Path of the Vampire forum

One who curses and runs away has lost a debate. This was what Varja believed, yet it made her sad every time. That people would rather start to become rude, even violent or give up the conversation altogether than to rethink their own point. After all, if someone was not able to counter an argument, that should incline them to think about whether the argument might be correct. Because if nobody was ready to change their opinion, the whole debate was meaningless either way.

She agreed with what was said afterwards though. The law should be just to everyone, regardless of differences. After all, the law was the social contract everyone abided by to create a functioning society. Once the law was unjust to some, they would automatically get shunned by society after a while. People would simply accept things as they were, since they knew nothing else. There was much to be said about this topic as well, but for now, she kept quiet. Changing the topic too often would stray them from the original intent of the debate. For the moment, she waited for any new developments to the debate.

The other one with the microphone didn't speak. After-all there wasn't much left for her to say it seemed, if she didn't go to anything else. Eventually someone would go to retrieve the Microphone and take it back. Now without anyone else to talk to with his own microphone, Segreti was back on the stage, thoughtfully pacing. Shaking his head, "The world can be cruel. We don't need to make it anymore cruel then it needs to be. And doing this to-"

It would seem that Zodiac's perception of the crowd would be quite accurate. As in moments guns began to be pulled out, one man somehow even managed to sneak in a sword in their long coat, to be fair it was a very large man and a relatively small sword. Waving the weapons about threatening people, "We're just here for the bloodsucking swine and the fraud on the stage, give us those you know and everything's gonna be ok!" One of them shouted.

Segreti looked at them with a look of many mixed emotions. Fear, disappointment, anger, they were causing him problems. "You're endangering the crowd, proving another point about the people who are so against vampires. You're rabid." he warned.

The man didn't seem to care, "Says you, the man standing up for creatures that feed on us. We're just defending ourselves from a disease.", from the markings on his now extended hand, and his neck as his collar was pulled down, it was obvious he was a paladin. Segreti stepped towards him, and the paladin held out his pistol, his face smiling slightly.

"You're gonna come with us." His voice could barely be heard over the crowd of people freaking out and demands of the paladins or hunters, and the security that they did have trying to help curb the situation. Segreti didn't respond.

He stood still, waiting to see what was going to happen. Trying to retain a sign of calm and control. If he was too rushed, he could get killed. If he was too slow to act, someone else could. But if he waited for a moment, acting passively rather than not acting at all, perhaps he could get a better hold on the situation. He wasn't trained to fight paladins, or anyone really. He did have powers but they weren't best used here. He was a businessman, and in a way a researcher. He was not a fighter. But he was very good at keeping his cool around them.

The sudden escalation of the situation took Varja by surprise. She had expected for the situation to get worse over the course of the discussion, but she never thought people might actually attack anyone. At first, Varja simply stood there, hesitant to leave, yet hesitant to act. She knew she would not be able to help the speaker on stage, even if she tried. These people were armed and probably knew how to fight. Yet still, she couldn't just leave while someone was in danger.

Then came the earthquake. It almost knocked her off her feet, she was just barely able to grab a chair and keep her balance. This was too much of a coincidence to be a natural earthquake. Yet the man on stage had said he was a sorcerer, so it might be his doing. For all she knew about sorcerers, which she had to admit was basically nothing, they might be able to cause earthquakes. Whatever the case, with armed people and someone capable of creating earthquakes, she would not be able to do anything at all when staying here.

She headed for the exit. On her way she heard something in passing. A person saying something directed at a vampire.

Turning around, she saw one person blocking the way of another, smaller person. Several questions raced through her mind at once. Should she help? Did that person need help? Was she even able to help? She at least had to try.

With a few quick steps, she was behind the woman with the cleaver and kicked her in the back of the knee. It didn't go quite as planned, Varja had hoped the woman would fall. But at least the woman staggered to keep her balance for a second. Hopefully that would be enough for the other person to run or fight.

Segreti was only going to get so far with these people. It was hard to actually negotiate someone of this level of radical. They were resistant to being swayed as much as they were resistant to reason. Like a zombie almost. But at least zombies were too weak to pose a threat to him, these people were walking around with weapons and powers. They were truly fascinating, but they were also a great deal of trouble.

However, instead of his discussion with the man continuing, he head a voice, into his head. One that others couldn't. Warning him to hold onto something. He grabbed hold of the podium pressing it against the ground. In a moment the entire ground seemed to shake causing the paladin to fall off his feet that weren't expecting the sudden shift. Segreti himself barely held tight and found himself putting himself on the ground just because the podium wasn't going to stay steady since it was only a temporary one.

An earthquake? If it was it wasn't a natural one. He had to stop himself from smiling for more than a second as he understood the situation. Either the person who had warned him, or someone they knew, had just somehow created or simulated an earthquake. In spite of all the chaos that was occurring he had to be really impressed. He hadn't run into that kind of power before and it was truly fascinating that it could even exist. If only he knew who it was that did it.

However such thoughts were not to be used here, people were panicking, but they were leaving. This attempt at discussion might have been a failure. But he was learning. He did notice that one of the people was stopped as they tried to run out, but was stopped by a woman with a cleaver. Who was given a kick in the back of a knee by yet another woman making her stumble. His attention was diverted however as the man who had been trying to get him off the stage started trying to collect himself, "Oh, guess it's time for me to scram.". Unfortunately, the paladin was between him and the door. "Ah screw you." he muttered before leaping off the stage and landing in front of the man. He had no supernatural combat skills, but he could do a few things that were useful, and one of those, was what he did next. It took a good bit of anima, but he had plenty of that.

There was a roaring sound as he cast Sirocco blast on the man. A focused blast of heat that burned him causing the paladin to cry out in pain dropping the gun and giving Segreti another chance to race out the door with the rest of the crowd, hoping that whoever had initiated the earthquake would make it out with them. There was only so much he could do, and he couldn't try that tactic on every paladin here. It certainly didn't even incapacitate the guy he did use it on, he was probably still very much kicking. Just in a lot more pain.

After having seen the other woman fight, Varja had the feeling her help had not actually been needed. But better helping when not necessary, than not helping when necessary.

With this situation settled, and the other woman pointing to the exit and heading for it, Varja hurried to do so as well. If she stayed any longer, she would only get herself and maybe others in danger. Rushing out, she followed the flow of people to the exit, determined to stay hidden among the group until she got a bit further away from the building. After all, she had attacked one of those people and openly spoken for the rights of vampires. They might have an eye out for her now.

Segreti managed to make it out of the building with the rest of the crowd, though he didn't get the time to take another look back at the people who were struggling behind him. As a result, he also missed Zodiac running for the restroom rather than the exit. She would certainly find no cameras in there, for one Segreti had not yet installed many as he'd wanted already in the main area. And even if he had enough, there was far too high of a risk reward for placing them in the restrooms. Not too mention the outright preposterousness of such an action.
After he made his way outside he rushed to the side of the crowd, making sure he had one of his people making a call to the police while he watched everyone rushing out, though he kept to himself while doing so, trying to keep an eye out on things without drawing too much attention to himself.
Although he wasn't looking specifically for her he did notice Varja make it out, recognizing she was one of the ones in the scuffle inside and the one granted the microphone for awhile, before things got hairy. It kind of made him wonder why they'd singled out that one woman, and why this one had chosen to intervene. Well, on Varja's part it was probably just good will. But the singling out of the other was what made him curious. He'd have to remember that.
Varja seemed to be doing fine, making he way outside of most of them. Now what about him? What should he do? He couldn't stay here he was one of the ones most recognized. And he was pretty sure he could see eyes darting towards him as more people rushed out. But that didn't mean his interests for today were lost. He might not be able to do much about this crowd, but he wondered about the woman who had chosen to speak. He tried to keep an eye on Varja as she ran off with the rest, hoping he could track around later. For now though, he went in the other direction, drawing the attention of the paladins, "Have a good day." he taunted and then immediately began to run, undoubtedly they came after him. Which was what he wanted. Because as they were doing so he lead them behind a building into an alley where they thought they'd trapped him, and then proceeded to leap all the way over the building. One of those conveniences of being a sorcerer.

Of course from there he made sure to take care where he headed, even jumping over another building at one point, until he finally began to loop all the way around. Somewhat running his way, just because he wanted to catch up to see if he could make it in time to see the other speaker. It might seem like a lot of effort but Segreti built his life around what he was interested in, the fact he was able to make his businesses work as a side-effect was a bonus. That, and figuring out how to use anima to let him have far more energy than a normal human could. Along with other advantages. He had to admit, being a sorcerer was a bit of a big bonus.

Once outside the building, Varja made sure to stick to the crowd. This was one of the moments where being short was helpful for once. Maybe it would help her not to be seen by the people who had attacked the event. After all, she did kick one of them, who would most likely not be happy about that.

For now, getting some distance between herself and the building seemed like a good idea. On the other hand, she was interested in finding the woman from earlier again. If what she heard was right, that woman was a vampire. Or at least the people who attacked them thought she was one. Either way, Varja wanted to talk to her.

Then she saw the man who had organised the discussion, Segreti. He seemed to be luring the attackers away from the crowd. She thought it was impressive how he chose to take all the danger on himself to keep the crowd safe. He was another person she was interested in talking to at some point. He seemed to be an interesting person and it seemed like sorcerers were able to do some remarkable things. But since she knew his name, she was more likely to find him again at a later point than the woman from earlier.

With the immediate danger gone for the time being, Varja stayed with the crowd which had gathered a bit along the street and kept an eye out for the woman from earlier.