[evil snail] (OK, some ground rules!
1. once we get the combat going, we're gonna use a modified declare/action system. we will all roll init ONCE, and this will be kept for the duration of the scene.
2. i will always declare for all the baddies first, and at once, regardless of where they fall on the action system. so... please try to keep in mind that your char may not actually know what they'll do, and don't metagame it too much ;)
3. to keep the feel of the scene IC rather than dicedicedice, i'll declare ICly (and then add OOC comments to clarify as necessary)
4. since we have a lotta people, i'ma ask you guys to do one thing for me: please PM me your relevant combat stats. this includes --
str
dex
stam
wits
brawl
dodge
melee (if you're gonna use weaponry)
firearms (if you're gonna shoot a gun)
if it's your turn to roll, and you don't roll within 2-3 minutes, i will roll for you. AND I WILL NOT HAIL KAHSEENO ON YOUR BEHALF. so keep that in mind, suckers!)
[evil snail] (oh and of course if you're uncomfortable with ANY of that, feel free to bow out -- no hard feelings.)
[evil snail] Chicago's Chinatown isn't quite the size of NYC's or San Francisco's, but it's close: entire streets full of pictographic characters, curio shops jammed cheek to jowl with tea stores, herb shops, restaurants, markets. The main streets are flooded with tourists and the prices are cheap, but if you're looking for an authentic experience -- or even just quality -- you'd have to dive a little deeper.
On the seamier side streets, "massage parlors" share space with the shops, the decent ones, that the locals frequent. There are groups of disreputable-looking young men with sharply casual clothes and designer hair sitting on flashy cars, conversing so fluently in Cantonese that when they switch into perfect English it's a shock.
It's on one of these streets that you'll find the Jade Dragon: a tiny eatery that's little more than a kitchen and a cash counter behind a scroll-up metal grate that serves as its fourth wall. Seating spills out onto the sidewalk. Despite the rather prosaic name and humble appearance, it's about as authentic a Canton/Taishan cuisine as you'll get in the Midwest. Even on a Wednesday night, late, past 11pm, it's doing good business. Conversation is loud. Steam is billowing out of huge woks licked by tongues of brilliant orange and blue flame. The tea is self-serve from big dispensers along the wall. Rail thin waitresses maneuver deftly around noisy, boisterous customers, plunking down dishes with zero flair and little courtesy: luxuries for which the Jade Dragon has neither time nor patience.
[Ruhiger] The Jade Dragon had been a find when she first, well, found it, just before leaving Chicago the first time. This is her first visit back since coming home. While she dislikes the sheer amount of people, even at this time of night, the food makes it worth it, and with the outside seating that absolves some of the press of her rage from those who surround her. Well, a tiny bit, anyway.
Even in this crowd, she tends to have a rather open path around her table - set near the outside edge, close to the Tea station - people take a step toward the street, though the thin waitresses plop down her order with the same speed they do for everyone, stepping away just as quickly so as to keep up with the crowd.
She has been here a while, and is steadily working through her order, enjoying what she assumes to be an authentic meal. All she knows for sure is that it tastes good, the tea is equally good, and her need/desire to people watch is being satisfied. Sometimes, that is enough.
[L'ange Noire] It was days like these that Serafine was grateful for her keen ability to sniff out good food in unlikely locations. A combination of wits and charm usually managed to weasel out the secrets to the local hangouts. So it was that tonight she found herself outside of a dingy, bustling little cantonese joint, sitting alone at a tiny little table that rocked back and forth whenever she put weight on it. She didn't really care about that, though. The evening was nice, and she was happy to be able to sit down outside for a bit and just take in the sights of the city.
After awhile, a couple moved out of her line of vision, and her eyes hesitated on a familiar face a few tables away. Well now, wasn't that a coincidence? They hadn't been introduced, of course, but Serafine remembered AnneMarie from the Brotherhood. (It was a bit hard *not* to remember her.)
[White Eyes] Her stomach had protested sometime earlier that day, had refused to allow her to continue through her daily processes without being treated with a little bit of dignity and respect. Theurges can not live on apples alone, and so, she had found herself earlier that day at Gabbie's door, knocking, and having something like enforced girl time. Wednesday night ritual: work hard, get up, get hungry, get food.
Gabbie had insisted on stopping by a tea house some time that night; Mrena had no clue where to find one of these places, so she had let Gabbie lead the way in that regard. They were on their way back, and for their part the girls seemed to be in good spirits. And, for their part, the girls almost seemed normal.
There was a lot of "almost" to be thrown around there, and normal was a relative term, but that really wasn't the point. The fact of the matter was this: the recently twenty-year-old theurge and the Silver Fang-next-door were making their way out on the twon and were passing by the Jade Dragon.
For her part, Mrena looked like a college kid. Jeans, light sweater, ballet flats. With a messenger bag over her shoulder, she didn't seem completely out-of-place. Were it not for the fact that she looked just a little too distant, a little too intense sometimes made that thought just a little less believable.
"That... smells... amazing."
[Gabriella Bellamonte] When Mrena knocked on Gabbie's door, she was pulling an umbrella, adorable and cartoonish in the fact that it was bright green and shaped like a lilly pad, out of her closet. Want to go out? Sure, I was heading into Chinatown, they have the best tea, if you go beyond the tourist traps! Does that sound okay? Definately! ...And they were off.
Gabbie had vouched for public transportation tonight because they both had time to kill and parking in Chinatown was perhaps a larger pain in the ass than parking on the Magnificent Mile. So they hoofed it, Mrena in her ballet flats and Gabriella in a pair of knee-tall brown boots loosely modeled after cowboy boots, what with the thick and slightly tapered heel and the bronze buckle added for decoration. A visit was made to the tea shop, Gabbie stocked up on several different flavors that she loved and a couple that were new that had caught her eye, and then they were off again.
Rainclouds loomed in the sky, threatening to begin a downpour at any minute but yet to do anything more than drizzle for a few minutes at a time before stopping again. Gabbie's umbrella was propped on her shoulder while her other hand held the paper bag that her tea was in. While Mrena looked like a college student, Gabbie could almost pass for some sort of bohemian model. Her long hair was left down in faint waves and curls, and she wore a loose-fitted dress with a thick necklace and bracelet set to make colors stand out and all that.
The Jade Dragon's smells hit Mrena's nose, then Gabbie's soon after, and the girls stopped. Chuckling a little, Gabbie nodded her head toward the shop. "Well, we could see if it tastes as good as it smells?"
[evil snail] And that's all the idle these four women, soon-to-be-protagonists of a drama they have no script to, can enjoy.
In the next second there's a shriek from the kitchen. There's no wall between kitchen and dining area; no wall, even, between the eatery and the street, but there are a good number of milling people in the way. It's not immediately obvious what the screaming is about. For all anyone knows, someone dropped something important. Or saw a rat. Or --
There's another scream. And another. Louder, shrill, with a note that you simply don't hear in everyday life: genuine terror. And now, from the back of the restaurant, close to the ordering counter, begins a sudden mass exodus. There are some sixty or so people jammed into a tiny space. The ones closest to the kitchen are trying to get out. The ones outside, on the street -- well, some of them are wise enough to pack up and leave, immediately, but most are on their feet and peering curiously in.
There's notably one fellow who neither cranes and peers, nor pushes to get out. A kid, maybe 17 years old, Eurasian, tall and lean, with stiff dark hair cut short, a tanned olive complexion, an attractive, if rather narrow face, and exotic smoke-grey eyes that bore a tilt so stereotypically 'asian' that they were nearly feline.
He stands his ground, frowning into the kitchen. The crowd rushes around him like a river around a stone -- they don't get near him, just like they don't get near Ruhiger, or Seraphine, or White Eyes.
[White Eyes] (Per+occult. sense wyrm (why not?))
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 4, 6, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1
to evil snail
[Ruhiger] There is a scream, and she looks up.
There is another, and she takes a final bite.
There is another, and she stands.
She does not follow the mass exodus, nor charge inside. Not yet. In fact, she simply steps backwards toward the nearest - and almost only - wall, until she's touching the tea station, and studying the man who does not move. A swift flick of her pale gaze takes in the location of anyone she recognizes as fast as possible, marking them. Serephine. White-eyes.
And in the mass confusion, there in the shadow of the almost only wall - she tips her head, and activates the bangle that hangs from a chain at her wrist... her gaze narrowed to [silvered] slits and cloaked in shadows, she watches, silent.
[evil snail] (toss me some percep/alerts, folks. diff 8. it's strangely hard to see into the back of the restaurant.)
[White Eyes] (per+alert, diff 8)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8)
[Ruhiger]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 5, 8 (Failure at target 8)
[L'ange Noire]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 8)
[Gabriella Bellamonte] (( Per + Alert: X-ray vision?? ))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 7, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 8)
[L'ange Noire]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 8)
[L'ange Noire] ((Wow, sorry about that...I only hit it once *confused look*))
[evil snail] There's something wrong in the kitchen.
They can feel it: waves of malevolence. Even Gabbie feels it. Even the humans feel it, and that's why they run. And the lights are turning out. No; they're dimming. No; they're -- being swallowed by an encroaching darkness that is not really darkness at all, but merely a sort of ...
blindness. Nothingness.
People are scattering in all directions now. Cars are beeping and roaring off, feet are beating down sidewalks. As the Jade Dragon empties and the darkness increases, the Garou and kin find themselves alone with whatever it is.
And the kid. He's still there, too.
(PMs of exact results coming)
[evil snail] You don't see nothin'. What's going onnnn back there?
to Ruhiger
[evil snail] What is that in the darkness and the steam? There's something there. You can't make it out.
to White Eyes
[Ruhiger] She sees... blackness encroaching, which is convenient for her except that she cannot see shit. She slides her fingers along the tea station as she moves deeper into the darkness. Alone with the kid - the garou and kin - and whatever is back there.
Picked a good day for dinner in China town, hm?
She wastes no time gathering Eagles Strength around her, either. She is many things. Stupid is not one of them. Blind, apparently, but not stupid.
[evil snail] There's a figure in the back of the kitchen, surrounded by a sort of seething darkness. It seems humanoid, but it's nothing close to human. For one thing, it's far too tall -- nine, ten feet -- but about the same width as any normal person. Consequently, it's ghastly thin, as though it had been pulled half again as long as it should be.
Its arms are hanging at its sides, limp. Its hair is long and loose and black, like something out of a japanese horror flick. Its head lolls to the side bonelessly. They can't make out a face.
to Gabriella Bellamonte, L'ange Noire
[Gabriella Bellamonte] Darkness seeped out of the kitchen, chasing the crowd of roughly sixty (how the hell did they fit so many people in that hole in the wall? Ancient Chinese secret?) people out of and away from the Jade Dragon. Gabriella stepped a little closer to Mrena, digging the bottoms of her surprisingly sturdy boots into the sidewalk, fighting not to be tipped over when buffetted by the fleeing, screaming crowd.
She tried hard to see what was happening.
She succeeded and got more of an eyefull than she wanted.
"Mrena...." She uttered the Theurge's name in a tone that was mingled warning of something bad, questioning, and absolute horror. Her hand found the sleeve of the Shadow Lord's sweater and clung tightly.
Whatever happened to a normal night out?
[L'ange Noire] At the first sound of screaming, Serafine's entire demeanor went through an almost instantaneous change. One moment, she was leaning on her rickety little table and gazing off languidly into the distance. The next, she was bolt upright, eyes bright and looking intently about her immediate vicinity...trying to gauge the source of the terror. Her rail-thin, lanky form was tense and alert, and she rose up out of her seat quickly.
The kid she noticed immediately. His calm curiosity was...suspicious, to say the least.
And then, she peered into the darkness once more. It was easier to see now that most of the people inside had filed out. What she saw was....unpleasant. It's shape was difficult to make out at first, but as she focused harder, she could see an outline, and gradually...fuzzy details. Her nostrils flared with a sudden jolt of anger and nervous intensity... but she didn't immediately run into the restaurant.
The Fenrir was already on her way inside. Serafine...was watching the kid.
[White Eyes] "Gabbie, something's in there," she said. Her tone implied a lot. implied that what was in there Was Not Good. "You don't need to be here."
It was interesting that she could stand stark and straight, despite being as small as she was. As seemingly delicate as she was. The theurge adjusted her stance; she was more in front of Gabriella than beside her, her muscles were tense. her breathing was controlled. She was on edge... no, wait, she was ready.
The theurge turned and looked at Gabriella, tilting her head to the side slightly. The pace and timing was almost more avian than lupine. "What did you see?"
Information was vital. Time was a factor.
[evil snail] Everyone's trying to decide what to do. Everyone's looking into the darkness, trying to figure out what's in there. Everyone -- except the kid.
He doesn't wait any longer. He plants one hand on the counter, which is faintly sticky from years of exposure to explosive stir-fry cooking, vaults his narrow body over easily as a gymnast. The darkness swallows him up, but before he's gone they see him changing.
Shifting.
[evil snail] (another percep/alert, diff 8, if you want to keep watching the kid.)
[L'ange Noire]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 (Failure at target 8)
[Gabriella Bellamonte] (( Per + Alert: Aw hell, why not? ))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 4, 10 (Failure at target 8)
[Ruhiger] (come on, supersight!)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 7, 7, 9 (Failure at target 8)
[L'ange Noire]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8 (Botch x 1 at target 9)
[Administrator] liar, welcome to Chinatown (Southside) (Now)
[Gabriella Bellamonte] Gabriella was entirely too focused on what was happening inside the little hole-in-the-wall yet city-wide renowned restaurant to notice or care about what one of a smattering of heroes was doing. Her eyes didn't break away from what she saw-- what she was seeing, not even for a second. Not even when Mrena, with her very pale eyes, warned her that it wasn't safe (Gee, thanks Mrena, I hadn't realized!), and then asked what she was seeing.
In a low, somewhat shakey tone of voice, Gabbie explained to the best of her ability.
"Ghost... Or some sort of shadow-monster... Stretched out, missing bones, it can't hold its face up."
[Ruhiger] The kid starts shifting as he vaults over - then she loses the ability to see him as well. She waits no longer. Secure in the blackness and the cloak of her shadow as she moves toward the counter - she shifts as well, until the already taller than average Fenrir woman becomes the whole average Crinos Modi. Listening carefully, for all she cannot see....
[evil snail] You think that kid is a BSD! OMG!
to L'ange Noire
[White Eyes]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 4, 5, 5 (Botch x 2 at target 8)
[evil snail] That kid is obviously a Dancer. KILL IT.
to White Eyes
[evil snail] Almost immediately, you two lose sight of the kid. The monster that Gabbie saw is out of sight now, too.
to Gabriella Bellamonte, Ruhiger
[White Eyes] She knew what she had felt. She knew that she had felt something awful and strongly wyrm tainted in the kitchen. Gabbie explained what she had seen in the kitchen. Stretched out, missing bones; she had called it a ghost. A shadow-monster...
but all she could focus on was the kid with the exotic features, who seemed to be avoided by the crowd, and (for her part) she saw what she did. Eyes narrowed and she turned her attention away from the door and to the kid.
"Gabbie, run. Don't look back. Go home."
And with that? She made a run for the kid with the intent on tackling him.
[L'ange Noire] The kid moved...and she watched. Or, tried to, at least. When his shape become enveloped in darkness, he disappeared from her senses. And, try as she might...she couldn't seem to make out the shape anymore. Growling in frustration, she started walking forward, willing her senses to respond. Finally...there was something. And it looked remarkably...garou-like.
Serafine had never actually seen a Black Spiral Dancer before. All she new was from stories and sage advice during her cubhood. But logic dictated...that this shadowy creature was....more than likely...exactly that.
She moved. Graceful like a ghost into the shadows. And once the darkness clung to her, she used the burning, boiling tension within her chest to fuel a swift and fluid change. Crinos was a great deal better suited to physical combat than her pathetically frail human body ever could be.
Mrena flew past her, and she would follow in her wake, likewise intent upon reaching the shifting kid.
[Gabriella Bellamonte] Mrena tore away from Gabbie after not suggesting, but ordering that she go home. The sweater jerked out of her grasp, and suddenly her Theurge was gone. Gabriella's heart lept into her throat, and hardly in the way that it was supposed to when 'love at first sight' happened in books and on TV, but never in real life. She felt like she was either going to choke on it and stop breathing, or just vomit it out right there onto the sidewalk.
A few slow steps were taken backwards, but mainly because of the final remnants of the crowd jostling her instead of doing so on her own will. She just couldn't stop staring.
[Ruhiger] A movement to the right of her has Serephine and Mrena headed toward the kid. She however doesn't growl in frustration. At least not that anyone can hear. When the vague shape seems to become vaguely garou-like...
Practically invisible but for those glowing sliver eyes, she moves to vault over the counter in persuit of him - and the it that was back there first.
[Administrator] kokuto has left Chinatown (Southside)
[evil snail] (okay. make some rolls for me!
1. roll inits.
2. roll wits / alert, diff 8. if you fail, you're essentially going to be fighting blind until further notice. if you make the roll, you can act without blind penalties, but you won't see very clearly either -- just enough to have a sense of where things are)
[Ruhiger] inits +7
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 7
[White Eyes] (6+1d10)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4
[Gabriella Bellamonte] (( Init: 6 +.. ))
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9
[L'ange Noire] ((Init +6))
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Ruhiger] Wits+alerts+ OMFG HAIL KAHSEENO I KNOW ITS BEEN A LONG TIME PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 7, 7, 10 (Failure at target 8)
[White Eyes] (aaand wits+alert)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 7, 7 (Botch x 2 at target 8)
[Gabriella Bellamonte] (( Wits + Alert ))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 8)
[L'ange Noire] ((Wits+Alert))
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 8) [WP]
[Administrator] liar, welcome to Chinatown (Southside) (Now)
[evil snail] (inits for the kid +10)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[evil snail] (inits for the thing +10)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[evil snail] (OK. Init order for rest of scene:
thing
kid
gabbie / sera simultaneously
ruhiger
white eyes
Sera and Gabbie can act without blindness mods.
Ruhiger takes a +2 diff blindness mod.
White Eyes takes a +2 diff, PLUS a -2 dice pool blindness mod for being blind AND botchy.)
[evil snail] One after another, the Garou jump into the fray. Most are convinced the kid is up to no good. Gabbie alone stays outside -- Mrena ordered her to leave, but she just can't tear herself away. It's like a train wreck. You know the images, the crumpled metal and the sheared bodies, will haunt your nightmares for years to come. But you just can't look away.
Which, of course, gives Gabbie a perfect view of something -- something long and agile and prehensile -- slicing out of the indistinctness at her. A whip? A tentacle? A ...tongue?
In the darkness, the kid shouts something:
"&+1044;&+1077;&+1084;&+1086;&+1085;, &+1074;&+1077;&+1088;&+1085;&+1080;&+1090;&+1077;&+1089;&+1100; &+1090;&+1091;&+1076;&+1072;, &+1075;&+1076;&+1077; &+1074;&+1099; &+1087;&+1088;&+1080;&+1096;&+1083;&+1080; &+1089;!"
only his voice is far too deep, far too terrible, to be a boy's. It ends on a roar. He's definitely attacking someone.
(Declare for the NPCs:
1. Thing is attempting to entangle Gabbie and drag her into the mess.
2. Kid attacking ... something.)
[Gabriella Bellamonte] (( Declare for Gabbie:
HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THAT RUN ))
[L'ange Noire] ((Declare for Sera: Attack the thing's...tentacle. I'll save you gabbie! Maybe))
[Ruhiger] The roar comes, and it seems to be attacking something - and she takes her cue from it. The other two were headed for the kid anyway - so she... well. blindly strikes at the unnamed It - striking with claws in a hopeful... direction.
(1 rage, two claw. In the direction of IT. though may end up tagging herself. one never knows when one is a whirling twirl of death!)
[L'ange Noire] ((That was a bite by the way. Apologies))
[White Eyes] She came to the horrific realization, soon enough, that she couldn't see anything. At all. Not only that, but she couldn't focus. She couldn't see, she couldn't focus, and all-of-a-sudden it felt like she was a cub again. A completely clueless cub, and it did not set well with her. But she heard a sound, one that was not familiar and decided to follow it.
(1 rage to skip happily to crinos,
clawing, hopefully, whatever the Hell just tried to get a hold on gabbie)
[evil snail] (OK, here we go! thing grapples.)
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6 (Failure at target 6)
[evil snail] (MOAR GRAPPLING)
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Gabriella Bellamonte] (( Run! Run like the wind blooooows! ))
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[L'ange Noire] ((BITE))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[evil snail] (are you still targeting the prehensile appendage?)
[Administrator] sparta, welcome to Chinatown (Southside) (Now)
[L'ange Noire] ((And yes, still targeting appendage))
[evil snail] (okay, diff 8, but it doesn't matter this round. go ahead and roll damage, +2 from succ.)
[evil snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 3, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[L'ange Noire] ((Eeps..sorry. Oh well, least she still got the same successes ^^))
[evil snail] (no worries. roll your damage!)
[L'ange Noire] ((Damage +3))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 4, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[L'ange Noire] ((Do-over for stupid newbness))
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[evil snail] (soaked. ruhiger, go! remember your +2 diff mod.)
[Ruhiger] (Claw one! HAIL KAHSEENO! THOU ART MIGHTY!)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 8) Re-rolls: 1
[Ruhiger] (damage str+crinos+eagles might+claw +2=13)
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[evil snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 6, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[White Eyes] (Clawing: dex2+1+1+brawl2= 6 - 2 (OMFG it's dark!)= 4, diff 6+2 (it seriously is dark in here))
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 4, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 8) [WP]
[evil snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 5, 5, 5, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Administrator] sparta has left Chinatown (Southside)
[Administrator] James Wagner, welcome to Chinatown (Southside) (Now)
[White Eyes] (Damage: Str2+4+1)
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Ruhiger] HAIL KAHSEENO! CLAW NUMBAH TWO!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 6, 6, 6, 9, 10 (Failure at target 8) Re-rolls: 1
[Gabriella Bellamonte] (( Perception + Alertness ))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 8)
[evil snail] They're fighting blind.
It's not really darkness in here -- it's a strange sort of indistinctness, as though they were looking through incorrectly ground lenses. Some of them have some sense of where the enemies are. Some of them have no fucking idea, and are flailing essentially blind.
There's a ferocious roaring in the dimness. It doesn't sound like a Garou. At least, not a Gaian Garou. There's a high, thin, choked screeching too; an unpleasant splattering noise, like rain into a swamp.
The Garou have no idea what's going on.
They react to what they can. Seraphine snaps at the monstrosity's prehensile appendage. Her teeth crunch down on something fleshy, boneless, but quite muscular, quite tough. It's hideously cold and wet. The appendage thrashes in the grip of her jaws but does not bleed.
Ruhiger strikes out at the thing. Her claws scrape skin that has a strange rubbery quality to it ... and a looseness, as though it had come undone from the flesh beneath. Though she's quite certain she doesn't damage the monster much, an entire sheet of skin sloughs loose onto her claws, chill and clammy.
She feels movement. It's hard to see. She brings her claws up to her eyes. They're covered in squirming maggots, pale and turgid.
White Eyes can't see shit. She strikes out blindly, feels her claws find purchase. She thinks she hit the right thing. She thinks.
Ruhiger doesn't. Her second swipe misses completely: nothing but air. In the dimness, the creature shrieks in defiance, a rattling, unwholesome, thin noise, like wind whistling through cracks.
--
Gabbie can't see any of this. All she saw was the appendage whipping at her once, twice -- missing the first time, dodged the second -- and then she's turning to run, to get the fuck out of here, when suddenly something leaps out of the indistinctness behind the counter.
It's huge; it's bestial. A Crinos? A Hispo? She gets only a glimpse of it, but it's enough, it's ...
... it's nothing she's ever seen before. And then it's gone, and in its place is a savage creature, the boy from the restaurant, utterly changed: glabro-like, sharp-boned, the pupils of his eyes huge, the irises a pale gold. Without a word he attempts to grab her like an errant cub, by the scruff of the neck, and haul her off.
No, not off. Up. Straight up. Climbing the wall like spiderman.
(creatures' declare for upcoming round:
1. Monster: 3 actions, a. clawing at Ruhiger
b. clawing at Mrena
c. using tentacle-thing to grab Seraphine by the throat and begin to choke.
2. Kid: 2 rage, a. leap
b. grab gabbie
c. climbing straight up the building.)
[James Wagner] AnneMarie had calmly, politedly, told him over the totemlink in no uncertain terms to get himself to Chinatown. Directions, mental maps, and a range of emotions were given over the mental bond that Eagle carried with him.
It was on the drive over that he called upon Eagle's Might to better assist him in the battle. The truck was parked a block or two away before he continued on foot, loosening his axe and sidestepping if necessary. A brief pause was given as he did two things: Summon the faerie lights, that magic of the Fae Folk that sang in his tribe's blood, and Luna's Armor.
( First, Luna's Armor in Crinos. 1 Gnosis spent. Stam 3+3 + Survival 2 = 8. Faerie Light to follow directly afterward. )
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[evil snail] For that instant, Gabbie is dead certain of what she sees:
A fucking saber toothed tiger the size of a minivan.
Then it's gone. It must've been a hallucination.
to Gabriella Bellamonte
[James Wagner] (Faerie's Light. WP added. )
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 7, 7 (Success x 3 at target 6) [WP]
[James Wagner] LA again. )
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 7)
[evil snail] (Faerie Light will count as your first action, and I will post a quick blurb when it takes effect. Roll your inits too.)
[James Wagner] +10 for Spirit of the Fray, +8 Dex/Wits. 18 total.
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 8
[evil snail] init order:
James
Thing
Kid
Gabbie/Sera
Ruhiger
White Eyes
Go ahead and start declaring/reacting. I'm gonna start writing another blurb for when Jame's first action takes place.
[Gabriella Bellamonte] (( Gabbie Declare:
Cling like a damn spider monkey 'cause I hope this is my hero ))
[L'ange Noire] ((Declare for Sera: Dodge
Rage: Claw Thing))
[Ruhiger] It feels loose, and the skin in her hands is coverd in writhing maggots. She snarls soundlessly, and reasons - the reasoning of a modi - if it falls completely apart, it cannot fight any longer. WIth that in mind, still fighting blind, she swings with all she has at the Thing writhing before her.
She had once been chastised for not calling for help when it may have been needed. She did not mak that mistake this time. Though any light on the situation would be welcome anytime...
(2 rage, three claw, SWING BATTAH SWING!)
[White Eyes] (Allow me to say, briefly, that this is a bad idea, but
standard: 1a: claw
1b: claw
Rage: More clawing!)
[L'ange Noire] She had been focused on the kid, but the moment she saw that tentacle shoot past her and grab onto the woman outside, she lept for it without hesitation. Her bite landed, tearing into the disgusting, leathery appendage... but it didn't seem to have much affect.
Then it was trying to choke her, and she squirmed to try and slip free from its grip.
[James Wagner] One Rage spent
First action: Faerie Light (previously rolled), 3 successes.
R1: Axe-cleave thing going after AM.
[evil snail] Like some sort of knight in shining armor, James Wagner descends on the scene with Luna's Armor blazing. The Fianna shouts a strange word. For a second, nothing.
Then: light. A slow blooming, phosphorescent glow that slowly peels back the dark to reveal something out of a nightmare.
The creature they are fighting is fully ten feet tall. It's thin, though, no wider than an average human; thinner, in fact, as though all that extra height had come from being grabbed by some enormous and sadistic pair of hands and stretched like play-doh.
Its skin is sallow, a mottled and decomposing grey, tough as leather in some places, fragile as tissue paper in others. It hangs loosely off a rack of bones that presses visibly through as though it had almost no muscle to speak of, as though its muscle had long since withered or rotted away. But between skin and bone is a writhing movement, as though insects, grubs, were swarming just under the surface.
And they are. They spill out of its wounds. Splatter on the ground, leaving a trail of pestilence.
Its limbs are entirely too long. Its hands dangle bonelessly by its knees. Its nails are putrid grey-green. Its head hangs at a broken-necked angle, lolling on stooped and slouching shoulders. Its hair is long and unkempt, pitch black without highlight, falling down its back in tangles, falling in its face.
It doesn't walk. It doesn't shamble.
It hops, stiff as a board, as though its feet had been bound together and its joints welded shut by the rigor of death. The effect is macabre. Every jerking hop scatters maggots from its wounds, shreds skin from its bones, shakes a little more of itself loose. It comes mindlessly on at the Garou, and when it reaches them, the hands that had hung so ineffectually at its side suddenly become rigid tearing claws.
But worse than all that, worst of all, is the face. Or rather: that it has no face. In place of a face, it has a gaping hole for a mouth, an endless cartilage-ringed tunnel of red that seems to go on forever before becoming a throat, a gullet.
Hanging out of the mouth is the appendage that had tried to entangle Gabriella, and that Serafine had bitten. It was the thing's tongue, grotesquely elongated, congested black with congealed and rotting blood.
She had bitten its filthy, purulent tongue.
[evil snail] (OK, James already rolled, so going on to Thing's actions. They'll all go off at once (it ain't using rage), so stay tuned.
this is clawing at Ruhiger.)
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[evil snail] (damage)
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[evil snail] (clawing at mrena)
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[evil snail] (damage)
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[evil snail] (grappling Sera)
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[White Eyes] (soaking: HAIL! HAAAAAIL KAHSEENO! PLEASE HAIL!)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Ruhiger] (SOAK!)
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 7, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[evil snail] (Serafine, you can roll dex/brawl or str/brawl, whichever is higher, to escape. this will take up one action.
BTW, all blind effects are now gone.)
[evil snail] (oh wait -- Serafine has a dodge action. roll your dodge first.)
[L'ange Noire] ((Get away!))
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6) [WP] Re-rolls: 2
[evil snail] (OK, successfully dodged.
kid is making a climbing roll outside...)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 6, 8, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
[evil snail] (kid is so totally on the roof with gabbie now.
gabbie's just hanging on. sera's first action was a dodge.
on to ruhiger!)
[Ruhiger] oh GROSS keel it DED! HAIL KAHSEENO! Claw 1
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[evil snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 8, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Ruhiger] Damage HAIL KAHSEENO!!!
Dice Rolled:[ 14 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Ruhiger] (reroll 10s!)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Ruhiger] (Rolling additonal 2 damage! HAIL KAHSEENO!)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[White Eyes] (1a. clawing. dex2+1+1+brawl2= 6 - 1 (oww), -2 (split) diff 6)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 6, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6) [WP]
[evil snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 5, 9 (Failure at target 6)
[White Eyes] Damage: str2+4+2
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 3, 6, 6, 9, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[White Eyes] split2: dex+brawl
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 7, 7 (Success x 3 at target 6) [WP]
[White Eyes] Damage
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 (Failure at target 6)
[evil snail] (serafine's rage action, go!)
[evil snail]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[L'ange Noire] ((Claw))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[evil snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 6, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[L'ange Noire] ((Str5+1+1))
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 4, 6, 6, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[evil snail] (ruhiger, go!)
[Ruhiger] Claw TWO! Can't let James have ALL the fun! HAIL KAHSEENO!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 8, 10 (Failure at target 6) Re-rolls: 1
[evil snail] (mrena, go!)
[White Eyes] Clawing: dex2+1+1+brawl2=6 -1(oww)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[White Eyes] damage: str2+4+1=7
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 3, 5, 6, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[evil snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 5, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[James Wagner] ( Dex + Melee, reroll 10's as per Melee Specialty: Axes. HAIL KAHSEENO! GLORY TO THEE!)
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6, 9, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 7) Re-rolls: 1
[evil snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 6, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[James Wagner] ( Damage STR+4(Crinos)+3(axe)+3(EM)+2(Suxx) )
Dice Rolled:[ 15 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 11 at target 6)
[Ruhiger] Ok. Kahseeno? I'll totally sacrifice Virgins. Or Damon. Whichever pleases you....
Claw three!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 6, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Ruhiger] HAIL KAHSEENO! (please let me be a mighty eagle again?)
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 7, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[evil snail] soak
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[evil snail] Outside, the kid has as good as disappeared with Gabriella.
--
The Garou tear at the creature from all angles with their claws. The creature shrieks in its thin, choked voice. It lashes out with its clawlike hands. Maggots and pus splatter back at the Garou with every strike. The larvae wriggle in the Garou's fur, and though they don't notice it at first -- they're wriggling to get deeper. To get to the skin. To pierce into the skin, and into the flesh.
By the end of it, it's riddled with gashes and lacerations, its tongue writhing out of its hole of a mouth --
-- and then Sandman, late upon the scene, brings his axe down on the creature's head.
The blow is devastating. It cleaves half the head off. One arm. One shoulder. A good portion of the chest. Pestilence explodes out in a great shower of filth, covering Sandman from head to toe.
Before it can recover, Ruhiger strikes from the other side. She digs her claws into its side. Pulls. Bones snap. Flesh tears with a consistency like old and oft-washed sackcloth. Half its ribcage comes away in her handpaw.
The creature does not bleed. It totters, but it does not fall ... yet.
Its head arches back, back, back until the back of its head slumps between its shoulderblades. Its mouth opens impossibly wide and...
--
(Before declares, everyone needs to roll a soak against splatter damage and bugs crawling into you. This is for Serafine and Mrena -- )
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 5, 5, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[evil snail] (This is for Ruhiger)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 6, 6, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)
[White Eyes] (eww! Icky! Off!)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[evil snail] (and this is for james)
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)
[L'ange Noire] (eeeeeew)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2 (Failure at target 6)
[Ruhiger] (OH GROSS EW! SOAK!)
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[James Wagner] (HAIL KAHSEENO! HALLOWED BE THY NAME! FOR THEE, I SACRIFICE LESSA'S SPLENDIFEROUS BEWBAGE! )
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 8 at target 6)
[evil snail] (OK. declare:
1. Monster: it appears to be trying to projectile vomit.
2. Kid: out of sight and molesting Gabbie.)
[L'ange Noire] ((Declare for Sera: Run outside
Reflexive: Heightened Senses))
[Ruhiger] She grunts with the disgusting spewage that's now.. all. over. her. And if she didn't mention it before? She's ignoring the pain through a force of will alone. (Or Resist Pain. Whichever.) as she swings yet again at the disgusting putrid THING.
(1 rage, 2 claw)
[Gabriella Bellamonte] Gabbie's knees felt like complete putty. She was amazed that she was able to.. well, the best word for it is skitter... out of reach of the apendage that was coming her way. Tentacle, tongue, shadow taken physical shape, she had no idea, but she knew that she did not want to be touched by it. It missed, curling its end in the air where she had been standing a moment ago, and she stared a little slack-jawed as it spasmed, assumably from injury (she hoped), and retracted.
Then, out of nowhere, a very large shimmering Crinos with an axe and a ball of glowing light. And she got to see what was going on in the tangable shadows.
She will no doubt forever curse the fact that someone showed up with a ball of light.
The monster was worse now than when she saw it in the first place. Everything was illuminated in gruesome detail, even from the distance she stood away from it. No face, just a mouth, stretched out even more exaggeratedly now, and hopping in sharp, jerking movements so unnatural that it made her nauseas just to see.
But before the light flashed, she saw something else. She stared just as slack-jawed at the now-Glabroesque young man racing toward her, but did not move to dodge for one reason or another. Of all the idiot things she could do, when she realized that he was moving to grab her (which was about the time that his hand was flying for the back of her neck), she actually grabbed onto him. They scaled the wall straight up, and she twisted to wrap her arms and legs around his body for support, clinging for security and so that her weight wasn't hanging off the back of her dress while he took them straight. up. a wall.
[James Wagner] ( First action split twice, 1 Rage spent
1a. Axe cleave - finish loppin' off critter's head
1b. Axe-cleave - cut critter in half!
R1. Axe-cleave - Chop critter up summore!
[White Eyes] And then it hit her, in the newly found light, in seeing what they were fighting, there was a degree of confidence restored. And, at that moment? Something hit her, a realization that there were four here, and-
And there had been a fifth. There had been a fifth and he wasn't here now. And, once more, something had grabbed Gabbie and she was nowhere to be found. And in her relatively smaller frame. The theurge growled a sound that sounded downright infuriated.
"This isn't over, there was a second... Gabriella isn't here," she said. High tongue and all, she wasn't elegant by any means. The statement, however, was clear: I'm going to go get Gabbie. The tone, however, was clear. For those who didn't know her, or either of them, one could have sworn that Mrena considered Gabriella as one of her's.
And with that, she shifted to a leaner, more lupine form. She could run faster that way, and it made picking out scents, especially the one she was looking for, easier.
(Rage: shift to lupus.
action: GO FIND GABBIE!)
[White Eyes] (bah! bad HTML)
[L'ange Noire] There were *maggots* crawling all over her, biting into her flesh. The creature seemed down for the count, but as she looked back...there was no sign of the kinfolk woman. For a moment, she forgot about the damn bugs and raced outside, heart beating frantically in her chest and rage burning behind her eyes. With a deep breath, she attempted to calm herself and heighten her senses... looking, listening...smelling the air...for some sign of where the woman had gone.
[evil snail] Gabriella has never seen anything like this before.
The kid, whose frame on any other mid-teenager would simply be called scrawny but on him is somehow lean, sleek, svelte, has become something both like and unlike the hulking Glabro forms she may have seen her brother and his packmates take. His lanky bones have thickened; his shoulders are wider; there's muscle to him now, long and supple. There's a preternatural grace to him even like this, or perhaps especially like this, and all of his face, all his features, have taken on a certain slanting, unusual beauty.
He grabs her by the scruff of the neck and throws her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Then he sprints at the wall like he meant to smash into it, or perhaps do some crazy kung-fu shit and backflip off of it, or ...
... but he leaps at it at the last instant. And his claws dig in, knives into butter. And -- as easily as that, as easily as a man might walk across a street -- he climbs straight up the brick wall, past the Jade Dragon's glowing sign, past the windows of the second story lofts, past the third- and fourth-story apartments to vault easily onto the roof.
There, he dumps Gabriella off his shoulder unceremoniously, sprawling her to the ground. Almost immediately he drops to a liquid-spined crouch beside her, balance on the balls of his feet, as dynamically motionless as a perfectly spinning top.
The moon is a sliver tonight. It's very dark up here. His eyes glint, throwing back what light there is, and when they shine just right they glow green like lanterns.
"You owe me a debt." He speaks perfect English, though soft, and there's a growl under every word. He was shouting in Russian earlier. In about a second he'll speak Cantonese. "This is how you'll repay it. Tell your friends to stay out of 梅花街. It doesn't belong to them. They're not welcome here."
to Gabriella Bellamonte
[evil snail] (go ahead and roll, James.
Sera -- anything in particular you're looking/listening/etc for?)
[James Wagner] First split action, -2 dice for split. Cleave critter's head off! HAIL KAHSEENO, THY GLORIOUS GOD OF DICELY MATTERS! HOMAGE TO THEE, THIS CREATURE THAT DARES DEFY YOUR CHILDREN!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 7, 8 (Success x 1 at target 7)
[James Wagner] ( Damage )
Dice Rolled:[ 13 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 7 at target 6)
[James Wagner] Second split action, -3 dice. HAIL KAHSEENO! WP added. )
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 5, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6) [WP]
[evil snail] (soak)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 (Failure at target 6)
[James Wagner] ( Damage +1 )
Dice Rolled:[ 14 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[evil snail] (stop, it's dead!)
[James Wagner] (*skidding halt*)
[evil snail] She definitely went up. Serafine can smell the girl, as well as the musky, unfamiliar scent of the Other One.
She can hear voices too. Very faint. She can't make out the words.
to L'ange Noire
[Gabriella Bellamonte] Gabriella had been too preoccupied with not falling off the never-before-seen creature's shoulder and faceplanting the pavement that was increasingly farther and farther away to pay much mind to what he looked like. She was just thankful that she was being taken out of visual range of the monstrosity in the Jade Dragon and, she hoped, the reach of its tongue as well. From what she'd seen, though, it looked like the sudden collabaration of Garou out of the middle of nowhere were doing a good job of taking care of it, though.
When the man reached the rooftop and tossed her off his shoulder, she loosened her grasp complyingly and sprawled on the pavement precisely as she was likely expected to. Not that he likely cared how she landed, so long as she wasn't touching him anymore. Her skirt flew up, but it didn't matter, the leggings were built like tights, or a very snug pair of sweatpants, nothing was exposed. She pushed herself up into an almost sit when he crouched down beside her, palms on the rooftop that substituted as a floor behind her to support her weight, even though her elbows were shakey they held.
He spoke English and something else, but she could guess that the extra word meant 'Chinatown', and while studying his features very intently (because she'd never seen anything like them before), she nodded slowly.
"Yes, sir."
to evil snail
[evil snail] Whatever the creature meant to do, it doesn't get there.
Sandman swings his axe again. The blade shears right through the thing's neck. With a last spray of maggots and ichor, the creature --
-- doesn't so much fall as it disintegrates. Comes apart into bones and scraps of skin, writhing invertebrates that wriggle and twitch across the kitchen floor looking for darkness, looking for wet warmth, looking to slither back to whatever hell birthed their host.
The street is very quiet. The panicked crowds are long gone, and above the street, in the residences, all the shades are drawn. Far away, a siren moans, but it's impossible to tell if it's headed this way.
[evil snail] (james, soak this)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 8, 10 (Failure at target 6)
[evil snail] (everyone else, soak this)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 4, 4 (Failure at target 6)
[evil snail] (NEVERMIND THEN. KAHSEENO LOVES YOU ALL.)
[James Wagner] Covered in maggots and gore that do little to harm him, James brushed off the annoying creatures with a large black handpaw as he shouldered his axe, not really paying much mind to the macabre adornments it now had. The Galliard's nostrals scented the air, and then it finally registered to him that one of their number was missing.
James had come late, but he had at least came and helped these Gaians deliver a crushing blow to their Enemy. Are you injured, Ruhiger? he asked pleasantly enough, as he turned to see which direction the others had ran off in search of the Kinfolk. Why in the blazes they let her get carried off is beyond him.
The Faerie Lights were about to extinguish, and so with a flex of his spiritual being he forced them to remain until dismissed; they came in handy before, and might again. ( 1 Gnosis. )
[Ruhiger] The thing disintegrates under the Sandman's Ax, and she stands there a moment, bleeding yet standing tall as is her way. It's almost impossible to tell how injured she is, or if she even is at all. She ignores whatever pesky scratches the Thing managed to flay into her skin, and turns on a heel, brushing the remains of maggoty spew as she moves.
Across Eagles wings her voice is far smoother, far more silken than one would expect of the Silent Modi. A scratch. I'll go help them find the kin of White Eyes.
A scratch. He should know better. He should also remember that she wouldn't care if it is worse - she is not dead. It is a scratch.
[evil snail] As if noticing her intent stare, the boy shifts until his face is wholly shadowed -- just an impression of leanness and strength and sharp bones, ears that come to soft points.
"One more thing. Tell anyone who asks, my name is Watches-Leaves-Fall. A Stargazer Full Moon on a brief mission in Chicago, who wants neither to interfere nor to be interfered with."
He shifts, rolling his shoulders, sinuous, balanced as nothing she's ever seen before. Wrists over his knees, his fingertips curl and uncurl, not a nervous gesture but a lazy, dreamy one, the tips of his short claws catching the light even in this form.
"Tell them anything other than that, wolf-girl," it's a gentle, gentle murmur, "and I'll come for your head."
And he smiles at her. Even in the shadows, the glint of his teeth -- white, very sharp -- is unmistakable.
"Are we clear?"
to Gabriella Bellamonte
[Ruhiger] ((DAMON! WE HAVE QUESTIONS!))
to evil snail
[evil snail] (kid: sweet hunter's smile)
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 9, 9 (Success x 4 at target 6)
to Gabriella Bellamonte
[James Wagner] Aye. Of course, he said over the totemphone. Very likely the female Modi would consider a loss of limb merely a flesh wound, and even worse barely an inconvenience. It made his wolven muzzle form the semblance of a grin as he shook his head. I'm coming too, ye know. Can't let you have all the fun.
Since bonding to Eagle, it's amazing how much the Sandman has changed. Before he would of grunted and sighed, and now he was all but giddy at the prospects of battle. He blamed it on the Fenrir he was packed with, and after all... the Norse and Celts did in fact share some cultural points in history.
James, on AnneMarie's heels, would trot after the group to rescue the damsel in distress.
[Gabriella Bellamonte] He shifted his stance and leaned back and tipped his head so that he was nothing but angles, eyes, teeth, and ears in the shadows. A lie, a threat, and a smile.
All she could think of was the Cheshire Cat.
Her eyes stayed on his shadowed face for a moment, then drifted down to the curling fingers when he fed her the fake name, tribe, species, and mission. A nigh purr carries a very real threat, and she looks up to see a sharp white smile.
And all Gabbie can do is backtalk. ...Well, honestly, it's a real question, but it's easily percieved as backtalk.
"Why would a Stargazer tell them to stay out of Chinatown?"
to evil snail
[evil snail] (lie for me, my pretty!)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 5, 6, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
to Gabriella Bellamonte
[evil snail] (oops, +2 dice for sweet hunter's smile)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)
to Gabriella Bellamonte
[Administrator] liar, welcome to Chinatown (Southside) (Now)
[White Eyes] White Eyes was a lot of things. She was focused, she was observant, she was detail-oriented, and she was possessive.
She was a lot of things; Mrena was worried beyond worried, and for all that she was, she was letting her mind race into places that she had no desire for it to travel. She was thinking through all the horrible things that could be happening to Gabriella at that moment-
There was no trotting on her part. There was running.
[evil snail] The boy tilts his head to the side. The smile returns in slighter, secret form: the very edges of his mouth curling up as though her ignorance amused him.
"No, not Chinatown. 梅花街. Just this street, Plum Blossom Drive, from there," he points left, then right, "to there.
"Tell them it's under the control of those affiliated with the Beast Courts of the East and not under their jurisdiction. They would be wise to respect the boundaries."
to Gabriella Bellamonte
[Gabriella Bellamonte] Her mouth made the shape of a small 'o' when he explained further for her, comprehension showing on her face and in the way that she nodded her head, even while her light colored eyes followed his finger when he pointed from one street to the other. Then she looked back to him and, of all things, smiled to the creature that threatened her life if she didn't keep his secret.
"Of course."
A beat. She could hear the roars of battle had ended, which meant that Mrena and anyone else she could get (probably everyone) were coming to her 'rescue' right at this moment. So she gestured vaguely with a nod of her head, not specific about the direction she motioned toward.
"You should leave now then."
to evil snail
[L'ange Noire] "The thing has her on top of the building!"
Her call was loud and urgent, an attempt to gather the attention of those following her. Quickly, she looked around for a way up...and spotted the fire escape. Rushing over, she leaped off the ground in an attempt to grab the ladder and pull it down.
[Ruhiger] Then keep ya distance when we find them. You glow like a cheap pair of earrings on Christmas and I'll cloak again.
The tone is amused, though it slips quickly into all business once again. She doesn't tell him he has done better than she remembers - though it is true. Eagles have been good for him.
Instead, she starts out and more than a trot to follow Mrena and Sera - she's at a full run, showering dead maggots and gross things from her fur as she moves toward the fire escape.
When she sees the ladder is up, and Mrena hell bent on not stopping, she puts on a burst of speed to go past her, jump, and catch that rung to pull it down, GENTLY, while hoping to not slow Mrena's progress at all. It is, after all, her Kin they are after.
[L'ange Noire] ((*Jump* Str1+4Crinos))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 3)
[Ruhiger] (...and sere got there first! Yay! *L* Delete the last bit about the ladder!))
[L'ange Noire] Her clawed hand grasped the bottom rung of the escape ladder, and it came wooshing down to the ground with her on her way down. She didn't pause to see if the others were behind her (she could hear them plainly enough)...she just bolted up the fire escape at top speed...all the while praying that she wasn't too late.
[White Eyes] One would think that she had been doing this for some time. She barely stopped to revert to a more human form- which, by the way, was a form that was now clad in a bra and jeans and what little scraps were left of her sweater- and got on her happy way to climbing up. She didn't pause, she didn't say much of anything. The only problem was that poor Serafine ended up with an anxious Shadow Lord on her heels.
Not the best place to have one.
[evil snail]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 5)
[James Wagner] As AnneMarie leapt for the ladder, he saw that she was intercepted by the unknown wolf. Unknown to him, at least, but still considered a friend for the duration of this fight. Out in the open, the Faerie Lights were dismissed. Out here in the open and the lights of the city, likely they weren't necessary.
His luminescant armor was enough light for anyone, in any case. With a dubious look for the fire escape, he glanced down at his body and realized that this form would be fool-hardy to use to climb the damnable thing. There was a belt around his Crinos waist, with a thick leather loop that he then slid his axe in. Slipping the haft of his weapon through it, he shifted down to Glabro after pausing for a moment and then began to climb after the others made it up, staying below for the moment to make sure their tracks were covered.
[evil snail] (oops - 10's)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 8 (Success x 1 at target 5)
[evil snail]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 5, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 6 at target 7)
[evil snail] Glinting, the inhuman eyes drop to the smile. He studies this for a moment: a keen, intense, impersonal sort of curiosity that lasts for three seconds, but feels like an eternity.
Then the boy laughs softly. "狼父狼子," he says.
Distantly, far below, a clatter: the werewolves have managed to get the fire escape down. Instantly the boy is alert, his head raised, his profile sharp, lovely as a blade. He doesn't look at the wolf-kin again. He rises soundlessly to his feet and -- without apparent hurry, or unease -- begins to walk away.
After three steps, Gabriella realizes she can no longer hear his footsteps; not so much as a scrape of shoe on concrete.
After six, he's simply gone from sight, winked out into darkness.
to Gabriella Bellamonte
[evil snail] Compared to the speed and grace with which the boy scaled the building's wall, his pursuers seem very noisy, very slow, and very clumsy indeed.
They pound up the rattling fire escape -- Serafine in the lead, a black lupus that flies up the stairs. Just behind, Mrena and James in Glabro, though the benefit of four swift legs soon reveals itself when the wolf outstrips them by far.
Ruhiger brings up the rear. By the time she's actually on the first story landing, Serafine is already breaching the roof.
And ... she'll find Gabriella there, on the ground, perhaps a little tousled, but unharmed. And there's no sign of the boy.
[evil snail] (If you're really determined to look for the kid, roll percep+occult at diff 10. normally it's diff 8, but since he rolled 4 succ on one thing and 6 on the other, and it's dark, and he's at least a round ahead, i'm making an ST decision to up the diff.)
[White Eyes] (why not?)
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 6, 6 (Failure at target 10) [WP]
[L'ange Noire] ((Perc3+Occ0-2diffyayheightenedsenses))
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 2, 4 (Failure at target 8) [WP]
[Ruhiger] And they're all hell bent on clattering up that fire escape, which - while Crinos - could be a problem. She shifts back to Glabro, and follows the crowd.
No way is she not searching for the kid when she arrives, either. She's just pissed off enough, she might see something.
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 5 (Failure at target 10) [WP]
[Ruhiger] ...or. you know. not.
[James Wagner] ( Perception+Occult WP added ) HAIL KAHSEENO!)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 10) [WP]
[Gabriella Bellamonte] And, indeed, Gabriella's seated on the roof, peering off in what seems to be a random direction, squinting in the dark like she was trying to look for something. But when movement catches in her peripheal vision, she turns her head to look toward the fire escape and finds a wolf racing over the building's ledge and onto the rooftop with her.
All Gabbie could do was blink.
How does something with four legs climb a ladder?
[evil snail] There's a shape that might possibly be the kid. He's already three rooftops away and disappearing fast.
to James Wagner
[James Wagner] Once James is on the roof with the others, he searches for the kid and grunts, looking around. In the distance, he spots a shape moving away very fast.
Eagle, it seemed, would not be denied. If he let this creature get away, it may come back.
I have him in my sights, he said to AnneMarie.
Shifting to lupus, the battle-axe blends with his body as he takes off running at top speed to catch the would-be-kidnapper.
[White Eyes] She finally got up the stairs, and once she finally reverted back to homid she was by Gabriella. There was composure to be had, composure to be forced into place and held tightly- because all this was nothing without control
And Mrena didn't say a word, didn't say that she was glad that Gabbie was okay or had been worried or any of those terrible thoughts. Instead, she spent her time looking over Gabriella for injuries and flaws and what-have-you.
Eventually, she did say something. "What happened?"
[Gabriella Bellamonte] As mentioned, Gabbie was quite unscathed. She sat a little awkwardly, too much of her black legging showing, her skirt had pooled around her hips at some point rather than hanging by her knees, but really didn't care. Leggings were like really snug sweatpants, there was no risk of panty-shots when wearing them. Mrena's beside her and checking her over, then suddenly someone's a wolf and racing off in the direction the boy had disappeared in.
Disregarding Mrena for the moment, sorry White-Eyes, Gabriella twists and starts to clambor to her feet, yelling after James.
"WAIT! Don't!"
[Ruhiger] Mrena has Gabi, and is tending to her kin, when the message comes.
She snaps her head to his Sandman's direction, her gaze flickering to the distance beyond him, yet seeing nothing. Still, when he shifts down, she follows his lead to shifts again. Once in lupus, she takes off, hot on his heels.
Right behind you.
[L'ange Noire] After scrabbling up the escape ladder, she'd shifted quickly to lupus ((cause really, she meant to do that in the last post)) in order to race more quickly up the stairs (and with less noise).
And within moments a graceful black shadow was sprinting towards Gabriella on the rooftop. She was sniffing the woman, whining very softly with concern. Once it became clear that no physical harm had been caused, she stepped back to scent the air...trying to figure out where the kid had gotten to. She tried...and tried...and tried. But failed.
Two of the others were taking off... and she turned to follow on their heels, assuming that they'd caught wind of where the stranger had gone...when Gabbie shouted at them to stop. The force of it sent a pulsing throb of pain through her ears, and she flicked them back in irritation, but halted, looking back at the girl questioningly.
[James Wagner] James is in mid-leap, to even try and stop the Fianna now would mean he pulled up short and went tumbling off the wall, or something very similar. So instead of continuing his persuit, the Kinfolk being back in their hands, he came very very close to taking a spill.
Hopefully Ruhiger would have the sense not to plow into him, and in turning from the ledge (whew!) he turned to regard the others. If a wolf could look a bit disgruntled, he would be one now. Snapshifting back to Homid, the Irishman went over to where the others had congregated. "An' why'n th' fook should I be stoppin'? That... whate'er'n th' fook t'was tried makin' off wit' ye."
A pause, then, as he shook his head. James words were not heated with anger, merely the flush of battle. The sense that he should continue the fight to defend and protect. His tone was pleasant enough, his cussing merely a... spice to his way of talking. A glance around, and a light shrug and a grin as his hand rested on the head of his axe resting in the belt loop.
"Nae met some o' ye," he said. A nod to Mrena - that one he knew. "M' name 's James Wagner. Fostern Fianna Galliard, o' Eagle's Chosen."
[Ruhiger] He skids to a stop, and as she's hot on his heels, it's pretty damn close to a collision, with only her reflexes saving them from a very painful (...more painful...) tumble. HOwever, she manages to pull back as Gabi yells at them, and James stops short.
Se doesn't shift at first, taking a moment to catch her breath. The totemphone, however, is alive with a string of curses and mutters that really don't need to be repeated. She shakes vigoriously - blood and dead maggots and all manner of nasties not her own (...the blood though, that is her own..) flying. Then she turns and shifts to homid, to join the others on the roof.
[Gabriella Bellamonte] Thank god people listened. Really, she half expected that they wouldn't. And then how would things go down? Would they catch the boy, would he elude them? Kill them? Come back and take retribution on her instead because she couldn't defend herself? She had no idea, but now she didn't have to think about that, because the wolves that had charged after the boy had skittered their claws on the rooftop and come to a stop.
Pretty much all eyes were on her, waiting, expectant, so she climbed slowly to her feet, touching a hand to Mrena's upper arm for support. Her knees still felt like putty, an aftershock of seeing that terrifying monster that they had battled. And she wasn't even focused on that just yet. Tonight, when she was in the Brotherhood and safe, things would be different.
For now, though, she was wobbly but calm enough. "He was a Stargazer, he said." Her gaze cut to James when he shifted to his human skin and spoke his garbled Isles talk, and her brow furrowed just slightly. "He did not try making off with me, he rescued me. Moved me away from the danger." She sounded a little indignant, as though there was insult in what James had said. "Watches-Leaves-Fall, he said his name was. Ahroun."
She pauses, then gestures to the street that the Jade Dragon restaurant sat on, sweeping her arm to indicate its entirety. "He said that this street belonged to the Eastern Courts, or something like that, and that you guys aren't supposed to come here anymore."
[L'ange Noire] There was really no getting around it. She needed to introduce herself properly, here, and it wasn't as if she could wander through the busy streets of Chicago as a wolf and not attract attention. Anyway... they'd all seen worse, surely.
She shifted slowly this time... from lupus all the way back to homid. Then she stood straight, her exposed skin bleeding in a thousand tiny places from the maggot bites. Her clothes? They were in tatters back down in the restaurant.
"Serafine Marceau, L'ange Noire, Cliath Galliard of the Black Furies." And to her credit... she held her head high and did not seem particularly embarrassed.
[L'ange Noire] "Now," she coughed gently..."I don't suppose someone could grab me something to wear?"
[James Wagner] "Stargazer?" James echoed, eyes widening a trifle. There haven't been any of those in this part of the country for a long time, to the Galliard's reckoning. His tone became milder, as he folded his arms in thought. A flicking glance around the others to see if they knew what she was talking about - James did, but would wait a moment or two if the others spoke.
"Stargazers were once 'part o' th' Garou Nation," he said as if recounting a story. "For simplicity's sake, they joined their brethren 'n th' Orient - Th' Beast Courts, ye'd call 'em. I dinnae know much more. Though if'n th' Beast Courts 're claimin' terr'tory 'n Chicago..."
We need to tell Decker this, my friend, he said over Eagle's wings to his packmate.
There was a slight smirk to his lips as she said that the Garou here were not to come to Chinatown any more. As far as he was concerned, the Stargazers could have it. Not many of the Garou here made their homes in this section of town. There was Bai Chou, those years ago, but not since the Uktena left.
The Fury spoke, then, and James alighted her with a bit of a smile. "Welcome tae Chicago, Lange Noire. Good tae see 'nother o' th' Gibbous." With his Irish brogue, likely he butchered her deedname, but there was very little he could do about it. "I've got s' spare clothes 'n m' truck a few blocks down, lass." James' clothes, for lack of a better term, were untattered. Glory be to the Rite of Talisman Dedication.
[White Eyes] "... if this isn't our territory, we need to respect it," she said.
The theurge put weight with Gabriella's words, brows knit, expression somewhere between thoughtful and confused and frustrated with herself. She was going through the details, going through the things she had heard and seen and felt and yet? Maybe Gabbie was taken offguard, maybe he lied. Maybe he played her for all she was worth...
but if someone wanted to kidnap Gabriella, they would have done it. If something was going to take her off and carry her away, they would have done it by now.
"Mrena Armstrong, White Eyes to the Nation. Cliath, Shadow Lord. Theurge of the Unbroken Circle," a pause and then? "Pop through to the other side, Lange Noire. Meet up at the brotherhood, we're about the same size. "
[Administrator] Gabriella Bellamonte has left Chinatown (Southside)
[Ruhiger] (For fun... dont say nothing dont say nothing don say nothing..)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 5, 8, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)
[Ruhiger] In homind, now, her jeans are not tattered, nor are those boots and leather jacket that she always wears. Her shirt, however, a simple cotton blouse, is shredded, and no more the light cream color it once was, but rather stained crimson with her blood. It is, of course, just a scratch.
And don't think she had not noticed L'ange Noire's state either. She has, though she gives no outward sign of such, no inward commentary either, though Sandman would like as not enjoy it.
He tells her the obvious and she quirks a brow upwards and replies simply. Introduce me, if you would. I am temporarily without my board.
[L'ange Noire] She really wasn't bad looking...at all...in this state. Lean and wild and built like a regal french ballerina.
But she wasn't really thinking about whether or not she was getting any stares. Instead, she just listened, and nodded to Mrena and James both with a soft smile of gratitude. Technically, she could just go home through the penumbra...but... somehow she was loathe to leave the others after everything that had just happened. It was the pack instinct kicking in.
[James Wagner] A nod of comply was given to AnneMarie, as he voiced her words. "Th' lovely valkyrie b'side m'self 's AnneMarie Hoch, Ruhiger tae th' Nation, Cliath Modi o' Great Fenris, Omega o' Eagle's Chosen. M' packmate."
He motioned to her, a slight dip of his head to the longer-standing Eagle packmate than he himself. It was obvious that James respected her greatly, for that very same silent Modi had saved his life once. A debt he had yet to repay.
"Th' Stargazers' 'll pr'tect Chinatown," the Fianna said after a moment's thought. "Aye, they well, but if'n they're needin' 'elp? Then they'll 'ave it."
There was a slight pause as he considered Mrena's words about respecting their territory. There may be no inward or outward commentary, but wolves are able to tell a person's body language, and damn it all if James hasn't seen that look on AnneMarie's face before.
Ye may want tae pick yer tongue off th' ground an' put yer eyes back'n yer sockets, he said with a mental laugh.
[Ruhiger] I'm sure I haven't the faintest idea what you are talking about. is her almost flippant reply, but her expression immediately smooths, becoming the more familiar mask of calm, of - what was it she was once called? Ah, yes - a stone cold bitch.
She slips her hands in her pockets, and lifts a chin toward the others in simple greeting.
[White Eyes] "AnneMarie, it's nice to put a name with the face, finally," she said. "And you too, Serafine."
She looked at the sky for a minute, and then looked at what was left of her sweater. Silently, she was thankful that she was wearing the right bra today, or else this could have been awkward. At any rate, she started to lead Gabriella down to the fire escape.
"Keep safe, keep warm, and keep dry."
And, with that, she was off.
[L'ange Noire] When James introduced his packmate, Sera turned to meet her gaze, nodding her head in greeting. She watched the Modi in silence for a moment, and something seemed to perhaps dawn in her perceptive ocean-blue gaze. The smile was very, very slight. Almost not even there. Just the faintest crook of the corner of her mouth.
Then she was padding off after Mrena and Gabbie, disappearing from view as she slipped into the penumbra.
It had been a rather...interesting...evening.
[James Wagner] James sometimes was not the most perceptive of men. But then, there were those times when he saw things jump right out at him as obvious. A flick of a glance between the two remaining women, and he opened up the mental link again.
Och. May'ap I'm tae be tellin' her tae put her eyes back 'n her head. Mental, raucous laughter as he then spoke verbally.
"Well met," he said to those he didn't know. "C'mon, AnneMarie. We've tae report tae Silence an' then go from there. 'Sides, ye're needin' a new shirt. One o' mine'll work. An' fer th' record? I saved yer arse back there." Amusement twinkled in the older man's eyes.
Muttering under his breath: "I'm getting t' fookin' old fer this."
[Administrator] liar has left Chinatown (Southside)
[Ruhiger] say nothing say nothing say nothing
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 9 (Failure at target 6)
[Administrator] L'ange Noire has left Chinatown (Southside)
[Ruhiger] Fuck you. Not like you didn't notice yourself. But its less pissy, and more bemused then anything else, the admittance that she'd seen, and appreciated the view. She doesn't say anything about the little quirk of a smile, but for once, maybe she doesn't seem quite as prickly.
A little notice goes a long way.
She turns to follow him to the fire escape, and to the street once more, and lips curl into a smirk. Perhaps. Years ago she would have denied she even needed help. Before she left she would have bristled at his assumption that she truly couldn't have done it without him. That was then. Two years has done much for her. Though she does poke a little. But it was only one. As I recall, I saved you from 4.
Not that she's keeping score, or anything.
[James Wagner] Aye, true 'nough.
James responded to all of it, but then there was a soft mental chuckle.
[exeunt]
celebration.
9 years ago