Koln is attempting to pick open the lockbox, all the while muttering to himself in what sounds like backwards French...
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“Ah, got it!” The lockbox door swings open and, for a moment, nothing happens. Koln lowers his head and peers inside but finds only nothing but darkness.
[FONT="]*SPLASH!*
In an instant a powerful jet of water fires out from the lockbox and knocks the crazy undead priest to his ass. The room quickly starts to fill up with the water, knocking the lockers, desks, and notices to the floor and swooping them up. [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] struggles to his feet and, as the water rises, does his best to keep his mouth above the increasing level. He looks over his shoulder at Ruby and Clover, but strangely they have disappeared. Perhaps they left the room as soon as it started filling with water? Maybe he should have done the same, but it does bother him they seemingly left him alone to drown to death.
Or not… [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] remembers the second best thing about being a vampire (the first: not having to use the bathroom), and that is the futility of breathing! But what about Socrates? Er, where did he go?! He searches frantically for this small rodent friend, and quickly finds him standing under the water, somehow breathing just fine.
Now completely underwater, [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] investigates the lockbox,but again, only darkness is inside. Well, it is better than nothing, [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] thinks, but as he attempts to shut the box something strange happens. His hands somehow pulled the frame of the box outward.. as if it were made out of some sort of malleable material that can be stretched and shaped to his will. Could this truly be the fabric of reality? Fabric indeed! Hardly a framework at all!
He chuckles and continues to play with the outside of the box, pulling it open so that he can fit inside. Hoping to fight a monster or two, the brave priest swims inside the darkness, and after some time in the void he comes to a light at the end of the tunnel. He swims out to what appears to be a wide open sea, the oceanbed teeming with all sorts of odd and multicolored aquatic life: jelly fish, red herring, octopus, ruby colored coral, etc.
The surface is completely black except for a few spots of light in the distance. He swims up to the first source of light and pokes his head out of the rectangular shaped opening. He wipes his eyes free of the water to get a better look at his surroundings. Again darkness.. well mostly. There’s a small rectangular curtain, exactly the size and shape of the hole he swam out of. He crawls out from the opening and pushes aside the curtain, and accidentally knocks over a few children’s blocks with his hat. He hurriedly places them back where they were.. or so at least what he thinks they were, spelling out ‘father.’ He stands and realizes he is somehow now in a children’s bedroom, complete with stuffed animals decorating the shelves, toys in the half-opened closet, and of course a small sleeping boy in the bed that [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] just crawled out from under.
He thinks for a moment about the last time he fed… and can hardly remember. It feels like it was months ago… and vampires that have not fed for long periods of time are capable of incredibly horrifying acts of bloodlust. Indeed, perhaps it is time for a ‘kid’s meal.’ He chuckles, and pulls back the sheet protecting the child but stops… not being able to go through with the act. Not out of remorse, nor guilt, although those feelings were not far behind… but because he was physically not able to move. He glances upward and notices the cross over the child’s bed, and while that may have been a factor in [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="]’s failed attempt to feed, that does not feel like the ultimate source of the problem. Glancing over his shoulder, back at the stuffed animals, he sees a stuffed owl, cat, and dog, all glaring accusingly at him. Ashamed… [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] pulls the covers back over the sleeping child and quietly crawls back under his bed, bumping his head in the process.
The water is strangely warm… much warmer than one would think an ocean to feel like. [/FONT][FONT="]Denver[/FONT][FONT="] pollution perhaps? Or maybe it is just warm in comparison to the bitter chill of his undead flesh. Paying it little mind, pollution or not he should still be fine, he curiously swims up to the next source of light.
“Ow, ack!” He grumbles, hitting his head on a few small cardboard boxes as he attempts to surface. He pushes them aside, one box labeled “Tokyo Marui Airsoft” and another “Magic the Gathering: Basic Lands.” A person that practices magic? Hm… This is worthy of more investigation…
[/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] carefully crawls out from under the bed and carefully looks around this bedroom. A desk in the corner, covered in a mess of folders, action figures, models, books, and a laptop computer. Upon closer inspection of the books Koln becomes more alarmed:
AD&D: Skills and Powers, Shadows of the Dark, Ghosts, The Vampire Book, The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters, The Encyclopedia of Demons and Demonolgy, World of Darkness, and numerous other occult sounding titles.
His nightstand is equally as messy, littered with comic books about the supernatural, and Batman. Nearby sleeps the villain, cuddled up next to two life-size pillows of Japanese cartoon characters: one with long red hair, and another with short blue hair. [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] cannot help but admit how handsome this person is… and how strangely familiar. He appears to be in his mid twenties, with thick messy brown hair, and is wearing red pajamas with the logo “Dragon Ball Z” all over them.
His television is still on, he appears to have been watching some show on ‘Ghost Hunting’ whatever that could mean, before he drifted off to sleep. Ontop of his television are a few stuffed animals: A wolf, a few aliens, a blue hedgehog, a brown fox with two tails, and Fredrich Nietzsche wearing a small METS baseball cap. The floor around his television is a mess of wires and small strange boxes.
Judging from this young man’s habits, he has seen and knows far too much to be kept alive. [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] debates for a moment about embracing this young man, but decides against it, the politics of the Camarilla would undoubtedly get in the way. With a resolute nod he decides to drain him completely, and rationalizes it as simply ‘Upholding the Masquerade.’
He slowly pulls back the sheet and creeps in closes, his lips curled back and fangs out. He will make the bite as gentle as possible, out of pity for he is certain that it will only get rougher and more painful from there.
“Ugh.. uh.. A-Ayanami…?” The young man stirs and opens his eyes, staring face-to-fang with the vampire. “A…a vampire…?” A moment of terror freezes the young man, then his face brightens as he sits up, exclaiming “Oh man! A real vampire?! I KNEW IT! I mean I know I am as good as
ed now, but still, this is awesome!”
[/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] laughs, somehow there is something in his voice and expression that reminds him of himself. He even takes off his hat for a moment, putting it on his victim’s head, and is surprised to see that it is a perfect fit! Returning his hat to his head he resumes his business, pressing his cold hand to the hysterical young man’s chest he leans in with his fangs ready…
*squeak!*
Koln stops, again interrupted, and looks down at Socrates, standing up looking at him. [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] slowly retreats, picking up the rat, and looks at the young man in fear before carefully returning back from under his bed. Somehow… it didn’t feel right.
“This seems to be some kind of interdimensional underwater portal to all the bedrooms of the world! But… why? Who would have created this… And Socrates, I’m sorry about what I was going to do back there. But I am a monster, no?” Socrates sits on his shoulder, seemingly unbothered by the water surrounding them – breathing just fine as if they were on the surface.
After more swimming, [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="]’s sharp hearing picks up what sounds like a bouncy digital tune. A carnival-sounding jingle in the distance… He follows the sound, coming to what appears to be a large glowing rock. He touches the surface of the boulder, but finds that it moves against his touch as if it were made of cloth… actually, it is!
“Hey, wha? Who are you?!” The old man mutters from under his dark green coat as he sits up, coming out from under his cloak. In his lap is a small television – the source of the music – and in his hands is a small controller that’s connected to it. On the screen are multiple falling blocks of different shapes that the old man attempts to line up to form rows.
“You see… [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="]. Yes, I know who you are. Now you see, the secret to this game, just like the secret to mastering the fabric of reality is NOT to merely plan according to the blocks that are there. Oh no no no… You need to also take into account the blocks that have not appeared yet. But just because they haven’t been given ‘appearance’ yet, they are not any less real than the visible blocks.”
[/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] blinks, tilting his head to the side in confusion as he studies the old man. His long beard floats in the water around him, and his skin hangs off his bones like a thin dirtied sheet. His eyes are sunken, hair is sparse and long, and teeth are jagged and haphazard. In fact, if the old man didn’t talk so intelligently, [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] would have believed that he was some kind of aquatic zombie. Granted, this isn’t the first old man that [/FONT][FONT="]Koln[/FONT][FONT="] has seen lately… but this one is different than the fatherly fisherman. This one… represents something else.
“Er, plan for things that are not seen… That is insane. Or at least, if I did that, people would consider me insane, no?”
The old man laughs and nods “Yes… but I think they already find you insane. So we are both madmen… and you know something else? We are both monsters. You are a vampire. Stop looking so shocked, it’s obvious. Oh I give you credit, you do play a more convincing human than that character Edward from that Twilight series. And me? Well, I am not a vampire, nor a zombie… but rather the one and only ‘boogeyman.’ I will not bore you with the details… just know that I am trapped here in the dreamscape, and able to interact with all of the sleeping people of the world, and I do when I get lonely. However whenever I come up to talk and play, people take one look at me and scream “MONSTER!” But it is not because of what I do… it is because I am an unplanned block that no one saw coming, like yourself. We are merely pieces that do not fit their concept of perceived reality, but we DO fit, do we not? Yes… yes we do, we know we do.” The old man chuckles and returns to his game.
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Koln pauses for a moment and places his hands at his sides. "I am not wet? Ruby! Clover! I am not wet! Er... where are we?"
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