2020-11-14 Temple Beaudry Is Not Safe
Temple Beaudry Is Not Safe
Participants: Bites-The-Hand Mapa Addison
Storyteller: Sundance
Location: Temple Beaudry
Date and Time: November 14th, 2022
Summary: A brush with death.
Mood Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qRe3yUzgYw
Temple Beaudry - Downtown Los Angeles
The mostly Latino Temple Beaudry neighborhood is one of the poorest areas in Los Angeles, within sight of the grand skyscrapers on Bunker Hill downtown. Where a vibrant community once stood there is now a huge, abandoned construction site. Its focal point is a half-built peach-and-beige-colored brick building towering over hills of dirt, wild mustard, scattered trash and tumbleweed.
This site was to be the home of the Belmont Learning Complex, called the most expensive school in America, with its $200 million price tag. Turmoil disrupted the area, when six streets were closed and the resident's property was condemned or claimed under eminent domain. Homes were demolished - even the neighborhood parish, the century-old Holy Rosary Church was razed despite the protests of its congregation.
Despite those losses, many years later, the Belmont development is mired in controversy over waste, fraud and abuse. Explosive methane gas, poisonous hydrogen sulfide, volatile organic compounds such as acetone, the carcinogen benzene and residual crude oil have been found to saturate the earth, on top of a former oilfield and industrial site.
<OOC> Sundance says, "Alright. Do a little set for me. Just as you imagine Bites doing his usual rounds, and what he's usually up to."
<OOC> Sundance says, "And then something mischievously curious from Mapa. Then...we'll see what transpires."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "On it!"
Biter has had to practice being unobtrusive for much of his life. For so long he was running-dog, hiding-dog, and now he is again - but it's easier, now, as a game. Drift from spot to spot. Rest in places where you blend in to the garbage. Don't move unless you half to. Look like you're sleeping. The usual rules.
But it's different, in Temple Beaudry. So much of it is ruined or abandoned or in distraint that there isn't enough human activity to blend in to. There aren't enough -people- here for him to hide as he normally does. He's much more concerned with simply looking pathetic, in quashing down his rage and letting it leak out in sputtering little farts of pouty, put-upon self-pity, something appropriate for a miserable abandoned dog. It's a hard act to keep up, night after night, but practice is making it easier.
-
Just the act of trying to remain hidden can sometimes generate a phantom sensation of being watched. The big, shaggy Gnawer, however, is fated to have far more trustworthy instincts than the average human. Which means at some point, he might just feel like looking around! Because someone is watching him.
What he'll see when he does, is a raccoon, perched on the lip of a roof, clutching a bag of takeout in one of its hands. The nearest fast food place being a few blocks away, she must have been carrying it for a while! Mapa disappears behind the roof a moment after being spotted, though the crinkling of her bag will give her position away as she climbs down to the ground level.
-
Biter knows exactly what fucking raccoon that is. At least he doesn't have to crack her out of another oopsy-box. But he's leery of reacting to her at all right now. What if someone's watching? He doesn't want to break character. He tries not to react to Mapa at all, becoming intensely interested in a fascinating and horrible smell under a bodega dumpster, but he's not optimistic this will do anything to dissuade Mapa from wandering up to him while he's on his stakeout.
-
Its true. There aren't many raccoons that would creep along a rooftop with a bag of stolen fast food in tow. But at least Mapa seems to have picked up by whatever amount of time she spent watching him go about his work, that he's being sneaky! So instead of wandering right up to him with her quarry like a bizarrely unwary raccoon, she'll sprint past the alley behind the bodega with a startled, raccoon-y trill! It won't be hard for him to hear what she means to say to him: 'Follow!'
-
<OOC> Mapa says, "She just wants to find someplace very secluded. If he doesn't give chase, she'll stop after a block, eat some fries, and then creep back towards him. ;)"
<OOC> Sundance says, "What would Bites do? ;)"
-
Biter lays his head on the ground a moment and closes his eyes a moment. Gaia, save him from helpful raccoons. Then, a moment later, he gets up, yawns like a dog yawns, and wanders deeper in to the alley way, pushing his attention nervously in every direction.
Let's get one thing straight: Bites-the-Hand is a very brave dog who volunteered to do this very dangerous thing and it's important to him to do a good job. But do not be confused! Bites-the-Hand is extremely afraid! Spirals are VERY SCARY. He's seen the fat, ugly scar on Alexa's belly and the gouge in Snake's skull that used to be an eye socket but doesn't even have the right *shape* anymore. He doesn't want that to be him. Biter is not the doesn't-feel-fear kind of brave. Biter is the walks-in-to-fear kind of brave. So if there's a little tremble in him as he walks, that's fine, right? It just makes him look like an old, weak dog, right?
<OOC> Sundance does a couple quick sekret rolls with Mapa.
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand cries. "Fear!!!"
Mapa won't take him very far. She scrambles down the block ahead of his loping, wary stroll with all the urgency of the panicked raccoon who's suddenly found herself exposed trying to avoid a dog that she's pretending to be. She'll take him two blocks, then cut into a small alleyway. And then, she's gone. Up until he comes to find her there, in any case. He'll find her, thanks to the remains of the brown paper bag she was carrying, stamped with a chain logo (not O'Tolley's-- even Mapa won't put that in her body!), laying by a little hole in the brickwork of one of the buildings that line the cramped alley.
When he comes sniffing, he'll feel her snout bump gently against his own. And then she'll make a series of trilly, chirpy raccoon-y noises as quietly as she can. And relay a few sentiments, as best she is able with out the tongue to make words.
<<Pink and brown bricks towering over the top of Temple Beaudry/I was there.>> She relates, <<Abandoned, stagnant and half-built. A tall woman came, blonde and tall with art on her skin. A fighter. She scared me. Prowled. Went in. Didn't come out. She scared me.>>
<OOC> Sundance says, "For the record, she's referring to the building referenced in the room desc."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "The Belmont Learning Complex."
<OOC> Mapa says, "Yes! I wasn't sure how to make that entirely clear, in raccoon-speak ;)"
Biter sniff-sniff-sniffs his way deeper in to the alley, nose to the ground, following a raccoon's stink trail... and bumps right in to Mapa's snoot. He almost eats her on reflex. Almost. Those drooping dog ears perk up and stiffen as he listens to her message. It's not easy to grasp her meaning - speaking these abstract ideas of -color- and -shape- and -emotion- with wolf-mouth and raccoon-mouth is almost impossible. But he grasps the gist of it. In an unfinished place, there was a monster, and it went down in to its lair.
Pink-and-yellow... Biter knows the place. *Boof*, he goes, an agreeable sound. A nod, and he turns to go. He swallows his fear when Mapa can no longer see his eyes. He's seen the place. But he's avoided it for a reason. The campus has a lot of wide open spaces, a lot of stark architecture. Not a lot of places to hide. He'd stick out like a sore thumb. But that's okay. He doesn't need to get -in- it. He just needs to keep an eye on it. Patrol a perimeter. Check for smells that smell -wrong-.
-
As much as she'd like to huddle in the side of a brick building and devour every last morsel of her stolen fast food in peace. However afraid she was of that woman she was coming out of the Learning Complex. Mapa does have her duties. Which means that, as soon as Biter has slipped out of the alleyway, the raccoon will emerge, free of her bounty of food save for the mouthful of french fires she's still chewing, and follows him from as a discrete a distance, and as sneakily as she is able.
<OOC> Mapa says, "Erm. Going into, I meant. Weird little dyslexia there :/"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "It's all good. :3"
<OOC> Sundance says, "No worries"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Roll Dexterity+Stealth vs 6, Bites."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "I'm gonna burn a willpower here."
+LOSE/+BURN> Bites-The-Hand burns 1 Willpower.
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Dexterity + Stealth vs. 6 -> 2 successes. (8 8 8 2 2 2 1)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 7 vs. 6 -> 4 successes. (10 8 8 7 7 5 1)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Oh heck."
<OOC> Sundance says, "He's in his Hound's Guise?"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Yep."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Though I don't really anticipate that particular disguise surviving more than one encounter with the spirals."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "...May survive less than one."
It is going to take a little bit of patience...Perhaps an hour or two. It'll be very late at night by the time Bites senses any moment coming from within the semi-abandoned Belmont Learning Complex. It will be a creature very much like the one that Mapa described. A tall, muscular woman with short bleached hair, with barbed wire tattoos going up and down her tanned arms. She's wearing cutoffs, a tank top and a sleeveless hoodie, along with scuffed cross-trainers. She could easily pass for some kind of MMA fighter or Parkour enthusiast. She moves with a primal surety that suggests the strength and agility of a werewolf. She looks mean. And there's nothing fun about the way she pauses and then sniffs the air in a very nearly feral fashion.
-
Biter stifles the urge to react too quick. He's not a garou. He's just a dog. Submit, lope, and cringe. He lowers his head, sniffs a slowly dying tree sprouting from a planter carved in to the sidewalk across the street, and contributes to its death by pissing on it. She doesn't know his smell. She can't - he's new. Let her sniff.
Unless she's like Liam. Unless she doesn't need to know *his* smell to know he's Garou...
-
Mapa skulks along behind, far enough to be able to pass for a raccoon searching for food, and occasionally glancing around towards the scent of dog on the air. She'll stick to the shadows under dumpsters, around the corners of alleyways. She even manages to find an actual scrap or two to eat along the way!
But the reappearance of /that/ woman, makes her ever more wary. She won't be able to help a little chirrup of concern, from about a block away, as she ducks under a nearby car, and watches with wide, anxious eyes, whatever should transpire.
<OOC> Sundance says, "Odds or even, Biter?"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Odds."
<OOC> Sundance says, "Type +d10"
+D10> Bites-The-Hand rolls 1 D10's: 6
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Shit."
<OOC> Sundance says, "Roll Wits+Empathy vs 9."
<OOC> Sundance says, "One success needed"
<OOC> Sundance says, "You may spend WP."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "I will do so!"
+LOSE/+BURN> Bites-The-Hand burns 1 Willpower.
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Wits + Empathy vs. 9 -> 0 successes. (8 6 5 4)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "And this is why I spent willpower."
<OOC> Sundance says, "You can as well, Mapa. Though no Willpower for you."
+ROLL/+DICE> Mapa: Wits + Empathy vs. 9 -> -1 success (Botch!). (7 6 5 4 3 1)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Oh NO." He leans in, grinning enormously. "Oh god."
<OOC> Mapa squeaks! "Everything seems fine (:"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "this_is_fine_dog.jpg"
There /is/ something a bit odd about Biter-hound. There's a weirdly curious vibe emanating from the dog. Yet perhaps the most damning fact about it is that it hasn't yelped and fled simply from catching a whiff of her very ragey scent. In any case, she is cagey enough to not affect to immediately notice. She'll saunter out in a oblique fashion, seeming to be glancing everywhere but towards the hound while making her way down the hill. It does carry her vaguely in the same direction as Bites. Even though she doesn't seem to have noticed him.
<OOC> Sundance says, "Mapa. You're happy she didn't notice Bites."
<OOC> Mapa says, "Understood! ;)"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Bites. Your hackles will be up for some reason, and you can't seem to relax."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Sundance, Bites hasn't been relaxed for *hours*"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Fair enough ;)"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "I might have given myself away just by how hard it was for me to pee through my terror-clench."
It will be a little easier to relax, when the scary blonde woman passes by Biter without seeming to notice him! Mapa is so mollified by how things are going, in fact, that she even pads her little hands forward to settle herself into a loaf on the ground. A few moments later, she'll practically slither out from under the bumper of the car-- and sneak right under the one parked in front of it! Her eyes glimmer with delight and mischief, as she watches the brave garou confront the danger.
-
Biter feels it bear down on him like hot cloud. It's a red sky at noon, it's the fire season, it's the return of King Smoke to squat triumphal over Los Angeles. It presses against him, and he realizes what this sensation means:
He's been made.
Two options. You either get out of here, or you kill her, right here, right now. And she doesn't look like an easy target. She looks like *Ashlynn*, she looks like knives flying out of the dark and embedding in your lung while you're scampering through fires. She looks like a knock-down, drag-out fight that ends with one of them crawling away at a limp.
So it's time to get out of here.
Can he lead her away from Mapa? He does the geometry in his head... And then, he starts his slow evasion. Adjusting his pace. Cringing away from the Rage-stench of the Spiral exactly the way that he ought. And then, when he's got a straight away... He's off like a fucking gunshot. You want to catch Running Dog? Good fucking luck.
-
The muscular Spiral will make a sudden snarled sound of anger when the mangy mutt suddenly books it. It is with a surprising alacrity (at least to Mapa), that she'll suddenly shift into an even more lethally muscular, Amazonian shape - her limbs elongating with whipcord sinew, her nails sharpening by half an inch and her hair becoming that much more wild and feral. And then she's racing after him with a curse!
<OOC> Sundance says, "Addison has a job in about watching the border of TB. I'm gonna let him watch, in case Biter gets that far."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "What do you mean, 'in case'? I am -very- fast."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says this while trembling, and crying.
Addison has arrived.
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Hey buddy ol' pal!"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Everything's going great!"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand vomits.
<OOC> Sundance says, "Alright, Bites. Roll Dexterity+Athletics vs 5."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Okay, this one's critical: can I burn a point of Rage to do that _twice?_"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand spends his Rage on productive things, like cowardice.
<OOC> Sundance says, "She has City Running, as well. Sure. She is."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Mutual bookin' it."
+LOSE/+BURN> Bites-The-Hand burns 1 Rage.
-
When Biter turns and flees, Mapa-- freezes. Suddenly, she's alone with the woman! But it doesn't last long. And then she's truly alone. Her little raccoony heart takes off at a gallop in her torso. Her spine tenses and curls as her claws bite into the pavement. She has but a moment to act-- but then she's off after them! Not that she'll be remotely able to keep up, but. She can't help but try to be of aid, and want to know what happens to her friend!
-
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Burning willpower on the evasion check."
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Dexterity + Athletics vs. 5 -> 5 successes. (10 10 9 9 5 4 3 2)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 9 vs. 5 -> 3 successes. (10 10 9 9 6 3 3 1 1)
<OOC> Sundance says, "Roll again for your second Rage action"
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Dexterity + Athletics vs. 5 -> 2 successes. (10 10 4 4 4 3 3 2)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 9 vs. 5 -> 2 successes. (10 9 7 4 4 3 3 2 1)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "So, 6 vs 3, followed by 2 vs 2."
<OOC> Sundance says, "Do you wish to take a chance, and roll Wits+Athletics at Diff 7 vs her diff 6? If you win this, or even if you tie, Bites will be able to make a Stealth check, since he's kept in front of her. That, or you keep running and hope you stretch out the lead to 7+ successes."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Shoulda taken fuckin' Prey Mind sooner. Hrn, her Dex+Athletics is huge, and I bet her Wits+Athletics is comparable. ...No, let's do it anyway. I'll get a sense of her reaction times, if nothing else."
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Wits + Athletics vs. 6 -> 0 successes. (10 8 3 1 1)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 7 vs. 6 -> 5 successes. (10 10 7 7 6 6 1)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Shit."
-
There will be a moment of exhilarating freedom where it seems like Bites is really putting some distance between him and his pursuer. Temple Beaudry is such a ramshackle mess, with hardly anyone living up here anymore...that it seems initially like a doable idea that he can duck down into a gap between a couple of old brick rowhouses.
Bites will subsequently be horrified to discover that there is an old, wrought iron fence between the two rowhouses, making them virtually the only ones on the block that you can't race through. By the time he realizes his mistake...It'll be too late.
The muscular Spiral woman in her feral, Amazonian Glabro form will suddenly fill the alleyway behind him. She croons to him in a distinctly dangerous tone, "Well, look what we have here..."
-
<OOC> Sundance does a couple rolls with Mapa while Biter poses.
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand thinks. o.o' "How tall is the fence?"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Deeply inconvenient though potentially jumpable, with like Hare's Leap or such."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "God dammit. So many Gifts I should have gotten."
<OOC> Sundance says, "So many! You can declare after Mapster poses her little skitter-wiffle."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "How narrow is the alley? Is it potentially possible to get past her or is this a fight-or-die situation?"
<OOC> Sundance says, "It'd be a very tight squeeze. She'd have the advantage for sure."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "...Fuck."
-
Biter skids to a stop, claps against the edge of fence with his shoulder as he pivots, tries to turn in time to get out again, but - fuck, she's faster than he realized. *She's faster than him.* She looks as strong as him, too. His heart thuds in his ears, a pounding terror.
But he was always going to die like this someday. Why not now? ...Well, tomorrow would be so much better.
He doesn't know if he can kill her. But he knows one thing. If he can get his teeth around her throat, they will stay there until she dies.
He turns to her and growls low, rumbling and twisting in to the vast and awful shape of the Hispo. His eyes twist from vivid orange to a twisted gray-brown, and his beard hangs low and shaggy at his jaw. His lips pull back. He fills the entire alleyway. Crinos is too large for this place, but Hispo is, he thinks, just right...
-
It might be a bit surprising, how fast a round, doddling creature like a raccoon can travel when it really needs to! Mapa scrambles after with every ounce of speed her limbs have to lend her. Her little raccoony nose huffs with deep, panicked breaths that thankfully, keep her well on the trail of the big shaggy dog and his unwelcome assailant. The whites of her eyes flash as she keeps them darting around the neighborhood, ever on watch for more surprises in the shadows that rush past her as she sprints.
-
<OOC> Sundance says, "She uses True Fear on Biter."
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 6 + 4 vs. 5 -> 4 successes. (8 8 7 6 6 6 3 2 1 1)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Fuck." He sighs. "Hookay. Let's see if I can wiggle my way out of this one."
-
The Amazonian Spiral waits until the once piteous hound suddenly turns and then begins to twist in the shape of a large, vicious direwolf. That would ordinarily give most creatures pause - even other werewolves. However, the muscular woman will simply respond to that display with a slow, evil smile. It will be enough to make the poor Gnawer recoil back against the wrought iron fence!
She tells him in a low voice, "They're really scraping the bottom of the barrel now, huh?" She then sniffs at him, her nostrils flaring in a primal fashion, "You're a good doggy, aren't you? Mutt-blooded. We don't have many of those, anymore. You...might just be more useful alive than dead." Breeding stock if nothing else. Spirals are more concerned than most Tribes in keeping their Lupus numbers up, given how incredibly useful the four-legged born are.
-
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "There doesn't happen to be anything reflective nearby, does there? o__o'"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Let's see. GIve me a +d10. 9 or 10 and there might be some incredibly convenient broken glass or such."
+D10> Bites-The-Hand rolls 1 D10's: 2
<OOC> Sundance says, "Nope."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Luck is really not with me tonight."
<OOC> Sundance does another roll with Mapa, meanwhile. "Ripley could use a friend down in the Hive!"
-
For a second, he doesn't understand what's happening. A lurch of fear, rocking his gut. He feels... Small. Helpless. Like a puppy in a bag. Here again, small again. Running dog, hiding dog. Like he'd never been touched by the moon at all. Like he was just another stray, another mutt.
For the moment, all he can do is cringe back against the iron. He's strong, but he's not uproot-an-iron-fence strong. He wants to run, he wants to go, he wants to be anywhere but here, but that's what led him here, isn't it? Listening to terror.
But she's stronger than him. She's _stronger_ than him. She's wielding magic he can't touch, she moves with an ease that he can't match, and somehow she's squeezed as much strength as him in to that human frame. And there's no road to the Umbra near. All he can do is wait, and pray for a lucky break. And if he wants her to wait...
Well, villains love to talk.
He shifts in to human, a cringing beast replaced with a cringing mortal. God, look at him. Dregs. Pathetic. "What... What are you talking about? You're not going to kill me?" he mewls, playing for time.
-
<OOC> Sundance says, "Roll Manipulation+Subterfuge vs 6, Bites. ;)"
+LOSE/+BURN> Bites-The-Hand burns 1 Willpower.
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Manipulation + Subterfuge vs. 6 -> 3 successes. (9 9 9 3)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "yESSSSS"
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 6 vs. 6 -> 4 successes. (10 10 9 8 8 1)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Mapa will get a pose, and then absent some kind of lucky break, she's probably gonna jump you." <OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "C'est la guerre."
-
And still, Mapache runs. She runs and runs, as fast as her heart can handle, past cars and alleyways, past houses and bodegas. The pavement wears down her claws, and grates at her paw-pads. But she doesn't stop. The scent of Biter draws her along, through every ounce of her fear, towards something approximating bravery. The trail grows very, very strong, and she can hear the sound of voices in the distance.
She slows, and starts to look around as she scampers along, seeking anything that might help. Trying to come up with some plan, before she turns that corner and finds whatever is she's going to find.
A metallic clang announces Mapa's presence at the end of the fenced off space between the rowhouses. And then another. And another-- and then her shakey hands lose hold of the soda can in her hands, and it goes tumbling to the ground. She snatches it up again, but her wide, terrified eyes stay locked on the wolves.
-
There's just something about the way Bites responds to her, that seems to elicit a knowing grin from the Amazonian Spiral. She lifts her hand and shakes her finger at him - and is just on the verge of making him pay. When there's that...odd little metallic clang coming from behind her.
She'll glance back at the unusual sight of what appears to be a little raccoon clang-clanging away with a soda can. Then dropping and snatching it back up in a panicky fashion.
Perhaps the only prize more appealing than a young lupus would have to be one of Gaia's Chosen. The desecration and destruction of such a rare creature (rare even by werewolf standards) is pretty much a Renown jackpot.
She tells Bites in a dark, raspy voice, "This is your lucky day, kid. But I got your scent. You will see me again." And then? She turns and begins to stride menacingly towards the raccoon.
Even now, Bites will find that the supernatural fear that she had pressed him back with still lingers.
-
<OOC> Mapa whimpers!
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "...Do I like Mapa enough to Frenzy over this? <.<"
<OOC> Sundance says, "You can roll Rage vs 6 if you wish. 4 successes needed to Frenzy. Diff 6 because you had to ask ;)"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand looks to the Wyrm Door, closes his eyes. "Gaia, I ask you so little. But... please. Look away from me, withdraw your goodness from my heart. Wyrmdoor: open."
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Rage vs. 6 -> 5 successes. (10 9 9 8 8)
<OOC> Ghostwalker says, "o.o"
-
A tall figure walks towards someone very small, to hurt her. Someone like a tiny little puppy. And Biter trembles against a boundary he cannot break. An impenetrable wall, unbreakable like canvas to a tiny puppy's teeth.
His pupils shrink to pinpricks and the world becomes enormous and dark and slow. Inside him, a gate opens, and behind it, something awful smiles.
<prayer answered.>
Biter is still paralyzed by fear. He cannot possibly attack.
BITER IS NOT HERE ANYMORE.
An enormous, horrible animal suddenly descends, moving with the ferocity of a pack unto himself, and goes straight for that exposed back.
-
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand is going to Grapple, twisting in to the most vicious form he can as he does. Ideally he closes wolf-teeth around the back of her neck.
<OOC> Sundance says, "Alright."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "I'm not going to get a better shot than a surprise attack while she's turned her back on me. Death or glory."
<OOC> Sundance says, "Won't be an outright surprise attack, since you're still a Garou and she was still aware of you. But you will get a rear attack bonus, which is +2 dice."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Best I can hope for."
+LOSE/+BURN> Bites-The-Hand burns 1 Willpower. +ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Strength + Brawl + 2 vs. 6 -> 5 successes. (9 9 0 7 7 6 6 5 4 4 2 1 1) <OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "6 sx total."
-
When the Amazonian blonde turns to face Mapa, the raccoon's eyes go wide. She freezes in place, save for the fluttering of her ribcage as she takes breath after panicked breath. A moment later, her terror visibly amplifies as her jaw drops open, and her pupils narrow to pinpricks. The Spiral might be proud of the reaction she garners from the gray-furred kami-- at least until she notices the fury of the massive wolf behind her.
In any case, it won't be another moment before Mapa is off like a bolt of lightning. Her can goes tumbling to the ground, to announce a terrible burst of speed, that will inevitably take her scrambling up and over buildings, sprinting along powerlines, and everything else her Blessed body can manage. Whether or not the blonde woman follows her.
-
<OOC> Sundance says, "Let's do inits first. Although I'll let Bite's attack send." +INIT> Scene Initiatives:
Mapa: 17 Ghostwalker: 11 Bites-The-Hand: 10 Sundance: 9
+D10> Sundance rolls 1 D10's: 8
<OOC> Sundance says, "Mapa -> Spiral -> Bites"
<OOC> Sundance says, "She's going to spend 3 Rage."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "I'm going to spend 2 Rage."
<OOC> Mapa says, "Mapa is going to sprint away!"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Her first action will be a Karate-type double spin back towards Bites, in the hopes of knocking him down when he tries to leap at her. This being a spin attack pair of kicks. Do you wish to use a Rage action or two to doge or block these? Her kicks do lethal in Glabro."
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 5 vs. 7 -> 4 successes. (10 9 7 7 3)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 4 vs. 7 -> 2 successes. (9 8 4 2)
<OOC> Sundance says, "Roll Dexterity+Brawl vs 6, twice."
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Dexterity + Brawl vs. 6 -> 5 successes. (10 10 9 9 8 7 4 2 1)
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Dexterity + Brawl vs. 6 -> 4 successes. (10 9 9 9 4 4 4 3 2)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "I'm going to bite her fucking foot off."
<OOC> Sundance says, "You already declared and rolled a grapple, though you rolled it a bit prematurely. If you wish to change actions, I'll allow it, but it'll be at +1 diff."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand thinks. "I can't actually do any -damage- with the first round of a grapple, right?"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Strength damage from a successful grapple."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "I'll bite. I need to use my WITH TEETH damage specialty."
<OOC> Sundance says, "Roll Dexterity+Brawl vs 6"
+LOSE/+BURN> Bites-The-Hand burns 1 Willpower.
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Dexterity + Brawl vs. 6 -> 2 successes. (9 8 7 6 5 2 2 1 1) <OOC> Bites-The-Hand sweats palpably.
<OOC> Sundance says, "She'll use a Rage action to dodge."
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 9 vs. 6 -> 0 successes. (10 10 5 5 4 3 2 1 1)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand sobs in relief.
<OOC> Sundance says, "He bites her! Roll Strength+1+2 vs 6"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Please, wyrm, please!"
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Strength + 1 + 2 vs. 6 -> 6 successes. (10 10 10 7 6 6 6 4 2 1)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 6 vs. 6 -> 1 success. (9 6 3 3 3 1)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "...Jesus christ."
<OOC> Sundance says, "You did 5 aggravated damage to her, your fangs ripping through her leg. The intense pain and savage of the assault will trigger the possibility of her own Frenzy."
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 7 vs. 6 -> 3 successes. (9 7 7 7 4 2 1)
<OOC> Sundance says, "Not quite yet."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Okay. Let's see where this goes."
<OOC> Sundance says, "She has two Rage actions left. She's going to slam her fist into Bites head twice, angrily."
<OOC> Sundance says, "Diff 6 +2 diff for the headshot."
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 9 + -2 vs. 8 -> 2 successes. (9 9 8 7 3 2 1)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 9 + -2 vs. 8 -> 5 successes. (10 9 8 8 8 7 6)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 6 + 1 + 2 vs. 6 -> 5 successes. (10 6 6 6 6 5 3 3 2)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 6 + 4 + 2 vs. 6 -> 4 successes. (10 9 7 6 6 5 5 4 3 3 3 1)
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Stamina vs. 6 -> 2 successes. (9 8 7 4 4 2 1)
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Stamina vs. 6 -> 2 successes. (9 9 6 5 2 2 1)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "2 soak on each."
<OOC> Sundance says, "That's 5 lethal, as the blow from her fists nearly knock one of your eyes out of their socket and leaves one of your ears half torn off from the trauma. Although frenzying, you won't notice much."
<OOC> Sundance says, "New round. Type +d10 for your Initiative."
+D10> Bites-The-Hand rolls 1 D10's: 6
+D10> Sundance rolls 1 D10's: 2
<OOC> Sundance says, "So 13. You go simultaneous."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "I hope Mapa comes back to retrieve my body or this is going to be really confusing for everyone. I'm going to bite her, obviously."
<OOC> Sundance says, "She received a Rage back for taking agg damage. She's spending 3 more Rage, using one to go to Crinos. Roll Dexterity+Brawl vs 5."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Spending 2 Rage."
+LOSE/+BURN> Bites-The-Hand burns 2 Rage.
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Dexterity + Brawl vs. 5 -> 6 successes. (10 9 8 7 5 5 3 3 2)
<OOC> Sundance says, "She's going to block, since her leg is too damage to Dodge again. Using a Rage action for it."
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 9 + -2 vs. 6 -> 2 successes. (7 7 7 6 2 1 1)
<OOC> Sundance says, "You'll bite her again!"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Oh! Right. Can I roll stamina to regenerate a Lethal?"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Vs diff 8, yes."
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Stamina vs. 8 -> 3 successes. (10 10 8 5 3 2 2)
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Okay. Let's just sorta... -snort- that eye back in place..."
<OOC> Sundance says, "Roll Strength+1+2 vs 6"
+ROLL/+DICE> Bites-The-Hand: Strength + 1 + 2 vs. 6 -> 6 successes. (10 10 10 9 8 7 5 4 4 3)
+ROLL/+DICE> Sundance: 7 vs. 6 -> 5 successes. (10 9 9 9 6 4 3)
<OOC> Sundance says, "She'll take one more aggravated. And on her turn, will spend a Willpower for Resist Pain."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "See if I was smart, this is when I would run. But Biter is smart. The teeth are not smart."
<OOC> Sundance says, "She has two choices now. She has a Rage action over you. She can plan to do 3 more damage and drop you. However. She kept her wits about her. And this is all getting very close to the wire, even with the potential of Rage Healing. So, she's going to activate Resist Pain, and then use City Running on her action, to take her right up the side of the building - which is a level 1 Homid Gift that lasts for a scene, and was already activated."
<OOC> Ghostwalker says, "Going full monkey mode to ape on out of there."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Fuckin' homids!!! I gotta get me one of those. So she's bookin' it?"
<OOC> Sundance says, "She booked it to the top of the roof, since she was at 6 Agg, yes. Do you want to give into your berserk fury to try and - with much greater difficulty - following her up to the rooftop where she'll be waiting - or spend a Willpower to pull yourself out of it, now that what triggered your frenzy - Mapa being in danger - seems to be over?"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "...I spent all my willpower on murder. n.n'"
<OOC> Sundance says, "Ah. Well. With 0 Willpower, you'd basically collapse anyways. Be careful about spending to 0, next time. 0 Willpower + 0 Rage is losing the wolf."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand nods.
<OOC> Sundance says, "Bites is at 0 and 1 Rage. So I'm gonna rule this: He'll try and scrabble up, claw and roar at the side of the building - but eventually, exhausted - and with an extremely sore and ringing head - he'll collapse and revert to his breed form. But only because all source of danger and the source of his frenzy is gone. He'll be able to stagger towards the border of Temple Beaudry, where Addison will find him."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Want me to pose it?"
<OOC> Sundance says, "yes please. Then I must sleep ;). You did surprisingly well!"
<OOC> Ghostwalker says, "You did it! Proud of you!"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand did not expect to live through this after he got cornered. ;-;
<OOC> Sundance says, "For a Cliath against a Fostern MMA fighter... You kinda kicked her butt!"
<OOC> Mapa says, "You did great, Biter! :)"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Yeah, MMA fighter versus an attack dog. We know how that's gonna go."
<OOC> Sundance says, "A little Kami-sized, piteous distraction helped too. ;)"
<OOC> Mapa says, "I did my best ;3"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "She saved my life."
<OOC> Ghostwalker says, "What do my el-- Wolf eyes see?"
-
Biter comes back in fits and starts, like floating from a deep well. The world is gone from him, too enormous to fit in his mind. All is darkness, and a dull, rumbling sound, and an ugly metallic flavor in his mouth. His paws hurt. His teeth hurt. There is dust under his claws from where bricks crumbled. Where is he? He's not sure. East. Go east.
Where was he? In the water again? Drowning again?
'i'm so sorry,' said a voice. 'this is for your own good. this world... you should go someplace better.'
And then the water, and the canvas, and the cold.
But he didn't want to go someplace better. He wanted to be here. And here he is, still, staggering up on to the shore of a river of wheels and traffic. There's lights. He's bigger this time. But it's a familiar sensation, an old pain back again.
-
A sleek body stalks along the edge of the freeway. Slender and long-legged like a greyhound and short furred. Miserable in his own way, this was a creature that only existed in the blood of Garou. Extinct in the wild. Endangered species in the 'captivity' of thinning bloodlines. Even the apes only see him as that huge coyote. In this way he walks like a Ghost. The cars and their drivers do not see him. In this way he is like a Ghost. He treads ground next to this cursed and haunted part of the city. In this way he is also like a Ghost.
Ghostwalker lifts his lean muzzle to the wind. On the air of city stench he catches a smell. Familiar blood. Familiar where?
A picture enters his mind. Training room blood on the floor. -Clean up after yourself-.... Images flicker across his mind. Scent was the most powerful stimulus of memories. His heart skips a beat.
There was also the smell of unfamiliar blood. Danger. Ghostwalker turns his snout towards the wind, slinking so carefully. They hadn't spotted him, yet. Please not tonight! He tries not to hurry himself when he sees the body on the ground even though his instincts scream at him otherwise. The Uktena knows the Betrayers love to use friends as bait.
With silvered eyeshine he peers into the the tangled husk of Temple-Beaudry, head bobbing in the dark. He can see no others and then scampers quickly to Biter's crumpled body on the ground, sniffing at the Bone Gnawer's injuries. He would have to carry him to safety. Lupus was no good for this...
-
Biter is wavering in out of consciousness. The blows to his head were like getting creamed with a baseball bat. His brain is bruised, swelling. If he were mortal, he would be dying. As it is, he's unable to do more than gurgle incoherent, soft whines, making little kicking motions like he's trying to swim.
-
<OOC> Sundance says, "You're safe now ;)"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Oh, I made it out of Temple, I - think? Which means maybe your cover won't be blown, I hope XD AT LEAST SOMEONE HERE CAN SNEAK"
<OOC> Sundance says, "You made it right to the border. And his cover won't be blown. You did 6 agg to the Spiral, which meant it was Resist Pain -> Parkour to safety time. She would've kept fighting had she frenzied."
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "Then it probably would've been a mutual kill. Not the -worst- way for an Ahroun to go out, but... ...Being alive is way better. I want to be *here*, not someplace better."
<OOC> Sundance says, "It tis. I gave you and Mapa noms, too."
<OOC> Ghostwalker says, "Y'all did great"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand sobs a little. "I'm alive!!!"
<OOC> Sundance says, "I must sleep! I'll idle here to continue monitoring, if you guys wish to continue."
<OOC> Sundance says, "You'll get a discount on your next Glory purchase, Bites ;)"
<OOC> Bites-The-Hand says, "YES"
-
It won't be very long before Mapa realizes she isn't being followed, but she keeps running nonetheless. Her path will take her in as direct a line as she can manage towards garou territory. Eventually, her path will take her off of the powerlines and down from the rooftops of the impoverished houses.
She doesn't stop running once her paws find the cold ground again. In her anxiety, she'll keep sprinting for as long as she can manage, and only pause to catch the faintest of breaths before continuing. She has no idea if Biter made it. And someone has to know what happened tonight, so she runs for the only place she knows to find his kind.
The dread in her heart will be answered to, when she comes scrambling around the corner of an alley-- and nearly tumbles head over tail as she comes to an immediate halt, as her terrified eyes take in the sight of Biter's crumpled form, and the unfamiliar canid stooped over him. She skulks into the shadows, even though she has no chance of not being noticed, with how she was running, and peeks out, before hesitantly approaching.
-
Ghostwalker's body language when he notices movement is at first started. He bristles like a cat! But wait-- No. That's not a Spiral. Too small. Lumpy! Large dark eyes stare at the raccoon. Not prey. The wolf's head bobbing back and forth crudely articulates something along the lines of... <It baby...>
-
Mapa halts, and comes up onto her haunches to sniff at the air, when she's addressed. She'll come back down onto all fours after a moment, then pad a little closer, before settling herself down into a loaf on the pavement by Biter's head. She cranes her neck forward and takes a sniff at her friend, just to make sure he smells, you know. Like he'll survive. Once so mollified, she settles back down, and lets the adrenaline slip from her veins. A soft chirping noise rushes from her throat as she looks up at Ghostwalker, then lays her head on the pavement. << I baby... >>
-
