{V:tM - IC} New York by Night

[KitanaVorr]

Crown Plaza Hotel, Montague Family Suite - the Music Room
Wednesday 11th December, 2002

Caitlyn smiled slightly, letting her fingers trail over the ivory keys in lulling melody...drifting through Mozart into something else...something that seemed to echo her thoughts. "Didn't he also say 'Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero'?" she answered with a half-dreaming tone. "What does one care about what you can see in a hundred years or more when you have so much here to weave in the present?"

This room, this beautiful room, a prison beyond her wildest dreams. A slow sigh echoed from her lips. "I admire them...Mozart...Van Gogh...Socrates...because they lived and they died for their art. In that short amount of time what wonders have they created!"

Her long black lashes closed over delicate cheekbones as she let her music pull her into that part of her she loved the most. The one that drifted above the world and within the stars of creation. "Do you think that if they could live to see the years...that they would have created in such earnest? I think it's when the Angel of Death hovers above you that you work at your very best. That feverish moment when there is nothing to lose...and yet everything to lose that you are at your pinnacle. Quod me nutrit, me destruit."

 

[Jemal]

”Sir, I shall be taking Vych’s car to the garage. Do enjoy your evening here at Antiquities.”

For the first time in his life... or his unlife, Jemal wasn't noticing the new pretty girl, save for a glance and a nod. "Of course, thank you." He said as she let him out of the car.

Vych holds out her hand to Jemal, wiggling her fingers excitedly, ”Come on. I’ll give you a quick tour of my club before I have to change clothes.”

They walk the red carpet beneath the canopy to the center doors where a stocky, shorter man greets them. ”Ah Vych, and good Sir! Sasha advised me to let you know she has your wardrobe ready so please take you time with your guest.”

The large heavy doors swing open to the inside revealing the foyer. From inside looking back as the doors close, one would see highly polished brass-lined doors reflecting the light coming through the stained glass entrance to the club. A man and woman tastefully but scantily dressed in vaguely Egyptian attire open the amber colored glass doors with an inviting flourish to reveal the club and its music and merriment within.

"Nice place... very different, I like it." Jemal says as he takes a look around. "I spend so much time up above that I forget that beauty can exist down here, but that's something I'll not be forgetting for a long time." He glances at her as he speaks.

"So do you have any idea whatsover what this suprise is going to be tonight?" Jemal asks casually

 

[Shalimar]

Sabrina Montague

Crown Plaza Hotel, Montague Family Suite – The Study
Wednesday 11th December, 2002

Sabrina's tears finally halted for good, or so it seemed to her uncle as he lifted her gently into his arms. As always his hair cascading around her, tickling her cheeks couldn't help but make her giggle. To her way of thinking, everything was right in the world now that she was being held and hugged, it might also have had to do with her uncle's not being mad at her too. She learned her head into the hollow of her uncle's shoulder.

"When I met mister Carrick at the banquet he said I looked like someone, who was she talking about." Sabrina asked her uncle curiously, the question brought to the surface by his prescence in the family apartments. She rubbed her face along his cheek like a cat scent marking her territory.

She looked up into his hair-obscurred face, with a slightly serious look, "Uncle Nathan, you like miss Cate don't you? I think she likes you too, I really do. You 2 should get married so I can have a mommy like Kaitlen does." she says with an imperious nod of her head, naming one of her friends from school.

 

[reapersaurus]

"I'm going to check the perimeter," he whispers to the others, "Nikolai, wanna come with?"

Nikolai absently responds with a perfunctory " No thank you - you go on ahead."

He fights back the feelings to make out the words scrawled on the teak.

 

[Tory Adore]

The amber glass reflects beams of golden light as the handsome pair opens the gateway for Jemal and Vych to the fun that lay beyond. Music thunders out into the foyer and bass beats heavy into Vych’s chest making it feel as if the muscle that should be a heart is beating again. She can feel the excitement rising in her. She nods her head to the familiar tune as she slaps her hand against her black leathered thigh, making an interesting smacking sound when her palm hits a curve just right. She slips her other hand into Jemal’s as she steps through the threshold saying in a voice loud enough to be heard over the music,
”We have all different types of music…and people for that matter too. You name it, we will more than likely have it – hard rock to techno, classical to gothic. Our DJ has an assistant that logs requests, and he tries to get them all played by the end of the night. You never know what you might hear, although there is no country in my club. It grates in my head – can’t stand it at all. Sometimes we have live bands, acrobatic and dance shows, magic shows, and more. Tonight’s will be quite unique I must say.”
A wide-eyed smile comes to light her entire face at the thought of what’s to come.

Click here for layout of the club

Vychtorya guides Jemal throughout the club, proudly pointing out different areas as they progress.

Click here to take a virtual tour (3.3 MB)

 

[Catulle]

Frederick Douglas Memorial Cemetery, Staten Island
Wednesday 11th December, 2002

Distracted by the gruesome scene, the officer didn't react while the Kindred approached, stepping carefully in the spaces amidst the fleshy ruin, until Gabriel's voice ground away the silence. He spun to look at the Kindred, snapping up the light as he did so and the glare stole the neonate's sight for a clutch of seconds, leaving ghostly afterimages spinning across his vision. "How'd you get in here? Who in the hell are you? Don't come any closer." The man was close to, if not already on the verge of panic by the tone of his voice, but in his near-blind state, Gabriel couldn't make out the details of his face.

(OOC - Max dex/stealth vs Brandt per/alertness diff7 - 10,10,10,4 vs 6,5,4,2,2 = 3 Max nets 3 successes; Max per/investigation diff7 - 9,8,7,5,2 = 3 successes)

Maxwell was quick to take advantage of the diversion Gabriel provided, skirting the small space and crouching behind any and all available cover as he worked his way aroubd and about. His path took him to the broken paving slabs, heaped together by the side of the path. The putrid-meat stench was overpowering in any event and only intensified by his proximity to the earth and its exhumed charges. Dark liquid stains were apparant on the concrete, and oozed out from under the pile, slowly now, as if in the process of clotting. There wasn't - couldn't be - space for a person under the heap, or rather, not for an adult... Realisation began to crystalise in Max's mind, a chilling knowledge that made the winter wind seem inviting by comparison.

(OOC - Nikolai self-control 7,6,6,6 = 4 successes; frenzy averted)

The heat of the memory subsided, yet in setting it aside, was Nikolai rejecting her..? The thought was almost enough to spark the beast to action again; it roiled once and was still, for the time being. As Nikolai had expected, dreaded and hoped for all at the same time, the verse was written in blood; spidery-thin letters that were difficult to make out on the wood to the naked eye. French, this time, or a dialect thereof...

(OOC - Nikolai int/linguistics - 7,6,6,5,5,4 = 3 successes)

While he couldn't read the language perfectly, his experiences in the romance family lead him to a creeping conclusion; through the metaphor of the first stanza, the poem spoke in the second of the danger of a love that started only to protect and ceased to nurture, of obsession turned lethal.

 

[Festy_Dog]

Frederick Douglas Memorial Cemetery, Staten Island
Wednesday 11th December, 2002

originally posted by reapersaurus
"No thank you - you go on ahead."

Max nods.

He seems pretty focused on the crime scene, he's probably looking for something in particular.

"Back soon, cyas all," Max flexes his grip on the knife again, reassuring himself of its presence.

He proceeds to carefully to skirt around the crime scene, trying to remain out of sight while looking out for threats to the group.

I hope whoever did that has left, then again I wish they were here. If I look at it positively its a win-win situation... kinda...

He comes across the pile of stones, and within a matter of seconds has added together his observations about it. His expression turns to shock and he looks away from the hideous cairn.

Dear God! Who would do this?

He tries to vomit but fails in his lack of stomach content. Staring into space while bent over, trying to get over the the thought of what lies beneath the pile. He takes a deep breath, then continues around to get back to the others.

I hope there's nothing else like that.

 

[Catulle]

Crown Plaza Hotel, Montague Family Suite - the Music Room
Wednesday 11th December, 2002

Carrick had tilted his head to one side, casting Caitlyn a measuring glance as she continued to both play and speak. His attention was caught somewhere between the two, though he appeared to miss not a single note of either.

"Of course. I should have mentioned Marlowe. I'd be inclined to the view that those particular men's tempraments, rather than their genii, were disposed towards self-destruction. Look at da Vinci and tell me he had time to fulfill even a half of his potential; look at Buddy Holly, or Aaliyah to take a more contempary example." He brought up a finger to his lips and tapped it against them as he seemed to formulate his next line of reasoning. After a few moments, he relaxed his posture with a shrug.

"In any event, I can't think of an artist who achieved their best work on their deathbed, after all. Ultimately, art is perception, is it not? And if we could alter our perceptions, deny death and all its effects upon the human psyche, wouldn't that affect our art - perhaps take it in a new direction?" He laughed again, the light tone melding perfectly into the overlaying music. "Of course, since nobody can take that step, we'll likely never know."

 

[Catulle]

Crown Plaza Hotel, Montague Family Suite – The Study
Wednesday 11th December, 2002

"Well, that's better, is it not?" Nathan's voice retained its reassuring tone as he smoothed out Sabrina's hair with a slender hand. "Mr Ashton knew... he knew your mother, once. Before you were born, when she was a young woman and I was considering offering her the Embrace. He knew how much I wanted to give her eternity, and I belive his perception was correct; you are very much akin to her in a number of ways." His eyes strayed from her's casting across the empty room and when he next spoke, the soothing edge had left his accent, "Not only for the fact that in both your cases, my goals have been frustrated."

At the child's observation of Caitlyn, Nathan gave her a thin smile, "I fear my touch is a corrosive thing of late. If Elizabeth knew, or were to suspect... I couldn't be responsible for what would happen to that girl."

 

[Catulle]

Antiquities Nightclub, Manhattan
Wednesday 11th December, 2002

The press of humanity filled the floor, booths and tables of the club with a wash of heat. Warmth that emanated from the blood that flowed just beneath the surface of all of the Kine, and the vibrant pulse of the music echoed the beating of the hearts of the masses. The swirl of humanity could have been the surge of the city's heart, even, so wide was the range of the patrons; a tide to pull them under, deeper, into the living ocean.