Ruby

The Curse of Crestwood Hollow - A Hyperhuman Story

Probably rolling a character.

Our Final Nights: A World of Darkness Roleplay

_{Santa Monica, Sunset Office Park.
Later Nicole's apartment.}

"She's fucked." The latina girl's tone was so utterly dismissive it was almost impressive, and it made the large man leaning over the maps at the opposite end of the table chuckle even if it didn't make his eyes wander up away from the maps. After a minute his tightly braided haired head tilted just slight to the right, and wide black shoulders shrugged under a cream colored sweater.

"Mm, probably. We know what she has."

The other woman pacing and talking quietly into her smartphone stopped halfway down the table, her heeled feet turning to face the two men sitting at the opposite end of the table as the latina, "Has anyone heard from Eva?"

"I thought she was heading down the coast?"

The other man, the latino with the long black hair and slender frame, comfortably lounging in the over-priced leather conference table chair finally spoke up from the laptop he had been focused on, "Yeah."

The dirty blonde haired woman took the phone away from her mouth again, staring at the man for further detail. He smiled, finally, and the woman looked behind her. Standing in the door way was the tall Central American born woman with the dark hair and beauty that one associate had described to Rachel as 'uncomfortable--no one should be that pretty, you know?' Yet there she was, her beauty tempered by the clothes she wore: a black tank top, a black leather jacket that barely reached her waist, and dark denim jeans. "What the hell are you guys doing?" Words accompanied with the hint of a smile.

Yanci, the younger latina at the opposite end of the table as the two men, spoke first, "Dre and I are plotting the downfall of Tara Kearney."

The deep, low, voice of Andre followed: "Nothing too overt. Quick strikes designed to sow confusion and display just how vulnerable she leaves her people. Her strength is the people that fight for her, but all she really has are Brujah broods. With our PMC assets, the Ghoul Squad alone should have maximum effect on Tara's essential groups. Right now we're planning three hits: one by Ghoul Squad on her Oceanside compound, one by the former Commandos on her North Island property, and the third my own boys down closer to the border."

"Can you contact the Sabbat along the border?"

"Tijauna? You mean Cicatriz?"

"Who's the one in LA y'all have been watching closely forever?" The Tremere with the long dark hair popped his head up again, wondering aloud. The dirty blonde, Rachel, placed her other hand over the mic of her smartphone to answer quick and quiet.

"That's Leila Monroe."

Andre snorted laughter back, "The bitch that thinks she KNOW LA but don't even know about us? Yeah, that one."

As much as it seemed to amuse Andre, Yanci seemed less so, "The bitch that thinks she has the 'connections' in Hollywood."

"Why do you need me to contact the Noddist Bishop?" Eva finally had to cut them off and ask, chuckling as she interjected.

"He's been locked in a fight with Tara for a while now," Yanci began to explain, and Eva was able to pick up the thread of thought from there.

"Ah. Use the Sabbat to weaken her? What are the chances he'll do that anyway? How does that help you keep San Diego?"

"If the Sabbat really wanted San Diego, they would have gone for it by now. They're too focused on the East Coast." Andre's deep tone sounded more or less bemused by the suggestion as he dismissed the idea of real Sabbat challenge to San Diego. "He'll know when we start hitting Tara, but it won't be actionable intelligence because it's all going to get to him via word of mouth delay."

Eva had started watching the dirty blonde Ventrue Rachel as she paced and talked and talked and paced and talked, entirely seperate from the conversation at hand. When the pacing brought Rachel back by Eva, the elder Kindred snuck her right hand out of the leather jacket front pocket and tapped Rachel's passing elbow to get her attention. Only when she had Rachel's pretty brown eyes did Eva speak, "What's up?"

"Vannevar Thomas," she whispered, again holding her other hand over the mic on the smartphone.

Eva's face contorted in sudden confusion, "Thomas has gotten stonewalled at every turn in Los Angeles for real influence and/or power. The Ghouls in government we've already disposed of the day he made them, and Hollywood refuses to even acknolwedge his existence, let alone his self proclaimed Princehood...?"

Again, Rachel covered the mic on the smartphone, and her eyes took on a harder gaze, "I know he's already losing."

Eva gave a bark of laughter, incredulous, "Uh, yeah, badly."

"Well...he can always be losing worse." The Ventrue shrugged, casually, before simply continuing on with her pacing and soft influence peddling on the phone to ensure the absolute and utter destruction of Thomas's reputation within SoCal.

"Does he even know who's behind his incredible bad fortune in LA?"

"Not from what I hear," Mateo, the Tremere with the long dark hair, spoke up without looking up from the laptop this time, "we have a few low ranking Tremere in Seattle that have secretly joined the Digital Draculas, they feed us information via Masika St. John. We know from hacked bank records that Vannevar is spending more and more as his answer to getting stonewalled here so far."

"Los Angeles is already flush in money, stupid ass," Andre's eloquence made Eva smile, and Yanci and Mateo snicker. The phone in her pocket gave a soundless vibration, beckoning Eva to remove it and see who was contacting her. And whether they were contacting Eva, or if they were contacting the 13th Generation Toreador thin-blooded that was popular among the Caitiffs, Thinblooded, and Anarchs in the city like the ones under Jenna Cross. The number that popped up, however, even made Eva blink a few times. She never did accept the call, instead pressing the red button to dismiss it.

It was the girl. And if the girl was reaching out to her...

"Shit. I have to go. Wrap up Tara Kearney as fast as you can, let me know how that one goes. Rachel..." The dirty blonde stopped and turned to look at Eva, leaving the elder with a smile. "You just keep hurting Vannevar. When he's ready to cry uncle we can make a move."

"Oh! One last thing, any objection to my approaching Corbett?"

The mental math of that took a few seconds for Eva, "...okay, just be careful with that one. And work fast, we're running out of time." Everyone at the conference room table looked up when Eva spoke those words, and stared. She knew things they did not, and that was about the extent with which she wanted to concern them with what was coming. There would be time for her to give them the rest of it and to re-focus them, even if not much, and Eva felt the pull at the back of her mind to remind her. "Let me know if something happens."

She waved to the front desk attendant, Courtney, a UCLA Law student who needed the money and thought she was working for some kind of organized crime organization. Close enough, sometimes, Eva couldn't help but think as she slipped into the elevator and started to ponder just how exactly this was going to go. From the reports of her little spies a Garou had gotten involved on her behalf; and if that was true she knew exactly who and exactly why. And it made her grin, even if the rest of the report did the opposite: a Gangrel? If Eva got involved at all she might be breaking some Gangrel tradition.

But this was a city Gangrel, and she had seen the guy before, a cretin that drifted from Vancouver to San Diego and back again finding victims. He was supposed to be some kind of priest for some kind of Sabbat pack, but the pack had been picked apart over decades and he was the last one. Sabbat didn't make it any better, given the Gangrel's loner state in the greater scheme now. The apartment complex didn't take too long to get to, and was less a complex and more of a small collection of buildings. It wasn't new, by any means, but it wasn't old and run down either.

It was affordable, and anything near downtown Los Angeles that was affordable was a minor coup of real estate. There were a number of construction workers; it wasn't hard to tell from browsing the vehicles parked in the parking lot or peering at the little porch in front of each apartment, or their back balconies. She walked around the apartment complex a few times, finding at most an old latina woman in an old dress that spoke in her direction about God. Eva ignored it. On the third circle around the building Eva hoped to the second story balcony, the sliding glass door was an easy thing to silently get past.

Eva smelled the woman immediately, in the bedroom. The apartment was frenzied in places, there had been by Eva's estimation at least one solid freak out in the apartment since the woman returned with a new kind of existence. They couldn't stay, Eva sighed, knowing what happened when newly turned Kindred stayed in places that had been "home" just nights before: they got caught and killed. But she couldn't just walk up to her and demand she pack. Instead the Toreador found a chair in the liviing room that faced the little apartment hallway that led to the woman's bedroom, and sat down, waiting.

Listening to voices only she was hearing right now. Voices that didn't seem to know she was listening. Voices in the ancient blood.

Ban the Person above you

Banned so hard they'll have to pick your account out of the void.

Ban the Person above you

Warning!

See? You got a warning.

Banned.

Ban the Person above you

So if I ban you, and then unban you...

Ask an Admin, v2.

<Snipped quote by Ruby>

Yeah, that partly was what I was trying to get at, but I was also thinking that the collaboration system behind zeroth posts could be added to other areas in the site. Like, if we had the ability to collab with one or more people in the test thread, it would completely erase the need for google docs/pad/etc. for collab posts.

@Kuro

Seems possible given what I know.

The question is: how complicated would that be? Depends on the code for the 0th post system. Adding onto the Co-GM access may be easier than creating a new system from scratch, but I know this is a RP feature I'd like to see happen (aside from the site staff features on my wish list).

Ask an Admin, v2.

Something that popped into my head today:

Is there by chance we can see an improvement on the zeroth post system? We can use docs/pad/etc for this, but I was curious if there was a possibility of toggling a thread/post to be collaborative with one or more people on the site, such as a lore thread in The Gallery or even a test thread for whatever reason (building a RP?) with friends.

@Kuro

Co-GMs can do that, but it'd be nice if there was an option to add additional people to access it in the thread edit menu.

Ask an Admin, v2.

Ask an admin suddenly became the Suggestions/Problems subforum huh?

@BrokenPromise

It was recommended we turn it into a catch-all member/staff discussion thread. Whether you want to ask about a site policy, or want to recommend a new feature, since Mahz's thread is more or less dead by inactivity this thread is standing in for it until Mahz returns.

Your average weirdo wanting to get into rping again

Title says it all really.

Name's...up for debate. Blush, Donkey, Bob, whatever you'd like. I'm an internet wanderer who has a creative gaming itch with nothing out there seeming to scratch it but roleplay. I wanted to test the waters, create some chars I haven't tried before, some I have, see what others have made, even make something of my own if I can muster the guts.

As for me personally, I'm just a big ol mess to untangle. Not for the faint of heart. Kidding. Mostly. the mess never ends, let me off this ride I'm a girl, late 20's, studying various subjects and looking for work. Have a few conditions I gotta cope with, but I'd prefer to keep that side of my life private unless it is interfering with rps. In which case please let me know that I'm being a problem. Hopefully I won't be. I try my best.

I like to hike, bike, swim, play card games and take care of animals. It's been awhile since I joined a forum and I'd like to think I have matured past bad habits and form I had in the past. For example, usually I can write annoying pages upon pages, but I'd like to try seeing if I can tighten up my writing and move things faster.

Anyway it is nice to meet you all.

@Blushing Donkey

Welcome to the Guild! Let me know if you need any assistance.

Our Final Nights: A World of Darkness Roleplay

Eva & Henry at Henry's Sunset Lounge

When Connor rumbled up to her, she stuffed her hands into the pockets of her white leather waist cut jacket and smiled and declined the inivation, "Tell him to meet me in the back. By the loading dock." It was not a thing easily done. There was no stop in Eva's mind, and the willpower that she had once prided herself on was being subjected to the fault lines that had bellowed to life the moment of the Kid's last twitch against her fangs. When her diablerie was complete. Diablerie, the word stinging deep as she walked to the side alley of Henry's, and she found herself sliding into shadow.

Los Angeles liked it's tall buildings, even if few of them were what someone would call a true skyscrapper. Rooftop terraces and parking garages were the rage, even as the sun set now there was no direct sunlight for her to get hit by, only shadow and the orange glow start of twilight in the City of Angels. The side alley connected to a back street; the back doors and a few various loading docks to various surrounding businesses, but Henry's was at the end. When she slipped into the back street from the side alley she could smell the only living person was down the back street; a homeless man by every available measure that was quick to shuffle out of the back street and on his way upon seeing her.

For a tick of time she felt badly about it; the back street was prime hunting for goods thrown out by high brow businesses. Given in her roaming the streets of Los Angeles she had seen a few fights between homeless over a certain street corner, or underpass, or back alley. When your next meal was uncertain and getting to the right garbage bin first, or having the good spot to beg for money, can mean a decent meal or a beer soaked chips. The smarter ones she had seen knew exactly when and where to find the best discarded food, some of it because it was simply "imperfect" and not because it was bad in anyway.

The complexities of a city she called her own never did cease to amaze her.

The steel grated stairs to the back dock were cobwebbed, random bits of breeze blown trash gathered around the dead end of the backstreet that was Henry's back dock. The leather jacket was stretched over the gray tank top, tightly fitted jeans slashed with holes along the thigh and white Air Jordan 1's on her feet. Her body turned and slowly descended to sit on the steel grated middle step of the dock stairs, her upper half leaning against railing. It was just too heavy, sometimes. The weight of it all. It started with diablerie of the Kid, but it had nothing more to do with Christopher.

The Kid was at peace. A warm and playful voice in her ear artistic in nature and grand vision in scope that came to her like a daydream.

The pressure came from the rest of them. All of them. Antediluvian, methuselah. There was some trace of nearly every one of them, and some were so intense it reminded her of getting air knocked out of her lungs. A very old thing to be so unpleasantly reminded of. The first night was the worst; it came in rest and dragged her into a far deeper state of unconcious. Since her eyes snapped open the next night they had all been there. A distant hum in the back of her head most times, but sometimes a chaotic and clashing cacophony discordant with every other thought and whim and sensation.

"It's just one generation." A simple statement spoken in wounded tone. The Kindred the world knew as Eva wasn't one for displays of vulnerability, but even she had wipe a tear or two from her eye with fingertips decorated plain with glossy white fingernails. A few sniffs, a heavy sigh, and she was standing and turning around with the sound of the back door of Henry's behind her. These were the moments she'd feel as if she were in this all alone if it weren't for him. And there he was, looking all hard edged and more. It was enough to inspire a small smile on her lips.

No matter who was watching she climbed the few steps with the cushion and high ankle support of the Air Jordan 1's, to say nothing of unnatural quickness and grace, and was upon him in the blink of an eye. Her arms wrapped him up by the shoulders and for a moment Eva just clung, holding and hugging into his body, her voice so quiet and faint as she whispered at him, "it's coming, I hear it."

Her body slid down off him as she found the floor below with her feet again, and turned her face to look directly up and at him. At the concern. "Get ready." She nodded at him several times quickly, as if to point emphasis on it all. "I can't stay long. I'm still not 'me' right now. I just...had to say hi," her voice said, big brown eyes staring into his saying everything else that Eva could not, or dare not, say aloud.

"Then say hi." His voice was soft when he spoke to her in turn, barely more than a whisper as he sunk down beside her, coming to rest on the step just above her, his turn to hold her by the shoulders, a protective embrace that threatened the complete obsoletion of the rest of the world. Nothing here but us. As he spoke, one of his fingers reached up to his own mouth, sliding his thumb across the sharp point of his right canine, the shot of true pain enough to heighten his own senses. As she turned up to him he pressed the tiny wound of his digit to her lips. No other kindred could have been trusted with the blood of ages, a bloodline so removed from humanity even in his deliberately weakened state to be aflame with potential. To try to drink from him like you would a kine or other kindred would mean certain doom for the vampire who tried, the veins burning with the power. Just a taste? Just a drop for the kindred who had shown again and again that the spark of humanity had not fully died within her? A balm to keep voices almost as ancient as the blood she tasted from overwhelming her. Henry's eyes tensed as their souls met, as part of him was brought into her. It did not feel as new as it should have.

Afterwards his hands held her, just a few further moments of denying the outside world, of ignoring the screams of his past which warned him yet again of the spiral this vampire woman had begun. Her voices were more real than his, he had to remind himself of that, but the ones he heard dripped from the memories of every day of his long, long, life. His right hand squeezed her cheek, in a manner that could even be slightly condescending, a moment of teasing so that they did not end on melancholy.

"Stay Safe."

As if any of them could.