2021-06-10 Touching Moments
Touching Moments
Participants: Karner Esther Will Cheree
Storyteller: Saoirse
Location: Karner's Garage
Date and Time: June 10, 2021 12:00 am (midnight-ish)
Summary: Further investigation to the car accident outside the art gallery, the four start to examine the other four paintings that were recovered from the scene. Using mundane and supernatural means, they are peeling back what appears to be an ordinary accident and something much more sinister.
It's been a couple of evenings since the 'accident' that took place in the Arts District. Four pieces of artwork were recovered from the scene. They vary in style and skill, but apparently all belonged to an artist known as Diego Garcia. The four pieces of artwork have been handled with care, so as to not disrupt their features or any information that they may hold. The four works of art are:
Drawing of a girl 1 success
The artist is drawing in two dimensions. While the sketch appears to have the basics down of the womanly shape. It looks as if it's almost out of a coloring book. The black and white sketch was done in black ink. (OOC: Given the difference between the 'Back Alleyway by the Warehouse' painting, this looks to be a drawing from when he first started to learn to draw/paint. From a collector's point of view, it's one of those "rare" items - like a rookie baseball card of some famous athlete).
Sketch of 'The Egyptian Building' 2 successes
This is a pencil sketch of the Temple of Abu Simbel. The four "colossal" statues of Ramesses II are drawn with relative percision, even with the statue that's to the immediate left of the entrance and the damage it suffered during an earthquake. This sketch is an exercise in how shading and coloring is done. The fine details of the carvings, and how the softened details caused by exposure to the elements or destruction from an earthquake are quite noticable.
Sketch of a girl 3 successes
A hispanic woman in a desirable two piece bathing suit. The contrast between the dark fabric of the bikini and the gentle sun-kissed skin tones of the woman and the use of shading to seperate the woman's presence as she drapes herself on a rocky outcrop highlights the skill of the artist. He captures the expression of puppy love in the woman as she enjoys some time at the beach. The recipient of that puppy love must be whomever she's looking at. (OOC: In the previous session, I said that there was a painting where the girl looked almost 3-D. This is that piece of artwork.)
Painting of 'an angel' 4 successes
In the center of the painting, there's a dark feminine shape. Her curves touch upon the classic 'bombshell' hourglass figure. Even with the black on black painting, the basic outline of the non-descript woman's features can be seen. An observant eye would notice that the texture in the painting even depicts an Asian dragon tattoo coiling aroung the left side of her body. The silhouette of the feminine figure stands in front of the Angel City Brewery sign at the front of the brewery, though the positioning of the silhouette blocks out the wording of the sign. Only the wings, which are illuminated with yellow neon tubes, are completely visible from the sign. The perspective that this gives is that the dark feminine silhouette has the wings of an angel.
Painting of 'Back Alleyway by the Warehouse' 7 successes
The dark dreary colors dominate the alleyway. A fire escape in the upper right hand corner of the painting blocks the view of the Hollywood lights, giving the impression that the viewer is in a cage or imprisoned in the downtrodded urban area. There is a 'bright spot' to the painting, centered upon the canvas. Graffiti done with spectacular and eye catching colors, hinting at growth and perhaps some relief from the dreariness of the slums. Unfortunately, there are two dumpster bins blocking the complete view of the graffiti artwork. One of those dumpster bins is overflowing with trash, refuge, and other garbage. Upon closer examination of the garbage, there is a non-description person sleeping or passed out on some of the garbage, as if that is the maximum comfort that they will ever find. The sleeping individual still clings to an empty bottle of alcohol, and has their back to the colorful artwork.
Karner definitely didn't invite anyone over to help with this. Why? Because, frankly...he doesn't need anyone's help. But if Esther and Cheree browbeat their way here, he'd probably let them, because he doesn't hate them. He might even like them! He has all the paintings set up in the well-lit garage, away from his many black surprisingly boring black sedans and one pristine blue 1965 Jaguar E-type that he's been known to drive around town. Because this space has gallery lights, he's actually positioned them to fall on each of the paintings. Karner wears a muted silver turtleneck tucked into black pinstriped pants, with a chain belt lassoed jauntily around his hips. His creeper-like shoes are also muted silver. He wears a pair of silver-rimmed, oval glasses with deep blue lenses. Because this is still important, people.
Esther was definitely hard to get off the case, when she wanted to be. Without the space to take the paintings on her own, she'd instead insisted that Karner allow her to investigate them. And Cheree? Well... She was also around. Esther lead her in as if she were one of those dogs women keep in their purses. Not really worth mentioning. She sits on the hood of the Jaguar with a confidence borne of experience. She's sat on the hood of this paricular make and model before.
"So, I hate that one," Esther points to the drawing of a girl, "And that one," the sketch of a girl. "But the others are pretty good. And I think this one-" Esther gestures with her nails, hand circling the painting of the bombshell at the brewery, "Might even have me in it. I mean, not to sound... Arrogant."
"Did we have a therapy session today?"
Will comes here for 'therapy'. At least, that's what he calls it, as a joke. And so, after being escorted deep into the grounds of Karner's enclave -- deeper than he's ever been -- that's the first thing he asks the man of the house, the legendary Karner Blue. The handsome Ventrue extends his hand with a dazzling smile, his motion respectful, businesslike, but the attitude given by the young Lord to Karner Blue stipulates that they are indeed friends; at least, he considers them to be so.
When Cheree enters, it's at the side of Esther. She's not holding hands or snuggled up against Esther right now, at least. She's dressed in... some kind of 1980s throwback goth style. A long black skirt, industrial platform boots, a sleeveless turtleneck top, a spiderweb-gauzy off-the-shoulder thing with bilious sleeves, a riveted belt, blah blah blah blah. "...I think Daddy liked you, actually," Cheree is murmuring to Esther as they enter. "He didn't say anything rude about your navel ring. I was really impressed." Then Esther's off to sit on cars, and Cheree to stand next to cars. "I guess I can see it," she says.
"Esther," Karner snaps. "Get off the roof of that car before you dent it." He might say that on any of his cars -- but especially /that/ one. "Now, if you'd like to sit /in/ it, be my guest." It's a convertible, too, so she could probably get the roof down. He gives Will a grin and a shake as he makes his way in. "Perhaps later, Will. For now, we're going to dive deeper into these paintings we recovered the other night."
Karner then looks between the three of them, folding his arms. "Alright. Which of you possess the power to see beyond?" By which he probably means Auspex; he's clearly including himself in that, and he looks at Esther like he already knows she has it, too."
"Yes, sir."
It's then when Will follows after the elder Ventrue Primogen -- er -- the elder *Malkavian* Primgoen, without much of a second thought. Steel-blue eyes look from car to car, object to object, clearly impressed by the tangible display of vast wealth and excess. "Hey, Cheree. Esther." He states, an equally friendly tone to the two of them.
Esther's answer comes with a tongue stuck out of her mouth. Hips wiggling, pressing herself against the hood of the car for a moment. Then she's back to her feet, heels giving a little click against the floor of the garage. Her fingers giving a little, wiggling wave to Will as she takes a step toward the hung paintings
"If no one else can see through them, I mean. I can make an attempt. But it's always... A Little difficult," she says, filled with false modesty.
"Um." Cheree raises her hand. "A little." She offers a tiny, weak smile. "Not much. A little." She lowers her hand, and then runs her tongue over her teeth. "But I managed a boutique publisher of art monographs for, like, six months."
"You and I, Rosewaffer, obviously," Karner says with a smirk, which grows a little more pleased as she finally gets off his beautiful car. He gives Cheree a thorough once-over. "Mm. Alright, darling. What about you, Will?" His guess for Will is...probably not, but he's polite enough to ask. Also he probably likes being called 'sir.'
"I'll dominate those paintings; I'll make them do whatever you like."
Obviously not. Will smiles bright at Karner, though -- his smile encouraging the Primogen to utilize his inner strengths! You can do it, Primogen Blue! Go blue go! etc etc.
In short, he's totally useless right now. But man, is he happy.
Esther is already to move on. She doesn't wait for an OK- these are as much her paintings as Karner's, after all. Maybe more so. The Maddness had drawn her to them. Karner had just... Stopped when he'd spotted her nearby. She steps up first to the painting of the bombshell and the brewery. Assuming that would be the easiest one to read. Her little finger extended, reaching out to lay on the canvas.
As Esther touches the painting of the Angel City Brewery... you can feel as if you're Diego Garcia. This darkened figure that you can tell is obviously a woman. He seems that this woman saved him from a purposeless life. That he was going to get washed away in the streets - a forgotten person, another statistic. But this woman gave him purpose. You can see him reach out to this woman with his right hand... upon his arm, you see more of that tattoo sleeve. A distinct piece of the many differnt tats that make up the sleeve - a dung beetle. It's wings are outstretched, and the mandiables are attempting to eat or devour an orb... in the orb, it's his own flesh - devoid of all tattoo work. It's as if it's the pure version of himself.'.
As the young Ventrue looks over at the Egyptian building, he squints. Will studies it for a period of time -- one doesn't need any degree of empathy to see he clearly sees something, something atypical and out of the ordinary. "There was a planned restaurant for Egyptian food.. owned by Farou Foods, I think I remember reading about it in the Journal." He continues to look over it for a few moments. "Building costs went way over budget, they wanted it to be a real Egyptian temple. Funding ran out, it's never been finished -- I think a lot of tourist go and take pictures of it. Up in, uh.. Chino Hills."
He pulls back after saying all that, and looks at Karner, lifting one shoulder in a shrug and saying 'hmm'.
As Karner reaches out into the picture of the girl... here, you find yourself on El Matador State Beach. You, as Diego Garcia, are looking at a lovely young Hispanic girl. She has the eyes of a lover, looking back at you. She has draped herself over the rocks in an attempt at a sexy pose. There is a feeling of love and innocence between the two, though obviously... you can feel that he's using his 'new found' artistry skills as a means to 'woo' this girl. The whole 'Titanic' - "draw me like one of those French girls" type moments.'.
Karner, meanwhile, heads over to the 'sketch of a girl,' the one that looks almost 3D. He closes his eyes as he presses his hand to the painting, going into a deep trance for a moment before he comes out again. He doesn't immediately share whatever it is he's seen, however, instead looking to the others -- to Will first, since he said something. "An Egyptian temple?" Karner clucks his tongue. "Remember what I told you about the 'hidden' word found in the gallery? Do you know who else I knew here who wanted to build an Egyptian temple?" He sounds almost bored, like: who else would it have been? "Theodore LeRoy, of course." That is, recently deceased Setite Theo.
Cheree rests her hands on her hips as she looks at the 'rookie' drawing by Mr. Garcia. She stares at it for a long time, her expression a bit slack and dull. Like she's trying to will the drawing to talk to her, and it's just not happening. "...for such a rough, early work," Cheree muses aloud, "he has a... very assured hand. He must have had some kind of formal education -- maybe not much of it, whenever he drew this, but certainly /some/. I've /seen/ the things that /true/ amateurs produce, and this isn't that."
"Huh," is Esther's answer to all of this. Stepping back from the painting. Arms crossed beneath her chest. Pink lips pressing together tightly at the corner of her face. Uncertain about what should happen next. "So. There's some sort of savior figure at the brewery. And some sort of link with an old Egyptian themed bar that never got off the ground?" She gives a little sigh, "Well. That's... Not nothing. But I'm not sure how it makes sense, yet."
"I see."
William says to Karner, sticking his hands behind his back. He's looking from painting to painting, trying to find any sort of detail that he might know about, but the others won't. He's smiling -- and while he's always typically smiling, he's -extremely- happy tonight, for some reason or another. Nothing at all is said on it, however, not yet.
"As for this sketch," and Karner gestures to the one he was just investigating, "This was at El Matador State Beach. Mister Garcia was attempting to woo this girl via his artistic skills." He glances at the others. "Did someone somehow bequeath Garcia with this artistic ability, I wonder?
"Huh," Esther repeats. She steps back. Leaning against Karner's Jaguar. Her weight very carefully set, after years of practice on seat. Looking like she's doing one thing, when in fact, she's being careful not to break a delicate piece of scenery. Frown moving from one corner of her face to the other. "Huh. It's something to do with with Serpents..." she says. Nails tapping against her bare arm. "A lot of symbolism floating around. Which isn't... Super promising."
"Still think the Setites aren't involved?" Will asks Karner, as if he's unable to make up his own mind about it. There are some true Egyptfiles out there: people who genuinely love Egyptian culture and everything involved in it, that have nothing to do with the Followers of Set.
Cheree walks over to the painting of the temple in Chino Hills. She purses her lips and narrows her eyes slightly as she considers it. "This looks familiar," she says. "I've /seen/ this before." She reaches up and scratches her cheek, continuing to stare. Then, suddenly, Cheree moves to grab her phone. "Wait! Wait wait wait!" she squeaks. She's using both thumbs to type. "Look at this! The temple in the painting, it looks /so much/ like the Temple of Abu Simbel!" Cheree pulls up a picture of the 13th-century Egyptian temple on her phone and holds it up for anyone who wants to see. "It's in Egypt, and it's on the western bank of Lake Nasser, in this area that also has this, like, Setite temple..." Cheree pauses. "I mean. So I've heard. Here and there."
"Anyway," Cheree continues, "I watched this thing once about how, like, these Polish guys had to move the entire temple because otherwise it would have been flooded out when they built..." She just goes on like this until someone makes her stop.
The GM adds to Cheree's ramblings is that when these people moved the temple's front, they dared not try to reassemble the face of the statue that was damaged by an earthquake. Instead, they made sure that the replica would have the fallen pieces in the exact place where it fell. Meticulous to no end. (Sorry, I thought that was fascinating).
"I didn't say they weren't," Karner tells Will. It's entirely possible he /did/ say that, but he doesn't seem to care. Then he nods at Cheree. "Yes, darling. That's exactly what it is. Coupled with all the serpent imagery...well." He hmms to himself and glances at Esther. "We could 'look' at the other paintings, I suppose." He goes to the sketch of the temple next, once more placing his hand upon it and closing his eyes, not that anyone can tell given that he's wearing sunglasses.
Esther, meanwhile, moves to the final painting. The advanced-amateur drawing of a woman. Maybe it would reveal something more? A primal source of the inspiration here?
As Karner finds himself in this sketch, you hear a woman's voice speaking to Diego. "Be sure to capture the essence of Ramesses's presence. Each statue is of him. Yet each statue is different. Indulge in his indulgance. Capture the richness of the pharaoh. And you will open yourself up to the same riches..."'.
Cheree looks over at Will while the other two do their Auspexly business. "...I sent Miss LaMuerte the message," she murmurs softly, but not softly enough.
"Thanks, Cheree." A kind smile is flashed her way from the middle-aged man, "..also tell her I think she's beautiful. Please." The damned things Ventrue ask each other to do for them. Will pleads, with a smile on his face.
As Esther delves into the painting, you basically see Diego learning how to draw... or honing his basic skills at... the Angel City Brewery. A workshop that they had there.'.
"Sure," Cheree says. She takes her phone, and pretends to type on it. "'Dear Miss LaMuerte. Mister Leos is craven and shameless in seeking to prove that he's desperate. I hope that you don't already own a dog.'"
Esther steps back from the simplest of the works. Her arms cross her bare stomach again. "Whoever this woman was, or whoever that woman was," she gestures toward the more skilled painting, "He met him at the brewery. They have... Maybe a community art class? Or something. But we could probably go back there and find the teacher."
Karner opens his eyes, and turns and gives Cheree a long look. "Remind me to ask you about that later," he says, then continues. "I suspect...that a female Setite seduced young Diego. I don't know for sure, but that's the impression I have. There was a woman, an important woman, who 'opened his eyes,' so to speak, and I think this same woman told him: 'Be sure to capture the essence of Ramesses's presence. Each statue is of him. Yet each statue is different. Indulge in his indulgance. Capture the richness of the pharaoh. And you will open yourself up to the same riches...'"
"Thanks." Will's tone of voice is completely sarcastic, but doesn't press the issue further. He looks to Esther as she speaks, then to Karner. "I have no idea how you got any of that from the painting; but I never got into art."
Cheree bites her bottom lip. "Er, of course, Karner," she says. No 'Primogen Blue' at the moment! It does make her stop dunking on Will. "You should get into art, Will. It's an incredibly efficient way to hide your assets. It's practically a necessity in modern wealth management." Cheree moves over to stand next to Esther, seeming to teeter on the brink of leaning in against the taller blonde. She listens to Karner recite what the woman told Garcia, and she almost shivers. "Creepy. God. Setites are so creepy."
"If the Setite woman gave him this talent, then why did he throw these paintings away?" Will asks, seriously, the idea coming to him while he was mid-thought thinking about Mariella, no doubt. "And what's up with the word 'Fraud' that was on the car?"
Esther looks over her shoulder, back at the rest, "Because they were personal. They were... A revelation. To him. About him. The idea that they might be shown to someone other than his muse... It was too much for him. Maybe," she answers, eyes turning back toward the paintings. "He wasn't trying to sell his work. He was trying to prove his love."
"It's the power of Sight, Will," is how Karner explains that to the young Ventrue. He looks from Cheree to Will and Esther. "I suspect that's true. Or perhaps...his work was meant for her, and for /them/. Not for the public."
Cheree kind of bullies her way into tucking herself under Esther's arm. "Could the paintings have, I don't know, ritual significance? I don't know how Setites do their weird, creepy stuff." She leans her head against Esther. "Like... foci, or... is that the right word? Foci?"
"Maybe." He considers all the applications, but comes up short rather than that revelation. Will just puts a hand over his mouth, studying each painting intently -- trying to see something that wouldn't be obvious to all others.
"We should find out when this class is. Maybe learn something about the teacher," Esther says, as she sets her arm around Cheree's shoulders. Giving the girl a little squeeze. "She might know more. Or maybe be able to help us track down the artist before he pulls any other stunts."
"Yes, they might," Karner muses. He glances to Esther and nods faintly. "Perhaps both courses of action would be helpful. If, indeed, this is worth getting involved in at all." He sounds like he's not entirely sure. "Is this truly a threat to the Praxis? I suppose it remains to be seen."
Will chimes in, and quickly, "... Or just go talk to the art curator since she recovered the paintings from a dumpster -- probably outside where he lived, or relatively close?" A pause, "..maybe one of the local homeless might have seen something?"
Cheree leans into the gentle squeeze. Her hand rests on Esther's back. It's a comfortable positioning by now. The two of them have, through practice, found the perfect equilibrium of stances. "...I mean, if there's a Setite running around..." Cheree looks to Karner. "Getting the snakes out of the grass is always good for points from the Tower. Might go a ways toward convincing any fence-sitters that Karner Blue is on their side?"
The blond looks over her shoulder, eyebrows lifting. "It's always good to know what's going on outside the Praxis," she says, "Whether or not it gets back to anyone else."
Karner gives Cheree an indulgent smile. "Your faith in that possibility is heart-warming, darling." Perhaps he's less certain, although it's hard to argue that this is worth looking into. "All right. Well, we'd best continue the investigation, then. I suppose you're involved in this now as well, Cheree."
Cheree's smile brightens as Karner declares her to be officially 'involved.' It clearly makes her feel special. "I'm here to help," she purrs, and sounds rather proud of it. "Will, what if you infiltrate the art class as a model? I think it pays, like, fifty whole bucks, and you only have to be naked for an hour..."
"Cheree, I'm a Christian," Will responds quickly, "..I don't want to incite lust in the art students. It's a sin." And with that, he'll continue doing nothing until it's time to go home.
