TemplarKnight07

The Gregorian - Imperium (Warhammer 50K RP, The Shape of the Nightmare to Come)

@Hecticlord

Inquisitor Alexius turned to Lord Corbec as he relayed the locations of Captain Lattore's forces and those of Lord Karthis, a man who he had yet to meet, but had heard of his Hulk's reception by Emperor Gregori.

"Fret not about such matters Lord-Militant, this whole operation is a test for the Relictor Chapter in the eyes of the Inquisition. At present, I do fault the Captain for forgoing the chain of command, but applaud his efforts to not giving the Archenemy an easy time adjusting to our entrance. The reason as to why, we shall have to obtain from him after, in the meantime, we should make the most of his entrance. Any further insult to the Magos cannot be helped in that regard, Lattore's brothers are giving their lives to take back his Forge-World as we speak, if the Tech-Priests prefer to have their own Skitarii and who knows what else they have within their forces take the wounds for them, he's more than welcome to tell us.

As for Lord Karthis, indeed one could see his actions as either exceedingly foolish at best, or outright treacherous at worst. Considering our current relation to him, I favour the former explanation, but indeed, there shall be a reckoning once we've concluded our operations here."

The Gregorian - Imperium (Warhammer 50K RP, The Shape of the Nightmare to Come)

Inquisitor Alexius stood back, watching the others who had followed in their fleets enter and watch the Emperor lay out the transmission and his thoughts on the matter. He silently steepled his fingers and paced over to the window to peer out at the embattled Forge-World. After arranging his thoughts and seeing that Amastov had finished reading the data slate Lord Corbec had handed him, he gave his views on the matter.

"The Magos Dominus must think we're fools, or his age and augmentations have removed something of his practical senses if he thinks only ten armed men are an adequate escort for an Emperor in the heart of a Forge-Moon, no disrespect to the abilities of our forces, but not even the best tactician among us would disagree that serving up the majority of our commanders and leaders up, basically on a platter just begging for us to be taken captive is a ridiculous notion.

He desires leverage, assurances that we are not here to harm him and his machines, but most of all that we're not here to take the power and authority he and his people have away. If he cannot obtain it through negotiation, he will obtain it with hostages.

I do not believe it wise to have the Emperor himself at risk to becoming a hostage, unless his Imperial Majesty is adamant about going. But I wouldn't, not until our forces have established a beach head and would be ready to move in the event of treachery. Last I checked, his forces were the ones on the verge of losing their world, we come to assist them, if they did not see that by the fact we haven't already begun bombarding the Moon and blew their attackers' fleet into scrap, then something must be up with their logic engines.

Just my thoughts on the matter, in any case I volunteer to be the fifth candidate, since they made no mention of a representative of the Imperial Inquisition among the delegation."

Cyaиide Suиs

Gideon didn't even deign to carry on this charade much longer. Calmly, but firmly, he put his hands flat on the table and leaned forward slightly towards Andrew.

"Fine, the freebie first. Lesson #1: Always know who you're talking to before you go around guessing their identities. Scammers will use your own lack of knowledge against you. The bartender's Max, not me, but I took advantage of the fact you didn't know who was who. Find someone not as benevolent as me, and they'll take you around a corner to mug you or leave you dead in a ditch. I'm Gideon, or Owl as people call me around here. Entrepreneur in Zone Acquisitions. Pleasure to meet you."

He held out his right hand to Andrew across the table, a devilish grin stretching across his face after dropping the ruse finally.

Upon the Sunset Sea; World of Darkness RP

Ezekiel Kristoff

---

Within twenty minutes of setting out, Zeke and Charlie were cruising through Downtown LA night-life traffic. Zeke was on edge, he left the driving to Charlie as he focused in looking out the windows. He hadn't set foot out of his recently bought house more than a couple times since he had moved in, and had never dared go near the heart of the city personally since his arrival in California. Everywhere he looked he thought he could see a Sabbat hit-squad waiting to take pot shots at his car. He had no doubt that he hadn't escaped D.C. cleanly, if they knew he'd fled to California, he'd probably be fairly high up on their hit list. Then again, maybe he shouldn't be so stressed out about them, the Sabbat probably had bigger fish to fry in LA as it was before hunting around for stray Camarilla supporters.

Nay, Zeke was worried about running into ANY Kindred. Sabbat, Anarch, or whatever, he knew that he and his kind were not exactly the most welcome around here. Sure, the Anarchs weren't as bad as the Sabbat, but they'd still likely go after him if they thought he posed a threat to their "freedom".

How exactly to handle that? Zeke knew that sooner or later, he would eventually be discovered, and unless he could make some sort of deal, or consolidate enough power to make trying to remove him a considerable pain for anybody in this city, he might as well just catch a sunrise as his odds of surviving would be even slimmer here than in D.C.

So, he figured he'd do the most Tremere thing, and set out to make sure both potential plans were there in case one failed. Schemes within schemes would be essential in this town. With any luck, Juli would fulfill her task tonight in making the latter plan closer to a reality, while he and Charlie would work on the former.

"Find us a place to park, we're going to go for a walk and check out the clubs."

"You're going to just stroll around in downtown LA? After all that time you told us about being careful who we ran into?"

"Yes, but then I'm not merely you, am I? I have reason to fear this city, Charlie, but I'm still no lamb lost in the woods. My power and my anonymity will suffice to at least give enemies pause. A golden rule in this business is generally not to kill people you don't know and aren't immediately looking to blast your face off."

"That's assuming those people aren't psychos, LA's full of those."

"Just park the damn car and let's see what we can see."

Charlie pulled the Oldsmobile down and along a road meter before stepping out. He didn't even bother to put any change in, but Zeke dropped a couple coins in while the punk wasn't looking. No need for him personally to show up in any local police records too quickly because of a fucking ticket.

Briskly, he and Charlie started walking down the street, their pale skin contrasting with their black leather attire. They walked along several blocks, Zeke gazed upon the various Kine clubs, bars and restaurants as they passed along the sidewalk. He wasn't looking with his physical eyes though, he was looking with his auspex. The world became a menagerie of colours and thoughts, and to a younger Magi with the talent, such visual sensation would be overwhelming, but to Zeke, it was only minorly straining to gaze among the sea of auras and streams of consciousness. As expected, most were Kine, but he caught the odd Kindred and other supernaturals walking among them. Mostly young bloods enjoying all the freedom for the Elders and their politics that LA seemed to offer now.

But Zeke was no neonate anymore, he knew that even if the game was not being played openly, there was always a tournament of shadows at play beneath the surface, especially in places like LA with the supposed power vacuum that had come just recently. His gaze drifted down to the end of the street, where particularly numerous numbers of Kindred were filing out of in their own time. An old, but well-maintained bar called "Sunset", the history of its property practically seeped out of its foundations, and with the mere glimpses it was enough to tell Zeke all he needed to know.

Zeke blinked, closing his second senses in the process. "Of course."

"Mal?" Charlie hadn't been paying attention to anything in particular as they had walked, if anything, he was more interested in checking out the girls, or "maintaining observation" than anything else.

"What better name for a meeting place for us than the very moment our Nights begin? If I can't find someone of some importance in there, then I wager they aren't the people likely to even give me a fair shake. Bring the car around closer, I'll meet you inside."

Seas of Blood: The Premier Buccaneering Roleplay!

@POOHEAD189 Thx man.

As I asked in the IC, what roles are still available?

Cyaиide Suиs

Gideon briefly acknowledged Amy walking off before turning his attention back to Andrew, he was in bargaining mode. The guy wasn't a sucker, but Gideon still wanted the most for his time, especially if Max was offering something nice. He took a few more bites of his food as he listened before replying.

"Information that can save your life is no joke man, its worth a pretty penny out here, you wouldn't believe how many guys are buried out there for making rookie mistakes. But I'll tell you what, I'll meet you half way, how about 150? I guarantee I'll tell you at least one thing you had no clue about that could save you a lot of trouble later right off the bat."

He then went back to chewing some more of his lunch, intending to enjoy it, but not wait for it to get too cool as their conversation went on.

Seas of Blood

May be interested, what roles are you still looking for?

The Gregorian - Imperium (Warhammer 50K RP, The Shape of the Nightmare to Come)

I'm still keeping tabs, fret not.

Cyaиide Suиs

Gideon kept his expression, flipping the thumbs on his steepled fingers in a gesture of irrelevance towards Andrew's comment on his shooting capabilities before returning them to their original positions.

"With any luck, we wouldn't need to get to that point, especially if our business is just in this town . . . but sure, if its just the tour around here, its easy enough to do. I could do that before going out on a job, hell, I could even do it from here unless you actually want the walk-around. I'll give you some very basic pointers that should hopefully avoid you killing yourself within a few seconds, and give you my interpretations of our little community here and its surrounding environs as I know them . . . And I'll do it for 250 marks in terms of a straight up fee."

Gideon quietly thought that he shouldn't really be charging anything for this information, anyone in this bar COULD provide almost the exact same information, it was mostly advice which most people would get from friends for free. But then, his pragmatic self realized three things: 1) Andrew probably knew better than to look openly like a lamb lost in the woods with wolves all around and therefore wouldn't want to advertise his lack of knowledge too openly by asking everyone in the bar. 2) Knowledge of any kind is power, and power doesn't come for free in any regard, so asking a price for this wasn't the most unreasonable thing in the world. and 3) The price wasn't THAT ridiculous, at least in Gideon's mind. More than a few wannabe Stalkers had met their ends by simply being stupid, there was a blood price to bolster the knowledge's market value slightly above advice you'd just hand out. But then, one could make money off of almost anything in The Zone if you could think hard enough or creatively enough.

Upon the Sunset Sea; World of Darkness RP

Ezekiel Kristoff was immersed in some light reading before starting his night off. An avid reader in life as well as undeath, it had become routine now with how valuable knowledge was, especially for a Tremere, what with many of the secrets of Thaumaturgy locked away in Grimoires of past Magi who were more experienced (or more foolish in some cases) in the Art of Arts.

This case was far less esoteric though, he was reading one of the latest "urban fantasy" novels that was making the rounds through the young kine. Why waste his time on trivial shit like this when he could be reading something far more stimulating? Mostly out of curiosity, he was always interested in finding out what the "popular" interpretations of his kind and fellow "supernaturals" were in circulation at various times. Plus, there was some practical applications, he was understanding how the kine thought on some subliminal level, something which many Kindred near his age showed a disdain for and he couldn't understand why. Knowledge is power, especially for a Magus and Kindred both, and in these Modern Nights understanding how to control Kine in less overt ways was key to maintaining their society . . . even though understanding young Kine today was admittedly like trying to understand quantum mechanics at times for the centuries old Vampire.

Not that Zeke, or Malakai as he now called himself publicly, had even had much interaction with his fellow Kindred as of late. He had arrived as a newcomer to California and LA several months ago incognito. Or, as incognito as a Kindred could be. He had taken up a new name, hadn't sought out any locals yet (as far as he knew, there was no official "Prince" of LA anymore), and had mostly seen to getting himself established in as low-key a manner as possible.

So, he'd set up a Kine Cult (Totally original for a Tremere, right? But he stuck with what he knew, he certainly wasn't going to try and compete in business he wasn't familiar with.), The Followers of Nodens, bought a couple properties, and set about surrounding himself with a few idolizing and capable servants. One of which knocked on the door to his study promptly. He didn't turn from his seat in reading.

"Come in."

The door noisily opened, it was Charlie, his "right hand" Ghoul. He had recognized the young man's scent after opening the door (though one could argue you wouldn't even need to be a Vampire to recognize this punk by his scent at times).

"Mal, Haines has still been pestering the guys at the shop as to how to become a member. Almost pathetic, they're having more and more trouble getting rid of him."

Zeke smirked slightly at bygone memories the scene reminded him of and chuckled softly.

"Perhaps it shall soon be time for young Gideon to have the opportunity of being inducted into our family, if for no other reason than to save us any more hassle . . . but then one could argue simply making the man disappear in more simpler ways could be just as effective."

Charlie walked up to stand behind Zeke's chair.

"You want me to do that for you? You know I would, or Juli, or shit, anyone whose one of us. Nothing we haven't done before even before you found us."

Zeke waved a hand dismissively and closed his book, slipping a bookmark in it and laying it aside on his desk (piled high with books read and unread).

"No, I was merely musing aloud. Gideon can wait until later, right now, I think its time I make my first appearance on the night life of this fair city, and since Juli's out, you'll be my escort . . . or, what exactly is the correct phrase nowadays?"

"Wingman? Bro? Take your pick of any of the shitty phrases."

Zeke sighed and stood up, his red and black embroidered robes straightening out as he stood.

"Who cares? You get the idea. Get suited up, I'll get myself a drink, throw on something fitting, and we'll hit the road."

Charlie nodded and walked out taking a left down the hall, Zeke following after him and closed the door, taking a right out of his study and into the living room. The living room of Zeke's house looked like a tornado had hit it. Clothes were everywhere (none of them his), furniture was moved all haphazardly to accommodate for sleeping bags or makeshift beds, there was leftovers or trash laying around everywhere, and the stereo was on playing some kind of music Zeke had no taste for, but knew the four young adults who splayed out in various configurations around the room were into it.

This was Zeke's Cult when it wasn't actually doing Cult business. He made them stay over at his house every night and paid for their expenses to do whatever the hell they wanted within the house. In exchange, they were effectively his security guards and disguise for the house. For one thing, they were all his Ghouls, so he knew they wouldn't go poking around where he didn't want them (namely his basement), and they could handle any Kine problems with ease. Plus, they were his herd, and an easy source of blood for him.

Calmly approaching the one nearest to him, a young woman who was busy vaping (Zeke abhorred actual smoking in his herd), and with routine ease and mutual understanding she stood up and twisted her neck slightly for his ease. Carefully supporting her in his arms, he barred his fangs and starting drinking. He stopped after half a minute, the moment he felt her heartbeat starting to waver just slightly. He slowly laid her down as she reacted dazed, but retaining consciousness. He had hardly felt the stir of The Beast within him, but then such was the fortune fact of abiding by the Camarilla's traditions and practices, they offered serenity and secrecy to Cainite existence, if at the cost of some freedoms. The blood itself wasn't prime quality, but it was definitely sweet and invigorating.

Zeke rolled his shoulders, feeling the fresh power within him. As he silently walked out to the closet by his front door. Opening it, he switched his robes out for a leather jacket of similar length, and checked his face in small mirror, wiping up a small trickle of blood left behind by his feeding. Satisfied, he scratched his shaven head and walked out the door. Charlie had already slipped by (must have been while he was feeding) and started the car, an older model black Oldsmobile. Charlie had decked himself out in similar black leather to his Master, and pulling the thundering car out of the driveway, they headed into downtown LA for Zeke's first real night out in months.