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In the prime of the war against the Blood Thieves, he could have walked into a building and known the nature of every person within by simply smelling the air. His abilities in that domain had waned somewhat: too much time behind a desk had left him dull. His work managing Groom Industries had, in his mind, become the more pressing concern. The vampire community had too many enemies to kill them one at a time.

Still, it was a good exercise to hunt down the rare straggler. It kept him from completely losing his edge. Moreover, it kept him out in the city... he used to make this patrol nightly, but now he strained to remember the last time he found himself in this part of town: these derelict buildings were the domains of the downtrodden and unscrupulous. When he was a younger vampire, he hunted in these buildings, and even slept in the dirty hallways among his prey. As his wealth grew, he stopped hunting altogether... safer and more expedient to simply buy his blood. Still, it was good to try to reconnect with that primal self and to remember the challenges younger vampires faced. The trappings of wealth, even if he refused most luxuries, might still make him too soft to be of use to the Community.

On winter's nights like this, these desolate buildings filled with the bipedal cows of the city. He had spotted a dozen people coming in in the past half hour: the weather must be worsening. It was odd that he hadn't picked up on the likelihood for bad weather though because he was generally careful to note everything from traffic to sunrise before heading out. Even so, if he focused... he could hear the wind picking up outside... and something else...

It started as a low rumble in the distance and a barely-perceptible tremor in the floor like a truck rolling past. Earthquakes were practically an everyday occurrence in Harper Rock thanks to his kind, but those were just brief tricks designed to make their prey scatter. By contrast this was more sustained... and growing. Perhaps a group effort by several vampires.

As the shaking quickly grew, however, he quickly changed his hypothesis: this was a genuine earthquake. Impossible... Harper Rock wasn't on fault lines! His disbelief quickly switched to more immediate concerns as people all around ran screaming for doorways... children crying... hiding under stray pieces of furniture. If he continued to stand with vacant expression in the center of the room, he would draw unwanted attention. Able to keep his footing only thanks to his enhanced reflexes, he stepped outside just as the already-spotty electricity in the old building began to fail.

It took some effort to push the door open into the wind and peek out. Even in near-whiteout conditions, however, it was apparent that this disaster was widespread: power was flickering all along the street, and the wind carried sounds of screaming and cracking from great distances. As he held the door, despite the protestations of several humans behind him, others were ducking in out of the chaos.

Mentally, he tried connecting to his phone, and immediately realized that the phone services were jammed up. He was isolated. There were dozens of things he needed to know, and he had no way to learn any of them. Letting the last figures duck in past him, he allowed the wind to slam the door closed and turned to face the still shaking room.

There were a dozen more people in here now than previously... all terrified for their lives. Whereas the premise of a week in the Shadow Realm did not move Wendigo, the threat of all of these human eyes potentially catching the slightest Masquerade violation did. Of course, given the impossible nature of the situation, and no mundane explanations worth consideration, his personal violations may become a drop in a larger bucket.

And none of that would even matter if the ground didn't stop shaking, because this decrepit old building wasn't going to last much longer.

There was a strange monotony to the grim horror of the shadow realm. The barren, silent, windswept wasteland was lonely and so very strange, but nothing had attacked. Nothing had jumped out at her despite the ever present sense of impending doom. It was disconcerting, yes, but after a few hours - or was it days? - left to rot in the darkness, the edge had worn off.

Rose had managed to keep herself together, only to have Szabina's anxious, self-loathing persona desperately trying to scrape and claw her way to the surface. What worried her the most was the incessant whining - she just wished Szabina would shut up and let her think. What the silly nun even do if she managed to push herself to the forefront, Rose had no idea. This wasn't the heaven God had promised her, nor was it the hell with which she'd been threatened. It was something in between, yet still not quite purgatory. That thought alone would probably drive the nun mad. More mad than she already was... Scary.

Every moment wandering through the grey bore of the realm was mostly the same as the last. The scenery didn't change... or did it? Out of the corner of what passed for an eye, Rose spotted a slice of color. A dismal, brownish sort of color, but the contrast stood out against so much gray scale. Like a moth to a flame, she was drawn to the tear between the realms. In theory, she knew how this death business worked, but she couldn't resist trying to push her way through the window. The attempt failed, but that didn't deter her. This was a window to the outside world, and so she sat there. Watching.

Nothing much happened for a long time - day, night... some snow. People... All very mundane, but it was the best TV show around. Boring until the world went to shambles. Safe in the recessed of the shadow realm, she watched pavement fracture, buildings collapse and wires snap as the earth heaved. Anyone caught outside was sent flying in one direction or another; it wasn't those that concerned her, however. It was those that were still caught inside.

"Oh my god," she whispered, voice muted by the realm. From her prison, she could do nothing but watch people scatter, attempting to flee the storm like ants before a boot. About as effectively, too. If only she could tilt her window into the world and see more of the devastation. From what she could see, people were flooding into one of the buildings that seemed to have survived the initial chaos - an old, abandoned home, as it were. What she wouldn't give to be inside, watching what was going on.

Maybe the old building had a security camera... Maybe someone still had a working phone.

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

Wendigo: His back to the door, Wendigo surveyed the crowd. He considered trying to put on a terrified face to match theirs, but knew that the result would be inadequate. At least it was a human face: he never went out wearing his old face anymore. Suddenly conscious of the firearm in his hand, he carefully slipped it into a hole in the drywall. Leaving it for someone to find wasn't an option, so he slid to the floor to sit down in front of it.

A girl broke for the door. He didn't immediately recognize her as a vampire in the chaos: all of his senses were overwhelmed by the crowds, the noise, and the unending tremors. She reached the door and paused, as if hesitating, but he didn't look up to see why. It would be best, under the circumstances, if two people weren't seen calmly conversing amidst the disaster. Instead, he waited to see what she would do next.

Aliyah: The longer she stared at her hand, the faster the flickering of her hand became. Not only that, but it began to expand up her arm. If she didn't think fast, there would no hiding the situation from the frantic eyes of the people trapped within the same four walls. Some could chalk it up to their imagination, perhaps...but not all. That was the problem.

It took only a moment to register the male sitting down beside the door, his focus elsewhere. She frowned down at his hunched form, holding her arm close to her chest so that it might go unnoticed. His presence only increased the potential for a Breach. The blonde needed him to move, or at least focus his attention in the depths of the room, rather than on her. Easy enough, right?

Wendigo: She stood there, just on the edge of his peripheral vision. Was she waiting for something? If she dove out into the storm, the humans would be shocked, but their surprise would quickly fade and their minds return to self-preservation. Risking drawing attention to himself, he looked over.

The woman appeared to be... blinking? He had never encountered such a thing, but it was clearly supernatural. A power he had not encountered? Her posture told him otherwise: it was something happening to her, and not something she was doing herself. Mentally, he assessed his own powers: all of them untested against blinking. Catching himself, he turned back to consider the other humans. No immediate concern. Taking his chances, he projected his voice into the other vampire's head. "Problem?" he asked.

Aliyah: Aliyah closed her eyes against the onslaught of her anxiety, trying with all her mental capacity to calm herself down. If she didn't, there would no other options than to just let it happen. And calming herself down was turning into a bust of a plan.

The sudden voice in her head made her freeze, giving her a moment's time to catch onto the slightest of movement of the male by the door. Her focus zeroed in on him, positive that he was a fellow vampire. He lacked the scent the humans gave off, her overly sensitive nose picking up on his subtle difference in a room permeated with human fear. "Don't do that..." she whispered, low enough that only he would be capable of hearing her.

Wendigo: "Fair enough," he replied quietly. His human voice was not at all like the vampire voice he projected, but it was still devoid of emotion. He pauses. He had insufficient data. "What is happening?" he asked.

Aliyah: His monotone of a voice irked her, in a sense. While those around them paniced and screamed, their voices naturally lifted. One could hear their terror. She liked that about verbal communication. And with him, that whole system of judgement was thrown completely off. "I...don't know..." she finally offered, stumbling over her words. It was harder to admit than she originally thought.

"This has happened before...when I get upset or anxious..." she continued, letting her gaze shift around the room to be sure that no others were listening in on their conversation, and that her arm had yet to draw attention. "I can't make it stop,"

Wendigo: He hummed quietly: even the noise was mechanical. There were so many faults with vampires: quirks, like human disorders, and not enough of a sample size to know anything for certain. All he knew was that she was anxious, and that sort of anxiety was likely to worsen as the situation did. He tried to subtly raise two fingers to his temple. "Mind if I look?" he asked. Normally, he might not ask for permission to appraise another vampire... but if she was capable of knowing and he didn't ask, it would only panic her more.

Aliyah: Had they not been surrounded by others, she might have taken a step back in shock to his request. In an incredible show of self-control, she reigns the knee-jerk reaction in and instead only blinked. "Look...?" she whispered in reply, canting her head much like a feline did when it came across something curious. "Will you be able to tell me what is going on..?" It was a vain hope, but one she clung to. He was the only one to even offer help in the first place. He was also the only one to ever witness it. "Just do it..."

Wendigo: He rarely flexed his proverbial Telepathic muscles, and so he seldom understood everything he saw. A young d'Artois... they always cropped up when there was trouble. And yet already sired. Unusual memories. And as she flickered, he was somehow losing the connection. It wasn't just an illusory trick: she was actually disappearing. Going where, he didn't know. Nowhere specific, for certain. Powers... what powers did she have... a shadow? "Can you fade away?" he asked. "Slip out if I create a distraction?"

Aliyah: She considered the powers that she had grasped well enough to use, none of them able to do much good in a situation like this. Pi had told her once that she would be able to hide within the shadows, someday, but that day had yet to come. She had barely mastered breaking into private lairs or apartments, yet. "No..." she squeaked, frowning down at the male. "Any other ideas?"

Wendigo: "Several..." he said. "None good." The quirk was set off by anxiety, and he was the last person to provide any sort of calm or reassurance. What was he supposed to say? 'Breathe?' To a vampire? How a vampire could even experience anxiety without a heart or hormones was beyond him... much less how to calm them down. He never bothered exploring supernatural abilities to calm... only to harm and cause fear. He mentally counted the number of knockout bombs he had in his pockets... too few.

"If you go... where do you go?" he asked. In part, he was simply curious... but he was also entertaining the idea of killing any potential witnesses. No one would remember a girl vanishing into thin air over a maniac with a gun in a natural disaster situation.

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

Aliyah: Nothing. He had absolutely nothing. As a lifeboat that had come to rescue, it was quickly starting to sink. Now, she was stuck in an ocean of sharks, and she had a gushing, bloody wound. In a matter of minutes, there would be a feast. "Again...I don't know. It has never been this bad before," she huffed, glancing down at the spreading. Now a good portion of her left side upper torso was fading from view. "What do I do?!" she asked him in desperation, knowing he had as little clue about this as she did.

"We need to do something...and we need to do it, now." It wasn't a demand of him, as much as a means to save them both. They could easily take the group assembled in the area, between the two of them. But, she couldn't even use her left side, leaving her underhanded. The longer they waste time, the better chance there was at being noticed.

Wendigo: Searching her memories, he saw Pi there, using Inspiration. Did the Killer use it for this purpose? It wasn't a power he was that familiar with but still... "Calm," he said, raising his hand. [/b]"Focus."[/b] He felt the anima channeled through him, and wondered if it did any good. He was starting to draw attention. This situation was escalating. More attention was making the situation worse, and the potential for a major breach was increasing. [color=#80000]"Could push you outside,"[/color] he offered. [b["Fake an attack. No one will follow."[/b]

Aliyah: Her blue gaze shifted over the room, taking in the various faces that were now positioned in their direction. Their lack of overall panic was drawing attention, "But won't that cause problems once this is all over? They will know an attack happened, could report it?" she asked, unsure how that would turn out in the end. It was possible that the authorities would hardly care due to the devastation to the city as a whole.

In one swift motion, she switched sides so that her left side was hidden by the right. "I think I'm gonna go out..." she frowned, meaning 'blink' out. And that would leave quite the mess for him to handle. That only added a new feeling to her array. Guilt.

Wendigo: Action was better than inaction. People would come to their own conclusions about what happened here. In a city full of insanity, one fight probably wouldn't amount to much. [color=#80000]"Well then..."[/color] he whispered. [color=#80000]"STOP LOOKING AT ME!"[/color] He was able to increase the volume, but not the anger, in his voice. To compensate, he yanked the gun from the wall and fired once into an unoccupied space. Most would turn their heads away in fear. Wheeling on her, he kicked the door open and reached to push her out the doorway.

Aliyah: There was no warning before he screamed, causing her to jump. Obviously there was to be more planning on their part, but maybe that was better. "I...I wasn't!" she stammered, taking a few steps closer to the door. The gun firing only served to quiet the whole group, a new threat thrust in their faces. Her eyes went wide as she spotted the devastation outside, but she knew she would be gone from reality long before there was time for it to really affect her.

Wendigo: Outside, it was virtually impossible to see anything. Perfect. Following her out, he spun to face the humans inside. Some were looking at him timidly, but most were simply shielding themselves or their children. It was a good thing he was wearing another face, or this might be problematic later. It took strength to slam the door closed against the wind. Provided the surprising privacy of the empty street in contrast with the derelict house, he turned on his new associate. "Safety," he said, his voice virtually disappearing into the storm.

Aliyah: The wind whipped around them wildly, her hair blocking any possible view she might have had. His voice reached her like a faint whisper and she struggled to keep upright. "Thank you!" she called out, as he had helped her in a situation she could not have controlled on her own. Her entire body was nearly engulfed with faded flickering. At any moment, it was possible that she would blink out for good. With no idea how it worked, a sudden fear gripped her. What if she never reappeared? This man would be the last one she ever saw. "Who are you?" she asked, desperate for even that small piece of information, something to hold on to.

Wendigo: She was blinking now. Knowing what he knew about her powers, he knew it was not a voluntary thing. What manner of supernatural flaw was this? What could pull at someone, and take them beyond the range of telepathic abilities that could reach into the Shadow Realm itself? It was fascinating to behold. Distracting to the point where he momentarily forgot to answer the question. He took another step forward. "It's Wendigo," he replied over the howling of the unnatural storm. He drew a business card from his wallet -- a motion he'd made so many times that it didn't matter if he couldn't see his own hands -- and offered it to her.

Aliyah: There was a moment's hesitation where she worried for her ability to even grasp the card he held out to her. Figuring that her right hand was a better shot than her left would be, she sighed in relief when the card stayed firmly in her hold. "I'm Aliyah," she nodded, sure that he couldn't see the motion with the lack of visibility. With a final glance down at her body, she began to laugh. It was a miserable sound, the kind of laugh a person devoid of hope might have. She reminded herself those gaudy Christmas lights, the ones that blinked on and off to a certain timer. Eventually they always went out. And a moment later, she did. Oddly, she could feel it; it was a shift in reality that physically tugged at her, placing her in a new time and place, dark and washed out. And she was alone.

Wendigo: Wendigo stood alone in the street, the earth and sky still furious around him. Perhaps this was the end of the world: there was no telling how far this had gone. It could be global. It could be that "Aliyah" would come back to an abandoned world... and that every one of them would end up in the Shadow Realm. He looked around: better to go into that Darkness by choice with a full tank of blood. Summoning up the last of his anima, he stepped out of the world and into the Shadow Realm.