything that immediately sets him off. Still, he can't escape that feeling...the chill of a grave. Now that he's closer, he picks up something more, too...it almost feels like Alyssa actually. The tang of copper at the back of his throat, mixed in with that moldy dirt. As he gets to digest that wonderful sensation, he gives a quick look around and while nothing seems initially amiss, he does note something on the ground next to one of the stalls, in the grout. It looks like a relatively fresh stain, something dark and black-red. Cleaned already, but you can never get that stuff fully out.
Alexander gets close to the mirror and does his thing, his magic pinging as he looks across and sees what he sees. As Elijah and Grace are coming around the path that Kalen did, Elijah's Entropic sense picks up that the feeling has moved. It's right on the edge of the dance floor, near where he feels the chaotic Resonance he knows well.
Alicia moves to slip away from the guy, but there appears to be something in her reaction that catches his closer attention. Or perhaps its something else about her that strikes him as interesting. His brows knit as he gives her another look over, shifts his eyes slightly and focuses his attention on her.
"Let me get you a drink. It's probably my fault, I bumped into you. I should make it up to you."
[[Something something dark side, diff 4]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN4 (4, 5, 5, 6, 9, 9) ( success x 6 )
AliciaAs of the moment before he locks eyes with her Alicia is still assured of the fact that this is a crowded place and she can get away from this guy because what could he possibly do to her with all these people around. That there really isn't anything she needs to be afraid of even though he's focusing on her. He might be on something. Guys tend to be on something in places like this. That's how she met He Who She Is No Longer Talking To.
But that's her father talking. Depending on who you talk to her father brought on his own bad end by mucking around with the timeline. Maybe if he hadn't been batshit crazy none of this would have happened. All his paranoia got him was shot and dragged off into the back of a van.
This guy is perfectly charming. Probably harmless. Her common sense shuts off about then. Fuck it. What's the worst that could happen.
"Ohhhhh," she says like she has to think about it. She doesn't. As she makes her decision she flips her hair back off her shoulder. "Alright. Make it up to me."
Kalen HollidayKalen slips into the bathroom and the air tastes like blood and death. He scans over the room. No monsters immediately apparent - check. Blood-stained floor - well...damn. He moves to the sink closest to the blood stain and starts to reapply his glittery eyeshadow, at least in so much as he opens a container of it and is looking at the mirror. He doesn't put any on though, just murmurs softly to himself, breathes in, and then breathes out over the little container of loose iced lilac powder.
He watches it drift in the currents from his breath, watches the way invisible currents of wind send the sparkling dust into curls and abstract shapes.
[Time2/Prime 1 - trace backward from now to see what happened there plus Watch the Weaving because reasons - extending - WP D=5 [2(Sphere)+3(standard)] (I think I need three suxx?)]
Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (4, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Elijahhe stops, he had been headed to the bathroom, but there was something at the edges of the dance floor and that feeling wasn't right, and then he could feel Alicia.
He has no idea. He has no idea that she is furious with him, that she doesn't trust him anymore, that they are no longer on good terms in the slightest but his sense of oh fuck no is going off and Elijah took Grace's hand and started heading for the direction of the feeling again, "c'mon, it moved. Someone did something, it's like… it feels like disease, but not quite, and whatever it is, it's going to pass itself on, I think… I really don't know, but it's like decay is concentrated and this isn't good." He was having a moment, with that he made his way towards where he felt the feeling going.
Inhale.
Take a moment to recenter.
Exhale and continue.
AlexanderAlexander looks into the mirror and pushes, forces reality to do as he wants just like Sera said they sometimes had to do. He feels the change and turns away from the mirror. He sees...
He squints, cocking his head, forgetting the music and feeling the spirit of the music, of the place, and of its inhabitants. Of which there are a few more than he had been expecting. He can see but he has no way of interacting with any of the spirits he sees unless they choose to.
But first things first. He fishes out his mobile phone and taps a message into it. No point in trying to make a call in here – they wouldn’t be able to hear each other. And then? His altered sight it already fading away into smoke. So he faces the mirror again and pushes harder. This time, it’s going to damned well last. He wants to take a look at things on his way back to Kalen.
[So, spirit sight again. TN4, Aiming for 2 succs so it lasts this time. What do we need to keep WP for anyway..?]
Dice: 1 d10 TN4 (4) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Alexander[[Kalen's phone will buzz. If he happens to look, the message from Alex will read: Name that film: I see dead people. Feeling a bit drained,]]
Grace[WP Diff 7 = Can we look at all the things?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )
GraceGrace doesn't know what is really going on, aside from the word of Elijah, and "the flow of the world's break down" means little to her. She hasn't been perceptive enough to notice anything but a new, different resonance.
And so, as she wanders her way over, she pulls out her cell phone.
And then, Elijah starts dragging her elsewhere. "Hey, if it is, what are you going to do about it, huh? Punch the disease in the nose?"
She drags him right back. "Let me take a look at what's going on first?"
[Corr 1, Prime 1, Entropy 1, Forces, Matter, Life 1 -- WTF is Elijah Talking About? Diff 4, spending WP.]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (5, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Dinner and a ShowThe guy--we'll call him Derrick, because that's his name--smiles warmly, oh-so-friendly, and slips his arm around Alicia's shoulder. "Come on. I know the bartender, she makes this amazing thing with Agrum, vodka and a chili pepper. I promise, you won't be disappointed."
And that's when he starts guiding her off the dance floor, toward the front of the place.
Meanwhile, Elijah is trying to advance forward to what's close to Alicia, trusting what he's already sensed. Grace prefers to trust her own experiences and tries to pull Elijah back as she taps on her phone to pull up a read on her device. Whether Elijah lets himself be yanked back is up to him, although they did at least get close enough to see Alicia and her sudden friend from behind.
Meanwhile, Alexander makes his effect last a little bit longer so he can solidify his vision of the spirit world (and the Restless Dead floating around the vicinity), and Kalen in the bathroom looks back in time.
AliciaOnly so much as she can feel them in the air can Alicia claim to know who among her acquaintances are here and it isn't as if resonances are exclusive to the caster. A couple weeks ago she'd met someone who felt like Elijah only stronger. Senses can lie to a person. So far as she can tell she's alone.
And it doesn't matter if her friends are here or not because the guy puts his arm around her shoulders and it's nice to be able to fit against someone's side like that and know they know nothing about you. At least she might rationalize it's nice if she were of her own mind. All she knows is she wants to go where he goes and the agrum vodka chili pepper situation sounds amazing and he's amazing too.
She puts her arm around his waist. Maybe she's drunker than she thought she was.
"I love chili peppers," she says.
They have to shout to make themselves heard over the music. Everything they say sounds more than a little inane.
AlexanderAfter sending a slightly vague warning to Kalen, Alexander pushes his will against reality once again. There’s no hesitation this time – he’s already seen what’s here. Or, rather, there; on the other side of the Gauntlet. He wants the vision to last just a little longer this time. So he focuses on the mirror. Sees the other side of it come together under its surface and holds it there...
Once again, he sees the inside of the club with its extra customers and this time the vision is a lot stronger. Not deeper, but longer-lasting. And so he starts his journey towards the bathrooms. There is a small detour, though – he wants a closer look at some of those spirits that he’s seen in the room. There seemed to be something about them that he wants to get a closer look at. So he scans the room, looking for the fastest way to get to the bathroom while getting that look.
Kalen HollidayKalen mutters a soft curse. He pulls out his phone, frowns at Alexander's text, and then starts tapping at his phone as he walks out of the bathroom.
She was alive. It let her live. It let her forget. It let her walk away.
He remembers a creature of malice. Hunger. Horror. Flesh dripping off of its bones like melted wax.
He remembers saying that they needed to convince the Technocracy they weren't all threats. Weren't, by virtue of being Awakened, monsters.
He remembers the taste of the grave. Of death,
He remembers when the line between what was and was not a monster was so clear to him.
The truth is not so easily swept into bold lines now. Arranged in neat rows. It is still defined, but with edges like lacy fjords. Rivers. The curves in the leading edge of clouds.
He moves slowly toward a relatively clear space at the edge of the crowd, still tapping on his phone.
Kalen HollidayTXT: What movie? I think I get the second part. We should probably cut our friend off. He's not back here now. Do you see him?
GraceAlicia is in grave danger. For once, it appears not due to a Technocrat. No, we have something Else.
On her phone's screen is a mix of jumbled everything that only makes sense because she wants it to so badly. But the story it tells? That man, it looks like he has stopped himself in place, let the little cracks and fissures of imperfection well up like potential energy around him. Not breaking apart -- not yet. Waiting. Tensing up like the stress on a fault line.
And that decay-made-stasis is wanting to spread.
She goes to text messaging then. And Kalen gets a note.
There's a guy following Alicia around in here. She's waaaay more attracted to him than she should be. Need to get them separated pronto. He's v bad news. Danger = yes;
"That guy, with Alicia. He's the sick one," she says to Elijah. "She's... got some kind of spell on her or something? I don't know. She seems to like him a whole lot."
And why wouldn't a young girl like a handsome fellow like that, Grace? Who knows? Must be a spell or something.
Elijah"But Alicia's over there-" he insets as he follows along with Grace. He wasn't going to pull her any more than he already had, and the woman knew what she was talking about, but Elijah replied to this as though the fact that Alicia was across the room and somewhere was what made all of the difference in the world to him. He wasn't the jealous type, because they were just friends (were being the operative word. THey were friends, not are friends)
But, with that, Elijah let go of Grace's hand and muttered… something to himself. Words he tried to remember and hold onto desperately, the little bits of what-have-you that he had learned, that he still practiced and guarded jealously regardless of whatever happened.
"Well, let's go say hi to her, then," and with that, he headed over Alicia's way.
[Prime 1: is there magic going on here that I can… I don't know… maybe unweave?, diff 7 because he doesn't technically have his focus yet.]
Dice: 1 d10 TN7 (6) ( success x 1 ) [WP]
Dinner and a ShowDerrick grins when Alicia says she loves chili peppers, a slow, easy and amused expression, though to her it doesn't seem condescending in the slightest. "Well, you're in luck then." They're just off the dance floor and crossing to the front bar when something seems...off. It's hard for Alicia to put finger on it, but Derrick's charm has dimmed, just slightly. For a moment she might wonder what she's doing walking off with a stranger, but the moment passes. The hold isn't quite as strong as a result though, and the reason seems to come from a familiar Resonance right behind them.
Derrick looks over his shoulder around at that moment, and she can feel him tense. He looks directly at Elijah and if Elijah has never seen someone wish him dead, he's seen it now. Derrick's lip curls and he starts steering Alicia toward one of the side exits. "You know what, I've got a better idea. Let's go get a drink somewhere else. I know someone who does the chili pepper drink even better."
Kalen comes out of the bathroom and goes to the edge of the floor, where he can see Grace and Elijah further down along the edge. Alexander comes into view near him as he approaches one of the spirits to get a closer look. The ghostly young woman looks back at him with a forlorn stare, pale and lacking in color. Dead eyes, pallid skin and completely bloodless. He sees no obvious wounds in them, but it's not hard to guess by their pallor that they might have died due to blood loss.
Alicia[WP: pull your shit together, woman]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 5, 6) ( success x 1 )
AliciaFor a moment her common sense rears its head and tells her this isn't the hottest idea in the world. But this moment like every other moment in the world goes on its way and leaves her here and then she's back where she started. Enthralled with this man.
She tosses her hair out of her face when she realizes the stranger is looking back. She tries to look back too but his arm is across her shoulders. Even if she can't see him she knows he's there. Whether or not he realizes it she's pissed off at him. Whether or not she realizes it she's in danger.
Ignorance is only bliss in the moment. This one will pass just like the moment where she thought she might want to make a better choice. It isn't a choice she's capable of making. There are worse things out there than Technocrats and Alicia never learned to shield her mind from those who would try and hijack it.
"Okay," she says. A hint of hesitation before: "It's too loud in here anyway."
Off to the side exit they go.
Kalen HollidayKalen slips his phone back into his pocket. He can see Grace and Elijah. He takes a deep breath and murmurs softly, scanning over the rest of the crowd. Is that thing still here? Can he sense it? Or its magic?
[Watch the Weaving: D=4]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (5, 9) ( success x 2 )
ElijahDerrick gave Elijah a look like he needed to curl up in a ball and die. And die quickly at that. Elijah, for his part, gave the man a knowing look. His eyes narrowed slightly and there was the move to the exit- a move that Elijah tried to head them off for, despite his lack of athletic prowess. Something told him that if Alicia made her way out the door, she wasn't going to be coming back any time soon.
AlexanderAs he’s working his way around the club, Alexander feels his phone buzz in his pocket. He fishes it out, reads the message, then rolls his eyes. Also: friend? Elijah? Grace? The other chaotic resonance in the room?
Alexander closes with the spirit of a woman who, he’s guessing, had died in the club. He only knew a little about spirits – what he’d picked up from spending time with Alyssa – but that little included the habit of hanging around where they had passed away. Sometimes. As a guideline, maybe? But this woman? Seemed to have no inclination to go elsewhere. No inclination to do anything at all. He reaches out a hand as he passes, as if to touch her shoulder, and mouths, “I’m sorry,” to her.
Kalen? The storm is closer now and he looks round to see him looking over the crowd. He moves beside him, leaning in to whisper (yell?) in his ear. “Do vampires exist? Something’s been draining people dry in here.”
GraceAlicia's over there, and Grace is over here still looking like any other weirdo with her phone out texting away at the club. Until Elijah starts over to say hi.
"Kalen says to wait!" she says, but doesn't go to grab for his hand, doesn't physically try to stop him. She knows how she'd react if someone were to try that on her, you know.
Still. What are you going to do about it, Elijah?
For Grace's part, she's got that Code up on her phone, has watched it, can see that whatever spell is wrapped around Alicia wavers in the chaos of Elijah's wake. Aha, so that's what you are going to do eh?
Well, no harm in trying a little of that too, right? Hopefully? To separate these symbols over here from these symbols over there, yes... She acts as though it is a strange game on her cell phone, her fingers tracing out lines of where she wants to block and prod and mess with.
[Prime 1: Get your hands off that Apprentice! Diff 4, spending WP!]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (7, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Elijah[Dex+athletics, because crowd surfing is not your expertise]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (5, 8) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Dinner and a ShowDerrick the vampire (c'mon, we're pretty sure he's a vampire at this point) had the advantage before, but now he's getting ganged up on. And while a vampire has any number of physical, spiritual and other threats at their disposal, the odds of numbers don't bode well for him when stacked up against a group of mages. He has Elijah, brave and thinking only of helping Alicia, moving quickly through the crowd to cut him off. He has Grace working against his mental powers to lift the spell from the young mage, for whom God only knows what his plans are. (But they can't be good, right?) And he has Kalen tracking him through the crowd--and track he does, as he sees the web of dark, decaying bands of a magic (of sorts) wrapped around Alicia, holding her to him. They are falling apart, but they aren't there yet.
Derrick swears under his breath; he's done making this incognito. He starts to move quickly, trying to get to the door and more or less dragging Alicia with. "Come on," he half-growls, and Alicia can see fangs at his teeth now. Being subtle took time, and slowed him down a bit. It looks like he and Alicia are going to hit the door at about the same time as Elijah.
Alicia[wp: uh oh]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 6, 8) ( success x 2 )
Dinner and a Show[[Derrick's Str+Brawl]]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 9) ( success x 2 )
AliciaWith the door in sight she blinks once or else her senses come up out of the darkness and grab hold of her. No notion of how it is that the others have helped her to shake off whatever it is this guy did to her but they'll have time to debrief later if she can manage to get away.
The door is in sight and she realizes he's dragging her. That's when her sense of self-preservation finally kicks back on.
"Hey--!"
And he half-growls at her to come on and she sees a flash of teeth in his mouth that are longer than they're supposed to be more like the canines of a predator and her eyes go wide with a fright that threatens to paralyze her.
It doesn't paralyze her. She still has a voice and she can still struggle against him.
"GET OFF ME!"
[lol str+brawl]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (2, 3) ( success x 1 ) [WP]
AlexanderKalen seems to have a direction in mind, tracking whatever he’s feeling for towards the exit. Towards the debris-throwing resonance of Elijah and the strangely similar feeling of chaos emanating from a woman he’s not met before. One thing stands out – a man has his arm around her and she obviously doesn’t want it to be there any longer. He glances towards where Grace’s sharp, shifting resonance is coming from and she seems equally intent on the man.
Two and two, in this case, make for someone being dragged away against their will and a number of the other Mages taking an interest in stopping that from happening. So he follows Elijah’s example and runs, as best as he can, through the crowd.
Alexander[Dex+Ath - finally, something he's good at!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 5, 5, 6, 7) ( success x 2 )
Kalen Holliday"Yes," he says to Alexander, his eyes on the dark bands of magic twining around Alicia. "Has Alicia. Dislikes fire. Go. I'll be right behind you."
[Forces 2/Entropy 2 - Dramatic speaker fail! (We hope with sparks and wildness - but no catching sparks - hence the Entropy) D=5 | WP]
Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (5, 8) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Elijah"What the fuck are you?" he sounds bewildered, but he made it to the exit at about the same time as Alicia and Derrick. Derrick the… vampire? What the fuck, that's a thing? He cocked his head to the side. For a second, Elijah was confused, but the confusion gave way to a plan.
"Look, dude, it doesn't even fuckin' matter what you are, because if you don't let go right now there's going to be some serious consequences, so I suggest that you rethink the current plan of action. She is the last person you want to fuck with in this club."
{Manip+intimidation?]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 10) ( success x 1 )
Dinner and a Show[[Fangy-fang WP]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )
GraceSeems there is some benefit to whatever Grace is up to, in that Alicia is struggling, making a scene. Good. Good.
Grace looks up from her screen to the noise. Let's be frank, Grace knows what she's good at and what she isn't. Starting fights isn't that. Doing shit on her phone from a good safe distance? Sure.
So far, so good. But if this thing is running around starting shit by taking over people's minds, it might be a good idea to make sure she can continue doing shit from her phone from a good safe distance.
Shields up!
[Mind 1: Mental Shield, Diff 4, WP!]
Dice: 2 d10 TN4 (3, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Dinner and a ShowAlicia throws off her mental manipulation and suddenly sees things for what they are; she's being dragged out of a nightclub by a creature of the night, or at least some psycho with fucked-up teeth. And as might be understandable, she tries to break free of his grasp. There isn't much in her efforts though, try as mightily as she can, and he holds fast to her.
They're all converging on him now. Before he can get out the door the speaker system above the door bursts into sparks, causing him to draw back with an instinctive hiss. Elijah comes out of the crowd and gets up in his face, trying to intimidate him into backing off of Alicia. It's not effective, but you really have to admire his willingness to throw himself into the face of danger, don't you?
Alexander comes up behind Elijah, having just broken out of the crowd and Grace starts weaving security measures around her mind. Wise little VA.
In response to all of this, Derrick might be expected to act like an cornered animal might. He's smarter than that though; he recognizes the danger he is in. Or at least the potential for danger. He moves to throw Alicia into Elijah so that he can flee. This isn't a fight he particularly wants to do in the current odds.
AliciaIf the creature is going to throw her then she's more than happy to take the out but she isn't going to let Elijah catch her if she can avoid it. Not as if she's got a natural dancer's grace or the mass necessary to overcome his strength. But if she can't avoid hitting Elijah then she can at least push off of him the second she's got her own gravity back.
She gives a shout as he throws her and she's breathing hard and fast by the time she's released. Eyes wide and hands shaking. She has no idea what just happened or what almost just happened but as she looks around she sees three people she recognizes and one she doesn't and it doesn't matter how much she trusts or doesn't trust any of them. This isn't their fight. She doesn't look to them for help.
Must be she's done running away from people who can kill her.
"Hey, ASSHOLE!" she says before she goes after him.
Kalen HollidayInit [+5]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )
Dinner and a Show[[Init + 6]]
Alexander[Init +6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )
Dinner and a ShowDice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )
Grace[Init + 6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (6) ( success x 1 )
ElijahHe would have caught her, but she didn't seem too keen on being caught. Elijah inhaled sharply, reaching out to catch Alicia's arm at the very slightest.
"Alicia, wait!"
… what the fuck was he doing.[5+1d10}
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )
Alicia[+5]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (6) ( success x 1 )
Dinner and a Show[[Initiative Order! We declare in reverse.
Grace - 12
Alicia - 11
Elijah - 9
Alexander and Derrick - 7
Kalen (due to tiebreaker of higher die pool) - 7]]
Kalen Holliday[Go after vampire and Alicia.]
Alexander[Let's take this outside - tackle through the door]
Dinner and a Show[[Run out door]]
Elijah[Try and keep Alicia from pursuing a freakin' vampire]
Elijah{doing this via (drum romm) the world's shittiest graple)
AliciaWell this is an unexpected development.
"Don't TOUCH ME, Elijah!"
She sees him moving to grab her and tries to get out the door before he can do so. If she loses sight of the guy who almost abducted her because Elijah wants to get handsy she's gonna be pissed.
[action: evade Elijah so she can continue following Derrick]
Grace[[Tracking Vampire on Google Maps wheee]]
Elijah[OMGpleaseno. Str+brawl]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 4) ( fail )
Alicia[dex + ath: WEE]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Grace[Corr 2, Prime 1, Mind 1: Tracking the vampy! Spending WP!]
Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (3, 5) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Dinner and a Show[Dex+Athletics]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )
Alexander[Dex+Brawl]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 8, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )
Alexander[Dex+Ath to stay on his feet]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 4, 4, 7, 7, 10) ( success x 3 )
Dinner and a Show[[Dex+Ath to stay up]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Alexander[And some damage - str3 + 2..?]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 3 )
Dinner and a Show[[Soak]]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (4, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Dinner and a Show[[One bashing halved to zero. Damn vampires. And Kalen runs out the door behind Derrick, Alex & Alicia!]]
Dinner and a ShowThe door, as it turns out, leads into a side alley. You might suspect that it's the kind of door that opening would set off a fire alarm, but it doesn't. The alley that Alexander slams Derrick into, both of their bodies crashing hard into the door and throwing it open, is about ten feet across and Alex's effort shoves the vampire hard into the other side, catching him off balance.
It's immediately after that Alicia, after evading Elijah's grap with an angry shout, pours out with Kalen racing out after her. Elijah remains just inside (but can get out easily), while Grace is staying safely inside as she gets a bead on the fanged escapee.
Dinner and a Show[[Same init order, reposting:
Grace - 12
Alicia - 11
Elijah - 9
Alexander and Derrick - 7
Kalen (due to tiebreaker of higher die pool) - 7]]
Kalen Holliday[Run to open end of alley with the intent of blocking a vampire in if necessary - snatching up anything that looks like a good melee weapon on the way should such a thing exist.]
Alexander[Leg sweep - stay down!]
Dinner and a Show[[Vampy's getting angy. Hissing in Alexander's face--WITH STYLE]]
Elijah[Run outside! Being outside is good, right?]
AliciaOnce she's burst through the back door and skittered to a stop Alicia looks around and realizes she doesn't understand what's going on. The tough-looking guy with the UV-light wings on his shirt has jacked the other guy into the wall and she's not sure if he's going to arrest the guy or kick the shit out of him or--
Fuck. This is why she carries a purse everywhere. Alicia tears open the handbag's flap and rummages until she finds her switchblade. She doesn't intend to use it but this could turn bad real fast.
[action: draw weapon.]
Grace[Extending!]
Grace[Corr 2, Prime 1, Mind 1: Tracking the vampy! Spending WP! Extending!]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Dinner and a Show[[HISS. Cha+Intimidation vs. WP. (It's supposed to be Wits+Courage but no Courage so WP it is. +1 diff due to being knocked off balance from tackle]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Alexander[Sweep - Str/Brawl diff 7]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (3, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 5 )
Alexander[Dam - str+4]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 4, 5, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )
Dinner and a Show[[Soak]]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (4, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )
Dinner and a Show[[Dex+Ath]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN8 (1, 1, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Alexander[And WP for the intimidation.]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Alexander[Spending WP, that is]
Dinner and a ShowGrace keeps tracking from inside while Alicia pulls out her knife. Alex does a nice sweep kick that nearly knocks the vampire to his feet but it comes as he's getting hissed at and suddenly he's possessed of an overwhelming fear and need to run, which he just manages to keep at bay.
Elijah is now outside and Kalen is blocking the exit, having found a lead pipe. Congratulations, mages. You've cornered a vampire! [[New init, same order]]
Kalen Holliday[Prime 2: Enchant weapon D=5 | WP | Q for effect]
Dinner and a Show[[Split action: Punch Alex and run]]
Alexander[Tackle again. Stay. Down.]
Elijah[try and figure out what precisely he knows about vampires because WTF. Hopefully int+occult?]
AliciaIf Elijah's just going to stand there he's going to make himself useful.
"What do we do?" she asks with no small amount of panic in her voice. Holding onto the switchblade with the metal trembling for the force of her hand's shaking. Stabbing a goblin climbed out of a mirror is one thing. Stabbing a human is another.
[life 1: oh are you scared? better scan that Derrick motherfucker to see if he's high or something. base diff 4, -1 quint to lower diff, spending WP bc botching sucks.]
Dice: 1 d10 TN3 (9) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Grace[Extending!]
Grace[Corr 2, Prime 1, Mind 1: Tracking the vampy! Spending 3 Quint to drop it down! Extending!]
Dice: 2 d10 TN3 (3, 4) ( success x 2 )
Elijah[Int+occult, diff 7]
Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (2, 6, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 4 ) [WP]
ElijahWhat does Elijah know about Vampires?
It turns out, he knows a surprising amount about vampires.
"That is an honest-to-God vampire," he starts, "unless you can bless that switch blade or maybe decapitate him then we're kind of in a weird way," he said. He was nervous, but he wasn't sure what to do. "Guys, we can't-you can't just-fucking- kill something in an alleyway."
[action: block vampire guy's exit in the event that he runs]
Elijah"So, I say? We don't do shit."
Dinner and a Show[[Vampire punches Alex. -2 for splitting action. BP has gone to Strength]]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (4, 8, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )
Dinner and a Show[[Damage: Strength 3 +1 for BP + 2 for succ]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )
Alexander[Soak!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 5, 6) ( success x 1 )
Alexander[Tackle this you little git]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Alexander[Dex+Ath - staying on his feet?]
Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (3, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 5 )
Dinner and a ShowDex+Ath
Dice: 5 d10 TN7 (4, 5, 5, 7, 8) ( success x 2 )
Alexander[Damage... Str+3]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 4, 7, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )
Dinner and a Show[[Soak]]
Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (3, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )
Kalen Holliday[Prime 2| WP| Q]
Dice: 2 d10 TN5 (5, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]
Dinner and a ShowGrace tracks. Alicia scans the man with her Life magic and sees nothing alive about him. Elijah moves to block the alleyway alongside Kalen.
Meanwhile, Alexander and the vampire continue to fight. Alexander gets a hard punch to the face that is certainly going to leave a mark and knocks the vampire back against the wall while Kalen enchants his lead pipe, empowering it to potentially become a lethal weapon.
Kalen Holliday[Split action: give pipe to Alex//light cigarette]
Dinner and a Show[[Pull out gun and point it at Alexander, then hold action.]]
Alexander[Hands up, holding action]
Elijah"If you shoot, the cops are going to show up, just walk away, dude. Nobody's gonna stop you."
[action: try and fast talk vampire into NOT SHOOTING PEOPLE]
AliciaAlicia's eyes go wide and whatever thoughts she might have had about arguing for the rights of vampires to go on about their nights so long as they don't hurt anyone go out the window when the gun makes an appearance.
If y'all think Elijah is bad about not thinking before he speaks then y'all haven't seen Alicia not think before she acts. Or maybe this is Alicia doing something even stupider to try and trump the stupid thing Elijah is about to do.
She sprints forward to put herself between Alexander and the gun. The blade is an extension of her hand but she doesn't brandish it yet. She sounds terrified even as she's trying to be brave. What she really wants to do is hide inside with Grace but:
"LET HIM GO!"
[action: moving.]
Grace[Extending again!]
[Corr 2, Prime 1, Mind 1: Tracking the vampy! Spending WP! Extending!]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (4, 10) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Alexander[Crap! Hold Alicia and turn to put him between her and the nutter with the gun]
Dinner and a Show[[WP]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9) ( success x 3 )
Elijah[Manip+sub]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7) ( success x 3 )
Dinner and a ShowDerrick brings a gun to a fist fight--but then, it was about to become a pipe fight, and more than a pipe fight at that. Either way, it instantly changes the complexion of the situation.
Alicia throws herself in front of Alexander and Elijah tries to talk the vampire into just going. Alex, in terns, moves to turn Alicia and put himself between mageling and handcannon. (Okay it's not a hand cannon, it's a Glock 18. Still.)
And Derrick, for his part, doesn't shoot. The situation frozen--at least, for this instant--he takes a few steps back, out of hand-to-hand combat range with the gun still raised. [[His held action: step away.]]
"Jesus Christ. That's all I've been trying to do, kid." That's what he says to Elijah.
Kalen Holliday[Hold action]
Elijah[action: take a step away from the mouth of the alleyway]
"Could you put the gun down? Since nobody is going to do anything to stop you, there's no need to have it out, right?"
AliciaAll Alicia had wanted to know when she came tearing out the door after the guy is what the hell he thought he was doing. Now that she's gotten her answer the situation has gone beyond what he was going to do to her. The man who'd tackled the guy is over a foot taller than her and it takes no effort to scoop her off her feet and turn her around so she isn't making an ineffective human shield anymore.
Of course she starts wriggling and swearing like a pissed-off cat. She wants to keep her eyes wild as they are on the guy so nothing else catches her by surprise. Once the adrenaline wears off she's going to be in a bad way but it's still coursing metallic through her veins.
Her nostrils flare and her teeth grit when she hears Elijah's voice again. Total coincidence. Ignore the fact she's still got the blade in her hand.
GraceGrace is the only one who's decided to wait inside, so she's the only one who doesn't yet know that somebody was far more prepared and brought a gun. She doesn't know that now might not be the best of times to wander over to the doorway and see what's happened.
So that's what she does.
Grace, looking bleary-eyed and unsteady comes across this scene: Alex is hugging Alicia, who looks incredibly pissed off about that. Kalen is smoking a cigarette at the end of the alley. Elijah is stepping away from the guy with a gun. Congrats, Elijah, on looking like the least crazed individual in their group.
"Ohh, shit."
AlexanderAlexander lets Alicia go and turns back to face the man with the gun, arms outstretched to the side. He keeps his distance but keeps himself between Alicia and Derrick – she had been his prey, after all. His breath is heavy and he’s still on edge, shoulders rising with each inspiration. But he’s seen the aftermath of fights where someone pulled a gun before. It doesn’t end well for the person standing on the wrong end of it.
So he stands there, watching the vampire warily. Meeting his gaze, eye to eye, if the caution is mutual. He works his jaw, feeling the pain and the ache where the bruising will show up in the morning, and spits a gob of blood onto the ground near him. He doesn’t say anything, just gestures with his head that the man – what was a man – should leave.
Kalen HollidayKalen watches the vampire, eyes steady, Smoldering.
But he does not move to stop it. It just wants to leave. He's outlived enough friends. He's willing to let it go. For now.
Dinner and a ShowEveryone's glaring at him or expecting him to shoot, imploring him to just go. The vampire lowers his gun when it's clear that no one is about to try and kill him in that moment, then shakes his head.
"Word of advice. Some of my kind who are far more willing to use lethal force own that club. If I were you guys and wanted to keep breathing? I would keep out of it. I don't want to think about how many people have died in that place, and neither should you."
He keeps his distance as he maneuvers his way through the alley toward the exit. Maybe he knows what they're capable of and maybe he doesn't, but he's apparently not willing to take the chance that they have some magical tricks up their sleeve.
ElijahHe meant well. That was all one could really say for him most days, that Elijah meant well even if his actions lacked wisdom. With little fanfare, he headed out of the mouth of the alley once Derrick left over to Alicia. he was concerned, his heart was beating too fast and he knew something wasn't quite right but he needed to figure out what it was. he could be a terribly perceptive creature sometimes, but some other times? He was practically clueless.
"Hey, you guys okay?" because he wanted to know, because he needed to know. He could check on the dead later, he could get more information later, he could find out what was going on later but right now he needed to be present and he needed to be in the now. Now had people who were injured.
AliciaFor the duration of the guy's words of advice Alicia stands in the tall man's shadow getting her breath back and staring at him. He doesn't look like vampires do in the old movies she used to watch. Or like how they were described in the old novels she's read curled up in library chairs pretending she didn't have to eventually leave.
Ignorance. Bliss. Blah.
Elijah asks if they're okay. Alicia sucks her teeth and rolls her eyes and folds the switchblade back up on itself. She's out of there a moment later herself.
GraceOkay, so this is not one of those days when they just find themselves in the same place and have a good time is it? No, they just happened to all show up at the same night to a vampire club. Fan-fucking-tastic.
And now, she's really glad she got that lock on the dude. Magic trick up her sleeve? Hah. A bit too late to be careful about that.
She shuts the door behind her, because nobody in the club needs to know how close to deadly this just got, and walks over to Kalen to show him what she had been up to on the inside.
On her screen, there is what looks like Google Maps, or at least some kind of mapping program. She rolls her own half the time. But look here, there is a little blinking red dot -- and now it's on the move.p>
"Yeah, Alex? You good? Everybody good?"
Kalen HollidayAnd then it offers them information. Information that meant if it wasn't lying, it probably could have called for help and this would have gone very differently. "Do you always let them go, like you did the girl earlier tonight?" He keeps watching it, carefully. But he's done with fighting for the evening, he's moved to judgment. And in this case, perhaps something like forgiveness. Or at least a stay of execution. Perhaps.
AlexanderFor his part, Alexander stays pretty quiet while Derrick walks away. There’s a physical sag, though, when he’s out of view. Elijah is coming to look after Alicia; at least he’s assuming that’s who he’s interested in. Alex has only met the man once and he hadn’t been overly sociable at the time, so it’s pretty unlikely that he’s the one Elijah is worried about.
So he walks to the side of the alley and leans back against the wall, closing his eyes and running his tongue around his mouth to make sure his teeth were all present and correct. Nothing missing or loose, his eyes open again and he looks over to Kalen. “So how was that for a first outing?” Of two thirds of their little cabal, he means, trying to make light of what just happened.
The adrenaline starts to wear off and he sinks down the wall to sit on the ground.
ElijahShe rolls her eyes and leaves, folds his switchblade up and Elijah finds himself standing in the alleyway. He didn't have anything to say, anything to really think until…
It hits him precisely why Alicia might be mad at him, and it's the last thing that he wants to do but he doesn't stick around and the young man turns around to pursue. This is a bad plan. This is a terrible plan but he can't let her walk away just yet and-
"Alicia, wait, let me explain, please?" he tried to follow. tried being the operative word.
Dinner and a ShowHe stops to look at Kalen, and offers something a little like a nod, a little like a shrug. "I always try. I won't try to say I'm always successful, but it's been a long, long time since I lost control and...lost someone."
He pauses there, smiles slightly. "Seriously though. I'd get a couple blocks away at least, before they start peeking outside and wondering what you're all about. You don't want to catch their interest." The gun is dropped to the ground and he walks away.
AliciaShe at least waits until the exchange between Kalen and the vampire is over before leaving. She doesn't want to leave before her almost-captor does. So she is not screaming over anything when she does start screaming.
But she starts to walk off and Elijah asks her to wait and she spins back around. Adrenaline dying off and leaving a rancid tang in the back of her mouth. Clung to her teeth like too much sugar.
"FUCK YOU, Elijah!" she says. Her voice is tremulous. Her eyes are not shining yet but they start to as the tirade goes on. She points her folded-up blade at Alexander: "I don't even know who that guy is, but he knows my name, and whatever you told everyone about my dad, and I don't even wanna LOOK AT YOU right now! I TRUSTED YOU." She starts to walk away but then figures she'd better sling one more insult at him before she leaves: "ASSHOLE."
Very mature, guys.
She kicks the gun aside as she leaves the alleyway.
Kalen Holliday[Per+Subterfuge - Are you for real like some kind of humanitarian vampire? | One last WP because this is important]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 6, 6, 6, 9, 9, 10) ( success x 7 ) [WP]
Kalen HollidayThe vampire gets a faint nod from Kalen.
And then Kalen turns and pulls Alexander back to his feet, or at least tries. "Not bad at all," he says. "My first one of those I didn't handle half so well. Come." And then he looks over at Grace.
"We'll talk about that soon, Kit. But...brilliant."
AlexanderI'd get a couple blocks away...
With a sigh, Alexander hauls himself back up with Kalen’s help. Facing one vampire who just wanted to get away is one thing. Facing up to possibly more with nothing against leaving blood stains in the alley, beyond the waste of food? That would be bad, especially with two of them already heading out of the alleyway.
“What was all that about?” He nods towards the open end of the alley, where Alicia and Elijah had disappeared. “They a couple or something?” He begins to head in the same direction, along with the others. His jacket was still in the cloakroom, but it didn’t have anything of any importance in it. And given the warning, he had no intention of walking back in to pick it up.
“I’m suddenly not in the mood for dancing any more. Coffee somewhere? Preferably far away from here.”
Grace"Alex, when I can finally convince you to obtain a certain redhead, you will understand."
Grace shrugs at Elijah. Sorry man, but you know, that was bound to happen some time. Even if Grace had done nothing. Hell, especially if Grace had done nothing. Eventually Alicia would get Ginger too, and then what?
"And yeah, we need to get the fuck out. Coffee? Is... okay. I need some," she says, but then she also doesn't look particularly pleased about the choice of going to a coffee shop. They're cursed. As are nightclubs. Why the hell doesn't something ever happen in a bookstore?
Elijah"I didn't tell everyone everything about you, Jesus, I tried to get help and shit lot of good that did," he replied with exasperation. defensive, because he's had to be defensive for the past week. He pursued, because he wasn't going to just let her walk away. He wasn't going to let this lie, and he wasn't going to take the opportunity for her to hang up on him.
Walk him into traffic, maybe, but not hang up on him. Not avoid him. Not avoid this argument because there had to be something he could do to fix this. Naive thing that he is, thinking there's some way to repair trust so easily, that some things aren't damaged forever.
"I know I hurt you, and if I could take it back, I would, but I can't. That's the last thing i wanted to do, I swear-"
My, this was awkward. There was a vampire down the way, and a club full of people and the restless dead licking at his attention but all Elijah could think of was how he had fucked things up with Alicia.
[per+aware, how do I fix this?]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )
Kalen Holliday"Fae...." He sighs. "Go back to the church. This is not a fight you can have here."
He nods to Grace and Alexander. "I could make us coffee." He turns to Alexander with a very slight smile. "Then you could even clean up with soap that doesn't smell like lilacs. And maybe have some ice for that."
AliciaIf Elijah thinks she's going to turn around and come back again he is sorely mistaken. She almost turned into dinner for a humanitarian vampire and then she tried to run between a complete stranger and the barrel of a gun. It's time for her to go back to wherever it is she's been sleeping lately. Nobody but Kalen knows she's been outside the city. Maybe he can guess where she lays her head these nights.
She's walking her ass back towards the light rail station. And Elijah is hurling words down the street without an answer.
Other than the middle finger that she holds aloft for him to see. But she doesn't have to turn around to flip him off. She turns the corner a moment later.
ElijahMy, this was awkward, and it was an argument they couldn't have in public. Hell, it was an argument they weren't ever going to have. He just watched as she walked away. She just kept walking away. For the first time in over a month, it would seem that Elijah was listening to someone. Head hung, he nodded.
"Yeah, okay Kalen," and, with that he headed to the parking lot to pick up his motorcycle and drive home.
Alexander“I’ll go anywhere as long as it’s away from here and sells something vaguely caffeinated. With something sugary. Pie, maybe?” He nudges Kalen with his elbow. He watches Alicia and Elijah argue as she walks away and he follows after, ever the optimist. Part of him keeps an eye on them – on her – to make sure she makes it away safely. The other part? Wishes they’d stop arguing already and stop drawing attention to themselves. It’s not like there’s a potential nest of homicidal and hungry vampires close by, after all.
Wherever Kalen happened to park, Alex will follow along. He was always planning to drink tonight, so his bike is tucked away at home. Coffee awaits, somewhere far from here.
[[And now I’m going to idle out too, unless we’re wrapping very shortly. It's nearly half 5 AM and I need sleeps.]]
