Kindred Praxis of San Francisco, January 2, 1998. 12:30 am.

[sortofnosferatu]

Daedalus lived in the Prince's wine cellar, making the public portion of his Haven among the barrels and casks of a storage section just off the main stairway. There, he displayed his paintings, and worked sometimes. His sleeping chamber and library, and whatever treasure troves of potions and inventions he had formulated over the centuries, were hidden away behind secret doors known only to him. But meanwhile, when he was willing to accept visitors, he haunted his public section. Currently he stood invisibly in the main atrium, considering a portrait in progress of the Toreador Lillie Langry. Something about the eyes wasn't right. The gleam in them looked too much like madness.

He hastily covered the painting when Prince Julian, her former lover, came down the stairs to look for him. He was the only one of three people who dared to come down those stairs at all, and the faint smell of expensive cologne preceded him. He was a tall, black-haired man with one green eye and one black, his wide-mouthed, handsome Italian features currently grim. "Daedalus."

"Yes." The voice came from the shadows, and then Daedalus stepped forward into view, already undoing his smoking jacket and reaching for his coat. He could already tell from the Prince's tone that he was going out on the hunt tonight.

And so it was that soon after he was moving invisibly along a decrepit section of docks near Pier 39, rolling the intelligence Julian had given him over in his head. Lightning out of a clear sky. Flashes of light in the nearby alleys, in multiple locations. A homeless man, now in the SFPD drunk tank downtown, raving about a group of people walking out of a "glowing hole to nowhere". It sounded like positive insanity, but...so did nocturnal hemovores who lived for many centuries. Daedalus had existed too long to dismiss almost anything out of hand. But he hated not having any idea whatsoever what to expect.

All he could do was search the area--and search he did, block by block by rooftop by basement. So far he had found a few strangely burned spots, each one about ten feet in radius and each one still slightly warm. There was no sign of the cause, though unusual scent trails started at each one. Having no other choice, he eventually started following one of them, penetrating deeper into the shadowed alleys as he tried to catch up with whoever was down there.

Comments

[wherehuman]

The hunter tonight might be the hunted actually, one of the strange people was sulking in the shadows trying to see if she recognized anything in this new place. All the young looking girl knew was it wasn't the castle keep where her master was.

Seeing the man examining things she stepped further into the shadows, bumping a trashcan. Instantly she shifted, becoming a small fox, maybe it wouldn't draw as much attention as a waif of a girl dressed in clothing better suited for a desert climate than Northern California

[sortofnosferatu]

Daedalus sniffed and sniffed, unaware that his veil had been breached and that he was being observed. Why did he smell bazaar smells? Incenses, desert air, and most of all...fox. Fox? That didn't even make any sense!

The formally dressed figure came into fuller visibility, all pale hairless skin and enormous dark gray eyes, He snuffled like a dog as he searched the area again. "There aren't any foxes in San Francisco," he mused quietly to himself.

[wherehuman]

The tongue the shadowed figure used was strange to her ears. She bounded off away from the sound of lapping water, if she was going to find out anything it would be deeper in the city, not near the edge where women wash clothing or they fetch their water.

Sagira only made it half a block before she yipped startled... That was one big mangy mutt there. There may not be foxes, but there are stray dogs the size of horses!

[sortofnosferatu]

The big mangy mutt was a newcomer too...from a much nastier place than the little fox. It looked diseased, ears bare and distended like a bat's, fur greenish and falling out in clumps, glowing foam dripping from its snaggled jaws. Evil seemed to roll off of it in waves.

It stared madly down at the little fox with the one wide green eye not occluded by tumors, and started to titter like a gigantic jackal.

Daedalus heard that terrible noise and smelled a scent he remembered only from centuries before, and his heart leapt into his throat as he bounded that direction.

[wherehuman]

She backed up a few steps still in fox form, and glanced around quickly.

There, an opening big enough for her between a building and a metal bin... If she could get there might slow it down a little. She bolted for it as fast as her little legs could carry her. No way was she becoming doggie chow tonight. Wouldn't be fitting for a prized pet of a king to get taken out by a wild beast!

[sortofnosferatu]

The monster's jaws closed inches behind the tip of the fox's tail and then it was barreling after her, aggressively and clumsily as something rabid. It crashed into the metal bin, denting it and making it roll several feet. The creature lost track of her for a second--and then bounded over the bin and was after her again.

For about three seconds. It was just starting to pick up speed when a man-sized shape slammed into it from above and fastened onto its back like an angry wolverine, snarling and clawing.

[wherehuman]

Sagira had almost thought she was a goner when the body barreled into the beast. She tripped, rolling, shifting as she did into her human form, her clothing morphing around her. Unfortunately the illusion of clothing didn't have weapons, she'd have to find replacements for that later, but right now... There was a pipe lying on the ground, something thing. She grabbed it holding it much like a staff, waiting to see if the large...

No he wasn't large, though he wasn't exactly like most northern tribes men she had seen before, that was the only reason he could be pale in her knowledge. At least as pale as the parchment her master wrote on.

[sortofnosferatu]

Daedalus knew that these creatures ran in packs, and that the only way to destroy it was to pick it off before it got back to its fellows. A blitz attack was the best he could manage--and now he was being knocked through a rotten section of bricks as the monster shifted to a two-legged stance and tried to scrape him off against a building.

He noticed a little girl practically at the thing's feet and his eyes widened in panic. Clumsily he yanked at the creature's head with the one arm not occupied with hanging arm, trying to break its neck or at least steer it away from the child. It yelped and snarled, and bashed him into another wall--before he got an idea and grabbed one of its batlike ears, twisting it painfully.

The beast screeched and stumbled aside, away from the girl--and through the gap in the bricks, into the condemned building beyond.

[wherehuman]

The little girl had been ready to strike when the two legger, whom smelled of old blood jumped in to save her again.

"I had it under control!" The language she used was that of scholars of her world, Roman maybe? Pinch of something not quite. Though she did enter when things settled. "I guess I owe you my thanks dark one. I carry no gold, to repay you with though. Master doesn't trust me with it." For good reason, she loves baked bread and will eat her weight in it.

One lost big kitten coming up.

[charcoal_and_chalk]

The portal that opened up in front of her had dumped the woman, and her messenger bag to the pier. Scrambling to gather the lost bag she ignored the pain in her ankle as she quickly got to her feet searching for some sign of people. Hearing movement behind her she bolted, another figure following from the portal, but seeming to instantly know to disappear.

The woman though, dressed simply in a cream colored sundress no shoes, didn't seem to know the skill too well. Her hand's slipped from the bag again and she knelt to pick it up wincing, silver burning her wrist. She'd deal with it later, first she needed to get somewhere safe.

Cat hair everywhere.

[sortofnosferatu]

Daedalus smelled burning flesh and turned instantly in that direction, focusing hard on vanishing completely into invisibility as he ran. Most of the burn spots had been nowhere near any witnesses, but apparently someone had gotten too close to one of the discharges.

As he drew nearer to the area he smelled something he really wasn't prepared for: big cats. Leopards, he suspected. What in Hades' name was going on? Leaping silently onto a fire escape, he peered down the shadowed alleyway, the faint reddish gleam of his eyes just slightly giving him away.

Re: Cat hair everywhere.

[charcoal_and_chalk]

Getting to an alley, Trin clutched the bag close, leaning against the wall to try to catch her breath. Where ever this city was it wasn't on the East coast, the water seemed to be on the wrong side of her for that.... And the air was cooler than the summer she had left in balmy Tennessee. Sinking down to the ground she held the bag close. Where ever she was couldn't be as bad as the compound. She needed to get her bearings, maybe she could find some answers... The Master of the city would be a good place to start, if they didn't kill her on sight at least. After all her being there could be seen as a threat.

"You look a little out of place here." She glanced up, three men, human by their scent were coming out of an old warehouse.

"I'm just passing through I don't want trouble okay?" She stood hoping her voice wasn't cracking or that she wasn't trembling. She still wasn't in control of herself, only good thing, she noticed it wasn't a full moon. These guys wouldn't be added to the victims she's already caused because of her beast.

[sortofnosferatu]

Damn. They were in Brujah territory and some of their human lackeys had caught sight of the injured person before him. He heard their voices and turned that direction, leaping up onto the roof of the single-story warehouse bay to watch their conversation with...

...a pretty young woman who smelled of burned skin and leopards.

What the Hell?

The three were fanning out to half surround her, hands in pockets, hips forward, naughty grins tugging at their lips. He needed to find a way to get her out of there before any of their masters came out to investigate.

[charcoal_and_chalk]

She watched the men carefully, they reminded her of the guards at the compound to be honest.

"Really guys, I'm fine." She wasn't sure what would happen if they got closer, her leopard was bubbling at the surface, making her eyes flash golden for a moment. "You guys should just go back inside please?"

Hey it should work right? Nope, one of them moved closer touching the wrist with the silver band. On reflex she dropped her bag swiping at him with her other hand, which had started to shift looking more like a claw. The scratch wasn't deep, but did go across his face. She stepped back a little more, tripping on her dropped bag. Shit.

[sortofnosferatu]

Daedalus paused as her eyes changed--and then saw her defensive reaction as she was seized and leapt to the ground, revealing his presence only in a soft thump. A sudden icy breeze rose around them, and they hesitated. Even the guy grabbing his face and muttering curses over it looked up for a moment.

"What the hell's going on out there?" The voice from inside the warehouse was deep, male and irritated, with a Jersey accent. Eddie Fiori, Daedalus recognized. The leader of the Brujah and the worst of them. Human or not, he would likely consider the young lady a snack.

"There's a weird lady out here, bo--" The man stopped in mid sentence as his neck broke. The long white hand snaking around from behind him dropped his chin and he slumped to the ground, revealing Daedalus glowering behind him.

He dropped his forbidding look as he glanced at the girl. "Run."

[charcoal_and_chalk]

she had just started getting to her feet when the figure dropped between her and the men. Hearing him tell her to run she snatched up the bag again, doing just that. She wasn't sure which way to go, just hoped that if she got to a street there'd be people, a crowd she could disappear into long enough to get her bearings.

One of the men managed to remember he carried a gun, though me missed both of them with the two wild shots he fired, both being far too high to do more than hit the wall.

[sortofnosferatu]

He was suddenly aware, in the bit of his mind not occupied with golden-eyed girls and what those men had wanted to do to her, that he was creating an incident with the Brujah for almost no reason.

Was it no reason? He knew, straight on, what those men were about, and what Fiori would have done had she been dragged inside. It was late. Fiori always "ordered out" on nights like this, and whoever his boys caught lost their lives. Murder was illegal in this Praxis. He was within his rights as the Enforcer to step in.

But he was not within his rights to break the Masquerade to a complete stranger who might have unusual abilities. This had gotten instantly messy, and he quickly vanished from sight, leaving the two terrified men training their guns around looking for him. He had to find that girl!

[minitreiver]

Eliot looked around warily, keeping to the shadows. He was certain he'd never seen this place before. The odd hole in the world that ripped him out of the chantry had come out of nowhere. He glanced around for something that might give him some clue where he was.

[sortofnosferatu]

Daedalus smelled Kindred--strange Kindred! He couldn't figure out what Clan the stranger was, but there was definitely a dominant Clan scent. This wasn't a weak-blood. More like...something entirely new. He tried to track the newcomer unseen, moving close enough to get a look at him.

However, Tremere are psychically sensitive, and even mostly untrained ones tend to...sense things...without even really knowing what. So a stranged "watched" feeling itched between Eliot's shoulder blades.

[minitreiver]

He looked around him, searching for the source of whatever made him feel like someone was watching him. It had been an amazing two hours without it. He didn't want to go back a chantry, not for anything. At least the sun had gone down so he could move. He climbed onto a nearby fire escape and headed to the roofs.

[sortofnosferatu]

Daedalus couldn't figure out for the life of him what the young Kindred was. The more he followed him the more intrigued he became. But he quickly picked up on the fact that the young man was a sensitive--and that he was likely unnerving him.

There was nothing for it but to step into one of his usual duties--the greeting of Kindred who arrived unannounced in town. The fact that this one seemed to have been unexpectedly drawn in from...somewhere...didn't change the basics.

He announced himself in the usual way, lighting a cigarette so that his clawed hands were full and thus unavailable for combat. He might just have been standing quietly on the roof when the younger Kindred arrived, and gone unnoticed thanks to his dark clothing. But the flare of flame was aimed at drawing attention.

"Are you lost, young one?" he asked in a deep, calm voice.

[minitreiver]

He spun at the sound of the flame igniting. "Who are you?" he asked, looking for the best ways to run if he had to. "What do you want?"

A cigarette and otherwise full hands didn't mean things couldn't turn violent with little warning.

[sortofnosferatu]

Daedalus drew on his cigarette and blew the smoke out before replying. "I am Daedalus, Primogen of Clan Nosferatu in this city, and a friend of the Prince." Actually the Prince's Enforcer, but that was a bit unnerving a thing to bring up straight off.

"It is part of my duty to greet Kindred visitors here."

[minitreiver]

"Primogen..." He frowned. He knew he'd heard the word in the long list of things he was supposed to remember now but he couldn't remember what it meant. "Clan what? And which city?"

[sortofnosferatu]

Daedalus paused, nostrils flaring slightly as he scented around the cigarette smoke. "It appears that you are very disoriented indeed. This is the Praxis of San Francisco." A wry little smile as he drew on the cigarette again.

"Clan Nosferatu. Are you aware of your own Clan name?"