"If the girl loves the boss, chances are he's Kindred. And I think the girl's already left this one. Or he left her." "Is your honey pot ready to manage this asset? In this town, a blonde Russian woman and a gun-toting Russian man would stand out very well. If one or both of us are i...

"Your boss... he is Russian too? Tell me more about him." Speaking lower, and in Russian: "Tatiana. There are, of course, many Russians in this district. But hearing of a devoted woman who suddenly expresses love for another man, a Russian man, and such love that she would leave her a...

Khalida decides she will not deign to reply, other than to bare her fangs and hiss at him. "I'll leave you to get the man's information, then. Call me when you need some shooting done. But, since I'm not allowed to teach your childe, you should enlighten her about the fact that the mortals are...

In English: "What does his ID say?"

Looking crestfallen, Ivan bows to Tatiana. "I will say nothing further on the subject, then."

Now, in English: "So, who is he?"

Tatiana strolls into the alley, clearly distasteful of being surrounded by garbage and rot. Thankfully, the rats that Ivan had spotted earlier had fled once the scuffle started. "Ivan, what are you doing to that man? Mugging him? If you needed money, you could have just asked." Ivan glance...

"Now you love us Russians, no? I will make you love my assholes!" Pulling the man's head harshly back, while still kneeling on his back, Ivan brings his head down to the man's ear and whispers. "You will enjoy this much more than the beatings you received just now." The short man...

"Assholes? I'll show you my assholes."

Ivan grips the man by the hair and pounds his head into the ground a few times to make his point.

"I told you not to speak. But you speak. Now I make you learn to listen!"

... Shit! I'm blown... Changing tactics, Ivan falls back on his hand to hand training, and tries to put the man in a face-down pin on the ground. Str (2) + Brawl (3) + Kung Fu specialization (+1) No dots in the Kung Fu fighting style, so no special moves In badly accented English, he stage-whispers...

Health: [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Blood: 2 As he crosses a street he sees a man walk down an alleyway between a clothing store and a bar, head down and shoulders hunched, sobbing. No one is around the entrance of the narrow corridor, and it is almost completely obscured in darkness. At the far end...

Health: [/] [/] [/] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Blood: 4 Ivan sprints through the alley to the next block, then slows down as he gets to the street again. He jogs across the street, looking like someone trying to quickly cross the street, then slows to a normal walking speed when he gets to the sidewalk on the ...

Ivan drags the junky over by the door, and leans him against the wall next to it. He then kicks the door in (or attempts to, at any rate). Once he hears the alarm going off, he'll get away quickly.

Ivan takes three blood, then quickly closes the wound on the man's neck. He takes the syringe and injects it into the man's arm as he'd planned. With so much blood lost, a normal dose might kill him, so Ivan only injects half of it. Then he looks around the alleyway, looking for something that would...

Health: [/] [/] [/] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Blood: 1 ------------------------------------------------ "Are you certain you won't join me, Mr. Karpenku?" "Thank you, but no. I must get home and listen to my sister lecturing me about shooting her annoying friend." Maxim chuckles at this, a...

"I think," he says to Ivan despite that he continues to look out of the window, "that you could be very useful. So I have decided to make an investment. From this night you can feed in my domain. But I won't ask for money. No. I believe you can prove very useful to me." He turne...

Ivan smiles broadly. [language=russian] "In spite of what it may have looked like inside, I can behave with perfect manners. I think the nuns at the orphanage told me to graciously accept anything offered to me, and thank the giver. So, thank you for the offer of a ride. I would be happy to go ...

Ivan jogs to the edge of the stage and jumps into the aisle. He pats him on the shoulder, a little roughly, and says solemly, "Thank you, asshole." Then he races up the aisle to the exit doors, across the lobby, and out the front door. He looks around for Maxim, in his red shirt. Or for a...

Yeah, I assumed that physical or mental would require XP only. But the social ones I had wondered about. It was mostly a mtter of "do I save up XP for <blah> merit, or can I earn that just through role-play?"

But now I'm good.

FYI, I'm going to be on a business trip Monday through Thursday of this week. I'll have access to the Interwebs in the evenings (US time) only, so may not be posting as frequently.

Clarification for XP expense: For some of the social merits (e.g. - allies, contacts, mentor, status, resources), it seems like one could work to acquire those via good roleplaying. So, for example, if Ivan were to take the time to dig up incriminating evidence against an agent of the FBI's Organize...