Vampire: The Masquerade ~ Berlin by Night

After having garnered a number of details regarding the reports from Treptow via questioning some of those in elysium, the disguised Tzimisce had departed the location and moved at a quick pace back towards the warehouses to the east of prince Gustav's location. Drakon reaching its destination as it silently strode into the dark of the large lot, Ivan soon came into view was still waiting by the truck as instructed.

Following a brief conversation and a few orders, Drakon and its retainer were traveling by truck. Driving westward for a short while until they would reach the central-eastern part of the Lichtenberg sector. Its haven of choice for the time being would be a small manor, including a complete basement and some basic amenities and furniture. All of its most important equipment would be unpacked from the truck and brought beneath the dark and empty house.

Perhaps in the future after obtaining more resources and favor, another location could be acquired for use as a haven, or renovations could be made to this one. But for the time being, the disguised fiend would focus primarily on its current matters rather than its plans for the future. Drakon would spend the remainder of his night attending to and establishing his haven, and before sunrise he would rest within an ornate wooden coffin buried beneath the basement surrounded by a portion of his homeland's soil.

The ghoul Ivan would sleeplessly and tirelessly remain on guard in the house above in case of any visitors, he and his master's first night in Berlin drawing to a close.

The night of Berlin was a cold one. They always were. Grey drab buildings offering a backdrop to the grey dark streets made it one of the most unwelcoming and oppressive environments around. However, it was home. Home to many faithful, and many who may one day join the faith. Leo Weisel, one of the two Bishops of the Berlin Diocese knelt in prayer as he looked out and onto the city asleep. His devotions would often carry well on into the night as he convened with the saints in order to santify his fflock. It was his duty to intercede on their behalf. One final prayer was to be offered upon drifting into the bliss of sleep.

"Anima Christi, sanctifica me. Corpus Christi, salve me. Sanguis Christi, inebria me. Aqua lateris Christi, lava me. Passio Christi, conforta me. O bone Iesu, exaudi me. Intra tua vulnera absconde me. Ne permittas me separari a te. Ab hoste maligno defende me. In hora mortis meae voca me. Et iube me venire ad te, ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te in saecula saeculorum. Amen."

A prayer for watchfulness, a prayer for defense, and a prayer to protect him from those that stalked the night hunting those of God. For he knew what horrers began to stir when the world crept into it's deep slumber.

Prince Wilhelm

The prince smiled for a moment and passed a small stack of papers over to the Toreador.
"You will find all the information you need here, You may begin when you are ready, I'm sure You have a few things to get in order before you can truly be back on your feet. I will send Felix by tomorrow night to see how you are settling in." And with that he turned back to his own work, clearly indicating that the conversation was over.


As M.G. drew closer to the reported kindred death he found another already on the scene. A young man with a dark leather coat and jeans. He turned to the new arrival and nodded to him.
"You the One the prince sent?"


The night was cold and quiet, but in the dark eye watched the church, wondering if the Kine would make a move tonight. There was no malice or ill intent in the eyes, only those of one watching a story unfold from the shadows.

M.G. stop and stared at the man with an appraising look, sizing him up. He obviously was not just some random mortal in the wrong place, so M.G. restrained himself from ripping his throat out for the sake of relieving stress from earlier. Though he did not attack him immediately that did not mean it would not be necessary in a few moments. "That depends on who I am speaking too." said M.G. after a few seconds, staring ,unblinking, at him.

Manipulate… shadows? At first, Lea thought the Ravnos was joking. Unfortunately, he seemed to be quite serious.

Well, considering the whole madness of the past days, plus those hunters aiming to kill her for something that hadn’t even been her choice, she might as well. So, she looked at the side of the corridor opposite to the wall they were pressing themselves against, the part that could be seen both from their angle and the angle of the hunter Leontel said was standing guard at the entrance.

Concentrating, she imagined shadows of running people to appear on the wall and-

-nothing happened. She concentrated harder. Still nothing.

Frustrated, she raised one hand towards Leontel, signalling him to give her a minute, while the other pressed fingers against her forehead while she thought things through.

To recap. Vampires were real. She was one of them, or at least, everything was pointing towards it. Apparently, vampires had… bloodlines and such things, further making the subject more complicated than it needed to be. And those lines, or clans, had individual powers. Powers to special that freaking mind control was considered mundane.

Sure, it sounded crazy, but so was the whole vampire deal, and she had seen her new companion create images out of nothing. So she had proof that what he said about her should be possible.
Problem was, while illusions out of nothing were one thing, she had a really hard time imagining how she should be able to control something as untouchable as a shadow. For illusions there could be like a dozen explanations, mind control similar mind tricks, light play, but moving shadows… how did one move the unmovable.

Hm…

She had an idea. Namely that things might be easier if she made things appear to be more simple than they were.

The corridor was dark, but had enough light to throw some shadows, especially near the entrance. So Lea raised her left hand and did some shadow pantomime on the ground, as in, the old fox-head routine. She then tried real hard to imagine the head of said shadow fox to have a complete body.
And lo and behold, this time the manipulation worked, the shadow expanded and turned into the black picture of a complete fox on the ground.

Said picture however seemed to fade, so Lea stretched out her hands and made a motion as if she was taking hold of something. The shadow figure stopped leaking and regained its old shape.
Relieved, Lea started making what looked like awkward Tai Chi motions with her arms (which looked even more stupid considering that her right was still holding a dagger), causing the shadow fox to turn into a simple blot of blackness, and moved the same over the floor and up the opposite wall.

Through some more arm flailing, which the young vampire was sure helped her control the thing, the blot expanded and took on the shapes of three people, running on the spot, but definitely headed away from Le and Leontel.

Her arms describing a wide arc towards the entrance, the three figures moved along the wall, now truly looking like they were genuinely running. In no time they would appear in the hunter’s field of vision, making him belief someone was running down the corridor and drawing hi away from the two vampires…

… well, at least that had been the idea. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out exactly that way.

Lea had been constantly thirsty for a week now, and since a few weeks, that had caused a very uncomfortable itch in her throat. However, Lea didn’t like thinking about the more obvious ways to remedy that, and she hated to complain, so she had foolishly ignored it. However, last night’s mind control action hadn’t really made things better. And now, with all the shadow play, the itching in her throat became a burning, and the delicious smell coming from the entrance made her feel hungry like a wolf.

Naturally, the moment Lea thought about that last part, her shadow figures entered the hunter’s line of sight, but no longer in the shape of normal people, but rather in the shape of a horse sized, monstrous wolf running along the wall, vanishing once it passed by.

Lea, meanwhile, felt a bit dizzy despite the pain in her throat. With glassy eyes, she half mumbled, half hissed:
“H-hungry-y…”

The duties of a Bishop did not usually include the mundane nor the seemingly trivial, yet here Leo was spending long periods of time checking every door into St. Hedwig's. Not a task so easily undertaken. Once he was satisfied with the fastenings, he muttered a prayer to the angel Michael to bless this place of the Lord, and that any who would come to defile it would be met with fire and sword. Finally he made his way to the upper levels where the clergy stayed, specifically, the Bishop's chamber. Contrary to popular belief,the higher ups of the clergy did not wallow in gold and fineries. That was reserved for the Vatican. Instead the room was spartan and plain with only two chests of drawers, a bed, as well as a wardrobe. Hanging his Mass robes in the wardrobe, Leo glanced at the back panel, where his weapon laid hidden. It had been a while since he had received orders from the Order, but he was ever vigilant. When necessary, he would heed the call.

Looking out the window of his room, he gazed into the streets. A few cars would pass, lighting the narrow street up brighter than the lamps would, but dying back down into puddles of light amongst the darkness. Finally, the priest laid his head upon his pillow and fell into a slumber.

Dhani took the small stack from the prince and bowed. As he turned to leave, he gave a quick smile to Felix and left. As he made his way back through the Elysium, he read over the papers given to him. From what he could tell the tasks weren't that difficult for him to pull off unnoticed.

Once he was outside, Dhani looked around to make sure there were no humans nearby. Although he would be a blur to them when using celerity, he still didn't want them around to see. Since the coast seemed to be clear, he folded the papers and stuffed them his pocket.

He was back at his haven within five minutes and still had time to kill before the sun started to rise, he continued to use his celerity to make the place look like someone actually lives here. Dhani examined the heavy black drapes in his room to make sure they would block out any sunlight that might come through. Once that was taken care of he shed his clothes and dove under the satin sheets.

Rick

The man looked at M.G. and spat.
"No need to get yer' nickers in a twist. I was sent her to fill you in on what we already know."
The man looked around and pointed to a nearby building.
"That there was a Haven to a bloodsucker like yourself, dead now. No sign of struggle, nothing in their but ashes." He turned back to him.
"Names, Rick by the by."


Leontel

He was not quite sure what to do at the moment. At first he was disappointed when it seemed like she tried and failed, then he wanted to laugh at the way she was moveing. He has seen a Vampire that could create beings of living shadow with a wave of her fingers, and now we have this girl doing a funny dance. Though he held his tounge for the time being. He waited and watched and saw her work through it and create the shadows. He was pretty impressed really, after failing only once she managed to get the hang of it, maybe there was some potential in this girl. He watched as the shadow figures move to the hunter, smiling as he was sure it was going to work. His smile didn't last though, as the shadow runners turned into a great snarling wolf.... Maybe he woulnd't notice? He knew that was wrong when the man must have been startled and started fireing down the hall way, full automatic fire. Great, this kept getting better and better. He turned to the girl and saw a face he hadn't seen in a while. The face of a vampire about to go Frenzied.
"Crap..." the gunfire stopped, but he heard footsteps coming up quick. He opened his case and pulled out a blood pack, he had been saving it for a snack for later but now was not the time to get picky and greedy. He quite literally shoved the blood pack into her mouth, hoping that hear fangs would cut the bag and let the blood flow into her mouth. This left them open for a moment though and his eyes went wide as he heard the click of the gun behind him. He had sevral options, all of them bad. He braced himself and burnt some of the blood inside of him, this was going to hurt.
More Automatic fire could be heard as the Hunter pumped a half dozen rounds into Leontels back. Leon took that moment to thank his ancestors that fortitude was one of the skills his clan knew. Even still their was a limit to it, and it still hurt like hell as the rounds hit him. Only one wounded him though, the rest impacting his skin then falling away. He turned to the hunter and in a flash a card was in Leon's hand, a moment later the card was imbedded in the hunters throat. If someone was to look it was a tarot card made of iron, with a razors edge. He panted and turned back to Lea, hopping she was at least under control again. And then he heard the ding of the elevator next to them.
"Oh right, those guys..."

Not really smart to refer to him as ....bloodsucker. Already M.G. was pissed off by the way he disrespected his kind. "If that is all you know? That a kindred died? Well you sure are a well of information....Rick" said M.G. stressing the k at the end of his name. "You will show me the haven, you go first of course, and if you prove to be of use then you can walk away with a little something for your trouble. And you may call me M.G."

Normally Maximilian would either dominate or threaten to gather information, but this seemed to be a pawn of the prince, and he did not need to piss off the prince. Plus, sometimes money had a way of loosening lips just as well as fangs.

When the blood pack was shoved into her mouth, one of her new fangs did indeed cut through the plastic. Unfortunately, what Leontel didn’t know was that this was the first time the neonate Lea had ever tasted human blood, so instead of cancelling out the frenzy, it amplified it. With her mind focusing on nothing but getting more of the delicious life juice, to incoherent to think about how to open the bag properly, she furiously chewed and clawed at the bag, which resulted in the plastic being shredded and the blood spilling all over the floor as well as her clothes, leaving her to hungrily lick of the blood on her hand, which was far from satisfactory.

Then Leontel card-killed the hunter, and the smell of freshly spilled, warm and healthy blood caught her attention. Leaving behind the weapon and bag she had dropped, Lea lunged at the fallen hunter like a savage beast, burying her fangs deep inside the man’s throat near Leontel’s card, not even noticing how it was slicing through her cheek.

Completely caught up in draining more and more of the unfathomable tasty and nourishing juices, the sound of the arriving elevator failed to register completely.

Rick

Rick looked M.G. up and down and raised an eye brow. He looked like he was about to say something but then shrugged and turned away.
"Whatever you say Mista Megee." With that he walked in an alley way and turned left, walking into a nearby house whose entrances was blocked from street view, most people wouldn't even know this house was even here. He opened the door and walked inside, moving to the back room he stood by the door and pointed in.
"That be all that's left." He said as he pointed to a small pile of ash. It was wise to note that this room had no windows or any other way of letting sunlight inside, this room was at the very center of the house.


Leontel

Well... this all seems to have backfired in a spectacular kind of fashion, now the hunters will for sure of our tracks after this. He turned just as he saw Lea dive past him and onto the corps of the dead hunter. He was about to say something when the heavy foot steps coming up behind him reminded him he had more pressing matters at the moment. He turned and threw up his hands, a wall of solid (or at least it appeared to be) wood and stone, just like the walls around them appeared between them and the hunters. It woulnd't be long before the hunters tested the wall, while they could touch it nothing really stopped them from passing through it, this was only a delaying act truthfully. He was using a lot of Blood very fast, another fight of soaking up damage would be terrible for him. But if it came to it...
With another flick of his wrist more cards appeared in his hands, he only carried 22 cards, a normal sized Tarot deck. He held three in each hand, ready to strike at the first one that came through his illusion.

M.G. stalked about the room, looking for any stray detail. No windows, no light at all, M.G. doubted that Sunlight had playedf any part in this....or at least not in this room. "Was their an ysign of fou lplay...and what information do you have on this doubly dead fellow...?"

Ecstasy. Pure ecstasy. No, more than that. There simply were no words to describe this feeling, this storm, this tsunami of pure, unfiltered feeling she was consuming. It washed away the frenzy, replacing it with a soothing, calming high of pleasure and power.

When the body of the hunter was unable to give any more of the crimson nectar, the kneeling Lasombra reluctantly detached her fangs, leaned back, vapidly looking at the ceiling while enjoying the latest waves of her high. Not yet truly aware of what was going on, to overwhelmed by the pleasure, she didn’t even notice how all over the room, darkness was drawn from the shadows. Without actually depleting their sources, pure blackness floated through the air like black watercolours over a fresh sheet, drawing closer to Lea, coming together into a mist, surrounding the delirious neonate like loving spirits, their touch, cold, yet gentle, upholding her dazed state of mind.

And then the first hunter stepped through Leontel’s wall illusion.

Rick

Rick shrugged. He looked about as if he was wondering what to say before turning back to M.G.
"First off he died in this room." He pointed to the outline on the ground, a clear sign that the vampire had died there and not in another room.
"But one thing is strange... There are no burn marks... Nothing that shows what happened to him... Its like he just poofed really." He sighed and looked around again.
As for who he was... He was another Tremere, Ya know one of spooky hocus pocus types, until I got here this place was warded to high heaven, good thing I got her before ya or ye might have ended up a tad worse for ware."


Leontel

He was braced and ready for action, well until he looked back and saw what was going on. A moment ago she could not even do the most basic of Obtenebration, and now she was covering the area in darkness. The darkness was comeing closer to him aswell, something he was not all that thrilled on going through again. He turned as he heard a gasp, he saw that the hunter had made it through the illusion and saw what was going on. He leveled he gun and for the first time Leontel saw what they were packing. They had sun blasted Ak-47s. Of all the...
He tossed one of this cards at the hunter, this one glanced off the mans rifle as he opened up on them, spraying shots everywhere. Leontel rolled to the side and then leapt forward, snatching up the card he had thrown before the darkness covered them all. He could see nothing, and hear nothing. He turned and sprinted for the rough area that he had left Lea. He bumped into... something human shaped. Well two things, both were motionless, both were cold... Well heat is also blocked by this mist.
He grabbed a hold of both, one being lea and the other being the fallen hunter, he did not have time to think of which one was which, he just grabbed them and ran. He gritted his teeth as he felt a couple of lucky shots hit his back, he could not hear the shots, but he could sure feel them.

While it wasn’t easy to snap a vampire out of the high the first taste of human blood gave, Lea soon found a stray bullet hitting her in the shoulder to be very effective at doing just that. Screaming in both pain and shock, she now wondered why she was kneeling on the floor. And why everything looked like in a black and white movie. Or why Leontel acted as if he was blind, ran into her, then blindly reached for her, she almost thought he wanted to cop a feel, but instead grabbed her shoulder (wounded one at that, hurt like a bitch) and roughly dragged her away.

But why was he also dragging that… HOLY SHIT, WAS THAT A CORPSE!? Why was he taking a corpse with them? And again, what was up with the black and white vision?

Speaking of, they seemed to be leaving that area, as the corridor gained more normal colours again.

However, that also meant that the comforting chill she had felt in the black and white started to disappear. Seeing how she was currently dragged over the floor along with a corpse, Lea’s subconscious very much intended to keep that comfortable feeling, so she made a motion as if yanking a rope towards her, causing the comfortable black and white vision field to move along with her.

That was good. What was not good was that Leontel seemed to be running past the entrance. Seriously, had he gone blind? And deaf as well, seeing how he didn’t react to her loudly pointing out the poor choice in directions? Well, from nothing came nothing, so she scrambled to her feet and pushed against the Ravnos, trying to steer her towards the exit.

M.G. sniffed the air, trying to extract anything out of place in this haven. Blood and piss were normal, it was the city and this was a vampires home. He was ashed....but no fire, no sunlight. Tremere told him alot more than he had hoped though, magic had a way of coming up with answers to questions such as this. "Any idea how a vampire can be turned to nothing but ash without any type of burning? I assume since you used the name you know something of the Tremere." M.G. made his way towards Rick, he was almost done here. He would need a second opinion on what he guessed happened here.

Leontel

Leontel walked on, dragging both the living, well sort of, Lea and the dead body of the hunter. He could not see or hear a blasted thing. Just went he felt he might be getting closer to the edge all he found was more darkness.
"Of for the love of, Stop with the blasted Shadows!" He cursed out, though he had no idea if Lea could even hear him. It was then he felt a pull, something pushing against him but not in a hostile way. It must be Lea? He let her guide his movements and hoped she knew what way she was going.


Rick

Rick made the motion and sound of spitting, though he did not really spit, perhaps it was some form of respect for the dead? He looked at M.G. and gave a shrug.
"Well... I would recon that it was another of them magic types, that tends to explain most things that... well can't be explained."

She should stop the shadows? She wasn’t doing shadow, not since… Now what was that… Oh, right, the running people that somehow turned wolf thin. She still had no idea what happened afterwards, but right now, she wasn’t doing shadows She was probably doing this strange… effect that painted the world black and white.

Or was that a shadow as well? A shadow she herself didn’t perceive as one. Uh, in that case, maybe she should stop it.

Once the three of them had stumbled out of the hostel’s door, Lea skidded to a halt. And thought about ending whatever it was she was doing. Naturally, that didn’t work. So she made a motion as if trying to fan away smoke. That seemed to do the trick, as the world returned to its normal colour.

Questioningly, she looked up at Leontel.

"So, eh, guess we are like, running away now. Any specific direction in mind, or are we going for headless flight in whatever direction is fanciful? Or should we like, split up ad meet later? And I am talking too much, aren’t I?”

Leontel

Leontel stumbled down the steps, so much for his unrelenting grace and charm... When they reached the last step his vision cleared.
"Oh thank you, Man I hate that..." He turned to look at her, it was charming how she went on and on, he forgot what it was like to be new to this sort of thing. He just smiled at her.
"Yup, but I like how you are at least thinking, that's good." He checked the pockets of the dead man and pulled out some papers and a set of keys. Looks like lady luck dealt him a winning hand tonight. He Took out his lighter and pulled out a small flask. He poured the contents of the flask over the body then lit it on fire and shove it into a nearby trash can. Burning trash cans was nothing new to this city. He ran over to the car that was parked nearby.
"Can you drive?" He said as he tossed her the keys.

"Right you are Rick, right you are." said M.G. passing him, going outside. "I will return maybe not tonight but most likely tomorrow. But before I go...." M.G. takes out a 20 DM and hands it too him. "Thanks for the ....help" What could he say, he was feeling generous. Who knows, maybe when he returned Rick might have more to give him and ....Drakon.

He hailed a cab when he reached the streets once more. Haven was his destination, daylight was only a few hours away now, time for rest. The next night he would need to contact Drakon.

Since looking at the disposed of corpse in the trash in bile fascination, as well as worrying over hunters following them out of the hostel any time now, Lea was so distracted, when she noticed the key flying at her, it was pure reflex that allowed her to snatch them out of the air with one hand.

Wow. Before, she had had trouble catching small objects with two hands when she knew they were coming. This whole vampire thing seemed to have more perks than she realised. Granted, that small perk seemed insignificant in light of people being out to kill her just moments ago…

Right, hunters being out to kill her, and close! Hastily, she ran to the car, said: “Sure.”, ripped open the door, sat down in the driver’s seat and jammed in the keys, only securing her belts after the motor was running. And as soon as Leontel had joined her in the car, she floored it and raced away.

Rick

Rick took the cash and nodded, wandering off into the night shortly after M.G. Left.

"It's done." He whispered into the night.


Leontel

Leontel hardly managed to sit down before the car was speeding away, he waited a moment before turning to her and very none chalantly said.
"Ya know, you are speeding in a stolen care away from gun fire and you are covered in blood dripping from your mouth. I would slow down and not be so 'please look at us, we are suspicious.' It might help us a bit." He said as he pulled a handkerchief from his front pocket and set it down within reach of her. He then started flipping through the papers. His look grew darker as he read until he got to what looked like some form of I.D. Then he just sat in silence.

Awakening from a day-long slumber, Drakon arose. Throughout the day, Ivan had done well in renovating the small manor. The tireless ghoul had tidied everything upstairs, as well as thoroughly cleaned out the basement to make room for further use beyond the tzimisce's hidden place of slumber below. After briefly surveying everything and ensuring all was in order, Drakon and its retainer boarded their truck and made the short trip to where they were to meet Maximilian.

Parking towards the back and a good ways out of the way, after roughly a minute they would turn a corner and approach the meeting place, the two black-coated figures making their way quietly to the nearest seat. The time to discuss what would be done today and by who had come.

M.G. had slept with little trouble, though his food source was drying up. Time had almost come to trade up for another source. He dressed himself in a simple button up shirt and pants headed out onto the streets. He considered these "work" cloths considering how cheap they were. He did not want his good cloths to get all matted up and possibly damaged, it would be a waste. Tying his hair into a pony tail he made his way to meet Drakon.

He took a cab to the meeting place, as per usual stopping a few blocks from his intended destination. He was cautious as he moved towards the seated kindred. Going over the area with his eyes, he trusted no one. He eventually sat next to him. "Hello....partner..."

"Greetings." The black-coated being replied. Its retainer standing silently a short ways away from the table and watchfully peering over their surroundings, the disguised Tzimisce took his seat across from the Giovanni. It continued, speaking once more in that thick eastern european accent. "A pleasure to see you once again. What were your findings?"

Ivan meanwhile made use of auspex, scanning the area near his master's meeting for any suspicious auras. The ghoul's intention and only task at this time was to ensure as much security as possible the two immortals. In his mind, as always, failing his master was simply not an option.