Michael spends one willpower point
"Rachel, you need to shut your whore mouth. Preferably around my dick, but mainly just shutting it in general would be nice."
"What?"
"You've done nothing for this team. All you do is yap yap yap,"
"I made you those sunglasses,"
"Yes yes. And we're all so proud of you. Except you didn't guard them against being crushed by a werewolf. Speaking of which, I need you to make me new sunglasses,"
"What? Why? What happened?"
"I just explai...shut you whore mouth. Frank! Where are the suits?,"
"I'll call my tailor,"
"That woman? In my day, a tailor was a short little Chinese man whose only written language was stitching. Not a person with boobs. A person with boobs was called a whore or a wife,"
"What about little girls?"
"First, people with boobs. Second, could also be whores. Depends on how immoral the society was. Third, shut your whore mouth Rachel,"
"I sent her a message Garren. The suits should be here in a few hours,"
"Sounds good. Wait, she's not coming?"
"No. Thinkbest employees aren't generally allowed to see how the hire-ups live. I mean, it is called the Thinkbest exclusive executive residential building!,"
"So, she COULD come up,"
"Well, yeah, but it isn't generally..."
"Good. Get her up here,"
----------
Michael shook his head as he awoke, the vision he just had disappearing from his...well, there wasn't anything to see...it was just stuff he had heard...what did it mean?
Intelligence+Academics+Vision Interpretation:4d10 ⇒ (6, 6, 1, 8) = 21
It was probably a message to help Rachel.
The Vampire opened his eyes. He didn't see anything. A handkerchief was over his eyes, and he was hanging upside down, his legs and arms bound.
"Huh?"
Someone clapped slowly, and began speaking with the oddest accent.
"Oh good! You have, awoken. Is very nice! I'ma glad you have decided to finally, uh, how you say, join us? Yes. Join us,"
"Oh god. Is that you Nikos?"
"What? Oh, ah-no, this is not Nikos, this is, uh, Niko..li? Nikoli!"
"Nikos, I'd know that accent anywhere. It's you,"
"Oh. Well, in that case...tell me where you put my special tablet, and we let you go!"
"I haven't a clue what you're talking about,"
Michael realized he didn't remember anything about the night before, after meeting the cape, at least.
"Yes, we were afraid you'd say that! But don't worry, we, uh, how you say...oh yes! We have ways of making you talk,"
With that, Michael felt incredible pain as someone pulled out his fangs, and then felt his whole body engulfed in what felt like flame...and he blacked out.
Michael smiled and looked at Richard and Thomas.
"Alright, before things get serious, let's find a Mage and party!"
End of Part 1
Everyone gets 2XP
Michael nods his head.
"She is. The boy asked me to have a vision of her. I'm not a fan of making them happen, but I did it for your Natasha. I don't understand it all, but needless to say, she is dead, of this I am as positive as I can be,"
Michael scowls, Richard's words obviously having some effect.
"yeah...Yes! Finely!"
He smiles, as the elder vampire's words caught up to him.
"Oh thank god! Let's go find a mage!"
Michael looks at Richard shocked.
"FIREBOMB? WHAT? Well, let us say that is what we AREN'T doing. I say we..."
He looks at Thomas, throwing an arm around him.
"Find a mage! That's my first plan of action. What do you say boys? Wanna see shit that'll make your head spin? Oh...wait...we already have! And now you have done that twice Richard! Why on earth does this crap have to concern us? We aren't some damned Infused playing up to be Spiderman! We're just damned! I say, Richard, we get this boy into a suit, find him a brownie, and make some connections! Hell, lets find a club and get a bite to eat; I'm starving here!"
After slapping Thomas heartily on the chest, Thomas removes his arm from the EMT's shoulder, and walks closer to Richard.
"All I'm saying Richard is, well, isn't this just a teeny bit over our heads? Triad? Maximoffs? F%+&ed up blood rituals? We don't know anyone with mystical abilities, and even if we did, why is this our business? No one has breached the Mask. We all still have a Poker Face. This will piss off all the right people Richard! Our heads? Piked in a fortnight. Can't we just be Vampires, not...those kinds of Vampires?"
He tries persuading Richard to his thinking.
Persuasion+Manipulation+A but load of penalties=1d10 ⇒ 8 Wow. Richard takes one Casual Sway damage (/) to his Nerve, but it won't really influence him that much.
Don't take this as DM persuasion; it's what Michael feels. Me? DO whatever you like!
Michael made his way into the clearing.
"I don't know what to tell you Thomas. This is our life. This is your's now. The best thing to do is get you more involved in the Vampire circles. You'll have to join a Covenant sooner than later. But me and Richard, we'll set you on the right path Thomas. I won't let you join the Lancea Sanctum, that's for sure,"
Thomas walked on ahead to Richard.
"Richard! Me amigo! Hows...holy shit! A Cape! Hi ya Cape! How's it going?"
Michael begins walking to Thomas's house. He seems irked.
"Let me see if I can summon up a vision...*sigh* I so did like sleeping..."
Once inside, (assuming Thomas allows him in) Michael, after muttering something about needing a brownie, sits down, crosses his legs...
Intelligence + Academics for vision interp4d10 + 1d10 ⇒ (8, 2, 10, 7) + (6) = 33
For a moment, Michael seems bored. He suddenly straightens as his eyes go black and become filled with the beast.
"I see your friend...I see a house, and around the house are switch blades dancing, and your friend begins dancing with them, although she seems angry, and then is she a judge's gavel suddenly slam down onto the switchblade, and it stops dancing, but then the gavel's handle is broken by the switchblades, and your friend, your friend breaks all the blades, putting them one by one in her pocket, and when the goes to look at the broken gavel, and is not broken, and it bashes down into her, except it is no longer a gavel, it is the sun, and she burns and burns and burns..."
Michael shakes his head, and cries out in anger.
"AAAH! Thomas! We are dining with mages tonight, and getting f##&ed up! Your friend is dead,"
Michael exited on the other side of the taxi, gesturing for Thomas to follow him that way. He looked around main street, thinking.
"Alright, let's track down this missing childe of ours. Yours. Whatever. How do you want to proceed?"
He looked to Thomas.
In the cab
Michael looked stunned as he watched the video again, and again. His mind was filled with shock, abject horror, and a ting of jealousy. It was only when the Johnny Cab began to descend that he found his voice.
"I don't even know what to do with this Richard! This shit shouldn't even exist! How can there be Vamps in daylight? On film? It just isn't...I need a drink. Like, a real drink. When we're done with everything of importance tonight, I'm going to go to wherever it is Mage's get a drink, because if I'm going to be seein' shit that can't be real, I'd rather it not be real,"
He kept muttering to himself afterwards, only to point at Thomas at some random interval.
"Sometime soon, we need to get him a Brownie, and someone to redo his Haven. In fact, I'd rather he come live with one of us, or get a place at the Dust Apartments. You ain't safe where you are boy. You ain't safe at all,"
It was clear that his mind was choosing not to discuss the Caitiff situation at that moment.
Michael laughed.
"I'll kindly ask you to not use that term around him; or me, for that matter. I may look only a few years older than you, but I'm actually pushing around 80. Or 90. I never was very good with math,"
Michael seemed slightly jostled by the whole experience. If the Princess hadn't cancelled all of his credit cards, this wouldn't have even been an issue...He started talking as they walked towards a cab.
"Listen, Thomas, I'm sorry! Give a guy a break, yeah? Also, we really need to get you a Brownie! That place would be clean in no time! I used to have one, uh, before the Princess took it...but let us not worry about that! Thomas, I have only your best interest at heart! I am, generally speaking, a really nice guy. It is just that, sometimes, I make bad decisions, due to a lack of sleep. I guess my full day of rest has left me well rested...a little too well rested, it seems...but, we solider forth! Thomas, I know you've been left out of our society, and that was wrong, dead wrong. But we're not ALL bad. I'm sure Richard feels the same way as me; set you up, have you met everyone...damn it! I need to get my affairs in order, and then I'll set you up. In our world, you need to be presentable. Look about as you meet more of our kind. Groups of at least 3, somewhere upwards of 7. One or two in charge, and honestly, only one. We all do this, ever person like us. Werewolves, Changelings, those Ghostbusters...hell, even the capes! And you watch each others backs, because no one else will. For us, we call the groupings Coteries, but I've also heard the term Covens and *shudders* Broods or Bleeds,"
They pulled up in front of Richard's house. He got out and knocked on the front door.
"The truth is Thomas, those Vamps that isolate themselves, they turn into beasts. Ravagers and Reapers. Horrible beasts, they are. So, we try and keep together, to remember what makes us human. Because on the day you begin to look at her kind..."
He gestured to Iranis, who had answered the door.
"Only as food? I knock you on the head, and get you back in the game,"
Driver? Are you kidding me? They're all (link follows) Johnny Cabs! :p
Michael just happened to be near enough to Thomas's house that by the time Thomas got there, he could spot the young man walking towards his apartment.
"There you are my boy! Now, what's this nonsense about a nice shirt? You have all of these fantastic shops that sell them right here? Honestly, how on earth did you afford such a nice place to live? Nevermind, I'm sure I don't want to hear the answer. Love the shirt, why, I feel like I picked it out myself. Hey! Look! A men's warehouse! Let's go in!"
The Malkavian, even more chipper than the night before, was trying to calm the childer, and restore his confidence.
I use The Passion from Dementation. 3d10 + 1d10 ⇒ (1, 10, 6) + (4) = 21Thomas now not only feels more confident for the rest of the night, but he gains a +1 to one attempt to resist frenzy or a social manipulation roll.
pushed Thomas onward ahead of him into the shop, whose door dinged a few times. A shopkeeper walked out of the backroom.
"How can I help you gentlemen this evening?"
The Malkavian smiled dastardly.
"YEAH! Yeah, you CAN help us, but WILL YOU? HUH?! I don't think you will! Well, let me tell you something buddy, my friend here is a standup guy, who NEEDS a SUIT! Are you gonna sell him one? Huh? WELL!? ARE YA!?"
I use The Passion from Dementation. 3d10 + 1d10 ⇒ (4, 5, 8) + (2) = 19 This guy is really freaked out.
"Uh..."
"Now, I think we should test these suits out for the night, right Tommy? And we'll think about them, won't we Tommy? You see, we have a wedding to go to in about a month, and we think a stroll would be just what we need to look these babies over!"
"Um..."
Good, right were I need him. Subterfuge to lie! 3d10 ⇒ (1, 2, 3) = 6 Whoops!
"I think you should leave,"
Ninja'ed!
Michael was pulling his clothes on, finally happy to be fully rested. He pulls on his coat as he heads out the door to his home in Underpendros, walking up and down the steps and streets, saying his greetings to shop keepers and shoppers, and makes his way into the circle, and then up to the surface by means of an elevator. He walks out through an illusionary wall and onto Main Street, where he then pulls out his cellphone, which looks like an out of place old telephone. He listened to message after message, the whole time getting more and more frantic.
"F*%$ ME! That boy is sleeping here from now on! Jesus! A Stake! I'm talking to myself..."
He set off for...
"DAMNATION! Where is he now?"
He calls Thomas.
I forget if you opted to have Thomas have the internal cellphone. Even you didn't, you do have a phone on you.
Michael doesn't answer his phone; he's locked up the door to his cell and left his personal effects outside. He couldn't even hear the phone ring from inside it.
Michael also then takes his leave, opting to go back to his haven, and locks himself up for a restless day of the beast going into a frenzy.
Resolve + Composure to sleep:7d10 ⇒ (1, 6, 2, 9, 7, 8, 8) = 41
Thankfully, this day gives him rest.
Michael nods.
"That sounds like a fine plan. Whoever it is you are meeting, I am sure they would not be too much of a problem for me and Thomas here!"
He mockingly punches his hand and he chuckles.
"But seriously, I'm shit in a fight, although, I can cause the Malkavian curse to manifest in others. And much worse than mine! Although, I can't imagine what is worse than being a vampire who suffers from insomnia,"
Michael shook his head.
"I'm not sure. If you give me a photo of your missing member, I might be able to focus the visions on her. But right now...I think I've given you what I can,"
"Sorry boys, I didn't see a woman, but I might have seen a shadowy figure or more in the coffin. It was a big coffin, like something out of Bettlejuice. Generally, my visions look a lot like that movie..."
He sipped his bloody mary.
"Blech. I hate these things,"
Michael wiped away his tears, the cloth now soaked with spent Vitae.
"I'm sorry boys, they just keep hitting me. I haven't 'slept' in days because of them,"
He tried to assume a form of calm as he addressed Thomas's first question.
"I...don't know what could go wrong, but the rumor is that the Princess is doing the ceremony herself, without a body double or anything. I'm not sure what that will achieve, but when I told her my vision, that's when she kicked me out. I hadn't thought about it this way until now, no wonder she ousted me. She doesn't like being told she'll fail at something..."
He nodded his head at Richard's thoughts.
"Indeed, it is a fairy tale, but it's the fairtale the Dragons take to heart, and I think Runningwater was a member. Hell, I've heard the princess talk about Sasha knowing a vampire who achieved it...but until recently, I thought it was all propaganda spewing from her lips. Now I wonder...but I won't speak on it further Richard, not tonight anyways,"
He turned to Thomas again.
"Well, I don't know what the vision meant, but it was clear that I should seek you out, so, I did and I have. Now that I have, the vision is longer, and clearer to me,"
He thought.
"If we take it apart, piece by piece...I don't know. These things are sometimes so clear and ofttimes so muddy. Why, I remember sometime in the early 00's that I didn't have them for four years! And sometime in 80's, I had them nightly for months...although, I was feeding on coke-heads, so I wonder if that had something to do with it,"
Michael looked him over.
"I'm not saying you need to wear the tight fitting full body suits that the youth are nuts over in the clubs, but Richard! You've got buckles and straps in places that there haven't been since before my mortal birth. And it isn't that you aren't fashionable, but those clothes aren't made for every night out! It looks like you're on your way to the social event of the season, not a business meeting,"
He rolled his eyes for a moment, forgetting himself and his place. Realizing that he had only JUST been approved, he jerked up suddenly, as if waking from a dream, and patted himself down, as if looking for something, before he realized were and who he was, and gave up.
"Damn these mortal memories! Richard, my waking dreams show me something more with Runningwater's disappearing act. I've seen a man, not a monster, escaping into the day. I think he achieved...oh, what's the word the old one's threw about back in the 90's...Gholliconda? Jullconda? It was something guh sounding conda...anyways...but I don't think he meant to leave us for so long. I've seen a skeleton locking an iron coffin, with us three inside, and then after what feels like a thousand years of sleep, a thousand hands all at once rip it open and we step out, into the light..."
I spend a willpower point and try to interpret the on coming vision Intelligence + Academics [Visions] 4d10 ⇒ (9, 7, 2, 10) = 28 Ten again 1d10 ⇒ 8
Michael's voice drops into the monotone, and as he looks far past you as if staring into another world, you can see the beast in his eyes.
"And the pack is dead. Their leader is a monstrous dead snake with a peace symbol who spits coin and bleeds glitter. They pull us into the light, and we fear it, as we should, but the queen looks into the mirror, ignoring our plight as she loves her image, but the image isn't there to love her back. And the princess cries for a father, but she doesn't cry at all, as she talks to a field of sheep. And we try to crawl into the coffin, but it's gone. The dead pack parts like the red sea that it is, and I see...I see our Prince. He is walking in the sun light, with his old smile that made us love him so, and he opens his arms and says, like Jesus, believe in me and you shall live forever in the light, and you shall be my champions, and the light...it comes from a thousand light bulbs, shining down at us, and behind them is the darkness of the camera lenses,"
Michael suddenly pops out of his vision. Crimson tears pour out of his eyes.
"Oh my sweet. How I wish you could hold me in my crisis. The Masquerade! It will not survive the Princess's mayoral ceremony! She'll damn us all!"
Thomas smiled.
"Well my fellows, what I propose is that we don't find out who turned Thomas. Or, we do, but we pretend to not know who it is, and say we're still searching. That'll keep the queen, and more importantly, Micario, from probing too deep into our affairs. In the meanwhile...I say...I say we try and find out what happened to the last Prince. Runningwater. He just up and left, they say, in 2009. But that doesn't make a lick of damn sense!"
He smiled, leaning back.
"And I'm sure you need what I've got in here Richard,"
He tapped his head again.
"Remember, I've hung with the Princess, the 'heir apparent' for the last few years. I know things. All you have to do is ask, and you'll know them as well. Assuming you agree. Agree to trust me, and I'll trust you, as one trusts his coterie fellows,"
He looked both Kindred over.
"Also, you both are way out of date. No one down here cares, but you can't get a bite to eat down here. Oh, speaking of, Thomas, do you even have feeding rights yet? Oh, yeah...I also lost all my feeding rights. Thomas! My buddy working as an EMT! Care to let your buddy Mike in on your sweet little deal? Assuming, of course, George doesn't stake you for thinning his herd?"
Michael smiled, and seemed unfazed by Thomas's words.
"Yes young one, the Queen's 'Heir Apparent'. Because, when one lives forever, one must have an heir,"
He rolled his eyes, not at Thomas, but at the idea of an 'Heir Apparent'.
"I was an Oracle for the Princess because she wanted me there, not because the Queen had any say in the matter. I'm of the Malkavian clan you see, and we can peer into the future,"
He then turned to the older Vampire.
"Richard! Come now. I can read the future. Think of the things we could do together..."
He looks a bit nervous.
"Listen. The truth is that we night children, well, we need each other. I've been without a coterie for a week now...you know what happens when we isolate ourselves! Alone in a sea of people...the thing that we are, what we truly are, it begins to make progress against one's self, and soon, we become the vile thing in a pit, not even worthy of a final death,"
He paused and leaned into the table a bit closer, sipping his drink again.
"I was at Club V when I overheard your plight. I remember you as a calm, confident man, unlike that Garen fellow who just woke up. I figured you could use someone who's been around for a time, someone with my...talents,"
He tapped his head as he said this.
Michael his own bloody mary that he had left on the bar, sipping it as he walked over to the table and seating himself at it.
"Well friend, I'm the answer to all your problems. Yes indeed, problems here and problems there...not that you have very many at the moment mind you. But, you will!"
He sat at the table, swinging his boots up to the table's top.
"Yessir! Name's Michael, and I'm an oracle for the Queen's upstart Princess. Or, I was. So, now I'm here to help you help me help you!"
Michael finished his song.
"Thank You Pendros! And goodnight!"
He hoped off the stage and sat down next to Thomas.
"Howdy! I hope you boys like your drinks. Lets get this table over here; we'll talk, yeah?"
Up to the stage hoped a man with long wavy hair and a sharp face, wearing a leather coat that was lined with fur. He seemed delighted to be on stage, and smiled brightly as he grabbed the microphone. It looked like he was about to speak when the DJ quickly started the music; it prompted Michael to suddenly look sad and somber. He belted out the song without looking at the holographic screen showing the lyrics, seeming REALLY into it. Once the second chorus started, he shouted to the crowd.
"Come on everyone, sing along!"
The people half heartily sang along with the vampire, who seemed to be almost crying out to someone who was gone long ago.
This is the character I'm slowly making
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