Last week: - Bloodsickles were distressing to some characters from a religious perspective - does one gain sustenance from them only if the person is still alive now, or if they were alive at the time? - Meanwhile, in Chaos, just outside House Mosferatu. It is night - apparently permanight. One half of the sky is stars moshing with each other, occasionally brawling. On the other side of a vague line is great swaths of irregular color. The viewer already is familiar with the idea of local idea of time - 'yellowsky' means 'when the point of sky over the area we're talking about is yellow'. - Vampires awaken in House Mausferatu awaken, and the player wishes to find the person that brought them here. He has wandered off. One grabs a willing vampire (more stable than a Malkavian) and heads off to find their host. - Chaos is. Body parts migrate around the passers by. Clothing migrates as well. The vampires are not particularly interesting, on the Chaos scale. - Delna asks a passerby, "Pardon me, have any of you seen a mouse walk by here?" The shifter flexes its top half in response, blobs over to a corner, picks up some placards, and communicates in its fashion with the vampires. - The vampire meets Jean. The vampire has death sight. Jean will die. Is dead. Can never die. Is dying. All at once. The vampire is distressed, but suffers no ill effects otherwise. - The vampire asks for Mousferatu. Jean does not know where Mousferatu is - he was supposed to be in his house. Which the vampire came from. - The vampire checks her cell phone - it has signal. She dials. It rings. Someone picks up on the other end. That person is not Diane, and is confused at how the communication is going on. "You're in my head! How did you get here?" She hangs up. The phone rings - it's the same number calling back. Gingerly, she answers. "... hello?" It's the Toreador she was dialling. They're both lost. They chat. As she's hanging up, the other voice quietly says: "You're still in my head." - Jean wanders up to the door. There is no front door person. There is a desk. There is no one at the desk. Jean calls out. There is no answer. Jean waffles. Jean turns into a homonculus and climbs the vampire and perches on her shoulder, and they re-enter the house. - They encounter another dead person who is just normally dead. They chat. - Jean and the vampire wander the house, following Jean's directions. They end up in a central corridor. In an intersection, there is what seems to be a fairly elaborate science slash mad science lab. Working at the lab is a familiar looking mad scientist type - straight out of a movie. Delna addresses the figure by his character's name "Doc Brown?" He looks up, and responds in English: "That's Eagleton. You have the wrong lab." Eagleton is happy to have power. He offers assistance and his card to Jean and the vampire. "Professor Eagleton: Problems solved. Usually." - Eagleton, Delna, and Jean talk. Jean and Delna accept none of Eagleton's offers, save directions. They continue on and talk to a tree that is the House Second. The tree gives Delna a bird that she can follow to get to where she wants. It is not clear whether the bird will take her to Mousferatu or to what he wanted to talk to her about. - The vampire and Jean continue to walk back out of the house. Delna tries her cell phone again, and does reach a nervous Toreador. "Keep talking! It's Delna!" "You're sure? You're not the scary thing that keeps getting into my cellphone?" "Oh god! I'm sorry?" "You heard the voice too?" "Yeah. You hung up, and the voice keeps talking." The Toreador is afraid to hang up, because she's in his mind and doesn't want to shut his mind down. Jean reassures them. The fact that Jean seems to know things about the voice fails to reassure them. - They find the front of the house. The vampire has pieced his pipe together. The dead people introduce each other. The pipe smoker is Abermax. - The vampire sees a Barcajean, composed of multiple flying saucers forming a rough chair shape. They are all Jean. They are all dying, dead, will die, will never die. At different times. At different cycles. - "Nice bird. Where'd you get it?" "A tree." "That's the sanest answer I've heard all day!" "... it was a talking tree that was feeding singing fish." "Can we go back to the tree?" They theorize that they were inside a Malkavian's nightmare. The bird sings an aria from Fleidermaus. - "Death is a different department. I am Jean." - Delna thinks of Mousferatu, and finding him. The bird sings "Freebird". Delna releases the bird. It sings "Flight of the Valkyries" and flies off. The Barcajean, the homonculus, and its passengers pursue. - The bird is rapidly moving through ways. Jean is able to keep up with it. The vampires feel like they're flying through a film made up of brief splices from other films, taped together, not necessarily straight. The bird flies to the Atoll near Chaos - the way is very thin. For a split second, Delna is aware of the bird, and everything else is gone with a someone else's problem field. - They fly into a graveyard populated by Chandroids. They look up and say in Dutch "Hey, a flying chair." Jean understand Dutch; at some point the Dancer's Guild downloaded languages into him. Not that he remembers. The locals have normal lifespans, except for the one that's going to die in the next year. - The Toreador chats with the locals. Delna goes into the house that the bird is sitting on. The locals are surprised that Delna is just walking into their house, - It's a very housy house. It's comforting. There is a hamster in the house. - The hamster will never die, like the guy that Delna met earlier. Jean introduces Delna to Hamster Eric. She asks him if he rescued a lot of people from an apocalypse on Earth. He's not sure. She asks him why he's not going to die - he answers, "Because I'm an Amberite. I won't die unless my brothers kill me. Which I don't expect them to do. They're much better behaved than the original." He says that his brothers had better parents than the originals - Mousferatu had asked her about her family, which seems awfully nosy to Eric. Eric has a personal question for her. "Are you of the style of Norton?" "Pardon?" Eric searches for a polite circumlution. "You were alive, and now are not?" "Yes." - "You have odd feeding requirements, right?" "We feed on blood." Eric says that his specifications were vague, and he doesn't know what kind of blood they want. There follows a discussion about 'human' and what qualifies or doesn't qualify. Earth was destroyed; the local place wasn't, but Eric can't really get into too many details. The requirement he was given was a place with a day/night cycle - this place has one, but it's a little screwy. He describes it to Delna using a metaphor involving a waterglass and a brush. The gist is that suns appear and disappear, more than rise or set. - Eric again calls them Norton's children. Delna doesn't know who Norton is. Jean mentions that he's the Master of Unlife, which helps somewhat. Jean also mentions that Norton is like the Unicorn of Unlife. That is less helpful. Jean opines that the scale goes from apocalypse to Pharaban. Delna doesn't ever want to hear the word "Pharaban" again. - The Dutch are volunteers who are fascinated with the concept and approach of death without the actual death. This concept is difficult for Eric, but Delna is up to speed with it. Some of Delna's people don't like feeding on the currently-alive, so she's interested in a blood bank. Eric picks up a small cellphone and dials a number. Elsewhere, he speaks with Jodo or one of Jodo's flunkies. They negotiate a method of accessing a local blood bank under the name "Wolfheart Foundation". This will take until day to set up, so they can start by introducing the local girls to their new role in life. - Eric mentions that the Count has been informed of their arrival and will be showing up at some point. Eric checks, and Delna has been informed of the Count. Eric explains that the Count is the one who made space for them in a world that he doesn't -technically- own. He is pleased with his political phrasing. Eric cautions that the Count does keep track of the well being of his locals. - Eric asks for any other requests - Delna agrees to coffins. One of the girls's father makes coffins by hand, and so can take measurements and requests. Eric says that Norton paints the inside of his coffins Institutional Green for its soothing nature. Eric doesn't find that color soothing. - Diane and Eric go out and talk to the girls. The girls do actually squee. Max has found an entire stash of tobacco and is a happy, happy man now that he has confirmed there is tobacco here. - One of the local girls takes Delna's hand and escorts her out, points to herself, points the eaves of the house, and points to the graves. Delna is confused. At some point, Delna realizes that the symbols on the graves are the same as the one on the house. Communication sort of happens. More or less. - Max is in the kitchen, smoking. Diane is talking to the girls, using the hamster as a translator. This bothers Diane, but she's coping. The bird is on the roof, singing early Ella Fitzgerald tunes. This is difficult without lips, but the bird is coping. - Delna notices that on the horizon there is a line of light processing toward them. They speculate this must be the local equivalent of dawn, and flee to the basement. There is no basement, just a root cellar. The root cellar has no windows. Dawn happens, and they fall into torpor. Torpor ends on a normal cycle, and presumably night has fallen. - There is a modern dignitary-type car parked out in front, flying a few diplomatic-looking flags. - Walking up from town are solid-looking normal people. Death, on a normal scale. The local embassy staff introduces himself and provides a cell phone for contact, and lays the groundwork for the count's upcoming visit. There's some sight-seeing and some tourism nearby. The local people are volunteers, and are not sharing information with the local villages and nearby. She is warned that if people go rogue, the other villages are in their right to defend themselves. The locals are OK with things, the non-volunteers were moved out. None of the locals have dealt with actual vampires or werewolves before. Some have dealt with mages before. - The local staff introduces himself as Froderich the Burgermeister, and walks her through the speed-dial options, which include himself, the police, the blood bank, and the Count's staff. They go through some scenarios that would qualify as an emergency and require the Count's staff - things like fire and pitchforks, or Froderich's head in a box. - Froderich politely excuses himself. - Jean has wandered off during the day. There might be a homonculi somewhere. - About an hour later, there is a somewhat uncomfortable *BAMF* noise. A brightly colored wormhole opens. Mister Eagleton says: "HA! I found her! Now you can go through!" About 75 vampires come running through the wormhole, looking singed and afflicted by static electricity. Those that were poking in Eagleton's lab have aggravated fire or electricity damage. They charge into the graveyard. There is a *HISS*POP* and the wormhole vanishes. - Two say "Night! Blessed night!" and fall over. The rest are doing better, and argumentatively arrange themselves by clan and group. Dominance establishment starts to happen. Poorly. Delna looks for her team - they are not there. - There is a tugging on Delna's pant leg. She looks down. It's Eric. "Can you lift me to head height?" She does. "Welcome to your new home. There are rules. At this point, because I'm standing on her, she's in charge. Delna, everyone. Everyone, Delna. Does anyone have any questions?" A largish Giovanni stands up: "Yeah, I have a problem with that." Eric flips over to the Giovanni in eyeblink, holding his blade to the Giovanni's neck. The Giovanni tries to grab the hamster, who cooly and smoothly slices the offending hand off its arm, and returns his blade to the threat position. "Any -other- questions?" "Yeah - can you put that hand back on?" Eric declines, and explains that this is a world where there are penalties for errors and not for not paying attention. - Delna gives them the briefing from Froderich. There is grumbling at both the territorial limits and the not-killing people. A Ventrue raises his hand like a kid in school: "Are you going to remain in charge?" Delna admits that her team is in charge, because they were the ones who led the apocalypse recon. Since there is a Ventrue in the team, this is pronounced acceptable. - A Toreador inquires as to whether there is an art museum in the village. Delna has no idea and admits such, but says that perhaps - Abermax comes out of the house and joins one of the clusters of people. - The Count's vehicle arrives. - The Count is a distinguished gentleman - A librarian-type, giving off an air of confidence and with a family resemblance to the count. - Neither the Count nor his daughter look like they will ever die. - Four Ifrit - creatures out of myth. Air spirits, reddish to purplish. They are magical creatures. There is no sense of decay or not decaying - they're outside it. - A couple of very competent looking swordwomen, who are normal people. - Cagliostro and Delna chat, with Janice and Diane on the outside. Janice provides paperwork to the group, opining that it makes the world go round and keeps things going smoothly. - Cagliostro stands next Delna, chatting politely with the hamster. "Caelin is what magic thinks about when it wakes up in a cold sweat after a nightmare." - Eric blames Caelin for being partially responsible for everyone's Armageddons going off at once. - Cagliostro provides Delna with a golden goblet that fills with blood whenever she (and only she) says "Drink". Delna sets it off accidentally, and realizes that the blood smells -good-. - Delna sips the blood - since Cagliostro used her to calibrate the spell, it's basically a perfect food source for her. - Delna steps away from the crowd and up to the porch of the house. A living girl shows up in the area, goes up to the porch, and starts to draw. The scent of living human permeates the area, and hungry vampires start to sidle over. - Delna explains things to some hungry vampires, emphasizing that the locals are not to be killed, and don't know anything about vampires. A Malkavian is quite enthused at the idea of being able to tell them -anything-. Delna vetoes this, even though the plan involves yo-yos. - Delna announces to the vampires if they are in immedate need, they can approach her for something to drink. The goblet fills. People notice. A low-ranking Ventrue is deputized to test the blood, approves, and tosses it back. The lead Ventrue asks for a drink, and it is provided. The Ventrue test and quickly realize that they cannot summon blood from the goblet. In a quick glance, Delna is quickly promoted to "No matter how annoying she becomes, do not kill" status. - The Ventrue arrange a line of vampires for blood drinking. They enjoy the sorting. All of them were at least the primogen in their original area, and they are subtly jockeying for dominance. - The group finds some vampires who are able to communicate with the locals because they have sufficient language closeness in common. - The Burgermeister returns and announces that the castle is finished. It has a basement full of coffins - cheap coffins quickly slapped together. "Sunrise - light - is coming." - The group heads to the castle. Eric tugs on Delna's pant leg and requests a list. The castle is very impressive - but is designed to be impressive and imposing from either road that approaches, but it's kind of weird from other angles. The castle has a number of smallish sub-basements, so that people can cluster as appropriate. As the last people arrive, the sun terminator approaches. - A scraggly - mangy, really - hunchback has come out of the castle and is examining the newcomers, with picture in hand. He approaches in Delna, announces himself as the caretaker in a basic version of her language, and pronounces her in charge. - Delna enters the basement, the sun arrives above, and she enters torpor before finding a coffin.