Such places were never...quite as friendly as the fleeting moments of home left behind, at least...not in the mind.  No, the mind had this way of distorting things, people...places left behind.  Kindred or Kine it didn't seem to matter.  Some places all the good was forgotton, others...all the bad...very few managed to maintain their integrity once they were little more than memory.  Fewer still when you tended to leave in the wake of disaster...maybe it would be different here...maybe things wouldn't turn out so disasterously...

The stench of human excrement, the winding would be halls of concrete and filth, the few creatures that dared to call such hell their home...it was just another reminder of what had been left behind, and what she hoped would come in the future.  Were either anything to smile at?  No, not at present.  The sewers themselves held little in the way of comfort for her, apart from being a bit more friendly without hiding her form than the world above...footfall after footfall moved through the darkness...the muck splashing freely against her in plces as she held a small flashlight in hand...yes, the undead often had better vision than mortals...but one never knew what one would find or accidentally stumble across when searching unfamiliar territory rumored to be held onto by the 'family.'  Better safe than sorry, and better thought of as nieve initally than impaled on some trap springing out of no where for the sake of pride.

Hours before she'd found a place outside of town to hook up the laptop...the singular message brief, but would hopefully have given enough warning for her to avoid being overrun by the masses of spawning pool rats that seemed to common to many Nosferatu warrens and halls.  How else would they keep the 'N' words away.  She hadn't heard of them until recent months...and what they'd managed to leave in their wake, or rather steal from the family..helped her see the need for security that had escaped her so thouroughly previously.

Tucked away in the internets... the few words were simply...SFRockRats-location change...be there soon.  ~Buggy~

Was that movement?  or an Echo?  She wasn't sure...it was like visiting a new country and not only not knowing a soul in it's borders...but not having half a clue as to where the narest glimpse of civilization was.  Fingers came up and began to itch at a patch of flesh crawling with a rather resilliant strain of scabies that threatened to drive her mad...a small paper ship was deposited in the muck...a blue glow stick, broken in half, the contents poured over the paper ship...and she stopped in her tracks for a long long moment...watching the glowing bit of paper sink below the surface and take it's whisper of light down into the filth that weighed it down...it had an almost ceremonial farewell feel to it...the still, the silence with which it was consumed, and then...it was gone...

Now...her task was simply to find them before something else found her...

Deep in the Hovel, the darkest, dankest and safest place in these aging sewers. Right atop the very backbone of the city Beaumonts message will be found.

Mr.Grey is the operator. He spends most of his nights glued to his custom built computers, staring with his large eyes at the six oversized monitors dotted by all the cameras hes tapped into and all his monitorings of the web.

Unusual postings like Beaumonts have a way of sticking out to the right people. So when Grey sees a new face in the sewers, on the black and white cameras that flick on whenever motion is detected hes not too suprised or alarmed.

She Could still be Sabbat, She could still be an undesireable. But thats why Grey and Hyde built the cage. Now to just usher her into it... show her the breadcrumbs.

Down the tunnel Beaumont will spot a small flash of light. A single LED that blips three times in the dark.

The darkness still wasn't something she found herself enjoying...the unfamiliar terrain, despite the relative consistancy from one cities sewer system to the next were little more than a dim reminder that as easy as it was for them to adapt...easier still it had to be for them to adapt...they were older afterall, and if rumors were true, then...well no, there wouldn't be any comfort found in that thought anytime soon.  Comfort was a foreign thing now, something best left for books and children curled up in their warm blankets...tucked away and sleeping safely in their homes.  They'd always be there, that unspoken whisper in the darkness waiting to devour them...

The leathery skinned walking abomination moved through the sewers...she'd yet to hear a word from another soul...yet to find any sort of confirmation that this new city was more alive than the one that had been left behind.  Give it time...how long did it usually take to get settled?  Too long, always too long; however, it was something that could be accepted at this point...another week, two tops without a word, and she would assume the worst.  She'd seen and smelled it...and it made the bowels of humanities waste around her more than bearable.  

A light in the darkness...

Once...Twice...Three times...
Tension moving through her body...Lanelle wasn't normally prone to paranoia, not like this...but the present circumstances warranted a bit of caution on her end...afterall she'd come to know the hard way that they weren't as alone as they'd like to believe they were down here...no...creeps and cowards, things that made monsters shudder and madmen wary dwelled below too.  She should have found an animal to send ahead...to question, something other than the blind gropeing that was done now...too late?  Perhaps...it just wasn't thought of at present.

She moved neither foreward nor back...but instead...flipped the small flashlight in her own hand off, and on...once...twice...three times, and then after the third she left it on, but pointed it down at the muck, her eyes transfixed on where she'd seen the light whisper from moments ago...

Grey leans forward, staring into the pixellated black and white video feed with his large buglike eyes. Beaumont returning a signal is a good sign. He had half expected her to Obfuscate or turn tail and run.

He leans back and hits the button to the LED again, three times again, quickly. Bap,bap,bap like a machine gun to hopefully make it clear someone is signalling to her.

He will turn away for just a moment to hit a button on his radio transmitter, Warning Beauty who is above ground and Hyde who could be anywhere that there is someone in the sewers...

Grey doesnt know where Quinn might be, and he hasnt gotten around to fixing one of the screambled recievers for him just yet...

The light again...The flashlight in her hand stayed pointed at the ground for almost a full eighteen seconds...it doesn't seem like such a long time unless you're waiting for something...during the lapse in response, she however was not without movement...her free hand was up at her ribs...tearing and scratching at a new flock of maggots that felt the inclination to begin burrowing out of her flesh at the inopportune moment...they were of course unseen, little made it to her features outside of the momentary agitation in her tightened jaw...

Someone knows I'm here...  Who though, was now the question...the flash was returned once more...three times in succession, but this time...rather than remaining where she stood, Beaumont started to progress foreward...the words from her lips bouncing off the concrete walls...the voice nothing gentle or sweet, it seemed to fit well with the creature wadeing through the muck...like the pall mall princess at the age of sixty...scratchy and almost painful sounding the mutterings weren't ment for the world..."I end up worse off than last time I'm gunna move to an island and be a fuckin hermit...send coconut bombs to random people..."  

And so foreward she moved...following where the light had come from...guiding her path with the flashlight sweeping the muck and feces swirled into a bit of liquid yummy in front of her...

Grey will use the flashes of light like breadcrumbs, Leading Beaumont deeper and deeper into the sewers. Like most cities teh Nosferatu of Sanfield reside in the deepest place, so she may think she is being led home.

But these breadcrumbs lead to a trap. Nothing damaging, in fact Grey elads leads her right around all the pitfalls or spring loaded spears or collapsing celings.

The final light on this trail will lead her into a tunnel hub. A hexagon shaped room where six smaller tunnels meet.

-------------------------------------------------
A roll, please: Perception and alertness, diff 7.  

--Last edited by Radiationjunkie on 2008-07-18 13:28:49 --

2008-07-18 11:50:47 Buggy rolls 4 dice to percep+alert (Diff 7) 1,5,3,7 (failure)

Oblivious to the trappings she'd missed as she followed, her eyes remained transfixed on the lights, momentarily forgetting to heed caution or any mental warnings that told her this was a bit too easy...she moved as quickly as the lights dissappearing in front of her dictated, her mind wandering towards the last time she'd followed something blindly...but she didn't stop...

Not until she was in the hexagonal roomed with the smaller tunnels meeting did she show even the slightest bit of hesitation...there in the center of the room she stopped, and turned in circles looking for the next whisper of light to lead her...

2008-07-18 12:02:45 Radiation rolls 7 dice to cage trap 4,3,3,9,3, 2,10 (2 successes)
----------------------------------------------------------

Grey cackles happily and jabs a few buttons on his keyboard.

Beaumont will hear a small explosive charge go off above her and no sooner does she hear it does the cage fall from the ceiling. Most people dont bother to look up in the sewers. The low ceilings wear down that instinct...

The cage lands hard, a heavy iron contruct with bars easily two and a half inches thick. Providing weight atop it is a brick of concrete that looks to easily weigh a ton.

Beaumont should be quite trapped. A single red light high in one corner betrays a camera, she is still being watched.

Once the cage drops Grey will get on the radio calling to Beauty and Hyde. Telling them someone is in the cage and hes heading down to check it out...

So much for warm welcomes...
So much for learning from your mistakes...

She stayed away from the edges of the cage after they came crashing down around her...she knew well enough to know that screaming or calling for help here...now...below...was virtually pointless unless the voices answering were friendly...

Fuck...seriously need to think things through a bit more....  She shook her head, and flipped off the flashlight, tucking it away....motionless...she crouched down, and waited...absently picking an abnormally large tick from her arm...before squeezing the life out of it...popping it into her mouth..taking back that tiny bit of viate it had stolen...then leaving the miniature corpse to be lost below as she spat out the remains...

Absently she swore at herself for leaving the superglue with the rest of her things...and settled in...to wait.

Beaumont wont have to wait for long. The cage isnt far from the Hovel and Grey moves fast. The sloshing in the water will give him away as he approaches from one of the tunnels.

His large, lightbulb shaped head looming around a corner. When he speaks his teeth are all filed to points, his eyes large and buglike. He keeps in cover mostly, in case she has a weapon he didnt see...

'Well well, who do we have here?' He calls out to the caged Beaumont...

The sloshing of the water didn't send her railing against the cage or leave her desperately looking for a way out...she was in here...and they were quieter...so much quieter...anything else would have to come in to get to her...dimly reassuring thought that didn't have much time to sttle into her mind...

As the head came into view, Beaumont remained crouched in the center of the cage...her eyes appraising what bits of him were visible, the only movement was the occasional scratching at clothing that seemed to be for fleeting seconds taunting her sanity...she didn't blink...she didn't breathe...she didn't raise her voice when she responded...

"Who not what...good to know that I've not been judged an errant porcupine wandering the depths..."  She still didn't rise...but she stopped scratching for a few seconds at least..."That would depend on what side of the world you walk.  Down here Buggy will suffice."

{Continued from '...And reaping What You Sow' in 'The Hovel'}

2008-07-18 14:02:36 Hyde rolls 6 dice to Dex+Stealth (Diff 7) 6,4,1,6,3, 4 (BOTCH x 1)

Sneaking around the far side of the room is a clearly visible Mister Hyde, though it is also quite obvious that he thinks himself unseen.

It is rather comical, actually, to see the gigantic oaf making such delicate movements in plain sight. He is concentrating so intently on his movements that his tongue is actually sticking out of the corner of his mouth.  

--Last edited by Mister Hyde on 2008-07-18 23:13:33 --

'Buggy?.. Well, i got your mess-... what the fuck?...'

Grey spots Hyde tip toeing around on the other side of the cage and almost starts laughing...

She nodded...the WTF?!?! comment however sent her to the edge in nothing flat...the crouched creature was not quite so subtle in her movements...turning around as she forced blood through her system ((bp to STA)) expecting to see...well she didn't know what she expected to see as she remained crouched...

and then promptly fell over giggling...the words from her mouth much less...throaty...almost light and airy, harmonious as they came from her lips...between laughter..."and here I was worried about finding my muse again..."

Hyde freezes when he hears all the commotion and turns to see the two staring at him, stands to his full height, then he puts his tongue back in his mouth.

"Bugger all." he mutters to himself, realizing his exposed state.

He nonchalantly approaches the cage, like he didn't just make an ass out of himself, to get a better look at what they've caught.  

--Last edited by Mister Hyde on 2008-07-18 16:56:16 --

With Hyde here and Beaumont incapacitated by giggles Grey will come out of his cover and slosh the rest of the way over to the cage.

'That was cute Hyde, your lucky Beauty didnt see you doing that. She might have laughed herself into Torpor.'

Grey pokes fun and grins with all his pointed teeth.

'Buggy sent a message not too long ago. Im guessing shes one of the refugees from that port city we've been hearing about.'

Hyde grins sheepishly at Grey's ribbing, acceding to how comical it must have been. Anyone else and he might just pull their arm off and make a comment about how funny that looks.

"Riiiight. The Port town. Been quite a bit of traffic comin' inna town from that way."

Turning to Buggy he asks "What exactly happened there anyway?"

It could have been worse...he could have tripped over his own two feet and gone down face first...though perhaps it would have been harder to pull off the nonchalant strut towards where Beaumont was caged at present.  It took a moment for the light sounds of laughter to subside, but eventually, yes...they did slipp away and the silence comming from her was nearly reclaimed, the exception being a little grunt as her right hand scratched almost feverishly at her left ass cheek.  No, nothing terribly graceful about her at present, not even the pretense...still it did pale a bit in the memory that had been created in those few moments...Never a second chance to make a first impression...

"Refugees?  Is this where they're all skittering off to?  How wonderful..."  she nodded to herself...muttering, again the tone was lighter and more out of place compared to what Mr. Grey had initially been greeted with...."glad I brought them with me..."  But at the question of what had happened there...she swallowed a bit, and and that throaty scratchy voice settled in a bit more easily...she shook her head..."Nothing good...started in a nearby city...least for us.  Things went silent underground...and got worse from there...missed alot of whatever happened up top...stuck in someone elses mess..."

She knew the clan loved details, but she...was not apparantly about to start talking about them right now...some losses too new still, others uncertain...at least...she told herself that they were uncertain at this point...

Grey listens intently. The parallels beetween the two domains are chilling, to say the least. But at least Buggy knows who is who among the refugees, that could make snooping easier.

'What do you think Hyde, can we uncage her?'

Grey asks, looking up at the cable attached to the top of the cage. Luckily it held, and the winch used to set the trap might even still be working...

Hyde is growing accustomed to utterly failing at the first-impressions game. This one wasn't so bad, considering his record. Though he would like to know all there is to know about the sinking ship that all these Kindred seem to be fleeing from, he imagines that he would not be very talkative if he were in that cage. Though he narrows his eyes at Grey for a moment, as if he hadn't actually considered letting her out, then shrugs and moves over to the winch to try and haul the thing off of their guest.