(IC 2) San Francisco by Night: A Requiem in Fog

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Anna smiled, allowing herself to be put at ease by lady Stardust.

“I just had a bad feeling, but I feel much better now,” Anna replied, “ Some refreshment would be perfect, if any is available.”

When it was polite, she moved to the next room and the waiting Ventrue.

[Bennosuke]

The car trundles forward, the flat back wheel clunking repeatedly as it turns over. Karl's only option is to drive first into the oncoming traffic lane, but fortunately, there is a space cleared by the semi that ran him down, and Karl is able to slip over onto the correct side of the road.

A blast comes from behind Karl, sounds like gunfire, but the car doesn't shake and there is no signs of impact. Karl pushes the vehicle as fast as he can go, and fortunately, there seems to be little traffic on the road now that the accident has blocked the intersection.

Gabrielle has stopped screaming, but Aisling has unbuckled to turn herself around in the seat and begin screaming in some old strange tongue, shaking her fist and growling violently. Gabe has tucked himself low after the gunshot, pistol ready in his hand.

(OOC: So we are starting a chase scene. Karl gets two successes on his first roll, and Schultz loses his first round to shoot at Karl rather than give chase. The shot goes wide, despite the more than adequate dice pool. The pool goal will be six successes, so Karl is 2/6 right now. Please give me a wits + drive roll for your second roll and tell me where you are going).

************************************************** *************************

"Certainly," Lady Stardust says, raising both hands to give a light double clap. A Ghoul dressed in usher's reds appears out of nowhere, scuttling over as he carries a tray with a number of empty champagne glasses and a dark wine bottle with no label. Smiling at the Ghoul, Lady Stardust says "Two please, Michael." The Ghoul deftly pours two glasses, the dark red viscous blood fragrant enough to reach Anna. He passes the two glasses out, gives a quick bow, then scuttles away to disappear behind a nearby door. "Cheers," Stardust says as she clinks her glass against Anna's. The blood is chilled, and slightly sweeter than normal. It is nowhere near as satisfying as feeding, but still a luxury to have safe preserved blood.

Lady Stardust places a velvet gloved hand on Anna and says, "Now make yourself at home dear, so glad to see you," before ushering Anna off into the main theater.

The theater is about the size of a football field, with multiple levels of seating, and hundreds of rows of red velvet seats. There are maybe a hand full of Kindred spread out throughout the theater, some gathered together in small groups, others pretending to be entertained alone, perhaps on a cellphone or just studying the room. As Lady Stardust mentioned, most of the Kindred in the room are Invictus, though Anna does recognize Screech, who is off in a corner sitting by himself, and Victor (of the Ordo Dracul) who is dressed in a suit and excitedly talking to a few Invictus that Anna doesn't know.

OOC: What does Anna do, and is there something she wants to try to accomplish?

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Anna approached Victor and listened into the conversation before saying anything.

Spoiler

Show

Anna wants to try and recruit victor into her blood farming scheme, to make use of his dominate ability to cover up potential masquerade breaches and just make things run smoother overall.

How did her meeting go with the Ordo primogen (two exceptional successes, hopefully there's something awesome that came out of it)? There were two objectives there, first was to propose the blood farm and get Ordo backing, and second was to get the Ordo behind d'agnostino and get herself recognized for bringing in a major boon for the organization.

[Daishain]

Karl makes for the very first turnoff that would conceal further movement from the pursuit, if only briefly. His hands are tight with rage on the steering wheel. He wants to shake off the pursuit before they can reorient their vehicles and catch up.

If he can manage to shake them, he'll cruise along backroads for a bit before making for a good place to stash the care and change the group's mode of transport. He'll tell Gabe, "Get Anna on the phone, tell her what happened. Getting reinforcements to lure these bastards into our own ambush would be especially delicious."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

one last success needed. Fingers crossed (3d10)[9][5][6](20)
ten again (3d10)[6][2][6](14)

[Bennosuke]

Victor was huddled with two Invictus Kindred that Anna didn't immediately recognize. He was dressed in a tight and trendy black suit, that was arguably just a little too small on him. The lapels were extra thin, the pants cutting off well above the ankle... it screamed designer and screamed trying to hard. He wore no tie and the wide spread collar of his bone white button down was open by too many buttons. It appeared that Victor was surprised to see Anna, though not exactly upset. He greeted her, "Anna... good to see you," and offered a hand to shake as if they were business partners. Victor turned to address the two vampires, "This is Anna, one of my fellow Defiant." This was said proudly, and Victor added, "She's the one who helped us catch that bastard Mobius and put him to justice. She's quiet the bad ass." He grinned at the other two who offered to shake hands.

One was a stiff looking vampire (likely Ventrue) with ice blue eyes and fair yellow hair. He was dressed in a navy jacket over a cool grey cashmere turtleneck and brown chinos. He offered Anna a hand and said, "Pleasure to meet you. Call me Christopher." He was maybe in his mid-twenties, and his cold eyes seemed to study Anna from behind an upturned nose like he were preparing for a test.

The second vampire was a tall and lanky Nosferatu, with a face that looked like dripping melted flesh that exposed meaty wounds underneath. He had big ears and a long nose and seemed to find something about Anna distressing. She recognized him even before he said his name, and Anna was certain she had seen Karl speaking with him before. "Carlisle", he said, offering a limp hand to shake.

Victor spoke up before Carlisle could say anymore, "Uh, Chris and Carlisle are two of my... old friends. Anyways, have you heard everything that's been going on? There are all sorts of crazy rumors floating around The Pulse right now!" Victor not only sounded excited, he sounded hungry. There was something vicious in his curiosity, like a boy who heard the school bully will be taking on the class wimp and can't wait to see the beating.

************************************************** *************************

Karl pushed the beated vehicle down the block, finding a gap in oncoming traffic to turn a sudden left. They were in a hilly part of San Francisco, and Karl's sudden turn took the car over a blind ledge to shoot down the hill. There was the sudden terrifying rush as the car seemed to travel over a cliff, before finding the hill's decline and shooting at nearly 40 mph down the hill. They were on Divisadero, a road built like a terraced pyramid, with the slope leveling out at every intersection. Karl turned quickly off Divisadero, then down the next street, then into a side street, pushing the car at a ballsy speed for a good ten minutes, despite no further sign of a tail.

Eventually, Karl parked the car at the back of a blind alley. Gabe pulled out his phone to call Anna, but there was no reply. Rather than ringing the call went straight to voicemail, and it was only then that Karl remembered that there was never any reception at the San Francisco Opera House. However, perhaps Nicholas or one of his cronies was not yet at Elysium.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Anna shook her head and smiled.
“I just got lucky,” she said regarding Möbius. She still felt a small pang of guilt but quickly stuffed it away.

She shook hands with the other two.
“Christopher, Carlisle,” she said.

“Depends which rumor you’re talking about, what’s going on?” Anna asked.

[Daishain]

"Well, that was fun. Is anyone injured? That bastard's going to pay for this. I really liked this car." Karl gives the ruined back end a frustrated kick

"He has a little too much muscle right now though, let's try D'agostino's underlings next. If we can quickly arrange a little extra force of our own we can turn the tables. Otherwise lets get to the meeting quietly."

He'll help Gabe run through the numbers they have. If in the end no help is forthcoming, he'll punch up a Lyft, or an Uber, or whatever the hell else is running this time of night. The group will hoof it to a reasonable place to wait for the pickup, with Karl leading the way using obfuscate to blend in and make sure the coast is clear.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I would love to take this opportunity for a confrontation, but Karl's outmatched here when it comes to overt force and he knows it. Hmm, maybe if he had that RPG Anna was talking about... Just set up to blow Schultz' car to smithereens.

[Bennosuke]

Christopher is the first to speak up, the words spilling out of his mouth as if from an overly full bladder. He leans forward and stage whispers, a painfully human and superfluous gesture and says, "You haven't heard? Rumor has it that Nicholas D'Agostino, THE Primogen is going to try to take down The Prince tonight!"

Victor adds, "It's like, all anyone is talking about. It's all over the Pulse." He looks around suspiciously, then leans in and says, "You're friendly with D'Agostino, right Anna? That's what I hear." His grin is rueful, maybe even pointed. He adds "don't pretend you don't know about it."

(OOC: Feel free to make a roll as necessary;persuasion, subterfuge, intimidation ect)

************************************************** ********

Fortunately, no one is injured, though both Gabe and Aisling second the desire to seek revenge. The Ghouls other than Gabe just seem a little out of their depths, shaken but not hurt. Aisling is practically furious, though fortunately she keeps her anger in check. She stomps up and down the alley while Gabe and Karl handle business.

Gabe offers to call a towing company (he's got a guy), while Karl deals with reaching out to D'Agostino. Nicholas does not pick up if Karl tries him, but Tony does, responding before the first ring is over.

"Hey Karl, what's up," the neonate says naively, "we're headed to The Opera House now."

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

“I didn’t say I hadn’t heard, I just wanted to know which rumor we were referring to. It’s not _all_ anyone is talking about,” Anna replied, “like for example Victor I wanted to talk to you about something almost completely unrelated, but yes, I did hear something might happen tonight.”

“‘D’agnostino, I mean, we’ve spoken, but really do elders even have friends?” Anna replied.
She paused.

“What do you want me to say?” she asked, “what do _you_ think is going to happen tonight?”

Spoiler

Show

(4d10)[8][8][6][2](24)
10 again: (4d10)[8][3][1][3](15)
Persuasion, make nice, get them to keep talking.

[Daishain]

"Schultz and his porcine goon squad just tried to take me and Aisling out, along with our ghouls. I think Anna is already at Elysium, she was ahead of us, but I would appreciate it if that was confirmed."

"The car's wrecked, but we managed to lose them without injury. Any chance you have some muscle in the area? I'd love to repay the favor if he's going to be running around pulling this crap. Failing that, a secure lift would be nice."

[Bennosuke]

Christopher grins, his pink lips pulling back ever so slightly to reveal extended fangs. "My guess," he says leaning forward in a faux whisper, "is that Prince Gorman beheads the Primogen tonight in front of the entire city. He's the most powerful vampire in the city, and I think he's done with caring about the Traditions."

"Ya," interrupts Carlisle with slight eagerness, "you know what they say about The Prince's feeding habits." The brash statement draws an irritated look from Christopher, and one of discomfort from Victor.

The latter turns back to Christopher and says, "You don't honestly think he'd do something so blatantly forbidden!"

"Why not," shrugs Christopher, again grinning, "D'Agostino has to learn his place. I say we have a new Primogen by the end of the night." He crosses his arms across his chest as if to use his confidence to win the conversation.

Victor looks to Anna as if to say, 'what do you think?'

Around this time, a trio of Burakumin enter the theater, walking desiccated corpses in salary man grey suits. The Burakumin are a rare bloodline hailing from Japan, Nosferatu with their own religion and strange society. The Burakumin have been mainly un-involved in San Francisco Kindred politics, and for the most part avoid their kin within the city; Anna can't even remember a time that a Burakumin visited Elysium. Carlisle taps Christopher to point out the new guests, a gesture so obliviously rude that Christopher scowls and turns away from his fellow Invictus member.

(OOC: I know that this seems like a nonsequitar, but I am partly using this as a way to give you multiple options for what you want to pursue)

************************************************** ******************

Tony curses when he hears what happened to Karl and Aisling. He sighs at Karl's request, still such an unnecessarily mortal gesture, and says, "Ugh, most of our manpower is tied up securing the area around The Opera House. I can send you a lift though if you would like, no problem. Just give me your address."

Karl gives him the information, and its less than 10 minutes when a black Lexus pulls up to alley. The passenger side window rolls down to reveal a young looking woman, beautiful, but dressed in the formal uniform of one of D'Agostino's. She has long straw colored hair that is so straight it may have been chemically treated, a round face and warm blue eyes. She smiles at Karl and says, "I'm sorry, but I can't fit all five of you." A whiff of relatively fresh Vitae on her breath confirms for Karl that she's a Ghoul.

Gabe shrugs and says, "Look, the tow truck isn't even here yet. Let me stay behind, and I'll meet you at the Opera House. You wanted me to take point outside the building anyways, right?" He pauses for a moment, then uncomfortably adds, "You know I'm not in love with being locked in a room filled with your kind..."

"Hurry up!" the driver calls cheerfully, "I'm not gonna live forever, ya know!"

[Daishain]

Karl hesitates, then nods, "Yeah, that'l work. Stay safe, I probably wouldn't stay with the car for long after the towers arrive, Schultz might think to check with the towing companies around here."

He grabs some of his tools from the car's trunk, and follows the others into the Lexus

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

"I think... if the rumors about feeding habits are true..." Anna said, "and the Prince openly discards the Traditions, then I'm probably going to leave San Francisco. Tonight."

"We all know neonates have been going missing, and if we don't have the traditions protect us, elders can openly feed on us and it's only a matter of time before I'm on the menu," she said, "thanks but no thanks."

"What do you think Victor?" she asked.

Spoiler

Show

What does Anna know about the Burakumin in SF? Feel free to roll for me, no WP on this one.

[Bennosuke]

Karl gets his things and places them in the trunk of the car (OOC: PLEASE specify exactly what Karl is taking, and remember that you can't bring weapons into Elysium).

Once Karl shuts the door of the passenger seat, the moon eyed Ghoul says playfully, "Wow! That was a lot of gear. So, should I drop you four off in front of the Opera House?" She adjusts her flat cap, the only part of her uniform distinct to her position and smiles warmly at Karl.

From the back Aisling offers, "That's probably the safest bet, unless you have something else in mind Karl." Gabrielle gives a slight whimper at this, but says nothing.

************************************************** *********

Victor grins at Anna's question and with a nod says, "I stand by my Covenant. Whatever stance The Primogen takes, I will support him." It was very likely he was aware of Anna's recent pleas with the Covenant, and he was likely aware that the Ordo would be sticking with D'Agostino. The real question was whether or not Kindred in other Covenants were aware of this!

Christopher feigns a yawn and says, "What a disappointingly safe answer," and grins devilishly at Victor, who shoots him a similar look.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

“Very boring, Victor,” Anna agreed, “would you gentlemen mind if I stole my fellow torpor inducing dragon away for just a few minutes?”

Assuming they agree, Anna leads Victor away from the other two.

“Wanted to talk to you about the business idea I mentioned before,” she said, once they were out of earshot, “we never had the chance to actually talk about it; how are you at modifying memories?”

[Bennosuke]

The Invictus Kindred give little resistance as Anna pulls Victor into a private conversation. Vampires from all over San Francisco are slowly trickling in now, and the room is beginning to fill up. This makes it slightly difficult to find a place to talk privately, but soon the two are alone in a corner of the giant theater.

“Wanted to talk to you about the business idea I mentioned before,” she said, once they were out of earshot, “we never had the chance to actually talk about it; how are you at modifying memories?”

Victor shrugs a little embarrassed, "Modifying memories?" he says hesitantly, "I mean,
I can make minor edits; can make people forget I was there, those sorts of things. But if you mean like completely ****ing with someone's mind, only the most powerful with Dominate can do that. I've seen my Sire do it, but he ain't exactly fond of me these days. What exactly do you have in mind?"

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

“Covering up potential masquerade breaches, and being a backup to make sure we don’t get written up by health and safety inspectors, in case they see something they shouldn’t,” Anna said, “that kind of thing.”

[Daishain]

Karl nods, "In front of the building should be fine. He'd have to be utterly insane to try something here."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I forgot about the no weapons bit, which rules out most of what I was thinking of snagging. But he would make sure to take a tablet or laptop with the video footage collected from Schultz's place, and spend the ride to Elysium making sure choice bits are ready to play.

[Bennosuke]

Victor does not physically react, but with a hiss he says, "Covering up Masquerade breaches? Are you out of your mind? I mean, I know the Ordo is in support of your plan for a blood bank or whatever, but what do you mean covering up Masquerade breaches?" There is a flare of anger in Victor's voice, but there is something else there; curiosity maybe or the embers of interest.

************************************************** ********

The driver says "As you wish boss," giving a nod and a tip of her cap, before slamming her foot down on the gas and accelerating into traffic to cut off a nearby car. She drives like they are being chased, bolting through yellows and cutting between lanes at break neck speeds. At one point Karl can hear Gabrielle whimpering in the back of the car, or perhaps she is praying.

When they arrive at the opera house, the car comes to screeching halt that nearly throws everyone out of their seats. "Here we are," the driver says cheerfully, giving Karl a sunny smile. Aisling says something to the driver angrily in that strange old tongue as she shuffles out of the car.

Entering the lobby, the Opera House is starting to fill up now. Lady Stardust immediately rushes to meet them. "Aisling, Karl, welcome. Anna already arrived a bit ago and is inside. And these must be your Ghouls?" Lady Stardust gives both Kindred a peck on the cheek as Aisling introduces Gabrielle and Bernardo. The Master of Elysium has glasses of chilled blood in champagne glasses brought out for Karl and Aisling, and asks, "Would you like me to point in in the direction of your coterie mate, or perhaps there is someone else you would like to see?" She gives the two a serious an discerning look, as if to suggest she knows what is afoot.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

Ugh, why did everyone overreact to things that were no big deal and underreact to things that were the opposite?

"Oh, would you calm down," Anna said, growing slightly annoyed, "there's no Masquerade breaches yet and if I have my way there won't ever be any. The whole idea is to reduce the risk of Masquerade breaches. But just in case some idiot teenagers or some other mortals go snooping around where they shouldn't and see something illegal, I'd rather have someone on standby who can cover it up so we don't have to kill them and then have to deal with the police sniffing around asking why dead bodies keep piling up all over the property."

"What do you think, interested?" Anna asked.

[Bennosuke]

"Oh, I guess I misunderstood you," he says with a chuckle that says the exact opposite. He combs his brown hair back and gives his best winning grin and says, "Well I suppose it depends on what's in it for me."

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

“How about a safe stable supply of blood?” Anna replied, “no need to hunt if you’re pressed for time.”

[Bennosuke]

Victor pauses before answering, seeming to mull it over and even stroking his jawline in parody of a man deep in thought. Finally, he says, "Fine. I can't say I have all the tools you need, but I'm in." He extends a hand for Anna to shake. If she takes it his grip is almost aggressively firm.

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

“Great, we’ll work out the details later,” Anna said, shaking the ventrue’s hand.

She then moved away, and, not really seeing anyone she wanted to talk to except maybe Screech, she debated whether she wanted to deal with his pumpkin head or talk to the other nosferatu. She decided to say hello to the burakumin instead.

She approached their group quietly so as not to disturb them if they were in conversation.

If they pay her any attention she’ll introduce herself: “good evening, I’m Anna, of the Ordo. I don’t think we’ve met yet.”

[Daishain]

Karl simply says, "Thank you, we'll mingle and see what's going on."

Karl looks around for anyone of particular interest.

[Bennosuke]

The group of Burakumin go silent when Anna approaches, and dead eyes bulge wide to stare at her with suspicion. The first, a tall gaunt figure with near yellow skin and and frizzy grey hair says, "Nihonjin daka," to Anna, and it kind of sounds like a question.

"Dame yo. Chyugokujinyone!" says a shorter more squat vampire sternly toe the first. The taller vampire scowls at him but says nothing. Shorty turns his attention to Anna, his jelly like eyes sunken into deep sockets so that they seem to be floating in the back of his head. In a heavy Japanese accent (OOC: Which I won't accentuate with type), he says, "My apologies. May we help you?" There is something completely uninviting about the offer, and the stern look on his shriveled corpse like face makes him look like an old rotten gourd.

************************************************** *******

Almost immediately, Aisling points to their companion who is now talking to three very unfortunate looking Nosferatu and says, "There's Anna!"

Elsewhere, Karl spies Ivanov furiously writing something into a small brown notebook. The Invictus vampire looks up from his work and catches Karl's eye, giving his fellow a questioning look. Perhaps it would be a good idea to update him on Karl's research?

Otherwise, almost every vampire Karl was familiar seemed to be in the building now, though D'Agostino's coterie seemed to be missing, as well as The Prince and his retinue (which of course included Schultz).

[Thundercracker]

Anna Wu

“Not right now, I just wanted to introduce myself and let you know I’m open to meeting privately at a later time, if you wish.”

She produced a business card and held it out with both hands.

[Bennosuke]

The shorter Burakumin accepts the business card with two hands and a curt if not rushed head bow. He produces a modest silver card holder and offers it to Anna, again with both hands and a forced head bow.

The card is simple white with black print and reads, "Yamada Hiroshi/ Executive CEO/ Yamada Kaisha Corporation" It lists an address in the financial district, and a phone and fax. There is a symbol of some sort of flower, printed simple in classic Japanese pictography.

[Thundercracker]

“Thank you, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Anna replied.

She departed to find Karl.

“What kept you?” she asked.

[Daishain]

Karl responds dryly, "Schultz decided that I needed to lose weight, and offered to help me with that problem using a shotgun." He shakes his head. "No physical injuries amongst our own, but the car was wrecked getting away from them. Where is the primogen? He was on his way here earlier, he should have arrived already."