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It's raining in Philadelphia, which keeps the heat from being too oppressive. It also provides a nice background noise to wash away the sounds of humans. No conversations to overhear, only the hurried pitter-patter of rain.
For one reason or another, you find yourself in Fishtown (a neighborhood full of food, music and excellent craft beers) tonight. Despite the rain, the place is bouncing with activity, bars spilling out music only barely hearable under the rush of rain. But there's one sound that pricks your vampiric senses more than the others. A woman's scream. It's coming from a nearby alley, between two busy bars.
The scream draws the attention of Floretta and she emerges from one of the bars, her acute senses flaring, nostril, eyes wide, ears attentive. It's no Auspex, but they're sharp. She looks straight out of the Matrix: Leather pants, black shirt, trench coat, Shades and blush of life active. A quick scan of the crowd, of the people there, then she breaks into a run toward the scream, careful not to bump into anyone. (activating resilience)
Atalo had been out for a walk with Cerberus, dressed in drab clothing and appearing non descript for the most part. He carried an axe on his back that might have caused comment, if not for the supernatural concealment lying upon it.
At the sound of a scream however, his head darted round to focus on the source of the sound, Cerberus' own matching suit. Pausing a moment he started towards the alley, giving Cerberus a brief command in Greek to observe the entrance for threats. Seeing Floretta heading in he quickens his pace to follow, fading from obvious view and letting her lead with himself ready to act from concealment if need be.
Guy had been out doing Guy stuff, taking in the night life and enjoying the um-Beyoncé of the rain on the neighborhood. At the sound of the scream in his acute senses, he darts into an alley and activates Force of Nature, turning into a crow to fly towards the source of the sound.
The source of the sound is pretty clear. A young blonde woman, in her early to mid 20s, is backed up against the side of one of the walls hyperventilating as she stares at the wall across from her. The other wall is far more interesting.
A skeleton with noticeable fangs is crucified to the wall, hand bones damaged from the nailing in. Above it, written in blood, is the phrase "Sins Linger On The Harbor". The blood is stale and worthless, only not a dry brown mess because of the rain that's smudged it despite its location under a high awning.
The woman shrinks away from Floretta as she approaches, too panicked to even say anything.
Floretta stops dead in her tracks when she notices the other woman shrinks away from her, then looks toward the skeleton on the wall. She feign some form of disgust at the sight. "Oh fuck's sake, we really should get out of here." she says, not looking, nor speaking directly to the other woman, but clearly, she's talking so she can be heard by her, trying gauge her reaction to the subtle urging.
Atalo pauses as he spots the sight, a grimance. Moving so he wouldn't be in the woman's immediate line of sight he lets his cloak fade, but re casts it as Floretta tries to draw her attention. This time, on the fanged skeleton and writing so it is no longer visible to casual eyes. He keeps quiet and a little ways back, leaving the social element to Floretta (not his forte and he knows it).
Guy looks over the scene, and seeing the other two interacting with the frightened woman, he takes in a deep whiff of the old, dried-but-now getting wet blood.
"But there's bl-" the woman starts before turning around and not seeing anything. "I guess I was seeing things," she says with a nervous laugh, heading to walk out of the alley.
Guy meanwhile breathes deep of the blood and learns a lot. It's human blood, gathered no more than half an hour ago, type B+, no poisons or drugs, a woman's blood from a woman who had her throat slit and she recently ate Italian food (something with a lot of pesto).
A fourth person enters the alley around this time. A dark haired white man dressed inappropriately for the weather, in a polo shirt, Bermuda shorts and one of those flat golf hats. Something about him gives off the appearance of a shark, but you can't quite place what it is. Oh, and of course, he has a Beast. He's Kindred. "Ah, shit," he mutters, a thick Baltimore accent in his voice, "This alley is reserved, you know. I'm meetin' a friend here."
Thing is Floretta blinks at the missing skeleton with fangs, then at the appearance of the new Beast in the alley, she follows the woman, just a few steps to indicate she's also leaving and maybe protect her if the new presence decides to have a snack right there. But she doesn't actually leave the area. "Yeah I get the feeling the reservation got messed up." She says, low volume, to the intent of the new presence. She looks around quick around, above, at her feet for signs of any sort of animals.
"Agreed." Atalo speaks up quietly, focusing on the newcomer. "There is something we need to see to here." He glances between Floretta and Crow!Guy, then back to the unknown Kindred. "And there might be questions you need to answer."
Crow!Guy caws mysteriously.
"I mean, I'm stayin' put," he says, waving an arm dismissively. "You can keep hanging out until my business partner shows up. Then you gotta scram. Elder's orders." He smiles politely, revealing many sharp teeth. "Feel free to ask away, I'm an open book. And tell your bird friend to go back to bein' a vamp. It's impolite." Something about the way this guy holds himself seems awfully familiar, but you can't quite place it. He looks Atalo up and down. "Do I know you?"
Meanwhile, Floretta finds a rat no problem.
Floretta grabs the rat, exits the alley and points the blonde woman to the rat, whispering to it and and petting it gently. follow her and come back here Floretta intends to be there when the rat returns to ask it what it saw and maybe keep it as a friend later.
Once that is done, Floretta returns into the alley way. "Sorry, had to make sure of something."
Atalo studies the vampire a moment longer. "I don't know you. If you know me, it's not to my knowledge." He glances towards Floretta. "Do you have a bag large enough for the bones? I see removing the risk to the Masquerade as the priority here." A nod towards Crow!Guy. "Unless it's believed we should study this more first, but it's a risky place to do so. Better to look at the bones away from here."
Guy flits down to the ground and lands as a man, straightening his jacket a little as he adopts a casual lean against the wall of the alley.
"Maybe names would help. Lee Garfield of the Wright family," Lee bows, though there seems to be an undertone of sarcasm to it. "Also, I beg your pardon. What bones?"
"There were bones here a moment ago, I suspect someone is hiding them. I think your business partner might be... the bones." She looks around a bit more. She looks to Guy "Hello there." She waves to him with a smile, then looks back to Lee Garfield. "Floretta Williams, Touati family, Bala Cynwyd Keeper."
"Atalo Ceres, of the Circle. And these, and yes Floretta, I concealed them for secrecy's sake. The hope is that they're not of who you came here to meet Lee Garfield." A quick glance to confirm the vampires have no apparent humans close enough to be an issue and Atalo reveals the pinned skeleton and the message. "I need to remove them to ensure they're not found by other Kine, but it's likely best I take them to an Elysium, to help find answers."
A flash of a polite smile to Guy before he moves to start gathering the bones unless the action is objected to, removing them and the nails from the wall with Vigor enhanced strength as necessary.
“Guy Dagenham, Mac Lochlainn family,” he answers easily. “Unofficial diplomat, I suppose you could say.” He waves to Flo and Atalo, and looks over the bones. “There’s a dead human about too, judging by the fact this one is almost certainly one of ours. That blood isn’t theirs.”
"Fuckin' Hell," Lee says, awestruck by the body, "I'm willing to bet that's Malone. Fuck does that message mean?"
Another person enters the alley, the way Lee entered from, this one a rather bulky fellow in a cheap suit, contrasted by a solid silver cross on his neck. He's wearing a messenger's bag around his shoulder. "Mr. Garfield! Have you seen-" he stops when he notices the body and crosses himself.
"And who might you be?" She asks of the man crossing himself. "I can provide the space to host the bones and then proceed with further investigations." Floretta mention as she send a quick text to somebody somewhere.
"I think someone disapproves of the business dealings you've had with Malone. I'd say someone particularly religious perhaps? Since they mention sins." Floretta suggest, rolling her shoulders, tying the front of her trench coat.
"As is desired, Keeper." Atalo formally inclines his head to Floretta. "I'll take them there then. And will be available if I can be of use in the future. A good evening to you all." He nods politely at Lee and the other man and pads away, giving Guy a light smile and a pat on the shoulder.
Calling Cerberus to his side, Atalo and the hound, along with the grisly remains, fade from view as he discreetly exits.
Guy doesn’t make a Bones Malone joke, especially since no one else here would probably get it. But it’s really hard, it’s one of his precious Halloween memes.
Instead he looks over the newcomer. “Well, there’s a potential religion connection. Sorry, looks like it’s gonna be a long night.”
The other guy introduces himself, "I'm Enzo Romano. And I hope you aren't saying I'm a suspect, just because I'm in the Lancea."
"Don't know what there is to disapprove of," Lee shrugs. "I arrange travel for Kindred to get from one city to another. Not a particularly interesting or sinworthy job." He smirks, getting ready for the windup of a joke, "unless I made 'em fly coach."
"I don't know you beyond names, Mister Romano, I'm only referring to the very obvious religious message above the bones." Floretta kind of smile at the joke the Invictus makes, if only to be polite, then looks to Guy. "You said you also smelled a woman dead nearby? Maybe there might be clues there for us to find?"
“If anything you’re more likely to be a victim, based on how overt the threat is,” he says to Enzo, shrugging.
He answers Flo. “I’d guess so. The blood was spilled less than half an hour ago by a knife, no poison or drugs, and she’d had supper. My guess is a grab of opportunity, which lends itself to a dump of opportunity. And no chemical sedation suggests an expert human or a supernatural.”
Romano gives Floretta a look of suspicion before it turns to a look of fear at what Guy says. "Well, crap. Should I go into hiding? I'm not really keen to meet my final death."
Lee meanwhile checks his genuine Rolex watch, cool as a cucumber. "Need me for anything else or can I get goin'? I got some stuff that needs attendin' to now."
"What? The guy wrote 'sins linger in the harbor'. I'm not accusing you mister Romano, but if anyone writes about sins on a murder scene, I'll assume there's some form of religious motives." Floretta explains herself to the worried kindred, before her attent shift, ever so softly, toward Lee, trying to gauge his motives for wanting to get away so quick, before she thinks of answering his question.
Guy glances to Flo, then nods to Lee. “Can’t say we have grounds to keep you here or anything—if someone from the Invictus does want to come along and help ensure the Silence is upheld, as is their prerogative, a heads up would be nice, but other than that…”
"Yeah, maybe leave a way to contact you in case something comes up and we need to ask a question or two." Floretta adds
Lee reaches into his pocket and withdraws a small metal case. He opens it and withdraws two business cards, handing one to each of the two. They read "Eisenhower and Garfield, Imports and Exports."
As he goes to leave, his phone makes a chirp of getting a text. And then so does Romano's phone. And then too do Floretta and Guys' phones. As does the phone of every vampire in the city whose phone number is not top secret.
Floretta does look at her phone "That's definitely a good sign." She says, eyeing the card and then the screen of her phone.
Guy checks his phone, frowning slightly with curiosity.
It's from a private number and contains only a link from a link shortening service
“Is this one of those viruses you shouldn’t open, or something?”
"Definitely not a thing we should just click on an unsecured device." A shake of her head. "Maybe a way to track us or steal information from our phone. I'm not good enough at computer to figure that one out, I don't think."
Enzo, with his zero dots in computers, opens his. A sound clip blares from a voice that's clearly been run through some filters. "Attention, Kindred of Philadelphia. This is VII. Kill the Sakima or people will die. And it will be her fault." The most notable thing about the voice is that it pronounces Sakima wrong. The voice says it like it would rhyme with Yakima, Washington.
Guy turns his head to stare at Enzo’s phone, blinking slowly. And then he tips his head back and starts to laugh, slowly, before shaking his head. “Oh, I see, I see, well then.”
"Well fuck. That's going to be an atomic ton of fun to solve. I'm willing to bet this thing here is not unrelated." She takes a deep, undeeded breath, then moves closer to Guy. "We probably should either go to the harbor to check, or make a round of warnings for the less than tech-savvy people around."
“Let me see if I can get a bead on this woman’s blood, if she’s nearby, and then we can swing by the harbor. The other thing is important too, but the other people who got it will start passing the word around.”
The two of you track down the scent of blood for a couple blocks, finding a thoroughly drained woman in a dumpster in an alley. Her death matches everything Guy noticed earlier.
Guy grunts softly. “Sloppy and wasteful, on top of the loss of life.” He thinks for a moment. “There’s nothing supernatural about this, directly, we could just make sure she’s found,” he say softly, looking to Flo.
"I don't know, Guy, not a lot of blood left." Floretta says with a frown. "Fuck..." She shakes her head, almost recoiling from the sight and looking about for a way to conceal, at least for the moment. "Plus, I'm sure someone could glean something from investigating the body. A shadow especially."
“I mean, pretty logical and mundane reason for it to be missing,” he says as he glances around. “But unfortunately you’re right, we should have someone who can read her take a look around.”
Within about 20 or so minutes, Floretta gets a rather scrawny Mekhet from the Ordo here to read the body. They look at the body, activating Auspex and shudder as they examine it.
"The, um, the killer was obfuscated until he killed her," they say, in a squeaky New York accent, "but he was wearing a sweatshirt to keep blood from getting on his clothes and it had a hood. He didn't say anything or breathe at all, so he was probably Kindred. I didn't recognize him though, so he probably isn't Ordo. And there really wasn't much emotion at all. The woman didn't know she was in danger until she was dead and the killer... he wasn't mad or scared or happy. He just was. It was like he wasn't even present."
"Okay, so that might be one of the bad weird fuckers." She shake her head. "I'll need to look into the seven thing."
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