Re: Fish Out of Water

by **johntfs** Fri Jul 24, 2009 1:31 am

"I know somebody said something about Brain Spiders, which is less than pleasing and the guy that was with me has left the building for parts unknown," Josh continued as the Regent left him, fading swiftly into a blur due to Josh's nearsightedness.

Josh was pretty sure there was something wrong, but he had a hard enough time reading human feelings, much less Kindred ones, especially since he could barely see the guy's face, much less make out specific expressions. Still... "Look, do not get greedy about the Orb here, I figure it's safe enough where it is. Plus, I'm kind of in the middle of trying to head off a Kindred civil war, I think. These people are really on edge. You need to talk to Father Eremet before you do anything. Call me if you think of anything else and- Oh, do me favor and look up whatever would allow Kindred blood to be preserved for long period outside Kindred or Ghouls, I think that's going to be a thing with this. Gotta go meet the Sheriff now, bye."

Josh hung up the phone and headed out the door, hoping to catch up to the Regent and meet said Sheriff. As well as hoping he hadn't messed up anything too badly. Except that he'd already messed up because the Regent was well out of sight and Josh suddenly realized that he had no idea where the Sheriff's office actually was.

Josh decided after a moment's thought that actually calling after the Regent as though he were a runaway puppy probably wouldn't be the best of ideas. But he still needed directions.

Screw it, he thought, walking toward the building's lobby. When in doubt, ask at the front desk.

"Um, excuse me, sir," he said to that gate's guard. "I'm Josh, we just met a bit ago when you shoved a shotgun under my chin after the whole teleportation thing. Anyway, the Regent wanted me to meet with the Sheriff and I forgot to ask where that is after my phone call. Would you mind giving me directions to office so I could meet him and the Regent? It's kind of important. Thanks."

OOC: You can check the Dice Log, but I'm pretty sure I failed the roll. I also spent a WP on said failure. In truth I'm not sure I used the Dice Roller correctly in any case. I know I couldn't copy any results it gave me. Actually, since the Dice roller didn't let me copy results and I screwed up the parameters yet again, I'm going to pop back over to RPoL, use that one, and post the results back here.

Die results: 05:34, Today: Joshua Weinburg failed (no successes) using 3d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8 with rolls of 1,7,4. Unskilled Empathy check + 1 WP -2 for Poor Sight.

by **Claymore** Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:22 pm

The Regent looked like he was winding up for another backhanded remark, but instead paused with a curious expression. His hesitation seemed like he was reluctant to admit the idea had merit. "Yes, you could be on to something. The Sheriff is in a meeting with Sir Imelda downstairs. They won't let you interupt, so I'll go with you."

As you called your contact at BRI, they informed you that Angel had made a full recovery and was released shortly before you called. It was also strongly recommended that you return sometime soon for an examination... as if you could remember where it was, seeing as how you got there through unconventional means to begin with. There was an outbreak of headaches that started on the floor where the experiment took place, and a few other symptoms that couldn't be described over the phone. The only hint she could give you over an open line was that people with Morgan's skills reported having a much easier time performing them. Handy as that may be, something wasn't right.

The subtext was clear enough. Something definitely followed you through the gate. They've also been having trouble with their phone lines, so between that and the medical lockdown, it made it difficult to get an expert in for analysis.

In any case, stopping the Regent to make a phone call in his office seemed to irritate him a good deal. However for some reason he didn't chew you out for it, and listened in. Especially as your story came around to the orbs. When you mentioned the one in the basement, he stood up and motioned for you to follow him out as he locked the office door. He then said he'd be back in a minute while you finished your call, and left you alone in the hall.

_{You might want to make an Empathy roll here.}

by **johntfs** Mon Jul 13, 2009 11:43 pm

Joshua felt a twist of annoyance at the Regent's sarcasm. "Well, it's not like I can just dig up a plausible thir-"

He stopped talking and froze as a memory bubbled up from his brain, clear and crystal and fully formed, showing itself to him again as

she leaned in toward you as if she was about to give away a secret. "There are other ways though. I've heard rumors that someone figured out how to keep the blood from ashing once it's left the body. The Kindred bottles it up, sells it, and boom. Average Joe gets Vampiric speed or strength or something without the original Kindred knowing where you are to put you to work. Hey if I could get some of that, would you, ya know, be curious?"

Christine spoke to him from the past and he looked back at the Regent and said,

"Ghouls." And pulled out his cellphone to connect to BRI.

As he flipped it open he spoke to the Regent again, his tone staccato as the idea enfolded him, consumed him. "Ghouls. I think ghouls have him. I heard something about a way to store Kindred blood. A ghoul would know of the Kindred, but wouldn't know everything. Wouldn't be able to perfectly fake a death. I need the evidence. And to talk to the Sheriff. Or maybe a Deputy or something. Then after, I should probably get in contact with a CArthian. Preferably one who's respected by them and who dislikes your administration. Maybe this childe you just mentioned. I think ghouls are going to use Frost as a drug source. Drink and sell his vitae. Like Drainers on True Blood."

As he spoke he punched the button to dial BRI. As soon as someone appropriate was on the line Josh spoke. "It's Josh. There are things you need to know," he said, rattling off what had happened after the teleportation accident. "How's Angel, because I need to talk to her. Now."

by **Claymore** Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:29 pm

He leaned forward and sarcastically replied, "Very good!" The chair creaked as he rocked back into it. "Of course we've toyed with the idea that he faked his own death to rally more Carthians to his cause. But not even his Childre seems to know of the plan. We've had someone watching her lately, and she's been investigating his death with as much zeal as if it were real. But it's still possible.

Age isn't the only factor in how our bodies decay after death, but it's the most common. You're welcome to talk to the coroner if you wish. If he is dead, it happened in the morgue, not the elevator shaft. Or perhaps you could ask your Blue Rose friends to test the ashes for some evidence of who's they really are.

Frankly, we don't care if he's still alive. The Carthians are moving with too much momentum anyway. What we're hoping for is a third party to use as a common enemy to avoid waring with each other. If we can't find one, perhaps you and your friends could help invent one."

by **johntfs** Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:27 am

Josh read the report, closed his eyes and reread it in his brain, flicking through it as though it were on a computer screen. In his fatigue he almost missed it, but the circled word "age" gave him the needed clue and grimaced a bit. Of course the Regent would test him somewhat to make sure he had the needed capabilities.

"Ah, sir, are we all quite certain that this person is actually dead?" he asked, laying down the folder and turning it around so the Regent could see it and read along at the relevant portion of the report.

"Along with the body there's something else missing. The bullets," Josh pointed out. "I understand that when Kindred meet, um, "Final Death" they rapidly decay to a point matching their true physical age. Thus, a very old Kindred could very well decay into, well, ashes. However, since Mr. Frost was apparently the victim of multiple gunshot wounds, it occurs to me that at least some of the bullets would have lodged in his body. Therefore, if he'd actually perished and decayed into the ashes left behind, the bullets would also have been left behind since, as inorganic objects, they would not have been subject to rapid decay. No bullets are mentioned. I submit that it seems far more likely that someone removed Mr. Frost's body and replaced it with the, um, ashes to make it appear that he had died. To fake his death for other Kindred. Somewhat like you were having Ms. Gypsy do with Mr Hyde, yes?"

"I think this is a kidnapping or fraud instead of a murder. At least so far," Josh concluded, leaning back in his chair and hoping he hadn't missed something obvious and made a fool of himself in front of the Regent. He suspected the Regent didn't suffer fools gladly.

by **Claymore** Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:58 pm

The Regent sent Gypsy away to deal with her own business while he spoke to you in private. "If you want to find the real killer, no one here is going to stop you. And I can tell you that whoever did it succeeded only in making the man a martyr, so I wouldn't begin my search with his political enemies. Talk to the Sheriff on the way out, and inform him you'll be looking around. And you can start with this." He reached into his desk for a manila folder containing what looked like a police report on Frost's death. He was found at the bottom of an elevator shaft with several bullet wounds, supposedly a gangland shooting. That of course is one theory. Just a group of pissed off Mortals who got a lucky shot and put him in torpor. The odd thing is when his body, while in the morgue, was replaced with ashes. That note in the folder was circled in pen with the word 'age' and a question mark next to it.

For a start, people to talk to would be the coroner, or his political rival, the Carthian Primogen Alec Welder. The police might have more details, and the Kindred Sheriff might have found something new since that case file was printed.

by **johntfs** Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:35 am

The silence against stretched for an eternity as Josh felt his nervousness grow. As he waited he was struck by the utter stillness of the beings in the room with him, the lack of blinking, of respiration of the minor fidgets and twitches and little motions that marked those who were alive. The thought occurred to him that whatever else they were, the Kindred, as they called themselves, were predators above all. And as far as they were concerned, Josh was a food animal before anything else.

God, I wish one of them would say something soon, he mentally wished, hoping at the same time the next verbalization wouldn't be a desire for a kosher meal...

by **johntfs** Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:40 am

When the woman called Gypsy failed to speak after a long time, Josh's nervousness overcame him and he spoke again. "Um, maybe you should take some time to think it over and get back to us after a little bit," he suggested.

"In the meantime," he said, looking back at the Regent, "maybe there's another route we can go with this thing. It seems to me that even if faking this guy's death works in the short term, he's eventually going to 'come back to life' and the, uh, Carthians will know you fooled them. So, how about if instead I work with whoever you've got actually investigating the dude's death? Figure the best way to defuse this thing is to find the real killer, right? Plus, I can trusted by everyone, pretty much. I mean, I'm working with Vergil and the mages, and we don't really care who killed this guy, so we're, you know, a disinterested neutral party. But you're going to need to give me some kind of guarantee that whoever the real killer is will get publically punished, even if it turns out to be one of your own people, okay?"

by **Claymore** Sun Jun 07, 2009 7:02 pm

OC: I hate to tell you this, but I'm going to have to separate you two. I know I'm not the fastest poster here, but Gypsy, you have to do at least once a week if the storyline is going to progress the way it was. And you're really holding Josh up now.

by **Claymore** Wed May 27, 2009 2:52 am

He didn't say anything, but the look on the Regent's face seemed impressed with your idea of a vanishing act. Slightly less pleased with the idea of you making demands in your current position. But bartering for another's life was respectable enough, so he still remained silent waiting for Gypsy's answer.

OC: Gypsy, if you plan on refusing, don't post it yet. We might have to call for a contested persuasion roll here.

by **johntfs** Fri May 22, 2009 12:38 am

Joshua shrugged with false humility. "I admit I have some skills with computers, investigation, research and the like," he said. "But my main contribution to this effort would be the use of the orbs in concert. When used together, the orbs can open portals and create teleportation effects. The effect is... less than perfectly controlled, which is how myself and my companion ended up in your basement, near what I presume was another orb. By using the orbs in concert, we can literally make your would-be "victim" disappear. And we can use some explosives or other pyrotechnics to give the impression that he perished by fire. It'll be difficult and dangerous, but it seems to be the surest method of giving the impression of a Kindred's death to other Kindred, without the reality of said death."

Josh took a deep breath to steady himself and then continued speaking to the Regent. "And you are quite correct that it will be up to Ms. Gypsy, because there is a small price tag attached to my aid."

He turned to face the woman in question, feeling fear and determination well up in him. "My price is that you forgive the debt of honor that Christine Lee owes to you. In this very room and on this very night I witnessed you threaten her with death over the orb that she gave to the Regent. If you wish to pursue revenge over whoever got her to betray you, that's fine. I don't care, but leave Angel out of it. That's my price. Rescind your promise of death or harm to Angel, and I will help you. Don't and I won't."

Josh wasn't entirely sure why he was putting himself in what could easily be harm's way by doing this. Maybe he felt sympathy for Angel, who'd at least tried to help him make sense of things. Maybe it was nothing more than that it'd been a long time since a pretty girl had paid attention to him. But the die was now cast and it was time to see how it fell. And whether he'd fall with it.

by **Claymore** Thu May 21, 2009 11:48 pm

He was still glaring at you hard enough to make your head feel heavy. But the idea of volunteering to help the new Hound almost made him do a doubletake. "It would be a fine way to redeam yourself. But Gypsy here will have the final word on that. I however, am curious what skills you have to offer."

by **johntfs** Mon May 18, 2009 10:12 am

OOC: Sorry, had a bunch of RL crap hit me all at once, but I'm back now.

IC

Josh leaned back in the chair and considered carefully how to answer the Regent.

"I don't think so," he said. "Unfortunately, I just heard the term right before we were teleported by the two spheres. However, most parasites that I know of are solid entities like tapeworms. I think as long as no one touches or engages in fluid exchange, especially, ah, one-way fluid exchange, there shouldn't be a problem. That said, I'll get in contact with BRI about the situation."

He looked over at Gypsy. "In the meantime, I may be able to aid Ms. Gypsy with her own situation."

by **Claymore** Sun May 17, 2009 9:29 pm

OC: Gypsy, I was under the impression that you and Josh wanted to RP together. But it's really up to you how long you want to wait. The interaction between Gypsy and the Regent is pretty much done. btw, I've got some more interesting things coming up with this than your character seems to expect. Wink

by **Gypsy** Tue May 12, 2009 12:56 am

Gypsy accepts Kilpatrick's words, but makes no effort to hide the lightning that flashes at his implications that question her sincerity. Or her disappointment that her first assignment was to 'pretend' to kill someone. It reeked to her of stealing the glory of someone else's accomplishments.

She raises an eyebrow and licks her lips as the human enters, remembering the hunger that burns inside her...

by **Claymore** Wed May 06, 2009 3:30 am

At your request, Kilpatrick nodded to the Sheriff, who swiftly left the room after the other scientist. "I trust you haven't brought this infection in this office, my boy", he said, with more than a hint of irritation. "You're becoming an annoyance Mr. Weinburg. Was there something else you wanted, besides bringing in a supernatural parasite into my Elysium? I don't suppose you know how to take care of it."

by **johntfs** Fri May 01, 2009 11:42 am

Joshua sat in a chair in the Regent's office, feeling very much like an errant child called to the pricipal's office. Assuming of course, that the principal in question tended to drop students' drained corpses into the garbage instead of simple paddling them.

"Ahm, I'd like to start by apologizing for both the abrupt way that my associate Mr. Reed left this office as well as for the accidental way that I find myself returning here, sir," Josh said sincerely. "This has been a pretty strange night for me.

"Also, would you mind very much sending someone to fetch back the other fellow who was with me?" Josh asked, knowing he was stretching his luck. "There's at least a small possibility that both of us have been exposed to some kind of mystical parasite and it would be best if we were placed in quarantine until that possibility has been eliminated."

by **Claymore** Thu Apr 23, 2009 3:37 am

For an unofficial consultant for Blue Rose Innovations, a company known in most supernatural circles as playing with lots of fire as long as it gets results, you were on your glory when you realized where you were standing.

Their recent experiment, involving a healthy mix of technology gone mad, dark magic rituals, and an artifact they didn't fully understand, was designed to open a doorway to the orb that was still lost in the Shadow Realm. Instead, it opened up into the basement level of Elysium where Regent Cadman Kilpatrick had a private archive of financial information, artifacts, and what more or less looked like a small bomb shelter. Not even most Kindred knew how to get in this room, but after some hunting around, you realized it was just a trap door with an elevator that rose up to the center of the stage in the grand auditorium. This place, after all, had the public front of a theater house. Where the button was that lowered it again from the outside was anyone's guess, but at least you weren't stranded.

But who could pass up an opportunity to have a look around first? Apparently what had attracted that teleport ritual wasn't the orb in the Spirit Realm, but another orb that was hidden in a shattered safe. Somehow the momentary attraction between the orbs caused it to brake out of the safe.

The Sheriff's guards nearly killed you when they realized you weren't a Kindred or card-carrying Ghoul. But fortunately the Sheriff himself remembered who you were, and you were brought up to the Regent to explain what had just happened. The scientist who was with you, finding himself immediately unwelcome, ran out to report back to BRI. Once in the Regent's office, you found a familiar face, Gypsy.

Gypsy, the Regent didn't seem too find of your idea of serving as a spy for the enemy. As a matter of fact, he insinuated that that's the line one might feed to both side in order to straddle the fence until a victor could be identified. He knew who his enemies were. The problem was getting to them.

He did, however, like the idea of not announcing your appointment right away. So you were free to use that anonymity for a time however you saw fit. Your first assignment, if you chose to accept the job, wasn't actually to kill someone, but make it look like you did. The Invictus know they weren't responsible for Frost's death, and the catalyst for war. But there's no point in simply explaining that to them. So what he needs is a scapegoat in the area of 'the enemy of my enemy', and an equivalent death on the Invictus side to give that accusation some plausibility.

The Invictus he's chosen to throw himself on the dagger is someone with enough notoriety to get some attention, and a track record for butting heads with Carthian associated in the past. You are going to fake the death of Crole Hyde, and make it as theatrical as possible.

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