Murdering Metallica(Open)

The last time he'd played at the manor he'd regretted bringing his acoustic There had been a point where he'd needed the electric. So Ambrose had gone back and forth on which to bring tonight. He finally settled on... both. It wasn't too bad, he carried one and slung the other over his back. The music room had a small amp in it, so he was covered.

He'd not known Jin for very long at all but it didn't surprise him that he was back to what sounded like a traditional melody. It took him a second or three after he sat down to tune the acoustic, he'd save the electric for a bit later, but it gave him a chance to learn the sound and let him follow along without sounding like an idiot.

Jin looked up and smiled at Ambrose when he appeared with two guitars. Apparently he wasn't the only one who decided a variety might be useful. He hoped that others would come join them. It would be nice to get to know some of the other Anantya currently residing at the Manor.

He paused his current song and gestured to the instrument in his hand.

"I have been giving modern music some consideration. The ruan is sometimes called the Chinese guitar...for obvious reasons. I thought it might suit much better to a variety of things. Than the dizi.

Do you know this one?

He leaned down over his ruan and began playing the intro to "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi. Jin considered it a very good song and a topical choice considering his Creator's determination to learn to use a gun.

Ambrose came very close to laughing. Yeah, he knew that one and he was very familiar with the concept. He still had some posters that said the same thing about him. You know, those things didn't have an expiration date on them. Maybe he could make some money by turning himself in. Belle probably wouldn't approve though.

Ambrose played along for a little bit before he started to embellish adding some traditional Spanish melodies to it. While he had an OK voice and could and did sing he didn't often. Once in a while on stage, especially if it was his composition, and more often for or with Ysabel but right here and now if Jin wanted vocals he was going to have to provide them.

Jin closed his eyes and rocked in time to the music. The mix of instruments was actually very nice, the ruan had a little more twang and both sounded very appropriate for theme of the song.

He cracked his eyes open a bit and glanced at Ambrose when the other Anantya strayed from the song and embellished it with some fine complicated Spanish sounded riffs. It suited the piece and he watched the fast moving finger work with interest.

No one was singing and that was fine with him. Jin was certain his accent would kill the very American song and who knew perhaps they could still manage to pick up a singer if they just kept playing.

((OOC: Sadly, no singing from Jin either. ))

Well good, Jin could keep up and didn't seem thrown by his improvisation. Ambrose was happy enough to play along for a while, abut as the song drew to a close being used to jam sessions he pulled them a half step away. After all, even though he'd been half kidding, they had mentioned Metallica and Ambrose was dead curious how that would flow with the... the... the whatever it was Jin had brought with him.

What he wound up playing was somewhere between Unforgiven and Unforgiven II. As far as he was concerned that made it Unforgiven one and a half. It also avoided the tricky question of lyrics and meant neither of them had to sing. Which was just fine with him, instrumentals had their place and it could be considerably harder to flow from one piece to another if you were trying to blend lyrics as well.

Jin smiled at the choice of song. It seems they really would be playing Metallica tonight. He listened to the melody that Ambrose started up and sorted out how to best work in harmony with it. He figured if the music could be played with cellos then there was no reason for a ruan to be unthinkable. In fact, in some strange way it made more sense.

He leaned down and began playing. It didn't take long to get caught up in the improvisation once more. Now if they could only find a singer their band would be a hit and they could take the vampire show on the road.

Perhaps not.

Still Jin hoped the strange mix wasn't driving the inhabitants of the manor away.; it sounded good to him but he knew that some clan members could be real "stick in the muds" to use the quaint phrase. He'd be happy to see new faces even if they were just an audience. At least it would let him know that the authorities weren't likely to be called.

"Not as bad as one might think. Perhaps there is hope for a Chinese Hair Band to make it big."

Ambrose chuffed a half laugh at that idea and absently wandered away from the Metallica and into something he didn't even know what it was. It was a blending of rock, blues, and a few other things there was inspiration from big name bands and his own compositions as well. There was a pattern a logic, Jin should be able to pick it up.

"I'll need more hair and an overhaul of my ethnicity."Â?

But the idea amused him a bit and he didn't see any reason not to encourage the other musician.

"But I've got a good agent. I'm sure he can get you a back up gig on the retro circuit if you're in the mood."Â?

Because Poison and Def Leopard always sounded better with crazy Chinese instruments in the background.

Jin paused to listen to the new sound and added his own flair to the unique mix. His fingers danced along the high fret bars, keeping up with the rhythm that Ambrose had begun.

Jin peered up at the other man for a moment and then went back to looking at the ruan.

"Yes, more hair. If you were to comb it straight over your eyes like that current fad with some of the kids or the guitarist, Slash, we could probably get away with it. Just don't talk."

He smiled at the thought.

"You'll be an immediate success. The girl's always seem to like the mysterious ones."

Jin looked up when Ambrose said he had an agent and could possibly get him a gig playing with a band. He smiled at his clan mate and sighed.

"I do not believe I will have the time for a while. Morrigan has requested I come here and work for the Order of the Night."

Jin had learned from their previous conversation that Ambrose was highly thought of by Mai and that he was one of "her's" as she said. That was high praise and made him fairly trustworthy as far as Jin was concerned. He was still cautious about explaining the full details of the situation. If for no other reason than to not worry the other man before there was anything the Hunt could do to help. Actually being alert probably would be a great boon. Jin regarded Ambrose with a pensive gaze; the man didn't seem like one to spread rumor and panic.

Thank god he only rarely got out of the studio, image was a terrible thing to have to keep up.

He snorted a laugh when Jin suggested he didn't talk. That would last all of maybe an hour then some one would do something dumb and he'd either go off on them or explode with the effort of holding back.

"I think my girl would think I was a pod person if I didn't talk."Â?

Either that or she'd think something was wrong, or that he was up to something. Belle could be damned astute. He wished he could do that.

Not that he was terribly close to any one in the other orders, but he still raised an eyebrow. That seemed odd. Obviously Jin was part of the Night but...

"A Rose calling in the Night? Sounds like something fun and exciting."Â?

He said it in a very blasé manner, almost disinterested. Sure he wanted to know more, curiosity did kill the cat after all, but he wasn't the sort that was going to push... well at least not just to push. If he had a good reason to push Ambrose was happy enough to shove just about any one off a cliff, but he did have to have a reason.

Jin laughed at the thought of Ambrose not being able to say a word and the strange looks that this would apparently cause. He didn't see the man as a huge conversationalist but perhaps that's because they were busy making music. Ambrose could just mean that he always spoke his mind and that his girlfriend would notice something was wrong if he didn't have something to say on a topic that was of importance to him. Music seemed to be one of those subjects so it might be hard to be a silent "Chinese" musician and not be able to express his opinions.

Nodding and looking like he was giving this serious consideration.

"That could be a problem. Alien abduction is later so hard to disprove and the interrogations are grueling."

Quirking an eyebrow at the even tone, Jin smiled and then schooled his features into the same tranquil mask.

"Yes, fun, adventure and potential death to be had by all. I don't know why more people to become part of the Orders."

He sighed softly and set the ruan down next to his chair.

"Yes, The way I heard it once was the Night stirs up trouble. The Hunt kills the trouble that has been stirred and the Rose cleans up the mess afterward."

Jin shook his head at the description, given to him by a much younger Morrigan who was complaining about some Nightsman and a botched uncover mission. It ended up involving the Nightsman being taken hostage by a group of clanless vampires, the Hunt being sent after him, then subsequent death of immortals and some very public mortals alike... it had been quite the spectacular fiasco that she was having to smooth over with every ounce of finesse she possessed. He didn't blame her for being grumpy.

Aside from being the administration with the networking and bureaucratic skills to make sticky problems disappear, the Rose was also their official leadership. The Orders all governed themselves to a degree and could certainly do things on their own but ultimately the face and will of the clan was the Rose.

"Yes, She considered it important enough to have the Night pointed in the right direction."

Jin turned to Ambrose and looked at him seriously.

"There have been deaths within the clan."

A lot of them.

Ambrose just smirked at the idea of alien abduction. He might try that as an excuse the next time he did something stupid that Belle disapproved of.

He hadn't expected the conversation to take a business turn, but he wasn't against it either. He watched Jin set the instrument down but Ambrose deliberately kept his guitar. Although his playing because much quieter and considerably more absent minded and wandering.

Ambrose kept his opinions on joining the orders to himself. It had taken him quite sometime to reach his decision and the reasons, even though he'd explained about his leg, were quite personal. They were deeper than just the leg. He couldn't imagine he was the only one with their reasons for not joining.

That description brought a snort. He'd heard it slightly differently. But coming from his maker that was to be expected. Undoubtedly each of the three orders could see themselves as getting dumped on and he was sure they each were from time to time.

But he just listened, Ambrose could wait all day... night... and there was no point in rushing Jin. Finally he stopped his playing and looked up. But calmly, deliberately. Huh. That was not what he'd figured.

"More than one? Or one or two big ones?"Â?

Jin smiled briefly at the way Ambrose had of saying things. The humor of the moment was fleeting however and he got back to the serious topic being discussed.

"More than one." He added after a moment. "almost all of them big ones."

When ancient vampires start falling over left and right the others start to get a bit nervous. Jin looked over at his companion and said.

"They all have one thing in common...well two."

He sighed, once more thinking of Morrigan and how she fit both of those things.

"They all have command and they all are...or were Anantya."

A few had been Anantya and became Evenhet or Tacharan or just fell out with the clan and found no other to join. Whoever was doing the killing didn't care about their present alliances at all. The important thing that happened was in the past.

"Huh."Â?

Well that was odd. Vampires didn't just die off, especially not the old ones. You didn't live that long without learning how to keep learning.

Jin anticipated his next question and Ambrose just mulled it over for a second or two. Command was one of his little talents. But he was also a small fish in a big pond so he wasn't going to start worrying he was on the hit list. However, it was a gift that he shared with is maker and she was getting up there in years. He didn't think she'd qualify as an ancient, he never could remember how old she was, but it was enough to make her cross his mind.

"So you're thinking they all pissed off some one, or a group of some ones more than a few years ago?"Â?

Age must have something to do with it. Younger vampires were easier to target and take out. So if they weren't being hit, they weren't involved. That was Ambrose's logic at any rate.

Jin nodded at that brief but accurate statement. There was one event that stood out in vampire history. It just so happened to involve quite a few people with the correct gift. Those amongst the newly deceased were almost all present and a part of that fateful event.

"Yes, it remains to be seen whether its a someone or a group of someones but we're fairly certain we know the source of choosing these particular vampires."

He was not certain how much werewolf activity had been noticed in Nachton. Perhaps his companion knew more about the movements of the shapeshifting race.

"Have you heard of the werewolves?"

Jin picked the ruan back up and plucked it idly as he waited to see what Ambrose had heard.

Ambrose's money was on a group. An operation this big was hard for one or two to pull off. But he wasn't about to commit just yet. Besides, he hadn't been asked for his personal opinion.

Now, that was a question he hadn't been expecting. As near as he could tell only Rashid knew about them. Well him and those other two, Ambrose had only run into the other fella recently and by accident. The woman he still didn't know. But it couldn't just be those three, there were books on them, the wolves that was. You just had to seriously look for them.

Still, he answered a bit slowly.

"Heard of them. Seen them. They can be some mean customers."Â?

He didn't mention tracking the one. Not that she'd been up to much of late. But the memory of that night in the preserve had stuck with him. Rashid had taken one hell of a beating and he couldn't help but admire they way the wolves had worked together.

Jin raised his eyebrows in surprise. Not only had Ambrose heard of the shapeshifters but he had seen them. He wondered just what was going on in this city.

"Really? Would you tell me what happened?"

It might give him a better idea of how the werewolves were behaving and possibly what their ultimate goal may be. Jin wondered if the other race was involved with the one who was killing their kind. It might be that the wolves themselves were doing the deed but there was definitely a vampire, with knowledge, somewhere in the mix.

The amount of information that he DIDN'T know was staggering.

((OOC: Yep, short and late but he really wants to know. Damn curiosity ))

Well that was a trick and a half wasn't it. Ambrose didn't like brining any one else into things. This was Rashid's story after all, not his.

His hands absently strummed on the guitar randomly picking out a few bars of Werewolves of London as he turned things over in his head and then stalled for time.

"Well... I've run into them on two separate occasions. The one I'm not one hundred percent on. Seems to be a lone woman. Tracked her down but haven't got anything but a few footprints and a gut feeling on her."Â?

Maybe he should wander back and check on Diane again. Try a different tactic. Something about her just didn't set right with Ambrose.

"Not sure what to tell you about the other. I'd been out riding through the preserve, smelled a lot of blood. When I finally got a look at things there were a number of wolves, even from a distance there were big suckers and some smaller ones. They were making a chew toy out of someone, he was putting up a good fight but there were a lot of them. From what I've read he must have had silver on him, a lot I'd guess. He was able to get more than one of them to shift back to human. That didn't stop them though, it was a full moon and they'd just shift back and get back in things. Not sure he would have come out on top but he got some back up."Â?

He stopped playing and frowned. That night in the preserve had been very odd. He still wasn't sure if he should have shot or not. From what he'd read though, shooting them would likely only have pissed them off in most cases. He had started carrying silver bullets since then. Just in case. With a sigh he continued.

"One of the back up, she took out one of the smaller ones went through one of the big ones and got her hands on another. She must have had some silver on her too because that one she forced that one to turn back into a woman. I'm not sure why but that stopped the wolves pretty much cold, it looked like they'd been half protecting that one... at any rate once they had her our kind took her and got the heck out. I've got no idea what happened to the woman/wolf they took hostage. Still getting out wasn't a bad decision if you ask me. I don't think even with three all of them would have come out alive. There is only so much you can regenerate..."Â?

Ambrose promised himself he'd look up Rashid soon. He'd read that damned book after all. Maybe he could get some answers about this too.

"At any rate that's what I remember. It's been a few months. Haven't seen much of them since then. Mind I haven't been looking too hard either. Having a wolf by the tail isn't a good thing to my way of thinking."Â?

Jin listened to the account Ambrose gave with much interest. The fight sounded like quite the chaotic mess with damages on both sides. He wondered if his companion knew any of the combatants or not. Ambrose had given no names so Jin figured he either didn't know or didn't want to say. It would be impolite to press.

"Thank you for telling me. It was a vampire that was fighting them, I am assuming?"

A human wouldn't have lasted very long at all, even with silver.

He wondered what had started the fight. There shape shifters were a violent lot as Jin recalled and he wondered if that had changed at all over the ages.

"Do you know where to find this woman again?"

Jin needed to find everything he could that might in some way relate to his mission. The deaths seemed to involve those with command who were around during the war. That made weres involved, even if by proxy.

He should learn what he could of them.

Ambrose nodded. He wasn't exactly certain he'd told Jin much of anything. After all, he'd kept most of the details to himself, well names any way. Of course, his flute playing buddy here was part of the Night. He could probably find out fast enough who was involved if he set his mind to it.

"The first one for sure, given the way they moved I'd say both of his back up were as well."Â?

Both Mara, and the man whom he'd not identified yet, had been more than a little capable. If they'd gone in with Rashid the outcome might have been different. Might have been. The wolves had been damned good, they had worked like a pack, just like real wolves but perhaps with more intelligence. They'd make a daunting enemy.

"Yeah. I can show you where I found her. Veterinary clinic on the outskirts of town. No guarantees she'd still be there but the place is easy enough to find."Â?

Personally, Ambrose was of the opinion that helping out with this information meant he got to be involved with whatever was going on. But he'd push that issue later.

Jin nodded, not really surprised by the news that the other combatants were vampires. Nor was he really surprised to hear that the two groups had already had violent clashes.

"I am sure that helped even the odds a bit."

He thought about what Ambrose said about the woman. A veterinary clinic might not mean a whole lot. She could have been there once for a pet or she could be someone who worked there. It was a better lead than nothing at all though.

"Thank you, perhaps we can find her again, if we're lucky."

Standing, Jin smiled at Ambrose.

"Perhaps we can do that soon? I know we also have some shooting practice as well. It seems my Creator and I are doing our best to take up all your free time."