Ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and the fangs keep popping my bubbles

[Roxie Hart]

Roxie parked the ratty white el camino a couple of blocks away from Dog's haven. She hadn't been back to Sacramento for awhile, and when she had called to see if she could crash at his place for the day before finally introducing herself to the local Emperor Norton he hadn't picked up. She wasn't all that concerned about Dog, since he was a big boy and could take care of himself, but trouble was trouble and if she could help him she didn't have any pressing reason to avoid it. And he'd done her a couple of favors she didn't mind owing actually.

Touch of Shadow

She's got two Colt Single Action Army revolvers, one tucked in the back of her jeans and the other in a hip holster. Both are covered by Obfuscate 1. She has ammo in speed loaders in her belt, which is also hidden by Obfuscate 1.

[DaevaDude]

Narration:

The walk to Dog's warehouse Haven is uneventful. When she gets there, she finds the doors are all locked, the place quiet.

[Benji]

Suffering the slightest twinge of disappointment that, she didn't know, a manageable number of ninjas or punks or something didn't pop out for her to kick around, she wheels a dumpster up against one of the outside walls, climbs it and checks to see if the windows were unlocked or broken.

[DaevaDude]

Narration:

When she gets up there, Roxie finds one window has a piece of the glass missing. The edges of the glass look clean, as if someone used a glass cutter on it. The window is locked, but the glass is cut in such a way that she can reach through to unlatch it.

The warehouse inside is dark.

[Benji]

She chews at the inside of her cheek as she thinks, did Charlie keep a flashlight in his el camino? She ran through the checklist of things she scavenged from his place after she left him there in the end, and she came to the conclusion that if he did, she didn't pick it up after he finished bleeding out.

Oh well, she had a general idea of where his living space was in the mass of junk he hadn't cleared out, and she figured that even if she did have a light of some kind it wouldn't do much more than announce where she was.

She slips into the building and listens to see if anything comes slobbering at her in the darkness. Sometimes Dog forgot to change back into his people form after all.

[DaevaDude]

Nothing comes slobbering, but Roxie does hear something, though very faintly... chewing sounds.

[Roxie Hart]

Well, that ruled out anything good. She hadn't chewed anything in a long time, and she doubted that anything that had business making those noises in someone's Haven was doing anything pleasant. She takes a moment and pushes the blood through her system, fortifying and strengthening herself in cast this turns ugly.

Activating Vigor and Resilience

worst case scenerio, she's a little hungry after this.

It costs 2 vitae

Then Roxie keeps her hands free and slowly, oh so slowly moves closer to the sounds, trying not to run into anything and hoping that everything is where she remembers where it was.

[DaevaDude]

As she gets closer, her eyes adjust to the minimal amount of ambient light... it's only because Kindred have slightly sharper senses than living humans that she is able to see at all, and all she can really make out is shapes.

As she moves forward, she hears a chittering sound. She sees several small creatures rush away, a few of them standing on their back legs and gnashing teeth before rushing off... rats, no doubt frightened off by her predatory aura, just like most animals react to Kindred, save those with knowledge of Animalism.

At first she can't make out what they were chewing on, but finally it registers. There is a pile of human bodies - at least three, possibly more - lying in one corner of the room. She can't see clearly enough to make out much detail, but it's clear the rats were chewing at these corpses.

[Benji]

That's right run away you bastards. I'm bigger than you. Oh yeah.

Only she still can't see shit. After a moment, she digs around in one of her pockets looking for something. Ha! she knew she kept it. One of those cigarette lighters shaped like a pistol. Convenient (because unlike a zippo, her fingers strayed nowhere near the fire) and stylish (ohhhhh yeah). Now that the noises turned out to be harmless rats, she wasn't worried about light. Although she wishes that she had bought one of those little flying saucer flash lights at the same gas station now.

She pulls the trigger and tries to make out what she can in the feeble light of the little jet of fire.

[DaevaDude]

Narration:

Even though she is ready for it, Roxie's Beast growls at the sight of the flame, urging her to toss it away, to flee, but because she was ready, she is able to maintain control and push the Beast back down.

In the light cast by the small flame, Roxie can see there are indeed three bodies, chewed and decayed to varying degrees. Two are male - one black and elderly, one young and white - the other a white female, perhaps still a girl, a very young woman at most. The male bodies appear fully clothed, while the female body is mostly unclothed, and the tiny skirt bunched up around the corpse's waist. That body is atop the pile, and obviously the freshest of the three. Some maggots feast upon the bodies, and in many places on the male bodies - hands, noses, ears - flesh has been chewed down to the bone by rats, or is missing entirely.

Just as Roxie has started to process what she sees, another body - that of a Latina, probably in or near her 30s, barely-dressed in a manner strongly suggesting "hooker", eyes rolled back, neck sliced open and wet with fresh blood - is hurled from outside the glow of the flame to thump down onto the pile. Roxie hears footfalls, and a moment later a figure walks into the very edge of the light: A tall man with long, blonde hair and a thick, tangled beard, dressed in ragged clothing. His eyes shine a feral red in the firelight, and Roxy sees blood around his mouth and in his beard. In his right hand he carries an open straight razor, its edge slightly bloodied.

"Just empties," the figure says, his English thick with some sort of Scandinavian accent. "Sorry I did not leave you any. You must be lady of the house?"