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In any big city, murders aren't exactly rare. Disappearances, even more common. Sometimes people just up and vanish, leaving their loved ones in the lurch. It's a fact of life. In a world of supernatural predators, it's all the more common. But what happens when the predators themselves vanish?
It's a calm night. Hot, but not too hot. Not too many bugs. No clouds for miles. The calm of the night is slightly tainted by the grim conversation taking place at Bala Cynwyd. A number of vampires are muttering to each other about what the threat of VII could be and if they're safe.
A couple even jump when a sudden noise breaks the conversation. Floretta's phone begins to ring.
Floretta makes her way into the room just as her phone begin to ring, she dabbing at the corner of her mouth, a small indication that she's been feeding after tonight's gather at her Elysium. She had to feed, after using Reason's Salon to make sure the added nervousness wouldn't end up causing massive issues within her walls. She takes the phone call or text with a stone face and a careful, but welcoming voice. "Hello." The Keeper of the Bala Cynwyd Elysium is wearing a white shirt, suspender and black slacks, heeled shoes and rolled up sleeve, her hair hanging loose.
Guy lounges in black jeans and t-shirt, his boots slipped on loosely for a casual look. A chain for a necklace is visible around his neck, and his hair and beard are clipped short tonight.
"M-ma'am?" comes the other end of the call. It's the squeaky voiced, New York-accented Mekhet that Floretta had called upon to help look at the murder of Malone. "I, uh, I would have called the Axe but I don't know if they're needed and I don't have their number. It's just, um, I was supposed to meet a higher up at the Amtrak station tonight and he didn't show and I can't reach him and I'm really freaking out!" Their voice cracks, like a frightened teenager.
"I'm sorry to call on you like this, but um, I didn't know who else to go to! Normally I'd talk to my boss, but since he's the one missing..."
Meanwhile, one of the gathered vampires turns to Guy, leaning so his chair only has two legs on the ground. He's wiry and gives off the vibes of a weasel or some other mustelid. "Hey, be honest. Do us little guys need to be freaking out right now? You're some sort of human tank, but us newbies? Should we take a little vacation up the Eastern Seaboard?"
"Make yourself scarce from there, Backup coming. Be safe above all else." Floretta whispers into her phone and communicate with Guy with a quick text, so as not to alarm the 'little guys' any further. Hey, Amtrak station, we got a possible casualty. We need to move. She moves closer to Guy as she text, setting down her phone and looking up at the various kindred in the room. She tries to see if any of them are even just sort of good in a fight, seizing them up through her growing experience. Trying to remember their clans and such, maybe to give them some kind of pointer once Guy is done with his own response.
Guy shrugs. “Travel in groups, check in with your friends, let someone know if something shady starts going down. So far it seems like they’re interested in big shots, but no harm in being careful.”
Most of the assembled crowd tonight couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag. A couple could fire a gun well enough to not hit themselves and a couple can punch and kick by virtue of their clan, but there aren't exactly well armed soldiers here.
The chair leaning guy seems pacified by Guy's words. He nods. "Thanks. That, um, that really helps. I'd been freaking out."
"It's a stressful time, but if something dangerous happens, hit the survival stuff, run, hide, make plans for secondary areas to retreat to. If you don't have that, please, come and see me when you get the chance, I can probably help a bit with that." Floretta says, advocating for safety if things go sideways, no sense in making any of these kindred risk their unlives. Then her attention shifts to Guy. "Did you catch my text, I think we should get on the move. The guy who helped us when we looked up the thing with Malone..."
He nods to Floretta. “Yeah, let’s see what we can shake loose. How prepared should we be, you think? I’d have to run to the boat to grab my armor.” He looks over those assembled, seeming to have similar thoughts to Flo. “Anyone you want to call, or should we press for speed?”
"Seemed pretty urgent, I got what I need in my van, but I don't have any armor though. I do have some thing I can do to protect friends if things get hairy."
“I should start bringing it around with me, but it’ll be alright for tonight.” He nods to Flo. “To the van, then.”
The Amtrak station is quiet this time of night, despite its urban location. A single train is pulled into the station and despite the instructions Floretta gave, the nervous Mekhet is loitering on the platform next to the train. They wave at the two once they see them and beckon them over.
Floretta rolls her eyes, half amused by the situation. "What is it with people taking risks with their lives..." she approaches the Mekhet rather cordially "Hey, is everything okay?" She asks, supplementing the question with the shadow's title, altering it as a sort of confirmation request. "Things sounded bad on my end."
Guy glances about the station, keeping an eye out for trouble as Flo checks in. He notes the title check, nodding a little to himself.
"It's bad, ma'am," they say, trembling. "And I'm sorry for not following your orders, I just needed to make sure the train stayed here in case you wanted to investigate. And I'm not the best at Dominate so I wanted to stay to make sure the conductor didn't leave anyway."
"And, um, I think you got my title wrong, ma'am? Unless you want me to change it! Then I can! I'm sorry."
"It's a check in to make sure someone's really who they say they are. We're supposed to be a secretive order." She winks, looking over at the train. "Why would we need to check the train? Something happened inside?" Floretta tries to examine the vehicle closely, just in case there,s something obvious she can note on her own. Like a bomb, a hidden ambusher or some kind of sabotage.
Guy moves closer to the other two, a forked tongue slipping out of his mouth for an instant. “We can look it over, if there’s a reason to.”
"Oh," they say, letting out a deep breath, "sorry, I thought I had messed up my own title. And, um, he was supposed to be on the train. So I figured maybe there were clues? I'm sorry, I don't know too much."
"Guy, if you want to give the thing a once over with me? I'm getting better at investigative work, but it's still not quite my best suite of skills." Floretta steps closer to the train, checking around for any trouble from the nearest door to them.
Guy nods. “Yeah.” He looks over to the Mekhet, blinking as his eyes turn yellow and slitted, and pits open on his face. “You coming with, or staying right there?”
The Mekhet blinks. "I probably should lead you to where he ought to have been. I was supposed to meet him on the train about the thing he found." They walk towards the train, seeing if you two are following before they get on. "I'm sorry. I don't know how much I should tell you. He told me to keep everything a secret but he's missing and I don't know how much I should give away? If this is all a misunderstanding, I don't want him mad at me, you know?"
Floretta narrows her eyes at the younger one, tilting her head to the side with a curious, if not suspicious gleam in her eyes. "Could you tell me what kind of general topic of what he found out about or something?" She asks, not willing to pull rank just yet, on the younger kindred. No need to make them nervous in the current situation. Floretta discreetly steps onto the train, expecting them and Guy to join her, she peeks around quickly, as if maybe expecting an ambush.
Guy follows aboard, his head sweeping as his forked tongue darts in and out. “Decide whether it’s a secret they’d die to keep…but like Flo said, maybe start with what you can say.”
The closest thing to an ambush is a passel of angry passengers, all of whom want this damn train moving again.
"I, um. Hm. He went to buy something that he thought would let him invent a whole new Coil. He said that if everything went to plan, he'd be unseating the Sakima in no time, just from pure popularity." With that said, they lead you to a row of seats in economy class, completely empty. "He was supposed to be here. He isn't." They add, unhelpfully.
"Oh fuck's sake." Floretta rolls her eyes, unimpressed with the concept so far. Though, not dismissive of it. "What does the guy look like? Marcellus Wallace?" She asks barely above a whisper. Floretta, using the full power of her Bloodline and her keen eye for people begin to scours the troupe of passengers to discern if there's anyone hiding in it that differs in any meaningful way, doesn't belong there.
Guy steps to the rows of empty seats and starts sniffing and looking around, faced away from other passengers. “Sounds like a silly plan,” he grunts. “We talking about an artifact, then? Those things can be dangerous.”
"My boss? No, he looks more like a librarian. Kinda reedy. More hair, but not a lot more," the Mekhet explains. "And, yes, an Artifact. I don't know how much more I ought to say, but it was supposed to be really powerful."
Discreetly and ignoring the annoyed little feeling tugging at her heart, she point her chin toward the scared woman in the crowd. "Know her?" She asks the young Mekhet with a whisper. She pays attention to the surrounding carefully around her, just in case there's something actively scaring her. "She's hiding with the crowd or something." another whisper.
Guy kneels down to inspect the empty seats more closely, grumbling. Flo will note he seems to be trying out different sense organs with his shapeshifting.
The Mekhet shakes their head no. The woman in the crowd seems less afraid of anything around her per se and more just generally frightened.
As Guy sniffs around, he notices a faint smell of fat tipped permanent marker from behind the seat tray of one of the seats in the row. As he pops it open, he sees a message scrawled out in similar hand-writing to the bloody message at Malone's death site. "God Remembers Evil's Every Design"
Floretta tilt her head to the side and blink at Guy's discovery. "Well fuck." With another look about, she tries to locate someone fitting the Mekhet's boss, or someone that looks like him. Or additionally, something that could look like an occult-ish artifact or related to it without looking like a giant asshole to the crowd of people in the train. Maybe find a bomb in the process too, who knows.
Guy leans in close to the Mekhet. “Alright, this is officially bean-spilling time. Were you told where your boss was coming from, or what they were getting?”
As Floretta pokes around, she doesn't see anything on the top of the train car where the passengers are. However, on the bottom floor, she sees a briefcase busted open in the middle of the baggage compartment. It looks like there was stuff inside used to keep something safe during transit that was hastily spilled onto the floor.
The Mekhet gulps as Guy approaches them. "Yes, sir," they squeak, "He was going up to New York City to get a relic brought over from Greece. Supposedly it was a piece of the true cross that someone had infused with enough magic to bring the dead back to life. Or, in our case, give us the best of both worlds. I don't know if it was real or not, but that's what it was supposed to be."
Floretta makes a quick summary search of the suitcase for any kind of signs or clues, then moves toward the scared woman, trying her best not to appear threatening. Passing by Guy and the young kindred. She quickly update them on where she found the suitcase. She approach the woman "Hey, I'm sorry for bothering you, did you see the people who messed with that suitcase over there, did you see what happened?" She asks, trying to be discreet, not to alert other people.
Guy grunts softly. “Definitely dangerous. Shit like that is how you get zombies.” He glances after Flo, then back to the Mekhet. “I would recommend steering clear of religious artifacts, dubious or otherwise, for the time being.”
They nod. "I mean, I'll avoid it, but I'm not going to disagree with one of the higher ups. I don't want to get in trouble, you know?"
Meanwhile, the woman nods. "Yes, but you probably won't believe me. It was really strange."
"Please, just tell me, I'm not going to judge." She pleads kindly with the woman, doing her best to appear and be kind to her. Thanking her connection to humanity not having eroded enough yet for that to be much of an issue.
Guy shrugs to the Mekhet. “Just some advice, not like, an order or anything. These…people seem to have a religious bent.”
He keeps an eye out on Flo and the woman she’s talking to, without drawing attention to himself.
The woman leans in to Floretta and whispers. "I saw this huge guy in a grey hoodie appear out of nowhere and attack a man who was getting his suitcase. He ripped into him with these monstrous claws and then turned into a weasel or something and scurried away. I promise I really saw this. I'm not crazy."
"What happened to the guy who got attacked after that?" Floretta asks, as if absolutely nothing weird was just said to her. Already, Floretta's mind rushing to dire conclusions, formulating a plan for the mortal woman in front of her. A look back toward the young Mekhet and Guy with a nod to get ready to move soon.
Guy blinks as he hears the woman’s story, then glances to Flo and nods. He gives the Mekhet a little tilt of his head towards the door. “Get frosty.”
"The guy who got attacked disintegrated! It was..." she pauses. "Wait, am I going to get my mind wiped? Did I see too much? Are you with the CIA!?" She gets more and more frantic.
The Mekhet turns to Guy and squints. They have no idea what "get frosty" means and are too afraid to ask.
"Relax. None of that will happen, you're safe." Floretta says calmly, trying to avoid a panic attack. "I'm just here looking for a colleague, nothing more."
Guy sighs softly. “On your toes. Keep an eye out. Be alert,” he elaborates for the Mekhet, eying the woman as she grows more agitated and looking to Flo to follow her lead.
The woman seems to calm slightly. "Okay. Do you know if they're going to catch the person who did this? Is there someone I should report this to? Are the X-Files real?"
"My friend here's going to help make sure this stops." She stops for a moment to consider her option. "It would be much better if you didn't, Joe Bob the beat cop can't deal with traffic stop properly, much less this bullshit so..." A brief pause. "... but I know some people you can get in touch with. People who know and can help with stuff like what happened here." Floretta produces a card from one of her pocket and offers it to the woman, it would lead the woman to the Candlelit Visages, the Mystery cult she keeps and made for specifically situations like these when they claimed the Moshulu.
Guy gives his most winning wave of acknowledgment. If there was a sign this wasn’t police business, it’s the fact the guy who’s supposedly gonna deal with it looks like he’s stared into the Abyss and it politely averted it’s gaze.
The woman smiles uneasily. "Okay..." she mumbles, taking the card. You have a feeling that she isn't a masquerade breach, but she sure isn't a happy camper. Seeing death does things to a person, even if it's vampires being murdered. That's the thing about humans. No matter what, they can't lose touch with their humanity.
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