Living Shadows

Tenebrous
The Rules

1: I think by now everyone knows that I like to stick to an established posting order. So please only post once per round (unless you have a correction or something that you need to add quickly – that kind of thing is fine.) If I have nothing to add, I’ll tell you to skip me.

2: Try to be efficient when you post. I’m not going to set time limits on this scene, but keep in mind that we’ll need to wrap up at a reasonable hour. (This is less of a concern with just a couple of us, so you know. Don't stress. Just don't get up and go make a sandwich while it's your turn or something.)

3: Keep track of your own tempers (WP, Quint, etc.) and Health levels.

4: There is a high chance of combat in this scene, FYI.

5: As always, if anything in the scene makes you uncomfortable, please let me know.

6: House Rule…

“The Kiss” – Normal VtM rules state that mortals cannot resist the effects of the vampiric kiss (feeding bite) unless they have a WP rating of 9+. I am going to handle things differently for mages. If your mage’s WP is higher than the WP of the vampire biting them and they have reason to be frightened/suspicious of what is happening, then they may roll WP at diff 8 to attempt to shake off the effects. Mind shields will also protect against the effects of the kiss. If your character has an active Mind shield, the vampire must roll their WP at diff 8, with the shield countering 2 successes for each level of strength (so a level 3 mind barrier would remove 6 successes.) If the vampire is potent enough to overcome the shield, the above resistance rules still apply.

Regardless of other factors, if a vampire consumes enough blood to endanger the mage (5 or more blood points,) they may always spend a point of WP to attempt to break free.

7: Have fun!  :)

Tenebrous
It was a properly chilly evening that night in Denver. For once, the landscape reflected the season. The air was crisp and cold, and the ground in Washington Park was blanketed with freshly fallen snow. The picture of it was actually quite lovely. Dreamlike and serene. The hour was late enough that most of the park's visitors had gone home. Only a few die-hard night runners could be seen traversing the trails, and they were few and far between. The area around the lake was silent and empty, the water frosted over with a paper-thin layer of ice. A few drifting snowflakes fell through the air, dancing around in the yellow-white glow of the flood-lamps.

Grace
[Awareness = Can we feel a Sera? (or whatever)]

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

Serafíne
Awareness because.

Dice: 7 d10 TN5 (1, 5, 5, 7, 8, 9, 9) ( success x 6 )

Serafíne
There is a lake and the shore of the lake is wrapped 'round with snow.  There is a bench on the shore of the lake.  Ducks, beaks tucked beneath their wings, gliding, huddled on the shore, fluffed up for warmth.

There is a girl seated on the spine of a bench on the shore of the lake.  Her footprints wander through the snow.  She is drinking a Mexican hot chocolate from one of the nearby coffee shops, spiked with whiskey, and watching the reflection of the moon in the water.  Has a bag with some churros in it and periodically picks one out, peels it apart, tosses it to the mallards.

She is: not well dressed for the weather and stopping here like this only magnifies the cold.  Spikes and leather on her wrists and hands, more adornments punched through her ears, bright and bristling.  The curling fringe of her hair-shorn head, the golden fall of the rest.  Just there.

Grace
Grace is sitting on a bench under a tree by the lake, staring into her phone. She's been there for hours now, barely moving from the original cross-legged hunched stance she plonked herself in. The snow has decorated her hair by now, but she doesn't seem to be bothered. After all, she's got her hat, her pretty scarf, her red coat, her jacket, and she doubled up on jeans today just to be sure that the cold wouldn't attack her.

It's a valiant defense, in other words.

But there appears to be something that finally, finally budges in her aside from her fingers, and she perks up. Sera?

A figure feeds the ducks across the way, showing so much skin they're either a local skiing fanatic for whom 20 degrees might as well be summer, or Sera. So Grace waves to her, a big happy thing. Hi there, you.

Tenebrous
Sera and Grace were alone by the lake, apart from the huddled presence of those mallards. As usual, Sera's awareness of the landscape was a wide, expansive thing. Places had their own kind of resonance, subtle though it often was. A taste that lingered on the air. Impressions left by those who'd come before, and by that which was there now. The trees around her slumbered. The park felt... sleepy. Calm.

And then there was Grace. Shifting and Keen and Winged. And Grace - she felt Sera too. Sera with her Visceral, Enthralling, Liminal energy. They were both rather dynamic beings to be so still in this dreaming place.

The solitude wasn't likely to last. Even at night. Even in the cold. This was Denver, after all. And sure enough, not long after Grace spotted Sera (each of them perched on separate benches near the lake) they'd both be able to hear the subtle crunch of approaching footsteps in the snow. See (f they happened to look back) the shadows of two figures walking together, leaning into each other in this sweet, intimate way. A couple, perhaps. A man and a woman. The woman had soft blond hair. The man's was a darker shade. The pair of them kept a reasonable distance from the lake, stopping to lean against a large tree bathed in shadow, whereupon they disappeared from sight. The man gave a soft laugh, and then went quiet.

Serafíne
Sera is - so aware, right now.  Her senses are bright and open and widely flung and she cannot help that: the world just seeps itself through the boundaries of her senses, some mechanism like osmosis, not that she knows what the fuck osmosis is, but there you are.

There she is, shivering a little bit, boots on the seat of her bench, her hot little ass on the spine-of-it, and it's not that she doesn't sense Grace, because she absolutely senses Grace, she cannot help but know that that peculiar combination of sensations is: Grace, Grace, Grace,

but she's not looking that direction.  She doesn't really see except with her peripheral vision because she's not looking at anything.  But movement or something: some shadow of it has her chin rising.

There's no wave back.  Just a tip of her coffee cup.

--

Pays no attention to the strange couple behind except for a brief, sharp glance over her right shoulder.  The fleeting impression of her profile sharp against the darkness.  Unconsciously, she runs her right thumb over the band of a bronze ring she wears on her right index finger.

Strange.  Tonight, she doesn't find it soothing.

Grace
Grace tucks her phone into one of the pockets of her coat, and takes to her feet, a little surprised at all the snow that falls off as a result. True, it isn't like a dynamic being to be still, but Grace's mind is an ever moving thing, and what she seeks inside her devices can span the globe in instants.

Of course, right then, she was playing Clash of Clans, but you know. The statement still stands.

It's Sera, the tip of the coffee cup says so, for all her lack of exuberance does not. So Grace starts making fresh prints in the snow over to her. A couple of people going off to kiss under the tree barely even makes it on her radar of things to care about right now.

Serafíne
Sera offers that little tip and then takes a draught of her alcohol laced coffee, feels the warmth spread through her body and somehow - strangely - it makes her feel all the colder.  She -

shivers, visibly, physically and some piece of her psyche assumes that it is everything, everything, everything inside her.

Her shoulders hunch forward, bracing against the sensation but then no, no no.  It is apart, it is external.  She turns - Grace can see her turning, catches a glimpse of her face in the lamplight, which shines, damp cheeks.  Maybe it's the snow.

The spark of her magic, then.  As she wrenches something apart, inside her heart.  Finds it well-nigh as effective as any other pain.

Prime Scan.  Dif: 4 -1 (focus)

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (6, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )

Grace
Grace can feel that -- the way the universe seems to gut itself at Sera's twisting it. She tilts her head to the side, as if to question why, and looks around. But there's nothing, isn't there? Nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe Sera's just being Sera. Something's not quite right about this, about Sera tonight, though.

She walks up at last, leaving a trail that curves around the frozen lake surface (oh, but Kalen would be horrified).

"Hey. What's up? Or down. Whatever."

Tenebrous
[Mysterious dice roll]

Dice: 6 d10 TN7 (1, 2, 6, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Tenebrous
Sera knew that something was wrong, but couldn't quite parse out precisely what she was sensing. Grace approached her bench and the two converged. What's up? Or down. Whatever.

What's up was... the night was getting darker. Or at least, it seemed to be. Maybe Grace or Sera looked back. Maybe they saw the way the shadows crept in as though they were living things, enveloping a space of about 40 feet. The lakeshore (where Sera and Grace were) was still bathed in its soft glow, but everything behind them was... pitch black. They couldn't even see the trees anymore.

Serafíne
Mind 3: telepathic link to GRACE.  Difficulty: 6.  -1 (focus) .

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (4, 7, 10) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Serafíne
This little shrug, that's what Sera offers Grace.  A note of something that seems - yes, even to Grace - disconnected and strange from someone who is always so bright and affectionate.  But god knows what Grace actually knows about Sera: right?  We're all strangers beneath the skin.

Tonight anyway.

Sera reaches up and scrubs the tracks of the tears lingering on her cold cheeks away.  She's not wearing gloves.  The tips of her fingers are bright, bright red.

Her magic in the air again, stronger now.

Grace.  Don't look.  Just listen.  Something behind us, in the trees.  Dark dark dark.  Turn around, walk back to your car.  Act like you don't see it..  Just go.

I'll come next.  But first: you go.

Grace
There's something clawing at the boundary that separates Grace from the rest of the world -- a porous thing to begin with. It's something that likes straddling boundaries, that likes to enthrall, but it's only after a moment's hesitation that Grace doesn't try to fight it off. She's no old hat at telepathy, but Sera is doing that. Pretty sure that's Sera at least.

I'll come next, but first: you go, Sera says in her mind, and Grace frowns at her. No coherent words follow, more of a mix of emotions and strategy concerns that hit bang bang bang bang -- like: to Hell with that plan. And: I'm not leaving her alone in danger. And: This is how They get you, divide and conquer. And: I am not a child. And: She is crying. And: Oh fuck, she can probably hear everything can't she.

"Why don't we both go home together, eh? You don't look so good," she says, out loud, nonchalant. Like, perfectly normal conversation going on here, nothing to see.

"Come on. I'll even drive you."

With that, she does turn, pulls out her phone, and pretends not to notice that the park's snow isn't glowing sodium yellow in the light pollution.

Grace
[Scanning stuff: Prime1/Entropy1/Forces1 -- Diff 4 = Why so dark?]

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (4, 7, 8) ( success x 3 )

Grace
[Extending...]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (2, 2, 3) ( success x 1 ) [WP]

Tenebrous
Grace can definitely sense the lack of light behind her. The way the boundary of the darkness seems almost to be pushing light away. And there is something else there too. Something... arrested. Like a halt in the natural flow of entropy. That being - whatever it is - seems to be the source of the dark cloud.

Tenebrous
Act like you don't see it.

Sage advice, when confronting a potential threat. Perhaps whatever force commanded those shadows had no real interest in them. Perhaps they might, as Sera suggested, continue on their way and leave the darkness to its alien appetites. There was a chance, certainly, that it might play out that way.

But it didn't.

Because that darkness? Was moving. And even if they didn't look, they'd feel it. Feel the cold clamminess of it as it crept up behind them. And then the lamp nearby flickered and died. And the shore got very, very cold. And the ducks gave a chorus of anxious warning-calls before they spread their wings and flapped away over the ice.

Then everything went black.

It was more than just a lack of light. The darkness was tangible. Blocking all sense of sight. Muffling sound. Crawling down their throats when they breathed. The sensation was suffocating. As though the very night itself meant to strangle them.

[Alright guys, I need some Init rolls.]

Grace
[Wits3 + Dex3 + roll!]

Dice: 1 d10 TN5 (4) ( fail )

Tenebrous
[+6]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (1) ( botch x 1 )

Serafíne
+6

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

Tenebrous
[And the order is:

Sera - 16

Grace - 10

? - 7]

Serafíne
WP

Dice: 7 d10 TN8 (2, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 2 )

Tenebrous
[Odds Grace evens Sera]

Dice: 1 d10 TN6 (3) ( fail )

Grace
[WP]

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

Tenebrous
Grace is fucking terrified. That kind of animal fear that starts in the lizard brain and then completely takes over all sense of rationality. She loses 1 die from all dice pools for the remainder of the scene and, while in the darkness, can take no action except to escape or defend herself from attack.

Tenebrous
[? closes distance to Grace while in stealth-mode]

Grace
[Runs screaming]

Serafíne
[Prime 2: Attack Thingy.  At ?]

Serafíne
Prime 2: Vulgar Without Witness.  Dif: 6.  -1 (focus)   -1 (quint)

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (4, 9, 9) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Tenebrous
[Sera hits ? with her Prime attack and does 6 agg (owwwww)]

Grace
She swipes away Clash of Clans and gets to work figuring out what's going on here. There's another 'game' on her phone now, one that pulses with different colors as they're slowly weeded out. There is a buzz of white (alterations to the Code, things that are not recorded in the normal background) and a purple sheen concentrated into a single phosphor of fuschia that... well, it's not good. There's an entropic sinkhole on her radar that reminds her of one thing.

Vampire. Pretty sure it's coming from a vampire. Shield your mind. If this connection helps let other things in, sever it.

Her thoughts are more focused once Grace figures out that Sera's probably listening in, but then, suddenly, the darkness crawls into her mouth. And all Sera can sense in Grace's mind after that is primal fear. It's a wild thing, disconnecting the higher order functions.

She tries to flee in the direction of 'out'.

[Dex + Ath - 1 = AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!]

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

Tenebrous
[? changes action to gtfo because ow? ow? the fuck was that? Dex+Ath running awaaaay]

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

Tenebrous
[er... Wound penalties. Forgot those. -5 and I don't think she can actually "run" per se. Re-do]

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

Tenebrous
Whatever was attacking them, it clearly did not expect Sera to hit back. At least, not in the manner that she did. The darkness descended. Grace screamed and ran, but Sera stayed where she was. Let the shadows fold over her while she focused her Will.

The blast of quintessential energy was bright enough to chase away the darkness for a few heartbeats, and in that brief flash, she'd see the face of her attacker coming at them: a young blond woman with blood smeared across her mouth and fangs bared. She screamed when the prime blast hit, crumpling over as the light lacerated her body. The sound of it was like a wailing ghost.

There was shock on her face, too. Confused incomprehension. But the blast took away all sense of aggression. She'd clearly attacked the wrong target, and now? Now she wanted to get the hell out of dodge. And that's exactly what she tried to do, turning to limp in a panicking shuffle in the opposite direction of the lake. And as she did, the shadows around them dissipated, crawling back into the night in much the same manner as their summoner.

Serafíne
Paradox!

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

Serafíne
Soak!

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

Serafíne
 Soothe Grace: Mind 2.  Coincidental.  Difficulty: 5 -1 (practiced)

Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (3, 7, 9) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Serafíne
The connection is there; is not broken but is pulled back.  Everything happens too-quickly.  Grace goes screaming.  Sera -



Sera does not run screaming.  She focuses her Will and sends their attacker screaming, instead.  Whatever was inside of her, torn apart, poured out into a blast of primal energy, the fabric of the universe ripped open by nothing more than a half-broken heart.

Grace is still running.   The connection is broken, and it is for the best.  A moment later, though - just enough magic to calm Grace, so that she can slow down, run - straight if she wishes to, not blindly, back to her car, to something like safety, wherever or however she will go.

Grace
After a brief shrieking panic when the shadows seemed like living things crawling their way down into her lungs, into her eye sockets, muffling her hearing, and the only thing she could think to do was 'out' -- they crawl back again. She can breathe. Look, there's the snow and the lake.

And there is Sera in her mind again, calming, soothing, serene.

"Holy fucking shit," Grace says, while taking a look behind her to see -- it's gone? The shadows are fleeing? But they were so strong and Sera -- is just standing there. Like a badass.

She takes a breath, and watches with a hand over her mouth as the entropy sink limps away and her heart thuds in her ears. "Woah."

Tenebrous
Sera didn't run. Even now, while the creature limped away, affording them a moment to regroup and possibly make a similar exit, she did not move. Only took the time to watch the woman (their attacker) leave while she collected herself. While she sent out that calming wave to envelop Grace's mind. Maybe Grace felt the familiar prickle of paradox energy (it felt the way the air felt when a storm was coming) when the backfire hit, but whatever damage it cause Sera was minimal.

They were going to be alright.

Their attacker? Less so.

But she was still alive when she limped away. If they wanted, they could probably chase her down. But Sera and Grace were not soldiers. They were not assassins. And Sera, at least, let her go.

Perhaps then the thought might hit Grace: what about the man she was with? Was he still there? Was he even alive?

Grace
[Matter 1, Entropy 1, Mind 1, Corr 2 = Vampiric Tracking Device -- You just think you're getting away, asshole. Diff 5]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (1, 5, 6) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Grace
[Extending...]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 5, 9) ( success x 2 ) [WP]

Grace
Grace looks down at her phone again, still running that thing that looks like a fancy screensaver crossed with an abstract art game, and starts adjusting some vertices. The screen explodes with what looks like static as she folds the code and unfolds it again, origami-like, this time going for a different tactic. That bright purple spot is trying to get away. It's not going to.

First, we grab the geographic coordinates of that shithead, and then... we graph it. Like so. And lo, on a map of the city that resolves with another swipe of her fingers, a red blinking dot limps away.

Grace looks up and surveys the place finally, after that prolonged staring into her phone. There was a witness, wasn't there? Where's the man? He didn't pop up on her radar like a miniature black hole...

Tenebrous
If the man was still there, he wasn't in view. At least, not from this distance. Maybe he'd gotten away. Maybe he was dead. Maybe he was still behind that tree.

Grace
She checks her phone again to make sure that the entropic entity is still in retreat mode, and then advances toward the tree, mentally preparing herself for the worst. She's seen the dying before, in ways she's fairly certain would give even vampires some challenges in a 'how horrible can you go' contest. There's nothing like watching someone melt to death.

She takes a breath and goes to look behind the tree.

Tenebrous
Once the vampire got going, she didn't look back. And as hard as it must have been for her to limp away with the wounds she'd taken, she left the park as quickly and as quietly as she could. If only she knew that she was being tracked...

The blinking dot on Grace's screen showed the vampire's movement as she made her way to the parking lot. More than likely she had a vehicle there waiting for her. Eventually she'd reach it and drive away - back to wherever it was vampires in Denver went when they needed to go lick their wounds. (A hospital? Probably not.)

When Grace rounded the tree, she found the man lying there at the base of the trunk. His head hung loosely to one side, but if there had ever been a wound on his neck, there was nothing there now but a faint smear of dried blood on the collar of his shirt. (Which did rather beg the question: how in the hell did the vampire get the blood out of him without leaving puncture marks?)

He was alive, barely. But unconscious. His breaths were low and shallow. If left here, he'd probably freeze to death. He looked fairly well-to-do, in a warm leather coat and tailored slacks. About mid-30's, age wise. Handsome. Poor guy probably thought he was getting lucky that night.

Grace
She quickly ascertains that the man is still alive, and this presents a new problem. What does one do with a vampire victim? Hospital? That sounds...

Phone time again. This time, to use it for its intended purpose. She calls Kalen, asks him what one should do about it if someone were to say, run across an exsanguinated, but unconscious person in the park. Someone with no marks on their skin.

She argues with him when he says to avoid the hospital if possible. He's out cold from blood loss and looks like he's in bad shape, and there's Sera, but Sera's... probably spent. It isn't possible.

The man's condition doesn't implicate mages. That's the bottom line. The next number she frantically calls is 911.

Tenebrous
There was always a risk to involving mundane authorities in supernatural affairs. Certainly the doctors would wonder how the man had lost so much blood in the first place. But there was nothing there to implicate any of them. Nothing that might lead Sleepers in the direction of the truth other than wild speculation. (And who really believed in vampires these days?) More than likely, they'd just assume that someone had stolen his blood - and done a very good job hiding the needle mark.

So Grace called 911, and the operator informed her that an ambulance was on its way. Whether Grace and Sera remained behind to talk to the paramedics or left when the sound of the siren approached, the man would get help. He would be okay.

But there were still at least two vampires running around the city. One of which seemed rather less concerned with endangering innocents than the first one had been. That alone was cause for some concern. But for now? It was late. And Grace and Sera were tired and shaken. Likely, they would need to rest.

(Likely, Kalen would be getting another phone call soon.)