[Sodium_noir] a snapshot in the night

[Lilianna Elrod]

Now since John Black went back to the Society Ball after leaving with Abby
and taking her to breakfast, where is she gonna be? At her place, or back at
the bar? What time of day is it now?
Oh, I also sent you her updated character sheet

On 9/7/07, Sodium Noir ST <sodium.storyteller at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>  Monday 27th of October
>
> 3 AM
>
>
>
> Casa Giovanni
>
> The Sabbat manse
>
> Little Italy
>
>
>
> Estobhan sat at the writing desk, pen poised above an accounts book. Even
> before the door opened he knew the Bishop was coming, that sort of presence
> always arrived ahead of the physical form. The sort of sheer personality
> that held a large Sabbat community together, that imprinted itself on all
> the packs and became the personality of the Sabbat as a whole, or at least
> the local Sabbat. Yes, the Gotham Sabbat could indeed be said to be an
> extension of Bishop Santiago.
>
>
>
> The problems only arose when other, equally monolithic personalities
> arrived. When the presence of one vampire was matched by and grated against
> the presence of another Vampire. The Sabbat braves were a fractious and
> incendiary lot, packs looking to rise in status by smashing the heads of
> their brothers and sisters. Such was the Sabbat way. But there were a rare
> few vampires, those who rose to to the top or who gathered cults of
> personality to them, who were more than just a brush fire waiting to happen.
> These creatures, if they ignited, they were world burners.
>
>
>
> Estobhan had tried his entire life to avoid such men, only to find in
> Death that he was subservient to one. He'd settled into the shadow of
> Santiago and even managed to rise above others as the Bishop's major domo.
> By being loyal and toady to the powerful Lasombra. It had never occurred to
> him what he would do without his powerful and charismatic benefactor until
> recently. Until the arrival of outside forces forced him to ponder the
> question …
>
>
>
> The door opened, breaking his train of thought, as the Bishop came in.
> Glided in might be a more correct way to describe it. Under that cassock
> Santiago had legs just like everybody else, but it never seemed as though he
> used them to get from a to b. To the casual observer, Bishop Santiago glided
> around his estate with the cassock hardly moving, just dragging along
> behind.
>
>
>
> It didn't hurt his mystique either.
>
>
>
> The Bishop went directly to the window, not speaking a word. Pale
> translucent flesh that should have been reflected in the glass instead did
> not. But then Estobhan had not seen his own reflection for a very long time.
> He'd been unable to look himself in the mirror while alive, and since
> loosing the ability with the embrace, he hadn't missed the sight of his own
> features once.
>
>
>
> It was easier to be a monster when you didn't have to look yourself in the
> mirror.
>
>
>
> Outside, in the courtyard of the Giovanni estate, the Sabbat prowled. Not
> the local Sabbat, they were out running the city and putting the fear of
> Caine into the residents of downtown Gotham. No, these were the outsiders,
> the newcomers. The Packs that followed Frater Augustus into town.
>
>
>
> They'd been gathering over the past few nights. Always courteous and
> respectful to Santiago. Asking permission to enter the city, awaiting
> official invite to the Communal haven. But clearly they were Augustus packs,
> Augusts allies. There were two all female packs. One with the scent of the
> wilds about them, the others looking even deader than the average vampire.
> The third group were new tonight, a mixed collection.
>
>
>
> The other group were not so much new, the majority of them were local. But
> the Momma's Boyz had undergone a regenesis since to return of their prodigal
> son Dylan Bruce. The third world burner.
>
>
>
> Recently cleared of the charge of Infernalism by the Sabbat Inquisition,
> Dylan had been returned to his former position of Black hand Dominion. It
> was even said that he was now doing the work of the Inquisition, hunting
> down devil worshippers in the sect. But Dylan always did attract the wildest
> rumours. Now he was playing to the crowd, bathing in the adulation of the
> braves. Like an arrogant rock star or a prize fighter, sitting on the bonnet
> of a sports car he hadn't been driving a few hours earlier.
>
>
>
> Santiago liked him. It could even be said that he seemed to enjoy having
> the firebrand in his city. Which only served to confound Estobhan all the
> more. If was as if the Fire marshal was pleased to see an arsonist kid with
> a box of matches.
>
>
>
> "Can you hear that Estobhan?" the Bishop finally says. His head turns ever
> so slightly back towards his seneschal.
>
>
>
> Estobhan listens, the sounds of the city, of the braves down below. His
> grasp of auspex is limited but he pushes his senses none the less. Then he
> catches it, beneath the whoops and shouts of the Dylan fans, a song on his
> car radio.
>
>
>
> " … Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right … " The tinny voice
> warbled.
>
>
>
> "I think I know where the Troubadour is coming from!" the Bishop said with
> a chuckle. "All these Vampires in our manse. Such dignitaries come to spend
> time with us. How I envy the Tzimisce and their lonely towers atop harsh
> mountains."
>
>
>
> "You … you mean the Old Tzimisce your Grace? I thought the Sabbat had
> destroyed them all?"
>
>
>
> "Did you really Estobhan? Believe that creatures so ancient and powerful
> that the land itself was counted as just another of their thralls? How short
> sighted of you!" he turned fully towards the other Vampire, but his
> attentions were still clearly focused on the ground below. "So many Clans
> and tribes of the Old world are said to have been destroyed Estobhan. The
> Cappadocians, the Lhiannan, the Lamia …. The Tremere thought they
> extinguished the Salubri but were shown to be mistaken. Considering that a
> vampire can sleep for millennia safe within a sealed crypt or the earth
> itself, while others can hide in the otherworld, how certain can we be that
> any bloodline is truly gone from the world."
>
>
>
> "I suppose …"
>
>
>
> "Supposition? Now there is a noble pursuit my friend. For how else are we
> to find Wisdom without questions? Let us suppose then. Let us question. Why
> then, do you suppose, Frater Augustus has so many females in his group? And
> why do you suppose they hate the Giovanni so deeply?"
>
>
>
> "I hadn't really given it much thought your Grace. Outside of Gotham the
> Giovanni are counted as the enemy, they are not of the sword of Caine. To
> the Sabbat as a whole, there is little difference between a Grave robber or
> a Camarilla dupe."
>
>
>
> "Very astute Estobhan. But entirely wrong. This is a special kind of hate.
> A specific hate that is flamed by the very fact that they are Giovanni, not
> just another Clan of infidels." He looked back through the window. "No
> Estobhan, there is more to this that the simple them and us passion of
> nightly fervour. We, the alliance with the grave robbers and the family that
> is, are being tested. Somebody has decided to take a closer look at our
> little experiment, but it remains to be seen if it is just Augustus taking
> an interest or if it goes any higher up!"
>
>
>
> "And if it does?"
>
>
>
> "As you said Estobhan, the Giovanni are not Sabbat. At least not True
> Sabbat. If the Wisdom of the Sabbat is to end this arrangement we will bow
> to their will."
>
>
>
> "as in all things!" Estobhan parroted.
>
>
> "As in all things!" the Bishop replied absent mindedly, still gazing down
> at his newest flock.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sodium_noir at elsinore.net
>
> Sodium Noir site: www.khaoshq.fsnet.co.uk/sodiumnoir/index.html
>
> Project Khaos www.khaoshq.fsnet.co.uk
>
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