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[VtR] The Aster Courts IC: A Darkness Concrete

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Posts

  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    Ecstasy nods towards the crowd. "For them." She takes a long drag. "What's your deal anyway? You look a little too clean for the Courts."
    Graves moves as if his head and hands were two separate beasts entirely, stuffing pound notes in his lockbox while he hands out vials and packages. "A mode of distribution? For what? Do yeh cook, chem, still?"

    Arivia on
    huntresssig.jpg
  • GlandmineGlandmine casual nuisance Registered User regular
    "You look like a fucking victim up there, doin' that," Sway muttered at Colton with a shake of his head. The Haunt whipped out his phone and sent out a salvo of messages to the tower crew and other associates, a request for word on Red Dogs in a grime-text cant practically indecipherable to the outsider. Awaiting the barrage of replies, he mentally prepared himself to whittle away the hearsay and the bullshit and get something solid on their quarry.

  • MoosehatIVMoosehatIV Saw a blimp once Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    Isaac grins widely, flashing a mouthful of fang. "Yeh, heard of me? Of course I still cook. I gotta eat, don't I?"

    Miles away, in his little haven, glimmering canisters of rat poison sit near tables full of drug cooking equipment. Near those, a ragged and well used set of welders gloves and aprons sit. His body's paranoia of fire was a bitch to overcome, but on good nights he could light up his bunsen burners on low and get some work done. It took a bit of trail and error to figure out exactly how much poison you can mix into your pills and powders without having nasty side effects, but the desperate don't care about being guinea pigs if the drugs are free.

    "I have a good supply I have been working on. With my little lab, and your distribution we could stand to make a tidy little profit. What do you say?"

    MoosehatIV on
  • Suicide SlydeSuicide Slyde Haunts your dreams of mountains sunk below the seaRegistered User regular
    Johnny laughs.

    "Yea, probably looks that way. I grew up on the Courts for most of my life. Got myself turned around though and then... pulled back in."

    He looks at her and then Graves.

    "So what's the deal with you and the old man?"

  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    What can only be described as a herd rushes around Colton, almost lifting him off his feet with the crush of bodies and the crash of shouting. "I heard 'bout them! They got that claw all over the walls our house three courts over!" "Yeah! Cocks beat me right out of a stairwell one day!" More babble and grumble follows, but it's unintelligible or worthless, pointless or mere grifting.
    The barrage comes in rings and chimes before the storm, Sway wincing as he lifts the phone to his ear to answer a call only to be greeted by the arrival of three messages blaring. When all is said and done, the whisper is thus: The Red Dogs are a group made up of little more than angry youth, like you were once upon a time, their set numbering some ten in total. All they've done are petty violent crimes, hooliganism, a little selling of filched pills from Ma's cupboard. Nothing quality. They're lorded over by an oddly charismatic fellow, tall ginger named Ryan Keller.
    "Hmm." Graves closes his eyes but a moment, lost in thought. "Alright. Yeh bring me a sample for my girl to try, if it's good yeh have a deal at fifty-fifty."
    "Nothing too busy. He got me started - calls me Ecstasy because that's the first thing he sold me, back when all I wanted was a day job at Fran's Hair and Beauty and a night out at the dancing clubs." She pauses. "Of course, I didn't stop there and he was always ready and willing to give me what I needed. One day..." she takes another breath of smoke, pushing it out, hacking. "One day he told me he had something better than anything else I'd tried yet, rolled down his sleeve and cut a line. I couldn't say no. Never was able to. Since then, I've been sticking by him day and night, helping with this." She gestures behind herself at the truck with the cigarette, stubbing it out on the metal riser of the truck.

    Arivia on
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  • MoosehatIVMoosehatIV Saw a blimp once Registered User regular
    Isaac flashes that toothy grin. He could have been described as toothy even before his embrace, so now with the addition of fangs he looks something like a smirking crocodile. Thin lips and lots and lots of teeth.

    "Sounds like we have an accord, Graves. I will whip her up something after our little trip tonight. Speaking of, care to give me a spoiler on where we are heading next?"

  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    Graves spits on the ground in a stinking gobbet. "Bloody church is that way." He gestures north with his head.

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  • Suicide SlydeSuicide Slyde Haunts your dreams of mountains sunk below the seaRegistered User regular
    Johnny pokes his head out from behind the truck. The words ring in his ears over the din of the junkies harassing Colton.

    "Wait," he holds a finger up to Ecstasy, "What was that? We're going to a church?" He stares at Graves quizzically.

  • MoosehatIVMoosehatIV Saw a blimp once Registered User regular
    "Church? They actually let you sell over there?" Isaac snorts and shakes his head. "What can we expect from them? A welcome as warm as the one we got here?"

  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    "Yeh, a church. Yeh know, the Sanctified. Bloody bastards the lot of them. And no, they won't let me sell for shit - so I'll be dropping yeh off a court over and layin' low. Probably a worse welcome - the fuckin' priests aren't good for much beyond praying and murder."

    huntresssig.jpg
  • MoosehatIVMoosehatIV Saw a blimp once Registered User regular
    Isaac glances over at Johnny and cocks his eyebrow, "And here I thought I was the only one with good hearing."

    Hands still shoved deep into his pockets he sits on the front bumper of the truck, "What do you really think they are going to tell you Johnny? That we can be redeemed? That the man upstairs still loves us? What do you want to even hear from them?"

  • Suicide SlydeSuicide Slyde Haunts your dreams of mountains sunk below the seaRegistered User regular
    "I don't know Isaac, all I know is that these fools aren't answering any questions," he says as he gestures towards the old house.

    "My faith in God helped answer questions before Isaac, why can't it answer them now?"

  • Silas BrownSilas Brown That's hobo style. Registered User regular
    A rumble filled Joseph's chest, something between a laugh and a growl. "You really are thick, aren't you?" He shrugged. "Look, maybe we can go real quick just so our friend here can see that nothing will happen, and then we can get on with business."

  • GlandmineGlandmine casual nuisance Registered User regular
    "Because you're dead, mate," Sway butted in, exasperated. "You're fuckin' dead and you're still here in the Courts. What does that tell you?"

    The Haunt trudged up and down, restless and tapped his phone.

    "Got a line on the Dogs. Just some kids following this ginger cunt -- Keller."

  • Suicide SlydeSuicide Slyde Haunts your dreams of mountains sunk below the seaRegistered User regular
    Johnny stares coldly at Joseph and then Sway. He retreats mentally, unwilling to argue their very nature of existence when he didn't have any idea himself.

    "Fine," he looks at Colton, "Your call Colton, this Red Dog thing is your show, now or later?"

  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    Graves pipes up from inside the truck. "I ain't running out of sods to sell to, go on!"

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  • Silas BrownSilas Brown That's hobo style. Registered User regular
    Joseph smiles wide, his first genuine expression of happiness since the gathering began. "This is going to be fun."

  • MoosehatIVMoosehatIV Saw a blimp once Registered User regular
    Isaac swings up into the truck, taking the last cushioned seat in the mobile drug van. "Hurry up fellows..." Isaac mumbles in a dry tone, "We are about to be saved..."

  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    You break off from Graves, heading across the nearest court towards where the Red Dogs lie.

    This court closest to the First Estate is like all of the others, dark with night, quiet with fear, still with trepidation. In the shadows, you catch deals going on - a shifty man in a ratty old raincoat, cat's eyes flashing, handing over a bundle of pound notes for a pile of brown wrapping paper that doesn't even pretend to hide the rifle it covers, someone who looks too young to be anything but a girl crying out in pain as she disappears between a man's legs. The shops are closed here, metal shutters rolled down, the neon lights shut off, boxes of fags and cartons of drink locked up tight. None of this would stop you - none of it has in the past - but it still shows you how what little "good people" there are in the Aster Courts go to ground, cover themselves up tight against the darkness, close their eyes and let it blow over. Echoing out of one of the tenement floors, you can hear a man shouting, the crash of shattering glass, and the wet splat of falling flesh.

    It's almost freeing, in a way - when you come to the court, you stride across without fear, lords of the night. None of this concerns you, weighs you down, holds any danger - no longer are you mere men, squabbling punks clawing for your place. This is beneath you - you are above it. You could slaughter your way through this building in a moment, turn it into an abattoir, and who would stop you? Not the police, for certain. Nothing like that lives here, in the Courts: just your hands, your feet, your will.

    The council didn't even bother to pretend to turn the centre of the court into a park, just filled it out with slabs of concrete, breaking down into gravel and dust. A scraggle of weeds pokes out here and there, gasping for life. You step past it, stride beyond, to the other side of the court, between the tenement blocks, no one stopping you. Here, where the tenements show on side as monolithic, immovable concrete walls, a red claw - paw print even, pad and three points - is sprayed on, in a deep crimson red. It covers a delicate white rose, with stem and flourish, blocking it out with aggression.

    Going out beyond this leads you back into the rows of plastic townhouses. Most of them are shuttered up and locked tight, lights out against the world. One stands distinctly alive, however, a group of men slipping in under the sole glaring streetlight. Before the door stands a patagonian man, tall and brutish, thick with muscle. He sees you, turns to face you, a red claw embroidered on his leather jacket, growling "Ey! Wot you there up to?"

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  • Silas BrownSilas Brown That's hobo style. Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    Joseph offers a closed-mouth smile and walks right up to the man. Standing within inches of the leather-clad figure, he finally widens his smile, baring his fangs openly. In the same instant, claws emerge from his knuckles, puncturing discreet holes through his flesh... one of the blessings of his undeath.

    "I'm just here to blow off some steam."

    The Gangrel swings at his target in a punching motion, aiming to take out an eye... or whatever gets in the way.
    Rolled Strength + Brawl + Protean Claws - His Defense - His Armor. 6 successes.

    Silas Brown on
  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    The claws dig deep into the giant of a man, tearing at flesh and skin, leaving great bloody wounds and pulling out a thick cut of muscle and fat. The man screams in pain: "Fuck!" as he staggers, but doesn't go down.

    huntresssig.jpg
  • GlandmineGlandmine casual nuisance Registered User regular
    edited November 2011
    Sway had wrapped a shirt around the lower half of his face, white rose pinned to his hoodie. He was fine repping the Invic', but anonymity was better. He had plans for his own franchise, after all. He began to palm a stanley knife from his pocket before he smelled what was leaking from the big man.

    "Fuckin' yaaas..." he muttered with lazy glee, feeling the vitae shift beneath his flesh granting it hideous strength. The undersized Haunt stepped quickly up to the staggering giant and whipped his head back as he jumped up at the man, aiming his eyes at the screaming mouth so that his forehead would crush a nose as he delivered a blood-charged headbutt to the bleeder.

    He rubbed his forehead as he landed, producing the blade with a shirt-muffled snigger.
    Rolled Strenth+Brawl+Vigor+All-Out- Defense & Armor
    -1 Vitae for Vigor, no Defense next round. 4 Sux [Edit: I'm dumb. Forgot to put the sux ._.

    Glandmine on
  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    Sway's brutal headbutt does crush the giant's nose, splattering it into a shower of blood that soaks Sway's improvised mask. It sends you from high to high, the smell turning into the aggression, the Beast stirring in hunger as you feel yourself drenched in delicious life.

    This time the giant can't even make out words, just screams a terrible scream that rings in your ears and echoes across the Courts. With his nose smashed, the man falls, his hands releasing from fists, his legs giving out, he hits the street with a thud and a crack as his head bashes against the ground. The gaping wound where his nose once was and the gash in his chest where he was clawed open pour blood forth and out, down and away to a sewer grate. The man is barely breathing, still, unmoving.

    Inside the plastic house you can hear shouting, a man saying "Ey, wot's that?" and people rising, calling out: "Samuel, you alright?"

    huntresssig.jpg
  • MoosehatIVMoosehatIV Saw a blimp once Registered User regular
    Isaac sighs and shakes his head. These idiots watch way too many movies. That said, Isaac takes his traditional place in any combat, behind everyone else. Being a smaller child in school taught him the lesson of having large, violent friends to do the dirty work for you. Of course, you always want to seem like you are participating, lest the blundering dolts figure out your ruse.

    Colton's epic speech is followed by a foul hacking fit as Isaac clearly coughs up something wet and thick. Unseen to the others, he rubs the glob of viscous, brownish vitae onto the knife he regularly carries with him. The blood is toxic to mortals. Quite toxic. Anyone who gets too close to him will definitely learn a lesson.
    Used taint on my knife. Anybody who touches it is subject to the toxicity of mah blood.

  • Suicide SlydeSuicide Slyde Haunts your dreams of mountains sunk below the seaRegistered User regular
    edited November 2011
    Something changes inside of Johnny, he feels the hesitation slip away as the smell of blood wafts through the air. He remembers the Red Claws, how they would beat him and leave him in broken heap on the ground, stealing his shoes, jacket and whatever else they wanted. This is his time now, now he can take back everything they took from him... and maybe some more.

    "Words Colton? They don't understand words."

    The blood courses under his skin as he speaks, Johnny feels his body burn with new found strength. He walks towards the door and nods at Joseph.

    "Violence? Now that's something they understand."

    Johnny lifts up his leg and kicks at he door with all of his might.
    Spent 1 vitae to boost Strength by 2. Rolled Strength+Stamina to break down the door. 2 successes Edit: dice pool according to WoD rulebook on breaking down doors

    Suicide Slyde on
  • GlandmineGlandmine casual nuisance Registered User regular
    Sway licked his lips under the improvised mask as he looked cock-eyed at Colton.

    "The fuck is you talkin' like that for, Fam. You sounds like a bad Gandalf," he whispered. The Haunt shook his head and booted Samuel's jaw, hoping to hear teeth rattle along the concrete. He looked up at Isaac, "And you, with your sighin'. Had a long night watchin' us run tings, is it?"

    Hopped up on the casual violence and the coppery taste in the air, he directed the aggravation at the voice from inside the house. He felt pretty confident with the big man leaking on the ground.

    "You will shit teeth, bruv!" he hollered at the Red Dog voice, punctuating Colton's oratory with something a little more crass.

  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    Under Sway's toe, teeth come free from the dying Samuel. They do not rattle or roll, simply landing with a wet splat in the pooling blood, one gently flowing away and down the sewer grate.

    Under your assault, the inside of the Red Dogs' row house goes quiet, the inquisitive voices from before stilled. Until Johnny lifts up his leg and breaks the rotten, weak door from its cheap hinges, sending out a cloud of splinters and a loud crash.

    Under your eyes, the inside of the row house is revealed, a squalid threadbare place. Five men stand around a table or behind an overturned couch, in the linoleum sitting room before the gutted kitchen. Having left their poker game in surprise, they now clutch long pipes and knives, the man behind the couch thrusting out an old beaten Uzi. You recognize these men - the scarred face, the leader of the thugs who tried to hold up Graves' truck before. The scarred man swallows, tries to steady his wavering hand, and screams out: "Come and gettit, you fucks!"
    Sway - Initiative 15, Health 7, Defense 2
    Joseph - Initiative 15, Health 8, Defense 3
    Colton - Initiative 14, Health 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0
    Johnny - Initiative 10, Health 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0
    Isaac - Initiative 8, Health 7, Defense 3
    Gang Leader - Initiative 6, Health 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0; partial concealment -2
    Knife Thug - Initiative 4, Health 7, Defense 3
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health 8, Defense 2
    Knife Thug - Initiative 4, Health 7, Defense 3
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health 8, Defense 2

    Sample health block:
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health //X* out of 8

    Use / for bashing, X for lethal, and * for aggravated.

    Up Next: Sway (Glandmine)

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  • GlandmineGlandmine casual nuisance Registered User regular
    Not one to let a human shield go to waste, Sway wrenched Samuel up from the ground and used him as cover as he ran at the door. He hurled his carcass hard at the man with the Uzi, calling on all the strength he could squeeze out of the vitae.
    Sway (Shaun Avery) rolled 10 dice to "Str+Athletics+Willpower+Vigor+Vitae" 7,3,10,9,9,8,5,10,6,8,3,2 (6 successes) Link

  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    edited December 2011
    Samuel's flying bulk clears the door and even the flipped over couch, the surge of Vitae-powered strength sending the dead man crashing into the gunman.

    "Ugh!" the man cries as he's hit, almost losing his footing, his aim off and distracted due to his now bruised arm.
    5 bashing damage in total for that move.

    Sway - Initiative 15, Health 7, Defense 2
    Joseph - Initiative 15, Health 8, Defense 3
    Colton - Initiative 14, Health 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0
    Johnny - Initiative 10, Health 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0
    Isaac - Initiative 8, Health 7, Defense 3
    Gang Leader - Initiative 6, Health ///// out of 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0; partial concealment -2, -1 wound penalty to all actions
    Knife Thug - Initiative 4, Health 7, Defense 3
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health 8, Defense 2
    Knife Thug - Initiative 4, Health 7, Defense 3
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health 8, Defense 2

    Sample health block:
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health //X* out of 8

    Use / for bashing, X for lethal, and * for aggravated.

    Up Next: Joseph (Silas Brown)

    Arivia on
    huntresssig.jpg
  • Silas BrownSilas Brown That's hobo style. Registered User regular
    edited December 2011
    "Alright, then, I've been looking forward to this all day." Joseph lunges for the nearest knife-wielding thug and grabs the gang-member by the collar as he swings low with clawed fist, punching the unfortunate Red Dog hard in the stomach. "You're gonna need to see a doctor after this!"
    Brawl + Strength + Claws of the Wild - Knife Thug's Defense comes to 4 successes.

    Dear brother Colton is up next. Talk away.

    Silas Brown on
  • Suicide SlydeSuicide Slyde Haunts your dreams of mountains sunk below the seaRegistered User regular
    edited December 2011
    Johnny stepped out of the way just in time to feel the body sail past him followed closely by three more as they charged into the room. His sudden aggression had caught himself off guard. Clearing his head he steps into the house and surveys the carnage before him. He produces the box cutter from his pocket. He locks eyes with a pipe wielding thug nearest to him. Without saying a word he swings the blade at the thug, searching for flesh. The blade sings through the air.
    Str+Weaponry+1 knife-2 for def = 0 successes

    Sway - Initiative 15, Health 7, Defense 2
    Joseph - Initiative 15, Health 8, Defense 3
    Colton - Initiative 14, Health 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0
    Johnny - Initiative 10, Health 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0
    Isaac - Initiative 8, Health 7, Defense 3
    Gang Leader - Initiative 6, Health ///// out of 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0; partial concealment -2, -1 wound penalty to all actions
    Knife Thug - Initiative 4, Health 7, Defense 3
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health // of 8, Defense 2
    Knife Thug - Initiative 4, Health 7, Defense 3
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health 8, Defense 2

    Sample health block:
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health //X* out of 8

    Use / for bashing, X for lethal, and * for aggravated.

    Up Next: Isaac (Moosehat)

    Suicide Slyde on
  • MoosehatIVMoosehatIV Saw a blimp once Registered User regular


    One of the knife wielding thugs darts left, past the mad brawlers that have thrown themselves into the mix. He is going to try to get behind them, to dig his knife into one of their spines. But, he doesn't notice Isaac. Most people don't. As he passes, Isaac pulls his knife out of his jacket pocket and lazily slides it against the thugs arm. It opens up a long gash, nothing close to a lethal blow, but painful. Very painful. Those who are aware can smell a faint chemical smell on the breeze as fat blisters appear around the wound on the thug's arm. Green and black veins slither under the skin as the tainted vitae that was on the blade of Isaac's knife does exactly what it is supposed to do. Corrupt and destroy anything it touches.

    Isaac looks at the thug with near black eyes and sniffs the air. Oh, how that blood smells delicious...
    Sway - Initiative 15, Health 7, Defense 2
    Joseph - Initiative 15, Health 8, Defense 3
    Colton - Initiative 14, Health 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0
    Johnny - Initiative 10, Health 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0
    Isaac - Initiative 8, Health 7, Defense 3
    Gang Leader - Initiative 6, Health ///// out of 7, Defense 2, Armor 1/0; partial concealment -2, -1 wound penalty to all actions
    Knife Thug - Initiative 4, Health XXXXX of 7, Defense 3
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health // of 8, Defense 2
    Knife Thug - Initiative 4, Health 7, Defense 3
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health 8, Defense 2

    Sample health block:
    Pipe Thug - Initiative 4, Health //X* out of 8

    Use / for bashing, X for lethal, and * for aggravated.

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