(Invisible Hands) Encounter: Rent Veils

[Yumyumcrow]

The year has turned. The signs are there, now: the nights are becoming longer - maybe not perceptible to the mortals yet, but the nocturnal attuned Kindred can certainly feel the subtle shift in the contest between day and night; the tree's sag, parched by drought and relentless summer. The air hangs still, as if the world pauses before taking its next breath - for the next breath heralds autumn and the end to the long summer afternoon.

Still darkness lies thick over Marsh Street. Its a heavy, smothering blanket. Yellow light punctures the gloom intermittently from street lights and from the windows of nearby apartments. Its all one-sided though, for one side of the street looks out onto light industrial lots and urban wasteland: shadow encrusted parking spaces, dark bulk of trees, rustling grass. Saturated in heat and stillness, the gloom waits with lurking menace.

Wood breaks. Breaking glass. Thudding. A cry. Pause. A window breaks and scintillating glass shivers into the night. A body plummets to the hard concrete with a wet thump.

What do you do?

This scene is open for new characters only Four slots so first come, first served. For those interested, Marsh Street is just off Broadway, opposite O'Neill Park. The area is part of the Communal Hunting Grounds

[Yumyumcrow]

BUMP-O-MATIC ACTIVATE! Around 5 days and no interest. If I have no interested parties by the beginning of September I'll be wrapping this one up

[Cabochard]

Rina's nightly walks had always served a dual purpose for her. There was the obvious purpose of finding potential Kine to feed off of and gathering knowledge on threats and street politics in the local areas, of course, but Rina found the walk calming. Stepping down the street, knowing rather simply that most of the things around couldn't bother her, let alone cause any serious damage if they really wanted to, gave her a sense of power and freedom that was absent most other times. However, tonight's walk would apparently be very different.

The sound of glass breaking and the cry was what called her. It never boded well, and Rina didn't like not being aware of problems near her. She didn't care that they happened, mind you, she simply didn't like not knowing they were going to happen. She ran down the street, mentally reviewing her equipment. She'd gotten sloppy this time, and only brought her knife, slid into the side of her right boot. Knowing this, Rina decided to take on any advantage she could in the darkness. Drawing on her power she pulled from her knowledge to see in the night, no matter how dark. The world shifted slightly, things becoming illuminated again.

OOC

-1 Vitae for using Obtenebration 1 (Night Sight).

  Perception - 2 Successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2014-08-29 22:22:38		Rina Yui rolls 7 to Perception (Wits + Compusre) (10 Again)		5, 6, 5, 2, 5, 9, 9		2 successes

[Thomas Galilei]

Restless, is goodwill minus an outlet . . . What had he expected upon his arrival? Accolades? His pride wrestles his faith for control of his perspective, and either way it feels like Thomas loses. He'd begun his nightly walk intending to pray, to pour his heart out to God, but it had been miles without words, only a proud despair, an egocentric frustration with his unused potential.

Faith is down, almost pinned, but manages a weak whisper: patience. Thomas cups his face in his hands and rubs, is half-inclined to rip out two fistfuls of hair and scream. Had he survived the desert, studied so many years to sit in stasis while Kindred suffered? Yet Sacramento, it seems, has gone so long without strong positive Sanctified influence, that they didn't know how to need him. Thomas' prayer is simple, one word, but as heartfelt as any word had ever been: help.

His concentration is interrupted by a procession of foreboding sounds: a crack, a shatter, a meaty impact, and--worst of all--the silence that follows. He's moving before he's processed it all, scanning for the source of the sounds. What had his prayer wrought? He doesn't know, but deep inside his stomach, he sense he's unprepared.

[Yumyumcrow]

Black upon black; ebony upon charcoal, defined in crisp onyx and limned in silver - Rina sees. A broken body, blood pooling like ink, lies in front of one of the nearest apartment blocks. The apartments are simple affairs: from afar they look like terraced houses, ranked like troops on parade in their little estate; the body lies on tarmac amid the neat rows of resident's vehicles. Most windows are darkened at this time but a few pool like angry pustules with a blurry light her enhanced vision finds hard to process. One such window in the upper story is torn open like a yawning chasm into hell.

A guttering light illuminates the stairwell leading to the upper level.

Thomas finds himself in the midst of the estate. The night is quiet and the sounds are loud. Quickly, he finds his bearings and is moving through the silent streets, devoid of life. A window is lit, here and there. Evidently some among the kine heard the noise as well.

How long will that give them before the authorities arrive?

There! There is the source of the commotion! In a space where the trees have grown strong and tall, granting shade to the common space below where cars are parked like huddled animals seeking shade. Ahead lies the edge of the estate - a think band of darkness where urban waste and light industrial lot lie: a foreboding wilderness of concrete, steel, grass and barbed wire.

A body (a man!) lies twisted, shattered and unmoving among the silent herd of vehicles. An upper storey window, broken and dislocated, like an eye hanging from its socket, blasts yellow light into the night. Sounds echo from within the compromised bubble of the apartment: breaking sounds; angry sounds; frustrated sounds.

The two Kindred see one another. Their dark halves stir and rise.

Down the street, another light flicks on.

@Rockbane Blake may join in here

[Thomas Galilei]

Thomas' beast growls between his ears, tenses his muscles at the sight of another, especially one poised over a bloody broken body. He's not inclined to suppress it fully, not yet at least--not knowing the details, but drives it down enough to mutter a few intelligible words. "What happened?"

He kneels, checks the bodies pulse, half-inclined to suck the blood from the bits of shattered glass, half-inclined to offer a prayer for the departed's soul. He spares a glance up, up, way up to the broken window, but never takes his eyes for long from the slender Kindred woman standing before him: slight in a way smaller than her form. Could be that she had done it--that would make her fast, very fast. It seems unlikely, but not impossible.

"Did you see anything?" He pats down the man's pockets, looking for keys, a wallet, a phone--anything to identify him by.

When the light flicks on down the street, it occurs to him that he's unarmed and, perhaps, in the vicinity of a murderer.

[Cabochard]

Rina herself looks around, not focused on the body, taking the time to keep her Beast from running free. She looks at Thomas when he starts asking questions, aware that where she could see perfectly in the dark, he most likely could not. She takes a moment to examine the man before talking.

"I do not know. I arrived here moments ago, at the same time as you, and for the same reason, I expect." She point at the smashed open window, and then at the stairwell. "She fell from up there. I expect the stairs there will get us there."

[Yumyumcrow]

Thomas pats down the body. Not unsurprisingly, keys and papers were largely absent. With a stroke of luck, he manages to locate a (rather empty) wallet: old, worn, stained; lean on green; crisp license card with barely a bend on it; library card. If the license is to be believed Ezekiel Smith has just been thrown to his death.

For someone who died by violence, the man's face is a picture of calm concentration.

[Thomas Galilei]

Thomas stands, bends his head in prayer over the man--such an occasion was more than reason enough to break his silence toward God. "Father . . ." The words, however, don't come so quickly. "I ask your mercy for Ezekiel, your child, returning now to your side. Forgive his sins. Grant him justice . . . by my hands if you wish. And receive him in your loving embrace. Amen."

He turns to the woman. "License says 'Ezekiel Smith.' I've been rude; forgive me: Thomas Galilei--Sanctum Priest, as you will have noticed. I intend to take God's queue here, ascend those stairs. Wouldn't mind if you went with me . . ." He smiles, all but pleadingly. He hasn't seen much combat since the war, a literal lifetime ago. And why should she be there as well if God hadn't wilt that she should accompany him? Perhaps to witness Thomas' subsequent death?

Thomas starts for the stairs, bringing the wallet with him, keeps his fingers crossed, hopes that she will follow.

[Cabochard]

Rina hesitates for a moment. Following an unknown, possibly armed man into close-quarters was most likely not a good idea. On the other hand, she did want to know what happened to Ezekiel Smith. And, in event that the worst happened, her weapon was easily accessible, and the close-quarters of the stairwell could also work to her benefit, if he wasn't used to them. She took a second to reach down and touch her knife, still comfortably sheathed and ready to kill, to comfort herself, then stepped forward, cautiously following the other man. She was careful to remain behind him. Out of his line of sight was the best place to be.