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NOTE TO READERS: While not graphic and certainly not "interactive" role play, the post below does include some sexually suggestive text. My understanding is that it does not violate RPG's rules (and I'm sure that if it does, the Moderator will PM me to edit). Still, if you prefer not to read it, don't; see the text after the asterisks at the bottom for a summary.)

Monday, April 4 2022, Monday -- 9 pm
48th Street and 10th Ave
Hell's Kitchen (aka Clinton), Manhattan


Maria Gonzales rolled out of bed naked and padded across the cold wood floor to the tiny apartment's equally tiny bathroom. Behind her, the equally naked man in her bed asked with a touch of annoyance, "Where ya goin'?"

"To pee, asshole," she answered with a growl, before then adding with less seething anger, "Just ... gimme a minute, okay?"

Maria plopped her bare ass down upon the toilet seat; before the urine could begin streaming, the tears did instead. She lowered her face into her palms and sobbed; how did she end up here like this?

It had been less than a day since the blackout began, and Maria's world had collapsed around her. Within an hour of the power outage, rioters and looters had filled the streets. Her father had lowered the security gates within seconds of the lights going out; this wasn't his first blackout or riot since buying the bodega six years earlier.

When the first looters realized they weren't getting through the gate, the Gonzales family thought they'd make it through this latest emergency relatively whole. The sun had come up to show much of the neighborhood on fire, and yet the building in which they both worked and lived survived.

Then evening came and so did the more determined looters; a quartet of armed men arrived with heavy pry bars and sledge hammers, with which they quickly had the barricade down. Maria had begged her father for years to buy a gun to protect the store, but he'd resisted; he had always been a pacifist. What she wouldn't have given for a 12 gauge shotgun when the gate fell away onto the sidewalk.

Guns would be the answer to saving the bodega after all, though; as the wannabe looters were smashing the wire-reinforced glass doors, about to gain access, bullets began ripping through them, the windows, the doors, and everything beyond them. As Maria and her parents ran for the back of the store, all four of the invaders were gunned down.

Then, from the street, a male voice called out, "Maria? Are you okay? Maria?"

The barely 20 year old was relieved to hear her boyfriend's voice. "Here! Here, I'm here!"

She thought for sure everything was going to be okay now. Julio entered the bodega, wrapped his arms around Maria for a passionate hug, and promised that she was safe; behind him, six of his friends took up positions inside and outside the corner store to protect it.

But Maria soon found they weren't guarding the market for her and her family; they were keeping it for themselves. Julio was a member of the Clinton 49ers, an inconspicuous, low level street gang that ran drugs, whores, and protection over a 12-block area centered on 49th and 10th. Over the next few hours, they and two dozen other gang members who'd joined them began clearing out stock; they used anything they could find to haul away bags, boxes, cans, and jars to some location of which Maria was unaware.

The store owning family members objected, of course. Their complaints ended quickly, though, when the gang's leader, Pablo Lopez, hit the family's patriarch over the head with the butt of his assault rifle. The three Gonzales's instead retreated to the back room, then finally upstairs to their apartment, each of them filling a small box with food and other supplies.

Maria thought the horror would have ended there, but it didn't. She'd expected that once the store was emptied of its valuable resources, Pablo and his gangbangers would leave; before he'd participated in looting the store, Maria would have welcomed Julio remaining but now would have been happy to never see him again.

Unfortunately, neither Julio nor Pablo left. As the new Lady of a Clinton 49er, Maria had an obligation to the gang which she had been forced to fulfill last night; it wasn't her boyfriend, Julio, who was laying in her bed naked and sated but was his superior, Pablo, thus the reason she was sobbing uncontrollably.

"Get back in here," Pablo hollered from the other side of the door. He chuckled, adding, "I'm lonely, and you still got one more hole I haven't visited."

Maria sat taller and wiped away the tears. She finished on the pot and cleaned herself at the sink, initially ignoring the man's repeated calls for her attention and presence. But eventually, she opened a drawer, dug through it until she found a bottle of vaginal lubricant, and returned to the bed to give Pablo what he wanted: in space exploration parlance, to go where no man had ever gone before.

******

Summary for those who did not read the post: Maria Gonzales and her parents lost control of their bodega in Hell's Kitchen to the Clinton 49ers, a local gang. As the new girlfriend of one of the gang's members, Julio, Maria was forced to let the gang's leader, Pablo, have sex with her.
Characters


Beverly Harper -- 23, artist.

Rebecca "Becky" Roytecamp -- 24, Air Force Staff Sergeant and sniper

Viola Henderson and her children, Ben and Angela

Maria Gonzales

Deleted
Deleted.
Rebecca "Becky" Roytecamp -- Air Force Staff Sergeant; sniper (more on this below).

Physical Description:

  • Image
  • 24 years old
  • 5'8", 160 lbs; physically fit body.
  • Slightly curly, brunette, shoulder length hair; typically held back in a pony tail.
  • Light brown eyes.


Personality:

  • Prior to the RP:

    • Publicly, she is heterosexual; privately, she is bisexual.
    • Intelligent, innovative; civilian and military education (more below).
    • Serious about doing what's right and wrong, while also dedicated to the chain of command; these two will come into conflict soon enough.
    • Well disciplined.
    • Not afraid to kill bad guys; she'd killed 2 men in Syria pre-RP. (More below.)
  • After the RP's start:

    • No changes yet.


History (pre-RP):

  • Grew up in rural Oregon, the middle of 5 children; her father was retired Air Force, while her mother was a stay-at-home artist and homemaker.
  • Grew up around guns, specifically rifles; hunted often and became an excellent long distance shooter.
  • After high school graduation (18 years of age), she followed her father -- still on active duty -- into the Air Force, working her way into the SERE Program: Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape.
  • While deployed to Syria to train newly arrived troops there, she was called upon to take out a sniper targeting Kurd allies. She killed the sniper and his spotter before also killing 4 others; no other American female sniper had ever done this before.
  • She returned to the US to attend the funeral of her mother -- killed in a car crash by a drunk driver. She was in New York City visiting a friend before redeploying when the blackout occurred.


RP History:

  • April 4 2022 (Day 2): In the early morning hours, she awoke to the mayhem of rioting and looting.
  • She immediately got her gear together and -- without an appropriate Air Force destination -- ran 20 blocks with full gear and her rifle to NYARNG (New York Army National Guard), home of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry. (See this post.)
  • She was immediately dispatched to eliminate a sniper who was using the blackout to thrill-kill civilians from the 12th floor of the Flat Iron building. She took up station in Madison Square Park and killed the man within minutes.

Monday, April 4 2022 -- 10:15 am
356 W 11th St, Manhattan (The West Village)


Beverly Harper had spent most of the rest of the night pacing about the loft, only falling asleep around 6am simply because she was so thoroughly exhausted, both mentally and physically. Being on the 9th floor and having shut the sliding glass doors again, she could barely hear the sounds of the rioting, looting, and vandalism taking place on street level.

Now, though, she was jerked from her restless sleep by the sound of a very nearby banging sound. She rose from her sleeping position to listen, then -- still dressed except for socks and shoes -- leaped from the bed at the realization that someone was trying to break into her new lover's condo. She ran to the living room, arriving just in time to see the big, sliding steel door of the former commercial storage space shake violently to the beating it was taking from the other side.

"Go away! Stop! Just leave me alone!" she screamed, hoping that the knowledge that someone was inside would deter the wannabe intruder. It didn't; the door shook again as the home invader slammed against the outside of it once again. "Go away!"

The pounding continued, though, leading Beverly to rush back to the bedroom. She found her shoulder bag, dug frantically into it, found that for which she was searching, and rushed back to the living room once again. She hollered toward the door, "I have a gun! I know how to use it! I'm not afraid to use it. Just go away!"

There was a pause in the invasion attempts, followed by the biggest crashing sound against the door's other side so far. Beverly fired at the door, then again, then again; she wasn't even sure if the Taurus .38 Special's rounds could penetrate the metal, but then again, she wasn't trying to kill the intruder but was only trying to deter him from his activities.

She stood there, silent and still, waiting for some evidence of whether she'd stopped the man or not. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, Beverly realized that blood was slowing entering the loft from under the door's lower lip. She'd killed the man, it seemed; he wasn't striking the door, blood was spilling, so ... that was it, she'd killed him.

A chuckle escaped Beverly's throat, surprising her. She was relieved; that was the reason for it, rather than some horrid pleasure at having killed a man. Right? That's it, right? She'd purchased the little 5 shot pistol after having been raped at a party three years earlier, and at the time she'd wondered whether or not she would ever be able to use it as she had just now. Got my answer, she thought to herself.

The pool of blood had stopped expanding, and Beverly thought she should open the door and clean up the mess. But she didn't; it occurred to her as she contemplated her next move that if she left the man laying there like that, then perhaps the next wannabe intruder -- or potential rapist? -- might think twice before attempting it.

She returned to her purse, shaking out the five shells -- three unused, two not -- and using the Quick Loader to bring her back to full defensive ability. Then, determined that she was going to live through whatever this was, she began searching the condominium. She found new clothes -- jeans and deck shoes, amongst other items -- that likely had belonged to one of her new lover's former lovers, possibly a live-in girlfriend and changed into them. The .38 went into her belt; the extra two rounds into her front pocket.

She checked the fridge and freezer for food that would go bad if the power didn't return and made a mental list of what she could eat, the order in which to eat it, and how she would prepare it; the loft's owner had a decorative brazier on the balcony over which she could cook most of the perishables.

The rest of the day was divided between watching the world beyond her fall apart and finding ways to survive that collapsed. This was all very new to Beverly; she'd never once imagined she'd be faced with some sort of apocalyptic situation, not that she'd yet decided that this was anything more than just a blackout.

By day's end, though, Beverly would realize that this was something far more tragic than just a power outage.
Melody considered Kengetar's plan a moment; she didn't like the idea of sending the children, women, and non-warrior males back the way they'd come with only a partial guard, so the Sedent made sense.

"Fine, we'll do it your way," Melody responded; she tried to sound reluctant but failed to contain the smile that lifted the corners of her mouth. To Broon, she said, "Put a third of your men on watch, a third on performing camp work ... hunting, fire wood, and such."

"And the rest, m"Lady?" the Captain asked.

She looked to Kengetar. She said with humor in her voice, not wanting the Sedent to think she actually thought of him as such anymore,"Put them under the barbarian's command. Kengetar, use then as you will: scouting, making tools, labor, whatever you need."

Monday, April 4 2022 -- 0440 hours
68 Lexington Avenue, Manhattan
New York Army National Guard
1st Battalion, 69th Infantry


Arriving at the gate of NYARNG, Manhattan, Rebecca "Becky" Roytecamp leaned over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. She was in the best shape of her 24 years of life, running a dozen marathons a year when her schedule allowed for it. But running the streets of Manhattan in the dark with a full pack and weapon had been a test even for her excellent state of fitness.

The Guardsmen on the other side of the closed and locked gate had already been on alert because of the power outage and mayhem erupting in the streets. Seeing a stranger in full military garb carrying a sniper rifle only made them more anxious; one unslung his rifle while the other pulled his sidearm, challenging her. She identified herself by rank, rating, and service.

"Air Force?" the pistol wielding soldier questioned. "You're in the wrong place I think."

"I'm supposed to be in Berlin," she snapped back, standing tall but keeping her arms casually out to the side. "I was supposed to ship out last week but I had family who tested positive for Covid."

"Why are you here?" the soldier inquired.

"I have no where better to be," Becky responded. Her answer was pretty much what another woman on the other side of Manhattan had been thinking five hours earlier. She couldn't know it now, but eventually she and Beverly would be making their acquaintance soon enough. "Maybe you can put me to use?"

The soldier instinctively reached for his radio, only to remember that it was dead. He sent the second man toward the office, then opened the gate, demanding, "Hand over the rifle ... until you're cleared to have it back."

Becky did as told, then raised her jacket to show the 9mm strapped to her waist. The soldier took that, too. From the building behind him, his guard partner called, "Bring her in. The Sergeant Major wants to see her!"

She shed her pack in the office and gratefully accepted and downed a 16-ounce bottle of water in a single act of gulping. It would be almost an hour before she actually saw the highest-ranking Officer on the grounds at the time. Sergeant Major James Jackson was a get to the heart of the matter kind of guy, and followed his modus operandi with Becky.

"Some asshole is shooting at people from the Flatiron Building, 23rd and 5th," the Officer said. Then, more to himself than to Becky, he muttered, "Fucking sniper in Manhattan. As if regular ol' pricks during a blackout aren't enough." He looked up to Becky, then to her gun, which the Guardsman still had. "You know how to use that I'm presuming."

"Absolutely, sir," Becky said with confidence. "You get me close enough to see him ... hell, you get me close enough to assume where he is--"

"And you don't have any problem with this assignment," he cut in, clarifying, "I mean taking this guy out."

"No, sir," she responded without hesitation. "Won't be my first kill, sir."

The Sergeant Major studied Becky a moment, then looked to the Guardsman who'd brought her in. He ordered, "Get her anything she needs. Then, get her there and take this fucker down. Dismissed."

Forty minutes later, Becky and a Squad of 8 Guardsmen were in Madison Square Park, weaving their way carefully through the now-leafless deciduous trees. All about them, they discovered the sniper's victims and those who were either rendering first aid or simply trying to hide under the cover of cars, fountains, tree trunks, and more.

While most of the Guardsmen did what they could do to help the civilians, three spotters remained close to Becky. It took less than a minute to find the shooter's hide: he'd smashed out a window on the Flat Iron Building's 12th floor and was picking off random people from there.

Becky was surprised at the man's position initially; his rifle extended from the window, likely supported by the pane, and the vast majority of his shots -- 30+ since coming into hearing range -- were for the most part only chipping concrete walkways or spitting bark off the trunks of trees. She realized that he likely wasn't a trained sniper but instead was just a nut with a gun. She set herself, considered the conditions -- wind, angle of shot, distance, and more -- calmed her body for the shot, and took it.

A moment later, the rifle tilted forward, dangled a moment, then fell from the window to violently disassemble when it reached the sidewalk below. Beside her, one of the spotters -- obviously impressed -- said with delight, "Hit! Target down!"

The Squad leader, a Sergeant, led half his men to the Flat Iron, where they found NYPD officers tending to one of their own; when they'd first heard by word of mouth about the sniper, they'd attempted to deal with him, only to set off a simple tripwire IED in the hallway. One Officer had been killed outright; the one here in the lobby would soon die from the ball bearing shrapnel that ripped his legs and right arm apart.

It would be decided that they'd wait for sunrise, an hour and a half from then, before they'd go inside the building. Even so, another IED was accidentally tripped, killing a cop and a soldier and injuring one more of each. Back at the NYARNG building, Becky was congratulated and offered a spot with the Unit. She took it.
(Inspired by the television series, "Revolution".)

Last night, in an instant and all across the globe, anything and everything that runs on electricity failed.

In Manhattan specifically, the electrical grid failed in its entirety, blackening the skyline; elevators stuck midfloor in thousands of buildings; subway trains stopped, sometimes deep in pitch black tunnels; hundreds of thousands of cars stalled in the streets; and all forms of electronic communication went silent. Almost 2 million people -- mostly but not entirely residents -- suddenly found themselves thrown into an electrical dark age.

What happens next?

Details of the role play:
  • Replies should be long enough to move your character's story forward, be it a couple of lines to several paragraphs.
  • Proofreading is requested. Mistakes will be made -- even by me :) -- but every effort should be made to find and correct them before posting.
  • Writers don't necessarily have to interact with other writers (aka interactive role play); you can simply tell the story of your character if you wish.
  • Although writers are encouraged to be creative and innovative, major "facts" you wish to present that will affect other writers should be presented to the Hostess first for discussion. That's simple courtesy.
Melody took Kengetar's hand, gripping it tightly and smiling, pleased that he'd decided they'd had enough. She reached her other hand up to her lip, then held her bloody fingers out before her.

"That hurt," she said playfully to the man who'd caused the injury. Speaking about someone drawing her blood, Melody said, "Not the first time ... probably not the last."

She released Kengetar's hand and looked toward the tent flap. "Kapiten!"

Broon, who had been waiting anxiously nearby, hurried in; he held his sword in his hand, ready to avenge what ever harm had been done to his Lady. But instead of finding her signaling such an act on his part, Melody casually gestured him to remain calm.

"Gather your best ten men, Kapiten," she told him. "Equip them for a hike overland ... through the forest to the Bay Road."

She was speaking of the road that connected the fishing villages of the Southernmost Bay to the Capital City. It wasn't a road traveled much by Yallans anymore. It was patrolled by barbarian tribes who had a tendency of kidnapping travelers, ransoming those who came from money, and selling into slavery those who didn't.

She looked to Kengetar again. "We would have a better chance of surviving in these hostile woods if we were joined by those who knew them. And, of course, there is still the matter of the task you have agreed to complete ... and, of course, the payment I will make once you have completed it."
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