Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jess slipped into the busy, mixed-breed bar, allowing herself a sigh of relief. The run had given her the chance to get control of herself. Her bloodlust, though it had not dimmed, was no longer in control of her. Outwardly, her appearance had not changed- though her eyes had a dim, dead cast to them. Inwardly, however, her predatory instincts were running wild, demanding that she repay the humans' violent deed with a brutal act of her own.

However, she kept control of herself. Instead, she focused on forming a plan. /Okay, tomorrow, I'll return to my apartment, get her dog-tags and turn them in to Paragon./ It would look suspicious if she didn't report the death. /I will find a new apartment and then..../ And then, she'd become invisible. It was a trick she had learned over the years- not literal invisibility, of course. She simply allowed herself to get lost in the crowds, blending in until she became invisible to 'Big Brother's' all-seeing eye.

After all, if you didn't stand out, if you acted in the expected manner, then no one ever gave you a second glance. Then, once she had obtained this special type of invisibility and maintained it for several years, she could make her move. She had the humans' scents. She would be able to find them. But, not now. Later. Right now, she should probably get in touch with Nicholas and let him know what had happened.

Making her way through the crowd, she approached the bar, opening her mouth to ask to use the phone when she recognized the bar-tender and the man sitting at the bar: the soldier and the vampire from the bus. Now, she simply blinked in shock, surprised to see the two. However, her residual anger quickly overtook her surprise, and she met the other vampire's eyes. "Can I use your phone?" she asked, voice completely devoid of emotion.

Mattias scanned the streets- and rooftops- across the street, looking for anything suspicious "I doubt they'd try to kill me & blow up a bunch of other people right now" he muttered "Only time they'd be that desperate is if they wanted to blow this place up, too"

**Victor**

"That’s the beauty of it Mattias, they have no idea what’s here, so they have no want to do such a thing.. So if your this worried about an attack.. Why not step away from the window?"

Victor was starting to get a hair worried, this guy didn't ever relax, besides there was so much to talk about, so many questions Victor wanted to ask.. That worrying about ghosts and phantoms didn't seem justifiable..

Just the same the fat pudgy fingers pushed the donut back down into the strong coffee and raised it back up to his lips, where it disappeared again..

**Patrick**

The werewolf quickly went quiet hearing Kira’s explanation of how she felt. He sighed and turned away, nodding to the order of six shots of Southern Comfort, his hand grasping the bottle and bringing it down. He turns to his customers as he pulls out the shot glasses, but talks to Kira and the guy.

"Well that’s depressing. I try to teach my kids that times could be better and there isn’t any reason they shouldn’t be. I donno, I don’t see the harm in at least hope, cause if you lose that.. Then s**t."

He shrugs, paying no mind to the people around him as he pours out the shots for the two friends and slide them forwards.

Another customer comes up to the bar, a lager kinda guy, and his girl. They ordered their drinks, a lager predictably, and a vodka martinii.

Patrick nods and goes about grabbing the lager, sliding the beer to the guy and then mixing up the martinii in the shaker, adding ice, vodka, and that other stuff into it.

"I guess its just good to hear now and then.."


**Cillian**

Cillian grunts, turning away toward the rest of the bar and scooping up his beer, gulping it down. The suds sadly sticking to the glass. Its then he feels the buzz starting to hit him.. Creeping through his blood stream. It massaged at his nerve cells and dulled the sharpness of his reaction time. As the last of the chilled beer seeped down his throat Cillian could feel his face grow warmer, a result of the widened veins and artieries.

"Sure, whatever, its not gonna matter to me though."

Not with that attitude seeming so well held among the various breeds. No, no chance of serious revolution either violent or benevolent would mean Cillian was unlikely ever to meet a vampire on the battlefeild’s of the world. Ever.

No general would ever consider using them, too many political ramifications right? And since they wouldn’t revolt there would be no use of Cillian against them.. Though if they did, it would have been a problem. Cillian never mentioned how quickly all of Kira’s concerns about their breeds having energy shortages and grunt manpower could be solved in the first few days of combat. It was so simple really. Once on understood how to properly fight a war.

Whatever though..

"Barkeep, when you have the time, two firecrackers would be nice."

Cillian asked quietly. The new vampire, as it seemed at least, was pretty edgy and on key.. She smelt ever so faintly of blood, but looked hungry, so Cillian went to reach for his wallet. Something wasn't right about her, but, thats not what bothered him.

"What do you consider a good tip by the way?"

Kay heard the phone pick up on the first ring, the familiar voice of her employer - a young woman by the name of Rebecca - answering, though the sound was muffled due to the security in place. "Hello?"

"Hey Becca, it's Kay." She said, keeping her voice as typical seventeen year old as possible - high in pitch, shallow, mostly concerned about clothes. Even if there was no way someone could overhear the call via interference, depending on how close they were, someone might have heard her through Rebecca's phone on the other end. The place she worked was the first of its kind built, where she was being the second, and improvements had been made with the result that the original was not quite as perfectly secure. So she still played her role a bit, though not perfectly, when she was there.

"Kay?!" Becca's voice was worried as it came over the line, though she quickly stifled her surprise, it seemed - probably for security, as always. "Where were you? We thought maybe you got... mixed up in something."

The girl laughed, maintaining the sound of a seventeen year old. "Oh, no, nothing like that. My... um, my bus was delayed." She lied easily, swearing to herself to tell her the whole story later. "Anyway, I can't make it in today, okay? I'm at Carlisle's cafe." She added, to nullify some of her friend's evident nervousness. Rebecca would know she was safe there.

"Oh, good." Becca responded. "Thanks for calling in."

"No problem. Talk to you later. Sorry I couldn't make it." She answered, and hung up the phone at her boss's responding farewell, wishing she could've mentioned to her that she'd actually met Mattias. Rebecca would question her endlessly when she learned that.

**Cillian **

The warfighter scoffed and shook his head,

"You could invest it.. s**t, power may flow forth from the barrel of a gun, but you have to have money to buy the gun."

He took a deep breath and inhaled some air, not letting on he had seen a gang of six knarled looking men walk past the window. Usually that wouldn't be so disturbing but, one had a bat, and another a crow bar.. ********, what was this? He turned his head slightly, expecting them..

BAM, the door flew open as the first three piled in, the point man seemed empty handed, but that wasn't nessisarily a good thing. The guy was wearing a long heavy trench coat that drapped down to his ankles and could be hiding anything. The other two where holding weapons, one had a thick wad of chewing tobbacco in his lip, and spat on the floor when he took the left wing, a baseball bat hoisted high above his square head. The third took a firmer grip on a crow bar like one might a katana before one was ready to spar, low just grazing the ground.

The pointman shouted as he strode forwards,

"Alright you scum! Get back against the wall now! Or I'll start busting heads!"

He swept his hand dramatically, a cross dangling around his neck..

"Gonna send you back ta' satan so he doesn't get lonely if you don't listen.."

Cillian of course did none of the following. Satan.. Ha, if hell wasn't afraid enough.. He just sat calmly and turned back to Kira, asking politely,

"Mind if I have my drink before you go?"


**Patrick**

Patrick jumped, okay? Like ten feet.. Seriously, he had no idea they where comming. Who ever they where.. The werewolf's skin goosebumped and the small hairs on his neck stood on end as the bottle of beer he dropped poured all over the floor..

"Oh s**t.."

And then he recognized them.. The bastards had actually started spreading. It was one of the extremist psudo religious groups that where, usually quietly, hunting down werewolves and vampires, on many grounds, but the most alarming was to prevent satan from gaining ground on earth.. The called themselves the AA, or Avenging Angels.. Or some stupid name like that..

Patrick shakily raised his hands up and then started to back away.. towards the wall where most of the booze was.

**Victor**

"Well its not that really.. Its simply that they can see you Mattias, and if they can see you they might shoot at you.."

Or come investigating here.. Which would be horrible.

"Besides, I would much rather you sit down and have a little chat my good man, I am dying to hear what is going on around the country."

Victor gave one of his classic beaming grins and pulled out a chair for the hero, or at least he was a hero in Victor's book, it had been so long in comming that some kind of leadership should take place.. And here it was.

Kira pauses, not hearing his comment as she spots the men as well. She instantly knew what was up. In her forty odd years as a vampire, this had happened to her a few times before.... though she could not recall it ever happening to her in a bar in the nonhuman slums. These humans were getting uppity, coming here to cause problems with the people they pretty much already had in their control. Didn't they have anything better to do? Kira frowns softly, then sneers slightly as they step inside, beginning to shout at the patrons and workers alike. She knew how easy it would be to take them all out, pathetically armed as they were... but she also knew the repercussions for killing these thugs would be death from Paragon, plain and simple, and they were clearly not worth it.
Kira sighs, about to back up, when Cillian asked her about the firecrackers. Kira glances at him, raising an eyebrow, then uses a vampiric talent she almost never used. "They won't care if you're human. Being here will give them enough cause to attack you. It'd be smartest to join us at the back wall."She tells him telepathically as she sets the two drinks on the counter, giving him a look, then starts to back away from the counter to join the others. Even though she said she didn't 'care' about life, Kira still had pride and dignity, and it was clear in her eyes that she was not pleased with backing down to these thugs so easily as she joined the others by the wall. Her fear of Paragon from her past experiences ran deep, though, and so she obeyed.

Jess watched the two men accompanying Bible-man carefully. They, though they had no weapons, were just as ready and eager to push slow-moving supernaturals against the wall as their weapon-toting buddies. Jess noted that twin smiles decorated their ugly faces; they were clearly enjoying the rough treatment they delivered.

One of the men, it seemed, got a little carried away. He actually shoved one smallish werewolf to the ground and began kicking her before she could even move to stand. Instinctively, Jess stepped forward. All she could think was, /I can't let this happen!/

As soon as she stepped out of line, though, Bible-man shoved her back. "I said against the wall," he growled, brown eyes flashing with anger and what was unmistakeably bloodlust, though of a different kind than that known to vampires.

As his hands made contact with her chest, Jess snarled, "Don't touch me." She really couldn't help it, though she knew she should have kept silent. Her temper, however, seemed to have gotten the best of her. It always did.

Bible-man, it seemed, had been waiting for the opportunity. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, he smiled brutally. The hand holding the Bible came up and, before Jess could think to react, struck her roughly. Blood began to flow from her nose and mouth, coursing down her chin as well. With the same rough smile, he grabbed her by the neck and pulled her toward him. "I suggest you listen especially well, slut." He hefted the Bible in one hand, looking at the bloody smear across the front of the black book. "But I don't think even God can save your soul now," he told her triumphantly.

Blood filled Jess's mouth- sour, as vampire blood always tasted. Stars danced in front of her eyes, but her hearing was as good as ever.

"Hey, Revr'en! Looks like we got us a p***y lil' simpathiza.. What do ya think we should do with em for betray'in the species ta Satan eh? Think we should bust 'im up?"

The 'reverend' was, apparently, Bible-man because he let out a low chuckle. "Do whatever you think is appropriate, my son," he told the other man. Jess cracked her eyes open, staring at her attacker. Her wounds were already starting to heal, vampiric healing abilities stopping the blood-flow. Catching her eye, the reverend smirked and started to walk toward the bar- presumably to begin his 'sermon'.

Again, her temper got the better of her, and Jess could not help but hiss, "b*****d." Her hands twitched at her side, claws starting to emerge.