LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR // MURDER

[GABRIEL]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size: 9.4pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Any wound could fester left unattended, and mistreated it succumbed to the necrosis much faster. Reaper was built for exploitation, though not so mindless as a vulture picking at the dying: he tugged lines here and there, crossing them over, misleading. The one who held his leash wanted The Ascendants limping and isolated in preparation for the killing blow, and Reaper would make it so, just as he was made to do, and the tears would putrefy in due time. They had already set the stage for him to orchestrate, unknowingly clearing the board for a higher scheme than clan alliances and meaningless apologies. Death was always the victor, and death's master would see the bloodshed he wanted before the sun set on this day.

He found his prey swiftly. It was a weak creature, playing merchant as it puttered around a stall and set away its material wares. An alizarin glow haloed obsidian eyes, though the lion remained patient in the face of his upcoming meal, slipping silently through obstacles when it began the trek along the boardwalk to its hovel. Reaper fixated on the room glimpsed when it slipped inside, and with a seamless bout of concentration, later materialized in the living room.

"What the? Who the hell-" The wolf spluttered, indignant, and was too slow to react when Reaper lunged. Powerful, salivating jaws snapped shut around its nape and, with one paw braced on the body, he twisted. Flesh and bone yielded, and the body fell limp. Reaper began a methodical devouring of the corpse while the blood was still warm and fresh, the hunger howling for moremoremore before he silenced it and tore himself away. He was not sated, but the goal was met.

The smoke framing his skull billowed, and he glanced at the door. His prey's partner in the doorway, gaping mouthed. Just on time, then.

The alizarin expanded, overtaking onyx, and the other creature was silenced before it could speak, expression slack as Reaper exerted his will. It closed the door behind it, approaching him docilely. It sat beside the partially-devoured body. "Tell me what you saw," he commanded lowly.

"A lion with an injured eye."

"What will you do?"

"Tell the first person who comes what I saw."

"And then?" He nudged the seed deeper into its mind. A glaze fell over its eyes.

"I will die." Mmm. Not perfect, but he need only knock over the first domino. The rest would follow soon, and, satisfied, the Reaper vanished, leaving the Ascendants' scent in his wake.

//as a note, the npc left alive will tell whoever arrives first the description of the killer and then will die due to overpowering adrenaline (more or less scared to death).