Mother Hubbard - 4.20.2014 [Bo]

Molly Toombs

Sunday wasn't the kind of night for clubs and bars, that's not where Molly was going to be found tonight.  She was downtown because she had picked up a daytime shift to cover for someone who had wanted to spend the Easter holiday weekend with their family.  She'd just gotten off work and was making her way home.

Rather than walking home in her scrubs, Molly had changed into clothes she had brought from home.  She wore a pair of snug black pants with a light blue-and-white striped blouse on as well.  Brown sandals on her feet, a silver talisman hung from around her neck and a tote bag at her hip.  Red hair was bound up and away from her face, too worn from a long day at work to look anything but mussed when left down now.

The streets were fairly empty, even though the sun only just set perhaps two hours ago or so.  It was a Sunday, work and school respectively started up in the morning and many were tired from eating much Easter ham.  It was for this reason that Molly didn't have headphones or earbuds to feed music to her.  She wanted to be able to hear if something was going to try and creep up on her.


Bo

Oh if only it were so easy, not everything creeped or slinked through the shadows, not everything that was dangerous chose the indirect route. Some of the biggest threats in this city seemed like the most benign and beatific creatures in existence, at least until they barred their fangs and flashed their powers. The most dangerous predators were the ones who never were...until it was too late.

But Molly didn't have to worry about Bo, oh no Bo couldn't hurt a fly..or so it seemed really, and she didn't have to keep herself on high alert to sight the young woman as she came bee-bopping along the street. Knee high boots clomped and stamped along the concrete and her green T-shirt with purple pant's certainly did nothing to camouflage her amongst the myriad greys of the concrete jungle.

Her hair still held those silver blue lines, the most prominent being the strands where her bangs met the rest of her hair and the look on her face became one of surprised amusement as she almost ran smack into the night nurse. She stopped dead in her tracks at no more then five paces from her, and eyed her mischeviously for the briefest of moments before grinning wide and raising a hand to wave.

"Sup Mol doll?" She called in greeting. "Fancy meetin you here."


Molly Toombs

Bo was impossible to miss-- she would be even if the street they were on wasn't virtually empty at this current time, even if she hadn't come around the corner to nearly step directly into Molly physically.  The nurse sucked in a small, quick inhale of surprise and her hands lifted from where they had been at her sides to hover near her chest, palms out, a reflexive position of defense and catching yourself if you think you're going to run into something or fall down.

Thankfully, she didn't fall or hit into Bo.  But she did have a moment of utter confusion when the woman she'd almost run into greeted her by name.  Molly was about to apologize absently and be on her way, not immediately recognizing the person in front of her.  When her name came up as a greeting, though, Molly stopped and blinked and looked back into the younger woman's face.

It takes a second, but recognition flashes and Molly's expression tightens a little in the corners, flashes grim behind the eyes just for a second before that smooths over for something that tiptoed between the lines of business-like and polite but gracefully, openly cautious at the same time.  Like a diplomat.  Or a politician, maybe.

"Yes, of all the coincidences," she agreed in a pleasant enough tone.  "I'm sorry, I don't know if I ever had the chance to catch your name amid the... excitement.... from back that long ago."  Her eyebrows, a light and natural red now that she didn't pencil them any longer, raised curiously on her face, and she stood straight and faced Bo directly, both of her hands coming to rest loosely holding the strap of her bag in front of her chest.


Bo

Bo watched as Molly's features hardened slightly, going on the defensive perhaps, or just preparing for any kind of onslaught which might come of it. Bo for her part seemed to open up more, holding her arms out from her sides as if there were nothing to hide, nothing to conceal and she laughed gently as she nodded her head.

"Oh yeah the big ho down at the pawn shop of 2013, what a ruckus that was." She says with a horrible cowgirl accent before shaking her head and holding out a hand. "Call me Bo, nice to finally meet ya, you know...without the snarling, posturing dispositions of our benefactors at large."  She said with a gentle tilt of he head.

"So what you up to Mol Doll? Big plans for tonight?" She asks looking the woman over. "Or ya just headed back to the crash pad?"


Molly Toombs

Whatever it was that Molly may have actually been up to (on her way home after a long day at work, to let her puppy outside for a walk and piss before calling it a night) she wasn't doing it any longer.  She stood still, and her posture suggested that she was planted in place for this conversation.  She wasn't in the walking and talking mood right now, apparently.

"Good to meet you, Bo," Molly provided, her words slow and a bit cautious like most of the rest of her was, even if the other woman was open in body language and tone alike.  If Bo was watchful and attentive, she may see something flicker in Molly's eyes at the mention of 'benefactors at large'.  It's quick and fleeting, whatever it is, and the nurse masked it by glancing up the sidewalk in the direction she had been headed when asked about her plans.

Bo's looking over Molly tells her that the mortal woman is still in good health, despite the odds being stacked against her.  She seemed a bit tired, but who wasn't these days?  That aside there was warmth to her skin and a natural flush to her freckled cheeks, and her build was both healthy and ample as well.  It would leave some to puzzle what her secret was that kept her safe and well and alive.

"I was just heading home.  Yourself?"


Bo

"Ohh you know this and that, mostly breaking curfew cause well..I needed to." Bo shrugs at that. "Just couldn't hang around and wait for further word about whats going on. So I figured I'd get myself some fresh air." She gestures around at her surroundings then, that big ol energetic smile still blazing away upon her face. 

Molly continued to be careful, continued to be wary of the woman who, while was the same height as her, was willowy in comparison, probably the sort of girl she could easily take in a fight, especially as Molly has no doubt had to deal with some really ornery characters in her tenure at the hospital.

But Bo offers her a way out, should she desire it and she steps aside and gestures past herself. "Hey sorry I'm sure theres been all kinds of things said about me, some true some false no doubt as well. So if you wanna walk on by like this never happened be my guest. I'll go grab my slushee and forget I ever saw ya. No muss, no fuss, all back of the bus." Her smile held as she waited then, waited to see if Molly did indeed want to move on, or if she might take a chance and stand too.

Quite often those seperated by the ideals of others had more in common then one might think.


Molly Toombs

Though Bo had stepped aside and offered Molly the chance to continue on, the nurse didn't begin to walk again.  Her sandals stayed planted where they were on the ground, and her brow flexed in some sort of empathetic reaction or another to what was being said.  She didn't look too much softer or warmer when she spoke next, the fact that she did make a point to clarify had to at least say something.

"I haven't heard anybody say anything about you.  I'm just a bit... careful.  Considering what all occurred the last time I saw you, and the people I saw you with--..."  She trailed off with a shrug, moved a hand to make a dismissive gesture, then continued on.  That was neither here nor there, as far as she was concerned.

What she was more interested in was...

"Further word?  I'm curious to know... what was the word that came before that?"


Bo

Molly wasn't going anywhere, she was firmly planted to the spot, like some growing oak tree that would someday engulf even the spot where Bo stood. But where Molly was like the oak tree, Bo might be more like the squirrel, she was moving again, stepping suddenly back before Molly and thrusting a hip to one side as she folded her arms before her, grinning impishly as she said. "Who want's to know huh?" She asked before chuckling and waving a hand.

"The word before that? To put it eloquently, was shit be cray cray, batten down the hatches matey's the shit storms a comin!" Bo saluted briefly before she tilted her head with a dubious look. "Yet we haven't seen a storm, and nothings really come of that whole night." She moves a finger in a circular motion.

"Kinda the way it goes around her, though I DID get myself a swanky new ring." She said holding up her hand to show the old piece of golden jewelry. "But thats neither here nor there."


Molly Toombs

Initially, Molly was presented with the question of who was asking.  She looked a little taken aback, but Bo was chuckling and moving on, answering the question posed before Molly had a chance to verbally react.  So, instead of needing to explain that she was curious for herself and her own sake, Molly was quiet and listened to what the girl with blue-silver streaks in her hair had to say.

She confirmed that there was a crazy shit storm on the way, but that it hadn't struck yet.  Like how Yellowstone was supposed to explode but still remained intact.

"Hmm," the nurse hummed thoughtfully while considering the ring that was shown off, then shifted clear blue eyes up the arm to Bo's face once more.

"Did you hear what kind of storm to expect?  Or what caused this storm to show up on the radar, so to speak?"  She spoke deliberately, and the way that the second question was ended made it feel as though Molly had wanted to say more but stopped herself.  She was beginning to bubble a little, just under the skin, with the opportunity to sniff about for more details and information.  She couldn't just blurt all of her questions out at once, though.  She had to pace herself and gauge what response just a few questions to begin with received.


Bo

"Oh its old news girl. Hell this storms been brewing since last year at least, probably longer for all i know. Haven't really been apart of the scene all that long." She shrugged. "Far as I know its something to do with some really big, really bad mother hubbard coming back from a long nap or something." She shrugged at that. "I don't really have all the details sadly."

She stretched her arms out before her then, her palms turned outwards as the fingers laced together to get the maximum effect out of the motion. She sighed gently before she shook out her hands and placed them upon her hips once more.

"So I've been told to stay close and keep all our friends close too. But I'm a wanderer, and thus what has brought us together here and now. Which I think is pretty hunky dory, someone like you has be tough as nails to hang around Flood, or at least as slippery as a greased up  piglet." She chuckled before she caught herself and coughed. "Not..that your a piglet, or..greasy or anything...or....you know what? Just forget my whole line of descriptives there, yeah...please?" 


Molly Toombs

"Old news is still pretty new when the ears hearing it are fresh."  Her tone was thoughtful and contemplative as it has been so far.  Bo had stretched her arms, shaken her hands and planted them back on her hips once more.  Molly stayed right where she had been, hands loose on the strap in front of her full chest.

When accused of being either tough or slippery or greasy, something to that effect, Molly's eyebrows raised but she didn't look offended.  Rather, her lips pressed together to contain and control a small bit of a grin-- maybe she was a little flattered instead of insulted?  More than that, she was pleased to be hearing that the person whose name protected hers like an umbrella (or shadow) was known for being tough shit, and she liked knowing that there was concern for some 'Mother Hubbard' returning.

These were all topics that she'd have to look into a little deeper, perhaps ask those that would have more insight into the matter when she could find a time appropriate to delve.

Ultimately, Molly chuckled just a little, and shook her head.  "Don't worry about it," she advised Bo.  Whatever foot-in-mouth feeling the Ghouled young woman was experiencing, Molly dismissed it as unnecessary.  "Frankly, I'd be more worried about finding out more about precisely what kind of shit is going to be hitting the fan when this Mother Hubbard person wakes back up."  The look Molly gave Bo now was something close to but not quite fully fledged as scrutiny.  "What happens if you try and ask directly about it?  Do they just tell you to nevermind, or what?"


Bo

Bo is told not to worry about it, and any concern that was present upon the ghoul's features melted like snow on a warm summers day. The smile returned, now simply bright and energetic much as the rest of the girl was, a direct contrast to Molly's more insulated and measured responses. One might wonder how vampires could keep up with her.

It's Bo's turn to look quizzical when Molly asks if they try to keep her in the dark and she actually takes a moment to consider her response before shaking her head. "Not my Kali at least, she likes me informed, likes me in the know. Others though." She shrugged. "Some of em from what I've heard like to blindfold ya nice and tightly, keep you deaf mute and dumb if it suits their purposes. So I'd say it depends on who your dealin with."

She tilts her head. "What does Flood do when you ask to many questions?" She inquires now, seeking her own comparisons, after all it wasn't like she knew to many other ghouls with which to compare notes on the nature of their existences.


Molly Toombs

Not my Kali, she likes me informed, likes me in the know.  This detail has Molly's eyes bright, like they get when she's pretty sure that she's gleaning useful bits of information that will buy more time to her life, add more value to her overall worth.  If she could make herself a font of useful detail, then it's better to keep her intact than it is to bring her harm, isn't it?

So, she may want to sniff and see if Kali was up to sharing.  Certainly, Molly had understood on the spot in that moment why Kali would have chased her off rather than shared any of the discovery.  It didn't take much time or thought for Molly to realize it was a good sign that she was chased away-- that meant Kali was comfortable with Molly knowing as much as she did.  She wouldn't have to worry about that set of claws coming for her neck because she knew too much, not anytime soon.

And, from the sound of how Bo was talking, it seemed that she and 'her Kali' found Molly to be protected under Flood's name.  Seeing this in play had the gears in Molly's mind whirling away.

Not whirling too quickly to drown out the questions posed for her, though.  Molly was learning that it was only fair to share information in exchange for what you were given, and courtesy went a long way in this world (her mother would be pleased to know that lesson in particular was being abided by, though to know the details behind the situation would no doubt leave her pale and sick).

"I haven't gotten to that point with him," she stated simply, shrugging her shoulders.  Apparently there wasn't any such thing as 'too many questions' with Flood, that or Molly was very good at reading where the line of patience was drawn before she put her toes on it.

"But I didn't know about this... storm cloud, I guess.  He'd not mentioned it."


Bo

Had Bo just betrayed her domitor? Some might say yes. Saying anything that might give away the inner workings of the relationship between ghoul and master might be seen as a betrayal for such information could be used against them. Could be turned back upon them and see to the lighting of their funeral pyre's. But Bo believed in their strength and found such things unconcerning. If someone wanted to hurt them, really hurt them they would find a way regardless and so she spoke freely...to a point anyways.

She received some equal information back however learning that Flood was equally open with his information at least to Molly. She filed that away as well, because you never did know when such things might come in handy.

"Well aren't we just the lucky pair then." Bo says with a warm grin as she gestured between them. "Don't think I could stand being in the dark, especially not when theres already plenty of dark to go around, hell theres enough for the whole planet and then some." She shook her head, as if marvelling at some fact that she did not bother to share.

"You probably just haven't asked the right questions, or maybe it just doesn't involve you?" Bo offered. "Counter intuitive I know to what we both just said, but they seem to think like that sometimes."


Molly Toombs

"We must be," came the agreement.  The longer that Molly talked with Bo, the more that her posture relaxed.  It was a gradual thing, but by this point Bo could notice at least that Molly wasn't standing with her feet so firm on the ground or her spine so stiff.  She was standing more comfortably, and the corners of her mouth and eyes were less tight than they had been.  This felt less like testing to see if the cat would hiss and bite or let the hand pet them and more like having a conversation now.

Molly adjusted her hands on the tote bag strap, glanced past her own shoulder to ensure the sidewalk was still largely vacant (it was), then continued.

"Perhaps.  Or it may be an effort to shelter-- the less you know the less danger you're in in this case, maybe?"  She shrugged one shoulder and curved the corner of her mouth into a bit of a grin.  "I'm not about to try and look too deep into the mind of one of Them.  It's safer on the outside looking in-- there's a strong risk of falling over the railing if you lean to look too deep."

She shifted her weight between her feet now, moved as though she was about to get going.  Returning movement and blood to her feet and legs to prepare to walk once more.  "It's been a delightful and informative talk, Bo.  I hope to see you around more, but I should be getting home now."


Bo

There conversation was at an end, but at least it would go out on a better note then it started, Molly had loosened up, maybe it was because Bo had fed her curiosity, or it might simply be because she wasn't perceived as a threat anymore. Regardless it was a better situation, one more likely to garner repeat performances, and Bo...well Bo always liked that sort of idea.

"Aight well if you gotta jet? At least lets trade digits, maybe sometime down the line we can be the peeps that stop any real shit storm from hitting the fan huh? Or at least between Kali and Flood." She offered, and she would stick to it, offering her digits in return for Mollys before she would step aside just as she had before and allow the nurse to walk on.

"Nice to meet ya Moll Doll, for reals this time. Just remember stay off the menu, probably the best advice you'll ever get, and trust me...its harder then you think to manage." At that Bo started off on her own, heading down the street in the same direction she had been going previously, off to do or find god knows what.

Where There Be Dragons - 4.16.2014 [ST'd by Joey][Kali, Jade, Jack, Bo, Verna]

Grave

The Fine Print

1) Be forewarned this scene could become very dangerous. If you are averse to character death or permanent psychological or physical damage you may want to sit this one out.

2) There may be content of an adult and graphic nature in the vein of personal and grotesque horror as well as violence. If you have any triggers in particular that may necessitate your withdrawal from the scene please let me know beforehand (via PM or instant messenger) and I will notify you if I think it best you sit this scene out. I will be glad to run a separate storyline for any of your PCs in the system that is more accommodating to what would make play fun for you.

3) All players are expected to post for their character within twenty minutes after a system post. If I mark that a round has moved into a posting order it will be alphabetical or by initiative order depending on circumstances. In this case the first player to post after the system post will have fifteen minutes and all other players after them will have five minutes to post.

4) All players are expected to roll for any relevant Flaws at the beginning of the scene. Vampires will start with 1d10 blood points in their blood pool (plus one blood point per dot in Herd or Generation up to their maximum blood pool). Ghouls have full blood pools unless any were spent IC recently before they got a chance to feed again.


Kali

[[Nightmares]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (1, 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )


Kali

[[Blood Poo + 3 (Generation)l]]
Dice: 1 d10 TN7 (9) ( success x 1 )


Jade

[blood pooL! +5?  yaaaaaay 8th gen ¬_¬]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( fail )


Grave

You have your reasons for being in East Colfax, this deep and this destitute, this far into the layers of Purgatory. This place where the walls of Hell are so close to being beaten down and all too often a devil manages to slip through the cracks and torment the already tormented.

You have a reason for being here. Of course you do.

Maybe you're lost? Maybe you're not?

Maybe you were seeing that band at that dive bar and now you're thinking of making the walk to the bus stop. You'll survive, right?

Maybe you've been told about a mad Malkavian by the name of Billy Strahan that the Sheriff wants a word with or maybe you want to have a word with him before she has a chance to silence his mad tongue for good. Or maybe you just want Narcisa to owe you a favor. Either way these were his last known whereabouts.

Maybe you're running errands of an illicit nature.

Maybe you live here and you think you're the most dangerous thing on the block. Maybe you live here and are certain you're not

Elucidate. East Colfax is so curious as to why you've wandered into its maw. Let it show you around. Mind the sharp points and bottomless gap.


Molly Toombs

Reasons for being on this stretch of street were neither here nor there.  Molly was keeping cards close to her chest these days, so whatever it was that had summoned her away from her apartment building set comfortably near the downtown district of the city, she hadn't announced it to a soul.

All that mattered was that she was there.  Molly Toombs, single woman out on this stretch of road alone, and without any kind of supernatural intimidating aura or exterior of 'don't fuck with me' toughness to keep the evils at bay.  Really, all she had to go on was that she was good at looking like she belonged.  Case in point, how she was standing on the sidewalk, nearer to the curb than away, not far off from a sign indicating a bus stop.  No bench, just room to stand.

She was looking down at her phone, standing with her weight comfortably distributed from feet to hips.  Not glancing nervously, not checking every scuffed boot that passed behind her.  Just trying to mind her own damn business.

We know how these things go, though.  She could try to mind her business all she wanted, it certainly couldn't last for long.


Kali

This is Kali.  If it's in East Colfax, she has a reason to be here.  After all, this is where she reigns as a drug baron, and so she keeps her ear to the ground in terms of what's going on, makes sure that her area stays chill.  Even in these nights where the Sword and Tower are at each other's throats and the sun isn't having the same effect on the Kindred and everything is vaguely portentious and ominous and God motherfucking dammit son of a puta en botas de cuero futu-i pizda ma-tii...

(Yes, we're using that one again.  She's been so busy that she hasn't had time to vary up her streams of profanity.)

Anyway, the point is that she's out.  And she's heard rumor of this Malkavian wandering around the area.  She doesn't like the Sheriff sending people into her territory so she's on the lookout.  She's in her usual hooker-biker garb, with a black corset imprinted with lips on it underneath a leather jacket and distinctly short skirt with knee-high boots.  You know, the Kali special.

She's keeping her attention focused as she goes looking through her domain for this Kook.

[Per+Invest]]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 5, 9) ( success x 1 )


Verna Gardner

Verna's not here because she wants to be. Oh, not this street, and not at night. She's here because her car decided to shut down and not start again after stopping at a red light -- which is so very unfair. She keeps regular maintenance according to the schedule and everything! Some idiot mechanic must have missed something, or skipped something, or... something.

And who knows if AAA is even going to have a tow truck available within a decent time at this hour? They, of course, say as much on the phone when she calls. She's managed to get her car off the main stretch, just to the side, and sits within, looking up her particular car trouble symptoms online, hoping it might be something she can just fix.

Just fix. At night. On Colfax. In her nice clothes and demeanor that screams 'easy mark'. Yeah, maybe not. Still, it's something to do while she waits.


Nobody

Tonight Jack who is Jack of anything but hearts has many plans and he doesn't want to travel far and wide, doesn't want to go by rat-path or by cat-path, doesn't wish to slip beyond the pale, wishes only these things: to find, with luck, a Billy Strahan, with luck, good luck not bad luck, there's too much of bad luck it curdles on the tongue like hunger; to find, with luck, a Kali, a gypsy-hearted, thief-fingered Deception-tongued creature; then later to meet, with luck, with an untrustworthy red-haired nurse who's been embroiled in a cause, the quest, skimming along. So: Jack. He's got his diminutive pigeon-chested gulp-throated scraggle-curled occult nerd Mask on (This Face: lopestery, long, slouching) in preparation except for when he wicks along Unseen, a presence nobody thinks very much about and thank god. He's just a big fucking Nobody, after all, and that

that's why there's a Jack in East Colfax and he doesn't look like much at all.

[Percept (Hidden Things) + Investigation]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (2, 7, 7, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )


Nobody

[7 suxx.]


Jade

Jade has her means of hearing the gossip of the city.  In particular, word ripples through the ranks of her networks, rustlng little whispers that flitter to her ear.

A Billy Strahan, hm?  Hm.  The Setite isn't terribly intresting in being owed a favor by Narcisa Rulfo (that is a lie, lielielie, of course she would, who wouldn't?  but ah, Jade's cards, so delicately arranged, would not easily withstand that sort of pressure from one side or the other).  So then, curiosity it would seem is what brought this snake to this neighborhood.

She is alone, alas.  As much as she would love love love to bring one of her precious underlings with her, this is an investigation, at least to start.

So she is in the area of Colfax, then, a solitary figure in shades of grey, a very young woman in a very dark neighborhood.

[percept (detail oriented) + investigate]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )


Jade

[4 suxx]


Jade

[manip + street (specialty not applicable)]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 8, 8, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 5 )


Bo

Close ranks, bring them in, prepare for the coming storm. Those were Bo's orders, the requirements of her domitor and so Bo had set to work, drawing in the lines of Kali's empire and tightening them down, preparing them for the danger to come. Perhaps that danger was Billy, perhaps it was a mad bomber with plans of utter devastation, or maybe it was simply the same old bad guys with the same old plans. Regardless Bo was out overlook and watching for signs of trouble, perched on the first level of a fire escape that jutted from the edge of alleyway.

It would be fun to imagine herself a princess of the streets, watching over those few individuals she knew were her's, were Kalis as they cleared out, leaving this part of Colfax for safe abodes, more trusted ground. But Bo is still so new to this life, and even more so to the life that lay behind the dusky curtain, and so thought it was fun to imagine, as she so often did she simply stayed alert, leaning on the railing of the fire escape as she considered those moving here and there.

One never did know what you might see on Colfax afterall. 


Bo

[Per+Alert]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 4, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )


Nobody

[Jack rolls: Let the records show I am a Nosferatu with Unseen Presence on.]


Grave

Give a lunatic like Billy enough time on his hands and who knows what he'll get into? The lasting effects of the blood moon eclipse give him an overabundance. What's the last rumor that had been going around Elysium?

Billy had been shouting about them all residing in a dark house with broken windows. He'd said it would leave them all buried. It would collapse around them. They'd be drained dry and left to the earth. Left to eternity and he says that part like it's a curse.

It's all a curse!

Billy'd said that the world would sing and shake, the ground would dance, and they would remain hiding under their beds instead of facing the skeletons in their collective closet.

Billy'd said he was hungry. He said he knew a place to go and that's the last time anyone had heard from him before he'd disappeared into Colfax.

Billy has said a lot of things in his time in Denver, but never with this kind of fervor. Fanaticism. Like he was considering a conversion. Taking up a new banner. He'd walked out of Elysium eyes gazing up at the moon and whispering to himself, “I'm coming, I'm coming, I promise, I'm coming.”

Or so word gets around.

It's Jade who gets there first. This isn't her territory and maybe it's that distance from places like this that gives her an ability to see the greater picture. To come at this problem logically.

There had been a place where a harmless Caitiff (Pander?) had lived. Harmless in the way Jade comes off as harmless, so very distant from her Sect that gave her a more respectable name and clan, and this was a place where vampires could come to rent a girl and drink from her. It had sat on a corner and look at the three-story house all desolate on the corner? With it's broken-wood-fenced-in back yard. With it's cracked asphalt driveway all overgrown with weeds. With its windows all broken with jagged glass and boarded up. It looks so dark in there.

It's a place to look. It's as good a place as any, actually better than any others, even if it's abandoned and no longer a watering hole. Billy hadn't seemed that in touch with reality anyway. Maybe he's in there sucking on rats thinking they're hookers.

Bo is there as well. She's watching. This is open territory and after the winter maybe it's worth looking into taking. That woman, Mona, who Bo doesn't know was Pander, but does know from the word on the streets, is gone and it's not her place anymore. It should be someone's place. That would be a good drop house or crack den.

And it's then Bo will notice Kali coming down the street. Kali's proximity is her curse. She knows every inch of her territory and who knows which of the various places fitting the description it might be. She's last there and Bo who happens to be there will notice her and not notice many others except for...

The woman waiting for the bus.

The woman with the broken down car around the corner face buried under the hood.

This is a growing nexus of things that should not or definitely should be here.

All the while an unseen nobody stalks in the shadows. Was there. Already knows, because of his own worldview that may or may not be distorted, where Billy means and where he will be.


Jade

A place where you could rent a girl and drink from her, eh?  Sounds like a place Jade might have an interest in.  Did she know this Pander?  It's possible she knew of her, maybe, or that she knows what that broken down house used to be.

There are other people out tonight.  Others out looking for the wandering Malkavian.  Others not out looking for the wandering Malkavian.  Jade doesn't have much interest in a woman waiting for a bus.  Woman with a phone?  The people with names held inside it will miss her if she goes missing.  Woman with the broke down car?  Someone would notice the abandoned car, or notice that someone was no longer making payments, or any of a dozen other things Jade doesn't have to think about considering when it comes to her preferred prey.  And besides, she's not yet feeling a sting of hunger.  She's not yet feeling desperate enough not to care much about who she offers to Set.  She's not yet noticing those breathing that oughtn't be noticed.

She is at the house where nobody stalks the shadows ahead of her, and does he see her?  Pretty young thing, "exotic" they say because of her non-white features, never caring that she was born in this country.  Jade would like to check out the building, is Billy there?  Is anybody home?

She looks for a place to slip a look inside, a window to press against, one cast in shadows that she can vanish into them.

[if such a window is available, Jade will activate her cloak of shadows.]


Kali

A good, long look in the dark parts of Colfax.  That's what had led the Ravnos on a bit of a hunt for the potential place, and she'd come up empty on several spots.  Now she's here at this house, looking up at it as she approaches with a cigarette hanging from her lips.  It's just the right sort of place, and the Ravnos is a pragmatist, but she also knows (knew before she was Dead) that there are reasons to fear shadowed places like this.

She glances around, surveying the area.  That's when she sees Molly, who she recognizes, at the bus stop.  She knows the woman, knows that other creatures of the night have taken an interest in her.  That makes her presence here...conspicious.  Not that Kali is suspicious of her, but the Ravnos also knows that coincidence is often not really coincidence.  The Ravnos speak of mayaparisatya, of illusion and truth and paths of fate.  And Kali is Phuri Dae, so while she does not subscribe to all of those beliefs, she does have some faith in it.  And so she mutters to herself in Romani, then smiles and nods to Molly as she passes her on the street on her way to the house.

And there's Verna, with her broken-down car in just a certain place.  That gets Kali's attention too.  But she doesn't know that one, just keeps an eye on her as she moves to head closer to the house.  She frowns as she sees Bo there in the vicinity as well.

"Okay, this is just getting creepy," she says to herself as she starts walking directly to the house.  Bo is given a meaningful look to the woman with the car, one she probably knows well by now.  It suggests, Run interference for me?

And then she's walking into the yard, looking for means of entrance into the place.


Bo

Kali had said she was busy, that she was not to be distrubed tonight save for a fire burning down the warehouse or the enemy knocking at the gates. She had left Bo to her capable devices, knowing all to well how to run the empire without her domitor for a few hours. These were skills that a youth such as her really shouldn't have. But she does, and they grow stronger by the day.

So seeing Kali here is unexpected, and though Bo might normally wave frantically or whistle a cat call down upon her boss, instead she simply started down, moving to the ladder and quickly dropping down to the ground floor so she could start to approach her target location. That is until Kali see's her, and gives her that look.

She had been keeping an eye on the others, these other curiosities that had found their way into an area they really probably didn't belong in. She had thought about helping the girl with the car, get her outta here as quickly as possible so she didn't become a statistic. She wasn't going to, she had her plan...but then she remembered that not everyone was like her, not everyone knew how to fix a car and well...Kali had said so...so she strides on up to the petulant automobile and rapped on the trunk with a closed fist as she leaned over to look past the hood at Verna.

"Hey there Goldie, need some help gettin outta here before the three bears come on back?" She asked with a warm, friendly smile, the very air around her seeming to thrum with the vitality of her being.


Nobody

He has thoughts about the building, about Billy Strahan's tongue. He has thoughts about madness, too, about those whose blood is laced with it, whose insights are fractured: broken - like those windows. Moon-mad, Malkav, and perhaps Jack considers this a quest to keep another tongue from being culled, being re-fashioned into wood, being yanked dead into ash, slurped dry, dead.

He has to count the edges on one of the windows: one, two, three, skip four, and he has to count the cracks, too, just in case, and he has to count the redheads, one, two, three, that's good, a nice odd number, but wait.

Three redheads. One brunette. That's four. That's no good at all. Count yourself, Jack. Oh, that's fine then, except he's not really a brunette, and...

Molly Toombs is one of them. Bo, Kali. Whatever his expression does, who knows? Nobody. Nobody stays a nobody while Nobody cases the dark house with dark windows he doesn't need to count any longer and Molly well Molly will take care of herself for a moment won't she.

He wants to know what is inside the house. He doesn't want to go into the house. The house is a box and boxes are full of things one doesn't want to unclasp, release: Jack is not mad.

He wants into the yard. He'll go there, too. Crouch, wary of splinters. His fingers twitch like he wants to text someone.

Jade, she's pressing up against a window, Kali, she's treading into the yard, Jack, he's drifting over and around, and he's by blood by bloodknot by chain and canny knack calling his Prince of Cats, his Eyes in the Dark, c'mere Boots, c'mere, and he's staying back.


Verna Gardner

Suddenly, there's a strange woman banging on her trunk, and Verna jumps, looks up. The window gets rolled down a crack (because this could be a trick, obviously).

"Oh, hello, I... I've called Triple-A already. Just, they're taking a lot of time."


Grave

Empty lot to the back, flat brick wall of its four family neighbor adjacent, and three stories facing the street, with it's high (if broken in places) fence, that back yard has the kind of privacy that few outdoor spaces in the city allow. It's a good place to try breaking into the house. As good a place as any excepting the fact that it is already occupied.

Denver is overcast and this evening and that full moon above is hidden by the time these investigators and hunters of madmen get to the back yard. The street light manages to shed a bit of its luminance into the backyard. There is a large flashlight, a box shaped yellow one with a large bulb and lens, sitting in the dirt and shining upon a sight to behold.

Oh, there is Billy. He's not the sight to behold. That's still to come. But there is Billy standing on the back porch, or actually in the process of emerging from the house. Somewhere along his trek Billy managed to claim a rusted shovel and it's gripped in his trembling hands, eyes still cast upward toward where the moon should be if it weren't obscured by the now overcast sky. This obscuring or maybe his arrival as his destination, something seems to shake him from his lunacy and he looks downward to take in the same sight that Kali and Jack come upon.

That flashlight with its lantern glow is shining upon two figures. Kali will recognize both of them on sight. The woman that had cut and withered and turned to ash whole chunks of Baja, her clanmate. The woman with the red carnation who had worn that strange ring She is of dark skin and she is so wafer thin you can almost read through her. Gaunt. Still she stands with an undeniable poise, a skeleton wearing ashy and loose flesh like a hanger and confidence. The other figure is the Trinidadian man whose name has been revealed as George Phelps in the ensuing news broadcast on the hit and run in Federal. He also has a shovel. Unlike Billy, who suddenly looks incensed, this gangly runt rat of a man is hard at work putting it to use.

He is digging into the ground of the yard.

All will hear what comes next. Even Verna through her cracked window. Even Molly where she waits for her bus stop.

“Don't you fucking touch her!”

It's Billy. Billy isn't a small vampire. He has a good old boy kind of look to him, blond hair combed in a delightfully proper manner and blue eyed even if they're manic now, built and muscular and it shows in his pain white t-shirt and jeans. When he shouts it's in a Texan accent. Whoever had Embraced this once-a-young-man had no doubt robbed the world of a noble bumpkin. He raises the shovel like it's a baseball bat and takes a step down from the back porch toward the two and the whole the more servile of them is digging.

The woman, the dark woman with her black curls and her red lipstick wearing a trench coat, looks back and forth between Kali and Billy and snarls.


Bo

"Yeaaah they tend to do that when they think they might get mugged as they fix a flat." Bo comments as she comes to the window and looks in at Verna. She backs up of course, well out of arms reach, both for the woman's sake, but also because just like Verna thought. This COULD be a trap.

"Your call if you wanna wait it out. If not I took a few automotive classes and I might be able to get you running again...maybe, totally your choice." Bo said with a shrug as she she took long clunky strides to the front of the car to look in under the hood, taking a gander at what lay within.

"What the hell got you to come down through Colfax girl? This is not the detour to anywhere worthwhile."

But then theres screaming, a hoarse yell that has Bo looking away from the car for a few moments...she wants to run, wants to take off in the direction of that noise, so much so she actually has to grip the edge of the hood of Verna's car and turn back to look in at the inner works and distract herself with the diagnosis.

"Like I said...bad place for everyone Goldie."

[Per+Crafts]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (5, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )


Molly Toombs

This woman wasn't abandoned or lost or stuck, not Molly.  She looked like she knew what she was doing, didn't look like she needed help.  This, perhaps, is why Bo beelines it toward Verna and her car against the curb.  Molly had glanced up and noticed the exchange at the car, watched curiously for a moment, then went back to her phone.  Verna was inside her car still so Molly didn't see her very well, and Bo she'd only met once and long enough a time ago that she wasn't pulling the face to memory.  Maybe she'd recognize it better splashed in blood.

Molly herself, she looked different from when Bo saw her last too.  Her hair was shorter, jet black then.  Now it was longer and smoothed into a preppy ponytail, dyed red with bangs cut across the forehead.  Tonight she dressed in a lovely lace blouse that buttoned up near to the throat, tucked into a gray skirt that hovered a couple inches above the knee.  She wore black tights and flat pale gray dress shoes, with a light black jacket on overtop and left unbuttoned.  Pearls in her earlobes, no rings on her fingers.  She looked neat and well kept, certainly not the kind of person to be jumping fences and breaking into old, tired looking wooden houses that are several building fronts up the sidewalk from her.

Attention had already started to wander from the two women and the broken down car, but the shouting not to 'fucking touch her' pulled it firmly, quickly away.  Molly's eyebrows hopped up on her face in mild surprise, then immediately hunkered back down in a frown of reflexive suspicion.  She turned to look in the direction of the shout and, still frowning, considered the area that she was pretty sure it had come from.

Molly wasn't a hero, no, but curious she was.  Concerned too, yes, to a level.  There was a warning in the form of a phone call earlier to be careful, be wary, and all of these things she was.  She was just careful and wary and casual-soft in her steps as she glanced up the street briefly, then started along the sidewalk to take herself nearer to the home, ears straining for more sounds.


Jade

Jade found herself a window full of shade, something she could lean against and look into and peer around and- ah.  Voices.  Voices from the back, hm.  Whatever was (or was not, as the case may be) inside is not nearly so interesting to the serpent as that voice.  Those voices.  Hm hm, curious.

Quiet, so quiet.  Nobody is an invisible shadow thing, and Jade is not an invisible shadow thing.  Not once she starts moving along the side of the house, tip toe tip toe, which is at once both easier and more difficult when a body is already elevated by a couple of inches.  Just two, Jade's sneaking shoes are sensible.

Anyway, sneak sneak.  Toward the backyard from whence the voices came.  And if, at the end of that lane there is a nice little patch of darkness?  Jade wraps herself in her cloak once more.

[dex+stealth? +WP]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 6, 9, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]


Kali

Kali had wondered what had become of that woman who Baja had had the sudden altercation with over a few interesting items.  She had hoped the woman had (not to put too fine a point on it) fucked off back to Seattle or wherever it was, realized that getting her hand hacked off was enough to know that Denver was not the best place for her.  So much for that.

Billy is a Malkavian.  That means he's crazy.  But Kali never thought he was wrong.  She knows things, and she made some sense out of his ramplings.  Sadly, not enough to get to him in time, but hey, they're here now.  That this woman is here as well with her friend--well, that's just not good news at all.

"Hola, chica.  Long time no see."  She's going to be making some assumptions here, but they're educated guesses.  Crazy gaunt chick who tried to kill her and her clanmate once: Bad and doing bad things.  Malkavian who was apparently on the right track: ...well, not good, but they're vampires.  Perspective.  And so that's when the gun comes out, the heavy pistol from her jacket.  She's not aiming yet, but it's out to make the point (and so she doesn't have to pull it when this does, inevitably, turn bloody).

"Let's put our shovels down and step away from the hole.  I don't like people who wield shovels as a rule, and whatever is in that hole, I don't want you anywhere near."


Nobody

So: Nobody is (hidden [right under your nose]) just inside the yard now, crouched; the language of beasts on his tongue to call his companion and here comes Boots doesn't he rangy tom cat mean tom cat king of tom cats a performance artist the tabbiest of tabbies with his devil-angle face and his devil-rakish ears how many fights more than he's got stripes that cat Boots he comes to Jack just as Billy starts forward and

Jack has never seen this woman with the trenchcoat; never once in his unlife. If there was a picture of the Trinidadian man, perhaps he recalls it, considering what his other eyes told him. Jack: He's eyes when he's not a voice and he's not a voice now 

oh but he is. He thinks he knows this story; this moon-dragged, blood-eclipse shadow storything, three redheads and now this, this, he thinks he knows this story; two shovels, one lantern, and now a cat,
now another eye, eye of Kali's gun,

and he's a lick of careful tension and he whispers in Boots' ears once the devil-thing is at his side. Cats aren't real; somewhere there is a Malkavian who knows that. Cats aren't real.


Verna Gardner

Verna sighs -- long, dejected. It is a Sigh. Look, she knows this place is bad. "Still, they shouldn't let it get in the way of doing their jobs," Verna says. 

"I was just trying to get --" Verna starts, cut off by that yelled invective. She does look past Bo, at the house where the noise came from. Crazy people. Fantastic.

"Okay. Okay, I guess... sure. Take a look if you want," she says, though the woman's already doing so. Now she's going to want to be paid probably. Perhaps a scam? Ugh.


Grave

[ Rojo ]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8) ( success x 4 )


Grave

[ Phipps ]
Dice: 7 d10 TN6 (1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 8, 9) ( success x 2 )


Kali

[[Per+Alert]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 5, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )


Grave

The woman looks from Kali to Billy, and then over from Billy's eyes to the shovel before her gaze moves back to Kali's gun where it's readied at her side, and it's as if she is weighing her options. Her odds. Wondering if this, whatever this is, is worth standing her ground for.

Meanwhile those not paying attention to dangerous and varied flavors of undead and ghouls wielding shovels over some pit being dug, even those paying attention, they may notice a cat that is wandering down the driveway. They won't notice a Jade, a serpent being very quiet as she slithers through the weeds and coils into a new spot, a new vantage point, but they will notice a cat. That cat sits and that cat does what cats do: It stares at an empty space for far too long before sprinting off and it's gone elsewhere.

It's Kali that the woman ends up staring down. The man at her side is twitching and flexing his fingers around the shovel, though it's not yet raised in the same manner as Billy's, and it's Billy he is staring down. Waiting for a word from the mistress at his side.

The woman suddenly stands up straight. She smiles before she speaks back at Kali in perfect English, too perfect and too measured in its cadence, thought out and devoid of contractions.

"I already have a pit to bury you in, heretic," and she doesn't move a step away from that hole. Her own hand goes into her trench coat and it draws out a machete the size of her forearm.

"You are unworthy. You are pestilence and plague becomes you," bearing her teeth now with the curse.


Kali

[[Manip (Spec: Silver-Tongued) +Intimidation.  WP on this one!]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 4 ) [WP]


Grave

[ Specialty won't count on that one. Four successes. Willpower to resist at minus one difficulty for bearing modifier. ]
Dice: 8 d10 TN5 (1, 3, 3, 5, 5, 6, 8, 9) ( success x 5 )


Kali

[[Wits+Awareness]]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )


Nobody

[Ditto.]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (3, 6, 8, 10) ( success x 3 )


Jade

[wits+aware!]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )


Verna Gardner

[Wits 3 + Awareness 1 = Yes, she has a dot of Awareness...]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 8, 10) ( success x 2 )


Molly Toombs

[Wits 4 (Cool-Headed Specialty) + Awareness 1]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 5, 6, 8, 8) ( success x 3 )


Bo

Bo was looking anyways and she seems to move a few things around and pull a few rods out of random places before she puts it all back and strides around the side to look into the car window once again. "Well I wish it was easy news for you Goldie, but it looks like the transmission fluid is just about at zero. Sooo unless you wanna turn your whole car into one great big immovable art project. I'd leave it off." She says as she looks back towards the home where the screams had come from.

"Also, lock your doors and don't get out for anyone, especially not people who look like they mean you no harm, those are really the worst." She said with a wink as she turned to head towards the house, even taking several steps in the direction before pausing, considering and then turning half back to look at Verna.

"You...are ok right?"


Grave

With her curse, with her spit condemnation and that bearing of duty and zealotry however twisted that comes with it, comes the tingling of the supernatural that so many of them have come to recognize. That otherness being raised and manifested, even more so than the nightly risings of their dead bodies, and they all know that something is coming from that woman. That she is acting in some decisive way.

[ All who are in the yard, rolled, and got any number of successes on the Awareness roll may roll initiative. She's doing something. ]


Nobody

[Jack. Inits!]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (7) ( success x 1 )


Nobody

[Er. +6]


Nobody

[Boots: +8.]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )


Jade

[+5]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )


Kali

[[BP to Dex, Init+7]]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( fail )


Grave

[ Phipps + 7 ]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )


Grave

[ Rojo + 5 ]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (4) ( fail )


Verna Gardner

Verna sits stock-straight, staring at that house, at the 'crazy people'. Something has her spooked.

Something, like that chill at the back of your neck, that fear in the dark that you try so hard not to pay attention to. It sets her teeth on edge.

"Yes... thank you," Verna says to Bo, obviously distracted. She shakes her head and her eyes shift to Bo's. "I'm fine. It's nothing."


Grave

[ Billy +6 ]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (9) ( success x 1 )


Grave

Initiative: Boots 17, Billy 15, Jack 13, Phipps 9, Rojo 9, Kali 8, Jade 6

We declare in reverse.

Boots defers to Jack.
Billy charges Phipps to hit him with the shovel.

Jack's declare... ]


Nobody

Jack: Tells Boots to go for the woman's eyes and scratch her up.


Grave

[ Phipps parries the shovel. Clash of the Twitches begins.
Rojo: Using a discipline. ]


Kali

[[Aiming for a head shot on Rojo.]]


Jade

[I know she's at the end but let's go snake eyes (Serpentis: Eyes of the Serpent) on Rojo]


Grave

[ Billy hit Phipps ]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 4, 6, 6, 6, 9) ( success x 4 )


Grave

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


Nobody

[Jack: Wits + Stealth! Specialties: Right Under Your Nose, Right Before Your Eyes.]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 10, 10) ( success x 2 )


Grave

[ Damage is lethal for a rusty bladed shovel ]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 3, 4) ( fail )


Grave

[ Everyone can now notice Jack hissing and meowing and otherwise talking kitty cat. I'll leave it to Jess to handle the prose flavor of that. ]


Grave

[ Oh, wait, no they can't. Specialty applied. ]


Nobody

[Boots: Dex + Cel + Brawl + 2 for Rear. +3 to Diff. + Brawl Specialty: Going For the Eyes.]
Dice: 11 d10 TN9 (1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7) ( fail )


Grave

[ Rojo ]
Dice: 8 d10 TN6 (2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )


Kali

[[Sta, no Fort]]
Dice: 3 d10 TN8 (8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )


Kali

[[Dex+FA, diff 8 for head shot.  Specialty: Heavy Handguns.  WP]]
Dice: 7 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 5, 6, 6, 9, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]


Kali

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


Grave

[ Soak ]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 7) ( success x 1 )


Grave

[ Three lethal to Rojo ]


Jade

[WP!  C'MON JADE WHERE ARE THOSE MAD SUXX YOU HAD EARLIER EHHHH??]
Dice: 5 d10 TN9 (4, 4, 5, 8, 10) ( success x 1 )


Grave

A cat pounces from atop the overhang above the porch Billy had descended from and...

Comes up short. Boot, brave Boots, had aimed for the woman's head with his claws outstretched. The cat lands within the pit instead, a few feet deep, with a squealing shriek that sounds like a baby screaming. It comes up limping and scrambling anyway, sprinting in a tight circle before it turns, raises its hackles, and hisses in anger and pain.

The shovels slam against each other and Phipps manages to survive yet unscathed by the giant (in comparison) Malkavian swinging for the fences with that jagged edged shovel.

The woman speaks and the woman wills plague and whatever it does to Kali is not enough to shake her steady aim. The shot comes and it glances off the side of her face, taking off fragments of jawbone, cheek flesh, her ear with the hydroexplosive force of the bullet at is penetrates and clears the side of her skill, vitae soaked hair trailing the pieces of her face that follows it.

And she looks as if she is readying herself for another curse, mouth hanging open, some shrieking banshee wail to rival that of the wounded cat-ghoul. But it's then, from shadows like high grass and weeds, a slender and delicate figure rises and flairs her hood of darkness. Her eyes are black saucers and when the woman, the blood witch, is drawn to her gaze she goes still. Is mesmerized. Is paralyzed by the hypnotizing sight.

Phipps looks ready to keep defending her against an enraged Billy and his shovel. (Or is he defending the pit? The grave he was digging or digging up? It seems shaped like a person. A long slender oval.)

[ Everyone who has not posted may now do so. ]


Bo

Bo looks back, noting Verna's sudden displeasure and on edge stylings. Seeing it brings a frown to her features for a brief moment before she pops a smile and says. 

"Seriously...I'd stay in the car Goldie." But then there's a gun shot, and that brings Bo right back around her eyes widening once more, frozen for a moment in uncertainty. Because she knew the rapport of that particular piece, knew it well and she was torn between what she'd been told to do, and what she wanted to do.

The bond wins...this time, and Bo stays near the car watching Verna more then anything, as if ensuring the woman doesn't go towards the sounds.


Molly Toombs

The driveway to her right was cracked and crumbling, with weeds and dandelions doing their best to poke up through the cracks (and their best was a pretty good job, all things considered).  Along with the original shout Molly could now hear voices for her proximity-- multiple people in this back yard, women and men alike.  They sounded tense.  Confrontational.  She wondered if she should call the cops, paused a quarter of the way up the driveway as she was.

But then came that feeling.  The electric tickle of something charged in the air, brushing soft and cottony over her skin, making her hairs raise up along her arms and the back of her neck.  She knew this sensation, had learned to recognize it for her time chasing the otherworldly.  It was like the cold humidity that sank onto your bones when ghosts were going to beckon and whisper and bodily throw.  Like the gummy sticky sensation of grime that wouldn't rub away that came from the back room of that antiques shop.  This was something Beyond Normal.  That was for certain.

Unfortunate thing was, this meant it wouldn't be something for the cops.

Soon after that sensation, that disturbance through the air that whispered and tickled of the supernatural, came enough of a ruckus to draw all eyes their way.  Whang-whang, clang!  The strikes of metal against metal, shovels hitting and parrying.  The screaming of a small child or small animal, and then--

Blam!

--a firearm discharged.  Molly had startled, jumped, but didn't reel away from the situation-- rather, she darted to the side of the driveway, like she could hug the house wall and use that for shelter (unlikely, but not the final destination).  Silent, no words, no cursing out loud or talking to herself.  Something-- that itching-tickling caress of the supernatural-- told her to look closer, to see what was going on.

Thankful for her soft-soled shoes, Molly spied the gaps in the fence where planks had broken and gone missing, and slipped forward to see.

[Dexterity 3 + Stealth 1]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (2, 4, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )


Bo

[Impatience!]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (7, 8, 8, 8) ( success x 4 )


Verna Gardner

Oh no. No no no. Gunshots. Verna ducks behind the dash when she hears that, and goes for her phone again. Goes to call 911, though, ha. This is East Colfax. Any bets the police will actually show?

Ring...
Ring...

She peeks, because Verna's a brave one, and notices Bo sticking by her car. "Go! Get out of here!"
Why on earth, with gunshots echoing in the street, isn't this woman running away? At least Verna has most of a car between herself and... whatever is going on over there. There is a question of why she expects the other to run or at least seek shelter, while she stays in the car. It's something of human nature, isn't it? The car feels safe. It's an enclosed space. It's hers.


Grave

[ Tentative initiative: Boots (hurt), Billy (still fighting Phipps), Jack, Phipps (still fighting Billy), Rojo (can't act), Kali, Jade (must maintain eye contact to continue mesmerizing Rojo).

How smart is Boots? ]
Dice: 3 d10 TN8 (2, 6, 7) ( fail )


Nobody

[Jack: +6]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )


Nobody

[Boots: +6 also.]
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (8) ( success x 1 )


Grave

[ Initiative: Boots, Billy (still fighting Phipps), Jack, Phipps (still fighting Billy), Rojo (can't act unless attacked), Kali, Jade (must maintain eye contact to continue mesmerizing Rojo). ]


Jade

[Jade continues to stare deep deep deep into Rojo's eyes O_O ss ss]


Kali

[[Run up shouting obscenities in Romani and shoot the woman in the head.]]


Grave

[ Roja (because I might as well start correcting myself now) is mesmerized. Will spend a Willpower to act if disturbed. Too busy making sexy eyes at Jade.

Phipps fighting Billy.

Jack declare... ]


Nobody

[Jack: Ack, no Boots, stop! + this is a cluttered yard. Maybe there's something nearby I should pick up in case I need to join this fight.

Acquire weapon!]


Grave

[ Billy fights Phipps. Boots pounces for BLOOD. ]


Nobody

[Boots: Cats do not fail! We are better than everything! Dex + Cel + Brawl + Specialty. -1 for Hurt. +3 Diff Again?]

Dice: 7 d10 TN9 (4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )


Nobody

[Damage. Strength + Potence + 2 (Eyes) + 4 suxx. (5 suxx on that brawl roll.)]
Dice: 9 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 2 )


Nobody

{+1 claws}
Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (2) ( fail )


Nobody

[2 more dice...?]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (2, 5) ( fail )


Grave

[ Soak ]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 9) ( success x 1 )


Grave

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


Grave

[ Phipps parries. ]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )


Nobody

[Jack: Ack, no, not if she's not moving, Boots, then be a good kitty.
Wits + Stealth. Right Under Your Nose, Right Before Your Eyes. We will WP this.]
Dice: 8 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 4, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]


Grave

Roja wipes a handful of her blood, shreds of her face still thick in the sludgelike vitae, from her face and slaps Kali with her hand as she advances.

[ Dexterity + Brawl - 2 for Wounded - 1 for Action + 1 difficulty for shaking off Mesmerize. ]
Dice: 2 d10 TN7 (1, 10) ( success x 1 )


Kali

[[Switching to Dodge]]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )


Kali

[[Abort!  Switching to split between dodge and shoot.  -2 to Dodge, WP]]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (3, 9) ( success x 2 ) [WP]


Kali

[[Dex (Spec: Heavy Handguns) + FA, point blank = diff 4 + 2 for head shot.  2 dice]]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (4, 10) ( success x 1 )


Kali

[[Damage]]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 4 )


Grave

[ Soak ]
Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (1, 3) ( fail )


Jade

[Look into my eyes, other dude, WP again ugh COME ON YOUC AN DO IT JADE UNF]
Dice: 5 d10 TN9 (1, 5, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )


Grave

[ Roja is in torpor and Phipps is now mesmerized by Jade's beer goggles. We're going cinematic from here on out. Post as you please after my coming system post, including those who weren't able to post due to combat. ]


Grave

Boots tears his way up the woman's trench coat, scaling her needle-thin form, and when he lets his weight drop it's with his claws hooked into her eyelids. Maybe the cat does understand what Jade is doing. Maybe it just wants to get in one last letting of blood in as payment for its embarrassing spill into the grave. Who knows what goes on in the mind of a cat named Boots? Maybe nobody.

The woman screams, but retains the presence of mind to grab a handful of her face and vitae, lashing out at Kali (the superior threat) with the scoop of poisoned vitae and Kali has the presence of mind, despite the swirling infirmity striking her undead flesh, to get out of the way and press her gun into the woman's shrieking (hanging open) mouth. She pulls the trigger and blows a hole through her tongue that comes out just to the left of her spinal cord. The woman slumps to the ground in torpor, the puppet strings of her undead nature cut, and lays still.

The sudden appearance of another enemy draws Phipps' attention and with it his eyes. He locks them upon Jade and it is enough for Billy, who had been fighting with such discipline and intensity despite his improvised weapon, to sidestep and take one last swing.

Billy has restraint. Billy is mad. Billy is not stupid. No one will call him stupid after this. There's a certainty of his eyes and in his action as the flat of the shovel clangs soundly off the back of Phipps' head and the man-ghoul is knocked soundly asleep (unconscious).

And those who have come closer to the pit that was being unearthed? The shallow grave? They look down and they see what these fallen and besieged grave robbers were standing their ground for.

In the ground, enshrouded in roots that seem to have grown around her like an earthly veil, is a woman with a broken leg of a chair buried within her chest. She looks to have been there for quite some time, the roots so thick and ancient looking, but the chair leg looks like something off a piece of knockoff Ikea out of a big box retailer. Can't be more than a decade old. Probably much less.

Past the roots, covering her in a manner that seems almost meant to preserve her modesty, are shreds of decomposing black satin and lace. A nighty. Lingerie.

The woman's stomach is fat and though for a moment those who know of the dead and how they decompose may think it's simply distended from those gasses, the shape becomes unmistakable as they look closer.

The woman is pregnant.


Jade

[int+occult because maybe??]
Dice: 4 d10 TN8 (1, 5, 7, 10) ( success x 1 )


Kali

[[Per+Alert to notice snoopage]]
Dice: 5 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 3, 6, 9) ( success x 2 )


Molly Toombs

Life as a trauma E.R. nurse working the swing shift meant that Molly has seen all different varieties of mangled and injured, damaged bodies that you could think of.  She's seen them come in dead, she's seen them come in alive but too ruined to save, and she's seen them come in looking as though they shouldn't pull through but after jamming tubes down their throats and forcing simple functions to keep working (lungs-- breathe, heart-- beat) they tasted a miracle and lived to walk out of the hospital on their own.

So, when Molly finds that gap in the fence to peek through and witnesses violence and gore-- gore for the bullets that tore away the side of a face first, then burrowed through a mouth and out the back second, she did go pale with horror and flee.  She did press her tongue flat to the roof of her mouth and swallow and cast her eyes aside for a moment, though, just long enough that she had to glance back to see when the blond-haired man with the shovel knocked his opponent unconscious.

She didn't know the blond man.  She didn't know the dark-haired woman that had done nothing but stare.  She knew Kali, that vibrant woman was one of the numbers on business cards she kept tucked away where no one would find or see.  She knew her, but didn't know her well enough to be comfortable or confident enough to approach, no matter how curious she was about the hole that the cat had hissed and leaped out of, curious to know what it was that people were seeing when they peeked in and had their individual reactions.

Curious, but not stupid enough to step through the fence and approach.


Jade

[percept (detail-oriented?  ahaha yeah right) + alert!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )


Molly Toombs

[Re-rolling Stealth!  Dexterity 3 + Stealth 1]
Dice: 4 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 2, 10) ( success x 1 )


Grave

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


Jade

[again!]
Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 4, 4, 9, 10, 10) ( success x 3 )


Grave

There is a creaking that breaks the sudden silence that falls after the heat of battle even in such a populated urban environment. It is closer than the backyard or front stoop drinking and laughing that persists despite the gunshots.

It is closer than the occasional car that goes by. It is closer then the voices coming from a certain car around the corner where Bo waits and Verna is locked away (thinks she is safe) from such dangers as occur here where there be dragons.

That creaking of fence wood comes from Molly's direction and draws the attention of Kali and Jade toward it. She is behind the fence, she is obscured, she is only a sound, but she is a suspicious sound in such interesting times.

Boots knows. Boots looks. Boots hisses angrily and looks in that same empty direction at nobody (nothing in particular) and then begins stalking toward Molly, still hissing and making angry violin screeches. Trying to scare her off.


Kali

She's shouting--hell, she's practically screaming--in Romani as she ran up and put the woman down.  Anyone who knew the language would probably have turned red with the veracity of her language, but it isn't hard to figure out the general nature of the shouts by violence and borderline shaking hatred in her tone.  She's not in danger of frenzy, but she was probably pretty close.  The always-composed Ravnos lost control more than most have seen her in this city.

Once the woman is done, there is a moment where Kali very nearly considers ripping her head off.  But she holds off...perhaps because she sees what's in the hole.  And that takes her attention, the gun still in her hand as her eyes take on a glassy look, her head cocking to the right.

"The fuck?"

But there isn't much time to deal with that, because someone registers on the edge of her perceptions.  And her attention snaps back to--

"Oh.  Right."  That's what she says when she sees Molly.  It's sort of a that makes sense tone, but there's also a sudden edge to it.  Apprehension.

"You need to go.  Right fucking now." she tells the nurse.  The words could be interpreted to be meant for the others as well, but she's directing it at the kine. The frailer of those here. The tone actually indicates concern and...a little fear, frankly.  "Because I don't feel right."


Jade

Jade hasn't moved much from where she started.  That's the lovely thing about being a snake, the body, the disciplines?  So very suited to staying in the dark and shady places.  From there she stared down first Rojo, but ah, Kali.  Shot the woman down and down the woman went.  So Jade turned her attention to the man who was Rojo's counterpart, stared him down, too.  Held him place, pinned him with that golden-eyed stare.  Depending on her angle, chances are that's all Molly saw of that strange dark-haired female dressed in clothing meant to keep her cloaked in shadow.

For a little bit after the quiet settles, Jade takes a moment to step further from the shadows, step to the edge of that hole in the ground and see - ah.  Well that is interesting, isn't it?

And then there is that creak.  She does not turn to look, Kali notices, that precious little tabby notices.  Jade?  She sidles closer to the hole and drops to a crouch, forearms resting on knees, looking, looking.

That's when she tips her chin up, and she looks up up up at that Malkavian with the lovely blond locks and the mad blue eyes.  They're all a little mad, aren't they?  No, well.  Not like the Malkavians are mad.

"Well, honey, what do you think?  Is this what's going to bury everything?"


Nobody

Nobody is around.

Nobody is always around. Nobody does not volunteer that information just yet. Nobody's eyes are first on Kali, as Rojo drops, torpored. Billy, George, Jade: also a glance. Nobody has that splinter of wood, long-stake of a sliver pulled from a fence that nobody saw Nobody take and he does come so close oh so close to that pit and looks down into the dirt at the woman-creature and he gazes.

He gazes even so when Boots distracts him but not completely. He is doing something, Nobody is, but who's going to notice what Nobody does?

Nobody has a phone; Nobody takes the phone out of his pocket. Texting doesn't make a sound, does it? Nobody texts. The miracles of modern technology; maybe somebody, Somebody, actually did set foot on the moon after all, and his doubts of yestereve are wrong, wrong, wrong.

Jade's crouched on that side and Nobody's crouched on this side.

Think think think.


Verna Gardner

Verna ducks behind the dash again as she waits to get on the line with the dispatcher, and then she apparently does. At least, she's talking.

"Hello? Hello? Yes, I've just heard gunshots -- close gunshots. And a baby screaming, I'm sure it was a baby," Verna says. She's trying to urge them to do something, apparently. There's a pause.

"Um, yes, it's at East Colfax and Florence."

Well, they did have to know where to go, right? But she sounds quite sad when she says it. Like, sure. They'll send someone right over.

She stays on the line, answering questions for a while after. Lets them know that her car is broken down and she's in the middle of this gun battle, and maybe they get the idea that she's probably not from around Colfax street.


Bo

There was a second the gunshot, and that probably more then anything drew Bo to the yard, the simple fact that there was a second, did that mean Kali had succeeded in defending herself? Or had she been overpowered when she fired a second time? She had no desire to wait and longer Kali's command be damned and so she rushed quickly and quietly around the side of the house, looking for a way through. 

Its likely here that she runs into the scene, pressing through from the opposite side and either running into Jade, or coming upon the pit rather suddenly.

"Holy hell in a pretty lacy handbasket." She said looking down into the pit.


Molly Toombs

She'd shifted, and that was her mistake.  A foot was going numb and she'd shifted her weight, and this caused a creak in a wood plank that was under her feet without her realizing it.  She was touching the rickety old fence with one hand, absent in doing so.  When she'd moved her weight she'd made noise, and then she went still with the cold water of oh shit trickling down her spine.

Then, a rumbling of a low cat rumble of anger that would turn to a screech.  Soon following that, in a gap left by cat sounds and cat breaths, Kali's voice rang from the other side of the fence.  Warning her to go, telling her to run, warning that she didn't feel quite right.

Molly wasn't an idiot, she had a pretty good idea of what it meant when a vampire was warning that they didn't feel well.  She didn't want to be around to offer up the thing that would make her feel better.

So, all that they would see of Molly is a bit of red hair and pale freckled face, but not all of it, as she peeked around the side of the fence to get one last look at the scene.  Another had arrived-- Bo, from another side of the yard apparently.  She and the woman dressed in dark clothing were crouched around the pit, very intent on what they saw.  The blond man, he was there too, but Kali was a woman with a mean scream and a meaner gun and Molly could only imagine what other mean things lay under the surface.

Though she very much wanted to see, wanted to know, wanted to have that information because whatever this was it was important, the nurse heeded the Drug Lord's advise and made a brisk walk away from the fence, away from the house and the scene.