I'm Waking Up: Origin Stories.

[geistnet]

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.

Comments

[bladeweaver]

... And the ship just lurched.

Taning spends a horrible half-second where he imagined frying his passenger on his seat. The moment passed really quickly, but that didn't mean that it didn't make him extremely upset.

He appears right beside where Erin is seated and just lays into him.

"I understand being curious but you almost killed every single person on this ship, you fucking idiot! You're curious? I'll tell you what you just did: you flushed the ship's gravitational field, and we almost crashed into a mountain."

He turns his back on you and summons two crewmen to watch you.

"Sit still and keep your hands to yourself."

[magicmissile]

The moment he feels Estanislao pop back next to him, he raises both his hands, palms out. "I didn't do anything," he says at the same time the man started his short lecture.

In his defense, he was never told not to touch anything, and why the fuck would there be a button to flush the gravitational field on some random chair on this deck anyway, shouldn't buttons like that belong to the bridge---- unless they are on the bridge, then fuck, okay, he screwed up.

He watches the man walk away only to be replaced by two uniformed men.

"Ohhhhh, I think we made him mad, Erin," Madge stage-whispers. She'd curled herself up on his shoulder when Estanislao arrived, and hasn't crawled back to her usual perch on his head. "You should say sorry!"

"No way," he says, mostly because he liked being stubborn. He crosses his arms and slumps down on the chair. "He never told me not to touch anything, anyway."

That doesn't mean he doesn't feel guilty, of course.

[bladeweaver]

In due time, UESV Manila Bay arrives at Falner Spaceport (an offshoot, of course, of Falner Port). Had you been perceptive enough, you would have heard the communications being sent back and forth; other than that and people starting to get up from their seats and mill about, you wouldn't have known that you'd landed. Such is technology.

Taning walks back to where you are, visibly none the worse for wear, and displaying none of the anger that was there earlier. In fact, it is probably unsettling just how nonchalant he looks about it now.

He casually gestures to Rin to get up and start moving. "Come on, kid," he says, "let's meet the people who'll be taking care of you." The ship's door opens... someplace else, definitely not at the disembarkation area. Helpfully, Taning remarks, "We're at Arrivals. My stepdad and stepmom should be picking you up shortly."

He offers no further explanation than that.

[magicmissile]

If there was any sympathy towards learning that this crazy spaceman was maybe adopted, it was swiftly crushed by Rin's horrible annoyance and anger at the whole situation.

"Whatever," he grumbles, gathering his things and holding them to his chest. He was totally regretting not bringing that knit beanie his sister made him. He hugs his things tighter now, willing his homesickness away.

Meanwhile, as the leave the ship, Madge is distracted with the sights, ooh-ing and aah-ing on her perch on his head. At least one of them was having fun.