Anarchy Rising Book 2: A Hunted Wasteland

Anarchy Rising: A Hunted Wasteland
Date: It is 6 months after the event of book 1, making it a little over 20 years since the height of the wars which shattered society.
Current day: December 20th, day break with a steady rain and temperatures at 39 degrees F
Background on past 6 months and current state of things : https://rpbastion.forumotion.com/t65-anarchy-rising-book-2-a-hunted-wasteland#13083

Approved characters:

Graveyard: (dead characters)
(Currently no one has died)

First posts: for everyone’s first post please give your location, a brief summary of where you have been and what you did during the last 6 months, then feel free to explore your surroundings. This books plot must be uncovered by the players I will not spoon feed you it.

Maps: (incoming soon)

reserved

reserved

The sun briefly broke through the overcast, later to be hidden completely by the clouds, and splayed red shafts of light through the holes in the rubble, shadow-puppets of twisted corpses and metal danced as the orange globe slowly clawed its way up the horizon like a tired climber desperately clinging to a cliff for dear life. The various beings of the night faded into darkness, yellow eyes disappearing into the shadows beneath the city. Life stirred, the first yawns echoed out into the bleak emptiness of the grey wasteland, people from all steps of life rose and took to wandering the streets, some held creed, some called upon loyalties, some sought something, most simply wished to survive. Day to day activities began late and were taken slowly, the cold and the constant rain dampening everyone's initiative. No one traveled alone. It was a simple rule, and those who did not follow did not last.
Paradoxically, a lone shadow stretched across the landscape, emanating from a single figure atop a dilapidated building. A grey cloak, tattered beyond recognition wrapped itself haphazardly around the man, his ancient boots shirt and pants were all bland pallets of brown. The skin of his hands and face was tight, pale and scarred, and the greying hair pulled into a hasty ponytail made him look like a recently made corpse if he didn't seem so drained of blood. The eyes were what the only feature that would draw anyone elses', as they were still bright orange, sharp, cold, and alive.
His mouth was drawn into an eternal frown, giving no real message about his thoughts. But the eyes spoke true. They too frowned, giving the city the same look a disappointed father has when looking upon a failed child, blaming half them, half himself. His mouth moved slightly, something you would have to be very close to see, and even closer to hear the muttered words. "Everything was done.. I can offer this place nothing more." The sky darkened once more as the sun drifted into the thick bed of clouds, the rain and shadows gripping the world once more in their icy claws. Creatures of darkness stirred as did the living, and a world lay open to whoever wished to explore it, or what was left of it.

Chrys

It was another new day. Another moment passed before she was able to locate her pack. Chrys trodded on with a determined face, Ray at her side. It was a rather cold day and small drizzle was rolling down her cheeks, Chrys completely oblivious of it. Her clothes were already soaked, though it was o particular trouble to a weretigress, despite her currently human form. Ray, on the other hand, was wearing a waterproof oiled leather poncho over his garments. He watched his friend with a slightly worried expression. Experience taught him not to show more. Should Chrys notice, she would put up a forcefully cheerful front, and should Carlos notice, there would be no end to stupid mocking. And so the small group walked on, towards the library and Anansi's fiefdom.

Six months have already passed since the events on the yacht. The young weretigress never would have expected what their bout with the nephilim would result in. The city had changed. However, she did not care nearly as much as she would have if she lost no one close in those days. The Lycan Confederation was gone. Her parents were, too. Along with several other members of her pack. That was what mattered most, what occupied her thoughts constantly. She spent the last six months travelling from fiefdom to fiefdom in search of her family. For some reason, Carlos and Selena decided to stick with her and Ray. She did not complain; if she learnt anything about the duo during their time together, it was that they got things done. Ray, despite his personal distrust of the trigger-happy complainer, also appreciated the value of his presence, particularly considering Chrys's mental state.

Not that she didn't have easy-going, happy moments. They just were much rarer and shorter, usually ending with the sudden recollection of her situation. Ray was aware of the fact that he was her haven in this new world. And that only made him more determined to become strong enough to protect her. It was his idea to visit Anansi; they've been running into walls, unable to find even a trace of a clue about the Blythes'. The spider god was reputed to hoard information. At this point, if he didn't know anything, there was no one who would. And so the party of three lycans and a human travelled to his domain at the break of a new day shortly before Christmas.

Jasmine

The dawn arrived. Jasmine pulled the top hat lower over her eyes and crouched her shoulders against the rain. Luckily, the cape was enough to protect her from it. The former Palace of Fine Arts was already within sight. She and Zhi were currently circling the lake in front of the palace, but they were soon to arrive at the garden decorated with antique pillars. She could not wait to be under the roof for once. Coyote's fiefdom, the last domain where she and Zhi spent a few weeks, wasn't a bad place, but it was time for a change. There was a limited amount of acrobatic and magic tricks she could do, and Coyte got on one's nerves after a while. The journey was rather long, but they made it overnight with a few tricks, the most notable one being Jasmine's invisibility and quickness on her feet. She didn't talk much to Zhi. She never did. However, she got somehow used to his presence and didn't try to drive him away, either. Simply said, she didn't mind him, and occasionally she even listened to his suggestions. She looked up at the impressive building on the other side of the lake. Hopefully, it would be a fun place to spend some time and get some refreshments.

Zhi

The human male had been traveling along with the vampire for the past couple of months, moving from one territory to the other. They had a friendly relationship even though they mostly just did their own thing and stuck together for convenience sake, it was a logical and mutually advantageous deal and since their personality's were somewhat similar they didn't mind eachothers presence.

Now as their next destination was the ancient greek god of wine territory zhi was wondering how the place was like, sure he heard some rumors, but sometimes you just have to see things with your own two eyes.

Zack

Unfortunately for the young vampire, he had missed the events on the boat, though as if in spite, he had raised his death quota "as not to fall behind", which was weird as he had no knowledge of the boat and the events that unfolded within, one might say it was simply his killer instinct giving him a feeling as if someone was trying to usurp his title for mass murder #1.

The past 6 months were spent as usual for zack and company, slaughter and chaos whenever he had the chance, and if no chance would present itself, then he would make one. Most of the time he spent with winters band of psychos, truly a place which he could call home... a disturbingly bloody and gore filled home, but home nonetheless. Rarely he would venture off to treasure island to meet with the demons about something that needed killing, some nonsense about the previous contract he made, though he didn't care as long as there was killing to be done, he would happily oblige.

Curently zack and his two "brothers" were hanging around winter's "camp" waiting for the next thing to kill.

Carlos and Selena

The past 6 months have been somewhat peaceful for the small lycan group, even taking into consideration Carlos' trigger happy ways, the two older lycans sticking around with the kids for no real reason other then not really having anything better to do.

As usual currently, they were searching for chrys' family, both carlos and selena thinking it was pointless and that they were mostly likely dead, though neither ever voicing it out loud, probably because carlos was to busy shooting at things and selena teasing him which ended up in more chaos, especially during the full moon when Carlos' natural hot bloodness got amplified by the lycan curse.

They weren't far off from the spider's domain, when some strange dust fell from the sky infront of them before a man emerged from within it greeting them in what appeared to be a confused tone.
Without any delay Carlos casually retorted a "hi" as he shot him twice in the chest, though not in his vitals as this was afterall just a "greeting".

Vela

It’s been 6 months since Vela decided to travel with Faust and Zhi and now here she was, a vampire that was bound by some sort of blood pact.  In these past 6 months she had decided to practice with Katrina since she was still mediocre at using her powers, but now it was about time she left Sain and Katrina for the time being. She had other things she needed to do.

Vela’s eyes slowly drifted up in the distance, as she put her hand above her eyes noticing the glowing sun that used to make her feel so refreshed now made her feel horribly uncomfortable.  But, Vela wasn’t looking at the sun; she was looking at a black raven who was returning from a journey towards Vela’s old home.

“Hey radiant…” Vela muttered with a smile, transferred the life energy into her mind to process the information that radiant had gathered.  Though, it seems radiant was stopped short some time ago, supposedly from one of those power hungry folks that have been building territory in these past few months.

“Guess we’ll have to check out my old place ourselves hu?  I hope it hasn’t been destroyed from those other folks yet…” Vela said to the raven in a sullen tone, as the bird jerked its head slightly to the left like it was curious what Vela was talking about but didn’t understand her.

“You’re not that great of company….” Vela stated with a sigh, as the two continued to walk through the city in a quietly to avoid drawing too much attention to herself.

Ember

Ember had been traveling for the past 6 months as she evaded the radical ex-exorcists and ex-soldiers who now occupied the citadel.  Originally, she was trying to figure more out about Stein, but every time she caught a straggler or enemy she only received more and more grim news about what had happened to him and her father.

“What the hell am I supposed to do…?” Ember stated, as she held a strange box in her hands with heavy dark circles under her eyes, the same strange box that Stein had given her before they went on the mission a long time ago.  Ember was obviously fatigued, but at the same time she held this aura about her that showed she wasn’t even close to falling down, almost like she was forcing herself to stay awake.

“Do you see anyone Faust?” Ember called out to the exorcist, as he was watching on top of the building they were laying low in for the time being from Stein’s forces.  Though, he’s always seemed distant ever since they were on the run, never like him anymore for some odd reason.

Sain

“Those barons are really starting to get on my nerves...” Sain stated in annoyance, as he slammed down on one of the tables of the run down underground building they were in.  His old clothes were now covered in thick vines that leached around his armor, and Sain was less paranoid now but more so he just seemed really infuriated.

“We need to do something, they’re just taking everything like they own the place, and I’d rather not be one of their thick-skulled subordinates.” Sain stated in an annoyed voice, as he looked up at Katrina with his rage soon fading.  Even though he had been annoyed lately, posing to get too emotional around her would make him regret it soon enough.

“Anyways, have you seen Vela?” Sain muttered briefly, as he scanned around the room to see was around, but the room remained silent without the younger vampire anywhere in sight.

Katarina

Sain's fist slam into the table disturbed Kat who was sitting on a chair with her legs on the table. Recently sain had been a bit on the edge but atleast he wasn't second guessing himself every second. Despite the fact that she approved of the sain with a backbone, letting yourself overcome with emotion was also a fatal flaw, something she learned the hard way thanks to baal, her hatred for him still present even after the boat events, atleast he didn't show up at all during the last six months.

"So what do you suggest, you're going to take over and become a baron yourself? that should be fun to see... though i actually wouldn't mind it, would atleast have a better place then these run down buildings we keep finding." Kat's voice filled with her usual part sarcastic, part arrogant tone. Despite her harsh comment, she also didn't like the barons as she prefered dooing her own thing without having someone breath down her neck.

"Anyway, maybe we should head over to coyote's place for a while... or the drunk god, and then there's always william if we feel like rejoining a coven." Katarina suggested they head over to a "civilised" part, putting coyote as pick number#1 since he seemed like the least amount of hassle and most freedom. Dyonisus was also options but there is such a thing as to much, sure she was all for having a good time, but there needs to be some restraint as well. William and the other vampires was presented as an option simply because they were vampires, though she didn't really feel like joining up with a coven again just to get dragged into a senseless power strugle.

"Missing your little girlfriend, finally decided to accept my offer and have me tell her to sleep with you?" Kat joked making fun of sain as was her habbit, though one that decreased quite a bit over the past few months as sain got stronger, since she started treating him more like an equal then a servant, but of course she was still the elder one, plus her personality wouldn't allow her to give up on all the fun.

Truth was, she had no idea where Vela was, but thanks to the pact she could also order her back.Not really having anything better to do, Katarina started playing with her powers as blood seemed to fly out of the red t-shirt she was wearing under the jacket. The t-shirt, was made completely out of blood, thanks to her powers, as she wore it as a sort of chainmail vest, plus it was also more comfterable to wear it then drag it around in the form of a weapon. The blood would hover into a small ball just above her index finger before following the movements of the finger, leaving a trail behind, Katarina was actually "writing" on air with the help of blood. Despite that what she was writting was either nonsense or simply making fun of sain, it served to help her improve her control.

Faust

The last couple of months haven't been exactly easy on faust, first his save heaven had been destroyed and taken over by extremists and as a bonus, the city was even worse then before thanks to the power balance crumbling, warlords popping up all over the place before being swatted away like flies by their successor which met with the same fate as the cycle kept repeating over and over. Despite the fact that recently the power balance had atleast started to stabilize thanks to these so called barons, there was no telling when history would repeat itself.

As he was staring blankly into the distance, ember shouting out snapped him out of the daze. Faust was still traveling with Ember but wasn't sure why exactly, sure at first it made sense since it beat being alone and she was trustworthy, but now it didn't make any sense with his conning ability, he wouldn't have any trouble infiltrating himself into one of the baron groups, preferably dyonisus where he could drive himself into a blissful ignorant state induced by large amounts of alcohol,drugs and sex, still, here he was, hiding around in run down buildings with ember.
Sure she was quite attractive and he liked her, but it was to much of a hassle for his taste and well death kind of gets in the way of fun, and with the current situation the odds of staying alive were quite lower then those of living. The only real explination one might give to faust's decision of sticking around was his gambling spirit as he wanted to see how far he could take this bluff of his with the fake persona, though recently he had started to have minor slip ups caused by both overextending his play and pretty much loosing interest in keeping up the sharade.

"It's clear by the looks of it... "don't know why we even bother anymore"", Faust mumbling the last part. It was this sort of little slip ups that were cracking down on his facade, though one might simply interpret them as him wanting to give up.

Spoiler:

[Dust-man]

As he greeted the people that were suddenly in front of him, one of them pulled out a gun and shot him. Reacting on instinct at the sight of the gun, he turned his upper body to dust, causing the bullets to go right through him without causing damage. It would then return to normal. The bullets themselves would turn to dust behind him. "Umm....Why am I being shot at?" He asked in a most confused manner, tilting his head to the side.

Chrys

Chrys was stomping forward, her eyes fixed at the emerging main library building, when suddenly some dust started raining down. She and Ray both jumped back cautiously, the boy readying his crossbow and Chrys reaching out with her spiritual sight, attempting to read the intentions of the 'dust.' When the matter finally formed into a humanoid shape, it offered a greeting. Chrys didn't feel any hostility from him, but before she could say a word, Carlos shot the newcomer twice in the chest. At times like these, she really regretted the man was a lycan as well; if he was just a human, she could use her superiour reflexes to stop him doing things like that. Ray sighed, but didn't drop his guard. This was by no means an unusual happening when you travelled with Carlos; and a person materializing from dust was not an ordinary sight either, so the reaction, although somewhat radical, may prove to be the right decision.

Curiously, the bullets had no effect on the stranger - they simply passed through the dust without leaving a trace. That made Ray decide he might be some form of a ghost and he switched the crossbow bolt for an iron-tipped one. As for Chrys, she found it interesting that the newcomer didn't turn violent even after being attacked directly. Ignoring Carlos completely, she instead decided to respond to the man's question: "Don't mind him, it's his personality. More importantly, who are you and what do you want?" she demanded in a casual voice. She was also at alert, but not obviously so, since she was rather sure this guy meant them no harm.

Spoiler:

"Umm.... I'm me. I don't really have a name" He said, the last part sounding a little sad. "As for what I'm doing.... I don't really know, I just woke up around here and you guys were just... there." He said, sounding confused again. "Well, anyway, who are you guys?" This time he sounded nice and cheerful, with a smile on his face.

Chrys

Hearing the stranger talk on, Chrys felt he was resembling a lost puppy more and more. In the distinctly feline company, seeming like a dog was not exactly the best of ideas, but then again, cats were fickle and could just decide to take him in. Chrys was an exception, of course. Now less trusting than before, she was still decidedly equal in her approach to people she judged as 'not immediately life-threatening.' But still, at the bottom of her character, there was a piece of cat. It was probably because of that that she made a little joke: "You sound lost... like a dog without a master. I'll just call you Rover then," she grinned a little. "I'm Chrys Blythe, by the way. We're going over there," she then pointed to the library. "Ray," the boy introduced himself curtly and lowered the crossbow a little. "We should move, it's not good to stick around in one place for too long," he then added mostly towards Chrys, who answered with a nod and started walking again. It was up to the stranger whether or not he decided to follow them.

OOC: Silver move us to the library door if you want : o

Jasmine

When they entered Dionysus's territory, the atmosphere changed abruptly. There was music and fire everywhere and it felt warm despite the rain. Jasmine shrugged off the gloomy weather and relaxed a smidge. It was mostly an outside thing though, since there was potential audience around. As she switched to her circus performer persona, her whole body language changed with it. She would walk differently, bow theatrically left and right if people noticed her and be all smiles to Zhi as well. Impressions were an artist's bread and butter, after all... well blood in her case.

After a while, she realized that the warmth was not just a matter of temperature around her. Despite her vampiric nature, her body felt warm too. A half-forgotten feeling was growing inside, though for now she kept it under control since her actual character was quite different to her current persona. She was aware of the increasing dificulty of the task though. "Come on Jasmine, there will be time for that later," she persuaded herself soundlessly. "This place really gets to you, doesn't it," she then said to Zhi with a slightly forced smile, unable to just shrug it off silently any longer. It meant admitting to him she was affected, but it was better than having it overpower her. She first needed to establish a position in this fiefdom. That meant talking to Dionysus or someone else important enough, and to do so before she went crazy. For that reason, she stubbornly walked on towards the main palace building, assuming that's where she'd find them; a safe bet, judging by the effect it had on her.

Carlos and Selena

Apparently, turning into dust wasn't the strangest thing about this guy, he was still relaxed and friendly even after being shot at while keeping that clueless expression. Despite not shooting at him again, he still held his gun pointed at him and observed the stranger quietly till he mentioned not having a name.

"I know his name, it's ****-eater... or was it ****-face... no wait i think it was filthy, that's right filthy ****-face was his name." Carlos lashed out with his offensive joke at the same time as chrys while selena just shook her head at his antics.

"So we just going to trust mr **** face, no questions asked?" Carlos complained but lowering his gun at the same time and moving towards the library, at who's doors he would bang with his fist wanting to see if "anyone is home".

Zhi

"It's still creeps me out how easily you can do that" Zhi commented on jasmine's sudden change of character.

Dionysus' territory was exactly what one would expect from a god of debauchery, everyone seemed to have lost all form of inhibition. The strange aura that chipped away at one's morals and self restraint would affect Zhi but to a much lesser extent then everyone else within its range, the old seal from his incident with Baal proving useful at times like this.

Due to the diminished effect of the aura on him, Zhi attributed the strange feeling he had to group mentality/pressure, as such when Jasmine mentioned the effects on her he was quite suprised as she didn't seem like "one of the herd"

"Never pictured you as one who would give in to peer pressure, i'm going to get a drink." Zhi's joke having no hidden meaning, as he didn't knew anything strange was going on yet and just went to grab some wine, expecting to find some pretty good dam wine in the domain of one who was once called the god of wine.

Zack

As winters finished talking, a small explosion occurred nearby as Ladd emerged from the smoke with a wide grin. "I take it your little project went fine, anyway seems like something fun will soon happen" Vino spoke to Ladd without even turning to look at him, instead still staring at winters and zack from the wall he was leaning against.

Seeing Ladd emerge from the smoke made zack turn his head back towards winters with an evil grin.
"Always, it's been a long time since i've had some proper fun, nothing beats taking away someone's reasons for living and replacing them with pure hatred and desire for retribution against you, only to take that away from them as well when you finally kill them". Zack's possitive answer to winter's inquiry about being up for some chaos also denoted his more refined ways of killing, tormenting someone to the point of insanity after taking away everything they loved, corrupting them and turning them into a being of pure retribution in order to make killing them that much sweeter.

[Dust-Man]

"Rover? That sounds nice, I love it!" Dust-man exclaimed out loud with a huge grin, drowning out the sound of Carlos insults. "Miss Chrys is it? that's a pretty nice name~" He said, with a satisfied look. "The Library huh? I like libraries, I'll go too~" He said as he began following after the group like some kind of lost pet, the large amount of dust he had behind his dispersed into the air, forming a barely-visible layer around the group.

Prayer

Prayer stood outside the Semi truck or Rev's team of exorcists, with nothing to do, he was simply clearing his head a little.... and beating Exodia back down to size, getting more in control of himself. After a while, he would fall back, and lean on the truck, and heave out a deep sigh, then sit down, and look at the sky. It wasn't exactly something to do, but it was something to distract his mind all the same.

Vela

Vela didn’t move at all and neither did radiant, as both of them moved their eyes to the corner of their eyes to see this new threat.  He didn’t seem to be naturally hostile like some people due to how cautious he was, but at the same time she didn’t want to make him mad even if he wasn’t.  He reminded her lot like she was some months ago in fact…

“Take a closer look at me; it should be easy enough to tell why I’m here.” Vela stated in a calm and emotionless tone, as she did still wear the clothes that she got from her family even if it had been adjusted and altered over the years with her growing age.  But the design was unmistakable, it should be eerily close to the design of her home and clothes that should still remain in it.

“So you’re the people who inhabited my parents’ home?  Even if I am I vampire, I have the right to look over a place that once belonged to my family.” Vela continued saying, as she assumed the man and his gang was the current residents of the place with her family dead… after all there would be no way they could survive all that chaos in such a small domain with all the barons running around.

Sain

Sain was walking forward with confidence with his shoulders held high, as this journey was already going better than it had been six months ago.  He was surrounded by serpents last time, but there was Katrina with him this time so the chances of something dire happening were very slim!

Sain began scanning the area in a brief and concise fashion, as he knew he would have to keep a constant lookout for anything abnormal with him turning around to make sure nothing was following him.  

“Uh, nothing is following me…” Sain stated in a quite disturbed voice, as he noticed that nothing was following him… not even his own shadow.  A gleam of sweat dripped down Sain’s neck, as he quickly turned away from the shadow with a look that gave off the impression, ‘why me’.

“I’m going to run now.” Sain stated in an informal fashion with his head fidgeting behind him, as he bolted towards coyote’s domain as fast as he could before the shadow decided to give chase after him.

Ember

The symbol of that red curfix burned into Ember’s mind, as her expression lit up of one of fear and anger.  She didn’t want to deal with these bastards right now, and certainly wasn’t in the mood to chit-chat her way out of this.

“Son of a!  How did they sneak up on us?” Ember stated as a whisper towards Faust, as she silently slid next to a window with her back against it, out of vision of the noisy bunch that had just arrived.  There were effectively four of them from the found of their voices and footsteps, and Faust and her currently had the element of surprise…

Ember pulled out her two pistols, as she nudged her head to her left to indicate for Faust to take out the other two simultaneously. She quickly fired her first four shots at the first two exorcists she could see.

Katarina

As they were walking towards their destination, Sain decided to say something that one might interpret as very stupid but with his bad luck, it wasn't really that unexpected for him to get in trouble. With a quick glance as to why Sain wanted to jinx them revealed that he was a bit late on that, as his shadow seemed to have gained a will of its own, sain's bad luck struck again.

"Shut up and run!" Kat replied to Sain while taking off, not wasting time like sain, sitting around to have a chat. While running blood was gathering in her hand and forming a seal, she was hoping this shadow thing was like the shades she encountered in the past, or atleast shared their weakness when it came to light.

Seeing a good place up ahead where the street was narrower, Kat used her mist flash to reach it and touched the side of the building with her hand that had the seal in it, as a thick wall of mist would envelop a small part of the street. Kat was hoping the mist would prevent the shadow from moving trough it due to the lack of light within it, while the flash ahead was to simply give the mist enough time to form before sain and "his shadow" reached it.

If the shadow would of been blocked or slowed down by the mist Kat wouldn't stay around to gloat, instead just keep on running while telling sain to do the same.

Faust

It wouldn't be long before a loud rable of what appeared to be exorcists showed up for hell knows what reason and ember quickly signaled him to take them out. Something didn't sit right with Faust however, they were to loud,weird,careless and simply lively compared to one of the extremist exorcists.

With his hand signal, Faust urged ember to stand down and not to something crazy. While he didn't particularly care about killing some innocents what worried him was that there might be more of them hidden in the truck or what if they missed that very important first shot which would alert them to their presence, for now just staying low and waiting for them to pass would be better. Sadly it would be to late as ember's temper got the better of her and immediately shot at the exorcists.

Since they would now be on alert, shooting at them would only serve to give away his position while having considerably lower chances of success, instead faust tackled ember to the ground wanting to get her away from the window and signaling her to be quiet. A new plan formed in his head, since he didn't reveal his existence to them, the enemy's might assume that ember was alone, which in turn ment that he could try to ambush them.

Faust's plan was to have ember move to a different window and act as bait while he would wait at the staircase to ambush them. That was the most basic plan, there were a few details on how to act if they didn't come inside the building or split up, or basically didn't act like fools.

Jack
He laid back against the wall inside of Dionysus'... club... whatever it had been before this is what it was now. But that was how the world was and Jack certainly wasn't complaining. What a positively delightful display of irony. A symbol of what art used to be was now a symbol of what art was now. Speakers pulsed loud with bass, shaking the warm breathing bodies that laid about, the smell of alcohol amongst that of other substances of pleasure wafted through the air. It was one big sensory overload, the lights both treated and numbed the eyes, the sound both treated and numbed the ears, and the company that he kept both treated and... well it was rather hard to numb that.

Jack had found his way to Dionysus about... four months ago? Time wasn't all too relevant, he didn't bother to keep track of it. As he told himself, mankind liked to think of itself as something above an animal, but the sooner it embraced the fact that it was animal, the sooner mankind would find itself happy. To drown oneself in pleasure was not some kind of sin, it was realizing the reality of things; inhibitions were, at least in most cases, useless. But even as he wrapped his arms around his "company", one of either gender, both there to please him and for him to please, he knew that as the night dragged on into it's midnight hours, he had one last pleasure to satisfy, the hunt. As he let out a large yawn he slowly moved to lift himself to his feet. As if he was part of the crowd, and they him, the two next to him helped to slowly push him to his feet. He rose up to his feet slowly, like a zombie in one of those old horror flicks, at least that's what he thought to himself. He moved to gather up his clothes and gear.

Upon slipping into his garments he secured his equipment carefully, intimately memorizing the position of each weapon and syringe. As he began to move through the crowd, he felt as if it was all part of him. As with the night before, and the night before that, he was preparing himself to kill. He could not pretend that he was without sympathy, taking the life of one with such sad eyes, the innocent, brought no joy, but it was of a happy coincidence that the prey that was actually of sport never surrendered, never coward, and never gave up. It was freeing, how guiltless it was to hunt the hunter, kill the killer, and prey on the predator, and these types were in a delightfully high supply in this place... this city. He liked to think he was the hero in doing what he did, but really deep down he knew that at least on SOME level, he did it for himself.

He slipped outside into the rain, there was a small chill as the temperature difference made itself apparent. Jack placed a cigarette in his mouth and fiddled for a lighter. After a moment of fiddling with it he managed to get the thing to work. He lit his cigarette and put the lighter back in his pocket. As he took a few drags in the open air he noticed a few crowds arriving. One guy at least for a moment seemed to stick out like a sore thumb (He notices Zhi). It didn't take the man long to blend into the crowd, although it was clearly a conscious effort. Jack was especially keen at recognizing the types that stuck out in Dionysus' fiefdom. Deciding to tail the man, if for no other reason than out of curiosity, Jack sifted once more through the crowd following the man (Zhi) to see where he would go.

Prayer

Startled by the sudden gunshots, Prayer jumped to his feet, on full alert. He saw that no one had been hurt thanks to Rev's shield, and slightly calmed down. Obviously, hearing the other four were completely unalarmed, Prayer completely calmed down, the little skit between Rev's and Mathew even brought him a chuckle. He still kept his guard up and waited for the people that were shooting at them to come out.

Jasmine

Having left Zhi to go about his own business, a decision stemming both from her inability to argue with him at the moment and her unconscious confidence in his ability to take care of himself, the vampire continued on to the main palace. The scenes around her were not unexpected for the place, though due to the effect the atmosphere had on her, she preferred to not pay them too close attention beyond a quick evaluation of the threat level the people could pose. Fortunately, she had no interest in alcohol, so at least that part of the scenery had no effect on her.

When she entered the hall, it was already all she could do to keep up the calm front. Then a voice addressed her, sending shivers down her spine, her eyes irresistibly drawn in the direction from where it came. All else in the room was instantly forgotten. But Jasmine was no novice at controlling irresistible urges – a necessary skill for a vampire who wanted to move through the human society unnoticed. She had enough presence of mind to connect the dots; the toga and the attention he was getting, as well as the effect of his voice on herself could only mean one thing – she found who she was looking for.

However, before she could even say anything, the greek god made an offer that was impossible to refuse under the circumstances. Her body acting before her mind could get any say in it, Jasmine grabbed the blonde girl by the shoulders and rubbed her nose on the skin of the girl’s neck, breathing in deeply. Suddenly she felt so hungry… hungrier than ever. Even that time on the yacht… wait a second. The unpleasant memory jolted on her forcibly suppressed reason and she stopped herself just short sinking the teeth into the soft skin. Satisfied with merely licking the neck slowly, she turned her eyes back to Dionysus, who looked even younger than herself. “Dionysus, I presume,” she said levelly. “Thanks you for the offer, but I must ask, what would you expect in return?” she then continued. Contrary to her words, she was still unwilling, or maybe unable, to let go of the girl. Nevertheless, for the moment she was in control of herself and would not drink the woman’s blood until she was sure she knew the conditions.

Ember

Ember made a simple gesture to Faust behind the window to show that he should hold his position, as she poked her head out the window to get a better look at the exorcists. They were a strange group alright since most of their kind would just shoot without a second thought.

“Sure…” Ember stated rather reluctantly, as she now stood openly and straight up out of the window she was in. Though, she didn’t like showing that much of her face, as she didn’t know what went on with her father so she tried to hide her hair with a baseball hat that she had picked up randomly during her travels.

“If you’re not devout followers like the usual bunch, then why are you here?” Ember stated in a quick tone, that didn’t leave room for anything that was not strictly business “From the way you talked, you sounded like you were here for a purpose.”

Still, Ember openly holstered her pistols after what she said out of respect, as she knew she was quick enough to dodge their attacks and with Faust at her back she did have some safe cover.

Vela

A twitch of rage went through Vela’s head as she heard the sound of sarcasm in the man’s voice, as her noble side wanted to yell at him for not noticing the clearly obvious similarities. But the strange part is, she never knew this man, and from the fact that he said lady of the estate… did he really mean her parents were still alive?

“Oh god, what did I get myself into.” Vela thought to herself turning around, as she bound her arms behind her back as tight as she could like the man instructed. It’s not like she had another choice, but it still irked her that she would be put at the mercy of her parents… She kind of preferred crazy exorcists instead.

“Sounds good to me, but what about the bird?” Vela stated while turning around, as she addressed radiant who was still on her shoulder looking at the man with a curious gaze. It kind of hurt being this trustworthy, but she didn’t want to give the man a reason to shoot her.

Zhi

Jack wouldn't have a hard time tracking zhi as he would probably be the only one with his privates still in his pants while also not inabrieted out of his mind. Despite being able to keep track of him, there wouldn't be anything really interesting to see, exept him wondering around for a bit while enjoying some wine untill heading after jasmine. Jack would be able to follow him with ease as Zhi made no effort to shake him off, in fact not even paying any real attention to him as even if he noticed him, he would just assume he was heading over towards some sort of debauchery.

Several mintues later, Zhi would stumble upon Jasmine holding onto a girl on the floor, almost missing her at first as he didn't expect to find her in such a situation.
"So i leave you alone for 5 seconds, and this is what you do?" Zhi spoke jokingly as he was slowly starting to put 2 and 2 together before turning towards Dionysus.
"And if i'm not mistaken you must be the god in charge of this place, i must say that your reputation is well earned". There was no hidden meaning behind his comment, it was a simple acknowledgement indeed as a greeting combined with a slight bow. Being polite was the least one could do to someone who gives you free shelter and food even though it comes as a package deal with borderline brainwashing, and it was also the good kind of brainwashing.

It was quite interesting to see a disciple of the eastern arts of self restraint and elinghtment in the presence of one who was the embodiment of debauchery and blisfull ignorance, yet there would be no ill will or judgmental attitude towards the other, not from Zhi atleast. Zhi believed in the freedom of choice above all else, beside the fact that he himself choose the ephemeral pleasures of the living world over elinghtment just before his incident with baal.

After delivering his greeting, he would stick around for a minute or so as to give a chance to dionysus or jasmine to talk to him if they wanted, if not he would excuse himself and leave to find something to do.

Zack

"I am looking forward to meeting that bodyguard again, our fight was interrupted last time" Zack commented as Winters mentioned the chatedral events, "a glow" appearing in his eyes as he briefly starred at the bloodied he wore while the killing intent emited by him suddenly surged for an instant as if informing everyone what was going on trough his deranged head. Despite his little "outburst", it wasn't caused by winning or lossing to the saint and her bodyguard, Zack's pride was afterall almost non-existant, the only thing he cared about was slaugthering and enjoying himself in the process, for all intended pourposes, he was simply a sentient wild beast.

Upon hearing Winters idea of a good time Ladd was the first one to speak up.
"So there are still "good ol fashion" exorcists running around, how commendable." Ladd's suprise was quite founded since after recent events the only exorcists left seemed to be stein's group or psychopaths that got excomunicated like Ladd and Winters, all of the "good old fashion" ones either died(or worse) or they hid under a rock and refused to come out.

"It's nature's way afterall, those that cannot adapt to the new world become extinct. So how many are going to remind the exorcists about how nature works?" Zack stated in a happy tone, always happy to do some killing.

Katarina

As she felt the pain, she immediately slammed the hand with the blood seal drawn on it, into the ground to summon some mist around herself and sain as the fog semmed to atleast slow it down. If the shadow wouldn't be affected by the mist, she would turn herself into a pool of blood to escape it before quickly reforming once she was out of it's grip.

Regardless of the use of the blood pool, her plan was pretty much the same, use the blood as a  small slade/skateboard and shoot themselfs over to coyote's domain with the help of sain's vines, the vines helping to speed up the blood slade, while the blood let it slid across the surface under katarina's powers.

Since the fact that this shadow thing was able to freely move trough the shadows was quite obvious, Katarina thought up of a back up plan that might help them slow it down. A "looking glass/mirror" of sorts made from blood to reflect light and naturally change the layout of the shadows. Creating the mirror wasn't the hard part, as with her powers, making the blood refract and reflect light was easy, the hard part came at using the mirror to change the shadows layout to hinder that damed monster, if it would work at all, though it was better then nothing.

"Sain, we're going to skate, use the vines to speed us up!"the shout would come just as she grabbed sain and slid towards safety.

Faust

Things were getting strange, the exorcist group didn't fire back even after beeing shot upon and instead offered to talk announcing that they had nothing to do with stein's bunch. Well there was still the option of this being a ploy but he didn't want a gun fight from the start so he remained hidden letting ember do the talking while he covered the entrace but still staying close enough to hear everything.

"Don't mention i'm here, if worse comes to pass, we could atleast still take down one or two before they notice you're not alone" he whispered to her, wanting to play it safe.

Sain

Katrina was grabbed by a vine and while his first reaction was to throw a vine back to help her, he knew for certain that Katrina could handle the creature on her own, so he just focused on running for the time being until he felt someone grab his hand from behind.

"You got it" Sain stated, as he used the vines on his armor to quickly throw two vines towards the nearest building as it wrapped around the building with Sain using all his strength to pull himself towards the vine with his vampire strength as it launched the blood sled they were on forward.

Sain took a quick look back to see how fast the shadow was moving to see if he needed to do something with his vines, but once they reached the first connection of the vines he didn't have much time left to watch the thing that was chasing them.

"Hopefully it's enough.." Sain stated rather loudly as the wind from the speed of the sled threatened to drown out his voice, as Sain detached the vines once they reached them and repeated the process for shorter and shorter time due to the increasing speed of the sled.