Midnight Mass

**Dean** · Mar 28th, 2011 09:22 AM

Anton places a worn chalice onto the drainage tiles, clutching the pale arm poking through the tarp in a ragged hand, torn up with promises of Purpose. He turns to the gathered and recites communion in the same battering ram rasp he'd used to deliver the start of his sermon.

"What return will I make to the Lord for all He has given to me? I will take the chalice of Damnation, and I will call upon the Name of the Lord. Praising will I call upon the Lord and I shall be saved from my enemies."

Brandishing his old knife, Anton drags it across the arm of the whimpering tarp bulk. Blood gushes onto the ground in thick gobbets, filling the chalice. The rest of it circles the drain. The communion vessel continues to bleed as the Bishop bears the chalice in two hands, staring out at the congregation.

"May the Blood preserve my soul. I am Sanctified."

Anton drinks from the chalice reverentially. He approaches each Sanctified, bidding them to drink and echo the ritae.

Mar 28th, 2011 10:43 AM

Sidor's gaze didn't even flicker to the gushing blood from the pale arm. It was irrelevent what was under the blanket. The truth was simply that it was God's Will that it be here. It had sinned, and in sinning would die, and be absolved. Only the Damned were denied God's Grace.

"May the Blood preserve my Soul. I am Sanctified." He echoed, automatically, thoughtlessly in Russian, because he was so used to it. He realised his mistake a moment later, but lowered his head and drank from the chalice anyway.

**Katrina Scherbotsky** · Mar 28th, 2011 02:29 PM

Katrina could not help but sit there and look horrified at what the Bishop had done. This was not the way the sanctified did things. Allowing the girl to bleed out and possibly die. Her eyes flick to Ajax and O'Connor wondering if she was the only person that was shocked by this.

Noticing Anton approach Katrina replaced the look of horror with a weak smile, she drank from the chalice and let it pass on.

**Katrina Scherbotsky** · Mar 28th, 2011 03:07 PM

Katrina stands up. "Sorry Anton, I do not believe that killing the kine is acceptable. For one you give them the easy route out and two I believe we should increase the herd not start to kill them and decrease it." She pauses.

"It is for this reason I no longer think the convenant I was embraced into is for me. Sorry to have wasted your time."

With that Katrina leaves.

**GB82** · Mar 28th, 2011 05:16 PM

Ajax

The large Gangrel has a look of complete and honest shock on his face as Katrina gets up and leaves. Not knowing much about the Sanctified other than the usual basics the Lance told everyone in their effort to gain conversions he doesn't understand just what the fuck is going on. Still Katrina was leaving and thus Ajax was leaving.

The Gangrel gets up from his seat and follows his clan mate out of the Church. Checking back to make sure that neither of the fanatical Haunts were following them.

Thomas O'Connor

The Deputy had come tonight to take a measure of the new Lancea et Sanctum in the city and the killing of the Kine had told him all he really needed to know. Sloppy. Why kill your food source when there was no real need for it? Still the act answered more questions than any discussion could have.

He makes a mental note of Katrina's leaving and offers the Gangrel a slightly sympathetic glance as she leaves the room. To distract the two Lance and advert possible violence he directs a question to the Bishop. "Deputy Flores I trust you have made the proper arrangements to dispose of the body?" Hopefully a reminder of civic responsibilities would snap the man to back to his good senses.

Mar 28th, 2011 05:35 PM

Sidor felt the comfort of the familiar Communion being disrupted as a sharp pang and sighed slightly. It seemed he wasn't going to find the entire comfort here after all. He let Katrina storm out, for whatever reason, and held his hands up in a soothing motion to the Deputy.

"Forgive me, Deputy O'Conner, but... I think you are being a little hasty. The individual in question is not yet, in fact... dead. It is common to bleed a kine during a Communion. A wrist wound is no more instantaneously fatal than a bite to the neck would be in a normal feeding." It galled him somewhat to speak out of turn, but it seemed necessary.

**Dean** · Mar 29th, 2011 10:40 AM

"Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected," Anton answered in response to Katrina's melodrama. His mouth tightened in irritation as O'Connor interrupted the ceremony. He turned to his fellow Deputy.

"That isn't arterial blood loss you see, Deputy. There is no body. Not yet. Just one of God's children, in considerable discomfort and unaware of what is happening to them. Should the vessel expire then it will do so furthering our Purpose. Despite what our former Sister believes, we are not gardeners or game-keepers, we are the jailers of this fallen earth: God's monsters. The donor yet breathes. But know that I would butcher this vessel to further my path. Know also that you interrupt a sacred rite."

**Thomas Connor** · Mar 29th, 2011 03:05 PM

"My Apologies Bishop. I was merely taking care of my civic duties." Thomas' tone is polite but firm, his concerns about the kine put to rest for the moment. Still the reminder of the traditions was required, been delivered and the matter seemed to be dealt with. Meeting the glaze of Flores the Deputy waits for the Bishop to continue the service.

**Dean** · Mar 29th, 2011 03:40 PM

"I understand," Anton answered, simple and calm.

He turns to the altar, raising the wounded arm and folding it over the chest of the communion vessel. The chalice is placed on the slab-altar with reverence. The Bishop makes the sign of the spear, mutters a prayer and turns to Sidor.

"Confession will be taken in the study on the ground floor."