On Wings of Wax

Feb 24th, 2019 06:04 PM

This scene immediately follows The Bird Soars.

Quiet.

A Chrysalis was in progress. The Dragons knew. It was an advancement of the Soul, and it was a time of contemplation and meditation.

The quiet was shattered by a feral shriek from the basement.

"NO!"

A pattering of feet, far faster than humanly possible, could be heard by those with heightened hearing. Then, more shrieking and a battle cry, echoing within the basement's walls. Signs of struggle. The distinctive sound of metal on bone.

A whisper, if you really listened.

Then, dead meat hitting the floor.

Steven Krakenbox Ruach

Feb 24th, 2019 07:24 PM

Atticus sits in the living room of the Mansion, flipping through a book and making notes in a small notebook. As the scream comes Atticus stands and dashes downstairs, his gear going off his lap and hitting the floor. Knowing what was going on downstairs, in conjunction with the scream, he knew before he got downstairs what had happened. The reality of the risks we take. Atticus thought in another person's voice. As he rounded the corner and trampled down the steps he knew what was coming, but it didn't make it any easier. One of the two women would be dead or unconscious, and Atticus would have to handle the other one.

"Lina..." Atticus said releasing the oxygen in his lungs, it was like breathing for the first time. The Gangrel saw the body on the floor. Sadness was there at the edges, creeping in. He'd seen this before, he'd felt this before. Good people, much more experienced then her had fallen like this. It didn't make it easier, but Atticus was prepared...

**Dirt Nap** · Feb 24th, 2019 11:10 PM

"Well. Damn." Dirt Nap says, quietly when he arrives on the scene, after Atticus.

He stands still, crouched by the stairs, watching and waiting for an order or a need to become clear, including possibly the need to leave the teacher alone with the fallen student.

**Garrett Prosper** · Feb 25th, 2019 01:27 AM

Prosper flinches as the howl reaches his ears, and then hearing the rest of the Supplicants thundering downstairs.

The stack of papers are dropped as he darts down the hall, listening in a moment of confusion when he remembers that no one had actually shown him where things were in the Chapter House.

His expression is blank as he finally finds the chamber, head roaring with noise as he stands behind his cousin and watching the Grand Wyrm. A loss for words, having only spoken with the other on her Chrysalis at sundown.

Feb 25th, 2019 01:57 AM

Blood.

Blood everywhere. Sprayed on the wall, on the sensory deprivation tank. Spurted on the floors, down the front of the Grand Wyrm's robe. Down the front of Blackbird's torpid meatsack, running from a cut across her belly and a gaping thrust to her solar plexus, along with where Moretti's knife was buried to the hilt in the young Daeva's chest.

She pulled it out with a grunt of effort, and leaned against the wall. The little things she would have forgotten to do in a traumatic moment like this, like breathe, like blink - all that continued. The Coil of the Soul demanded it, for she had succeeded --

-- it was hard to think like that. Painful, even. Hard to see past the fact that her Blood was up, that her Beast was raving for more, demanding she take and take until there was nothing more to take...

She peered at the Dragons, who had come down to rush to her aid.

"This Slave has fallen to the Dragon. Supplicant Prosper, note the time."

Looking down at herself, at the mess, at the chaos, she sighed. The body on the floor really said it all. The Scribe grit her teeth against the Beasts, all of which hers wished to flay, to spread more violence to this horrifying night. But one Dragon was enough loss. The pit in her stomach was filled with recrimination and anger, sadness and pain, all swirling. A moment of thoughtfulness. Give Atticus the chance to say goodbye; they'd grown close. They were partners in the field, and friends off.

"Place her in repose, Supplicant James."

She moved toward the group, toward the stairs, knife still in hand, held with the tip pointed downward. Her other hand peeled off her blood-drenched ceremonial robe, and she handed it to Dirt Nap with a nod of thanks.

The Scribe's stony visage cracked, and her shoulders sagged, as though she'd fought a thousand battles rather than a momentary single one.

Feb 25th, 2019 11:49 PM

There are no tears in Atticus as he just makes his way over to what was Blackbird. He kneels and scoops her up. Never was her moniker more accurate then it is now. She is light, a hollow boned bird in his arms. She is limp, a baby bird fallen from tree.

The normally arrogant Gangrel says nothing, just does his work. With Blackbird in his arms he climbs the steps out of the basement, walking by his cell as he does. Up the steps and up the steps he walks toward Blackbird's room. With her slight frame, he easily opens the door while maintaining his carrying Bird. Atticus steps into the bedroom and looks around. It looks like Bird. It smells like Bird too. The Supplicant of Terror makes his way to her made bed and sets her down on it, not crossing her hands across her chest or anything so silly, but instead setting her hands on her stomach. With her on the bed, Atticus just sits on the floor next to the bed, using the side of the mattress and box-spring as as a backrest.

**Garrett Prosper** · Feb 25th, 2019 11:58 PM

Prosper doesn't stop Lina as she passes him, giving her the time she was obviously pushing for. "I will clean," is all he says, his tone low and even. He nods to Dirt Nap, "I need some help with navigating, however." Leaving the man just to stare seemed ridiculous as Atticus tended to the body.

Because that's what it was.

She wasn't coming back.

**Dirt Nap** · Feb 26th, 2019 04:10 PM

Dirt Nap accepts the bloody robe with a wordless nod, giving Lina Moretti ample space to pass by without any required contact, even eye contact.

He nods again to Garret Prosper. "Right. I'll help. I am going up there anyway. With this." he says, holding the bloody robe as it was handed to him, not compressing it together into a bundle. He will infer from Lina's having handed it to him that she may still want it, so he will take it up to the laundry where the serious cleaning supplies are kept, leading Garrett Prosper away and leaving Atticus James with the souless body of the one they'd called, "Blackbird".

Feb 27th, 2019 01:00 AM

Moretti stalked up the stairs, teeth grit against the Beast, which rose in her chest along with her grief and her rage. She had done everything right! The method was reproducible, the equipment was top-of-the-line, the plan repeated exactly as she had done it herself! Why had the little bird failed?!

Up to her chambers she went, a growl growing in her chest. She slammed the door. She stalked around the bedroom, where she slumbered safe from the daylight. It was a place of solitude, of comfort, but here and now?

Blackbird was dead. Whatever inhabited her body now was just a monster. All that light, all that eagerness, the way she was so vain but so, so alive...

Rage. It burst forth from her like a corona as the Beast tore forth from its shackles, driving her toward Frenzy, past her exercises, past the Coil's boundaries, past it all. It shook in her very bones as tears poured down her face. It rattled at the cage as she slammed her powerful fists into her bureau, cracking the wood. As she threw a heavy book across the room, sending pages flying.

Somehow, in spite of it all, where discipline failed, Lina Moretti's raw will did not.

It took time. God, did it take time, but she was still there. Tonight, it would not be the Grand Wyrm losing herself for even a second to the Beast, try though it might.

"Annora... I'm so fucking sorry."

Recrimination followed rage, as the little Daeva tried to go through it all to determine where it went wrong, what she could have done differently, even if the answer was there, even if it was clear all along. Blackbird simply wasn't strong enough. An untrained Nine of Cups, too focused on revelry and not focused enough on strength of the soul.

She'd try again.

The next one wouldn't fail.

The Great Work had to continue.

10 successes acquired against anger frenzy for death of a loved one

Feb 27th, 2019 07:37 PM

Atticus looks around the space. He hadn't seen it before. It was a beautiful space. The off white walls with the black woodwork and beams. The light fixtures, the furniture, it was all so her. Atticus couldn't sit there any further. He couldn't be in this space, it felt like an invasion. He had to get out. His skin crawled, his eyes burned. Atticus sat. The sun was coming, the heavy blackout curtains were open. He should close them. Atticus sat.

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2019-02-27 00:49:42	[08] Lina Moretti rolls 4 to Resolve + Composure (10 Again)	9, 10, 5, 2, 10, 2	3 successes
2019-02-27 00:49:42	[07] Lina Moretti rolls 4 to Resolve + Composure (10 Again)	5, 5, 9, 5	1 success
2019-02-27 00:49:42	[06] Lina Moretti rolls 4 to Resolve + Composure (10 Again)	9, 1, 6, 4	1 success
2019-02-27 00:49:42	[05] Lina Moretti rolls 4 to Resolve + Composure (10 Again)	5, 8, 3, 3	1 success
2019-02-27 00:49:42	[04] Lina Moretti rolls 4 to Resolve + Composure (10 Again)	9, 3, 10, 4, 8	3 successes
2019-02-27 00:49:42	[03] Lina Moretti rolls 4 to Resolve + Composure (10 Again)	1, 5, 10, 4, 6	1 success
2019-02-27 00:49:42	[02] Lina Moretti rolls 4 to Resolve + Composure (10 Again)	8, 5, 5, 7	1 success
2019-02-27 00:49:42	[01] Lina Moretti rolls 4 to Resolve + Composure (10 Again)	5, 10, 7, 4, 5	1 success

On Wings of Wax

Members who have read this thread : 14

Similar Threads

Tur On Wings of Winter

Glimpse Wings of Change

Sanctum Wings, The Hoodie Has 'Em

Sanctum Here's Your Wings and Halo

Hollow Butterfly Wings