Just Another Night at the Vampire Club [IC]

[trollthumper]

The blow caught the vampire hard, causing her to stagger. "Great," said the lady necromancer, "just great. They mean our destruction. Take them!" She fought against her ectoplasmic bonds, but her own force wasn't quite enough to break the grip of the dead. She directed it outward instead, swinging for Nick - but missing by a country mile. By reflex, Nick raised his hands... and as he did, the mass of ectoplasm rose like a surging wave. The many arms lobbed the vampires at the ceiling like undead lawn darts. They hit it with a force that would've been terrible on a mortal body, then hit with the floor with a rather lighter thud.

"Now, then," said Nick, "I would really, really like not to destroy any of you. But the longer you keep up these shenanigans and just keep railing without explaining a damn thing that's going on, the more appetizing a prospect that's gonna seem."

Vittorio still looked at him with hate, while the others had more cross-eyed expressions. I knew I sucked at diplomacy...

[Supercape]

Pouring forth all his strength, Rene thrust his hands forth, locking Vittorio with his eyes.

"My friend Nick" he said to the necromancer by his side. "Ze dead should be dead. Even if they talk, they must be put to rest..."

He meant what he said. He had had enough tussles with foul undead in his time to mistrust them. And necromancers too, if the truth be told. Although Nick had earned that trust - a protector rather than enslaver of the dead.

"You hear that?" he asked Vittorio, as his hands exploded with fire.

But no fire came from his outstretched arms. Rather, a blazing rain, like a streak of orange lightning, descended like a thousand lit feathers, fell from the air, all floating towards the vampire...

[Aoiroo]

Etain held her sword steady but instead focused on around her. The wood around the doors started to creep and crawl like they were growing at an accelerated pace. Eventually they swallowed the doors entirely leaving nothing but bare wood in the frames as she looked at the vampires,

"You may want to reconsider your position, there is no escape for the likes of you."

She nearly hissed out the last few words, her blade held in front of her ready to strike as she looked towards the assembled.

[trollthumper]

"My associate has a point," said Nick. "Let's look at the list. You've roused someone from slumber who probably wasn't ready to wake up, and now you're busy doing cleanup duty. Either we can work together on this one, or --"

"She's ours!"

The gloomier of the two vampire women hurled a bolt of spectral force at Nick. It tore right past him and rattled the far walls of the basement. Her compatriot, meanwhile, reached out for Etain; bands of invisible force seemed to grab at her head, but never quite clasped shut. Nick responded to the volley by hurling more phantasmal flame at the vampire who'd attacked him; this blow managed to hit her, and she recoiled under the impact.

"That," he said, "is not helping."

[Supercape]

Rene stopped to pause, and catch his breath. The magical energy around him, and that he had summoned, was beginning to take its toll on his already weak body.

Vampires!

His dealings with the undead had been more with zombies, revenants, and necromancers. Vampires always seemed a rather special breed to him. But he had read a few books, and even seen a few movies.

"I'm sure your sort has seen one or two of these!"

From behind Vittorio, a lance of finely polished oak, tipped at the hand, sprang forth, ready to impale the creature in the classic style of vampire slaying.

[Aoiroo]

"This is getting rather tedius,"

Etain stepped forward a blade in each hand, she spun in place swipping through the midsections of two bodies as she passed with grace. She watched them crumple before she held the blades up and examined the rest with a frown on her face,

"The longer this goes on, the worse this gets. I have no qualms slaying that which has no life, so do not force my hand with much more struggle, there are things to be done, and I wish not to stain my dress."

[trollthumper]

Vittorio and his necromancer companion staggered on their feet, then hit the floor with all the smoothness and flexibility of day-old corpses. Their allies turned towards Nick, murder in their eyes and magic dancing on their fingertips - but Nick was faster on the draw, and Etain's assault had left them reeling as well. The ectoplasmic hands rose from the floor again, drawing them back to the floor. They pushed against the ghostly bonds, but got nowhere fast.

"You think you can --"

"No," Nick said. "Shut up." He turned to the other warlock. "And you. Shut up twice."

He went over to check on the other vampires, making sure that Etain's glamour assault hadn't driven them to destruction. To Nick's sight, they were tranquil as death, but their souls were still in there. He directed some of the free hands to creep over them, just in case, and turned back to their conscious companions.

"So," he said. "You did something here. It backfired. And now someone - or something - is very hungry, doesn't know how to mind its appetite, and is slipping out of your grasp. That sound about right?"

The male warlock looked Nick in the eyes - the defiance had boiled away, and now he honestly seemed to be regretful. "Would you believe we did it with the best of intentions?"

[Aoiroo]

"Best for whom?"

Etain drew her sword, and pulled a cloth out of her pocket as she started to polish the blade.

"I assume you are among the benefactors for your intentions, surely, but that does not answer the question of the location."

She looked up at them, her face solemn,

"A crowded club, it makes easy cover, clubs such as these, one more pale sunken face among many, but there is the question of the people. Dozens of innocent people, attending a club for entertainment and relaxation."

She held up the blade letting the dim light glint off of it,

"Yet, here we are, because this club is no longer safe for its patrons, because here you are putting those people at risk by performing magic such as this on its grounds. So yes please, explain what intentions this magic you have used that has killed several civilians, and endangered many many more, I am very intent to hear it."

[trollthumper]

"Look, no one died --" said the female warlock.

"Yet," Nick said. "And your buddy seems to be pretty hungry, so I'm leaning towards that being a sooner rather than later type of thing. Now. What did you do, and how do we go about fixing it?"

The male warlock sighed. "It's Lenore."

"Lenore?" Nick racked his mind. "Wait, wait, wait... you mean that second-story girl the Raven kept running into in the Sixties? That Lenore? You're telling me she was --"

"A vampire, yes," said the woman. "And not just any. You wouldn't believe how many of us like to stay in the background, try and hide and stay silent. She was... alive. She was the spirit of an age."

"And she was... destroyed, I'm guessing."

The male warlock nodded. "Vittorio was the one who came up with the idea. 'Death's trivial to us,' he kept saying. Said he'd come up with a way to call her back from ashes."

"So you're... vampire hipsters. And not in the 'skinny mustache' sense." Nick would have had words about that, but as a necromancer who dressed like James Dean's funeral, he realized he had long since pole vaulted over that line himself. "So... let me guess. The ritual failed."

"Not exactly. The ritual required a focus, something to bind her spirit to so that the body could gather strength and reform itself. We figured Eclipse would be a great place - it used to be her hangout, and every Goth kid and punk who's come through this door has cast some reverence towards that painting of her."

"So she's somewhere in the club, probably not in her right mind, and really, really hungry. Got it. So, where is she?"

"No, no, you don't get it. We bound her spirit to the club, and we were working on putting together the drive to assemble a body - but she already had one. She's not in the club..."

And suddenly, Nick, Etain, and Rene could feel something passing through the shadows of the club, like a predator stalking its territory.

"...she is the club."

[Supercape]

"That doesn't sound good" muttered Rene, stroking his beard. He already felt tired from battling these creatures, and trusted them not one inch. 

 

"I haven't been in this country for many years. And I don't know its history as well as I perhaps should. My mind is usually on other, more..esoteric...things. However, I take it from the tone of your voice that ze Lenore is not a creature we should welcome with open arms.."

 

His eyes shifted left to right, scanning the club with a whole new appreciation of strange. 

 

"This ritual. I don't suppose you could do it backwards?" he asked. 

[Aoiroo]

"Perhaps we can do something like that Rene,"
She sheathed her sword, and looked at the walls of the building. The thoughts forming in her head, where had she heard of something like this before. Something like a spirit host a building, did she not live in a building just like that. It wasn't unheard of, in fact it wasn't uncommon, this was simply,
"A haunting, a strange circumstance, but that seems the most apt description for this circumstance. A stranger spirit this is, from creatures usually not thought to have souls but I believe we should treat this as a normal haunting of a possibly malicious spirit."
She made the door reappear,

"I will go out and keep anybody from trying to re enter the establishment. Also, Nick is there anything you need to perform an excercism?"

[trollthumper]

"A young priest and an old priest?" 

 

The two vampires just looked up at him, with questioning looks on their faces. "Y'know, you'd really think you two would get that..." He shook his head. "An exorcism should be relatively easy. Unless you guys found some way to put some real locks on the ritual..." 

 

"We didn't know how long her spirit had been away from this plane, so Vittorio insisted we tighten the bindings. And then tighten them again. We can undo them, though..."

 

The ceiling began to heave, like something taking its first breath. "That would be a very good idea," said Nick. "And we probably want to somewhere with breathing room..." 

 

The three heroes and their undead charges made their way upstairs, finding it very empty - Changeling's first illusion had been just that compelling. The music still played, but it was starting to crack up... and a hollow thumping was coming from the gaps in the song. Like a heartbeat. Whatever light was left in the club was nearly extinguished by now as the shadows kept writhing across the floor. 

 

"Feels like my kind of party," said Nick. He stopped out onto the dance floor. "Hey, Lenore!" 

 

The shadows paused, and turned towards Nick. 

 

"Not sure I like what you've done with the place." 

 

And with that, the shadows snaked out towards him...

[Supercape]

"Oh my aching bones!" wept a tired Rene, who, just for this once, was actually feeling his age. He had lost his vitality pouring forth his will into the fight against the vampires, and the walk upstairs had not done his old knees much good. 

 

He may have had the cunning arcane power of a mage, but he had not the physical vitality of Nick and Changling. He could feel his edge slipping. 

 

"Begone, shadows!" he said in an irritable, tired voice, whipping out his magic paintbrush and striking it thus and so, beams of light cascading weakly against the shadows that etched themselves into the club. 

 

"Terrible things, shadows..." he moaned. "Spoil the art..."

[Aoiroo]

Etain looked at the shadows and the room and took in a breath to concentrate. It didn't help they were in the literal belly of the beast, but she could do something. Focusing on the image of the club she set the illusion to overlay over themselves, very suddenly to all outside senses, they all disappeared from the clubs view and she held the concealment as she walked over to Nick,

"I have made it seem were are no longer in the club, but staying her in its confines will weaken it as time goes on. How timely can this ritual exercism be in the current circumstances?"

[trollthumper]

"Less than a minute," said the female warlock, "assuming we're mostly unperturbed." 

 

"Well, let's keep it that way," said Nick. "You two stay here and work on the ritual. I'm going to try the good old-fashioned method first. See if we can avoid all this."

 

"Why the hell would you --?"

 

"Beats poking her with a stick." He stepped towards the fringes of Etain's enchantment, ensuring that there'd be some distance from the others if Lenore decided to come down on him like a hammer. "Hey, Lenore!"

 

The shadows coiled once more, gathering around Nick's location but not quite swarming him. "I've got an idea what you're going through. You've been uprooted. You were probably resting peacefully somewhere, maybe partying in the great beyond, maybe a peaceful slumber. And now you're here, you're awake, you're hungry, and you've got no idea what to do. I can help you out here. I can bring you back to your rest. But you need to cooperate. Understand?"

 

The shadows lay there, waiting. They seemed to draw back -- but rather in surrender or to strike, Nick couldn't quite tell yet...

[trollthumper]

The shadows lurked for a second or two... and then grew thicker than before, piling weight after weight upon themselves until they were thick enough to touch. And as Nick watched, fangs began to form along the edges of the shadows, sharp and tenebrous. 

 

"Defensive positions! She's going to --" 

 

He didn't get it out before the shadows lashed out. The club floor was carpeted in darkness, but only for half a second. The shadows darted past one another, cutting wide swathes in the air, and aiming to rend anyone unlucky enough to be caught between them. They sliced at Changeling and Rene, but only just enough to pierce the skin. Nick, meanwhile, felt the fangs scrape across his jacket and bounce off. He turned his eyes towards the undead exorcists; fortunately, the volley had missed them entirely, and they were still keeping up the effort. 

 

Well. Maybe therapy isn't the best option... 

[Aoiroo]

Etain got struck against the arm, cutting through the fabric of her dress. She didn't react almost immediately, but she frowned, deeply at it. She had an impulse, to make the entire place feel like it's burst into flames, like the building was kindling over the fire and that Lenore would feel as such, though slowly, so that it'd be a lasting pain, one that went for hours. But it was only an impulse, it would not get the best reaction, and it would drop her previous leaving them open to more direct attack. Instead she let out a breath and appeared by Nick,
"Does it not hurt?"
Etain said it evenly, her frown deeply,

"Taking a form not suited to yourself, expanded from so many directions, living in these walls, it cannot be pleasant to observe but not experience it in a somewhat human form. Will you not let us help?"

[trollthumper]

The shadows swarmed again, apparently drawn towards Changeling's words. But instead of striking again, they just seemed to gather closer, as if trying to work something up from their depths. 

 

"Listen, Lenore," Nick said, "it's a pleasure to meet you. Every weird kid in Freedom's probably come through those doors at some point, wanting to be something greater. And you made it possible. I see from the portrait you're a woman of taste, of poise, of incredible grandeur. Can you even see yourself now? Is this what you want to be? A beast striking at anything that makes too much noise?" 

 

Slowly, excruciatingly, something began to form out of the piled shadows. It was like a silhouette made flesh, resembling - in rough outline - a woman wearing an evening dress. It spoke, and its words were shot through with the croak of someone dying in the desert. 

 

"It hurts... can't feel... can't see... just... hungry..."

[Supercape]

"That's not good" mumbled Rene, stating the obvious. 

 

Gripping his brush in one hand, he softly stroked his goatee, senses alert to any move the...club...? might take. 

 

"Nick, I have sent plenty of the undead to the sleep they deserve. And I have tallied with many dabbler, or master, of the black arts of necromancy...no offence taken, as you well know. Trust is, I regret, a short commodity, although they are not as deceptive as some.."

 

He paused. 

 

"But you know more of the ways of the Vampire than I. They are lost souls. Dead poets. Sad stories. And, I fancy, they come in more than one flavour" he said, thinking aloud, recalling Revenant's story of Bloody Nora. 

 

"What chills me is exactly what they hunger for, and feed on!"

[Aoiroo]

"Then stay calm,"
Etain said it with a low pitch, trying to remain soothing as she did, like approaching a child.

"We are, we are trying rather adamently to change the situation, it may be much more favorable if you stay calm, and then something will change, likely it will be better for all of us."
They were empty words, said as not to be promise, but to seem as to inspire hope. Etain didn't know how much could be done, or what Lenore's fate might be when this is finished. She couldn't garuntee anything, couldn't give a promise with no base on fufillment, it wasn't her field, and she couldn't be sure, but she could try to sooth the soul for now, the soul she felt very sorry for.

[trollthumper]

"Change?" Lenore looked more confused than anything else. "I remember... feeling that change. Someone calling me from... somewhere, I can't... can't feel, can hardly touch, it's just cold and empty and hunger..."

"It's okay," said Nick, trying to cut this avenue of conversation off before it reached some sort of hideous conclusion. "We can help you with that. You're trying to adjust to a new situation. It seems you weren't really prepared for it..."

He cast a glance back at the two vampires, half-judgmental and half-investigative. They were still working on the ritual, but it looked like it wouldn't be long until it was complete. "Just... try to keep yourself together. The hunger will be gone soon."

"But I am... where am I? Is this..." She looked around at the club, as if seeing it for the first time. "Is this Eclipse? Am I in Freedom? What... what has happened?"

[Supercape]

"I believe that is ze name of this house of song, dance, and uninspiring liquor, madam" answered Rene, who had eyed the poor selection of wine available. 

 

"And oui, it is ze city of ze Freedom" he continued. "A rather fine city, now that I have come to know it. As far as American cities go" he added with a cheeky wink at Nick. 

 

"You are most welcome, of course madam. I suspect you are feeling somewhat, disorientated at ze moment? not the most ideal of circumstances, of course. Tell me, what do you..ahem...feel like? we would like to help, of course, but perhaps we should focus on ze diagnosis first...what do you remember, what is your story?"

[Aoiroo]

"Something that should not have, it is why things are so hard for you."
She had a hard time looking directly at the spirit, keeping her in the edge of her vision. She could see spirits fairly well, their aura was a type, that made their predisposition more apparent to her then humans. It wasn't empathy, but it was a vast clue. She had seen vampires too, they simply made her stomach churn. The combination, was not a pleasant mix honestly,

"Things should be set right in some time, and likely the pain will ease and things will be right."
She smiled, she was great at smiling when she didn't mean it, but it was harder when you didn't look someone in the eye.

[trollthumper]

"I..." There was a ghost of a smile on Lenore's lips, even as her ephemeral body convulsed. "I wanted to do something different. I wanted to live. I made this place... this place, a cathedral to the lost, the wild, the mad."

"And they remember you," Nick said, "every time they come here. Every time they see your face. But if you stay here... they're going to remember this place for another reason. This is the place where the guests get bitten. Do you really want to see your legacy get ripped apart because of the hunger?"

Lenore locked eyes with him. After a few, eternal seconds, she shook her head "no." Behind Nick, the chanting from the two sorcerers reached its peak. The shadows parted, and as they did, so did Lenore, blowing away on a phantom breeze. As she passed, she was smiling.

There was nothing left in Eclipse save Nick, Rene, Changeling, and the two vampires - no presence, no chill, just a nightclub left empty. Nick turned to the two vampires. "So," he said, "I hope you learned a very important lesson about meddling with primal forces."