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Vampire: The Long Night - Music Soothes The Savage Beast


Noir

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Olaf grinned at Lily and let out a small laugh before catching himself.

"You are in the presence of kindred..." he said as he nodded his head to around to the various club goers, "..and dozens more kine." he added.

Olaf leaned forward, giving Ravenna an very overtly gave her the once over with an appreciative smile as his eyes explored her every curve, mound and valley.

"I would expect you to know the value of 'keeping up appearances', Fraulein." he said as he rested an elbow on the table and his chin on his palm.

"Because I must say, you do it so well." he grinned.

"Bah. Where are my manners. I'm Olaf. And despite this ruggedly good looking exterior, underneath is the Primogen of the Nos and Burgomeister of Pankow." he said with an overly exaggerated flourish of his hand.

"If you don't believe me, we can meet in the bathroom and I can show you my real face," he said as he then leaned a little closer and added, "and I wouldn't might showing you my O-face too." with a grin as he raised his eyebrows a few times with a smile.

Dropping the joking he sat back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head, stretching his legs out beneath the table. 

"Sooo... What brings you to Berlin?" Olaf asked.

 

On 8/2/2017 at 8:53 AM, Annalisa Rose said:

"Relax? There is a werewolf in my club that I didn't know about. If anything happens I am going to be blamed." She grabs the glass of wine and downs it in a one swallow wishing that the Alcohol did more than serve as a prop.

"Of all the fucking nights for Olaf to show up."  She signaled one of the servers who came over. "Sid should be downstairs have him join me as soon as he can get away. Thank you."

The server nodded and quickly slipped away to deliver the message to Sid.

Marlene sighed softly and flicked the sizable length of ash off the end of her cigarette into the awaiting ashtray.

"Nothing is going to happen between her and you unless you make it happen, my child. She is calm, at peace or 'chill' I think the current jargon is for it. In fact, I am not sure I have ever seen one of her kind so... relaxed. I have been staring at her aura all night it is quite entrancing." she said as she placed her hand atop Annalia's, interlacing her fingers with those of her childe as a brief rush of warmth rushed from her sire's palm.

To Annalisa, the colors in the room; skintones, hair, clothing upholstery and so on, seemed to desaturate, not quite to black and white, but nearly so. Then new colors came in, radiating from and around each person there. Among the kine the colors varied wildly, shifting slowly from one color to another.

As Analisa's gaze reached the table of kindred, she could see colors radiating from them, but they were dull compared to the kine. Lily chuckled and pointed at an unknown kindred woman with her thumb, which caused Olaf to laugh, making both of their aura flash with vermilion.

Then her eyes could not help but be drawn to the lupine girl sitting on stool, playing her acoustic guitar as she sang. Her aura was incredibly bright and vibrant, even when compared to the kine. Tiny starbursts of gray, deep red and dark green exploded against a background of bright, light blue at different parts of the song with waves of vermilion and violet rippling through the light blue from time to time in some sort of psychedelic display.

"Normally, lupine auras are purple, red or brown. Or some combination thereof. The color of the small bursts all hint at other feelings she is having, likely drudged up by the song. Gray is depression. The deep red is desire. And the dark green? That is envy. 'Write what you know', they say. And the light blue dominating her aura? That means calm." she explained to Annalisa, soft whispering into her ear as she leaned close, brushing it with the tip of her nose.

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"Well met Olaf," Ravenna said.  Her smile snaked into a wicked curve.  "Yes, I'm sure you wouldn't mind at all.  I'm afraid I'm through my rebellious bad-boy phase, Signore Olaf.  Perhaps had you caught me three centuries ago we'd had painted the town red... literally.  It's always one thing I've appreciated about the Nos.  They have a nerd-like quality about them.  While all the other clans are thinking of power and prestige, they're thinking about sex.  It makes them either very proficient at it, or incredibly eager to please, and I've always uses for either.  Those who can look like others... certainly helps too."  Her expression was simple and plain, the dead pan expression of a wolf wearing a sheep's mask.  Everything bout her was predatory and shameless.  A killing machine with nothing more than her restraint holding her back, and that seemed to be a very dim light in her soul.  People didn't exist.  Everything was a tool for her to exploit, use, finish with and cast aside.

"I understand the age old adage of 'keeping up appearances', but in modern society it seems more an excuse for foolishness rather than a practice for survival.  Frankly it's a disgusting practice.  Taking in food so that it may rest in your vestigial stomach, where you then have to later lurch over a toilet or street corner and regurgitate it back up like some bulimic teen or model.  Ugh... no thank you.  It's positively repugnante.  Please though, enjoy, the fuller you are the more painful the heaving will be later, and that I will enjoy thinking of."

"As for why I'm here," She continued, lifting up a strawberry and sniffing it like she'd never seen one before.  She gave a repulsed face and cast it back upon the platter.  "You no doubt know what I do, Olaf.  It's not easy work, and in time it takes it's toll.  I do what I do protect both the Kine and ourselves from each other, and I accomplish this by hurting the Kine and ourselves.  It's a noble path, albeit a dark one and it takes it's toll unless I take some time away from it once in awhile.  Normally I'd sleep, but things are not very stable in this world right now so instead if sleeping, I'm trying to keep myself 'available', while on vacanza, one could say.  After all, whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.  Sadly, I've yet to become either."

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Annalisa sat back a bit of a pout on  her lips. "I'm not worried about her causing trouble I'm worried about ours if they find out." She is talking about the singer but not looking at her. Marlene follows her gaze which leads back to the table with Olaf.

"Who is that woman speaking with Artus?" Annalisa asks

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Erzsébet's dark blue eyes narrowed on the woman singing on the small stage. She was not any image of a werewolf she was familiar with. The beasts of haunting the Carpathians were ravening savages barely glimpsed between the trees and under the shadows, their howls shivering the air. Very rarely seen, their threat was a nebulous presence hanging over the uncivilized regions of the area.

The dusky skinned woman singing on stage conveyed none of that. Erzsébet would have thought this nothing more than one of Olaf's teasingly irritating follies, except the Burgomeister seemed too amused by the revelation. The small woman sniffed condescendingly. The 'lone wolf' was a product of modern storytelling. Wolves were a danger due to acting as a pact - in truth, a single wolf was far less dangerous. If the songstress turned out to be a rabid dog, she would be put down like a rabid dog. Erzsébet could not countenance that more than one lupine could have infiltrated as bastion of the Kine.

Her gaze narrowed in interest as the predatory Italian noblewoman made her entrance, stylishly attired if disconcertingly tall compared to one of her modest height. Erzsébet politely nodded and waved when Artus excused himself to speak with the newcomer. Her eyes went to her ghoul sister Lillian, crimson lips curving with fondness as she danced with a tall man, well muscled with large hands able to completely encircle her waist who seemed to be likely entertainment for an evening.

She rolled her eyes with exasperation when Artus returned with the woman and Olaf began his crass flirtations, but her lips tightened at Ravenna's condescension for their appetizers, her clear spite in enjoying any discomfort it may cause later. In response to Ravenna's disgust, Erzsébet helped her to a strawberry liberally dipped in rich cream, savoring it before standing up and slipping out of the booth.

"Bella Ravenna, for some of us, death lays lightly upon us," Erzsébet murmured in a husky contralto at odds with her diminutive stature, "And we can still find pleasure in the trivialities of the Kine. Be it in gastronomic delight or the heated sensation of coupling with Kine or Kindred, what matter where we find it? There must be more to our damnation than merely cursed existence and blood and blood and blood."

She gave the Italian a once-over, lips quirking. "There is nothing sad in not descending into a base beast, nor blasphemously believing one to be a god - for there is but One God. It is in fact, too often lamentably commendable for our kind. I do hope you can find your ease in Berlin, Ravenna. As for myself, I believe I am in the mood for some dancing."

So saying, Erzsébet sashayed onto the dance floor to join Lillian. Petite and baroquely glamorous, the supposed Countess conveyed a sense of danger despite her delicate, curvaceous appearance. She moved like an enticing predator, graceful in her stiletto heeled boots, with a subtle strength out of proportion with her slim, short figure, her presence dominating the dance floor.

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"Find all the pleasure you like dear," Ravenna said with a false smile of interest.  If these people were content to be lurching over a toilet bowl vomiting up the contents of the fruit salad they'd eaten earlier all for the sake of tasting a few strawberries, that was their prerogative.  She did so love the 'last word' types though, the people who said what they thought passed for relevant, then swiftly fled the scene to escape a possible rebuttal that could unravel their fragile and flawed philosophies.  The Italian Elder watched her scurry off like a lamb fleeing a verbal slaughter.  Kids these days, how adorable.

She had known many a Kindred in her day who could eat mortal food, she'd even trained herself to do it once upon a time.  It took time, but it was possible and required far more effort than most Kindred would care to put in, despite having forever.  Those she knew who had it however considered it a great gift for thwarting those knowledgeable in vampire lore, but it was never some frivolity to play at being human instead of a vampire.  It was a tool in the vampire's arsenal, not a means of escaping what they truly were.  Not to mention that anyone with an ounce of class would ever willingly engage in an act that could produce them the results of damp, withered food that had been resting in a dank, vestigial, unused stomach that no longer produced the necessary enzymes to break down for easier regurgitation.  The thought made her shudder.

"So," her lips were curled in a wicked smirk, trying to shake off the thoughts of regurgitated food.  She had the air of every feminine Disney villain ever about her.  "Are trivialities all Berlin has to offer, or are there individuals with ambition in this city?"

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"Oh, there are those with ambition, but the wrong kind of ambition gets you ground under the Dietrich's heel. Granted, he has very expensive tastes, so it's a designer, or custom made heel, but a heel none the less." Olaf said with a small shrug.

"The last person to try to fulfill grand ambitions was back when the wall was up. He thought to declare himself Prince of the other half of Berlin. When the wall came down, Dietrich corrected him. To this day that other kindred is just remembered as 'that poor bastard' by the kindred here." he chuckled as he  thought back about it.

Olaf then leans forward, resting his elbows on the table and crosses his arms on it as he spoke in a somewhat more hushed tone.

"I have been to several cities in my time. Prague, Vienna, Kraków, and Paris, to name a few, and rarely have I seen a city and Prince so ingrained with one another. Many here owe him a lot and he is good friends with the right people. Like the Toreador. There's one of their clan Elders." he said as he motioned with his eyes toward the booth with Annalisa and Marlene sitting at it.

"So if you have lofty ambitions, then good for you. But I would think twice and tread very, very carefully." he cautioned.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It was a relief to get away from the tension at the table for a little while. Here, in the music, with the people, she could forget who she was...what she was. Craving for blood might have overtaken her hunger and thirst...but it did nothing to limit the power that music had. The beast cared only for flesh and blood. Desires and pleasures of the mind were unscathed.

Her sire had scoffed at music...at least at music as humans practiced it. He preferred the sound of insects and animals, the howl of wind, and of course...silence. He was big on that too. Lily could remember all the times he'd muttered that she was little better than 'one of those Toreador idiots.' But in the end even he had to admit that everyone met undeath on their own terms. Everyone made their own peace...or failed to.

She found herself watching the werewolf. She couldn't help herself. The creature looked so normal. The irony of this, one monster in human guise marveling that there was another monster in human guise, was not lost on Lily.

Do they have it better than us, I wonder? The old man said they were practically slaves to their rage, but he may have been full of it. Besides, how is that different from what WE are? At least they're still alive.

Lily found herself with many, many questions. Things she'd never articulated to herself because they were as impossible as musing about if one could walk on the surface of the sun. You'd never get there, so why bother? Werewolves hated vampires, said her sire, and there was no fooling them.

Was he wrong about that too?

Abruptly she became aware of someone else approaching. Lily jerked around on instinct, eyes widening as she prepared to fight or flee...then relaxed a bit on seeing who it was. One of the vampires from the table. The one with the hard to pronounce name. Erza...something. Shit. Probably better not to try to wing it with a nickname. Vampires could be really touchy about that sort of thing.

She gave Erzsébet a nod and even a little smile. "Hey."

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  • 2 weeks later...

The sun goes down.

Her eyes open. She is still as only the dead can be still. She listens. She can hear the rats in the walls, the roaches scurrying from place to place, shadow to shadow. If she tries real hard she imagines she can hear the worms crawling among the remains of the elderly woman who had owned the small house and now lies buried in the small garden outside. She listens and hears only the things one would expect in a home rotting from within.

Slowly she unfolds from her resting place in the back closet, rising to stand with movements unnatural yet precise. If anyone could have seen her , there in the pitch black closet, they would have ran screaming or they would have stood frozen piss running down their leg. Either way they would have died. She was hungry and needed to feed it had been, what now two days, three? Her tongue ran over her teeth feeling the fangs which marked her.

Irony.

As a child and adolescent she had always had over large canines a rich source of embarrassment and teasing. On more than one occasion cruel children, her friends, had called her fang face, or blood sucking vampire. Her father had relented when she was fourteen and had them fixed by her orthodontist, had paid a small fortune. And here she was now, a real vampire and the fangs were back but unlike her fellow vampires, the Kindred, who could hide theirs only bringing them out when the needed them to feed, hers were always there, longer than before, sharper. Drawing the eye of anyone who saw her open her mouth. She was fang face once again, only now no one laughed.

Hungry.

She leaves the closet and the house she needs to hunt, to feed.

It takes her well over an hour to finally find a likely target. She doesn't know where she is in the city she just isn't that familiar but she tries to stay where there isn't much activity. Better to avoid being seen by anyone living or dead, especially dead.

She marks her target two teenagers a boy and a girl, attractive and obviously into each other they can barely keep their hands off of each other as the are walking along the street with purpose. She thinks they are going to someplace they know so they can fuck. She decides to let them. She can wait. But she was wrong that's not where they were going.

They knocked on the door the skinhead who answered was pale and she knew instantly that he was like her a vampire on of the Kindred. This pissed her off her food was going to become some other blood suckers dinner. She felt rage there was no pain as the claws ripped through skin and talons grew from her finger tips she heard a low growl like some savage beast. It never registered that it was her. Sh moved through the shadows. My food

She was a few yards from the door when it opened. In an instant she was again in the shadows. The kine heard nothing but the vampire sensed ...something. He looked around but failed to see her and shrugging he and his two friends started walking somewhere with purpose.

Jade calmed down the claws retracted and she stated following a a safe distance.

Was it possible that the kids didn't know they were with a vampire?

They led her to a club.

Jade watched as people came and went there were other clubs nearby but this one she knew was special. The Vampire and the kids had gone right in and the door man had seemed to know the Kindred. As she watched two More Kindred, both women she recognized from her brief time at the Princes court, entered.

Jade checked her reflection in a nearby window she looked pretty shabby but then so did a lot of the kids going into the club and she still had most of the 100 euro's they gave her when they cast her out.

She could blend in and there was a lot of food here and apparently vampires too.

 

The doorman looked up at the severe looking blond crossed the street, former special forces he had observed her watching the club but hadn't alerted anyone now though as she crossed the street something about her gave him a eerie feeling. “What do you want?” he asked as she came up to the door. Before she could say anything he put the red velvet rope up to signal that the club was full. “We are full right now maybe you should go to one of the other clubs down the street.” He indicated with a jerk of his head.

Jade could smell the life coming off the big man could hear the blood surging through his veins as his heart pumped.. She wanted to rip his throat out and drown her hunger. Insted she closed her eyes tight for a second and steeled herself, then in barley passable German “I can pay the cover I just want to go in and listen to the music. I'm no trouble. I promise.” She looked at him and held out the 5 euro note.

Clause started to shake his head but then her eyes seemed to bore into his to fill his mind.

“Please I just want to have a little fun and maybe get something to eat I can smell the food even from out here and it smells so good.”

Clause could think of nothing but those eyes he took the bill and opened the rope and the strange woman went inside.

The place was incredible she had avoided places where the kine gathered ever since she had been set free but there was energy and life here that drew her. Jade felt the hunger but it seemed somehow lessened here, as if the very humanity on display kept it at bay. There were others of her kind here as well. She tried to mingle to find someone she could take someplace quiet and out of the way to feed on. But most of the kids seemed to notice something off about her and  few remained close to her for long. It began to annoy her then she saw one of the women she had recognized leading a tall handsome boy up some curving stairs the boy had a glassy look to his face one Jade recognized he was being compelled. Jade followed as discreetly as she could.

She found herself on the second floor but couldn't find the woman she did find the restaurant and the stairs leading up to a third floor private club. The pretty girl wanted her to pay a hundred euros for a one time membership. Jade smiled showing her teeth and looked deep into the girls eyes...

Marlene and Olaf both saw Jade enter the third floor private club. Of course them being who they were they knew about Jade, at least as much as the Prince had let be known, but neither rof them had expected to see the caitiff here.

“Oh my, this should be interesting.” they both said at the same time form different parts of the room and to different people.

 

Spoiler

Jade is not well dressed. She is wearing Jeans which are not clean a cropped t shirt which has seen better years and clearly shows a black bra through several rips and holes. over that that she is wearing a flannel shirt like a jacket. She has on dirty combat boots which have no laces.  while not clean the clothes are at least blood stain free. Her hair is combed back severely but probably hasn't been washed in over a month. While she does look like a lot of the kids from the first floor it is doubtful if she would have been let to come up to the third.

 

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Ravenna raised a single brow at the arrival of the disheveled woman gaining entrance into the private portion of the club.  She had to be someone, that much was sure, if she was in here and since she carried the obvious look of 'broke and unimportant' the next best guess was 'kindred'.  "Well, well," she mused, the corners of her lips curled up into a grin.  "And what has the proverbial cat drug in this evening?"

Unconcerned for the most part, she turned her attention back to the conversation at hand.  "I merely said 'ambition'.  I did not say grand, or lofty.  What your implying are 'schemes', and I assure you, I've none here in Berlin to concern myself with.  I just meant ambition in it's simplest form: to apply oneself to achieve something worthy of the work one placed into it.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I'm sure the Prince is worthy of the title, but this is hardly the first, how do the American's put it?  'Good ol' boy' city I've been to.  If he's surrounded himself by loyalists and those those he can count on, then he's one step ahead of most others in this world."

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