| Refined Alliances (Salvador & Ariadne) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 29 2013, 11:06 AM (369 Views) | |
| Holy | Mar 29 2013, 11:06 AM Post #1 |
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Chapter Two Scene: Refined Alliances
Edited by Holy, Apr 17 2013, 09:05 AM.
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| Kara | Apr 3 2013, 11:14 AM Post #31 |
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Ariadne listens closely, watching him move about the space and apparently unwilling to shift positions herself. When he finishes, she considers in silence for a moment. "Wonder if there's any rhyme or reason about it. But. Interesting at least." She peers at him. "And what else came along? Weaknesses, curses, banes. Whatever you want to call them. The other half of all this." |
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| Holy | Apr 7 2013, 01:32 PM Post #32 |
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Salvador pushes away from the wall. "I can show you. Got time for a field trip?" He points toward her pocket. "Can you receive messages when you're out of sight? Might make things easier." |
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| Kara | Apr 7 2013, 01:34 PM Post #33 |
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"...Yeah. Where we going?" She shifts her weight, one hand grasping for her phone, pressing a few buttons, and sliding it back in her pocket. [OOC: Kos, if this isn't a thing I can do, we'll modify the scene.] |
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| Holy | Apr 7 2013, 02:44 PM Post #34 |
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"Local bar, nothing special. But someone of your pallor might not fit in so well, best if you remain in the shadows." He nods to the outside, letting Ariadne slip out before pulling the door shut and chaining it in place with a large padlock. "Only a couple blocks away." He slips his own phone from his pocket, flipping it open and slowly thumbing out a message. If you lose me, just send me something back and I'll send you the address. |
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| Kara | Apr 7 2013, 02:51 PM Post #35 |
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Ariadne's phone is in her hand in a flash before she looks to Killjoy and nods. "Won't. Thanks, though." She looks from one side to another. "Go ahead. Be right behind you." Roll Something catches Killjoy's eye in the distance, and by the time he looks back toward the former Shadow, she's gone. |
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| Holy | Apr 7 2013, 03:17 PM Post #36 |
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Salvador turns and begins to stroll down the barrens neighborhood, easing through an alleyway behind his so-called sanctuary.![]() He turns onto a more-cleared if not more-traveled street, slipping into a black and rusted iron doorway that doesn't look much more than any other entrance into the run down apartments and old industrial buildings long since used only by squatters and vagrants. He lingers in the doorway, sending another text. If anything goes down, you can split. I'll get out myself. Edited by Holy, Apr 7 2013, 03:58 PM.
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| Kara | Apr 7 2013, 03:58 PM Post #37 |
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Not-Holy
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| Holy | Apr 7 2013, 04:20 PM Post #38 |
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He tromps down a few steps, into the basement of the building where the faint sound of music can be heard. It only takes a moment to realize the lyrics are in Spanish. Rounding a corner, there's a small bar hidden away here. Salvador is still staring at his flip-phone, a few looks thrown his way by the existing patrons.![]() He makes his way to an empty booth, sending another message. He frowns as he makes a typo, and spends an extra amount of time trying to correct it. Look at the mirror. Look at me, then at the other patrons. And watch. There is a one foot tall band of a mirror that runs along the back bar, which is really simply a glorified shelf with various bottles of cheap liquor strewn across it. Edited by Holy, Apr 7 2013, 04:21 PM.
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| Kara | Apr 7 2013, 04:39 PM Post #39 |
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Not-Holy
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| Holy | Apr 7 2013, 04:55 PM Post #40 |
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Salvador's image is displayed as normal for a Kindred, always just a little bit out of focus, something a mortal's eyes tend to slip past without conscious realization. The black hair, the clothes, even the phone - those are made out easily, but any specific features - those wash into the background. Only someone attuned to the supernatural might mark what happens next. The images of the other patrons, there's something different... They don't quite mirror the actions of their owners. Even when someone gives a cursory glance toward Salvador, their reflections do anything but. It's as if none of them can stand to look at the Kindred in their midst. A piece of them understand what I am. Understands that there is a monster here. |
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| Kara | Apr 7 2013, 05:20 PM Post #41 |
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Not-Holy
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| Holy | Apr 7 2013, 05:41 PM Post #42 |
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Watch Setting his phone down he lifts his hand. "Cerveza," he mentions once he catches the bartender's eye, though decidedly not his reflection. While he waits for the bottle to be popped and a lime wedge slipped into the top, a deck of cards is revealed which Salvador shuffles easily and without thought. His hands have clearly learned the muscle memory of such tricks. The show distracts some of the patrons, but anyone looking at the mirror would see a different scene. The reflections seem to become more agitated, their gazes both repelled and attracted to the dancing cards. One or two begin to weep, or pull at their hair. Salvador slips free a few bills of varying amounts, setting the new well-shuffled deck on top of them. He nods his thanks to the waitress who delivers his beer, reaching again for his phone. Lust and fear runs through them. Risk and reward in their mind at the presence of someone with the ability to change luck itself. |
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| Kara | Apr 7 2013, 05:49 PM Post #43 |
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Not-Holy
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| Holy | Apr 7 2013, 09:06 PM Post #44 |
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Kos (Mechanics) Just as the waitress turns to go, Salvador speaks to her. "Tiempo para un truco?" He pulls at one of the bills underneath, showing the two-zero of the denomination. Her eyes do go to the cash, but also narrow in suspicion. "Sólo por diversión. Yo estaba suerte esta noche. No me importa dar un poco de vuelta." That seems to calm her suspicions, and she shrugs and nods her head. Salvador pushes the deck toward her. "Mira las cartas y barajar ellos. Luego extendió la cubierta sobre la mesa." She nods again, and reaches for the deck. Salvador's fingers barely brush against her skin. Anyone watching doesn't notice more of an exchange, but if someone were to look at the the waitresses reflection, they say otherwise. As soon as Killjoy's flesh touches her, the image jerks back, twists and place and hugs herself. The real waitress begins to shuffle, her reflection now manipulating the deck but ripping up the cards over and over, though they never seem to diminish in number. Finally, the woman spreads them in on the table in a large arc. Salvador smiles, "Nombra una naipe y seleccionar uno. Siempre y cuando no coinciden, puede quedarse con el dinero." The images in the mirror begin to increase the fervor of their movements. The woman herself appears to weep blood, or maybe it drips down from her forehead. As her hand reaches out to linger over the cards, there's a bloody hole in the center of her palm. "Any card," Killjoy says in English. "Draw any card but the one you name." She seems to concentrate. Finally she says, "Cuatro de Diamantes," and flips a card.
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| Kara | Apr 7 2013, 10:14 PM Post #45 |
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Not-Holy
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| Holy | Apr 7 2013, 10:22 PM Post #46 |
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The reflection screams and lashes out, and Ariadne swears she hears it even though the waitress herself only shakes her head. The lashing of her image, however, connects with the reflection of Salvador's beer and knocks it over. This time the matching one in the real word tips and shatters on the ground. Killjoy is quick to stand, "Lo siento mucho. Aquí." He leaves the twenty in place, swiftly picking up the deck of cards. Things happen quickly, at least one of the other patrons standing in response not to the glass breaking, but the scream before that." "Lo siento. Lo siento." Salvador continues, leaving the cash and moving directly for the exit. Edited by Holy, Apr 7 2013, 10:23 PM.
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| Kara | Apr 7 2013, 10:37 PM Post #47 |
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Not-Holy
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| Holy | Apr 16 2013, 03:17 PM Post #48 |
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Salvador quickly heads up to the surface street, this time not lingering in the doorway very long at all. He ducks around the corner into the back alleyways, making his way toward his 'Sanctuary.' Heading back. He stops walking to make the text, even though he suspects Ariadne knows full well about his exit and return. He waits outside the warehouse for a few minutes, seeing if she reappears. |
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| Kara | Apr 16 2013, 07:33 PM Post #49 |
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Killjoy is left to wait less than a full minute before Ariadne reappears. Of course, she's standing less than a meter from him, staring at him with clear interest. "Willing to bet mirrors didn't do that before." She stops, blinking once. "Wonder if the Winnowing knew you. Somehow." |
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| Holy | Apr 16 2013, 07:58 PM Post #50 |
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"There used to be more, even," Salvador offers after recovering from the start generated at her appearance. "The things you see in the mirror, their souls I think... They damaged themselves further. Tearing at their skin, bashing themselves in the face, pulling their own hair. Enough that it would damage themselves if I stayed too long." "For most people, it amounted to a scrape. But for the sick, or the old." Salvador shakes his head. "It did more, they were even more vulnerable." That bible's in his hands now, "I managed to overcome that latter curse, though." |
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| Kara | Apr 16 2013, 08:08 PM Post #51 |
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That causes her to squint in further concentration. "Overcome? Something from the Winnowing." Her feet shift, briefly giving the impression that she might take a step toward him. She ends up just shuffling in place and asking, "How?" The word is said with a measure of force, concentration... And, almost the slightest bit of challenge. |
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| Holy | Apr 16 2013, 08:21 PM Post #52 |
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He spreads a hand, frowning as he knows she won't like the answer, even if she believes it. "Faith. Humanity. Kindness. I don't know what to call it, but good works and good will. Helping people, doing what I can not to be a predator but a part of the community. Living with the Kine as opposed to among them. Father Ruiz brought Killjoy back from the brink. But it's difficult to follow that path on the Strip. It's easy to fall to temptations." |
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| Kara | Apr 16 2013, 08:32 PM Post #53 |
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He sees a brief flash of white as she grits her teeth in another display of frustration. Her gaze hits the ground momentarily before rising back up to his. It's a good half minute before she speaks again, though. But finally... "Something that happened to me. From all that. Got...worse." |
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| Holy | Apr 16 2013, 08:55 PM Post #54 |
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That thirty seconds prompts Killjoy to speak as well, just as Ariadne does. "There was one final change in the Winnowing. It was both..." He seems to just barely notice the Mekhet may have said something and pauses, looking at her questioningly. |
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| Kara | Apr 16 2013, 09:11 PM Post #55 |
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Ariadne frowns, and stares. "Thought you were done." She shifts her weight, rubbing the toe of one shoe into the dirt. "So. Something else?" |
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| Holy | Apr 16 2013, 09:45 PM Post #56 |
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He looks at her for a long moment, weighing, then begins again. "There was one other thing, yes. I don't know how it happened for everyone. If it was all at once, or if it took weeks to fully change. But I marked the moment when a lot of it happened." "Rose and I weren't always on bad terms, you know. You've seen the worst of my dealings with the Invictus. You saw the start of my service, if you will. But, once I signed, I was taken care of, taught, fed. And not just on the Kine. Rose..." The frown on Killjoy's face darkens a bit more. "He... Despite the circumstances of the signing. He cared for me. He looked out for me. It may have started bad, but..." "We overcame that. At the end of the day, Rose become more of a father figure than I had even if life. He was crass, yeah. But once you stopped taking the insults and the swearing personally, it just washed off your back. I remember not being able to wait at each stage of learning a new trick of my blood. Showing him what I could do on some unsuspecting whale or someone looking to make trouble. He saw the potential in me, he encouraged it, all without ever needing to say a word." "When the Winnowing came, it wasn't only the paper blood oaths that broke. My Vinculum to Rose was destroyed as well." He looks up at the Mekhet again, a clench in his jaw. "I thought I was loved, Ariadne. I thought I was special. But it was only a Haunt's blood running through me and lying to each one of my emotions. When the Winnowing happened... I felt like my parents had died. That something real had been shorn away, and in its place only Rose's stupid fucking face laughing at me. It was the same laugh I heard every time we had laughed together, him and me. But I saw then we were never laughing together, it had always been at my expense." "There's still a part of me that thinks I could go back to that life. It wouldn't take much - a few sips from Harper and I could be in his inner circle. There's a part of me that does want that, forever changed by the Bond, even if I'm free of it now. I don't think it will ever go away. But to think back now that I felt that way for Rose?" Killjoy visibly shudders. "It disgusts me." |
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| Kara | Apr 16 2013, 10:10 PM Post #57 |
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She stands, and stares. And listens. Toward the end, she's no longer looking at him - instead, her head is distinctly pointed toward the ground as her arms draw tighter against her body, fingers entwining in the loose fabric of her clothing. When he's done, her eyes slowly raise to his, meeting them only briefly before they flick away again. Still, the whole of her face doesn't move with them, so she's still mostly looking at him. "Can't imagine. Really - can't." One corner of her mouth dips downward. "Feel...bad, for giving you a hard time about the Estate. Shouldn't have, even without leaving too, at the end of it." Her fingers shift, wrapping themselves a bit more securely in dark folds of cloth. "Starting to see maybe I didn't get off so badly. Not as others. Then or before. Still don't like some parts, but..." She shakes her head a few times, almost too forcefully. "Wasn't in a terrible place before. Not in one now. Even with some of it...getting worse." She rolls one shoulder and definitely isn't looking at Killjoy now. |
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| Holy | Apr 16 2013, 10:23 PM Post #58 |
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"Getting worse?" He shifts in place. "Just on it's own, or have there been..." He searches for the right words. "Moments of guilt?" |
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| Kara | Apr 16 2013, 10:41 PM Post #59 |
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A flat stare passes across her face, and is gone after a brief second. "Not like that. Haven't done anything to anyone. Just hanging around with the Dragons. Helping Nash. Whatever." Both sides of her mouth twitch now, just a shade short of an actual grimace. "Never went anywhere. Before the Winnowing, you know? Heard of people, of you, but didn't have to meet anyone. Didn't have to do anything." Unexpectedly, she cranes her gaze up toward the sky and searches the darkness above. "Could see anything, no one could see me. And never had to go anywhere. Thought it was a perfect setup, except for food. Still had to leave for that, sometimes. Not too much, though." Her gaze finds his again and stays there, unwavering. "Might not know much about people, but. Am very smart. Good with computers, very good, most Kindred aren't. But beyond that..." She shakes her head. "A lot better than almost anyone. Don't mind saying it. But... "After the Winnowing, couldn't go anywhere, anymore. Couldn't hear thoughts, had to actually talk... Was very...depressed. Didn't want to go anywhere, didn't want to eat. Almost starved." Her shoulders shrink together a little. "But found out... More hungry I am... Harder it is to think. To understand. To do anything." Ariadne takes a step back, and then another two. "Finally ate, after the Winnowing. Some rats, in the bottom of the casino. Can't remember catching them, can't remember going there. Never ate rats before that." |
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| Holy | Apr 16 2013, 10:55 PM Post #60 |
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"I don't know if there's rhyme or reason to it all. We can probably read into the meanings, the connections. But I'm not so sure looking at the results will tell us much. I suppose Nash and Hastings would have a better take, though." Another slight pause, and he comes to a decision. "I need you to set up a meeting between Ashcroft and I. Antoine wants me to reach out to her. Plus I'd like to find out if she wants my debt to stand." |
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3:31 AM Jul 11