Entry tags:
vtm: snowblind: app draft
Player Information
Name: Yubi
Age: 20+
Contact Info:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
yubishines; ![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
piratopteryx
Other Characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Meg Lodestone
Canon: Tabletop Original Character (World of Darkness)
Age: 26 at time of "death"; 27 actual age
Gender: Female
Inventory:
- Clothes (light jacket, tanktop, camo-green slacks, sneakers, green bike helmet)
- Nonfunctional phone, containing a "just in case" email draft
- Keyring, with three keys (apartment, van, laboratory)
- USB storage device, also on keyring, containing a set of notes and PDFs
- Pocket-sized sketchbook, ink pen, marker
- If permissible, lockpicks
World Description:
The World of Darkness is a horror ("gothic-punk") setting, taking place on a version of modern Earth decidedly less friendly than our own. For thousands of years, various supernatural groups (from werewolves to mages to demons) have shaped the world behind the scenes, each of said groups divided into their own factions and allegiances, and their political machinations and personal agendas and constant infighting make up the violent undercurrent of the World of Darkness.
The campaign specifically used Vampire: The Masquerade: 20th Anniversary Ed., with elements borrowed from Vampire: The Requiem. The general theme of Vampire is one of personal horror, balancing one's inner "beast" (the vampire's monstrous, feral Id) with one's humanity. Quick glossary rundown: The vampire's term for their own is kindred. A sire is the vampire who turns ("embraces") you, and is meant to be your mentor/sponsor. A clan is a type of vampire with its own quirks and abilities, and include brujah, toreador, ventrue, malkavian, giovanni, nosferatu, tzimisce, and several more. They are usually (not always) associated with a sect, a faction/political party. The Camarilla sect enforces order and tradition and holding up the Masquerade (the pretense at normalcy to keep vampires hidden). The Sabbat is the polar opposite, preaching that vampires should give in to their violent nature and rule humanity instead. The Carthian Movement seeks political reform and to overturn the traditions, which attracts idealists and revolutionaries. There are other groups like the religious Lancea Sanctum and freemason-esque Ordo Dracul, plus many more unique terms, but uh, not all of them are relevant.
Following the Battle of New York, the nosferatu Calebros handed over the reins of Prince (a Camarilla title for the leader of a domain) to brujah Isabel Reyes. In this iteration of New York, the city is nominally owned by the Camarilla, but the Bronx is Sabbat territory and as such bears a strong resemblance to its dilapidated 1970s state. Meanwhile, Staten Island belongs to the Carthian Movement, which goes through its own period of confusion when its leadership comes under attack. New York Public Library is a Kiasyd's haven, Columbia University belongs to Ordo Dracul, JFK International Airport to the Giovanni. And so on. And that's just the vampires! Other beings such as changelings have their own presence in the city, but they aren't hugely relevant in this app.
Hanging over all of this is the threat of the apocalypse to come, and the belief that we live in the final nights. Everyone has their own interpretation of what it entails. Vampires believe that when Gehenna approaches, the sun will be blotted out, the antediluvians -- ancient, impossibly powerful vampires from before the Flood -- will awaken and Caine, the first vampire, will return. The Camarilla tries to suppress knowledge of this (eg. book burning), while the Sabbat believes that they will become Caine's chosen army.
tl;dr
Note: While Vampire the Masquerade has a lot of basis in the 1990's (sometimes painfully so), the campaign is set in the modern day (late 2014/early 2015). Meg, of course, will not use fourth-wall knowledge of anyone's canons without permission.
With regards to potential canon conflicts, given the broad scope of WoD, the likelihood of someone apping a vampire from another campaign also from New York in that specific time period ought to be low. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, I expect!
Wiki links (I know, tvtropes, but there aren't many good summaries of WoD):
World of Darkness @ tvtropes
Vampire: The Masquerade @ tvtropes
Vampire: The Masquerade @ whitewolf wikia
Background:
Meg Lodestone was born under the name Regan Healy. She was raised in her uncle's household, as her parents were unmarried and couldn't afford to raise an "oops" child. While Meg maintains to this day that she was not abused in the stereotypical sense, she was strongly aware growing up that she was the extraneous charity case, and she'd better be grateful for what she had or else. Regan grew up a frustrated teenager with a chip on her shoulder and a hair-trigger temper. One day, a fistfight after school hours ended with her stabbing a classmate with a penknife, sending her into juvie. Her already-ambivalent relationship with her uncle's family went further downhill, and at fifteen she ran away from home.
Over the next ten years, hitchhiking from town to town and living on the streets, she reinvented herself from unwanted punk-ass kid to street rat to falling in with the criminal underworld. She graduated from simple burglary to art theft and forgery, under the pseudonym "Jean Gant." While she made few real friends in this time period, she built up trust and reliable contacts, and did gain at least one lasting friendship: A confidence trickster called Caleb Price. While they never made it to the big time, they enjoyed a good string of successful cons and always managed to stay ahead of the law.
But this run of good luck couldn't last: When Price made the decision to leave crime behind and go legit, Meg declined to follow, instead taking a job with what turned out to be a major crime syndicate. When the job went sour, she found that not only was she going to be cut loose, but her new "friends" were conspiring to sell her out to the police, using her as a distraction so they could get away clean. In a fit of rage, Meg turned the tables on them by leaving an anonymous tip to the cops. The conspirators were arrested themselves and Meg went on the run. The proverbial mob was now out for her blood and very few of her old contacts were willing to help, either as she now had a reputation as a double-crosser, or because it was too big a risk to offer a hand.
Meg ended up in a seedy little bar in New York, telling her story to the barman, as you do. The barman, a man called Liam Kerr, offered a solution: He would help her fake her death, in a way that would convince pretty well anybody, and set her up a brand new life and identity. With nothing to lose, Meg accepted -- one gory, bloody mess left in a cheap motelroom later, "Jean Gant" was presumed dead, probable suicide. In her place was the vampire Meg Lodestone of clan Brujah.
On one hand, this was exactly the golden opportunity Kerr had said it was: So long as she laid low for a while, she was free and safe from the mob. She could even stay in touch with Price, with the caveat that she never tell him the truth of her circumstances. On the other hand, that little act of altruism came with its own problems: New York City was a Camarilla domain, and the Camarilla have rules about creating new vampires ("neonates"). Kerr had broken this rule, and Meg had to appease Prince Reyes of New York. As part of her probation, Meg was assigned to a coterie of other neonates and given missions to carry out, so they might prove their worth. Her new companions included the tremere Philip McPherson, toreador Perth Nelissen, malkavian Thorne, and ventrue Derek Sterling, many of whom were also illegally created or who were troublemakers in some way. Later members included Mia, Philip's "cousin", and Joseph, a Camarilla loyalist.
Over the next few months, Meg and her crew became involved with a major power play conducted by Prince Reyes to seize control of New York. Some notable events over this time period:
Most of the campaign has been documented here, with the exception of the final chapter/session, where the crew were sent to Baron Ornskold's manor as diplomatic envoys, to encourage him to ally his clan to the Camarilla. Had the night progressed, it would have become clear that the manor was surrounded by Strix and the Baron was possessed... but Meg is being taken before shit goes down.
Canon Point:
March 2015 (during the visit to Ornskold's manor)
Personality:
In many ways, Meg Lodestone fits the image of the typical brujah: A brash, individualistic thug skirting the edges of the law. At the same time, she is methodical and analytical despite her lack of formal education, documenting the crew's research and engaged in crimes that demand specialized knowledge and attention to detail -- recalling the "warrior-scholar" image of the historical brujah.
While she likes to think she's moved beyond those days, Meg often views the world through the lens of an unwanted street rat, scraping a living while dodging cops and gangs and well-meaning adults. In personal confrontation, Meg comes off as rude and cocky, is likely to work through menace and physical intimidation, and will lie or cheat or use brutal force. She distrusts authority (at best it's incompetent, at worst it's something to actively avoid) and is skittish and paranoid. These traits have only worsened over time, from Perth's duplicity to her discovery that Philip's detective work included a file on her Jean Gant persona. While Meg is nominally loyal to the Camarilla and grudgingly respects the Prince's authority, her personal opinion of the sects is that they're nothing but jumped-up gangsters fighting to be King Shit of Fuck Mountain, and neonates like herself are just there to get caught in the crossfire.
Her motivation is simply survival at any cost. She is not a hero and has no interest in being one, and in saving her own skin she is capable of morally-repugnant actions, from handing a slave to his owners to breaking Derek's ribs rather than helping him save Thorne and Philip's lives. This is not to say she is evil or intends to be -- Meg feels like a right bastard every time this happens, and she was as disgusted as the others upon learning about the Scourge (a Camarilla institution that systematically kills thinbloods/young-generation vampires, to appease elders who think this will delay Gehenna). Meg simply has no reason to believe that the world will give her any quarter if she lets down her guard, even for a minute.
There's a darker side to her pragmatism: The "any cost" mentioned above has included her own identity (twice over!) and humanity. On some level, Meg believes that her life is the only thing she has a claim to. Anything else can be taken away, which means anything else is expendable. Hence not following Price in leaving crime behind -- this life is all she knows. If she gives that up, what then?
Meg has a very particular sense of loyalty, also stemming from her life on the streets. You can think the people around you are suicidally naive (Thorne) or pretentious (Perth) or crazy (Derek) or a goddamn idiot who couldn't tie his shoes with help (Philip), but a crew depends on each other and nothing they can do is worse than what the world throws at you. As independent as Meg is, she knows how much her survival depends on others. Her anger at the mob and at Perth is due to this -- you don't shit where you eat. This is also why she wouldn't go to Price for help when she was on the run, as she would be bringing danger to a friend (one of her few links to her humanity) who wanted to rebuild his life. To put it clear: Meg will not die for you, but keeping you from dying is a high priority... within reason.
That said, almost anyone outside her circle can rot, frankly. She's still a thief and a criminal with little regard for personal property -- not to mention that being a vampire conditions you to see humans as a food source.
As stated, Meg is smart: Everything she knows, particularly her knowledge of art and art history, is either self-taught or cobbled together from various sources and criminal mentors, and she has an appreciation for cleverness and neat solutions. With this comes arrogance and a tendency to overthink and overcomplicate plans (the Giovanni assassination did not need disguises or secret entrances or ambushes -- just walk in the front door and take them by surprise). Add this to typical brujah gung-ho behaviour and her desire for action rather than dithering round, and as often as not she gets in way, way over her head and has to squirm her way out of trouble somehow.
Meg does have a softer side: she really does care about the well-being of the people around her, and not only as a tactical concern. Despite her animosity with Perth, for instance, she's genuinely apologetic for nearly killing him. In an incident where the crew framed Perth's sire to get inconvenient evidence off their hands, in a roundabout way she did it in the hopes that they could get him out of an unhealthy relationship. Meg is unquestionably someone you want on your side; she's defiant in the face of adversity and certainly doesn't lack for courage. It would be a huge stretch to say that she's basically a good person, but for all her lies and deception she was often the most straightforward person in the room. Meg is cynical and bitter and rarely sees reason to believe in a happy outcome, but her intentions are, if not pure, then less muddied than one would expect.
Flavor Abilities:
Vampire Teeth: While Meg will probably not have a dependency on blood, she will have the sharp, longer-than-normal canines of a vampire. They will not be able to elongate and be viable as a weapon(?), however.
Looking Like a Goddamn Corpse: Meg will have the lower body temperature, no audible heartbeat, and greyish pallor of the dead. However, she will bleed like a human, need to breathe and eat like a human, and despite being cold to the touch will be just as susceptible to frostbite, fatigue, and death from exposure.
Being Frozen As a Goddamn Corpse: Meg will be a mortal human ingame and will age, but not visibly. One of the quirks of V:tM vampires is that they will always default to the appearance they were upon their first "death" (one embarrassing example being a man who'd been sunburned and is now stuck with it forever). For instance, not only will hair not grow, but any haircuts will return to their original length by the next night. No new scars, calluses, etc. can form, though in Snowblind injuries will be sustained and healed at a normal human rate. Caveat: Missing limbs will not regenerate.
Meg's clan disciplines (potence and celerity/enhanced strength and speed) will be brought down to within human ability.
Suitability:
While Meg has some experience with roughing it on the road, she's usually had the freedom to pull up roots and seek better climes (literally). Failing that, she could always disappear into the noise and chaos of a big city like NYC. Being trapped with a lack of options and the relative isolation is going to raise her city-kid hackles. Meg is adaptable and pragmatic enough that this won't halt her for long, though. She's also from a supernatural world, so her initial guess as to what happened is "that tzimisce fuck is messing with my head again." Once she's more securely on her feet, "find out what's going on and who's responsible and gut them" will be on the docket. While Meg would be naturally suspicious of anyone trying to impose authority (who died and made you boss), the mystery of Norfinbury will grab her interest enough to pool anything she finds out with other seekers.
Once she understands that she's susceptible to cold and starvation, she'll zero in on finding a supply of fuel and food and clothes. It's possible she'll steal from other survivors if they appear to have a surplus, but she'll be capable of cooperation (see above). Given how few people there are, she knows it's only a matter of time before a career criminal is caught. Given her skittishness and difficulty trusting people, she may be able to avoid cabin fever on her own; on the other hand, it's not impossible that she'll get caught out after curfew at least once, simply because her perception of her physical limits are out of whack.
Hiding her nature will be be a priority: If she's here, then no reason to think that hunters and so on from her world aren't here too. In fact, she'll privately be tracking who's inhuman or exhibits inhuman traits, possibly even spying on them, just in case. With regards to her vampirism... losing that is going to be met with some relief and chagrin. Not detonating in sunlight or risking her inner beast if she doesn't feed? Great. Losing her abilities, like strength and speed and rapid healing? She'll miss that a lot, and it'll be a rude awakening if she gets into a fight.
RP Samples:
TDM Link -- as the threads are short, there's additional samples below:
[Network/text sample from @compass5565, posted after midnight.]
[Meg has been keeping as anonymous as she could on the network: No names, no video. Alongside that, she's tried to keep interactions businesslike, with... varying levels of success. This time, she's rather more introspective than usual, less guarded. Probably it's the late hour that's doing it. Meg has never really lived anywhere long enough to feel homesick after leaving it, but whatever's going on right now might be a close cousin to that feeling.]
do you know what i really miss?
i mean aside from electric lights and not having to go to bed wearing like three layers and two pairs of socks. seriously new york winters are garbage but at least you could sleep without worrying about your nose falling off.
i miss music. back where i come from, even when you're on the road and like miles from town, you'd have your phone. or radio. or fuck, some other car would have the windows down and the bass turned up. something to break up the quiet.
it's dumb and whiny but w/e you can kiss my ass. what kind of music do you guys even have where you're from? when you're from. whatever.
btw yes i can't fucking get to sleep thanks for asking, three guesses as to why.
---
[Log/prose sample:]
The house is on fire.
This is really inconvenient.
Firstly, this had been a nice house. The original owners had been well-off, she figured, either to buy it as-is or to fund a whole bunch of renovations. When you live in a ghost town, eventually everything starts to look wind-blasted and faded at the edges. In Meg's opinion, losing an aesthetically-pleasing landmark, one that helped break up the monotony, is a crying shame.
More importantly, some folks had been using the basement as a workstation. She wasn't entirely sure what they were up to, given the conspicuous lack of machinery in the town -- the technical details had gone over her head, as much as she didn't like to admit it. But she'd been sufficiently interested to help haul salvaged bits and pieces back to the house, in exchange for a room she could crash in whenever she was in the area. This arrangement had suited her fine -- they got what they needed, and their project kept them busy so they didn't bother her much.
She hung around even after they had all the parts they wanted. If asked, she'd say she was just curious, but she'd gotten used to them. They weren't bad housemates. Definitely better than some of the college kids in the apartment building she'd lived in, back in NYC. And heck, she could admire their dedication to the work, given all the warnings about the dangers of staying still for too long.
Judging by how the flames are peeling up the walls, the fire probably started in the basement. A knocked-over candle? Experiment gone horribly wrong? Intentional sabotage? Either way, the house is doomed, and the project with it.
Welp.
"It's a bummer," she says, mostly to herself, but audible enough for the crowd of gawkers to hear as well, "but it was probably a long shot anyway --"
Someone shouts and points urgently at a window. Movement inside. A broad shadow that isn't the flickering firelight.
Meg's first thought is you dumb motherfuckers getting yourselves killed over a shot in the dark. Her second thought, as she scans the crowd and tallies her housemates' last known locations in her head, is that wait, none of them could be in there. Which means that someone is either in the wrongest place at the wrongest time, or the sabotage theory holds water.
The front entrance has already collapsed, so Meg breaks away from the crowd to jog around the perimeter, where the back door is still holding. She crouches by the fence, a safe distance away, to lie in wait.
Meg would not rush into a burning building to save a friend. (Among other reasons -- for as long as she's been here, the instinct of "fire is as dangerous as sunlight, keep well away" is still strong.) She'd feel like a monster, sure, but them's the breaks. Meg would definitely not rush into a burning building to save an enemy.
But staking out the only viable exit of a burning building, to ambush someone who might well have screwed over a bunch of people she's chummy with, not to mention torched a place she was using as a haven? That, she's perfectly capable of.
Whoever comes out better be able to talk fast, or she's throwing them right back inside and barricading the door.
Name: Yubi
Age: 20+
Contact Info:
yubishines; Other Characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Meg Lodestone
Canon: Tabletop Original Character (World of Darkness)
Age: 26 at time of "death"; 27 actual age
Gender: Female
Inventory:
- Clothes (light jacket, tanktop, camo-green slacks, sneakers, green bike helmet)
- Nonfunctional phone, containing a "just in case" email draft
- Keyring, with three keys (apartment, van, laboratory)
- USB storage device, also on keyring, containing a set of notes and PDFs
- Pocket-sized sketchbook, ink pen, marker
- If permissible, lockpicks
World Description:
The World of Darkness is a horror ("gothic-punk") setting, taking place on a version of modern Earth decidedly less friendly than our own. For thousands of years, various supernatural groups (from werewolves to mages to demons) have shaped the world behind the scenes, each of said groups divided into their own factions and allegiances, and their political machinations and personal agendas and constant infighting make up the violent undercurrent of the World of Darkness.
The campaign specifically used Vampire: The Masquerade: 20th Anniversary Ed., with elements borrowed from Vampire: The Requiem. The general theme of Vampire is one of personal horror, balancing one's inner "beast" (the vampire's monstrous, feral Id) with one's humanity. Quick glossary rundown: The vampire's term for their own is kindred. A sire is the vampire who turns ("embraces") you, and is meant to be your mentor/sponsor. A clan is a type of vampire with its own quirks and abilities, and include brujah, toreador, ventrue, malkavian, giovanni, nosferatu, tzimisce, and several more. They are usually (not always) associated with a sect, a faction/political party. The Camarilla sect enforces order and tradition and holding up the Masquerade (the pretense at normalcy to keep vampires hidden). The Sabbat is the polar opposite, preaching that vampires should give in to their violent nature and rule humanity instead. The Carthian Movement seeks political reform and to overturn the traditions, which attracts idealists and revolutionaries. There are other groups like the religious Lancea Sanctum and freemason-esque Ordo Dracul, plus many more unique terms, but uh, not all of them are relevant.
Following the Battle of New York, the nosferatu Calebros handed over the reins of Prince (a Camarilla title for the leader of a domain) to brujah Isabel Reyes. In this iteration of New York, the city is nominally owned by the Camarilla, but the Bronx is Sabbat territory and as such bears a strong resemblance to its dilapidated 1970s state. Meanwhile, Staten Island belongs to the Carthian Movement, which goes through its own period of confusion when its leadership comes under attack. New York Public Library is a Kiasyd's haven, Columbia University belongs to Ordo Dracul, JFK International Airport to the Giovanni. And so on. And that's just the vampires! Other beings such as changelings have their own presence in the city, but they aren't hugely relevant in this app.
Hanging over all of this is the threat of the apocalypse to come, and the belief that we live in the final nights. Everyone has their own interpretation of what it entails. Vampires believe that when Gehenna approaches, the sun will be blotted out, the antediluvians -- ancient, impossibly powerful vampires from before the Flood -- will awaken and Caine, the first vampire, will return. The Camarilla tries to suppress knowledge of this (eg. book burning), while the Sabbat believes that they will become Caine's chosen army.
tl;dr
Note: While Vampire the Masquerade has a lot of basis in the 1990's (sometimes painfully so), the campaign is set in the modern day (late 2014/early 2015). Meg, of course, will not use fourth-wall knowledge of anyone's canons without permission.
With regards to potential canon conflicts, given the broad scope of WoD, the likelihood of someone apping a vampire from another campaign also from New York in that specific time period ought to be low. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, I expect!
Wiki links (I know, tvtropes, but there aren't many good summaries of WoD):
World of Darkness @ tvtropes
Vampire: The Masquerade @ tvtropes
Vampire: The Masquerade @ whitewolf wikia
Background:
Meg Lodestone was born under the name Regan Healy. She was raised in her uncle's household, as her parents were unmarried and couldn't afford to raise an "oops" child. While Meg maintains to this day that she was not abused in the stereotypical sense, she was strongly aware growing up that she was the extraneous charity case, and she'd better be grateful for what she had or else. Regan grew up a frustrated teenager with a chip on her shoulder and a hair-trigger temper. One day, a fistfight after school hours ended with her stabbing a classmate with a penknife, sending her into juvie. Her already-ambivalent relationship with her uncle's family went further downhill, and at fifteen she ran away from home.
Over the next ten years, hitchhiking from town to town and living on the streets, she reinvented herself from unwanted punk-ass kid to street rat to falling in with the criminal underworld. She graduated from simple burglary to art theft and forgery, under the pseudonym "Jean Gant." While she made few real friends in this time period, she built up trust and reliable contacts, and did gain at least one lasting friendship: A confidence trickster called Caleb Price. While they never made it to the big time, they enjoyed a good string of successful cons and always managed to stay ahead of the law.
But this run of good luck couldn't last: When Price made the decision to leave crime behind and go legit, Meg declined to follow, instead taking a job with what turned out to be a major crime syndicate. When the job went sour, she found that not only was she going to be cut loose, but her new "friends" were conspiring to sell her out to the police, using her as a distraction so they could get away clean. In a fit of rage, Meg turned the tables on them by leaving an anonymous tip to the cops. The conspirators were arrested themselves and Meg went on the run. The proverbial mob was now out for her blood and very few of her old contacts were willing to help, either as she now had a reputation as a double-crosser, or because it was too big a risk to offer a hand.
Meg ended up in a seedy little bar in New York, telling her story to the barman, as you do. The barman, a man called Liam Kerr, offered a solution: He would help her fake her death, in a way that would convince pretty well anybody, and set her up a brand new life and identity. With nothing to lose, Meg accepted -- one gory, bloody mess left in a cheap motelroom later, "Jean Gant" was presumed dead, probable suicide. In her place was the vampire Meg Lodestone of clan Brujah.
On one hand, this was exactly the golden opportunity Kerr had said it was: So long as she laid low for a while, she was free and safe from the mob. She could even stay in touch with Price, with the caveat that she never tell him the truth of her circumstances. On the other hand, that little act of altruism came with its own problems: New York City was a Camarilla domain, and the Camarilla have rules about creating new vampires ("neonates"). Kerr had broken this rule, and Meg had to appease Prince Reyes of New York. As part of her probation, Meg was assigned to a coterie of other neonates and given missions to carry out, so they might prove their worth. Her new companions included the tremere Philip McPherson, toreador Perth Nelissen, malkavian Thorne, and ventrue Derek Sterling, many of whom were also illegally created or who were troublemakers in some way. Later members included Mia, Philip's "cousin", and Joseph, a Camarilla loyalist.
Over the next few months, Meg and her crew became involved with a major power play conducted by Prince Reyes to seize control of New York. Some notable events over this time period:
- The crew's investigation into certain ill omens (mysterious murders, sightings of the Strix, malevolent owl-like creatures from the time of ancient Rome) lead to a meeting with the kiasyd librarian, who told them about the Gehenna myth, if myth it is. While Meg was a hardline skeptic, Thorne's malkavian delusion was that she had the ability to rewrite the past and change the future, and was destined to save the world. After Thorne's death, she posthumously transferred her delusions to Derek, who became convinced that the true saviour was dead and everyone was doomed when Caine came home.
- On Halloween, they were trapped in the Voynich Hotel, a haunted building that had become a vortex of bad mojo and the architect's poor life choices. It was later revealed that Philip had secretly been taking magical instruction from the tzimisce Dr. Warren Oda, and the incident had been part of paying off Philip's debt.
- Following the defeat and capture of a rogue redcap, they delivered it to the local Goblin Market, only to discover that it was a runaway slave. Rather than bring the wrath of the fae on them (“Look, unless you want to fucking buy him or have him accidentally fall down a flight of stairs…”), Meg volunteered to hand it back to the slavers.
- A party at Madison Square became the site of an assassination attempt upon Prince Reyes, which the crew intercepted. They had overheard evidence that Boss Callihan, the Carthian Baron, was aware of and perhaps orchestrated the attack, prompting Reyes to call a blood hunt on him. The baron went into hiding for some months, until the crew negotiated with a Sabbat pack for his retrieval and handed him to the Prince.
- Related to the Madison Square ambush: the apparent involvement of two Bishops, one Sabbat and one Lancea Sanctum, and a mass appearance of Strix after the party broke up. The Sanctum bishop, Orfeo d'Angelo, was sighted apparently commanding the Strix before vanishing without a trace. To draw him out from hiding, Meg encouraged the crew to steal a caricature that infamously enraged d'Angelo during the mid-1800s, and anonymously spread it on the internet and leave graffiti on his church as a taunt. Fucking millenials.
- The crew was tasked with ousting the Giovanni clan/family from the city. While they were later instrumental in the assassination of Donatello Giovanni, their initial forays attracted the attention of human law enforcement. Not only that, but their getaway van had been modified by Thorne's mad-scientist sire, to the tune of "nitro boosters and automatic machine guns opening fire on the pursuing cops." For violating the Masquerade on this scale, Reyes ordered the execution of Philip, Thorne, and her sire. Meg forcibly prevented Derek from going down in a blaze of glory (i.e. faking an attack on Reyes so that the rest could run), reasoning that it was a suicidal plan and only two dead was better than all of them gunned down, and someone needed to demonstrate loyalty to Reyes if they were to salvage the situation.
- This event was called back later, after Mia and Joseph joined the crew and they paid a visit to Philip's now-abandoned office. During the visit, Perth secretly stole Philip's journal and slipped it among Meg's belongings to frame her instead. When this duplicity was discovered, Perth let slip under interrogation that it was his private report to Prince Reyes that nudged her to give the execution order. Meg attacked him in a rage (brujahs being extra susceptible to frenzy), and the ensuing struggle left most of the crew injured and Perth in torpor (i.e. nearly, not quite, dead).
Most of the campaign has been documented here, with the exception of the final chapter/session, where the crew were sent to Baron Ornskold's manor as diplomatic envoys, to encourage him to ally his clan to the Camarilla. Had the night progressed, it would have become clear that the manor was surrounded by Strix and the Baron was possessed... but Meg is being taken before shit goes down.
Canon Point:
March 2015 (during the visit to Ornskold's manor)
Personality:
In many ways, Meg Lodestone fits the image of the typical brujah: A brash, individualistic thug skirting the edges of the law. At the same time, she is methodical and analytical despite her lack of formal education, documenting the crew's research and engaged in crimes that demand specialized knowledge and attention to detail -- recalling the "warrior-scholar" image of the historical brujah.
While she likes to think she's moved beyond those days, Meg often views the world through the lens of an unwanted street rat, scraping a living while dodging cops and gangs and well-meaning adults. In personal confrontation, Meg comes off as rude and cocky, is likely to work through menace and physical intimidation, and will lie or cheat or use brutal force. She distrusts authority (at best it's incompetent, at worst it's something to actively avoid) and is skittish and paranoid. These traits have only worsened over time, from Perth's duplicity to her discovery that Philip's detective work included a file on her Jean Gant persona. While Meg is nominally loyal to the Camarilla and grudgingly respects the Prince's authority, her personal opinion of the sects is that they're nothing but jumped-up gangsters fighting to be King Shit of Fuck Mountain, and neonates like herself are just there to get caught in the crossfire.
Her motivation is simply survival at any cost. She is not a hero and has no interest in being one, and in saving her own skin she is capable of morally-repugnant actions, from handing a slave to his owners to breaking Derek's ribs rather than helping him save Thorne and Philip's lives. This is not to say she is evil or intends to be -- Meg feels like a right bastard every time this happens, and she was as disgusted as the others upon learning about the Scourge (a Camarilla institution that systematically kills thinbloods/young-generation vampires, to appease elders who think this will delay Gehenna). Meg simply has no reason to believe that the world will give her any quarter if she lets down her guard, even for a minute.
There's a darker side to her pragmatism: The "any cost" mentioned above has included her own identity (twice over!) and humanity. On some level, Meg believes that her life is the only thing she has a claim to. Anything else can be taken away, which means anything else is expendable. Hence not following Price in leaving crime behind -- this life is all she knows. If she gives that up, what then?
Meg has a very particular sense of loyalty, also stemming from her life on the streets. You can think the people around you are suicidally naive (Thorne) or pretentious (Perth) or crazy (Derek) or a goddamn idiot who couldn't tie his shoes with help (Philip), but a crew depends on each other and nothing they can do is worse than what the world throws at you. As independent as Meg is, she knows how much her survival depends on others. Her anger at the mob and at Perth is due to this -- you don't shit where you eat. This is also why she wouldn't go to Price for help when she was on the run, as she would be bringing danger to a friend (one of her few links to her humanity) who wanted to rebuild his life. To put it clear: Meg will not die for you, but keeping you from dying is a high priority... within reason.
That said, almost anyone outside her circle can rot, frankly. She's still a thief and a criminal with little regard for personal property -- not to mention that being a vampire conditions you to see humans as a food source.
As stated, Meg is smart: Everything she knows, particularly her knowledge of art and art history, is either self-taught or cobbled together from various sources and criminal mentors, and she has an appreciation for cleverness and neat solutions. With this comes arrogance and a tendency to overthink and overcomplicate plans (the Giovanni assassination did not need disguises or secret entrances or ambushes -- just walk in the front door and take them by surprise). Add this to typical brujah gung-ho behaviour and her desire for action rather than dithering round, and as often as not she gets in way, way over her head and has to squirm her way out of trouble somehow.
Meg does have a softer side: she really does care about the well-being of the people around her, and not only as a tactical concern. Despite her animosity with Perth, for instance, she's genuinely apologetic for nearly killing him. In an incident where the crew framed Perth's sire to get inconvenient evidence off their hands, in a roundabout way she did it in the hopes that they could get him out of an unhealthy relationship. Meg is unquestionably someone you want on your side; she's defiant in the face of adversity and certainly doesn't lack for courage. It would be a huge stretch to say that she's basically a good person, but for all her lies and deception she was often the most straightforward person in the room. Meg is cynical and bitter and rarely sees reason to believe in a happy outcome, but her intentions are, if not pure, then less muddied than one would expect.
Flavor Abilities:
Vampire Teeth: While Meg will probably not have a dependency on blood, she will have the sharp, longer-than-normal canines of a vampire. They will not be able to elongate and be viable as a weapon(?), however.
Looking Like a Goddamn Corpse: Meg will have the lower body temperature, no audible heartbeat, and greyish pallor of the dead. However, she will bleed like a human, need to breathe and eat like a human, and despite being cold to the touch will be just as susceptible to frostbite, fatigue, and death from exposure.
Being Frozen As a Goddamn Corpse: Meg will be a mortal human ingame and will age, but not visibly. One of the quirks of V:tM vampires is that they will always default to the appearance they were upon their first "death" (one embarrassing example being a man who'd been sunburned and is now stuck with it forever). For instance, not only will hair not grow, but any haircuts will return to their original length by the next night. No new scars, calluses, etc. can form, though in Snowblind injuries will be sustained and healed at a normal human rate. Caveat: Missing limbs will not regenerate.
Meg's clan disciplines (potence and celerity/enhanced strength and speed) will be brought down to within human ability.
Suitability:
While Meg has some experience with roughing it on the road, she's usually had the freedom to pull up roots and seek better climes (literally). Failing that, she could always disappear into the noise and chaos of a big city like NYC. Being trapped with a lack of options and the relative isolation is going to raise her city-kid hackles. Meg is adaptable and pragmatic enough that this won't halt her for long, though. She's also from a supernatural world, so her initial guess as to what happened is "that tzimisce fuck is messing with my head again." Once she's more securely on her feet, "find out what's going on and who's responsible and gut them" will be on the docket. While Meg would be naturally suspicious of anyone trying to impose authority (who died and made you boss), the mystery of Norfinbury will grab her interest enough to pool anything she finds out with other seekers.
Once she understands that she's susceptible to cold and starvation, she'll zero in on finding a supply of fuel and food and clothes. It's possible she'll steal from other survivors if they appear to have a surplus, but she'll be capable of cooperation (see above). Given how few people there are, she knows it's only a matter of time before a career criminal is caught. Given her skittishness and difficulty trusting people, she may be able to avoid cabin fever on her own; on the other hand, it's not impossible that she'll get caught out after curfew at least once, simply because her perception of her physical limits are out of whack.
Hiding her nature will be be a priority: If she's here, then no reason to think that hunters and so on from her world aren't here too. In fact, she'll privately be tracking who's inhuman or exhibits inhuman traits, possibly even spying on them, just in case. With regards to her vampirism... losing that is going to be met with some relief and chagrin. Not detonating in sunlight or risking her inner beast if she doesn't feed? Great. Losing her abilities, like strength and speed and rapid healing? She'll miss that a lot, and it'll be a rude awakening if she gets into a fight.
RP Samples:
TDM Link -- as the threads are short, there's additional samples below:
[Network/text sample from @compass5565, posted after midnight.]
[Meg has been keeping as anonymous as she could on the network: No names, no video. Alongside that, she's tried to keep interactions businesslike, with... varying levels of success. This time, she's rather more introspective than usual, less guarded. Probably it's the late hour that's doing it. Meg has never really lived anywhere long enough to feel homesick after leaving it, but whatever's going on right now might be a close cousin to that feeling.]
do you know what i really miss?
i mean aside from electric lights and not having to go to bed wearing like three layers and two pairs of socks. seriously new york winters are garbage but at least you could sleep without worrying about your nose falling off.
i miss music. back where i come from, even when you're on the road and like miles from town, you'd have your phone. or radio. or fuck, some other car would have the windows down and the bass turned up. something to break up the quiet.
it's dumb and whiny but w/e you can kiss my ass. what kind of music do you guys even have where you're from? when you're from. whatever.
btw yes i can't fucking get to sleep thanks for asking, three guesses as to why.
---
[Log/prose sample:]
The house is on fire.
This is really inconvenient.
Firstly, this had been a nice house. The original owners had been well-off, she figured, either to buy it as-is or to fund a whole bunch of renovations. When you live in a ghost town, eventually everything starts to look wind-blasted and faded at the edges. In Meg's opinion, losing an aesthetically-pleasing landmark, one that helped break up the monotony, is a crying shame.
More importantly, some folks had been using the basement as a workstation. She wasn't entirely sure what they were up to, given the conspicuous lack of machinery in the town -- the technical details had gone over her head, as much as she didn't like to admit it. But she'd been sufficiently interested to help haul salvaged bits and pieces back to the house, in exchange for a room she could crash in whenever she was in the area. This arrangement had suited her fine -- they got what they needed, and their project kept them busy so they didn't bother her much.
She hung around even after they had all the parts they wanted. If asked, she'd say she was just curious, but she'd gotten used to them. They weren't bad housemates. Definitely better than some of the college kids in the apartment building she'd lived in, back in NYC. And heck, she could admire their dedication to the work, given all the warnings about the dangers of staying still for too long.
Judging by how the flames are peeling up the walls, the fire probably started in the basement. A knocked-over candle? Experiment gone horribly wrong? Intentional sabotage? Either way, the house is doomed, and the project with it.
Welp.
"It's a bummer," she says, mostly to herself, but audible enough for the crowd of gawkers to hear as well, "but it was probably a long shot anyway --"
Someone shouts and points urgently at a window. Movement inside. A broad shadow that isn't the flickering firelight.
Meg's first thought is you dumb motherfuckers getting yourselves killed over a shot in the dark. Her second thought, as she scans the crowd and tallies her housemates' last known locations in her head, is that wait, none of them could be in there. Which means that someone is either in the wrongest place at the wrongest time, or the sabotage theory holds water.
The front entrance has already collapsed, so Meg breaks away from the crowd to jog around the perimeter, where the back door is still holding. She crouches by the fence, a safe distance away, to lie in wait.
Meg would not rush into a burning building to save a friend. (Among other reasons -- for as long as she's been here, the instinct of "fire is as dangerous as sunlight, keep well away" is still strong.) She'd feel like a monster, sure, but them's the breaks. Meg would definitely not rush into a burning building to save an enemy.
But staking out the only viable exit of a burning building, to ambush someone who might well have screwed over a bunch of people she's chummy with, not to mention torched a place she was using as a haven? That, she's perfectly capable of.
Whoever comes out better be able to talk fast, or she's throwing them right back inside and barricading the door.