The Opening Night of the 'Sound Impact' Nightclub

[Melisse Ghiberti]

"I certainly understand, but Cornaro can be...very stern," Melisse said, stringing him along to get he most she could out of the blubbering slime, "I suppose I could talk to him on your behalf, but I expect he'll want some offering of penitence on your part."

[Hisato Zaitoichi]

Hisato was pleased the thugs decided to play ball and follow him outside...now he could show them exactly who they were really messing with, and just why they had just made the biggest mistake of their soon to be very short lives. As he and the four stepped out, he noted how they were quick to move as a 'pack' of sorts. Versed in group fighting, and yet they underestimated the competition. 

This was not Hisato's first fight, and he had faced multiple opponents before.  Both armed and unarmed.

As such he was prepared for the eventually, he never left the haven without some type of weapon just in case on the off chance he needed the extra threat. And it appeared he was not wrong in taking his 'Tanto' or small life and' Wakizashi' a shortened version of his katana out with him when he decided to visit the club. It appeared the thugs didn't want to play fair and have a fist fight, as such he thought.

So be it on their heads.

Keeping a close eye on the two knife-wielding thugs, Hisato acted as the other two came forward from his front. Before the bout began he spoke out, dissapointment clear in his voice at this outcome they had chosen for themselves. 

"So this is how it is going to be is it? I expected better...but if this is how you wish to fight, so be it on your head. I shall not be held responsible for what happens next, your boss and yourselves made that choice. Let get on with it shall we."

As the first thug to approach threw a mean punch at his gut, Hisato was quick to act. Lightning reflexes, built over centuries of practice and constant warfare, finaley honed senses and reactions went to work. If one noticed carefully they would have seen the act of Hisato drawing out his wakizashi from its concealed position. As the thug came for his gut, he adjusted his footing.

Attempting to sidestep, being ever wary of the other two thugs with the knives, Hisato attempted to either remove the brass covered hand with his shortened blade and leave the removed hand for the rats or failing that grab it and send him head over heels into a knife wielding friend of his. Following this up as the other thug went for his left kidney, Hisato jutted out a leg hard below the man's knee at a angle that would hopefully break that leg. If he failed he knew he could take a few punches, or cuts if it came to it, besides it would allow him his chance to strike on his own terms.

((OOC: Actions/Dice Allocation -  Drawing Sword (1) , Attacking First Guy (2) , Attacking Second Guy (2) , Dodging Punch (1).  ))

[Legionnaire]

SPOILER: Click to show

I'll be treating these thugs as using the 'Extras' rules for minor minions. This means that Stumble is now at Hurt instead of Bruised and suffers a -1 penalty to all dice pools.

Hisato resolves first. First he rolls 1 die at difficulty 4 to draw his sword from Concealment.

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Success! Hisato doesn't accidentally slice his own arm off or something and draws his weapon. Next Hisato rolls 2 dice to strike at Stumble's hand at difficulty 9 (base 6, +1 for two enemies in melee range, +2 for targeting the hand):

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One success! Hisato rolls damage - despite the small length of his sword I'm still going to treat it as a sword rather than a dagger or knife so it deals Strength+2 at Hisato rolls 5 dice for damage at difficulty 6...

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Three successes - and as this guy is a mere unarmoured mortal, he has no chance to Soak. He suffers three health levels of damage and immediately drops to Incapacitated - he'd be dead if Hisato was aiming at somewhere less vital, but either way he's out of the fight.

Next Hisato goes for Brass with a melee kick. Hisato rolls 2 dice at difficulty 8 (difficulty -1 as he only faces 1 melee opponent, difficulty +1 due to Kick maneuever, difficulty +1 due to targeting a specific limb):

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Botch! As there are no specific guidelines to botching for Kicks I'm ruling that Hisato unbalances himself due to the kick and Hisato loses the first of any successes he has on his dodge roll opposing Brass' melee attack.

As Stumble is out of the fight, his attack obviously doesn't happen. Brass attempts to punch Hisato in the kidney - I'm translating this as a general attack to the torso but next time I'll be more explicit with my flavour text. Brass rolls Dexterity + Brawl (4) at difficulty 6.

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1 success! Hisato rolls two dice to dodge the attack at difficulty 6:

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1 success! Unfortunately due to the previous botch this success is negated. Brass rolls Strength+1 (4) for damage with brass knuckles (difficulty 6) + 1 more for his success over Hisato:

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4 successes! Hisato rolls Stamina (3) to Soak:

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1 success. Hisato soaks 1 point of damage but suffers three levels of bashing damage - however, Hisato is undead and cares little for blunt trauma, so the health levels afflicted by bashing damage are halved and rounded down, putting Hisato at bruised.

End of round conditions:
Stumble is Incapacitated.
Brass, Edge and Glint are all healthy.
Hisato:
Bruised [/]

There was a glint of silvery steel in the darkness, and then a spray of crimson blood sprayed into the air. One of the thugs, in the middle of his swing already, carried on before he realised what had happened and planted his fist in Hisato's plexus, catching the enigmatic vigilante off-balance with his sure-footed punch - but to his shock, his solid blow elicited little more than a grunt of pain from Hisato, who stood firm and seemed to tower above him.

A scream rent the night air, and the other thug dropped to the ground clutching at a bloody stump of his hand. The hand, the brass knuckles still gripped tightly, felt to the ground nearby with a wet thud. The other brass-knuckle toting thug stared, for a second, as Hisato's blade, still dripping his mate's blood, and then threw himself desperately in a backwards tumble to try and get out of range of the weapon. The other two, meanwhile, realised that this wasn't just some cocky, coked-up superhero and brandished their knives warily. They seemed to weigh their options for a second, but evidently decided on the bloodier course as they approached. One lead the other in and slashed at Hisato's sword arm - the other instead darted to a nearby stack of rubbish bins and grabbed a beer bottle from an open one which he threw at Hisato's head.

SPOILER: Click to show

For a bit of spice, I'm going to have Melisse roll Charisma + Expression for making her point to Hanley. She rolls 4 dice at difficulty 6 (it would be difficulty 5, but I neglected to set a difficulty before rolling and mentally defaulted to 6):

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Three successes!

Back inside the club, Melisse played the low-rate gangster like a finely tuned instrument. At last the reality of how badly he had screwed up in her eyes - and, by extension, the eyes of her much more immediately-powerful cousin - seemed to sink in fully. The blubber went out of his voice replaced by breathless thinking.

"Yes. Yes. I understand. I understand completely. How about...yes, to account for my losses, Cornaro will receive half again his usual cut? How does that sound? And I'll lend him Ox here-" he pointed to one of his bodyguards. "As a show of my sincerity, he's one of my best wet-workers."

"Really? Aww come on boss, don't punish me for just doing what you told me to-"

"ENOUGH! Enough out of you! You'll do as your told!"

Melisse noticed the speed at which Hanley had cut his goon off, and how a flash of panic had shot through his eyes.

((Clyde and Abigail had new content edited into the previous post that still applies to this post, I just wanted to play out Hisato's combat.))····························

[Melisse Ghiberti]

"Hmm, maybe I could talk him into accepting such an offer," Melisse mused, bringing her index finger to her lower lip and casting her eyes upward in an arch display of consideration, "But I'd be asking quite the favor of my cousin, and it's not like I know you very well..."

[Abigail Winters]

Damn it, Abi thought as the man tried to card her. She had come accustomed to all of the shitholes she regularly visited either knowing her or not giving a damn about the legalities of selling her drinks. Thinking quickly she responded, "Hey man, could you please cut me a break? I just had a psycho fall into my table and I could really use the drink." She gave him an innocent look that screamed "please". 

[Clyde Maddick]

"Never shut up? I'm flattered!" Clyde exclaimed, as he was yanked past various sweaty and warm clubgoers. He looked about to see where all the conflict went. In the time this young woman had grabbed him and taken his attention, all of the violent individuals appeared to have taken their fight out of the room. This was a great relief. Maybe the voices would be quiet so he could enjoy his time here.

His attention shifted to the young woman in front of him. She was so warm to the touch; a different type of feeling than the one he felt when Daphne caressed him. While Daphne's touch was cool and soothing, this touch was exciting and vigorous. Clyde couldn't remember if he had given this woman The Kiss before. Oftentimes Daphne and Clyde would bring vigorous patrons back to their haven to have wine, sex, and for the two vampires, dinner. Daphne, being a Dominate Malkavian, would wipe the memories of any guests that graced their bedrooms. At least the bloody parts that is.

By no means were Daphne and Clyde exclusive when it came to sex with humans. In fact his Sire had introduced him to the notion of sharing. By no means, however, were they polyamorous. That would imply that there was love regarding their other partners. A far better descriptor would be Non-Monogamous. Humans were tools for food to Daphne, and her philosophy regarding the matter was akin to; why not have fun at dinner time? While Clyde and Daphne would have fun with their multitude of playmates for the night, at the end of it all, they understood each other in a way that no humans ever could. Their love, and their private time, was special, for they were in this together. Navigating undeath alone had made Daphne distant, so when Clyde entered her life she began to regain some of what made her human before. On the flipside, undeath had made Clyde paranoid, insane, and turned his own mind into a maze of insanity and inspiration. Daphne was to him a savior. She was the one who knew his mind better than him. Both knew where their hearts resided. The group sex was just fun.

--are you fucking monologuing?--he's fucking monologuing--what does all that have to do with this club--nothing I don't know who he's thinking at--not us that's for sure--come on focus on the pretty lady in front of you--pretty tasty that is--ooh I wonder if her friends are tasty too--does the redhead you came here with want to eat too--it's rude to eat alone after all--get your shit together clyde dinner just said come meet the appetizers--

Oh my god shut the fuck up. Clyde said in his head to the voices. If this is going to be dinner I have no way to make them forget. Daphne hasn't taught me how to mind wipe yet. I can't just break the masquerade and I honestly don't wanna kill anyone tonight, you guys saw I'm trying to avoid that.

--right now you are--you've killed before--way more than killed--way more than eaten--you know what would be A GOOD IDEA CLY--

"Shut the fuck up!" Clyde screamed at the top of his lungs, quieting the voices. Gwendolyn turned around in shock, staring at Clyde with a look of worry, obviously self conscious that she had offended her favorite artist in some way. "Hey, don't worry! I was just now recognizing you, Gwendolyn!" Clyde fumbled, looking for a way to play off his sudden outburst, "It was just taking me a bit. You look different, but good! Really fucking good, and I'm surprised that you remember me, and think so highly of my work, and the glowing body paint and all the flashing light--you know what, I'm just so excited to see you too, I couldn't help myself. Of course I wanna meet your friends!

--nice save Romeo--keep it together casanova--

"I really am glad to see you. Can I call you Gwen?"

[Legionnaire]

Hanley looked desperate, and his bodyguards looked unimpressed to their leader's crumbled bravado. Maybe he had enough cunning to realise that this was a woman that physically bullying into submission simply wouldn't work - of course his reasons for thinking that were entirely wrong, but the end result was still correct. Dejectedly, he reached into his wallet and pulled out five crisp hundred-libra notes which he placed on the table - a King's ransom in Oddhaven's ever-increasingly austere financial climate, and barely pocket change to one with the Giovanni's resources.

"This should persuade you...?" he said, phrasing it as more of a question. Melisse heard one of his bodyguards scoff, and Hanley shot him a venomous look.

SPOILER: Click to show

Abigail rolls Manipulation + Expression at difficulty 8 (6), (+1 from looking underage, +1 from the security guard already thinking she's underage).

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One success!

The security guard rolled his eyes, but he seemed to soften slightly. "Ugh, come on," he sighed. "Come up with something better than that. Look." He pointed towards the bar. "Just get off the dance floor. If I see you again, I'm escorting you out of here. Don't let me see you again. And make sure you tip the bartender."

Preferring not to make a scene, Abigail wisely began making her way off the dancefloor back towards the bar.

Clyde, meanwhile, had the benefit of being in a nightclub to cover for his Malkavian lamentation. One of the club goers didn't hear him over the music - those that did glanced at him, chuckled, and went back to grinding on each other, assuming that he was simply high on something.

Gwendolin, on the other hand, forgot it almost immediately. "Gwen," she gushed. "Of course you can, but only if you promise to always call me that. My favourite artist calls me back my nickname." She swooned as she spoke in a singsong voice, but that was probably just the alcohol. Tugging him through the crowd, she kept her attention on him as they made for a corner containing a veritable horde of young women clumped into clusters. "'Rissa's seen a few of your pieces at my place, she's in love with them too. Christy thinks they're overblown, but you'll fix her won't you! And Becca, god, why do we keep that slut around, she-"

So intently focused on Clyde, Gwen had no warning as she collided with a short, black-haired young girl. Clyde was able to simply slip his hand out of Gwen's hold - Gwen, meanwhile, shrieked and toppled over, her cocktail going all over the black-haired girl as that girl's drink spilled down Gwen's top. The black-haired girl-

SPOILER: Click to show

Dex + Athletics (3)

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-managed to keep her footing. Gwen's entire demeanour changed, and she grabbed Clyde to haul herself back up to her feet.

"Watch where you're going you fat bitch!" she screeched as she got in Abigail's face. "That drink costs more than you make in a week! Go get me another one!"········

[Hisato Zaitoichi]

The vampiric samurai looked upon the thug who punched him, the pain causing a minor discomfort but nothing he was uncustomed to feeling, seemingly smiling at him before the man tumbled backwards in what he perceived as a effort made in vain to save his life from a inevitable outcome. The next series of events were perceived with clarity as his vampiric eyes noted the thrown bottle currently headed towards him and the knife wielding thug now about to slash at his sword arm.

Leaving the wounded thug and his brass knuckled friend alone for now at least...Hisato proceeded to duck low, hoping to avoid the bottle as he raised his sword in a attempt to deflect the knife away from his sword arm or remove it entirely from the thugs grasp and follow up with a powerful slash aimed at opening the belly of the attacker to spill his innards into the street. 

He would soon see if the man had any guts or not.

((OOC: Actions/Dice Allocation - Dodge to duck the bottle (1), A parry to deflect the knife attack (2) and a weapon strike aimed at the guts (3). ))

[Legionnaire]

SPOILER: Click to show

Hisato has the higher initiative and resolves first. 

Hisato slashes at Edge with 3 dice at difficulty 6 (no extra dice from targeting a specific bodypart, only one opponent in melee range (Brass is attempting to flee out of melee range so I'm deciding he doesn't count, Glint is out of melee range).

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One success! Hisato rolls Strength + 2 (Weapon Damage) + 1 (6 total) for number of successes on attack roll (I forgot this last round) at difficulty 6.

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2 successes! Edge is human and cannot soak Lethal Damage, so he drops 2 Health levels to Maimed at suffers a -3 to his dice pool.

Next Edge attempts a dagger slash against Hisato (Dex + Melee (4), -3 thanks to Hisato opening him up) at difficulty 6:

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One success. Hisato rolls 2 dice at difficulty 6 to attempt to parry.

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Two successes! Hisato parries the dagger strike and takes no damage.

Glint now attempts to throw a bottle at Hisato's head (Dex + Athletics, 4 total). Glint rolls at difficulty 9 - +2 as he is aiming for Hisato's head, +1 as he is trying to avoid hitting Edge and Brass.

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Botch! Instead of hitting Hisato, he nails Edge...right in the head. The bottle does Glint's Strength (2) in bashing damage.

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One success. As it is Bashing damage, Edge rolls Soak (Soak is a reflexive action so he uses his full dice pool (3)) at difficulty 6.

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Two successes. Edge is hit, but suffers no damage.

Lastly, Brass spends his turn attempting a dodge manuever (Dex + Athletics, 4) to back up out of Hisato's melee range. While Hisato is not attacking him, in case of botch or failure I'm rolling for him at difficulty 6.

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Speaking of - another botch! These guys are just not lucky tonight. Brass fails to get out of Hisato's melee range, and in his scrabbling kicks Edge hard in the legs which counts as a Sweep maneuver. Edge rolls Dex + Athletics (4, -3 due to his wounds) to avoid a knockdown at difficulty 8:

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What a champion! But Brass does his Strength (2) in damage to Edge:

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One success. Edge rolls to Soak (3) as the kick does Bashing Damage (difficulty 6):
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Two successes, no damage. This guy's a tank, good thing Hisato's sword does Lethal damage!

Hisato is at Bruised due to Bashing damage (no penalty).
Edge is at Maimed due to Lethal damage (-3 penalty).
Stumble is out of the fight due to Incapacitated.
Glint and Brass are undamaged.

Hisato's sword sliced again and spattered hot blood through the cold air. The knife-wielder closest to the ronin (Edge, he had taken to calling him) stared down at his belly, and the blood seeping out through his gaping wound. Panic and adrenaline setting in, he attempted a desperate slash at Hisato, which the Sabbat vampire contemptuously parried. The other knife-wielder (Glint, Hisato had named him - though perhaps Coward was more accurate) fished an empty bottle from a nearby bin and hurled it from a safe distance at Hisato - but Hisato saw it coming easily and flowed out of the way, leaving the bottle to impact and smash on Edge's face. Edge swayed, shaking his head vigorously as he tried to put pressure on his wound and ward Hisato off with his pathetically-small knife.

The last remaining thug (Brass, after his choice of weapon) watched this happen as he attempted to scramble back and away from Hisato's sword - but his desperate movements lead to him slipping on the pool of blood seeping out from the first thug Hisato had maimed, and he wound up accidentally lashing out a kick against Edge. Edge, somehow, remained standing despite all of his, stumbling a little bit managing to keep his feet planted on the ground.

As the ronin settled his sword back into a guard, a blast of cold wind blew through the alley that seemed to freeze both body and mind, just for a moment. The remaining three thugs found themselves fighting instinct, their animal brains screaming at them to run from the sword-wielding killer in front of them.

SPOILER: Click to show

The remaining three roll Willpower to avoid fleeing; all three have Willpower 6. Edge rolls at difficulty 9 due to his injuries. Brass rolls at difficulty 7. Glint rolls at difficulty 6. 

Edge:

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Edge's 10 is cancelled by his 1, so he rolls no successes. He panics and attempts to flee.

Brass:

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Brass rolls only 1 success and only barely manages to keep from fleeing.

Glint:

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Glint rolls 3 successes and successfully keeps his nerve.

The wind blew out of the alley, and Edge lurched backwards. Dropping his knife, he pressed both hands to his gaping wound and turned his back to Hisato as he began a hobbling attempt to flee. Brass had gone pale, but he tried once more to scramble backwards with some adroitness out of Hisato's melee range. His hand landed on the brass knuckles of the first thug, and in desperation he threw them at Hisato's face.

Glint, meanwhile, saw what had happened to his buddies and got supremely pissed off. Locking eyes with Hisato, he yanked the plastic lid off of the bin he was standing at and held it up as a makeshift shield as he advanced towards Hisato, thrusting his knife at the ronin's throat when he got close.
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[Melisse Ghiberti]

Melisse crossed her arms and a slight scowl spread on her face in response to the Cook's meager offering.

"Are you joking? My car's windshield wipers cost more than that. Utterly pathetic, no wonder you're desperate enough to try moving product under Cornaro's nose," she growled, "Fine then, as many in my debt have learned before, if you can't pay then you can at least work. I'll save your neck from Cornarno but you and your crew will henceforth by at my disposal."

[Legionnaire]

Joseph Hanley weighed his options. In truth he'd like nothing more than to put a bag over the cursed African woman's head, take her some place in the sewers, and break parts of her until he felt better. But that obviously wasn't an option, and even his bosses answered - or deferred - to Cornaro, and this woman had his ear. It wouldn't matter what he said, if she said he needed to be made an example of, no amount of loyalty or cashed-in favours would save him. Just as well she hadn't found out it was him who'd tipped off security so he could watch the idiot downstairs piss himself while his boys moved about freely.

"Fine," Hanley grunted. He levered his girth off the stool and steadied himself. "Then we have a deal. I'll work off my debt to Cornaro through you until I've paid back what I owe, plus a bonus." There was a trace of firmness in his tone, but they both knew it wasn't even for appearances - Melisse held the cards, and Hanley had gotten her offside. "Now if you'll excuse me, Ms...Ghiberti, I need to go and catch up with the young gentleman I was about to fuck u-have a talking to."

[Melisse Ghiberti]

Melisse wordlessly allowed Hanley to depart and took a small moment of silent self-congratulation. Hanley might be an incompetent but he had enough standing in the criminal operations of Oddhaven to be of use; the Ghiberti family had always known the value of vassals with deep ties to the locals when expanding into new areas. Her claim to total control of Oddhaven's human trafficking was only as good as her ability to enforce it. With Hanley's finger on the underworld's pulse, and her hand around his throat, she could find and frustrate those who would violate her self-proclaimed property far more easily. And that's not even taking into account how Cornaro's gratitude could further her position in the Clan.

Spinning around, with a small amount of exuberance in the motion, Melisse moved to descend the stairs back to the lower level. While leisurely observing the dance floor, her attention was drawn to the oddity of a painted woman shouting. Melisse squinted a bit and idly began to wonder if this was anything to do with...oh, what was that band of painted men called, that she'd seen while attending the Second Las Vegas Convention? The painted woman's gaze turned during a violently drunken gesture and met Melisse's.

"Oh, dear God, no," Melisse thought as recognition washed over her. Melisse had met Gwendolyn Maldonado about a month earlier, at a social event attended by several of the Oddhaven Giovanni and a number of Oddhaven's mortal financial and corporate elite. Gwendolyn's father had brought her along and the woman had stuck to Melisse all night with an uncomfortable amount of friendly enthusiasm. Melisse forced a smile as she rapidly went through the cycle of shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance about the fact that she was about to be dragged into a (potentially very long) conversation with Gwendolyn.

[Abigail Winters]

Abigail, bit into her cheek in annoyance and readjusted her glasses. The young vampire attempted to keep her cool. After all, she couldn't afford to cause too much of a scene - that was until the girl screamed in her face. Immediately she lost her temper. Abi went in for a headbutt right into that annoying girls face. "Alright bitch, get off your fucking high horse. I know mommy and daddy must be some big shots but not a single person gives a fuck here!" she spat. She had barely noticed the man covered in paint, right now she was completely invested in giving a bloody nose or knocking out a tooth or two.

Abi was not fond of insults or people who thought their status made them special.

[Clyde Maddick]

Holy shit now I'm glad I didn't remember her. Clyde thought to himself as Gwen screamed at the tween looking girl in front of her. Clyde was about to chime in and calm Gwen's passions when the young, timid girl, that Gwen exploded at, shouted right back at her. Why does violence always seem to follow me?

"Ladies, let's not get too heated. I'll buy a drink for both of you and we can go on with our nights how 'bout?" 

--shit she looks young--buying drinks for children--you're fucked up clyde you know that--sicko--

"So let's just be calm." Clyde said, lacing his words with the intent to blunt the passions of the ladies in front of him into the apathy of strangers. "This isn't worth fighting about."

(using passion on Abbi and Gwen Charisma (3) + Empathy (3) = 6 total dice. 3 go to each of them. Unless Abbi has Auspexious powers I don't believe she would be able to tell that this power is being used upon her )  

[Legionnaire]

SPOILER: Click to show

Clyde rolls against Abi and Gwen's humanity ratings. Abi has humanity 6, Gwen has humanity 7. Abi's Auspex mainly counts against sensory trickery, not emotional trickery, so I've not taken it into consideration.

Abi:

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Two successes - one hour.

Gwen:

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Three successes - the entire night.

Abi's forehead shattered Gwen's nose, sending hot blood streaming down her face. There passed a moment of animalistic alertness in both Abigail and Clyde as they saw and smelled the woman's fresh blood - how they responded varied. Regardless of their individual responses, Clyde's words seemed to soothe the anger boiling over inside of Abigail, and Gwen likewise grew less agitated. She sneered at Abi, clutching at her nose but drawing back.

"Whatever. They shouldn't let brats like you in here anyway, you're too young to buy shit. Fucking bitch. Wait until daddy hears about this."

It was at this point that she caught sight of Melisse, and perked up again. Following her abrupt change in gaze, Clyde and Abigail both noticed the woman dressed in relatively conservative ('relatively' being accurate purely because they were currently surrounded by men and women who looked like they should be on stage at a strip club) clothing, and all three finally got a look at each other.

Melisse, looking past the woman rapidly bee-lining towards her, noted immediately that the short young woman Gwen had nearly bowled over was far from the small girl Gwen had dismissed her as - Melisse's trained eye immediately identified her as one of the Kindred. The other man with Gwen, the one covered in paint, seemed normal despite his impressive oration skills.

Abigail and Clyde's gazes met, and there passed a flicker of understanding between them, a moment where both realised the other's true natures as Kindred. For Clyde, he felt a similar sense of recognition when he looked at the newcomer in red - while definitely not one of the Kine, he couldn't place her exact nature. Perhaps she was a ghoul? Abigail, on the other hand, felt a ripple of panic - in looking into the hunters that had killed her sire Isaac, a face just like this woman's had come up, many times.

Melisse could only brace herself as Gwen decided upon her like a neon blue cloud. Clyde's discipline had blunted Gwen's anger, but that only made more room for overzealous enthusiasm.

"Melisshhhhheeee!" she exploded with delight, her words muffled by the hand she was clutching to her bloody nose. "How great to shee you here too! My two favourite people in the world together at lasht! Come here! Come on!" She beckoned furiously. "Thish ish Clyde Maddick, the besht, besht, BESHT FUCKING ARISHT! He'll make you feel thingsh you didn't even KNOW! Oh and hey, have you got any tisshues? That-" she turned back to Abigail for that last word. "-BITCH!-" she turned back to Melisse. "-back there fucking headbutted meee."

SPOILER: Click to show

Everyone rolls Perception + Medicine at difficulty 7 (difficulty 6 for Abigail due to her open wound) to see if they can recognise the others as Kindred. Nobody specified having spent a Blood Point to look more human.

Melisse rolls for Abigail (first) and Clyde (second):
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Two and no successes, respectively. Damn, if I'd changed the order on that, ah well.
Abigail rolls for Melisse (first) and Clyde (second):

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Botch and no successes.
Clyde rolls for Melisse (first) and Abigail (second):

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Two and three successes.

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