(ODCH) Touch Starved

[Benji]

This scene is open to any Dragon that cares to join it!
David Regan @%1; Nell Cooper

Every kindred has the remarkable ability to focus on their senses, granting them inhumanly precise sensory acuity. Some were better than others at this not-quite-Discipline but it was something universal to the ranks of Kindred. They could see in all but the most light-less rooms, hear whispers spoken from across room, track prey from the scent of the faintest perfume and taste things so faint that they were undetectable to all else but machines. To anyone moving within the Chapterhouse of the Ordo Dracul, this inhuman acuity might bring them the quiet sounds of someone writing under the various noises an old building makes in the night.

Louis Rhodes, new to this Academy but acknowledged within the Domain sat in the Chapterhouse's classroom on the second floor, an array of objects spread out on the table before him, organized neatly into precise rows atop a plastic cover secured to the table with duct tape.

A feather.

Several samples of cloth, ranging from burlap to cotton and to silk cut from clothing.

Several squares of sandpaper in various, increasingly finer grits.

An empty tin can.

A small coil of copper wire.

A steel bolt.

A steak knife.

A shard of broken glass.

A box of razor blades.

A packet of pins.

His notebook, a common yellow spiral notebook you could purchase at any grocery or office supply store, is open before him and he is busy filling the mostly silent room with the scratch-scratch of diligent note taking. One by one, he takes each item before him and measures their dimension with measuring tape, takes their weight on a small kitchen scale and snaps a picture of them with his phone. This information as well as the file designation of the picture gets added to the notebook. The object gets placed back down exactly where he took it but a moment ago before he moves on to the next one, repeating the procedure.

A washcloth resting alongside a basin of cold water sits on a table behind him, as well as a small stack of similar notebooks in different colors and a small box of pens. While he does not expect company this evening, the door is open if anyone wished to sit in on his experiments this evening.

[Benji]

The exact nature of how one vampire recognized another upon first sensing them was a mystery, all Louis knew was that it happened in every case except the ones where one side had the skill to disguise it. In light of the fact that he didn't have that expected reaction to his visitor's voice, he would simply have to use his eyes. "I would assume so, Grand Wyrm." He removes his pen from it's task and and deliberately places it parallel to his notebook before interlacing his fingers atop his writing. He remains seated and does not make any sudden moves, fully aware that just because he cannot instinctively recognize Regan's nature that does not mean he cannot recognize his.

Best not to make any sudden moves.

After a moment for the other monster to recognize what he was doing, he spoke again. "I am Louis Rhodes, Supplicant of Hunger. Recently relocated from the Academy in Las Vegas. Keeper Villiers pointed you out while I was speaking with Seneschal Harding at Nox and suggested that we meet, but once I was finished speaking with the Seneschal the evening was over and I had missed my chance. I expected that if I came to the Chapterhouse, I would encounter someone else from this Academy sooner or later."

[Benji]

To David's eyes, the Vitae within the Supplicant's veins runs just as thinly as any other fledgling's. Inside it however, there is the shadow of something more unnatural than your garden variety curse of eternal unlife at the cost of life and blood stolen from the unaware. This man has twisted the nature of his curse and bound the ebb and flow of his Vitae not to unconscious reflex, but to his own desire and will.

Louis Rhodes' blood seeps slowly.

For his part, Louis knows that the Grand Wyrm is supposed to be the Mekhet Priscus as well. Presumably he is scrutinizing him for something. He shrugs, recognizing the gestures for what they are. "No harm, no foul Sir. Other than a desire to act appropriately, there was no urgency behind it. I hope the Castellan will forgive me for setting up."

"This? This is part of the 'First Ceremony of the Chaotic Age'. The full ritual is fairly involved and takes place during the Chinese New Year, but there's a few abbreviated versions that I perform during major changes and upheavals in my life." And moving to an new Domain certainly counted. "You can perform this almost anywhere, really. This room just felt like the best place right now." Which is handy, because the real deal needed a lot of things he didn't have yet. He had most of a year to prepare for it though. "Essentially what you do is focus on a collection of sensations, record your reactions to them," he gestures to the objects spread before him and then taps his notebook. "And then compare them to previous records. Sort of like examining your clothes for stains before you put them in the wash. Only the clothes are you and the stains are... sort of everything else out there. The wash is ultimately the Chrysalis of course. Individually the results don't seem like a whole lot, but in aggregate they can identify things that need resolution, signal the need for cleansing rituals, and suggest new avenues of inquiry into an individual's Great Work. It's one of the reasons my Sire suggested I join a different Domain."

"It's hardly what I'd call a requirement, but I find it useful." And who in their right minds didn't pretreat their wash?

[Pixie Styx]

It would shock all who truly knew her that it wasn't the library where this teal-haired shadow dwelt, but within the dusty and sadly unused corner of the Chapter House. Combating her minuscule foes, armed with Swifter and Lemon Pledge, Nell heaved a breath, and continued to fight this eternal war against rust, dust and decay.

Nell heard not the arrival of her fellow Supplicant, nor did she take note of the Grand Wyrm's arrival , not with a war to win and her earbuds belting out a happy beat.

It wasn't until she came up for air that she realized that David should have been by for his nightly rounds by now, with a puzzled furrow between her brows she finished her task and stopped her music.

Perhaps he was lost within his own research, much like she should be.

Her own personal dream studies, inroads in the Shadowy Blood flowing within her, the study club that would be hosted by Seneschal Harding, and her own proposal on hypnotism she needed to take a moment to sit down and complete!

But perhaps the Gand Wyrm needed help.

Smelling like a paradoxical combination of dust and lemons Nell quickly made her way to the Library, even if David isn't here she had many tasks to keep her attentions.

It was the sound of her Beast, yowling that had the shadow understand that there was a stranger in her Grand Dame. Nell gritted her teeth, grasped its imaginary scruff and [I]shoved[I]. Her eyes sought the Grand Wyrm, knowing that if she didn't she would miss sight of him entirely.

The quintessential shadow that he is.

"Grand Wyrm." Nell greats with a deferential nod, then she cocked eyebrow at the unknown kindred. She vaguely recalled the pretty gave from Court, but she hadn't known that he'd made contact with the Order.

[Pixie Styx]

Bump Louis Rhodes Benji

[Benji]

I've got wifi again, tyvm for your patience everyone

He smelled the other vampire coming. Dust, lemon, causing an almost inexplicable fear to blossom in his gut like a rose made of ice. It would be simple to attribute an intelligence to his Blood, the way it twisted and tried to race into the long muscles in his legs to prepare him to run. Simple, but lazy.

He smiled through the fear, because he could recognize a similar reaction in the other Supplicant when she saw him. He had the sudden and nearly overpowering urge to take his pen and pick it up to do nothing more than fiddle with it. Putting a pin in that impulse like a lepidopterist places a pin in a rare specimin, he instead stands to greet the Grand Wyrm's apprentice. "An honor, Supplicant Cooper. I hope your evening has been productive?"

The news of a transient covenant population wasn't exactly unexpected, the river very likely was the source of a great deal of water energy, which was something that many dragons were likely to be more attuned to than other vampires. But the Grand Wyrm had asked him a question. "I dislike pain, Grand Wyrm," He says. "But I find that it makes an effective teacher despite my aversion to it. I find myself taking deep breaths when I expect to suffer pain above a certain threshold." Louis taps the box of razors to indicate that threshold. "I never even noticed it before, not until it was pointed out to me by my Master. Its a bad habit from when I was alive that I haven't yet been able to iron out of my subconscious, but becoming aware of those sorts of things is the first step to doing so. I was instructed to study Pranayama because of it, which I thought was a total waste of time. We're dead, right? The only reason we need to breathe is so we can speak. We don't get winded if we run from sundown to sunup. We can do all kinds of intricate, athletic things and hold a conversation while doing so without missing a beat. I thought it was some kind of esoteric punishment for poor observational habits until I started applying some of the underpinnings of the technique to bloodflow, which lead to a personal breakthrough in regards to fasting, which helped along my studies immensely."

[Pixie Styx]

Apprentice?

Nell's mind stalls, but only for a moment before her thoughts spiral out of control.

They'd only met once alone, and only by happenstance. Was this a power move, in the face of this interloper? Claiming Nell in a position of power higher then this unknown Supplicant.

Or was it a true declaration?

Nell's eyes sought the dull brown eyes of the Grand Wyrm...in front of another, she wont receive a proper answer.

"As productive as cleaning can be Supplicant Rhodes." Nell answers, turning away from the Grand Wyrm and towards the interloper Supplicant. "A really interesting ritual meditation? Oh?" Nell says in a valiant effort in realigning her thoughts on what the Grand Wyrm had said. "I would love an explanation."

The Magician listens as the Supplicant answers the Grand Wyrm's question.

Nell hums as Rhodes gives his explanation. "I can understand how such techniques when applied to the Blood, would be proven effective." she says, already planning on putting those techniques to practice herself.