HeySeuss

40K: The Holy Ordos

Interested. Would like to play some sort of Deathwatch member, though preferably as one working for a Ordo Xenos inquisitor that is not a puritan; chapters like the Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Dark Angels have their reasons to curry favor with factions set against the factions in the Inquisition more likely to view these chapters unfavorably. So in the Deathwatch perhaps? I want to bring factional politics into this, I assume that's part of the gameplan.

Staring Back With Chrome Eyes [Vanq x HeySeuss]

Marco

Name: Marcantonio D'Agostino
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Ethnicity/Nationality: United States
Physical Description:

Despite his extensive augmentation, Marco passes for human and humanoid, albeit at a greater height and significantly greater weight than his natural adult height-weight. Currently, he stands at about six feet tall, weighing in at something around three hundred and sixty pounds, mostly from the extensive cybernetic implants he's had put in; that includes both arms, both legs, reinforcement of his skeleton with nano-woven muscle and subdermal armoring. His arms and legs are both obvious mods and he is forced to wear long sleeved shirts and full pants when moving around in public. His eyes, however, are the most disturbing element of the man; up close, they show the platinum and electrum microcircuitry woven into the iris that reveal them as something not natural, womb-born human. He tends to wear contact lenses, which tend to actually help with the situation, as well as, ironically, nonprescription glasses that help draw the attention of others away from his eyes. His natural skintone, on the darker side, is maintained with synthetic skin grafts over areas that are exposed to the public, though his facial hair still comes in -- it's dense stuff, requiring a close shave. He has a couple minute scars on his face.

Skillset:

Intense concentration to any task at hand – having survived maiming to the degree that he was rendered deaf-mute-blind and then came back from a traumatic experience, he has impressive willpower. He attended the FBI academy at Quantico and worked organized crime for some years in the New Orleans and Newark field offices, as well as certifying for SWAT. He spent a year in the Hostage Rescue Team when everything went to hell. As a result, he has significant close quarters combat skills, understands the use of surveillance equipment and, importantly, how to investigate crimes and the methods of law enforcement.

His role in the Vigil is as something of a generalist -- his augmentations favor combat, but not at the expense of mobility and other methods. Because Marco was physically destroyed, his reconstruction was, by necessity, extensive and the opportunities to enhance were accordingly widespread.

History

Marcantonio D'Agostino was born in Hampton, New Jersey, to an upper middle class Italian family; he attended Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland, and graduated summa. After about two years in the New Jersey State Police, working on the narcotics task force, he applied for and was accepted into the FBI academy at Quantico. Graduating from that, he was assigned to the New Orleans field office and then into the Newark field office, where he struck up a relationship with Madeleine Kelly, the eldest daughter of Michael Kelly, a prosperous architect living in Hampton, New Jersey, with his wife and younger children. During this time, on the basis of his record, he was accepted into the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team. Also around this time, Michael Kelly's youngest, Maureen, struck up a relationship with Richard Mullen.

Maureen's relationship with Richard Mullen took a turn for the strange and Maureen cut it off out of fear. This created a stalking situation where the local police were reluctant to get overly involved, which infurirated the elder Kelly to no end. Meanwhile, Madeleine and Marco became engaged. During Thanksgiving dinner at the Kelly's, the jilted ex-boyfriend showed up and made a scene.

More than a scene; he started going on a rant about how he and Madeleine were destined, and that turned into a furious soliloquy about how she was obligated to him because he saved her from the attentions of 'brutes.' When Marco tried to step in, reluctantly but confident he could handle the situation. He found himself on the floor, watching helplessly, as the thing started to tear through his fiance's family. He discarded the Kellys, including Marco's fiance, with contemptuous ease while continuing his rant. He drained Madeleine dry, and then gave Marco a ranting speech about daring to lift his hand to something far greater than he was -- it was a monologue where he called him a worm, as he ripped off his limbs and put out his eyes. But he called 911 and left him alive. Mullen didn't particularly care about Marco or anyone but Maureen Kelly; everyone else was in the way of his jilted fury. He was cast aside by Richard so he could focus on Maureen.

That perhaps would have been the end of the story -- the news reports were shocked and then the story disappeared, with Marco left on life support with nothing to particularly live for. The police made sure that the Mullens were never touched and the family moved on in their own time in any case, on to the next victim.

However, there was a crucial hitch. Paul D'Agostino, Marco's father, was a renowned surgeon on the pioneering edge of technology. Marco might have been a useful way in, but Paul was the target of the Vigil's recruitment, using his maimed son as a means to recruit the father and the father's colleagues. Through the course of five years, Marco was reconstructed along with other willing test subjects in what amounted to a massive crash course program in cybernetic enhancements. The Eternal, comfortable that the Vigil would only watch and never act, countered more active and aggressive threats as they came up, but never tweaked to the possibility that the Vigil had a centuries old plan being realized through the connections and brilliance of Paul D'Agostino and his multi-disciplinary team of researchers. They never asked why so many prominent medical and technological researchers were provided fellowships and then quietly disappeared off the grid, except to speculate among themselves that someone was culling them out for a reason.

By the end of the program, they had made the necessary breakthroughs for extensive cybernetic enhancements, along with other spin-off technologies in computing, that put the Vigil well ahead of the government. The Eternal, indifferent to tech at best, never seemed to worry so long as their smartphones worked.

More importantly to Dr. D'Agostino, he was able to give his son sight, speech and the ability to walk again. He was able to rebuild his son into an instrument of vengeance.

The test of the equipment came in the form of revenge for Sheriff John Krieger of Hampton, NJ. His assassination revealed a number of irregularities in his finances that the local authorities did not manage to cover up, and it implicated a wider corruption in the local government that led to a RICO case against the town's elected officials. No one ever figured out who precisely killed the Sheriff, but an FBI agent asked, "Qui cares, it has a bow on it" when asked who benefited from such a thing. For the Vigil, it was a proof of concept for the hacking and disruptive capabilities of the new tech, as they'd lured the Sheriff out with a series of false alarms and spread out the law enforcement so it was incapable of acting. Under FBI scrutiny, the killing was unsolved with damned few clues. Krieger himself was a thrall, strong and dangerous above the capabilities of a normal human -- he didn't stand a chance, either.

Richard Mullen made it all possible. And that's why he would be the first kill. It was part of the deal. Marco would lead the hunter-killer team, the first fully augmented one, to do the job.

Psychological Profile:

Marco has undergone constant PTSD treatment – he was a wreck when they finally installed some form of communication implants in him and restored his hearing and sight first. While there has been immense progress and a focus on regaining what was lost and then exceeding those parameters, there is always the trauma of what he endured at the hands of a vampire. He has seen what those things can do, and while the therapy and implants have given him back a degree of self-confidence, he still does not truly believe that he has been brought up to a level where he can engage these things and win. He fights against himself on this.

The FBI's investigations could proceed slowly, and he learned over time to be patient about gathering the information, forming a good case. For Marco, picking up the trail through means like data is important. Knowing how to avoid the police is also important. True to his training, he prefers covert surveillance and taking care to investigate carefully rather than rush into situations.

Modifications:

• Communications suite, HUD and neural-computer, all standard issue – Vigil agents are able to text by thinking it among each other on a heavily encrypted wireless network. In fact, the computer works off brain impulses and is easily one of the most sophisticated and useful implants they have; what's more, its capabilities have yet to be fully exploited. The downside of this implant is that it includes a cortex bomb with an anti-tampering device. A captured agent can set it off, destroying the hardware inside, or a signal from control can do the same. This is to prevent the enemy from learning the capabilities of implanted agents.
• Internal air supply and aerial toxin filter -- this also has the added advantage of making the agent immune to vampire pheromones, as some types of vampires are known to use this to seduce their prey.
• Blood/liquid toxin filter -- the obvious is at work here -- vampires use their blood as a means of controlling mortals, and this system (and everyone, even non field agents, in the Vigil organization have this implant) screens out one of most subtle weapons a vampire has, rendering them functionally immune to being controlled through ingested blood the way mortal thralls of a vampire might be.
• Eye augmentation; a HUD showing all sorts of system data, such as the status of implants, as well as allowing for low-light and ultra-sound modes of vision, the latter being thought to be more effective than thermographics when dealing with vampires, who tend to run cold if they haven't fed lately.
• Hearing Amplification, including low and high frequency sound ranges, along with balance augmentation.
• Wired Reflexes - One of the more controversial but effective systems is the wired reflexes, which tend to make the user 'twitchy' but also give them a blinding reaction speed that allows them to react to a vampire with a degree of parity.
• Muscle replacement; human muscle is augmented with vat-grown, nano-enhanced muscle that increases strength and agility on the part of the user.
• Bone lacing; reinforcement for the skeletal structure, particularly around the rib-cage, allowing the implanted agent to take more abuse, as well as strengthening the frame for other implants related to strength and speed.
• Replacement right arm with implanted shotgun, essentially similar to a sawed-off weapon; the barrel is very short and the magazine only allows for three rounds. The weapon has exquisite recoil compensation, being mounted very firmly on a cybernetic arm, and is linked to Marco's arm. It is retractable and concealable -- anything larger would essentially not be easily concealed in a cybernetic implant. Other, more extreme implants exist that allow for the mounting/dismounting of large weapons on the arm, though Marco did not elect to take a hardpoint.
• The other replacement arm, his left, has a variety of sockets and jacks, from USB to ethernet and beyond, to facilitate physical access of an enemy's electronic equipment, including a multitool set. Also, incidentally, the middle finger comes off to reveal a spool of self-rewinding mono-wire, highly useful in garroting/beheading actions. He suggested this modification to the team, and they loved it. “Giving the vampers the finger” has a whole new meaning with the Vigil as a result. The third fingers on each hand have fully articulated fiberoptic cameras that can be deployed covertly to show the agent what is behind them or to get a camera/microphone into small places. Fingernails have retractable blades.
• Replacement legs, fully functional and stronger than the originals. One interesting feature is the rather sharp blades that are housed in the lower legs of each, and extend from the heel. He's practiced his round-house with that advantage in mind.
• Hands and knees and feet can be magnetized, but draw on an internal power supply that is replenished by kinetic means, which is to say, with movement.
• The limbs are socketed and can be, theoretically, replaced with other limbs that do different things. Marco, however, likes the current mix of limbs.
• A medical monitoring system that flushes his system with drugs as needed to counteract pain or other medical situations as they arise -- that includes the injection of agents that are used in the event of the use of nerve gas.
• Subdermal impact and ballistic armor, though not the most extreme sort -- this stuff is again, concealable.

Equipment:

• Silenced pistol, caseless hydro-shok-style ammo, entirely made of polymer. It is designed to interface with his implanted systems.
• Mimetic Camouflage (Predator) coat, though this is designed to look more like a trenchcoat -- no doubt some project engineer with a penchant for the dramatic, or an interest in fashion design. The coat is actually stylish, which serves a dual purpose as vampires tend to dress stylishly and surround themselves with the stylishly dressed. This allows Vigil agents one more edge. Of course, they call it the Predator Coat. Because the engineers are geeks. (This is a standard issue Vigil item)
• Modular, caseless assault rifle/carbine. Bullpup, caseless ammunition, synched with existing implants and capable of mounting a variety of accessories including a 25mm grenade launcher whose munitions range from conventional high explosive to nano-guided scattered mines. It also syncs with HUD implants for improved accuracy in a mechanism similar to a bluetooth link. The trigger is electric and the weapon includes a biometric security system; anyone but someone authorized to handle it and it will blow; that is a standard feature on most any weapon the Vigil has in service with its teams. (This is a standard issue Vigil item) He keeps his shortened into a fairly concealable carbine, suited to close combat.
• A number of electronic accessories, including a PDA tablet and other items to assist in making physical connection with computer equipment. While the agents have hardware in their heads, the PDA's are useful, for example, in hacking operations that require computer access where wireless connectivity is limited -- attach the PDA to the system and operate it remotely from there on out.(This is a standard issue Vigil item)
• Grenades, mostly white phosphorus. The organization has designed a 'grenade' that involves a strobing UV light that damages vampires -- it is known as 'the disco ball'.
• Heavier weaponry can be acquired through the Vigil
• Civilian clothing, though everything he wears involves full pant legs and long sleeves. He also wears nonprescription clear glasses indoors, or sunglasses at all times outdoors to help camouflage his eyes.

Staring Back With Chrome Eyes [Vanq x HeySeuss]

He who fights with monsters should look to it
that he himself does not become a monster.
And when you gaze long into an abyss
the abyss also gazes into you.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
"Beyond Good and Evil" (1886)


Post-op, cybernetic implant surgery...

TL;DR Summary:

• Near future, year 2026
• Vampires exist, as they have for a long, long time, ageless and hard to kill and thus fancy themselves apex predators who use their resources and influence to ensure that they cannot be assailed by common humanity.
• The Vigil has also existed from ancient times in a variety of forms, collecting information as best it could against Vampires, though it found few successes in hunting them. They have, instead in secret, cultivated the wealth and resources necessary to eventually confront vampires when the opportunity arose. Vampires have long since dismissed the Vigil as being a passive organization and a non-threat, as a second-rate illuminati that focuses on economic interests and corporate affairs. They never bothered to crush the Vigil.
• Through the course of the 20th and early 21st century, the Vigil has been content to continue this policy of appearing harmless, even as it took to the bleeding edge of technological research; a combination of extensive corporate espionage and sponsored research and development have yielded considerable leaps forward in a variety of technological fields. The Vampires, in their arrogance, do not realize that the plan is to advance to a point where they can level the playing field against vampires and fight them toe to toe.
• The recruits are your characters -- they have a variety of skills, backgrounds and reasons for associating with the Vigil; some are maimed veterans that want the implants and all the possibilities they offer, others have lost friends, family and lovers to the vampires. They are willing to undergo the dehumanizing and dangerous process of cybernetic implantation.
• These characters are sent forth, armed with the best equipment their very rich patrons can provide as a kill-team; their orders are to assassinate vampires. Ideally, they are to preserve their secrecy as much as possible, but killing vampires is the priority.
• Oh, and the first operation will be killing an Edward Cullen type. How cool is that?
• Specifics of technology will be discussed, but I have a general idea of where I want to draw the line.
• Inspirations; Movies - Munich, Blade Runner, Blade, The Lost Boys, Escape from New York. Books - the works of William Gibson, Dracula and Twilight, at least for the idea of killing an Edward Cullen type first. :)
• No thank you on half-vampires and daywalkers. This is about the victims.

In Character Info:

Vampires have styled themselves the apex predators, the ones that take the predator that kills all the other life on Earth, and have fallen into this pattern of considering humanity prey. Some of them try to view humanity as a threat, but the oldest, the ones in charge, are set in their ways and sometimes have a hard time adapting to the idea of humans advancing beyond the means of the time that they were made into a vampire, a time when they were rampant over the earth. Hunters have come and hunters have gone, but with limited means to do damage to the Eternal, their name for themselves.

Organizations too, have come and gone, hunters trying to eradicate vampires under the auspices of the church and some kings, but they have failed, largely due to the inability to match the vampires unparalleled strength and speed, the natural abilities that make them the predator and humans the prey.

One organization has watched and waited, understanding that until the day arrived that they were able to match these strengths and perhaps overcome them the fell rule of the Eternal from the shadows would continue unabated. Through the long centuries, members lived and died, compiling and securing information on their enemies, but not moving against them hastily. They invested assets wisely, cultivated research and learning, infiltrated institution, worked with a slow purpose and a goal that spanned many lifetimes of effort, waiting for when science would allow them to match or even outmatch the vampires. The vampires, in addressing more overt threats, violent threats, derided the Vigil as timid scholars. They played the long game, looking for a time when there would be a means to fight the vampires effectively.

Now, in 2026, that reckoning has come.

@Vanq

Blood Debt (Medieval/Fantasy, Rangers)

All good adventures start with a tavern.

A proposition for brainstorming, collaboration and fun writing.

I apologize, I currently have something like four 1x1's being considered plus two group RP's. Even keeping posts down to a max of five paragraphs, I am definitely full up. If something wiggles, can I get back to people?

Pandora's Inheritance: The Coven [carsgovroom x HeySeuss]

Good advice -- stop talking. Brian wanted to say something more about Tim having a moralistic crusade. His brother, unwittingly, was pulled into the whole thing. It gave Brian a much more visceral reaction. Sure, he cared about the issue, but he didn't care to have his family get torn apart in it.

"I'm sorry, we weren't thinking," Brian told Macy, perhaps lamely. He was trying to apologize for the whole thing, including the argument with Tim in her living room. She didn't deserve that sort of scene. It was something he could take up with Tim later on. He filed it away for later, considering how he'd explain the part about his fears for Johnny. Tim might sneer a bit, and that was the part that got Brian hot under the collar in the contemplation of it. It was borrowing trouble. He knew Tim was a bit of an idealistic prick, but it didn't mean that a heartfelt man-to-man conversation wouldn't work. It was easy to imagine things going worse than they actually did.

To fend off the worries, he followed instructions to get the ice and bundle it in a towel. Brian knew how to do basic first aid, but Macy seemed to have the training that made her a better hand at this stuff. He was handing it over when a scream pierced the night from a distance outside. Brian's eyes flicked over to the chains on the door and then over the rest of the house. Another cry, more unearthly and more like a roar, split the air again. He felt the adrenaline start to surge through his veins. His vision went a little gray around the edges and took on the aspect of a scene watched from a greater distance than the first person.

"Oh shit," he breathed, lowering his voice without doing so intentionally. It made sense, it was good survival instincts, "Do you have a gun?"

@carsgovroom

Pandora's Inheritance: The Coven [carsgovroom x HeySeuss]

"Political argument," Brian told her. It wasn't the most helpful explanation on the surface. On the other hand, Tim was an activist. He hid his status as an Emergent partially by campaigning openly for Emergent rights, along with Johnny Parr, Brian's brother. Brian stayed out of it because it seemed like trouble brewing. John wasn't an Emergent, as far as Brian knew, and Tim was roping John into unnecessary danger this way. So his tone wasn't entirely approving.

Still, he helped Tim over to the couch; he could explain the rest, if able, though his voice was nasal as he said, "They got all pissed off at what I had to say and slugged me!" Though it came out differently because of the nose.

"Those jackasses weren't serious about talking. They were showing off for girls." The bar business was a daytime thing now, because the night belonged to terror once more. They were back to the Puritan days, huddling behind chains. The problem was that the Water of Life was a good bar. The others in Haye were not as clean or as good with food. It was a place to bring girls precisely because it wasn't some oily redneck bar. Brian was used to the douchebag demographic.

"So you're saying that if I let it slide I wouldn't be here?"

"Yeah. You started on them when they said something off-handed." And then, of course, the comments. Why are you standing up for them against normal decent folk? Hey, fuck you shame-kisser.

It was so predictable that Doug and Butch or whatever their actual names were, would latch onto the chance to show off how tough they were. A couple of Happy Valley dickheads home because PSU was shut down for the semester, looking for an outlet, drinking too much.

"Isn't that cowardice?" Tim demanded.

"No, it's survival," Brian countered. That, of course, was the argument Emergents were having all over the country. Hide or try civil discourse. The other options were unspoken, as yet.

Blood Debt (Medieval/Fantasy, Rangers)

@Naril Good to go.

@Flagg Once the combat starts, Veredict can certainly be the one salvaging the situation, since whoever is in charge at Bosfyrd probably should be fed to the volcano once they let Brand's Brood start a war.

Pandora's Inheritance: The Coven [carsgovroom x HeySeuss]

Got the IC post up.

Pandora's Inheritance: The Coven [carsgovroom x HeySeuss]

"Goddamnit Tim," Brian groused as they struggled out of the truck and toward the door. It was dark out, and these days most people didn't stay out after dark.

Tim was in no condition, held up with Brian's arm under his shoulder, to really argue. It'd been a fight in the Water of Life over politics that turned into a fistfight. He was busy keeping the bleeding from his nose under control. Wham, one right to the face, and that was all it took. Brian got there in time to stop further damage and kick the two guys out, but Tim's nose was already broken.

"Get him to the ER!" John told him, except Brian knew that there would be no ER. Instead, they waited until after dark and tried to avoid main roads to get where they were going. It was a degree of caution that came naturally these days. Across the US, towns were now shutting down at dark, and only desperate people went out after it. Behind doors, rabbits feet, circles of salt, religious iconography. Guns. Lots of guns.

The one thing going in his favor was that the Sheriff's deputies and the EMT's stayed in after a certain hour and people didn't look out their windows, most of which were barred these days. When a glance out the window to see what was glimmering in the treeline or following a strange sound in the night could lead to a corpse the next morning, people lost their curiosity quickly. Night was a time to huddle near the lights of home, to light a fire in the hearth and wonder what would come next.

He didn't blame them; he was as terrified of it as they were, not that he'd be able to explain that to them if they knew he was an Emergent. And Tim couldn't go to a hospital, where they'd examine him and find the anomalies. They'd x-ray, they'd CT scan...they'd find something. They'd do a more careful and thorough check and find the 'stigmata.' Brian didn't know what Tim's were, Emergents tended not to talk about it too much. Then it'd be a call to the federal authorities, who would arrive a day later to take Tim off to wherever they were shipping them. That assumed that he wasn't dragged out by a mob with torches.

Things changed in America. That's why Brian was knocking on this door. Not too loudly, and not yelling, because he didn't want to draw any more attention than he had to. It sound louder to him than the pounding of his heart in his ears.

@carsgovroom