Sparks in Sin City
12th of January 2007 A.D.
"Do you have a perfume bottle on you?" The question is perfectly innocent, there's really no reason for Tiffany's 'yes' to be so wary. Now as for the next questions... "How much do you like it?"
A dramatic sigh then the admission: "Not enough for it to be tactically relevant. Bleach?"
Thus, under the gaze an an amused Lydia and a bemused Harry Dresden, a bottle of some sharp spicy scent you do not recognize is spilled. Maybe something foreign. As you pour the deadly liquid in you offer: "Maybe try something more poisonous next time."
"I'll be sure to mix some cyanide in just for you."
At that you tip your head and smile, it does not last long as you look at Mutt, look through him into the shadow of his shame.
Lose 1 Essence -> Now at 12/15
***
A pale boy in an old fashioned padded coat, looking almost comical for it sits uncomfortably at the edge of a couch overflowing with pillows looks over at an old man. No one old before his time, subtract the bags under this eyes, the tremble in his hands and he could be perhaps thirty, forty at most, holding a glass of colourless liquid in hand with the ease of long familiarity.
"One more dance with the devil, one more draw of the poppy boy and then I can be of more use to someone."
The boy, not yet Mutt, nods as the old man fills his lungs with opium one last time, then drinks the poison, for poison it is and so his soul is drunk.
It had been an act of kindness in its own way, though not pure in intent, but the waking demon cared nothing of such things. It drank and drank of a live that had not been pushed into its own destruction, but hurled itself over the edge and like some faux-Faustus it empowered the boy far beyond his years, beyond the thin blood that ran in his veins, but it bound him to drink only and ever from those who were about to end their own lives.
***
"He can only feed from those who meant to end their own lives, slow or quick, but it makes him strong," you explain to Lash in a harsh whisper.
Hearing she nods in understanding if not surprise then, as soon as you are in the bottle she steps onto the street, expression and manner morphing with each step. Thus encased in glass and set in the shadows of Lash's little black purse you you listen well to the spar between between incubus and one who is the shadow of a true Fallen, between an predator by mischance and one my ancient machinations. It is not even a challenge, the battle won from the first salvo though you would not know it to listen casually. Knowing Tiffany you had expected her to come on strong, to boldly hold the reigns of the conversation, yet nothing could have been further from the truth.
'Dorothy Black' is meek and mild, she knows enough to recognize a vampire, enough to be scared rather than intrigued, but she's at the end of her rope. She came to Vegas on the run from the White Council, after she had killed her abusive father in a violent awakening of magic. She had spent most of her money on the way and needed more, a lot more just to set up in town. So why not gamble one last time 'heads I win, tails I die', the kind of person who can still be persuaded to step away from the edge, the kind of person whose salvation is the only reason the vampire before her is still here instead if having found his solace in the barrel on a 9mm.
Everything he knows, everything he's heard, every insight and stray rumour about Vegas, its comings and goings Lash unspools from his lips as she allows herself to be 'almost' swayed to this faction then that. All the While you wonder if you could just recruit him instead of kidnapping.
How the hell do you ethically feed from suicides?
The first person mentioned is 'Big Corey' the highest placed of the White Court's vampires, and technically Mutt's own boss. He's recently put the word out for any kind of talent ever since one of his top talent was found staked right outside the perimeter of the Venetian Canals, one of the most expensive mega-resorts in Vegas and haunt of the mysterious Gondolier, a guarantor of bargains large ad small and one of the most trustworthy neutral parties in Vegas... if you had something precious you were willing to give him. That the dead incubus was killed within sight of safety might have been its own sign for Corey, that he was staked like Dracula in spite of not needing to was definitely one so now he's spooked. The proprietor at the
Hanging Gardens, Arlene Ghorbani is also looking for strays before the city can chew them up spit them back up, though she's suffered a loss recently, her number two, the incubus Kenneth Mayeda had gone missing, some say he's skipped down after the fire at Club Xanadu that rumour has it he was involved with, though Silk No Last Name Apparently, the mage in charge, had not come forward to point any fingers.
On the other side of the scales Mutt tells 'Dorothy' to stay the hell away from the tunnels under the strip, the leeches have that place on lockdown since they chased out the homeless and 'chased out's a euphemism. Word on the street is they are stockpiling weapons and supplies there, though no one knows for what. And on that note wandering down Industrial road would be almost as bad for being an open hunting ground for any vampires or darker thigs that blow in from out of town.
With that he winds down, seemingly amazed at how much he had told this random woman he'd only meant to warn off of walking into the Penny when she still has something to live for, but not in the least suspicious.
Regain 2 Essence -> Now at 14/15
What do you do next?
[] Check out one of the players involved?
-[] Fortunato, master of Wanderland, call him thrice and see if you can cut a deal
-[] Big Correy, he sounds desperate
-[] The cult of Ishtar, they sound more like allies you would choose rather than just bear
-[] Silk 'No Last Name', a small time player would be safer to approach without making waves
[] Go to one of the danger spots
-[] The tunnels under the strip, if that's where you'll find the Red Court that's your fastest road to the Dragon
-[] Industrial Road, see what you can pick up with an ear to the ground
[] Try to recruit Mutt, you'll figure out how to deal with his Hunger's twisted nature somehow (He has the Supernatural Flaw: Obligated Feeding Target/Supernatural Background Generations 3 making him the equivalent of 10th generation rather than the 13th he should have started as)
[] Write in
OOC: Enjoy. 
