CbN014: New Blood Comes
General Summary
September 1st, 2017
It’s the start of a new month and Mary is tasked with patrolling the bustling streets of Downtown Chicago as per the Coterie’s agreement with Naomi. The buildings loom over her, their towering heights casting long shadows that dance across the oil and water streaked pavement. The sounds of car engines and the chatter of pedestrians mix and fill the air, punctuated by the occasional honk or shout.
As she walks, Mary takes in the sights and smells of the city. The scent of freshly baked pizza wafts from a nearby restaurant, mingling with the aroma of gasoline and wet pavement. The neon lights from a nearby bar flicker in the darkness, casting a colorful glow on a group of kine who laugh and smoke outside.
Mary takes a moment to feel a bit melancholic and thinks about her life as a human and what she’s lost, but with resignation accepts her reality. She’s a creature of the night now.
As these thoughts trail off, her perception becomes unfocused and suddenly she can feel a pressure around her fingers, as if she was touching silky strands of web. Through it, she feels connected to all things within the city, and beyond. Pulling on the strings she can sense it leading her to two different paths:
To her right, she feels a release of tension in the web and a sharp short wave of vibrations, as if the cobweb strings were suddenly cut. She notices as the loose threads flicker out and a strange presence fills the void left behind by the broken web.
To her left there’s a constant humming vibration, slowly but surely increasing in intensity. The cobweb seems to be growing stronger this way.
She takes a moment and ultimately decides to go left towards the stronger connection.
As she walks forward, her perception of reality is snapped back to the city’s streets and she finds herself standing in front of a pay phone that’s ringing. She picks it up.
The experience is as if she was picking up the phone of her parent’s house while they were having a conversation in a different room. She can tell she shouldn’t be listening, but can’t find the will to ignore her curiosity. The sounds that reach her have the quality of a very old recording, vinyl record white noise accompanied by a recurring thud.
There’s four voices speaking, overlapping each other at times, yet somehow speaking as if they were one cohesive mind. Mary knows these voices, she has heard them before when she first used the phone at the church’s backyard and connected to the cobweb.
An angry voice exclaims, “With it, the gate to the Goblin Roads will be yours. You better fucking keep and protect it.” A scared voice warns, “Be careful! The roads are dangerous… they lurk within the mists, the door can let you through, but do not forget it goes both ways.” A happy voice adds, “Think of all the wonders you could have! All the places you could get lost on your way to! All the runaway Changelings that can come through. They will end up on your lap, yours to do as you see fit!” A calm voice says, “For these gifts we shall give, one we will take. Your Voice, to be ours and keep the Guardsman awake. For now and ever, our pact shall remain. Lest the roads close shut, by the blood of Caine.” Then, a new voice chimes in. One that Mary has never heard out loud, but can recognize through one of her visions. It’s Bronwyn, who speaks loudly: “I accept.”The call drops, the sound of the dead line being all that remains. As she hangs up, there’s a new message from X on her phone. Her shift around The Racks has just ended and tonight seems like a good night to go take care of her next mission. She flags a taxi and heads there.
Noah "Flyboy" Grewal
The sky is covered in dark looming clouds, making the night feel darker than usual as the rest of the Lost Boys make their way to O’Hare International Airport in Kim's car. Inside the airport the architecture is grand and impressive, with towering concrete pillars and wide open spaces. Only a handful of passengers can be seen milling about, their faces drawn and tired. The usual bustle of an airport is replaced with surprising silence that makes the group a little apprehensive. The sound of the Coterie’s footsteps echo through the terminal, adding to the eerie feeling of the place. Armed security can be seen patrolling the airport, their weapons glinting at their hips. The presence of so many guns only adds to their unease, making them all feel as though they are walking into a warzone. To add to their worries, they can’t shake the feeling that they’re being watched. The few passengers there seem to observe them closely, their faces etched with suspicion. But maybe it is just their paranoia talking. Despite the anxious atmosphere, the Coterie remain focused and keep their wits about them. The stakes are high, and their mission is crucial.In the most casual fashion ever, Mary pops out of invisibility and joins the group as if she had always been there. Most of them jump in surprise but recover quickly, by this point used to the Malkavian’s antics. They do not question why or how Mary got there because of course she did. The group decide to go talk to the clerk at the front desk, while Maude excuses themselves and takes the opportunity to go feed. As Maude heads off, the rest approach the front desk and Clementine introduces herself as Siobhan Poe and asks for Felicity Miller. Unfortunately, the clerk, a lady named Mary, does not give out any information other than the fact that Miller is present at the moment and seems to work late hours. They leave the desk and walk around the airport until they find a janitor. Liliana uses her Dominate powers to compel him to point out where the commissioner’s office is and then Mary uses cloud memory to make him forget the conversation ever happened. Meanwhile, Maude heads outside and finds a man who is, luckily, a smoker - their favorite food. They engage in conversation and purposefully spill a red wine cooler taken from the bar all over his clothes, convincing him to come with them to the restrooms to tidy up. There, they feed from him quietly, but just narrowly fight their beast who taunts Maude with taking his life. As they step outside, they attempt to connect with Mary through the cobweb and manage to find the group just as they find the commissioner’s office behind a closed door. The group stands outside, wondering how to get in. Apparently an access key is required to proceed, Mary points out. Maude puts their hand in their pocket and says, “Oh, you mean this?” as they mysteriously pull out the key. Now wait a minute… how? Despite the strangeness of the situation, they ultimately decide to move on, accessing the door and stepping inside a room with an empty desk and a few closed doors around it. They can hear the sounds of a loud mechanical keyboard coming from behind one of the doors. Clementine motions for everyone to wait and extends her shadow up and over the door and uses her powers of shadow perspective to spy inside. She sees a woman typing behind her desk, alone. Retreating her shadow, she steps forwards and knocks on the door before stepping in with the rest of the group. Felicity Miller looks up at them with major suspicion. She does not trust them at all and is about to call security but Liliana uses her Dominate powers and orders her to stop. Clementine attempts to snatch her phone away but is not fast enough. The conversation that follows is tense, but Felicity doesn’t want anything to do with whatever their business with Grewal is. She agrees to take them to him and shares that apparently there have been government agencies, or at least people claiming to be, coming to the airport recently. Felicity seems very afraid of them, having been involved in whatever transpired before and refuses to get involved further than taking them to Noah. They exchange worried glances amongst themselves as they follow Felicity. Concerned about the implications of possible Second Inquisition activity.
Noah Grewal's Office
Grewal’s office, and those of many in the Aviation Department, is behind three security checkpoints and four locked doors, with codes required for entry. Luckily for the group, Felicity guides them through all of it herself. The Coterie realizes how difficult it would've been to go through it all without her help. All offices walls on Noah’s floor are made of transparent glass and there’s very few workers other than the security people. Grewal’s office walls stand out as the only frosted ones and it’s located at the very end of the corridor, behind a bright overhead light. They can see the shape of a glowing monitor serving as the only light on the other side of the otherwise dark office. As Felicity announces their arrival, Grewal dismisses her and the Coterie steps in. Inside they find Noah, a black middle aged man with stylish sunglasses and fine clothes. He taps away on a laptop, his back towards the door, the screen’s light the only thing illuminating the room. He closes the laptop and turns on a desk lamp. They can now see more clearly that the entire back wall of his office is one big window, facing the runway. He stares at them nonchalantly, as if they’re wasting his time and asks what they want immediately. The group can see that he has a slight flush to his cheeks, appearing human despite the assumption that Flyboy must be a vampire. Maude attempts to scry his soul to see his true nature, but is ultimately unable to get a read on him. As they introduce themselves and play coy, Flyboy turns on a monitor on the side that displays a video of airport footage. First it’s Mary suddenly appearing from out of nowhere, then it switches to Maude feeding in the restroom. All of it is clear breaks of the masquerade. He doesn’t seem surprised by their nature and immediately lets them know he’s aware there’s suspicious Kindred coming through his domain tomorrow night via a couple of heavy-duty speaker cases due to be unloaded and delivered directly to arrivals without scanning. Apparently someone had paid for the service up front and he’s already arranged it, but he absolutely intends to find out exactly who is coming into Chicago and why. He makes it clear that he intends to prevent them entrance if they have “doubtful motives” or if news arise, compelling him to lock the cases and put them on the next flight back to JFK in New York. "Nothing good ever comes from New York..." he says, as the group starts to make their point. After much negotiation, they figure money is the best way to make a deal with the man. So, in exchange of some of Kim’s cash they ask Flyboy to agree to cause no issue tomorrow, to delete the footage of them through the airport and to give them his green tinted glasses. Grewal agrees to the first and last offer but if they want him to delete the files he needs more. First he asks them to reveal the name of the Prince to which Clementine feeds him a completely fake name. Then, he asks them to promise a haven he could use in case of trouble. After a brief discussion, Kim offers her haven’s address to which he smiles and nods. Mary makes sure the files are permanently deleted and once that’s done, they head out.Preparations for Tomorrow
Once they’ve left the airport, The Coterie decides to stay at a hotel nearby, not wanting to get stuck in traffic tomorrow. On their way there, Mary checks her phone and notices to her horror that she’s actively being hacked. She quickly turns the phone off and removes the battery to prevent further intrusion and tells everyone she’ll check their phones when they reach the hotel. They order rooms with no windows and go feed before the night closes. Liliana and Clementine find guests nearby to feed from while Mary takes an uber around the area and feeds from the driver before heading back and checking everyone’s phones. She notices that with the exception of Clementine’s phone, everyone has been breached. She asks them to turn off their phones with the exception of Liliana, whose phone she wants to keep active as a backdoor to find out who’s messing with them. Maude attempts to feed from someone at the hotel but is unable to persuade them. They end up going to sleep underneath Kim’s bed, resigned to stay hungry for the night.The Next Day
September 2nd, 2017 As soon as they’re awake, Clementine heads to Kim’s room and asks her to please help her get dressed and to call Elliot. She tells Elliot that he needs to close The Confessional for today and tomorrow, because they’ll have guests coming. She also asks for him to get security for tonight. He then puts her up to date with their business. The rest of the Coterie also get ready to head out and without more fuss, they take off to O’Hare International Airport once more.Tonight the highway is busier than usual and the group can tell that staying at a nearby hotel was the right call. The airport shines like a beacon in the distance, its bright lights illuminating the surrounding area. In big contrast to last night, it’s bustling with people, their voices echoing off the walls of the terminal. Travelers from all over rush to and fro, dragging their luggages and greeting friends and family. Among the crowd, the Coterie walks with purpose and stays alert and focused on the mission at hand. They notice that the armed security guards from last night have increased dramatically compared to yesterday. They’re not subtle, as kine walking past seem to take notice and eye them with curiosity. The guards stand at attention, occasionally speaking into earpieces. As the Lost Boys make their way to the designated meeting spot, Mary tells the group that she’ll go get something done quickly and will be back before they have to leave. She moves away before anyone can really say anything and the rest of the group is left waiting for these very important guests.
Agent Mary
Using her very powerful Obfuscate powers, Mary traverses the airport unseen. She heads outside, towards where the warehouses are located. Reaching the one X noted, she finds boxes of different repair units, as well as a satellite dish. She gets workers' clothes from lockers nearby, quickly changes out of her outfit, grabs a trolley, loads the dish and a few other high tech components, comes out of invisibility and heads to the luggage area, pretending to be a worker. She quickly uses the cobweb to message Maude, indicating that cargo named after them is going to be coming through Luggage Arrival #9, and confidently proceeds with her plan. Maude gets the messages and somehow gets the gist of it, quickly heading to luggage arrival #9 and to retrieve whatever Mary sent their way.Delegates Arrival
As the two Malkavians take care of whatever that is, the rest of the Coterie wait at Terminal 5. The delegates arrive an hour later than expected, but are very easy to spot even among the crowd of newcomers walking through the Arrivals gate. They see a young woman with broad shoulders and a muscular frame, hair short and black with a face that indicates East Asian ancestry. She has a colorful belt tied firmly around the waist of a long dark coat and looks confident and pristine. While the woman seems to attract the eyes of passersby, her companion seems to make people recoil back in disgust while covering their noses. He’s an anemic looking man with sharp cheekbones and hollow eyes, his hands joined at the front to show many rings scraping against each other. His bald head is wrinkled and flaky, his beard wild and untamed around a pair of chapped lips. Just as they reach the end of the walkway, two big muscular men join them at their sides without saying a word. They look militaristic, but wear simple black suits. The two vampires lock eyes with the group and the man steps forward first, breathing deeply as his eyes rest for a second on Kim but then settle on Clementine. “Ah, Peter Pan, how sweet to meet you.” he says with charm and a hint of mockery. Clementine looks at him confused by the nickname, but greets them and introduces herself before quickly suggesting they head out, very aware of the security cameras everywhere and the Lasombra clan not really being good around them. Just as they’re heading out Maude joins them with Mary’s luggage, Mary is nowhere to be seen but that’s normal… They’ll have to hope she’s right behind them. Maude eyes the newcomers casually and quickly takes note that the woman has a small black heart tattooed on her left wrist. Whatever that means.Leaving O'Hare
Outside, a light rain has started to fall, casting dark shadows over the city. The group head towards a black van with tinted windows as instructed by the Camarilla, but notice that the headlights are on and someone is inside. A young woman wearing spectacles and overalls sits on the driver’s seat, seemingly waiting for them. Maude is quick to whisper, “No, no. Nowhere in the letter it said there’d be a driver. Why would they give us a key if there was going to be a driver?” Liliana takes out her burner phone and dials Damien’s number. “Was there supposed to be a driver?” she asks straight to the point. The reply comes sharp and simple, “No”. She pockets the phone and wastes no time, heading straight for the woman and opening the door. "Compliments of the-" The woman starts to say, but Liliana grabs her by the front of her clothes and launches her off the vehicle towards the rest of the group. She lands by Clementine’s feet who looks down at her with hard eyes and simply says “Run”. Confused and scared, the woman wastes no time and quickly stands up and starts to run while yelling, "Compliments of the Prince!" Maude looks at her go with amusement, "What a silly goose,” they whisper through a chuckle, opening the van’s door and stepping in. Everyone else enters the van while Kim heads to the driver seat. She feels a tap on her shoulder and knows by experience that it’s an invisible Mary. She opens the front passenger’s door, pretending to look for something and Mary goes in stealthy and undetected by the rest. With all passengers and luggage settled, they head off towards the Confessional. They engage in conversation with the two Lasombra delegates and while the young woman seems to speak very briefly and is more interested in looking outside the window, the man is very happy to engage. “What a shithole this is.” he says grumpily, “I’ve been on the frontline and fought wars with the worst this planet has to offer, and Chicago is still worse.” Maude tries to relate, mentioning how the city is great because it is shit, but Malenkov replies with a scoff, “So…what exactly do you do in the Camarilla? I mean, aside from acting as comic relief.” he chuckles without humor, “Watching your clan interact with normal and well-balanced beings is like watching a shitty movie with a hero and his useless sidekick. You just feel pity.” Maude seems very offended by this but does not comment. The rest learn very quickly to engage as little as possible with the stinky old man. Clementine lowers the windows of the van slightly as surreptitiously as possible. Along the way, these are some of the conversations that take place.Who Are You?
“My name is Sierra Van Burrace and this is my blood brother Malenkov.” The woman says, gesturing to the man, “As mentioned, we are both of Clan Lasombra and we thank you for acting as guides for us. We're happy to meet a sister of the night.” “I’m Malenkov .” The man grunts, “I’m the first and the last of his fucking name. You? I know who you are. A twink Peter Pan. A blood bag. A Seer. But you? What are you?" He points to Liliana, but she doesn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing her clan, avoiding his question masterfully.What Are You Doing Here?
“We are here on matters that, as for now, only concern Prince Jackson and ourselves. That said, we know you're aware about more than most, Miss Montano might know even more." Sierra gestures to Clementine who does not comment. “The little Prince wants to speak to us.” Malenkov adds, “Or we want to speak to him. I don’t fucking know, it’s my sister who is on this mission. I’m just here to get fucked up in this Camarilla shithole.”How Long Are You Staying?
“As long as Prince Jackson allows us to. Perhaps longer than any of us expects…” Sierra finishes mysteriously.Curtains Down
As the van makes its way through the city, they have to take a few detours to avoid what seems to be riots and barricades. They all get the feeling that thanks to their actions from the night before, they were able to avoid being involved in whatever this is tonight. Looks like Gengis’ antics are focused elsewhere for now. Mary takes a moment to think about the name “Malenkov”. She remembers that name from a horror story in one of the many files X shared with her. He’s a figure mentioned throughout history, a horrible WW2 monster in the eastern front that would wipe out whole squadrons of German soldiers and leave them bloodless in the battlefield. But something else itched at the edges of her mind, something worse than Malenkov’s horror stories. The name of the person who spawned this monster, the sire to Malenkov, a name she can now make a connection to. A name they’ve all heard before. Still invisible in the front passenger seat, Mary shivers and whispers the name,"Talley..."
Report Date
20 Feb 2023
