(On the Hunt) Underground Party

[Clara E. Verne]

Clara bashfully replied to Anemic dude. "Noooo. It's not people. It's the cameras. And my picture right after. I couldn't." She shook her head and laughed as if that explained the entirety of the issue. She paused and returned Anemic Dude's mischievous glean with an easy smile. "How would you fix me?"

Bubbly Voluptuous' comment caused Clara to turn to her. "Wow, so you've been with him since like the beginning! So what's this last project Bruce worked on? You guys just finished? No room for any extra talent?" She let a bit of opportunism slip into her voice. She didn't want these people to think she liked them just for them.

[Yumyumcrow]

Jerry Game looked smugly across at Lina Moretti.

"Sure. Some of its blood. And shamanism! Tried and true practices of ancient times, with extra post modern boom from the snow and other goodly stuff. Want to try? Open your eyes to a whole new world of experience?"

Jerry Game, later day Mephistopheles. Watching as some of his sycophantic crowd dipped in eagerly.

Game himself did not partake of the 'blood balls'; rather, he rolled what appeared to be hair into a cheap cigarette and smoked it.

"Witches hair. Try some?"

Back in the main chamber, Anaemic Dude is studying Clara like a prize possession or a worthy challenge to be pitted against. He has the hookah now and smoke frames his face; Bubbly Voluptuous seems almost demonic in the haze; Coughing Guy has almost vanished completely (maybe he's snogging someone else in the group).

"Well. I know an artist. A painter. She kinda weird but... She sticks to herself mostly. A recluse. But I hear she takes good care of her models. I've known a few and none of them have a bad word about her."

"She the guy that painted that chick looking in the mirror? Scary as fuck!" Coughing Guy has to break in.

Anaemic Dude winced. "Yeah. That was from her private collection. She let it out a few years back. So... What do you think? If you camera shy, we can try Old School." There, the look of mischief again.

Colonel Davis, in disguise, was hidden in the milling crowd. Everyone seemed to be settling into a good time. Bruce Harcourt had moved of his own accord, and trailing a gaggle of hopefuls, was heading to the Dance Floor. That left Clara and her crowd in the main area and the bar cleared if Davis wanted to make some of his own discrete inquiries.

[Ashley Cohen]

"By chance, if the gator is a 'no-show,' then are you just hunting rats or something? I can't image too many beasts running rampant down here." Ashley bit the side of her lip as she churned over whether it was worthwhile continuing on with whatever this bunch was planning.

"I'm Ashley, by the way. I didn't catch any of your names?" The devious Lord inquired. She could do a lot with a name.

[Yumyumcrow]

Le BUMP Riks Clara E. Verne

[Yumyumcrow]

The bar tender is relieved to be talking to someone other than Bruce's party set. In short order, Davis gets answers to his questions. He also winds up with a cocktail of some sort, crafted while he and the bartender converse.

"The place? Its Bruce's place. The Party Den. Don't know how he swung it or who he paid off to do it but a gig is a gig, you know?"

"Down that way. The Quiet Zone where you and some buddies can just sit and relax, man. Away from the bar. Away from the dance floor which is down that way. And if you are feeling brave, past the Quiet Zone are some of the really old tunnels. Like I hear stories... Bugsy used to help with security up till recently. He took off with a chick down one of those side passages and found, like, a real altar and shit. We went back there a day or so later and checked it out but found nothing. Just a dead end. I don't think Bugsy ever made out with that chick and... he took a job bouncing at the Nox soon after. Like, he won't even talk to us now..."

"My friend. Bruce is friends with everybody. Or so he says. I bet they have each others number."

"The Albino Aligator? Oh man that is one urban legend. Its, like myth. Only Bruce thinks its real and thinks there is one here in Sacramento. Which is really stupid because he is attracting cranks like that Ronnie G. You may have missed it but we had to kick that guy, Ronnie G, out. He's been, like, stalking Bruce or something. Ranting on about how there is more the Albino Aligator and Bruce should steer clear of it. He was haranguing some other people tonight. Thats why security had him booted out."

"If you catch up with Bruce, please don't talk of this Aligator shit. He'll have you on a wild goose chase through the sewers if you let him. Guy's obsessed."
Ashley Cohen is in the passages with the East European, the Sinister Hipster and the Toned Woman.

"Alexander is my name. One night I pick a fight with a demon dog and win! Later I find the hunt club and hunt mutants in old military base." East European shrugs depreciatingly.

Sinister Hipster smiled. Oh my, he smiled! "Lets just say I was a movie critic and Brucie thought it would be fun to watch me get eaten by an alien hybrid. Now I don't know if it was a cryptid or a demon or a survivor of a mythic animal but it was not nice. Oh and I lived. And got the appetite for this kind of thing. And I want to rub Brucie's nose in it and get a bigger kill ratio than he has. Stick it to him! You can me... Jethro." Sinister Hipster smiled again.

"Daphne. I'm just a bored trophy wife with too much time on my hands and not enough charities to waste my time on. So I do yoga and self defence classes. I came into Hunt club the usual way. Black spot and all. So far they've only let me out on small things. I want to try something... bigger. What about you?"

And that leaves Lina Moretti shopping up some bloody rice balls. The sticky masses do indeed smell of vampiric Vitae. If it is, its a miracle the Vitae hasn't gone inert yet; maybe it has and the sticky rice has simply gelled together in a gluey mass. The cigarette of 'witches hair' smells like burning human hair, with a touch of foreign spices here and there. Probably explains why the spliff burns out quickly.

Jerry Game is busy rolling another. His groupies are much more interested in the coke. One is timidly trying the bloody rice balls and making suitably impressed noises.

Game is watching Lina.