Stormyx

Vanguard: Calder City

Team, we're almost at 50 posts

*edit I can't count lmao

**I can't count twice

Vanguard: Calder City

Oh my goodness @Melissa & @BrutalBx. Yes please. More please.

Vanguard: Calder City

_Eve

Death and all her Friends - IV Jason's Song

^{_{_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________}}

Jason Rafferty was thirty-seven on April 1st five years ago. He was an executive at a tech firm and would work right out of Northbridge. He was a good at his job in that he was exactly what you’d expect. Wife at home, girlfriend at the office, one night stands at the bars and when Jason wasn’t working, or fucking, he was getting way too deep into online communities and absorbing and spiraling into conspiracy theories. The Earth was flat, politicians were likely to be lizards and part of a greater plan for the world. Grey’s were to blame for everything and everything terrible that had happened to Jason could be pinpointed right the way back to a Grey. Jason also had several favourite girlfriends at a Grey brothel called Hush-Hush and what he liked to do, or, have done to him there, was certainly to be kept hush hush indeed. When a compromising photo of Jason wound up in a sealed envelope on his desk, Jason and his paranoid mind assumed the mob was to blame and until that point, there had really been no reason at all as to why Jason would be targeted by the Raciti famiglia, but Jason had walked into a Little Italy deli one day and witnessed some extortion happening there and had quickly decided that he was from then a key witness to a serious crime and he would soon be fitted for cement shoes. (Jason also enjoyed True Crime podcasts and watching gritty television drama.)

The Raciti famiglia, to this day, have no recollection of his face in the deli that, but Jason never forgot.

So paranoid he became that the thought that any of the many, many, many, many women he had slept with might have tried to blackmail him was simply too easy a thought; and besides, they’d never do that, he was God’s gift to the Earth and none of the women knew about each other because he was careful and they worshiped him and what reason would they have to try to get money from him or show the pictures of him to his wife?

Jason died believing that he was hit by the mob. The truth was, that Jason spent so long looking over his shoulder in his paranoia and neurosis that he forgot to look ahead of him and was hit by a bus instead and on his last day on Earth he looked like the inside of a jam sponge spread all down the sidewalk.

Ironically, his mind and memories and thoughts would wind up circling the Raciti famiglia in the end and the nonpublic information of his tech firm wound up in the hands of Silvio Raciti.

It was almost so cruel that it had to be a joke that his paranoia and obsession would be the thing that lived on.

---

Eve had long come to terms with the fact that people in the world would find her strange. The coffee shop incident had stopped bothering her less than a minute after she’d left, and there was a part of her that was pleased her presence had made them uncomfortable and she smirked with the knowledge that no matter how crazy they found her, no matter how much they talked about her to each other, both of them, given even a crumb of chance, would jump at it to fuck her. So who really had the power? Tomorrow she’d go back and she’d do it again just to be a cunt and have them make her coffee like two good little boys.

It had been hours since and the cappuccino was gone and the cup sat empty on Eve’s coffee table next to a candle as she sat back in an armchair, magazine in hand. The last of the hangover had faded with time, hydration, and some sunlight and fresh air. It felt less like a cacophony now and more gentle chatter in the distance sitting below the sound of music playing through a small speaker set up on a bookcase.

She had never fancied a turntable and vinyls before, but after sifting through Paloma’s life, she had been wondering if one would make a nice investment and a mental list of albums she wanted to buy and display was already beginning. She had done her best to make the apartment as presentable as possible as Silvio was on his way over and he had a habit of getting irked by her small messes and mindless clutter and she had made sure to hide today’s shopping haul in the back of her closet.

The door opened and there was a long and awkward moment of silence as he walked in, glancing left and right as something caused his eyes to narrow. “Eve,” Silvio sighed, snapping her out of the drifting thought as he let himself in. He always did. He’d only just stepped across the threshold of her space when he followed up, “What the fuck is that sound?” he asked in an exasperated and irritated way.

“Enya,” Eve replied, barely lifting her gaze from the pages of her magazine as she skimmed the closing words of an article on the failure of the non-monogamy experiment. She was unsure of her own stance on it by that point, and whether she cared at all. Perhaps it was the article that had spiced up her spiteful train of thought some. “You don’t like it?” she asked, standing up and walking over to him, placing a half kiss on either cheek with a half hug to go with it. A standard Italian hello.

“No,” he replied flatly. “No I do not.” He glanced around at the room, stepping in at last to watch as she flicked a switch to turn it off. A breath he had been holding left him, and his shoulders softened. “So what’s going on?” he asked, in the straightforward way he knew how to.

ᴴᵉʳᵉ ʰᵉ ᶜᵒᵐᵉˢ ʷⁱᵗʰ ᵗʰᵉ ʳᵒᵘᵗⁱⁿᵉ. ᶠᵘⁿⁿʸ ʰᵒʷ ʰᵉ'ˢ ʰᵉʳᵉ ᵗᵒᵈᵃʸ ᵒᶠ ᵃˡˡ ᵈᵃʸˢ.
“Just had a bad night. Too much to drink.”

“No shit. You called me six times–” his voice quietened and he looked over his shoulder to double check again that the door was closed. “Luca said there was a body. Talk to me, Eve.” She missed it, but there was an expectant glint in his eye.

ᵀᵉˡˡ ʰⁱᵐ ʰᵉ ᶜᵃⁿ ᶠᵘᶜᵏ ᵒᶠᶠ
She rubbed her temples and stepped into the kitchen; popping open a jar of biscotti and starting the routine of making them coffee. “I don’t want to.”

“What do you mean you don’t want to?” Silvio held a breath as he watched her hand tremble as she added the grounds to the pot.

ᴰᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵗᵉˡˡ ʰⁱᵐ ˢʰⁱᵗ.
“I just don’t.”

“You just don’t. Jesus Christ.” He lost his patience then and a flash of Silvio Raciti slipped through. He let the silence hang before he moved to step in and take over the coffee. “Let me do that honey,” he said, softer then.

“There wasn’t anything… Of interest.” she answered, lying, but daringly meeting his intense stare for a second. She sidestepped away from the pot, glad for his interruption, and for allowing her a moment to collect and mask the tell of a lie on her face. If she didn’t know the situation any better she’d have assumed this was his way of helping her with a small task. In reality, she just knew by now that Silvio and Joey and Ralph all thought her coffee came out like shit. They weren’t wrong. “When I… You know, when I’m in the life of someone else. It’s like I become them, and this one was… Normal.” she thought about explaining it to him further, to add details and depth and colour to the lie. ᵈᵒⁿ'ᵗ ᵉᵛᵉⁿ ᵗʰⁱⁿᵏ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ⁱᵗ, ⁿᵒʷ ⁱˢⁿ'ᵗ ᵗʰᵉ ᵗⁱᵐᵉ She reached for a biscotti. A thin pistachio and almond one and she snapped it in half.

Silvio sighed, flicking the machine on to begin running through the filter. “And there wasn’t anything at all?” ᵀʰᵉʳᵉ ⁱᵗ ⁱˢ. ˢᵃᵐᵉ qᵘᵉˢᵗⁱᵒⁿ ᵗʷⁱᶜᵉ. ᵀʰᵃᵗ'ˢ ʰᵒʷ ᵗʰᵉʸ ᵈᵒ ⁱᵗ. he asked again. She just shook her head. “Alright,” he said, almost disappointed. “Just you know, some body shows up in the street,” he shrugged, “fuckin' weird," he relented with a shrug as his mouth pulled into a slight frown.

Eve bit down on the biscotti. ⁱˢ ʰᵉ ᶠᵘᶜᵏⁱⁿᵍ ˢᵗᵘᵖⁱᵈ? ᴰᵒᵉˢⁿ'ᵗ ʰᵉ ᵏⁿᵒʷ ʷʰᵃᵗ'ˢ ᵍᵒⁱⁿᵍ ᵒⁿ ᵒᵘᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ? “It’s Calder City, dad, someone is always showing up in the street.”

He couldn’t argue against that and a faint smile appeared. Hell, he’d been the cause of some of them, one way or another, over the course of his own life. “You’re right. Whaddaya gonna do?” he said. “I was just worried about you, but Luca got you home alright?”

“Mmhmm,” Eve answered, hardly able to remember seeing him, only knowing with a certainty that she had.

“I don’t want you going to Harborlight again,” he said. Turning the subject to its adjacent topic. “Something went down there last night anyway,” he added, watching the coffee drip through the grounds and filter and into the glass. “It’s not safe for you to be there,” he looked at her. “Clearly it isn’t. If you’re going to drink Eve then… Just, find a local haunt around here for the time being.”

ᴼᶠ ᶜᵒᵘʳˢᵉ ʰᵉ'ᵈ ˢᵃʸ ᵃˡˡ ᵗʰᵃᵗ, ʰᵉ ᵈᵒᵉˢⁿ'ᵗ ʷᵃⁿᵗ ʸᵒᵘ ᵈᵒⁱⁿᵍ ᵃⁿʸᵗʰⁱⁿᵍ. ʸᵒᵘ'ʳᵉ ᵃˡˡᵒʷᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ ᵍᵒ ᵒᵘᵗ ᵃⁿᵈ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ᶠᵘⁿ.
“The Velvet Room, then.” Eve answered.

“Sure, The Velvet Room, just, not Harborlight, or anything along the Docks. I do business along there and you don’t need to be in the middle of it.” He was either oblivious to the drugs, or acting like he was. Eve was unsure which of the two was better for them both.

Sometimes Eve wished they could address what they both knew and were aware of. She wondered from time to time about the fact they drew themselves like this, and wondered if this was always to be their path together. She wished to one day address that whatever and all it was that Eve did for Silvio, ate away at her, but that still she'd keep doing it. They'd dance around each other like this. Father and daughter, and worse than that too. She was holding on to the day that Silvio really saw the burden of it on her; recognised the hurt and toll and pushed his ambitions aside.

Silvio wished he knew how.

He poured into two small, mismatching cups of the coffee and they sat in the lounge for a while and drank it down and shared other conversation instead. What each of them would do that night – he had to go to his club and help an associate with something vague that he deliberately omitted the details of. She told him she had plans to take a bath, order thai food, and watch reality TV and maybe a movie if she could stay awake that long. He seemed relieved that her plans didn't involve leaving the apartment.

They made plans for the following Sunday at Medaglia's again as they hovered in the doorway for the elongated Italian goodbye, they shared a joke about Cosima. "Wonder what she'll have?" Silvio asked.

"Oh, probably the baccalà. She's adventurous you know." Eve answered and forced out the familiar laugh with it like it was the first time the joke had been told and was entirely original.

---

Silvio had left hours ago, and, for her part, she had ordered in her dinner, taken a bath, and relaxed in front of the television. That wasn’t the lie. Not a lie; an omission. Like father like daughter, afterall. She had zoned out of the movie and was thinking of all the things that had happened to Paloma, both the lead up to her death and of the colours of her life. She was still thinking of Paloma's apartment. The way that one of the windows had a slightly off ledge and fasten to it and she could feel in her own muscle memory the exact way to press against it to get it open. Paloma often forgot her keys, or left them somewhere else and had devised her own way to get home should she need to (which was often.) Paloma had shared that with Eve, explicitly. She was compelled to think of what was left behind of the life of a girl who could no longer fly.

She turned up the television until the volume of the compulsions simmered down to gentle chatter again.

Vanguard: Calder City

The first post in the IC has been updated with a map of Calder City as well as a list of notable locations.

If you have anything you'd like to add that I have missed, send me a PM.

@Melissa

This is amazing!

Vanguard: Calder City

Catching up on reading everything.

@Stormyx
Lovely introduction and writing style. Absolutely adored it!

@Pirouette

Thank you so much, I had a great time writing that one ❤️

Can't wait to see Jade enter the ring!

Vanguard: Calder City

_Eve

Death and all her Friends - III Meet You for Coffee

^{_{_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________}}

---

She dreamed of flying. Of dancing through the cloud-wrack; leaving behind all manner of vermiculate patterns. There was no smell of the city up here. It was crisp and clear and beautiful and for a dream it was real; it was so real. I want my wings This was a memory so lodged to the circuitry of her brain she could not decipher that it had not happened to her. Now, she held the memory in her muscles and mind of occupying the sky for endless hours; free.

It was always the day after that the veil between Eve and the Awareness was at its thinnest. When the voices were at their loudest and most distressed. Three lines of pure white coke prior hadn’t helped to prevent a wretched hangover either and when her eyes opened, she fixed them to a single focal point above her bed. Her stained glass skylight. She lay like that for some time and watched the shape of birds passing. How she got home, she wasn’t sure, only that she had. She still felt the fur of her jacket, the heavy sequin chain of her dress, and that one damned shoe strapped to her ankle as if she’d simply pushed herself through the front door and collapsed to bed as she had been, as she always was. And now, she was present and part of Calder City’s morning routine, but dressed in last night, and watching the cinematic overload of lives gone by. Traffic was a steady hum from beyond the window, but otherwise the stretch of this morning had a tormenting silence to it and the fabric of her bedding crawled her sensitive skin. It took every ounce of effort to even reach for the dramamine placed atop her bedside table; littered too with a wine glass from predrinks, a water bottle half filled, orange juice bottle only holding the dregs of pulp in the very bottom. An empty diet coke on its side.

She swallowed the pills dry and closed her eyes once more to let them take hold while she contemplated the effort of a shower.

---

Under the run of water, Paloma kept moving through her mind and casting whispers to Eve of her pain and suffering and the end of her life. I want my wings All of the visions she'd experienced of torturous procedures. Inflicted sickness and then curing in a seemingly endless cycle and the sensation of the prick of a needle to take yet more blood. Eve tried to comprehend the reasons behind it all. Decipher what and how and why it happened while Paloma's memories replayed. Favourite flights of soaring across the cirrostratus and flying alongside birds and a magenta sunrise; freefalling earthward only to catch herself just before hitting the bottom.

Paloma just wanted to fly and roll through the masses of clouds. Against the direction of the wind and with it all the same, and to be beside the birds. She loved the birds, but now Paloma was dead and whatever dreams and hopes she had lived inside of Eve, uncontrolled and untethered.

---

On the street, Eve watched the people passing by. Watching their activities and she, not for the first time, thought that it was a good thing they did not know the Awareness and the truth of the afterlife. She was grateful that they still had that mystery and she was jealous of it all the same. Only Eve had the curse to explore the engine of good and bad lives that had gone. She often found great amounts of sorrow and regret scattered in the threads, and when they became hers, she tried to treat them with care and respect, but far more often than not she just held onto them.

There were other times where what she found in the Awareness was, in its purest form, love. The love left behind with nowhere to go and those times were the worst. To wake up again cold and without it. There were many days, she wanted for someone else to suffer it and to release her from circling her darkness. Most days, she simply aimed to survive it.

Across the road Eve watched a woman walking past. Hurried in her steps and dressed in a longline coat of tan colour and wool blend. Navy slacks and a pair of slide on loafers made her look so effortlessly put together. Bitch, Eve thought and glanced down at her own feet and her lace-up satin sneakerinas. They’d been expensive, but their only road had been from her apartment to the coffee shop for purposeless days. They did not walk her to importance, carry her to a meeting or presentation, stomp down the corporate halls or even across a restaurant floor to serve a waiting customer. They were decorative things. The woman’s hair was fastened atop her head in a neat bun and she had a well crafted bag slung over her shoulder and one of those reusable coffee cups probably with a trendy drink for cool, respectable, and chic women. She was weaving the crowd with purpose and to Eve, in that moment, she was perfect. I want my wings.

She watched until the woman was out of sight.

---

“Shit,” Marcus said under his breath, glancing up over the espresso machine as the bell on the cafe door rang once. He watched the woman walk in; all wide eyed and eclectic looking. Large round purple sunglasses as if she was trying to be discreet. Not only was she a weirdo, twitchy, and inappropriate – she was the weird, twitchy, and inappropriate daughter of Silvio Raciti; a man whose name had a certain kind of notoriety that Marcus didn't want to purposely invoke upon. He elbowed his colleague as he tapped out the grounds from his portafilter. “She’s back,” he muttered.

“Who?” Liam asked, looking straight at the doorway only to follow up with an “oh shit” of his own, only louder and less self-aware.

“She’s going to ask about the job again,” Marcus said, letting the sound of another grind filling drown him out some. “Get rid of her.”

“Why me?” Liam protested.

“Because I’m duty manager today. Just get rid of her."

Liam stood and watched, waiting for Eve to step to the counter. Something was always off about her, but in a City where people had all manner of gifts, could anything really be off? Marcus didn’t care for her, and that was fair. Some days she was rude and others demanding. More often than not she was impatient, messy, and took too long to order. Would just stare at the chalkboard like she’d never seen one. “Mornin’” Liam said with a smile that he was able to find and muster. “Listen,” he began, not wanting to waste time. “About your resume–”

“It’s okay,” Eve interrupted with a wave of her hand. “I’ve got… Freelance work now, I’d be too busy for this, you know.” She gave a nonchalant roll of her eyes like she didn't know that they'd been whispering about her moments prior, like she couldn't tell the true expression behind the expression.

With his back turned, Marcus rolled his eyes and ran the steam wand.

“Oh good. I’m glad,” Liam answered with a nod. “That sounds great.” He approached the register and watched as Eve’s eyes tracked upward to the chalkboard menu again and he held a breath in his throat, he we go he thought to himself, especially and now painfully aware of another couple who had just walked in. He watched as Eve placed a hand on the counter.

“Just came for a cup of coffee,” she added a grin but it seemed clunky on her face and her eyes half-closed in the light as if she was fighting against a migraine.

“Sure, what do you want?”

And then it began, for Eve, as everything pushed toward that thinned veil, swarming sounds and thoughts and flickers of images that she stood and held with, enduring the tide of them. Her fingers splayed and clenched against the counter.

I want my wings
ᶜᵃᵖᵖᵘᶜᶜⁱⁿᵒ, ᶠᵘˡˡ ᶜʳᵉᵃᵐ, ᵉˣᵗʳᵃ ʰᵒᵗ

ʎos ǝʞɐʇ ʎןuo ı
Where is he?

"Full cream," she said first.

"Suuuure," Liam answered with a raised brow.

𝙸 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚘

Let me go!
ʎǝuoɥ ɟo ɥsɐp ɐ puɐ

"With..."

m̷y̷ ̷w̷i̷f̷e̷ ̷n̷e̷v̷e̷r̷ ̷l̷i̷k̷e̷d̷ ̷c̷o̷f̷f̷e̷e̷,̷ ̷a̷l̷w̷a̷y̷s̷ ̷a̷ ̷h̷o̷t̷ ̷c̷h̷o̷c̷o̷l̷a̷t̷e̷
ⁿᵒⁿᵉ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰⁱˢ ᵐᵒᶜʰᵃ ᶜʰᵒᶜᵃ ᶠᵘᶜᵏ ᵒᶠᶠ ˢʰⁱᵗ
𝚗𝚘 𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚔, 𝚗𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚐𝚊𝚛

Stop doing that to me
ossǝɹdxǝ uɐ uı

"Something, expresso."

"...Uh huh"

𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚊𝚗 𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚘, 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊𝚗 𝙴𝚇𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚘
w̷i̷t̷h̷ ̷m̷a̷r̷s̷h̷m̷a̷l̷l̷o̷w̷s̷ ̷i̷n̷ ̷w̷i̷n̷t̷e̷r̷

"Espresso! Not. Not expresso. It's an espresso, not an EXpresso right." she stammered, visibly frustrated.

"Uh huh, so full cream and espresso," Liam looked passed and beyond her, and at the couple behind who were glancing at each other in that way people did when they were judging without words.

I want my wings

“Um...”

“You know, Eve, last time you were here, you got a cappuccino. How about that?”

“...Yes, I’ll… Yes, with wings. I mean. Yes. Cappuccino.”

He gave her a smile, small but reassuring as she tapped plastic to the machine and he scrawled the order in barista shorthand on the lid. "It'll be right with ya."

When he turned to Marcus to hand him the lid, the two of them shared that same eyebrow raise and wordless glance and Marcus hurried to make the cappuccino and let Liam be the one to shout it out for her. It wasn't until the door was closed and she was simply a shape meandering down the street outside that he turned to Liam again.

“See? Absolute nutjob.”

Vanguard: Calder City

I see you over there, @Yankee

Vanguard: Calder City

<Snipped quote by Stormyx>

Love a Geordie.

I’ll shoot you a PM and we can brainstorm

@BrutalBx

whey aye man, gan on doon

Vanguard: Calder City

@StormyxAs a Cumbrian, I want my people represented! So I thought fuck it, let’s make a Cumbrian secret agent. Why the hell not?

@BrutalBx

"Geordie" here (technically County Durham!) but been living in Australia for 13 years now.

I would be keen to develop more of the crime boss end of things with you, Papa Sil is definitely involved in a lot of racketeering/extortion/money laundering etc. Doubt he's happy to see a hot new drug on the market in his areas.

Vanguard: Calder City

@StormyX I love the way you write Eve’s prose. That shit’s hypnotic.

@BrutalBx

Thank you so much, I've been enjoying writing her a lot. Wanted to just post here too that

Every muscle protested and like a seasoned politician, he simply ignored them.

made me lmao. Low key Bret being Cumbrian cracks me up a bit as well because that's far too close to home for me

Caught up entirely on the IC now, can't believe we've blitzed out a page and not only that, everyone has added some lore and depth to Calder City to help flesh it out.

Scott is trying to do his best as a hero and live up to his generational legacy. The save of Marth was really sweet and I hope the characters interact again!

Archie is so enjoyable to read as this origin story. Seeing where he is now in his life and knowing the jump we have to make to get him to becoming the Warlock... I CAN'T wait.

Dani, with Scott are the heart of the RP for me so far, really representing what I feel it means to be a Grey and want to do your best. I really like what Eddie is setting up with Dani in keeping her anonymity, but still needing to step in just because it feels right. I hope she gets her radio job!

Bret and The Pilgrim are doing some great lifting in adding a seedy underbelly to the City that's also making it feel so alive - with another crimelord alongside the Raciti Famiglia in the City, I would imagine they are rivals and might have plays for power which could give Eve an in with Bret at some point. (Thinking ahead)

Love Richard's powers, it's so needed in the City to be able to fix and mend things and I enjoyed the way that was writter, I'm looking forward to seeing more of him, and how he will interact with some of the other characters.

Another heart of this RP, is definitely Joanie - you can feel the love she has in that first post and the respect the other kids have for her. She's everyone's big sister, until she meets her own twisted sister in Eve (that was a fun collab so thank you for cameoing!) I love what Natty is building up there, and I'm rooting for Joanie. Also, we absolutely hate Caleb in this household!

The Lucie post was a fun read, and I kept having to wrap my head around what it would be like to live such a life (or 4 I suppose!) but it was really sharp, funny, and gave quite a few tells to the character(s). Keen to see the dynamic continue!

Absolutely love Rock and the way Doc wrote that first post, leading into a fantastic plot with Detective Dusk; Sep has been doing some great work to develop plot threads for the overarching story of the game. I really like that Dusk carries a tainted legacy with him, and is trying his best to do good things despite the pressures of his family and his name.

Qing Yuan too - absolutely cannot wait to see more of him and I'm just looking for any kind of excuse to have him and Eve meet, I don't know, RP intuition I think it might be an interesting meeting that they'd have, and I think Qing could really help Eve calm her mind and her spirit (and spirits lol)

So, that is all to say GREAT STUFF and I'm fully hooked and invested, and we still have more characters to go.

Please give me all the collabs, thank u.