Liam looked back and forth between Robyn and Nex, even briefly turning his attention to Breaker before looking back to the pair. He wasn't sure if Robyn intended for him to be their spokesman but she wasn't saying anything and Nex was not only a threat in and of itself but their only way home so it seemed wise to say something.

"She has been refining the process," Liam offered. "Testing it. Wizards are never satisfied. A larger-scale test was required. Now that it's done, the serum is ready."

He looked at Robyn and then back towards those vacant, lifeless eyes.

"I apologize for the delay, and thank you again for coming to our aid."

The advocacy seemed enough of a rhetorical foothold for Robyn to get her bearings back. "W-what he said," she stammered. "Don't - didn't want to give you a faulty product."

Nex cocked its head at her, and then turned its attention to Liam for a moment. It sized him up much in the way a predator might size up its prey's mother. It was terrifyingly still. It seemed to decide that eating her wasn't worth the trouble.

"Breaker," Nex said after a moment. "Are we happy?"

"The methodology is credible," Breaker replied. "We will not know for sure until we try for ourselves."

"Pending verification," Nex replied. "You may consider your payment rendered and our business to be concluded. I trust you find this satisfactory."

Robyn nodded quietly. It turned its attention to Liam. "And you?"

Liam glanced at Robyn and then turned his attention back to Nex. "Should there be any issues, of which I can't imagine," he said. "Miss Rowe is the only one who will be able to rectify them to your satisfaction. All I ask for is safe passage back to the Skinlands - somewhere far enough away from the Alhambra that we can make our own way back. And until the results are verified to your satisfaction I will ensure we respond to any further queries promptly."

Breaker did not seem interested in this conversation. He stepped into the shadows without so much as a glance, and was gone.

Nex pondered Liam's request. "What direction?" it asked.

North would take them closer to the base. West would take them closer to Robyn's. As the Alhambra was to the east, those were the only directions that made sense.

“North,” Liam said, turning to look at Robyn.

Robyn didn't give much away with her body language. Mostly, she just seemed eager to be away from here.

Nex turned, and made its was down the alley, gesturing for them to follow.

The clouds had dissipated. Shadowy blurs moved in to inspect the carnage. Nex walked between them, paying no mind. "Are you hungry after your ordeal?" it asked Liam.

"I can feel it," Liam admitted. His four arachnid limbs - manifest of his own vitae - clicked along to either side of him as they made their way out of the alley. "Not so much that it concerns me yet, but its there."

He tried not to look too hard at the shadows for fear of what he might find.

Liam had little to fear from the Shadowlands. In Nex's company, it was the Shadowlands that showed fear. A city with so much death was assuredly quite occupied with ghosts, but all he would ever see was a flicker of something moving very quickly away. He could see the living - dark-rimmed Ghouls and pale, shimmering Kindred - through the veil milling about in the street, and the glowing souls of the newly-fallen.

Nex didn't even break stride. Its left hand reached out at a flickering shade beside him, disappearing momentarily at the elbow. It quickly rematerialized, clutched around the throat of a screaming ghoul. Nex let his prey wriggle and cry out as he dragged the poor wretch through the veil. Liam knew enough about choke holds to know that he was only able to make a sound because the creature allowed him to.

The screaming intensified as Nex used its free hand to pull off the mask. From this vantage, mercifully, Liam couldn't see past the cowl of its white hooded cloak.

"Rejoice," it whispered to its captive prey, barely audible over his incoherent cries for mercy. "For you will know Oblivion." As it spoke, its right hand grasped the man's thigh, and hoisted him up sideways. And with a horrible visceral crunch, some manner of jaws tore into his ribcage. Robyn had to stop and cover her ears.

A tortuously long moment later, mask back in place, it finally broke its stride. It paused in the middle of the intersection, in the dead veil of the city, and offered Liam the masticated remains, dangling him from his neck like a rag doll. Nex had completely removed its heart and most of the lungs. Most of the blood was on the floor, but there was enough left to take the edge off. All it would cost was his dignity. Something told him it would be rude to refuse.

Liam couldn't help but notice that the ghoul before him was not glowing like the other wretched souls who had fallen this evening. Perhaps when one dies in the Shadowlands, one's soul goes elsewhere. Or perhaps Nex had eaten that, too.

[+3 BP and a humanity check if you drink.]

Liam stared into the wide lifeless eyes of the ghoul and immediately regretted his answer. "I... thank you..." he said, trying not to sound ungrateful. Reaching out to lift the remains from Nex's grasp he closed his eyes and sunk his teeth into its almost emptied veins.

What had he said to Cal the night before? You give up too much of yourself in this life until eventually there was nothing left at all.

Failed. I presume I lose a level of humanity.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:08, Fri 17 Sept 2021.

That drink would haunt him. Though not quite as much as the part of him deep inside that enjoyed it. The Beast would remember this moment fondly. And it would trot it out whenever it wanted Liam to feel guilt or shame. A little piece of his soul disappeared along with it.

Robyn didn't exactly approve, either. She said nothing, but she was looking at him very differently now.

If Nex was aware of the awkwardness, it didn't let on. It continued to usher them up the street.

"The city seems... fraught, at the moment," it said, casually. "I do believe the Masquerade has come to an end."

Liam strung another rosary of regret onto the chain of his life. After a century and a quarter the chain had grown long indeed. There was nothing to be done about it but wear it now.

"A death long overdue," he said solemnly. He glanced about at the fluttering souls trying to get his bearings.

They were about a block from the crash site, and still well downtown. Through the haze, he could see the imposing figure of the Alhambra looming overhead. It was strange, seeing it superimposed against the old art deco hotel that had once towered over the city. Its impression was still strong in the Shadowlands.

"I'm surprised to hear one of your kind say that," Nex mused. "I was under the impression that you viewed it as sacrosanct. How refreshing."

“The old shibboleths are falling,” Liam replied. “The world turns and so must we. What comes next, I honestly don’t know. But not this,” he said, gesturing to the city as representative of the state of things that were - or perhaps were once. The dead in this land didn’t care one way or another.

"Should you ever require asylum, the Sunless City will always be open to you," Nex replied. "Others are welcome, for a price. And you," it said, turning its attention to Robyn. "Would be a pampered pet in our courts."

"Not my bag, really," Robyn said. "But if you're looking for names, I know folks with exactly that kink."

Nex chuckled. "Not a privilege I would extend to just anyone," it said. "But gifts like yours must be nurtured."

"I get plenty of nurturing out here," Robyn replied. "In the sun."

"I hope it doesn't come to that," Liam said. He had struggled to preserve his humanity in the world of the living. If tonight was any indication, he could only imagine how long it would take for the Beast to break all of its shackles if he resided here for any length of time. "But I will remember the offer."

"May I ask you something?" he inquired after a moment. "Have you been to the Bluetree Caern? What lies there on this side of the veil?"

Nex shook its head. "I have not," it replied. "Though knowing what I know about what happened there, I would presume that the dogs who died protecting it are continuing to do so in the Shadowlands. A site of such significance is bound to have left a strong memory in this place - and equally likely to have formed an extremely powerful fetter. Places like that are like flytraps for generations upon generations of wraiths, much like any other place of worship."

"Are the wraiths of werewolves like any other?" Liam asked, genuinely curious.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:51, Wed 22 Sept 2021.

"Oh heavens no," Nex replied, absolutely thrilled to be discussing its favourite topic: the dead. "They remain remarkably cohesive after death, especially the older, more powerful ones. We've researched them extensively, but I'm afraid our best theory as to the cause is that their souls don't reside exclusively in the Skinlands. This would also explain the ease with which they travel through the Umbral planes."

After a moment, it added "I've heard stories of their youths making pilgrimages to learn the secrets of their forebears. Some even make it back."

Liam nodded. "I intend to make the trip myself," Liam said, seeing no reason to conceal this information. "One of them is willing to take me, though apprehensive of what we might find for obvious reasons."

"Your guide would be right to be so," Nex said as they made their way uptown. "The souls of those who meet such violent ends tend to leave violent impressions. They may not be capable of telling friend from foe. Or they may simply not care. What could a Kindred possibly want there that would warrant such a risk?"

"They were... friends," Liam said. "Some of them, at any rate." Melissa. Others cared less for him admittedly. And some cared more. Unconsciously he found himself reaching for the blue kerchief.

"I wasn't here when the caern fell. I feel as though I owe them something."

Nex laughed heartily. At least, that was what Liam assumed the wheezy, rasping sound was intended to approximate. It had a similar effect on Liam's spine as a set of nails running across a chalkboard.

"Oh, you are still a soft-hearted soul, aren't you?" it merrily cried. "Let me tell you what I told the last person who hired me to seek out comfort and 'closure' from the dead. You will not find what you are looking for, and you will stir nothing but unrest in them."

It made a long, baleful glance at Robyn. She shifted uncomfortably, and looked away. "Nex is right," she muttered quietly.

Ah. The penny dropped at long last and Robyn's arrangement with Nex fell into place. He looked at Robyn. "Sunshine." It was a statement rather than a question. He was here in this sunless place because Robyn had felt the need to say goodbye. And despite what it had cost him of himself, he couldn't even fault her.

He looked down at the kerchief in his hand. "Perhaps some memories are better left as just that," he said with a sigh.

"Sunshine," Robyn concurred grimly. "When she died, her spirit ripped in two. The halves fought with each other, and tore each other mostly to pieces. All I was able to do when I found her was start them up fighting again." She held herself tightly.

"Trust me on this. Unless you've got a mind to bring them back over, you should let the dead lie. Whatever that place was to you, it's the site of a massacre now. You're not gonna like what you find there. Gordon sure as hell won't."

No. Moira would not like what she found, he was certain of that. It pained him to think what might have become of Melissa. And as fearsome as Mountain Gale had been in the living world, his spirit was almost assuredly a force to be reckoned with on this side of the veil. But surely Liza was not similarly broken. Then again she was an old spirit by now. There might not have been much left of her at all.

"I trust you," he said. He felt as though a book had been closed before he'd barely got to read beyond the first page, but the last thing he wished to do was visit more misery upon the dead. Their's had been an emotional passing to begin with.