Gabriela Emmanuelle craved the spotlight and the life of a rock star, but while she had been a sleeper that dream had eluded her.  Oh she had sung before some enormous crowds, but only as a warm up act for the headliners.  No, most of her showbiz life had been performing before drunken salesmen in smoke-filled Howard Johnson Lounges.

That was until she awakened and her world changed.  Shortly after she awakened to the fact magick was real and she was adept in its use, was when she added the name Adagio and began performing with a purpose.

She found she could look into the hearts and surface thoughts of her audience and could give them what they wanted and needed.  She liked to find the pattern of emotion in the audience that would draw them all together and then she would weave that thread with her songs either soothing their fears or inflaming their passions.

Her abilities gave her an edge and she became extremely wealthy and semi-famous.  She also had garnered some respect in her own community.  (Now I'm not speaking only of the entertainment community, they are universally fickle.)  No she was earning a reputation amongst the Cultist of Ecstasy.  Not just for her remarkable home (the former Hotel Napolie in Ybor City, FL) or for the fabulous parties that she hosted there, but for her belief in building something of a stable and lasting nature in this world. 

Her main cause was to spark the tiny flame of arousal in the sleepers who were her fans and to guide those Cultist who had forgotten their purpose in the pattern of Ascension, many of whom have given their lives over to pleasures and experiences for the sake of gratification alone.      

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It was New Years Eve 1992 when she met her comrades who would form her cabal.  She was of course hosting a marvelous party and Cultist from around the country were there as well as many sleepers in the entertainment community.  The streets of Ybor City were packed with sleepers celebrating the coming of the New Year, they were moving about the boulevards like joyful insects flitting from club to club, from party to party.

Gabriela had invited her new tenants, one a fellow Cultist named Ursula, a Tattoo artist with a predilection for inflecting pain, and Ike Black, an absentminded book collector/seller, one of those stuffy Order of Hermes.  Two others crashed her party (now Gabriela counts on her parties being crashed, it adds spice and the unknown to the thread of the pattern), a vague character, one of those followers of death (now what was his name, guess I'll get back to him later), and a con artist named Max, an odd fellow who carries a laptop computer with him, one of those Virtual Adepts (a little close to the Technocracy, but this guy seemed all right).  Oh yes, the Euthanatos his name was Macair, can't remember exactly what he looks like now.

Before I forget a few others of note attended: Paula Civello, 2 different Suzi Mings (odd huh?) and Shelton, Gabriela's awakener.

Anyway, the party was really rocking and Gabriela sang a song of ritual to bring about good feelings and a healing empathy to all who were in attendance. This was very successful. 

Two others of note also crashed her party (Gabi only found out about this after, she was much too busy being a genial hostess).  A Vampire name Salo (Gabi hasn't had many encounters with the undead and is uncertain of their part in the pattern of Ascension), and a wounded man or a man under stress, who was either pursuing or being pursued by the Vamp, something else came up later that night and Gabi didn't hear the whole story (like I say she was much to busy hosting her guests).

Early in the morning the Cultist performed a Time ritual and a disturbing vision of violence came to them during that rite.  They foresaw the coming disruption of Vampires in Los Angeles with dreadful repercussions for the sleepers; gangs of vamps roaming the streets attacking one another and killing any sleepers who happen to be in the way.  It seems that the Prince had been eliminated or had fled the city and it was a struggle for power among the vampire factions.  (Amelia Earhart was among them, a Bruha I was told.)  These prescient visions of riots seemed to be about two weeks or so in the future, and they seemed much too powerful to be stopped.  But the new friends agreed that some more investigation had to be done to see if any aid could be given to the sleepers of LA.

(Now here is a little knowledge that may or may not matter in this tale.  It seems there are a group of all female werewolves [Black Furies possibly] in the deep Everglades and their message is for others (meaning everyone) to KEEP OUT.)  Gabriela loaned some money to what's his name, he said he would put it to good use (she also had a terrible time linking with his mind).  And Ike made a quick trip to Jacksonville (still gives Gabi the creeps to think about her time there), he apparently just popped over for a meeting with those other stuffed shirts, err, Order of Hermes. 

Gabriela and her new friends made a trip across country to LA in her private jet to visit a Chantry of Cultist called the Hyacinth House.  Other Mages and allies attended this meeting.  (Gabi got to meet Rosaline Sumners, a figure skater of some fame.  She's a Dancer a subset of Cultist I'm told.)  A ritual was performed and what's his name helped us pinpoint the origins of Entropy that would start the unrest. 

It seems the event was spawned the night before the major riots by teams of assassins and one Black Cat. In fact this black cat flashed through our vision and seemed to annihilate someone (the Prince perhaps?).  The vision was of LA dying and the term cycle of renewing came up.  There was a pattern in the ferocity of vampire on vampire violence and among the sleepers as well.  The violence emerged as less random then when it first appeared in the Cultist's New Year's vision.  Everyone determined that they could get out of town and be safe, but wondered how we could aid the innocent that would be swept up in the tide of carnage. 

Gabriela and the others thought the Virtual Adept, Max, could possibly furnish some false/positive results to the seismographs around LA indicating a major earthquake with the next 2 weeks (using his laptop gizmo), resulting in many of the sleepers evacuating the city and coincidentally missing the uprising.

When we left the Chantry the most disquieting event occurred.  The house was encircled by over a hundred house cats.  When Gabriela checked for sentience (using Mind 2, Life 1) she found one and she thinks it is that one Black Cat from the vision.  The cats immediately dispersed in no defined order.  It left all who witnessed it with a feeling of dread and the question lingering who or what is this Black Cat?