Black Thursday [Group 20]

[Lancaster]

A mild storm, they said.

Mild. Not this. The wind was ice cold and knife-like as it whipped back and forth, as if it couldn’t quite decide what direction it wanted to stick to. There wasn’t only rain, but ice. Not just snow, but flecks of hard ice – whether from the sky or broken off from nearby eaves or trees, Elliot didn’t know. As soon as the storm was predicted he knew he had to get to the boat and secure it, somehow. It was what he’d spent most of his night doing, even as the wind picked up and the storm raged like some kind of cyclone. But not a tropic cyclone. No, this was some kind of furious squall kicked up by some Frost Giants, somewhere.

From the boat, Elliot made his way to the 8th Dimension Mall, where he checked on the music shop. It was on the ground floor – and at that time, seemed as if it would be perfectly fine. Regardless, he made sure everything was unplugged and secure before he locked up and headed back out into the furor. The last place he needed to check was Lancaster’s; the pub was either going to be dead, with no customers, or it was going to be packed to the brim with punters trying to find refuge.

Except, when Elliot stepped back out onto the street from the mall, he realised he would not be able to walk. Not easily, anyway. Not without slipping ten million times. Truth was, he hadn’t had much experience in this kind of storm, so didn’t quite know what the procedure was. From his pocket he retrieved his tome, and quickly chanted the message inscribed inside. From the Den, he could slip through the portal to Lancaster’s.

The Den itself was quiet. No one was around. Elliot wanted to know where Pi was, but he figured she might be at the pub. And if she wasn’t, he would call her immediately and tell her to come home. He couldn’t see Skylar or Charlie, either, and his worry pitched – they were all big girls, however, and he had to remind himself that they wouldn’t be stupid enough to be caught out in this. They were all probably doing the same as he was – checking on things.

It was as soon as Elliot stepped into the portal, however, that the ground began to rumble and shake, and the earth cracked and shifted. He was torn from his feet and as he disappeared, he could see the crumbling earth drifting down into the Den. When he landed, it wasn’t in the office of Lancaster’s as he had expected. Instead, he landed on hard ice; he slipped, and his tailbone cracked against shuddering asphalt. He looked up just in time to see the street sign come hurtling his way – just in time to see it, but with not enough time to avoid it.

The pole whacked him over the head. The world at first was a blinding white, before blackness clouded his vision and Elliot slipped into unconsciousness.

[Revyia]

Months Earlier

It had been too much to take in. She had given up the hopes of escaping the Darkness and then had found it hard to believe the truth of her freedom. She had been born and turned in a time when it was important to know how to watch your back, although perhaps all times were like that. She had been a warrior though, so her training in that regard had been intensive. The Darkness had not taken that from her, but had intensified it. She had never stopped being guarded, waiting for an attack - the Darkness was an evil place where you were never truly safe.

The terror had not stopped upon her freedom. This world was not the one she had left. Even seeing the differences while overseeing the vampires of Harper Rock for the past while had not quite prepared her for being thrust into the world. She had tried. She had cracked. It was too overwhelming and after all of her years in the Darkness she was not capable of staying sane while dealing with the onslaught to her senses. So she had gone underground. She had no plans on how long she would stay there, only knowing that she would not survive otherwise.

She had sunk into a deep slumber, one that would not have been safe to do anywhere else - not where she had no fortress or lineage to keep her protected. Beneath the many layers of soil, however, she was safe.

---

Present Day

She was awoken, not by the reasons one would expect for waking a vampire from such a deep sleep but from something quite unexpected. The roots of trees that surrounded her subterranean sleeping space began to tremble and shift violently. The soil itself seemed to be shifting restlessly, alerting the sleeping vampire to dangers above, ones that she should most likely be awake for.

She was weakened by her extended sleep, but slowly she dug her way back to the surface. She had gone just slightly outside of the city limits when she'd dug herself under and the scene that met her as she broke through the top soil was not the same as the one when she'd gone under. Snow - s much snow. And ice that hung from the trees, most of which seemed to be bent at wrong angles. The wind gushed around her, whipping her hair to and fro and slamming it back against her face like a sledgehammer. She needed to head back to Harper Rock in hopes of finding decent shelter.

The going was rough, the treacherous forest floor made even worst by the fact that most of the soil was covered in a thick layer of ice. She slipped, fell, face planted. She tried grabbing onto nearby trees and branches but they were layered in ice as well and were no help at all. The only positive she could see to this was that her constant contact with the wet snow was likely to help wash off at least some of the dirt that covered her.

After hours of travelling in this manner and becoming just short of a walking icicle herself, she found herself back in somewhat familiar territory. Buildings and those transporters. Everything was covered in snow and ice. There were broken windows. Those interconnected tree like things seemed to be falling down in places, making her thing perhaps she wasn't any safer here than she had been deep underground.

Just as she thought this she fell again, her cheek slamming down onto the cold iced over sidewalks. At first she thought she had slipped again, but there seemed to be an obstruction down by her feet. Had she tripped over something that had fallen over? Crawling over the snow covered obstruction, she made no effort to dust herself off at this point, but curiosity got the better of her and she dusted off whatever it was that had fallen her. She expected something hard, metallic or wooden, but instead her fingertips brushed cold flesh. "Oh dear..." Her voice was hoarse, unused. The vibrations nearly as painful as the wind and ice still whipping at her flesh.

The building in front of her seemed mostly intact, so instead of looking further she reached beneath the man to haul him up as best she could and slowly made her way towards the door. It was more difficult than it should have been, her bare feet unable to get much traction on the cold ice beneath her. The fact that she hadn't fed since before her slumber was most likely not a help at all either. The combination of the two led to her falling down, mostly on top of the poor fellow she had found, multiple times in the short distance from the sidewalk to the door. Eventually she made it all the way, having to let go of her cargo - which she regrettably did not manage to do as gently as she was trying for - in order to open the door and drag him the rest of the way in.

As soon as his feet cleared the door she let him go again, unable to do much more in her current state besides step forward and pull the door tightly closed hoping to keep out the wind and chill. With that done she dusted some of the snow off of the ratty coat she had stripped from one of the Hunters she had taken down upon first returning from the Darkness. It was filthy and held together mostly with the belt she had also taken, but it worked well enough for her, which was good seeing as how it was the only piece of clothing she owned.

[Deirdre (DELETED 5847)]

Deirdre didn't typically venture far from Gullsborough, but she had her very distinctive reasoning. She had chosen a good use for the remaining money her sire, Nikolae, had provided her with. Acquiring a new professional makeup kit. With over ten thousand dollars with which to purchase said kit, it made perfect sense to go in person to buy it.

The problem was, she hadn't seen a single cosmetics supply store in Gullsborough, or Harper Rock in general. This had her scoping out different areas.

She wore a very thick coat as she walked, no stranger to the frigid cold and whipping rain, though she found herself wanting to stand stock-still and embrace the sensations. Her senses often left her in a strange rapture, drowning in feeling, seeing, smelling.

Close to sunrise, she found herself ducking into just any building she could for shelter from the stinging ice-rain, thankful for her slip-resistant boots, just before the pitching of the earth began.

She was from Wisconsin, not a high earthquake activity region, and thus had no idea what to do. So she flattened herself against the wall, near a window. Her silver Dragon's eyes found the unconscious form on the ice beyond the building, flying wide, seeing the street sign laying beside him. Not to mention the woman who dove in and pulled the door closed snugly.

What the hell was this? She was still a damn new vampire. What a funny way to start meeting others of the kind, in the middle of frozen Hell.

[Dominique]

Dominique pulled out the business card and flipped it around in her inked fingers. The shimmer of silver on black background caught the eyes on the face she was staring at across the desk from her. Big brown eyes watched the distracted face surrounded in a halo of grey smoke until finally those evil green orbs found her and gave her the attention she was waiting for. Was it a deal or was it no deal? She raised a brow and inclined her head a bit as the sound of her jeans hissed over the chair beneath her as she moved forward. It was getting late and the winds outside were howling loud enough that she could hear it from where she was sitting. She flicked the card in the air sending it spiraling and into the hand that lifted from the table where it was holding a cuban cigar. It smelled like **** but who was she to ruin what she was working on by insulting his vice?

“Deal.” The dark face across from her nodded and stood up as the figure behind him turned quickly on its heels pulling the third shadow behind him with a nudge.

Dominique was alone and the music in the club she was sitting in was hardly her first choice to spend time listening to. It sounded like that crap people would start gyrating to like their pelvis was going up in flames. Her eyebrows knitted together and her lips formed a creased flesh bow shape. One more stop and she was going to be heading home. her body lifted and she pulled the collar of her leather jacket up. It did little to keep her warm. Nothing could make up for what no longer needing protection from the elements. It was all for appearances sake. She looked the part as much as any other tattooed female heading out the doors with a push of HOPE and LESS at the door handle.

“Bundle up!” The last voice she heard in the club called out as the wind whipped up and slammed into her.

“What in the hell?” Her snow pelted lips managed to question as she was greeted with a snow and wind combination unlike anything she had ever seen.

Back home in New York she had seen some weather but this was right out of what one pays to see in the movie theater. Dominique was a veteran of blizzards. Whatever this was it was insane. She worked her way against the exterior walls of the buildings to make it to the street that had not met up with a snow plow. She zipped up her leather jacket with Night Lords properly displayed on the back and shook out her legs. Time to make a run for it. She really needed to invest in a snowmobile if this was how it was going to be. Until then it was time to blaze a trail or at least slide *** and feet to somewhere indoors until this latest perfect storm lost its punch.

Out of no where and certainly unlike anything else she would expect, the icy ground beneath her feet began rocking like she was in one of those fun houses in the carnival. It had her wobbling back and forth in the wind like a bar fly navigating it’s way through a back alley after last call. She skated on her feet trying to stay upright and managed to kiss some bricks on the wall as she clung to for safety.

It took a few minutes of clinging to random poles and corners until Dominique spotted the faint lights of the door of Sully’s Gym. The dumpster at the side of the building was her target for her next grounding point. That was until she was a few feet from it and it took off and slammed into the cars parked next to it. So much for getting further than she had. A car alarm went off and the dumpster tumbled off like it was a show box in a straight line wind.

Dominique struggled against the force of the wind working at her and finally reached the doors of the gym. Her colorful fingers tugged hard. It was as if the door was suctioned closed. She pressed a winter hiking boot at the wall beside the door and gave it another attempt. She would tear it off if she had to. This was not the time to be trying her luck at breaking and entering. A perfect storm was riding her *** and she was empty in the pockets. No cell, no keys. Nothing but lint.

That was when an outside display sign came tumbling at her. ‘Complimentary appetizers!’ came to view and a rather vibrant sketch of buffalo wings. All she could think was this was not good. A whack of the contact echoed in her head. The neighboring business’ happy hour special cracked her in the face and rolled over her blue knit robot capped head and back into the air. Her nose throbbed and instantly dripped the black beads that she detested to see. They spiraled with the blowing snow and dissolved as she pulled at the door again. This time the petite shadow succeeded in getting inside as the door nearly slammed her inside with the force of it shutting behind her. She stumbled in and nearly fell over three others who seemed to find the building as she had. She eyed each briefly as she brushed HOPE over her nose in case anything was threatening to give her away.

“Sorry to crash the party.” She breathed out the air she didn’t need as she spoke. “It is a ***** out there.”

[Lancaster]

When Elliot awoke, it was to an aching pain that made him feel… well, honestly? It made him feel human. When his brows furrowed into a concentrated frown, he felt the skin tugging at a gash on his forehead. The cold air slapped against the spilled blood on his skin. Before he even opened his eyes, he knew he was bleeding. He could smell it; he could smell the blood, as well as the ice and the water that clung to his jacket and his clothes. But he could also smell earth.

There were voices, too. All female. No, only one voice. One female. Commenting on… that’s right. There was a ****** of a storm out there, and Elliot groaned. Party? He hadn’t been invited to any party, had he? Where…?

He coughed. Hacked, and sat bolt upright – only to hiss and clutch at his gut, where he felt as if he had been pummelled with stones. Blood dripped down onto his legs, where it was quickly absorbed by the denim of his jeans, bleeding into the fabric with the melting ice. Long fingers lifted to flutter against the gash on his forehead – to the left, and over the hairline. The black hair stuck to the mess of blood, which leaked out of a large tear in the skin. The sign could have scalped him, had it hit him at a slightly different angle.

Memory rushed back as there was a loud clattering clamour at the door; blue eyes went wide as his head snapped up. He had no idea what had hit the glass, but he could see a car, headlights glaring, slowly drifting across the road toward them. Yes, a storm. Hail. Lots and lots of ice. Earthquake. Holy Mary ******* Mother of God.

Elliot stood in a hurry. Probably too much of a hurry, given his six foot six height and his recent head injury. The world spun and he was forced to reach out for the nearest sturdy thing, which so happened to be another person. The one that smelled very heavily of earth.

”Get away from the door,” he coughed, his Australian accent and his disorientation causing the words to slur and blend together. ”The glass…. We need to find somewhere more secure,” he said, finally glancing left and right to see that there were three others. He recognised none of them. They were all vampires. The atmosphere in the room was decidedly… adrenaline fuelled. Regardless, Elliot took no time to assess his companions, except to make sure that they knew they couldn’t just hang around the front door. It wasn’t safe. There might still be aftershocks.

He let go of the other woman and tried to lead the way – except he wasn’t too steady on his own feet. He managed to make it about ten more feet into what he now recognised as the gym, before collapsing against some kind of fitness machinery. He closed his eyes and tried to ground himself; at the same time, he sent a message hurting through the ether, toward his other half:

Where are you?!

[Revyia]

She faltered slightly under the unexpected weight of the fallen man. She debated for a moment on using her powers to help the man replace some of the blood he had lost... but she was wary of that. She was by all intents and purposes trapped in this place with unknown vampires who may or may not wish her harm. She decided she should save her power for now, in case she needed to protect herself.

At his words, she looked towards the windows that offended him so. She had made her way into the city limits, possibly doing herself more damage than good, under the assumption that shelter would be better here. Was she wrong? That thought sent unease all the way down her spine, allowing the coldness from the ice that still coated nearly her entire body to finally penetrate and cause her to shiver, though not nearly as much as a human would if they were in a similar situation. She sensed no humans here to tell the difference, though.

Her gaze went back to the man, the one she had thought would need to be taken care of until the storm had passed. It had not been something she was looking forward to - she was not a caretaker by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, he seemed to be looking to lead them, despite the fact that he was in a weakened state. This made the urge to use up her meager power resources to aid him somehow intensify, but still she tamped it down. It was hard not to respect someone who would do that. She had spent so long leading troups into battles and then, depending on the outcome, leading them back home.

She was not qualified to lead anything here. She had come into this building only because it had been the nearest building to the fallen man. She knew nothing of what lay inside, or of what the strange machinery was meant for. She knew the glass would likely not protect them from the upcoming sun rise, but she had not survived as long as she had by not being able to find herself cover in a hurry. Or by learning how to deal with the horrendous burns when she was not quite quick enough.

[Deirdre (DELETED 5847)]

Deirdre reached a hand out to the man, trying to steady him at least somewhat, even as she looked around. A gym. Mirrors and windows would abound here, which meant that very little of the building was actually safe. "Is there a sealed office, without windows?" she asked, in general, her eyes flicking from person to person within their tenuous shelter.

As she glanced from face to face, her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out, startled she had any measure of service, and read the short message from her sire, before the device blinked a message at her and went dark.

Just my damn luck, she thought, tucking the device and its dead battery back into her pocket. She was now out of touch with the world beyond these four walls.

"Anyone got a theory as to what we should do now?" she said, glancing from face to face. She wasn't used to earthquakes, but snow and ice, she could manage.

[Dominique]

Dominique traced the left side of her face with her thumb. Nothing damaged there. That was a relief. Her nose was cool too. There was no annoying swirl of black drops cluttering the air. Her hand opened as it lifted to the top of head to pull off the knit robot beanie tightly fit over her head then stopped just before she completed the task. She would leave her hat on. She was hardly thinking about getting so comfortable as to remove what she came in with. In times like these everything you had on hand was important. Besides that valid point of survival she spent time and money getting her hands on her blue knit cap. Trivial to anyone perhaps but to her it was golden and she was keeping it where it was safe.

Dominique watched the man moved and figured he had met up with something worse than a display sign trying to sell buffalo wings. With the wind continued to roar and howl outside the building she was grateful she arrived and got inside when she did. One question came to mind as soon as the male was taking lead of the rest. Who was she following and in the company of?

"Not to slow this impending hike down needlessly but mind if we share names?" Dominique glanced around while the leader made it in a small effort moving forward before reaching some quipment. He was looking like he needed to take a few and get his bearings straight. "I am Dominique."

Dominique stood staring at each equally because at this point she wanted to know the names of those she was about to start a mission of survival with. Normally she could shrug off the unexpected happening. The earth beneath her roaring and breaking while the weather joined in for added effect was not the norm. Getting a pizza delivered to the door of Vita Bella prepaid by mistake was unexpected. A live performance of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" was not. Not in her book anyways. She saw that movie twice and was on the edge of her seat both times.

[Lancaster]

The reply came quick and fast; Elliot hadn’t had to wait long, before his other half got back to him. He would have to remember this night. He’d have to remember the fact that a vampiric ability had come in handy; that it had cause him significant relief of the stress that he hadn’t realised had settled neatly and heavily upon his shoulders. Pi was conscious, in the very least. Maybe not entirely safe, but Elliot had faith that she would make it out, and she would make it through. And, despite her differences with Skylar, he hoped to all that was holy that Pi would take care of her, too.

Of course there were plenty of other people he was concerned about, too – but his head was splitting with a sudden migraine, and people were talking around him. His vision swam as he tried to focus on the three women; at the same time, he was trying to remember if Charlie had mindspeak. Or Aliyah. Or was she too new to have learned that particular ability? Dhara definitely didn’t. What about Reilly? Asteria and Aidan? There was a mental checklist of all the people he wanted to be safe; he wanted to be able to summon them all to him, but what was to say that there situation wasn’t more safe than his was?

They were right, whoever was talking. They had to think of a plan; they had to find safety. The name Dominique should ring a bell but Elliot wasn’t thinking straight. It wasn’t an entirely uncommon name, so he didn’t think too much about it. He reached out a hand, cold only because he’d been lying out in the snow. But there was an underlying warmth – he was an Allurist, who gave off an aura of mortality. Not because he was overly careful about hiding what he was, but because, he assumed, he craved humanity. Every single second of the day – what he wouldn’t give, to be human again. But then he had to remember, again – if he were human, he would not have been able to hear back from Pi like he had.

”Lancaster,” he said. It worked, as far as the situation was concerned. He didn’t have to spill his bloodline name. They needed to know only enough so that they could get on with their plan as soon as possible.

”And I agree. We need to find somewhere enclosed. Somewhere safer than out in the open,” he said, before he cringed as a fresh axe split his skull. At least, that’s what it felt like.

I’m at the Gym. I think it’s the one near the pub – I tried to use the portal and it threw me out into the street. I’m with a few others, I don’t know them, he sent back to Pi. Letting her know where he was – though he had nothing else to report, as yet. The last thing she needed to know was that he had passed out and was bleeding from the head.

[Revyia]

Ice still coated nearly her entire being, but at the same time she could feel cold drops trailing across her skin. It was still cold in the shelter they were in, especially with the outside wind gusts seeming to get in with ease, but maybe she was far enough away to start to melt a little. This was likely a good sign, though if nothing else the ice was sure to melt while she was burning under the sun. She very much disliked not knowing anything about her surroundings. Knowledge was power, especially when it came to finding an appropriate shelter from the harsh sun.

Names. So important. Making a being more than just an anonymous face but a person in their own right. Dominique and Lancaster. "Lucia." Her voice was still barely more than gravel. Unused in months, it took extra effort to push out each word that she spoke. The name itself came out instinctively. It was her name when around those who have allegiances unknown to her. She had not survived as long as she had by letting every vampire who asked her name know what it was. Revyia was the name she had chosen to be, Lucia was the name she had chosen as a shield of sorts. Born with no names, she had always believed that there was a certain amount of power to be had with names.

She offered nothing else, not wishing to draw any more attention to herself than was required at this point in time. Perhaps if she had an idea of what they should do next it would be different, but as she did not... there was no gain to be had from becoming too memorable in any of their eyes.