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Post by JW% on Jan 16, 2014 21:24:24 GMT -8
((Sign ups and out of character discussing, including backstory of what characters did before regaining full free will, takes place here: tsdcv3.proboards.com/thread/5682/nocturne-roleplaying-game-planning-stage )) Janissar awoke with a start, and winced. He was in his bed, the comfortable padded container wrapping him in softness and deadening the world around him. It was... yes it was still daylight. Some others kept clocks by their bedside, or if their beds were like his a softly glowing clock face on the lid that blocked out everything else, but Janis could tell, it was day. Practically noon he suspected. What had awakened him? Flashes of it came to him, as the dream slipped from his mental grasp like mercury. Fire... pain... being hunted... these were not his memories. They were the memories of the one he had been linked to. They were the memories of the Master. Wait... 'Had been'? Janis blinked and tested the psychic link that should be there. He reached out, searching for the loving presence of the great elder who had turned him immortal, the one whom he served... There was nothing there. An emptiness where there had been a loved one. The numbness swept over him as shock took hold of his mind. The Master was gone. That meant many things. So many things. He couldn't take the time to grieve for his loss, for the Master who had been with him more life times than he could count, an immortal presence that guided him. And not only that, all the chains that bound him... bound everyone the Master had touched in his long lived travels... were gone. That meant all the others in the mansion and on the ground were... out of control. The ghouls would now have reverted back to normal people. All the maids, the gardener, the cook, the mechanic, Rosario's groupies... no wait those were Rosario's they'd still be the same. But the rest the Master had picked himself. Some of them having been on staff for years now. The gardener had his own family living here, and one of the maids was married... and all of them now were realizing that they were living with blood thirsty, literally, monsters. Janissar shoved the lid off of his coffin, trying to levitate himself out. He winced as he felt the daylight. Through at least two stories of the house, he could still feel it. He should just close the lid again and sleep until the sun went down... no. Too much to do. Today would be a busy day at the mansion, and an even busier night. He had to get up. A gentleman did not loaf about in bed! He grabbed the sides of the coffin and pulled himself out, forcing himself to overcome the wave of weakness that came during the day. ((Endurance of 20 or higher, preferably higher, to physically get up and move about. 20 Heart or higher to muster the willpower to get up and move about. Ghouls can move freely about during the day and perform the will of their master, within limits.))
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Post by Alastor on Jan 18, 2014 21:02:57 GMT -8
The absence of the Master hadn't quite hit Amaranthe yet. The girl still, at the moment, slumbered quite soundly as she clung to her sister. However, Amy jolted up, her eyes opening widely with a gasp. Something had just been severed.
Something was gone.
"...Dearest Sister!" She said, doing the best she could to shake her without opening their bed. "Did you feel it?!"
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lovely corte
Persistent Member
Lindsey Looseflaps
HE LOOKED AT ME! HE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME!
Posts: 1,402
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Post by lovely corte on Jan 23, 2014 6:33:57 GMT -8
"No more nights praying for better days, I remain built on struggle." The idealistic chant came from the center of the room of the Ancient, accompanied by the rattling of chains and the striking of flesh. "I am not my failures, I am not my fears."
To anyone else, the room was pitch-black. The windows had been covered with bricks, draped over and painted to shield the resident within from the direct rays of the Sun. But for any of the residents of the Mansion, they'd clearly see the frame of a hunched over man, pale of skin, in front of a table lined with instruments of torture.
While the others had remained in the confines and safety of their coffin, Augustus had taken the last several months to endure the pain and suffering the came from the presence of the Vampire's eternal antagonist. For him, it was a test of willpower and endurance to overcome the effects themselves.
To be the only Vampire to resist the Sun itself was unlikely to ever come to fruition, yet to resist it, to become accustomed to its overbearing presence. That would take training and obedience. All things that Augustus had in ten fold.
Judging by the deep cuts on the sides of his shoulders and the sharp hooks dug into his back, Augustus had obviously been carving into himself. For what purpose, all but Augustus would falter in question. He could divine the purpose with ease.
Pain was a focus, a surge of emotions and adrenaline that kept the body rigid and ready. The path of the Apex Predator, the Warrior and the Soldier had made Augustus accustomed to a life of misery and suffering. It was as much as a companion to the Immortal as breathing to a Mortal.
But it was not the hooks embedded into his flesh, nor the surge of pain, nor even the Sun that caused the Ancient to topple over onto his hands and knees. The surge of emotions and memories, so long and mutual, caused the Immortal to topple.
One 'brother' mourned the sudden severing of bonds, but the other, Augustus, relished it. The heavy chains of ownership, Augustus was ready for his life - his legacy - to come to fruition. It was a surprise to the Immortal that he himself hadn't ended the miserable Master's life himself.
Standing on sturdy legs and with one satisfying release of agony as the chains fell from his wounds, blood splattering on the floor, Augustus let out the loudest, most righteous yell of triumph. It was feral, brutal and honest.
"Rozirvala vidnosyny, vy neshchasni staryy pyzda!" The Ancient yelled in his native tongue, laughing. It was most likely that someone heard him. "Pray tell that we find your corpse, Master... and the being who carved your wretched face from the Earth."
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Post by JW% on Feb 6, 2014 1:28:22 GMT -8
"Hello and good afternoon." Janissar's calm voice over the intercom system. "Forgive my interruption at this unusual time, but I fear that today will be an unusual day for us. For that I do apologize, and hope that we may resolve this unpleasantness as quickly as possible." The speakers were even put in some of the newer coffins, allowing Rosario and the twins to hear him as though he were speaking right beside them.
"If each of the family members would be so kind as to meet in the living room a half hour after sundown, it would be most appreciated." Janissar continued, his accent and cadence entirely wrong for attempting the proper gentlemanly phrasing he affected. "As for the staff, I will be attending to you as soon as possible. Rest assured that no changes that may have been brought about today will alter your positions or salary, and I do hope that this transition can go as smoothly as possible for everyone involved."
There was the sound of a window smashing over the intercom. "Thank you for your time. That is all." Janis released the intercom and looked across his bedroom at where the large open windows had been smashed open. Sunlight could be seen streaming in through the greenhouse and he gave the vandal, their former gardener, a stern look.
"I do hope you realize that window is coming out of your paycheck." Janis told the man with the crazed look in his eyes.
"You monster!" The gardener said, brandishing one of the scented deck torches designed to keep mosquitoes away. The effect would have been silly if not for the blaze he was swinging about and the expression on his face. "You really think you can get away with all you've done to us?"
"To my knowledge what we've done is paid you well and granted you an extended life with impeccable health." Janis, pointedly standing in the shadows and away from that annoying sunlight, was being ignored as the gardener swung the torch at him. "Mister Trusdale, I would suggest you put down that flaming brand and think of your family."
"That's what I'm doing this for!" The gardener caught at least the last few words, even though he was focusing on climbing up on the shelf of potted lilies in order to climb through the broken window into the house. "My children aren't going to be little blood filled juice boxes for you!"
"Of course not." Janis said dismissively. "That's more Amy and Del's tastes."
"I'll burn you out, while you can't do anything in the sunlight!"
Janis sidestepped towards the bed, his coffin having been hidden underneath it. "I don't believe you will."
"What are you going to do? You really think your voice and gaze are going to take control of my mind?"
"During day light hours? Hardly." Janis replied, knowing full well that he couldn't concentrate enough for his hypnotic gaze to work when he was looking right at sunlight. Instead he pulled out a fire extinguisher and calmly firing a stream of it at the torch.
Without his main weapon the gardener stumbled back into the greenhouse, only to have a white gloved hand snap through the white smoke and foam that put out the flame, knock the burnt stick from his hand and grab him by the shirt collar. With a twist and push he was being held off the ground, his boots barely touching the shelf he had climbed onto.
"But don't think that daylight is that much of an impediment." Janis said, his arm fully in the shaft of light and still easily supporting the grown, and somewhat overweight, man. Not that he couldn't say he didn't feel the itching sensation that would soon turn to burning, but wearing his white gloves and long sleeve shirt was helping with that. "Not to me. Not for when I track down your pretty little wife and your two handsome sons."
"Now, I'm going to offer this choice several times over today, so I have little time for any one of you to think about it." Janissar said in a careful tone that said he was more interested in proper enunciation than the life of the man he was holding in the air. "We share blood, and you continue in your position as though nothing happened, under my care rather than our late Masters, or I end your employment by draining you of ever drop of your life before hunting down and doing the same to your family and anyone else who would be a threat to me and mine." Janissar's face was marble cold as he gazed into the mans eyes. "A simple choice. I fully intend to protect what's mine most viciously from all threats, and even if you escape my wrath, what chance do you think you'll have against things out there that are worse than me. So, final offer: Are you mine... or are you going to be a threat to what is mine?"
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Post by JW% on Feb 15, 2014 21:11:47 GMT -8
((Timeskip aproved!))
Janissar was late to the meeting he had set himself by a good three minutes, and it annoyed him. He walked in through the kitchen and the parlor area before showing up in the main hall. There was a large fireplace, and in addition a television, which dominated the far end. A couch on both sides of the hall, with a large chair for the Master. The huge windows with their heavy curtain were open, revealing the front yard and the night sky, with the moon not yet risen but the stars having come out.
"I managed to reclaim eight of our staff." He said, wiping a little blood from his lips, taking out a handkerchief and wiping himself before straightening his suit and his posture as well. "I can reclaim a ninth now that I have his wife in my thrall. The rest of you, I assume you felt as I did this afternoon. That our Master is not coming home."
He took a moment to look over everyone's gathered expressions, though ignoring the maid and cook who followed behind him in a daze, their uniforms torn to reveal their necks and no effort made to repair the damage since he had sampled them to lock them back under his control.
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Post by Alastor on Mar 8, 2014 1:51:32 GMT -8
"The question is," Amy asked, looking over to the late Janissar from her seat. "Who- or what- killed him?"
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Post by Penny Royals on Mar 8, 2014 11:18:26 GMT -8
Rosario, nestled somewhere in the middle of the table between his three ghouls (Judicael behind, Augustine to the right and Rosangela to the left), heaved a dramatic sigh, leaning on to Augustine's shoulder, letting Rosangela take his hand.
"I second her question - and a better one is, will they come after us as well?"
Del was very quiet, and had been all day, just clinging to her sister and playing with the fabric of her skirt and blouse, entirely more preoccupied with the aspects of her outfit than with the affairs going on around her at the moment.
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Post by JW% on Mar 8, 2014 15:02:10 GMT -8
"That is a very good question." Janissar agreed. "We were each linked to the Master at the time of his demise... do any of you remember... dreams? Flickering specters of memories not your own?"
Fire... pain of being burned... the panic of being hunted... misjudging those hunting you... an inescapable tide of power pulling you under... vague impressions of places. The beach. The docks. A burning warehouse. Faceless figures that attacked at range, cowards who died far to easily yet always another to take advantage of the others sacrifice.
"I suffered some." Janissar admitted. "But I can not make them out. It seems that there are hunters in town, so we must assume that they will come after us Rosario."
He stood on the fireplace hearth, looking over everyone. "I would not ask it of you, but if we were to forge a bond of blood then we might be able to piece together the dreams. We might not however. It was noon when this happened, Master was at his weakest and he would have had to shout over the roar of the sunlight and through the softening walls of our coffins to reach our minds. That the message is muffled is... to be expected."
"Another order of business, not an immediate concern but that should be addressed." He took a moment to look at Amy and Del (and Augustus if present). "There are only so many ghouls in a condition to be fed from." He had needed to subdue most of the staff in order to place them under his own power. As such he was feeling well fed, but weak from the exertion, while they were likely drained of most of their lifeblood. "In a time when others are hunting us, we can not hide. We must also hunt."
This wouldn't be an issue for Augustus, who always ranged far and hunted anyway. And Rosario had his three ghouls. But both Amy and Del did not, having lived on their Masters ghouls for so long.
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lovely corte
Persistent Member
Lindsey Looseflaps
HE LOOKED AT ME! HE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME!
Posts: 1,402
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Post by lovely corte on Mar 13, 2014 3:46:13 GMT -8
With a resounding boom, Augustus had shoved the doors of the assembled meeting open loudly, a purposeful move to give his entrance a grand approach, to put all eyes on him. The second he walked into the room, you could almost smell the aroma of confidence and self-importance pooling around him.
The Ancient himself was covered in blood, namely around his mouth and hands, albeit some ran onto his bare chest, lined and packed with scarred tissue. In his right hand, he dragged the corpse of one of the former daylight custodians of the household, the throat completely torn out and obvious bruising around the wrists.
"One never to see the light of day again, let alone servitude." He explained, haphazardly throwing the corpse towards the hearth for the more pragmatic of the 'brothers' to identify. "You were oh-so fond of these filthy vermin. You hide the body."
Striding in his own time, Augustus made his way over to the head of the table, throwing himself into the Master's chair. A half-smile appeared on his face and he slumped over in the chair, stretching himself out and making himself comfortable, taking a deep breath. He quite enjoyed the view from here.
"You finally take a course of action I can agree with, Brother." The Ancient growled, inspecting his claws, pulling skin from underneath his nails. "Yet, who are you to call upon a proclamation of war? Let alone of such importance to garner the aid of this merry-band of, as the youth of this age call it, fuck ups."
"Rosario, a pitiful child playing at something greater than himself. Sibling children, unfit to be of our kin let alone soldiers." He continued. "And you, brother. When was the last time you took up blade and teeth for a cause? You never took the path of the soldier, like some of us."
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Post by JW% on Mar 13, 2014 20:06:55 GMT -8
"That is true." Janissar agreed, his face stony as Augustus entered late in particular he gave the corpse only half a glance, having already identified it through the process of elimination, and seemed to react more to Augustus getting blood stains on the Masters chair which was at the head of the room, nearest the fireplace. Symbolically placed so that he would gain the most use of the fire, and be the one to tend it, not that there was a fire in the hearth now. The chair, however, was not the center of the room, which was where Janissar stood. "I've always been a scholar by choice, preferring subtle pursuits."
His nails had extended to nearly as long as his fingers before the next gesture, and they glittered like silver as he brought them up flashing in front of Augustus' face for a moment before he simply held them in front of himself, studying them. "It's been awhile since I've had cause to take up the blade. Perhaps this is the night we move from training out into the true world?" He focused on his hand and the nails retracted until they were unlikely to hurt his own hand with random gestures.
"As you seem to have fed Ancient One, will you be the one who hunts for our Masters killers?" He moved to tug back on his white glove, and without even a gesture the two ghouls he had brought moved to dispose of the corpse.
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lovely corte
Persistent Member
Lindsey Looseflaps
HE LOOKED AT ME! HE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME!
Posts: 1,402
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Post by lovely corte on Mar 14, 2014 2:38:45 GMT -8
"Get your hands out of my face, brother." The Ancient One warned, looking towards his brother with contempt as he pawed the claw from his face, spitting onto the ground. He picked at his own dirty claws, pulling out chunks of flesh from his grip. "Or you will quickly find what centuries of war do to a kindred spirit such as myself."
"No." He said, looking at his brother in question to the training. "These are not soldiers. Barely just children, metaphorically and figuratively. You want to test the mettle of the flock against the wolves? You'd soon find out that they would perish in the fray."
"Battle is no place for pathetic creatures such as this." He continued to rant. "It is a pure, unbridled release of anger and passion, too rich and delicate to be tainted by the blood of our familial kin."
"And... I do believe, if we are correct in our theory, that the murderers will show themselves." He smiled, looking almost pleased at the prospect. "It is but our duty to see fit that we catch them on our own terms."
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Post by JW% on Mar 14, 2014 15:08:45 GMT -8
Janissar sniffed, clearly having not gotten the message across that he, at least, was able to hunt as well. He could form claws just as easily, more easily in fact, than Augustus. There was always the question of how well he would use them, but he had just demonstrated that he at least had them, unlike some. "I am not in disagreement, Ancient One." He replied calmly, preferring to use a formal title rather than the more familiar 'brother', and he rather lacked any other titles to use on Augustus.
"So, I ask again," He said, making his voice slow and clear as he could be, "Will you," Emphasis on that word, as he was not asking to put any of the three 'children' into battle, "be hunting tonight?" The alternative would be that Augustus was suggesting that 'on their own terms' meant digging in and going on the defensive rather than attacking.
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lovely corte
Persistent Member
Lindsey Looseflaps
HE LOOKED AT ME! HE LOOKED RIGHT AT ME!
Posts: 1,402
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Post by lovely corte on Mar 14, 2014 16:30:09 GMT -8
"As I do every night, Brother. I will hunt." Augustus revealed, not looking at his kin, seeming to be too preoccupied with some detail on his nail. Digging his dirty hands into the Master's armrest, Augustus planted his feet up on the table. "There are but a few experiences so honest and brutal than the thrill of the Hunt."
"Maybe one day, when our kin are all but grown, rather than haggard children of a destitute world, we may return with equal force." He continued, standing up. "But... for now? We are but two withered creatures, born of the hunt, to tend to our flock before they are mutilated by the wolves."
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Post by JW% on Mar 14, 2014 18:55:35 GMT -8
Janissar nodded. "Then you will hunt, and I shall 'tend the flock'." He agreed, looking over them all.
"Rosario, have you fed yet today?" Amy and Del he knew had not, having no ghouls to work with, and he was debating giving the two little girls the corpse Augustus had brought in, at least until a more fitting meal could be found, but even how messy Augustus was, it was unlikely that he had been so wasteful as to leave enough in the corpse to feed the twins for a whole night.
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