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Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 18 Feb 2016, 01:30
by Ambrose Acheron
The webphone next to the Allurist lit up in the darkness as a blade dragged across a whetstone in the darkness of the factory that served at the base of operations for the Acheron Bloodline. Glancing over at the illuminated screen he connects with the signals floating through the air, and draws out the information contained within the incoming message. "911" The elder's brow furrowed and he accessed the web with the same Discipline, searching for an answer as to what the mysterious message meant. It was either a phone number for emergency services, the men in the blue cloth, police, the men with white cloaks, body fixers, doctors, and those who extinguished fires started by those to ignorant to control them themselves... or it meant something important was underway.
Important was relative. Especially when it came to a newly turned fledgling vampire prowling the streets on their own. Usually it meant something had gone wrong. A feeding mishap, someone having seen them testing out the new thrill of powers that seemed vastly potent to their untrained eyes. It could also mean she was in danger, another vampire perhaps had turned their eye upon her, maybe even a necuratist. Tizoc hated mysteries.
To be brutally honest Tizoc hated a great many things. Technological devices being one of them. Into his childe's mind he plunged, the distance between them seeming no greater to his telepathic voice than the reach of his arm.
Rather than simply send his own words though he let the link from mind to mind linger, allowing for a two-way conversation. "Tell me..."
Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 18 Feb 2016, 15:47
by Noemi Michaux
It was beginning to drizzle... well slurry really. Cold and wet, the air seemed both cleaner and thicker against Noemi's skin, pressed as she was against the corner of the apartment building. That THING down the alley was making faint rustling sounds, moving though not much, obviously intent on someone or something.
Noemi slipped her hand down against the handgun resting in her coat, though she wasn't sure it would be of help in this situation, it still gave a moment of calming. Her mind racing through things her sire had taught her, she simply could not comprehend what it was she had seen. Then she felt the tickle of awareness in her thoughts, that touch heralding a presence there other than herself. Her Dauphin...
She really needed to get used to him doing that.
It was... uncomfortable.
The unspoken question unraveled in her thoughts and she squeezed her eyes closed for a split second, girding herself for what must come next... it was rare that the Necromancer felt even twinges of fear, so this was both tantalizing, exquisite, and sadly too deadly to enjoy. The Harbinger new deep in her gut that this thing was not a trifle.
Slowly she eased her head around the corner, thankful for her dark hair and clothes as she acknowledged her Sire's presence and then showed him what she was seeing.
The monster was still looking up at the building, as if waiting the lights to come on and someone home. It was patient though swaying slightly back and forth, which was causing a soft rustle of Noemi didn't know... skin perhaps? It bore further thought later... she wondered if there was a way to get it onto her laboratory tables for dissection...
Silently she slipped back into cover after showing Dauphin what she had contacted him for, thanking Death that she had not strayed far from home so he was relatively close.
It didn't even cross her mind to run, leave, this was Acheron territory, and she was prepared to defend it...
she was also a reasonable and intelligent woman...
prepared to defend it with someone who knew what the holy hell that thing was.
Oh how she wanted it in her clutches... she was already preparing cross cuts with her scalpel in her mind.
Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 20 Feb 2016, 00:20
by Ambrose Acheron
Still into her mind Tizoc spoke, maintaining the mental connection between sire and childe. A Fadebeast. A product of vampires mating. They are dangerous to one so young. I am on my way. Do not engage the creature alone.
Tizoc turned from the whetstone, sheathing the obsidian dagger at his side and pulling his thick parka closed around it. He hated wearing so much but it seemed to be the way of people in the north to bundle up against the cold he barely felt. He drew his tome from the inner pocket and appeared down in the depths of the factory, making his way to the fadeportal closest to Noemi's position.
As he passed by the altar, he set the blade down from his jacket and picked up his rifle and sword, both Acheron made and encased in a pool stick case, to conceal them. Thus armed the elder walks into the fadeportal and vanishes from the factory's lower level, reappearing elsewhere in the city and heading quickly toward where his childe awaits and the fadebeast lurks nearby.
He sees her from a block away, recognizing the posture of the wary Frenchwoman and moves to where she is at. His voice enters her mind. Show me where.
Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 06 Mar 2016, 18:33
by Noemi Michaux
She felt him before she was able to see him. Probably a good thing as her eyes were slitted and trying desperately to comprehend the thing around the corner. Silent as a cat she again slipped back against the brick of the building, and waited for her sire to fully materialize through the curtain of mist and street steam. As he walked closer to her, she noted how easy his strides kept the silence.
From hunting things that hunt you back in the deep jungles, she imagined.
interesting.
His broad shoulders and stocky size should have made his grace something ridiculous, but he moved like a dancer and in no time was beside her. She almost abstractly noted the comfort she gained from him, imagining it to be some combining of their blood... she'd never felt the ilk before, never feeling a bond with anyone. She considered it a weakness. This was a weakness.
She had no choice but to pursue it. She needed him and Death had deemed him fit.
Her inner musings immediately silenced as he brushed against her, she knew better than to allow her thoughts to surface.
and once more she filled her mind with the monster around the bend.
Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 10 Mar 2016, 02:53
by Ambrose Acheron
Pressed against the wall, Tizoc leaned his head to the side and caught sight of the creature with his peripheral vision alone. It was midway down the alley and seemed to be seeking something. Though his curiosity was piqued he knew this was not the time to allow it to own his decisions. The creature, formed by one violation of vampire law was a risk to a second tenet. It needed to be destroyed. The blade he drew from his back glinted in his hand as he knelt and set his rifle down. There would be no need of it this night. Silence was the order of the day. Though the cold kept most of the humans indoors one could not be too careful. Secrecy must be upheld.
The elder cleared his mind and glanced again noting the creature had not moved. His eyes roamed around the streets, making sure they were truly devoid of mortal onlookers and he gave Noemi a single nod before turning, spinning around the corner and running toward a monster. Within five steps and a powerful leap, the vampire, silent in the cold air is airborne, obsidian blade held in both hands pointing downward.
The creature spun, lashing out as he brought the dagger down, the blade hitting it in the neck and the vampire's body flying away from it as it hit by an explosion brings it tearing along the shadow and flesh of the length of it's arm.
Immediately Tizoc is on his feet, teeth bared, fangless though they may be, in a snarl as he circle around, the fadebeast keeping hate filled eyes on him as he does, presenting the creature's back to Noemi.
Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 10 Mar 2016, 18:07
by Noemi Michaux
The thing moved with a speed and fluidity that should have been denied a creature of this size. The Necromancer had slipped back to the opening of the alley as her Sire moved toward the beast. She lowered her head, watching Ambrose drop his rifle and bare his obsidian blade, and wondered quickly if perhaps a machine gun might have been a better choice.
The analytical nature of the Vampiress kicked in as Ambrose kicked off, it was like turning a switch in her brain that had her seeing in variables and numbers... five steps would get him there, jump 3 feet onto back of prey... her gaze glanced to the dropped weapons and she noted almost outside herself that the case he carried his sword in was next to the rifle.
She didn't have time for more than that thought as the Fadebeast spun from its attacker, a wide arc of saliva and rage slathering the wall to her side as it prepared to burst her Sire like a grape.
Raising her hands palm forward, she narrowed her gaze and breathed in deep, centering the magic residing deep in her gut. She groped for it, then found the lightning, and mentally wrapped a fist around it and dragged it up and out..
In the Necromancers eyes, it looked like a black wave of air, a swarm of static pulsing from her fingertips though she was aware it probably wasn't viewable to anyone else... perhaps other Necromancers...
And the magic stabbed straight into the back of the Fadebeast, slowing it and then almost stopping it completely as its undead cells began to lock up and stiffen, muscles stiffening with proteins and enzymes, locked as if a few hours dead... she swore she could even see the bruising from pooling blood form along its back...
She wasn't about to waste the moment with speculations, she'd do that later...
Noemi dived for the pool stick case and slammed it open as she skidded on her knees across the unforgiving pavement, her flesh ripped open and bursting vitae as road rash became a reality. Taking the sword out and tossing it to Ambrose without a second thought, she rolled backward, out of the way toward the corner of the alley and readied herself to pull that bit of Death from herself again if he needed.
It did not even occur to the Necromancer to feel the heavy pull of magic and the cost to her...
She'd feel it in the morning.
Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 12 Mar 2016, 04:35
by Ambrose Acheron
The ancient, weathered hand of the Allurist reached out as he rose from a slump against the alleyway, the hilt of his sword struck his palm and his fingers laced around the handle. Spinning, the vampire drops low over the outreaching arm of the fadebeast and the blade comes up in a vicious thrust, the steel entering a lumpy, misshapen face with a long strand of saliva flowing freely from the corner of the things's maw.
The force behind the impaling blow sends the 70cm blade into, through, and out the back of the creature's head. The fadebeast shuddered and then dropped to one knee, black blood spewing from the wound. Amborse's onyx dagger comes down, embedding in the monsters skull and finally the creature drops fully to the ground. Stepping away from the thing he folds his arms, watching as it begins to smoke as it's breath becomes labored. A low groan emerges from it's fanged mouth and it's tongue lolls out before it begins to flow into shadows, rapidly dispersing into nothing before the two vampire's eyes.
Once the creature is gone the elder reached down and picks up the two weapons and then turns heading back over to where his childe stands. He walks passed her and sheathes his sword, sliding it back into the pool stick case and slinging it over his shoulder as he tucks the dagger into the sheathe at his back.
"Walk with me. Ask me what you will Noemi."
Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 13 Mar 2016, 01:07
by Noemi Michaux
It just... vanished...
Noemi felt her aspirations to study the creature go up in the same wisps of smoke as the corpse did. The Necromancer studied the ground it had been upon just seconds ago, looking for anything left from the melee. Nothing but pitted cobbles and sidewalk coated in oily wetness.
She felt more than saw her Sire press by her, her brows still furrowed with aggravation. As his voice penetrated her thoughts the Necromancer turned and gave a gallic shrug of her shoulders. What could not be changed could not be fixed. Noemi fell into step with the ancient, silent for a time after his invitation, thoughtfully putting in order things she would like clarified. Ambrose was always patient with her, but she was one to abhor wasting time with frivolities.
Finally her soft French accent ended the silence, the question coming as she brushed off the rocks and tar stuck in the bloody mess laying over her already healed knees, then wrapping her jacket closer about her form, pulling her hood up... she knew she had expended a goodly amount of energy with her castings, her complexion would not stand up to scrutiny...but again thankful for the darkness of her hair that helped shadow her face within the cloak jacket, she dismissed the issue as solved.
"Thank you Sire." she simply began. Noemi was of a mind that social niceties were nothing but helpful and culled the ignorant and uneducated from the higher classes. It had become a habit from birth, the trappings of society, and the lesson that doing such gave you time to judge your quarry.
"You mentioned the name of that creature, Fadebeast.." she turned her chin and glanced at the hauty lines of his face before carrying on, "And Fadebeasts were a result of vampiric copulation." she nodded once to herself and slipped her hands into the arms of her jacket, the temperature plummeting again, making her already pale and drained hands far more noticeable. "If this is so, why does anyone perform such things? Why would you risk it? Pardon my bluntness, but the subject itself is blunt, wouldn't you enjoy... more creative things if you had to couple?"
She paused again, their feet in sync against the pavement, her confusion evident in the tone of her voice as her accent deepened and she tried to find the words in English..
"Does not one vampire who couples as humans feel for the monsters they create? Born to be killed? Monstrous upon the world? What of those who say they love the earth? Why would you chance creating a thing that you are forced to kill?" Noemi personally had no worries with death, her path making that obvious, but even as she lacked depth of feeling, finding such things for sentimental fools, she realized many people had such weaknesses.
Noemi looked away from her Sire then, keeping her face shadowed as they walked in silence. The childe had no desire to pollute the air with frivolous words, and kept her counsel until her Sire had given his answer.
The Necromancer was growing more fond of her Sire every night, he was more than a worthy companion, had proven to be thoughtful and lenient with her. He was aware his childe was still upset with recent events, annoyed rather, and of a bit of an angry mind with him... but he had waited for her to come to him, knew to let her ruminate...
these things went a long way toward keeping her at his side. She knew she could do so much worse in the Sire department.
Noemi would stick to animated dead. Childer were a ridiculous non necessity almost 90 percent of the time.
No thank you.
Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 13 Mar 2016, 06:00
by Ambrose Acheron
Glancing to her as she spoke, her questions bringing up his own memories in the coupling department, he slowed he feet's pace to an almost leisurely stroll. Why engage in a physical union with another vampire or a human? The elder knew of the reasons some vampires did so. "I heard tell of a telepath, I can't remember exactly where he was from, I thing either Greece of Italy. He had one of those names there ended in 'io'," he began, trying to remember the name. Some things eluded him. Perhaps it was the same failure suffered by humans when a word was on the tip of their tongue, perhaps it was all the time in the Shadow. It mattered little at the moment. "He would mate with humans intentionally to produce such creatures within the territory of his enemies. The creatures would end up attacking any vampire they came across which usually were those of the enemy coven."
He tried to remember any other stories he had been told.
"The European vampires forbade the act of mating entirely. The rule was not very popular and was beroken frequently. They brought this view with them when they settled this land as they say. When they came and..." He trails off, teeth clicking together audibly. The hatred for what had been done was no longer fresh, but simmered below the surface, a river of seething rage that constantly threatened to bubble to the surface and explode.
He stopped, turned and looked to his childe, studying her features. There were similarities between her and the pale faced murderers who had ended the Aztec way of life and given rise to the Mexica in their stead. There were differences too. The main one was the fact that her blood, no matter it's origin was Acheron. She had been an attentive pupil since the beginning and though he was sure his animosity toward the Europeans affected her, she seemed, as he was, willing to place the blood before origins.
"There are those who are still young who feel that without that expression of love it doesn't feel like love. They risk the conception of such a creature to cling to their mortal ideals of the emotion. Others simply do not know that fadebeasts can be created in such a way. Our tribe, the Tozoztontli forbade the union which produces offspring in humans. It was Eztli's right and his alone to breed such a creature and it was done only when the stillborn or aborted corpse was needed for a religious ritual. He had entertained the thought of doing as the vampire mentioned in the story, but the rest of us balked. He decided to abstain from the plan."
Adjusting the pool stick case on his shoulder, the weight of sword and gun settling easily across his broad back the vampire shrugs before continuing his slow-paced saunter. "As far as gaining release in other ways it has been done by many throughout history. Fadebeasts were much less frequent in my younger years. Some considered them to be a myth. Our line saw the conception of one as an ill-omen back then. A sign of being cursed. There are indeed curses which develop in our kind which can make the conception of a fadebeast almost a guaranteed result during sex. Those vampires who bore this curse were oftentimes hunted and destroyed when found out.
"What the Tozoztontli believed was that Tezcatlipoca, the god of the night time sky, illusions, mirrors, created vampires in his image. When a vampire tries to breed, to mate with a human of another vampire, part of the spirit Tezcatlipoca imbues us with is transferred. Without actually travelling into the Realm of Shadows though, without being given to him, the creature because a gross parody of his work. Instead of a vampire, you end up with a fadebeast. A punishment for defying the will of the gods in attempting to create a childe unnaturally and without the aid of the Smoking Mirror."
Re: Dark Journey and Beginings
Posted: 13 Mar 2016, 13:25
by Noemi Michaux
steam flowed up from a large sidewalk grate as Sire and childe walked the night, billowing Noemi's flowing jacket and then vanishing as the pipes clicked beneath their feet. the pair passed by few humans at this time of night, mostly those that spilled from clubs to make their drunken way home. This was Noemi's preferred time to feed, when senses were dulled with fatigue and less natural things. Again taking time to mull over what Ambrose told her, the silence remained comfortable as he gave her a moment to digest his teachings. he seemed to understand that her mind though whip quick, was methodical and careful to ask questions that would lead to specific answers.
Though the Necromancer was engaged in this conversation, she remained alert to her surroundings, not just the people that littered the streets, but as she grew in power, the shadowed dead that often followed those people unseen. Spirits she had been taught they were called. There was a particularly solid one ahead of them, they would walk by it in a few moments, so the French woman raised her eyes and chin into a masters position and acknowledged the shade silently as they passed. She was sure her Sire was becoming used to what had to look like his child went momentarily insane for a few seconds at random times, and he said nothing as they wandered past this particular disturbance in the land of life.
It was angry.
Noemi noted the place it stayed, its emotions were not like those who were alive, to the Necromancer it was more a physical feeling this knowing the deads frame of mind. Like a blow, or a caress, she was learning what each one meant.
Sternly looking at the silent wailer, green eyes glinted with steel and will, it shrunk back a bit and did not try and make contact as she flicked a small demonstration toward it, showing it she could think of it as food. As it faded back against the building, she once more put her mind to her Sire.
It made sense, the explanation of why the Fadebeasts were as they were, for dead things could not make life so the conception had to be mystical in nature. Noemi was finding the archaic ways were often right when it came to the supernatural, no matter what science had decided was truth.
Not that she didn't utilize said science and procedure...
But sometimes it just could not explain the realms she was now deeply moved into.
"I shall heed your words Sire, should necessity dictate I engage in such activities, for whatever machinations I'm involved in, I shall restrain from such indelicacies." again she paused, she knew that sometimes her cold nature was something that needed time to absorb, though she doubted one as old as he would be shocked by it. It was yet another thing that endeared him to her. As far as she could feel endearment.
Mostly she viewed people as chess pieces and future cadavers.
"I am learning the shadow dwellers, the dead that escape the shade... I feel myself growing, dancing about the Fade as paths open up to me... it feels deep inside me that there are choices I must make in my quest for knowledge. Is it so that even as we are made to paths, other paths may open to us? Might I become... more?"