The Group Forms The Group FormsIC: "I dunno him but he looks interesting" Sarah says as she begins to rise from the chair, "I'll go introduce myself though". She wonders to the side of the room where Christian is standing and walks up behind him, "Hello" comes forth in a sweet but unexpected voice.
"AHHH!" exclaims Christian not expecting Sarah lost in the thought of what his dream had meant.
"I'm Sarah, what's your name?" Sarah continues in her sweet tone with a smile on her lips.
IC: Only moments after walking into the shop with a purposeful but none too confident stride, Christian is brushed aside by a crazy-haired man who then proceeds to manhandle a small waifish girl with... white hair? ~She looks... familiar for some reason, doesn't she? Oh well, I'm sure she was in the dream. No other explanation for it. Now, what does it mean?~
Before being able to attempt an answer to his own question, he is shockingly brought back to reality by an unexpected "Hello".
"AHHH!" he yells, turning around suddenly, looking straight ahead at.. nothing. Suddenly, he hears again in this small sweet voice
"I'm Sarah, what's your name?" Looking just slightly down, he sees his inquisitor in the form of a young girl.
"Oh, hi there. Umm. Do you work here?"
"No silly," Sarah responds with a slight giggle, "but my friend over there is the owner." she says pointing across to where Sydney sits with his hot chocolate. "Come on over. I'll introduce you, if you ever tell me your name?" as she looks up questioningly to him.
"Oh sorry. I'm kind of uh...out of it tonight. Weird day, ya know? I'm Christian." He holds out one hand to shake hers. She takes it, but instead of shaking she leads him over to the table where Sydney sits waiting and looking at the pair.
"Sydney, I'd like to introduce Christian. Christian, Sydney." She takes his hand and pulls it out to Sydney's, putting the two together.
"Hiya. So, you own this place?"
IC - "For F&#^s sake, will...I can't understand a word you are saying! What the hell is going on!?"
Will stared back at her blankly, eyes bulging. He took a quick survey of the situation and looked around. "I've got to tell the others! I've got to tell the others! I'vegot totelltheothers! Now! Right now!"
"Will!" Anique snapped with a sound much more forcefull than one would think her thin frame would yield. You have told ME anything yet. Why don't we start with telling me what's going on."
Will blinked back at Anique, like a deer in the headlights. "Going on. Ohhhhhhh. Anique...." He grabbed her arms and buried his head in her shoulder.
~no, definatly NOT a romance hero~ Anique thought.
"Anique, he's gone. They've taken him and killed him! I don't know what to do!" Will moaned.
Anique drew backwards, for the first time slightly worried that Will might really have something important to say. "Who did they take Will?" She drew the moaning figure off of her, and shook him once. "Will, who did they take?"
His eyes skittered back up to hers, brimming with red tears. His body little more than a shaking mass. "Murray." he whispered.
"Sydney, I'd like to introduce Christian. Christian, Sydney." She takes his hand and pulls it out to Sydney's, putting the two together.
"Hiya. So, you own this place?"
Sydney smlied, a bit lopsidedly, but since everything else in the eclectic bookshop was lopsided it seemed to fit well. Sarah, for her part beamed. "Yes, I do. I'd like to say it has a heritage, but we've only just moved here."
"We?" Christian queried, motioning to Sarah. Both Sarah and Sydney nodded.
"It was safer here" Sarah offered
"Or so we hope." Sydney finished.
A loud thunk that sounded notoriously like a head hitting a wall issued from the back storeroom. Sarah, Christian and Sydney all turned towards it. "Oh, no." Sydney muttered under his breath. Sarah looked up at him, eyes wide, wondering if there was something wrong.
Christian looked over. "What was that?"
Sydney let his shoulders fall. "Do you know Curly Will?"
IC: Anique was too shocked to reply for a few seconds. She stared up at will, and she could feel her eyes widen in surprise. "Murray?" she whispered softly. "Our Primogen Murray?"
"Yes! That Murray! He is the one! THEY HAVE TAKEN HIM!" shrieked will.
"Yes, I UNDERSTAND!" Shouted ANique. This was a very frustrating converstation. She could feel a thin layer of blood rush over her face like a rusty patina. "But WHO has taken Murray? And where did they take him? Calm down Will, or I'll NEVER understand a thing you are saying!" She grabbed his shirt collar and pulled his face down, in the direction of where she lay on the storehouse floor. Her eyes glinted with determination. "Talk to me Will. Tell me what you know".
IC: Christian looked over. "What was that?"
Sydney let his shoulders fall. "Do you know Curly Will?"
Christian at once got a look of sheer exhaustion on his face at the mention of the name. "Curly Will? Yes, I can say that I've had that.. ummm.. distinct experience. Only a week ago as a matter of fact. You see, I've only been in Toronto a short time. I moved here from New York just a few weeks ago. Like you, I guess, I thought it might be "safer" here."
"And did you also get the chance to meet a man named Murray O'Shea?" Sydney asks. Christian just shakes his head, looking toward the back of the shop again as he hears what can only be described as muffled shouts.
"No, didn't see him. Just made a brief intro to the local authority figure, you could say. Got the feeling she didn't like me too much. Got that feeling like she had already made up her mind about me before even meeting me."
Sarah has a look of indecision on her face, perhaps pondering if she should investigate the noises from the back room, but a little afraid to, or just perhaps hesitant to encounter the ravings of Curly Will about whatever has him in such a rant. Sydney, for his part, looks as if he has a bit of bad news himself which he is unprepared to share. In any case, Christian being new to the city and not at all familiar with his new acquaintances, is content to just sit and wait for something more to be said or done, also a bit hesitant himself to deal with the madman called Curly Will at this moment.
IC: "Well maybe we need to regroup here a bit and find out what is going on totally," speaking finally and in a somewhat small voice unsure if she wants to know what is going on. She stands there shifting her weight from one side to the next looking between Sydney and Christian in a sort of daze after speaking.
~i'm not ready for this~ Sarah thinks to herself ~after all that hate in the sabbat i don't know if i can handle this. well at least i'm not alone this time...~
"I think we should at least save Antique from his barrade at least, right?" looking at Sydney and Christian coming out of her daze. Sydney nods in aggreement and they both look to Christian.
IC: "Hey, don't look at me. I don't know what the heck to do." Christian has a momentary panic attack as both Sydney and Sarah look to him as if expecting him to help, or maybe even lead the charge to save Anique from Curly Will's torrent of all the news fit to print. "Besides, you guys know him. I only met him once."
A sudden realization comes upon him, and he nearly smacks his own head like he just realized the obvious. ~Wait a tic. They know Will? Then they must be vampires, too. Either that or they're crazy, too. Maybe both. But no sane person would associate with him. Ok, let's try something here. Still not sure about these so-called discipline thingies. But what the hell. Not like they can backfire, right?~
In a moment, Christian is looking intently at the unusual pair, trying to discern their auras. It becomes painfully obvious that he in concentrating hard, and both Sarah and Sydney look to him in concern.
"What ever is wrong Christian?" Sydney pipes up.
"Yeh, you got gas pains or something?" Sarah titters, followed by a nervous laugh. Christian, only having mastered the first power of Auspex, is woefully unable to discern anything about them and gives himself a slight headache in the process. Snapping out of his daze, he notices their blank stares at him.
"Huh? Oh nothing. Nothing. I was just thinking that.. we should help this Anique person, eh? Come on."
Boldly striding toward the back room, trying to mask his embarassment at his own inadequacies, Christian flings open the door of the back room to see Anique, huddled on the floor with a thin film of blood on her face, desperately holding onto the collar of the one and only Curly Will.
In a determined voice she says to him, "Talk to me Will. Tell me what you know."
IC: Sarah watched Christian closely as he stared at them like he needed glasses or something and wondered how he had gotten here. ~he's cute! well kinda cute in a psycho kinda way~ Sarah was drifting off again, ~that mussed up hair is kinda cute but not how Julian had been. This was a modern sort of cute unlike Julian who was mysterious cute.~
"hey Becky this is Christian" pointing to the air beside her and then to Christian "and Christian this is Becky," Sarah is smiling.
~"he's cute," becky answers.~
"i know," responds Sarah and looks a little embarassed. Sarah then follows Christian's lead to rescue Antique from Will.
IC: Anique firmly grasped Will's collar with her hands, and demanded that he tell her what was going on. "Talk to me Will! Tell me what you know!" she commanded. Just as the words left her lips, the door to the storeroom burst open, and hit the wall with a thud that left both herself and Will stunned. She looked over at the doorway. Three people were standing there. The door swung shut behind them and left the room reverberating with the impact of its closing. She recognized Sydney, the bookstore owner, and Sarah, the young girl who moved to Toronto with Sydney. They had come here seeking a place where they might be accepted more wholeheartedly than in other Camarilla cities.
Being Malkavian could be difficult...sometimes she figured that she might as well be Lasombra Antitribu, the way the Prince of Toronto looked down upon the Malks with disdain and distrust. The figures in the doorway gazed down at her. One of them was a hansome young man---dark and rugged looking. He reminded her of the descriptions she often read in romance novels -- the passionate, mysterious, and yet unlikely lover. This mental allusion to the romance novels made her smile, and giggle inwardly. She knew she had never met him before, but he seemed oddly familiar. Will was, for the moment, staring at her in stunned silence. He must have lost his train of thought when the door slammed open. Anique wiped the blood off of her face with a corner of Will's jacket. He didn't seem to notice. She completely dropped his collar and stood up, smoothing out her wrinkled shirt and trying to wipe the blood off of her hands and onto her jeans.
"Thanks Sarah..Sydney.." she said. She extended a hand towards the stranger, first glancing at the palm, to make sure it was blood-free. "I don't believe I have met you. I am Anique". Just then, Will stood up, seemingly remembering his purpose in unlife. He raced towards Anique, spun her around, and grabbed HER collar, partially pinning her to the storeroom wall.
"OOOoooohhh Anique! They have taken MURPHY!! There is no time for introductions! We are DOOOOMED!!" He wailed. Anique looked over her shoulder at the others, a pleading look in her eyes.
Panting, bug-eyed, Will turned to the newcomers, and rushed forward to grab the artist's sleeves, and shake him soundly as well. "You have to listentome. They'vetaken MURRAY!! We're all goingtodie!! But we're alreadydead!! We'll DIE AGAIN!!! And-"
"WILL!"
Will's words choked off, and Christian's world slowly stopped shaking. Sydney held Will at arms length, staring him down. Will panted a few times and whimpered. "But Sydney, the prince...she...she...she TOOK Murray! They're putting him on trial! They're going to kill him...or they already have...I'm not sure. But he's in trouble! And if we're not careful, we're all doomed as well!!" He sucked in an unnesscary breath, and looked up at Sarah, eyes stained with bloody tears. "I don't want to watch the sunrise, Sarah. I don't...." he trailed off, sinking to his knees.
Sydney turned around watching the others. "It looks as if someone wants us out of the way" he started.
IC: This was too much. Just too much to deal with on an empty stomach. First the dream that had no meaning but seemed more important than any dream before it. It had led him here, to this unusual but strangely appealing bookshop. It had put him in contact with three new faces, who seemed to already know or guess that he was a vampire just as they apparently were. On top of it all, Curly Will seemed scared out of his wits by something. Christian could not even guess what. Will may be crazy, but Christian had the distinct feeling that this was far from a hallucination or paranoia. Fate had thrown him together with this ragtag group, so it seemed, and he meant to make the best of it. But first, he had to make sense of it.
Now loose from Will's grip, Christian slumps down onto a pile of assorted books sitting on the floor in no particularly evident system of organization, and about no subject he'd ever thought of as worthy of reading about. ~"Chicken Little Was Right: How the World Will End" ??? What's that about? "Poultry Paradise on $10 a Day"??? Talk about crazy.~
Sydney and the others look at eachother in a mix of fear and confusion, wondering why Murray would be killed, how it could have happened, and if they might be next.
"Look you guys, I'm new to all this. I've met Will here, but I don't know squat about this Murray person, or any of you for that matter. If he's dead, what's the big deal? And why does it seem to mean the end of us, too? I'm including myself in 'us' since I seem to be involved in a manner I don't pretend to understand or possibly even want to. Wow, that's the most that's ever come out of my mouth at one time. Quite the orator, ain't I?" Shaking his head to clear away the random and bizarre thoughts, he continues "But nevermind that. What are we supposed to do about it exactly? I mean, I'm not even known to anyone here so far as I can tell except this Monica Freewater chicky, and Will here. So the only reason anyone would want to off me is because of a)they hate my painting or 2)my clanship, clanhood, clannism.. whatever. So fill me in here, would ya?"
Will opens his mouth to speak again and Sydney, fearing that another torrent of blabber will emerge, reaches over and shuts it with his hand. "Christian, I guess it's safe to say that we all know about eachother now. We're Malkavian, and I'm assuming you are also. Am I right?" Christian just numbly shakes his head in affirmation. "Ok, then it should be no secret to you that our kind is not particularly liked. We're tolerated at best in some places, but it seems that perhaps that tolerance has its limits. Monica Freewater makes no secret of her dislike of us, and it seems that she has gone one step further and taken to outright killing us off, if Will is right. Now the question is why, and how long do we have if it's true, and what can we do about it." Sydney leaves off with eyebrows raised expecting perhaps some input from others.
"That's three questions, actually." chimes in Sarah, then looks down sheepishly when Sydney's gives her a disapproving look.
"Nevermind that. We need to know everything, Will, starting with when this happened, or supposedly happened, and how you came to know about it." He takes his hand slowly away from Will's mouth and Will again opens it to speak, but his words are cut short once more, this time by the sound from the interior of the bookshop.
In a playful, almost melodic voice, someone is calling out "Come out, come out wherever you are my little Loonies. It's your old pals Ellison and Remington come to call. We need to have a little heart to heart, don't you think?"
