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

[lastdragomir]

[ lissa pulls her phone out to find which one is closest. (computer use 16, navigate er...5) seriously lissa, you have a map right in front of you. SHE IS NOT A SMART HERO, Y'ALL. so that was probably useless. princesses, man. ]

[necessaryevil]

[ max leans over her and helps with his nat 20 navigate ] One's just a few blocks from here.

[lastdragomir]

We should get going. [ so she is going to take max's arm and... get going. she wants to get this over with as soon as possible. ]

[msattentionspan]

[Faith nods.]

Works for me.

[daredtobelieve]

[You won't hear Helen complain. Moving to the location of the first driver.]

[necessaryevil]

{ Lilian Renaudin's cab is parked in front of a hotel, waiting for some client or other to come down when they find her. she's a well-muscled blonde woman, hair thrown back in a ponytail, quickly puffing down a cigarette hanging out her window, as if hoping to finish it before anyone catches her. ]

[daredtobelieve]

Excuse me, miss? Might we have a word?

[necessaryevil]

[ she tosses the cigarette quickly with a deft snap of her fingers, before shaking her head to say in thickly accented french: "I already have riders, Miss, you will have to find other cab." ]

[lastdragomir]

[ lissa steps forward, winsome smile on her gentle face. she speaks in french, in an attempt to set the frenchwoman at ease. (diplomacy nat 20, 36 total) ] It will only take a moment of your time. We have a few questions, if you don't mind.

[msattentionspan]

[Faith will just keep a watch out. Spot 21/Listen 14.]

[necessaryevil]

[ she looks relieved at hearing her native language, lapsing back into that.

"Questions? What sort of questions, Miss?" ]

[lastdragomir]

[ um. she looks uncertainly back toward the group, unsure of what to ask or if she should even ask anything to begin with or just jump right to compelling her. she doesn't want to reenact what happened with avery.

she drops her voice to a whisper, switching back to english even though the woman can obviously understand. maybe she won't hear! ]

What should I ask...?

[daredtobelieve]

[Helen also speaks French but I'm dumb and didn't think to use it so apparently she spaced it for a second whatever. She steps up beside Lissa and putting a hand to the girl's shoulder like thank you for remembering that we are in France and this is probably a better way to get answers A+. She chimes in once more... in French this time!]

Did you receive a call to pick someone up at [insert general location here] recently?

[Riding on Lissa's bad ass diplomacy wave, Helen adds her own 35 to the mix to hopefully make this easy. Also gonna go ahead and roll sense motive to decide if Helen believes her if she answers so sense motive 30.]

[necessaryevil]

[ the woman stares at her blankly - too blankly, she would realize with her sense motive, as if her mind sort of blinks out for a second.

"Nothing I remember specifically." ]

[daredtobelieve]

[Seeing that, Helen glances over to Lissa, trying to convey "uh something is really not right here" in a quick look.]

It's very important, you see. [She continues in French, not sure if pressing for the woman to remember will cause her to react poorly, but not wanting to give up on the lead.]

[necessaryevil]

[ "I'm sorry, what is this all about?" she asks, looking between them. ]

[lastdragomir]

[ wis 17, lissa shakes her head, looking mildly frustrated. ] If she knows anything, I don't think she'll be able to tell us.

[daredtobelieve]

[Taking a breath, Helen nods to Lissa's assessment. Better to try to at least suss out if they have the right person or if this woman is simply hiding another secret.]

Can you open the back, please? [She gestures to the trunk of the car, not really answering the question at all.] We just need to have a quick look and then we won't bother you any longer.

[If we need a new diplomacy for that request, it's only 19 this time which is aaaaalmost a crit fail for Helen, which likely shows that she's getting nervous/frustrated about all of this but trying to keep her composure.]

[msattentionspan]

[Faith has no clue what anyone is saying, because she does not speak French.]

[necessaryevil]

[ the woman hesitates, but she seems just as curious what this is about, so she nervously gets out of the car and walks to the back. "I'm not certain what this is, but if it's drugs, you're not going to find anything."

she pops the back and--

the trunk is a fucking horrorshow of blood. which seems to take her by surprise, as she exclaims in colorful french and stumbles backwards, hand flying to her mouth. ]

[lastdragomir]

[ whoa boy. once the trunk is open, lissa is assaulted with the smell of old blood and she steps away abruptly, bringing her hands up to the frechwoman's arms in an effort to comfort her, soothing words soft, even as her eyes stay on the trunk and her companions. ]

[daredtobelieve]

[Helen grimaces but doesn't step back from the car. To the driver, she speaks, but this time a bit too frazzled to remember to use French.]

Does your car have any sort of recording device? A camera? [For safety or something. She figures it's a long shot.]

[necessaryevil]

[ the woman's frenzied look back at the car indicates that yes, it does, but she's afraid to admit it. "Please! I did not do this! Are you the police?"

max takes a step forward to look inside, grimacing, but not flinching away. ] It won't matter anyway. Vampires won't show up on the recording.

[daredtobelieve]

[She forgets sometimes that these vampires are different than the ones she knows.]

Likely too much to hope that it records audio as well, then.

[msattentionspan]

[Faith takes a glance at the trunk, she's not too squeamish, but that's a lot of a mess.]

Shit... [She glances to the crowd, letting them try to piece together a way to ID the vamp that did this. Faith is gonna dig through the body and try to find if they left anything behind when they shoved the mess in this trunk. (Search 15)]