At first blush, she looked enough like a human. That is to say, like a Kindred. However, she was abnormally tall, a solid foot (at least) taller than her and Hannah, and had skin too perfectly chalk-white to be naturally pale. Her face was mostly blocked by an ivory masquerade mask, the eyes covered by a spread of wilted flowers, but it still exposed a mouth full of anglerfish-esque teeth, exposed only when she smiled wide at the new presence in front of her. 

While her clothing was gorgeous, a long shimmering red nightgown, with a slit for her legs to peek out, it was accented by a host of wooden, skeletal, mannequin-like arms curling around her, each with a host of threads coming off of each finger. 

"Ah, Hannah! Darling, it has been an age since you came down here! And who is your friend?" The woman spoke, a heavy French accent coming through in her words as she pushed forward, as threads deftly moved around them with the clicking of her arms.

"Madamoiselle Columbina, meet Ann Dirchs. Ann, this is Columbina, as she is known to us at least."

The tall woman leaned down, as one of her opera glove and ring-laden hands extended to cup the side of Ann's face.

"A pleasure. You feel quite scared, don't you? That these threads are bound to trap you, like a mouse in cat's-cradle claws." The mysterious woman read, with Ann growing increasingly confused. Was her face giving that much away?

"Columbina here is a very unique member of your clan. From how she explains it, she took a specific path of Auspex that keyed her into a new kind of Sorcery, one that uses the power of emotion." Hannah explained.

"Yes yes yes, I see all the threads of the heart that feels-yet-never-beats, and it resonates within mine. You are seeking, wondering, questioning. Open your heart to me, cousin of the rose. Many wandering hearts venture into my net, and some get to leave again! But all have a piece of themselves here with me." The Mademoiselle continued, cupping her face with both hands now.

Ann was feeling a mix of fear, intrigue, and sheer sapphic adoration for the woman in front of her. But despite that cocktail of flustering, she kept her senses enough to answer the question. "I'm looking for a specific dress, it was a gift from a long-lost love!"

"Hmm...describe it to me." Columbina said, her smile dropping slightly.

"Well, it was a vintage piece, even fifty years ago, you see-" Ann describes almost every seam of the elegant ivory ball gown, so detailed and intricate it could've been a wedding dress. While she went into such extensive descriptions, Columbina brought a seat, and Hannah made some aromatic tea she brought along to pass the time.

"Yes, I do believe I added something like that to my collections." One of the mechanical arms clicked its fingers, and strings brought down a sealed dress that matched the description exactly. "I tore it from the hands of a mutated infidel who sought to ruin the sanctity of my sanctuary. I felt their clawing desperation for it, and needed to preserve it." Her smile grew wider.

"T-That's it! Oh, thank you, Miss Columbia!"

"Columbina." Hannah corrected.

"You're quite welcome. Now, what will you give me for it?"

"Hmm?" Ann remarked in surprise, as she had apparently forgotten that there is usually a trade for goods and services.

"Emotions are my power, my life, my very essence. This dress is as woven with emotion as it is with silk, woven only tighter by the obsession that gripped it so tightly. I could do many a thing with it! But, I am not unreasonable. What will you give me for it, if your desire is true?"

"Well, I have quite a bit of money saved, oh and I can get you many more lovely gowns! In fact, I can even make some! You know, I'm working with this theater troupe and-"

"No." The soft Columbina was stern at this moment, making Ann stop and shiver. Hannah, for her part, watched wearily, wondering if this was the right course of action. "I care not for paltry money, and while I care for fashion, new, unfeeling threads do not intrigue me. What can you give me for it?"

For a minute, Ann racked her brain. She fired thoughts back and forth at high speeds, but many of them were blanks. But, Hannah's earlier words came back to her. Sometimes, the story was the real antique.

"If the emotions left in the dress are good, what'd ones right from the tap be like?" Ann asked, twirling a strand of her wild curls.

"Ann, that's-" Hannah began

"Perfectly satisfactory!" Columbina almost shot out of her chair. "If your feelings are truly as powerful as you claim."

"Wait, are you going to...take away all of the feelings I have?"

"Oh no. Not all of them! If you aren't mentally strong enough or devoted enough, you will simply cease to feel a thing for this dress, but I am not so brutal or sloppy as to lobotomize entirely!"

"...Will it hurt?"

She grins wider. "Pain, too, is a feeling."

Ann swallows hard, reflexes are hard to kill.

"Hannah, go home dear." Columbina begins, as her mechanical hands begin to click into place. "I require utmost focus."

Before she can protest, Ann puts her hand up. "Go on, I'll catch up with you tomorrow night!" 

Hannah merely nodded, taking her travel teapot with her, but leaving two cups for the women there. The good thing about Columbina's haven being so far down the tunnels, if any screaming did occur, Hannah could not hear it.

Her magic was a volatile thing. Many Kindred do not even think they possess emotions, it's a lesson they are taught as fledglings. But, that's not entirely true. Emotions are more than the property of whatever human soul they lose in the embrace, but in the course of a monstrous life, and a crueler society, it is wise to become cold and selfish, to avoid the pain.

But to wield emotions as magic, akin to blood, turned Columbina into quite a monstrous thing. Perhaps, then, it is crueler to go through the pain of the night and choose to keep feeling and inflict the same upon others. Of course, for those who cut themselves off from all but the most inherent emotions, it must be even more painful for one to dig in deep and excavate that which they had long since buried. The fossilized remains of a human heart deep beneath the ground of the Kindred mind.

These thoughts haunted Hannah through the night, as she returned to her own haven.

Ann wouldn't return the following night, worrying Hannah immensely. Did she lead her to her death? They may not have been the closest of companions, but she enjoyed Ann's company, and she was on the more enjoyable end of Kindred in Tacoma.

However, those worries were assuaged the following night, as Ann strode into the cafe in a sharp black dress without a care in the world. "Ann! Oh, I'm so glad you're alright. Did everything go well, did you get your dress?" Hannah rushed to give the other woman a big, but brief, hug.

"It went perfectly! Although I was wrestling a killer headache yesterday. I even kept my emotions about the whole thing!" Ann said, not going into the details of her being doubled over under three blankets and several pillows to keep any outside stimulus away from her immense migraine.

"That's wonderful!" Hannah said, face gleaming in the subdued way the woman carried herself. "So, when will you debut your wonderful 'new' gown?"

"Oh, I burned it before coming here!"

An emotional anvil dropped on the mental state of Hannah Winther, as she could only eke out a momentary "Huh?"

Ann looked at her with confusion, tilting her head without dropping her smile a centimeter.

"You burned it!? B-But you were scouring the city for it! You went through all that pain to get it! You said it was a gift from a long-lost love! How do you just burn that?" Hannah allowed herself to emote a smidge more than usual.

"Well it was a gorgeous gift, and I was really trying to get it back, and it was from a long-lost love! But it was lost because the jerk cheated on me with my best friend, like, a month after he gave it to me!" She explained so matter-of-factly.

"I've been wanting to get rid of it for a while now, but I lost track of it, and then when the Sabbat shakeup happened I was hoping it'd be destroyed, but that's when I started finding all my stuff in antique stores!" She continued, with Hannah's disbelief becoming a droning white noise in her ears. "So, I didn't wanna run the risk of seeing someone else wearing my cheating ex's dress, are you kidding? That'd be awful! Didn't I explain all of this?"

There was a beat of silence.

"Hannah?"

"I...I...I'm so happy for you." She wheezed out, a smile straining to form. She was going to have her own tremendous headache after this.