Seras little snippet thread

I had 'acquired' a new TV and the new Haven finally felt like home.

Sailor Mars was screaming in the background as I wandered around the apartment basically preparing defenses.

Wards were easy enough, if kind of annoying to work with, but Ghoul Wards were a good idea.

Especially when you had a Ghoul causing issues. Door knobs were being enchanted. Patty or Sarah, wouldn't like what happens if they touch it.

I was actually enjoying doing a bit of ritual magic, even if it cost a lot of blood to cast it, doing actual magic was super fun.

Playing around with Magic was my plan to take up the evening. Which is why I wasn't expecting guests.

There was a knock at the door. Curious.

Walking over I checked the peephole, and noticed a few tough looking guys outside.

Hmmm. I flashed my Auspex, a vampire and two Ghouls? Interesting.

I opened the door.

"Hello?"

"You were right." The one of the left offered.

"Course I was. Replied the one on the right.

The guy in the middle though? He was the Kindred. He stepped forward not quite entering, but enough to be intimidating, at least I assumed so. His suit and jacket reminded me of some thirties Mafioso. His massive beard that was almost sharp made me think of a mane.

"You been enjoying hitting my business, lick?" He asked bluntly, and I tilted my head.

"I literally have no idea what you are talking about."

"My drug houses, you fucking Bitch! You enjoyed knocking 'em over? Messing up my men?" He demanded and I realized what he was on about.

"Huh. I didn't know that. Sorry about that." I offered back mostly sincerely. I mean, I was just trying to earn some cash. I had no idea they belonged to another Kindred.

"Sorry, don't cut it. You know how many of my guys are in the hospital because of you."

"Like a dozen?" It was only two drug stash houses after all. I can remember how many people I beat up.

"Fucking smart mouth on you." He growled, literally growled. And it clicked. The Spikey Mane like beard that reminded me of a lion, and the animal actions? Definitely a Gangrel.

"Okay wait." I took a deep breath, be the bigger Kindred here Vicky. You're a 2nd Generation. Caine is your Sire… And he totally let this happen… Anyway. It was obviously a mistake. "I thought I was just beating up some Kine for some funds while I'm in town. I had no intention of messing up your domain. My mistake, sorry about that."

The Gangrel didn't react much to my response, but then he stopped looming as much and adjusted the suit he was wearing. The man returning to take the place of the animal.

"A mistake is something different from overt action. At least I won't have to take strips from your flesh in exchange. But there is still the matter of the debt you owe."

"Yeah I spent most of the money."

"Fuck the money. Twelve guys in the hospital, and the locations compromised by the cops. The whole thing is going to cost me months of work to get settled again."

"Well sorry to say, but I've only recently come to LA, I'm not flush in cash, or anything worth repaying you."

"I'm not asking for cash. You'll work off your debt."

I quirked an eyebrow and wanted to mention that it was cute he thought that was going to happen, but then I remembered he was sort of the slighted person here?

Kindred politics was complicated, but what I had done… Yeah I had probably fucked up a little. I took a deep breath.

"While I understand your problem, I'm not sure that's going to happen."

"Then, we take it to the Prince." He demanded. "Since you're being respectful about it, I won't just peel you open like a pig. We'll see what he thinks about the newest Kindred in the city interfering with another's domain."

"Seriously? Isn't this a little low level for LaCroix?"

"The Prince is the one that gave me my Domain. Against an outsider like you? Who do you think he'll be on the side of?"
I rolled my eyes. As if I was afraid of LaCroix. The guy couldn't tie his own shoe laces if he tried, but I also knew he would be a bigger pain in the ass to deal with.

"What kind of work exactly? I'm not exactly intimidating like your Ghouls."

He leaned back as I actually forced him to actualize what he wanted. He didn't' pace exactly, but he sort of leaned left and right, a very human movement, that made me realize this Gangrel, for all his mafioso, was probably pretty young.

"There's an old enemy I need kicked out of an area. You go see her, and 'convince' her to leave one way or the other. Then I'll consider it square." He offered and I blinked at the odd task.

"You can't do it alone?"

"She hates my guts. Been purposefully causing issues in my Domain to get at me. Masquerade breaking shit. Had to clean up after her a few times already. That's my offer. Otherwise we go talk to the Prince."

I considered it.

It could be interesting.

"Agreed." I decided after a moment. "Details of who this Kindred is?"

"Veronica. Most just call her Icka. She's a Nos."

"Well that'll make it harder to find her." I offered, but shrugged. "Let's get this over with. I'll need a ride."

He blinked. "I'm not a fucking Taxi."

"Then one of your boys can do it. C'mon. Chop chop. I got things to do." I demanded and the Gangrel looked like he was going to protest, then just scoffed.

"Fine."

"Also, what's your name anyways. I can't just keep thinking of you as 'Gangrel.'"

"Tsk, Call me Alex." He grunted, and I shrugged.

—--

I was dropped off at the backside of an old shopping district, apparently Alex owned the whole building and rented it out to small shop fronts.

I was seeing a lot of nail salons, and things. "Let me guess most of these are just money launderers?" I muttered to myself, but continued onwards. Icka was apparently using the basement of the buildings for her Haven as it connected to the surface and the sewers.

Unfortunately, she had a tendency to come up and steal whatever she wanted from the shops, and hadn't bothered to hide herself a few times. The Ghoul had filled me in on the drive.

I stalked over, and opened up the back maintenance door. A maintenance area for the water heaters and things were all around me, and I stepped in.

"Icka? You in here?" I called out, not receiving an answer as I shrugged. Duke the Ghoul had given me a run down of the area.

I walked forward, looking for the stairs that led down into the sewer access. I noticed the red emergency light above the stairs was broken, smashed.

"Icka you there? My name is Vicky." No response and so I wandered down into the darkness.

Blinking my eyes, Auspex activated. Nothing I could see, but that wasn't unusual, Auspex couldn't see through Obfuscate unless it was equal, or higher level, and my Auspex was only level one. A Nos of any skill would be much higher than that.

At the bottom of the stairs was a metal door. With Auspex letting me see in the dark I could make out the claw marks that had bent out the door ensuring it couldn't shut properly.

Well well. Someone was strong.

"Icka? You in there?" I called out as I opened the door.

My Auspex ended and I was in the darkness. Pulling out my phone, I fiddled with it, letting it light up.

"Icka?" I called out again, as I stepped forward. The faint light of the phone was enough to maneuver, and I could use Auspex again if I needed but I wanted to save the blood.

Wandering around in the darkness for a while I didn't see anyone down here. Having circled the entire room, either she wasn't here, or she was just watching.

"Icka? Alex sent me, I-" I was cut off as something smashed my phone out of my hand. I blinked as I looked at my hands.

At the bottom half of my phone.

At my broken ruined phone.

"Was that necessary?" I hissed, fangs out as I stared into the darkness.

"You shouldn't have come here prey! I'm going to rip out your fangs one by one, and pile them up outside for Alex to find!" An echoing voice hissed out of the darkness.

"What you are going to do is pay me back for my phone." I called out as I stuffed the remains of my phone into my pocket. I activated Auspex as well.

Nothing.

Sighing she must have reactivated her Obfuscate after attacking me. I looked around and found the broken top of my phone, along with the brick she had thrown at me.

Picking up the remains I stuffed it into my pocket.

"Alright listen. I'm Vicky. I owe Alex- Fuck!" I grunted as a brick slammed into my face.

It didn't really hurt, but like…

It's a brick. To the face.

"Did you just hit me with a fucking Brick?" I hissed feeling my fangs grow out. "You do that again, and I'm going to beat you into Torpor with a brick." I promised no longer amused.

"You'll die! Alex will die! I'll ruin his life for what he did! I'll break his business, be the monster in his walls and then he will taste an ounce of the pain he has heaped upon me! His betrayal will be returned a thousand fold!"

"This… Is a lovers spat isn't it?" I cursed, was it too late to go and just let LaCroix deal with this?

"I'll leave him out for the sun!" She screamed, and I realized that this nosferatu was fucking deranged.

"Listen. I don't care about whatever this is about. I'm doing this to repay a debt. I don't work with Alex, or even like the guy. Let's just talk."

"There is nothing to say! I will throw your ashes into his face! Rip your face off and wear it!"

"Dark Father, give me patience." I decided to say after a minute. "Dealing with dumb Kindred. I now understand. I understand why you left. Listen Icka, I know you are mad, but we both know you can't keep fucking with the Kine to get back at Alex. Let's just talk. You want to destroy him? Great. I don't care. Just not here."

I suddenly was forced to take a step back and blinked away the dust.

"Okay Bitch. Okay." I growled my chest felt like it was thundering. She had just hit me with another Brick. I flashed into Auspex so I could see.

I stomped over to the sewer entrance. Just an old Sewer lid. There were also a lot of old shelves around the room. I pumped my strength up and threw one of the shelves over the sewer entrance.

Sealed, she wouldn't be able to open it without letting me know where she was.

Then I walked over to the door. Fuck worrying about embarrassing myself.

I drew upon the power of my Discipline. The newest power. Blood stained shadows rose up below me and into my hands instantly it started forming, but I angled it and slammed it forward.

A moment later it finished forming into a sort of chunk of metal you might call a sword.

But it was now pierced in between the door and the wall. On the outside the sword had formed two hooks and then the whole thing had shrunk.

The door was now jammed shut. You would need to break the blade and likely the door, or pull the Bloodstained shadow blade free of Brick and steel.

"Now you can't leave." I called out to the darkness, as more of my Bloodstained Shadow flowed up and over my legs. As it crawled up my body, it clad me in armor.

The first dot was cloth. The second dot enhanced the cloth to make it stronger, and more flexible.

The third dot forced the corrupted shadows to form metal.

Obtenebration had a similar power. Only it was still just shadow, and not permanent. The steel I formed was as real as any other.

So when I reopened my eyes to the dark room, I was now clad in steel plates.

"Now, fight or flee. There will be no more hiding!" I called out as I drew back my arm, a sword forming in my grip practically roiling as I wasn't doing a great job of shaping it despite my crafting skill.

I would have to level it more.

But as I waited I realized this fucking bitch was going to try and hide from me.

No more mocking words. No more bricks.

I growled as I stomped forward swinging out at the shadows to find her, but she remained beyond my blade.

Obfuscation was very good at hiding. She very likely could continue to hide from me until I gave up.

"I warned you." I growled as I did a circuit of the room. Once more in front of the door, I opened my character sheet.

I knew what I needed.

The Discipline was accepted easily. Turns out once you start getting to four dot powers, there are less restrictions.

I brought my blade up in a guard and activated the power. Blood flowed draining out of me quickly. The cost of using a power that could be so powerful and AOE.

The blade burst to life, spewing twirling strands of power. It was like it was alice, tentacles of blood and shadows reached out.

The malformed blade vanished under the torrent magical energy. The power flowed out, it shifted and bounced off the stone walls echoing in the small confines of this sewer access room. Then as I enforced my will, as I readied to strike shadows and blood went from flaring in a wave to compressed into a blade, it felt like I was suddenly holding a jet engine.

It was ready but I had to say something. I couldn't use my super move, and not call out something… Fuck it.

"EX!" I roared because it was the right thing to say. And swung. "-CALIBAH!"

Everything including a very terrified Nosferatu was swept up in a deluge of power as I swung.

I felt exhausted the moment after. I had just burned a lot of my blood for that. Add onto that the blood I burned for my armor and weapon. I wasn't quite running on fumes, but I was much much emptier than I was comfortable with.

Yet, I knew my face was stretched into a rictus grin of delight.

I opened my eyes to darkness and sighed, burning another point to see through the darkness.

The shadows receded showing me a room that looked like a storm had swept through. Multiple massive grooves cut through the room, like a great beast had clawed apart the concrete and everything else in its way.

And there in the corner was a very terrified looking Nosferatu woman. A chunk was ripped through her side, like a beast had gone to town on her.

I took a step forward and enjoyed the way my metal boots clanked atop the concrete in the previously silent room. How the noise brought a new look of horror onto the… Okay she looked like a skinned rat, that had been rotting in the sun for a while.

It was incredibly unpleasant to look at.

But I did so. Staring into her dark eyes as I stomped ever closer.

"I… Did not wish to bring this much power to bear, I am still weary from my torpor. But you were warned about what would happen if you hit me with another brick." I reached down and to the woman's horror picked up a brick.

—--

Taking off my armor was as easy as breathing. It melted into my shadow, like it had never been there, and to my delight, some of the blood I had spent on forming it was returned to me. I hadn't intended on keeping it, as the armor had looked ugly once I got a look at it, but I hadn't expected a return of blood.

I did the same to the door block 'sword' and regained a bit more.

Feeling a bit better I opened the door and then headed back towards the Nosferatu.

Icka was picked up by the back of her shirt and I just dragged her behind me.

I had done exactly what I promised. The injured Nosferatu had fought me tooth and claw but I was a lot stronger than her, and despite needing a few bricks to get it done, I had beaten her into torpor.

It had been surprisingly cathartic.

I learned something important about myself. I didn't like being hit in the face by bricks. Who knew?

Dragging her… Corpse was sort of the right word, behind me I walked out and straight towards the car the Ghoul had driven me here in. He was outside standing and smoking and looked like he was enjoying his quiet night until I approached and he saw what I was doing.

"Holy shit."

"Nothing holy about us." I replied without missing a beat as I stalked over to the trunk. "Open it." I demanded and Duke the Ghoul, hurried to do so. I dumped her into the trunk and then walked over to the passenger seat.

Duke was to my surprise very smart. He didn't speak at all as he drove us away.

—--

"That's Icka alright." Alex muttered surprised as he opened the trunk and looked onto the woman. The fact she was even uglier than before as I had bashed her face in was one thing, but I could see the mans eyes drifting to the massive gouge taken out of her side.

"With this the deal is done." I said without any further discussion. "I expect you'll reach out to the Prince to discuss whether she should reach her Final Death?" I prompted, and I could see the man hadn't been considering that at all.

I wonder if I hadn't spoken how long it would have taken for an act of Diablerie to take place?

"Of course, that's the way of things." He said, looking like he didn't want it to end there, but he agreed.

*3 Experience.*

"That's right." I agreed and stared into the Gangrels eyes. He didn't back down. Gangrel were the kindred closest to their beast after all. "I'll ask LaCroix later for an update on her. She pissed me off after all." I threatened and then just started to walk away.

"A moment." He called.

I turned to him and he looked pleased.

"You're stronger than you look girl. You needed money right? How about some future work? I could use someone that can take out Icka."

"I don't think you can afford me." I called back, and he chuckled deeply, as he rubbed at his sharp bristly beard.

"You'd be surprised. The debt is square, but if you need money I'll be there." I reached into my pocket to enter his number into my phone when I stopped.

Pulling out the broken phone.

I growled as I remembered what had happened.

"Get me a new phone, and I'll agree to hear out whatever job you have in mind." I decided and the man's smile turned feral, his fangs on display under his beard.

"That I will do."

—--

I had a new phone, a burner. Updated my address book so I wouldn't forget, and then I had gone hunting.

The thirst was creeping onto the edges of my mind. I could control it. It wasn't terrible, but if I was feeling this thirsty, then I had burned a lot more blood than I would have liked.

Hunting prey was easy enough. I was back in Downtown LA, and with how many alleyways and clubs there were, I simply hunted.

Over the next hour three poor schmucks were drained and dropped off behind dumpsters, or tall shrubs.

I was feeling better and more and more ready to think about what to do next.

Five xp started back at me from my character sheet.

Dumping it all into Craft was a temptation. The armor and sword I had formed hadn't looked awful. I was a master Blacksmith now. But…

Well there was a difference between crafting the normal way and my Discipline. The fact was it took time for me to think about the armor. Think about the way it should be shaped and formed, and it was hard to do that, and think about how it should fit on me. Or its aesthetics all at once.

Craft would help though. I would have a supernatural skill with it, above 5.

The temptation was there, but I had another problem on top of that.

Wasn't that always the way it worked? Everytime I thought I had a skill filled out, I had another dozen skills I wanted?

But this was serious. I didn't really know how to use a sword. Sure I had one point in Melee, but that was just enough to know how to hold it more than anything. I looked at my hands, at the bare flesh, and remembered how it felt to hold that blade filled with power.

How awkward it felt. I hadn't been swinging with any real skill. I had just been sweeping it around like a child with a stick.

It was embarrassing. Thankfully the only person to have seen it is currently in torpor. If anyone asked, I would just blame it on being rusty from my own torpor and ignore any questions about how little sense that made.

The feel of the armor though hadn't gone away either. Honestly, I had loved it. Who didn't daydream about the heft of steel plate cladding their body.

Of becoming a knight? Even if was a Dark Knight Magical Girl? Which was very cool.

"I am so happy I came here." I whispered to the shadows of the California alleyways. I simply couldn't be happier.

Eventually I had circled Downtown or at least as far as I was willing to go, before returning to the Haven.

As the elevator opened and I walked onto my floor, I was just about to open the door when I heard a thump from inside.

Crouching to be more sneaky, I opened the door as quietly as I could, preparing for whoever was stupid enough to break into my home.

I slipped inside, quickly having my shoes disappear into nothing so I could pad ever quieter on bare feet.

Wait… I opened my character sheet, and spent four of my points on melee. This wasn't the time to hesitate. If someone was in my Haven, and planned to attack I had to be ready. Knowledge roared through me, but I ignored the feeling and instead constructed a blade.

The blade rose slowly from my shadow and soon I was holding a deadly weapon of dark and blood. Shifting and moving.

It still wasn't great. Too messy. The steel was there, but it was sort of molded badly.

Another weapon I would draw the blood from when I was done, but until then. I held it ready and kicked open my bedroom door.

Then I blinked.

Alice, who had leapt into the air at my entrance already pointing a Glock at me blinked.

"What are you doing?" I asked, surprised at seeing her.

"This… This is my Sires Haven?" Alice offered and I remembered. I hadn't actually told her about the whole Tremere Haven thing.

I relaxed and gently let the tip of the blade flow back into my shadow.

When it was gone I looked up into the shocked face of the Fledgling.

"It's a long story, but the Tremere Primogen gave me this apartment as thanks for taking care of an issue. C'mon why don't we talk, I have some things to share."

She looked at me for a long while before lowering her glock and nodding.