[Uni-Angel/Buffy] Shells

[Gem_Knight]

Link to the OOC: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15010090

"And in further news, investigators today released information telling us that the recent 2.0'er we had last week, was in fact not an earthquake. It was in fact the collapse of a large portion of an underground cavern. History experts are thrilled at the find, though it looks partially ransacked already, because at the moment, they're scrambling just to identify what any of it is."

A man scowls as he shuts off the TV, mixed drink in one hand and a bottle of advil in the other. He sets the drink down long enough to open the Advil and pop two pills, washing it down with the drink. "I got the message the first time, thanks," he mutters to the air above. He reaches over to a small sketchpad and looks at the people he drew; three people he's never met before, "They sure do look like a sorry lot, not that I'm one to talk I suppose."

He picks up a cheap, pre-paid cellphone and promptly begins drafting several txt, send them off in quick succession, then promptly turns off the phone and removes the battery.

A few moments later, each of you will receive a Txt reading


@Morgan:


If you're willing to settle for knowing where Kendall was, I can help.
You're new best and worst friend.
Be at (Insert street here) and (another one) at 1 hour after dusk Thursday.

{OOC: this gives you two days to scope the place out before hand}



@Alexander

You've made yourself a lot of enemies, one of them is going to be at your door in less than an hour, you're choice if you want to run or be prepared, didn't catch the species, Red Skin, long tail, two short black horns, one in front of each temple. What you do with the information is up to you, but if you'd like my help in the future, I'll introduce you to a group of somewhat like-minded people I'm gathering Thursday night at (insert street intersection here).
Your Welcome.

{OOC: A little bit of quick research will tell you this is a {Name} Demon, they're the atypical one up of a human (Stronger, faster, smarter), though they're a lot tougher than a human, they go down in pretty much the same ways- just harder.} Thursday is two days away.



@Adala

That Historic Find on the news yesterday might be of interest to someone with your predilection to the nightlife. If the name Amara means anything to you, you'll be at (Insert street intersection) a hour after Dusk on Thursday.

{OOC: Amara is of course well known to vampires as a legend- but then- so is the slayer... If this holy grail of vampire artifacts is indeed whats been found on the news, finding it before anyone else in the know could have any number of positive benefits. Thursday is two days away.}

[Creed]

Beep

Sun streamed through the window as Morgan Caine opened his eyes. Was it morning already? Or was it already even later than that?

Beep

Morgan looked next to him in the sunlight, not surprised to see the conspicuous void where the bedspread had been pushed aside by someone who had left earlier that day, or the night before. The young man ran his fingers through his hair with a sigh, sitting up and dropping his feet to the shag area rug underneath the king-sized bed.

Beep

Caine stepped from the bedroom and into the kitchen, opening the fridge, his toes curling as he stepped onto the cold tile floor. He could hear soft music in the background, he must have left it on the night before. The remnants of several burnt down candles littered the counters of the kitchen, as well as various tables. Among them lay his phone, shaking and buzzing like a vicious insect.

Beep

He removed a carton of orange juice from the fridge, sipping it as he picked up his phone. A missed call, a voice mail, and a text. The voice mail first.

"Hey, um, Morgan, it's Gloria..."

The message was all too familiar to the young man, and he cut off the voice mail and tossed his phone back into the bedroom, a sharp crack resounding from the object as it flew against the solid wall. He took a chug of orange juice, gargled for a moment, then spat violently into a potted plant in the hallway on his way to the bathroom. He sat the carton down next to the sink, and threw himself into a quick, albeit cold, shower.

He dried off and wrapped himself in a towel, taking the carton in one hand and picking up the phone on his way to sitting on the bed. Now the text.

Morgan's eyes read and re-read the short missive again and again. Information. This is what he needed. But could it be a trap? After dusk, would give plenty of time for vampires to set up an ambush. But to what end? He took a swig of the orange juice again and nodded. He would go. He'd just go heavily armed, and looking for a fight. He glanced to the black, leather long coat hanging on the door, and nodded again. Thursday would be a good day.

[BananaPhone]

House in the Hollywood Hills (http://www.jamesedition.com/real_estate/united-states/california/claremont-545-w-10th-street-638588)

6pm

The house was one of the few in the area with heavily tinted windows, bordering on painted black. The owner was rarely seen, if ever, and never during the day. The few neighbors that had managed to catch the owner in those twilight hours and speak to her, welcoming her to the neighborhood, found her pleasant but distant: her manners strangely professional when dealing with the informal environment of a middle-class suburb.

She always politely turned down invitations to dinner and backyard BBQ's, and any attempts to inquire into her private life were met with gentle but impenetrable resistance.


oOo

Inside the House

The furniture in the living room was untouched and idle the kitchen clean and seemingly unused, the bathroom was neatly arranged while a silence blanketed the interior of the house and shut off all sound.

Until the radio shattered the silence.

A song flared to life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RcJLOl1nPk) and sung its melody to the figure that lay motionless in the double bed, its efforts rewarded when the rustling of sheets and movement of limbs slowly stirred from the dormancy.

"...I got spurs to jingle jangle jingle..."

"Gggggh..." Adala groaned wearily, her eyes closed and shoulders twitching with irritation.

"...as I go riding merrily along..."

Reaching out and smacking the radio-clock silent with a stab of her index finger, Adala rolled over inside a cocoon of sheets and lay upon her back, eyes fixed upon the ceiling. The grainy, salt-like sensations of waking up slowly rescinded from her eyeballs as she smacked her lips together in an attempt to purge the stale taste from her mouth. Through it all her mind started to clammer together and form the chaos of her mind into coherant thoughts.

Recovering from her slumber, the vampire narrowed her eyes as the lethargy was slowly shaken away from her supernatural body. The tide lapped at her brain with rises and plummets for her comfort. The process left her awake and, perhaps worse, alive.

Climbing out of bed, Adala headed first to the bathroom and plonked herself inside a relaxing hot shower. Singing softly as she bathed, her mood lifting, the vampire scrubbed herself down before departing, dressing and picking up her phone while she headed down towards the basement door. Entering a four-digit code into the lock, a soft beep confirmed the correct passcode before a mechanical sigh indicated that the door was open.

Rising an eyebrow as she read the txt message, her eyes narrowed skeptically, she reached the inside of her basement and headed over to one of the large freezers. Entering another four digit code into a keypad on its side, she lifted the freezer door and was presented with a coils of white mist overflowing out of the lip of the freezer to present the beautiful bank of red that lay within.

Grinning as her green eyes widened in delight, the vampire reached down and withdrew a head-sized jug before closing and locking the container. Heading back upstairs, Adala lazily sprawled herself across the couch, turned her TV on and picked up a spoon from the coffee table and shoved it into the red, gelatinous substance in the container she was holding.

"And in further news, investigators today released information telling us that the recent 2.0'er we had last week, was in fact not an earthquake. It was in fact the collapse of a large portion of an underground cavern. History experts are thrilled at the find, though it looks partially ransacked already, because at the moment, they're scrambling just to identify what any of it is."

"Mmm!" Adala piqued up, her cheeks puffed out as she messily chewed and slurped down a mouthful of blood jelly.


oOo

7pm

A single, well-dressed figure departed the house. She was garbed in her usual style: pants, boots and a trim, black collared shirt that contrasted nicely with her yellow hair. The figure seemed to hum happily to herself as she got into her car, pulled out of the drive way, and took off down the street.

ooc:
Heading over to her chantry for the House of Thanaotos.

[Hemnon]

Puffs of smoke was escaping from Alexander's mouth as he read the message he'd gotten from some stranger.

Luckily he had his whole occult library stashed at a trusted friends location, so he didn't have to worry about that part. What he was worried about was this message he'd gotten.

With no time to deliberate it, he grabbed his jacket from the chair next to him and he sprinted out the door, jumped on his Harley Davidson and headed off down the dark road, hopefully escaping whatever demon was likely to give chase after him.

He didn't know what he blindly trusted this unknown messenger. He just had a feeling he should take a trip for a while.

Without any good ideas for a place to hide for the next two days, so he headed for his local choice of bar to get a glass or two of single malt whiskey.


(All he's got with him is his few possessions that isn't his library of awesome or his small flat, so an axe, a blessed sword and a revolver, + his biker outfit and smokes. Most of his small amount of wealth is not in items, but in the bank, safe and sound... hopefully.)

[Gem_Knight]

@Morgan

You doing anything of consequence before Thursday? Scoping the place out for example?



@Adala

Okay, anyone in particular you're looking to run into there or is it just assumed to be a typical visit for you?


@Alexander

If you ask around, people will tell you [your] (I assume if you do ask it'd be discretely and second or third hand) apartment was ransacked but the police don't think anything was taken, in fact if you don't do anything to prove otherwise police will assume it's a snatch and grab and the signs of ransacking probably indicate a struggle when in reality it was more likely the assailant was frustrated, checked for any hidden rooms, broke a few things in anger, stuck around a few hours nearby in case you showed up again, and called it a day.

Smart money it won't be safe to go back to for at least a week, but other than that it looks like it was a personal attack and not a well organized or executed operation.

[BananaPhone]

OOC:
Typical visit: she's going to go and access the library and look a little into Amara to try and discern how much of a hoax this guys text message is.

She is not mentioning this to anyone else at the chantry, though.

[Gem_Knight]

@Adala

Well, you can go ahead and roll an Occultism check for more information, but you can get this much just from a smidgen of research:

Amara was an ancient vampire, one of those ones that's so old they start retaking demonic qualities. It's rumored he's dead but there's no supporting evidence, being a vampire it's entirely possible he's still alive somewhere.

In the 10th century there was a spike in interest of him, something about a Vampire Holy Grail in "The Valley of the Sun"

[Creed]

OOC
He'll take a look, nothing too detailed, just a drive-bye to see if there's anything of significance.

[Gem_Knight]

@Morgain

As you drive by the place you see what looks like some sort of computer cafe or LAN party related business. It's basically a gamer/card shop, except the bulk of it is dedicated to computer space, each of the computers are networked together. the large glass widows have metal mesh in them to reinforce them, the neighborhood looks somewhere between suburban and mellow. It looks like a high middle class or low upper class environment. This shop on the corner is part of a small collection of businesses surrounded by residential homes. There's a large shopping center on the far side, a radio shack right next door to the LAN shop, and a few other tech-related businesses along the strip. All of them have the same mesh-reinforced widows, implying the neighborhood probably sees the occasional violence, but it's not a daily or weekly affair.

Through the window you see a man at the front desk, he's leaning back with his feet thrown up on the desk and looks half asleep while two or three teenagers play who knows what on a couple computers.

[BananaPhone]

ooc:
Adala gets: 1d10+9=13 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4016876/) on her occult research check. She'll spend an hour or so looking stuff up before, I dunno, photocopying some things.

[Hemnon]

Alexander

Alexander did the best he could to remain out of sight and out of mind from any and all bad beasties that where out to get him.

So he spend his hours with whiskey, english breakfasts for the irony of it and his thoughts kept going back to that strange message he'd gotten earlier, saving him from a pointless battle and possibly death as well.

[BananaPhone]

Seated within a branch of the chantry library, Adala pried her way through a tome that rested upon a brace with its covers wide open. Taking down several notes, she folded up several pieces of paper, tucked them away onto her person, emptied her blood/coffee mix and departed. On the way out she said Hey to Bob the Doorman.

Hoping back into her car, she turns onto the freeway and heads in the direction of the newly discovered underground cavern.

[Gem_Knight]

@Adala:

Okay, so a little more research tells you:

~The "Valley of the Sun" was heatedly argued over, but frankly it could be any number of locations, though it's probably somewhere in the Califorina/Arizona area, which LA falls under.
~The Vampire "Holy Grail" is actual a series of jewelry known as "The Gems of Amara" Which make a vampire even more invulnerable than normal. Most of the rest of his tomb would be filled with other jewelry, some with minor enchantments, but nothing that comes close to the temptation of "The Gems of Amara".
~Amara, with his Gems, was said to have even been able to walk in daylight, through fire, and withstand staking and crosses.

When you get within about 3 miles of the site, you'll run into a check zone. A Security guard will ask to see your papers. There's a second security guard in a car that's probably the other guard's partner.


@Alexander:

I honestly still don't have much to say to that- so unless you want to check out the place he said to meet or go somewhere specific to ask around, I guess we're waiting for the others to catch up at the time of the meet if you're gonna show?

[Hemnon]

Alexander

Alexander will go to the meetingplace once the day and time from that omenous Message he got is reached. He'll arrive on his Harley 10 minutes before the planned time, just to be ready, in case of any backstabbing where to happen.
(that's it, will await the others from here on :3)

[Creed]

Morgan
Morgan will continue driving, and arrive as close to on time as he can, not early, not late. With him he'll bring a duffel bag filled with weapons, as well as slipping a stake in his boot, and a pistol in his coat.

[BananaPhone]

Flicking her lips as she peers through the front window of her car at the guard check-point, Adala turns the vehicle around and parks it a short distance away.

Getting out, she locks up, pulls a trim jacket around her shoulders and disappears into one of the myriad alley-ways of LA, intent on sneaking around.


ooc:

I believe this is a Dex + Crime roll for stealth:

*looks at sheet*

Oh no, that can't be right. I could've sworn I took a few ranks in Crime, but there aren't any on there. This is...embaressing lol. Given that I had 2 spare skill points due to the Vampire/Kung Fu issue that I didn't spend, can I say for now that she has Crime 2, and then adjust the sheet to what it should've been?

[roll0]

Edit: this is why I hate this forum roller >_<

[Gem_Knight]

@Adala

For a simple archaeological dig this place seems to have an unusual amount of security. The entire site is fenced off with electrified barb wire up top (not that that's more than a speed bump for a vamp). There are only three openings in the fence, each with two pairs of guards. Spotlights flood the whole area.... perhaps someone knows a little more than they're telling on the news. There are currently two people you can see in the distance under a tent looking at books and jewelry presumably pulled from under the rubble.

It's a relatively small site, less than four blocks total, but with the six sets of guards at the openings, and at least two more you can see wondering the site, it's-... impressive. Whoever is bankrolling this thing is going all out.

(As for your mediocre crime check-{Would be poor except for the high pluses xD}):

As you approach the fence one of the guards happens to notice you, he doesn't say anything, since he seems to assume you're human, and the 10ft fence ought to be sufficient deterrent, but the glance he gives you way tells you he's noticed you.

[BananaPhone]

Peering across at what she can see from her standing position, Adala pursed her lips as her keen eyes took in the details. Ignoring the guard to her side, she pulled herself away from the fence and moved into one of the alleys behind her.

Once she was in and removed from the line of sight of the guard, Adala lept up and snatched the bottom railing of a fire-escape and hauled herself up pretty easily. Moving up the building-mounted ladder, the vampire surmounted the lip of the building, held herself away from the edge and pulled out her phone to start taking pictures.

"What have we here...." she uttered beneath her breath as if she had just caught a naughty child red handed.

She went out of her way to take a shot or two of anything brandishing a particular symbol, acronym or name.

Satisfied that she had sated her interest, Adala pulled herself away from the roof top and climbed down on the opposite side of the building.

That was the dig-site scouted out: now to see if this benefactor was who he said he was.

Getting back into her car, Adala recalled the address from the text message and drove off in that direction.

[Gem_Knight]

So Thursday rolls around. Ten minutes before the appointed time, a Harley ridden by a rough and fairly sarcastic looking fellow pulls up and stops outside. There is a business directly on the corner, like all the ones around it, it has chain mesh in the glass. Telling that this is a neighborhood prepared for violence. Though it's fairly clean looking implying it doesn't see it all the time. The business on the corner is closed. It's hours listed as Tuesday-Thursday Sunrise-Sunset, Friday-Sunday 12pm to 4pm. Through the glass there can been seen a fair number of computers, some empty table space, and an assortment of game-related merchandise: cards, dice, books. There's a small corner near the front with a register, a small amount of for sale snacks, and a small glass windowed refrigerator displaying mostly highly caffeinated beverages.

At the appointed hour a fairly nondescript car pulls up, at first seeming to just take a sweeping pass. There's still just the man on the bike.

Lastly a second car pulls up, also roughly on time. The two cars pulling up and parking separately. Once those two cars finally stop, a figure is seen moving inside the business. A dark haired, scruffy looking fellow with a nondescript bottle of some sort in his hand. He goes up to the front door and opens it. "Welcome, welcome, glad to see you all got my cryptic invitation. I do apologize for that- but I can only give what I know- which is obnoxiously cryptic on my end as well. Think of me as the middle man for an informant that likes playing god. And giving splitting headaches," he takes a swig from the bottle in his hand. "Anyway, you lot come on in and I'll see if I can answer enough questions to keep you from thinking I wasted your time." He steps back from the doorway and motions for everyone to come in.

One side of his face looks a little paler than the other side, with a star shaped scar coming out of the darker side's eye trailing all the way to his ear on that same side. Following the pattern as seen from his sleeveless tank top one arm is paler than the other as well. The tiny bits of flesh peeking out under his shirt follow the same pattern, the left side being darker than the right. Not by a glaring amount, just enough to stand out when you're within seven feet of him.

[Creed]

Morgan comes around the corner as the man opens the door, clicking the locks on his beat-up looking sedan with a quiet beep. He raises an eyebrow at the other two who apparently got texts.

The young man reaches up and scratches his ruffled black hair. He's wearing a plain, white t-shirt and a torn up pair of jeans, with black combat boots poking out of the frayed bottoms. Over this ensemble, Morgan wears a beat up black longcoat. Over one shoulder, he carries a large, full-looking duffel bag. He looks back in forth over the three people sharing the street corner, a quizzical impression on his face.. Then points to each one in turn, finally resting on the man who opened the door.

"Who are these?" he asks simply, shaking his head at the two others, sliding his other hand inside of his coat with a subtle motion.

[BananaPhone]

Having already scoped the place out, Adala was seated surreptitiously for when the strange-looking fellow arrived. Ostensibly she appeared as a yuppie tom-girl (http://ak1.ostkcdn.com/images/products/P14339399.jpg)that had walked off the street: jeans, black jacket, hair over her shoulders and a wide, cheesy grin on her face.

When she stood up to follow the head honcho, another fellow rocked along. To Adala he looked borderline homeless: his plain shirt, torn jeans, beat up-long coat and a duffel-bag housing, what she guessed, all that he owned...and then he questioned who she was.

"I'm here because someone has to bring a measure of class." she grinned, obviously offering some playful humor that wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

[Creed]

Morgan raises an eyebrow and chuckles for a moment,

"Well, that's good enough for me," he responds to the young woman.

He withdraws his hand from his coat, his car keys remaining within in a small pocket.

[Hemnon]

As Alexander sees the three others, his brow furrows in suspicion, since he doesn't trust anyone there, except himself.

''I'm here simply because i feel i need to... and i got his cryptic warning and message to meet here. that's all.'' he replied to the question flung out by one of the others.

He dismounts his bike and slowly walks up to the others.

[Gem_Knight]

The man nods, "Yes yes, and as I said, I do apologize for the cryptic bull****." Once they're all inside he pulls leads them to one of the smaller rooms, "We of course use these rooms for role players during the day, but they make great offices for important meetings." He smirks, inside the smaller room is just a large table with chairs, and a large whiteboard on one wall.

"So anyway, my name is Neruneko, you can call me Neko, and as I said, I'm kind of like middle management- I work- somewhat against my will, for the higher powers, and they seem to be willing to let slide a favor for each of you in order to co-op you into my nightmare," he muses.

He grabs a folder on the table, starting with Morgan he hands him a relatively detailed photoshop generated artwork of his nemesis Kendall, the sketch is detailed enough to include background details of the building, and a couple underlings he may or may not recognize. "I've seen some of your dear old friend's handiwork, enough that I may be able to cut down the time it will take for you to find him, more importantly, if he continues to be a flagrant and shameless slaughterer, the powers may very well bump him up on their priorities too."

"My information on you is a little less solid honestly, I saw that heads up for you, and I've seen just enough of your background that I guess I'm supposed to play on your desire to make a difference and kill bad things," he smirks, "If that's not enough there's always the image I have of Traver's wetting himself I could print up." He drops a small stack of images in front of Alexander, each is a different demon in a different place, each doing terrible different things. "Each of those things hasn't happened yet, like the bruiser I warned you about at your place.

He smiles, "Would the lass her care for a drink, I'm afraid my personal stock might not suit your taste, but I do have a fine assortment of booze." He smirks and sets down in front of her an image of a pair of gems, one mounted in a ring, the other on an amulet. "These beauties are the main thing to draw you hear- you see- these were already stolen from that site I want to help you with, and they're the most important part of the find- far as your interest probably goes anyway. Those beauts are know as 'The Gems of Amara'."

(Anyone with occult- which is probably all of you- can make a check to see if you recognize it)

He gets up and starts to draw on the whiteboard- not nearly as wonderfully as the photoshop work- but clear enough to get the points across. "I know the bloke who stole them is working for someone else, since the bloke who stole them could walk in daylight without the gems. And the little lass who wants them can't."

[roll0]

Quality of sketches in progress to be determined by this roll >.>;

[Creed]

Morgan looks at the picture of Kendall for a moment, then stuffs it in his coat, grimacing.
"And you want us to get these gems back?" the man asks, inferring what he could from the previous statements. Then, he pauses, and looks at the woman next to him,
"Wait, you're not human?"

[BananaPhone]

Adala's green eyes glimmered briefly as the photo's were set down in front of her. How beautiful they were, how very tempting.

"Those are quite the bauble to hand over to just anyone." Adala started, before dragging her eyes up from the picture to observe Neko.

"What's the price tag?"

[BananaPhone]

Returning Creeds look, Adala pauses briefly as her brain seems to become jammed. Recalibrating itself, she answers slowly "Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck..." she shrugs, implying that she was human.

[Creed]

Morgan stares at Adala for a second, then turns back to Neko.

"Alright, spill. If she's human, why'd you say that she couldn't get them in daylight? A curse? Let's get some answers, or I'm walking, Kendall or not."

Caine looks around the room, his hand reaching towards his boot with a slow, calm motion.

[BananaPhone]

Adala appeared at first reluctant, almost defiant to reveal anything. Then, after several seconds, she sighed and hung her head sadly. Her eyes closed and her lips pressed together softly to cease the quivering.

"Fine..." she uttered in resigned defeat. "You win."

"Many moons ago I was much younger...vein and self-absorbed. My hair - do you see it? It's radiance as it grabs the light and woo's onlookers into a state of pure adulation. I'm pretty fantastic. I still am....but that's what went wrong. I was too involved with myself: captain of the girls lacross team, scholarship to UCLA, any guy I wanted...I got cocky...arrogant...then she found me...

She was this twisted old witch. A real 0 out of 10. I could barely look at her for all the gnarly, residual disgust that she'd well up within me. But, she approached me one night, she said that I had to change my ways, that I had to avert a life of hubris and self-worship - I had to stop being so awesome!

Naturally I told her to get bent. But that didn't sway her.

She waved her boney hand and uttered several words...then she just cackled and walked off. I was thankful to just be rid of her, I didn't know what was happening! Until it was too late...

Soon, for prom night, I wore my mothers jewels. Beautiful, sparkling stars they were, they looked absolutely amazing on me, which is only natural. I put them around my neck, I ventured outside at 6pm only to touch the sun and...I got burned."

Adala reached a hand up to hold her neck, as if remembered an old wound.

"The gems burned me! That bitch had cursed me. I couldn't wear jewelry in the sun light anymore! Thus, when Neko here speaks about my flaw, that is what he is referring to...that is my curse..."

Adala hung her head, seemingly saddened, her shoulders quivering and the soft heard of sniffing heard as she reached up to her face to cover her mouth.

[Creed]

Morgan looks utterly bewildered for a few seconds, then pulls his hand away from his boot, looking at Adala with a gaze of pure befuddlement.

"That... is the most specific curse I've ever heard of..."

He sits down in a chair, running a hand through his hair.

"What a vile trick... the jewels. Yes, sorry, that's right, you want us to go get the Gems of Am-whatever?"

Apparently, Morgan is taken in by the ruse quite completely.

[Hemnon]

Alexander got very interested when he heard the lady's story. But also distrustful towards her, if she was what he thought she was.
''Excuse me my dear, but from what you say, i take it you're a vampire?'' He asked Adala, suspicion gleaming from his eyes.


Occultism Roll: [roll0]+6(Int)+6(Occultism) = 18

[Gem_Knight]

@Alexander:

Without your books you of course, can't nail the specific, but you know the name Amara, as part of a legend presumed to be fable- it however seems more likely given the evidence presented- that the vampires called it a myth/fable as a half-ass effort of giving up on finding it. What you can recall without your books is that Amara was rumored to have made artifacts that made him much stronger- give what Neko's said- it's not a stretch to assume "much stronger" equates to daywalking at the very least.


Neko's jaw hangs for a moment as he listens to Adala's story- and for a moment he even has to remind himself just how full of it she is. However when Alexander choses to have none of it and just flat out asks if she's a vampire Neko Laughs. He has to put down the marker for a moment and clutch his side to stop himself from laughing.

He takes a long and slow breath allowing himself a smirk. "Okay wake up call. There is exactly one full blood human in this room, and he is safe here. Among two half-demons, and a vampire who has no plans of world domination or petty mass slaughter." He clears his throat. "I'll say this more clearly, I brought you all together, knowing that despite your differences- none of you should have any immediate reason to kill each other. The vampire is safe. The other half demon is still half human, thus is no more dangerous than any other human with excessive resources at their disposal. As for me- I got shanghaied into heroism, first by the bloody american government, then by the higher powers. Truth be told, if I had things my way, I'd be laying back with a cold brew and a dame," he turns to Adala, "No offense."

Neko turned specifically to Alexander, "I realize it must be hard for you to trust- well- anyone given your history, but I'd be willing to bet- pricks that the powers are- that's exactly why you were chosen for this gig."

he turns back to the whiteboard and finishes drawing a decent but not professional depiction of what looks like a girl of about eight or nine at most- perfectly innocent- except for the vampire game face. "This vampire however," he motions to his drawing, "Is currently in possession of the Gems of Amara. And is about to begin a series of abductions of humans for experimentation of some sort- I didn't catch the end result of them- just that they might actually be more uncomfortable then the visions that showed me."

[BananaPhone]

Before Adala could answer Alexanders straight question with a feigned wound that she was being called soulless, Neko decided to bust in and confirm it.

Two half-bloods in here? Interesting...

When Neko piped up and said that the vampire was safe, Adala saw her chance. Motioning to Creed, she smiled naively "Yay, you're safe!" she uttered softly, putting on a ditzy, girly appearance.

All this talk of "powers that be", however, did fascinating Adala on a private level. Why had they hand chosen her to come along? That ring of amara would be fantastic bling upon her finger: why would they want her to have it? Or rather, why would they want her, out of all the other people in LA, near the thing when it was being worn by another of her kind? Curious indeed.

[Creed]

Morgan Caine chuckles, flashing Adala a smile.

"Wouldn't think so princess, blood has as much human in it as brimstone."

He then turns back to the white board.

"So, find the scamp, take the rocks, get our rewards? Seens easy enough. I've dealt with vamps before, shouldn't be much of an issue."

He reaches into his boot and quickly whips a stake out, slamming it down on the table, giving Adala a pointed glance. He obviously doesn't like being bamboozled.

[BananaPhone]

The ditzy, girl visage seemed to wash away from Adala's features as she could no longer repress the wide grin that split her lower face (http://static.tumblr.com/c805b89037ffe8e2f3ae40148652174d/sctolh3/TAAmjnux8/tumblr_static_smirk_evil.gif).

"And yet they can still pull one over you. Really...a witches curse to be burned by jewelry in the day time...ba-hahah!"

Adala almost fell forward, sinking onto her forearms on the table as she laughed heartily. When she was finished, she sat back upright, her face a mask of mirth and joy. She exhaled softly as she let out a soft "Ahh..." and grinned.

[Creed]

Morgan grimaces and points the stake at Adala, standing up, sending his chair scooting back.

"You want some, princess? Got nothing wrong with getting some dust on the floor."

He then looks over at Neko.

"You're sending a vamp to kill a vamp?"

[BananaPhone]

Adala's eyes widened and glimmered with excitement as Morgan stood up in a dramatic fashion and menaced her with the top of the stake.

"Put it away, junior." Adala answered, amused.

"We're here because we're pro's. You can wave your wood around later, right now we've got a briefing to listen to. Relax, dude."

[Creed]

Morgan looks back and forth, then puts the stake back in his boot.

"Watch yourself, vamp. I don't like havin' holes in my neck, and I'd bet you don't like havin' holes in your heart, if you catch my drift."

[Hemnon]

''By all that is holy, would the two of you take it down a notch? Your squabling is quite annoying to listen to. And you, Neko... cat, whatever: What else have to powers told you? any nice hints concerning traps ambushes or any general aid than your headache and mental image-flashes?'' It would seem that some british was still left in him, the total lack of humor was apparantly still lurking around it would seem.

[BananaPhone]

Seeming happy with herself, Adala reclines back, a small smirk on her face.

[Creed]

Morgan mumbles something, then sits back down, facing Adala now, not Neko.

[Gem_Knight]

"I'm not sending anyone- The Powers That Be provide me with certain information, and I'm sharing that with people the powers have informed me about because they think she would have an interest in doing so. Which frankly I can see why she might. But the powers- and I- don't care if the other vampire dies- they just want the evil she's going to bring stopped. And unfortunately 'The Asshats That Be' are big on the whole 'need to know' crap. Worse about it than those idiots who fixed me up after that bad news with the piano..."

He sighs and walks over to an empty seat, sitting down. He pulls out a silver flask and takes a deep drink from it. "My interest is in solving problems dropped on my lap- or brain- I'm not a mercenary, I'm not a hero. Frankly my understanding of the situation is that covers most of us in that room. Our interest to do good outweighs that to do evil, but our self-interest outweighs that by a sizable profit margin."

[Creed]

Morgan raises an eyebrow at Neko's speech.

"Sounds like a reasonable assessment to me. Your psychic visions give you anywhere to start looking? A neighborhood? I'd settle for a direction at this point..."

[BananaPhone]

"The ring of Amara? Me?" Adala asked, slouching back in her chair.

She managed to shrug, disinterested. "I've heard its a pretty bauble, doesn't catch my fancy too much though. Miss Uppity-Pants there though, sounds like she needs erasing from the big picture. Can't have folks running around drawing undue attention."

Inside however, she felt a very different reaction (http://youtu.be/VORaol22Yl8?t=27s).

[Gem_Knight]

Neko smirked, "I can't speak to anyone getting anything- hell maybe we'll get lucky and they'll get destroyed in all the chaos- no offense Adala. All I do is give the information I'm given, I have a few names of people dumped DoA at a local hospital related to whatever the little biter is doing, no bite marks so whatever it is it isn't feeding."

[BananaPhone]

Adala pursed her lips as she seemed to think of something, before she finally nodded curtly.

"I could use that. Hand over some names and I'll get some leads."

[Creed]

"So follow the trail of bodies to the vamp, dust her and bring a preferably violent end to her line of work? Sounds simple enough, figure a few buddies of mine probably know the story on this bit, given a little nudge," Morgan stands and picks up his bag.

"Probably wouldn't hurt to hang onto the rocks though, provided we can. Know a jeweler who'd pay a pretty penny for those things," the man says, unaware of their mystical origin.

[BananaPhone]

Adala grinned, "Great! I so do enjoy ending on a term of agreement." she said as she too took to standing.

[Hemnon]

Alexander raised an eyebrow at the Jeweler-idea, with a scoffing expression on his face.

''The heck we will sell that Gem. it's not just a regular piece of bling for women. As far as i know, the gem is oriented towards making Vampires immune to stuff like sunlight and 'dusting-attempts'... I unfortunately don't have my library with me, so i can't remember what else it can do.''

[Creed]

Morgan lets out a low whistle.
"Huh, so we break it then. Not much of an academic, that was more of my old man's thing."

[BananaPhone]

"We few; we happy few; we band of brothers!" Adala grinned, pulling her light jacket a little tighter around her shoulders.

"I feel like this union calls for a celebratory drink!"

[Gem_Knight]

"Cheers," Neko teases at Adala while downing a swig from his flask. "On that note," he goes back to his folder and drops a small stack of papers, multiple copies of the same two pages of names (Call it 45 names spread through 3 hospitals).

"And at the bottom of those you'll find my number, you can call or text if you find anything."

[Creed]

Morgan sighs and takes one of the lists.
"Let's just get started, we've got a lot of work to do before we get to the fun part. And play your cards right, pasty, and you might just get a drink by the time we're through here."
He sits back down, flipping through the names.

[BananaPhone]

"Oh, well if I have your permission." Adala responds, amused.

"Hmm, 45 names. I'm sure we could nab a couple of the corpses from the hospital morgue," Adala trails off, "with them...just a simple necromantic ritual, summon the spirit back, ask them where they went, what happened last, who they last saw..." she uttered, gazing off into space and reciting her thoughts as if going through a shopping list.

"...or we could just get in there and find out where most of them were found dead: or where most of them were seen last."

[Creed]

"Well," Morgan shoves the list in his jacket and heads for the door, "Time to go body-snatching."