paris ♔ tried to save myself but myself keeps slipping away

[necessaryevil]

♬ Facade (reprise) - Jekyll & Hyde

WHO || Faith Lehane, Max Rast, Lissa Dragomir, Helen Magnus
WHAT || The Knights investigate a string of vampire attacks in France
WHERE ||Paris, France
WHEN || April 11th, 2015 [backdated].
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

One vampire attack is cause for worry enough, but when bodies are found with telltale puncture wounds and heavy loss of blood become a recurring nightmare across any city, alarm bells are raised.  Such is the case recently in Paris, where Wynn suspects that either a careless clan has moved in, or some lone vamps are stirring up trouble.  With the locations of the bodies marked out in the eight block radius where the deaths have been occurring, the team arrives in the late evening, staring at the rows of apartment blocks, small businesses, and pubs that comprise this section of town.

Comments

[necessaryevil]

That's why we're setting up these saps. And even if it doesn't work and they figure us out--

Let 'em try.

[daredtobelieve]

[Helen shakes her head and glances to Lissa and Faith, not sure if they should stop this. She's not certain just how much more information they can get out of Max, or how safe it is to let him continue. Since Lissa seems to know more about this whole process than her, she'll hope that the girl can give some insight on that.]

How long can he sustain this?

[msattentionspan]

[Faith watches all of it unfold before her, but she doesn't question it. Hell, she doesn't even know where to start. It feels like the dreams Slayers have, the prophetic ones, but she's never had it that vivid before. She pushes that thought aside and waits for Lissa to answer Helen.

So far, she knows they've got a few leads. Names of two of the would-be vampires, a coven to look for, and a cab company that's been dumping bodies. They could track the blond victim, but really that's probably the way the cops went and came up empty.]

[lastdragomir]

I'm not... I'm not sure. I've never let it last this long. [ and with that at the forefront of her mind, she steps determinedly toward max, carefully reaching out to brush her fingertips across the back of his hand. ]

Max? It's Lissa. Come back to me, Max.

[ (diplomacy??? nat 20, 36 total) if that doesn't work she has another option at her disposal, but she'll try to talk him down first. ]

[necessaryevil]

[ he lashes out an arm to try to grip her by the neck, to slam her against the wall (idk grap...ple attack?? 24) ] I'm not. Max.

[lastdragomir]

[ her opposed roll was a 2? so she isn't hard to slam around like a rag doll, a strangled gasp ripped out of her throat. she bares her fangs reflexively, but... is less intimidating than she is strong. (intimidate crit fail lmao) ]

[daredtobelieve]

[Helen pulls her gun free from its holster in an instant, cocking it and closing the distance so that she's got it right against Max's head.]

I will only say this once. Let. Her. Go.

[Intimidate 31]

[msattentionspan]

[That escalated quickly!!]

Whoa! [Hey, look the gun is intimidating, but maybe we not threaten to shoot our teammates??? At least, that's Faith's feeling here. She could be wrong... but that seems extreme even to the girl that tortured her own Watcher for a few hours.

Maybe instead, just have the girl with the 26 strength check try to pry them apart from each other?] How about we just get him off of her and put him into a time out?

[She'll reach for the hand around her neck, trying to just separate them and then maybe keep a hold of this guy.]

[necessaryevil]

[ as faith pushes them apart, max unleashes a straight up snarl from his throat, and snaps his head to the side, trying to sink his teeth into faith's neck 8| (atk 28, dmg 3 if it succeeds) since he doesn't actually have... fangs, but his teeth are slightly sharper than a human's, at least. ]

[daredtobelieve]

[Helen's glad to see that she was convincing that she planned to shoot Max. It wouldn't be anything she actually planned to do, of course, but if it came down to it, she imagined Max would prefer death over hurting Lissa. While he's distracted by going over Faith with his teeth, Helen will reach out with her free hand to hopefully pull Lissa back with her. I have no idea if this requires a roll. I've lost track of where we are or who's hands are where.]

[msattentionspan]

[Even if she didn't see that coming, she still manages to dodge that pulling away from his snappy jaws and just trying to keep him contained.]

I bet I taste good, but you gotta get a handle on yourself.

[lastdragomir]

Max, please. [ this is bad, yo. ]

[necessaryevil]

[ slipping away - nine inch nails

as helen yanks lissa back, and faith keeps a hold on him, his eyes meet lissa's, flare strangely dark red for a moment, and then the hateful expression on his face begins to slip away, to be replaced by horror mingled with confusion ] ... Lis?

[lastdragomir]

[ OH THANK GOD. lissa rips free from helen in the most romantic nat 20 and rushes forward. one hand drops to catch his in her own while the other lifts to brush her fingertips against his jaw. ]

Are you alright?

[necessaryevil]

[ he involuntarily jerks his face from her touch, holding up one hand as if to ward her back, pressing against faith who's presumably still got him in her grip ] Don't-- [ he looks terrified for a moment, disgusted with himself ] Did I-- What did I--

[lastdragomir]

[ oh. she tries not to take it as rejection because she knows it's not like that, but it still stings a little. ]

You told us what we needed to know. Its a small group of vampires who are bucking the system the other covens have in place. [ ignores the fact that there are probably still red marks from his grip on her pale throat. that wasn't max. ] You gave us names and I think their basic M.O. [ she's unsure about that because she... wasn't paying loads of attention tbh. ]

[daredtobelieve]

You gave us plenty to go on. [Her look might say enough to give away that uh yeah you were taking that one a little too far. But she's not going to scold him right now, though.]

Do you need a moment to recover?

[necessaryevil]

[ instead of looking glad for the news that it wasn't all in vain, the look in his eyes seems to imply that he doesn't really think it was worth it, tbh. he shakes his head vaguely at helen's question, still looking at lissa ] No, I-- I should be-- We shouldn't stay here.

[lastdragomir]

[ lissa is just looking at him imploringly, begging him to not feel responsible. her eyes flicker to faith briefly before moving back to max like she can't bear not looking at him. ] We can look for the cab company they've been using. I can see if my compulsion can break the ones they've had put on them.

[daredtobelieve]

There will be several in the city, I'm sure. But I can make a few calls and see if any have been near the river recently. I'm not sure if they'll give me any details on the driver, but it will be a start.

[She'll take out her phone and see what she can do (gather info 29).]

[necessaryevil]

[ that's gonna take helen a little while, so in the meantime, max sort of shrugs against faith like 'it's ok, you can let go now' ] If they were compelled, they might not remember any details about what these vampires looked like.

[lastdragomir]

[ her mouth twists to the side, a thoughtful frown. ] No, you're right, but if they might know something, it's worth a shot isn't it? And maybe we can establish a pattern of who they pick.

[msattentionspan]

[Faith is sorry, yo! She'll let go now that everything seems five by five.]

Ask if the cabs have cameras - security and all that. We can always run through tapes of the ones that were near the river, like they do on TV. [ you know she had a crush on George Eads in those early days. (pop culture 18 woo) ]

[necessaryevil]

Yeah, might as well. [ he starts gnawing on his thumbnail, glancing over at helen. there are quite a few cab companies that service the area, since it is... paris, but a few of them are willing to give the numbers of cabs that usually run the river area at night. ]

[daredtobelieve]

[With those few numbers, Helen will start calling them and feeding a lie about losing something in the back of a cab that picked her up at roughly the area they're in. She's basically trying to track down that car/driver and asking for their number so she can try to see if her missing items are in the car still. (bluff 15, gather info 21)]