(Invisible Hands) Puzzle Pieces

[Michael Redfill]

The Savage nods to Max's reply, starting to relax while listening to David's explanation that people are coming. Right up to the point when he realizes that Tracy is coming. While the former Grand Wyrm is here. Who mentored her into the Covenant. And they were a thing. This could turn oh-so-very weird.

And then Dillon walks in, the sound of his boots carrying with itself fiery brimstone and hell. Still, this isn't Court, so his own reaction isn't to run. Rather, it's an indignant, if bored, howl from his own wolf. THey've known each other for a long time and spend a lot of time together working for the Domain. He's not a problem by himself but the whole room filling with Kindred make him start to feel trapped. Good thing so many of them are Mekhet: it really helps ease the tension.

The arrival of the final three is met with a slight bow of his head:

"Reeve Connery, thank you for joining us in this matter", - it probably has a lot to do with Martha but Dillon still doesn't have to be here. The two women get a small smile before Mike turns back to the Grand Wyrm and David, waiting for their debrief.

[Aileen McFarlane]

As was customary, Aοleen had made her way discreetly to the parlor, and had left people gather in and choose their seats near the center stage while she remained in the outskirts. It was easier to hide her dealings with Sobek too. There were so many Beasts gathered.

When her Coteriemate started talking, she focused back toward the scene. She paid little attention to what David said, having taken part in all of it, but instead tried to support him silently from her position, nodding now and then in approval of his speech, and generally smiling at him. To her, their next step was obvious.

[Max Heinz]

More people came in; the Chapter House rapidly filling up and the crush of Beasts, familiar and strange, becoming ever more oppressive. Max was just about to follow the others into the first floor Library when he caught sight of an approaching group of Kindred.

Two of the Beasts that rise up to challenge his own were familiar to Max, even if one was more powerful than he remembered; but the third was unknown to him. He was so busy suppressing the angry snarl of his own inner demon as it raged against Penelope's that he almost missed what Dillon said to him. And he didn't need Auspex to understand the meaning behind those words or the volume at which he spoke them.

Max had to hand it to the Reeve, it took balls to walk up to a man with his former lover by your side and make such an impertinent comment to him; wearing a shit-eating-grin all the while. To do so to a mortal invited a punch to the face. To do so to a Kindred, whose anger and pettiness was a living thing hiding just below the surface of the Man, invited a Frenzy.

Of course, that response was dependent on your target giving a flying fuck what anyone else thought of him...

The only response the trio of Kindred get from the Mekhet is the lifting of a single, bemused eyebrow and the fainest hint of a "Well, that's nice" smirk lifting up the corner of one lip.

He then turned his attention, and head, back to the slow migration into the Library. Picking a spot along the wall and leaning against one of the bookshelves, he listened intently to Regan as the man laid out the disturbance that had drew them all here this evening. To say an attack on the Chapter House was disturbing to the Mekhet was an understatement. And the mention of specters brings back uncomfortable memories of the aftermath of the Lost Night and a visit to the Amber Hills Asylum. At least these spirits sounded distinctly different the the worm-creatures that had attacked himself and others shortly after his arrival to the city.

Max remained silent for the moment, stewing over the new information and it's implications; and waiting to see if anyone one else had any information to add to the discussion...

[Dillon Connery]

Moving into the public library of the Ordo Chapter, Dillon gives little thought to Max' response. Other than, perhaps some disappointment, that there wasn't some clever quip ready to be tossed back into his face. But if Max had punched him in the teeth, that wouldn't have really surprised the Reeve, either.

For other Kindred, maybe people taking a swing at you for running you mouth, or having to hold back a frenzying maniac by the throat with your bare hands, isn't a commonplace occurrence. Maybe for other Kindred, that warrants a memory or a mention. Something to gossip about at Elysium. But for Gangrel, it's just... Tuesday.

He answers the nod from David with one of his own, and listens patiently to the imparted information. While he's learned all of it, by now, having it summarized so succinctly gave him the advantage of context from third party perspective. Rather than the boots-on-ground killer he'd been as it was actually going down.

Something about David's accent sparks a memory. He hadn't picked up on it before. The man is so quiet, this is the most Dillon's heard him say at one time since he's been in Sacramento. But the subtle Minnesota inflection is not lost on the Gangrel. He'd been through a few times. At least once, on a hunting trip.

Setting the thought aside, he takes up the mantle of speaker briefly in the moments of silence following the bookish Mekhet.

Dillon doesn't take a seat. Or lean. He stands perfectly proud, with his thumbs hooked in the front pockets of his pants just enough to look casual. But not enough to trap his hands from sudden, efficient movement, should it be required.

"This female that got away," he begins, "the one we're calling Servant: She isn't human. She isn't Kindred, either. Whatever she is, she confounded my attempts to chase her through the woods.

"Some kind of jump," his brow furrows with the inarticulate description. On hand lifts to make a slithering sort of sideways motion. "I'm not entirely certain it wasn't some sort of pinch in Space-Time. But they were short range. Left a bubbling wet streak every time she did it that dissolved into nothing. Very fast. Unfortunately too fast. I missed one of her jumps and didn't pick the trail up in time.

"Regent Redfill," he almost calls him Mike, "will attest to her oddities. Her blood was apparently some sort of white, ichorous substance."

Changing gears, the Reeve makes a circular motion with an index finger to indicate the general area. "What I'd like to do, tonight, is have a little talk with some of the eyes of the forest and see if they have anything to say about her direction or destination."

He really wishes he'd thought of that on the night in question. But the truth is, he'd been so angry at the situation and how it had turned out, and concerned for Martha's safety and general insistence on placing herself in harm's way, that it never occurred to him at all. His brain had been a scattered mess, running on instinct.

The thought of her running down that crippled van as fast as her blood could move her, out of Dillon's reach, still makes his nerves tingle and twitch.

"And I'd like to recruit any of you versed in The Spirit's Touch to see if there's anything else that can be gleaned from the things our perpetrators touched. Including the body of the driver, and the place where Servant went crashing into the foliage.

"Might give us something to start with, at any rate."

Hazel eyes look around, appraising who among them wish to make themselves useful. For once, he's thankful that the Ordo Dracul naturally attracts so many Auspex-wielding Shadows.

[Michael Redfill]

It's all business now. Michael listens to the Reeve give his report and as he does, his brow furrows more and more. Something was able to get away from Dillon? Not good.

"Yes. Miss Prieto was fighting her with me at the time and cut her several times. It wasn't blood, although unfortunately we had bigger things to worry about after the confrontation than gathering it and getting it analyzed. I'm not even sure if it remained or evaporated. Whatever creature she is, it has a hunger for violence: it kept fighting up to the point when we dealt a lot of damage to it".

He scratches the back of his head, apparently embarassed at his own thoughtlessness:

"I will accompany you to the woods, Reeve, then. Spirit's Touch isn't among my talents".

[Tracy Burns]

As Tracy stepped inside, she offered smiles all around and did her best to appear like nothing was wrong. That was until the Reeve spoke a certain set of words, which caused the petite Gangrel to wince for a brief moment. Part of her just wanted to turn around and run, but her convictions kept her still in her place. You can't just run away from your problems, she thought to herself, offering an apologetic look to Max Heinz after Dillon had made the comment.

You'll have to talk to him at some point...but there are more important things to deal with right now.

The petite Gangrel turned her attention to David as he summarized the events that took place on the night of the break in, paying careful attention to the details shared. Her emerald green eyes shifted their attention to the jars that were being presented by the Mortician, scrutinizing them with a hint of curiosity in her eyes. When Dillon piped up about the woman that had escaped, Tracy turned her attention to him. The fact that this woman was neither Kindred nor Kine certainly was a matter of concern. It was clear that they were dealing with some other type of supernatural entity, and one that they didn't know much about.

"Since I am not learned in the ways of Auspex, I will go to the woods as well," she said in response, giving a nod to Dillon and Redfill. If anything, she could serve as a scout and keep an eye on things from above.

[Max Heinz]

Max stood in silent contemplation of everything the two men had said about the break in. At first, the description of the unknown woman's ability to teleport from place to place sounded like a trick of the Blood his Sire had once used; but the description of the secretions it left behind quickly ruled out that possibility. And the description of her "blood", or whatever it was the creature spilled when injured, certainly seemed to support the theory that she wasn't Kindred.

The thin Mekhet closed his eyes for a few moments, mentally going through everything he knew about supernatural creatures; trying to match up what they knew with anything that fit that description...

1 Suxx

58468 2014-08-22 03:32:22 Max rolls 6 to (Int or Wis + Occult) to identify (10 Again) 2, 4, 4, 5, 9, 5 1 success

If there was any lingering emotions over their conversation, they didn't show as Max turned his attention to the Reeve and nodded his head slowly. Even if he wasn't the Grand Wyrm anymore, the safety of the Chapter House and its occupants were Max's concern. "A sound idea, Reeve Connery. If you give me a few moments to study the artifacts left behind, I'll join you and Supplicant Burns outside. Give you a chance to carry out your conversations with... well, with whatever you find out there, in private."

Max wasn't sure what the Reeve could learn from a bunch of squirrels besides where the best hiding places for acorns were; but he had long since learned his lesson about trying to figure out why the Gangrel did what they did...


If I could walk with the animals, Talk with the animals, Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals...
Not helping...


Shifting his weight, Max eased himself off the bookshelf and began making his way towards David. "Alright, Mr Regan; forgive me, I don't know your proper form of address, you seem to be the most knowledgeable in this matter. Why don't you show me what you've collected and I'll see if I can't get them to give up their secrets?"

[Hildegarde Bingen]

Hildegarde stared at the jars with a certain curiosity. The talk of an actual attack on the Chapter House had her attention, suddenly sharply focussed, pressing on David and the Reeve.

"Society of Penelope? I have heard of it. They relocated their headquarters from San Francisco to... near here..." The Lord had to stop and think, dredging half remembered factoids from the vacuous hole of her memory. "Folsom... or Folsom Lake, I think. It was very new. There was a book signing, I think..."

Shaking her head, she gave up scratching for morsels and turned her attention back on the jars.