Seras little snippet thread

The old jail was locked down. Yet even as I walked down the sidewalk I got a sense. A prickling on my neck, something odd. Something… The bottom floor windows were boarded up, and the entrance was boarded up as well, but it was obvious as I approached that the boards had been broken.

The signs warning about Asbestos were just dandy. Ugh. I was going to stop breathing until I got out of here.

Just more hobos? The Sabbat? Something else? Unfortunately I couldn’t just activate my Regalia in case of a masquerade breach, but at least I could be fairly confident there weren’t any cameras inside.

The place was run down bad.

Pulling the loose boards away I stepped inside, and the smell of an abandoned building hit me. Mold and dust, and bodily fluids…

And blood. Even without breathing I could smell it, a warmth on my tongue that urged me on.

There was no choice but to follow, to see where it led.

Rotten floorboards under foot crunched but I carried on anyway, until I found it.

An internal room, with a closed door, and light flooding out from inside.

I could once again smell smoke, along with blood, and had to wonder what idiot lit a fire inside an old asbestos filled building.

Ugh. At least I couldn’t get cancer anymore.

Well if I dealt with a Tzimisce I technically could that was sort of their thing-I ended the stupid train of thought by walking up and opening the door.

“The fuck?” A trio of Kindred looked up. The dead body they were currently sharing as a meal told me that.

I couldn’t help but look over this situation and realize this wasn’t what I was looking for. There was nothing in the room, this wasn’t some crazy Sabbat stronghold. It was just a shitty Haven found by a couple of dumb Sabbat.

I’d need more than just force to get what I wanted out of this.

“What are you idiots doing?” I demanded instead of going into combat, I instead decided to try something else.

Subterfuge, a skill I unfortunately had no points in.

Think criminal Sabbat thoughts Vicky.

“The fuck are you lick? You loo-”

“Shut the fuck up before your breath causes me my final night.” I demanded. “Andrei put out the call for everyone to find the stupid childe, why are you fucking hiding here?”

The three went real still and quiet, looking at each other like they weren’t sure what to say.

I looked them over. Gangrel for sure. He barely hid what he was. The other two? Looked normal. Nothing specific.

“What what Childe? Who are you?”

“V.” I said and looked at them like they were idiots. “What Childe? Fools. The idiot Childe Tzimisce that went missing from the Blvd Apartments, and the Archbishop himself asking me where the Shovelhead got himself lost. That everyone should be looking for!”

I waited, and I could practically see the slow turning of gears, grinding and rusty as they thought.

C’mon. Just fall for it. I could see it. The Gangrel’s eyes were narrowing, disbelief, but…

“Wait, are you talking about Avram? I thought he went back to the docks?” Just a second too late the Gangrel reached out and smacked his compatriots, and then the third spoke.

“The Sword of Cain.” He whispered, staring at me, and I looked back…

“Ah Malkavian. Poor bastard.” I offered in commiseration as I brought out my Regalia.

The shadows deepened, and armor flowed up from my shadow, until I flexed my hand and a sword appeared.

“Fuck.” The shovelhead that answered my question spoke suddenly fearful, even as his Gangrel friend attacked. Roaring with claws extended.

I stepped forward his claws scratched off my armor, shrieking as they struck the metallic armor before my blade cut out and he disappeared into his final death.

I attacked full out, and the tattler yelped, almost running as he seemed to run for a baseball bat along the wall. The Malkavian hissed and attacked fists clenched but he was cut down in moments, a single fist reaching my armor before being stalled out.

“I’ll make this quick. As thanks for telling me.” I promised even as I rushed forward. Bat vs. Broadsword was hardly a fair match. I slashed and cut and in moments he was burning to ash.

Three dead Sabbat, but most importantly, I had my information…

I looked at the corpse laying in the corner.

“I’m sorry. At least the ones that killed you are gone.” I offered quietly, almost awkwardly. I wasn’t as bothered about a corpse laying there as I probably should be but…

I’d have to do something about her.

Turning I left the jail satisfied. There might be more kindred around. The Sabbat pack could be bigger than just three shovelheads, but also these could just be stragglers, idiots left behind or getting distracted.

Hard to tell.

Either way I had what I wanted so I was out.

Just as I was about to walk outside, I shifted my armor and sword back into my shadow and made to leave when I felt it. Spinning around I looked inside the building. Something…

“Fucking haunted ass jail, fuck that.” I decided with a firm nod and heading away. If there was a Ghost I wasn’t dealing with it.

The SUV was thankfully still parked, and the driver perked up from a paperback as I approached and slipped into the seat.

He didn’t say anything, simply waiting for my orders.

“Call in some police officers about a corpse. Preferably our type. The Shovelheads weren’t being gentle with their feeding. And start heading towards the Docks.”

I nodded as he got to work making a call, and more importantly.

*2 Experience.*

Hehe!

—--

The drive over took a while, even late at night this was still LA traffic. So I looked over my stat sheet.

I still had a lot of weaknesses.

Might as well shore some of those up. First, No Life Princess, my Regalia needed a dot, and I had the idea.

If armor was the defense against physical attacks, then Willpower was comparatively the defense against mystical attacks. At least when it comes to mental things and the like, and there were always lots of mental effects.

Dominate might not be a concern, but Presence? I could be seduced by a cute Toreador and end up a falling prey to their seduction!

I blinked after a moment realizing I had started daydrea-I mean considering the threat of such a thing and how to resist it!

Yes, couldn’t let that happen, definitely. I would not be seduced by the Goth Vampires!

So I needed more Willpower, but… Why not get even more? I looked down to my shadow in the wheel well of the SUV and knew it was staring back at me. Yes, having a bit of help against attacks like that would be great.

I put in the dot for No Life Princess 5, and then wrote in what I wanted…

Denied!? Why! I just wanted to give myself extra resistance against attacks equal to my No Life Princess dots which would totally break the game, but I wanted to break the game!

Aww.

I considered it. I guess it was too early. The five dot power, something… Ah.

Right now I’d sort of ghouled my shadow, empowering it, to let me form my Blood Stained Shadow effects, but… It was still mindless really. Alive, but without will, I needed some way to give it a will in order to get my Willpower buff idea to work.

I needed something cool. Magical girl style. If only I could just steal ideas from Fate like I’d been…

I looked at my character sheet. Would it let me? Yes, and with an appropriately Chunni name to go along with it!

Regal Anointment of the Noble Beast
-Bind even the Beast in the Regalia of Royalty. While Bound, reduce difficulty of Rotschreck checks. Or Unbind the Beast. Increase difficulty of Rotschreck checks for more power.

“Tee. Teehee…. Teeheheh. Pffft! Haaahaaahaaa!” I broke. I couldn’t help it. Laughing hilariously as my shadow went wild, shifting and stirring around me.

“Aaaahahaaahaaa!” I cackled, how could I resist when such a perfect power existed! The power made just for me!

“M-Ma’am?”

“Hoh?” I blinked remembering I wasn’t alone. The poor driver was shivering and I realized my shadow was getting a bit grabby.

“Oh sorry. I just… Stretched out a bit I suppose you could say.” I decided to explain away my actions with that… That would definitely explain my mad cackles right? No reason to think it was weird and like report it to other Kindred right?

I looked away and only then noticed as I leaned up against the tinted window, I could see a faint red glow underneath my eyepatch. Ah. Hello Beast.

Nice to meet you.

We’re going to be the best of friends.

Okay that was step one, now back to what I was thinking.

I entered the next dot. My sixth tier power.

I was now going beyond the powers of the Ancilla. Only the strongest vampires could hope to reach what I was about to do.

This time, it worked.

The newly bound Beast, now connected directly to my Blood Stained Regalia flowed around me, a wild animal that to my surprise settled down quickly. I could feel it. The Shadow connected to me so intimately through my Beast.

It would work.

It’s mind supporting my own. Anyone that tried some spell or ability on me would face more than a single mind resisting its invasion.

Exactly what I wanted!

Courtship of the Hungering Beast
-Gain dice on defensive rolls using Willpower equal to No Life Princess.

It felt odd suddenly, the thirst, the hunger, everything that represented the Beast felt distant, not gone. Never gone, but as if it was further away, or perhaps distracted would be better.

As much as the Beast was still a part of me, it was just my instincts after all, the two skills left a strange dichotomy where it felt like I’d pulled the Beast from me, just a small amount.

Now.

Now to the docks.

I’d think about the extra two points another time.

I was a little amused at how freaked out the driver was.

Poor guy.

—--

The LA docks were… Busy. Floodlights filled the area, and there was work even at this time of night

The SUV pulled up and before I could say pull over somewhere, the driver headed straight for a main gate without prompting.

So I waited to see what was going to happen.

“Can I help you?” The guard at the gate asked as we pulled up and the driver pulled out a card. Saying nothing.

A moment later the guard looked it over and nodded, passing the card back and lifting the gate.

“Mr. LaCroix of course has access to the docks. He often transports goods when needed.” The Driver offered and I nodded that made a certain amount of sense. Other than that, you know. This was Anarch territory. I wonder if the Anarchs knew that LaCroix had permission to enter the docks whenever he wanted?

Eh. Doubt they’d care really.

We drove up to an office building set up on the docks and I realized I would need to do something. Right now I looked like a kid wearing a gothic style dress, that was nice for casual stuff, but if I was dealing with mortals, I needed something to give me a bit more gravitas.

We pulled up to a parking lot, and I turned to the driver.

“Get out of the car.” I ordered and he took a second to process what I said and then hurriedly did so. Waiting for his door to close. The tinted windows gave me some privacy.

Then I spent a drop of blood and my dress disappeared as more shadow rose up. It flowed up over me, covering and shifting, and my Craft skill once more synergized.

A few moments later I stepped out of the SUV, the driver looked shocked at my change.

I reached up and adjusted the sleeve for a moment. The buttons at the end shimmered a little in the lights. An ancient word no longer found nearly anywhere on Earth was inscribed into the buttons.

Princess.

Or at least the Enochian equivalent.

With that my incredibly well tailored suit fit well, and gave me a certain gravitas that I normally lacked. Crafts 10, eat your heart out.

“Alright let’s find our Sabbat infestation.” I said and started walking.

—--

The Driver thankfully helped a lot. His authority from LaCroix, or should I say borrowed authority meant that the Harbor master was willing to at least answer questions especially when I lied about a missing shipment.

There were a lot of boats, and as I looked out the window looking across most of the docks from the harbor master's office Auspex didn’t reveal anything.

I didn’t expect it to, the Auspex level that let me see aura’s early had a short range.

It was expected to be fair. The Kindred were hiding here. A container ship could bring in a lot of equipment. It could be easily hidden with one Kindred with a bit of Dominate as well.

So which ship was it?

It had to be recent. The Sabbat had just showed up, and I doubt they had the patience for a long build up.

Well to be more accurate it would be hard to stay hidden from the Nosferatu for long. No, I bet they had pushed in and cut off the Nosferatu as soon as they arrived.

Ships that arrived within that length of time, and were still here?

Ships that arrived in that time and left storage boxes somewhere that the Sabbat were using?

No, this was a busy port, and even the Sabbat wouldn’t be that stupid. No with Andrei here in charge I should assume some intelligence.

A ship.

“We got two that match that time frame, but you can’t just walk onto them. They’re private vessels.” The Harbor master muttered looking up from his stack of files he’d looked through at my request.

“That’s fine. The two ships? Let’s go see what’s going on.” I requested, and the Harbormaster looked like he wanted to refuse, but he glanced at the card on his desk. The glossy embossed card that had LaCroix’s symbol on it.

“Yeah alright.”

We crossed the dock on the little carts they had reaching the first ship. There obviously wasn’t just someone out there waiting or anything, it was late. And despite the Harbormasters arguments I walked on board anyways, and looked around with Auspex.

There was nothing. I even made it down into the hold for a moment, and found nothing.

So we headed to the next ship, which instantly twigged my alerts.

There were people on the ship. One guy was even hanging out at the gangplank smoking a cigarette and as we approached my flash of Auspex targeted him as a Kindred.

He wore the clothes of a ship hand, but they were ill fitting. Made me wonder who he was. Not that it mattered.

“This is it. Head back to the car after.” I said and then as the cart slowed getting the eyes of the obvious guard I stepped out letting the Harbormaster and my driver to escape as I strolled up.

“I’m here to talk to your boss.” I greeted as I approached, and from the way the man sat up. Yeah he recognized like.

I stopped far enough back, and two Kindred sized each other up.

Not a Gangrel. No sign of that. Eyes were clear, probably not a Malk. His skin was dusky, but that didn’t narrow it down.

“Get out of here. No boss is interested in some one eyed bitch.”

“Andrei disagreed.” I name dropped, and once again was thrilled that my words got a reaction. Besides I had both my eyes, thank you.

“The fuck are you to have the Archbishop send you here?”

“A guest. One here to speak to your boss.”

The guy pulled out a walkie talkie of all things, one of the small ones, and clicked it on. “We got a guest. Not someone I know. Said the Archbishop sent her.”

There was no response for a minute before a voice echoed out.

“Bring her in.” The response earned a swift reaction. The guard stood up and revealed he had a pistol in his hand for a moment before putting it back in his pocket and waving it at me to move forward.

“You first.”

“Sure.” I walked up and felt myself relax as I climbed up.

I’d found theeeem!

Hehehe!

This wasn’t so hard. Why did the Camarilla always seem to struggle with this sort of thing? You just bust some heads and pull some tricks and follow them to their lair.

Easy!

I was led below decks, and instantly the smell of blood told me I had the right place. We walked down a set of stairs to a gantry around the large internal space, and there were plenty of Kindred around me.

Hmmm..

I had a feeling I now understood why Kindred didn’t just hunt down the Sabbat like this now.

I was guided down another set of steps until I was deep in the ship on the main cargo hold. At the lowest point, with only one other Kindred at the same level. Even the Guard had left me behind at the top of the catwalk.

The eyes of dozens of Kindred followed me. Hungry, and angry, I got sinister smiles, middle fingers, and mocking laughter.

And pointed guns.

“The interesting thing is that I don’t remember the Archbishop saying he was sending over any guests.” The man that spoke was surprisingly short. He wore a suit almost as good as mine, and he sat on an actual office chair right in the middle of the hold despite the viscera all over the ship, he was left untouched.

“It’s a recent discussion. Andrei was rather unhappy with how the sewer situation went. We had a pleasant discussion.”

“I’m sure.” The man said, his nearly golden eyes glowing behind a set of well cleaned glasses. Yeah he wasn’t buying it.

I could hear it even without any Auspex assistance the sound of guns being cocked.

“Alright you got me!” I agreed, raising my hands, but unable to wipe the smirk off my face. Buying myself a moment to add my last two points into Fortitude.

Just in case.

8 Fortitude was a whole lot of defense especially against just bullets.

“You see I’m just such a big massive fan of the Sabbat, I thought to myself, Vicky you intelligent and useful Kindred you. You should go find some Sabbat and join up! Totally live out my best final nights, you know?”

The look on the man's face was totally worth it.

“Wait! That’s her!” A new voice, a familiar voice.

I looked up, and saw him. The Tzimisce wannabe biker. His stupid face was literally impossible to forget with how it was twisted and altered.

“She’s the one that attacked me! The Lasombra bitch! Her stupid shadow shit cut down my pet! Fucking kill her!” He screeched. Whatever attempt at appearing refined he had in our last meeting was gone now. Only rage and hate, and the screeching of a manchild.

“Ah. I was going to try and get some info first. Oh well, I was hoping my prey would be here. You aren’t going to run away again are you? I still need to kill you after all.” I greeted and even waved a bit with my still upraised arms.

“Bitch!”

“That won’t be happening.” The man said, still calm, still watching. “You’re surrounded, and alone. No Nosferatu hiding, no surprise assault. We have eyes all over the docks. Why don’t you surrender, and maybe we can make your final night peaceful.” He grinned at the words. The sort of sinister confidence of a man that thinks he’s got all the power, and plans on hurting you.

“Surrounded?” I gasped and looked around pretending like this was the first time I’d seen all the Kindred, then I shifted, and the Losombra definitely saw the glow behind my eye patch. My raised hands shifted, and my sword appeared in a flash of my shadow, my armor rose up, and my well made suit disappeared leaving only the plates of bloody dark metal.

“All I am surrounded by is Fear. And Dead Men.”

My sword burned as blood flowed into it. It almost hurt how hungry I was getting, but there would be no more mistakes.

Gun fire erupted and I weathered the hail. Automatics, pistols, shotguns, everything a group of Sabbat could bring into the country from wherever they came from, rained down on me.

The sound of bullets sparking off my armor, filled the hold. My armor actually was doing a good job resisting the bullets, something I wasn’t sure it could do.

Then I raised my sword.

“EX-!” The blood burned. The shadows grew darker, around me. The other Kindred I realized was a Lasombra. Shadows coiled around him too, as he rose up and his hands shifted into terribly wicked claws, as tendrils appeared around him as he readied to fight me, but he wasn’t my target. “CALIBAH!” I screamed, and let it all out.

The terrible claw of darkness and blood that reached out didn’t just strike my main target.

It clawed across the entire catwalk, the shriek of metal as it ripped across the side of the hull, not quite breaking through I noticed, chewing up every Kindred caught in its path, until it reached the Tzimisce.

Who had actually turned to run.

The grasping claw reached him, and tore into him, Flesh separated and his shriek almost matched the sound of the hull around him tearing, but…

He just managed to move, ducking through an internal wall in the cargo hold, and… He probably survived.

I felt my teeth itch at the idea that the baby killer had survived again. Still I shifted. I was in no position to hunt him down right this minute.

The Sabbat had stopped firing. The Kindred alive on the other catwalk were staring slack jawed.

There it was.

The Fear.

And now to finish making the Dead Men.

And hope they didn’t notice just how much my stomach ached with hunger.

I pushed down the hunger for blood from the Beast, which backed off without too much stress.

Then as if on a signal.

“Fire! Kill her!” Screamed one of the Sabbat along the top way and I winced as I was once more slammed into by a hail of bullets.

They bounced and ricocheted, and some ran through getting through even my plate to slam into me.

And yet, my armor repaired itself, my flesh resisted the strikes, and the bullets waned as the fools needed to reload.

Which is when the Lasombra suddenly charged me.

Tendrils of shadow flowed around him, and as he drew close his shadow covered claws lifted up. We clashed in a screech of metal. My sword slashing out, every bit of my skill to cut through shadow into dead flesh, was met with angry and powerful Lasombra.

I didn’t have the blood for much blood buffing, and I’d wanted to hold what I had just in case, but the first blow, plowed through my sword and punched me back like I was hit by a car.

Oh right. Lasombra had Potence.

Less defense, more offense. I skid across the floor for a moment, falling to my knees to stay upright before standing. None of his shadows, or claws had made it through my defense.

Fortitude and Armor OP.

No nerf.

The man took this in with a clinical look but he stepped back. Obviously realizing that something was up.

“That was a good hit. You can step aside and run away with the rest of them if you want. I’m only here for the Tzimisce brat.”

My words didn’t have the intended effect.

“Carlos! Grab it!” He called out, and then stretched his hands out and charged me again. This time I didn’t try to simply stand still and charged back myself. My blade lashed out, less to block his claw, or try and push him back, and more to just cut, and cut it did.

He still blew me back with a clawed strike, but my Excalibur cut deep, and he stumbled back vitae spilling from his forearm, and making my stomach clench at the smell.

He tried and failed to heal the wound and looked up in just a bit more terror.

“I told you right? Fear. And Dead Men.” Then I charged and he backpedaled, his second attack no more effective than the first. I swiped twice before once again being thrown around as he simply had so much force in his blows, and yet they did nothing besides knock me around, the feel of claws grinding slowly through armor, and only just pressing against my hardened skin told me he simply couldn’t muster the force to actually hurt me.

“Clear!” A voice from above and I looked up.

“What?” I couldn’t quite parse what I was looking at because there is no possible way someone would be stupid enough to fire an RPG-7 inside a fucking ship.

I hesitated too long in shock, it fired. I attempted to jerk to the side, I even burned some blood for Celerity, but as I moved I was yanked to a stop. My foot was caught. A tentacle was holding me in place, and I didn’t have the second I needed to pump Strength to escape.

The RPG didn’t hit me directly, but a moment later a wave of force and heat washed over me.

I shrieked a bit, as I felt my beast howl every instinct in my brain told me to run, and then a moment later. Pain.

Water rushed over me, feeling almost glorious from that aching fear of fire that had been stirring up, and I was being shifted around because of a wave of water.

“Oh fuck! It’s sinking!” One of the Sabbat above us screamed and that caused many of them to start bailing out. Running.

Slowly I sat up. My ears were ringing a bit, but other than a bit of pain I was… Okay.

The water continued to flow, but after the first surge it was slow. The boat was sectioned into compartments. I doubt it would sink from just one hole.

The Lasombra was still there as well, rising up from where he had been knocked around a bit from the explosion as well. We each slowly returned to our feet, both of us watching the other.

My armor had taken some damage. The explosion had actually shattered sections of it across my back and even my breastplate now hung weakly, it fell off, as I rose, and I simply swallowed it in my shadow.

The damage was minor, and would only take a moment to fix, but before I could start he spoke.

“You lost your blade.” He said to me, and it took me a second for me to realize that my hands were empty.

“Seems so.” I agreed and realized I could use that. Broken armor. No weapon? That equaled an overconfident opponent.

“I’m going to tear you apart. Let’s see how well you fight now, Camarilla Bitch.” He growled, losing whatever cool he had. His suit was soaked from the water, and he looked… Well the explosion had fire right? I bet his beast wasn’t happy.

“You’re still talking? It’s time to kill you already.” I snarked at him, raising my fists like I was going to fist fight him.

The tentacles rushed a moment before he did, and only when he did that. The moment he committed did I charge in as well, my armor restored itself.

And my hand gripped nothing but air one second and my Sword the next.

He shifted, his eyes widened and he looked like he was trying to retreat but the water was rising and his footing wasn’t perfect.

I sliced down, and his flesh gave way to my sword. Cutting through his left shoulder. He raised his right arm to claw me again, but I jerked the sword, using it like a massive pivot to keep hin off balance. He missed and I grabbed on. Before thrusting my sword in fully. His scream as the blade cut his flesh was perfect.

My mouth felt like it was dripping.

My stomach ached.

I latched on, and despite his strength, he couldn’t fend me off as I swallowed deep.

Vitae rushed through me.

Heavy in my stomach in a glorious almost too pleasant way. His strength left him as my sword continued to pin him and soon what little fight he had left fled him. As I sucked and sucked.

Right up until the end, when I could feel his soul, almost touch my lips.

Then I pulled myself free, and before any feelings could erupt, before I could let myself consider it, I pulled my sword down harshly, letting it finish the cut and lop him off from shoulder to hip.

He burst into ash, and whatever blood bond that might have begun faded just as quickly with his Final Death.

“It was a good fight.” I offered to him the only words I could think of. There was no remorse in me for ending his unlife. He was a member of the Sabbat, and he wanted to kill me.

Survival was the most human thing of all. I looked up. The catwalks were empty, and I didn’t hear voices anymore.

There were no more Sabbat. Dead or fled.