Bounce

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

The Italian boy had been toward the street-side of the alley's entrance, falling behind as Ian moved further into the alley, while the vampire child negotiated using a smart phone app with the disembodied spirit of someone who had died before cellular telephones had been invented. Or, attempting to do so anyway.

The youth looked up from his phone when he'd heard Elizabeth's voice, the almost perpetual look of worry briefly dispelled by a small smile and sense of relief before the boy had looked back down at the device while Ian and Elizabeth exchanged a few words.

Enzo was engrossed in an exchange of his own, through one that was talking across the Veil. Speaking in low tones, the one-sided conversation with the ghost was none the less choreographed by the expressive gestures the Italian used when speaking.

"Good Evening, Gentlemen. Anything we can help you with?"

The change in tone caught Enzo's attention, sending goosebumps up his skin as the hair stood up on his neck. The boy's brown eyes were large as he looked up anxiously to realize that there was a group of men with bottles and chains that were advancing through the alleyway toward them.

Ian had positioned himself to confront them.

...wait, Ian was Brujah. Was he losing his temper?

Did Brujah have any manipulation Disciplines? Should he have paid more attention to Clan studies? Probably, but right now Enzo was imagining the scene unfolding in a violent way, which would put a spotlight on them and only further complicate the search for Ludwig.

So what was he going to do about it?

Wait, was Enzo going to do something about it? What was he going to do? He was just a height-challenged math nerd! "Che cazzo..." the boy uttered softly, as his legs seemed to now be carrying him toward Ian with some perverse will of their own. Internally, the boy could feel his own Beast pulling at him to flee.

"Ehi," the boy called out, the Italian equivalent to hey, hoping to draw eyes on him. Honestly, he didn't care about getting the attention of all of the Kine. Just the one who seemed to be leading the pack.

Brown eyes flashed as the normally mousey boy craned his head back to look the Kine in the eye. "Leave." The boy's normally quiet, subdued voice was atypically firm and astonishingly commanding. A glimpse of the Giovanni that Enzo tried not to be. Manipulative. Controlling.

The normally life-like child had stopped any pretense of breathing, instead frozen in place trying to project an air of confidence while being terrified and waiting in the moments between seconds that felt as though they were hours-long.

Waiting to see if the man would walk away.

Waiting to see if the others would follow suit.

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

@Eviledd1984 I was thinking it would make more since for Steele to post next. He has more ability to respond than Enzo, but I can get something up tomorrow if you like.

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

The boy just blinked.

That had actually... worked?

"There was some mention of Ludwig," the deceptively young vampire remarked, even as he pulled out his cell phone. Swiping over to the Ancestry app, he continued to talk to Ian even as he started to scroll through the online registry. "The ghost believes that they could be holding him in a house on the Lower East Side, but that's not narrowing it down much."

Well, he supposed it was narrowed down in the sense that they knew Ludwig might still be in New York, but there were hundreds of homes in the Lower East Side.

But, there was definitely a link between Ludwig's abductors and the club if there were people discussing Ludwig. It was not, one would imagine, a very common name in the present night.

That being the case, he hoped that Steele and Elizabeth were doing okay inside.

"Can you text that to one of them?" the boy added, as an aside. "I'd do it, but the ghost is going to be browsing on my phone for a bit."

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

I'll try to get something up in the morning. The baby hasn't let me put him down for 3 hours now and my brain is mush.

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

He had a very bad feeling about this.

Of course, Enzo was a vampire. He had bad feelings about pretty much everything. The Camarilla-Sabbat War. The fabled coming of Gehenna. A whole family of undead Italian grandmothers. Not to mention tax filing season.

“...do you have anything useful that might identify any supernatural activity around here? Kindred or otherwise."

The boy turned his head, taking his eyes off the street as he looked up at Ian. “I’m better with corpses than I am with spirits,” the necromancer admitted, before turning his gaze back to the streets and alleys before them.

Closing his eyes, the child was quiet for a moment as he listened. Not to the traffic passing behind them. Not to the people mulling about. “It’s what you’d expect,” the boy offered finally, as he opened his eyes and looked back up at the Brujah. “Lots of lingering regret.”

Glancing off to an alleyway between the club and an adjacent building, he remarked, “An overdose in that alley.” Turning to indicate the street, he added, “Someone killed in the crosswalk.”

But that was it. Which, was neither good nor bad. Lots of Kindred activity never reached the Shadowlands. “The ghosts don’t seem particularly concerned about anything here. It feels like an ordinary street,” Enzo remarked, as a hand came up toward his neck. His fingers played with a locket that he wore, as if by nervous habit.

“Vieni qui, Bruno,” the boy uttered softly. It was possible that Ian would feel the haunting presence as the necromancer called upon the spirit haunting the antique piece.

“I’ll send my ghost around to the other side of the club to see if there’s anything there,” Enzo offered.

Then the boy turned, as if engaged in another conversation with something unseen, and said, “I’ll help you look at ancestry-dot-com later. E lo faro, lo prometto.”

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

@Bounce

How is work on your post going?

@Eviledd1984

I should have it done tonight.

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

The Italian boy just watched the room as the adults chatted.

"Enzo and I will look too out of place in a club,” Ian remarked. Not an inaccurate assessment to say the least. Internally, the boy felt a bit of relief at the idea of not being dragged along to the club.

“So I propose that Enzo and I investigate the club from outside,”

Large, brown eyes just blinked. They were doing what now? The former ghoul tried to maintain his composure as he gave a slight bow toward the older man. “Bene, grazie,” the boy offered. Purely perfunctory. As one might respond to receiving a task from one of the nonni.

Internally, he was screaming.

Enzo didn’t even go hunting on the streets. These oversized bloodsuckers wanted him to play Watson to Ian’s Holmes? Subconsciously, the boy’s hands grabbed the hem of his t-shirt, fidgeting and fiddling with the fabric in his hands as he tried to process the anxiety.

He was just the book keeper. A Giovanni of the main family, not some La Putanesca from Sicily. Such hitting the streets was not really his strong suit.

What if they came across the Sabbat? What was Enzo supposed to do? Haunt them?

Still, putting on a brave face, the boy looked up at Ian and said, “Andiamo?”

In Venice, they would have had people for this sort of thing.

Unfortunately, right now, they were the people.

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

Posting coming today. Sorry for the wait, got caught up in all the recent bad weather in the US.

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

So I assume at this point @rocketrobie2's character will just meet us on the club? If so I'm probably going to have Ian brought it up for my next post

@Randomguy

Given that @rocketrobie2's Steele is a rocker/full-time musician, it strikes me that an alternative approach could be to discover that Steele just happens to be playing a gig at that club, which could also explain Steele not receiving the email. We could just jump to the Club and have everyone there.

Just my two cents.

New York By Night (A Vampire The Masquerade RP)

Being drawn into a hug was still a new experience for him.

Kindred might joke that Giovanni were all kissing cousins, but affection wasn’t a quality many within the Clan - mortal or otherwise - associated with La Famiglia. Enzo was fairly certain there were a few who’d never hugged anyone that wasn’t a corpse.

Given that outlook, it went without saying that some of their necromancy rituals were obscene.

As a result, the flinch that the boy displayed as Edwina reached to pull him into a hug betrayed an instinctive fear at having a hand outstretched toward him. Potence was one of the Clan Discplines after all. It left an indelible mark upon La Famiglia. And how they interacted with one another.

The boy was tense at first, only relaxing in Edwina’s embrace after a moment in which he had to remind himself that this Family was not Giovanni.

Considering how most Kindred were distrustful of other Clans, it was probably odd that Enzo felt safer around this Family than those of his Blood.

Giovanni were right bastards though. Achieve victory through any means necessary and, in the absence of strength, deception. It was the lesson by which the Giovanni had emerged from out of the Cappodocians, the manner in which Augustus Giovanni had led La Famiglia from the start.

When he’d finally relaxed, the boy hugged Edwina back. “Madre,” he uttered softly.

It was formal, but a Giovanni was never familiar.

He listened to the situation, doing a double take at the revelation that Ludwig could have been taken against his will. Ludwig was a Brujah, like Ian was, but far older.

It would take some next level, very bad shit to force a Kindred like that into something against their will, a fact that Ian seemed to pick up on as he spoke.

The boy’s brown eyes glanced up at Ian, then over to Elizabeth before they finally settled on Edwina again. If they were investigating a mortal club, then Enzo’s child-like appearance was going to cause him to stand out.

Unless one were Ventrue or Toreador, standing out in a crowd was generally something Kindred avoided.

“I can plant suggestions in one or two of the mortal’s minds, but I’m likely to draw attention in a club,” Enzo remarked, his voice displaying something close to a British accent as he swapped to English.

It wasn’t a no, he’d do whatever they asked of him. After all, he could see benefits and consequences either way.

As a Giovanni, Enzo could investigate the Shroud in or around the Club to try and get answers. He could also plant suggestions inside the minds of any mortals that might present an obstacle to them.

...and if things got regrettable, he could move the bodies. Or, rather, get the bodies to move themselves so that it didn’t look like... well, a murder.

At the same time, he wasn’t going to pass for any older than thirteen. That made it very hard to go clubbing in the mortal nightlife of New York. Unless it was a Pokemon Go event.

...or, that was probably dating him now. Did mortals still play Pokemon Go? The older he got, the faster it seemed fads such as that passed.

The possible exception seemed to be Skyrim. When Gehenna came, they probably still wouldn’t have Elder Scrolls VI.