2014.08.01:The Impossible Beast Pt. 1
| The Impossible Beast Pt. 1 | |
|---|---|
| A deal goes south. Very south. | |
| IC Date | Friday |
| IC Time | Night |
| Players | Clarimond (Storyteller), Basilisk, Mikhail, Misa, Silvana, Velok |
| Location | Prospect |
| Prp/Tp | The Impossible Beast |
| Spheres | Mage and Mortal and Shifter and Vampire |
Log
Alley
Before you is an alley off one of the city streets. Bits of litter are scattered all over with tiny piles of stinking refuse near the few trash bins deep in the far corners. Deep shadows lengthen around and about, only broken by neon, palescent, casted reflections from a hanging lamp up above.
The dark sounds from between the crusted buildings seems to send shivers up one's spine as a cool wind forever wisps though the narrow corridor. Shrieks of stray cats and sharp squeaking of dirty rats ring in a deathly, sickening tone against the thick, grime encrusted walls. Forever here is night, forever darkness...forever loneliness.
Clarimond is standing with her ghouls in an alley. There are six men in suits, all of Italian descent, grouped near her. The oldest looking man, who appears to be in his forties, holds a black briefcase in his hands. Clarimond in speaking to them, "None of us have sworn allegiance to the Prince, he does not have to be involved, no matter WHO I have brought here. Silvana will not be a problem. She is a harmless thing, barely knows how to hold a revolver, and she has never once spied on me."
Basilisk comes into the alley, tilting her head to the speaker. "I dont even know who the Prince is." she admits. "What did you find?" a shiny. Please be a shiny.
Mikhail footsteps make no noise, but other than that the large man approaches the alley like any other pedestrian. One foot infront of another. His eyes glancing in and seeing Clarimond and the other men. He hangs back at the alley entrance, but listens for what he can hear.
Just as before, what feels like so many days ago, Velok pulls up somewhere nearby the Alley and walks the rest of the way. This time, however, he wasn't super tricked into coming here and getting involved, he's on his own free will right now. The man walks with a brisk, progressive pace with his arms casually swinging along his side, slipping near the entrance to the alleyway. He lazes back similar to Mikhail, but even further away, slowly slipping his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and staring towards Clarimond.
Silvana comes in following the other. Her steps are very quiet as she looks to the people present with a curious expression though she doesn't say anything other than to give a polite nod.
Misa walks in not far behind the others. She has a fuit soothy in her hands, because dammit it's right there how can she not? She rocks her weight back and forth and smiles, sipping idly on her drink with no real concern shown.
Clarimond is subtly hardening her muscular and skeletal structure while she interacts with the men. The leader nods a head in the direction of everyone else, "That would them then? So the exchange is settled and we all have our show of force. I hand you this briefcase and your henchman hand over theirs." Clarimond nods, "Of course." Lars steps forward, handing his case over, and the elder Giovanni grins, "Nah ah.. not so fast.. let me open this first." Clarimond sighs, "If you break a deal on Camarilla territory, I WILL bring them into this.. you don't want that, coming here without announcing yourselves, it could be a pretty sore night for you if Jax were to find out.."
Basilisk tilts her head just watching. Whe she sees Velok and Misa she moves near them, showing her alliance to something that isnt the Camarilla.
Silvana raises a slight brow as she seems to be paying rather close attention to the men that Clarimond is talking too, specially when she uses the name Jax.
Jax... Mikhail overhears the name.. Though he doesn't realize he's already met it's owner previously. 'Camarilla' too seems like a word he should know... He remains where he is, though he glances at Misa, curiously.
Velok listens rather intently on the exchange and what's being said, looking around. He glances singularly towards Misa, then towards Silvana, moving to stand near the former. Some of the names are familiar to the man, even some of the words don't bring about confusion or surprise in his eyes. He doesn't have a fruit smoothie, though what he does have are a particular set of skills. A set of skills that makes him a danger to other people's smoothies. He reaches out and tries to grab Misa's smoothie out of her hands without popping the lid or breaking it so he can take a sip.
Misa sticks out her lip and looks at Velok shocked... SHOCKED that someone would do that. She gives him her biggest saddest eyes... which considering she's half Han and half Japanese is not very wide. If anyone else says that she'll stab their racist gui lao ass. The fact that her smoothie is taken seems to preocupy all of her attention, aware of nothing else.
Clarimond waits impatiently as the Giovanni sifts through the contents of the briefcase Lars sets down. The elder grins as he closes it up, and passes it to one of his underlings, "Great everything is good here. But you see.. I just don't think that whatever was in that briefcase is worth handing mine over." He looks back at his underlings, "Am I right? We talked about it on the way over here. See this tome could get a lot of our friends in trouble ya see? We can't have it so.." He hands HIS briefcase to another underling, "We will be leaving now.." Clarimond grins, "Americans are so.. strange.. you are called an elder in your clan? How old are you Vitor? Two hundred? Three hundred years old? Barely set foot outside of this country? You are just a neonate to most of your ilk.. and mine. The advantage of actually being old enough to have earned that title is that you have the intelligence find out everything there is to know about your associates before you so much as pretend to breathe the same air as them.." Suddenly claws grow out of her hands and her ghouls cock their shotguns.
(First round of combat occurs. Velok parries Ghoul 1 and throws soaked punch. Silvana incapacitates Elder Giovanni with sword. Misa misses smoothie throw and throws soaked kick. Mikhail tackles Ghoul 2 but is resisted. Clarimond rips out Giovanni's heart. Ghoul 1 and 2 miss. No PC damage)
Velok may be the kind of jerk who steals smoothies, but he's not exactly the kind of jerk that drinks all that much of it. He just drinks a little bit, then hands it right back to Misa right before shit starts getting real. His eyes look over each of the enemies in turn, especially one turns and comes after him. "No..don't do that..." He says with a sigh. One hand reaches up for a bow while the other takes a quick jab towards the man's face, hand bouncing off without doing any real noticable damage. Velok wields that bow as if it's an extension of his arm, an action that would probably justify why one person called him Legolas if that person wasn't so weird. He knocks the knife out of the way as he readies himself.
Silvana hasn't been in the greatest of moods and when she sees that the deal has gone bad and that the others are breaking up to pick on the others. She walks over to the Elder takes out her sword and with one swipe brings him to his knees or at least out like a light "Give the woman what you agreed upon, you have to the count of three or else" she raises her sword and guestures to the others "Who's next? " she says rather emotionless
Misa cheers happily as she gets her smoothie back and OMYGAWD! Don't hurt me! She flails ineffectively in surprise flinching and cowering as she sees a man heading her way and completely by accident flings smoothy at him... and it really must have been an accident, because it misses entirely!
Mikhail watches two men with knives charge to the alley entrance, one moving towards Misa the other following the wall towards Velok. The large Russian lowers his shoulder and as a smoothie goes flying, he does the move he did against the crazy bum a while back, slamming his shoulder into the one heading towards Misa, likely breaking a rib or two, but the other man manages to stay on his feet as Mikhail spins to see him continue staggering towards Misa, watching her kick connect but the man moves through it.
Clarimond laughs maniacally as Silvana takes down the mobster in one strike, He drops to his knees, eyes widened, unable to move. Clarimond begins to pace around him a bit, "You are pathetic and stupid. Silvana is not helpless, she is your worst nightmare, she has killed far stronger than you. I want you to know before I sentence you to final death, that your manor is going to burn, your entire family slaughtered, your ghouls drained dry, your childer torn limb from limb, and your secrets looted. You have utterly failed Vitor and you are a disgrace to your clan and to the blood." She laughs agains as her clawed right hand sinks into his chest, and tears out his heart. The giovanni elder's body crumbles to dust and Clarimond crushes the still beating heart, dripping the vitae onto his ashes.
(Round two of combat occurs. Velok kills Ghoul 1 and 3. Vampire punches Silvana. Silvana stabs Vampire. Mikhail throws soaked punch at Ghoul 4. Ghoul 4 stabs Mikhail. Mikhail punches Ghoul 2, then misses ghoul 2. PC Damage taken: Silvana 4 Bashing, Mikhail 3 Lethal. Combat ends.)
Mikhail swings at the one attacking Misa as he grows in size, his fist rolling off the man's shoulder, turning as he gets stabbed in the side, he snarls still swinging his fists wildly as he drives a fist into the man who stabbed him and swings wide on the other. The man's nose is bloodied, hurting but still able to fight as the knife wound magically starts to close.
Silvana steps up but the childe is faster than she was or maybe she was expecting him to do as she said but then he punches her hard and she narrows her eyes and punches him back only with her sword, guess someone forgot to tell him that you don't bring fist to a sword fight. She gets him to a knee for a second "What part of give the lady what she asked for did you not understand" she almost has that deadly calm about her "Get up" oh sure kick him down and now tell h im to get up.
Velok got his bow out, which is rarely a good sign for people he's not a big fan of. However, this time was worse. See Misa threw a smoothie that Velok wanted. It was a good smoothie. Delicious, and now it's splattered against the ground. Velok wanted that smoothie. When he notches the arrow and raises the bow, he steps a couple times to the side. As he shoots one of the incoming ghouls, he apparently hits a soft squishy part, the arrow slipping perfectly through the eye of the first ghoul, out through the back of the skull, and into the skull of the other ghoul. One shot, two kills. Velok slowly lowers the bow, totally acting like that wasn't awesome. Even if he looks over towards Misa with a clear 'DID YOU FUCKING SEE THAT? HOLY SHIT AWESOME' look. Yep. He's humble.
Clarimond watches as Silvana's foe drops to his knees, "I surrender! You bitch! I SURRENDER!" He drops the briefcase. Clarimond grabs both briefcases and grins, "We have not only what we came here for but we get to keep our offer as well." She smiles at Silvana, "I really don't care what happens to that noodle slurping grease head." The ethnic slurs just roll off her tongue like melting ice.
Mikhail pulls the knife out of his side and gripping the two ghouls he turns them away from him so they don't get a good look at him. Using them for cover he ducks behind them until his side heals. And then he's a normal human again.. nothing strange, no iridesent eyes or whiskers or anything.
Silvana snaps her fingers "go get me some rope.. We are going for a little trip and your going to tell me what I want to find out" if she's asking any of yu though from somewhere in the background two rather burly men show up with ropes and other things "So be a good boy and don't struggle. I do hate strugglers "
Velok slowly lowers his bow to his side, making sure there's no more random enemies showing up. He walks carefully into the alley, stepping over one body to head towards where his arrow is. The man leans over, taking what's left and unbrainifying it from the ghoul. Unfortunately the arrow is broken and Velok shrugs, tossing it towards one of Silvana's burley Chippendale's bodyguard. "Take care of that too." He says, turning to look towards Clarimond. "What's in the briefcase?" He asks pointedly, staring towards it, only glancing at the tragic loss of smoothie once.
Mikhail holds the other hurt ghoul and the wounded ghoul by the scruffs of their necks. He looks around between the wounded man on the ground and the two in his hands and then at the others in the alleyway.
Clarimond smiles, giving the briefcase with her stuff in it to Lars, who takes it back to the Sedan where hyper Irna is just WAITING to be told what to do. Clarimond keeps the Giovanni briefcase in her hand, "It is in fact a tome, but it is not an ancient tome, it was written with a modern hand with a modern pen. But someone does not like to write with modern paper or one of those odd machines you click on. This tome was written by a Baali elder that is somewhere in Prospect and I think it best that we find her don't you think? The Giovanni managed to obtain this and were actually blackmailing her. My guess is that she is staying in Sabbat territory.. she wouldn't be stupid enough to hide in Camarilla lands. This journal of hers no doubt exposes much of her plans and perhaps even exposes other Baali in the city, ghouls, mortal servants, the like."
Silvana looks to Clarimond "Wait say that again? we are dealing with what?"
Mikhail blinks, "Baali?" he asks definitely having heard that word before, "Zey are vampire culteests, da?" he asks, "Zey.. keednap people and.. do sseengs do zem."
Velok furrows his brow as he listens, many of the words going a bit over his head. He glances over towards Mikhail, then stares at Silvana as Clarimond keeps talking. "Right..." he says quietly, giving off that impression that he absolutely knows what's going on. "What happens if she's exposed?"
Clarimond grins, "Yes I forgot that the Baali would not be as common now as they were before.. when I was young they were a clan that was hunted down ruthlessly, and for good reason. Even the Sabbat hate them with a flaming passion. If this Baali is exposed, she will be hunted. If the Camarilla find out that she is here, a blood hunt will likely be declared immediately. If the Sabbat find out, they will send their rag tag bands of beasts after her. She really does not want that. She cannot hope to escape this city alive with two sects after her. If she is here then there MUST be a reason.. something grand.. something worth finding out about."
Velok keeps watching Clarimond and Silvana, as if searching through the pair of them for what this all means. Obviously some of it confuses him from the lack of expression on his face. Questions rise and questions fall within his mind before he comes up with one he needs to ask. "What does the tome do?" He says, reaching forward and pointing towards the briefcase in curiousity.
Mikhail looks interested. Sounds like secrets.. He's still holding the two ghouls until Silvana's men bind them up, "Ve should note deescuss zees here.. People may have heard ze fighteengk and be on zere vay.." he points out.
Clarimond opens the briefcans, handing it to Stenn after removing the old looking tome, "This is not magical at all. It is just a mundane tome, a journal." She flips through it a bit, "Nothing that I could use to further my own magical knowledge, just her logs, everything she has done since arriving.. by god.." She stares at Mikhail, "You may not want to know what I am about to tell you.. it is.. sacrilige surely for your kind.."
Velok keeps looking between Clarimond and Mikhail as Silvan turns to head out. He pauses, heading over to the woman to whisper into her ear and then give her a hug, then returning to the pair. "What were you offering for the journal? Must be pretty important to set up a deal like this, in an alley, with so many guns." Velok comments, turning his head to peer towards the entrance of the alley for a moment.
Mikhail stares back at Clarimond. He is stoney silent... He doesn't tell her that just about their entire leechy existance is sacrilege to his people.. Finally he tells her, "Say eet anyvay..." he's got to have those secrets.
Clarimond stares at Mikhail in silence for a moment before sighing, "It seems that this Baali has been.. capturing stray werewolves and other werebeasts.. and then.. attempting to embrace them.. to turn them into my kind. She failed most of the time until she found a lone werewolf, one that was angry, hateful, a man eater. He was successfully embraced and is now under her power. He knows vampire disciplines as well as retaining his werewolf powers." She is silent, she has no idea what he will say, and Velok's words are for the moment unheard.
"Stray?!" he asks as if the word itself is an insult. "Sheefters are note tame creatures. Zere eez no such sseeng as a STRAY sheefter!" he growls, misplaced anger much? Regaining himself, he says, "Eef ze vone she found vas as bad as yu say, zen he deserve dyeass for zat alone.." he doesn't add on that being made a leech makes it only more so.. the leech might take offense.
Oh, Velok knows enough about that. He knows enough to know that's probably not a very good thing at all, so when Mikhail starts to freak out, he slowly backs away a little bit, holding his hands out a little and waiting, watching. He seems to be an observer
Clarimond nods slowly, "The Baali refers to them as strays. Perhaps I should not have used that word, it was not respectful. But the point is that she has managed the impossible, she has created something that neither the shifter kin nor my kin would allow to live. This is a merging of worlds that should not be, a creature that cannot be allowed to remain. It is.. it is not at all natural."
Mikhail smirks, "Yu vant eemposseeble.. yu shud see ze fomori.. Zees? Zees is a dog abandoned by Heer and embraced by Heem.. Ze solution eez seemple.. destroy..." he glances over at Velok. He seems to be pondering sharing a secret.. the secret to how the dogs won the War of the Rage... In the end he chooses against it and instead says, "Between hees bow," nodding to Velok, "Seelvana's sword, your claws, and my rage.. ve veel veen..." he says quite confidently.
Velok nibbles his lip, processing everything with consideration. He looks back to Mikhail with interest. Perhaps he already knows about the war, or the fomori, or quite a bit, so when Mikhail drops names none of it bring surprise. He just nods in agreement with the man and looks back to Clarimond. "Well, I can see now why you're interested in her." He does squint his eyes, staring at Clarimond.
Clarimond widens her eyes as she checks the date, "1942?! That isn't long by Kindred reckoning but that means that this abominable creature has had time to grow in power.." She looks afraid for the first time since you have met her, "He no doubt as the physical strength of an antidelluvian by now.." She forgets once again that not everyone knows words like that.
Again Mikhail keeps his secrets, not describing the Mokole.. the great dragons of the East, and how powerful they can be.. No.. instead he shrugs, looking quite possibly foolhardy in his regard for this... Abomination. He even smirks, "Unlyess he has magic zat veel durn my bones eenside out, ve veel find.. and ve veel KEEL!"
Velok doesn't really know that word, his eyes just continued to be focused on Clarimond. There's a single question floating around his mind that Clarimond hasn't quite answered yet, nibbling further on his lip. "What will you do, when the creature is found? Mikhail wants death.
Clarimond slams the tome shut, "It must die.. every spirit in this land will cry out for its' death. My clan does not meet often but I.. I must inform my Mother of these events.. and she will convene with members of my clan even older than I. They will expect me to handle this.. but I will need your help, all of you."
"Good." Velok says as he smiles, shoving his hands back into the pockets of his hoodies. "That's the correct answer." The answer Velok can get behind. "The wrong answer would have been that you seek to discover how to perform this...awfulness on your own." His smile returns as he looks towards Mikhail. "I would hate to think we're merely taking one evil and replacing it with someone who can perform worse."
Mikhail nods to Velok, agreeing with the man.. His dark eyes move back to the 'tome' then, and then up to Clarimond, "Eef zat book describe how she deed eet?" other than just mass slaughter of shifters till she found one that worked... But his implication is clear, he's not so sure she should have the mad scientist leech's journal
Clarimond shakes her head, "It merely reads, 'I was successful.. the mangy mutt is mine now, my childe, I have done it. The method will never be written down. I will pass the process down to my eldest daughter..' However she managed this, she will not tell."
Velok nods, tilting his head a little and looking towards the journal/diary as Clarimond reads. "What were you trading him? What was in your briefcase?" He asks, a question that got lost earlier.
Mikhail smirks, "Zen ve shud keel heer and heer dohter doo.." he says and looks around at the group, "Ve really should be leaveengk, zere are dwo bodies and vone pile of ash here.
Clarimond nods, turning to Velok, "The key to my doppleganger's cell, a vial of my blood, and a tome full of the knowledge of my clan's magical practice. Had he been able to keep it, he would have been able to learn my magic. But I knew that he would never let us walk away with this Baali's tome, so I had no problem providing items that I would never part with. I was going to kill him even if he had agreed to the deal. I am not an idiot.. that is one thing you will learn Velok. As fair and kind as I am to you, I am not so kind to other vampires, as they will never show kindness to me. It is.. not easy to explain. The Giovanni are even less trustworthy than the Sabbat."
Velok nods in agreement to Mikhail, though he watches Clarimond carefully. His eyebrows raise as she starts listing off all the different things she brought to barter with, and he just smirks. "Empty briefcase then. Far more entertaining." He winks to Clarimond, agreeing with Mikhail. "We'll have to discuss it, potentially. Let me know if anything turns up. I'll pass the information along." He bows towards Clarimond, then towards Mikhail, then looks longingly at the smoothie one more time before he can depart. Poor smoothie.
Mikhail watches Clarimond with cold dark eyes.. so, if that vampire hadn't renegged on the deal.. she would have.. "Leeches" he actually mutters ominously before stepping away from her.
Clarimond shrugs, "If I had things my way, we wouldn't have to be so dishonorable, and deceitful.." She puts the tome back into the briefcase and starts to head back to her sedan, "Tomorrow night we shall decide our first course of action."
