The Chalky Blades [MM]

[Storyteller]

Title: The Chalky Blades
------------------------------
Characters: Clover, Raven Talius

Clover must post first, outlining a story on the following theme (feel free to get creative):

Setting: A murder scene in a factory
Backstory: The group were all attending the same event (some or all characters).
Occurance: Lionelli gangsters attack.
Variable: Clover is about to discover a new ability they didn`t know they had.

Participants: 2
ARES: yes
Speed: slow
Chapter: no
Minimum Words Per Post: none
Maximum Words Per Post: none

------------------------------
This thread was generated via the Roleplay Matchmaking System.

[Clover]

Six days out of the shadow realm, Clover finally had the strength to leave her sanctuary and wander the city that she, once again, called home. She'd once read that homes could be people, not just places, and she knew that while her home had been Jesse, her home wasn't with him anymore. She had buildings and wisps of memories, everything she needed for the foundation of her new home. Homes could be people, but she'd learned that they shouldn't be, that people were people, constantly changing, for better or worse, and homes needed stability. She had everything for the groundwork, and somewhere between New York and her return from the shadow realm, she'd rediscovered a reason to build, the only reason she needed to try again. Herself. Happiness. The promise of better times. The promise of doing things right. And maybe it had taken her too long, maybe her route had contained too many detours, but she reached the same conclusion. She'd reached the end of a very long chapter, and it wasn't like her to stop reading.

She liked to visit the post office in Coastside because of the larger mailboxes. She'd lifted her forwarding address and began receiving mail about her businesses and investments, so she stopped there and collected the mail that had accumulated in the past few days. She peered into the dimly lit post office, then opened the door and entered into the cool interior. The place smelled like paper, and she lingered near the doorway, taking even breaths to treasure the familiar scent. She reminded herself that it wasn't quite right, things weren't quite right, but they would be, in time. Perhaps she'd found patience in the shadow realm.

Clo counted the mailboxes until she found her own, then she worked the combination, turning several times in both directions, until she heard the faint click and tugged on the lock. She collected five envelopes and two magazines, one being something she'd subscribed to for Jesse, so she tore that magazine in half and tossed it into the trash can. She'd wanted to take her lighter and set fire to it, but one quick look at the ceiling revealed sprinklers. Flooding the post office didn't seem like the smartest thing, so she settled for the trash can. There were electric bills and water bills, so she sorted through the envelopes, stacking them in order of importance.

She spent too long in the post office, but she had no other plans. By the time she left the post office, the weather had taken a turn for the worst. The rain clouds had overtaken the sky and raindrops began their descent on the city. The smell of the night was Clo's favorite, except there was something on the breeze she instantly recognized. Blood. Her whole body told her to chase the promise of blood, a fresh meal rather than blood bags bought from shops. She didn't need the blood, but she had an insatiable urge to feed, something she'd had since her turning. She clenched her fists, envelopes crinkling in her grasp, and inhaled, the fresh scent of the night overwhelmed by the scent of blood. She took a few steps forward, boots crunching on the stray pebbles lingering around the storm drain. The scent was easy to track, even with the rain picking up. Raindrops dotted her long-sleeved blue plaid shirt and the black tank top layered underneath.

The trail led her to an old warehouse, so she circled the building until she found the loading dock, then she ascended the ramp and approached the metal door left slightly ajar. Tucking the bills into her back pocket, She placed her hands under the metal door and forced it the rest of the way open. The overwhelming scent of fresh blood had her fangs extending in anticipation. The interior of the warehouse had seen better days, all of the metal columns with peeling paint and streaks of rust. The building had been abandoned for some time. In the main portion of the factory, bodies littered the floor, all of them humans, all of them surrounding a pallet of long wooden boxes. Before she had the chance to approach the pallet, a gun went off and a bullet hit her in the gut with such force that she choked on blood. Pressing one hand over her stomach, she drew her handgun, Matriarch, and ducked behind the pallet. Around her, doors in the room slammed open and people rushed out onto the floor. For the first time, Clo picked out the bodies of vampires, the sickening scent of their blood mixing with the alluring scent of human blood. Ashes dotted the room, a pile of ash right next to her boot. Vampires had been murdered too.

The first thing that came to mind was the Lionelli gang. She peered around the boxes and watched a bullet strike a man right in the throat. The man recovered and saw Clo, so she aimed and shot him in the head, the hit crippling him. The vampire turned to ash. She finally found an opportunity to pry one of the boxes open and she found a box filled with straw and a stash of guns. She had to guess that the meeting at the warehouse was for an exchange between humans and vampires. A human stumbled upon her hiding spot, but a bullet caught him in the back and he fell forward, hitting the ground and knocking the wind out of him. He looked at her with such fear in his eyes, so she shot him and put him out of his misery. The blood pooling around him had her throat burning, so she reached out and dipped her left hand into it and brought her fingers to her mouth, where she licked them clean.

A bullet caught Clo in the shoulder, but she kept taking more and more blood, more focused on feeding than remaining behind cover. She hadn't had such a good feeding since Trigg, so she treasured the taste. Around her, more gangsters arrived to replace the fallen.

[Raven Talius]

Clean Cut, a bit on the nose, seeing as half of her business would be cleaning up some of even her own murders. Well, at least she wouldn’t leave the body behind and there wouldn’t even be an investigation involved, because no one would even know that the crime would have happened in the first place. All it would be, is a missing case. If there wasn’t a body to be found, it wasn’t a murder. Clean Cut, because the business involved cleaning up the scene of a murder, all she had to do was get the word out. It was an untapped source of income in Harper Rock. Bodies dropped on a daily basis, this she knew because some of the time, this vampire was the reason that these bodies dropped. Although her customers didn’t need to know that. What they did need to know was all displayed upon the white card that she held in her right hand as she appraised it. It had just been made up and the woman sighed. She’d need staff, human and vampire alike to make it a blended business. A blended business that would hopefully throw the law off her tail. Why? Well the answer was simple. Clean Cut was a front, especially once she finally sourced a store-front to show off Clean Cut.

Fingers brought up the cigarette that was loosely gripped between her index and middle finger of her right hand and placed the end between her red painted lips to take a drag from what would have been a stick that would cause sickness in a human being. Her vampiric form however, could easily deal with the sickly effects of cigarettes. It would repair any damage that it could even possibly do to her and she took full advantage of such a thing. In fact, Raven always took full advantage of the healing abilities her new found body contained and why shouldn’t she? Which brought her thoughts to a rounding end. Clean Cut was a front because she would host her own criminal enterprise underneath the law’s very own noses. A smirk crossed her lips as she tossed the last of her cigarette away and pocketed the white card. It had taken some time to source the funds she needed, but it was finally on the up and she wouldn’t have it any way. The vampire hadn’t asked for help and she wasn’t about to start now. Her footstep led her out from underneath the lip of the roof right into the rain and although it soaked her red and black hair, she couldn’t have cared less.

It was during this walk down the rain soaked streets that a faint scent caught her attention and with that, had boots running.

Raven approached what seemed to be a factory of some sort. Factories were a source for all sorts of criminal activity and she wondered just exactly what this one would be. A hand was quick to unsheathe the sword that rested upon her back and she slipped into a side door as she drew in a deep breath only to crouch behind a box. Blood. She could smell the sickly sweet substance, but it no longer controlled her like it used to, only the words that whispered for her hand to carry out a killer’s deed. One that would see the life snuffed out of a human. Upon further more concentration, she closed her eyes only to open them to see the thermal heat that was given off of human and vampire bodies alike. A deal gone wrong between two species? How did the humans get a jump on vampires? The woman briefly wondered just as a low growl was caught in her throat before it escaped her lips. Blood. She could smell her sire’s blood. Raven had thought that her sire had left with that no good Jesse long ago and had never returned and yet, here she was in the middle of a gun fight bleeding.

Swear words were whispered as the woman focused even more, drawing upon more concentration to activate another one of her powers; Eagle’s Sight. It had helped her get away from the law more times than she could count. Making sure to reign it in to just the single building, she spotted all of her opponents and sighted her sire all the way across the damn building. Crouching down low, she drew her attention back to the here and now, while keeping Hunter’s Vision activated, she slowly began to make her way to Clover. She had counted fifteen men and lucky for her, Clover was a good distraction. Not that Raven ever wanted her sire to be the distraction in the first place and she saw what she was doing. Feeding. Of all the places and of all the times to be feeding, now was most certainly not one of them. Quieted steps led her to fall directly behind one of the gangsters and as she adjusted her grip, she quickly ran the blade through his throat, so that no sound would escape and slowly the blade would be pulled from it. The woman then caught the falling body in her free hand and dragged it around one of the cement poles. She didn’t need for her position to be compromised just yet.

”Clover, if you can hear me, get it together.” Raven whispered as her eyes focused upon her next target and slowly eased her way out from her current hiding place to duck behind some large wooden boxes. She whispered because she had hoped that Clover would hear her through her vampiric hearing. She could be wrong and Clover could be extremely lost within her bloodlust which would make her job all that much harder, but still doable. Fourteen men were left and Raven was slowly edging her way behind another two of them that had taken up behind boxes on their own. One was reloading while another was shooting in Clover’s direction. Bullets pinged off of metal and just as one had finished reloading and about to take his stance when Raven ran her sword through his neck which surprised the other one. The man’s lips parted to call out, but Raven’s quick hands were upon his head, leaving her sword buried in the other body and snap she broke his neck as she twisted it sharply to one side. It was inevitable that the bodies fell and the guns clattered to the ground making noise, but Raven quickly pulled her katana from the first man’s neck, only to duck behind a cement pole to mask her dark clothed form into the pole’s shadow. Brown eyes focused upon the thermal readings, while two more men began to move to investigate the sounds that they heard. Two down, twelve more to kill, Raven reminded herself just when she adjusted her grip upon her katana once more.

[Clover]

The quiet words jarred her, splitting her attention between the blood on her hands and the sudden introduction of a voice she hadn't heard in far too long. Of course she couldn't forget her childe's voice, even after the months they'd been apart. And a part of her was riddled with regret and shame. Why had she repeatedly chosen Jesse? Look where it had gotten her. She looked down at her hands, soiled with blood and dust from the floor. Still, the blood called to her, leaving her ravenous. The sound of guns hitting the floor finally pulled her out of the haze. Clo collected her own gun from the floor, checked the bullets, and forced herself to focus on her surroundings rather than the cooling corpse at her feet. Closing her eyes, she wiped the blood off on her dark-grey henley and stopped breathing through her nose, depriving herself of the delicious scent. She steeled herself and peeked around the corner of the wooden boxes. Bullets barely missed her skull, so she waited, then pinpointed the shooter. She fired three times, shooting him in the shoulder, then twice in the chest. When he didn't fall, she knew he was Lionelli. Clo left her cover and called on the shadows to conceal her. She approached him like a tiger on a hunt and the two engaged in blows.

She slammed the butt of her gun against his skull with such force that he felt and heard the man's skull give way. She hit him once more, the man falling to his knees, and finished it by putting a bullet between his eyes. Momentarily distracted, she looked for Raven and saw the woman snap a man's neck. Beaming, she kicked the corpse out of her way and ducked behind a large metal pole. She'd never summoned zombies in the middle of a fight, never thought she could, but she summoned them and they caught one of the human gangsters, immediately breaking bones and biting him. His screams attracted the attention of the other gangsters, so Clo summoned shadows to lower their awareness. She hadn't been in a shootout that she'd almost forgotten how much fun they could be, injuries aside. Speaking of injuries, she picked at the wound on her shoulder, taking a quiet moment to dig the bullet from the wound. She dropped the bullet onto the floor and disappeared, her movements a blur as she appeared before a Lionelli. She kicked the man in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards, then they fought using hand-to-hand combat. Gun tucked away, she focused on her hands and used her razor claws. She'd never used them in a major fight with multiple opponents so it was a lot like testing a new power.

The Lionelli snapped his teeth at her and she reeled back and punched him in the throat, collapsing his windpipe. He wheezed, and while he was distracted, she drove her claws through his chest, shredding his insides. She pulled her hand back and flicked the blood off her hand, the blood still dripping off her claws.

"Aren't you going to welcome me back?" Clover teased Raven, knowing very well that Raven could hear her, even over the noise of the fighting. One female gangster -- Lionelli or not, Clo couldn't quite tell -- ran toward Raven, so Clo shot two bullets, both blowing out the side of the woman's head. "Doesn't this seem a little familiar?" Clo referenced the scene they'd encountered during the night of Raven's turning.

They hadn't had enough time together, and Clover knew it, but the road before her was full of new opportunities. Less than an hour ago, she had felt lost, clinging to bills to ground herself, and serendipity had struck, if not for both of them, then herself. The thirst was like a burn, an ache, but she continued fighting, reloading, firing, ignoring the constant urge to stop and feed. And maybe that was a new discovery, the urge to appear strong, even if she felt weak. She didn't think she'd ever rid herself of her insatiable thirst, but to have some control over it, even if only temporarily, made her strong. Maybe it really wasn't just an appearance after all.

Six down. Six remaining.

[Raven Talius]

Raven listened to the footsteps as they echoed with each hurried move that they made; she heard the ringing of bullets that missed their target and the call outs of the men that were busy and focused upon Clover. The vampire could hear the creak in their leather boots, could hear their breath which each inhale and exhale. Although these ones were Lionelli and so therefore vampires, it thrilled and excited her with the thought of snuffing the life out of them. However, for now her sire was in danger and she wasn’t about to relish the thoughts and feelings when it came to killing these men. There were still twelve more to go and she could relax when she had the last one in her grasp. The hunt had well and truly begun and this one was one hundred percent in for it. Hunting was her game and killing was what she was known for, at least known by people who knew her. The law knew nothing about it, not yet anyway and she liked it that way. Then if they knew about it, it would simply be a case of whether they could prove it.

Bringing her attention back to the fight, a brow perked upwards as Clover spoke and she slipped around the pole only to come around behind the two vampires that were investigating the two dead bodies at their feet. Her left hand reached up and unsheathed the second katana upon her back just as she stepped forward to bring her right katana up and bring it around to slice off one of the Lionelli’s head. Her body dropped then, when her second opponent brought his weapon around to fire a burst of bullets which missed her by a hair. Bringing both weapons up, she used one katana to slice off the hand that held the gun and the other to sink into the man’s chest, only to bury it into the man’s heart. Raven heard a body drop behind her and glanced up to note the female that Clover had killed before straightening her form and watched the man disintegrate into ash around her katana. Well at least she didn’t have to pull her blade free, that saved her energy. The woman thought to herself while flicking her blade free of the pile.

Now the vampire ashes made sense. It was a trap for the Lionelli vampires. Ever since coming out of the woods, even the criminal gangs had their own humans vs vampires crap. It irked the vampire and she couldn’t wait to unite the underground criminals. ”I honestly didn’t expect to see you again. You teamed up with Jesse, believed his crap and then left.” Indeed, Raven held somewhat of a grudge, but whether she wanted to admit it or not, she would still give her life to save Clover. Making her way around the wooden boxes, her woman noted how many were left. Four, there were four left and one of them had taken to leaping over the wooden boxes. Booted feet stepped out of the shadows of the boxes so then the Lionelli vampire could clearly see her from his positioning and he switched tactics leaping over more boxes towards her instead of Clover.

”So where is the scumbag? Should I expect him to come wagging more fingers at me because I’m not his good little servant?” Brown hues followed her target and watched patiently as the man crossed more ground. Drawing upon her anima once more, she commanded the shadows within the factory to stir, but only the shadows of the boxes that the man leaped towards came to life, striking the man mid air through his leg. A cry of anguish parted his lips while Raven’s form flowed forward as his body dropped down between the boxes and finished him off by slicing her blade through his neck essentially decapitating him. What a shame, she thought to herself as she turned her attention to the last three remaining. Who she could tell by their thermals, were hanging back due to their numbers dropping rapidly.

[Clover]

Raven's first words stung a lot more than the bullets. They were true, of course, and she knew it and accepted it. She deserved the attitude from her childe, a culmination of emotions she couldn't verbalize, let alone acknowledge, the way things had ended between them, and her own venture to New York. Her temper flared to life and she drove a clawed hand right through a Lionelli's chest, claws emerging from the man's back. She ripped her hand out of the man's body and put three bullets in the man's head, the first for certainty, the second for the anger coursing through her veins, and the third for guilt and shame. She'd chosen Jesse over almost everyone, and the only things she had left were the memories playing on repeat, the ring she refused to remove from her finger, and her own inability to sever the ties still binding her to him. Some part of her would never accept that what they had between them had come to end, because there hadn't been a clean break. She'd left and everything hung in the air, everything that left her with hope. The worst part of it all was the fact that she couldn't regret loving him, still loving him. But she could regret building a whole world just for him, when she had friends and blood she'd left behind, as if they were nothing but trash. She would regret that until she finally slipped away. Nothing would ever heal that festering wound.

Scumbag. Brows furrowed, Clo paused in her fighting and barely missed a decapitating blow. She deflected the next blow with her gun. Stomping on the human's foot, she caught the man off guard. Elbowing him in the gut, she threw him over her shoulder. Hitting the floor knocked the air out of him, so she planted her boot on his chest, putting enough pressure on it to break his sternum, then shot him in the head. There were three more remaining. She'd counted them. But she didn't move to finish them off. Hand tightening around the grip of her gun, Clover closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and decided to be as honest as possible.

"I don't know if he's ever coming back or not. He fucked off to New York and I'm here." Clo opened her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. She raised her clawed hand to her lips to taste the blood, but she smelled vampire blood there and quickly changed her mind. Her eyes focused on the blood-covered ring on her left hand and she scoffed at herself before wiping her hand off on the left thigh of her jeans. "I'm not going to defend him. He's living his life and I'm living mine. I," Clover began, growling as a bullet grazed her right shoulder, "I owe you an apology for not standing with you and choosing you over." Clover got cut off again and emptied the rest of her clip into one of the three surviving gangsters, ending the gunfire on herself. "I should have fought for you; I should have gone after you."

Clo didn't know what to say, not when she'd let her own childer down, not when she still didn't know what had happened with Kat. She'd had no way of finding them, and she knew luck had punched her in the face by giving her Raven. She would apologize endlessly if it meant building bridges she'd burnt to the ground. Being a better person meant being a bigger person. Clo licked her lips, savoring the aftertaste of blood on her lips and tongue. She craved more, more, more, but she settled for that taste. Some part of her whispered that she wasn't good enough for him to stay with her, so what made her think anyone else would want her. Insecurities she thought she'd left in the shadow realm still haunted her. She wanted to explain that chasing love left her lonely. She'd been burned twice. And while she played a part in the blank space between them, Jesse wasn't innocent. And if he came back, if he just came back -- Clover tucked her gun away and glared at the ground.

"I guess I'm asking for another chance."

[Raven Talius]

Lionelli, normally they had stronger ones present but these ones, these ones were weak and a frown creased her forehead for a moment as she let the last three men decide what they wanted to do. These ones smelled human, so she could listen to them from a mile away and then polish them off in a jiffy. Not to mention that their thermals kept them in her sights. The woman approached one of the wooden boxes and gloved hands pried one open as she listened to Clover talk. Brown eyes peered into the box the moment she slid the top completely off. All that was in it was sacks of sand and a hum of disappointment rumbled along her throat in thought. Maybe the humans tried to sell the Lionelli something as a front to lure them. Footsteps crossed over to another wooden box and she pried it open just as one of the last humans, rounded the corner firing. One of the bullets actually managed to hit her in the shoulder and pain flashed around the bullet as it pierced flesh, but it wasn’t really painful, more like a bee sting. The man however would regret such an action, as she used her vampiric strength, Raven flashed forwards only to decapitate her would be killer. Only two left, she thought to herself as she sheathed both her weapons and returned to the box she’d just pried open. Guns. A deal gone wrong. Picking up the weapon she looked over it and nodded her head in thought. Crap quality but still good to pawn off, Raven thought as she walked back over to the dead man to pat him down looking for extra clips. Upon finding them, she loaded the now stolen weapon.

”Honestly Clover? I’m not looking for an apology. I’d still jump in front of a killing blow for you any day and that’s just the way it is.” Raven said as she moved slightly to the right and aimed down the sights at one of the thermals that were moving slowly while trying to mask their footsteps that were trying to circle around behind Clover. The man paused behind one of the boxes and hesitated, but the huntress waited. Just one more… He jumped forwards, his weapon aimed, but Raven’s finger squeezed the trigger first and the bullet buried itself into the man’s left eye socket. The vampire was aiming for between his eyes, but the man still crumpled so she called that a win. ”Well now this jacket is ruined, I’m going to have to get a new one before returning back here later.” She grumbled as she hooked the strap of the weapon over her good shoulder and moved towards her sire.

”I stopped caring a while ago. I stopped caring about the Ffordes and whatever else that would happen to them, because I’m just a different kind of person. I’m used to fighting my battles on my own; so I don’t hate or despise you at all. Sure I was disappointed and had my nose out of whack, but seeing you again, alive, it takes a weight off of my shoulders.” Booted steps finally came to a halt in front of Clover as she let go of the Hunter’s Vision. There were no more people lingering in the factory, not yet anyway, not till the cops came. For now though her brown eyes lingered on her sire’s form and there was just something. Something she could feel that the woman before her wasn’t telling her, but that probably wasn’t any of her business. ”I did learn one thing though and that’s to never be sorry for being who you are, something that you should maybe learn as well.” Hands lifted only for her left hand to take off her right glove so then if Clover allowed her to, to swipe a finger over the corner of her sire’s lips. Wiping away the last vestige of blood from her face.

Slowly she lifted that finger to lick the blood from it and she shrugged her shoulders. ”Damn. O negative. It’s not something that I’d stop in the middle of a gun fight to gorge myself on.” Raven smirked at Clover for a second before sliding her glove back onto her hand and began to work the bullet that she took, out of her shoulder. ”We should probably leave here. Someone probably heard the shots and called the cops. Although I must say, their response timing is pretty damn slow if I do say so myself.” Clover had deserved better than Jesse, could see that she was loyal to a man that only took that loyalty for granted and Raven hated to sit back and watch, but there was nothing that she could do to change it. Nothing except let it all unfold at a natural rate. The bullet was a little bit tricky but she pressed upon the flesh surrounding the bullet and slowly forced it out before flicking it away. ”These weapons are pretty crap in quality and don’t even get me started on the sights, but if we flog a few before the cops show up, we could probably still get a bit of money for our troubles.” What could she say? She was an opportunist at heart.

[Clover]

Her apology hadn't been a standard apology, and she didn't think she was capable of choking out the proper words. Was she truly apologetic? Yes. But she still had a stubborn streak, and apologizing properly felt a lot like surrendering, exposing a weakness she couldn't afford to flaunt, because she knew exactly what it felt like to be burned. She didn't think Raven was that way, as her childe had been there for her, available to her, even if she hadn't reached out, even if she'd failed in her role as sire. She hadn't asked for forgiveness, and yet she had, her last words on repeat. Another chance. Another opportunity. Another risk. Raven had surprised her, and maybe that was a problem too. They didn't know one another well enough, or she would have known how easy it was to try again. Undeserving as she was, Clo managed a partial smile, one corner of her lips lifted in her attempt. Maybe things weren't perfect, weren't ideal, but she had her childe back, and asking for more was too selfish.

"Lucky for you I'm sure this will be all the excitement I'll see for a long time," Clo shrugged, taking a moment to survey their surroundings. She thought about just leaving the mess, letting cops assume the fight had been between Lionelli and human gangsters, but she'd noticed cops and soldiers hanging around the slums, as if they were in with the gangsters. "I think the fact that you were disappointed hurts a lot more than your anger."

She could have handled anger -- hell, she was angry about Jesse not returning -- so she wasn't sure about disappointment. Was she also disappointed? Were they both disappointed then? Her husband had fucked off, but he was her sire too. Maybe she understood a little more about Raven's feelings than she originally thought. "Yeah, I'm alive," Clo agreed, not mentioning the time she spent wandering the shadow realm, searching for clarity and finding exactly what she needed. Maybe it was hope; maybe it was determination. Maybe it was both. "I think it'll take me a little longer to stop hating myself, but the good news is I have plenty of time. Hopefully I won't need time in the shadow realm to grasp it. It's boring there."

It was supposed to be a joke, so she chuckled, an afterthought, a knee-jerk reaction meant to communicate that it was a joke. Raven swiped a finger over her lips, so she found her lips twitching for a smile, figuring that yes, they were alright. The fact that Raven knew the blood type had her laughing, partly because she enjoyed O blood types and partly because Raven didn't need a label on a blood bag to inform her of the blood type. Clo hadn't needed blood in some time, not with the armlet she wore to conserve her blood. Clo took another look around at the bodies, registering Raven's comment about the cops, knowing that they had to leave. She felt a lot like standing there, talking things out, which let her know that she had missed Raven, without a doubt.

"Yeah," Clo sighed, zeroing in on a pile of ashes. She ran a hand over her face, then brushed a few stray strands of hair from her face. "Alright."

Clo eyes the guns on display from one of the boxes, then pursed her lips. She often retrieved guns and firearm parts, her favorite being the gold handguns, so she nodded to the suggestion of liberating a few for themselves. Clo stepped on the chest of a fallen gangster and walked over to the stack of boxes. Hauling one from the stack and dropping it onto the floor at her feet, she pried the remaining portion of the lid off and began examining guns.

"Anything in good condition, let me know. I like gold handguns. They make fantastic, flashy pistols," Clo smiled, looking up to catch Raven's eye.

[Raven Talius]

A roll of her brown eyes was given as Clover spoke about golden weapons and couldn’t help but shake her head as she toed over a dead body. Hands patted down the pockets and found some loose change, of which she pocketed only to continue looting the body for its spare ammunition and weapon. ”I honestly don’t see the appeal of flashy weapons that have a kick back that will knock your socks off. I'll tell you what. Next time that your birthday flashes around, I’ll be sure to try and source you a pair with some semblance of good handling and excellent quality. Mostly because anything we get from here will probably be trash.” Raven mumbled as she appraised the 9mm handgun that she’d just taken from the dead man. ”A lot of the quality in here, only really confirms what I thought happened here.”

Although the timing was curious and as she looted another dead human, she often found herself glancing over towards Clover, appraising the woman quietly and intently. Clover leaving Jesse was odd and something just wasn’t sitting right with her. If anything, she knew just how much her sire loved the man, even if love had made her blind to the truth. Something happened, she just wasn’t sure what yet. Slinging a couple more rifles over her shoulder, Raven slid the 9mm into the waistband of her leather pants and approached Clover. ”I have a bike that’s about three blocks from here. We should be right to get there. I don’t think…”

Her words died off as she listened intently and still didn’t hear a siren. Although even though she could have used her sight, she didn’t want to over use it. Not when she still had some healing to do. A hunter knew when to use her energy when appropriate and now wasn’t one of them. ”The cops must be busy with other crime in the city, as it doesn’t sound like any cops are coming, so we should be good to get there. Then afterwards, we stash these, we can go for a drink. Unless you know of a fence that we can get to that’s currently available right now. Mine is a… Little indisposed of right now.” Plus it probably wouldn’t be good to bring back this haul to her fence, considering he was of the Lionelli persuasion. Which was why these ones left her a little confused. Who, got the drop on who and how did a few of the Lionelli’s get killed by a bunch of humans; humans of which a vampire can smell and hear?

Besides, if she pawned these off to the wrong people, it’d seriously undermine the criminal network that she was trying to build and she didn’t want to step on too many toes. Not when it all was still in the gestation period anyway. ”Or I can drop you back to wherever you’re living. Still at the Fforde’s headquarters? Or did they all disband after Jesse deserted them?” She asked as she began to make her way towards an exit of some kind. Raven wouldn’t have been surprised if the Ffordes had disbanded, he did leave a gaping hole and abandoned all of his duties as a sire to his childes’. Not that she cared about them; as far as she was concerned it didn’t apply to her and if they died several times, due to him not committing, then that was on his head. Not hers. She felt no loyalty towards them and they certainly didn’t feel any to her. So the feeling was indeed mutual.

A shrug was given, ”No matter. The point is moot. Just tell me where you want to go and I’ll get us there.”

[Clover]

Clover chuckled at her childe's opinion of her preference for flashy weapons. She liked golden guns, especially when she upgraded the parts and made the guns into one she was proud to carry. Lately, she'd been dependent on one of her favorite pistols, a nice, balanced weapon she called Matriarch. She'd constructed the gun years ago and it was still in great condition, thanks to expert care. She hadn't had much use for it in New York, especially when fear of the coronavirus spread like wildfire. She didn't need to kill people who were doomed to die. Though she'd never admit it to anyone, she'd cared for an elderly woman living nearby, mostly because she kept killing off the strays the woman fed. Humans were fragile, and she'd come to appreciate that a little more over the months she'd spent in the state.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure," she said, teasing the woman. She didn't find any golden guns in the boxes, so she moved on to rapid-fire guns. "Yeah, this is mostly trash." Clo sighed and collected one rifle amongst the guns, then she got to her feet. She wasn't one to use rifles, but she'd been toying with the idea of playing sniper with some soldiers.

As Raven went around looting, Clo went to inspect some of the Lionelli that hadn't turned to ash, their bodies left behind like hollow shells. Clo bent down and prodded a man's cheek, feeling the give beneath her finger. The corpse could easily pass as a human corpse, if it weren't for the fact that the man was huge, taller and bulkier than most humans. It was easy to see that he was a killer. More than likely, the man would wake up in the morgue, and it was such a shame the man could come back. His death wound had been several shots to the heart, critical, fatal.

At the mention of cops, Clover closed her eyes and focused on listening for sirens. Like her childe, she didn't hear any, which was odd, considering cops and soldiers were like cockroaches, and someone had turned on the proverbial light. Shouldn't they have returned to the shady factories in the district? Clo got to her feet and slung the rifle over her shoulder. It was a soldier-grade weapon, but she'd eventually tinker and make it even better, because she always strived for perfection, even when her life was anything but perfect. "Yeah, I don't hear any cops either," she mumbled in return, words more for herself than Raven. "We can grab a drink. I'd rather not go home. I'm still at Circle, but I have a place at the Grigori Watchtower, so I go back and forth. It's funny. I got the apartment for alone time and now that's all I have now."

Clo shrugged her shoulders, then motioned to one of the exits. She followed Raven, hanging back to take another scan of the factory. When she heard the soft clicking of her wraith alerting her that there were no survivors, she gave a small nod and the clicking ceased, signaling the creature's departure. Lately, he'd been scoping out the abandoned sewers, likely stalking people again, and she couldn't blame him when she did the same thing. When Clo caught up with Raven, she frowned at the word deserted, but she refused to argue. He'd skipped town and while she couldn't blame him, she could still hate it with everything she had and then some.

"Did you have a bar in mind? I haven't been in a club kind of mood, so I'm hoping it's one of those depressing places with shitty music and great scotch." She hesitated, then considered responding rather than dodging the question, the topic itself. Raven asked and there was no harm in answering. "We're still around. I'm not sure what that means yet. I'm hoping we can pull together and show that we're capable of surviving -- hm, thriving."