Chronicles of the Camarilla's Deathknight (Exalted/World of Darkness)

Out of character, he's probably legit trying to stop something bad. In character, fuck this guy and his mysterious stranger shit. If he wants help in stopping something, he should just say so.
 
Out of character, he's probably legit trying to stop something bad. In character, fuck this guy and his mysterious stranger shit. If he wants help in stopping something, he should just say so.
Just a note, Trouble has not had their gender explicitly revealed in story, but my intention was for them to be nonbinary. So please use they/them pronouns just like the story does!
 
[x] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[x] Trouble: their goals, their capabilities, etc

Sure, the vampires blew their shot to make a good impression on us already.
 
[X] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[X] This apocalypse Trouble is warning about.

If a Sidereal of secrets wants to talk, we should hear them out.
 
[X] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[X] Trouble: their goals, their capabilities, etc

I'm a lot more interested in Trouble than in the information they have to offer.
 
[X] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[X] Trouble: their goals, their capabilities, etc

100%,
Sidereals aren't always on the side of angels (or Strider in this case) but they almost always know more than you do.

Which is correctly both infuriating and curious. While making the dead talk is (afaik) within a Sidereals power, the fact that this one is asking Strider questions is interesting.
 
"The Beast," he urges. "Do you feel it clawing at your mind, trying to tear its way out of your skin and into the world with every waking moment? Do you feel the urge to give in to base animal instinct, to rip and tear at those delicate little mortals and gorge yourself on their blood? To claw out the throat of anyone who stands in your way, consequences be damned? Do you feel like a wild animal forced to pretend she's civilized, because if you stop pretending you don't think you'll ever find your way back from the rage?"

You had up until now forgotten that the Beast was something you were supposed to have to contend with. Perhaps yours was just quiet? You hoped that was the case. The alternative was yet another strange inconsistency.

"No," you reply in full honesty. "No, I don't feel like that at all."

He shakes his head. "Then you're a Caitiff as far as I care."

"Fuck you, old man!" Leila snarls. "I sired her, you know I sired her, so-"

"Shut your trap, Harrow, and think for a moment," says Jeremiah. "You think the other Brujah will accept someone who doesn't have to fight the Beast every night? I'm doing you little shits a favor."
Well, we didn't get much out of directly talking to him, but this is a pretty important in-character reminder, and another thing where Strider is Weird.

--that being said, we're not totally unrestrained, considering all the Rules we have to contend with. It's technically possible to rationalize our "Beast" as the Rules of Life and Death.

Something also important to note is that he would've accepted us as a Brujah IF we did have the Beast. It wouldn't have been worth much, if Leila is to be trusted, but it would be there.

Finally, she speaks. "I never told you about my Embrace, did I?"

You quietly shake your head. "No, you didn't." You do your best to conceal your excitement at learning more about your love, knowing that while you'll certainly treasure the moment, your glee is not what she needs right now. Even if this is a part of her life she's conspicuously avoided talking about until now.

Leila sighs. "Right, well, it was fucked up. The asshole that did it never got permission from the Prince, so he got murdered as soon as I was discovered. And that left me without a sire, which is dangerous as hell when you're a fledgling. I begged Jeremiah for protection, for some sort of replacement sire I could learn from or something, but he just left me to rot. Said it was for my own good, even, that I needed to learn how to fend for myself."
Haha, Strider's narration sure is funny.

That being said, this does explain a lot about Leila's behavior, and why she still runs with the Anarchs rather than... anything else. But yeah, I think a lot of Leila's changed behavior to us now is in part due to this conjoined with her affection (even if it is one like a favored pet). She wants to be a sire proper, be there for us, "protect" or at least guide us, etc.

It's something we should keep in mind, maybe throw her a bone sooner rather than later.

Holy FUCK, it wasn't even close.

Close-combat Abyssal against a bunch of mook-tier vamps, but haha goddamn, what the fuck.

That's... going to be very interesting! But hey, we're decidedly not normal. If we're a Caitiff by our Primogen, that's fine.

We can still throw down, and ultimately, strength is what of matters to vamps, imo. They'll still look down on us, but they'll still respect us.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Strider," says Leila. She's staring at you, eyes wide. Then she glances around at the walls (stained red), and the floor (covered in the dead and the dying). "You, uh, you care about me, right?"

You turn from where you're exulting in the abattoir you've created to stare into Leila's eyes. Your hands are caked in gore, and shadow rolls out from you in waves as a dead sun bleeds on your forehead.

"Leila Harrow, I love you more than anything in the world."

She gives you a nervous smile. "Right, that's, uh, that's good to know."
Haha...

There's a lot to digest there

>exulting in the abattoir you've created

Is a LOT -- I definitely don't think that's pure Strider there, considering their previous profession. Abyssal is definitely rearing their head there. But Leila kind of doesn't know that! So she's probably in part, thinking, "what the fuck have I created"

(And also now probably combined with her memories of her sire and... everything involved with that, the declaration of love may be a little... much, haha...)

Anyways, neat, a Sidereal. Personally, I kind of want to vote for the Apocalypse -- it fits more in line with Strider's Courage and Justice virtues imo

"Hey, there's an apocalypse going on, we should probably do something about that"

Figuring out more of their capabilities isn't a bad idea, but I'd rather grab onto the plothook first.

If we're doing write-ins, though, it may be worth asking about this--
On their forehead is a green symbol, like a 2 with a vertical line through the tail, or an open 4 that curls on the leftmost part.
We've got a forehead mark too, so maybe asking if they know if there's anything up with that.

Anyways, with more Exalts here, we got some real juice going on. The Prince's reaction to who we are is... very interesting in light of that. Lots to chew on.
 
Just a note, Trouble has not had their gender explicitly revealed in story, but my intention was for them to be nonbinary. So please use they/them pronouns just like the story does!
...the sidereal isn't a self-insert dmpc, is it? Because insisting on correct forms of address for someone we know *literally nothing* about makes it seem so.
 
I mean, the story has used they/them pronouns for them so far. It's pretty normal to expect that a character be gendered correctly.
It's not the terms of address that is concerning, but doing so for a character that has nothing known about them rather than it coming up naturally. It implies the character is special and important, especially since it's an exalted. I've seen it happen FAR too much in tabletop games.
 
Letting people know the right pronouns for a character in a quest is pretty normal around here? It doesn't really imply the character is that important - if someone was mistaken about the gender of the prince for example it would just be the norm to note it, too.
 
Thank you! That was cathartic.

Punk's not dead, it just smells that way lol

And yeah, while I hate the idea of a Sidereal getting invloved, we do not want to get punched into a duck, so...

[x] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[x] Trouble: their goals, their capabilities, etc

They're not remotely that strong in Essence, or in third edition in general--it really went a long way towards lowering everyone's power level to a reasonable amount and deleting the Invincible Omnipotent Elder Problem that plagued 1st and 2nd edition.

'Scenelong Perfect Defense for less than 10% your resources' my ass.

Or even 'I spend 20% of my gas tank to Just Win, no save, I even get to choose the specific degree of which I Win and you don't get a say in the matter, and it really boils down to "How much is me beating your ass and how thoroughly I want to do it worth to me", your opinion does not matter at all because I'm rewriting all of reality, and thus your defence doesn't apply.'
 
[X] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[X] Trouble: their goals, their capabilities, etc
 
...the sidereal isn't a self-insert dmpc, is it? Because insisting on correct forms of address for someone we know *literally nothing* about makes it seem so.
No, the sidereal is not a self-insert dmpc. I'm a little insulted you jumped straight to that. I just wanted a little nb representation, and wanted to stop the thread before anyone followed your example and assumed (with literally no basis) that Trouble was male.
It's not the terms of address that is concerning, but doing so for a character that has nothing known about them rather than it coming up naturally. It implies the character is special and important, especially since it's an exalted. I've seen it happen FAR too much in tabletop games.
I do not need a character to be super special and important for them to be gendered correctly. I consistently used they/them pronouns for the character, so when you jumped to using he/him with no basis, I wanted to correct that and use the opportunity to inform the thread at large on the correct pronouns for Trouble. I would have done the same with any character that I saw being misgendered, because it's not the character that's so important to me, it's that misgendering bugs me.
 
[X] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[X] This apocalypse Trouble is warning about.
 
[x] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[x] Trouble: their goals, their capabilities, etc.

"The End of Days is nigh" talk is a dime a dozen. Strange supernaturals who don't fit any known category, know about "Cainites", and have weird forehead marks like we do are unusual. We're better off learning more about Trouble so we know whether to care what they say about the apocalypse.

That fight was comical (affectionate).
 
[x] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[x] Trouble: their goals, their capabilities, etc.
 
If you know what a 'Canite' is much less that there is an apocalypse coming you are way past the veil of the masquerade, this guy is deeper in than Leila.

Strange supernaturals who don't fit any known category, know about "Cainites", and have weird forehead marks like we do are unusual.
It's worth noting that, while specifics regarding the fate of each antediluvian and whatnot is deep lore, the general myth of Caine and use of the term "Cainite" is common knowledge among the Sabbat. It's the term they prefer for vampires, and they often call their sect "the Sword of Caine." And even the Camarilla doesn't suppress that knowledge so much as they promote skepticism towards it
 
It's worth noting that, while specifics regarding the fate of each antediluvian and whatnot is deep lore, the general myth of Caine and use of the term "Cainite" is common knowledge among the Sabbat. It's the term they prefer for vampires, and they often call their sect "the Sword of Caine." And even the Camarilla doesn't suppress that knowledge so much as they promote skepticism towards it

The emphasis here being 'Sabat' with them being the crazies who rarely have non-hostile relations with anyone. Sure you could interrogate that out of one of their members, but if you can meaningfully interrogate a Sabat vampire the Masquerade is also probably not in play. I mean assume this is just a random Hunter with a great taste in tattoos, if they not only killed but interrogated some of the Sword of Caine, not shovelheads, the proper ones who know the lingo they definitely know enough to be interesting.
 
The emphasis here being 'Sabat' with them being the crazies who rarely have non-hostile relations with anyone. Sure you could interrogate that out of one of their members, but if you can meaningfully interrogate a Sabat vampire the Masquerade is also probably not in play. I mean assume this is just a random Hunter with a great taste in tattoos, if they not only killed but interrogated some of the Sword of Caine, not shovelheads, the proper ones who know the lingo they definitely know enough to be interesting.
Yup, that's a reasonable conclusion about this hunter with great taste in tattoos and no other significant features whatsoever :V

But yeah, you're right, just wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page
 
[Jk] Play a game of questions with Trouble, focusing your questions on…
-[jk] Trouble: their clothes, their tattoo artist, their cool contact lenses, etc.
 
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