Grand Theatre - Playroom Monday March 28th 2011

Neb & Spies:

Chris doesn’t appear to be very pleased with being metaphorically pushed aside and told to wait by the Ventrue, though he accepts it without a fuss. He takes a step back, away from the Prince’s conversation though not that far away where he couldn’t attempt to claim Gosuin’s attention once more when his business is concluded.

ST:

With arms crossed in front of his chest, Christopher leans against the stage in a casual manner. His eyes move through the room for a few moments before his attention shifted to the stage itself and the main character Vonzel still on it. With poorly veiled interest, if he is even attempting to hide this, he studies the captive Lasombra, from his attire to his expression, and the look in his eyes if the face is turned in the direction of the public rather than to the back of the stage. After a few moments the vampire lets out a sigh and turns his back to Vonzel. A slight frown creases his forehead as Chris seems to mule over a few things.

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When Eric introduces her, Lucienne gives the prince a low, fancy bow, a bit theatrical in its manner. "Your grace."

She smiles at the man's friendly tone at first and laughs lightly when he finishes his sentence. "If you ever meet /mr/ Demarais then, congratulate him from me, your highness. He's a mightily lucky chap, if I say so myself, and he doesn't even realise it."

She doesn't lose a beat when her clanmates look at her expectantly, and nods in a business-like manner. "Right. I believe that now, when my kind and sage mentor..." She inclines her head to Eric and it seems that while her eyes have a playful spark in them, she is being sincere in her respect to her clan elder. "...Has already presented me to your grace, I have just a moment to say what a great honour it is to meet a ruler as fair and open-minded as you, my prince. To you I vow, and with both sincerity and pride, that thou art my Prince and Lord, and I shall have no other before you. I shall not reveal the visage of the damned to any but those thou approve, I shall not take the name of an elder upon myself and honour my Prince as the only one to have the right to grant life and death, such as it is, to our kind. I shall always remember the rights of Domain and keep it holy, and never shall I shrink responsibility for those committed to my covenant."

The teasing tone disappears as she speaks and while the form she chose may seem like a jest, the Ventrue is dead serious.

"I understand fully the harsh reality of the world, majesty. It is my wish that, with your inspired guidance, I make it a bit... softer." She speaks in a low voice, straightening. "I submit myself to your scrutiny."

Neb shrugs a bit at Nyx's words, not that caring but serious enough with her to treat her as equals in business.

Nyx, Neb, spies:

Gosuin and Eric listen with attention to Lucienne's words as she introduces herself in a more official way to the praxis' holder. The Princes weighs it with importance, interested even if it seems he's had a rough start of a night. Her comment on the Mrs/Mr amused both him and Artevelt, but the rest was serious enough for them both. The Prince reaches to his new clan mate by extending a hand for her to shake, quite friendly and welcoming.
(Gosuin) Very well, miss Démarais. You are welcome to my Domain, so long as you do not cause any problems for our society. I am not as strict in protocol as my peers may be in their own cities, so do not hesitate to contact the Seneschal should you need to discuss anything with me. This is place is a mere provincial city compared to Paris, but I am certain you will learn useful skills whilst among us. Now if you'll excuse me, the runaway and I need to talk.

He vaguely indicates, without any despise, to Chris.
Eric quickly understands they're being dismissed, bows politely but not as theatrically, and moves away after indicating to Lucienne to move off. He discusses with her once away enough to let the Prince alone with his business.
(Eric) The Seneschal is this Céline ghoul I have talked about before.

Indeed he had given her the ghoul's contact information before. He offers her a pleased smile, not too wide, but quite meaningful.
(Eric) Good job.

Gosuin signs Chris to come over.
(Gosuin) I'm afraid the Archon will interfere with my rulings, but he is acting through what I wanted to do to begin with. It's the harsh truth of our existence. He smiles slightly. Even if it must displease our most vocal members. Sometimes some secrets are best to die with their owners and it's our responsibility to wield and to take responsibility about such decisions. As long as the city stands.

Quite an honorable Ventrue after all.
(Gosuin) Mr Orlov, for the sake of discussion, what would you have done should you have been confronted in such a situation?

Quite interested and willing to consider Chris a peer.

A "watch out!" panic shout can be heard from the corridors. Quickly, a slight tick is heard, and a thick smoke fills the playroom. Another tic sound come quickly, as most present can hear the tossing of objects from the entrance. The flash of light and the smell of gasoline clues the most attentive of them into understanding they will be deadly as fire spreads from various places ; it's slow, localized in some seats and on an alley, and quite easy to move around, but the smoke and the confinement makes everyone's moving quite difficult.

Nyx:

Chris:

Lucienne:

Neb & Spies:

The Nosferatu stands suddenly, without any warning, she hops as many rows of seats as she can before the smoke grenades hit.

She took a quick look around to get her bearings as to whom is where and if she can make anything out from the main entrance to the Playroom but doesn't linger too long as to make herself an easy target, heading to the area with the largest number of bodies but with caution and using the seating as cover.

Chris listens with a half ear to miss Démarias’ introduction to the prince. He remains silent throughout it all, keeping his opinions to himself for once. The vampire leans against the stage, glancing in the direction of the staked Lasombra as he waits for Gosuin’s business to conclude.

looking specifically at Chris as Lucienne introduces herself formally / Perception+Alertness>4:

Hearing himself be referred to as the ‘runaway’ certainly gets a raised eyebrow out of him, but Chris shrugs it off. Quite literally. At the Prince’s gesture, Chris obediently wanders toward Gosuin. His entire demeanor is one of casual boredom, hands now tugged in the pockets of his pants and slightly sloughed instead of straight and at attention. He makes a dismissive gesture with a hand as the Prince addresses him as Orlov. “Please, just call me Chris. Got my stomach full of formalities.”

A grin plays on his lips as the Prince asks for his view on the matter. “Honestly? He considers the situation and his answer for a moment. Hmm. Well, I w-” He falls silent at the sudden panicked cry piercing through the relative peace and quiet of the room. All signs of boredom disappears instantly from him as his attention immediately snaps in the direction the sound had come from. “Shit.”

Auspex 4:

Christopher lowers himself, his back against the stage. He tries to survey his surroundings as best he can, taking note of where the fires originated and their spread to figure out which areas would still be safe to stand for a while. His forehead furrows as he begins to concentrate hard.

ST:

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Lucienne bows again in answer to her Prince's words. "Sire. I am honoured to call myself your subject. Thank you for the kindest reception." She raises an eyebrow at the "runaway" comment and, looking in his direction, notices some of Chris's flippant display, and as the Prince turns around, her eyes narrow slightly. Following her mentor she bows one more time, this time just slightly, her head and shoulders alone.

She moves back close to Eric, after they step away enough, again taking his arm. "Understood." She flashes her most dazzling smile in answer to his praise. "How could it not be, when I had the best of teachers?" She compliments, tightening her hold on his arm for a brief moment, and then looking away, looking curiously at the people around to see who might be watching them, still smiling pleasantly. "And what a lovely little city it is... so at war with itself, don't you think?" She says lightly. "Why, it seems to me that what little balance there was was just thrown out of the window today..." She casts a furtive look to where Chris and the Prince are discussing things, her expression neutral. It looks she was about to say something more, but was interrupted by the chaos erupting at just the moment.

Pulled down, she keeps close to Eric, keeping a hand on his shoulder, looking around attentively, and then, seeing the smoke, focusing all of her senses and attentions, appraising the situation quickly. "Fire." She whispers and nods grimly in the direction where the closest Molotov's cocktail burst. "It's probably a trap. They may be encircling the place, perhaps have already encircled it, preparing to shoot whoever tries to go our via the main exits. Are there any non-obvious ones we could use?" She is tense, but when she looks him in the eye concern flashes over her face briefly. She wishes no harm to come to her companion, if she can help it.

Nyx's Phone:

Grand Theatre - Playroom Monday March 28th 2011 - Page 9 Map_110

(in red where the Archon went with the Sheriff, Alicia and Laure, followed by William ; in green, the stage, and to where Gosuin left ; it's also where Rufus and the poor staked body were.
The blue diamond is where Mikael is as he was the only one higher-up, but on the galleries and not on the first floor balconies ; the main room of the theater is a bit "lower" than actual ground level).

The smoke is thick and it invades quickly a good 2m meters of fog, which is about 1m high. Getting down would give them at least a vague amount of visibility, but because it's dark and the smoke blocks the bare luminosity, it's hard to distinguish movements even for trained eyes. The presence of rows of seats do not help the visibility.

Chris:

Nyx:

Lucienne:

Quickly after the fire has begun spreading, slowly as the wooding of the Theater is at least a bit fireproof, everyone present can hear automatic weapons being fired. A suppressing fire for sure due to the lack of obvious visibility. By the sound of it, it's not just one person, but at least three or four, and they seem motivated and well armed.
The smell of blood starts to be noticeable by everyone's Beast, while Mikael shout a few Latin words and Rufus make an agreeing sound as he takes the given orders.

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Lucienne follows Eric, listening attentively, but frowns when he proposes waiting. "Concealing ourselves at the back and waiting until they pass us to sneak out via the exit they came through would be the best solution normally, but with the fire spreading? I am unsure. We can wait only to be cut off from all exits by the spreading flames..." She pauses, as the gunshots are heard and listens for a moment.

"Crap. At least 4 of them. Bullets don't do much against kindred, compared to fire, but still, I bet that is only a bait. Also, if they are shooting civilians, all that blood..." She looks disturbed and nods slowly at Eric. "The stage it is. They must have some sort of an underground exit, right? After all, it's an Elysium. Even if it connects to the sewers, it must be better than this... Come on!" She takes his hand in hers and bends down to whisper to his ear, even more quietly, almost gently breathing the words against his ear.

Eric, spies:

She raises, slowly, in a long, fluid motion, and leads him through the row of seats and into the right part of the opera, meaning apparently to pass to the stage via the space along the walls rather than the main passageway in the middle, where she is guessing the attackers are going to concentrate their fire, if they enter the room. The walls offer more opportunities in her mind.

GM:

Corinna has been vaguely following the proceedings on the stage when the panicked shout rings out from the corridors. When the smoke starts to fill the room, she immediately drops into a crouching position and listens intensely for a few moments. She then turns to Griffin with a frown and quickly whispers something.

Linguistics Latin, Spying:

She peeks above the seats to get a good idea of where the fires are spreading, taking a few glances to orient herself, then looks back to Griffin. Just when she opens her mouth to speak again, the sound of gunfire interrupts her, turning her frown into worry. Without much more ado, she gestures for him to get moving and starts to sneak towards the side entrance closest to her.

Chris keeps his head low, suppressing an audible curse as the guns start to fire overhead. Great. He scowls, glaring in the direction the gunfire is coming from as though his eyes could penetrate the smoke and show him who’s responsible. It didn’t of course, and he wasn’t about to poke his head out from the relative cover of the smoke just to sneak a peek.

Taking note of Claudia’s last known location to him, he begins to make his way to the fourth row. He avoids the center isle as he moves, instead going between the rows of seats, squirming past the chairs. As he arrives there, he looks around low to the ground to try and spot shapes or silhouettes in the smoke that would indicate there was someone in this row. He also looks at the fifth row best he can through the smoke. If he doesn’t immediately notice Claudia, Chris carefully makes his way down the fourth row.
“Claudia, are you there? Can you hear me?” He keeps his voice low, only just above a whisper, but he does try to get her attention to speed up finding the Tremere.

ST:

Nyx ducked down and looks to her phone first.

William:

When Fred reaches her she grabbed him and yanked him down.

Fred:

Nyx carefully peeked to see if anyone had followed Fred before slowly and carefully making her way towards the exit William had used. She's obviously on high alert for the sounds of movement close by to them.

Nyx:

When she's certain she hasn't been followed she replies to the text.

William :

Corinna:

Lucienne:

Chris:

Another heavy round of shootings, but the smoke starts to be a bit less thick through a breeze of wind. The smell of blood is a bit more important, seemingly someone has been hit.
The Gargoyle is nowhere to be seen at first glance, as well as Vonzel.
The Prince's voice is quick to be heard.
(Gosuin) Fire!

Another round of shooting happens, but it's more regular and organized. And it comes from the stage and not the entrances.

Corinna freezes when Griffin touches her. With a worried expression on her face, she listens to his words and nods once. She doesn't try to wriggle out of his hold, but uses her free hand to tug at her skirt, adjusting it so that she can move quickly if it becomes necessary without ripping it in half. She also opens her blazer to be able to move her arms more freely. When the smell of blood becomes more prominent in the air, she sniffs with disgust.

ST:

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Lucienne moves fluidly along the wall, keeping Eric close. She keeps composed, as if not noticing the blood for now; but then perhaps she is merely pretending she doesn't. She stops and waits until he leans in close to whisper faintly, straight to his ear again.

Eric:

She indicates the direction, a crouching pose, and holding a gun up with a few quick, subtle gestures and then continues to move forward, determined to reach the stage before the smoke disperses completely and moving the length of the hall will become more of a problem.

Once Gosuin and his companions start to shoot, she continues moving still, careful to keep an eye on them - it wouldn't do to get shot by your own side. For that matter, she tries to gauge who it is with the Prince -- and how good they all are, compared to the opposing party.

Auspex 4:

Nyx:

Nyx:

William curses at the low visibility as he slowly nears the doorway next to the stage, he doesn't bother putting his ear against the door thanks to his Auspex and slowly pushes open the aforementioned object with his side while holding out his extinguisher pointed out in front of him.

Once inside, should there be any indication of nearby fire, he'll lower his eyes to the general direction but not directly at it as he would douse the flames while taking aim at the situation. Obviously he isn't breathing so the smoke doesn't bother him other than obscure his vision.

Christopher lets out a few carefully chosen and rather colorful words as the bullet scrapes his arm. He ducks back behind the protective cover of the seats and flips the attackers on the other side of the theatre off through the smoke. “Ruining my suit, they are.” He grumbles to himself as he glanced at the torn fabric.

Reaching Claudia’s side, Chris ignores his damaged clothing and turns his attention to the Tremere. He gives a slight nod to show he understood as she gestured at the spreading fire. “Quite a bothersome time for an attack I must say.” He crouches down even further when new rounds of gunfire fly overhead. “Most inconvenient,” he grumbles, annoyed. The gunfire, spreading fire, smoke, and blood is riling up his beast. The tips of his fangs are visible whenever he speaks. “How about we get out of here and wait outside for the results.”

The Nosferatu repressed back a squeak of surprise but quickly goes with the motion rolling into a crouch and cursing a little. Her mobile quickly draws her attention but she moves enough to make room for Fred.

William:

She turns quick but keeps her voice low to not be heard.

Auspex 1 & anyone close enough:

William gives a glance at his phone and rolls his eyes.

The fire begins to spread, the blood and gas smell begin to be overwhelming, and the cracking of the wood and other sounds cover up some of the screams, curses and other latin spoken orders.

Eric nods when Lucienne mentions something, but he makes sure to stay down, obviously not wanting to get in the cross fire. He follows his protégée as it seems she's doing well moving through.

Lucienne:

Fred stays on his side of the alley, after having thrown Nyx accross, and quickly disappears between seats, moving to another place further away.

Chris:

The door through which Alicia was taken by Lambert and Laure, followed by the Archon, opens when William comes back that way. However, the movement quickly earns him a round of suppressing fire. Whether it comes from the main entrance or the opposite stage exit is unsure.

After a few very long seconds, one of the side entrance's door blows open and the distinct sound of a skull being crushed followed by the still distinct sound of a fire extinguisher foam covering part of the fire.

The smoke begins to clear as strong wind blows in the room, certainly an unnatural one. A quick glance up and the flying Gargoyle is using his wings to clear up the view. No Vonzel to be seen yet.

The person responsible for the fire extinguishing on the right side of the theater is the Archon ; he used it to crush whomever was guarding that door. He tosses it over to Griffin and Corinna who are the closest to him, as they were quite close to that door, and quickly moves towards the only standing armed man by the main entrance. Sadly for Hanzo, Gosuin's bullet reaches him faster, blowing up the poor man's head.

William pulls back at the fire, letting out a stream of curses in Flemish. "Well, bullets, haven't been injured by those yet."

He checks his person to see if he got hit, narrowing his eyes at a particularly singed looking hole in his jacket. As the room was cleared, he pushes his back against the wall and pushed open the door in it's entirety with the fire extinguisher, if no new dose of bullets would fly his way, I'll poke his head out carefully before proceeding to douse the flames.

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