<div align="center">(http://www.trolleytours.com/washington-dc/images/washington-dc-memorials.jpg)</div><div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 24pt;"><strong><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;">DC by Night</span></strong></span></div><br/><div align="center">"Because I could not stop for Death—<br/>He kindly stopped for me—<br/>The Carriage held but just Ourselves—<br/>And Immortality." -- Emily Dickinson</div><br/>Washington, DC, is the capital of the most powerful nation on the planet. It is the seat of political power of the United States, and is the part-time home of arguably the most influential people in the world. In March 2012, early in an election year, the city is abuzz with political slogans calling for supporting the incumbent, ousting the incumbent, and for various types of perceived reform. On March 13, 2012, a week past "Super Tuesday", with the Middle East erupting in multiple crises and the Occupy Movement forcibly shut down by police interference and abuse in the last of its protest cities, the atmosphere in DC is a strange mix of frustrated rage, desparation, and despair, with only a glimmer of hope, though no two people agree entirely on the source of the problem or the exact solution.<br/><br/>There is a feeling in the air that is difficult for the citizens of DC to describe, and each will interpret it differently. The paradigm must shift or<em>be</em>shifted. The current business model is unsustainable. The makers must put the moocher class back in their place. The proletariat uprising must begin against those who exploit the masses. The people must be made more free. The people must be controlled more tightly.<br/><br/>The Kindred in the DC area have picked up on this tension in the air, this sense that a quiet, perhaps futile struggle could erupt once again into the chaos and bloodshed that has marked the city's history. The Prince, Marcus Vitel, a proud Ventrue, has reigned over the city for 44 years, since the 1968 assassination of Prince and Tremere Pontifex Marissa at the hands of the Giovanni, who remain under a Blood Hunt to this day. Vitel's reign has been described as "harsh, but fair" by more than one Kindred, as he is loyal and quick to reward those who serve him well, but swift and final with his punishment of those who act against him.<br/><br/>DC itself had fallen into disrepair in the decades after Marissa's Final Death, with the Sabbat hunting kine in the Southeast corner of the city and the Followers of Set influencing drug markets throughout the city. However, with a combination of Camarilla efforts to drive out the Sabbat gangs and a crackdown of DC police departments, the city was made safer for both Kindred and kine. With the commencement of the War on Terror, security was raised and police redoubled their efforts to crackdown on crime (at the expense of freedom, many would claim).<br/><br/>Washington, DC, is now home to Camarilla Kindred numbering in the low hundreds, perhaps a few Anarchs, a werewolf caern, and around 632,000 kine, and every one of them can feel something that they can't quite verbalize, that manifests differently for each of them, but the core of which is simple: change is coming.<br/><hr/><strong><em>9:45 PM, Tuesday, March 13, 2012 - Washington D.C., John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts</em></strong><br/><br/><div align="center">(http://www.classicamerica.net/kennedy-center-address.jpg)</div><br/>The Kennedy Center is truly one of the most refined areas regularly accessible to the public in D.C. It is a cultural center, and the busiest performing arts facility in the United States, hosting nearly two thousand exhibitions annually. Tonight, though, a sign posted at the roped-off main entrance reads<strong>CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE</strong>and no performances are scheduled. The majority of the building's exterior is dimly lit and standing guard at the main entrance, on either side of the roped-off doors, are two large men in black suits, recognizable as Vitel's men.<br/><br/><div align="center">(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Kennedy_center_at_night.jpg/640px-Kennedy_center_at_night.jpg)</div><br/>The weather had threatened to rain all day, but the most that had fallen was a light drizzle which has long since ceased. The waning gibbous moon occasionally peeks through the clouds, but the evening promises to remain heavily overcast, though the breeze has at least died down.<br/><br/>Vehicles of all sorts begin arriving at the Kennedy Center. Among them are several limousines, fully-outfitted black SUVs, expensive foreign cars, at least a dozen motorcycles, and one green VW bus. The men and women step out of them and head into the Kennedy Center for the night's Elysium, most not taking the time to greet each other, at least not until they were inside.