#can you tell i played vtmb recently

[vitaae]

killingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyoukillingyou

[syntheticmortal]

I got tagged by the lovely @crownedinmarigolds! Thank you so much mate!! I'm absolutely charmed 🥰

Now my rat bastard spouse stole most of my tagging options on their post so to not double-tag I will add:

@skaerdir, @klaciate, @tzimizce and @vamp-orwave!!

If anyone who sees this wants to be an honourary tagee, then go for it XD

For those who don't know - Hi I am Alex! (He/They) and I'm a writer and an English immigrant to the USA!

3 ships: oh mate all of these are OCxOC with @c-n-i-d-a-r-i-a-n

Victor and Gloria – A Nos and his unbound Ghoulfriend. Making your touchstone one of your mission Ghouls is dangerous af but live fast love hard, lads.

Jeff and Lamb – Another of Vic's unbound Ghouls and the Thin Blood Nos that joined the Warren. Disgustingly fucking cute injected into the den of the rejected and disgruntled.

Ventan/Taakur Rig and Rozanin Rig – My and Daz's SWTOR PCs respectively. A Chiss Cipher Agent that ends up having to go hide with his Mandalorian hireling with her Clan and Roz's unrequited love becomes hella requited and suddenly Ventan/Cipher Five-now-Taakur has step kids??

I love it so much.

first ship: Oh god this takes me back to being little. Probably a Sonic one??

Shadow and Rouge if I had to take a guess??

last song: Temptation by Sean Paul! A proper bop

But honestly massive shout out to the second Nostalgia Synthwave mix by Odysseus on youtube

This thing keeps me sane, and has all the songs marked! – that opening one, Realign by Cerulean, can usually just melt my brain into peace whenever I hear it

last film: Snatch – Like VTMB it's a problematic fave that oozes style and characterisation throughout. Watched it as prep for a Setite I'm going to play in a V5 game >:D

currently reading: Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan as part of genre research. Finished The Vampyre recently too! Really I should pick AC up today, I've been working hard on my editing and outlining of my own pieces and neglecting the reading part of the craft for a few weeks >.>;

currently craving: So I'm drinking far less booze to save money whilst I'm out of work trying to get some Proper Writing done. So when I hit a good worthy milestone I'm getting a bottle of whiskey and I am ready.

fav color: Green! Sometimes purple!

relationship status: Maaarriiied to @c-n-i-d-a-r-i-a-n

last google search: I had to double check the spelling of Taakur for the ship section, so it was 'mandoa' :')

and before that I'm pretty use I searched Scryfall last night to go look at MTG cards even though I have no one to play with right now :'D (at least it's saving me money >.>)

current obsessions: Was tempted to add my own work here but I'll tag that on the very end XD

There's a lot of fandoms I don't leave – World of Darkness and Warhammer 40k predominantly as settings I always have another angle I want to see explored in!

I do however have the Magic the Gathering bug, even though I haven't really played in years and years now – but card interaction as a generation for narrative has always kind of captivated me? Like there's a couple big mean Ogre cards that make Rats more dangerous, but due to the way the systems work they also empower the Ratfolk of Kamigawa, the Nezumi, as they count as 'Rat' cards still. So big Ogre spellcasters improving Rat people as part of a contained bit of narrative kind of fascinates me as a concept.

Plus each deck presupposes a Planeswalker character who's casting those spells – and I was always intrigued by that notion and so most of my OCs are representative of decks I played (or wanted to :P) and then in turn each Planeswalker needs a Plane to come from, probably from a still existing culture on that Plane too, and so it can kind of wonderfully reverberate inspiration.

Like how every VTM Kindred OC presupposes a Sire!

BONUS ALEX SECTION

So if you want to get to know me, let me tell you about what writing I'm working on/have made recently.

Out now!

The Mutilation of Finley Reid

A short story of masculine horror, about a young man by the name of Finley who suffers in the pursuit of having his place as a man affirmed by his peers.

The world of Torranham Nights is an anachronistic reflection of England set in the coastal city state of Torranham, drawing from contemporary culture and folklore as well as the legends and reality of the cultures that came before – without being fetishistic about it like a lot of stories will.

Handle It

A short retail horror, about working the cash register of a butcher's counter, and the customer who orders increasing amounts of ground beef...

Inspired by my own work in a same spot, anyone who's done service work should get a kick out of this – plus it's free and only takes 20 minutes to read! XD

On the way!

Defector – name subject to change

A short story of grief, shame, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, and community. On the moon.

A Special Recon mech pilot, “Crash”, from Earth has defected to the Moon rebels, and now lives in Magnolia City, rotting away in her tiny apartment. Then the Provisional Government sends one of its elite commanders, a former enemy of Crash's, to pull her out.

Elhart: Arrival

The first of a short story fantasy anthology about a city of refugees at the edge of time and space, hiding from the end of the multi-planar universe. A super soldier has washed up with a near-fatal headwound and no memory, and she must learn to live in a far more peaceful world than the one her instincts suggest she came from. But who was she? And can she earn the trust of people who fear her potential to kill?

Neon Sun

A novel! Cyberpunk Vampires! If we're mutuals you can come ask about this but I'm not ready to share things too publicly for this one yet, but the outlining has gone beautifully in my opinion, and the worldbuilding is singing.

Speartip

I'm making a TTRPG!! It's a Powered by the Apocalypse engine game, about serving as the primary field agents of a faction of people who need your support and protection. Because if you're going to be a hero, who are you doing it for if not your kin?

Setting agnostic as hell, excluding some implicit need for magic in the class moves – I'm prepping to playtest this in sci-fi and fantasy settings to see how well my mechanics hold up in both swords and firearms based stories. Plus I'm going to explore a variety of perspectives of what the faction can be – from ethnic groups, to gangs, to guilds, to neighbourhoods.

I'm VERY excited about all this!!

[victorluvsalice]

Another Game To Add To The List

So -- you guys all know that I like video games. I mean, I post on a pretty regular basis about the antics my Sims in my latest Sims 4 save file are getting up to. And you all know that I love to put my favorite characters in my favorite video games if I'm able to -- or even if I'm not. My current Sim family is my Valicer OT3; my Fallout 4 protagonist is Victor Van Dort (or as close as I can get with FO4's character creator and artstyle), and my Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines Malkavian Fledgling is Alice Liddell (I may not be able to actually reflect that with her appearance in the game, but I can sure as hell write about her adventures doing all the quests!) I have a vested interest in this sort of thing.

So -- when my friend @gaydragonwizards got me into Baldur's Gate 3, leading me to purchase the game for my birthday using the Steam gift cards my parents had gotten me, I immediately thought, "Okay, so -- Alice has VTMB, and Victor has FO4...but a certain newbie roller coaster OC does not have a game yet. And this one DOES allow you to do a custom character..." Which led to me deciding that Smiler was going to be my "Tav" in BG3! I haven't gotten very far in the game yet (I had to do an early restart to add in a mod patch that the creator was VERY SURE shouldn't be put in an existing playthrough because it fucks with XP and leveling a bit, and then recent hotfixes possibly breaking quest items made me too nervous to play for a bit), but I have gotten my Smiler set up, made it past the Nautiloid segment, and have started exploring the wilderness around the ravaged beach! Here's some shots of Smiler in the game:

Smiler's look from the character creation/level up screen! They're a half-elf with Body #2 and Head #5 because that was the combo that actually looked the most like my Smiler Sim -- have a comparison shot:

It's not a PERFECT match, but nothing was going to be -- it's pretty close, though! The hairstyle is of particular note because that is in fact one of the very first mods I picked up for this game: Alt Lae’zel Hair For Tav! None of the in-game hairstyles had the right sort of "bangs" that my Sim!Smiler sports, so I was REALLY happy to spot this on Nexus Mods to give my Tav!Smiler the right look, at least from the front. :) (And, hilariously, the mod was in fact uploaded ON MY BIRTHDAY, so I'm counting it as an inadvertent birthday present.)

Smiler's arrival on the Ravaged Beach, having just woken up from their little fall out of the Nautiloid! As you can probably guess by the outfit, I started them out as a Bard. That was the class that seemed to make the most sense for them, both from a "the roller coaster in Alton Towers is often associated with upbeat music and dancing, especially after the original Festival of Thrills and The Smiler Takeover, and bards DO get access to a good number of mind control spells" and from a "my personal take on Smiler is that they are super charismatic and want to make as many people happy as possible, and the Bard's high Charisma start combined with the Entertainer background suits that perfectly." XD However, they're not JUST a Bard these days -- thanks to the further power of mods, upon their first level-up, they became a Bard/Artificer! :D I picked that class because it has a whole sub-class dedicated to Alchemy, and one of my headcanons for my Smiler is that chemistry/alchemy (depending on the universe) is their thing. Plus it just looks like a super-cool class and mod. (And yes, I do have 5e Spells and Unlock Level Curve to enhance things further, with the appropriate patches (including ULC's patch to smooth out the weird XP valley while leveling up -- learning about THAT was what prompted me to restart so I could install it). Oh, and the exclamation mark is from Camp Event Notifications -- it's telling me that Smiler should Long Rest soon to get one of the special camp events.)

Smiler hanging out in the Wilderness camp! I came here for the first time after picking up Shadowheart, Astarion, and Gale, and was amazed at just how PRETTY the camp is. I mean, look at that waterfall over by the ruin that houses the Magic Mirror! :D Seriously, this game is gorgeous -- I've spent a decent amount of time just wandering around with the camera, admiring the scenery. XD Anyway, as you can see, Smiler picked up some new clothes -- the main outfit is some basic leather armor, dyed with the dye available in the Traveler's chest (I first dyed their starting jerkin, but hated the resultant color scheme -- I'm not wild about the red arms on this set, but at least the yellow pants and black chestpiece feel right!), while the cape and their new lute are from the Digital Deluxe content -- the "Cape Of The Red Prince" and the "Lute of the Merryweather Bard." (Hey, I got this for my birthday, I wasn't not going to get the Digital Deluxe content!) I had them give the lute a little try in-camp -- the upbeat Bard song DEFINITELY suits them. XD

And finally, Smiler with their current companions, ready to head to the nearby chapel on the beach -- Shadowheart (in some new, slightly better Sturdy Armor), Gale (in his robe and wizard hat), and Astarion (sporting more DD content, the "Bicorne of the Sea Beast" and the "Needle of the Outlaw Rogue" (the dagger on his hip)). They are indeed a motley group. XD Hopefully Smiler's 17 Charisma will allow them to talk their way out of most binds!

Now, you may be thinking at this point, "Well, this is going to spark another AU, isn't it?" And you would be -- partially correct. Allow me to explain by excerpting part of my and Squid's conversation while they were recommending mods to me and I was telling them about my plans to do Tav!Smiler:

Squid: ((though -- there is one thing that has popped into my head. with playing Smiler, obviously you can't have any of your Valicer stuff going on in BG3 by default. and do you really want to give yourself ANOTHER AU by playing as them again :P )) Me: ((Oh, that's not really a worry -- the Valicer in the Dark crew already fucking claimed the game as a potential AU ))

YUP. Much like how my brain insisted that the Alice in my Fallout of Darkness stuff be a variant of my Malkavian!Alice from Londerland Bloodlines, thanks to me getting into BG3 at the same time as my obsession with Valicer In The Dark ramped up, the AU in my head is now the VITD trio going through the game. And while it's only a partially-formed pile of shitposts as of yet, that idea PROBABLY deserves its own post...

[vampire-the-askerade]

Hi! I recently got in the fandom (?) via "Hunter: The Parenting" by Alfabusa (highly recommending!) and Sseth's review of VtMB which pushed me to play the game :D Can I please request Nines (my baby 💖), Beckett, Jack and whoever you want really with a Fledgling S/O who is, despite being a vampire, still a very soft and lovely person who became like a mom/dad for other vampires? How would our precious vampire babies react if they see their S/O saying "I know baby, have a bloodbag and rest."?

[I’m looking forward to looking into some of the new vtm stuff, but I have a LOT to catch up on. Those look good places to start though :)]

Nines- As long as you weren’t doing anything that would take away his group’s tough appearance as he doesn’t want to have any hint make them look weak to anyone else in the area, he’s actually all for you making sure that everyone is taken care of. Everyone else, that is. Even though he will do his best to make it seem like he doesn’t like the softer attention himself, he actually loves the feeling of someone looking after him for once as it’s usually him looking after everyone else. Will be a bit more protective of you as he feels like people will target you more because of your gentle personality.

Jack- He’s somewhat fascinated with you as he thought that it was basically impossible for anyone to retain that much sentiment after they were made kindred. The two of you are sort of the parents of he Last Round anarchs; unofficially of course. Though he’s more like the crazy uncle rather than a dad. The thing is, he the one that encourages the others to do crazy and stupid things to get them to learn that way(and laugh at them), and you try to stop them before they get hurt. You both sort of balance each other out, you keeping him from being too crazy and him pushing you to be a bit more daring. He actually likes having you around because you’re one of the only people around that has no problem telling him no. It’s rather refreshing, actually.

Beckett- Listen, he likes you, but you drive him up the wall sometimes. This is one of the most danger prone vampires ever to exist and you would be having a heart attack if it were still beating. While he does’t mind the doting when you two are having a bit of a down time, he wishes you would calm down when he pulls his sometimes needed antics. He’s been doing this for centuries now, and never gets hurt…and only marginally gets hurt. Everyone else that knows him is thankful that you are there to keep an eye on him now. After all, someone has got to make sure that Mr. Run-105-meters-in-the-sunlight doesn’t go overboard all the time.

Jeanette- While she likes the personal attention, having someone with a rather parental personality doesn’t work well with a night club. She gets exhausted telling you all the time that the whole point of the club is for people to be able to let loose a little, and that if they were doing something that was really dangerous or lawsuits worthy, the bouncer has everything under control. She doesn’t mind your worrying as much as she does Therese’s nagging as you were doing it from a place of actual concern for her opposed to just trying to undermine her and get under her skin.

Cabby/Cane- This was a surprise to him. A pleasant surprise though. One of the reasons that he had separated from the kindred world as a whole was because he thought the most of them were too selfish and had no room to have compassion for other people. That was one of the reasons that Salute was one of his favorite childer. And that’s why he likes you as well. Not only is it nice to see someone care for others, but have someone want to take care of him for the change. You make him think that there’s hope for the messed up world that he had created.

[badass-at-fandoming]

Recently finished vtmb and man, despite it's obvious flaws and certain problematic implactions, I absolutely adore it so much. It's super fun and especially hilarious if you're just a risky nosferatu player squatting around in public as well. The China town part was... something lmao? Loved Ming Xiao though, could've done something MORE with the kuei-jin.

🥳🎈🎇Congratulations on finishing Bloodlines!!!!🥳🎈🎇

Bloodlines is such a [clenches fist] experience. Hahaha, yeah, you really got it in a nutshell: good times, high silliness, great characters, and a whole lot of truly unfortunate content. The same elements that make me love the World of Darkness are also a source of hair-pulling wails of whhhhhhYYYYYY the fuck would someone do this.

[insert Knives Out gif of Daniel Craig going "It makes no damn sense. Compels me though." here]

Chinatown is like, one of the most blatant eyesores. I listened to an interview with Cassandra Khaw (might have been this one with Outstar), and she talked about her love of the Kuei-jin. When she grew up, she loved the sourcebook Kindred of the East. It was the only vampire stories with Chinese characters she could find. On the one hand, I was happy to hear she found something that brought her happiness. On the other hand, God, I wish the material had been more worthy of her love. I was sad that the authors didn't...idk, love their audience enough to put in the effort? Or maybe, they had a too limited view of who their audience is?

Chinatown, the Brothers, and Ming Xiao are also where you can tell you're running around the starting blocks of character, code, and level design. The Troika devs likely had plans to do more, but they ran out of time. Fans have since made the Clan Quest Mod, which offers a new Kuei-jin character Kalliyan, additional side-quests, a Sabbat path, and a whole lot of other goodies (further summary and description here). @missn11 is my go-to expert on Kuei-jin, Ming Xiao, and different Bloodlines mods. She mentioned plans to do a full Sabbat path Let's Play, but right now she has this fun playlist. I also!!! really like her fanfiction. A Traitorous Affair and These Nights of Regret have her own Kuei-jin OCs and they're baby.

Congrats again, and welcome to the World of Darkness!! It certainly is a place.

[boghermit]

Sebastian Lacroix for the ask game

Oh man, I’m really sorry in advance for the wall of text but he’s one of my favorite characters. Here goes!

Favorite thing about them:

He’s just a hot mess. (Almost all of my favorite characters fall into that category.) He’s petulant, uppity, and throws some of the best villain tantrums known to video games. The most played VTMB ending (my favorite ending in ANY video game) has him laughing hysterically five seconds before he accidentally blows himself up. He fought tooth and nail for that stupidass sarcophagus and then, oops! There’s no body in there! It’s been booby trapped! Oops! Whoopsie!

But even with all of those amazing cartoon villain moments, you know he’s at least SOMEWHAT competent or he wouldn’t be here. He drops all these juicy tidbits of lore that get you wondering what he was like before being Embraced, or how he got this far, but he doesn’t give you the whole story. He’s a good example of “show, don’t tell” in a villain.

Least favorite thing about them:

How he treats / refers to the sheriff in canon, which I think a lot of us ignore in our fanfic and art because it just straight up fucking sucks and no one likes that shit. To be fair he’s not the only one who acts like that towards the Sheriff, but that doesn’t excuse it.

Favorite line:

I love every line where he hints at some bigger story that we don’t know about. The reluctance telling about his Embrace. The excessive hate for the Sabbat. The whole “Did you know what it takes to get as far as I have?” thing. It’s just *mwah mwah* delicioso! But if I had to pick ONE it would probably be “Stolen? Stolen??? HOW…WHO…..Gary. Gary you TREASONOUS MAGGOT. I should have anticipated your treachery SEWER RAT.”

BROTP:

The Sheriff for sure, especially in fanon where (for the most part) people write the Sheriff as them being close friends or partners in crime. Also, Mercurio.

OTP:

For non-canon, him and my friend’s character Nick. For canon characters, I’m not sure, but there’s this one fic by @iravaid called "We Don't Have To Like Each Other To Survive" that BY ITSELF converted me to Nines / LaCroix. It’s just done really well, as opposed to a lot of fics I see where the relationship is very abusive and not particularly fun to read.

NOTP:

Probably an unpopular opinion because this is actual canon but the whole Jeanette thing. I thought it was funny at first to be fair (JEANETTE???), but at this point it’s just kind of annoying for reasons I can’t quite place. I could TRY to be fake deep about it, but I don’t think that’s called for. I just don’t care for it as a ship.

Random Headcanon:

God I have SO many but I’ll try to keep it short. He had to claw his way to the top, both in life and unlife. He wasn’t born into wealth, but claims to be nobility. In truth he started out as lower middle class at most, and in the Grande Armee he was promoted by merit and not by wealth (as was the custom in Napoleonic France). After Waterloo he was forcefully Embraced by the Sabbat, hated it, and escaped several decades later while burning every bridge behind him. This is one of his biggest secrets, and one that he feels would bring him great shame if it were to become common knowledge.

Unrelated to anything in-game, another headcanon I have is that he is probably nonbinary or GNC, alongside being bisexual. He isn’t very open about being bisexual and is even less open about his gender. Public LGBTQ+ acceptance in the Western world is still a very recent development and he hasn’t adjusted to it yet. (Not to mention that LGBTQ+ acceptance isn’t as standard as we’d like it to be, and a lot of us still face frequent prejudice in the modern world.) It doesn’t help that a lot of his contemporaries seem to hold a lot of old timey prejudice against these kinds of things.

Unpopular opinion:

IDK if this is unpopular or not but regardless of how cute he is in the face, he dresses like shit. Girl what is this? What is this fit? Is that corduroy? Is that fucking corduroy? What is that tie? I’m going to puke.

Song I associate with them:

HARD TO ANSWER BECAUSE THERE ARE A LOT AND I HAVE A SEVEN HOUR PLAYLIST FOR THIS FUCKER BECAUSE I CAN’T LIKE ANYTHING NORMALLY AND okay okay hold up.

*Smacks the top of Fever Ray's If I Had A Heart.* This badboy can fit so many characters in it.

Favorite picture of them:

Scrungy LaCroix

[labaguettegameuse]

Shadows of New York rent [spoilers-ish]

Aaaaaaaaaand i’m done with SONY (haha). I am... conflicted. I mean, don’t get me wrong, i loved that game. Again, the incredible art. Now they even added some subtle change into the emotions of some of the characters. The darker ambiance... The first time playing a Lasombra for me. But i could already tell it matches the clan very well. And the freaking soundtrack. Even better and better. Espacialy the embrace, Dakota x Julia and Julia’s them. 

At first, i was quite a bit shocked/surprise u couldn’t choose your race/clan. But again, playing a Lasombra was a nice surprise. I loved Julia. 

Now, as gameplay wise, i was a bit surprise (again) when i saw you had fewer choices to makes compared to CONY. In total, only 5 big choices maters for the endings. I was also relived to see we didn’t have to go throught : “new baby fledgeling must learn the rules and to feed” phase again. I was also very excited to see and hear more of Qadir again. I was truly happy to see some old familiar faces again. But at what cost ? Look at them... They all seem tired, destroyed, done. AGATHON MAGICALY DISAPPEAR, off screen ofc huh. What’s with these games and killing off/writting off characters off screen for fuck sake ? In the end, i didn’t even know if ma boi died. I’m watching you high regent. I’ll be watching. 

And the spirit guiding/helping Julia... if our fledgeling from the first game truly died, could it be them ? Talking about the fledgeling disappearance, i love how it impacted some characters. No matter how strong the friendship/bond was. 

Qadir for example. He told Julia he hated Arthuro’s guts. He probably had multiple reasons. But imagine him knowing or having the strong feeling that fucker he’s heavily implied with the fledgeling disapperance ? And the fact that he didn’t tell Julia... perhaps he didn’t have the courage too. Perhaps he's “mad” at himself for not being present enough for them. Perhaps he didn’t want to make the same mistake with Julia. 

Hope probably and surely knowing why these four names are on that god damn paper. I mean, what a coincidence huh ? Her remembering the fledgeling but not trusting Julia enough to talk about it. The fledgeling might have been killed, thanks to those camarilla fucks. 

Now Tamika. Look at her... 

I love how fierced she looked there. These few monts have been shit and like hell for all of them. Her loosing her brothers and sisters, probably consedering the fledgeling like such depending on the friendship/bond. Her being hunted down and to have constantly to fight against the SI. Seeing the man she loved turn into a corporate arse. I hope she’ll be okay.

Poor D’Angelo. Him and Agathon rescued my fledgeling near the end of the first game. Seeing him like that hurts me. And it also kinda hurt Qadir. Seeing how concerned he became with him. 

Being slightly suspicious when Julia talked about the paper and the names, remembering the fledgeling again. Ididn’t remember if he talked cleary about them, even if it was for just a frame. But thanks to him and KASIER, the investigation has taken an interesting turn.

For last, the one that hurt me and had me worring the most. Agathon.

With Hope, Tamika and D’Angelo,i completed at least two meetings. With Agathon, i managed to accomplish all of his side quests. When the High Regent told me he disappear too, i was like : Oh no, not again. U bet your ass i paid extreme attention to his journal. First, you learn his poor grandma died :(( She was such a sweetie. Now, when i read these lines : “It’s all vague mentions of a person who made him fly to close to sun.” / Whatever happened, it had the same effect as his grandma’s death. New York stopped feeling like a home to him”.... OOOOOOOOOF. Like, i could i now shipped them when he writes stuff like this about the fledgeling. omfg. And when i was Julia’s visions about his most recent actions... i do hope ma boi didn’t go on a personal blood hunt and try to confront that old racist fuck and Arthuro on his own.... That would hurt even more. I took great satisfaction in seeing the High Regent reaction when Julia was telling all the secrets she find about his disappearance to everybody. Shake. Tremble in fear scum. You don’t touch ma baby tremere.

About the endings, i have mixed feelings. Again. What a surprise. I’m the kind of person who always goes for the best and good/nice endings in games. And since i know Julia’s character was kinda special, i wanted to look at a guide. Like i said before, only 5 big choices matters in order to trigger your endings. I started reading some stuff, and i was quite.... unhappy. I mean, i know vampires are monsters. Espacaliy the Lasombra. And others. Anyway. I don’t like evil endings. Let just say that you have to be a dick, nasty, negative, mean etc during those five big choices. As long as you get like 4/5 “evil choices” you’ll get the “good” ending. Thank god (blow a kiss to Benoit) you don’t have to be “mean” 24/7 all the time. I was like : “Gee okay. If it’s what it takes to get the good ending...why not ?” The more choices i was doing, the more “uncomfortable” i was getting i suppose ? I’m still very confused.  

Oh boy, this is it huh ? Let’s see how the good ending is then. When Julia finally talked, i was like : “YEAH BOY EXPOSED THOSE FUCKERS ! Avenge my fledgeling’s death ! Haha look at them being threaten/fearing Julia’s.” and then.... she asks for power. I suppose it was a logical “ending” is you’re a “good” Lasombra and if you actually made those importants choices. Give her a primogen seat or else, story published etc. That moment was great but at the same time, i didn’t like it. I felt unconfortable. I’ve done “camarilla” roads before in VtmB. But this one.... oooof. And for that, you have to do something that would extremly pissed off Qadir. You know, your mentor, your protector, almost some kind of watchful father figure. You basically have to destroy that relationship. Since i liked their dynamic and Qadir a lot, it kinda made me sad. Their relation became just professional then. And that was it.

Yeah, you can thank him. Truly saved your ass. Again, i don’t mind getting my characters into power and so on. But in a good “human” way. I guess i’m too sensitive to be a Lasombra x) Or a vampire even. But anyway. Lasombra are cool tho. I was kinda agreed and okay that we let Dakota go even if i was shipping them at the beginning. But killing her off as a part of the deal... c’mon. A bit too extreme no ? But that just my opinion. Wish could have the opportunity to killed off Adelaide tho. U know, the bitch that beheaded Sophie. If there’s another game, i hope we’ll be able to find Agathon and to take down the prince, Arthuro and Adelaide. And i’m not even talking about doing it has a choosing “Camarilla/Anarchs” type. Just because i want too. Just because we could. So i went around on youtube and take a look at the “bad ending”. It... was nice. But that wasn’t even better. I mean, we still get to learn that our dearest and enigmatic Katherine is .... the childe of Christof, the protagonist of VtM Redemption. That was cool. Once again conflicted about the endings :’) Nice.

#stophurtingqadirchallenge

[devil-latte]

🌹

Aw, thank you for the flower, my dear. What shall I give you...?

How about some sappy backstory for Elric? 

For context, this is from my planned Bloodlines sequel fic Le Sang Oblige. Elric is my Ventrue Fledgling, who more or less enacted the Anarch ending after being LaCroix’s faithful agent.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WIP Scene from VTMB Fanfic “Le Sang Oblige”  Elric’s Two Rings

Abrams leaned against one of the silver countertops and folded his arms, giving Elric an appraising look. Lacking the disdain of LaCroix and the gravitas of Strauss, Abrams was no less an imposing leader. His amber eyes made Elric feel small, and the fledgling stood uncomfortably opposite him.

“Elric,” Abrams began. “How are you?”

Elric released the breath he’d been habitually holding, amused by the warm gesture and how little he’d been expecting it. “Not great, Abrams.”

“I can only imagine so.” A pause. “The things being said about you are incredible.”

“Yeah. . .” Elric murmured. Here it began. He was tired and did not feel like volunteering up any information that Abrams did not actively pursue.

“I’ve also heard that just before all this went down, LaCroix was talking about naming you his seneschal…”

Crap. So other people knew about that. Elric sighed. “Yes. He was.”

“But you killed him.”  

A slight hesitation. “Yep.”

“Tell me something Elric,” Abrams began. “Why are you wearing one of LaCroix's rings on your right hand?"

Elric’s stomach did a flip. Of all questions he expected to weather from the Baron tonight, that was not on the list. For the briefest of seconds, Elric considered lying. Playing it off, playing dumb. But he was no day-old fledgling anymore, he knew better to lie to an Elder Toreador, especially one to whom he now owed his allegiance. He smiled ruefully. "How did you know it was one of LaCroix's?"

"Come on, Elric, I'm a jeweler by trade, and that ring is very distinct. It’s one of the gaudiest damn signet rings I’ve ever seen but the goldworking on it is fantastic and its remarkably well kept for the antique that it is. I've had my eye on it every time I had the displeasure of meeting that Camarilla whelp face to face. Now,” he paused as if figuratively testing the waters, “would you care to tell me why you are wearing his ring on your vena amoris?"

"V-vena amoris?" Elric did not speak Latin but was pretty sure he understood the implication.

"For God's sake, Elric, it looks like you were sweethearts with the despot Prince of LA"

"Jesus!" Elric plucked the ring off of his right ring finger and held it impotently in his left.

Witnessing this, Abrams’ expression evened out. "Not a lover’s token then?"

"No!"

"I see... But I take it it’s not just a ring to you.”

“I mean…” If he could avoid answering that question he would.

“Would you sell it to me?”

Elric closed his fist around the ring and glanced up at Abrams with a scandalized expression, and the look Abrams traded him for it let Elric know he’d just given something away.

Abrams sighed. "I'm really going to need you to spell out your attachment to that ring, or perhaps, just what exactly your enduring opinion of the dearly departed Prince actually is." It wasn’t delivered as a threat.

Again, Elric was tempted to lie. Say that it was a trophy. A symbol of triumph. A prize he’d maliciously snatched up from the Prince’s ashen remains. But the real answer was so much messier than that. It was really none of Abrams’ business, except that the baron was hedging on the ring being a symbol of where Elric’s loyalties continued to lay. Elric was in a precarious position as a Camarilla turncoat. Throwing in with the Anarchs meant assuring its leadership that his allegiance rested with them. Elric could not say that he trusted anyone in these recent nights, not anymore, but Abrams despite being one of the many Kindred who had played him in the great game of Kindred politics had at least treated him fairly, and he respected the baron for it. Elric also knew Abrams to be a man who could appreciate sentimentality. He might understand. Still this was a lot, and most of it Elric had yet to sift through himself.

“Give me a second.”

Abrams tilted his head slightly before recognizing that Elric was preparing to tell him a belabored truth. “Certainly.”

“I…” He trailed off, and started again. “Well, I’m not in the Camarilla anymore. Let’s start with that.”

“Alright.”

“Here, see this?” Elric removed his second ring, the one he wore on his left little finger, and held it up to Abrams. It was tarnished and silver with a deep blue oval stone embedded into its wide band. The face was engraved with the phrase “Class of 1973.” “This was my father’s class ring. Not even a college ring, this was his high school ring. Even though he went on to run his own company, he started out in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming. That’s where I grew up. One day when I was a teen, it seemed like everything panned out and he told me we were moving to California. Even so, he wore this ring until the day he died. He said it was to remind him to ‘stay humble’ and ‘remember his roots.’ I started wearing it after he died for . . . basically the same reasons. To remember where I came from, and remember the kind, humane, joyful man who raised me.

“Now, LaCroix. I’m . . . embarrassed to admit this to you, Abrams, but he ended up being like a sire to me. Not always good, but I’ve been told that very few of us have good relationships with their sires anyway. I used to look up to LaCroix. I genuinely idolized him at one point. He was my mentor, he was poised and clever and reasonable. He provided for me and I wanted to impress him. What else was I supposed to do? But then . . . something went wrong. He changed, and maybe that’s how he always was, but I saw a different side of him: everything I hate, everything I despise, everything I want to stand against. He betrayed me and I . . . wanted to kill him for it.” Feeling a nervous prickle, Elric skipped ahead. “Afterwards, I found his ring and took it. To remind myself what not to become.”  

It took a long time for Abrams to speak. “You have been dangerously honest with me this entire conversation. It’s a streak that could one day get you killed, but not by me. Thank you for telling me.”

“Maybe I’m too tired to lie,” Elric replied. “Maybe I’m manipulating you to empathize with me by telling you the truth.”

[snatcherwes]

OCtober 3rd: Feast

OCtober Challenge by @oc-growth-and-development!

Author’s notes: So this ended up being way longer than I intended but I didn’t feel happy with the set up until I fleshed it way out like I did so that’s how we ended up with 2,414 words. I’m actually not super upset with this one either even though I know it’s kinda rushed. I don’t love the ending but I needed to get it done and it’s not completely awful so /shrug. Anyway, here’s another Vitale and Luke piece. It’s much darker than the previous one and has a handful of warnings coming along with it. I take a lot of how I do my vampires from VTMB and Vampyr because they’re two of my all time favorite games so if you’ve played them, some things might seem familiar.

Warnings: There are mentions of blood and semi-detailed torture and death in this. It’s not too bad but it is about a vampire so proceed with caution if you’re easily squeamish!

Word count: 2,414

When Vitale finally came through, it was to a rush of cold water being poured over his head and a throaty chuckle ringing through his ears. He desperately gasped, shaking his head vigorously in an attempt to throw off the wash of cold clinging to him. Doing so gave him an intense bout of vertigo as his head began to throb. When he made the move to push back his sopping wet hair, he found that his arms were secured tightly behind his back with thick, heavy chains. The vampire frantically squirmed, achieving nothing but heavy nausea and throbbing aches. He defeatedly settled, allowing his eyes to finally adjust to the dimly lit view before him.

He was sat on the stone floor of what appeared to be a basement. His bindings were connected to a thick hook that had been drilled into the brick wall behind him. Beside him on either side were vacant sections of wall that served the same purpose as the one keeping him tethered. He tried to see further into the darkness of the basement but his exhaustion and nausea were doing a number on his vision and ability to focus on any more than his immediate surroundings. He could do little more than glance up at the man that he assumed was his captor.

“Wakey wakey, little tick,” the man spat, gripping Vitale by the chin with a calloused hand in order to lift the vampire’s head. “Have a good nap, did ya’?”

The man was somewhere around six feet tall and built like a brick wall. His broad shoulders and wide chest conveyed the strength that he had been using to all but crush Vitale’s jaw. He was littered in scars from head to toe and had appeared to have an improperly healed broken nose at one point in time. His appearance gave little indication as to what his abilities were, appearing outwardly like a human—albeit a strong one. That fact unsettled Vitale for he had no idea what he was up against.

When Vitale didn’t give an answer to the mocking question, the man shoved the vampire’s face down with a snarl, gruffly laughing when his prisoner struggled to right himself.

“C’mon, I know ya’ can speak,” the man said, roughly nudging VItale in the side with a heavy boot. 

Again, the vampire remained quiet, trying to call upon any memories that would shine light on where he was and why. He vaguely remembered gearing up and preparing for something that night, failing to remember what exactly it was. There was an agitating feeling of anxiety attached to a specific factor that he couldn’t quite recall, something he knew he needed to remember above all else. 

With a harsher kick to his side delivered by his captor, Vitale felt a searing pain that traveled up his spine to the nape of his neck, causing him to cry out and double over. 

“Aw, did that hurt?” The man let out another throaty chuckle, kneeling down to mockingly pat Vitale on the shoulder. “Amazing what a silver-tipped stake to the back can do to a little tick like yourself.” Vitale shivered, attempting to right himself once more and squirm away from the man’s heavy hand. Silver-tipped stake? 

With that, his memories began to return. He had been out on what was supposed to be a simple recon mission of a recently developed Resistance outpost. There was supposed to only be a small presence of guards and the surveillance was to be done at a distance. Vitale had positioned himself at the southern side of the outpost, observing a handful of guards file in and out of the building, unloading various supplies from vehicles parked just outside the gate. This went on for almost three hours with no issue whatsoever and he was ready to call it a night, return to base, and begin formulating a future course of action. However, as he stood from his concealed position, he remembered feeling an intensely sharp pain ripping through his spine and a rough hand quickly covering his mouth, silencing his scream. He wished that he had the foresight to bite the hand, but it would not have made much difference considering that the pain had caused him to pass out shortly after. 

Without warning, the man suddenly yanked Vitale to his feet by the chain binding his arms. He appeared to have unhooked the vampire from the fastener on the wall and intended to move him. With a shove, he lead Vitale through the basement and towards a set of stairs, up through a door and out into a yard. He tried to count just how many different guards he passed on his way out, but it became increasingly difficult with each step. 

Being forced to walk led Vitale to realize just how exhausted he was. He had no way to tell how long he’d been held captive; therefore, he had no way to tell just how much time had passed since he last fed. Clearly, it was enough to render him close to useless considering how his eyelids felt impossibly heavy and he needed to be up-righted several times on the journey up the stairs and out to the yard. 

“Since ya’ don’t wanna’ talk and I’ve got little patience tonight,” the man spoke, bringing Vitale around the building to a smaller portion of the yard serving as an alleyway. “I’ve got another idea.”

Vitale vaguely noticed a motionless mass laying in the dirt before him, surrounded by a handful of guards, but before he could figure out just what it was, a swift kick to the back of his knees sent him down onto the dirt. He could do little but lift his head, willing his eyes to focus on the mass before him. 

It looked as though a large, dirty blanket had been draped over the figure’s body, completely stretched out on the sides and pinned into the dirt with spikes. He could faintly hear labored breathing that matched the rhythm of the figure’s visibly shallow breaths. 

It became very clear all too fast just exactly who the figure was when Vitale’s captor gripped the mop of filthy blond hair atop its head and yanked upwards. “Look familiar?” 

Vitale met painfully familiar honey-colored eyes, his focus sharpening immediately as he recognized the figure to be Luke. He was on his stomach, his arms barely visible beneath the blanket. His face was bruised and beat, his left eye swollen and his lips speckled with blood. He looked absolutely filthy, as if he had been left in the dirt for days. A strained whimper fell from Luke’s lips as the hand gripping his hair yanked again before letting his head fall back to the ground. 

“Unlucky for him, he woke up first,” the man explained, standing up and circling the blanket atop Luke. When he began to drive one of the spikes deeper into the dirt, Luke let out a pained shout and Vitale quickly realized that it wasn’t a blanket covering his friend. Those were his wings. 

Vitale started to thrash at the realization, trying and failing to free himself from the chains binding him. Trying to free himself so that he could free Luke. Trying to do anything to make it possible to help his friend. “Stop!”

Turning his head to glance at the vampire, the man laughed. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? And to think, we had to pin this one here like a bug to even get a sound from ‘im.” 

“Please, stop,” Vitale pleaded, keeping his gaze glued to his friend. He could feel desperation swelling up inside of him, his gut burning from having not fed and anger for his tortured friend. His teeth chattered and he swallowed hard, his throat painfully dry as he croaked, “What do you want?”

“Oh, now ya’ wanna’ play, huh?” The man smirked, reaching down to pluck a feather from Luke’s wings. The Shape Shifter flinched as he felt the man’s fingers grip the quill and tug. “I think I’m having more fun with this.”

Again, the man knelt down further to Luke’s level, placing his hand atop the spike he recently pushed deeper. Vitale started to thrash again, struggling even harder to free himself, causing one of the lingering guards to hold the chains secure. 

“Aw, ain’t that cute,” the man snickered, directing the question to Luke as he knelt further to meet his eyes. When Luke responded by weakly spitting blood in his direction, the man growled, straightened up and roughly yanked the spike, causing it to tear further through the wing. 

Luke let out a terrible scream and it was becoming increasingly difficult for the guard restraining Vitale to still him. Their captor took notice, abandoning his torture of Luke to momentarily assist the guard. With a swift kick to the side of his head, Vitale went down hard and stilled completely, appearing to be knocked unconscious by the blow. 

Luke gasped, immediately starting to visibly panic but being able to do little more than weakly flail in the dirt. The man chuckled at his handiwork, turning his attention back to Luke. “Well, that’s that.”

When the fear and panic in Luke’s face was quickly replaced with confusion, the man mirrored it and followed his line of sight back to the vampire. “Still with us then?”

Vitale began to stir and tremble, almost convulsing in the dirt as the man that had been previously holding him readied to grab the chains once more. The vampire’s eyes shot open and there was little time for anyone to react before he snarled loudly, bearing a mouth full of shark-like teeth and snapped the chains binding him with little more than a stretch of his arms. He quickly got to his feet and wasted little time in tearing the terrifyingly sharp claws that once were his hands through the stomach of the man who attempted to restrain him. 

He turned his attention onto the main captor with frightening speed, his previously normal black irises replaced with blood red, the pitch black sclera unsettlingly highlighting them. The number of teeth in his mouth seemed impossible, all sharpened to a dangerous point. The blood of the man writhing at his feet dripped from his claws onto the dirt and the smell of it plus the fear in the air was driving him further into his frenzy.

“You’re fucked,” Luke mumbled with a pained laugh. Before their captor could even bark out a command to his men, Vitale was at his throat, burying his fangs into skin and pinning him still with claws deep in his arms. As he drained the man, Vitale payed little mind to the bullets that began pelting him as the remaining men covered him with panicked gunfire. 

The blood pleasantly coursed through him, and when he could feel the man’s heart settle almost to a complete stop, he tore himself from his throat and watched his unfocused eyes shift into panic as the last of his energy withered away. Dropping the limp body to the dirt, he turned his attention towards the closet guard and repeated the monstrous process.

Vitale tore through the small militia with ease, his heightened senses and drive for blood making him virtually unstoppable. If he was of the mind to laugh, he would have as the remaining guards pumped out bullet after bullet, trying and failing to do as much as slow him down. However, it was impossible. A frenzied vampire was an incredibly fast, extremely strong, and immeasurably dangerous creature, ferocious and merciless. Not only had the lack of blood driven Vitale over the edge, but the fear and helplessness of seeing his friend tortured plus having taken his own beatings eventually awoken the sleeping beast inside him. 

It wasn’t long until the entire yard was littered with the bloodless bodies of numerous Resistance guards. Vitale could feel himself winding down from his ravenous feast, slowly regaining his control as he ripped the throat out of the final guard attempting to stop him. Some had managed to flee the massacre and the outpost entirely and lucky for them, the vampire’s main concern was his still-pinned friend. They could be found later.

“Remind me not to piss you off,” were Luke’s first words to his friend as he knelt down to the first wing. Vitale didn’t respond, quickly meeting Luke’s gaze as he gently gripped the spike. The Shape Shifter nodded and braced himself for the pain, hissing loudly as the metal was pulled free. Instinctively, Luke drew his wing closer to his body, moaning in pain as it refused to fold properly.

“I’m sorry,” Vitale mumbled quietly, dropping the bloodied spike before moving along to the other wing. This one posed a bigger challenge due to how deep it was driven into the dirt but after a moment, the vampire finally tore it free, wincing at Luke’s pained shout. He apologized again as he tried to help fold the wing back. It wouldn’t budge and Luke’s grunts of pain sounded too awful to his ears to continue any further. Instead, Vitale helped Luke to his feet, holding him steady as his torn wings threatened to tilt him over like dead weight. “I’m so sorry for all of this, I—”

“Stop, just...” Luke interrupted, sighing and shaking his head as he trailed off. He then suddenly pulled Vitale into a weak but undeniably emotional hug, not caring about the blood or dirt caking them both. He squeezed the vampire as tight as he could, resting his head on Vitale’s shoulder. “Just get us home, Vitti.”

And that he could do. There was a lot to be said between the two, unnecessary apologies and tears shed over just how worried they had both felt, but all of that would be saved for after they were cleaned and patched up. That didn’t stop the both of them from worrying over each other profusely on the way back, Vitale insisting he carry Luke after having to stop to rest several times along the journey back and Luke declined each time, citing that Vitale had taken a harsh beating himself and needed to keep what little strength he had left. 

“I will have plenty of time to regain my strength once we get back because I can guarantee you that Terion will not let either of us set foot outside the base for at least a month.”