(The Hungry Dark) Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

[Edwin Bridges]

  Nearly :P

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-05-04 01:19:24		Edwin Bridges rolls 6 to RES + COM + BP (10 Again)		8, 6, 8, 9, 2, 9		4 successes

As Edwin was about to lunge towards the gore, his mind filled with nothing but the hunger and the void where there should be blood, Dillon's voice seems to leash the Lord's snarling Beast back to its chain. The frenzy that almost broke lose was stopped in an instant and Edwin stopped in his tracks, gazing at the carnage.

He took a step back and picked up his fallen weapon.

"Sorry about that. I was more hungry than I realized." Edwin looked to Dillon with no small amount of shame. "Thank you, Mr. Connery."

[Wolven Pryde]

Meanwhile, outside: James easily secures a spare set of keys from a typical hiding place up front. Upon further examination of the vehicle-- whose interior is cordoned away from the driver's seat, paneled, and entirely devoid of windows-- James finds several luggage containers that might just be large enough to stash bodies in after the clothes are emptied out of them. He also finds some full size trunks within the coach's ventral storage area. Unfortunately, he looks right over the huge containers in the trailer for speakers and sound systems. Perhaps he thinks they will take too much effort to empty...

[Xander]

After taking a look around the Carthian started up the bus and followed the Reeve's instructions. The bus was moved as close to the door Dillon pointed out as James could get it. Once that was done he started dumping clothes out of bags in the back and moving the containers closer to the front of the bus for easy transport. He stuffed a few bags into a trunk before taking it to his Priscus.

Trunk in hand he moves to the crime scene. There was a moment when he realized how hungry he was since arriving in Sacramento, when the Wolf howled for blood. The life of a hippie turned public speaker did nothing to ready someone for that sort of scene, but the Man was able to keep the Wolf on his leash. The only outward sign of the struggle was when James bit his lower lip as he peeked past the two for a better look.

"Found some trunks and bags we can use." The Gangrel said as he came back to his senses. "Also moved the bus like you asked." He extends his arms with the trunk in a silent plea to take the thing.

  2 suxx to resist wassail

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-05-05 19:44:50		James rolls 3 to Resisting Wassail (Res+Comp-1) (10 Again)		8, 4, 8		2 successes

[Dillon Connery]

"It's alright," Dillon nods to Edwin, hopefully dispelling some of his shame. "I know what it's like, those first few weeks in a new city. If it makes you feel any better, I ripped a young little hooker to pieces over a nosebleed, a few years back.

"I think we can call this one a fair temptation, by comparison."

Unfortunately, Dillon hadn't had anyone there to control his Beast for him, that night at the Ridge Motel. He just had Alice Brown to watch him do the deed, and then stand around like a useless bimbo when he tried to temporarily cover the mess.

Good times.

"Mister McPherson," Dillon lobs his keys to Troy standing nearby. "There's some tarps and Gorilla Tape in the back of my car. Run and grab it for us?*

"We'll need to wrap these bodies and tape them up really well before putting them in the luggage James found." Dillon relieves the man of the trunk and sits it down near the door to the stairwell. "Otherwise they'll leak in transit, and might give us away if we're--"

The Reeve stops, suddenly, as he catches something he'd almost missed. "Hold on."

Pointing at the floor for someone to shine their light there, and illuminate the situation, Dillon describes to them what he sees. "Those prints were here when we showed up... all boots. Emma was wearing boots, and presumably Francesco and their little friend was wearing boots... but there's a pair of sneakers. I saw it before when I got here, and took a look around alone. I wondered if it was our killer."

He points to a separate set of the same bloody sneaker prints, almost parallel and overlapping the first. They seem to go right up to the stairwell portal before turning to walk away again.

"Those are fresh. They weren't there when I went outside to wait for you all to show up."

  Good enough

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-05-07 09:09:23		Dillon Connery rolls 7 to notice something important; Percaption (penalties negated by Trained Observer) (10 Again)		1, 5, 8, 6, 3, 7, 4		1 success

*

Giving Troy an excuse to not be present while we wait to see if DSU's till posting.

[Edwin Bridges]

With an honest smile to the Reeve's story, Edwin nodded once more, a respectful one.

Then, they were back to business. The Lord listened and was about to help with the bodies, feeling his Beast holding firm, no doubt still ensnared at Dillon's command. But then he spoke once again, noticing and pointing out the prints.

Edwin gripped his bat with one hand but his other went into his pocket. "Want me to check it out?"

[Xander]

James gladly handed off the trunk, watching Troy depart with some relief. When the Reeve points James pulls the senior Gangrel's flashlight back out and points it where he's told.

A feeling of unease settles on him when he hears the murderer was still around. Still, he didn't want to look like a chicken, so he took a deep breathe to calm himself."Follow the red print road?" James says as confidently as he can. He extends the hand with the flashlight to offer it back to Dillon.

[Dillon Connery]

Dillon makes a noise in the back of his throat, the sort of comes out as a hesitant or reluctant "Ehhh..."

Not that he's hesitant or reluctant about locating their culprit and pulverizing it into its constituent elements, but more that the direction of evidence will yield any real lead to its current whereabouts.

"Unfortunately, whoever it is didn't step in the pool, just the thick tracks of others who have. I'm sure they don't go far."

A point that the Gangrel reveals as James passes the light back to him, and he follows the bloody prints down the hall with the sharp LED beam. They fade to nothing within a few yards.

Turning back to the others, Dillon nods to Edwin. "But, keep lookout if you like. Just don't wander too far. And if you find trouble in the shape of a fellow monster, don't be shy about bringing it to us.

"I don't think I need to say that this isn't the night for any mano a mano dueling. This is cleanup, in most every sense of the word."

[Edwin Bridges]

Edwin gave Dillon a salute with his baseball bat, along with a large, loveable grin.

"Don't worry, bud, I ain't no hero. Old Fury here is just for show."

Sure, it was a joke, and a cover for Edwin's seriousness for the moment. He almost failed, nearly lost control.

He had something to prove.

[Xander]

"I'm not playing hero. If the job is just clean up we should clean up." James says looking between the two before turning to the stairwell portal. "Otherwise, what do you think is through there they wanted to get to?"

In truth he was curious what was worth thinking about but not getting. An object important to the deviant would be valuable insight, or possibly leverage.

[Dillon Connery]

A text message alert interrupts whatever Dillon's response was going to be. A silent one, revealed to the other Kindred only by his removing the battered phone from his pocket and checking it.

He goes unnaturally still for several seconds.

No breath is taken to prepare words. No shifting of his weight, no idle bounces or rhythmic tap to unheard music. The stark absence of any human signifiers seems to underline just how practiced the Gangrel usually is at them. Where his body suggests youth to mortals, his Beast reveals the truth. Yet, there has always been something about him that suggests youth among Kindred as well. It's that: despite the length of his Requiem, he goes to great pains to pass himself off as a relatively normal young man. What with all the animated gestures and expressive smiling.

Right now, as he looks from the device to Edwin and James, Dillon appears every bit the cold monster that he is.

Martha. Injured. And he wasn't there to do anything about it.

For a moment, he wants to take the Reeve title and shove it up Asa Clarke's backside. Were he still a deputy, he'd be right there with her. And some other idiot would be mopping up the messes and directing the potential recruits. But realizing that His Majesty can hardly be blamed for choosing the most appropriate man for the job, Dillon decides he might simply break Conner Greyson in two the next time he sees the former Sheriff. For leaving, and dropping the responsibility in his lap.

He types out a short response before returning the phone to its home. His mood does not return with it.

"Let's clean this up. Then we go kill something."

Lining the containers out where they will have easy access to them, the Reeve takes the requested materials off of Troy's hands as soon as he returns only to send him out to be bait. Urging him, as he did with Edwin, to bring the killer back to them if he can.

The Gangrel is noticeably rough and uncaring with the bodies as he guides them into their resting places in tarp-lined suitcases and trunks. Once or twice a bone has to be cracked to make the corpse fit into its receptacle. Dillon doesn't flinch. He might as well be chopping wood.

Let's go ahead and take a turn narrating our cleaning actions. Get your vampire housemaid on!