Backgrounds: Contact 1(Lauren, an Uktena werewolf), Eminence 2(Akiel was a significant figure to some, though James is mostly unaware of this), Fame 2(James is a well-known Private Investigator in LA), Resources 2(James owns both a home, and a small office in LA)
Lore: Lore of The Spirit
Torment: 3
History:
James was born in Los Angeles, and has lived his whole life in the confines of the city. Growing up, he always felt more at peace and happy in the night hours, his parents often catching him sneaking out at night to take a walk, lay in the grass, or sometimes just sit on the front porch, watching cars and planes go by.
As he aged into being a young adult, James wanted to take a career into investigation and forensics, and become a police officer, with the goal to make detective. Going to college for his degree, then the police academy, James eventually would become a police officer at the age of 21.
For his first few years of his career, James was a model officer, on track to be the star of the department. But then came his first case delving into the hidden world of monsters. Investigating a Missing Persons case, James was told to return to the station after the suspect in question murdered 3 other police officers with his bare hands. James disobeyed the order, instead following the suspect into a large forest.
The suspect led him to a clearing, and what he witnessed then changed his perspective on the world forever. The suspect was in the process of transforming into a hideous beast, his clothes lying in tatters across the clearing and clumped into his body.
James leveled his pistol at the beast and fired off two rounds, which hit their mark. The shots grazed the creature, doing damage, but having a minimal effect on the rampaging of the monster, instead alerting to James' presence.
As the creature charged towards him, James fired off another pair of rounds, hitting the beast square in the chest, stunning it temporarily. As he did so, a roar echoed from the woods as another, slightly different beast charged from the trees and slammed into the first beast. The two fought, and eventually the one that tried to attack James lay dead, the corpse having reverted to a human form, one James recognized as the suspect.
The other monster, which James finally observed as taking the vague shape of a wolf, transformed into a human shape, approaching James, who still held his pistol up. The monster-turned-man held up his hand, and James slowly lowered the pistol and approached the man.
The man's name was Lauren, a werewolf. He was the one that introduced James to the so-called World of Darkness, sharing secrets not known to the majority of the mortal world. James would keep in contact with Lauren, using him as a contact for what would become James' private investigation service.
James left his job with the police department after that night, instead deciding to delve into researching what Lauren had enlightened him to. James learned much in that time, but eventually his savings would begin to run dry, and Odeman's Investigation Services would open for business.
Quickly taking to solving cases both mundane and supernatural, James garnered a reputation for solving cases the police department regularly threw out as insane, hoaxes, or otherwise would not believe to be real. With cases ranging from unravelling vampire plots, to exorcising possessions by wraiths, and nearly everything in between, it would eventually culminate in a life-changing case involving a mysterious cult.
As an Angel, Akiel's job was to guide souls to the afterlife. Even prior to the punishment of Humanity, Akiel found the task laborious and torture, as he was forced to witness the despair of humanity as things around them died. Thus, when he was forced to claim the souls of Humans themselves, Akiel felt that to be the final straw.
Joining with the forces of Lucifer in the War of Wrath, Akiel only became privy to the folly of his actions long after the war ended, and he had spent what felt like an eternity in the torment of Hell. He came to realize that betraying God was wrong, and that if he were to ever escape Hell, he would use the time to atone for what he had done. So when a cult sought to ask for his services, he was quick to use the opportunity to escape.
Convincing the cult to bring a subject for possession, a private investigator arrived, and was kidnapped by the cult, and brought to the site of the possession. Amidst the spiritual battle with the soul of the P.I., a Hunter aligned with the Catholic Church who had sought to ally himself with the investigator.
During the two-way battle, Akiel's form was struck, and he lost awareness with reality. When he awoke, he had "melded" with the soul of the Investigator, fully believing himself to be the man known as James Odeman, fully aware of all of James' memories, but lacking even the vaguest of his own, with only horrendous nightmares affecting him as even a slight reminder to his past. Now, with signs of the apocalypse happening everywhere, Akiel's memories are starting to awaken, and he finds himself conflicted with those and the memories of James Odeman.
Plans for the Apocalypse: James plans to investigate the strange occurrences happening around L.A., while also delving into the new memories awakened within, ones associated with the persona of Akiel, a name James hears echoing constantly in the back of his skull.
Name: Sister Meredith Reunnings Allegiance: The Society of Leopold Nature/demeanor: Healer/Fanatic
Strength:
Despite the fairly rigorous training this woman has received, her rather frail build makes her strength rather average.
Dexterity:
Meredith is certainly lacking subtlety or grace.
Stamina:
This nun is quite a hardy one, for the rough training, meditation and the sheer faith by itself, gives her quite an impressive resistance to pain
Charisma:
Despite having a fairly rich vocabulary, she is rather socially awkward.
Manipulation:
Seeing as she is an honest person, who'd rather blurt out honest, but harsh words instead of flattering a person with seet lies, she is truly not fit for manipilating people
Appearance:
A very plain, middle-aged woman with a square face. She does not seem to be wearing any make-up to hide her wrinkles.
Perception:
Not the most investigative person around. Many details may easily slip by her eyes.
Wits:
Often requires time and concentration during mind-straining tasks.
It is clear that this woman is absolutely devoted to God and thus, her faith is not a one to be questioned.
Backgrounds: Fame -2 (One of the not-so-many sisters of Saint Claire, that took up weapons, aside from just the mending duty before the apocalypse begun.), Mentor -2 (Hartam Belorin, a man who has taught her to fight the evils that stalked the nights. Currently, Meredith is part of the group, led by the same man), Resources -3 (The group that she is part of, consists of a dozen of hunters with various experience. Two old jeeps, basic medicine and food supplies and a crate of ammo.)
Humanity: 10
History:
Inducted to a nunnery from a young age, Meredith has lived a cloistered life of silence, work, study and prayer. For many years she has lived this way, showing many virtues through her service to God. Her virtues, nor her faith and zeal, were not unnoticed and at the age of twenty eight, she had her first encounter with the society of Leopold. A priest, known as Father Belorin was giving her an opportunity to serve God and the faithful more directly. While reluctant to leave the convent, she has agreed to come with the encouragement of the mother of the nunnery.
And thus, she was introduced to the Sisterhood of Saint claire, the saint women healing the wounded and even performing such incredible feats, as mending wounds by prayers. And over time, her faith was strong enough to do the same as well, eventually, going on missions with the combatants of the Society and eventually, after showing some interest in joining the fight, she was trained in combat. And thus, she was part of a group led by Hartam Belorin, an old priest-turned vampire hunter
Plans for the Apocalypse: Sister Meredith plans to simply show God's fury to the abominations that (as she believes) caused it all. And of course, she is one of those people who would be willing to put all of her efforts to preserve the world
Allies: 1 (“Big Joe,” a mortal drug dealer who has bribed a policeman or two or three or more and also has access to some other nifty gigs, like that one time he helped Peter get rid of a dead person without the Prince knowing.) Generation: 1 Retainers: 3 (The Deliroe family consisting of a husband, a wife, and their elementary daughter) Herd: 1 (The Deliroe family) Domain: 1 (The small house of the Deliroe’s) Rituals: 1
Disciplines:
Dementation: 3 Auspex: 2 Obfuscate: 2
Humanity: 4
Conscience: 2 Self-Control: 2 Courage: 3
Derangements: Bipolar and Regression (Anally Retentive)
History: Peter Lapin was only a small child when his family immigrated from the over turned Imperial Russian regime. Bloodshed and starvation had slaughtered the country in waves of anarchy and chaos. However, Peter has no concrete recollection of this hectic event as he was shuffled by his father, a high standing military General Major in the Russian Calvary, and his mother, a Petersburg Society Princess, by boat from Russia to America. As “White Russians,” his family was welcomed by the United States government. However, the older and significantly less wealthy generation of Russian immigrants were not at all as welcoming towards the influx of displaced Russian aristocracy planting new roots into the American soil. There was a defeatist mindset that set the tone in the Lapin household as his father took up low-wage manual labor and toiled amongst Russians that had nothing but disdain for his class’s attitude when under the Imperial Russian regime.
It was years into the settling of the Lapid family into the vineyard fields of California when Peter’s parents started noticing Peter was behaving in an abnormal manner. It seemed like something that had happened over night, or perhaps, it had been gradual and had somehow gone unnoticed until just yesterday. He as in his later adolescent years, which did warrant some kind of excuse—a cutting of apron strings, so to speak, but both felt something deeper was causing the sudden shift in behavior. They also had no particular way of confronting the situation as the guilt of their distinguishable reputation had caused much rejection placed on the family, and the need for Peter to uphold his behavior was rather unbending in a chilling way. Nonetheless, his parents ignorantly decided on working towards begging for their son’s forgiveness, hoping that an open heart would bring back the young man they thought they had raised. It was one thing to begin holding the burden of the death of their very own Divinely Crowned Emperor, but to see the distaste in their son as their respect continued to be stripped away from them was another thing. Of course, they didn’t have an abundance of time (due to the growth in the family and long hours worked) to make any huge or lasting alterations to how Peter was reared, and so, the behavior preceded until one day, they never heard from him, again.
Behind the veil of what was tempting Peter to act out started off as a small bribe of rebelliousness that slowly formed into the meeting of 11th Generation Malkavian, Major Russell Bell1. Perhaps it was the odd intelligence and stereotypical light-hearted dark humor weaved into the Russian culture of his family that made the Malkavian take notice of their sturdy, young boy, peddling his feet through the dark farm roads one night—naively looking for non permitted adventure or something otherwise known as trouble. He didn’t find any such thing before making his disappointedly relieved way back home, but the trouble definitely found him. Russell spent several years off-handedly studying the boy before making any decision to make himself known to the mortal, and when he did become known, he simply made the boy his ghoul. He was roughly the age of sixteen or seventeen when it happened. Peter can’t really remember how old he was when the first drop of vitae touched his tongue. He also does not remember the taste as he’s more concerned with the taste of mortal vitae, particularly of the human variety.
However, he does remember something about a Sabbat attack that left him injured to such an extent, Russell decided to Embrace him, become his sire. It was definitely one thing to be drinking a monthly drop or two of Malkavian vitae every month, but it was a whole different animal (if that is what one would call it) to become one let alone live as one for eternity. Peter made it through the Embrace. “Crazy Jane” maybe helped him, or maybe it was Russell’s nursing him for a while before the Embrace, but whatever it was—nothing was the same. There was no trying to look through the world from a different angle to make things seem normal or close to normal or even remotely normal. Normal wasn’t even a concept he could grasp. There had been maybe a smidgen of hope that he’d get used to this state, but he quickly forgot what he was even hoping for as time went on. Everything just was, and there wasn’t much he could do about it.
The beginning of being a Malkavian was like being in a strange cage of deranged voices that were sometimes quiet, sometimes whispers, sometimes hums, sometimes coherent words and sometimes just static They seemed to come and go and effected his mood and changed the way the wind blew. As disturbing as everything as the incoherent blob of reality smothered in front of him was, he managed to hold onto some “humanity” through this random reoccurring and comforting thought of how he could now see that everything was connected in a way no one had expected and therefore, he was granted the opportunity to be living a rare truth that not very many could see or respect. The Embrace also had left him further mentally crippled with what was then known as Melancholia, but in modern day, it is commonly known as Bipolar Disorder. He may have lost his humanity and succumb to the beast had Russell been an irresponsible Sire as many Malkavian are, but Russell managed to teach Peter for ten years before releasing him to the Prince as a member of the Camarilla. During those ten years, amongst other things, Russell helped Peter fight the beast, especially during the depressive episodes that halted his feeding until the Beast began to notice. He also helped Peter learn to cap the Beast during the highs as emotions and passions would easily excite him and rules stopped abiding to that pridefulness networking through his brain.
Another derangement that had befallen him had occurred through the realization that he was now trapped outside of the reality he once knew. The odd humanly memories of how Goddamn awful he had been to his parents and siblings and friends, and the part where he wouldn’t be able to see them, again. His mind circled around this prospect for months until something finally snapped. It snapped during some ambush of hunters trailing on Russell on him when the stress and fear and hostility of the situation just triggered a sudden regression in his behavior. His mind caved for some childish state of thinking, frozen by fear as his hands cupped his ears and body hunched into an eye shut fit of toddler-esque mental shut down. This wasn’t a permanent regression, but the major part of the disorder that would flair up under stressful situations. On its average utility, Peter found himself retentively anal about being clean, only to find himself in some complete mess (example: the obsessive need for having fingernails that do not have dirt underneath them are cleaned until he was bleeding and there was no hope for making them actually clean).
Although most Malkavians tend to be loners willingly, Peter seemed to stray from that path Aa someone who was just a loner simply because he had no idea how to make friends under the state of which he was. Through the years, the failed attempts mounted some more insanity as he forced through the hopelessness and became even more awkward to be around. He managed to procure three retainers over the course of things. On occasion he requests one to accompany him while he rests during the day as some sort of comfort object, which he generally cherishes quite obsessively. And, like all Malkavians he is a jokester. It could be his jokes that actually make him the most off-putting (one does not joke about eating vampires, and Peter becomes frustrated trying to contain such manic jesting), but from Peter’s point of view, his jokes are really just there to help the outside world understand.
Plans for the Apocalypse: Peter wants to survive and of course, find out what is happening, make some friends, start a new life, get his shit together—wait, most of that’s not even fucking possible… Chaos has taken over—more than the structured way things were before all of this happened. Peter thought the structure before was a bit of a maddening doozy, but now, he’s having a hard time making streets meet—literally, the roads are ruined! Even the Camarilla, the Order, the Sabbat—all of it, poof, vanish. The freedom is intriguing, frightening, but despite all, the Cobweb’s still weaving it’s works. So, there’s that. Plus, no one saw that Frenzy the other night, right?
Major Russell Bell was a soldier in the Continental Army and consequently Embraced on the battlefield after falling to enemy in the Battle of Monmouth during the American Revolution. As vampires (especially in this Malkavian’s case) sometimes do, they migrate to different locations for one reason or another. However, prior to Russell’s journey from the East Coast to the West Coast, Russell had the unofficial title as the clan’s whip. He also had the honor of getting revenge over the murderer of his Primogen shortly after he was elected into the position as Primogen. It was for this act, the Prince granted him Right of Creation.
