geistnet | I'm Waking Up: Origin Stories.

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I'm Waking Up: Origin Stories.

You’re an old man who had a nasty run-in with Something That Went Bump in the Night, and once believed that the only way to make sure that you never had another problem like that again was to pick up a gun and shoot supes in the face before they killed you or hurt your family – and then some government shitheads called you up and told you that they’re your friends, you all have to get along. They took your weapons, sent you to some fucking program that felt too much like Alcoholics Anonymous. You hang up on them every time they check on you, but they still know exactly what you’re doing, every second of every day.

You’re a house wife in a quiet little town, accustomed to turning a blind eye towards the strange things that happened to people after dark because the local police either didn’t have a clue or were letting those things happen in the first place – and then some nice people in coats came in from God Knows Where, arrested some crooked cops, and made it all go away.

You make a new batch of cookies every Sunday, to give to the coated fellows who still hang around at the street corners downtown; some of them are young, so very young, and remind you of your younger brother. Your little ones want to be just like them someday.

You’re the kid who learns Judo rather than Track and Field after Math every day (Teacher Felipe says that you have to know how to defend yourself), then takes a quiz all about vampires, fairies and werewolves in Occult Studies. Every Wednesday, you tumble around with your classmates, and get mad whenever your best friend does his Superman thing and beats everyone to the top of the hill by flying there. Every Friday, a guy with more guns than you have teeth comes to school, takes over PE classes, and talks to everyone about what he does for a living. Sometimes, he takes “special kids” with him to another school, for special people like them. You hope that he won’t take your best friend away.

You’re the manager of one of the biggest call centers in the country. You’re happy because life’s been great ever since you opened your doors to the local vampire community. They’re damned good at their jobs, and you don’t have to deal with the HR nightmare of overtime, of medical bills and lawsuits anymore. And you feel safe, because you know that if one of them ever steps out of line, you know exactly who to call.

You’re the girl who leapt through time, who met a handsome stranger who took you to a fantastic place full of talking trees and flying fish, the girl who was loved and fucked and tossed aside when you started getting boring.

You came home and found that your house wasn’t your house anymore, that your parents have been dead for decades and all of your friends were old and gray while you haven’t aged at all.

They found you crying on a swing. They told you what happened, and helped you set things right.

You’re the drunkard at the local bar who sees monsters in every face, and still remembers what it was like years ago, when you didn’t have to be afraid of the dark, or wonder what’s beneath all the human skin and human smiles of every person you meet. The Truth fucked you up, you see. You wish that once upon a time, you had the better sense not to listen.

Whoever you are, if you were born between 1999 and 2066, you know about Hunters. You know about the conspiracies and compacts they are a part of, and the Vigil they keep between Day and Night, Light and Shadow. You know that some of them are human, and some of them aren’t, and some of them are somewhere in between. You know about why they’re here, and what they do while nobody’s looking. Hate them, love them, worship them, or revile them: it doesn’t matter. The World of Light and the World of Darkness have blended together, and that means that Hunters are around to stay.

o r i g i n s t o r i e s.

This post is devoted to threading out the stories of player characters of Waking the Dead prior to their arrival at the Falner Estate. Tag in and tell us yours. We have a feeling it's a good one.

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And Barbie is thinking, almost distractedly, back to what it had been like for her to turn. The funny thing was, she did not remember any of it. She only managed to see what had happened on a CCTV camera recording years after the fact.

Someone else is entering the room: Raura. Her husband doesn't say anything, and only stays long enough to plant the device that will collect all of Ella's blood.

She severed a major artery on purpose. Three minutes in, and then she's sealing the wound with a press of her fingers. After that, she's bringing her own hand up to her fangs, and drawing Vitae from her own vein. Those drops, she places gently upon Ella's lips.

The change, after all of these preparations, will simply be strange. It also won't take more than an hour.

It might just be Ella's overactive imagination, but the landscape inside of her mind shifts, darkens and becomes colder as she becomes depleted of blood. The moment when there is no more to take, she feels as if she were floating on a lake, her body sinking slowly towards nothingness. And for a moment, Ella wants this. The moment passes quickly enough though, and she remembers herself, what she wants, her choices.

And like a confirmation that her will is where her words were put, something pulls her up from the waters, yanking her towards a different kind of darkness.

Roughly twenty minutes after Barbara's blood touched her lips, Ella's chest shots upwards, hands moving to the edges of the bed as she gasps, eyes open wide as her last human breath slips away, fangs sprouting for the first time. She then collapses on the bed again; she's disoriented, scared, cold but above all so ridiculously thirsty.

Slowly sitting up, Ella's eyes become more focused. She's not panting, she doesn't feel the urge to breathe anymore. It's only then when she notices Barbara, although Ella realizes she knew the woman would be next to her all this time.

"I- oh." A hand goes up to inspect her mouth, touching her fangs tenderly. "I have fangs."

At least she's not kicking stuff and making an embarrassing spectacle out of this?

Barbie, of course, had moved off a bit to the side to give the girl some space. At that first comment, though, she smiles.

"They do take getting used to." She tilts her head, looking over with concern. "How do you feel?"

This is the first time that she has ever done something like this, although she has had many good elders teaching her, and explaining the theory at length. She's also witnessed a few Embraces herself. She just has to make sure that this one went as smoothly as she promised it would.

"Huh," Ella touches them a bit more. "Can they...go away?"

Now sitting, Ella looks down at herself, her hands, her legs. A hand moves to her chest, as if trying to find her heartbeat, and then she twists as she pats her back. Nothing.

"Okay, I guess? Different somehow. Stronger? And thirty." Now that she says it out loud, the need is evident in her voice.

"Think about retracting them, and it will happen."

She's giving those instructions as she's handing what looks like a blood pack over. The pack, however, has Netach's insignia on it, and the crest of Ordo Daywalker. The blood within it looks like its moving of its own accord.

Vitae.

"Here. This is all for you."

The girl probably needs it.

Ella takes a completely unnecessary breath and focuses. True enough, her fangs retract a moment later.

Then she sees the blood and they pop back out. "Oh darn."

She holds the bag, eyes fixed in it. She has no idea of why, but the mere sight of blood is making her salivate. The bag comes with the usual tube that gets connected to whatever machine it's used, so she pulls it and takes a tentative sip.

"Holy crap." She's not gonna say anything for the next few minutes that it takes her to drain the blood.

Barbie watches her with amusement for a moment before she's sitting back down and fetching a pack of her own.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but... you're kind of lucky. Vitae didn't used to come in packs."

Once the bag is empty, Ella lets go, sighing as her fangs retract. She's getting better at it.

"I was wondering why the blood felt so weird. I mean Good Weird, I guess blood will now taste good to me from now on? But it's probably scary for newly embraced Kindred to wake up thirsty and have to bite someone..."

And Ella goes silent at the thought of her biting someone. And no longer being able to see the Sun...and not even being able to eat food again.

Edited 2014-08-09 21:55 (UTC)

"It is, although I think that I'm going to have to train you on how to feed on somebody eventually. Just so that you know how to do it."

There were methods, after all. Ways of making sure that a vampire didn't end up killing somebody.

Ella had a lot to learn.

Ella smiles weakly. "Yeah, I don't want to accidentally kill someone. The idea of actually biting a person feels...strange though. I guess it'll feel different when I actually need to, but if I can make do without it..."

She swings her legs out of the bed and jumps to her feet. Her balance is great. No, excellent. "Do I really just fall asleep when the sun goes up? Do I...need a coffin?"

And then she remembers earlier that night and facepalms. "Can I even keep studying?"

Those questions remind Barbie of the kinds of things that she used to keep Riley up with, back when she knew close to nothing and had too many strange assumptions.

Since the girl is standing, though, Barbie is standing as well. She's also sending a mental missive to Celeste.

Prepare my car. I'll make my own way back with Ella... she needs some space.

"First: no, you don't. Second: no, coffins are ridiculously showy. Third... yes, you can. But you'll have to focus your efforts on studying how to be a vampire first, and on learning a little more about the World of Darkness."

She looks towards the door, then back at Ella.

"Would you like to go? I can fetch some good clothes for you, and give you a bit of time to freshen up."

"So I don't get tired or anything and it's like...going to bed? Also how much Sun is too much Sun? Or any Sun at all is a bad idea. Indirect light, maybe?"

She can't help but smile at Barbara's opinion on coffins. "Yeah, I figure I need a crash course at being a vampire. Or three. Who are you exactly, anyway? I've seen your face on the Internet, but I rarely do anything else besides studying." Quite the sad confession, but that was Past Ella, right?

On then does Ella notice the bloodstained clothes she's in."My flat? All my clothes are there. I don't really do...freshening up. Do we need to use the services or bodily functions are not a thing?"

"Bodily functions aren't a thing for us, beyond hungering for blood."

Saying that with just a touch of wryness.

"I can send some people over to your flat and have them fetch all of your belongings. That way, we can go straight to the Falner Estate." She smiles. "I'll answer all of your questions once we're there. One at a time, of course."

Winking at that. Ella's mood shift was nice and a little relieving.

"Oh, okay."

She's not answering the rest until they move, it seems. "W-wait, to Falner? Me? Can I even enter there?" Well talk about being surprised by rather obvious news.

Ella simply walks towards Barbara, but waits for her to lead. That's half their newly sire-childe bond speaking (which Ella has no idea about just yet) and half reminding her manners.

Barbie, on the other hand, is heading towards the door and opening it a crack.

"Celeste, can you please fetch something suitable for Ella to wear?"

The voice on the other side is deferential, and there's the sound of footsteps as Celeste heads off. Then Barbie's turning her smile back towards Ella.

"I don't think a good-looking girl deserves to be punished by heading somewhere nice in nothing but a hospital gown, so."

Ella stops mid-step, only then realizing she's still on the hospital gown, her bloody clothes throw by the end of her bed. Again, if she could blush...although the memory of the feeling pushes through anyway.

"Oh but I could just wear...those..." Her own voice betrays her though, because she wants nothing to do with them. "What happened to the virus, anyway?"

Anything to make time while this Celeste mystery person (vampire?) fetches her clothes.

Oh, baby: Barbie knew you'd like something good and fresh to go around in. It's only proper. (And she totally knows the feeling.)

The older vampire leaned back against the wall right by the crack of the door, and folded her arms over her chest. Ella might be able to tell that she was much more relaxed now, and right about ready to respond to anything that came her way with grace.

"It died the moment you were Embraced. You're not longer alive, so there was nothing for the Coldshadow to feed on."

"That's good to know."

She's going to stand there awkwardly, hoping her butt doesn't show. There's nobody else in the room anyway, but still, she would be embarrassed all the same.

"I don't feel dead, though. I also don't feel alive..." She tries to feel her heartbeat again, but there's nothing there. "Never been dead before, so maybe this is how that feels. It's not that bad. Kind of cool actually."

"Um...what's going to happen to me? I get it you live in the Falner State, and I'm pretty sure you're actually some sort of important person that I can't quite put my finger on just yet. I feel a bit out of place here."

"I actually don't live in Falner. I live in the house that I inherited from my parents after they passed away."

Barbie pauses there, looking thoughtful.

"Given your personal circumstances, though, it would be best if you stayed on the Estate grounds. My husband and I count as your legal guardians for the moment, at least until we can come to some sort of agreement with your mortal parents. We can secure a new place for you to stay."

Her parents (!)

"Oh, bloody hell."

The thought had menaced to pop up a few times, but now that Barbara had mentioned it there was no going around it. They were going to kill her, again. Probably out of sheer disapproval. "They're going to lose their minds! Not only they don't like supernaturals, they hate vampires."

She's pacing now, mind you, most of the rest of her concerns thrown to the back burner while she focus completely on the clusterfuck her family life is about to become. "Knowing them, it would be easier to just tell them I packed and left to parts unknown. We can't do that, can we?"

"I'm afraid we can't. We're legally obligated to let them know what has happened to you, especially since you'll need to register your new status."

At that point, though, Barbie smiles again. Just so.

"Granted, I am also legally prepared to deal with any fallout from them on your behalf."

Before anything else can be said, though, there's a quiet knock. Barbie turns away to open it just a crack and pick up the clothes that Celeste has fetched. They're a decent set; some of Barbie's old things.

"Here, Ella."

"Oh, this is going to be splendid."

She's still not entire sure of why is Barbara going through such pains to help her, but Ella's pretty sure she won't get much by just asking. Better just appreciate the help and try not to make a mess.

"Thanks." She picks up the clothes and then...looks around, find the bathroom and hides there. A few moments later she walks out; the clothes aren't super fancy, but they are obviously fancier than what she was wearing as of late. "I guess I don't need to worry about getting cold anymore?" They're not that revealing, Ella.

"No, unless it's the kind of cold that is out to destroy you. It's happened to me more than once."

The expression on Barbie's face is the kind of exasperation that comes with one too many nights of going out on the field and facing crazy renegades.

"Let's go. The car is waiting."

She leads the way, of course. Celeste and Raura have already gone ahead: another one of Barbie's trusted staff is behind the wheel of the car that pulls up to the curb for them both. Barbie waits for Ella to climb in first before settling down beside her.

"So would you like us to drop by your old place before we go to Falner?"

Ella makes a face. "Noted." So, cold was alright, but never ridiculously cold.

She follows Barbara in silence, still feeling a bit like a dazed puppy as she looks at the woman's (who looks like a teen) back. She enters the car and tries not to touch anything.

"Hm? I suppose I should pick up some things. My books..."

She'll probably remember her other things, like clothes and personal belongings later.

"I'll help you."

She can feel Ella's nervousness, and she honestly can't blame the girl. Everything has changed rather quickly, and it's been barely two hours. There is still a lot more to discuss once the both of them have settled down.

"You don't need to be so shy. You're my childe now." And then, to the driver: "Bring us to Ella's flat."

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